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BEMRRC Finds New Home

Written by Al Lowe
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Bob Browne

The Boeing Employees Model Railroad Club, the SEATTLE AND NORTH CASCADES RAILROAD, finally has a new home. We have leased part of a building and are in the process of cleaning up the space and preparing for a new layout. The building is centrally located in Burien in the 400 block on SW 153rd St. All the materials have been moved from storage to the new location including those portions of the old layout that are to be considered for use as part of the new layout.

A new layout is in design stages and it is hoped that a first operating session may be held in late spring 2011. Making a layout do everything for everybody is difficult so initial phases are with a design committee to seek a layout that will both fit the space available and satisfy most of the desires of the membership.

Our November 13 Swap meet is on schedule with the usual first class presentation by our dealers, info on the Swap Meet will be in the Digital Grab Iron soon.

Convention or Meet, News

NW Logging Modelers Meet August 20–21

Written by Al Lowe
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John M. Reid

The 16th Annual Northwest Logging Modelers Convention will be held at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie the weekend of August 20–21.

Friday: A guided tour of NRM Logging Equipment; a tour of the Issaquah Historical Society Museum (Donkeys); and layout tours of Ken Schmelzer’s Pino Grande Lumber and Russ Segner’s Coal Creek Lumber Co.

Saturday: A diesel excursion behind Fairbanks Morse WRL #1; logging clinics; a presentation by Scott Barrett on Vail-McDonald Rail Tails with Vintage Steam Logging movies; and a Barbecue dinner in North Bend. BYOB.

Full registration is $25.00 (including BBQ), the train excursion is $20.00, and Saturday-only registration is $15.00 (without BBQ). For more info, contact J. Clark McAbee, (253) 906-5826, loggnhstry@aol.com.

Convention or Meet

Milwaukee Road Modelers Meet August 27–29

Written by Al Lowe
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John M. Reid

The Cascade Rail Foundation is sponsoring a Milwaukee Road Modelers Meet the weekend of August 27–29 at the Cedar River Watershed Education Facility, 19901 Cedar Falls Road SE, North Bend (I-90, exit 32). The cost is $15 for both weekend days or $10 for one day. Box lunches are available for $9. All proceeds go to the C.R.F.

Friday: There will be a van tour along the old Milwaukee right-of-way through the Cedar River watershed on August 27th, from 10 AM to 4 PM for only $10/person. Registration is required and is limited to 21 people.

Saturday: There will be a model display in the morning plus clinics by Doug Nighswonger on MOW equipment and Mike Faletti on modeling bridges, structures & freight equipment. There will be slide shows by Al Currier on Milwaukee history and George Werkema on the Bellingham branch line.

Sunday: There will be presentations on Milwaukee history by Allen Miller, Paul Krueger, John Crosby and Noel Holley.

To register, contact David Newcomb, 206-799-3833, arch@davidnewcomb.com.

Convention or Meet

June Kreitler Passes

Written by Al Lowe
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Dave Kreitler

I am sorry to inform you that on this past Tuesday, June Kreitler passed away unexpectedly during the night. June had been a 4D member for many years. In that time she served as Treasurer for the division as well has played a significant supporting role in events such as PSX96 and the National Convention PSX2004.

Her interests in the hobby were varied from introducing her children to American Flyer trains, to helping them build their first HO layout, to exploring N scale T-Trak modules, and more recently trying her hand at O scale craftsman kit building.

She enjoyed all the crazy things we do in this hobby such as crawling around the steam donkeys at Camp 6 to get critical measurements and stomping through the brush to get photos of some old rusting piece of iron or some building that is about to collapse – regardless of how hard it was raining.

She enjoyed riding trains too whether it be the geared triple header at Mt Rainier or taking Amtrak’s Empire Builder across the country with 4 children.

While her failing eyesight limited her modeling in recent years, she still kept track of local events and attended local train shows. She always enjoyed getting out to see what folks were doing and touch base with the model railroading community. Her spirit will be missed.

For anyone interested there will be a service Saturday evening (August 7th) at Flintoft’s in Issaquah at 7:00 p.m. The spirit of the service will be an informal celebration of her life. For directions, more information, or if you cannot make the service and would like to leave a farewell note, visit http://www.flintofts.com. The family is asking that in lieu of flowers, anyone wishing to do so please make a charitable contribution to the King County Humane Society.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic, News

OLY-OPS 2010 Announced!

Written by Al Lowe
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Greg Wright

Save the date Saturday, November 6, 2010 for OLY-OPS 2010. Early registration for people who have participated in the past will begin in August. Make plans now!We hope to have one new layout and new scenery and progress on all the other layouts!

Watch for more information around the 1st of August. Please feel free to call me at 360-352-5386.

Olympia Clinic, Operations

Command Control Demystified, Part 2

Written by Al Lowe
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Dale G. Kraus, MMR

Continuing this sporadically produced screed …

Myth #3: Track switches must be “DCC Friendly”

This is perhaps the most persistent myth in all of digital command control. Somehow, the word has gotten out that all of the all-rail-frog (i.e., Shinohara™) switches are unusable and that older insulated (dead) frog switches, such as the Atlas Custom Line™ must have their frog castings powered. Prospective DCC converts at my old shop often voiced this concern. The modeler was reluctant to take the leap into DCC for fear he would have to rip out and replace all his old turnouts. I don’t want to put too fine a point on this, but …rubbish!

This myth stems from two characteristics of the commercial all rail switch: First, since the points are connected together with all metal tie bars and a pivot bar, both point rails carry the same polarity as whichever stock rail the points are touching. This means that the frog also has that polarity. From these characteristics, a fear has developed that loco and/or car wheels will short out the command station when rolling through the points. Not possible! If both the wheelsets and the switch points are built to NMRA standards there will be a substantial air gap between the wheels and the open point rail. If you experience shorts, check the wheelset back-to-back and the point-to-stock rail clearance using your NMRA standards gauge. One of these is seriously out of tolerance.

Second, because the frog polarity changes with the point position, the open end of the frog rails must be insulated from the inner rails of the attached track. Two insulated rail joiners are the easy fix. The outer rails of the diverging tracks need not be insulated from the stock rails of the switch. Regular metal joiners may be used there. If you do not insulate the inner rails, you will have a short! It is also necessary to assure good electrical contact between the points and the stock rails. Keep the inside surface of the stock rail clean (use a Bright-Boy) and make sure the point closes completely and firmly. Be sure no bits of ballast or glue interfere.

Lastly, the Custom Line switches need not have their frogs powered unless you are using really small, two- or three-axle locos. Occasionally one of these frogs is installed one- or two-thousandths of an inch higher than the metal rails. A few strokes with a fine cut mill file laid flat on the frog will cure this.

More later.

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