Author: Al Babinsky

Al Babinsky, photos by Chip and his Ipad

MMR Gene Swanson welcomed all back at our usual location which is a little more on the space side then last month location. We did not have any newbies at this time but did have a few junior modelers accompanying their dad and granddad and 40 regulars at hand.

Under the announcements we found out that there was free stuff available on the tables in back, such as G scale items, DigiTrax stationary decoders, GN reference material and old model railroader magazines. The Tacoma Clinic layout tour will be held on Saturday May 10^th and is split up into two segments with a break for lunch in between. The layout maps will be available at 8:00 AM at the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. prior to the tour start.

One of our new features is; introduce your layout and invite fellow modelers to visit your layout when in the neighborhood, of course with prior announcement and you being available. Walt Huston introduced his layout which is in a building behind his house. The building has a double garage door which was required by Pierce County. His N scale layout covers all but 7 feet along one side which is used for workshop and storage.

Stu had the video library on hand, in order to get a video let him know what you want and he will bring it the next time. He will also convert the tape into a DVD if you prefer that but the DVD remains property of the library. He is also looking for a replacement librarian so he can pursue other endeavors.

What’s new at the hobby shop presented by Tacoma Trains and Bill Sandstrom had a number of items such as a SP work crane along with an idler car, a Bachman standard line decoder equipped Milwaukee road GP40, Athearn a five pack of N scale bethgons and cars from Micro Trains, vehicles and a book on the Milwaukee Road.

In the Bring and Brag category, Jim Clowers brought an old kit of Dollar Brothers Transfer Building. Dale Kraus brought a German steamer that he kit bashed from three separate locomotives. Walt Huston had two N scale lumber cars that he modified to carry culvert pipes, the pipes were made from tin foil wrapped around a bolt and the bolt was then un-screwed from the foil pipe. John brought an excursion car that he kit bashed from a gondola. Chip had a transfer caboose that he designed with the Sketch-up program which was used to 3D print the car. Jim Clowers was the winner of the Bring and Brag with his transfer building kit.

After the break Jack Hamilton presented his clinic on the AP Program supported by an excellent slide presentation along with humorous comments. Very well done Jack and he probably won over a few to try and participate in the program, yours truly included.

Next month clinic will be given by Dale Kraus and is on Stumps; I’m stumped and will be at our usual location at the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. at the corner 112^th Street and Waller Road at 7:30 PM. Hope to see you there and bring a friend to share in our hobby.

Al Babinsky

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic on time with 34 in attendance; we did not have any newcomers in the crowd. Russ Segner was introduced as the new 4D super and told about his work at the Snoqualmie museum and at the DuPont museum. The DuPont museum has the only narrow gauge railroad in this area; it is a 2 foot gauge.

Mike Highsmith is the assistant super and is in charge of the nomination committee for the upcoming elections and asked that everyone vote when the ballots arrive.

The Tacoma Clinic layout tours will be held on May 10^th with the layouts grouped, 5 are in the Tacoma area and 4 in the federal Way area. The Tacoma tour is in the morning and the Federal Way tour in the afternoon with a lunch break in between to allow for time to transition between the two areas.

There was an announcement about the Mount Rainier Scenic RR having a steam up of 5 locomotives plus one guest locomotive on May17th.

The IPMS (International Plastic Modelers Society) has a spring show at the Renton Community Center on April 12. For information on the go to their website at: http://www.ipms-seattle.org/springshow

What’s new at the hobby shop presented by Bill Sandstrom of Tacoma Trains, there were a number of items from Athearn, Walthers, Kato, Microtrains, and Wheels of Time.

The Bring and Brag had several entries, Scott Taylor brought his scratch built track models that were built for his civil AP certificate, and they consisted of a #5 RH turnout, a 90 degree crossing and a gauntlet track. He used downloaded drawings from “Fast Tracks” which are available from their website. Chris Clancey brought a GP-38 that he painted for the Weyerhaeuser logging RR; Russ Segner brought a laser cut kit for a repair shop that is a project in progress. Walt Huston had an N scale diorama. Scott Taylor won the Bring and Brag award.

After the break MMR Gene Swanson and Mike Shaw presented this month clinic on basic scenery. The presentation was made with a diorama showing the how it was done by using a video camera and a wall mounted monitor. They also had photos of Gene’s layout where you could see the final result. A very informative clinic with a great handout and of course the use of video and photos. I will have the handout as well as some of the photos attached to this report.

Next month clinic will be on the AP program and is presented by Jack Hamilton. The clinic will be at our usual place in the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. at the corner of 112^th street and Waller Road at 7:30PM, hope to see you there.

Basic Scenery 2

Basic Scenery 1

Al Babinsky, Photos by Chip

Since I was not able to attend the clinic I want to thank Chip for doing the steno duties and taking the photos which will comprise most of this report.

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic and asked for announcements. The primary announcement is the 4D convention in June at the LaQuinta inn in Tacoma.

Walt Huston presented Scott Taylor with 2 civil AP awards.

The video library was available and Bill of Tacoma Trains presented What’s New at the Hobby Shop (rather slim as can be seen by the photo).

Bring and Brag (model of the month) had several entries with the winner being Diane Kraus’s control tower.

Tip of the Month: Construction foam does last, with an example layout (recently disassembled) lasting 12 years. Gaps for a juicer and reverser need distance.

After the break Jim Sabol presented his clinic on successful soldering:

If you’re doing something wrong, stop it, if you aren’t doing something, start.

Different metals solder differently and you need to learn each and make sure that both pieces are clean. Use whatever methods work best, such as sandpaper, files, scrapers, and acid (if needed). Do not use acid when soldering electrical components. The soldering tip needs to be clean and tinned and use rosin core solder and flux with electrical components. Hold both parts still until the solder turns dull and then clean off excess flux. Always use the correct size soldering iron for the job, large pieces need a high wattage iron and electronics need a low wattage iron. Walt Huston and Dale Kraus assisted in a demonstration soldering N scale equipment and decoders.

Next month’s clinic will be on layout presentation and will be presented by Dale Kraus.

Due to a little timing problem we could not get our usual place, so please note that next month’s clinic will be at the Summit Library 5107 112^th Street East which is just of Canyon Road. The date is 13^th of March at the usual time of 7:30 PM.

Soldering Clinic                                                                                                               Award Presentation

What’s new at the hobby shop

Bring and Brag winner

Al Babinsky, Photos by Chip

MMR Gene Swanson opened the on time as always with 38 modelers including 3 newcomers attending.

Under announcements Mike Highsmith talked about welcoming new NMRA members to the 4D. One of the things that he was doing was to call or e-mail them and thank them for joining. He also informed them about clinics and other programs in the areas where they lived. In the spirit of this idea the Tacoma Clinic, under Wain Miller’s guidance, started a program in which the clinic attendees would introduce themselves and their layout and add phone numbers and e-mail so that they could be contacted by another member to arrange a visit. Al Babinsky volunteered to be the first to introduce himself and his layout. This will be about a 10 minute talk each clinic and a folder will be available with all the information given by the layout owners.

The TNW will have their swap-meet May 31 – June1.

What’s new at the hobby shop presented by Tacoma Train had a number of goodies from ready to use service station in O scale by Woodland Scenics, rolling stock, locomotives, vehicles in HO, N, and O scale. Of local interest would be the Sounder version of an FP59 and the Sounder passenger cars.

In the Bring and Brag (model of the month) category we had numerous entries; Chris Clancy with 2-6-0 weathered and decalled OSL (Oregon Short Line) a heavily weathered Milwaukee Road boxcar and a tank car, Dennis Reeves with an Eagle River Mine a laser kit weathered with cosmetic eye shadow colors, Dale Kraus with a tunnel made from Faller stone paper along with a Roco 0-6-0 narrow gauge loco and short passenger car, Walt Huston with a couple of covered hoppers one weathered and the other as is out of the box, Peter with a Chooch model kit of a mining machinery building and John Miller with an English loco that seemed to need a recharge on the magnet. The winner of this month was Dennis Reeves with the N scale Eagle River Mine.

This month’s clinic was on DCC programming with JMRI and SPROG and presented by Al Babinsky. As sometimes happens MR. Murphy presented his ugly head and made things difficult. Al could not do the actual programming but proceeded to go through with programming steps on the computer which was connected to the overhead projector so that the others could see what he was doing. He also had a handout for the group with the information on the how and where to download the program and obtain the SPROG. He also showed an app for the smart phone called Engine Driver that allowed the smart phone to act as a throttle and run the locomotive.

Now I want to apologize for that mishap at the clinic and tell you that I did not follow my own instruction and forgot to check a couple of items. I didn’t check to see which COM port the SPROG was using and in the program I didn’t check that the programmer was in PAGED mode.

Next month clinic will be given by Jim Sabol and is called Seven easy steps to soldering; the date is February 13^th at 7:30 PM at the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. the corner of 112^Th Street and Waller Road. We hope to see you there and bring a friend, modeler or your better half.

Al Babinsky

MMR Gene Swanson opened the “Dirty Santa” clinic on time with 48 modelers present. The normal program was dispensed with the exception of the Bring & Brag (Model of the Month). An announcement was made that we had good donations for the food bank. Gene called for a moment of silence for the casualties of the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor.

Wain Miller sent the clinic member roster around to make last minute corrections. The roster will be used to make up membership badges.

Herb Buhl called for the owners of the Bring & Brag to describe their entries. Wain Miller operated the video camera to show the entries as the owners described them. Kurt Laidlaw brought a diorama entitled “Crossing the White River.” Gene Swanson brought a removable section for his railroad with a trestle that functioned as a duck-under when in place. Dale Krause had a scratchbuilt clamshell crane to be used in his coaling facility. This month’s winner was Kurt Laidlaw’s White River diorama.

Prior to the Dirty Santa we had an excellent buffet dinner with cake and ice cream, with Dave Liesse entertaining us at the keyboard.

After dinner Dirty Santa arrived and a good time was had by all. Many presents changed hands numerous times, especially the ones that had tools. After the conclusion of Dirty Santa, we had a drawing for door prizes. Gene did a great job of collecting a large number of items and, as it turned out, everyone got a door prize.

We want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and hope to see you in the next year. Our next clinic will be on Jan 9^th at 7:30 PM at our usual place in the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. the corner of 112^th Street and Waller road. The clinic will be on programming with the SPROG and JMRI and programming with DigiTrax DCC on a specially built programming setup and given by Al Babinsky.

Hope to see you there.

Al Babinsky

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic on time and paid honor to the Veterans for their services in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and in the Gulf and Afghanistan. Our annual collection for the Northwest Food Network was presented to their representative in the amount of $1,250.00.

We had 44 modelers attend, including one new modeler, Bill Sandstorm, who models in HO.

Ed Liesse announced that Ken Liesse resigned as 4D Superintendent due to school conflict and Russ Segner will take over his position. Mike Highsmith will take over Russ’s position as Assistant Superintendent. The 2014 convention tours are filling up. The convention dates are June 18-21 and the registration is $59 and after March 1 it will be $79. PNR is looking for volunteers to fill in the president position.

The December clinic will be “Dirty Santa,” but remember to bring your “Bring and Brag.” The date is Dec. 12^th.

George Bourcier from Tacoma Trains presented what’s new at the hobby shop with his new helper Bill who will take over for him at the clinic. His display had models from Lionel, Walthers, Atlas, BLMA, Athearn, and Accurail.

We had a great number of “Bring and Brag,” scratchbuilt building, weathered cars, scratchbuilt trees, and a scratchbuilt rail storage building from the Wenatchee Apple yard around 1922.

The winner this month is James Jeffrey with his railroad storage facility in the Wenatchee Appleyard.

This month clinic was presented by MMR Gene Swanson, Mike Shaw and Bob Stumpf and pertained to making a working switch stand target. You can download the PowerPoint slide show in PDF format here. These switch stands were built for the PSMRE layout in the Washington History Museum.

Next month’s clinic will be December 12^th at our usual place: the Pierce County Library Administration Building at the corner of 112^th Street and Waller Road. The start time is 7:30 PM and, as always, we will have food and drink. Hope to see you there. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Tacoma Clinic 11.14.2013.1

Al Babinsky / Photos by Chip Van Gilder

MMR Gene Swanson opened the first clinic for this season with an attendance of 36 modelers. Gene announced that we would be getting new badges and turned to Wain Miller to explain the process. Wain explained that he would pass a clipboard around for the next three clinics to get as many names as possible to make up a roster and to issue new photo badges. Walt Huston gave a special 4D president’s award to Jim Sabol and a president’s special service award to Gene Swanson.

George Bourcier from Tacoma Trains presented what’s new at the hobby shop and had a collection of items from the last few months. Woodland scenic with ready to use structures in O and HO scale, Roundhouse with short passenger cars, Athearn with trailer cars, lighted caboose, Freightliner, Texaco, Oscar Mayer trucks, Microtrains with Milwaukee Road passenger cars and log cars.

Bring and Brag (model of the month) had a number of entrants: Chris Clancey with a U18B formerly CSX diesel and a wood deck flat car both heavily weathered; Dale Kraus with gondola converted into open passenger car, named by its former owner a Buffalo hunting car, and a kit bashed depot for his narrow gauge railroad; Walt Huston with a set of Microtrains log cars, one in its out-of-the-box appearance and the rest weathered and decaled; Scott Groft with a Bachmann On30 Porter kit bashed into a Forney with car display case; Paul Vaughn with rebuilt gondola; John Bunten with an 1829 Stevensen Rocket of the Manchester Railroad built from a kit; and Al Babinsky with a ME-321 Gigant (Giant) cargo glider capable of carrying 24 tons and an IHC 4-4-0 belonging to Gene Swanson in which he installed a Tsunami micro decoder and speaker and a micro LED in the headlight.

We had two winners for our contest: Chris Clancey and John Bunten.

Model of the Month Winner  

The clinic for this month was by Chip Van Gilder on his five steps to better photography. This is a very interesting PowerPoint presentation on how to make a good photo better by showing the before and after pictures and how it was done to get the result. He explained that a lot of photo programs can do some of the things but to get the best results you need a very good program such as the CS5 program that he uses. A well done and excellent clinic, thanks Chip.

The clinic for October is the making of a Rail Fan DVD; it will be given by Jim Sabol. We will be at our usual place, the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. at 112^th Street and Waller Road at 7:30 PM on October 10. Hope to see you there. Bring a friend, a modeler and/or your better half. Until then, happy railroading.

Just a last minute reminder that the Tacoma clinic will be held at our usual place, the Pierce County Library Admin Bldg. at the corner of 112th Street and Waller Road at 7:30 PM Thursday September 12. Hope to see you there at the beginning of the new season.

Al Babinsky

Al Babinsky

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic and welcomed 43 modeler and prospective modelers, Bruce Cranfield and Eddie (Herb’s grandson) were the newcomers. Under announcements it was mentioned the Testor is dropping the Floquil and other lines of railroad colors. Microscale has a conversion table for color replacements. The 4D is sponsoring the 2014 convention with Russ Segner at the throttle and he is requesting help. The Snoqualmie Museum received a donation of an N scale layout which they want to use for kids to operate and they are in need of rolling stock. The NMRA membership is dwindling so please renew your membership and try to get new members; a six month membership for less than $10.00 is a good start. John Novotney, who does our meeting room reservation, wants to step down and needs someone to take over. If I heard correctly is looks like Scott Taylor stepped up to do the job. Walt Huston presented Dave Fausset with his Golden Spike Award.

“What’s new in the hobby shop,” presented by George Boucier, had a number of new items including a couple of ready to use buildings from Woodland Scenics, very detailed and good looking.

We had a number of great entries in the Model of the Month contest: a caboose B&B diorama based on the one in Sequim, a weathered SP&s switcher, a 10 boxcar decaled and weathered set, 2 old time Maerklin tinplate HO cars, a sand house with elevated track and sand gondola, an O scale icing facility with milk reefer, 3 HO hoppers with gravel load, a Varney caboose cleaned to its former glory and Model Power one to compare, HO hopper and boxcar decaled with graffiti. The winner of the model contest was John Novotney, for his B&B diorama.

After the break, Dale Kraus presented the continuation of his clinic on “DCC: things you don’t need to know.” A very informative clinic with demonstration of programming, installation, and operation along with a good hand-out to remember the things you don’t need to know.

After the summer break our next clinic will be on September 12, 2013 7:30PM at our usual location at the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. corner of 112^th Street and Waller Road. The clinic will be on Five Basic Steps For Better Photos given by Chip Van Gilder.

I will post the photos as soon as I get them from Chip.

Have a great summer and we’ll see you in September.

By Al Babinsky / Photos by Chip

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic on time as always. We had 43 attendees including Paul Vaughn’s grandson Gaylon as guest.

Under the announcements Ed Liesse read a portion of the Museum Of Flight newsletter which stated that Scott Taylor became the 737 crew chief. The 4D spring meet will be at the Embassy Suites in Tukwila Saturday May 18 with layout tours on Sunday May 19. He also announced that the 4D is sponsoring the PNR convention in 2014; the dates are April 23 – 26 with location to be announced later. Mike Highsmith is the clinic coordinator and asked for clinicians. Jim Sabol said that the south sound GOPHERS to look at 1:1 scale operations and a possible carbide on a switcher.

Due to some other commitment George Boucier from Tacoma Trains could not present the What’s New at the Hobby Shop segment and we proceeded to do the Model of the Month or as we like to call it; Bring and Brag.

First up was John Miller with some old Varney tenders that had seen better days and his trials and tribulations on the effort to restore them to good condition. His biggest problem being that Bowser Mfg. was slow in responding to get things accomplished. His last comment was that it would have been better to switch to Diesel power. Joshua had three N scale reefers that he reworked extensively and as he said weathered too much. Kris Clancy had the good fortune to find a Sunset model Santa Fe 4-10-2 in an antique shop and was able to get it for a good price and it was in good running order. Walt Huston brought a Modeldiecast BN boxcar and Trueline Trains Boise Cascade boxcars highly weathered. Dale Kraus showed his AKG Kieswerk No 3 gravel tipple which was entirely scratch built; the sign was generated on the computer. He also had a gluing fixture by Riteway available at Mikro-Mark. Gene Swanson had a set of Varney locomotives that are up for grabs except for one that is going to be upgraded so it can be used at History Museum. The Model of the Month winner was Dale with his gravel tipple.

After the break Jim Clowers presented his clinic on how to get manufactures to make items that you like to have. He said that if you can get pictures, drawings and lots of information and send it to them they may be inclined to produce the item. The thing to do is take pictures from any angle, measure the item and produce a drawing or if you are lucky to get the actual drawing it is of great help. He showed a number of items that he was able to get made. Thank you Jim for a great clinic.

Next month clinic will be on the 13^th of June at our usual place; Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. the corner of 112^th St. and Waller Rd and 7:30 PM.  Dale Kraus will present part 2 of his DCC clinic. See you there and bring company and or modelers.

AKG Kieswerk No 3 Dale Kraus, Model of the Month Winner