The RailLink Mississippi Valley Associated Railroaders M.V.A.R. Carleton Place, Ontario Canada February 2013 G-Men at the Mont-bleu Ford Train Show (See Cover Story starting on page 4) Check out the M.V.A.R. web site for the latest club updates: www.mvar.ca and www.facebook.com mvar
The President s Message for January 2013 With the T-Trak team leading the way in many directions - presentations at shows, actively building new modules, articles in magazines featuring MVAR's pioneering developments in the T-Trak approach to modelling - we are a club on the move. The challenge is now for those working in other scales to share their creative efforts more widely. It offers to be an interesting year as we continue to explore ways to have what we do known and appreciated and through our active public program, grow in the number of new members. Public Relations and Program Larry Skinner Each Saturday morning members, friends, and guests come out to the Gourmet Restaurant for breakfast and railroad social time. This is a great place to get and share ideas for building your railroad. We start arriving about 07:00h and we eat at 08:00h. We socialize until 09:00h. On Wednesday mornings 6 to 8 members come out to Tim Horton s in Almonte for café and our Railroad Social hour. We start arriving about 09:30h and we meet until about 10:30h. Call another club member this week and get together for a house visit and see what they are doing with their layout or maybe make some suggestions. MVAR MEETINGS MVAR T-Trak Sub meets 2nd Tuesday each summer month in Carleton Place Arena 7 to 9 PM (reverting to the 2nd Thursday in Sept.) MVAR meets 4th Thursday in Oct, Nov, Dec, Feb, Mar, and Apr in Carleton Place Arena 7 to 9 PM MVAR Dinner Meetings are in Christ Church (Anglican), Ashton 6:30 to 9:00 ($20.00 charge) the 4th Thursday of Sep, Jan and May. Visitors are always welcome Come and join us! 2
MVAR Executive Brian Hull, President terbrinhull@xplornet.com Ben Sanders, Treasurer bsanders@ucalgary.ca Membership This position is vacant. If interested contact Brian Hull. Rod Goodwin, Webmaster To all members who have web pages; you can have your link posted on our website. TO ALL MEMBERS CHECKOUT THE WEB SITE FOR ACTIVITIES THAT THE MEMBERS WILL BE HOSTING. wingood@sympatico.ca Ron Legge, Secretary/Archivist leggerh@sympatico.ca David Reis, Librarian David s working on a listing that Rod can publish on the MVAR Website. That way, if you are researching some aspect of railroading and you see something listed in the library that you think might help, you can get in touch with David, either by phone or by e-mail, tell him what you are looking for, and he can arrange to meet you at the next breakfast session, MVAR meeting, etc. and you can get the magazine, book, or video that you were looking for. gumbyreis@gmail.com Larry Skinner, Public Relations lskinner@storm.ca Bob Carswell Newsletter Bob.Carswell@xplornet.ca Programs This position is vacant. If interested contact Brian Hull. 3
Mont-bleu Ford Train Show January was a busy month for MVAR members. 19-20 Jan 2013 was the Mon-bleu Ford Train Show in Gatineau; and the following weekend on 26 Jan 2013 was the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Toy and Train Show in Almont. Both events were well supported by members of MVAR. The G-Men, under the "leadership" of Dennis MacTavish, were at the Mont-bleu show for the first time with their 20'x 54' Gscale module layout. This 3-track oval occupies a lot of real-estate and, when it's populated with structures, vehicles, vignettes and people, is quite the sight to behold. The trains were continuously running on the layout both days. Many of the structures you see in these photos were scratchbuilt by Colleen MacTavish. 4
Particularly impressive is the MacTavish grain elevator and out-buildings which Colleen built board-by-board and shingleby-shingle. She received quite a number of compliments on her work. The layout also includes a drive-in scene and campground that are the creativity of Tony and Carol Chamberlain. And for the little ones, James (of Thomas the Train & Friends) was running for most of Saturday. While at the other end, N-Scale T-Trak was represented. 5
Hopefully, the images above will provide a visual representation of the show. The Mont-bleu Ford train show is a little different from others that we have participated in. Not only is model railroading represented, remote model aircraft, war gaming and pin collection along with several vendors participate. This last photo is of John Allen's coal train. 2 power units pulling 25 coal loads around the layouts outside loop. Big Brothers/Big Sisters Toy and Train Show - Almonte From the Mont-blue Ford show, we moved on to the Big Brothers, Big Sisters Toy and Train Show held at the Almonte Civitan hall. 6
This year we were only able to get one table for the BB/BS show. John Allen graciously brought out his layout. A young HO enthusiast displays his farm layout. Some of the displays and the crowd at the BB/BS show in Almonte Special thank you to everyone who participated in the Mont-bleu Ford and Almonte shows helping to make them both successful events. Announcement: Guest speaker at our regular MVAR meeting on 28 February 2013 will be Jim Davis. Jim has been a long time modeller, but is no stranger to larger projects as evidenced in the photos below. 7
The orange crate car was his first big project, built at age 10. The photo was taken on his 11th birthday. Jim says, That's me sitting in the car, my twin brother outside. His next project was a 47 Chev 4 door Fleet Line series that he customised at age 18 Jim has a wealth of stories, come out and let him entertain you. Point of Interest: Ever wonder what John Soehner does with all his photos? You can see them at: http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/john_soehner01.html 8
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Coming Events 23 Feb 2013 Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario 2pm-4pm Railway Station Architecture in Ontario Speakers David and Andrew Jeanes Admission: $10.00 16 Feb 2013 OVAR Model Train Flea Market 2 Mar 2013 Cobourg Model Train Show 16-17 Mar 13 Kingston Rail-O-Rama Show 10
Some of the M.V.A.R. members Railway Patches M.V.A.R. David McCurdy David Biggs Bob Summers Dennis MacTavish John Soehner Jim Davis Larry Skinner ARIZONA RESOURCE RAILWAY John Morin Bob Carswell T-TRAK Sub W.G.H. Cathy & John Delroy You re Logo Here Check out the M.V.A.R. web site for the latest club updates: www.mvar.ca and www.facebook.com mvar 11