Page 15 - July August 2010

A Display to Promote the NMRA Des Browne
The BOD has generously allowed the loan of a set of Display Panels to be used in Ireland. It was realised that the cost of postage to and fro would, after a short time, be more than enough to provide a new display. Last year, our local NMRA members had been asked to provide an NMRA display at a Trains and Toys Exhibition. I had at the time asked for the loan of one of the NMRA Panels with photos, which we have had previously. However, both sets had already been booked, so we had to come up with something else. I have for some time used a simple 3' 2" × 5' 6" display to promote my interest in American Trains, backed up by my commercial interests, so we used this, together with some posters and existing models, which seemed to fit the bill. This year, we were faced with another opportunity for an NMRA Display. Again we requested the loan of Display Panels. We were delighted to receive new panels, which give a very professional aura to our revised Display, which had its first outing at the North Down Model Railway Club Annual Exhibition in April 2010. It attracted a high degree of interest. All the leaflets we had were gone on the first day!
The original Display was made with two levels, cut from one piece of plywood on a simple ladder frame. An ‘N’ track circles the upper level, with 12" radius curves, with a lower level having an oval of HO track with 18" radius curves. I have now built a 4' 0" wide × 6' 0" long addition intended initially to promote my renewed interest in S-Scale American products but added to the older panel, this now makes an interesting show with three levels. I usually have two locos running on the HO level to demonstrate DCC operation. The other levels have a short train running without needing much attention.
The new ‘S’ display is a simple 9 mm plywood base mounted on a wood underframe. I had to split the display into two pieces in order to fit into my estate car. The unusual feature was to overlap the pieces so that the front would be cantilevered from the main frame. The whole is supported on a typical 2 ft × 6 ft table provided by Exhibition organisers. The larger part is a 3 ft × 6 ft ladder frame with a 2 ft wide plywood piece nailed to the frame lined up to one edge and both ends. The smaller piece is a 2 ft wide plywood top, shaped to have a curved front edge and nailed to a 12" wide frame. The two pieces are screwed and bolted together, the frames bolted with wing nuts in a normal fashion, and the overlap of the front plywood screwed downwards to the exposed larger frame. This has worked well so far, though I will probably change the top screws to bolts. The whole surface was covered with green felt cloth for a better appearance. The ‘HO/N’ levels rested on top of the ‘S’ level using short legs to achieve a generous 5" separation, resulting in a compact overall display. The very fine On30 Diorama of a pile driver, built by Norman and Jane Adamson, occupies the central area. Static ‘Z’ scale and some HO brass were also shown to make up a fine talking shop. The Diorama also serves as a block to avoid the view of trains going round and round even though that is what they mostly do. I have used components from the S-scale Helper S-TRAX system for the ‘S’ level, mainly because of the excellent appearance of their “ballasted” track. The S-TRAX has a solid base so that small fibres from the green felt covering do not get into locos. The Peco track on the ‘N’ track is glued to the felt, which also kills loose fibres. The ‘HO’ level has a mixture of Bachmann E-Z track and Peco Code 75 and Code 80 track on Woodland Scenics roadbed to illustrate the different types of track available.
“Calling all prospective Contest entrants and Contest Judges”
It’s that time again folks! First, will anyone who is intending to enter models in the Contest please ensure they have their documentation completed before they come to the Contest Room. If you require any help in completing the forms or with any other questions I will be pleased to answer – but please remember do not ring me after 8 pm as we have a young child with us and don’t want his sleep disturbed.
The Contest Room will be open to accept entries from 2 pm till 5 pm on the Friday and before 09.30 on the Saturday morning of the judging day.
Secondly, Contest Judges – I will be e-mailing you shortly to ask who is available to help with the judging process. Your generous help is much appreciated in this matter and hopefully the more judges we have, the quicker we will be able to complete our task. Do please start planning your convention activities and please keep the Contest Judging time on Saturday clear if possible.
Let us hope we can emulate the much increased number of entries at the National Convention in the USA over the past two years and see models which have been kitbashed, cross-kitted or butchered along with any kit-built or scratchbuilt ones.
Terry Wynne, Contest Chairman
News from National
Welcome to the June NMRA InfoNet News
This will be the last InfoNet Newsletter before the Milwaukee Convention. Our next edition will be slightly later than usual, and should show up in email boxes sometime after the Convention. So far, the Diamond Club Fundraiser has been a rousing success, and we’re well on our way to achieving our goal of $75,000. To date we’ve raised about $67,000, and are hoping to go “over the top” sometime in the next few months. Encourage your members to donate!
A firm has been selected to do the Diamond Club photo digitizing and web posting, and we’re anticipating that members will be seeing the first of the photographs online before the end of the year.
Keep your eyes open for Part 1 of a two-part series on the “History of the NMRA” in the August issue (the “Convention Issue”) of Scale Rails. It’s a fascinating story of how the organization was founded, and the pitfalls it encountered as it grew and evolved.
An exhibit depicting the past 75 years of model railroad manufacturing history will be displayed at the Milwaukee Convention. The exhibit features everything from Al Kalmbach’s model train to trains, kits and accessories from our childhood. There are even examples of items that were produced 60 years ago that are still being manufactured today, plus much more. The Milwaukee Convention will also feature “Ask the Historian” sessions with Lee Riley (Bachmann) and Bill Wischer (Walthers) – two experts in the history of model railroad manufacturing. Here’s your chance to ask those lingering questions about model production, companies and lines both past and present.
Don’t forget to remind your members about the special “Regions and Divisions Handbook” clinics being presented at the Convention on Tuesday and Thursday.
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