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
As we wind down the season, this will be the last Train Order until September. I would like to ask everyone, that while you have your summer railroad adventures, please keep us in mind and send a couple pictures to share in September. I know, I will be visiting the Maine two-foot railways and the Mount Washington Cog Railway this summer and hopefully taking lots of photos. Let's make a deal to save and share some of our adventures in September.
We need layout photos! Please send them to share in the Train Order and help keep the website updated and looking fresh. 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
Let's start by giving a very big Thank You to Richard Prorok and the Payne Memorial AME Church for hosting our April Meeting. The facilities were just the right size, and the meeting went very well. Our May 19th meeting will be back at the Proclaim FM Community Center.
Summer Outing(s)
After reviewing several possible sites, the membership has decided that we will visit two locations. One in July and one in August. Exact dates are still being negotiated with the locations. The locations are:
- Midwest Railway Preservation Society, Cleveland OH
- Steam Railroading Institute, Owosso, MI
September Meeting Date - September 15th, 2023
Although we try our best to always have our meetings on the fourth Friday of each month, September will require us to move the meeting to the 3rd Friday, September 15th, 2023. This change is required to avoid timing conflicts with the Fostoria Rail Festival and Train Show on the weekend of the 22nd. Many of our members attend and have setups at this show.
Marshall Stull,
mstull@marshallstull.com
Superintendent
Clinic Corner
Hello from the Clinic Corner.
The clinic for May is going to be a slightly larger topic than we're accustomed to. This month we're going to get a peek at Jim Wolsiffer's EMD SD60 project. This is his outside train, not the basement one. He'll show us the process that he's taken to get this kit (without instructions, BTW) to the point today where it's a working chassis. He'll discuss welding, riveting, and having to fabricate parts; powering the motors and what drives the wheels. You won't want to miss this clinic.
Brian Burr,
Assistant Superintendent
May 19th Meeting Agenda
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 - SD60 in 1:6 Scale
- 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
Haz-Mat Training at Norfolk Southern's Moorman Yard - Brian Burr
On April 6th I had the opportunity to attend a Haz-Mat training in Bellevue, OH at Norfolk Southern's Moorman Yard.
The morning was spent in classroom lecture learning about locomotive design and fires, the different types of rail cars and how they operate, haz-mat placarding, and railroad paperwork. We concentrated on tank cars, but briefly touched on all different types and what hazards they might carry.
The afternoon session was held outside at the NS Safety Train. We had hands-on training with the different types of valve arrangements for the different types of tank cars. There were man-way props for gravity flow, pressurized, acid, and chlorine cars. The box car was a mobile classroom. At the end of the day we were allowed to tour engine 911.
Division Happenings
NCR Tri-Fold Brochure Needs Photos
The NCR has decided to move forward with producing a new Tri-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!