Page 8 - January February 2014

From Terry Wynne
One of Calder Northern Division (British Region)’s NMRA members, Dave Gunn MMR, who now lives in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, recently co­ organised the MFMR (Maritime Federation of Model Railroaders) convention in Tatamagouche. The convention is a three­day affair for delegates; set up is on the Friday, the public show is on the Saturday and Sunday is for layout tours etc. Attendees travel from all of the Maritime Provinces as well as the New England states, and for this con­ vention there were some great attractions to encourage them to do so! Train Station Inn in the town is an ex­CN station and has seven cabooses and two boxcars fitted out as bedrooms, plus there is accommodation in the original station building (have a look at www.trainstation.ca). The dining experience is inside a ex­CN Colonial combine car converted into a kitchen and dining area and alongside this is a Rhodes Currie car, ‘Alexandra’, which was built in 1905 for the Governor General of Canada, Earl Grey, famous for Earl Grey tea; it is now the lounge car sitting on the tracks next to the dining car. As you can imagine, the place was fully booked for the period for both
dining and accommodation.
The convention itself was an outstanding success, with over 1000 attendees who enjoyed great models, contests, clinics and competitions. Traders included PWRS from the West Coast and Rapido Trains from Toronto, the event getting prime­time TV coverage and support from hobby shops as well as a major input from VIA Rail Canada. In fact VIA Rail gave a top prize of two tickets for a return trip from Halifax to Montreal; in addition to that they gave the local school tickets for the kids to take a train ride from Truro. A very generous gesture and one that resulted in great enjoyment for the kids, as many had never ridden the train before. VIA’s Atlantic Director Sheila Duffy provided VIA Rail goodie bags for 80 delegates and attended the convention for the three days. She visited Dave’s layout on the Sunday with her family as part of the tours and as a result of seeing his modelling skills, asked Dave to do a workshop on VIA Rail’s train ‘The Ocean’ between Halifax to Montreal and on the return journey the following day. This is the first of its kind!
Dave provided a laptop showing his layout and models (running a continuous spool) at his table in the ‘Park Car’ and Rapido Trains provided models for display. The workshop was a resounding success and many passengers turned up to watch Dave demonstrate how he makes his models. He took with him three wood sheath caboose kits – one he had previously made up and painted, the second he had part built and the third still in kit form – so that he could explain all the methods he used. He found trying to position small drops of adhesive onto small parts a little difficult due to the train movement, but it all went very well. Among the passengers was a railroad modeller from Australia who was travelling to meet an email contact in the Maritimes and a party of 20 Brits on a rail tour holiday, and all must have thought this was heaven to travel by train and have model trains as well.
VIA Rail are so pleased with the result that Dave has been asked to give another workshop on the train in the future. What a great story and what a way to advertise our hobby. Much praise must go to VIA Rail for being so forward­looking and making arrangements for this type of entertainment on their service, and well done Dave!
(all items by the Editor unless otherwise credited)
Above: The VIA Rail train:
Below: Dave Gunn giving his clinic on board
2014 Directory
For many years we have produced an Annual Directory that has gone out to members with the February Roundhouse. This year we have decided to delay production by 4 months so that it will go out with the June Roundhouse. There are two reasons for this.
By producing the membership list in May, the Directory will only include those members who have renewed their member­ ship. The listing has usually been produced as at 1 January, and included some members who would not renew two months later. In future, the list will be produced as at 1 May and will list members who are likely to remain as members until at least the following April.
The February Roundhouse includes the Renewal Reminder for most members. We have to advised the printer which members should be sent reminders and which should not. As Directories only go to those members who agree to be included, the number of permutations that we would need to send to the printer would be too large. Separating the renewal process from the Directory distribution will simplify the task.
Email addresses: it has been suggested that the Directory should include email addresses as emails provide an easy way of communicating between members. We are proposing to produce a separate list to the main address list, with members’ email addresses. We will be contacting those members for whom we have email addresses for permission to include their emails in the list. Only those members who agree to their emails being included will appear in the list. John Firth
UNCOUPLED CARS
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