NCR Black Swamp Division (Div 1) Officers
Superintendent - Marshall Stull Assistant Superintendent - Brian Burr Chief Clerk - Richard Marquard Treasurer - Dean Pyers Trainmaster for Services - Steve Glass Director At Large - David McMullian Director At Large - Randy Bosscher
Appointments and Helpers
AP Program - Ron Gilbert Editor/Webmaster - Marshall Stull AV/Computer Support - Steve Glass AV/Computer Support - Steve Richwine New Member Outreach - Randy Bosscher Election Chair - David McMullian
We Need Help!
We need stuff for the Train Order! Please submit any article/photo/information to the editor. any kind of information is great, please tell us what you are up to!! Even if it's just a photo of your layout, something you saw, or what's on your worktable we would love to see it.
Sharing is the best way to spread the hobby and ideas.
Train OrderOur mission is to promote education and fellowship through the sharing of information and the promotion of the world's greatest hobby. - Model Railroading.
From the Editor
I find that something is to be learned at every clinic and with every article. Even when the subject is something very familiar or it's just an old subject, there always seems to be something I must have forgotten with age, overlooked or just was never aware of. Jim Treadaway's article last month was one such item. I had stopped using coffee stir strips many many years ago thinking they were not good enough for fine scale modeling. I was trying to increase my skills and thought scale lumber would be better than uneven, not to scale stir sticks. Afterall, moving into fine scale modeling, shouldn't you use scale lumber? Well, many years later, I have also learned that all things to scale do not necessarily look correct!
Model railroading is like painting a picture, all is not flat and monotone, it must use perspective, highlight, compression, and shadows to force the viewer into seeing what we want to present. With this in mind, coffee stirrers are great to use as rough lumber. Roughly sawn and out of proportion, they made Jim's scenes jump out. Our eyes saw them as raw wood being processed. The flat car boards once weathered just right, appear well beaten, worn and prototypical. I now have a box of one thousand and am looking forward to a future scratch project using them. Setting the stage and making the viewer see what you want them to see can be as much a part of model railroading as the trains themselves.
Anyone have layout photos? Please send them to share in the Train Order or help keep the website updated and looking fresh. For safety, I do not post who they are or where there were taken. The images help keep the front page/site looking new. Email any images to the editor at blackswampdiv@div1.ncrnmra.org.
View from the Cab
APRIL MEETING LOCATION CHANGE
The April 28 meeting WILL NOT be at our usual location, it will be just around the corner at Payne Memorial AME Church on 209 S. King Road, Holland OH ( Click here for google map). Enter through the front door when you arrive, a sign and helpers will point the way.
ELECTION UPDATE
At the March Meeting we presented the slate of officers for the next two years. For every position we only had one candidate. As such, a motion was made to accept the slate as is and vote for the candidates at the current meeting. The motion was made, and the vote was nearly unanimous to accept the slate as is. With that out of the way we do not have much business in April and can just concentrate on the important stuff, TRAINS!!
Below is the list of officers for the 2023-2025 seasons:
- Superintendent - Marshall Stull
- Assistant - Superintendent - Brian Burr
- Secretary - Richard Marquardt
- Treasurer - Randy Bosscher
- Trainmaster for Services - Steve Glass
- Director - Tony Kukwa
- Director - Dave McMullian (by virtue of previous Supt., not elected)
MARCH CLINIC RUNOVER
If you were not able to attend last month's meeting, you missed a ton of action and presentations by the various modular groups we have in the division. All are very proud about what they do, and it showed! Because we had so much to show and we ran late as a result, we are welcoming anyone who wishes to continue conversation on their modules into the April meetings show and tell time. By all means, please bring what you have to the April Show and Tell.
From the number of items we had, and the conversations, I think we may be doing some similar topics in the future.
I look forward to seeing everyone at the meeting and seeing what you have for Show and Tell!!
Marshall Stull,
mstull@marshallstull.com
Superintendent
Clinic Corner
Hello from the Clinic Corner.
April is here and it's time to spring into model railroading!
This month's clinic will be presented by Richard Marquardt. Richard's clinic is on using fiber optic lighting. Some of the topics he's going to cover are fiber optics and how it works, cutting and bending fibers, lighting structures, and directional lighting.
Be sure to join us this month to see what fiber optics can add to your model railroad!
Brian Burr,
Assistant Superintendent
April 28th Meeting Agenda
The April 28 meeting WILL NOT be at our usual location, it will be just around the corner at
Payne Memorial AME Church on 209 S. King Road,
Holland OH (
Click here for google map).
Enter through the front door when you arrive, a sign and helpers will point the way.
Here is a quick breakdown of what to expect at the meeting:
- Rip Track Table - Have items you want to sell or just give away? Put them on the table
- Business
- Show and Tell
- Break
- Clinic - Fiber Optic Lighting
- Closing Remarks - Announcements and Open Discussion Points
Please bring an item for Show and Tell! Bringing a model is great but here are some additional ideas:
- an item you are researching (photo/drawing)
- a track plan idea you have
- something you want to build
- a question to the group
- a unique industry you found
The lighter side of the hobby
A Visit to Thurmond West Virginia
While traveling back to Michigan, Black Swamp Division member Doug Tagsold, made a stop in the small railroad ghost town of Thurmond, West Virginia and shared his visit with the following information and photographs. For those not familiar with Thurmond, during the first two decades of the 1900s, Thurmond was a classic boomtown. With the huge amounts of coal brought in from area mines, it had the largest revenue on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. With the advent of diesel locomotives, and less coal coming in from local mines, the town began a steady decline. The many businesses closed, and most residents moved on. Today the official census population of Thurmond stands at 5.
On our way home from North Carolina this morning, we took a little detour and visited Thurmond, WV. The CSX (former C&O) double track mainline is still active, though traffic is down, with most of the through traffic now running on the mainlines acquired from Conrail. The CSX track crew working by the depot said the line now sees 6-8 trains a day now. Way down from the 20-30 trains a day not too many years ago. The branch line that crosses the river still serves a coal mine, but it is now operated by RJ Corman. As Diane might say, we spent a week there today, waiting three hours hoping to see a train, but nothing ever appeared. Though the yard tracks and engine house are gone, the remaining buildings are now under the protection of the National Park Service.
Model Railroader Magazine featured a layout design on Thurmond in the February 2021 issue. The track plan can be accessed on their website at https://www.trains.com/mrr/how-to/track-plan-database/ho-scale-csx-thurmond-wv/.
Update from the Southern Part of the Black Swamp Division
The following was sent via e-mail from Jim Donovan...
I can not believe how fast time is moving these days. It's been three years now since we decided to stay full time in Florida. I love being included included in the newsletter and emails.
I thought I would share a modeling update. I've decided to work towards the Master Modeller award for the structure category, its the part of the hobby I love most. The judges of my first submission included two MMR's known to be pretty detail oriented, still the structure received a score of 100. Since the scale goes to 125 I got a B+ for my first entry. Now that I have a better idea what is looked at we will see if I can move the number up for the next one. Attached are photos. It is based on a 1900 chemical factory kit which had only a few made sometime in the 1990's. Attempts to locate the person who made the kit design proved unsuccessful so I used the plans given me by a friend as the basis of the scratch-build. Here are some photos of G. DeMayo Chemical Factory, home of Skeeters Fly Dope. Hope you enjoy them.
I hope to send photos of my next judged structure when finished. Say hi to everyone for me and have a great April.
Division Happenings
Here is where we post news, announcements, items for sale, free stuff, or whatever message you need to get out. Just drop an email to blackswampdiv@div1.ncrnmra.org and we will get it in the next issue.
On the Black Swamp Division Facebook Page
Check out the Division Facebook Page for more.
Steve Kellogg continues to build his Rock Island fleet with Rock Islands only RS3m. Pacific Northwest Resins shell on an Atlas chassis
NCR Tr-Fold Brochure Needs Photos
The NCR has decided to move forward with producing a new Tr-Fold brochure for the divisions. The brochure will be printed by the NCR and provided to the divisions to help as a sales aid and promotional tool. The decision has been made that this will be a high visual type of brochure. The NCR would like to include layout/craftsmanship images from a broad spectrum of the divisions. Hence the NCR is asking for individuals to send photos of their layouts with the following parameters:
- high quality pictures of scenes from YOUR layout! Yes, these must be from your layout only.
- pictures should make the scene look "real", thus ceilings, fascia, etc... should be excluded.
- pictures must be jpeg format.
Photos should be emailed to Marshall Stull - mstull@marshallstull.com or to Barry Hensel - barry76Lt@wowway.com as they are heading-up the design of this brochure. Deadline for submissions is Monday, May 15th, 2023.
Upcoming Events
(click to enlarge)
If you know about an event happening in our division, please let us know so we can make everyone aware. If a club is having an open house, setup, or other activities, we could help promote it!
Check out the new Event Listings page on the NCR website!