FRONTIER FLIMSY
The Quarterly Newsletter of the Niagara Frontier Region, NMRA
www.nfr-nmra.org
March 2017 Volume 63 No. 1
Waybill
International Division Modeling Day at the Dundas Legion on Saturday, February 25th
Back row left to right
Barry Kelly, Chuck Faist, Harvey McIntyre, Walter Reid, Ron Tuff, MMR, Dave Paterson,
MMR
Front row left to right
Photo by James Whatley
Al Welch, Tony Kerr, James Whatley
Executive Reports
Page 3
Division Reports
Page 4
Officer Reports
Page 8
Regional Train Orders
Page 10
Grand River Express
Page 11
The Niagara Frontier Region
The Niagara Frontier Region
NMRA
Frontier Flimsy
March 2017
Volume 63 Number 1
Stanley Conley, Editor
2194 Valley Drive
Ottawa, ON K1G 2P8
The Frontier Flimsy is published four times
annually by the Niagara Frontier Region of the
National Model Railroad Association, Inc. and is
distributed openly on the web at www.nfr-nmra.org.
Material for publication is welcome. Send articles,
coming events, notices, etc. to the editor. Materials
including photographs may be submitted by e-mail.
Materials will be credited at the time of publication
and will be returned if requested. Articles appearing
in the Frontier Flimsy may be reprinted in other nonprofit publications providing that credit is given to
the author and the Flimsy.
Advertising is accepted in the Frontier Flimsy; please
see the region web site for information and rates.
Opinions expressed in the Frontier Flimsy are those
of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of
the NMRA, the Region, its officers, or other
contributors to the Frontier Flimsy.
Special thanks to Diane Dodds for proofreading and
nitpicking.
Email notification is coordinated by Richard Sparrow.
The Niagara Frontier Region Flimsy
2194 Valley Drive, Ottawa, ON K1G 2P8
Page 2—The NFR Frontier Flimsy—March 2017
Regional Officers
President
Richard Hatton
205 Country Lane, Stayner, ON L0M 1S0
705-428-9997, [email protected]
American V.P. Matt Bierl
146 Los Robles Street, Williamsville, NY 1422 16721
716-632-3686, [email protected]
Canadian V.P. Tim Warris
312-b St. Patrick Street
PO Box 1420, Port Dover, ON N0A 1N0
519-583-1099, [email protected]
Secretary
Vacant – Tony Kerr Acting
Treasurer
Tony Kerr
1361 Creekwood Trail, Oakville, ON L6H 6C7
905-338-8881, [email protected]
Division Superintendents
Allegheny
Central Ontario
International
Lakeshores
Ontario
Northland
St. Lawrence
Southern Tier
Western
Ontario
inactive
Richard Hatton
Richard Sparrow
Raymond Howard
Trevor Ross
705-737-9363
905-892-7958
315-789-4801
705-983-9602
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Chris Lyon
Robert Hamilton
Steve Juranics
613-837-8522
607-754-0089
591-212-9694
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Achievement
Program
Convention
Coordination
Flimsy Editor
Flimsy
Distribution
Historian
Membership/
Registrar
Model Contest
WebMaster
Peter Nesbitt
613-592-0110
[email protected]
Les Radvanyi
416-543-1052
[email protected]
Stanley Conley
Richard Sparrow
613-523-8237
905-892-7958
[email protected]
[email protected]
519-583-1099
[email protected]
Regional Officials
Open
Open
Open
Tim Warris
Niagara Frontier Region Executive Reports
President
Richard Hatton
Hello out there in model railroad land.
Spring is just around the corner, those garden railroads
will be up and running. We can all start planning our rail
fan trips and maybe a family vacation.
But before all that starts let’s not forget the Annual
Convention.
This year’s convention, The Grand River Express is in
Kitchener May 5 – 7.
Our friends in the WOD are working diligently to put a
complete package together for our enjoyment. Check it
out on the NFR homepage http://www.nfr-nmra.org/
There all lots of good clinics as well as layout tours and
some specialty tours as well, so check it out on line and
you can register right from the comfort of your easy
chair.
Hope to see you there.
Also, they will be holding our annual general meeting so
you can put forward new ideas, vote on some changes
or new programs. We are always looking for volunteers.
If you have any ideas or suggestions that will help our
organization please send them to me. We are always
looking for fresh and creative ideas.
For those of you that don’t know I moved 4 years ago
and I gained a lot of space in the new house and had to
start from scratch. However I had a list of projects to
complete before I could start my layout.
I am happy to say the bench work is up, ¾ of the
mainline is down and I am in the process of wiring the
track for power. Hopefully by the next edition of the
Flimsy I will have the mainline up and running.
I will keep you posted, see you in Kitchener.
American Vice President
Matt Bierl
Canadian Vice President
Tim Warris
Secretary
Vacant – Tony Kerr Acting
Treasurer
Tony Kerr
We have some great people doing double duty to keep
things moving and I am thankful for them as are you.
Let’s not forget many hands make light work so if you
are up to it ask about positions that we could use some
help in. Working together will make us a better
organization and build better friendships.
The NFR Frontier Flimsy—September 2012—Page 3
Niagara Frontier Region Division Reports
Allegheny Highlands Division
Inactive
Central Ontario Division
Superintendent Richard Hatton
How are we all doing in the COD?
Unfortunately, I lost my free space for our Modelers
meeting but I am currently trying to locate another
space. If you know of a space that we can use for our
sessions please contact me @ [email protected]
Our next Craftsman Corner is at the Midland Train show
May 13 and 14, come see us.
There’s only a few good train shows left before the
summer season so make sure you get out and stock up
on supplies to last you this summer, check out the
layouts for modeling ideas and most of all stop by
Craftsman Corner, if you have any questions, we are
there to help or you can always stop by and say hi.
Don’t forget about the Convention it looks like it’s going
to be great.
If you are not on our list to participate in Craftsman
Corner drop me a line.
We are still looking for some volunteers to help
organize events in the COD so if you have some good
ideas and wish to help send me an email.
See you at train show near you.
Rick
Page 4—The NFR Frontier Flimsy—March 2017
International Division
Superintendent Richard Sparrow
With only another few weeks before Spring officially
arrives, this time of year for me is like the Friday
evening of a long weekend before I retired. We have a
great time ahead of us to look forward to.
The ID has had another Modeling Day, and has a few
more events planned for the coming year.
Modeling Day, February 25th
After the feedback from our November 2016 event in
Hamilton, we wanted to do this again fairly soon, and
so held another Modeling Day at the Dundas Legion on
Saturday, February 25th.
There were 9 modelers out for the day to spend
uninterrupted time and move their projects forward. We
appreciate their support of the event. Also a big thankyou the Dundas Legion for the use of the Wentworth
room for the day.
We are planning to hold additional Modeling Days in
June and November this year. No details in place yet,
but we will announce them and post them to our web
site when details are available.
Spring 2017 Meet
Details are as follows and shown on the Meet flyer
further on in this Flimsy:
Date
Saturday, April 29th
Place
Hamilton Museum of Steam and
Technology on Woodward Avenue in
Hamilton.
Program
Ann & Barry Laxton will be presenting a
clinic on their large scale switching layout,
“Vineland Siding”. Discussing how and
why it was designed and built, and
demonstrating control of the layout using
a Blackberry phone.
The Golden Horseshoe Live Steamers Club
will present a clinic on “All you ever
wanted to know about Live Steam”.
An official guided tour of the facilities will be included in
the entrance fee for the Meet.
In the afternoon, there will be an opportunity to visit
with the clinicians, maybe try your hand at operating
the Laxton’s switching layout, and see some live steam
in action on the GHLS club tracks.
ID Elections
We will be holding elections for the Divisional officers at
this Meet, open to all paid up members of the
International Division. Please consider putting your
name forward to help out with making Divisional Meets
and other events happen. Up for election will be
Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Clerk
(Secretary), and US and Canadian Paymasters
(Treasurer). Please forward your name and the office
you wish to run for to: Chuck Faist at [email protected]
We welcome any questions, comments or suggestions
that you may have for the ID. Email links are on the ID
website at http://nfr-nmra.org/id/pages/frameset.html
Remember to play safe,
Richard Sparrow
Fall 2017 Meet
This Meet will be in late October, tentatively Saturday
the 21st in Mississauga. Details will be confirmed as we
get closer to the date.
Clinics planned include:
Dave Paterson, MMR – Scratch Building Structures.
Al Welch – Sprucing up a Brass Steam Locomotive.
Dave Howard – Slide presentation of Steam in Southern
Ontario.
The NFR Frontier Flimsy—September 2012—Page 5
St. Lawrence Division
Superintendent Chris Lyon
Well we had a great meeting in January with excellent
presentations on machined parts for a live steam
locomotive. In the second presentation we saw how
details can bring scenes to life. This was a followed by
the Dave Revelia Video on painting detailed parts as a
lead in to the afternoon. It was all hands on. Every
possible paint, powder, ink and brush was made
available to the participants. They got to experiment
with painting detail parts. The parts were provided and
they cleaned, primed then mounted them on a dowel
with double-sided tape. Folks tried base coat, dry
brush and wash techniques, adding depth, tone and
texture to make realistic looking wood, cloth, metal and
glass. There was lots of expertise on hand to provide
advice and assist. There is nothing like learning by
doing and having the chance to try out all kinds of stuff
to see what works best for you. Acrylics and oils
require different thinners and approaches. Bragdon or
Aim powders versus Pan pastels were applied to not
only colour and weather, but provide texture. We sped
up many of the drying processes using a hair dryer.
This month will be a continuation and I am sure folks
will return to build on their last experience.
SLD is also looking forward to the Kingston Rail-ORama Show in March. We have tables where we work
at projects and talk to the public about the NMRA and
share some of the model railroading experience. Some
of us are also off to Syracuse for the Ops til U drop
session later this quarter. There are lots of new model
railroads on the build. It may be a good time for the
membership to reach out on an individual basis to help
Page 6—The NFR Frontier Flimsy—March 2017
advance the progress. The social aspect along with the
extra hands and experience can go a long way to help
modellers take the next step or get over a problem that
has brought the project to a halt.
The NFR convention is fast approaching. We all
appreciate the extreme efforts of the organizers. When
you think of all the great activities offered, the price is
less than a professional sports ticket or dinner out.
Register as soon as you can as it really does make a
great difference to the financial logistics of a successful
event.
It looks like we may be losing a number of members in
the SLD due to the USA part of our Division realigning
with a nearby US Division. It was suggested that we
might also look at realigning some of the NMRA
membership in Canada. In eastern Ontario it would not
be a stretch to have some of the members from the
dormant Quebec Allouette Division join us. Then folks
from Montreal, Gatineau and nearby towns could easily
join us and we could go there to have events something to think about. Well that is all for now and I
am so much looking forward to seeing everyone at the
Convention in May.
Chris Lyon
Lakeshores Division
Superintendent Raymond Howard
Ontario Northland Division
Superintendent Trevor Ross
The Ontario Northland Division covers a large area, so
division events are difficult to organize. However, there
are many smaller modelling groups within the Ontario
Northland Division that are very active. If you are a
member of one of these groups please contact me and I
will include details of your local events in future
updates. Clark Kooning has now retired to Elliot Lake
and the local modelling group there has become more
active over the last year.
The Sudbury Railway Modelers have been very active
over the past year. They have taken on a project to
build a model railroad layout at the Northern Ontario
Railroad Museum and Heritage Center. The layout is
approximately 80% complete to date - museum quality
track and scenery. Progress updates and photos of the
construction can be found at the following
site:https://normhclayout.wordpress.com/
The Museum opens for the season on May 21. See
http://normhc.ca for museum details.
Southern Tier Division
Superintendent Robert Hamilton
Western Ontario Division
Superintendent Steve Juranics
The NFR Frontier Flimsy—September 2012—Page 7
Niagara Frontier Region Officer Reports
Achievement Program Chairman
Peter Nesbitt
I’m pleased to say that since my last report the
following AP certificates have been earned.
Graham MacDonald
Grant Knowles
Electrical
Prototype Modeler
AND
Grant Knowles
MASTER MODEL RAILROADER
Master Model Railroader's are few and far between,
reaching that plateau entails a lot of excellent model
building and service to the hobby.
Congratulations to you both on your fine achievement.
The first weekend of May, and the NFR spring
convention are not far away. This is the best forum to
have models judged.
Pat Rivard is the contest Chairman this year. We need
10 volunteers to spend a few hours on Saturday
afternoon in the contest room as judges. As those of
you who have done it before know, it is a great learning
experience, casting a critical eye on some excellent
models. For those new to it, the judging is done in pairs
with those new to judging matched up with an
experienced judge.
If you would like to help your fellow modelers by
undertaking this task, please let Pat or myself know. By
the way, lunch is provided to the judges by the
convention committee.
Page 8—The NFR Frontier Flimsy—March 2017
The NFR Frontier Flimsy—September 2012—Page 9
Regional Train Orders
March 11-12, 2017. Kingston, ON. Rail-O-Rama Model
train show. Ambassador Hotel, 1550 Princess Street.
10:00am-4:00pm both days. Admission Adults (13+) $6.00,
Seniors (60+) $5.00, Children (5-12) $2.00. Info:
kingstonrailorama.wix.com\show.
May 13-14, 2017. Midland ON. Craftsman Corner at
Midland train show
May 27, 2017. Ottawa, ON. SLD meet. Location TBA
http://sld-nmra.ca for breaking news.
March 25, 2017. Ottawa, ON. SLD meet. Emmanuel United
Church, 691 Smyth Road. http://sld-nmra.ca for breaking
news.
April 1-2, 2017. Syracuse, NY. Central NY Division's 4th
Annual Operations Weekend entitled: "Ops 'til You Drop",
centered in Syracuse NY. All railroad enthusiasts from all
over the northeast USA and Southeastern Canada are invited
to participate. No operations experience is necessary. The
cost is a just $10. All of your info and a registration form is
found at www.cnynmra.org. Hope to see you there."
April 22, 2017. London, ON. London and District Model
Railway Layout Tour. See flyer in this issue for details.
April 29, 2017. Hamilton ON. ID Spring Meet. Hamilton
Museum of Steam and Technology on Woodward
Avenue. Details in Division report in this issue and at
http://nfr-nmra.org/id/pages/frameset.html
April 29, 2017. Ottawa, ON. SLD workshop. Emmanuel
United Church, 691 Smyth Road. http://sld-nmra.ca for
breaking news.
May 5-7, 2017. Kitchener ON. Grand
River Express. NFR annual convention
to be held at Conestoga College.
Please see articles and flyers in this
issue for full information or visit
GrandRiverExpress.ca
Page 10—The NFR Frontier Flimsy—March 2017
Your Local Micro-Mark “your small tool specialist” dealer
GRAND RIVER EXPRESS
May 5-7, 2017
Conestoga College
Kitchener Ontario
Registrations are starting to roll in for the upcoming
convention. We hope you have it on your radar and are
considering attending. We have quite an ambitious
program planned for the attendees. You can find a full
schedule under the Home tab at
www.GrandRiverExpress.ca .
In the last edition of the Frontier Flimsy, I detailed
several of the activities we have scheduled. We have
now confirmed a full slate of clinics. There are several
fresh, new topics from many excellent presenters. We
have seven time slots and three to four clinics being
presented every hour.
Ralph Renzettii will lead a hands-on weathering clinic.
Bring a car, or purchase one at the convention for a
very nominal charge (we will have about 30 HO box
cars for sale). We will provide several different
weathering mediums (oils, pan pastels, acrylic paints,
Paint Pigments, Enamel Washes) and Ralph will discuss
the pros and cons of each medium as you have the
opportunity to try them out on a piece of rolling stock.
Wendy from Model Builders Supply, and Wayne
Wessner (recently locating to the NFR from out West)
will present some scenery How-To clinics.
Steve Tuff, Chris Lyon and Bob Fallowfield will discuss
the artistic process of recreating different scenes in
miniature.
For the electricians in the crowd, Robert Langlois will
have a clinic on Battery Powered Locomotives. Kevin
Rudko will present two different clinics on Signals.
Kevin is the owner of SignaLogic Systems and will also
have his hardware for sale at the Vendor fair on
Saturday.
Are you interested in the AP program, or just making
detailed models, well Dave Patterson, MMR, will have a
new clinic on Structure Scratch building, and Bill Dewar
will discuss detailing Canadian Freight Car prototypes.
Ron Tuff, MMR, has been working the last few years on
developing Operations for both the HOMES club in
Hamilton and his own BC Rail home layout. He’ll
discuss the features of JMRI and show how you can
implement operations on your home layout.
Last but not least, Roger Chrysler will have a clinic on
Locomotive Maintenance for Model Railroaders.
There’s a little something for everyone. More detailed
descriptions can be found on the web page under the
“Clinics” tab. A schedule for all the clinics will be
finalized soon and will be posted on the web once
confirmed.
Please note that the Banquet is scheduled for Sunday
Morning. We have a hearty Brunch Buffet planned.
The NFR AGM will take place prior to the Banquet.
Don’t forget to bring some spending money. The
vendor fair on Saturday will have plenty of items for
sale, including goods from some smaller Canadian
The NFR Frontier Flimsy—September 2012—Page 11
Manufacturers that are normally only available on the
web.
We really do have all the activities of much larger
National Convention, packed into three days, and at a
fraction of the cost. Plus you don’t have to endure the
Florida heat, or expense of going to the National.
Please spread the word and help to make the Grand
River Express a memorable event.
Steve Juranics
Grand River Express - Chairman
Page 12—The NFR Frontier Flimsy—March 2017