This is for NARA members and prospective members. NARA is a democratic group(and growing) and I would like some input from the members as to what they would like to see NARA become.You can email me or put it here(email would be better) boylerwerx@home.com
Catt, I think you are already on the right track with NARA : we need to be in communication, post our layout maps on the website and I really like the engine/rolling stock swaping concept. Wouldn't mind NARA meetings once a year where we all get together in person. Also, since we will all be aware of each other's layouts, we can keep our eyes open for appropriate engines/rolling stock for each other. Just some food for thought!! Happy Modeling!! John
I like this NARA thing more and more everyday. These are great ideas, many of us in my N-Trak Club "swap" power around, sometimes temporary, sometimes not.
For those who are interested NARA now has 31 members . Still looking for input from you people.Brent if and when your ready to join NARA just let Robin or myself know.
You might want to consider making NARA a Yahoo club so that the members can share files, maintain their own links to their sites, have chats, etc. Check out this club tour.
Not being a NARA member, but a prospective one, I have to say that I wouldn't go to a YaHoo club site. I joined a YaHoo Club a while back for a Club about an old College Radio Station I studied at. The visits lasted for a few weeks, then the interest by me and the rest of the gang died off. I think you could stay in touch and exchange info here on TrainBoard and/or at the current NARA web page.
I love the concept of NARA thus far. What should it evolve into? Perhaps a society (if that would be the correct term) to preserve all aspects of north american railroading. By modeling we are already doing this. Perhaps a NARA module concept like n-trak or one rail? (though that would be tough being a multi scale association.) Whatever track NARA travels down, I will be there and would be proud to attend shows wearing a NARA T-Shirt. Now that would be a cool attention getter! (Plus you could easily spot other members to facilitate "networking" and sharing ) Russ/NYC The Hoffman Valley Railroad NARA member#28 Proud freelancer
A NARA t shirt? Geez Russ ,I wish I had thought of that. That is definately one idea to concider.How about the rest of you? What do you think of it? <marquee>North American Rail Alliance</marquee>
If you want T-shirts, coffee mugs and even mouse pads, you've got to check out Cafe Press. I use them for our running team. You create an account, supply a jpg graphic and they do the rest. All of the transactions are between the customeer and Cafe Press. You can either sell them at cost or build in a profit and they mail you the commission once a month. I highly recommend them, though with shipping, you can plan on $20 for a 100% cotton T-shirt printed in full color on both sides of the shirt.
T-shirts would be cool, maybe using that steamer/diesel logo that Ed came up with. Now, for a suggestion. (I should really open mouth and insert foot here, or else I'm gonna wind up doing this for everybody. ) I was thinking if we could move products from one layout to another. For instance. Paul Cessar has a UP layout, as do I. However they are different subdivisions. I have 10 coal loads from my mine bound for him, so then he can haul the loads on his layout, kind of like moving the commodities from layout to layout. He'd then haul empties around, until "interchange" with my sub. What would be needed in this, however, is a list of industries that everyone has on there layouts. What the industry puts out and/or receives (emties and loads), etc. Then, we could figure out if layout A has a commodity that layout B needs, and we can "ship" it across the NARA until it reaches it's destination. It's kind of like an operating session with the layouts interacting with each other. Just a though on my part. It would take a lot of organizational work, but could all be put online, and people can check to see if they have any new commodities to haul. [ 26 February 2001: Message edited by: Harron ]
Corey, That is an interesting idea and it certainly pertains to the entire concept of NARA, sharing and interchanging. The only fault with that is it would take someone to come up with a program to handle the interchanging (sort of like a database). Do you know anyone who is knowledgeable enough to write such a program? It certainly is a great idea. Also, the diesel/steam logo that Ed designed would look really good on a shirt! Russ/NYC The Hoffman Valley Railroad NARA member#28
Notice I said open mouth and insert foot? I think it could be done on a regular database or spreadsheet, with someone working out the details as to what gets to go where. I also could write the program, but it would take me a while (as I'm too busy writing programs for school). I think a little human interface would be better though, we rely too much on program sometime. Just use the database as a way of organizing it.
Sounds Great!! T shirt idea is cool too!! This gets better all the time!! Happy Modeling!! John P.S. Corey...last check will be coming soon....
Hey Catt, I love the idea of a T-shirt. How about a Name badge also. NARA member #24 http://www.badger-creek.co.uk [ 26 February 2001: Message edited by: Paul Templar ]
Randy, NARA=North American Rail Alliance. We are a group of modelers in many scales who model portions of North America. Members are world wide. We all "connect" to each others railways, thus have trackage rights across America. Some guys are even sharing locomotives and rolling stock as a show of NARA solidarity. For more information go the the NARA website: http://www.members.fortunecity.com Happy Modeling!! John
Hi Randy, the full url for the NARA site is NARA [ 26 February 2001: Message edited by: Robin Matthysen ]
How about adding another box on the NARA page to denote each members scale of choice? This is Robin's idea ,but I think it is a good one too.(Nuther one I wished I'da thunk of) <marquee>North American Rail Alliance</marquee>
Corey's idea is cool. I like the t-shirt idea too. How about baseball caps? Maybe in the future we could have an annual get together. There is also the idea of freight cars made with the NARA name. The possibilities are endless and may cost a couple bucks here and there. Question is...How far do you want to go with this? My answer is as far as we can [ 26 February 2001: Message edited by: moose ]
I agree with that. I too will go as far as NARA will go. Another box with scale preference is a welcomed idea but not a necessary one. Personally I feel that members might isolate themselves with persons of a like scale and NARA is supposed to unite us. Anyone feel the same? Russ/NYC
