NMRA Middle East Region Meet Sights and Experiences

Bernie Kempinski's O scale civil war layout, essentially a museum-like mega diorama of Union Army logistics operations in Northern Virginia in 1863 or 1864, was a highlight of the MER meet. Most of the rolling stock and all of the structures are scratch built, and of course there are several hundred figures and horses scattered around the layout. Note the flatcar load of horse fuel.

The National Model Railroad Association Mid East Region held its big meet on 4-7 October 2018 in my own neighborhood of Rockville, Maryland. There was an extensive menu of clinics--presentations with varying degrees of audience participation--covering techniques, and my favorite, philosophy and approaches to model railroading. On the side, NMRA and MER officers met to discussion Region and Association business.

My favorite experiences of the event were the layout visits. The visits afforded interesting interaction with other modelers, and also convey a lot of information that doesn't come across easily in magazine articles or  clinic presentations.

If there was a theme to this MER meet's layout visits, it was 'O Scale Has NOT Left the Building'. Among the layouts I visited, there were three outstanding, mature O scale layouts that each individually demonstrated the strengths of well-executed, vista-filling O scale. 

Other scales and approaches were on proud display as well, with my first visits to basement-filling N scale and narrow gauge layouts.

John Sethian's layout was featured in the November 2017 issue of Model Railroader, and the photos--while good--just didn't do this layout justice. The focus is electified Pennsy in the 50s, which of course got my attention! John and I bonded over our love of electrics, catenary, and pantographs, but my big takeaway is the vehicle and structure detail is the soul of urban scenery. John also validated to me that heavy electric modelers must embrace a life of black smithery and kitbashing--even in O scale, which I had always thought of as the most heavy electric-friendly of the scales.

Chris Smith's O scale N&W layout takes a different but equally impressive approach to big-time, classic-era railroading. Chris' design and vision shows a lot of John Armstrong design influence, and he has packed in a lot of railroad into a modest space--all without seeming like a spaghetti bowl. The impressive vertical scenery is important here, but so is the layout's height, elevation, and lighting. These huge trains (a small car could parked in the space shown in this photo) appear even huger in reality because they are somewhere between chest and scalp height. The carefully managed viewpoints also convey the drama of big Appalachian railroad--the grades are perceptible without looking like Alpine rack railroads. Imagine O scale N&W jackshaft and massive Virginian electrics on a layout like this!

Monroe Stewart's N scale Hooch Junction has also graced the pages of Kalmbach magazines. This basement-sized layout requires a three or four person crew just to run trains around for visitors! The logistics of this large layout was overwhelming and impressive--it has what amounts to a server closet full of DCC and other electrical gear.  This port area is many times the size of an N scale hollow core door layout. This is one of several large industrial areas; there is significant mountainous terrain with deep gorges and high peaks in between. 

Jane and Pete Clarke are principals in the East Broad Top historical society, so it stands to reason that their large HOn3 EBT layout accurately reflects the look and operations of the EBT. In my humble opinion, narrow gauge outside of the Rockies gets a pretty short shrift in the model railroading universe, so seeing this fully realized, prototype-based layout was an unexpected pleasure. I have since had a lucky opportunity to operate on this layout. Jane and Pete meticulously plan and execute their op sessions based on actual EBT practices and traffic, and the carefully planned layout exemplifies the 'design for operation' approach. Hearing about how Jane and Pete have built their rolling stock roster gave me a new appreciation for the challenges of modeling the obscure--and here I thought my South Shore and heavy electric models were far and few between. 

At the MER convention site, a large FREMO module display featuring modules from all over the mid-Atlantic Seaboard region. Here are the Philly area FREMOers with their ambitious heavy electric modules--some already have catenary, and these will eventually have wire as well.