Official Publication of THE SUNRISE TRAIL DIVISION, INC. Northeastern Region National Model Railroad Association VOLUME 36 NUMBER 2 SUMMER 2006 INDEPENDENCE JUNCTION 2006 THE ISLAND CENTRAL’S BRASS HAT LOOKS BACK HOWARD DWYER’S ACCOUNT BEGINS ON PAGE 3 The historic Reading train shed was one of the features of the 2006 National Model Railroad Association Convention Mixed Consist editor’s notes / WALTER WOHLEKING EDITOR and PUBLISHER Walter G. Wohleking 5 Howard Drive Huntington NY 11743-3032 (631) 757-0580 (Phone) (775) 540-9743 (Fax) [email protected] ASSOCIATE EDITOR John MacGown [email protected] THE CANNON BALL is published quarterly by Sunrise Trail Division, Inc. of the Northeastern Region of the National Model Railroad Association, Inc. for the benefit of the model railroading community. SUBSCRIPTIONS start with the first issue of a volume. Rates for the U.S. and possessions are $7.00 per year. Please make check or money order payable to Sunrise Trail Division. Send requests for new subscriptions, renewals or address changes to Cannon Ball, c/o Walter G. Wohleking, at the above address. CONTRIBUTIONS Articles, photographs and artwork are welcome in either hardcopy or as computer files. Copy is due by the 1st of February, May, August, and November and should be sent to the Editor at the above address. Submitted material will be returned upon request. SUNRISE TRAIL DIVISION, INC. Kevin Katta, President [email protected] Walter Neumen, Vice President [email protected] Howard Dwyer, Secretary [email protected] Steven Perry, Treasurer [email protected] DIRECTORS John Jaklitsch [email protected] John MacGown [email protected] Michael Martin [email protected] Michael Siegel [email protected] Fernand Washington [email protected] Andrew Wasowicz (NER Director) [email protected] Charles Weinhofer [email protected] ACHIEVEMENT PROGRAM Michael Siegel CONTESTS Joseph Bux [email protected] PUBLICITY John MacGown Steven Perry WEBSITE www.SunriseTrailDiv.org John Jaklitsch, Webmaster [email protected] MEMBERSHIP Walter Wohleking [email protected] 2 WHILE LOOKING through my collection of clipped articles about stations recently, I noticed a tiny advertisement that happened to be on one of the pages I had saved from the October, 1958, Model Railroader. Within the 1”x2¼” box was the bolded title, “Join the NMRA”, and then, “To join the National Model Railroad Association, send $3 to NMRA, Box1238-B, Station C, Canton 8, Ohio. You will get the monthly bulletin, data sheets, yearbook, and other advantages of membership.” It wasn't all that long afterward that, fresh out of college and holding down my first real job, I initially joined the NMRA. I remember those data sheets, enough to fill two loose-leaf notebooks. I kept them until purchasing the NMRA Infopak on CD about 6 years ago. Memories of the Bulletin from those years were rekindled during the past year when Ken Szekretar and I joined Steve Perry in his minivan and took the good part of a day visiting a few of the better train stores in our area. Ken had brought along some Bulletins from the 1970s, when he first joined the NMRA. Published in a computer-less era, they were unsophisticated as to composition, but contained 80 or more heavyweight paper pages filled with great information. They were a treat to read and, if memory serves me, much anticipated each month, particularly in what, from a model railroading standpoint, was essentially a two magazine era. My membership in the NMRA in those days brought me the “NMRA Scale Converter”, a really neat circular calculator made of cardstock, which, among other things, converted prototype dimensions into those of almost any model railroading scale. It also allowed me to dial up the NMRA's recommended bridge and structural clearances for each scale. That same stuff, if you could get it today, should cost $21, according to the Federal Government's Consumer Price Index. Yet with the recent $3 increase in membership dues, the cost of the nearest equivalent NMRA membership (which would include Scale Rails) is $48, over twice as much. And just how equivalent would it be? Well, while there's no doubt that Scale Rails is a much better looking, more inviting monthly than the old Bulletin, I'm sure there'd be a valid debate about content. And what about the data sheets? As near as I can tell, unless you have a computer, you're out of luck. And unless your computer has an internet connection Remember the NMRA scale converter? or you have a friend with an internet connection who will do the download for you and give you the pages on a CD, you're going to have to pay for them. They're available for downloading from the NMRA's website (www.nmra.org). Otherwise, you'll have to get the Infopak CD, which will cost you $19.95 plus $7.95 for shipping and handling plus 9.25% sales tax if you live in Tennessee. (Yikes! And I thought New York State sales tax was high!) As for that more than slightly fabulous, definitely neat, real classic of a circular calculator, well if you really want one of those definite collectibles, log onto eBay with an open pocketbook. I'm expecting to live off the proceeds for a long time. If an equivalent NMRA membership appears to cost more than twice as much as it one time did, then there should be something else available for your dues that you didn't have before. As the more cynical among us might put it , “I don't get the data sheets, I don't get that fabulous, collectible, circular calculator, but I'm paying twice as much. Just what else do I get?” Well, there's the calendar, which is both attractive and useful, particularly for its reminders. I'm pretty sure I didn't get a calendar all those years ago. Otherwise, whatever other benefits accrue are largely unseen, which, as we have pointed out when we've whined about dues in the past (Spring, 2005 issue), presents the NMRA with the problem of perceived value of membership. In short, what does the NMRA offer you today that your membership dues pay for that it didn't nearly 50 years ago, when that modest little ad appeared in Model Railroader? After visiting the NMRA website to review its offerings, I can think (continued on page 6) THE CANNON BALL INDEPENDENCE JUNCTION 2006...A LOOK BACK ARTICLE & PHOTOS BY HOWARD DWYER TH 2006 MARKED THE NMRA’S 70 ANNIVERSARY, and this year's NMRA National Convention was held at the Marriott Downtown Hotel and Pennsylvania Convention Center in the heart of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Members could avail themselves of pre-registration, which was suggested. Although circumstances prevented me personally from pre-registering, I was able to register at the time of arrival and was pleased to receive all the necessary convention material at that time. All convention activities were well outlined in the material provided. NMRA activities, information, layout tour tickets, contests and the banquet were held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and not in the hotel itself. The Marriott Hotel was directly connected to the Convention Center via the restored old “Reading Terminal Headhouse and Train Shed”. The many convention activities were accessible through the huge Train Shed which commemorated the original 13 train tracks with the construction of 13 marble stanchions indicating track placement. Although the convention ran from July 2nd thru July 9th, members could arrive for the length of stay needed to participate in the activities they desired. My wife, Diana, and I arrived July 4th and participated in events through July 8th. We found all activities to be very well organized. Upon settling in and reviewing options, we decided to sign up for some layout tours and the Riverboat Dinner tour. Unfortunately the dinner tour had sold out early, and we were unable to take part. We then signed up for a layout tour scheduled on Wednesday, which included a bus ride to five home layouts. After tour sign up, we orientated ourselves to the many other activities in the center. We spent a great deal of time in the Contest Room and viewed the numerous scale models submitted by NMRA members, which included structures, motor power, rolling stock, and modules… all of fine craftsmanship. Also included in the Contest Room were many prototype and model photos submitted by members in color, black & white & sepia style prints. All submissions could be viewed daily by all and were judged on Thursday, July 6th. Next on our agenda was the Silent Auction Room where over 500 items for bidding were on display. (I was in and out of this room at least 6 times!!)… as there were items continuously being brought in for bidding. One particular item up for bidding which caught my eye was a Fine Scale Miniature wooden coaling tower originally priced for $39.95 when first issued. Bidding on this item escalated to $175.00, which closed me out! Free time on this day was spent (continued overleaf) A marble stanchion commemorates each of the original 13 tracks in the old Reading train shed SUMMER 2006 3 INDEPENDENCE JUNCTION (continued from page 3) attending various clinics. The next day, Wednesday found us up at an early 5:30 a.m. with room service breakfast so that we would be on time for our layout bus tour. The tour bus consisted of fifteen members. This smaller number of conventioneers made visiting each layout easier, so that viewing in shifts was avoided, thus allowing more visiting time at each layout. First stop was Rick Spano's N scale Scenicked and Undecided Railroad, a fully scenicked layout with plenty of animation. One scene that was pointed out to me was a hobby shop and in the window was an operating railroad measuring ½ inch long! You can see how it was constructed thought their web site at www.whiteriverandnorthern.net. Click on “Clinics”, then “World's Smallest Functional Layout”. Next on the tour was Rich Laube's 1800 square foot G scale garden railroad. Even with a slight drizzle we were able to see some trains run. Unfortunately, the weather cut our visit short, and we proceeded to our next stop, Bob Jans' HO scale Pennsylvania Railroad with a logging branch, which negotiated several stone arched bridges that Bob had made. Bob does not confine his hobby to his basement, as a visit to his backyard revealed. There thirty actual scale feet of ballasted track with a handcar waited for a full scale Pennsy signal to give it the go ahead. Fourth stop on the tour was at the ranch home of Robert Arthur. It has the large basement characteristic of ranch houses, and it contains Robert's 1200 square foot, HO scale railroad with not one, but two, triple-track, 46 inch radius helixes! The layout reminded me of a scaled down version of the West Island Club. Finally we visited Steve Staffieri's HO scale layout, which is a coal-burning railroad with two large staging yards and 125 manual turnouts thrown by wired slide switches. With the tour complete it's interesting to note that all the layouts we viewed were powered by DCC with sound equipped motor power. My favorite part of any convention, are the layout tours. I like seeing what other model railroaders are doing, and I always come away with new ideas for my own layout, not to mention that I just like to watch trains run. We arrived back at the convention center at 1:00 PM, where I checked out the contest room and the auction room in case any new goodies were put up for bidding. The rest of the day, except for dinner was spent taking in several of the many clinics offered. Since Diana and I had never been to historic Philadelphia before, we spent Thursday morning on a self-guided tour of the many landmarks within walking distance of the hotel. After a bite to eat for lunch we boarded a bus to see another group of layouts featured at the convention. This particular tour consisted of three very fine HO scale, operation orientated layouts, which were of interest to me since my own layout, the Island Central Railroad, is in that scale and stresses operation. We arrived back at the convention center at 6:00PM and had dinner at one of the many fine restaurants located in the area. Later at 8:00 p.m. I attended an interesting clinic on the History of the American Gas Station. With over 175 vehicles on my own layout, I found the clinic very interesting. Friday was the opening of the three-day train show, which is held at every NMRA national convention. The show ran from 9AM to 6PM with the first three hours on Friday restricted to registered members only. Diana and I queued up at a quarter to nine with other NMRA members, so that when the doors opened, we were among the first in. After just an hour, the budget we had set for the convention was history. On the other hand, a more positive way to view the depletion of our pocketbook is that I needed things to keep me busy over the upcoming long winter. In addition to all the vendors present, there were plenty of modular layouts for viewing, from Z scale to O scale and then some, namely Lego. There was something for everyone. After lunch we spent the rest of the day watching trains run on the numerous modular layouts that were set up. In addition to the many activities and events that I attended, there were also a number of “Prototype/Industrial” tours available to participate in. Saturday morning found us getting ready to leave but not before returning once more to the Train Show, just in case I missed something. Diana and I had a fun filled and fast four days at this annual event and are looking forward to the 2009 NMRA convention to be held in Hartford. IT’S NOT TOO EARLY TO THINK ABOUT OUR CONVENTION 10:00 AM - 4:00PM Saturday, November 4th, 2006 United Methodist Church 881 Merrick Road, Baldwin Clinics Model & Photo Contests The year’s best White Elephant Table Operating Modular Layouts Timesaver Raffle Door Prizes Banquet % Guest Speaker BEN YOUNG former President Long Island Sunrise Trail Chapter National Railway Historical Society SAVE $5 2006 Sunrise Trail Division Convention Advanced Banquet Reservation How many? _____ @ $20 each Please make check payable to: Sunrise Trail Division, Inc. and mail to Fernand Washington 179-65 Selover Road Jamaica NY 11434-3411 (718) 528-2308 [email protected] 4 Admission $6 payable at the door Banquet $20 in advance (send in the form below) $25 at the door (limited availability) Name: ______________________________________________ Address: ____________________________________________ City:______________________ State: ____ Zip: ____________ NMRA#: _______________Phone: _______________________ Email: ______________________________________________ Amount enclosed: $ ___________________________________ THE CANNON BALL DON’T MISS THIS! MODELING WITH THE MASTERS OF THE SUNRISE TRAIL The Sunrise Trail Division’s Two-Day Participation Clinic with Master Model Railroaders, Walter Neumen & Al Sohl Scratchbuild a Warehouse or Pumphouse in HO or O Scale MASSAPEQUA PARK EXIT 30 EXIT 28A ST. DAVID’S LUTHERAN CHURCH N SOUTHERN STATE PARKWAY PARK BLVD. BROADWAY CLARK AVE. CLARK BLVD. L.I.R.R. 07 E1 UT RO All materials, plans and a Powerpoint presentation will be provided. SEAFORD-OYSTER BAY EXPRESSWAY (RT. 135) th Saturday, September 30 and th Saturday, October 7 9:00 AM - 4:30PM St. David's Evangelical Lutheran Church 20 Clark Blvd., Massapequa Park, NY SUNRISE HIGHWAY (RT. 27) % SCRATCHBUILD A WAREHOUSE Participation Clinic Name: ______________________________________________ ¨ HO scale: $25; ¨ O scale: $35 ¨ non-NMRA members add $5 Address: ____________________________________________ Please make check payable to: Sunrise Trail Division, Inc. and mail to Steven E. Perry 6 Brookhaven Drive Rocky Point, NY 11778 (631) 744-6462 [email protected] SUMMER 2006 City:______________________ State: ____ Zip: ____________ NMRA#: _______________Phone: _______________________ Email: ______________________________________________ Amount enclosed: $ ___________________________________ 5 MIXED CONSIST (continued from page 2) of just two things, both of which might be of inestimable value: The first is the website, itself. A lot of information is available there that really couldn't be delivered as well in any other way. The other is the tremendous collection of resources provided by the Kalmbach Memorial Library. Oh, I realize there are excellent publications that didn't exist before, such as the wonderful reprints of “Freight Terminals & Trains” and “Railway Track & Maintenance”, both of which are part of my library. And there are videos, and the Modeling with the Masters clinics, and the Heritage/Legends cars, and T-Shirts and collectibles. But you have to pay additionally for those. In almost every case, your dues merely get you the right to pay less for them than a non-member. In fact, about the only exclusivity offered you as a member is the right to spend an additional $150 or so for admittance to the annual National Convention and Train Show. (Make no mistake. This isn't a gripe about the price of a convention ticket. Costs for renting a hall suitable for the NMRA convention have become brutal.) Now, defenders of the faith will argue that the NMRA's Railpass has high value, and they would be dead–on about that. Railpass has got to be one of the best deals, if not the very best deal, the NMRA has ever offered. The value of Railpass membership is every bit as high as the perceived value of conventional membership is low. But Railpass is fleeting, both to its recipient and quite possibly for the NMRA (depending on whether or not the program will be extended beyond whenever the NMRA scheduled it to end). Something of longer term is needed to increase the value of NMRA membership beyond getting discounts on things to buy. Now my momma always said it was OK to criticize as long as you offered an alternative approach and then didn't slink off sulking if it wasn't accepted. In other words she thought you'd better be ready to walk the walk, if you wanted to talk the talk. So what follows is how I think the NMRA could make membership more valuable both to those already enrolled, as well as to those Railpass neophytes thinking of taking the permanent membership plunge. The one thing I won't be suggesting is a reduction in dues. First of all, that's like striking out the pitcher. It's too easy. It's too obvious. Furthermore, we ought to be assuming the NMRA needs the extra revenue the $3 increase in dues will provide. The Spring, 2005 “Mixed Consist” opined that “the $2 per member stipend to the regions... and the continuing erosion in membership will cost the NMRA around $3.30 per member each year.” So the $3 increase should not be totally unexpected. But whatever is done, whatever is suggested, the end objectives of any recommendations must be to increase NMRA membership, increase NMRA's revenue streams, and make membership more attractive. Here, then, are some ideas that I think can achieve those ends. First, every new regular (not Railpass or Family) member should get an NMRA standards gauge in his or her new member packet. No one object as useful as this is so immediately identifiable with the NMRA. Besides they don't make that more than slightly fabulous, definitely neat, real classic of a circular calculator any more. Second, embrace Mike Siegel's idea of arranging for premiums and discounts with travel and tourist related organizations, such as AAA, Via Rail, Amtrak, many tourist railroads, and other organizations who make this a regular part of their sales promotion efforts. Then include these in each new member packet, because they'll increase the perceived value of the membership. Next, replace discounts NMRA members get for stuff they buy with rebates for the equivalent amount (I love rebates). The 6 “If many more fall off, there ain’t gonna be no one left but us fat cats.” Ken Szekretar member can use the rebate as credit toward the next dues payment, thus reducing the cost of renewing membership, apply it against future purchases, or ask that it be remitted, which would be like getting the discount in the first place. If nothing else, the NMRA gets the full, rather than discounted amounts of those cash flows up front. Last, and best, establish an agreement with model railroad equipment manufacturers to provide rebates (I really love rebates) on purchases of their products by NMRA members, which would be used to offset NMRA dues for the purchaser of the manufacturer's products. Here's how it would work. Because the manufacturer would bear all the cost burden, it should be given little else to do. The NMRA would do the accounting at both ends. It would keep track of who bought what and for how much, the amount of rebates earned for each member and what the cumulative rebate total was for each manufacturer. For each purchase or group of purchases, the NMRA member buying the participating manufacturer's products would have to complete an NMRA supplied form, which would be sent to the NMRA along with the original sales receipt(s) for whatever was purchased. Yearly, the NMRA would bill all participating manufacturers for the rebates. When each member's renewal time came around, the NMRA dues bill for each member would be reduced by the rebates earned by that member during the period from the last renewal. Lifetime members could apply rebates against other NMRA related costs, such as convention tickets, publications, or something from the NMRA store. The period over which any member could accumulate rebate credits would be the same as the renewal period. That is, if a member chose to renew for two years, the rebates would accumulate over that period to be applied against the next dues bill. Lifetime members would accumulate rebates on a yearly basis. At the end of however long the renewal period, any unused credits earned would be re-set to zero, and the NMRA would keep the attendant surplus. In the event rebates earned by a member exceeded his or her dues payment, there would be no carryover. The dues for that particular renewal would be $0 and the NMRA would retain the surplus. The NMRA would maintain all related documentation submitted by members, as well as any related rebate calculations and agree to make this available for any audit a manufacturer might wish to undertake. For participating in the program, the manufacturer would be recognized publicly by the NMRA, perhaps with a seal or logo of some sort, and given the right to advertise its participation. What should all of the above get us? Individuals would receive a membership with greater perceived value because of things like the NMRA standards gauge, premium coupons and rebates for purchased items, or because an offset to the dues means whatever a member receives for those dues (continued on next page) THE CANNON BALL MIXED CONSIST (continued from previous page) costs less. The NMRA would benefit from the increased membership a better dues structure would attract, which should reverse the slide in membership and increase revenue streams not only from dues, but also from stuff the NMRA sells. Participating model railroad equipment manufacturers should earn good will, some kind of a tax break, and a sales boost as NMRA members focus on their products, which would hopefully offset, partially or fully, their financial contribution. So there you have it. The ideas of a fat, old, complaining fart who's worried about the relevance of a shrinking institution that has been the guiding light and done so much for his favorite hobby. He has no beef with the NMRA, other than that he doesn't think he's getting his money's worth, which I guess, after all, is a pretty big beef. The thing is there are a lot like him, and they're not all as old. But this ends the whining, the complaining, and the rude remarks from this corner, anyway. It’s time for me to get off this particular soap box and move on to other things that might be more interesting, but I guarantee will be nowhere near as important. I’ve said my piece. Let’s see what comes back. I’m sure we’ll hear from those in the NMRA who’ll say, “The standards gauge costs too much and the rest is an accounting nightmare that will require an army of people.” And I’ll say, “You don't really believe that stamped piece of metal costs $10, do you?” and “You already have the membership information you need in your database, and you can do the rest with Microsoft Access and a PC.” There are those in the manufacturing community who’ll say, “It's just another gimmick to reduce my profits.” And I’ll say, “What a low cost way to get some great public relations, institutional advertising and marketing data. And if you promote it right, you might even raise sales enough to break even.” There are those—many I hope—who’ll say, “Let's try it!” And I’ll most certainly agree. Regardless of what anyone says or thinks, its important to realize that increasing membership might not result in lower dues, but decreasing membership will always require an increase in dues, which will in turn result in a further reduction in membership level, which will require a further increase in dues, and so on until, as Ken Szekretar’s cartoon so aptly puts it, “all that will be left are the fat cats”. Talk of membership levels reminds me that the Membership Thermometer in one of those 80-page Bulletins from the 70s that Ken brought along on our train store tour in Steve's minivan was at 27,992 for September, 1978 — 1,405 more than a year before. Has anyone checked it lately? OUR APOLOGIES The Cannon Ball’s windbag of an editor took up so much space in this issue that there wasn’t room left for modeling hints, book and media reviews, the latest news from the Achievement Program, welcoming new members, or to do even minimal justice to the conclusion of our picture story, “The LIRR Builds a Turnout.” Those things and more will appear in the Fall issue, scheduled for release after the Labor Day holiday. Why not make a copy of this and give it to a friend? SUMMER 2006 7 SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER OF THE SUNRISE TRAIL DIVISION Name _____________________________________________________________ Scale(s): ___________ Address ________________________________________________________________________________ City ________________________________________ State _________ Zip _____________________ Phone _________________________ Email _________________________________________________ 1 year_____$7.00 2 years_____$14.00 DOWN THE TRACK Please send a completed copy of this form and a check made payable to the Sunrise Trail Division to: Walter Wohleking, 5 Howard Drive, Huntington NY 11743-3032 NMRA Sunrise Trail Division (STD) and Northeastern Region (NER) Events Sep 17 Sep 30 & Oct 7 Oct 20-22 Nov 4 1:30PM Sunrise Trail Division Board Meeting. 149 Clark Blvd, Massapequa Park. Walter Neumen 516-798-0575 [email protected] 9:30AM-4:30PM STD Participation Clinic. St. David’s Lutheran, 20 Clark Blvd, Massapequa Park. Steve Perry 631-744-6462 [email protected] $25 NER Fall 2006 Convention. Parsippany Hilton, 1 Hilton Ct., Parsippany NJ John Campbell 860-568-5075 [email protected] www.trainweb.org/nergsd/gsc2006.htm $40 10:00AM-4:00PM STD Annual Convention. United Methodist, 881 Merrick Rd., Baldwin. Buzzy Washington 718-528-2308 [email protected] $6 Regular Recurring Events Beginning Sep 15 8:00PM-10:00PM NRHS, L.I. Sunrise Trail Chapter meets the 3rd Fri of each month at American Legion Hall, 22 Grove Pl, Babylon www.nrhs-list.org 3rd Fri of month Sunrise Trail Model RR Club is seeking new members to build an HO scale layout in Farmingdale. Mark Conca 516-752-0636 1st Tue of month Long Island Model RR Engineers meets at the location of its multi-scale layouts at 3661 Horseblock Rd, Farmingville 631-345-3415 FIRST CLASS MAIL PRE-REGISTER FOR STD CONVENTION STD MASTERS CLINIC REGISTRATION WAYS TO REDUCE NMRA DUES NMRA CONVENTION REPORT IN THIS ISSUE 5 HOWARD DRIVE HUNTINGTON NY 11743 PLACE STAMP HERE
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