We had many beautiful models displayed again for all of us to
enjoy. We had our usual model contests, photo contest, and fun
was had
by all. Thank you to *all* the participants who entered and put
on such a good show for the rest of us; we hope you enjoyed our
deep admiration and appreciation for your sharing your beautiful work
with us.
Model
Contest
As always, NMRA contests are not
about winning, rather, they are about
the fun of
participating, about sharing your pride and joy in modeling with
all of us (your appreciative audience), and having fun self-inspiring
and self-challenging yourself.
Our Sept 2010 Model
Contest had a really wonderful turnout of great
models:
Congratulations to our winners, and
to all of our participants in the Popular
VoteModel Contest
for September 2010:
Honorable Mention - Passenger car by Stanley Keiser:
Honorable Mention - Diesel locomotive by Paul Ingraham:
Thank you to all who participated - we love seeing your wonderful
models. A view of our Model Contest area for
September 2010:
In the end, NMRA contests are not about winning,
rather, they are about the fun of participating,
about sharing your pride and joy in modeling, and having fun
self-inspiring yourself. We all love to see your pride and joys, and
you are all winners for participating. Thank You to *all*, you put on a
great show and inspired the rest of us. We hope you enjoyed
our admiration of your work.
Show and
Tellat September 2010 Coast Division Meet
At
the September 2010 Meet, we had another excellent Show and Tell
display. Thank
you to all who brought a model for us to enjoy!
Due to the Model Contest Chairman's error (John Sing forgot his camera
and needed to borrow Darryl Dennis' camera) - I missed
getting shots of the following models as they left before I'd recharged
Darryl's batteries:
Dennis
Reid's "unknown"Tenshodo
N&W 0-8-0 (i.e. a HO brass model that is not known to have been
produced by Tenshodo).
Thank you Jim, Keith, and Dennis for
bringing your models for Show and Tell - they are a real treat to see,
and if you send me photos of your models, I'll add them back to this
web page.
After I got Darryl's camera back in operation, I was able to
take photos Howard Lloyd's
beautiful structure
scratchbuilding.
The above building was scratchbuilt in the late 1960s, and was
featured in January 1970 Model Railroader. We are very
fortunate to be
inspired by this model, and to see how well it has stood the test of
time:
We also got to see Howard's latest scratchbuilding
work-in-progress. This is the "Brooklyn Stores" warehouse in
Jersey City:
Thx, Howard, for sharing and inspiring us.
A
picture of our Model Contest, Photo Contest, and Show and Tell area:
Thank you again, all, for your
participation. Participating by bringing a model is simply
for the fun and joy of it all. Come on out in
December 2010 and share with us, something that you would like us to
see - we look forward to it!
Coast
Division Model Contest and Show and Tell Chair: John Sing
We had our Clinicsand Model Railroad Roundtable as we do
at every Coast Division meet.
1) RoHS for Model Railroaders
presented
by: John Marshall
John told us all about RoHS (
Restriction of Hazardous Substances). He presented a fun, education clinic on
RoHS, explained what it is, discussed
the changes in the electronics components and assemblies coming our
way in the hobby field
and what the impact of RoHS legislation has been and will be on model railroading, how it will impact our
abilities to modify electronics assemblies.
Often referred to as the "lead-free
directive", RoHS applies to many items that we model railroaders use, including
paints and pigments, solders, lamps, bulbs and batteries. John summarized the effects, impacts, and
benefits of RoHS for all of us model railroaders.
He and John demonstrated lighting
effects, control system
and animation applications. John
Plocher (senior software engineer and also a member of Silicon Valley Lines)
demonstrated a you-can-do-it home-built hardware example ( a modern-day
dispatcher's panel with occupancy
and signaling).
With this open-source, inexpensive
electronics technology, the attendees learned how they
could be building their own model railroad signaling, animation, and effects controllers using very
affordablestate-of-the-art
open source electronic
hardware and software.
Download the presentation
above to learn more about Arduino
open-source hardware and
software that could impact our future daily lives in the same way
that Linux has.
3) And of course, our ever popular Model
Railroad Roundtable, moderated by Jerry Littlefield
Got an idea for a clinic?
Want to see what's coming up? Contact the Coast Division
Clinics chair: John
Marshall
Thanks
again to all who participated, and we look forward to seeing you at
Model Contest and Show and Tell in upcoming Meets. Bring
something that you would like share - a model(s), display about your
current project, a work in progress, it's up to you, as any category is
always welcome for Show and Tell. We love to see what
you're up to!
Unfortunately, we did not have a September 2010 Switching
Contest because our Switching Contest Chair, Steve Peters, awoke with a
24 hour 'bug' and missed the meet. Thankfully, Steve has recovered and
there's a plan for future Coast meets. Our Allen Fenton Switching
Contest
will resume at the December 2010 Meet.
Winners in the Brakeperson category (5 car problem)!
First Place
Second Place
Third Place
Our winners in the Senior Brakeperson category (6 car problem)!
First Place
Second Place
Third Place
A special thanks to our Coast Division Switching Contest Chair:
Steve Peters, who keeps the Allen Fenton Timesaver switching
puzzle
running smoothly and staffs the TimeSaver for us. Thx,
and welcome, Steve!
Thanks to all
who participated, it's a blast. Remember... it's not about winning, it's about you and your switching. You
have to give it a try :-).
What is the Timesaver
? (click below to find out!)
It is a fun, devilish little switching puzzle devised by the late,
great model railroader, John
Allen.
Click on these links above to learn more about the Timesaver,
about John Allen, or his world famous HO Gorre & Daphetid
model railroad, which inspired an entire generation of model
railroaders worldwide. John Allen lived in Monterey,
California, and was a long time member of the Coast Division until his
passing in 1973.
Results of the
September 2010 Photo Contest : (Congratulations to
all who participated!)
The theme was: "Diesel Locomotives".
There were many artistic, noteworthy, and creative
entries, and every one is worthy of award and mention.
Thank you to all who brought your photo to share, we all love seeing
your work.
Click on any of the thumbnails below to see a larger copy of the Photo
Contest Entry. By Popular
Vote, the Photo Contest winners were:
First Place
Second Place
Third Place
"Sundown" by Nick Brisco
"Feather River" by Seth Neumann
"Cajon Pass"
by
Stanley Keiser
We really had a superb palette of Photo Contest entries, all of them
interesting, artistic, and
just excellent. Click on a thumbnail below to see all of our
other beautiful Photo Contest entries:
Thank you to *all* who participated. We hope you enjoyed a
few minutes of fame and the ongoing admiration, of your fellow NMRA
modellers and guests.
Bring a photo to the next Meet's Photo Contest! Click here to see the upcoming
categories.
Coast Division Model Contest categories are rotated
annually according to the following schedule.
Therefore,
the categories for the upcoming Coast Division Model Contest Meets are:
December 2010:
"Favorite Model" (open to any
category)
March
2011:
Caboose, Freight Car, Maintenance of Way
June
2011:
Structure, Display/Diorama, Self-Propelled Cars & Traction
September
2011: Steam Locomotive, Diesel & Other
Locomotives, Passenger Car
Results
are determined by Popular Vote.
Arrive and enter early to get more votes!
Optional: NMRA Judging is available at the Coast Division
Meet to any Model Contest participant for:
- Achievement Program Merit Points
- Regional/National Contest entry preparation 'dry-run' and friendly
expert advice
- Or, just to see how you would have done (smile!)
Please contact the current Coast Division Model Contest Chair, John Sing, or the current
Achievement Program chair Kermit Paul, if you would to have your model
judged at the upcoming meet.
All photos should
be matted (inexpensive, resusable mattes can be had at most art supply
stores) and should be between 5x7 and 11x14 in size. Hope to see your
work there!
Results are determined by Popular Vote. Bring your photos early to get
the early votes.
One of the great things about our
Meets is sharing information and kibitzing about all things related to
trains. It's the People
that make our hobby as much fun as it is.
Our thanks to our many Coast Division volunteers, we could
not do any of this without each and every one of you. Volunteers
- thank you!
You
can see our current Coast Division Call Boardby clicking
here.
provided the crowd-pleasing fare of Polish hot dogs, drinks,
snacks and chili for lunch. Thanks a bunch as usual!
Steve Wesolowski, our Publicity
Chair (and super helper on Model Contest) recently said it well for all
of us:
"So many people happily volunteer to
make our Coast Division Quarterly Meetings possible. In
appreciation, whenever you have the chance, please remember to thank
someone else in our Division who in whatever way,
helps to make our Coast Division Meets the success they are today."
Thank you, Steve, well said. :-)
Invite a new friend to come to the next Meet, and see what we're all
about!
presented
by: John Marshall 
Dave
Falkenburg, immediate past president of the Silicon Valley Lines club
in San Jose, gave an overview at the
introductory level. 
