Date/Time
Date(s) - Saturday, February 24, 2024
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location
Southampton Community Center
913 Willow Street
Southampton, PA 18966
Categories
On Saturday, February 24, 2024, the Philadelphia Division will host the Susquehanna Division in a joint meet back at the Southampton Community Center at 913 Willow Street, Southampton, PA 18966. The doors open at 8:30am with the program set to begin at 9:00. Maps to the meet on page 7.
Our first clinic will be presented by Susquehanna member David Ellis titled, “Planning a New Model Railroad after Moving.” The main gist of this clinic is that in order to get what you want in building a model railroad, you have to figure out what it is that you want.
David is planning version 2 of his freelanced 4th sub-division of the Great Northern Railway’s Cascade Division. The presentation has sections on evaluating his past modeling experience, building a “practice plank,” some inspirations and influences, actually evaluating what he wants, an approach to designing the railroad, and how he has started the new railroad using “TOMA” (The One Module Approach).
How many times have you heard modelers lament that if only they had thought of this or that when planning, a certain outcome would have been better? Along those lines, this clinic would appear to be of interest not only to those who have moved and are starting version 2, but also for those just starting their first layout.
David Ellis has been a member of the NMRA since 2004 when he became involved with an HO modular group in the Seattle area. After moving back to his home town in northwestern Pennsylvania, he filled several roles in the formation of a new division, the Alleghany Western Division of the Mid-Central Region. After moving to eastern Pennsylvania, where he is a member of the Susquehanna Division, he has started a new version of a railroad set in western Washington which he documents at gnbranch.blogspot.com.
Next up will be Eric Hansmann presenting, “The Allegheny Yard branch: A Forgotten B&O Industrial Line.” This six-mile Baltimore & Ohio branch ran along the Allegheny and Ohio rivers in Pittsburgh serving team yards, two freight houses, three department store warehouses, the Pressed Steel Car Company plant, H. J. Heinz, and more. The presentation covers how this prototype will inspire his next HO scale railroad project.
Eric has been model railroading since the mid-1970s and built his first HO-scale layout following a John Armstrong plan in an Atlas track plan book. Eric has had articles published in the Layout Design Journal, Model Railroad Hobbyist, Model Railroad Planning, and Railroad Model Craftsman. He has worked in radio, printing, college recruitment, marketing, and has owned a retail record store. Eric was consumed by the narrow-gauge bug for several years, but settled into HO-scale prototype modeling, focusing on the mid-1920s. He moved to Philadelphia in February of 2023 and unpacked his HO-scale B&O Wheeling Freight Terminal in a 10×16 space. It offers a different pace for operations. He is working on designing, building, and operating a new layout inspired by a forgotten B&O branch in Pittsburgh. He posts regular hobby activity updates to his blog (http://designbuildop.hansmanns.org/), and manages the Resin Car Works blog (http://blog.resincarworks.com/).
All attendees are encouraged to bring a model to the meet to display and discuss, if you like, during our Show and Tell session.
In addition, the Achievement Program Committee is now judging models at the meets. If you wish to have a model judged, please inform either Earl Paine or Joe Walters in advance of the meet.
As usual we’ll hold our 50/50 raffle, draw for door prizes, and have coffee, donuts, and Philly soft pretzels.
The afternoon features some excellent model railroads for visitation. Hope you can make it!
