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.
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 June 2011 Model
Contest had superb models models, congratulations to our winners, and
to all of our participants in the Popular
VoteModel Contest
for June 2011:
Thank
you to our Master Model Railroader judges: KermitPaul, MMR and
Bob
Wirthlin, MMR who did the Achievement Program judging for Merit
Points.
Thank
you to all who participated - we love
seeing your wonderful
models. Click below to see a few photos of the Model
Contest tables.
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.
At
the June 2011 Meet, we had another excellent Show and Tell
display.
Thank
you to all who brought a model for us to enjoy!
The
displays included: Pat
LaTorre's disconnect log cars (these were also entered in the X2011 West
Model Contest in Sacramento):
Pat's model was also judged for
Achievement Program points and received a Merit Award. Congratulations,
Pat!
Thanks to KermitPaul, MMR and
Bob
Wirthlin, MMR who did the Achievement Program judging for Merit
Points.
Thx, all, for sharing and inspiring us, and for your
participation.
Participate by bringing a model - it's
simply
for the fun and joy of it all! Come on out in September
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, our clinics were:
1) DCC clinic by Mark Schutzer
Coast Division Superintendant Mark
Schutzer is one of the several local acknowledged DCC experts that we
are lucky to have, as part of the Silicon Valley geek-wizards that live
and model in the Coast Division. Mark gave one of his DCC
clinics on installing/tuning DCC, especially in brass steam HO engines:
Mark has many of his clinic handouts available online, has presented
his clinics on a broad range of topics including "Tuning Brass Steam",
"DCC Installation", "NCE", "Photography", and much more. Feel
free to go here and download to your hearts's content. It's great
to to be a member of Coast Division and be able to share in this kind
of expertise :-): http://schutzer.net/
Presented by: Matthew Buck
This quarter, Matthew Buck gave us a "Rolling Stock of the SP Slim
Princess":
Which are parts of his full
3 part clinic
on the SP's Narrow Gauge at X2011 West NMRA Nationals in
Sacramento.
Matthew is a fan and has a ton of expertise on the Southern Pacific's
narrow gauge line through the Owens Valley. He gave us a
entertaining clinic on topics including:
Equipment and
rolling stock of the line, from the locomotive back to the caboose
Why the road
was
stocked with the cars and engines it had
History of
cars from
origin to scrapped
Matthew is an accomplished modeler
as well, among other recent awards, at O Scale West
2011 Model Contest Matthew was the 1st Place Winner - Caboose
for his Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge Caboose #1:
Thank you very much, Matthew, and we're
looking forward to seeing you present again at a future Coast Division
Meet :-)
3) And of course, our ever
popular Model
Railroad Roundtable, moderated by Jerry Littlefield
4) X2011 West Clinic Handout
alert!
Did you know? The X2011 West NMRA National
Convention has a ton of their clinic handouts online, free for anyone
worldwide to download, at:
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 the results for our Allen
Fenton Switching Contest to the June 2011 meet:
Winners in the Brakeperson category (5 car problem)!
First Place
Second Place
Third Place
Ronnie LaTorries (4:51)
Jim Smyrak (11:10)
Our winners in the Senior Brakeperson category (6 car problem)!
First Place
Second Place
Third Place
Tom Crawford
(5:16)
Steve Wesolowski (7:46)
Alan Havens (8:17)
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:
Participate and
give it a try, 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
June 2011 Photo Contest : (Congratulations to
all who participated!)
The theme was: "Diesel Locomotives".
There were many artistic, noteworthy, and creative
entries, and every one is worthy of award and mention.
Thank you to all who brought your photos 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)
"Arkansas & Missouri Springdale Switcher" by Tom Vanden Bosch
"Littlest Diesel" by Steve Wesolowski
"Cookson Southbound Local"
by
Tom Vanden Bosch
We had a superb palette of Photo Contest entries, here are more
entries, all of them
interesting, artistic, and just excellent.
Here's Pat LaTorre's "SP Classic Profile" and Tom Vanden Bosch's "No
Stop at
Atherton":
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:
September
2011: Steam Locomotive, Diesel & Other
Locomotives, Passenger Car
December
2011: "Favorite Model" (open to any
category)
March
2012: Caboose,
Freight Car, Maintenance of Way
June
2011: Structure, Display/Diorama,
Self-Propelled Cars & Traction
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: kits, track, structures, books,
etc. Some of the best deals you're going to find
anywhere :-).
We have a brass segment every Auction, here's a few shots of the kind
of brass treasures we had in June 2011:
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.
Coast Division Co-Member of the Year
This year, there
were
two Co-Members of the Year for Coast Division. One of them was
present at June 2011 Meet to receive his award - here's David
Benjamson with his award. David has been a long-time member of
the Auction Committee, along with many other contributions:
The award includs a
wonderful mounted painting by Mike
Kowtowski. It's a very memorable gift, and Mike, thank
you for the annual paintings that you contribute for all of the
Pacific Coast Region Members of the Year.
El
Presidente of Pacific Coast Region Our Pacific Coast Region new president, Pat
LaTorres. He was elected at the May 2011 Pacific Coast Region
convention. Welcome, Pat, and thank you for your service!
Steve Hayes, well-known WP author and layout owner, is a
frequent visitor to Coast Division Meets, Steve, great to see you here:
Tom's Trackside Trains - one of our
best sponsors
Tom Van Horn, owner of Tom's Trackside Trains in Menlo Park, Calif, is
one of Coast Division's strongest supporters. If you
are ever in Menlo Park on Wed-Sunday,, stop by and visit him and his
shop. Well worth the visit, go and support Tom!
Tom's Trackside
Trains 558 Santa Cruz Ave. Menlo Park, CA 94025 -
in the rear of Cindy's Flowers shop, go to the side door on the right
(650) 692-9724 Hours: Thursday 12 – 5
PM, Friday 12 – 8 PM, Saturday 12 – 5 PM, Sunday 10 – 1 PM,
closed Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, holidays
This time, we met at Etz Chayim in Palo Alto. Thank you to our hosts for
having us at your facility: :
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!
