The 4th Division’s members and friends are a talented group of modelers and railfans. Here we are proud to showcase articles and presentations written by them about a wide variety of railroad-related subjects.
All articles are PDF files and each is under 10MB in size, though they still may take a while to download. You may need Adobe Acrobat Reader or another program that reads PDF files to view them (some web browsers have built-in PDF viewing capabilities). Don’t have one? Click here to download (be careful about downloading the “optional offer” utilities).
These articles are available for reading, printing, and appropriate personal use, but each is copyrighted by its respective author. Please respect their rights. Request permission from them for any other use.
Want to see your article or presentation here? Contact the Grab Iron editor at gi_editor@4dpnr.com.
The Articles
The 4D HO Modular Group web site has a nice set of articles from their “Breakfast Programs”. Click here to navigate to the page.
Greg Price is a modeler from Puyallup with multiple AP Certificates (scenery, structures, electrical).
Paul Rising is an architect (BLRB Architects) and modeler from Tacoma well known for his backdrop painting presentations. He has multiple AP Certificates. He is associated with the Tacoma Symphony and painted the backdrops for the Puget Sound Model Railroad Engineers layout at the Washington State History Museum.
Designing and Painting Forested Backdrops, 2016 4D Spring Meet Clinic Handout
Tyler Whitcomb is a Tacoma area modeler well known for his N scale Tenino Western Railroad. The TWRR is a freelanced railroad set in Western Washington State, running from Olympia through Tenino and on towards the Washington Coastal towns of Aberdeen and Hoquiam and Cosmopolis. Connections are made with the Burlington Northern and the Union Pacific via staging yards at each end of the modeled railroad. Click here to visit his Facebook page featuring the TWRR.
Bill Messecar, Master Model Railroader #543, models the Santa Fe railroad in Southern California, and those who have seen his HO layout are always amazed at the detail, especially the oranges in their shipping crates. Bill has written several books and articles on modeling the Santa Fe and is active in the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society. His layout has appeared on 4D tours several times.
Operating a Prototype Santa Fe Layout, 2016 4D Spring Meet Clinic Handout
Max Maginness, Master Model Railroader #315, is a 4D member well-known for his modeling and engineering skills.
Ron Hart was born and raised in Everett, WA, and enjoyed chasing trains from Riverside to Bayside. He’s currently a firefighter-paramedic in Glendale, AZ, living with his family in the Phoenix area. Ron writes about researching and modeling the Milwaukee Road Everett Branch.
Dennis Murphy and his wife moved from Girdwood, Alaska to Olympia, WA in late 2008. Dennis worked at both the Leadville, Colorado and Southern Railroad and the Georgetown Loop Railroad in Colorado during the summer of 2008. He has written an eclectic mix of articles on railfanning, railroads, and scale modeling.
Kent Sullivan grew up in Indiana but moved to the Seattle area in 1989. Kent and his two sons, Kyle and Sean, are active members of the 4dNTRAK group, and Kent is a Chevy Corvair enthusiast (he admits with a furtive look all around).
Vancouver Island, Via Rail, RDC — A Recipe for Fun!
Vancouver Island, Via Rail, RDC — A Recipe for Fun! (CAUTION: larger file: 24MB)
MRR Anon is a native of the Pacific Northwest and has been working (and playing) in HO scale since he was twelve. He is an aerospace Electronics Engineer and an active participant, along with his son, in the Seattle-North monthly clinics. (As you may have guessed, MRR Anon is not his real name; he’s leery of the Internet.)
Naomi Jeffery Petersen is a professor of education at Central Washington University. She helped Jim Murrie assemble this presentation on how to run your model railroad club like a real railroad using the 1951 Northern Pacific as prototype.
Larry Sloan works full-time in technical support and is the layout director for the Tacoma Northwestern Free-mo group. He lives with his wife and their two dogs in Kent and is trying to work on remodeling the house for a train room.