January 2015 Clinicians Set

It is with great pleasure that the JRD announces two high profile clinicians for the January 2015 meeting.  Paul Dolkos, nationally known author, modeler and photographer will discuss his Baltimore Harbor District.  Mike Garber, who resides in the JRD, is past editor of its Crossties publication and is known in the Southern RPM community for his Southern Railway models will give a clinic.  More details will follow.

New Crossties Editor

Effective October 1, 2014 Gerard Fitzgerald will assume the editorship of Crossties with his first issue being the January 2015 issue.

Thank you to Peter Kerr for his work as editor.

Passing of Dale Edwards

Recently we seem to have had a number of passings of luminaries in the hobby and the recent passing of Lawrence "Dale" Edwards adds to the list.  He was the co-founder of Kadee and Micro-Trains with his brother.  This passing was announced by his son-in-law Alan Vezzani whose tribute is reproduced below with permission

Lawrence “Dale” Edwards Sr.

Co-founder of Kadee®

February 1921 –September 2014

A True Pioneer in Model Railroading, Dale Edwards was the “D” in Kadee and his identical twin Keith was the “K”.

The twins started Kadee in the mid 40’s and created the first knuckle couple that actually looked and worked like the real ones.  With several improvements on the original design, the Magne-matic® metal knuckle coupler became an instant hit.  Today, the knuckle coupler is the de-facto standard in Model Railroading.

In, 1961 they designed and built the twin rail spiker that allowed modelers to lay their own track by driving miniature spikes over the toe of the rail holding it in place.  In the 70’s they began to produce a line of freight cars that were noted for their detail and accuracy in N scale.  These Micro-Trains® were the finest detailed ready to run rolling stock built.  

In 1990 the twins decided to split the company with Dale taking Kadee with the HO couplers and larger and Keith with the Micro-Trains line N Scale and smaller.  With the impending expiration of the coupler patent, Dale knew he had to create something innovative and “special” that would leapfrog the competition and began developing a brand new model of the PS1 40’ boxcar.   The work to create all the tooling for the molds and die making would take accuracy, detail and meticulous craftsmanship in order to have operational moving doors, see through roof walks and scale grab irons and ladders.  This was once again, done ALL in house.

Dale was also responsible for the creation of the “Whisker” coupler centering system he designed in the mid 80’s.  However, application of the Whisker stalled until 2006 when a suitable wire was created.

Dale had his hand in developing more than 40 patents and Kadee now manufactures couplers, components, HO RTR rolling stock and accessories made of metal and plastic in HO scale through G scale all made entirely in White City, Oregon. 

Dale believed in the American dream, his employees and vision to make the best possible products with the quality people he employed while doing so all under one roof as to not sacrifice quality nor lose control of supply chains.

Dale was preceded in death by his older sisters Wilda and Nathie, older brother Al, his wife Grace and twin brother Keith. 

His five children Larry, Jacque, Bonnie, Melinda and Doug and his many grandchildren will miss him greatly.

Dale’s legacy and business Kadee will continue manufacturing America’s finest model railroading products for years to come.  Because that’s the way he wanted it!!!

May God, Bless Dale as he fulfilled his love of trains which was his passion, his life and legac    

Good Meet Today in Midlothian

There was a good meeting of the James River Division in Midlothian, VA.  Rick Lull gave an interesting talk on what he saw at NMRA National and on NMRA Net.  There ensued a discussion of its implications.

Rick discussing NMRA National - Courtesy of Philip Taylor

Bernie Kempinski talked about Model Railroads Go To War.  He took the audience from Crimea to the American Civil War and Colonial Wars.  These regional events were followed by WWI and WWII.  Bernie made the case that modeling the wartime traffic or the front could give the modeler new opportunities.

Bernie making his case - Courtesy of Philip Taylor

Layout Tour at the ODC Model Railroad

The ODC Model Railroad is housed in the Richmond Railroad Museum.  The building was originally the Southern Railway Station for Richmond, VA and was sometimes called Hull St Station.

Hull St Station - courtesy of Gerard Fitzgerald

The model railroad occupies the near end of the station while the museum occupies the far end.

ODC Club - Courtesy of Gerard Fitzgerald

Museum - Courtesy of Gerard Fitzgerald

Layout Tour at Rick Lull's Richmond Terminal Today

We had two layout tours today after the morning meet.

Rick Lull opened his Richmond Terminal Layout to us.  Rick keeps adding to the 2nd deck with the mainline making progress around the room.  

Acca Yard on right lover level - Courtesy of Gerard Fitzgerald

Rick's turnouts on the newer section of his layout feature turnouts made with FastTracks jigs.  The quality of the work seen in the photo below

Curved Turnouts - Courtesy of Gerard Fitzgerald

We look forward to seeing further progress on Rick's Layout

Mid Atlantic RPM Meet this Friday and Saturday

Just a quick reminder that this Friday and Saturday is the Mid Atlantic RPM meet in Fredericksburg.  Check out their website: www.marpm.org  and if you find topics that interest you then bring a model and plan to attend.

Update on Carstens Book Division

White River Productions notes on their web page that included in the deal to acquire RMC and R&R is the book division.  This is good news.  Still remaining for a definitive answer are the On30 and HOn3 annuals.  Hopefully these are included in the book division.

Mid Atlantic RPM Meet this Friday and Saturday

The Mid Atlantic Railway Prototype Modelers Meet is this Friday and Saturday in Fredericksburg.  The website has details - www.marpm.org   There are many interesting clinics both days along with displays of models.  Last year there were numerous outstanding models on display.

Midlothian Meet on the 20th starting at 930 AM

It is just over two weeks until our next meet in Midlothian. See the Meetings tab for location information, but it is at the same Church we meet at every year.

Rick Lull will be showing shots from his trip to NMRA National and bring us up to speed on the goings on at National.  The other topic he is covering is the NMRA Net.  If you say "Whats That?" then you will get an overview of what is coming next to control your accessories so that they all talk to each other and make it easier for you to add things like signals to your DCC layout.

Bernie Kempinski is ready to unleash the dogs of war or at least discuss them as they relate to model railroads.  Model Railroaders tend to miss a great opportunity to model a period with high traffic, large numbers of special moves and unusual loads.  This summer being the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI makes the topic highly relevant to the modeler as that is one of the most overlooked eras to model both at home and in the trenches.

Come and join us.  Rick will start at 930 and Bernie will start at 1030. This is earlier than normal but we will need to get moving to fit everything into the program.