Gordon Garnhart

There were 27 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Community conference room on Wednesday, April 13th. The mini swap meet brought some HO locomotives, some rolling stock, both freight and passenger, and a few buildings.

The meeting was opened by John White leading a discussion on recent progress in the project to furnish modeling kits to hospitalized veterans. We may even be able to provide coaching to help a veteran get started in his project.

An informal survey was conducted to determine what programs for next year might be of greatest interest to the group. A lively discussion followed.

For the main event of the evening, Dick Haines offered a very interesting, comprehensive and thought provoking presentation on modeling water on a model railroad layout. He talked about the various forms that water takes in a landscape, such as streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, rapids, falls and surf. He suggested gathering photographs or taking your own photographs of examples of the kind of water situation one intends to model. We should try to make our water look as realistic as we can and yet, the water should not be a focal point in itself but should point to some aspect of the layout related to operations such as a bridge, a pier or a sawmill. And don’t just think about the water, but also consider the adjacent land features, so that the surrounding landscape looks logical. Make the water surface appropriate to its circumstances; should it be smooth rippled or wavy. Ripples and waves are in motion in real life, but are static in a model and only suggest motion. But there are some ways to create the illusion of motion. He then showed a sketch of a revolving screen covering ceiling lights that cause rippled or wavy water to sparkle. He followed that with a demonstration of a waterfall made of a silica or acrylic sheet with an irregularly shaped surface and back lighted with a small light bulb mounted within a revolving motor driven perforated drum that gave the illusion of falling water. He talked about, and showed examples of various materials applied to glass, showing different smooth and rough surfaces  He distributed copies of a very comprehensive list of products that are available, together with cost information and comments on effectiveness and ease of use. The program was well received.

We look forward to Wednesday, May 11th, when Craig Williams will talk about “The South Whidbey Logging Railroad”, a real narrow gauge railroad that existed on Whidbey Island at one time.