July meet just over a week away

Just a reminder that the July meet is just over a week away.  Come and learn how to use some of the newer materials to weather a building.  Bring a building and try your hand at weathering it.  Look forward to seeing your there.  Doors will open at 10 AM (this is an update).

Richard Hendrickson Passes Away

There are modelers and then there are influential modelers who by their knowledge and there abilities change the direction of the hobby.  Richard Hendrickson was an influential modeler.  He contributed to many areas of the hobby with his area being freight cars.  The list of articles and books is over a hundred.  His expertise in things Santa Fe is documented in the articles and books. An early participant in the RPM movement.  He was instrumental in pushing the hobby to more prototype fidelity in freight cars.  We wish to say thanks to Richard and give our condolences to his wife Sandra.

For a fuller remembrance of Richard Hendricksen see Tony Thompson's SP blog

Hands On Weathering Clinic July 12th in Charlottesville

Rail Tales in Charlottesville will be hosting the JRD for a presentation on weathering followed by an opportunity to use the same materials on your own building.  Your building should be painted and if plastic it should be sealed prior to coming to the clinic.  If you are coming to the Clinic only no reservation required, but if you are going to take part in the hands on portion then RSVP is required.  Weathering materials will be provided for JRD Members at no charge.  Non JRD members and guests will be asked to contribute $1 to cover materials.

Reservation: jrdnmra@gmail.com

Date: July 12th
Place: Rail Tales in Charlottesville
Time: 10 AM to 1 PM - Doors open at 930 AM
Reservation Required if bringing a building

JRD Facebook Group

Yes folks we have a Facebook group. It came to be after much delay about a week ago.  There are already over a dozen members whom include many folks on our Yahoo Group.  Each of these are different avenues to the same end.  We wish to build community for Model Railroaders in the James River Division.  Many will participate in one or even both.  Hopefully the Facebook group will open us up to others who would not find us otherwise.  Come join us and explore Model Railroading.

Potomac Division Mini-Con

The Potomac Division will a mini-con next month in Annandale.  There is a meeting fee but it looks to have several good speakers and interesting topics.

http://home.comcast.net/~potomac_nmra/

See the website for more details.

Meeting Goals for the next 2 years

   Starting in July 2014 and going through June 2016 I hope to have 5 meetings in the July 2014 - June 2015 year and the same in the July 2015 - June 2016 year of the JRD.  These will be distributed geographically with 2 in Richmond, 1 in Charlottesville/Lake Monticello, 1 in Lynchburg and 1 in Fredericksburg/North of Richmond.  These should allow us to roughly mirror the geographic distribution of the JRD with a goal of raising participation in each area.  I will try to schedule around other events that tap into our active membership with a stated goal of the 2nd Saturday for a meeting day.
 
   If you have thoughts or ideas about where we should meet including particular dates in particular locations, facilities, topics, clinics and contests please let me know soon.

Philip Taylor

Tidewater Meeting Invitation to JRD Members

The Tidewater Division is holding their June 21st meeting at the Army Transportation Museum on Fort Eustis again this year.  The meeting will start at 10 AM.  We would like to invite the members of your Division to join us.  The clinic will be presented by one of our members, and as before we are arranging a tour of the museum and the train yard there.  We hope you folks can join us.

Sincerely,

Gary Brown

Superintendent

Meeting in Lynchburg

The JRD had a small but interested crowd in Lynchburg for a meeting.  Landon gave a clinic on how to add water quickly and very inexpensively to a layout for use with a moveable barge.

After the Clinic elections were held for the July 2014 to June 2016 term

with the following elected to serve:

Superintendent - Philip Taylor

Asst Superintendent - Rick Lull

Clerk - Don Wells

Paymaster - Jerry Ritter

Next scheduled meeting is September 20th

3rd Layout Tour

Bob Burke's Sandy Creek & Southern will be our 3rd layout tour at the April 5th meeting of the JRD.  Bob's layout actually has 2 railroads on it with one being the Sandy Creek (freelanced) and the Southern.  This 1000 plus sq ft layout is fully signaled with CTC and operates with 2 Dispatchers when a full crew is available.

As always times and directions will be available at the meeing

The AP&W by Luis May - Layout Tour #2

Luis describes his AP&W layout as following

The AP&W is a modern-era layout set in the fictitious southwestern Pennsylvania town of Hillsdale. The layout is a modified oval, with a split yard in front and the town in back. Since there are no industries, the action is mostly in the yard, with passing trains rolling through. It's not an "operating" layout, but a "photo-op" layout!

Look for to seeing it and taking some photos

Layout Tour #1 - Chris Wiley

Courtesty of Chris Wiley

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway’s

James River Subdivision in N Scale

Researching, searching, and researching this section of the C&O is a big part of what the hobby is all about for me.  Simply put, I am attempting to model parts of the C&O Railway’s James River Subdivision…its scenery, industry, freight traffic, etceteras.

The Setting is August 1957 on C&O Railway’s James River Subdivision.  The island style layout is being constructed in a 25 x 26 foot room.  The track plan is based on the prototype – single track mainline with scattered passing sidings, yards, industrial spurs, and a branch line.  And yes, the rails were pretty much laid on top of the canal towpath, aqueducts and culverts built by the canal company in the 1830’s (many of which are still in use by CSX Transportation).

The Trains – Prototype operations are the ultimate goal.  The main function of this line is hauling West Virginia COAL to eastern ports.  Yes, there are a few name manifest trains and two passenger trains, but coal is King.  Passenger service, well you won’t see the George Washington, or the Sportsman, but you will see "the Dinky".  Freight will be moves using the “Car Orders System”, timetable, and an “Overview of Operations” has been developed to support prototype operating sessions in the future.  The yards on each end of the subdivision will serve as staging yards to support operations.

The Scenery around the railroad includes the mountainous James River Valley, open bottomland farms, and a few small towns.  The base for much of the layout is polyextruded foam board.  Some of the above ground rocks are hydrocal, plaster, tree bark, and some are real rocks.    Everything is covered with latex painted “dirt”, ground foam “grass, weeds, and bushes” and lichen covered hills and Super Trees everywhere else.  Envirotex “water” is starting to flow in some parts of the river and tributary creeks.  Many buildings were scratch built, some custom made laser kits, and some are commercially available kits.  The paper buildings and roofing materials are all Radical Flats^TM available from www.kingmill.com  Beware; I have a few mirrors that always seem to confuse everyone.

The History.  This is the third N Scale layout I have built.  Research and planning for this layout started in the early 1980’s with the purchase of C&O Track Diagram Charts from the C&O Historical Society (www.COHS.org).  Construction for the Gladstone tracks began in 1990 while in Miami FL.  In 1995 began building bench work for the rest.

Train control   Digitrax Super Chief radio controls the trains.  Locomotive decoders installed by www.TimsDigitalDepot.com   The CTC machine at the dispatcher’s desk will control train movements across the entire subdivision.  We use JLC Enterprise’s DCC optimized detectors, and your CMRI operates off a custom QB 4.5 program. The I/O logic is handled by JLC Enterprise SMINI nodes.  Mike Burgett (www.CTCParts.com) designed and built the CTC Machine and Signal System.