Passing of a Friend and a Fixture

This Thanksgiving we lost a fixture of the Richmond Model Rail Community when Mike Trader unexpectedly passed away.  Mike was the constant stretching back to Bob's Hobby Shop and in each new place he was behind the counter with helpful ideas.  He will be sorely missed by JRD members and we wish to express our condolences to his family in this unexpected loss..  You may read his obituary from the Richmond Times Dispatch

More on innovation in the hobby

Trevor Marshall posted more on one of the more interesting throttles which is due out early next year.  

http://themodelrailwayshow.com/cn1950s/?p=9093

New Innovation, Youth and Growth

We hear so much about the hobby as aging and not appealing to the youth. Today at an operations session of a large layout we having a good time with the normal issues of crowded tracks or aisles and the normal couplers that adjustment.  Several of our operators were under 30 with one under 18.  This is a good sign and one I hope will be repeated in many places.

One way we can interest young people is moving forward with the new and not focusing on the past.  We can seek new ways that interest them and relates to their world. It is known that most young people (and many others) exist on their smart phones. Today at the ops session mentioned in the first paragraph the owner of the Western Maryland (Moseley Subdivision) after the session settled down and was running smoothly allowed me to setup the new Digitrax LNWI.  The setup took less than a minute and it is prime example of how simple things should be to operate on a model railroad.

Once the setup was done and the new wifi device connected to by my iPhone I was operating my locomotive bidirectionally with quicker response than with my older simplex throttle.  Once news filtered out our youngest operator Paul with obvious enthusiasm was asking if he could use his WiThrottle. Moment later he was operating his locomotive with WiThrottle and showing others how well the WiThrottle worked over the Digitrax LNWI.  If we want more young people in the hobby then we need hit their excitement points since they are the ones who will excite their peers on how much fun is Model Railroading.

Philip Taylor

(There will be a review of the Digitrax LNWI in a future Crossties)

November 2017 in Charlottesville

November Get Together at Cardboard Safari

We will have a clinic which include a demosltration of laser cutting of a structure and module/LDE benchwork. Second clinic is unamed as of yet. Our tour will be of Bob Macionis Layout which is a basement filling layout which will be torn down and a new one built shortly after our gatherning. Plans of the new layout will be on display

Please bring a folding chair!!!

Meeting this Saturday at 930 AM

Join us this coming Saturday for 2 clinics and a layout open house.  We will gather in Lynchburg at Fort Hill UMC to hear about using home laser cutters in modeling by George Riley who is a frequent contributor to the On30 Annual and Traction modeling by Garth Quole. Remember to bring a diorama for the Modeling Theme. Jean Raas will have his O Scale layout open after lunch.  For details click this LINK

Philip Taylor
JRD Superintendent

NMRA Partnership Program

The NMRA Partnership program or as some call it the discount program was a big announcement that gives another reason to join the NMRA 

***NMRA Partnership Program***

Today 8/7/2017 we are pleased to announce the launch of the NMRA Partnership Program offering discounts to our members. We will be adding more partners soon, but members can now take advantage of the following discounts:

Catzpaw Innovations - 10% 

Green Frog Productions - 20%

Larc Products - 10% 

Logic Rail Technologies - 10% 

Micro-Mark - 15%

Motrak Models - 10%

MRC - 25% off their 'Light Genie'

RR-CirKits - 15% 

Rusty Stumps - 10%

Unreal Details - 20%

Members can find the discount codes in our members only section of our website by following this link http://www.nmra.org/members/partnership-program

Lynchburg Rail Days 2017

Lynchburg Rail Days is this weekend for those in the JRD and surrounding areas.  Last year was an enjoyable event with a number of bargains for those looking for odds and ends.  There were a few smaller layouts setup.  This year should be a repeat of last year.  Details are available by the link below.

https://www.blueridgenrhs.org/10-rail-day/52-lynchburg-rail-day-2017

Shifting into Operations

The thing many like about model railroading is the variety of tasks from building cars, scenery, track work, locomotive detailing, electronics and many other tasks.  If you get bored or your interests change you can work on another area.  Lately, more members of the JRD are operating their layouts according to a schema they devise for the layout.  The layout may not even been designed initially for operations, but layouts can be rebuilt, expanded and changed to fit new interests.

George Gaige is a JRD member who has changed his layout and is still changing his layout to adjust to new interests.  His story was recently published in the April 2017 Dispatchers Office (released in late July 2017) which is published by the Operations Special Interest Group or OPSIG.  Pick up or borrow a copy of the issue to learn how George has adapted his layout to his new operations interest.

July Layout Tour

Layout Tour this Saturday July 8, 2107 in the Richmond, VA area

Our July Meet this year will be a layout tour with morning tours on the Southside of Richmond with maps for the morning only available at Todd's Hobbies beginning at 9AM. The morning tour will begin at 10AM and end at Noon

Morning Tour
Keith Prichard - Great Plains RR
Dick Munnikhuysen - Western Maryland Moseby Division 

For lunch we will gather around Noon or before at Arby's in Midlothian.  

Maps for the afternoon session on the Northside of Richmond will be session will be available at Todd's Hobbies at 1 pm.  The afternoon session will start at 130PM and end at 330PM.  

Afternoon Tour 

Craig Miller - Southern Railway (Miller Version)

This layout has not been toured by the JRD previously to my knowledge so come and see. 

This tour is open to all NMRA members.  If you are not a JRD member please bring your NMRA membership card.  Guests of members are welcome and should travel with members and are required to check in at Todd's Hobbies with their sponsoring member.

July Meeting Layout Tours

Layout Tour this Saturday July 8, 2107 in the Richmond, VA area

Our July Meet this year will be a layout tour with morning tours on the Southside of Richmond with maps for the morning only available at Todd's Hobbies beginning at 9AM. The morning tour will begin at 10AM and end at Noon

Morning Tour
Keith Prichard - Great Plains RR
Dick Munnikhuysen - Western Maryland Moseby Division 

For lunch we will gather around Noon or before at Arby's in Midlothian.  

Maps for the afternoon session on the Northside of Richmond will be session will be available at Todd's Hobbies at 1 pm.  The afternoon session will start at 130PM and end at 330PM.  

Afternoon Tour 

Craig Miller - Southern Railway (Miller Version)

This layout has not been toured by the JRD previously to my knowledge so come and see. 

This tour is open to all NMRA members.  If you are not a JRD member please bring your NMRA membership card.  Guests of members are welcome and should travel with members and are required to check in at Todd's Hobbies with their sponsoring member.

JRD May 6th Meet

Check out the meetings tab for more information on the JRD Meeting coming the 6th of May which is the first Saturday.

Weekend Activities for April 29th and 30th

This coming weekend April 29th there are several activities that may interest those in the JRD.  Members and friends who know Bob Macionis are reminded that he is having an operations session on Saturday.  He usually hosts the sessions on the weekdays so a weekend one is a rare treat.  Also, this Saturday Rail Tales in Charlottesville is having a DCC install clinic.  Please contact the store for more information and the time.

Website Changes Coming

The JRD is in the process of taking the Website and the Blog and making them one unified site.  The purpose of this so all information will come from one site that is easier to maintain and keep current.  Watch for changes coming in layout and design along with new content

Change in Clinic Lineup

For personal reasons Mike Garber will have to delay his DCC clinic to a future meet.  Rod Vance's description of his clinic:

"Anatomy of a Motive Power Project" and it summarizes my approach to building (combination R-T-R modification and scratch-building effort) an HO-scale gas-electric rail motorcar.  The resulting motorcar was the 2nd entry in my AP Motive Power efforts.

The clinic describes the research I did in prototype rail motorcars, and how I selected and built the components I chose to include in my model.  I talk about the documentation I did for the AP entry, and finally the improvements I made to the model based on the AP evaluation comments.

See you at the meet

Operations and Dispatching

Several weeks ago the JRD had a chance to hear Steve King on how dispatch a railroad and a model railroad.   As I meet with folks and reflect on that meeting folks continue to say how much they enjoyed the meet.  Operations is a growing part of the hobby that will inform much of the layout building and design in future years.  It is not the be all and end all of the hobby it is part of what we will become in future years.  Our hobby is one of niches and overlapping interests.  This will be one of them.  Others including structures, scenery, electronics, signals, locomotives, cars and track may interest you more than operations.  As they say 'it is all good' so find your speciality.

Meeting reminder for January 14th

Just a reminder about this Saturday's meeting of the James River Division in Orange, VA.  We will start at 930 am. Our speaker is Steve King and we will be learning about dispatching a railroad. We will have a morning session lunch and an afternoon session. We expect to finish about 230 pm. 

If weather is bad a cancellation notice will be sent to group and posted on this blog