Division 8 Has Departed Charleston. Next Stop Kingsland, GA

The next stop down the A-Line for the Atlantic Division will be at the Golden Isle Model Railroad Club in October

On Saturday, April 11, 2026, Division 8, the Atlantic Division, of the Southeastern Region on the NMRA held their Spring Quarterly meeting at. Easterby’s in the Ashley River district of Charleston, South Carolina. A lot of model railroad and other activities were going on that day in the Charleston/Savannah area, but 10 members elected to come to the meeting.

A short business meeting was held. Discussed was the next meeting, and officer elections. The tentative plan is for an early to mid-October gathering at the Golder Isles Model Railroad club in Kingsland, Georgia.

Division Superintendent Rick Fulkerson started things off discussing the Golden Spike achievement program (AP) on the way to obtaining your Master Model Railroader certification. He pointed out that it is a rather simple recognition to obtain. As the Division does not have an AP manager, Division Secretary Casey Bartman volunteered to manage those duties. Requirements for the Golden Spike AP certificate can be found here.

Rick continued by presenting his talk on the upcoming National NMRA meeting in Chattanooga, Tennessee this July. He reiterated the number of model railroad, protype railroad, and non-railroad activities that will be available in the Chattanooga area.

Finally, Rick went on to repeat his short talk on how he does under-layout work. Simply, he builds modules and will place them on their sides to do the work, sitting in a comfortable position instead of crawling underneath his layout.

Next, board member Erik Schrowang presented a talk about 3D printing and model railroading. Eric spends his non-modeling time working with CAD software. He discussed both filament and resin printing with href="elegoo.com" target="_blank">Elegoo printers. His discussion focused on some of the differences and options with filament printing and resin printing. He presented several pieces of rolling stock that he had printed for his layout. All agreed that great quality could be achieved at a fraction of the cost a retail product.

Having completed the content of the meeting and enjoyed a great meal by the expert chiefs at Easterby’s, the meeting was adjourned so members could visit members layouts. On April 11, the following layouts were available for inspection:

• Rick Fulkerson’s Rialto Diablo & Arizona RR
• Rick has made great progress on his H.O. layout set in the desert southwest since his move to his new home. The two modules that comprised his previous layout have been incorporated into his expanded layout. All of Rick’s track is hand laid with over 40,000 track spikes.

• Carl Blum’s Misery & Short Life Railroad
• Carl has an unbelievable three rail O scale layout. He employs a vertical lift staging yard powered by a stepper motor that must be seen.
• David Pitcher’s Southwestern Pennsylvania Railroad
• Dave made the move from Atlanta to the Charleston area and so did his layout. While he had to downsize somewhat, he has a large functional point to point model the Pennsy in his bounce room. There is a large steel mill, where an operator can spend a session, managing the movement of traffic in the mill.

• The Charleston Model Railroad Club’s Layouts
• This was the last opportunity to visit the Charleston Model Railroad Club at its current location. They maintain a three rail 0, H.O., and N scale layouts. Much work has been recently done on the H.O. layout. Unfortunately, they have lost their lease and are looking for a new and hopefully larger location.
If you missed this meeting, or another past meeting, check out the link in the menu for past presentations.