FOREWORD

I believe that every organization needs to be able to look back upon its history, clear back to its very beginning.  Therefore, I decided to start this project, but I quickly realized that I would need a lot of help from other members regarding events and dates.

Some people would probably call me a pack rat because I never seem to throw anything away. Of course, that also creates the problem of not being able to find something when I have a need for it However, I have been able to locate most of my collection of SAMRA newsletters and a couple of the early membership lists of the N-Scale group. These have been invaluable to me in determining some of the more important date/time periods. My biggest problem has been the fact that the N-Scale group was already active when I joined up with them, so I have little or no information regarding the first year or two of their existence.  At the time I joined the group, membership was small, the group was somewhat disorganized and very little effort was made to record the everyday club events.

In so far as I am the main writer, up to This point, I openly admit that I have recorded the events as I remember them, as I was able to research them, or as I observed them at the time, from my point of view.  Some people may say that I have allowed my personal feelings to be reflected in my writing.  This may be so, but at least I have established a base that others may expand upon.

Therefore, it is not my intention that the following information should be treated as absolute fact and repeated as such.  I have probably made many errors in spite of all of  my efforts.   Instead, I hope that some of the older members will come forward with additional information that can be added to what I have already collected.  This information could then be retained within the club and updated periodically.

I hope you enjoy reading about our club as much as I have enjoyed tracking down and compiling the information up to this point.

Jim Ladd