July Layout Tour

Layout Tour this Saturday July 8, 2107 in the Richmond, VA area

Our July Meet this year will be a layout tour with morning tours on the Southside of Richmond with maps for the morning only available at Todd's Hobbies beginning at 9AM. The morning tour will begin at 10AM and end at Noon

Morning Tour
Keith Prichard - Great Plains RR
Dick Munnikhuysen - Western Maryland Moseby Division 

For lunch we will gather around Noon or before at Arby's in Midlothian.  

Maps for the afternoon session on the Northside of Richmond will be session will be available at Todd's Hobbies at 1 pm.  The afternoon session will start at 130PM and end at 330PM.  

Afternoon Tour 

Craig Miller - Southern Railway (Miller Version)

This layout has not been toured by the JRD previously to my knowledge so come and see. 

This tour is open to all NMRA members.  If you are not a JRD member please bring your NMRA membership card.  Guests of members are welcome and should travel with members and are required to check in at Todd's Hobbies with their sponsoring member.

July Meeting Layout Tours

Layout Tour this Saturday July 8, 2107 in the Richmond, VA area

Our July Meet this year will be a layout tour with morning tours on the Southside of Richmond with maps for the morning only available at Todd's Hobbies beginning at 9AM. The morning tour will begin at 10AM and end at Noon

Morning Tour
Keith Prichard - Great Plains RR
Dick Munnikhuysen - Western Maryland Moseby Division 

For lunch we will gather around Noon or before at Arby's in Midlothian.  

Maps for the afternoon session on the Northside of Richmond will be session will be available at Todd's Hobbies at 1 pm.  The afternoon session will start at 130PM and end at 330PM.  

Afternoon Tour 

Craig Miller - Southern Railway (Miller Version)

This layout has not been toured by the JRD previously to my knowledge so come and see. 

This tour is open to all NMRA members.  If you are not a JRD member please bring your NMRA membership card.  Guests of members are welcome and should travel with members and are required to check in at Todd's Hobbies with their sponsoring member.

JRD May 6th Meet

Check out the meetings tab for more information on the JRD Meeting coming the 6th of May which is the first Saturday.

Weekend Activities for April 29th and 30th

This coming weekend April 29th there are several activities that may interest those in the JRD.  Members and friends who know Bob Macionis are reminded that he is having an operations session on Saturday.  He usually hosts the sessions on the weekdays so a weekend one is a rare treat.  Also, this Saturday Rail Tales in Charlottesville is having a DCC install clinic.  Please contact the store for more information and the time.

Website Changes Coming

The JRD is in the process of taking the Website and the Blog and making them one unified site.  The purpose of this so all information will come from one site that is easier to maintain and keep current.  Watch for changes coming in layout and design along with new content

Change in Clinic Lineup

For personal reasons Mike Garber will have to delay his DCC clinic to a future meet.  Rod Vance's description of his clinic:

"Anatomy of a Motive Power Project" and it summarizes my approach to building (combination R-T-R modification and scratch-building effort) an HO-scale gas-electric rail motorcar.  The resulting motorcar was the 2nd entry in my AP Motive Power efforts.

The clinic describes the research I did in prototype rail motorcars, and how I selected and built the components I chose to include in my model.  I talk about the documentation I did for the AP entry, and finally the improvements I made to the model based on the AP evaluation comments.

See you at the meet

Operations and Dispatching

Several weeks ago the JRD had a chance to hear Steve King on how dispatch a railroad and a model railroad.   As I meet with folks and reflect on that meeting folks continue to say how much they enjoyed the meet.  Operations is a growing part of the hobby that will inform much of the layout building and design in future years.  It is not the be all and end all of the hobby it is part of what we will become in future years.  Our hobby is one of niches and overlapping interests.  This will be one of them.  Others including structures, scenery, electronics, signals, locomotives, cars and track may interest you more than operations.  As they say 'it is all good' so find your speciality.

Meeting reminder for January 14th

Just a reminder about this Saturday's meeting of the James River Division in Orange, VA.  We will start at 930 am. Our speaker is Steve King and we will be learning about dispatching a railroad. We will have a morning session lunch and an afternoon session. We expect to finish about 230 pm. 

If weather is bad a cancellation notice will be sent to group and posted on this blog

November 12th Meet Layout Tour

One of the things that folks look forward to after most meets is the layout tour.  This time we are only scheduling one.  This is one went to the first time we met in Fredericksburg.  Ken Meade has made significant progress since our last meet.  One of the the things that impressed me about Ken is how smooth his operation was in such a large layout.  Ken made an unusual choice to cut in his sidings after laying his main line.  This is unusual from a model standpoint but as Ken recently reminded me it is common practice for the prototype.  In the real world a customer requests new rail service and the prototype puts in one according to its engineering standards.  Ken may have hit on something we might need to consider as an alternative option to our normal practice.  Come to Ken's house and see his massive layout.

New Challenges with Older Motive Power

As we are now about a month out from the next JRD meeting in Fredericksburg I am beginning to look forward to hearing Andrew Dodge on scratch building a steam locomotive.  Years ago building a steam locomotive from scratch was considered the pinnacle of craftsmanship and I still believe it represents the high end of the art form and craftsmanship.  You may be a modern modeler with a fleet of diesels but many roads at different times have had steam excursions.  Some like the 611 are available but others may not available to run that excursion train.  So if you want that train you will have to build it which is an intimidating prospect.  Andrew Dodge current stable of scratch built Proto 48 steam locomotives are his first scratch built locomotives.  This gives me hope that we can all do this type of construction with some commitment and determination.  It will be a challenge but who does not need a challenge to keep the hobby interesting?  Also, it may check off one of those Achievement Program requirements.  Come on November 12th and take on a new challenge.

Fredericksburg Meet and we need clinicians

The next JRD meet is in Fredericksburg, VA on November 12th at the England Run Branch Library were we have met twice before.  This is a great location and allows those our northern neighbors to join us.   The contest is a box car so dig out your completed car or pull out that kit and start finishing it.  There is still a need for clinicians so if you have a suggestion or wish to volunteer please let one of the officers know soon.  Hope to see you there!