We had many beautiful models displayed again for all of us to
enjoy. We had our usual model contests, photo contest, and fun
was had by all. Thank you to *all* the participants who entered
and put on such a good show for the rest of us; we hope you
enjoyed our deep admiration and appreciation for your sharing your
beautiful work with us.
We also wish Don Shortt a very Happy Birthday! (the young man
is 75 :-) ). Thanks to Don, the Coast Division has been
able to use the Buchser Middle School in Santa Clara, CA, for many of
our recent Meets.
Model
Contest
As always, NMRA contests are not about winning, rather, they are about
the fun of
participating, about sharing your pride and joy in modeling with
all of us (your appreciative audience), and having fun self-inspiring
and self-challenging yourself.
Our December 2010 Model
Contest had superb models models, congratulations to our winners, and
to all of our participants in the Popular
VoteModel Contest
for December 2010:
Category
1st Place
2nd Place
3rd Place (tie)
Favorite Model
(any
category)
MB&T Well Car with Tunnel-Bore
equipment load
by: Al Kuhn
<>
Southern Pacific Bay Window
Caboose
by: Eugene Brichacek
Kansas City Southern caboose hop
by: Tom Vanden Bosch
Tom is building models for his son's under-construction 40' x
60' HO Kansas City Southern layout. What a great
collaboration - the son having his father build great models for the
KCS layout!
Thank you to all who participated - we love seeing your wonderful
models. A view of our Model Contest area for
December 2010:
In the end, NMRA contests are not about winning,
rather, they are about the fun of participating,
about sharing your pride and joy in modeling, and having fun
self-inspiring yourself. We all love to see your pride and joys, and
you are all winners for participating. Thank You to *all*, you put on a
great show and inspired the rest of us. We hope you enjoyed
our admiration of your work.
We also got to see John Sing's
six-axle N scale Santa Fe diesels:
And the X2011 West Facebook team shared with us photos
from the 2010 NMRA British Region
convention: Here's a couple of great
samples:
You can see a full set of these 2010
NMRA British Region convention
photos by clicking here,
here,
and here
, these go directly to the appropriate X2011 West Facebook photo pages.
Enjoy!
Thx, all, for sharing and inspiring us, and for your
participation.
Participate by bringing a model is simply
for the fun and joy of it all! Come on out in March
2011 and share with us, something that you would like us to see - we look forward to it!
Coast
Division Model Contest and Show and Tell Chair: John Sing
We had our Clinicsand Model Railroad Roundtable as we do
at every Coast Division meet. This time, we were fortunate
to have:
1) Backdrops and Beyond
presented by: Dave Biondi
Dave took us on a whirlwind tour of his famout backdrop painting, and
showed us how to really make the most of it. Here's two
shots of recent backdrops painted in 1 hour in a Biondi clinic:
Imagine if this is what *your* backdrops looked like :-) Dave
showed us how he does it, and how you too, can paint your own backdrop
using his simplified techniques:
and here's his audience:
Dave is in high demand painting backdrops for model railroads all over
the local area, has presented numerous painting clinics for the Pacific
Coast Region. A winner of a clinic!
Brad's
June 2010 clinic on "Details Make the Difference" was so
popular, we had him back for this December 2010 clinic on "Roads Less
Traveled".
Brad discussed making
roads fun and illustrated how to enhance our layouts with multiple
types of road surfaces.
Brad uses anything from dirt to plastic to patching compound
depending on what is needed.
Brad
Lloyd lives in the San Francisco Bay Area but grew up and lived in
other parts of the US, before coming to California. He is in several
local
round-robins.
HO
is his primary scale, but he also models in On30, and is a narrow
gauge and short line modeler. Brad's primary
interest is the
Denver & Rio Grande Colorado narrow gauge.
3) And of course, our ever popular Model
Railroad Roundtable, moderated by Jerry Littlefield
Got an idea for a clinic?
Want to see what's coming up? Contact the Coast Division
Clinics chair: John
Marshall
Thanks
again to all who participated, and we look forward to seeing you at
Model Contest and Show and Tell in upcoming Meets. Bring
something that you would like share - a model(s), display about your
current project, a work in progress, it's up to you, as any category is
always welcome for Show and Tell. We love to see what
you're up to!
Here are our December 2010 Allen Fenton Switching Contest results.
Winners in the Brakeperson category (5 car problem)!
First Place
Second Place
Third Place
Stanley Keiser
Bernard Peato
Eugene Brichacek
Our winners in the Senior Brakeperson category (6 car problem)!
First Place
Second Place
Third Place
Bill Burket
Alan Havens
Steve Wesolowski
A special thanks to our Coast Division Switching Contest
Chair: Steve Peters, who
keeps the
Allen Fenton Timesaver
switching puzzle running smoothly
and staffs the TimeSaver for us. Thx, Steve!
Here's a picture of
Steve:
Thanks to all
who participated, it's a blast. Remember... it's not about winning, it's about you and your switching. You
have to give it a try :-).
What is the Timesaver
? (click below to find out!)
It is a fun, devilish little switching puzzle devised by the late,
great model railroader, John
Allen.
Click on these links above to learn more about the Timesaver,
about John Allen, or his world famous HO Gorre & Daphetid
model railroad, which inspired an entire generation of model
railroaders worldwide. John Allen lived in Monterey,
California, and was a long time member of the Coast Division until his
passing in 1973.
Results of the
December 2010 Photo Contest : (Congratulations to
all who participated!)
The theme was: "Trains in the Seasons".
There were many artistic, noteworthy, and creative
entries, and every one is worthy of award and mention.
Thank you to all who brought your photo to share, we all love seeing
your work.
Click on any of the thumbnails below to see a larger copy of the Photo
Contest Entry. By Popular
Vote, the Photo Contest winners were:
First Place
Second Place (tie)
Second Place (tie)
"UP 844 on Altamont Pass July 2010" by Eugene Brichacek
"Amtrak California Zephyr on Donner" by Pat LaTorres
"Flanger Train at Truckee"
by
Ronnie LaTorres
We had a superb palette of Photo Contest entries, all of them
interesting, artistic, and just excellent. Click on a thumbnail
below to see all of our other beautiful Photo Contest entries:
Thank you to *all* who
participated. We hope you enjoyed a
few minutes of fame and the ongoing admiration, of your fellow NMRA
modellers and guests.
Bring a photo to the next Meet's Photo Contest!
Click here to see the upcoming
categories.
Here's a picture of Coast Division Photo Contest Chair: Keith Wandry:
<>Coast Division Model Contest categories are rotated
annually according to the following schedule (i.e. we always have the
same categories as shown below, every March, June, September and
December). The categories for the upcoming
Coast Division Model Contest Meets are:
March
2011: Caboose, Freight Car, Maintenance of Way
June
2011:
Structure, Display/Diorama, Self-Propelled Cars & Traction
September
2011: Steam Locomotive, Diesel & Other
Locomotives, Passenger Car
December
2011: "Favorite Model" (open to any
category)
Results
are determined by Popular Vote.
Arrive and enter early to get more votes!
Optional: NMRA Judging is available at the Coast Division
Meet to any Model Contest participant for:
- Achievement Program Merit Points
- Regional/National Contest entry preparation 'dry-run' and friendly
expert advice
- Or, just to see how you would have done (smile!)
Please contact the current Coast Division Model Contest Chair, John Sing, or the current
Achievement Program chair Kermit Paul, if you would to have your model
judged at the upcoming meet.
All photos should be matted (inexpensive,
resusable mattes can be had at most art supply stores) and should be
between 5x7 and 11x14 in size. Hope to see your work there!
Results are determined by Popular Vote. Bring your photos early to get
the early votes.
One of the great things about our
Meets is sharing information and kibitzing about all things related to
trains. It's the People
that make our hobby as much fun as it is.
One of the favorite Coast Division Meet activities is treasure hunting
at the Auction tables.
You will find some of the most unusual and hard to find items at our
quartery Coast Division auction: This HO
item was auctioned off, what a find for someone!:
Our thanks to our many Coast Division volunteers, we could
not do any of this without each and every one of you. Volunteers
- thank you! You
can see our current volunteers on the
Coast Division Call Boardby clicking
here.
Thank you to Don
Shortt
for his securing the Buchser Middle School for us to have our
meet!
In addition to wishing Don a Happy
75th Birthday, Don was recognized for his contributions in this
area.
provided the crowd-pleasing fare of Polish hot dogs, drinks,
snacks and chili for lunch for us, as they have for many meets now.
Thanks for feeding us so well!!!!
Steve Wesolowski, our Publicity
Chair (and super helper on Model Contest) recently said it well for all
of us:
"So many people happily volunteer to
make our Coast Division Quarterly Meetings possible. In
appreciation, whenever you have the chance, please remember to thank
someone else in our Division who in whatever way,
helps to make our Coast Division Meets the success they are today."
Thank you, Steve, well said. :-)
Invite a new friend to come to the next Meet, and see what we're all
about!
Here's a couple of great
samples:
and here's his audience: 
This HO
item was auctioned off, what a find for someone!: 
