Mini Meets are one-day model railway events for members of the CMRS and usually include clinics, displays, related activities, and sometimes lunch.

Sometimes other events, such as the following, are combined with a particular mini meet:

CMRS Mini Meet and CMT Flea Market
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Glenmore Inn

Please note that the Flea Market will end at 11:00 am (not noon, as in the past), so that CMT volunteers will be able to attend one of the morning clinics.

Clinic times will be 10:15 am and 11:15 am, with lunch provided by CMRS at 12:15 pm.

CLINICS

There will be four morning clinics, and the various themes of the clinics will continue after lunch in a Grand Hands-on Workshop.

• Roger Marler (10:15 am) will present another hands-on clinic on working with styrene. He will follow up the basic clinic presented last Fall with a clinic on laminating styrene sheet (brick, clapboard, cement blocks etc) to the basic walls of a building, and then showing how to cut out holes for doors and windows. He will then show how to build the corners of the buidings, making sure that the various brick or cement block courses line up properly. In the afternoon Workshop, he will show how to make braces for adding a roof to the building.

• Roger Walker (also at 10:15 am) will give a clinic on weathering cars, emphasizing the use of artist's oils. In the morning, the presentation will consist of prototype photos of car weathering, along with a demonstration of how to use the oils. In the afternoon Workshop, you should bring along your own car, and Roger will help participants do their own weathering.

• Joe Sheppard (11:15 am) will present a clinic on wooden trestles. Many of you will have seen Joe's beautiful bridges at Supertrain, and here's the chance to learn a little of the history of wooden trestles. Joe will give references for information, and comment on methods of construction for straight and curved trestles. Joe will also show a series of construction steps taken from one of his bridge projects, and will discuss appropriate sizes of timbers for various trestles. In the afternoon Workshop, participants will have the opportunity to build a typical bent for a wooden trestle.

• Brian Keay (also at 11:15 am) will present a clinic on reproducing mechanical damage in various types of cars. Brian will start by showing how to bend styrene rods and tubes using a hair dryer. He'll then use the hair dryer to produce a gentle sag in a well-used gondola car, along with bulging walls where various loads have deformed the walls. He will also show how to use the hair dryer to soften plastic and make puncture damage in the walls of cars. Finally, he'll show how you can actually make mechanical tearing in softened plastic. This is a great opportunity to get out some of your old and damaged cars, bring them to the afternoon Workshop, and let Brian help you damage them even more, so they'll go in the foreground of your layout as wrecks, and not collect dust on a shelf.

Grand Hands-on Workshop (starting after lunch, about 1:15 pm). All of the morning clinicians will be on hand to help you practice what you learned in the morning clinics. The format will be totally hands-on, building in styrene, weathering in oils, building bents, and damaging your own cars. Participants should feel free to go from one hands-on session to another, so if you missed a presentation in the morning, you should be able to catch up in the afternoon. The workshop will continue until the last weathered, damaged car has passed over the last bent in the trestle !

Tools and Supplies

CMRS will supply much of the material for the afternoon Workshop. For weathering in oils and for damaging cars, you should bring you own cars (preferably old ones suitable to practice on). A list of tools you may need will appear on the CMRS website in mid February,

SHOW AND TELL

There will be a show and tell (9:00 am - 12:15 pm), as in the last two minimeets. Please bring your models to display and explain.

BJ Ersson has organized a CMRS module exhibit for Supertrain, and several of these modules will also be present at the mini-meet. Here's a chance to ask the builders how they put their modules together, and thanks to BJ for organizing this.

As always, I welcome suggestions for clinics, etc, and I value your input. Many thanks to the clinic presenters above for the time and effort they have already put into their clinics (with much more to come). If you have any comments or questions, please email me at walkerrg@telus.net

Roger Walker.

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