Over 20 members of the Seacoast Division NMRA convened in Auburn, Maine, on Saturday, July 25, in the Great Falls Model Railroad Club’s clubhouse for the Summer Event. Four members also participated through Zoom. All members saw three great clinics, three show and tell presentations, and a demonstration of the new features on the Division’s website.

President John McHugh, MMR, opened the session with some news and presentations. Unfortunately, Dave Saums was not going to be present to give a previously scheduled clinic on the B&M Railroad. A new banner is being created to use soon at train shows and other public activities to promote the NMRA and Seacoast Division. Watch for a survey request to provide information on what you as a member would like to have from the Division for services and activities. Every member is encouraged to give their response so that the Board of Directors can strive to address member wishes. John awarded a certificate of appreciation to Glenn Mitchell for his important work for Concord Flyer. He also handed an AP certificate (Model Railroad Engineer-Civil) to Peter McKenney.

Doug Hartwell started off the clinic presentations with an inspiring story of how he designed his multi-deck, N-scale layout, first in a large room in his home, followed by a smaller layout in a condominium. Doug urged modelers to design a layout that represents a transportation system. He gave examples of change of design strategies, selective compression, and dioramic presentation for enhanced focus and drama. With thin layers of benchwork, he obtained adequate space between decks and achieved longer mainline runs. He also utilizes lightweight, detachable sections so that a layout room can also be used for occasional social activities.

Jack Lutz plans to add 3D-printed vehicles to his layout but he was not sure what type of vehicles and what colors. He gathered 1,300 on-the-road observations on a December 2025 trip by automobile from the northern New England to Florida and return. For colors, he separated his observations into groups. The results:

As for vehicle styles, SUVs represented over 50% of the vehicles on the road. Cars represented 25%, pickup trucks 20%, and mini-vans 5%.

Jack models in the late 1990s, however, so he had to find historical data.

• Colors: https://www.thedrive.com/news/37001/this-graph-shows-how-car-paint-colors-have-gotten-more-boring-over-the-years
• Styles: https://www.epa.gov/automotive-trends/data-automotive-trends-report

In lieu of Dave Saum’s clinic, John McHugh, MMR, presented an excellent clinic on scratch building a girder bridge. He began the presentation explaining how the NMRA’s Achievement Program can aid a modeler in constructing a good looking model efficiently. He gave several tips on documenting the construction process to make it more competitive in a model contest or higher scoring if a modeler wants to earn a merit award.

During a break for lunch, members looked at the items for sale on the surplus items table and studied the objects on the Show and Tell table. They also visited the large HO layout on the ground floor of the clubhouse as well as the other four layouts in the building and enjoyed informal discussions on model railroading topics with fellow members.

During the Show and Tell portion of the Event, new NMRA member Rick Asaam from Presque Isle provided a short video of his attractive N scale home layout which featured northern Maine structures and other features.

Mike Ricci talked about one of the many craftsman kit dioramas he has built. Mike’s home HO scale layout era is the 1920s so he has many scenes with vintage structures and locomotives. Mike showed his Oddmunn Brothers & Company mill which features a number of 3D printed details as well as 3D stone walls, board-on-board construction and laser cut siding. Weathering techniques include using hairspray before painting on its silo and “White Out” on walls and roof.

Bob Bennett, our division’s most prolific author, announced that he recently submitted an article for publication in the 2027 On30 Annual to be published by White River Productions. The subject of the article is his scratch built On30 “crank car.” These vehicles were sometimes used by section crews on Maine two-footers instead of the more common handcars. Bob obtained plans for his model from a Robert C. Jones book on the Sandy River and Rangely Lakes Railroad for the basic dimensions and details but his model is the result of his “interpretation” of those plans. This project kept his enthusiasm for our great hobby alive and well.

Peter McKenney spoke about the recently updated division website. He first pointed out that the website, seacoastnmra.org, can be accessed on mobile devices as well as on computers. The newly designed website is intended to make available to all viewers many modeling resources and also to preserve the records of the Division. The home page has many attractive images, a video welcoming viewers to the Seacoast Division, a panel with upcoming events and a link to upcoming train shows, and a brief narrative describing what the purpose of the Division is. This one page is the public face of the Division and hopefully helps promote  recruitment and retention of members.

The navigation bar (menu) at the top of home page has six major categories:

• Events- much more detail about upcoming events as well as prior events
• About- details of the Division including its mission, governance, and biographies of departed members
• Switch Tower- explanation of how to submit articles for publication and search the archives of all issues published since 1994.
• Explore- key activities are supported by articles, videos, photo galleries, and other resources
  • Modeling
  • Layouts
  • Operations
  • Achievement Program
• Community- how we share the fun of model railroading with others
  • Membership- benefits at three levels: division, regional and national
  • Faulter Fund- supporting young people entering the hobby
  • Organizations- local clubs and other railroad organizations
• Contact- division leaders and email contact form

The header also has direct links to the Division’s YouTube channel with its 575 subscribers, Facebook page, and Instagram page, as well as buttons to the NMRA membership application page and a means to donate to support the Division.

Peter encouraged members to frequently look at the website to see newly published articles and updated events notices.

Vice President and Publicity Chair Joe Martin staffed the audio/video equipment during the meeting making it possible for the Zoom participants to see the clinics and other presentations as well as record them for later posting to the YouTube Channel. With the newly acquired A/V system equipment, the quality of the Zoom and recordings has improved noticeably. Given the challenges of attending distant quarterly events, the leadership hopes that more members will take advantage of the Zoom service when they cannot attend in person.

John reminded everyone of the summer outing on August 8 at Tom Oxnard’s home and the Fall Event in Rochester, NH, on October 3. Keep viewing the website for the latest news of upcoming activities and viewing new articles and resources posted to the website. More fun and great clinics are in store for all members. Look for YouTube videos of the Summer Event clinics and Show and Tell presentations to be posted on the website in a few weeks.