By John O’Connell Photos: Kevin Klettke, Ted Becker, John O’Connell
Thursday, March 10, Mt. Vernon Senior Center
Ted Becker opened the Clinic with eighteen regulars in attendance. He noted that May was the last Clinic before summer and encouraged us to share ideas for clinic topics as we start to think about the fall. Hands on airbrushing received a lot of interest.
Announcements
March 19, Santa Fe Mini-Meet, Burien. More details
April 1, Great Northern Electrification, White River Valley Museum, Auburn. More information
April 2, Pennsylvania Rail Road Meet, Burien. Details
April 3, NP Everett Operation Presentation circa 1955, Everett. Details
April 14, Mt Vernon Clinic. Diorama Challenge Finale and Mini-Clinics
April 30, Olympia Layout Tour, Olympia. Details
May 12, Mt. Vernon Clinic. Kevin Klettke “Fleet Weathering.” This is a reprise of his well-received Clinic at PDX 2015 on efficiently weathering large fleets of rolling stock. Visit Kevin’s website.
Here’s another sample of Kevin’s work…
May 14, 4th Division, Pacific Northwest Region Spring Meet, Tacoma Community College Click here for more information.
Show and Tell
Al and Mike’s MoW building
Al Carter and Mike O’Brien showed off their completed Maintenance of Way building kit bashed from a laser cut kit for a Hog Shed. The final step was to fabricate the roof. They used Paper Creeks’ simulated corrugated sheet metal. (Note – Paper Creek is no longer in business.)
Iver Johnson showed us his prize winning Flat Car Load. He took first place at the Whidbey Clinic with this scratch built Bunk House and Outhouse.
Diorama Challenge
Ted Becker’s Engine House with working doors
Mike O’Brien’s N scale scene features an engine house scratch built from scale lumber.
Mike also shared a find from Woodland Scenics: Paper Flower Pollen allows him to achieve the realistic color variation of fall colors on the deciduous trees in his scene.
Al Carter’s diorama is almost complete with the addition of the coal dealer behind the oil storage tanks.
Tool Time
Skip Johnson showed how he has turned the precision strip wood cutter from Midwest Products into a virtual chop saw
The Program
Ted Becker presented an interesting set of slides on steam locomotive “appliances” which is the correct word to describe virtually everything that hangs on a loco. Over the course of thirty slides he covered a range of appliances from the easily recognized (bells, head lights, class lights) to the arcane, at least for some present (feed water heaters <including the retrofitted coffin style>, water columns and gauges, air compressors, lifting injectors, steam domes, sand boxes, super heater tubes and throttle valves) Locomotive evolution and operation was also discussed as well as the massive damage that can occur when a critical appliance fails.
Ted mentioned an excellent source for virtually every steamer in North America, Kalmbach’s Cyclopedia – Volume 1, Steam Locomotives. Also Googling “steam Locomotive appliances” turns up a wealth of hits including this Wikipedia entry.
And now, the quiz…From the list of appliances above, how many can you identify on this Southern 4-6-2?
Running Extra
I think most are aware we have moved the pre-Clinic dinner and socializing to the Mt. Vernon Chuckwagon Drive-In. If you haven’t eaten there you may not be aware that, in addition to the good food, fast service and special prices, the other draw is the G Scale ceiling railroad. James Harvey, a Mt. Vernon Clinic participant, played the key role in resurrecting the Chuckwagon Drive-In Railroad which dated from 1982, but had fallen on hard times. Although James models in HO he undertook to get the road back in operation beginning in 2005. To do that he had to resuscitate LGB motive power and rolling stock, replace old track and re-wire much of the layout. With the support of new owners, Jae and Anna Kim and their son, Matthew, James continued to enhance the complexity and entertainment value of the railroad by installing working semaphores signals interlocked with turnouts that allow operation of two trains at a time on both the Blue and Green lines without risk of accidents.
James sitting behind the demonstration track highlighting the semaphores and interlocking detectors that control starting and stopping the trains as well as the turnouts.
More enhancements are coming and it will be fun to watch. Join us before the next Clinic!
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