by Gordon Garnhart

There were 27 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Community conference room on January 12th. Our mini swap meet brought a variety of items and some lively shopping ensued.

John White opened the meeting, calling our attention to a very worthwhile program called “Heartbeat, Serving Wounded Warriors”. It was started a few years ago by Janice Buckley of Snohomish, Washington, to provide support for the spouses and families of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The scope of the effort was recently expanded to help wounded veterans cope with their long recovery periods in veterans’ hospitals. Plans are beginning to come together to furnish kits of railroad cars or structures and/or supplying them with simple tool kits to give them something interesting to do. The thought was also expressed that the kits do not necessarily need to be railroad oriented.  Performance R/C Hobbies, located on Fairhaven Avenue in Burlington, will be actively participating in this program by furnishing some of the kits and tools.

John also called attention to the excellent job that Al Frasch does with his monthly “Skagit Valley & Whidbey NMRA Clinic” newsletter. It is a fine communications tool and serves as a bonding agent for the group.

Steve Jaffrey presented a very good program explaining how to scratch build a dilapidated building. He talked about various kinds of foundations used for barns, sheds and houses 100 years ago. He described methods of framing, and ways to distort the structural components to represent sagging and deteriorating conditions. He showed various kinds of roofing materials and passed around many examples of all of these aspects of construction. Steve talked about various kinds of paints, stains and thinners, and demonstrated techniques to achieve a weathered or neglected appearance. His program was well received.

We will next meet on Wednesday, February 9h for a program presented by Max Maginness, MMR, entitled “New Zealand Railways”.