Have a Good Holiday!

As we embark on the final week of or so of the holiday season we hope you and yours will have a happy week operating your trains with family and friends or just relaxing with them yourself away from all the activity.  We hope that you will join us on January 9th to hear Steve King talk about Timetable and Train Order operation.  Have a Happy Holiday!

Innovation in the hobby

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

Great Meeting Last Saturday

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 Raas
Let's have the same amount of participation for the next theme which is Switch Towers. 

Thank you again to all those who came and made this such a great meeting.

Do You Speak Caboose?

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

Orange County Railroading is History You Want to Hear

The November 14th Meet at the Historic Southern Station in Orange, VA will include a talk by Orange County Historian Frank Walker.  Most know that Orange County currently hosts both Norfolk Southern and the Buckingham Branch.  How many know that besides predecessor owners Southern and C&O there were two other railroads in Orange County?   The Radian Railroad went West from Orange through Wolftown to the Mountains as a narrow gauge railroad.  The Potomac, Fredericksburg and Piedmont which switched between standard gauge and narrow gauge while only ever making it from Fredericksburg to Orange.  Prior to all this Orange County was significant to the American Civil War in the area of railroading among many other areas.  Frank Walker will inform us about these areas.  If you model either of the two main railroads in the county or are looking for something new to model then come and explore.

Colorado comes to Orange on November 14th

Well known O Scale modeler Andrew Dodge comes to the JRD meet in Orange on November 14th at the historic train station in downtown Orange, VA.  Photos of this well known fine scale layout by Gerard Fitzgerald were featured in our Report on the 2013 MER.  The quality of the work on this layout is some of the finest seen today.  Some of you may be unaware that Andrew had a famous On3 layout on the Denver South Park and Pacific in the same space.  His decision to venture into something new caused some consternation initially but those of us who have seen his layout are glad he has inspired us with something new.  We hope that you come to be inspired by this master of the hobby.

Good Meet Last Saturday

The JRD had a good meet last Saturday with Chuck Hladik giving a hands on clinic on the topic of making trees using the fiber material over a crepe myrtle set of branches.   The method is effective and straight forward producing an very nice result that would look good on any layout of the appropriate scale at a relatively inexpensive price.  The crepe myrtle branches might be the toughest thing to find and I may have to seek a source of supply for myself.  The fill that is used for the canopy is usually available in craft stores before Halloween as it is used for decorations.  Perhaps I can persuade to move forward and make some trees.

Meeting Tomorrow

Remember that we have a meeting this Saturday in Lymchburg. Learn how to make trees for your layout with our hands on clinic with Chuck Hladik.  You will be able to take one home.  

The modeling theme is a freight car with graffiti.  If you have one please bring it to share with others your creation. 

For those traveling down US 29 please remember there is a music festival in Nelson County and this may cause traffic issues so allow extra time or adjust your route. 

Hope to see you there and please check the Meeting Page for details. 

JRD and Opsig Weekend Ops 2015

The JRD and Opsig are proud to announce the Central Virginia Weekend Ops 2015 on the weekend of October 9-11th of this year.  There are three days with three sessions and several layouts for each session.  They vary from N to O including narrow gauge.  The method of operations go from sequential to TT&TO and CTC.  For those interested please to to the JRD Website for more details

Are You Modeling?

It is the dog days of Summer and this means hot weather and thunderstorms may force you inside for part of the day.  Do you use this time to bring your layout back to life or make some progress on that car, locomotive, or building that is still on your bench since Spring?  There are several projects in my hopper that reflect all of the above.  Time to make some progress and maybe bring something to show at the next JRD meet.  How about you?

Crossties for June 2015 Now Available

Most of you should have received you June 2015 Crossties through an email.  If you did not please check the Crossties page and click on the link for your copy.