Hosting an NMRA meeting - Div2 - July 2025
Shortly after I moved to Junee in 2015, I hosted a meeting for the ACT/Sthn NSW division of the AR region, of the NMRA. There was no layout to show, but I dragged out my collection of slides, and gave a slide presentation of my pictures taken since 1980 of the future layout prototype locations. 9 members made the trip from Canberra.
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| QBX 005 arrived at Junee Roundhouse whilst a few NMRA members were visiting on the Sunday after my meeting |
Since that time, I was not prepared to host a followup meeting, until I had something to show. The planets seem to align for July 19th, so I booked in the date early in the year on the Div 2 division calendar.
Prior to the meeting
Stephen O'brien, the Div 2 Super had wanted a meeting in Junee, as he felt it important to conduct meetings outside Canberra, to encourage membership who can't get to Canberra meetings. Div 2 is a widely spread geographic area, and travelling to meetings can be an expensive undertaking. There is always a possibility of making the meeting part of a weekend short break. Junee is still a railway town, with an operating Roundhouse/museum, an original Railway Refreshment room cafe, and a Licorice and chocolate factory. Nearby in Wagga, the miniature 7.25" trains run on a 2km track in the Botanical gardens, and they would be operating on the Sunday after my meeting. There is also the Railway museum on the Wagga station platform.
I discussed the above options with Stephen, and the email asking for meeting acceptances was sent out 2 weeks prior to the meeting.
The presentation.
My earlier presentation was old school slides, but I wanted an upgrade. Since then, I have documented my progress on this blog, and I had lots of computer images, that would work with a projector. So, in June, I purchased a HD projector from Amazon for just over $160. I was very impressed with the service, fast delivery and the ease of setup. Projectors have come a long way in the 17 years since I first used them at my workplace in the ACT public service
After the initial test of the projector, my next task was to totally clear the floor area of my train room. Whilst this took an inordinate amount of time, it was great to finally consign the clutter to history.
The test of the projector in the train room, using the previously painted light grey wall showed that I needed to fit curtains to each of the windows. So, a trip to Spotlight, and $200 for curtains and mounting hardware. The curtains worked to darken the room.
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| The VOPLLS projector, on the stand. The laptop (not shown) is connected via the supplied HDMI cable, although it could work wirelessly with WiFi. The lamp (Temu freebie) is so I can see the laptop keyboard when the room lights are off |
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| Actual Image of the projection on the wall. The long ramp (see last blogpost) of the layout can just be made out in the gloom. Success. Note, the image is my picture from a cruise to NZ in 2010 - Port Chalmers/Dunedin, where the tour train meets the ship. |
Death by Powerpoint is the last thing I wanted. Fill it with pictures, and limited text. But what to describe? I settled on 2 themes
- Scratch building a real building - Bomen Station
- Modifying a kit to fit a prototype location - Kyeamba Creek Bridges
Powerpoint presentations created for both :- either one, or the other, or both could be shown depending on time
Acceptances.
Div 2 membership is around 60 members, and I thought that numbers wanting to travel over 2 hrs to my meeting would be few in number. I was wrong. A week out there were 15 acceptances, and more were expected. The total ended up at 20, but there were another 5 blow-ins who just arrived
Catering.
I am indepted to Tracy for her help with this aspect.
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| Coffee, Tea, and biscuits stored in the train room kitchenette cupboard |
We started acquiring supplies in June, and as the acceptance, numbers started rising, she decided on the full afternoon tea aspect. Hot fare would be sausage rolls, little boys, spring rolls, plus soup and bread rolls. In addition, dips, cheese, olives, cabanossi, loaded egg curry sandwiches, and pikelets, with cream and jam. And we also acquired a second air-fryer, so as to minimize the time to cook the sausage and spring rolls.
Our weekly shop to Wagga bought much of the above, the bread/pikelets was purchased on the Friday in Junee before the meeting to be as fresh as possible.
I then started the cleaning of all the coffee and soup cups. Many had railway themes. It all takes time
Layout room preparation continues
I do not have enough chairs, and the email sent out by Stephen, requested that people bring a portable chair is possible. I had just 6 dining room table chairs, and Pete offered me some more plastic chairs, on the proviso, that they needed cleaning.
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| Stackable chairs - rated at 100kg only |
My next task was to display many of my models created over the last 8 years. I have documented the construction of each one in my blog, but seeing them live is better. The below 30 second video shows them
Lastly I set up a tables for show-n-tell, bring-and-buy, and for the afternoon tea.
The meeting
Stephen had suggested that attendees have a light lunch at the Railway Cafe at 12 noon, before heading to my place at 1pm. I understand, that they were treated to a train down at the station. Other members started arriving at my place from around 12:30. The meeting began around 1:10pm with normal NMRA business.
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| Stephe Jitts MMR about to award an achievement plaque. |
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| Congratulations Craig |
The meeting continued with a show-n-tell session. I tried to encourage the assembed crowd to grab a coffee, and a few nibbles from items on my kitchenette, during the interval before my presentation, but this aspect didn't work out as well as I hoped.
I had told Tracy that 3pm would be the time for the afternoon tea. I probably rushed my presentation, the only glitch happened when mid presentation, the projector suggested a firmware upgrade. After the Bomen station talk, I still had another 20 minutes, so the Kyeamba bridge powerpoint followed. Finishing at 2:55pm, members seemed to not know about the afternoon tea - and had to be ushered out of my train room. They were either talking between themselves, or admiring my models.
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| Pete's picture. The large module in the background is not my work, it was built by Ron Cullen, one of the items acquired in December on my rushed Melbourne Trip |
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| Pete's picture, showing Bomen station, and at the back, the Kyeamba Creek bridge |
The ones who arrived earlier for afternoon tea, demolished the pikelets. And most of the rest of the food was consumed too - which was good, as I hate waste.
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| Pete's picture of the crowd under the carport. Dale is showing off his Freemo module |
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| Dale's Freemo module. Wayside signal box, and siding. My picture |
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| Pete made good use of the winter sunlight with these 3 pictures. |
Long distance members
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| My driveway was not big enough, so many cars were parked on the side of the road. |
Attendees came from most corners from Div 2. Albury, Batemans Bay, Bemboka, Bombala, Bywong, Canberra, Murrumbateman, Wagga, and Junee.
Sunday
Those staying overnight had options for Sunday. Pete opened up his hobby railway for inspection at 9:30am
https://www.peteshobbyrailway.club/
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| From left to right - George, Ben, Ian (rear), me, Stephe and Robin. Pete's had positioned his Ruston on the turntable, and his steam loco Torpedo closest to the engine shed. |
After the visit to Pete, another 1km to the Roundhouse Museum
Conclusion
Hosting a meeting is a significant commitment. It involves planning, and expense. Whilst there is a token payment for catering, it fell well short of the actual cost. Possibly comparable to the cost of fuel when I travel to Canberra for a meeting. And there is a time factor. Even as I write this 2 days afer the meeting, I still have not finished cleaning up all the cups, and repacking the models I had on display. I only returned the chairs to Pete this morning. Mind you, I delayed myself finishing the packup with writing the blog post.
Thanks to Pete for his opening up his hobby railway for us, and for use of some of his pictures
I wish to especially thank Tracy for her help, without her I would have struggled. She did tell me on Saturday morning, that I was trying to micromanage her, and if I didn't stop, she would go on strike!! One has to trust the better half.
From my own benefit, it was good to get my room cleared, and to return something back to the organisation I have been in for 35 years. And the train room worked, and that was encouraging for the future entertainment of the operating crew. Unfortunately, there will be no further meetings in the room - once the benchwork for the central peninsular is built, the available space shrinks.
Until next time, build a model or two.
