2017 AREA REP REPORT
100 Mile House to North And West
by Russ Watson, Area Rep
During the past year I volunteered to be the area rep for the subdivisions of “North of Prince George” (including the Yukon) and Bulkley Valley to Prince Rupert”. These positions had been vacant for quite some time. I also retained rep responsibilities for the “100 mile House to Prince George” subdivision. So I now have taken on a very large geographic area, although not densely populated, of the 7th Division. Unfortunately, I rarely travel north and west of Prince George, so my involvement in the rest of the areas will mainly be by electronic communication.
As I write this in late October we have 13 members in my total area. Our members are distributed as follows: 2 in 150 Mile House, 2 in William’s Lake, 6 in Quesnel, 1 in Lone Butte, 1 in Dawson Creek and 1 in Kitimat. One of the members in 150 Mile House has not registered an email address with us. If you would like to contact members in our area, please send me an email. I will forward your email to the member(s) that you wish to contact and ask them to contact you. Unfortunately, NMRA privacy policy prevents me from sharing member contact info directly with anyone. Contact info for all of our elected and appointed positions is available under the “About us” link on our website
Ongoing in our area are various visits and op sessions that are arranged between friends. The Quesnel Model Railroad Club is alive and well and have their layout open on Saturday afternoons in the Maple Park Mall.
In an effort to help members get to know each other and to provide member benefits, I organized a one-day “Model Railway Gathering” in Quesnel on April 29th, 2017. I reported about this event in the July/August 2017 Bulletin Board (available online at so I won’t elaborate on it here other than to say it was a success. I had scheduled the next gathering for October 14th, 2017, however my knee surgery on October 5th unfortunately forced me to cancel it. The next Quesnel gathering will be in late March or April, 2018. Stay tuned.
NMRA policy states that non-members can attend three NMRA sponsored events before they must become an NMRA member to continue to attend. So I will continue invite all members and past members and ask that you invite your friends as well. I will certainly encourage non-members to join, however that will not be the focus of the gatherings. As they say, “if we build it, they will come”.
For a few months last winter, I hosted a weekly “modelling night” at my house. The idea was to have folks bring over modelling projects that they could work on. Everyone was welcome to come and although we never had a large group, those that attended enjoyed themselves and progressed some projects. I know I enjoyed the Timbits that Roy brought! Once my leg mobility allows it, I’ll send out the invitation again for this winter.
Please don't hesitate to contact me with your questions, ideas or just to say Hi. Continued best wishes for all of your model railroading activities - I look forward to seeing you soon.