Great Meeting in Midlothian

Thank you to Keith and Mike for great clinics and Keith and Don for opening their homes to us today.  It was good to see the progress and updates to the layouts and how to put sound in older Kato drive Stewarts while fixing the split gear issue.  It was a good size crowd for July and I am looking forward to seeing everybody in September at the Farmville meet.  Thanks again to all those who helped today and made it so enjoyable.

Passing of Chuck Hladik - Updated

It is with profound sadness that I have to announce the unexpected passing of Chuck Hladik early on the 4th of July 2018.  Chuck was a valued member and friend of the James River Division and model railroaders in general.  Though Chuck could have a gruff exterior he was always willing to help.  He has served as a JRD Division officer and as AP Chair along with positions with the MER.  When the JRD leadership wanted to hold a hands on clinic and we needed a clinician Chuck volunteered to do his clinic on making trees.  I still have mine from that day and I will think about Chuck everytime I look at it.  Chuck took an early train and we wish to express the condolences of the JRD and members to Chucks family and wish him green lights on his journey.

Details for the July 17th memorial service in Lynchburg  can be found here

Meeting on July 12th Reminder

July 14, 2018— Midlothian, VA 

Time: Doors open at 9 a.m. and we start at 9:30 a.m. 

Location: Mt Pisgah United Methodist Church

Church near old Chesterfield Hobbies site and across from Arby's
Clinic 1: Agriculture on the Move - Keth Pritchard

Clinic 2: Problems and answers Session - Bring your questions about problems to seek advice from the group

Layout Tours: Keith Pritchard

Update on Module Initiative

The module initiative began earlier this year with an ambitious goal of starting an HO modular group and renewing the On30 group.  In line with these goals I ordered with my personal funds an end plate template from the Switching and Sipping Society group in NC earlier this year.  The templates were finished recently and I hope to have it by early June.  The next step will be to make two or three demo modules in HO for the July Meet.  The location and theme of the July meet is still in the works.

Remembering Railroaders

We as modelers tend to focus on equipment and structures of the railroad as that is what goes on our model railroads.  What we tend to forget is the men and women who work or worked the railroad during the period we model our chosen prototype or freelance.  Blair Kooistra has produced a roughly 30 minute video that captures the essence of those railroaders with shots of them in their daily jobs during the last days of Milwaukee Road's west coast operations.  It is worth your time to view this black and white gem that may rank as one of the best productions on railroading of this decade.  

Remembering the Milwaukee Roads Coast Division: Scenes from a Dying Transcontinental 

Remembering Milwaukee Road’s Coast Division: Scenes from a Dying Transcontinental

Operations Day

This past Saturday 10 March 2018 the JRD was treated to two excellent clinics on operations.  The first by Chris Artale on operating without car cards in N Scale which is still applicable to other scales.  Chris opened up his house in the afternoon to see his layout in operation.  The second clinic was by Andrew Dodge on operations on his O Scale (Proto 48) Colorado Midland.  Andrew gave a frank discussion on compromises necessary for operation along with how historical research changes what modelers have as preconceived notions of their railroads operations.

Passing of a Friend and a Fixture

This Thanksgiving we lost a fixture of the Richmond Model Rail Community when Mike Trader unexpectedly passed away.  Mike was the constant stretching back to Bob's Hobby Shop and in each new place he was behind the counter with helpful ideas.  He will be sorely missed by JRD members and we wish to express our condolences to his family in this unexpected loss..  You may read his obituary from the Richmond Times Dispatch

More on innovation in the hobby

Trevor Marshall posted more on one of the more interesting throttles which is due out early next year.  

http://themodelrailwayshow.com/cn1950s/?p=9093

New Innovation, Youth and Growth

We hear so much about the hobby as aging and not appealing to the youth. Today at an operations session of a large layout we having a good time with the normal issues of crowded tracks or aisles and the normal couplers that adjustment.  Several of our operators were under 30 with one under 18.  This is a good sign and one I hope will be repeated in many places.

One way we can interest young people is moving forward with the new and not focusing on the past.  We can seek new ways that interest them and relates to their world. It is known that most young people (and many others) exist on their smart phones. Today at the ops session mentioned in the first paragraph the owner of the Western Maryland (Moseley Subdivision) after the session settled down and was running smoothly allowed me to setup the new Digitrax LNWI.  The setup took less than a minute and it is prime example of how simple things should be to operate on a model railroad.

Once the setup was done and the new wifi device connected to by my iPhone I was operating my locomotive bidirectionally with quicker response than with my older simplex throttle.  Once news filtered out our youngest operator Paul with obvious enthusiasm was asking if he could use his WiThrottle. Moment later he was operating his locomotive with WiThrottle and showing others how well the WiThrottle worked over the Digitrax LNWI.  If we want more young people in the hobby then we need hit their excitement points since they are the ones who will excite their peers on how much fun is Model Railroading.

Philip Taylor

(There will be a review of the Digitrax LNWI in a future Crossties)

November 2017 in Charlottesville

November Get Together at Cardboard Safari

We will have a clinic which include a demosltration of laser cutting of a structure and module/LDE benchwork. Second clinic is unamed as of yet. Our tour will be of Bob Macionis Layout which is a basement filling layout which will be torn down and a new one built shortly after our gatherning. Plans of the new layout will be on display

Please bring a folding chair!!!

Meeting this Saturday at 930 AM

Join us this coming Saturday for 2 clinics and a layout open house.  We will gather in Lynchburg at Fort Hill UMC to hear about using home laser cutters in modeling by George Riley who is a frequent contributor to the On30 Annual and Traction modeling by Garth Quole. Remember to bring a diorama for the Modeling Theme. Jean Raas will have his O Scale layout open after lunch.  For details click this LINK

Philip Taylor
JRD Superintendent