The mission of the Amherst Railway Society is education regarding and the promotion of hobbies related to Railroading. Amherst Railway Society P. O. Box 2351 Amherst, MA 01004-2351 www.amherstrail.org The next meeting of the Amherst Railway Society will be 7:30 pm EDT Tuesday, April 19, 2016, at the Amherst Regional Middle School Auditorium. Meetings are canceled if Amherst Regional Schools are canceled, if meetings are canceled, the notice will be posted at www.cbs3springfield.com and at www.nbcconnecticut.com Update on the Nickel Plate by Tony Koester Model Railroad Planning editor and Model Railroader Trains of Thought columnist, Tony Koester, will provide a update on his HO scale edition of the Nickel Plate Road's St. Louis Division, circa 1954. He will discuss multi-deck layout design and construction, layout lighting, kit-bashing vs. scratchbuilding structures, modeling Granger country, as well as timetable and train-order operation. Among his many achievements, Koester popularized the idea of freelance modeling with his HO scale Allegheny Midland railroad. He also served as editor of Model Railroad Craftsman. In 1966, Koester cofounded the Nickel Plate Historical & Technical Society to preserve the memory of his favorite railroad. Koester is a graduate of Purdue University with a degree in electrical engineering. He has authored nine books for Kalmbach Publishing. From the Treasurer All donations to the Amherst Railway Society may be tax deductible. As Amherst Railway Society Inc. is a 501 C(3) tax exempt organization, your donations (of either cash and/or property) may be deducted on your Schedule A, Form 1040 of your Federal income tax. Consider the Amherst Railway Society in your estate planning. Your gifts can be restricted or non-restricted (you can pre-determine how you want your donation used). Upon request, and proper documentation of course, the Treasurer will issue you a letter to be used as justification for your tax deductions Page 1 of 10
Board of Directors 2015-2016 President Bruce MacCullagh Pres Elect John Sacerdote Treasurer David Royce Secretary Bill Meier Jr. At Large (also on show committee) Kurt Jellinek - 2016 Rudy Versailles - 2017 Clark Huber - 2018. Show Committee Chair - Dick Joyce - 2017 Tom Laware Jr. - 2016 Brian O Leary - 2016 Tom Laware Sr. - 2018 3 at large members of BOD President Treasurer ex-officio -Show Director John Sacerdote Strategic Planning Committee (Develop Strategic Plan, 1 and 5 year goals) Co chairs Ken Harstine and Kurt Jellinek Tom Laware Sr. Dick Joyce John Randall Joe Albano John Sacerdote -exofficio David Royce exofficio Bill Meier Jr. exofficio Clark Huber - exofficio Membership (Marketing, Trip Committee, Member retention etc) Joe LePage Joe Kurland Joe Albano Jr. Greg Maas Tom Laware Sr. Ted Curtin Bill Meier Jr. Message from the President: The Board of Directors is actively preparing for the coming year. Department Heads are being asked to get their budget reports into David Royce so that he can prepare his reports The Nominating Committee is preparing a slate of officers for the coming year. Up for election at the next annual meeting are the Secretary and one at large member of the Board of Directors. There is a lot of activity going on for the June 3 and 4 Railroad Prototype Modelers Meet which will be at the Enfield CT Holiday Inn. We hope to see you there. In the meantime, this month our speaker will be a well known prototype modeler, Tony Koester who will be talking about his modeling of the Nickel Plate s St. Louis Division. Next month will be a program on the Trolley Parks of Maine, and then in June our speaker from the first meeting of the Amherst Railway Society (and the first President of the ARS), Harvey Allen, returns with another program. One of the things that come up at this time of the year is the cost of membership. While we are reviewing membership dues, we are asking the members to look at their membership. If your membership expires in 2016, it will expire this coming June. Don t forget to renew Bruce MacCullagh, President 2014-2016 Board of Director s meetings Wed April 27, 2016 Wed May 18, 2016 MEMBERSHIP DUES: Check your mailing label, or membership card to see if the year says 2016 If it does, your membership expired at the end of this past June. Memberships expire on June 30 of the year listed. Student memberships require an update of year and expected graduation. Regular adult memberships are $28 for one year, $70 for three years, or $112 for five years. The five year membership renewal is equal to one free year. Prototype Meet David Owens Chair meeting Dates Speaker - Topic Newsletter Deadline May 17, 2015 Randy Leclair Restoration Manager Seashore Trolley Museum May 1, 2016 TROLLEY PARKS OF MAINE June 21, 2015 Harvey Allen student member of the railroad group that became the Amherst Railway Society. In addition to speaking at the Oct 1963 meeting of the ARS, in June 1964 he was elected as the first President of the Amherst Railway Society June 3, 2016 Page 2 of 10
Message from the Show Director: Last year, at this time, I was complaining about the 6 inches of snow still in my backyard. I am grateful that the winter this past year was not as harsh as the previous winter as that really allowed us to have a back to normal attendance, which will really help us for our next season. The Show Staff usually rests during February and March before we start to prepare for the next Show. It s not happening this year. We are already well into some of our early tasks for our 49th Annual Show. These meetings include negotiations with hotels and motels (which get earlier each year because more and more folks are reserving almost a year in advance), as well as our friends at the Eastern States Exposition [who, by the way, will be celebrating their 100th anniversary Show this year!] Also, our vendors and exhibitors that were either happy with their location or not happy have already been contacting us with their requests for the next season. I actually love hearing from them because that is their way of letting us know how well they did each Show and if we can do more for them, as we always are trying to assist. Our next show will again be one of the latest Show dates in many years Our January 2017 Show dates are January 28th and 29th, remembering that the dates of our Show precede the Super Bowl by a week. I only have one other item to report to you for this month: Our Annual Silent Auction and Swap Meet. This year will be our 9th year for this worthwhile, not to mention fun, event (it s looking like we may need to have a huge 10 year celebration next season). In keeping with our most recent tradition, we will have our silent auction during the summer. Last year we added a swap meet portion to the auction as that went over well. We did that because so many folks have asked if they can bring their own items to the Silent Auction. We will be doing that again for this next event. We will be announcing the date, time and place soon. Last year, our Silent Auction and Swap Meet was held on Friday evening, in late August. Look for a similar time frame for this summer. As soon as we have confirmed a place, we will let you know and we will be getting the word out to all. This would not be an appropriate newsletter without me giving you a small preview of some of the items: More books (most new), a serious collection of HO locos, a HUGE collection of N-scale equipment, including buildings, over 200 cars and locomotives with many new items still in original boxes. Also, there are electronics, building kits, S and O scale cars, clothing, scenery materials, videos and tons more.watch for those announcements! As always, I encourage anyone with any ideas, thoughts for the show, possible new vendors you name it, we would love to hear from you. One final reminder: The 2018 Show will be our 50th anniversary Show.let me know what you think we should do for that 50th anniversary! John Sacerdote, Show Director Page 3 of 10
A Railroader s Story The Rev. Arvie Maynard is a retired Presbyterian minister, who worked for the Baltimore and Ohio railroad when he was in high school. He continued working for the railroad in various positions until he started seminary. In 1995, he wrote a series of emails, about his railroading career. He has given permission for them to be reprinted here. (Previous chapters: Apprentice Machinist, Freight House Trucker, Signal Helper, Assistant Signalman, Signalman, Curve Corps, Assistant on Corps, Assistant Division Engineer, Maintenance Engineer) Page 4 of 10