Click here to link to the 2012 MFMR Convention web site.

The 2012 Saint John Fall show will happen this year on November 3rd, 2012 from 9am until 3pm at the Island View Lion’s Club in Quispamsis, NB (8 Market St.).

Click the image on the right to visit their web site.

View Island View Lions Club in a larger map

Hi Folks,

We’ve had our challenges arranging a first class convention at reasonable rates in the Halifax area but we’ve done great.

“Ocean Unlimited !” MFMR convention will be held June 1,2,3 2012.

The main venue will be the Halifax Forum Multipurpose Room. This is a great facility with good parking, and oodles of space so any layout configuration is possible. It includes a large glassed-in room which will be excellent for the contests and clinics. For set-up , there is drive in capability by way of a large roll-up door..

The public show will be Saturday only from 9am to 4:30pm Vendors can arrange for sales tables at $20 each. As usual, display tables are no charge. You must bring your own covers for the 6′ by 3′ tables. Set-up is on Friday from noon to 10pm but arrangements can be made to get in as early as 10am if necessary. Let us know if your table needs power.

The banquet will be at King’s College dining hall. This facility has the highest quality food. The meal will feature “Hip of Beef” with roast potatoes & vegetables and Yorkshire pudding. Any special dietary requirements can be handled if mentioned on the registration form.

Recommended accommodation is at the highly-rated Comfort Inn on the Bedford Highway. This is a clean and comfortable facility with free Hi-Speed and Wi-Fi in the rooms. It is located near Mile 7.9 on the Bedford Sub for you railfans..
It is a fairly straight 7 km (10min) drive in to the show venue. In addition, many of the major shopping malls and the Bayers Lake shopping district are easy to get to from there. Rooms are $107 and $114 per night depending on needs.
One great advantage is that the price covers breakfast that includes eggs and sausage. I would suggest booking early due to the pressure on hotels and motels in the Halifax regional municipality at that time of year. Call (902) 443-0303 to make arrangements. Mention the model railroad convention for the reduced rate.

The delegate fee is set at $15 per head. NOTE ! that to get access to the Model/Photo Contest room or to enter a model/photo in the contest you must be a delegate. The same applies to the clinics. We’re trying hard to not go in the hole !

We would love to have lots of representation from the model railroad groups and clubs. As there is no problem with space we can accommodate nearly any layout shape. Let us know your requirements.

Sorry we couldn’t include the particulars in the recent Branchline. A package will follow with registration forms and further details.

Regards,
Marc 240-8024 (Cell)
E-Mail: capcitymrcnssympaticoca

Although the details are a little sketchy right now the Convention will be held somewhere in Halifax from June 1 – 3. More details when they are available.

This is an informal update on DMRC. As many local modelers probably know, our president, Ed Preeper, passed away at the end of July. The members are continuing with construction of a new layout that should be in running condition next year.

However, our numbers are low, and at least one member will be moving out of the area in a little while. So, a few more new members (adult: 16+) would be most welcome. Any help the Federation can give to publicizing this opportunity to modelers in Dartmouth/HRM will be appreciated.

As we do not currently have a formal organization, contact can be made with myself, or with David Stredulinsky (Stredulinskyeastlinkca). Thank you.

Here is a video from the 2011 MFMR Annual Convention held in Lunenburg, NS. It is a great promotional piece for the Federation.

Sunday was a bit more relaxing.  Duane gave us a personal tour of the museum, including showing us some of the items that have not been put on display yet.  Duane is building a very impression recreation of the railroad on the south shore of Nova Scotia in “S” scale.  If you are ever in the area the museum should be a definite stop on your itinerary.

After lunch we stopped in to Chester, Nova Scotia to visit David Miller’s very impressive HO layout.  Duane has been helping David with some of the scenery and detail work on this layout.  It was impossible to see every detail in the hour or so that we were there.  Duane was continually pointing out tiny details that most people would overlook but were very important pieces of the scene.  Things like a scratch built circular saw on a sheet of plywood near a building being constructed (plus all the other usual items you would find near a building being constructed, tiny birds “flying” over the tree tops and sitting on things were some of the items.  See if you can spot more of these tiny details in the photos (below)

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Another “Maritimer in the Magazines” was brought to light over the weekend of the 2011 MFMR Convention.  David Miller of Chester, Nova Scotia, was kind enough to open his layout for viewing by MFMR members during the Convention.  Mr Miller, with the assistance of Duane Porter,  has built a beautiful and very nicely detailed layout in the basement of his home.  During the visit Mr. Miller made a comment about kitbashing an I-Series Sleeper car.  He also mentioned that he had written an article that was published in Canadian Railway Modeler.  Not having a great memory I wasn’t sure if this information had made it’s way to the MFMR web site.  A quick check showed that it had not – so…

The article appeared in Canadian Railway Modeler in Train 16, Track 5 (Volume 16, Issue 5 in CRM speak, or Jan/Feb. 2009)

Back issues of Canadian Railway Modeler can be ordered from their web site.

Here are a bunch of unsorted photos from Saturday at the Convention.  Please excuse the poor ones.  I’ll sort through them and add captions tomorrow on the drive home.

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Here are some photos from the Meet & Greet on Friday evening sponsored by Don’s HO in Moncton. Sorry, forgot my camera in the car so only had my phone to “capture the moment”.

I’ll apologize in advance for the pictures of Derwin. It really was a great get together. Great conversation and great food (the chowder was amazing!). I’ll say his expression was due to his early (3:00am) wake-up call to drive Shelley and Ashton to catch a bus to Monteal.