Date/Time
Date(s) - Saturday, November 10, 2018
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location
Brandywine Town Center
4050 Brandywine Parkway
Wilmington, DE 19803
Located near the intersection of US-202 (Concord Pk.) and DE-92 (Naaman’s Rd.)
Held at the Community Center in front of the shopping center near the fountain and pool.
Categories
On November 10, 2018, we return to the Community Center at the Brandywine Town Center, 4050 Brandywine Parkway, Wilmington, DE 19803. The time is 9:00am with doors opening at 8:30. Directions and maps can be found on page 7. We will be hosting our brothers from the New Jersey Division.
Our morning program begins with member Joe Walters presenting his clinic titled “Scratch Building a ‘Type J’ Jordan Spreader.” The Jordan Spreader is a piece of maintenance equipment that is designed to spread ballast or shape ballast profiles. In addition, the various ploughs, wings, and blades allow the spreader to remove snow, create banks, and clean and dig ditches. The spreaders proved themselves to be an extremely economical tool for maintaining trackside drainage ditches and spreading fill or ballast. It’s the perfect addition to a model railroad where the ballasting is in progress, but never finished.
Born in Northeast Philly, and now living in Bear, Delaware, his career consisted of experience in the mechanical departments at the Reading Railroad, Conrail, and Amtrak. Over a 32-year period he has held jobs as a car inspector, car repairman, foreman, general foreman, manager, and assistant superintendent. If anyone can describe or explain the ins and outs of a piece of railroad equipment, it’s Joe. You’ll also find the debut of Joe’s new column in the online section of The Dispatcher. He’ll be presenting on modeling, naturally, but also on aspects of prototype railroading that you may never have even thought about.
A relatively recent member of the NMRA and Philly Division, Joe has already presented several clinics and has earned all but one AP certificate, and is well on his way to his Master Model Railroader. His own model railroad will be open to attendees in the afternoon.
Next up will be member Earl “our man in Wilmington” Hackett–the guy who procures our November meet venue each year, but best known as a milling and casting aficionado. Along those lines, Earl’s clinic is titled, “Using 3D Printing to Produce Casting Masters for Parts.” Making molds to cast parts for modeling is nothing novel, but 3D printing provides a new way of producing the original master from which molds are made, and castings produced. And while 3D products in the past were fairly crude and inappropriate for use in scale modeling, new technology allows for much better detail and accuracy.
Earl resides in Hockessin, Delaware and models the C&O, where you’ll find many of the castings he’s discussed in his clinics–and operates it using the Car Order System he made famous through his clinics and articles.
As usual we’ll have coffee, donuts, and Philly soft pretzels, the white elephant table, door prizes, 50/50 raffle, and a model display table. Members are encouraged to bring projects in any stage of completion to display and discuss if desired. A 2019 MER Convention meeting follows immediately after the conclusion of the meet.
The afternoon fare consists of two Division member layouts as well as open house layout tours courtesy of ModelRailroadOpenHouse.com. Check that website for schedules and maps. Maps and directions to some of the nearby layouts will be available at the meet. Hope to see you there!
MER 2019 Convention Meeting
The next meeting of the MER 2019 Convention Committee will be held at approximately 12:00pm, immediately following the morning session of the meet at the Brandywine Town Center Community Center. Anyone may participate even if you were unable to attend any of the past meetings. Note that participation in the MER convention counts twice as much toward your AP Volunteer certificate. See page 6 of The Dispatcher for the full convention report.
