Welcome to what Gloria Jahoda called in a travel book about north and northwest Florida in the 1960's, "The Other Florida." The Sunshine Region's Northern Division encompasses northeastern Florida from the Daytona Beach area through Jacksonville. It includes Gainesville, although not Ocala or The Villages. It covers much of the Big Bend, including Tallahassee. We hand off to the NMRA's Southeast Division at the Apalachicola River, so we do not include Panama City and Pensacola.
    The Northern Division's major membership areas are Jacksonville/Duval County and Tallahassee, although we have active NMRA members scattered throughout, including Lake City. The Northern Division has fewer members than the other Sunshine Region divisions, but it is home to Barrett Johnson of Tallahassee, newly-installed SSR president, two members of the SSR board and active members on the SSR's Internet, AP, conventions and historian committees.
    Our division includes some of the state's top modelers. To my knowledge, we have no Master Model Railroaders at the moment, but several Northern Division folks are working very aggressively in the AP program. The ND could have as many as half-a-dozen Master Model Railroaders within the next three or four years.
    The Big Bend Model Railroad Association in Tallahassee is Florida's largest model railroading club and one of the largest in the country, with about 100 registered members, although only a dozen in the NMRA. The Tallahassee club and NMRA co-hosted an SSR convention, Gulf Wind I, in May 2010 and probably will be hosting Gulf Wind II in the next two or three years. BBMRA has an annual model train show and sale in June at the Leon County Fairgrounds.
    Tallahassee has several unique attractions for model railroaders and rail fans in general, including the Devore Moore Antique Car Museum at I-10 and U.S. 90 west of Tallahassee. The museum features 15,000 square feet of historic railroad memorabilia and classic Lionel, Marx and American Flyer model trains. The Florida State Museum in the R.A. Gray Building near the Capitol often has exhibits involving Florida's railroading experience.
    The Northern Division's goals for the immediate future include future SSR conventions, promoting NMRA membership and organizing events in Jacksonville and developing Internet reports on north Florida and south Georgia involving restored steam locomotives, model train clubs, hobby shops and train shows and important, significant personal layouts.
    Welcome to our home page. We want your ideas and suggestions to make it better. Contact me, your Northern Division Superintendent, or Jon Lash our Webmaster.

Sam Miller
SSRNorthernDiv[@]sunshineregion.org
(850) 385-7733

Jon Lash
SSRNorthernWebmaster[@]sunshineregion.org