Author: Al Babinsky

Al Babinsky / Photos by Chip

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic on time to a crowd of 41 modelers. There were no new comers and we proceeded with the announcements. Ed Liesse made the following announcements; the 4D spring will be May 18 at the Embassy Suites in Tukwila with layout tours on May 19. The 4D board meeting is April 20 at Mitzel’s in Kent. Ballots for the 4D elections should be in your home in the next few days, the must be returned by May 10. The PNR convention is June 20 in Boise, ID.

Mike Shaw was given a number of posters from the Alaska Railroad as well as some pillows with railroad motive; these are free to anyone who wants them.

Mike Highsmith is running for one of the director positions and gave us his candidate statement.

The model of the month contest had some great entries from Chris Clancy with his ALCO C4-24s weathered. John Miller with 3 Varney stamped cars reworked to look correct. Dale Kraus with a European narrow gauge train in 760mm (HO n). Walt Huston with 3 N scale cars one decorated with a Saskatchewan logo. Dennis Reeves with a logging camp diorama featuring camp cars and log train, the diorama is to be installed in a display at the old Cannery in Sumner. Paul Vaughn had a newly designed tool to cut flex-rail. Duane Damgaard with a shotgun house that included a flickering fire in the stove. Skip showed a Bachmann Hogwarts Express with installed sound decoder and lights using micro LEDs. The winner of the model of the month was Dennis Reeves with the logging diorama.

What’s new at the hobby shop included items from Walthers, Microtrains, Railking, and Athaern Genesis.

This month clinic was given by Dale Kraus and titled What you really don’t need to know about DCC or Myth-busters. The clinic had great information along with a hand-out on how to get started. Due to the fact that the clinic was too long it was decided to continue the clinic at the June clinic.

May’s clinic will be given by Jim Clowers and is called; how to get manufacturers to make what you want, this should be a very interesting topic. We will meet at our usual place, the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. at the corner of 112^th Street and Waller Road at 7:30 PM, hope to see all of you there.

Al Babinsky / Photos by Chip Van Gilder

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic on time as usual with a total of 40 modelers and guest in attendance.

It was reported that the Corkscrew Northern, built by Ken Gentili and others, was destroyed. The CN had been looking for a new home since the Boys and Girls club needed the space.

Model of the Month or, as we call it “The Bring and Brag,” had a number of great entries. Chip brought Eddy Fisher Leasing locomotive which he painted and detailed along with a string of hopper cars most of which he stripped and repainted. Walt brought in 3 NW2’s which modified by adding 3-chime horns, beacons, and removed steps along with 2 depressed-center metal body flatcars. They had the wheels replaced and body mounted couplers installed. He also built 2 MDC boxcar kits and detailed them for his railroad. Dave brought a loggers cabin wood kit. Scott showed an Atlas HO lumber yard kit and a 137% enlarged version scratchbuilt along with a saw house. Chris had a heavily-weathered hopper with graffiti and excursion caboose with a load of passengers. Gene showed a Silver Streak kit to which he added Kadee sprung trucks and couplers. George Bouncier from Tacoma Trains presented “What’s New at the Hobby Shop,” with a number of items in several scales, including a Z scale hopper pack. The Model of Month was won by Scott Groft’s scratchbuilt lumber yard.

After the break Jim Sabot and Robert Grove presented their clinic on the DuPont Narrow Gauge. The E. I. DuPont Powder Works had an extensive 3’ narrow gauge network at their plant to transport raw material and finished product within the plant area and to the deep water wharf. They operated a 12-ton Plymouth diesel with homebuilt rolling stock. A very informative clinic along with a slide show and information on the restoration effort of some rolling stock.

Next month’s clinic by Dale Kraus will an update on decoders. We’ll meet in our usual location in the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg., corner of Waller Road and 112 Street, at 7:30 pm. Please come and join us.

(As always, click a photo to enlarge.)

Walt’s N scale equipment

Stripped and re-painted Loco and Hopper cars

Lumber yard and Silver Streak boxcar

Logging shed

Filling lead shot

Al Babinsky / Photos by Chip

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic on schedule as always. A total of 32 model railroad enthusiasts were on hand despite of Valentine’s Day.

It was announced that the Olympia Layout Open House would be from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on March 2^nd. The 4D BOD meeting would be at 1:00 PM on February 23^rd at Mitzel’s in Kent.

The video library was manned by Stu and open to check out or check in videos.

What’s new at the hobby shop was presented by Bill Deutscher from Tacoma Trains, under the many new things was a town in the box by Woodland Scenics, rolling stock, locomotives, and accessories from various manufacturers. BIll mentioned that this would be the last he would present what’s new at hobby shop because he had to devote more time to his regular job. He will be missed by all.

The model of the month (Bring and Brag) had a number of nice models, Walt Huston with a diesel for his Aberdeen, Tacoma and Spanaway Forrest RR, detailed and decaled.  Chris Clancy with a Yard tower and tool shed scratchbuilt from lumber of a wood house kit, the shed with corrugated roofing. Dale Kraus with an Alexander Scale white metal crane kit, modified, weathered and painted. Jim Sabol with an O scale toy flatcar purchased at a swap meet, the car was actually brass and he was able to remove the metal deck install brake rigging and wooden deck on the car, next are proper couplers and complete trucks. Gene Swanson had two Santa Fe box cars and one NP reefer from his Dirty Santa loot. They needed major repair since most of the detail parts were broken. Gene was this month winner.

After the break the clinic for this month was by Al Babinsky on LED lighting for model railroad use. Since LEDs became available much progress has been made in size as well as intensity. The colors that are used in model railroading are available. Yeloglow LEDs from Miniatronics simulate incandescent headlights.  Mini and Micro LEDs are so small they can be used in light fixtures and even small enough to be used in N scale. Resistors are normally used to restrict the current flow but now new devices are out that can be used, they called current limiting diodes, CLDs for short. They not available at this time but Mouser and DigiKey carry them normally. The information on the CLDs can be found NMRA magazine May 2012 issue. Al’s handouts listed the vendors and their web addresses.

A great clinic which everyone enjoyed and hopefully will be able to use the information on their layouts.

Next month clinic will be March 14^th at our usual place, the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. the corner 112^th Street and Waller Rd. We hope to see you there!

Al Babinsky / Photos by Chip Van Gilder

MMR Gene Swanson opened the first clinic of the new year with 48 modelers present including two newcomers: Michael Buchanan (N scale) and Tim Cloud.

Under announcements, the Pacific Science Center show, Jan 19-21 and the United Northwest Train show Feb 2-3 were mentioned. The Science Center show still needs volunteers to help with check-in on Friday and check-out on Sunday. A pledge form was available for donation to the  NMRA gallery at the California Railroad Museum.

The video library was available to check-out videotapes or DVDs.

What’s new at the Hobby Shop was presented by Bill Deutscher from Tacoma Trains, cabooses from Atlas, wood chip hoppers from Red Caboose, Milwaukee caboose from Railking, Woodland Scenics bike shop and old barn, Walthers center beam flatcar and a powered rail crane.

In the bring and brag category (model of the month) a Rhein river powered barge (HO), GN hopper and boxcar (N), an Iron Horse Models Precision Scale Co. Milwaukee Road EP-2 brass Bi-Polar owned by Mike Shaw. The winner was Dale Kraus with his barge owned by the Algemeine Rhein und Bodensee Schiffahrtgesellschaft.

The clinic was on plaster less cloth shell scenery given by Jim Sabol. Jim purchased a book called cloth shell scenery and demonstrated how to make the scenery without a mess and dust. There are several ways to create the scenery foundation, ribbed, lattice, chicken wire, and stacked foam. Any type of cloth can be used but an old thin blanket is the best. The cloth is draped over the scenery and the outline marked with a marker pen the cutout and construction adhesive is laid in beads about 1” apart then spread with a piece of wood which is then placed on the scenery and when dry becomes hard. The book can be ordered from Marsh Lake Productions.

A great clinic and very informative and easy to do. Next month clinic is about LED lighting and how to wire them along with types of LEDs available.

We hope to see you in February at our usual location in the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. the corner 112^th Street and Waller Road.

These items were up for grabs:

Al Babinsky, Photo by Skip

Dirty Santa, MMR Gene Swanson, opened the clinic and greeted the normal crowd of 38 modelers. Due to the scheduled activities most of the normally scheduled items were cancelled. We did pass the cans and had our Bring and Brag (model of the month) there were a number of nice models and for the first and only time we had prizes for the first three places.

Walt Huston brought a long N scale auto boxcar and a bay window caboose. Gene Swanson a LaBelle kit old time gondola, Dale Kraus a ready to run 0-6-0 from Bachmann that was kit bashed into a 0-6-0T. Jim Murrey brought a building flat, John Pritzlaff Hardware Co made from DPM brick modules, the building flat is part of his Milwaukee Road passenger station scene. John Miller had 4 hoppers two those Varney models and a pull toy.

The model of the month winners was; Jim Murrey 1^st place, Gene Swanson 2^nd place, and Walt Huston 3^rd place. After that we started our buffet consisting of croisanwiches, noodle salad, veggie and salami and cheese trays and for desert cake, pie and ice cream.

With all hands filled up, we started Dirty Santa and the first name drawn picked a Milwaukee Road jigsaw puzzle with NYC key and a $20.00 dollar bill attached, which was promptly stolen by Bob Ayers who in turn lost it to Jim Murrey. Scott Taylor pick a HO car with $20.00 gift certificate attached which was stolen by Gene Swanson and Skip stole it from him. A digital caliper and screw driver was stolen from Dave by Diane Kraus. Scott Taylor had to give up his present 5 times. As the first person to draw is allowed and the end to steal from all present he choose to reclaim the Milwaukee Road Puzzle.

We closed our clinic with a door prize drawing which had a number of gift certificates, calendars, models, and books.

Dave Liesse entertained us with his keyboard during the buffet and the accompanied the clinic crew while they sang “we wish you a Merry Christmas” at the conclusion of the clinic.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and hope to see you all at our next clinic January 10^th at our usual place, the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. at the corner of 112^th Street and Waller Road. The clinic will on Plaster less cloth shell scenery given by Jim Sabol. Hope to see you all there.

Building flat 1st Place, Long and short 3nd place, LaBelle old time gondola 2nd place

Al Babinsky / Photo by Chip

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic and asked Leon to come forward to make a presentation. Leon presented the NW Emergency Food Network with a check of $1,250.00 which was collected during the last year of clinics.

An announcement about last Saturdays Boeing swap meet was made. Another announcement concerning a donation can at Tacoma Trains Hobby store was made asking that anyone who stops by to ask for the can and make a donation. These donations are to be used by the Hobby Store owner to help youngsters to buy a model train that they otherwise could not afford.

It was mentioned that Tony Bentley is at Manor Care in Tacoma due to a mishap and would be glad for anyone to stop by.

Next month is Dirty Santa, so don’t forget to bring a wrapped gift marked as to the scale and the price to be at your discretion?

Bill Deutscher from Tacoma Trains presented what’s new at the Hobby Shop. He had a number of new items from Lionel, Atlas, Micro-Trains and some calendars and books.

Click to enlarge

Model of the Month or as we like to call it, Bring ‘n Brag produced a number of fine models Chris brought a couple of locomotives one with a custom paint job. Scott Croft a kit bashed kit of the Crystal Springs Creamery, Jim Murrey with a building flat of the Milwaukee Road Railroad Express bldg., Dale Kraus a 3 stall engine house for his 760mm narrow gage railroad, Jim Cobb 2 model A trucks, Patrick several hopper cars with loads, and Paul Rising a model of Barnacle Bills Tavern which was the subject of our clinic. The winner was Scott Croft with his creamery.

After the break Paul gave a clinic entitled, “A Case Study in Model Development  and Construction.” The subject was Barnacle Bills Tavern and how it came to be built. The tavern is part of the PSMRE display layout at the Washington State History Museum. The problem was that the building is not there anymore and no pictures exist to our knowledge. Paul was able to find someone that had worked at the tavern and by asking question about the building he was able to come up with a general idea of the building and being an architect was able to convert that information into a plan of the building from which he could construct the model.

An excellent clinic with a couple of great handouts for those who might want to try such an endeavor.

As mentioned next month clinic will be given by Dirty Santa and we hope you can attend and enjoy the evening of fun and food. We will meet at our usual place at the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. at the corner of 112th Street and Waller Road at 7:30 PM.

Al Babinsky

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic and welcomed all to the October clinic. Announcements were made for 4D Board of Directors Meeting on November 17^th. November is National Model Railroad Month, the Boeing Model Railroad Club swap meet is on the 2^nd Saturday in November, the 10^th.

We had 35 modelers in attendance; three were newcomers. Bob McDuff is starting modeling in ON30 logging operations, Bill Gillespie and his friend Mike model in N scale.

George Bourcier presented what’s new in the Hobby Shop with books, 0-6-0 sound-equipped switcher from Mantua, and ready to use building from Woodland Scenics in N, HO, and O scale.

The Model of the Month contest had a number of models two of which were Dave Faussett’s entries in the Narrow Gauge Convention model contest. His black smith car won 2nd place and his other entry 3^rd place. Dale Kraus had a substation and 15,000 volt transformers for catenary and a 760 mm scratchbuilt turntable. Scott Groff brought an O scale resin freight house kit slightly modified with individual planks on the loading platform. Jim Murrey had a Milwaukee Road Train shed built from three Walthers kits plus some extra parts; the shed featured scratchbuilt floodlight towers. Paul Vaughn showed some SN3 cars and a HO building converted into S scale. Patrick showed a planted field using corrugated cardboard as rows and green pipe cleaner as plants. Stew showed a 30-year-old work car kit and Walt Houston a 14-car reefer set. Chip had some old passenger cars he picked up at a swap meet that he was going to redo but found out that they were cardboard kits with the sides made of individual cardboard strips. The Model of the Month winner was Scott Groff’s O scale freight house.

The clinic was presented by Paul Vaughn on a three-color signal system originally designed in the 70s and updated for modern use with LEDs. The system was reasonable in cost and easy to build. The information for this system is online here.

Next month’s clinic will be at our usual place in the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. at the corner of 112^th Street and Waller Rd. at 7:30 PM. The clinic will be presented by Paul Rising on scratch building. We will also present a check to NW Food Network from the donations that we have collected in the past year.

Al Babinsky

In the absence of MMR Gene Swanson, Al Babinsky opened the clinic and welcomed all to the 2012-2013 season. Gene decided that he would rather be in Alaska than doing the clinic but he missed an interesting clinic on how to become a “Sparky.”

Only 24 modelers attended, mostly due to the Narrow Gauge Convention in Seattle. Ed Liesse read a letter from his friend in Alaska concerning Gene’s visit. Mike Shaw gave us some information about the Video Library and obtaining access to the library. Bill Deutscher from Tacoma Trains presented what’s new at the Hobby Shop which included books and models in the scales from O to Z, including a model of a saw mill from Woodland scenic, almost good enough to qualify for the model of the month.

Speaking of the model of the month, we only had two entries; a couple of GP’s from Walt Houston in N scale and three cabeese to show how weight was installed. Walt Houston won the model of the month.

After the break, Al Babinsky presented a clinic on how to build a DC adjustable power supply. Power supplies are available at reasonable cost, but sometimes the output voltage is not correct, so by building one you can correct that problem. Not everyone is a “sparky” but if you follow the rules and watch out you should not have a problem. The high amperage adjustable regulators have the case as the output which is positive and need a heat sink. Be sure that the case of the regulator has insulation between it and the heat sink and that the screws have an insulating sleeve and washer. The DC power supply is required to use the SPROG II to program and then run the programmed locomotive. In the hand-out it was explained how to get 16V out of a 12v transformer and how to carry the load required without a drop in voltage. The handout will attached to this report so that anyone desiring to build one has the required information.

Next month clinic will be on October 11 at our usual location the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. the corner of 112^th Street and Waller Road at 7:30 PM. Hope to see all of you there. Bring a friend to share in our good time and learn something new.

by Al Babinsky / Photos by Chip

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic on time as always with 46 modelers present, there were no newcomers except one old newcomer, Clint Cannon who had not been to a clinic since we moved from TCC. Several announcements were made one of which pertains to next month clinic.

Please note: Next month’s clinic will be on the first Thursday, June 7^th at the Parkland/Spanaway library at Pacific Ave and 138^th St.

The Tacoma clinic layout tour is scheduled for the 12^th of May, and the TNW Swap meet and open house is on May 19 -20. The 4D spring meet is cancelled and will be rescheduled prior to the Narrow Gage convention.

What’s new at the Hobby Shop presented by Bill Deutscher from Tacoma Trains included items such as T-shirts with various rail road logos, Budd 10-6 sleepers in Amtrak IV scheme, El Capitan cars, Kato double stack runner pack, Microtrains 4 pack, each car for a different rail road, N scale cars from several manufactures, tank cars from Atlas in N and HO scale, and Atlas Trainman freight
cars.

Model of the month featured a set of buildings for background silhouette that were cut in half and slightly kit bashed to form a city block. A kit bashed ON30 Forney that had a swivel tender, an entry from German manufacturer Brekina a fifth wheel rail bus for the Sylter SVG in HO scale, and a purple freight car used for wine transport along with a scratch built passenger car and gondola. The winner of the model of the month was Scott Groff with his kit bashed Forney.

This month clinic was presented by Joe Welsh and was titled “The Art of the Streamliner”. The clinic started with how the Streamliner came about and what went into the various designs of the cars and motive power. The rail roads hired industrial designers like Loewy, Dreyfuss, and Kuhler to design their cars and locomotives. Loewy designed the GG-1 and PRR cars, Henry Dreyfuss designed the 20^th Century Limited along with its Hudson Locomotive, and Otto Kuhler designed for the Milwaukee Road. His design included the FM diesels and the Hiawatha consists. Brooks Stevens designed the California Zephyr 5 dome car train which was to be run in the day time to allow passengers to see the spectacular scenery.

Again next month clinic will be on June 7^th at the Library at 138^th St. and Pacific Ave. at our usual time at 7:30 PM. Hope to see you there, this will be our last clinic until September.

Model of the Month Winner

Al Babinsky

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic on time as always to a great group of modelers including two newcomers. Several announcements were made about upcoming conventions; the 4D Spring met will be in Issaquah, June 3-4. A reminder of the PCR PNR combined convention in Medford, OR. Walt Huston announced that the Tacoma Clinic layout would be in May. The TNW will hold their annual show on May 19-20. The Kitsap live steamers started operating on Saturday the 14^th of April.

What’s new at the hobby shop was presented by Bill Deutscher from Tacoma Trains with a variety of items from Woodland Scenics, Atlas, Microtrains, and DPM in scales from Z to O.

Doug and Leo sent their cans around for the coffee fund and our food drive. Leo reported that at this point we have collected 561.00 Dollars for the food drive.

Model of the Month Winner

The Model of the Month contest had a number of nice models, a F-7 AB unit with the B unit powered by drive shaft from the A unit, An Athearn Genesis caboose and a 50’ boxcar heavy weathering and graffiti decals, a diorama with a Cornerstone building “Granma B café”, a TNW box car body with TNW logo, German locomotive with  wine vat cars of various designs, a water tank from the Wenatchee Appleyard, and trestle from Micro Engineering that was modified into a curved trestle. The Model of the Month winner was the Watertank.

The clinic for this month was given by Jim Sabol and was titled freight yard design. Jim started out with a section of track that had a siding on a board about four feet long which he called a model rail road layout. After explaining his theory he expanded on paper the design into a very complex design of a freight yard. A great clinic on yard design for operations.

Next month’s clinic will be May 10 at our usual location in the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. the corner of 112^th Street and Waller Rd.