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About Mike McNamara

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I have been into model railroading since I was pretty young. My parents gave me a number of model railroad items growing up, and this led to a 4x8 in the basement, with various Tyco and AHM products populating the layout.

Family trips to New Hampshire helped introduce me to the full size trains of the Maine Central and this fed into my passion for model railroading. To the right is a snapshot I took of a MEC GP38 on the YR-1 train from St. Johnsbury to Portand as it passed by our campground in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, in 1980.

As a teenager, receiving the October 1980 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman really marked a turning point. In it was an article on the MEC ball signal at Whitefield, NH. Having seen it and been there, it really helped me connect model railroading with the prototype.
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A pair of B&M GP7's idled in Whitefield, New Hampshire, where we were passing through one day during an early 1980's camping trip.
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Another camping trip took us into Maine, where we got up close to the rail yard in Bangor. I saw a local crew working to get their train ready around caboose #640.
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In the early 1980’s I joined the Gateway Model Railroad Club in Gloucester, NJ. This helped me to develop my skills, learn more about model railroading and also introduce me to new people. One of those was my late friend Glenn Salvatore. He really encouraged my interest in New England railroading and helped me get into building prototype models.

Soon after we started work on Glenn’s Rutland layout and also built a pair of modules for a local HO group. This was a great learning experience, and Glenn really helped broaden my knowledge of the prototype railroads in New England.
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I also spent some time working at Sattler’s Hobby Shop in Westmont, NJ. This helped me understand more about the model railroad industry and meet other people from all walks of life who shared an interest in trains. This was an exciting first job to have as a high school student and I really enjoyed going to work!

Participation in the club and working at Sattler's led me to my involvement with the NMRA and locally the New Jersey Division. Nothing can help you achieve your model railroading goals better than participation in the NMRA. My involvement has led me to serve the NJ Division, previously as Superintendent and editor of the Clinkers newsletter.
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While at Gateway and working on Glenn’s layout, I met Anton Mazza. Anton is Canadian Pacific and Canadian National modeler. Anton was part of our group working on Glenn's Rutland layout, and we are still friends today. He has helped me with the early stages of my NEK layout, particularly the early benchwork, before moving to Maryland.

But we still get together to go to conventions and train shows. Each year we make the weekend pilgrimage to Springfield for the Big E train show. We find plenty of stuff to buy and enjoy, and recently we have participated with the new England Free-mo group, with me bringing my modules up for the show. Having friends in the hobby makes it even better!

Here is Anton at the Timonium MD show, operating a long CP freight on the Four County modular layout.
I would like to thank my wife Tanya for not only tolerating my hobby but also supporting it and helping out at times (she has built some nice structures and birch trees for the layout).
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