IN THIS ISSUE - ser-nmra. · PDF fileIN THIS ISSUE: • How to Railfan ... 324-2641 [email protected] 3342 Highland Park Place, Memphis, TN. 38111 Cumberland: Bob Hultman (615) 833-5158

The SouthErneR Winter 2003

The Official Publication of the Southeastern Region of the National Model Railroad Association

Volume 44, Number 1—www.ser-nmra.org - Winter 2003

IN THIS ISSUE:

• How to Railfan Safely & Effectively

• The Piedmont Division Holds Class for the Boy Scouts

• A Tour of Metro Station in Jackson, Mississippi

• BOD Meeting in Chattanooga

2 The SouthErneR Winter 2003

Admission: $6 per person, Kids 12 & under are FREE Admission Good Both Days

Featuring: • Over 180 Model Railroad Vendor Tables • 4 Fully Detailed Club Layouts in Operation, including ‘N’

Scale, ‘HO’ Scale, On30, Lionel and LEGO • Model Contest - NMRA sponsored and approved • Junior Layout - let your kids run the trains! • Hospitality Room to rest your tired feet • An N-Scale, 3ftx 6ft complete, fully finished layout will be

raffled off at the show.

THE MODEL TRAIN SHOW

March 8 and 9, 2003 Saturday - 10 AM - 5 PM & Sunday 10 AM - 4 PM

Cobb County Civic Center Marietta, GA Phone: (770) 528-8455

The Model Train Show

Sponsored by the Piedmont Division of the

Southeastern Region of the National Model Railroad

Association www.piedmont-div.org

D I R E C T I O N S I-75 Northbound; from Atlanta and I-285: • I-75 North to Exit 263 West, Marietta Parkway

Exit sign reads: To Marietta - To Roswell • Follow the Marietta Exit Sign onto the S. Marietta Parkway west • Follow S. Marietta Parkway west across Highway 41 • To the intersection of Fairground Street • The Civic Center is on the corner of Fairground & S. Marietta Pkwy The Civic Center is 2 miles from the I-75 interchange (Easy way in: Left onto Fairground, Right into Civic Center Parking)

PIEDMONT DIVISION

NMRASER

I-75 Southbound; from Chattanooga: • I-75 South to Exit 263 West, Marietta Pkwy (Bypass the northern Loop 120 & Hwy. 120 exits) • Turn right onto South Marietta Parkway • Follow the Marietta Exit Sign onto the S. Marietta Parkway west • Follow S. Marietta Parkway west across Highway 41 • To the intersection of Fairground Street • The Civic Center is on the corner of Fairground & S. Marietta Pkwy The Civic Center is 2 miles from the I-75 interchange (Easy way in: Left onto Fairground, Right into Civic Center Parking)

The SouthErneR Winter 2003 3

Advertising Rates are as follows: No. of Issues: 1 2 3 4 Full Page 2/3 Page 1/2 Page 1/3 Page 1/4 Page 1/6 Page 1/8 Page Retailer’s Listing, Pike Registry, Classified Ad

Advertising: All rates are for camera-ready artwork. Text-only ads can be typeset by the editor. Fees for artwork are quoted on a per item basis. Submit sketches to the Assistant Editor of Advertising for a quotation In-clude the company name, address and a day-time phone number, along with and pictures or artwork you submit. All ads must be prepaid before publication. Make checks payable to SER/NMRA. You will be sent a proof for viewing prior to publica-tion.

Prices are not approved by the board yet, but will be some day.

Until then contact Bob McIntyre, Assistant Editor.

On The Front Cover: “Broad Street Station” This is a print of a painting by Larry Brennan of the Sunshine Region showing the Broad Street Station located in Jackson-ville, FL during the height of passenger travel by rail. A full color 11” x 14” print is available from Larry for $7.00 and is sent rolled in a mailing tube. If you wish to pur-chase a copy of this beautiful print send your request to:

Larry Brennan, 2252 Park Street, Jacksonville, FL 32204.

Winter—2003

The SouthErneR The Official Publication of the

Southeastern Region of the National Model

Railroad Association

Editor: Paul V. Voelker

6438 Paradise Point Road Flowery Branch, GA 30542-3143 (770) 967-1644 [Leave message]

E-mail: [email protected]

Staff:

Senior Assistant Editor - Production: open

Assistant Editor - Region News:

open

Assistant Editor - Division Events: Merrill Compton Jr. - 205-871-3730

E-mail: [email protected]

Assistant Editor - Feature Articles: Joe Gelmini - 770-460-8873 E-mail: [email protected]

Assistant Editor - Advertising: Bob McIntyre - 770-518-8923

[email protected]

Assistant Editor - E-SouthErneR: George Gilbert - 615-352-1254 E-mail: [email protected]

WAYBILL Volume 44, Number 1

D e a dl i ne s F o r S ub mi s s i o n Spring 2003 (Mar) - Feb. 1, 2003

Summer 2003 (Jul) - June 1, 2003 Fall 2003 (Oct) ----- Sept. 1, 2003 Winter 2004 (Jan) -- Dec. 1, 2003

The SouthErneR is mailed to all members of the Southeastern Region who have paid their member-ship dues of $10.00 annually. Material for publica-tion is welcomed! Please send materials to the proper Assistant Editor. All submissions become the property of The South-ErneR unless otherwise contracted. Please do not send previously printed materials.

Features: How to Railfan—A Guide …………………………..………...6 A Tour of Metro Station in Jackson, MS……….……..……..10 Piedmont Division Boy Scout Merit Badge Day …..…...14 Minutes from the BOD meeting in Chattanooga……..…...20 Departments: A View From The Tower .....................................................5 VP’s Keyboard.....................................................................7 The Editor’s Column……………………….........…….….…..8 The President’s Car……………………...……..................….9 Achievement Program……….………………………..…......11 Good and Welfare ……………………….........……..….….15 Division Reports ………………………........……..…..…...16 The Club Car ……………………………......……..…….....22 Upcoming Events Calendar..............................................23 E-SouthErneR Only Bonus Pages: Photos of John Travis’ Johnstown & Gerryville Railroad Color version of Broad Street Station on the front cover.


SOUTHEASTERN REGION DIRECTORY

OFFICERS President: Phil Hutchinson (334) 272-1923 [email protected] 5743 Carriage Barn Lane, Montgomery AL 36116 Vice-President: Pat Turner (770) 487-5028102 [email protected] Beaver Dam Road, Peachtree City, GA 30269 Secretary: Bob Beaty, Jr.,MMR (205) 987-2385 [email protected] 741 Dividing Ridge Rd, Birmingham AL 35244 Treasurer: Randall Watson (770) 831-5736 [email protected] 730 Morning Creek Lane, Suwanee GA 30024 Asst. Treasurer: ----------------------------- OPEN --------------------------------

DIRECTORS Exec. Advisor: Roy Tritt, MMR (706) 733-6870 [email protected] 2638 Henry St., Augusta, GA 30904 Director (04): Mike Braunstein (478) 953-3782 [email protected] P.O. Box 500, Centerville, GA 31028-0500 Director (04): Leonard Polinsky (770) 506-8602 [email protected] P.O. Box 804, Rex, GA 30273 Director (06): Mike Ferry (931) 788-1828 [email protected] 8316 Cherokee Trail, Crossville, TN 38555 Director (06): Tom Schultz (205) 715-5820 [email protected] 2798 Montevallo Road, Birmingham, AL 35223

COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN Achievement Program: (See Contests) Contests: Dean Belowich MMR (843) 651-1850 [email protected] 334 Chastain Court, Murrels Inlet, SC 29576 Conventions: Mike Ferry (931) 788-1828 [email protected] 8316 Cherokee Trail, Crossville. TN 38555 Good and Welfare: John Stevens (770) 632-0753 [email protected] 175 Roscommon Ct., Tyrone, GA 30290 Historian: Joe Nichols, Sr. MMR (770) 396-6447 [email protected] 4554 Chadwell Lane, Atlanta, GA 30338 Legal Counsel: Charles Cole (770) 427-3133 [email protected] 918 Arbor Forest Landing, Marietta, GA 30064 Member Aid: Charlie Brown, MMR (770) 943-5280 [email protected] 3 Springbrooke Trail, Dallas, GA 30157 Membership: Tom Schultz (205) 715-5820 [email protected] 2798 Montevallo Road, Birmingham, AL 35223 Registrar: Karl Shaffer (423) 344-7505 [email protected] 8621 Autumn Oak Lane, Harrison, TN 37341-6946 Webmaster: Roy D. Tritt, MMR (706) 733-6870 [email protected] 2638 Henry St., Augusta, GA 30904

DIVISIONS Mid-South: Thomas Bailey (931) 433-4207 tebailey@vallnetcom 1008 First Avenue, Fayetteville, TN. 37334 Steel City: Tom Schultz (205) 823-3888 [email protected] 2798 Montevallo Road, Birmingham, AL. 35223 Dixie: ----------------------- OPEN ---------------------------- Gulf: Ed Dice (904) 479-4979 [email protected] 3242 Windjammer Court, Pensacola, FL 32526-2544 Piedmont: Pat Turner (770) 487-5028 [email protected] 102 Beaver Dam Road, Peachtree City, GA 30269 Empire: Jimmy Swan (912) 883-3517 [email protected] 3105 Autumn Avenue, Albany, GA 31707 Palmetto: Howard R. Garner (864) 878-4705 [email protected] P.O. Box 826, Pickens, S.C. 29671-0826 Atlantic: Nathan P. Stone (912) 354-2604 [email protected] 4808 Taylor Road, Savannah, GA 31404 Cent. Savannah Terry Pitts, Jr (706) 736-9581 [email protected] River: 3043 Brookhaven Way. Augusta, GA 30909-2236 Bluff City: Emmo Hein (901)324-2641 [email protected] 3342 Highland Park Place, Memphis, TN. 38111 Cumberland: Bob Hultman (615) 833-5158 [email protected] 1305 Chestnut Drive, Brentwood, TN 37207 Smoky Mountain: Larry Brukholder (865) 408-9903, [email protected] 206 Coyatee View, Loudon, TN 37774-2172 Headquarters: Mark McAllister (706) 937-6337 [email protected] 52 Eagle View Drive, Ringgold, GA 30736-7082 Magnolia: Mike Barry (601) 762-0929 [email protected] 1810 Resca de la Palma, Pascagoula, MS 39567 Land O' Sky: Charles Bryan (828) 645-6896 [email protected] 218 Kyfields, Weaverville, N.C. 28787

Tennessee Bound

Make plans now to attend our next SER Region Convention. The convention will be held at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Holiday Inn Resort on May 9-11, 2003. Don’t wait! Reserve your sleeper car now! Brought to you by the Head-quarters Division. Contact Mark McAllister for further information.

STEPPING BACK IN TIME . . . During the 1984 SER convention in Chattanooga we got a chance to climb onto this switcher locomotive. Here, one of the conventioneer’s prepares to board #5022. Others are al-ready crowded into the cab and checking out the controls.


Winds of Change Reprise The storm has passed and we now have a new membership/subscription dues of $10 per year for the SER. The higher rate is necessary to cover our cost of printing and mailing the SouthErneR, which the membership has indicated they wish to continue receiving in paper form. The new rate is effective immediately. The second change is that we have authorized the NMRA to collect SER dues for us, so beginning in January, you will receive a combined NMRA/SER Single Membership re-newal notice timed to the anniversary of your NMRA expi-ration, or if you are a NMRA life member, timed to your SER expiration. SER multiyear and life memberships must now be obtained in coordination with NMRA membership terms. In order to implement the changeover, I had to coor-dinate the SER expiration date with the NMRA expiration date, which was done as follows: If the SER expiration anniversary was less than 3 months after the NMRA anni-versary, then the SER date was backed up to match the NMRA anniversary, otherwise the SER date was pushed out to match the NMRA anniversary. The logic here being that, since the SouthErneR is a quarterly publication with a 90 day grace period, no one would miss a copy of the SouthErneR due to the change. It was done this way to minimize the impact on dues revenue on the SER. I think that NMRA/SER members will find this change to be bene-ficial, getting one bill instead of two and, now, being able to renew both memberships with a credit card. The benefit that the SER Registrar will see is a great reduction in paper-work and costs. Those who are not members of the NMRA, and NMRA members living outside of the SER boundaries (SouthErneR subscribers) will continue to be handled through the SER Registrar. In order to simplify the Registrar’s job, I would encourage subscribers to eventually switch over to downloading the SouthErneR off the www.nmra-ser.org web site. This has several advantages to the subscriber: it doesn’t cost anything, the pictures are in color, additional articles not in the printed version are included there and it keeps all those old issues from piling up in the basement. I believe that internet distribution of the SouthErneR will become our preferred choice in the future, as it provides the advantages of timeliness, cost savings (zero dues?), admin-istrative savings, flexibility, and all the capabilities of inter-net technology.

Thank you for bearing with us through the transition to NMRA administration. I am still here to help in case you encounter any problems or have any questions. Karl Shaffer SER Registrar

A View From The

Tower

NMRA/SER Membership Report as of 10/3/2002 Southerner Circulation 491 Courtesy Subscriptions 1 Members and Subscribers 490 Membership by Division SER NMRA Div 00 - Outside Region 42 39 Div 01 - Mid South 10 7 Div 02 - Steel City 41 32 Div 03 - Dixie 10 9 Div 04 - Gulf 17 15 Div 05 - Piedmont 186 165 Div 06 - Empire 12 10 Div 07 - Palmetto 30 28 Div 08 - Atlantic 10 7 Div 09 - Central Savannah River 16 14 Div 10 - Bluff City 11 9 Div 11 - Cumberland 36 26 Div 12 - Smokey Mountain 19 16 Div 13 - Headquarters 12 11 Div 14 - Magnolia 19 15 Div 15 - Land O Sky 19 15 ---- ---- Total 490 418 Breakdown by Membership Class Subscribers Members Total Regular 56 327 383 Sustaining 4 33 37 Life 12 58 70 ---- ---- ---- Total 72 418 490 Breakdown by Expiration Date 2002 37 2003 138 2004 77 2005 71 2006 58 2007 37 2008 1 2009 1 Life 70


How to Railfan Safely and Effectively B y S c o t t P e r r y

Railfanning is something all of us do at one time or an-other. There is nothing better than taking pictures of your favorite railroad, finding old right-of-ways and planning your next layout. With a few tips and tricks you can make your next Railfan outing much more pro-ductive and safer. Luckily you can learn these from an old pro who just happens to be lucky enough to have lived to tell you about it!

Before you Go: • Leave word with someone where you are going • Call ahead and ask for permission to visit • Check with friends on the Internet for hot spots and

interesting features • Get scanner radio frequencies • Study maps • Contact Railfan societies for the road you want to

visit Safety: Never Railfan alone. It is easy to get caught up in the moment and not look where you are going. In the past I

have fallen down embankments while photographing, fallen through bridges when rotten ties gave way, and almost been hit by a train! In each of these cases I was by myself. If I had been hurt there would have been no way to get help. Likewise, if someone else had been a second pair of eyes for me, the accidents would have never happened. Besides, it is more fun to Railfan with friends! You should always wear protective clothing. Boots with high ankle supports are mandatory as the can keep you from twisting your ankle when walking on gravel shoul-ders. Many times you may have to hike through water and snake-infested areas to get the pictures or measure-ments that you want. Always wear long pants or jeans when Railfanning in case you should trip and fall, or have to work your way through thorns and underbrush. I railfan mostly in the Southern States during the summer months. It can get quite hot and it is easy to dehydrate. Be sure to carry plenty of water with you. Things to Look For: Flat areas that might have been old right-of-ways. Foundations of old buildings in the dirt. Local people who may know something about the trains in the area. Tips and Tricks: Keep all of your gear in a plastic storage box for easy loading in the vehicle. Keep camera and film in sealable bags to keep them dry. In winter, allow time for camera to acclimate to outside temperature to keep lens from fogging. Build a storey-pole for measuring in pictures.

The Rules of Railfanning: • Do not trespass on Railroad or Private Property • Do not trespass on Government or Secured Property • Do not go alone • Do not carry weapons • Do not climb on equipment, bridges, or structures • Always ask for permission • Be aware of heightened security due to Sept. 11. • Always think of Safety. • Do not take anything but pictures, leave railroadiana

on the ground.

Mandatory Equipment: • Hiking Boots with high ankle sup-

port • Blue Jeans or heavy long pants • Camera and film • Notepad • Pencils • Water • First Aid Kit Optional Equipment: • Digital Camera • Food • Binoculars • Scanner Radio

• Walkie-Talkie or Cell Phone • Rain gear • GPS System • Lap Top Computer • Railroad Maps • Books on the particular Railway • Sport Utility or off-road vehicle • Towels and change of clothes • Backpack • Insulated bag to keep camera/film

warm • Camera cleaning kit • Bug repellant • Compass • Back-up camera

• Diesel spotter’s guidebook • Hat to keep sun off your head in

summer, keep heat in during winter. • 100 foot measuring tape • Satellite Images • Sanborn maps • Distance Scopes • Hard Hat • Pocket Tape recorder • Video Camera and Tapes • Tripod • Vest with multiple pockets • Extra car keys


From the V.P.’s Keyboard Last time here I told you about the poll we took at the 2002 SER convention. That poll helped us a great deal to decide which way to go with the SER. This time I can tell you how we used that informa-tion to make changes that were needed in the SER. First off we raised SER dues to $10.00 a year. While no one wants dues raised if it can be helped, we also do not want the SER on a downhill slide to a $0 bank account balance. The new dues cover our real costs to run the SER and produce the SouthErneR. In the poll we took the members stated they would rather raise dues than to cut costs by changing to an online only SouthErneR. While this does not rule out an online SouthErneR in the future, it fits in with what the members want at this time. While making changes to the dues, we wanted to make it easier for you to pay them and for us to collect them. With this in mind we are going to let

the NMRA collect our dues for us. The NMRA will collect SER dues in unison with NMRA dues when new members join. When peo-ple renew their NMRA membership they can also renew their SER membership. The NMRA will then forward the collected SER dues to us. This will also eliminate the need for the SER to send out membership notices and other similar paper-work making the Registrar’s job a little easier. While the above issues are the big news we also worked on other things at the last board meeting. We have been working on getting together some fund raising projects and you’ll find one in this issue. SER shirts and other items with the SER logo will be helping to raise extra money for the SER. Well, that’s all for now. Pat Turner, V.P.

SER-NMRA Email Lis t http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SER-NMRA/

As most of you should know by now we have an email list set up just for NMRA members that live in the Southeast Region. The list has grown and is now up to 117 members. If you do not know about it than I have to ask what rock have you been hiding under? But, for those that don’t you can go to the web address listed at the top or you can subscribe by sending an email to the following address:

[email protected]

Everyone who is reading this in the SouthErneR is eligible and en-couraged to join this email list. The list is for all topics that concern either trains or the SER. Also, the list is not just limited to emails as there is space for you to post photos online and room for the posting of other files such as movies or “For Sale” lists.

Join in and lets here what you have to say. Pat Turner, SER-NMRA list Moderator

Also SER Patches $3.00/each.

Send funds to: Karl Shaffer

8621 Autumn Oak Lane Harrison, TN 37341-6946

SOUTHEASTERN REGION

D E C A L S O-Scale, HO-Scale & N-

Scale

@ $3.50/set.

From The VP’s Keyboard Pat Turner, VP SER


Let me say thanks to our Region President Phil Hutchinson for allowing me the honor of taking the throttle on the SouthErneR after Scott Perry had to step down. My goal is to continue what Scott had started and add my own flavor to the publication. Over the past year we’ve had several arti-cles on the prototype and on conventions and trainshows. To that I want to add as many how-to articles as I can fit into the magazine .

For those who don’t know or haven’t heard of me, a little history. On this page are the only *good* photos of me that I could find in my collection. I tend to be a bit “camera evasive” or I am the one taking the photos,

so few photos of me actually exist. These best show my history in the hobby. When I was 12 I used to go to this little model railroad down in Miami Shores called the W. C. Parry Railroad. It was on display every Sunday throughout the year between 1 & 4 PM. The first summer it was open I went in and paid my quarter every single Sunday for the whole summer. Going into the fall I still came and after a while I was allowed to come in for free. The next week they allowed me to join their club. It was being run by the Historical Society of South Florida after having been sold to them by William C. Parry. “Bill” Parry was a contemporary of John Allen & Frank Ellison and his HO empire was shown in one of the Great Model Rail-road books for the 1949 edition. After four years (1964-68) it became too much of a financial drain on the society and they sold it to the Hialeah Model Railroad Club who were looking for another layout after loosing their space over the Hialeah Gun Shop. They rebuilt it and then oper-ated it as a display for six more years. [The Hialeah Club (nee: Tamiami Model RR Club, nee: Everglades Model RR Club) was one of the four clubs (along with Palm Beach, LSL & St. Pete), that formed the Sun Shine Region when that group broke away from the South Eastern Region back in 1960. ] We lost the space due to a loss of members and after 10 years, I lost my beloved layout. There were four clubs in the area and all lost their space at the same time! There was nowhere else to go, so I got into 1/700th warship modeling for the next few years. Four years later in 1978, I joined the Lauderdale Shore Line Model Railroad Club. They had found a space where they could build a layout and were about a year into construction. Now I had place to play with trains again! In 1982 I became the SSR’s Photo Contest Chairman, a job I held even after moving out-of-state in 1984. This, along with being a judge at the ‘88 & ‘89 conventions, got me the Volunteer Certificate in ’90. After the 1990 Pittsburg convention, I vol-unteered to be National Photo Contest As-sistant, a job I held until becoming Chair-man in 2000. I am also the Pass Contest Chairman since KC, in 1998. That post had been empty for 10 years and was handed to

me so they could say “someone” was in charge of it. I joined the Piedmont Division of the SER in 1990 and was elected to the BOD in 1991. I’ve served on the BOD 1991-99, 2000-present and have chaired several commit-tee’s involving layout demos such as the “Project Layout” - now used in the BSA Merit Badge Program (see page 14), the “Kid’s Operating Layout” and the “2002 and 2003 Raffle Layout projects” in con-nection with our annual trainshow in March. I was also on the BOD for CrossRoads Atlanta ‘95 and was the Liaison for both Contests & Auctions. Paul V. Voelker

STEG Mark 3

AT THE THROTTL E A Note From The Editor...

The photo at above was taken on April 16, 1974, the week before the final run of the W. C. Parry Rail-road. Parry was a contemporary of John Allen & Frank Ellison.

Here I am about to announce the winners of the Photo and Pass Con-tests at the recent national conven-tion in Fort Lauderdale, FL, “Tracks in the Sand”.

Lou Vitale, Paul Voelker & Al Kar-sten at the Fort Lauderdale NMRA National Convention. All are former members of the Lauderdale Shore Line Model Railroad Club and for-mer business partners. We built a Christmas layout for the National Enquirer back in 1981.

This photo was taken at the Lauder-dale Shore Line’s layout sometime in 1980 or ‘81 during a video session with PM Magazine, a then-popular TV news program. Here I am show-ing how to apply scenery. I was with this club for six years before moving to Georgia in 1984.


T h e P r e s i d e n t ’ s C a r By Phil Hutchinson, President, SER

The BOD meeting in Chattanooga covered a lot of subjects, (see the minutes published elsewhere in this issue), but the one sub-ject likely to catch the interest of all must be the decision to raise the SER dues to $10 a year from $5. The Directors are to be congratulated for facing a nasty problem that has plagued us for the past several years. That is the cost of pro-viding our region news magazine, the South-ErneR. The $5 a year dues was not enough to cover the cost when each of the 4 issues a year costs $2.50 an issue. When I took over the Treasure’s position in 1995 the cost of four issues was $1789.28 for the year, or about $3.50 per member. Lots of com-plaints about lack of content, late issues and the number of issues per year, led to changes in editor and printer. The result was that by 1999 the cost was about $4000 or $8 per member. Further changes including the addition of pictures in the articles has led to the present cost. We have covered the overhead costs from our assets. Some years ago our CD’s were

near $23,000, now we are down to some $16,000. Without a dues increase the future is bankruptcy. This reserve was built up over the years because, dues exceeded costs, convention train shows made a profit, and we made a lot of profit from the sale of a ‘Regional Car’. How much we need in a ‘reserve fund’ is open to discussion, but one expense it must cover is the ‘Life Membership’ cost. With 74 life members, at last count, to cover the $10 dues, we need the ‘Life Membership Fund’ to provide $740 for the general account for the cost of the SouthErneR. That is $14,800 @ 5%. Today CD’s are around 2%, which would mean a $37,000 Life Fund is required. I have based my figures on straight interest and these would be somewhat less if calculated using ‘life expec-tancy’ for each life member, which is something I do not know, but the problem is clear. Dues did not meet the expenses of the SouthErneR, convention train show profit has been small, nothing, or a loss, and we have had no ‘Regional Car’, to sell for some years. Profit from train shows depends on how many members of the

general public can be attracted to the show. To a large extent this depends on the number of people in the local population. As the convention is for the benefit of the NMRA/SER membership, the BOD has a policy that tries to move the convention site

around the region. The population density of some of these locations is not high. If the train show is held

in a coastal city, the area is reduced by 50%. How far can you expect someone to drive to

attend the show? Lately, even some large cities have had low attendance. The state of the economy, weather, and lack of media coverage have been suggested as reasons for this situation. Whatever the reason, we should not have any expectations of great profit from the convention train show.

As to the ‘Regional Car’ method of raising

funds, we first need a member to come forward and undertake to handle the job. Since the idea is

to take an undecorated mass produced model and have it painted and decaled to our specification, the job

entails, A) choosing a prototype to model that is unique in some way, not available from the hundreds being offered by others. Lots of research required in that. B) consulting with the manu-facturer an economical quantity, at what price. C) come up with a sales price/ mail cost. D) get approval of the BOD for the ex-penses and sales price & mailing costs. E) advertising to the hobby. F) receiving, making up and mailing orders. It is not sur-prising that the most successful region car programs in the past were run by SER member/hobby shop owners. Another event looming on the horizon that underscores the need for more revenue is the single dues issue that makes every NMRA member in the region an SER member. This means that the SER will need to mail out some 1200 SouthErneR copies instead of the current 500 or so. The $10 SER dues will be added to the $45 NMRA dues, and $1 will be deducted by NMRA for handling, giving the SER $9 per member. The addi-tional cost of printing will not double so that $9 will more than cover the increase. Sorry if you find all this depressing but you need to know how things are. Help the BOD with suggestions if you have any. Happy Modeling . Phil Hutchinson

Dues did not meet the expenses of the SouthErneR, convention train show profit has been small, nothing, or a loss, and we have had no ‘Regional Car’, to sell for some years.


Once upon a time there was a story that every schoolboy knew. A story of trains called the “Texas” and the “General”, of bravery, daring and heroes. Children have always loved model trains…under the Christmas tree, in a store window and as a gift from Santa Claus.

Metro Train Station tries to bring that joy and fascination back to children each year as we open for the holiday season. Located in space donated by Metrocenter Mall in Jackson, MS, Metro Station is built and hosted by volunteers from the Jackson Society of Model Engineers. All admission proceeds benefit the Mississippi Children’s Home Society, with construct ion and maintenance funds provided by individual and business donations. Metro Station has donated over $60,000 since

1996; our goal for 2002 is $10,000.00. Three gauges comprise Metro Station: the O scale in the center, HO scale on one side and the N scale on the other. Each year the layouts change significantly due to relocations and redesigns. As you enter Metro Station, a scene of downtown Jackson in O gauge greets you. Around the edges of the layout are buttons that activate cars, fire trucks, horns and flags. Thomas the Tank Engine crosses on the high line.

Going around the right of the layout you see a winter village (must be NORTH Mississippi!) with ice skaters, skiers, and toboggan riders. The next stop is the center of the layout where 6 of 7 mainlines meet and the scenery turns more southwestern and mountainous. As you move on, you see 7 Bridges Gorge, a farm, and just around the bend, the Valley of the Dinosaurs. Moving back towards the front of the layout you see oil wells, homes, factories, an air base, and a circus complete with three ring performers and detailed circus cars. Along the way be sure to look for the pueblo of the cliff dwellers, the wizards cave, and the underground view of the inside of a mountain. Back at the entrance along the right wall the HO layout begins with a piggyback yard under construction and a small town with some industry. 7 tracks and a passing siding accesses Grand Terminal Station where all passenger trains stop. Next is Grand Gorge where 2 mainlines cross over 4 bridges next to a central mountain. Over the mountain is an engine terminal and roundhouse area is under construction. Along the front of the layout are 2 levels of mainline that cross streams and countryside to an urban area that ends with a steel mill. Against the wall on the backside of the oval is an industrial park with a large freight yard where trains are made up and dispatched.

Crossing the back of the room you come to the N scale layout. N scale is a large oval that promotes long freight and passenger trains. The new layout features a loop of track in Jackson known to locals as the “Avery Loop”.

A TOUR OF METRO STATION Located in Jackson, Mississippi

B y : T i m L a t h a m


This track consisted of three different rail properties that made up a loop of track in Jackson on the west side of the Pearl River and in Flowood on the east side of the river. The rail line being modeled starts on the south end of the old Gulf Mobile and Ohio (GM&O) railroad at it’s crossing of the Illinois Central (IC) railroad’s east-west Vicksburg to Meridian line (this line was sold to Midsouth Railroad which was later purchased by the Kansas City Southern (KCS) Railway.) From the GM&O/IC crossing, the layout models the GM&O as it proceeds north down the middle of Commerce Street. The line proceeds past the old passenger and freight stations, behind the old Mississippi state capital building into Capitol yard north of High Street.

A full version of the Capital yard is modeled complete with the wye and engine servicing facilities. From the Capital yard, the line proceeds north past the historic Fewell water treatment plant (source for Jackson’s drinking water) where it turns east and crosses the wood trestle and through truss bridge over the Pearl River into Flowood. Once across the river, the line turns south onto the Avery lead, a privately owned branch line that services several large industries in Flowood. The Avery lead was part of the old creosote railroad on the east side of the Pearl River. The Avery lead proceeds south past the industries and across Flowood Drive to the connection with the IC (now KCS) Vicksburg-Meridian line. Once on the old IC line, the layout models the south Pearl River bridge with its through-girder and through-truss bridges. This brings the line back to the GM&O/IC crossing and interlocking tower where the loop is completed. The”Avery Loop” model layout is 60 feet long (north-south) and eight feet wide (east-west). The basic layout is built on 16 2x8-foot tables. The total continuous run of the track is over 120 feet. The arrangement of the tables forms a four-foot-wide center-operating isle between the Jackson and Flowood sides of the layout. There is also a 14x2 foot staging yard on the south-east corner of the layout in the vicinity of the recently constructed KCS High Oak yard. We believe our efforts to maintain a cohesive membership with interest in three different scales is unique to many organizations. We work hard to cooperate together despite the fact that each gauge attracts its followers for different reasons, whether it be collecting, operating, scale or 3-rail fantasy. In the end it’s all for the children. Once upon a time there was a place called Metro Station. For more information, visit www.jsme.org or call 601-956-5321. Holiday hours are Fridays 4-8p, Saturdays 10a-5p & Sundays 1-5p through Jan. 12, 2003.

Submittals to the AP for the region have been rather slow over the summer, but that of course is understandable given the amount of other activities which take everyone’s time during that period. However, with the coming of cool weather and less will-ingness to venture outside, I hope activity will once again pick up. The Piedmont and Steel City divisions have been most ac-tive, and I am looking to spur more interest in the other Divi-sions of the Region. If you are a Division AP manager, visit with the clubs in your area that have NMRA members. Visit their layouts and advise them of any potential AP certificates they might qualify for. A good way to get many started is the Golden Spike Award. While not credited as an actual AP certificate, it is an overall award for Layout and Model building, and gets a po-tential AP participant started on the right path. Another good way to promote the AP is to hold some informal contests or model displays at club functions or train shows. This also introduces members to how the AP scores models for merit. We had a great turnout earlier this year in the Piedmont Division when they held an AP and Contest Judging Seminar. Several speakers, including myself, discussed aspects of participation from the judging standpoint, to the participants view. Then, and best of all, we had a hands-on judging of models to familiarize them with what goes into scoring models for Merit Awards. So, get out and promote the Achievement Program. It is an NMRA benefit for members, and is one that takes no other effort or expense other than to participate ! Let's everyone continue the good work, and keep those SOQs coming !

Report of the Achievement Program Manager By Dean A. Belowich, MMR, SER AP Manager

Achievement Program Awards approved as of December 1, 2002

Model Railroad Engineer - Electrical

Bob Beaty, MMR - Birmingham, AL Paul Dawkins - Birmingham, AL

Alan Houtz - Waukesha, WI (Credited through SER - Birmingham, AL)

Master Builder - Cars

Ben Bartlett - Brevard, NC

Master Builder - Motive Power

Charlie Brown, MMR - Dallas, GA Congratulations to all those who have earned awards. As they Know, its not always an easy task, but earning each one is worth the effort.

A note to all SER Divisional AP Managers: Please remember when submitting SOQ to me, that you verify that all the required paperwork is included such as, the com-plete SOQ forms and records with signatures, and a copy of the members current NMRA membership card. The packages should be complete before I receive them. There are still a few out there that have come incomplete, and I thank those that have been getting them to me in one package, as it keeps from delaying the process.


http://www.camrc.org/ser2003

May 9-11 2003

Tennessee Bound

The convention hotel is the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Our convention is offered a spe-cial rate using convention code: NDM when you call 1-800-TRACK29. Rates are: $87/night for hotel and $137/night for railcar accommodations. The regis-tration fee is set at $70 for registrations postmarked prior to April 1st and $80 for reg-istrations postmarked afterward.

Tennessee Bound Clinics We are working on clinics to whet the interests of both Rail and Non-Rail folks and are still looking for more clinicians to add more aspects to these wonderful hobbies. I say “these” hobbies, because on the non-rail side we will have several clin-ics on doll houses and things to go in them. Plus, there will be additional subjects covered in our clinics. One of the things we will be doing a little different this year is to offer some clinics with “labs” where you get hands-on prac-tice building a project. Joe Nichols, Jr. has offered to give one on Basic Scratchbuilding of Cars, so bring your tool kit! We are preparing another one in Electronic Circuits for Model Railroads, so pack your soldering iron. And, more to come. We’re going to have fun and something to take home for the layout. Many more clinics are still in the discussion and planning stages for both rail and non-rail participants. Since we will not have vendors in with the train exhibition this year, the clinics take on a special significance as an opportu-nity to purchase products directly from their creators. We intend to make this a lot of fun for everyone, so start mak-ing your plans for May 9-11 and you’ll be Tennessee Bound! Karl Shaffer

Some of your favorite presenters will be back with new clinics:

Sam Swanson on adopting a Finishing System for Models to yield consistently good results, and an example of such a sys-tem using a variety of paint, chalk, and details. Pat Turner on Making a Silk Purse out of a Sow’s Ear, or don’t throw out that old engine! -- Bring your old engine and find out what Pat has in mind for it. Bob McIntyre on Building the SV&S Railroad. Ron Gough on NMRA Contests from a Participant’s Point of View. Bob Beaty on modeling Realistic Water. George Gilbert on Scratchbuilding Late 19th /Early 20th Century House Cars.

And, some new faces with new subjects, or a fresh look at some old subjects:

Mike Justice on Weathering Rolling Stock Don Bachand on Masters, Molds, and Casting for structures. Gordan Belt on using the Kalmbach Memorial Library re-sources for research. Elaine Banicki and team on Innovative Miniatures featuring clinics on Doll Houses, furnishings, decorations, plants, and more. Labs included, so bring your tool kit!


NEW!

Southeastern Region Shirts And a lot more…

Sweatshirt SER Caboose Logo Kids Shirt

Get your new SER Golf shirt, T-shirt, Jacket, Hat, Sweat-shirt, Mug, Bag, Sticker, Mouse pad, Clock, Christmas Ornament

and more at the SER Shirt Shack.

With prices starting at just $2.25 and shirts starting at $15.99 there is something for every budget.

Check out everything online at: Coffee Cup Baseball Hat

http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=PatShirts2

Ordering can be done online, by phone and by mail. Payment can be made by Check, Money Order, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and PayPal. All

info is online at the above address.

For those without any online access or for other questions contact Pat Turner - (423) 744-0429; (404) 368-9964, email [email protected]

This is a SER fund-raising project and a percentage of each item goes to the SER.

Travel Mug Bib Lunch/Train Box Clock Messenger Bag Large Mug Grey T-Shirt

Items will change in style, design, and graphics from time to time. If you see something you

like, get it! Prices are subject to change.


Piedmont Division Boy Scout Merit Badge Day Story by John Stevens - Photos by Scott G. Perry

Mike Deaton at his Freight Car Identification Station. The display really looks great Mike!

Charlie Brown instructs a group of eager scouts on railroad signaling and traffic control. Charlie is an engineer for the CSX so he is very knowledgeable about this aspect of railroading and the ideal person to teach this to the scouts.

Ed Jahns talks to the scouts about layout design using the “Project Layout” that the Piedmont Divi-sion donated to the Boy Scouts after their 1999 Trainshow.

Howard (Horn) Goodwin explains the differences between scale and gauge.

Chuck Wharton is explaining safety rules around a railroad with his safety display module.

Rhonda Turner has her station set up to explain all the departments that make up a railroad.

Scouts prepare to work on their RR Merit Badges. Rick Coble explains to the scouts railroad schedul-ing. The scouts have to learn how to schedule a train as a part of training.

On Saturday, November 9, 2002, twelve members of the Piedmont Division got up bright and early and headed to Smoke Rise Elementary School in Stone Mountain, Georgia. They were going to teach the Railroading merit badge in a Boy Scout Merit Badge Clinic that was being held by the Rotary Club of Stone Mountain.

The Piedmont Division had volunteered to take as many as 32 scouts, but pre-registration was only about half that number. Last year, the clinic only had 65 scouts attend, so I felt we would be doing well if we got 10-15 scouts. On the day of the clinic, 165 scouts showed up. We were fortunate enough to have 30 scouts sign up for the Railroad-ing merit badge.

The Rotarians hold this day long clinic to support scouting within the Hightower Trail District of the Atlanta Area Council (AAC) of the Boy Scouts of America. The AAC is one of the biggest councils in the country. It covers 13 metro counties (Carroll, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Dekalb, Douglas, Fulton, Gwinnett, Haralson, Newton, Paulding, Pickens, and Rockdale). The AAC provides scouting opportuni-ties for over 72,000 boy scouts. In a council as large as the AAC, there are numerous outings planned on any given weekend. The week-end of November 9th was no different.

The Rotarians were extremely glad that we were there, and they have invited us back for next year’s clinic. The instructors have also had a meeting where we discussed changes that can be made to the program. Our initial directive from the Board of Directors was to plan something for this past November in support of model railroading month. The instructors think that this is a very worthwhile program, and feel that we should continue the program and attempt to attend two or three clinics a year. We have discussed continuing the program

with the Board of Directors, and they are allowing us to do so. I have been in contact with the Flint River Council in Griffin which holds a clinic in March. They are just setting their schedule now, and are determining if they will have room for our program.

We have divided the merit badge into ten stations. After an initial briefing, the scouts were broken up into groups and proceeded to their initial stations. While I started on the paperwork, Scott Perry started taking pictures of the enthusiastic instruc-tors in action. The enthusiasm of the scouts was also quite high. Numerous scouts had brought along pictures of the trains that they had at home. One of the boys even brought along one of his locomotives. It was a long day, but by the end of it all 30 scouts had completed the merit badge.

We are always in need of help with this program. In order to complete the merit badge in one day, it takes 12 members. Members earn points toward the Asso-ciation Volunteer Certificate for every month they are instructors, and for every scout that gets the merit badge. If you are interested in signing up for this program, please contact me at:

7 0 2 7 3 . 1 3 5 2 @ c o m p u s e r v e . c o m


As you can see, I have written seven letters this quarter. Two of those letters were for surgeries, and five of those letters were for milestone birthdays. The pace at my house is about right for this time of year. The football team has made the playoffs, so marching band season is still upon us. Playoffs will be finished soon so my Friday nights will soon be my own. Soon the “Christmas Bomb” will go off. This is when I return from a trip and my wife has totally redecorated the hose in all her Christmas decorations. It certainly helps put us all in a festive mood. In other parts of the Southerner, you are going to hear information about a dues increase of five dollars per year. I was unable to attend the latest board meeting, but I was not surprised that the BOD voted for this increase. Anyone who is has not been paying attention. I know for the last couple of years the Treasurers have been informing the Board that we are constantly spending more money than we are taking in. The primary reason for this constant financial drain is the newsletter that you are holding in your hands. This is the best NMRA newsletter in the country, but is costs $10 a year to print and mail. Increasing the dues to cover these should allow the region to reach a more stable financial footing. Each member of the region is going to

have to make their own decision on the dues increase. I know there are a number of members who will be outraged about a 100% raise in the dues. If you look at it that way, I can understand why you are upset. There has not been a dues increase in the region for a longggg time. I know members who have been in the SER for over 25 years who can not remember the dues being anything other than $5. Each member is going to have to decide on their own whether or not that is a good investment. Think about what it costs to buy stuff these days. As an example, I just got back from the hobby shop. I had to buy some earth color paint for some scenery. $6.99 plus tax. $7.41 FOR 8 FL OZ OF STINKIN’ GREEN PAINT!!!!!! WHAT AN OUTRAGE!!!!

Is the $7.41 a good investment? Is the $5.00 dues increase a good investment? You decide. Just remember if you don’t renew, you don’t get any birthday greetings from yours truly!!! Okay, I am climbing down off my soap box now. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and was able to spend lots of time with family and friends. I hope you got to enjoy a lot of good food, but most of all I hope you got some great train stuff. Respectfully, John Stevens

MONTH REASON FOR LETTER DIVISION October 2002 Wilma Polinsky Surgery and birthday Piedmont Art Richardson Milestone Birthday Magnolia Arnold Mays Milestone Birthday Piedmont Mal Maloy Milestone Birthday Piedmont November 2002 Merrill Grennor Knee replacement surgery Piedmont Marvin Mason Milestone Birthday Piedmont John Janosko Milestone Birthday Outside region

Clickety-clack

You don't need a speedometer on a train. To approximately gauge the speed, just note the number

of clicks you hear in 20 seconds (not guaranteed accurate if someone nearby is using a computer

mouse.) That number will be close to the speed in miles per hour.

But this will not work on the Continent, where speed

is measured in kilometers per hour. Ok, so there you'll count the klicks.

HELP! Need some help with your model railroading? Why not give us a

call! Get assistance with wiring, benchwork, scenery, lo-comotive repair, and even DCC! The service is free for all NMRA members, so give it a try!

M e m b e r A i d C h a i r m a n Master Model Railroader Charles Brown 3 Springbrooke Trail, Dallas, GA 30157

(770) 943-5280 [email protected]

By John Stevens, Chairman

G O O D & W E L FA R E


DIVISION REPORTS LAND O’SKY - DIVISION 15

Charles Bryan - [email protected] We have had a series of informative and entertaining programs thru the Fall season. A thorough club discussion regarding the condition of our (12 yr. old) modules led to the formation of a 'review committee' headed up by our Vice Pres., Fred Coleman. Once satisfied, Sam Parris volunteered his "barn" and stuff where a half dozen guys are constructing 26 new module bases and re-claiming what they can of the used and abused scenes! Gorden Fewster gave us a great show of his favorite diesel en-gines, pointing out modeling tips as he went along. Pat Turner, Vice Pres. of our Region visited and wowed the group with his Nn3 , suitcase sized module as well as presenting a fine expres-sion of what NMRA and SER is about! This served us well as a reminder for the 'old guys' and a fine introduction to the new folks. Bill Seibert and Jack Mershon are developing a program with the Cub Scouts using T-Trak - the square foot module concept with great success. Bill has introduced us to some of the works and the two of them will lead a bunch of us into using this as a "training aid" (Ha ha) for scenery practice! Our 'Book" department continues to revolve as do the various videos on layout construction. Our membership continues to grow at a steady rate each month and our finances are solid. The January meeting is our annual & traditional "White Elephant Sale - where we unload on each other all that wonderful but unusable stuff accumulated over the year. The big push now is our 13th ANNUAL TRAIN SHOW in Feb-ruary. Yes, Feb. 22nd., at the Army Reserve Center just off Pat-ton in West Asheville will be the time and place. We will have at least three layouts up and running and, hopefully, some of our "new works" finished and unfinished to demonstrate for the curi-ous how we make these things! Charlie Bryan, Superintendent Div. 15, Land O'Sky, Asheville NMRA / SER

GULF - DIVISION 4 Ed Dice - [email protected]

Another busy quarter for the Gulf Division. Lots of things hap-pening and going on. I need a deputy to help keep up with things and attend all of the events, meetings, open houses, and stuff. Hoping we get a Gulf Division web page off of the SER Region web site, but not there yet. It is still a surprise as to how big the Gulf Division is in geographical area - Mobile AL, Atmore AL through Pensacola FL, Milton FL, Fort Walton FL, and Panama City FL. The BOD meeting in Chattanooga TN back in Oct showed me how big the Gulf Division was. Big surprise to me. Mobile AL is still very active and swarming with both model railroading activity and 1:1 railroading. The South West Alabama Railroad Modelers (SWARM) is busy with all kinds of activities, thanks to Herb Kern and George Nelson as well as many others. They have had a Lionel modular layout exhibited. SWARM con-tinues to have monthly meetings at various members' homes showing off their personal layouts. Their website is //community.al.com/cc/swarm and is well maintained. Other Mo-bile model railroading clubs are Mobile Society of Model Engi-neers (MSME) (Dave Miller) and Azalea City Model Railroad Club (http://community.al.com/cc/acmr) (Bobby Cleveland). Mo-bile is a busy place railroading wise. The Mobile GATS show happened, albeit in very hot weather, and we enjoyed the oppor-tunity to show off our trains of all scales and gauges. The Pensacola Model Railroad Club (President: Dave Ramirez) is

also busy. Their N scale layout is expanding with new and neat modules. They hope to resume their monthly exhibit of the N modular layout at the local University Mall during 2003. And the Pensacola Model RR Club is well along with planning on a big train show for Sept 2003. Good luck on getting a nice train show back into the area. Over in nearby Milton FL at the Northwest Florida Railroad Museum, the Depot Days Arts and Crafts and Music Festival occurred 9-10 Nov 2002. I had two large loops of G scale, along with my O-27 Coca Cola train (which might have gotten fried, drats!) running on the 1:1 flatcar and those drew lots of attention from the 4,000 plus attendees, especially from kids climbing on the red caboose for a better view of both my CSX U-boat and 4-6-2 steamer, as well as R.A. Caraway's battery powered G scale trains. In fact, just today this Sunday after Thanksgiving, I ran the HO Club layout for a birthday party at the RR Museum. The kids also got to ride on the 1-1/2" train also. Over in Fort Walton, the Miracle Strip Model Railroad Club (www.geocities.com/miraclestriprrclub) had an HO club layout open house that went well. The Miracle Strip guys meet on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Panama City GM&O guys have their very large HO modular layout which attended the Oct 5-6 GATS Train Show in Mobile. We had a "hot" time there. Too bad GATS cancelled the Feb 2003 show at Mobile. Bummer. Upcoming events in this Gulf Division area: Fairhope AL, Train Show with Arts & Craft Festival, 14-16 Mar 2003; Pensacola RR Train Show, Sept 2003 Looks like we have started a group of G scale railroaders. Our first get-together went well with a demo by R.A. Caraway of his battery-powered G scale trains. Anyone interested is welcome to join us. Give me a holler. We are still formulating plans, sched-ules, and activities. More to come.... I am sure there is much I have overlooked, forgotten, and don't know about yet. Guilty as charged for not being everywhere at once. [email protected] or 850-455-1313 ### Happy railroading!

This is a picture of Depot Days with the G and O-27 scale layouts on the 1:1 flatcar.


DIXIE - DIVISION 3 Open - Phil Hutchinson Reporting

With only a few days to recover, it was of to Chattanooga to the Fall BOD meeting at the Choo-Choo. After a momentous meet-ing (read about it on pg. 20) we got to take a ride on the train through the mountain, and back, after a look around the repair shops and seeing the engine turned on the turntable. The fourth weekend in a row found us with the modular layout at the Steel City show in Bessemer, AL. Here we met up with Tom Schultz and the good people of his Div. Saw some fasci-nating layouts and ran trains to our hearts content, and hunted for bargains among the dealers. We then had a few weekends off until Nov. 22 when the modu-lar layout was in attendance at the Jim Pearson school in Alex-ander City, AL. to participate in their Heritage Day activities. The school has 1000, K thru’ 2nd grade youngsters who get to see the trains run, one class at a time. It’s no time for serious railroading but most of them know ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’, ‘The Hogwarts Express’ and they just love to see the Bachman ‘Gandy Dancers’ pumping away trying to keep ahead of the train. It’s a fun time with an early Thanksgiving turkey diner included. That brings you up to date on doings around Mont-gomery, AL. Phil Hutchinson ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Chuck Batherson adds doings in the Dothan area: The last operating session featured two SER members from the Birmingham area, Glen Samuel and Carey Jenkins. Glen used to be the Dixie Division Superintendent and Carey is a member of The Wrecking Crew. Both seemed to have a very good time. We also had our usual members from Auburn and the Dothan area attend the Op Session. One of the items discussed at the session would be the possible increase in the size of the train house from 24x16 to 24x32. Ideas are in progress for what to do with the space and how to change the layout to improve on things that can be changed for the better. Robert Bonner was the main person missing from the Op Ses-sion. He would succumb to cancer the following Monday after a long fight. He will be missed by all.

STEEL CITY - DIVISION 2 Tom Schultz - [email protected]

The Steel City Division met in September with Tom Cusker pre-senting “How to Collect Railroad Memorabilia”. Tom has an extensive collection primarily related to his main interest, the Baltimore and Ohio. He exhibited a wide range of items includ-ing timetables, railroad police items and tableware. The October meeting featured a hands on clinic by Bob Beaty. The group detailed junk piles. It was interesting to see the differ-ences in texture and color produced by different people using the same materials. The Annual Train Show was held in Bessemer and resulted in record attendance. Several SER members from Atlanta attended and we enjoyed seeing them. Scott Perry arrived with Marie and Ron Gough brought his slide show from his recent travels out west. The November meeting was presented by a Steel City veteran and a founding board member of the SER, Jim Gibson. Jim has traveled extensively throughout the United States and has shot photographs of many famous and relatively unknown scenes. At this meeting he presented some of his finest work involving de-pots from across the country and a few international shots. A great time was had by all. Several new attendees participated having heard about the meeting at the Train Show in October. While the Division has no formal meetings in December, plans are progressing for the 2004 SER Convention in May of that year. Several national speakers have been recruited and hotels are reserved in addition to convention space. More on all of this later next year. The January meeting promises to be an excellent one. Cary Jen-kins has recently retired from his first career and is getting active again in the hobby. He will present a clinic on fine tuning en-gines which promises to be very interesting and informative. The Steel City Division continues to meet on the third Thursday of the month at the Southside Public Library. All are welcome!

The Central Alabama Model RR Club, (CAMRRC) spent a hot dry summer hibernating in our air conditioned club house. There we spent many hours operating the Central Alabama RR, doing maintenance to track, structures, and scenery. One com-puter generated session has 30 trains. Since there are so few of us (3 or 4) to operate the RR it takes about 4 Saturday sessions to get through one cycle. With so few members the atmosphere is very relaxed and we spend time admiring and running our latest acquisitions around the layout. This usually means up-grading the new equipment with KD wheels and couplers, and fine tuning for good performance. Fall activities started in September with taking the modular layout to the Wire Grass train show in Dothan AL. Perry Baker and I were joined by our long time friend and former club member, Ed Dice, now removed to Pensacola were he is Gulf Div. Super. It’s a one day show but well worth a visit. We ran trains, did some maintenance, caught up with many old friends and had a great time. The Peanut Festival Fairground is a great location. The building is access friendly. You can drive in to unload and it is air conditioned. The following weekend saw us in Mobile, AL. This was a GATS show held Gulf State Fairgrounds. The GATS people need to learn that a show held in a non air conditioned building in October in the south is hardly to be tolerated. The mild Fall temperatures of Illinois have not reached us in the south. It was two very uncomfortable days.

DAVE MULLER AWARD As a reminder, the categories with applicable points are below. All Division Superintendents submit your candidates name and point count by March 1st of each year to be presented at the SER Conventions currently held in May. CERTIFICATES OR DEEDS DONE POINTS Holds "Volunteer" Certificate 20 Holds "Official" Certificate 15 Holds "Author" Certificate: 10 Other Certificates, MMR, Gold Spike Award 10 Has put on one or more clinics (per clinic) 5 Active in putting on a Division convention (per full day) 5 Active in putting on a SER convention (per full day) 10 Active in putting on a National convention (per full day) 7 Organized a modular and/or sections layout show 15 Active as a contest or AP judge during a convention 10 Active as Committee Chair for at least 6 months this year at Division level or higher. 10 Served as an AP judge for at least 6 months 10 Active in a modular or sectional layout 5 Boy Scout Merit Badge program (per badge) 5 Signed up one or more members to both NMRA & SER 3 (per member)


Boy, time really flies when you are planning a convention! It seems just yesterday I was in the blistering southern sun mow-ing what was left of my dehydrated grass! Then I looked around at the mall and there was Santa! Before I get in to the con-vention stuff, I wanted to make note of an observa-tion at our local mall. While visiting Santa, my family and I strolled along the upper level and sud-denly my three-year-old son screamed to the top of his lungs: CHOO CHOO, DADDY, CHOO CHOO! He began pulling me to this large enclosure where inside was housed a 4’x 8’ layout (maybe 5’x9’) that was operated by a quarter-fed timer. Two trains operated on sepa-rate loops for about five minutes per quarter per line. People with small children could not pass by it without either dropping in a quarter or stopping to let the children imagine what it would be like to have a railroad like that one. The scenery was elementary but that didn’t matter. The audi-ence was amazed at what they saw. You could also see each of the parents reliving a portion of their childhood and sharing it with their children. Share your hobby with as many as you can. There are more people interested in model railroading than you may realize. And yes, we put two quarters in twice to watch the trains… Our division has been very busy lately. Most of you know that we are hosting the 2003 convention: Tennessee Bound on May 9-11. There is a convention website that will house information that is confirmed and will be updated fairly regularly:

http://www.camrc.org/ser2003

There are links to information about the convention and hotel information. The convention hotel is the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Our convention is offered a special rate using convention code: NDM when you call 1-800-TRACK29. Rates are: $87/night for hotel and $137/night for railcar accom-modations. The registration fee is set at $70 for registrations postmarked prior to April 1st and $80 for registrations post-marked afterward. I also want to Welcome our fellow modelers from Cumberland county, Tennessee to the HQ division. During the fall SER BOD meeting, a petition was presented requesting this area be realigned and included in HQ. The area is populated by the Crossville Model Railroad Club and headed by Mike Ferry. Their group enjoys a regular meeting attendance of around 22 modelers and is currently searching for a suitable location to build and operate a modular railroad. We are looking forward to including these modelers in our convention plans as well. I will apologize now for the lack of a convention spread in this issue. There are a number of great events in the planning stages however, the details have not been finalized enough for me to feel comfortable with putting them in print. We have worked out a tour of the Norfolk Southern’s DeButts yard and diesel shop and a visit to Chattanooga Rail Car, a rolling stock repair and storage facility. We have a tour of the Kalmbach Memorial

CUMBERLAND - DIVISION 11 Bob Hultman - [email protected]

PIEDMONT - DIVISION 5 Pat Turner - [email protected]

There are a lot of changes going on in the Piedmont Division right now. We just had elections and have 5 Directors coming on, Scott Chatfield, Charlie Brown, Paul Voelker, Ed Laity and John Reiken. We also have a new Director of Personnel, Chris White. Due to several people leaving the division we are also having changes in our Super. (me), our Treasurer, our Book Librarian and Advertising and Promotion Chairman. One position that did not change I am happy to report is the Director of Administration as Mike Tarrant was re-elected for another term. Along with these new people I would like to thank the people that have served the Piedmont in the last year in the positions men-tioned above, Bob McIntyre, Scott Chatfield, Ed Laity, Bill Parks, Paul Voelker, Scott Perry, Mike Tarrant, Richard Dalrym-ple and Rhonda Turner. Along with all these personnel changes we have had some new ideas in the Division that we are working on implementing. In November we had our first Boy Scout Merit Badge day. We were able to get 30 scouts their railroading merit badge and this pro-gram will continue and expand so we can do more to help the scouts. We are currently working on a brand new membership drive pro-gram and hope to have a record year on signing up new members. We may also be working on a new Division modular layout in N scale. This is still in the very early planning stage, but it looks to be working well for the Land-O-Sky Division where I got the idea. Now as to what the division has been up for the last few months. In October we tested our Boy Scout Merit Badge program on our own members with very good results. In November Bob Hoenes told us about Traction Around the World. Also that month we had our elections noted above and our bi-annual model contest that was graced with many fine models. In December we had our an-nual holiday party with trains running in several scales, children bringing their own trains to run, Brio, Thomas, etc, door prizes, food brought in by all and drinks provided by the Division. With all that I almost forgot the clinic, Building the Susquehanna Val-ley & Southern by Bob McIntyre. In all it has been a good year and with the new year will come new people with new ideas. Change is good, but that also means this will be my last report as Piedmont Super. due to my move to Headquarters Division. Thanks to all for the time I was in the Piedmont Division. Pat Turner, Piedmont Division Super.

Cumberland Division has been busy this fall and early winter promoting model railroading by setting up two modular railroads, one HO and one N, in Nashville's Adventure Science Center (formerly Cumberland Science Museum) for their “Whistlestop Week.” The HO RR put in a 10-day run from Nov 8 thru 17. The N scale RR is staying set up from Nov 8 thru early Jan 2003! The “Whistlestop Week” is always the Museum's most popular event each year. The HO modular RR at Tennessee Central Ry Museum's meeting room also promotes the hobby by being oper-ated while TCRM excursion train passengers wait for boarding time. With TCRM running 25-30 excursion trains a year, that's an awful lot of folks! Our next event will be our December meeting with TCRM for the Christmas dinner and review of 2002 activities. After that we'll be getting ready to have both HO & N scale RRs running for the Railroad Passenger Car Alliance convention being hosted by TCRM over the M L King holiday weekend in January 2003. Coming up this spring is preparation for the Spring 2003 Division Meet on March 15, 2003 and for the Nashville GATS Show the

next weekend. Plus, there's a burst of HO module building en-thusiasm with Len Hollinger providing precision carpentry for light-weight module construction. The N scale modelers and Nashville Ntrak are also heavily involved in a very large Ntrak RR being assembled for the Louisville KY GATS Show in mid-January 2003. Another very busy winter! Merry Christmas and Happy Holi-days to all! Bob Hultman

HEADQUARTERS - DIVISION 13 Mark McAlister - [email protected]


C A L L I N G A L L C O N T E S T A N T S

I T S C O N V E N T I O N T I M E AGA I N ! Now is the time to start preparing your models for entry in the next contest. Here are a few photos of some of the contest en-tries at the last national convention. Not all were winners, not all got Merit Awards, but their builder’s did at least bring them into the room! If you aren’t interested in competing or if you are not interested in the AP program, bring it anyway. We would like to see what you have been working on lately. Think it isn’t up to the “high” standards of a con-test? You’ll never know if you don’t bring it! And don’t forget those photos either! Whether you enter them or not we’d like to see them on display.

Library in the works that will include a viewing of the displays that have been received for the Howell Day museum. These exhib-its include models by the SER’s late Mike Callahan, Allen McClellen and other great modelers from around the country. The convention planning group plans to release the convention information in a mailing to all NMRA members in the SER in late January. Watch the convention website and the SER Yahoo mes-sage board for details. New details will be in the 2003 1st quarter issue of the SouthErneR. Make plans to come, you’ll be glad you did! Mark McAlister

EMPIRE - DIVISION 6 Richard Dalrymple - [email protected]

14th Annual Model Railroad & Train Show

January 18th and 19th, 2003 Hosted by the Savannah Coastal Rail Buffs

14045 Abercorn Ext. - Savannah Mall In Savannah, GA

Sat. 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Sun. 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Admission: $4.00 General Admission $3.00 Seniors/Students

Children Under 12 With Parents are free!

For further information contact: Pres. Ken Huffman,

414 Inglewood Drive, Savannah, GA 31406

There are some exciting happens in the Macon area. The Central Georgia Model Railroad Club (Built and maintains the layout at Macon’s Central City Park which is open to the public during the Cherry Blossom Festival and the Georgia State Fair) and the Middle Georgia Railroad Association (a history and rail fan group) has been approached by the Macon Children’s Museum Executive Director to build a children’s interactive train layout and to present clinics and lectures on the development and history of railroads in the Macon area and the State of Georgia. The CGMRRC will be moving the layout sometime in April 2003 to the museum, located a Cherry Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard. On December 7th 2002, Georgia Railroads Prototype Modelers Show was held at the Howard Community Club Building at 5645 Forsyth Road in Macon, Georgia. This show was not a

traditional "swap-meet," but consisted of seminars and work-shops on prototype railroad modeling. Allen Tuten of the Cen-tral of Georgia Railway Historical Society was present and brought with him an assortment of C of Ga. related items, in-cluding photographs, equipment diagram books, decals (including the new Microscale steam locomotive decals in N and HO), HO scale models (including the new Red Caboose C of Ga. box cars), calendars, t-shirts, and many other items. The Flint River Model Railroad Club is planning its Model Train Show for the January 11th and 12th 2003 at the Knights of Columbus Building on Dawson Road in Albany Georgia. Another future Train Show will be in February in Columbus, Georgia. Richard Dalrymple, Superintendent

If you are NOT a member of the SER E-group…

An e-group is a group of common members who emails are forwarded to each through an electronic service, such as Yahoo. This allows for fast transfer of information and for quick responses to questions. You must have an e-mail address to participate. Once you sign up (free of charge) then you can write to all members easily and can see what is going on in the Region on a daily basis. It is quick, free and lots of fun! To sign you need to go to this web page:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SER-NMRA/

Just follow the directions and you will be linked directly into the most fun a model railroader could have! If you have any questions or problems using this service, just call Pat Turner at (404) 368-9964 or Scott Perry at (770) 319-7288 and we will help you log in! Its that easy and it will keep you from missing out on important information. JOIN NOW!


The spring meeting of the Board of Directors of the Southeast-ern Region of the National Model Railroad Association was convened in Chattanooga, TN at the site of the upcoming 2003 SER convention. Board Members present: Phil Hutchinson, President, Pat Turner, Vice President, Bob Beaty, Secretary, Randall Watson, Treasurer, Mike Braunstein, Director, Mike Ferry, Director, Tom Schultz, Director, Roy Tritt, Executive Advisor. Committee Chairmen present: Karl Shaffer, Registrar, Scott Perry, Editor of the SouthErneR, Paul Voelker, Assistant Edi-tor. Other Members present: Ed Dice Gulf Division Superinten-dent, Mark McAllister, HQ Division Superintendent, Dale Bryant, CAMRC President. A quorum was present. Meeting called to order by President Hutchinson at 10 AM EDT Pres. Hutchinson presented comments from Board of Trustees of the NMRA $50, 000 moved from Life Account to cover Ex-penses at Ft. Lauderdale 2002 Convention. $100,000 to be moved from Life acct to the General Business Fund. The organization has lost about 5,000 members The NMRA most important role is setting and main-taining standards. Secretary Beaty presented the minutes from May BOD meet-ing as published in the Southerner. Minutes accepted as pub-lished. Minutes of the Annual Meeting in Greenville have been made available to the BOD and will be published in the Southerner. Treasurer Watson presented the Treasurer’s Report for the period June 1 to September 30, 2002. Total Revenue was $641.00 (dues). Total Expenses was $1,429.33. Producing a negative cash flow of $559.38. $763.71 in postage from 2000 that was an unantici-pated expense. $2500 CD was cashed to cover expenses CD balance of $15,939.09. $7,400 of CD account is earmarked for Life Member Annuity Account. Spring 2002 SouthErneR bill has not been paid. Treasurer’s Report accepted. VP Turner: attempted contact of all Division Superintendents, talked with roughly half. He will attend several division meet-ings in the next few months. Division Changes: Empire Division- Richard Dalrymple Gulf Division- Ed Dice Attempted contact with Memphis and Mississippi divisions. General discussion on membership drive ideas and division supers in weak areas followed. Perhaps a Division Super workshop. Membership Report: Tom Schultz. To work with VP Turner, to identify methods to re-acquaint potential members to SER. Active Divisions “adopt” an inactive division and mentor and encourage participation. Make activities known via the web page. SouthErneR will promote any MRR group, regardless of affiliation. Little response. Dale Bryant- Produce maps on a regular basis. Has facilities to reproduce the Division map. Will reprint and provide to BOD. Registrar Report: Karl Shaffer. Membership declined by 10.

490 SER members, 70 Life members. 418 are NMRA mem-bers. 72 Subscribers. Running out of renewal cards, paper, labels, other supplies Recommend the SER have the NMRA do all the membership activities. This will eliminate the subscriber issue, eliminate the need for membership notices. SER dues would be collected simultaneously with NMRA dues. NMRA will assess $1/member/year for this service. Web Page Report: No information has been presented to up-date the page. There are several items in the SouthErneR that would be better presented on the Web page in stead of the pub-lication. Masthead changed. We need to work toward all Divi-sion Superintendents using the web page. Could be a valuable tool for passing information. 2002 Convention Report - Howard Garner. 215 Registered attendees

50 Non rail attendees 189 0f the 200 room obligation were utilized 200 Banquet attendees 150 Breakfast attendees 50 participated in the Prototype tour 28 Clinics 12 Layouts on tour

Problems: Lost some registrations, had several last minute clinic cancellations Garner presented a check for $2741.14 as the SER portion of receipts which included the seed money amount of $500. A motion to recognize and express appreciation for Howard Garner, his wife and his entire Convention staff was unani-mously approved. Good and Welfare - John Stevens. 58 letters were written, 10 were to recognize 25 years as an NMRA member, 7 were for a death or illnesses. The other were for awards, birthdays and anniversaries. An addition was submitted, Joe Fiore is recovering from a non-malignant brain tumor surgery. The estate of the late Frank Watson is requesting help in dis-posing of Frank’s Model collection. Member Aide - Charlie Brown most of the inquiries are on DCC issues. An article will appear in the next SouthErneR about Member Aide. Convention Report - Mike Ferry. Net income from the Knoxville (2001) convention was $2100. $345.40 of the pro-ceeds to the SER, (not yet received) and $518.00 to the Smokey Mountain Division. 2004 Convention Birmingham. Tom Schultz presented a letter proposing the 2004 Convention to be held in Birming-ham, AL. Moved and seconded to accept the proposal. Motion carried. 2003 - Chattanooga - Mark McAllister. Update: Carl Fair-child has had to step down as convention chairman. Dates: May 9-11, 2003 at the Choo-Choo. 75 room nights, at $150/night. Planned prototype tour of NS facilities. No train show is scheduled. Plan 5 home layout tours. Old Business Region shirts. VP Turner. Firm quote for SER A golf shirt with SER embroidered logo for $21.00 per shirt with a mini-mum order of 200 shirts. Alternate: $18.00 Golf shirt (white) with computer generated “iron-on” emblems, order over the Internet from www.cafepress.com. Multiple payment options, no inventory carried, no handling charges. Other items could also be purchased with SER logo affixed. Expense only for artwork and set up the account.

SER Board of Director’s Meeting Chattanooga, TN October 12, 2002

Official Minutes of the Meeting


Turner: Propose he be authorized to prepare a logo and open an account with the e-store Cafe Press to produce shirts and other merchandise for the SER at a 30% mark-up. Seconded by Watson. Motion carried. Scott Perry recommended Jim Sims of Huntsville, AL to do the artwork. Published reports of the SER. After some discussion con-cerning availability of the treasurer’s report as an attachment to the minutes of the annual business meeting. Tritt moved that The Treasurer’s report not be published in any electronic format available to non-members. Seconded by Braunstein. Motion approved. SouthErneR Report. Scott Perry, Editor of the SouthErneR, reported on various aspects of cost control efforts in the pro-duction of the magazine. December 1 is deadline for next is-sue; this will be the “convention issue.” Cost to publish an issue is $1.96 per issue delivered. Perry recommended send-ing an issue to all NMRA members in the region. Treasurer Watson pointed out that costs to publish and mail an extra con-vention issue to all NMRA members in the Region was not budgeted. The regular winter issue will be published and pro-vided to the regular (participating) members of the SER as required. No additional mailings will be sent. VP Turner: The results of the poll at the Annual meeting were that the members did not want an electronic version of the SouthErneR. The same poll indicated that the membership would support a dues increase. Scott Perry tended his resignation as Editor of the SouthErneR. He is relocating to Louisville, KY. President Hutchinson ac-cepted the resignation and appointed Senior Assistant Editor Paul Voelker as the new Editor. Perry’s efforts as Editor were recognized and appreciated. Dues: Turner initiated a lengthy discussion on the effects of the NMRA unified dues program. Shaffer clarified (several times) how the dues collection would work for those NMRA members that joined the SER through the dues collection ef-forts of the National organization and that the cost was essen-tially a wash. Subscribers would be eliminated as their paid up dues expire. NMRA dues collection would encourage people to join the SER. Turner: Moved that the SER increase the dues to $10.00 ef-fective immediately to cover the increased cost of the South-ErneR and that the NMRA be authorized to collect these dues. Seconded by Ferry. Tritt opposed the motion. Stated he agrees to the NMRA col-lection but does not agree to the increase in dues. Discussion

followed. Need to split the motion. Schultz: The group needs set up ad hoc group of 2 or 3 people that understand the issues and develop a financial planning model of the issue. There are several issues intertwined. Discussion continued. VP Turner withdrew his two-part motion with the consent of the second, Ferry. VP Turner: Motion. BOD Authorize the NMRA to collect the Region dues as soon as possible. Seconded by Ferry. Motion carried. VP Turner: Motion: The SER BOD raise the dues for member-ship from the current $5.00 to $10.00 to coincide with the NMRA dues collection. Seconded by Ferry. “The purpose is to eliminate the money issue so we can move forward to other important issues.” Currently paid up members will be grand-fathered. Treasurer Watson “We can not continue to run our business at a loss.” Secretary Beaty requested to table the mo-tion until the Business Analysis was completed and facts, not emotion could be submitted to the membership. President Hutchinson called for the question to vote. Vote of the board was 5 yea, 3 nay, and 1 abstention. The motion to raise the dues carried. The subscription price for the SouthErneR is $10.00 for all. Secretary Beaty: Since the next issue of the SouthErneR is at the printer, the SER web site should be the official conduit to the membership that the BOD has voted to raise the dues. VP Turner: The reason for the motion and the vote was to be able to move forward. There are other issues that remain to be resolved such as an electronic publication, no dues region and incorporating resident NMRA members into the corporation. The issue of dues, lowered dues or no dues can be addressed at a later date. New Business Director Ferry: Members of the SER/NMRA residing in Cum-berland County, TN apply to the BOD to have their area (Cumberland county) moved from the Smokey Mountain Divi-sion to the Headquarters Division. Seconded by VP Turner. Motion approved and will become officially enacted upon for-mal presentation of the request in writing to the Secretary. Adjourn Secretary Beaty moved to adjourn. Seconded by Ferry. Motion carried, meeting adjourned at 1:30 PM EDT. The next BOD meeting will be held in Birmingham, AL in February 2003. The exact time and date to be announced by separate correspondence.

N O T I C E !

Heard at the Roundhouse…

Rumor has it that the on-line E-SouthErneR has more pages than the print edition.

Imagine that! How about this: most of the pictures are in color instead of black and

white! Maybe you should check it out and see what you are missing. You can view it on line or print it if you like! Wow! You can see the

E-SouthErneR on the web at:

www.sgperry.com/ser

AMER ICAN FLYER

3 parts light rum Fresh lime juice (1 tbsp) Sugar syrup (1/2 tsp) Champagne or sparkling wine Combine the rum, lime juice & sugar syrup in a cocktail shaker with cracked ice. Shake well. Strain into a chilled white wine glass & top off with champagne. Warning: always drink responsibly when at an operating session. Don’t spill drinks on the track!

The Northeast Alabama Model Railroad Club is looking for members. Contact: Charles Dick, 1208 Highpoint Road, Albertville, AL 35747

(256) 878-2537 or email [email protected] We are in the Mid-South Division. The Redstone MRC is also in the Mid-South Division.


The Club Car — This is a list of clubs and organizations in the South Eastern Region. Most have some NMRA members. If you have a club that is accepting new members or visitors, please send the information to Paul V. Voelker at: [email protected]. Please note, you must provide a contact name and phone number! If you have a website you can send us the URL as well!

Atlantic Division Atlantic Division, Nate Stone, Savannah, GA. (912) 354-2604 Coastal Rail Buffs, Savannah, GA., Nate Stone, (912) 354-2606 http://www.coastalrailbuffs.org/ Golden Isles Model Railroad Club, Brunswick, GA. Grand Strand Model Engineers, Myrtle Beach, SC.

Bluff City Division Bluff City Division Emmo Hein Memphis, TN. (901) 324-2641 The Memphis N-Scale Road Railers The Memphis Society of Model Engineers

Central Savannah River Division Central Savannah River Division, Terry Pitts, Jr. Augusta, GA. (706) 636-9581 Georgia-Carolina Model Railroaders, Augusta, GA, Roy Tritt, (706) 733-6870

Cumberland Division Cumberland Division, Nashville, TN., Bob Hultman (615) 833-5158 Nashville NTRAK, Nashville, TN., Ken Harrel (615) 352-4576 http://www.nashvillentrak.org Nashville Garden Railway Society, Nashville, TN., Ross Evans (615) 292-6555 Tennessee Central Railway Museum, Nashville, TN., Bob Hultman, (615) 833-5158 http://home.hiwaay.net/~bgaddes/tcrm/ Mid-South Live Steamers, Columbia, TN., Hank Sherwood (615) 665-0512 http://www.geocities.com/~ms-livesteamer/

Dixie Division Central Alabama Model RR. Club, Montgomery/Prattville, AL, Phil Hutchinson, (334) 272-1933 Alabama Model Railroad Association, Opelika, AL Southeast Alabama Model Railroad Club, Dothan, AL, Chuck Batherson (334) 677-3413

Empire Division Empire Division Jimmy Swan Albany, GA., (912) 883-3517 Columbus Model Railroad Club, Columbus, GA., David Cotton (706) 323-1417 Flint River Model Railroad Club, Albany, GA., Mike Frary (912) 434-1746 Thomasville Model Railroad Club, Thomasville, GA., Ben Strickland (912) 465-3730

Gulf Division

Miracle Strip Model RR Club, Chris Beard, Shalimar, FL (850)-244-0161 www.geocities.com/miraclestriprrclub

Headquarters Division

Headquarters Division, Mark McAllister, Ringgold, GA., 706) 937-6337 http://www.camrc.org/ Chattanooga Society of Model Engineers, Dunlap, TN Andy Morrision (423) 344-8502 http://csme.livesteamtrains.com/

Land O'Sky Division Land O' Sky Division, Charles Bryan, Weaverville, N.C., (828) 645-6896

Magnolia Division

Magnolia Division, Mike Barry, Pascagoula, MS., (601) 762-0929 Jackson Society of Model Engineers, Jackson, MS Jackie Meck (601) 842-0909 www.jsme.org MidSouth Division

Mid-South Division, Thomas Bailey, Fayetteville, TN., (931) 433-4207 http://www.geocities.com/mta136/ Redstone Model Railroad Club, Huntsville, AL

Palmetto Division Palmetto Division, Howard R. Garner, Pickens, S.C., (864) 878-4705

Piedmont Division

Piedmont Division, Pat Turner, Peachtree City, GA., (770) 487-5028 Georgia Association of Narrow Gaugers, Pat Turner, Peachtree City, GA., (770) 487-5028 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/georgiangers/ North Georgia Lego Train Club, James Trobaugh (770)-844-1076 http://www.ngltc.org/

Smoky Mountain Division

Smoky Mountain Division, Bob Redlinger, Loudon, TN (865) 458-0499 Steel City Division

Steel City Division, Tom Schultz, Birmington, AL, (205) 823-3888 Wrecking Crew Model RR Club, Bessemer, AL, 1004 West Lake Mall


NATIONAL: 2003 NMRA Convention: Maple Leaf 2003, Toronto, CA July 13 - 19, 2003 REGIONAL: 2003 SER Region Convention: Tennessee Bound http://www.camrc.org/ser2003 Chattanooga, TN May 9-11, 2003 SER Board of Directors Meeting DIVISIONAL: Land O'Sky Division - Regular Meeting First Thursday of Every Month, All Souls Cathedral in Biltmore, NC, 7:00 pm. Until Concluded. Piedmont Division - Regular Meeting 2nd Tuesday of Every Month, Elks Lodge, 1775 Montreal Rd., Tucker (Atlanta - East Side) Smoky Mountain Division—Regular Meeting 1st & 3rd Sunday of every month Oak Ridge Mall, Oak Ridge, TN 3-5 pm work or open house sessions 5-7 pm business meeting 3rd Sunday Steel City Division - Regular Meeting Third Thursday of Every Month, Southside Branch Public Library at 7:00 pm. 1814 11th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL Local Shows and Events (Date Order by State: - Alabama - Train Show Coosa Valley Model Railroad Association May 10, 2003 - 9 AM to 4 PM Adults $4, Children under 12 Free Gadsden Convention Hall 344 South First Street, Gadsden, AL Jim Bertch (205) 594-7478 - Georgia - - Florida- - Mississippi - Jackson Society of Model Engineers www.jsme.org For info contact Jackie Meck at (601) 842-0909

- North Carolina - Train Show 13th Annual Land O’Sky Railfest Feb. 22, 2003 - Charles Bryan (828) 645-6896 Army Reserve Center off Patton in West Asheville - South Carolina - Train Show Central Railway Model & Historical Assoc. Feb. 15th, 2003 Ph. 864-878-4705 West Pine St. Corner of W. North 5th St. Armory, Seneca, SC—Fee $3.00 - Tennessee - Memphis Society of Model Railroad Engineers First Saturday of Every Month All Saints Episcopal Church at 1508 South White Station Road in Memphis (Except in May!) 7:00 pm - Swap meet, videos, how-to programs. Prototype, too! Outside Our Region Events: None Listed

(Tear Off The Back Cover and Hang On Your Refrigerator for Easy Reference of Dates and Times)

Upcoming Events— This is a list of all upcoming events that have been sent to the SouthErneR. Please submit info on your events occurring within the next year to the SouthErneR prior to the next deadline. For the most up-to-date information visit our website: www.sgperry.com/ser/comingevents.htm

Send new information, modifications, or corrections to Paul V. Voelker at [email protected]

** * No t i ce*** If you don’t see your activity here, its because we don’t know about it. Unfortunately we still don’t have an Assistant Edi-tor of Region News. This person is the collector of events and happenings. Until we do, this very important feature of our magazine will limp along like a three-legged goat. Please vol-unteer! It only takes a few minutes out of your week. Apply with Paul V. Voelker, Editor, SouthErneR

IN THE NEXT ISSUE:

• Bui ld ing the P iedmont Por t Au thor i t y HO Sca le Layou t

• “Tennes see Bound” Cha t t anooga Conven t ion News

• Reg ion Map

• Treasurer ’ s Repor t

• A n d m u c h , m u c h m o r e ! ! !


Directions: FROM CHATTANOOGA: Take US Hwy 431, Exit to Gadsden-exit at US Hwy 411 South - Pass under bridge - take next right (Walnut) - left at 1st Street - Convention Hall ahead on left. FROM ANNISTON: US Hwy 431 to US Hwy 411 South - follow Chattanooga Directions to Convention Hall. FROM BIRMINGHAM: Take I-759 to Gads-den - exit to US Hwy 411 North - proceed past mall - past hospital - left at light (Walnut) - left at 1st Street - Convention Hall ahead on left.

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PRESORTED STANDARD

U.S.POSTAGE PAID

Sharon, PA PERMIT No. 22

The SouthErneR Southeastern Region

National Model Railroad Assoc. 8621 Autumn Oak Lane

Harrison, TN 37341-6946

POSTMASTER: TIME-DATED MATERIAL

Documents

IN THIS ISSUE - ser-nmra. · PDF fileIN THIS ISSUE: • How to Railfan ... 324-2641 [email protected] 3342 Highland Park Place, Memphis, TN. 38111 Cumberland: Bob Hultman (615) 833-5158