May 2010 - the 4th Division • PNR • NMRA

Page 2 Issue 520 • May 2010
From the Superintendent’s Desk
Dennis Hill
Board of Directors Meeting Date Change
The scheduled Board of Directors Meeting for this quarter is changed to May 22 nd . I will be on vacation
until Thursday. The start time remains at 1 p.m. at the same location, Yankee Grill in Renton, WA. Any
member of the NMRA is welcome to attend.
The Fourth Division is presenting a convention. Plans are well under way to present the best regional
convention you’ve seen in a long time at a price that can not be beat! The date is September 15 th through
the 18 th , 2010. In these times of economic chaos the Fourth Division will provide those attending Cascadian
International 2010 a really great package for a base fare of only $40. The Awards Banquet is only an
additional $35 per person. Join us, you’ll be glad you did!
It’s election time again in the Fourth Division. Superintendent and Director, Position 2 are up for another two year term. Please
take time to vote. Your vote means your support for those running and for the Fourth Division.
If you are interested in becoming a part of the leadership team for the Division but don’t know where or how to start, please contact
me and we can talk about your involvement. Also contact me if you just want to share an idea about anything related to the Fourth
Division.
Congratulations to Jack Hamilton, our PNR President! He has been elected as the Western District Director of the NMRA. Our
VP, Walt Huston will be stepping up to fill his shoes. Thanks to both of these gentlemen for all they do for NMRA, PNR and the
Fourth Division.
4D News
Great Improvements Coming for the Grab-Iron
Al Lowe
At the February Board of Directors meeting, the 4D Board voted to move the Grab-Iron to a new, better format. Rather than continue
our current method of digitally “printing” a new “issue” in a magazine format once a month, then storing it on the web, we want
to take advantage of the Internet’s benefits. Come September, your new Digital Grab-Iron will be 100% web-based, with all the advantages
of the net.
Instead of only twelve pages per month, we’ll have unlimited space. Instead of waiting weeks until an arbitrary end of the month
publishing date, updates will be published immediately. Instead of receiving email notification that the monthly issue is ready, you’ll be
notified whenever any areas of interest to you are updated. Instead of postage-stamp photographs, we’ll have high-resolution, largeformat
photographs that are easier to see. Instead of waiting for a large PDF download, everything will be instantly accessible with just
your browser.
Every article will include space for comments. All links and email addresses will be clickable. We’ll even be able to include videos.
We’ll have space to publish our Treasurer’s reports and the Secretary’s official minutes of Board meetings. We’ll have unlimited room
for articles and submissions. Instead of using 8.5"x11" paper format, everything will be formatted for the screen.
This also means we will discontinue publication of the paper Grab-Iron. Its circulation has fallen from several hundreds a years ago
to less than fifty copies the past several years. Yet we continue to pay thousands of dollars per year to print, stamp, address, and mail it.
Had we charged each subscriber his fair share of its cost, each subscription would be over $25 per year! We will keep our YahooGroup
for discussions, but I suspect much of its traffic will move to the Digital Grab-Iron.
We see this not as a step back, but as a vast improvement to our Division’s communications and we think you will, too. Next
month, we’ll have some samples to show you. More details will be in the June (and final) issue of the paper Grab-Iron.
Jack Hamilton Elected New NMRA Western District Director
Al Lowe
4D’s own Jack Hamilton won the recent election and will be our new NMRA Western District Director as of June 15 th . Unfortunately,
that means he has to step down as PNR President. Fortunately, he plans to continue as our PNR AP Chairperson. There will be
Cover Photo
Photo by Doug Bulger
BNSF 4312 4441 and 4437 triple-heading north at Richmond Beach along Puget Sound with a string of hoppers and boxes.