NWI
CHAPTER
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
April 2019 from
Jerry Pyfer
Rockford O Scalers
You are invited to the Rockford O Scalers open house on Saturday April
27, 2019 between 2pm and 6pm. They are at 3886 Lookout Drive, Rockford,
IL. Which is south off of Samuelson Road just west of the Rockford Jefferson
High School, where we use to have the annual Rockford train shows. Turn
south on Houston Road, T into Lookout Drive turning left.
Parking, watch out for the fire plug on the west side of the road.
There are stairs into the basement where the layout is located, so be
forewarned. This layout is not real well suited for kids tempting little
hands to reach out.
NWI Chapter Dues Last Word
Thank you for staying and rejoining us for
2019.
Your NWI dues portion will remain at $20 for 2019. The NWI Chapter will
only accept our portion, the NRHS portion must be sent to the NRHS.
NWL News Items
Once in awhile, someone will say they don’t
read the NWL because all of the news has already been broadcast on the
internet.
Back in the good ole days, the NWL staff would glean through exchange
newsletters that we received in the mail from Chapters around the country.
The NWL was also clipped and saved by some exchange newsletters that liked
what they read in our newsletter. We must have exchanged with 15 other
Chapters.
When an article was deemed noteworthy, it was clipped and saved. Sometimes,
it was crudely pasted in its original format. Most of the time, the editors
would retype it into the newsletter to fit in seamlessly.
When you read these articles, it was fresh and interesting because you
hadn’t seen it before.
Slowly, our exchange newsletter partners transitioned into electronic
newsletters. They mostly sited cost as the main reason for the change
but soon timeliness played another large part in the transformations.
As the internet access grew, so too did the readership of railroad news
items in electronic form.
When I became the president once again in 2008, I declared we will have
a paper newsletter as long as I’m president. There were some that
wanted to move away from paper. I would say, become president. Then you
have the problem of who is going to maintain the electronic newsletter,
which if done properly, would be an almost daily routine. Even then, one
would be largely rebroadcasting that which is already out there.
Our editor Erik Rasmussen and I welcome fresh, first run, well written
articles or article ideas from you, the membership and subscribers. If
you have one of these types of articles, let us know.
NWI Thank You
Once again the Chapter made our presence
known at the Rock River Valley Division of the NMRA Train Show in Belvidere,
Illinois. Thank you to them for the invite.
We talked with visitors about area railroads, and in particular, tracing
abandoned rail lines such as the Gary, the KD line and even the route
of the Rockford Limited of Kiddieland fame right here in Rockford. We
offered invites to upcoming Chapter meetings and in general had another
good time.
Todd Aspling and I discussed the idea of another Chapter outing on the
Rockford Trolley Car 36 after a Chapter meeting this year. It might be
nice to celebrate our 50th anniversary with a ride on Rockford rails.
Let’s think about September.
Thank you to John Fredrickson for heading up our team. Jerry Van Alstyne
helped John on Saturday. On Sunday, John and Jerry were there again along
with Andrew Townsend, Bob Hillman and myself.
For
more information about the Chapter, see Meetings
and Join.
North Western Illinois Chapter - NRHS
P.O. Box 5632
Rockford, IL 61125-0632