February 2025

Greetings from Bill Voogd and the 5th Division. Spring is right around the corner and with it, the first train show of
2025 is drawing near. The River City Modelers Spring Train Show is scheduled for March 9th at the Spokane County Fairgrounds. It is a large show with 200+ vendors tables and usually a half dozen or more operating layouts. We have arranged that NMRA members can get credit toward their Volunteer AP certificate by helping at the show. 5th Division continues to do clinics with River City Modelers anytime there is a 5th Thursday in a month. On January 30th, there was a presentation by Ron Edgar on enhancing yard operations on club layouts. The premise was that if you always break apart trains at one end of the yard and build them on the opposite end, it will result in a natural flow across the yard and the strings of cars needed to be pulled to build new trains will be substantially shorter. We also talked about returning turnouts to their proper alignment when leaving a switching area as a common courtesy to your fellow operators and also in compliance with the operating procedures of prototype railroads. Work is continuing on the 2025 PNR Convention to be held May 9-11 at the Red Lion in Pasco. It promises to be a great event with valuable clinics, contests, prototype tours, and some great local model railroads to tour. Additionally, non-local enroute tours are being set up May 8th for drivers arriving from various directions. Stay tuned for more details. The convention will also feature HO and N gauge Free-mo layouts. Registration is open. Sign up early for the best rates. The 5th Division Annual Meeting will take place on Saturday, April 19th. While still in the Spokane area, it will be at a new and unique location. Let’s just say that the proprietor of the location has a hobby centered around old street cars. Reserve the date and plan to attend. That’s all for now. I look forward to seeing many of you at future 5th Division events.