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The Annual Picnic

Text by Ken Granzin. Photographs by Charles Krug

Club members gathered in the Eliada cafeteria on July 19th for a session of camaraderie and good food. Fred Coleman and Maureen Rigg once again managed the food acquisition and distribution, for which we thank them.

John Williams presenting awards to:

Ken Gazin recieving award Jack Mershon recieving award
Ken Granzin Jack Mershon
Fred Coleman recieving award Boyce recieving award
Fred Coleman Boyce

Fred Coleman presenting awards to:

Bill Siebert recieving award Jack Mershon recieving award
Bill Siebert Jack Mershon
They, in turn, thanked those who added to the cache of food by making and/or bringing their own contribution. Our new Superintendent, John Williams, took over the leadership role for the club, and he thanked Fred for his years of service in that position. All those in attendance joined him with a rousing round of applause for Fred, who received a very attractive plaque to commemorate his many contributions to the club.

Incoming Superintendent John Williams spoke of some of his ideas for moving the club into the future. For example, he intends to emphasize rewards for various areas of achievement recognized by the NMRA. John wants us to maintain a close relationship with the national association, but he emphasized that NMRA membership is not requisite for belonging to our club.

John presented recognition certificates to those in attendance who have worked with the Eliada youth in the barn and/or previously with cub scouts. He will later distribute their certificates to workers who didn’t attend the picnic. The certificates were provided by Lee Monaco-Fitzgerald, who is the major proponent in this country for using n-scale t-trak modules as the basis for creating model railroads as well as for modeling the environment of railroads.

Jack Mershon was recognized as the oustanding of the year. (If you have not member seen the fine scenery contributions Jack has made to our modular layout, stop by the barn and take a look at the park scene, the village, and especially, the magnificent high trestle bridge he built.)


News for our members

Lake Junaluska update

At the beginning of the year, The Lake Junaluska Assembly acquired a model railroad layout. If you attended the SER convention, you saw this layout at the Terrace Hotel. Bill Seibert, Jack Mershon and John Williams have been advising a group of retirees at Lake Junaluska in refurbishing the layout. With a little bit of labor trains now run on one loop of track with some degree of reliability.

They met two weeks ago to discuss the layout’s future. In its current form the layout is antiquated. In the 1960s and 70s it was a state-of-the-art operation, but not anymore. After some brainstorming, it was decided that a portion of the layout would be redesigned to reflect a portion of Lake Junaluska, complete with buildings found there today. The remainder would be built to reflect Waynesville or some other area nearby. The new layout has the potential for small operating sessions. This update will require a major dismantling of the layout.

Money is not really much of an issue, but commitment is. The three are willing to work on this project, but before they sink their time and their money into it we need to get a feel from the Lake Junaluska group how much is there interest. We will be submitting a track and layout plan to them about the first of September. At that time, a decision will be made to go forward or to abandon the project altogether.

If anyone is interested in helping as your time permits, please contact, Bill, Jack, or John Williams.


Operating sessions

Operating sessions in August are scheduled for the 9th at 9am and the 24th at 6:30 pm.