Page 6 - NMRA Roundhouse March-April 2020

1945-2020 75th ANNIVERSARY
NMRA BR The First 75 Years
John Firth
Mallard on the 1952 Dreamliner photo collection by John Firth
On the 2nd September 1945 in Tokyo Bay, Douglas MacArthur and Mamoru Shigmitsu signed the
Japanese surrender, bringing the Second World War officially to an end, blissfully unaware that on that day, the President of the NMRA, Ed Ravenscroft and Secretary Bernard Gottlieb, were signing the Char- ter setting up the NMRA British Region.
The story of the Region starts three years earlier when William Bolton sought to compile a list of British modellers interested in modelling American rail- roads. He intended to set up the British Model Railroaders Association.
During January 1945 the NMRA appoint- ed Bill Bolton as their British represent- ative and tasked him with the collection of 50 names so that the British Model Railroaders Association might be incorpo- rated as a Region of the NMRA. This was done by August 1945 and thus Bill
may thus be said to be the “Father of the British Region”.
Roundhouse
The earliest magazine
was “Highball” which first appeared in 1946. Declin- ing membership in 1947
and financial problems led to Highball being suspended. The Harrow Model Rail- roaders then produced the “Harrow Hoggers” which
was circulated to Region members. Highball resumed in late 1948. It was re- named “Roundhouse” in 1949 coinciding with a welcome rise in membership.
Between 1950 and 1953, Roundhouse was commercially printed. In 1954, finan- cial constraints led to the format changing to a commercially duplicated monthly magazine, averaging 16 pages.
By 1958, commer- cial production of the magazine was
putting a strain on finances.
Members loaned sufficient money
to purchase a typewriter
and electric duplicator, a year’s supply of
paper, and Fred Cooper undertook to edit, type, duplicate, bind and circulate a copy of “Roundhouse” each month. This set the pattern for many years and whilst the production tasks were spread over more members, it was produced entirely “within house”.
Roundhouse was produced in this form monthly (with occasional editions combining two months) until June 1976 when it became bi-monthly. 1983 saw
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ROUNDHOUSE - March/April 2020