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Are you ready for
Salt Lake City?
Are you ready for Salt Lake City? We are. It's the 150th Anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory!
Fun prototype tours, world class layouts, tons of great clinics, plus unique non-rail and general interest tours and activities for the whole family.
And visit
www.nmra2019slc.org
for all the details!
All the fun you can stand. See you there!
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Power On-Board systems: we're certifying 'em!
Standards & Conformance Dept. Manager
Did you know that the NMRA can certify Power On-Board (Dead Rail) systems?
The approach we are using for these systems is to identify the receiver in the locomotive as the Command Station that generates the appropriate DCC command going to the DCC decoder. We will evaluate the DCC commands from the receiver (Command Station) to the DCC decoder to determine if they conform to the Standards as defined in the S-9.x series. We consider the signal sent from the hand-held throttle to the receiver as proprietary to the system and will not be evaluated.
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More new partners in our Partnership Program
These 35 companies are giving NMRA members discounts for buying their products when using a special discount code. You can find their websites and discount codes on our Partnership Page at
https://www.nmra.org/partnerships . Remember you need to be logged into the site as a member to see the codes!
(New partners are in red)
CatzPaw Innovations
Clever Models LLC
Deluxe Materials
East Coast Circuits
Great Decals
Green Frog Productions
Hot Wire Foam Factory
Jason's Brass Poles
K.I.S.S. Method
LARC Products
Logic Rail Technologies
Micro-Mark
MinuteMan Scale Models
Model Railroad Benchwork
Model Train Catalogue
Modelers Decals and Paint
Motrak Models
MRC (Model Rectifier Corporation)
OK Engines/Streamliners
Ram-Track
RR-CirKits
Rusty Stumps
Scale Model Plans
Scalecoat Paint
Scenery Solutions/Fusion Fiber
Showcase Miniatures
Team Track Models
The N-Scale Architect
The Train Show, Inc.
Train Installations, LLC
Trainmasters TV/Model RR Hobbyist
UGears
Unreal Details (Magic Water)
USA Airbrush Supply/Badger Airbrush
WiFi Model Railroad, LLC
If you're a manufacturer or know of one who'd like to join our Partnership Program, please contact Jim Gore, At-Large North American Director, at
[email protected].
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Honors awarded at the Kansas City convention banquet
The following honors were given by outgoing president Charlie Getz and incoming president Pete Magoun at the banquet in Kansas City.
Distinguished Service Award
Phil Walthers
Meritorious Service Award
Paul Richardson, MMR
Don Stewart
Charlie Flichman
Larry Wolohon
John Grubb
National Train Show Staff:
Mark Shafer
Dave Burman
Perry Lamb
Butch Tavis
Jim, Lola, James Thompson
Monroe and Daisy Stewart
Nathan Oxhandler
Lee Korotzer
Julia Bailey
Mat Thompson
Evan Hoagland
President's Awards
Mark Shafer
Golden Blackhawk & Central City
Joe Gelmini, MMR
Peter Youngblood, MMR
Mike Bartlett
Katerine Millatt, MMR
Gordon Robinson
Paul Voelker
Clark Kooning, MMR
Operations Roadshow
President's Award for Service to the Division
Martyn Jenkins (Australasian Region)
Tom Winlow (British Region)
Don Bozman (Lone Star Region)
Bob Weinheimer (Mid-Central Region)
Larry Diehl (Mid-Continent Region)
Gary Children (Midwest Region)
Steve Juranics (Niagara Frontier Region)
Barry Hersel (North Central Region)
Jim Heidt (Northeast Region)
Gus Campagna (Pacific Coast Region)
Rus Segner (Pacfic Northwest Region)
Pat & Mona Raymer (Pacific Southwest Region)
Harold Linke (Rocky Mountain Region)
Art Landrigan
(Southeast Region)
James Robertson (Sunshine Region)
Jay Davis (Thousand Lakes Region)
Congratulations to all of these recipients for their service to the hobby, to their fellow model railroaders, and to the NMRA!
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Help reunite a young man with his engines
We received this from Spring Creek Model Trains: Trains:
"LOST AND FOUND - We had a young boy with his sister and his mom (or Grandma) stop in our booth on Sunday at the National Train Show. He was looking for KCS cars. He showed me the Proto 2000 engine (Great Northern) he had just purchased along with another GN engine. He wanted to know if I thought he got a good deal on them. So I remember him well.
Sunday as we packed up I found his sack with the Proto 2000 GN engine in it sitting under our tables.
I have no idea who this family is. I would like everyone to pass this information on and hopefully we can reunite this young man with his engines." -Joe Atkinson
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Important NMRA eBulletin news you may have missed
Thanks to volunteer Tom Bensberg, all
NMRA eBulletin issues are archived on the NMRA website and these links will send you directly to them.
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Remember: your email address has to be registered
on the website (not just with Headquarters) to get to the Members Only section of our website!
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The NMRA eBulletin is an official bi-monthly production of the National Model Railroad Association, Inc. Publishing Department (Don Phillips, Manager). Its purpose is to keep every NMRA member informed about organization news and events. If you know of an NMRA member who is not receiving this mailing, please direct them to here to update their email address. If you no longer wish to receive these mailings, please don't mark them as SPAM. Instead, click the Safe Unsubscribe link at the bottom of this page. ©2018 National Model Railroad Association, Inc., P.O. Box 1328, Soddy Daisy TN 37384.
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A few words from the new president
Meet Pete!
It's an honor to pen (OK, type... you get the idea) this first "President's Letter" for the
NMRA eBulletin. First order of business here is to thank Charlie Getz for his untiring efforts on our behalf over the last six years. He has moved the NMRA forward, and I hope to continue the momentum. Thanks, Charlie!
So who am I, and where am I coming from? I started "training," as did many of my peers, back in the mid-fifties with the Lionel set that somehow became a large (to me, anyway!) basement layout. That served until I found N-scale while in the US Navy. I joined the NMRA in 1973, and then moved onward to a house for a family and an HO railroad after graduate school. The rest, as they say, is history. Along the line, though, I earned my MMR, and have had multiple stints as a Director and/or Officer in several for-profit and not-for-profit corporations, including the NMRA, where I served two terms as a Director.
On to the Kansas City convention, and a good convention it was! The Board Meeting produced a number of good reports, we have a "clean" audit from the independent auditors, who are now using the NMRA as an example of Good Fiscal Management, our Partnership Programs are adding partners (think "discounts for purchases"), we're not competing with hobby shops, and the Model Railroading Exhibit at the California State Railroad Museum (CSRM) is slated to open in 2019. (
The CSRM, by the way is now part of the Smithsonian Institution's museum system, so we have been invited into a world-class museum.) The Annual General Meeting on Thursday evening saw the "regime change," as Charlie handed the virtual gavel to me. I'm looking forward to the next three years as your President -- I'll have a good Board to work with, and that means a lot.
The variety of clinics available in Kansas City has been excellent, and I've heard a lot of positive commentary on them. I was privileged to help Charlie present a President's Award for service to the NMRA and to the hobby to the Operations Road Show, which after a twenty-year-plus run, is retiring the railroad from public exhibitions as the crew deals with aging and other time-related issues. It's been a great teaching aid. I've been privileged to operate and learn on it a number of times, and we're going to miss their patient tutelage.
The National Train Show featured a lot of model railroads from briefcase size to enormous modular exhibitions, done in multiple scales, including several Lego railroads. Suppliers large and small offered both old and new, and those with whom I spoke were very positive about the show. Yes, the NMRA is working to reduce exhibitor and supplier costs for their efforts on our behalf, and yes, they seem to be productive efforts. Stay tuned.
This is our Association, and we all need to work together to make things work. Let's Do It!
High Green!
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Highlights of the August Board of Directors meeting
The Board of Directors meeting was held at the Weston Crown Center Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, on Saturday, August 4.
Please note that this is an
unofficial summary of what took place at the BOD meeting. The official minutes, authored by NMRA Secretary John Stevens, will appear on the NMRA website,
www.nmra.org.
Some of the highlights of the meeting included:
- The rewrite of the NMRA Executive Handbook continues, but because much of the material in the existing EHB is out of date, there's a great deal of work to be done. The rewrite, begun by former president Charlie Getz, is now being overseen by Mike Brestel (At-Large Worldwide Director) and Frank Koch (Chief Financial Officer).
- CFO Frank Koch reported that the NMRA had another flawless annual audit by the IRS. He also commented that the IRS is using the NMRA financials as an example for other non-profits. The current budget, approved by the Board last February, is published on our website, www.nmra.org .
- Former president Charlie Getz updated the Board on the state of the California State Railroad Museum exhibit, "The Magic of Scale Model Railroading." There have been delays in getting the final estimate from the vendor that's building the exhibit, but he still expects that the exhibit will open by the Spring of 2019. In keeping with the Museum's focus, "The Magic of Scale Model Railroading" exhibit will focus on the diversity within our hobby, from the diversity of modelers' backgrounds to our diversity of interests (from narrow gauge to operations to scenery). Getz once again emphasized that no NMRA dues money is being used fir the exhibit, but instead it will be funded by donations.
- Bob Weinheimer, chairman of the NMRA Discount Program, reported that a number of hobby shops have been added to the list of those giving NMRA members a discount. The Board will investigate giving Discount Program participants a special listing in the magazine. You can find the current listing of hobby shops, museums and other attractions offering NMRA discounts at https://www.nmra.org/members/member-discount-program .
- The NMRA Division Retention Event Matching Fund Program Division has been successful thus far and will continue until the Board's Mid-Year meeting in February 2019, at which time the Board will decide if it will be funded again. Peter Youngblood, outgoing At-Large North American Director, reported that there were 8 Division applications for the Programa, of which 7 were approved. The program offers a matching fund of $50 once annually to any active Division that holds an event that qualifies as promoting member retention (such as a hands-on clinic).
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A Board committee was put together to investigate bidding, redesign, and reconstruction of the NMRA website. Chaired by VP/Special Projects Gerry Leone, the committee consists of IT Manager Ben Sevier, Assistant Department Head Scott Povlot, Marketing Consultant Christina Zambri, and Central District Director Bill Neale, Eastern District Director Jim Gore, and Gordy Robinson. The committee will report its findings at or before the Mid-Year BOD meeting in 2019.
- NMRA Counsel Bob Amsler reiterated the NMRA's stance on political advertising: It is the policy of the NMRA, and applicable to all NMRA Regions and Divisions, that official NMRA media (e.g. Region or Division websites or Facebook pages, newsletters, etc.) cannot be used for campaigning for an office or election issues. General information about an election and the candidates may be posted on official NMRA media but must direct anyone interested to a webpage or other resource about the elections. Any NMRA resource such as a website or publication shall provide equal information about all candidates. NMRA membership information shall not be provided to any candidate. A candidate may contact any other NMRA member about his candidacy but the NMRA cannot provide any private information such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, or similar information to the candidate. A candidate may contact members but they cannot do so with access to the private information of members from the NMRA or its regions and divisions.
- Amsler also reported that Modeling with the Masters® and MMR® are now registered trademarks. "Master Model Railroader" will be approved for trademarking within a matter of weeks. The NMRA encourages newsletters, clinicians, and others who are making public presentations to always include a registration mark (®) after MMR® or Modeling With The Masters®.
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Updated 2019 Elections Notice
NMRA Secretary
The following NMRA Board of Directors positions are open for election in 2019:
- Western District Director;
- Atlantic District Director; and
- At-Large Worldwide Director.
The current At-Large Worldwide Director is term limited and therefore is ineligible to be a candidate for this election. Both the current Atlantic District Director and the Western District Director are eligible to be candidates for this election.
Please check Article III, paragraph 12, of the NMRA Executive Handbook (EHB) located at http://www.nmra.org for the extent of the districts affected. Qualifications for candidates are listed in the EHB. Candidate Statements are limited to 400 words.
Although regular nominations for these positions closed May 15, candidates may wish to run for these positions By Petition. Requirements for submitting By Petition are contained in the EHB. All submissions By Petition shall be received by the NMRA Secretary at [email protected] no later than October 15, 2018.
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Region and National Conventions
(Only those Regional conventions occurring in the next three months are listed)
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Newest Master Model Railroaders
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615: John Paganoni, MER
616: Robert McLear, AR
617: Mark Norman, MCR
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In an upcoming issue of NMRA Magazine
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- Complete coverage of the 2018 Kansas City convention
- Operations Roadshow farewell
- Celebration Room
- Love those loads!
- Women in model railroading
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