By John O’Connell / Photos by Al Carter, George Stephenson, and John O’Connell
Twenty two, including five guests, were in attendance when Ted Becker opened the Clinic. Ted advised that this is an NMRA, Pacific Northwest Region, 4th Division, sponsored event.
Announcements
Performance R/C Hobbies is closing this week. The Clinic sent flowers and a card is circulating to wish Suzie well in her retirement. She offered a variety of odds and ends she still had on hand to the Clinic and they are free for the taking. She will be missed.
Roger Johnson has been working hard to prepare the last stages of his layout for an open house December 11-13, Friday (7-9 PM), Saturday (1-4 PM) and Sunday (1-4 PM). If you need directions, email Roger at skagitrailbird@gmail.com.
The December 22 Clinic will feature a “Super Show and Tell” along with “Diorama Build Status” and “Mini-Clinics”.
Note: The January Clinic begins our new day and date: on January 14 (the second Thursday of the month) Mike O’Brien will share his tree building process.
The following months clinics:
- February 11 – Nick Muff, MMR, “Modeling the Kansas City Union Station”
- March 10 – Ted Becker, “Steam Locomotive Appliances”
- April 14 – Dioramas and Mini-Clinics
- May 12 – Kevin Klettke “Fleet Weathering” This is a reprise of his well-received Clinic at PDX 2015 on efficiently weathering large fleets of rolling stock. Not to be missed. Here’s a sample:
Visit Kevin’s website at http://wnrr.net.
Al Carter proposed a working series of hands-on Clinics, potentially next fall, to paint, decal, and weather unfinished box cars which have been gifted to the Clinic. Attendees expressed much enthusiasm for the proposal.
Several railroad prototype meets are on the horizon:
- March 5 – Milwaukee Road
- March 19 – Santa Fe
- April 2 – Pennsylvania
Diorama Build
Tom Buckingham brought his in-progress diorama and discussed the issues he was having with using adhesive to join layers of foam board to build his scene.
Mike O’Brien brought his N-scale diorama and discussed his attempt to simulate Fall foliage.
Mike O’Brien’s N Scale Diorama
Show and Tell
Paul Koren brought a sample showing various fixatives. He noted that Model Masters Lusterless (Flat) gave the most appealing result. http://www.amazon.com/Lusterless-Lacquer-Clear-Testors-Corp/dp/B004QPCLQG
Paul also brought his HO model of a 30s era outside braced Virginian box car.
Paul Korem’s 30s era Outside Braced VGN Boxcar
Al Carter brought his Antique Store and Welding Shop.
Al Carter’s Kit/Scratchbuilt Antique Store and Welding Shop
Nick Muff brought some laser cut shingles and some plaster bandages (very useful for landscaping) which he offered to give away.
Tool Time
Al Carter demonstrated a useful way to produce the appearance of stacked blocks or beams in Balsa Foam using a small hammer and a piece of styrene cut to the appropriate dimension for the desired effect. Also, see page 64 of the December Railroad Model Craftsman for the article, ”Balsa Foam Primer.”
http://www.dickblick.com/products/balsa-foam/
The Main Attraction
George Stephenson, owner/operator of the Mt Vernon Terminal Railway joined us for an extremely informative presentation on the color and history of this local treasure.
George Stephenson at the Nov Clinic
The Mt Vernon Terminal Railway was founded in 1939. At its largest, it was 2.5 miles long, plus there were trackage rights on 7 miles of the Puget Sound & Cascade Railroad, a logging line running between the NP and GN until 1943. Throughout its history the Mount Vernon Terminal Railway has served several canneries and cold storage facilities (Darigold, PictSweet, Stokley), a grocery-then-beverage distributor, a sand and gravel facility, and a fertilizer company that is now known as Skagit Farmers (still being served by the Mt Vernon Terminal Railway). Today’s other main customer is Safety-Kleen, a company that processes used motor oil. Also, occasionally the Mt. Vernon Terminal Railway will store extra tank cars from the Shell refinery at Anacortes.
#1 (20 ton Whitcomb) with GN boxcar crossing Division Street northbound with carload of canned peas from PictSweet Cannery, 3/31/1949
#2 (25 ton Plymouth), 7/2/1951
There have been six locomotives over the years:
- #1 – 1931 20 ton Whitcomb CR6U
- #2 – 1934 25 ton Plymouth ML-6
- #3 – 1943 30 ton Plymouth ML-6 (painted in bi-centennial scheme in 1976)
- #4 – 1943 35 ton Plymouth ML-8
- #5 – 1944 120 ton Baldwin V0-1000, acquired from the U.S. Navy, Bangor WA
- #6 – 1953 115 ton EMD SW9, acquired from the Tacoma Municipal Belt Line and currently in use
#5 Baldwin VO-1000
#6 EMD SW9
At one time the Mt Vernon Terminal Railway owned nine boxcars, but they were never lettered for the owner. Numbers 501 through 505 were lettered for the Puget Sound & Cascade, and numbers 506 through 509 were lettered for the Great Northern. These cars were used primarily to carry empty milk cans from the Carnation plant (GN customer) to the Darigold plant. There was no other rolling stock.
All early track maintenance was done by hand; it was not until about 1985 that the Mount Vernon Terminal Railway became mechanized.
After hearty applause, George gave away multiple copies of a DVD sponsored by the City of Mt. Vernon and the Mt. Vernon Terminal Railway to the Clinic attendees. With permission of the City of Mt. Vernon, click below to see it!
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