Newsletter | December 2023

Hello Manhattan Modeler,

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

FIRST ANNUAL MEETING &

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

             In another sign of our growth, we’ll kick off 2024 with our first annual meeting of the membership as called for by the By-Laws adopted this past summer. In order to accommodate the largest number of members in the most convenient way, we’ll hold this meeting in videoconference form on our Discord Manhattan Modelers server (https://discord.gg/W6QpGZC2gR). Discord saves the expense of our having to maintain a paid subscription on Zoom. The meeting will convene on Tuesday, January 16^th, 2024 at 8pm EST. Our primary task will be to elect the first full Board of Directors. The remaining agenda will gel as we get closer to the date, but as you’d expect, there will be the usual update on the state of affairs, any matters the members may wish to raise, and at the close of any other business matters, the floor will be open for general fun and conversation. We encourage – we’re not too proud to beg – members to attend this meeting so that we can meet the quorum threshold required by the By-Laws and proceed with the election. We plan to conduct voting via an Internet poll as we did for adoption of the By-Laws to insure ballot confidentiality. Any member still unsure how to join Discord, log on, and/or connect to the meeting in our Discord server, don’t hesitate to contact Andy Estep, Heath Hurwitz, or Dan Free for assistance. (Basically, once you’ve joined Discord and joined the MM group, you’ll click on a link we’ll send just as you would for a Zoom…)

             Under the By-Laws the Board can consist of either 3 or 5 members (odd number to avoid ties). With the tasks facing us in 2024, we would love to have a full board of 5 members so we can “spread the love….” With that in mind, we encourage and heartily welcome any member who would like to stand for election to let us know, or if you have someone in mind who you think would be well-suited, by all means pass his or her name along to Andy, Dan, or Heath for inclusion in the slate of candidates. Election of a full Board will go a long way towards “getting us off the launch pad,” so please make every effort to attend the January 16^th meeting because we won’t be able to proceed with the election without the required quorum.

             So, mark the date in red on your new 2024 calendars as we inaugurate our first full year of activities.

Another Year is Wrapping Up

Well, another year is wrapping up. All the Seasonal Holidays are rapidly approaching. Hanukkah’s eight nights will be here later this week. The Hibernal Winter Solstice is here on the 22nd. Christmas on the 25th. Kwanzaa on the 26th. The Big Ball drops in Times Square starting on the last minute of the 31st as it has every year but two years of WW2 since 1907. Nearly all other evenings of the month will be filled with various office parties and so on so I felt like skipping a monthly meeting his month made a lot of sense to fit members schedules. Pat at Lavelle’s bar in Queens has many events planned in the basement space where we usually meet so it seemed best to skip one this time. 

Coming up next month. January we will host our “Annual Meeting” according to our new adopted by-laws. We need some candidates for the Board of Directors to help guide our group and make decisions to help us move forward in a measured and thoughtful way. Please consider putting yourself into consideration.

I just received my wrist bands for next month’s Springfield show so we are deep in train season. Last month I attended a few layout operation sessions. One at Thom Radice’s HO scale Civil War themed layout with amazing scenery in central NJ and one at Dave Barraza’s HO scale New York and Atlantic out on Long Island. Dave has some amazing signaling and trackwork on his three decked LIRR based layout. Running rush hour commuter service followed by late night freight ops was a lot of fun. I have not done many layout operations but sampling these has given me some (probably dangerous) ideas.  

NY&A freight tied up at Pine Aire

Switching at Jamaica

Starting in West Pond for the evening commute.

Jay Tower dispatching on Dave’s layout.

I also attended a going away dinner for Jonathan Jones. Before the dinner, I did get a chance to go to Brooklyn and see the progress on his N scale CNJ Newark based layout. He will still be receiving the newsletter while he is away and plans to work on structures for the layout in his off time. 

I visited Mike Weinman’s impressive HO scale layout in his attic space. Its serpentine track fills two rooms. It includes a massive passenger terminal for his favored passenger trains.   

Mike has offered to conduct a tour of his transportation consulting company in Rutherford NJ. His company conducts training for train and bus drivers as well as route and schedule consultation for several rail and bus commuter companies. I think maybe a group field trip to visit his company can be combined in the same town a few blocks away with a visit to the New York Society of Model Engineers HO and O scale layouts. They have extended an offer to let us have a monthly meeting there. I am thinking February. I will reach out to coordinate this.

Heath Hurwitz has brought up the idea of visiting the Bronx Botanical Garden Train Show sometime this month. I would like to go as well but we have not nailed down a date. If you are interested maybe we can coordinate a visit date through the Manhattan Modeler Discord channel.

You can always reach me at EstePandyProjects@gmail.com or through the Discord Channel

Thank you and Happy Modeling, 

Andy Estep 

Spotted in the city

10 Rockefeller Plaza was built in 1940 as the Eastern Airlines Building. The lobby has a very nice large mural painted in 1946 by Dean Cornwell titled, “The History of Transportation”. It is painted silver and gold leaf on a red background. The mural depicts historic transportation methods like stagecoach, canal boats, steamship and steam trains in gold and air transport in silver. I could pick out many specific early steam engines as well as a NYC Elevated Forney in the painting.     

At 302 West 51st St in the theatre district is the Dolly Varden restaurant. It is named after the character in the novel “Barnaby Rudge” by Charles Dickens. Dolly Varden also inspired a certain dress fashion in Victorian times as well as being the name of a passenger train that ran on the NYC&HR along the west side. It was the last passenger train to run along the west side of Manhattan and was retained as an employee accommodation train for New York Central into the 1960’s until the arrival of the Empire Service through Penn Station. Anyway someone at this restaurant knows this history and has made their curbside dining area the shape of a heavyweight private passenger car.  

You can see that the sides even have the Hi Vis Stripes of modern train cars. LOL

Dredging up Ancient History…

By Dan Free

Thailand. November, 1990.

I was visiting a historic temple in Bangkok’s Thonburi district beside a canal and, on leaving, noticed a rail yard on the canal’s other side where what appeared to be a modestly-drivered passenger-type steam locomotive stood cold. Finding and crossing the nearest bridge, I walked down to the yard hoping to get a good photo, wondering whether my inability to speak Thai would result in my not getting past the front gate. Once inside the precincts, to my joy the nearby mechanics left me quietly to take my roll of film’s last few photos (pre-digital photography days) of what turned out to be a 1949 Hitachi-built Pacific. One of the Rod Fai Thai/State Railways of Thailand workers was curious and approached me speaking English to ask if I liked steam locomotives. After a few more minutes’ conversation, I was invited into the nearby shops to inspect a Rod Fai Thai Japanese-built Mikado and two small former Japanese C56 class moguls, numbers 713 and 715. With no

film left, I asked for and was granted permission to return for more photos.  

Planned excursions took me to other parts of Thailand, but I later returned to the yards at 10 a.m. on a day when I had nothing planned and by chance ran into the English- speaking worker from the prior visit. While photographing, I was told that at noon one of the twin C56 class moguls, No. 715, was to be towed light by diesel for a “demonstration.” The staffer related that he would be going with 715 and asked if I’d like to ride along in tow in the cab for the experience, working back by an early morning train the next day. Luckily, I was traveling alone so there was no-one to over-react if I disappeared without a word or a trace for 24 hours (pre-smart phone days as well.) I accepted without a moment’s hesitation and in due course I had been introduced and paid my respects to the Shop Superintendent in order to state my impromptu case, received with as much courtesy as bemusement. He took to the phone and soon obtained the necessary approval from the higher authorities in the two hours prior to scheduled departure, which I had spent combing over Thonburi Motive Power Depot. Thus sanctioned, with only my camera, jeans, and the tee-shirt on my back, I set out in an unknown direction for what I was told would be a four-hour journey.

The Rod Fai Thai system is meter-gauged and in the 1990s was laid, I believe,

single-track throughout (except for the multi-track approach I later observed to Bangkok’s main terminal, Hua Lampong). The English-speaking staffer and I joined an engineer and fireman in the mogul’s cab as I was introduced around. Two additional crewmen were assigned to the Rod Fai Thai Henschel diesel to which the tender of the mogul was coupled (as the mogul was not under steam) and soon were given the clear road. Being a light engine in tow we moved at a moderate speed, an estimated 30 to 35 mph, with our mogul pointing backwards. An unscheduled special consist, we were sometimes stopped

at stations to let a freight or passenger working run past. Each occasion was used to check the axle bearings on the steam loco for overheating, and to have a soda or juice at a wayside stand in a station forecourt to combat the sun and heat if there was enough time as we awaited a scheduled train. We arrived in the intended yards at about 4 p.m. In the course of the trip, I’d learned that we were headed east. 

When we pulled into the yard, I spotted our engine’s twin, No. 713, simmering

under steam and decked out in flags, apparently having been brought up earlier. The “demonstration” I managed to determine from my new English-speaking friend, was to be for a “festival” that evening but I didn’t get much explanation beyond that. We dismounted and switched 715 on to a siding beside her sister. A crew soon formed, met our company, and together we set about replacing 715’s connecting and eccentric rods, which had been removed, placed on the tender floor, and wire-tied to the tender grab-irons for transit. With little more than a couple wrenches, two hammers, chisels (for cutting the wire ties), some drift pins, stout pipes for lifting and ample oil, our crew of 10 or so had put 715 back in working order within the space of no more than 20

minutes. The fitters knew the drill and it went like clockwork. I gladly pitched in and was one of the three men hefting one of the connecting rods. Not the sort of task you’d want to try with less than about five hands.

Our work accomplished, it was time to retire to what my friend called the

running room – a Rod Fai Thai crew dormitory – to shower and have an excellently cooked Thai meal, served Thai style seated cross-legged on the floor of the running room’s expansive verandah while a radio played songs from a local station. Walking though the small yard on our way there, we passed a Henschel-built 2-8-2 + 2-8-2 Garrett on static display beside a sign proclaiming it to be The World’s Most Powerful Meter Gauge Locomotive. “This used to be my father’s engine,” my host told me as he explained his father had been a Rod Fai Thai engineer.

Now… I had learned that (at least in those days) the Thai national anthem was

broadcast punctually without fail over all radio stations every evening at 6pm and everyone within earshot was expected to stop whatever they were doing and stand at attention in respect. As 6pm approached during our meal, I kept an eye on my wristwatch, ready to stand as custom dictated in show of respect to my hosts. 5:53… 5:55… time ticked on. And then with instinctual swiftness, one of the crew casually leaned over from his meal without a word, switched off the radio, and the feasting continued in co-conspiratorial conviviality.

We would not be needed until 8 p.m. when we were to make our “demonstration”. We would use 713, a 1935 Hitachi-built loco, for this purpose. No. 715, on which I’d ridden out, was built the same year by Nippon Sharyo and would be steamed the next day and used for the same purpose that next evening. As the time approached, we coupled up to a mixed consist of two or three four-wheeled boxcars, a four-wheeled gondola, and a passenger coach with our diesel tow-unit at the consist’s rear so we could again be towed in reverse direction. By now night had started to fall and we were soon given the green signal to set off, towed with our safeties simmering quietly. 

Still clueless as to what to expect, I soon saw an immense outdoor fair, mobbed with people, set up on either side of the line along which we made our way. We stopped in the middle of the tumult, and I was told it would be a few minutes before we took our final position. My crewmates started to leave the footplate to stretch their legs, and as I swung out of the cab, I saw at the rear of the tender a lineside sign in Thai bearing an English subscript reading “Kwai River Bridge”. Thus it dawned on me -- as I looked farther down the line to see that the diesel had stopped just short of the bridge abutment -- I was to be part of a sound and light show staged in conjunction with the annual River

Kwai Bridge commemoration. I hadn’t planned the trip to be a rail-oriented trip and wasn’t even aware that there was such an event, so I congratulated myself on my dumb luck.

After a few minutes’ downtime, we were again given the clear, so our company of eight remounted into the cab and the diesel towed us in darkness across the bridge. On the other side of the river, away from the bulk of the crowds, we were told to wait. We had come to a stop atop a steep embankment on the approach to the bridge, in the quiet of a tropically warm, humid moonlit night. While the crew busied themselves uncoupling the diesel from the rear of the train, I scrambled down the bank for a photo. In the moonlight at that angle the diminutive mogul seemed a brute. It was not: the underlying wet soil of the Thai Central Plains on the Northern route and the construction of the Burma route both necessitate engines of relatively light axle loading. The Burma route in

particular was lightly and quickly laid by the Imperial Japanese Army during the war and demands working by light axle-load engines. During the wait I confirmed that the IJA had brought both of the C56 class engines in question to Thailand during the war for working Japanese troop and supply trains. The Japanese C56 class was a standard Imperial Government Railway (as the later JNR was then known) class for domestic light branch line work. 164 units were built from 1935 to 1939 by Kisha Seizō, Kawasaki, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, and Nippon Sharyo to the design of Hideo Shima, who would go on to be the chief engineer behind the construction of the first Shinkansen line.

Underscoring the importance of their mission, 46 locos, almost 30% of the class, were sent to Thailand during the war. Quoting Ramaer’s The Locomotives of Thailand (Frank Stenvalls Förlag, Malmö, 1984) they had 1,400mm drivers, 400x600mm cylinders, arch tubes in the firebox, a working pressure of 14 atmospheres, slightly over 10 tonnes axle loading, 31.8 metric tons adhesive weight, and 8,600kg nominal tractive effort. They’re described as having been versatile and useful, easily maintained, and well-regarded by engineers and maintenance crews alike. For their small size and surefootedness, the class

members collectively earned the nick-name “Highland Ponies,” the darlings of many Japanese enthusiasts today, and roughly 30 survive scattered across Asia.

Time passed as we swapped stories and joked and I was soon told to get back

aboard the cab. Enough time to have a few more bites of the fiery Thai food stowed in the tender lockers, while the fireman stoked the fire in earnest. Save a few experiments with oil, the Rod Fai Thai fired their steam locos with the wood that was formerly found in abundance in Thailand. Modern conditions resulted in our fuel that night being old cross- ties. In due course, the cab was aglow in an incandescent yellow-orange which added to the night’s heat. Suddenly from across the river, an eruption of brilliance pierced the darkness as floodlights were switched on, illuminating the bridge. First blue, then strobe,

then red. Smoke rose up around the bridge seemingly from nowhere and hidden speakers roared with the sounds of attacking aircraft. More lights flashed as the sound of gunfire, dive-bombers, and strafing accelerated. Aboard 713, the footplate crew darkened the cab lights while one member held a flashlight beam on a dial face reading Bourdon’s Patent.

In the moonlight I could see the wheel of the screw reverse being turned and the brake handle being tapped, while with a quick “schtkk” the injector feed was cut. Behind me a few Thai words came over a walkie-talkie and I was signaled to step back into the tender, which had only a small supply of wood and ample space. (No POW escapees visible in the cab windows, please.) Two sharp whistle blasts joined the din of the battle sounds around us and with a jerk and a chuff we seemed to set off like fury, although I recall no wheels slipping. The lights and smoke around the bridge intensified as the sound of the

open cylinder cocks exhausting onto the ballast below grew louder. The whistle shrieked again through the torrent of creosoted wood cinders, hot cylinder oil, and mist of condensate that rained down on the handful of us back in the tender. As we picked up speed the mogul started slightly to box and lurch at the transition from curve to tangent. In a few seconds’ time the hammering thud of our pistons gave way to a hollow metallic resonance that announced the bridge and open air below. More smoke and aircraft machine gun fire mixed with quite an unprototypic number of shrieks from our whistle. I watched as the bridge members went by with increasing frequency and as more strobes flashed to usher us along. On the opposite bank, on either side of the bridge, a thousand smaller strobes from the crowd’s cameras joined the clamor, to multiple replies of our whistle and thundering full-gear exhaust beat.

We continued across to the other side and eventually slowed to stop in the midst of the throng back at the fairground. It was time again to interface with the crowd. The crew had by now come to treat me as one of theirs for the evening (whether due to my earlier-demonstrated affinity for healthy amounts of Thai chili paste at dinner, I can’t say.) I helped answer the farang tourists questions who would occasionally come up to the cabside. A question in German, an Irish accent, some words in French amidst a constant backdrop of Thai; while during slack moments an ample flask-shaped bottle of

Mekhong whiskey mysteriously emerged from the tender locker and was discreetly passed around the crew. In a few hours’ time, we repeated our performance for the 10 o’clock re-enactment, in all crossing the bridge thrice under our own steam.

By 11:30 that night we were back in the rail yard. The tender was attached to a

water hose, the loco attended to, and the fire banked by midnight or so. Those tasks complete, we returned to the running room for washing up and a few more welcomed bites of food before the individual members of the staff gradually started off to bed. It was time to head to the adjacent Kanchanaburi station to catch the 1:20 a.m. train that would return me to Bangkok by 4:00 that morning. As we left the light of the running room my host looked me over and turned a disapproving eye on my once-white tee-shirt - - by now spotted with steam oil, smudged with creosote and soot, ground in with the grime from fitting the connecting rods, and stained with an amalgam of tropical sweat and dust. He pulled a clean tee-shirt from his bag and said, “Here, we’d better trade, your shirt is dirty.”; I thanked him but declined the offer; I wasn’t about to part with the best tangible souvenir of my trip.

The Kwai River Bridge was built as part of a larger projected undertaking of a rail supply line between Burma and Bangkok, the Taimen Rensetsu Tetsudō, by the Imperial Japanese Army using the forced labor of tens of thousands of mainly British Commonwealth prisoners of war and interred or impressed Asians. Japanese civil engineers of the day estimated the entire rail line would take five years to construct. The IJA forced its completion in around 16 months, under who’s control it remained during the course of the occupation, strictly a military railroad with no civilian traffic. During my visit, I was taken to see one of what are several cemeteries for the Allied war dead near the station. I was told that the mass grave of some 500 more of the project’s victims that I'd just read about in the Bangkok papers (discovered only some three or four days prior to my visit) was nearby. History estimates the loss of life as immense: around 16,000 POWs and 100,000 civilian Asian forced laborers. Of the Allied POWs, one Thai who witnessed those days recollected, “They always arrived looking smart and proud”. Contrary to what Hollywood would have us imagine; the original bridge was not blown up during a ‘daring commando raid’ with an unwitting assist by a collaborationist British officer while a passenger train hauled by a Malaysian tank locomotive passed over it. True enough, it was first built of wood and completed in 1943. But that same year it was disassembled when replaced by a bridge 300 meters upstream on stone piers supporting steel elliptical through-truss type spans that the IJA ‘appropriated’ from the

railway system of occupied Java. That bridge was used for almost two years before Allied bombers knocked out two of its spans, cutting off the principal Japanese supply line to Burma. The two wrecked spans have since been replaced by steel Warren through- truss spans with verticals. The rail link to Burma has since been severed with a terminus installed at Nam Tok, although the trackbed beyond at the time of my visit was reportedly still intact. As of 1990, there were four steam locomotives in Thailand capable of being steamed, and one which the Rod Fai Thai was attempting to restore as time and resources permitted.

Small Space Solutions

I am going to start a series in the newsletter called “Small Space Solutions” where I am going to try to explore some ways that us space starved modelers can explore some ways to deal with what room we do have for modeling. 

My first thought of an area to cover is scale. It should be obvious that going to a smaller scale would be an easy way to maximize what you can fit into your available space. 

These are the common commercially scales available in the US. Z scale is 1:220. N scale is 1:160. HO scale is 1:87. S scale is 1:64. O scale is 1:48. G scale varies but I’ll go with 1:25. By looking at the list you can see that each scale is as it goes up is about double the scale below it. S scale, ever the outlier is mid-way between HO and O. Apocryphally HO scale which was popularized in the 1940s was named HO because it was Half of O scale. Again this is all a rough generalization to easily understand the differences.

It stands to reason that if you go to a smaller scale, you will have more room to model. You can fit the same track plan for N scale in about half the space of the same track plan in HO scale. I expect that modelers here have chosen their scale and will not be changing it based on fitting things into a smaller space.

 HO is by a huge number the highest chosen scale in the US. N scale is second most popular and “the rest are all here on Gilligan’s Island”. The pie wedges for the other scales are much smaller. HO is so prevalent that the assumption these days is that if you are a scale modeler you are modeling in HO scale.

Call for Articles

As you can see, one of our members, Dan Free wrote an article for this months newsletter. 

I would be very happy to have articles from any of our members to include in our newsletter. I would be very interested in model railroad layout visit images. Your space starved modeling tips would be a great article. Small Space Solutions are always fascinating. I would be really interested in how others deal with these limitations.

Please send me some images of modeling desks or workshops. I think this would be an interesting subject for a future newsletter article.

Holiday Nostalgia Train Excursions running December Saturdays

The Transit Museum Announced their “Holiday Nostalgia Train”. It will be running every Saturday from after Thanksgiving through the start of January. 

December 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th. The departures are timed at 10AM,12AM, 2PM and 4PM from the 2nd Ave Uptown F and 11AM, 1 PM, 3 PM and 5 PM from the Downtown platform at the 145 St D train.

They are using the R1/9 train set so it will be neat to see the rattan seats and Ceiling fans as well as the vintage advertisements. The conductor on these cars rides straddling between the two center cars a neat feature. It will be running starting on the F line at 2nd Ave and then switch to the D line and end at 145 St. The express running segment from 59th to 125th Street should be fun.

 My favorite part of riding this annual excursion is that these trains are running in regular service so witnessing the surprise on people’s faces as true antique train pulls into the platform is really fun. It is like witnessing an unexpected Time Machine.

I always try to catch as many of these as I can so if you are planning to go, shoot me a text or email. I would be happy to meet up for a visit. The 145 Street D station is just two blocks from my apartment. I am planning to bring my 4 year old nephew on a few of these rides. He is a huge Subway and transit fan. He collects bus and subway maps. I make a point to get them for him in my travels. My kids loved to go on these a few years ago but they are only a little interested anymore and will come along to humor me if “nothing more interesting” is happening.

I couldn’t find any of my pictures of the R1/9 train running on the Holiday train so here is a picture of one of the Summertime Rockaways train runs. So here is a shot of car 1273 a wood vintage 1904 running in a train near Brighton Beach. Part of the first group of electric powered cars made for Brooklyn Rapid Transit. This car being made of wood would never run in underground service today for safety reasons. This is one of the oldest cars in the New York Transit collection.

New York Bronx Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show

G Gauge train display with local historic buildings made of natural materials

Reservation and fee

Hours: every day during Garden Hours

New York Historical Society Holiday Toy and Train Show

3 rail O and Standard gauge vintage toy train show. Toys and trains dating back to the late 1800’s through the 1930’s from both Europe and the United States are displayed in the museum lobby. Replica Standard Gauge trains are running on layouts and along the ceiling of the display.

Museum fee

Hours: every day during museum hours

New York Transit Museum Grand Central Annex Toy Train Show

O scale 3 rail Lionel display. This is the return of the Holiday display layout after a 3-year pause.

The display was going to be reservation and donation based this year, but a corporate sponsor donated the fee last week.

No fee

Hours: every day during museum hours

NYSME Winter Open House Train Show

December 9,10,16 and 17th

1PM to 5 PM

Admission $8 Adults

Children 12 and Under Free

The New York Society of Model Engineers HO and O scale layouts will be open and operating for this event. The show is near the Jane St stop on the 163 NJT bus from the Port Authority

MTA Subway Holiday Nostalgia Train using vintage R1/9 cars 

December 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th. 

Admission free with a subway ride

The departures are timed at 10AM,12AM, 2PM and 4PM from the 2nd Ave Uptown F and 11AM, 1 PM, 3 PM and 5 PM from the Downtown platform at the 145 St D train.

Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show

January 27th and 28th 2024 (again not so local)

Held at the Eastern States Exposition fairgrounds (The Big E), this is the largest train show in the north-east.

Several Manhattan Modelers are planning to go to the Springfield show this year. I would be happy to meet up with anyone planning to be there for dinner or some such. I am planning to spend some time covering for some exhibitors in other groups I am in so maybe I’ll see you at the “O Scale Central” or the “New York Society of Model Engineers” booths.

We are always open to sharing model events in the area. If you are aware of an event that you think others here would be interested, please share it with us and we will include it in future newsletters.

Join us on Discord

We have setup a Manhattan Modelers Discord as a place to share projects & ideas, post events, ask and answer questions and make connections.

We have chosen Discord because it is organized around specific interests instead of providing a unified newsfeed. Discord is focused on real-time interactions between people, whereas other social media options function as internet message boards.

Discord also has a Zoom like video conferencing feature, but without the limits of the free Zoom.

Click on this link which will ask you to either create an account or login to your existing account.

Once you join, you will see the logo for the Manhattan Modelers "server" on the left and the various "channel" topics on listed to their right.

Please take a moment to introduce yourself in the #introduce-yourself channel

Please consider sharing this newletter with your favorite modelers.