James River Division MER NMRA

For years now many of us have discussed the need for vertical staging to save space and many ideas were discussed to push the idea forward.  The ideas were usually some variation off a garage door opener or a pully system. None seemed to be satisfactory as such a system needs to be flawless and remotely comtrolable.  Well our British cousins seem to have found the answer.  Pleas watch the following YouTube for Nelevator. https://youtu.be/tyfDjAn_fJI This is a radical improvmwnt even with heavy cost. It not be worth selling a few sound locos you never will use to make the down payment. Improvements like this give me hope for the hobby

The JRD had a great meeting last Saturday.  Frank Walker familiarized us with the various aspects of the history of railroading in Orange.  There were many ideas that could be explored for modeling from the Civil War to the present day in either standard gauge or narrow gauge depending on era.  Our second clinic was given by Andrew Dodge who gave us not only the history of the Colorado Midland but how to make the choices to take the history and topography of the line into a workable model railroad.  In addition, we learned about the need to make choices regarding era to motive power and rolling stock on planning the layout. A hearty Thank You to both clinicians for sharing their time and expertise.  The meeting had an excellent display of 16 Cabooses in multiple scales with many road names.  It was heartening to see such excellent participation.  Congratulations to First Place winner Alan Bibb, Second Place (tie) winners Gerard Fitzgerald and Bob Minnis and Third Place winner Jean Ra

There was a time when almost every train had a caboose or even two when enough crew members were working the train.  A caboose was permanently assigned to one conductor in the early days while later they became part of a pool assigned to a division.  Even today there are many transfer runs or branch lines will have a caboose to protect a back up move at crossings Do you have a special caboose in your collection?  If you have done work on it either building, painting, weathering or detailing bring it for the Modeling Theme.  If you are working on something else no matter the stage of completion then bring it and put it on the In Progress table. We hope to see you not he 14th in Orange for what we expect to be a great meeting