2014 REGION ELECTION

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2014 CANDIDATES

Candidate Information & Statements

President: GARY MYERS

Attention Rocky Mountain Region members, I seek a second term as your President.  It’s been a fun and productive 2 years.  Leading a team of your representatives, we have successfully pulled off and planned some great conventions in Cumbres and Albuquerque, to this year’s long awaited return to Salt Lake City and upcoming conventions in Denver and Colorado Springs.  We have updated our Financial Policy, convention proceeds distribution, Constitution and Bylaws.  We have a new team modernizing the Callboard, bringing it up to speed with current technology.  I would like to continue the job improving the infrastructure of the Region and adapting it to better suit the current needs and pursuits of our members.  Our biggest challenge, as always, is to attract new blood and energy into the leadership and simplify the trouble areas and improve others.  The best part of this job; however, has been getting to know and work and become good friends with many of you outside of my Division. Therefore, I would like to continue the work I began two years ago to leave the Region in the best possible shape for my successor two years from now.

I model HO & HOn3 D&RGW from the late twenties to mid 50s. I joined the Martin Marietta model railroad club in 1994 and helped it form the Scenic Line Modelers in 1998, and currently serve as President.  I joined the NMRA sometime in the 90s but did not participate and let my membership lapse.  I rejoined the NMRA in 2001.  Since then, I’ve enjoyed several regional conventions, participated in model contests, contest judging, presented clinics, and worked organizing the 2007, 2010, and the 2012 regional convention.  I ‘ve been Superintendent of the Sunrise Division 2010-2012, and previously served as Director in the Region from 2008 to 2010.

My current AP certificates nearing completion are Civil Engineer and Scenery.  I have completed the work for Chief Dispatcher (and have to submit the paperwork!) I have been awarded Association Volunteer, Author and Official.

Gary Myers

Vice-President: AL HOVEY

Since becoming a Rio Grande Division 6 member in 2006, I have enjoyed the opportunity to have fun, to become a good modeler and enjoy the friendship of numerous NMRA members throughout the RMR. My personal philosophy is that I, as a fortunate person, also have a responsibility to "give back" and "stand up and be counted" to support our hobby now and in the future.

With our Albuquerque area Rio Grande Division 6 I have served as secretary and program director along with participating in our RARG 2008 Convention and Train Show and being a proud member of the "red shirt team" hosting RARG 2013 Convention and Train Show. Additionally, I have served two terms on the RMR BOD.

Looking ahead locally, I'm helping put together an annual fall "Rails Along the Rio Grande Train Show" and working with fellow Division 6 modelers with a newly organized Rio Grande Model Railroad Club for boys and girls ages 8-18.

If elected as the RMR VP, I look at my duties and goals of service as being threefold:

1. Step in and conduct a meeting if the president can not attend.

2. Encourage local divisions to host RMR conventions and/or train shows for 2017 and 2018.

3. Share information, fun activities and "how to" experiences for youth clubs in model railroading.

Al Hovey

Secretary: GREG LONG

I have been a model railroader since I was 12 years old and that was 40 years ago. My dad saw me building model military tanks and trucks and weathering them. He let me build an Atlas tower kit and I was hooked. I helped my dad build several layouts over the years. I now have my own 20’ x 40’ 1954 era D&RGW based layout. The layout is both narrow and standard gauge and it has been published in the October 2005 issue of Model Railroading. The layout operates once a month and has been part of layout tours during conventions.

Currently I am the Secretary of the Region and have been since 2006. I have served under three Presidents so far and am willing to continue if need be. I am also the Secretary of the Pueblo Model Railroad Association. I have served in that capacity since the 1990’s. I am also a trustee of the Rio Grande Modeling and Historical Society. I have just celebrated 25 years of service at Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel Mills.

Greg Long

Treasurer: DONALD FRANCIS

Director: ROBERT E. ALLEN

I’ve got an old photo of me in a sailor suit holding a tinplate, wind-up steam locomotive. That must have led to my folks getting me a couple of Lionel sets in 1955 and 1959, which I let my grandkids play with from time to time to this day.

In high school, I became interested in HO scale when a relative had an unpainted brass steam locomotive, a few cars and a bare-bones basement layout. The detail of the equipment had me hooked.

For our first Christmas in 1971 the love of my life gave me my first HO scale cars. An Ambroid K-5 coach, and an Ambroid covered hopper. Both are wooden kits that tested my skill to be sure. The coach won a second place in a Pikes Peak Division contest last year.

In the mid 1980’s I built my first 5’X8’ layout after a plan I found in a Model Railroader magazine. By that time I had several additional items for the layout.

That didn’t last long however, when I decided to build a larger 13’X15’ version of Malcom Furlow’s San Juan Central, but in standard gauge. I used a combination of Dave Frary’s scenery techniques as well as Mr. Furlow’s techniques.

In 2003, with our son out of the house and on his own, my bride and I decided to take our travel trailer and see the country. So we sold the old hacienda (tract home in Pueblo, CO) and spent 4yrs on the road. Eventually settling at a campground about a mile from where the kids live just South of Colorado Springs. During this whole time I continued to build you name it, as no matter where we went, I always tried to give the local train store a little business. And I always, always build what I buy.

At one time during our travels, I got a serious hankering to run the trains that I had collected. Not only space, but weight is a serious limitation in a 26 ft. travel trailer. The solution was to mount track to a Styrofoam board which I was able to stand on edge next to my side of the bed. The board can be clamped to a picnic table, or laid out on the bed. It also doubled as additional insulation during the winter months. I still have the “layout” but it stores in the forward cabinet of our 39’ fifth wheel that we have owned since 2008.

The Pikes Peak Division of the Youth In Model Railroading meets on the 3rd Saturday of the month at our church. In late 2011 we enrolled our grand-daughter who has always had an interest in my model railroad activities. The YMR has become quite a deal with my family. We have developed many friends, and skills. It is their activities that peaked my interest in modules, as the YMR provides a 2’X42” module to each child.

The sponsoring club of the local YMR is the prize winning Pikes Peak and Southern Railroad. I am honored to have been able to be a guest in the layout with my newest 2’X8’ module.

Being active in the Youth In Model Railroading got me interested in the National Model Railroaders Association, and have now been a member now for two years. I have my wife and grand-daughter Tera as family members, too. I enjoy the sharing of knowledge, the friendship of those with common interests, and I enjoy the monthly contests, which are by popular vote, not so much to win (which is really cool), rather the show and tell aspect.

Robert E. Allen

DIRECTOR: ERNEE EDWARDS

I am originally from Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Virginia. I started in modeling with a Lionel train as most of us did switching to HO when Revell came out with their train line in the early sixties. I had a 4x8 layout in my home in Norfolk and an 8x8 in out home in Virginia Beach. Both layouts could be moved to and folded on to the garage wall. I enlisted in the Air Force after graduating from high school, in 1965. My first assignment was in Tucson, Arizona, serving with the 4080 SRW (later the 100th) as a Helicopter Tech and Mid-Air Recovery Tech. Were we could not send our unit's U-2 (Dragonlady) aircraft in high threat areas, we would send an aerial recon drone. I maintained the aircraft and the mid-air recovery system. Assigned to this unit I served three tours at our operation location in South Viet Nam. As I traveled a lot during this period, there was not much time for model railroading, just arm-chairing and visiting some rail sites around Tucson, watching trains.

In 1970 I cross-trained to the In-Flight Refueling Field and served as an In-Flight Refueling Tech for the next 15 years. In this new assignment I now had time to attend college and work on model railroad projects, as we would stand ground alert for seven days at a time. On my first day of combat alert duty I met my soon-to-be best friend. I had set up a portable RR workbench (like a suit case) on my desk to work on models over the weekend. My roommate asked what it was, I told him I built and collected trains - he said there was another man in the next tunnel over (we were underground in the alert facility) - I went around to the next tunnel and introduced myself, and sure enough he was building trains and we had a lot in common. Within 5 minutes we had bonded for life. In 1976 he was best man in my wedding. He and I both belonged to the Central Indiana Division, Mid-Central Region. During this period we attended numerous Div. events and Region activities. Also during this period I went to South East Asia for my fourth tour, flying combat missions out of U-Tapao, Thailand. In addition I traveled to England, Spain, Iceland and The Azores on different missions.

I transferred to Virginia in 1977, and within two months was a member of the Tidewater Division Mid-Eastern Region, where I met several lifelong friends. I worked with a round-robin group from 1978 to 1983. We had 4 layouts going, building turnouts and laying hand-laid track. I assisted our division in putting on several railroad shows, held annually in Virginia beach during that cities Neptune Festival. In 1983 I transferred to Plattsburgh, New York and left my family in Virginia Beach. During this period with my new duties and short of personnel I did not have much time for railroading. Retiring in 1985, I returned to Virginia Beach, took two months off, got the yard back in order, and started a new layout based on a design I had seen in upstate NY, where the layout was in modules and secured with base units at each corner ( basically 4 cabinets 2x4x6 with the modules bolted to them. I got the track work in and then again College took over my free time. I received my Masters in Aviation Management from Embry-Riddle University in 1987. While working on my masters I went federal again, one year to the day after retiring from the Air Force. Working several aviation jobs I finally ended up working for Naval Intelligence as a Recon analyst in 1988. ( I had been working on a carrier in aviation safety, but the door swung in a different direction as I had a high level security clearance, any way I did not look back). I worked with the Tidewater Division on several Regional Conventions and helped with construction of a layout for the Childrens’ Museum in Portsmouth, Virginia.

In 1997 the Army took over my job and I transferred to Miami, Florida, serving in the Headquarters of United States Southern Command. In this assignment I was the delegated production manager for USSOUTHCOM. I supervised three imagery analysis teams; one in Miami, and two Naval Reserve Units, one in Dallas, Texas and the other in Dayton, Ohio. As I was usually gone 8-10 days a month I had little time for Modeling. It was not until October 2000 that I got to go to a Sunshine Region Convention in Sarasota, Fl.

In December 2000, I moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, assigned to the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC). I bought a new home and immediately started planning for a layout in the room over my garage. Also I got involved with several railroad history societies (UP,N&W, RF&P and C&O).

In November 2006 I moved to Colorado, assigned to the Aerospace Data Center, on Buckley. As I was on a shaft for several years not much modeling was done, however, I was able to go to several NMRA and historical society conventions. I have been retired from DoD now for two and half years, and have done some modeling, but mostly catching up on my railroad and other history projects.

I have been to several great NMRA national conventions ( Washington 1982, Kansas City, 1984, Denver 1991, Columbus, 1992, Valley Forge 1993, St. Louis, 2001, Seattle, 2004, Philly, 2005, Cincinnati, 2006, and Sacramento 2011) and a number of regional conventions.

Ernee Edwards

DIRECTOR: BOB HAGGART

My name is Bob Haggart. I was born and raised in the small Southwestern PA steel mill town, Vandergrift. During WW2 my father and his father worked on the PRR. During this time my grandfather often took me fishing on the Allegheny River in Freeport. I was astounded and amazed at those very large locomotives going over the bridge to the north of us, the PRR Conemaugh division. I was hooked and wanted to work on the railroad. After WW2 my father went to work in the U.S. Steel Mill in Vandergrift. I would go down to the mill to see him, there began my interest in steel mills.

I got my first train set, a MARX clockwork, when I was 8. When I was 10 I got my first real train set, a Lionel. This started my life long quest of building a layout, however this layout had to wait until I was 40 some years old. In 1996 I found the NMRA and the Pikes Peaks Division and have been active in model railroading ever since.

After 23 years in the USAF, and 23 years owning a successful local computer business, I am now a happy retired model railroader.

Presently I belong to the Southern Colorado Operators group with a freelanced double-decked model railroad supporting a 16‘ by 4’ steel mill complex.

My experience with the NMRA started in 1996 with the Divisions’ modular group. Over the past years, I was the PPD’s Treasurer, twice the Superintendent, the editor of the Milepost, and the chair of the local contest. I’ve been involved with, too many to count, division’s shows and swap meets as well as the 2003 Rocky Mountain Region’s Convention Co-Chairman and the VP of the region.

I feel I have more than enough experience to provide sound reasoning and judgment while within the Director’s position with the RMR.

Bob Haggart

DIRECTOR: JACOB LOFGREN

Ever since receiving my first Tyco HO train set at the age of 9 years old, I have been in the hobby of model railroading. For birthdays and Christmas gifts I would receive additional components. As a teenager, I would use a portion of my paychecks to add to the collection. As with most of my fellow hobbyists, my time was committed to other interests. Some examples of those included backpacking, hunting, and fishing. During college, I did not have the time or space to continue my model railroad hobby activities. However, during this time, I continued modeling by building models and practicing painting techniques. At the same time, my college studies were in the fields of ecology, environmental science and biology. My interests and my college studies influenced my modeling; as I continued my studies and other interests, I grew more interested in practicing portraying nature in my model railroad hobby activities. After graduation, my first job was located in railroad mecca, Salida, Colorado. My job included opportunities to work in historical train town-sites and driving along historical railroad grades. I spent much of my time in the library studying historical railroad books. This has given me an addiction to learning about historical Colorado Railroad events as well as historical industries associated with railroads. When I started having extra money, I started my model railroad habit again. My model train equipment was nothing fancy and I started to develop my model railroad plan. However, as luck would have it, I had to move. So, I have yet been able to have a model railroad layout. You can call me a box model railroader. All of my train stuff has been in boxes since the age of nine. During all of this time my modeling has been an individual activity.

Over time my model railroading hobby has taken on multiple facets of interest. I have continued my fascination with railroad history, but I have expanded on my knowledge in architecture and industrial processes and the building of locomotive and rolling stock kits. Now, I have been a member of the NMRA and I have participated in a couple of model train clubs for approximately 6 years and it has been this activity that brought my model railroading to the next level. It is through the camaraderie that I have grown in my modeling skills.

As I have participated in NMRA Division meetings, I have met the “rivet counters” and the elitists that can take your confidence and enthusiasm away. I am interested in being involved in the NMRA to encourage younger people to develop an interest in the hobby. Also, I would like to capture the depth of knowledge of the experienced modelers to become mentors to others to increase our modeling experiences and share skills and abilities.

Jacob Lofgren

DIRECTOR: DAVE MERRILL

I have been been a Life Member of NMRA since 1968. I retired after 50 years as a college professor in instructional technology but continue to teach online classes at various institutions and I continue to write. My writing and media experience qualifies me for making a contribution to the communication and publicity functions of the NMRA and the Rocky Mountain Region. As a professor, I have presented professional workshops throughout the USA and Internationally. As a member of the BOD, I will work to assist with workshops, publicity and communication within the Region.

My interests in the hobby of railroad modeling are wide ranging with perhaps my best skills resting in scenery construction and scratch building structures. My current model railroad is the Ascape Tennsion and Sulphur Gulch Railroad (see Davesatsgrr.blogspot.com). I currently serve as recruitment chairman for the Southern Utah Division and President of the Color Country Model Railroad Club.

Dave Merrill

DIRECTOR: LARRY STEPHENS

Like many who have become modelers, I received a Lionel as a kid only to put it away when our interest turned to girls and starting out our adult life. In the mid 1970s I started buying inexpensive AHM cars and engines at Woolco Discount stores. After setting up section track it became clear that I need to do more. Thru the years I built 2 toy like layouts then one more serious layout with snap switches and brass track. I soon realized that I would soon need to move to a higher level but would not have time until I retired. During that time I discovered Kadee and metal wheels then DDC. Along with a lot of what not to do.

Now retired I took down my old brass track and started designing a proper layout with everything I learned from reading Model Railroad magazine and books. During a TCA train show I was talked into Joining NMRA. At first I had my doubts if these meetings were going to be worth my time. I found that doing a layout by yourself has its limits. As I attended more meetings I found the clinics useful. It was also fun to put my ideas and thoughts in show and tell display. I also found out that some of the things I did or was going to do were worth passing on in a clinic or tool time. The best part of the hobby is creating something unique at scale, finding other ways to do things and studying the prototype and putting it to scale.

I, like many people in the hobby wonder if the hobby is going to survive. At least get enough younger people to crawl under the tables to check on wires or discount the modules. When my son inherits my trains will there be anyone to buy them on EBay. Right now new engines and cars are out of reach of many youths and seem to be bought by older working adults. Do we try to get the youth interested or is there a way to reach working adults with the money to pursue the hobby.

Larry Stephens

DIRECTOR: JEFF WRIGHT

I’m not only lucky, but proud to be a member of the NMRA Rocky Mountain Region’s Rio Grande Division. I became associated with Al Hovey and many other fine members in our region through a sad circumstance, losing a dear friend and fellow model railroader to the ravages of ALS. Those associations however, grew to many new friendships, and catapulted me back into model railroading and the world of the NMRA.

Wondering what I could bring to this great community, I started offering my services from my ‘real job’ in broadcast television. Naturally, shooting videos and stills of members’ layouts was my first choice, but that eventually also led to helping out with website creation and graphic design for our Division. We spent several years building a very active website, YouTube channel, and social media presence prior to and during Rails Along the Rio Grande 2013, last year’s Regional convention here in Albuquerque, and I’m continuing to develop those outlets for year-round activities of the Division, and the Region.

Shortly after RARG2013, Gary Myers asked me if I would take over as editor of the Callboard, and along with the tremendous help of Assistant Editor Doug Whetstone, we’ve evolved the region’s publication into an online-accessible format. This affords us the flexibility to easily include videos and links to multi-media on-line materials, in addition to all the informative articles, tech & tip columns, and photos contributed by our region’s members.

I’m a member of several local model railroad clubs, including the New Mexico RailRunners, ASHOME, as well as Division 6, for whom I provide graphic design services for any flyers and publications, and website assistance for the upcoming Rails Along the Rio Grande 2014 Train Show. I’m also involved with the New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Railroad Historical Society, and am working on my first NMRA AP certificate, for Association Volunteer.

There are such talented modelers in this division and our region – and I would like to continue to help highlighting their great work in as many venues as possible -helping to both educate and entertain our members as well as grow the hobby’s audience and participants, present and future.

Jeff Wright