Article and Photos by Rich Thom

Clinic Chair Rich Blake welcomed 26 to the November meeting, first reviewing the upcoming calendar.  Dec 11th will feature our annual Wassail, a tradition dating back at least a dozen years, with all invited to bring a (finger-food) potluck dish to share.  The pre-clinic dinner at Alfy’s in Oak Harbor is annulled for this meeting only, and the starting time for the Wassail is 6:30 pm.  For the January get-together (Jan 8th), modelers are invited to bring their latest models for detailed discussion of how they created them, and having their models judged (if they wish) for NMRA Achievement Awards.

Fig 1 – Jon Bentz Describes Progress on his Railroad

Several clinic members have layouts in progress including Jon Bentz (Fig 1), who described the status of his Rio Como Railroad.  Filling the better part of a 14’ x 39’ room, the On30 pike re-uses many of Jon’s scratch buildings on all-new benchwork.  A car float operation is featured.  Helping Jon with the construction among others is Cliff Aaker and Alan Murray; Alan, for example, is building the overpass (Fig 2)—a work in progress—for a spot on Jon’s layout.

Fig 2 – Alan Murray’s Overpass (In Progress)
Fig 3 – Ted Becker’s Banta Kit

Ted Becker brought in a model for display (Fig 3), a Banta Modelworks HO-scale “Crick Hollow Hardware and Miners Supply.”  Ted has thoroughly re-purposed the structure and varied the details.

Fig 4 – “Obrien’s”, by Al Carter

“Obrien’s,” a fine HO-scale model (Fig 4) built by Al Carter, has a story behind it.  Mike O’Brien, a charter member of the Mt. Vernon NMRA Clinic and proprietor of a popular local model-railroad supply company, recently closed the business and moved out of the area.  Hence: Obrien’s is CLOSED.  He will be missed.  

Fig 5 – Al Carter’s Diorama (In Progress)

Our sister clinic in Mt. Vernon is having a “Diorama Build” event this season—not a contest, to encourage more participation.  Al Carter showed his work-in-progress (Fig 5) with three buildings already in place, and a (very) disused railroad spur in the foreground.  They plan to display the completed dioramas at the April or May 2020 meeting.  Fig 6 shows one of the buildings temporarily in place on Al’s diorama.

Fig 6 – A Detail of Al’s Diorama (In Progress)

Tonight’s Panel of DCC Experts—Rich Blake, Cliff Aaker, and Jon Bentz—discussed several topics including:

  • Basic components required; different systems available
  • Programming methods, computer, system-specific, programming track
  • Decoder PRO, JMRI basics and benefits, functional description, controlling turnouts and signals
  • Decoder basics, DCC-ready vs. DC conversion, CVs and programming, consisting
  • DCC layout wiring, track bus/wire size, shorting protection methods, reverser modules

You can download Rich’s and Cliff’s PowerPoint presentations and other materials from this clinic on the clinic’s website