Great Meeting Last Saturday seeing Shannon Crabtree’s Virginia Midland

 The James River Division had a great meeting last Saturday virtually touring Shannon Crabtree’s Virginia Midland.  This 1980s prototype freelance short line goes from Fredericksburg to Orange long after the original line disappeared from the railroad scene.  Shannon has packed a large amount of operation into his layout. The four videos elicited quite a number of questions and comments. If you missed the meeting Shannon has posted the first video to You Tube https://youtu.be/YjMtwt1bRdQ  Please consider subscribing to Shannon’s feed on You Tube

Moves and new Options

 A post from excellent modeler Trevor Marshall who has moved recently. This is something that seems to be happening to many of us.  New venues mean new opportunities.  

Good Meeting Today

 It was a good day today for a James River Division meeting. We started at 9AM with just a few socializing and by the time the meeting started we had 16 of us in attendance.  George Gaige treated us to a clinic on how to install headlights in HO scale vehicles. George noted he has many vehicles with lights and saved a bundle by using his method which combined items he found on the internet and through experience.  There is a handout in the Handouts Page and a fuller explanation will appear in a future issue of Crossties.  Our next JRD meeting will be January 9th and our next hangout will be Friday November 27th. All JRD members and and friends of the JRD are welcome to attend the meetings.  Come join us

November 2020 Virtual Meet

 The November 2020 Meet for the James River Division will be virtual.  It will feature a social time prior to the meeting for members starting at 9 AM and a clinic starting at 10 AM on putting LED Headlights in HO Scale Vehicles.  The handout for it is Here. To attend the clinic please contact the Superintendent via email at Superintendent@jrdnmra.com - Please include your name and if you are a NMRA member though this is not required

Meeting Virtually

 We have now had one division meet virtually and several bull sessions using Zoom as out platform.  I am quite encouraged by the response.  Though it does not substitute for in person interaction it does allow us to keep up with each other and continue to grow relationships.  I hope to keep up the every other week sessions until the current restrictions lift and all feel safe to venture out.  Even after this point I hope you will give feedback whether we should continue these online sessions and with what frequency.  

On a personal note I want to say thank you for all the feedback on options for the floor plan of my anticipated new basement.  Lots of good ideas from years of experience by fellow members will hopefully prevent mistakes and increase enjoyment  

We still need a clinician for the next meeting in November along with a home tour.  Both items could be prerecorded with time for questions and answers.  If you are interested in filling either role please let me know

NMRAx event this weekend

This Saturday the 16th of May there will be another NMRAx event from 6am to 6pm EDT on Facebook.  The first one was well received and the quality was outstanding for a first event and I expect this one will be an improvement over the last one.  The topics look good

Go to www.facebook.com/NMRA.org

James River Division Facebook Page

The James River Division maintains a Facebook page for those of you who Facebook.  If you are an NMRA member even if you are not in the JRD but want to keep up with us please join.

Just go to Facebook and search for James River Division. 

NMRA Clinics on YouTube

NMRA has a YouTube Channel in case you didn’t know which includes the recent NMRAx events that are free to the public.  There are more on the NMRA website in the members only area. Below is the link for the NMRA YouTube site

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCHw-7-1FWB5zQgTM0ZVY-Yw

Enjoy

NMRAx Virtual Event this weekend

There will be a virtual NMRA event under the NMRAx banner this weekend.  Currently these events are scheduled every 2 weeks on Facebook Live.  Some will be panel discussions and others are clinics held in series.  If you don’t Facebook the clinics and recordings will come to YouTube several weeks later.  The advantage of using this format is the cost is the time and effort for the volunteers with no cost to National, Regions or Divisions.  

   The Link is:

https://facebook.com/events/s/nmrax-ask-the-master-model-rai/1399647360221445/?ti=icl

The links to the YouTube edited versions will be posted on our blog once they become available. 

Please avail yourself of these events.  I am endorsing these for our members and please invite those who are not NMRA members to view them as membership is not a requirement for attendance. 

During this trying time please be safe and follow best practices of hygiene

Philip Taylor
JRD Superintendent

New Crossties for April 2020

Rod and Richard have just published the April 2020 Crossties

It is another great issue!

2020 NMRA National Cancelled

The NMRA National Meeting in St Louis for 2020 has been cancelled due to concerns related to the current health crisis.  Most of you should have gotten an email from NMRA National by this time about the cancellation.  Please be safe and enjoy the hobby time while we work and wait through this turbulent time.