Page 5 - July August 2017
P. 5

  Welcome to my fifth ‘From the Head End’. Following the very sad news of NMRA BR Roundhouse Editor Martin Boyask’s passing on 29 April 2017, I am pleased to be able to report that NMRA BR Membership Director Peter Bowen (who among his many skills
is a professional graphic designer) has generously volunteered to take on the role of Roundhouse Publisher. This new role incorporates design and layout, editing, writing and publica- tion of the magazine. The role and its proposed title will need to be agreed by the NMRA BR Board of Direc-
tors (BoD) at their next meeting and involves receiving both written and photographic articles as well as other contributions to Roundhouse along with our advertisers’ artwork, creating the 32 page Roundhouse in electronic format, forwarding it to the printer and ensuring that it goes from the print-
er to the distributor. By the time you read this you should have received both the new look NMRA BR 2017-18 Directory along with the June 2017 Roundhouse.
In his new role as Roundhouse Publisher, Peter
Bowen put in an exceptional amount of time at the end of May 2017 to create a new electronic template for future editions of Roundhouse using In Design and incorpo- rating the original artwork by fellow NMRA BR member and professional graphic designer, Ian Wilson, who most generously transferred his electronic files to Peter to enable this to happen and so ensure that the Roundhouse format that Martin Boyask had so thoughtfully and carefully created over the tenure of
his Editorship will endure for the future.
This enabled both the June edition of Roundhouse and the NMRA BR 2017-18 Directory to be submitted to a new printer on 1 June. Despite the assurances of the printer that the magazine and Directory would be ready for distribution within a week, most frustratingly both the Directory and June Roundhouse were not delivered to the distributor until Thursday 22 June 2017. The distrib- utor served us brilliantly and all the June Roundhouses and Directories were ‘polybagged’ with address sheets and sent out on the same day. This means that they should arrive at your address on Monday 26 or Tuesday 27 June – I received my June 2017 Roundhouse and Directory on the morning of Monday 26 June 2017.
If you have not received these by 7 July please email James Lucas in his role as Registrar with your name, full address and membership number to registrar@nmrabr.org.uk
Peter Bowen has taken on his new role as Roundhouse
Publisher with great gusto – the August 2017 issue is nearly com- plete; the October issue is already underway; and, the December issue is planned to report on and celebrate the forthcoming Convention in Derby.
Having said all that, we do need a new Roundhouse Contributing Editor to proactively seek contributions of articles and photographs from our membership and to review their writ- ten and photographic contributions before forwarding them to Peter for inclusion in the appropriate edition of Roundhouse.
Having willingly taken on this new responsibility as Roundhouse Publisher, Peter Bowen has, understandably decided that he must relinquish the role of Membership Renewals Officer.
So we need a volunteer for each of
these roles. Please let me know if you’d like to volunteer – we need your
help! We’d love to hear from you! And volunteering can count towards the Achievement Programme!
I very much hope that you like the look of the June 2017 Roundhouse and that you, like me, feel that it honours and celebrates the legacy of Martin Boyask’s 34 year role as Editor of Roundhouse!
A big ‘thank you!’ to the team that put on the excellent Christow Freemo event on 6 and 7 May 2017! A terrific weekend, wonderful generous hospitality and great model railroading!
Please be assured that I look forward to meeting you and to hear first hand from you about what you enjoy (and don’t enjoy) about the NMRA BR so your views can be considered by the BoD as the BoD considers the care and future development of the Region and its member- ship.
So I look forward to meeting you at the 9 and 10 Sep- tember Freemo event at Armitage, Staffordshire and the 4 and 5 November Freemo event at Henton near Wells, Somerset as well as this year’s convention at Derby!
Please introduce yourselves. Happy railroad modelling!
David McLaughlin
Vice President on behalf of the BoD
  August 2017 - ROUNDHOUSE 5
 










































































   3   4   5   6   7