Newsletter

MEETING AT the Brown's in Absecon, NJ

What a fall season we have had with winds and Nor'easters. Sunday was a beautiful fall day but the rains had left the garden railroad covered with wet leaves. Such is the life of a garden railroader. The Brown's have added and rearranged a few things in their garden railroad in the past year. The Indian village sported new "skins" on the teepees; a John Deere layout was established and the Oil Refinery had an overhaul. An Open House in September was well attended and when the leaves are cleaned up, the railroad will take a rest until spring. Lunch was enjoyable.
Attending: Bob & Judy Beare, the Brown's; John & Arlene D'Ambrosio, Ed DeSipio, Jim & Marilyn Fox, Larry & Donna Grady, Bill Keller, Rick & Patti Lewis, Fred Neal, Bud & Cass Oncay, Larry Paakh, Joe & Darlene Profetto, Wayne Richter, Tom & Marie Tomasello, Al Schmidt and Ned Young.

Business Meeting

Joe Profetto, Pres. conducted the business meeting. Donna Grady, Treas. reported the total we have in our treasury.

Longwood Gardens: SJGRS has fulfilled our volunteer attendance and will receive $350. Ross Carson and crew will be taking down the layout Monday, Nov. 23rd. For those of you who didn't get up there, you missed a great layout and time.

Ocean City Show (December 4th, 5th & 6th): Dec. 4th at 2pm Larry Paakh will arrive with the trailer. We need people to help unload. The guys who volunteer to help with set up will be responsible for setting up the track. There will be two layers of risers and an area in front of the layout for more track and trains. Ed DeSipio will need help with his Thomas display. The ladies will bring the layout to life with holiday cheer, lots of snow and winter scenes. Please make an effort to come down and bring some houses, fun winter scenes, trees, etc. We can also use snow blankets, the more the merrier. Dec. 5th we'll run trains, play with little ones and give out candy canes from 10am-5pm; Dec. 6th the same but hours are 11am - 4pm. We need help with tear down on Sunday beginning at 3:30pm. If you can't make set up, plan to come down Sunday and help out with tear down.

Atkinson' @ Christmas: Ed DeSipio, Fred Neal, Bob Beare & Larry Paakh will set up on Dec. 10 & 11. We need volunteers in the evenings on Wednesdays & Fridays 5-9pm; Saturdays & Sundays 2-9pm through Jan. If you can come on down for a few hours or the whole time, contact one of the guys listed so that you can be scheduled in. This is a restaurant & bar so plan to have dinner while you're there. It's a nice night out and you can enjoy talking to people and running trains in a different setting. This is a club sponsored event so let's be a part of it.For a complete itinerary of the event click here to view the memo from Ed DeSipio.

December will be our month to participate in showing our trains at holiday events - there will be no business meeting. Besides Ocean City and Atkinsons we'll have: Al Schmidt & Fr. Elliott setting up at Grace Church on Dec. 6th; The Brown's & Larry Paakh will set up at the Absecon Historical Society Dec. 13 & 14. Beare, Neal & DeSipio will set up for a house tour in Dennisville, Dec. 19th , Joe Profetto will set up a small layout at Marshino's Restaurant in Vineland, date to be announced. NOTE: Send Al Schmidt pictures for the web.

BTO Planning: The committee met on the 15th at the Brown's. Minutes will be sent out to all members. We gained a few more members - glad to have you aboard. Registration forms are on our web page. Print one and register now.

Click Here For a Copy of the Minutes of The Most Recent BTO Convention Planning Meeting.

Nominations for 2010. Motion made to open nominations, seconded. Al Schmidt was nominated for President, no other accepted nominations; Anita Brown nominated for Vice President no other accepted nominations. Call for raise of hands to accept the new President and Vice President. All in favor. Nominations closed. Have a great 2010 Al & Anita.

Shore Mall-Tom Tomasello filled the club in on the work done to take down the paper mountains and replace with plaster and rocks. The process was to use screen wire backed with paper and then cover that with the plaster. The 0-scale club donated trees. The next step is to turn the top layer into a town with streets, etc. Tom needs corrugated cardboard from any source. If you have some let him know. Visitors are in awe of what the guys have done. You have to see it to appreciate the layout, describing it isn't enough. The D'Ambrosios' will make arrangements to have someone come to the mall, do an article and take photos.
Don McGahn put an article in the local paper with a photo of his new G-scale layout and listing what we have and our hours.
Below is a sample of what the guys are doing.

Shore Mall Photo by T. Tomasello

Edith Edelman fell and injured her shoulder. She may need surgery.
John & Arlene D'Ambrosio were introduced and stayed for the 2010 planning meeting
Ed DeSipio will be holding a workshop at the mall to get track & rolling stock cleaned and to make trees for the layout. Hope you can come on down and participate. Date to be announced.
Larry Lillo was featured in The Bright Side Newspaper. The article introduced the Holly Beach Train Depot in Wildwood and the new items ready for the holidays. The shop will be open seven days a week until Christmas.
Mike Moran now has a web page. Check it out at www.beaconhilltrains.com
Annual Luncheon - Anita Brown will bring a menu from the Clarion Hotel to be voted on at the Jan. meeting.

50/50
Bob Beare won $28. Club received $28. Many other nice prizes were donated and won.

Auction: Bill Keller brought a Panasonic VHS A-6-1960 and donated the monies to the club from Auction. Cass Oncay won VHS for $15.00.

If you know someone who would like to advertise in our newsletter, have them send their business card(with a check for $25 which will cover their ad for one year) to:

We now have a business card that we hand out atThe Shore Mall to people who inquire about our hours, days, etc. Please pick some up, if you can and hand them out to anyone who you think may be interested in seeing a great layout.