Author: Cliff Green

Bobj Berger

Long time active 4th Division member Alfred S. Robinson, 88, passed away from a heart attack on July 30th (as reported to me this week by his wife Doreen). Al often used the term “Pal” as a term of endearment and because of that I always referred to him as “my Pal Al.” He was one of my favorites and a mentor.

Al was perhaps best known for his many years of managing the Seattle Clinic Mart, back during the days of our Beacon Hill meetings, which is where I first met him about 30 years ago. Since the Seattle-North Clinic moved to the current meeting location, he has been unlocking the church doors, preparing the room for the clinic, and participating in the clinic events. Doreen, in the spirit of continuing volunteerism has offered to continue to unlock the building for the Seattle-North Clinic if we will call and remind her! Al was the founder of the 4D G-scale module program, and he was largely responsible for those modules morphing to become what is today’s Puget Sound Garden Railway Society. He and my (then 12-year-old) daughter Ashley were featured on Spokane TV news stories during the 1991 Railfest Northwest PNR Convention with those G modules.

He had been fighting diabetes, liver failure and cancer the past couple of years, and once said to me (while discussing his diagnosis) that he’d had a wonderful life. This was quite evident when I met with his supportive family over the weekend.

The family is planning services to be held at the Ronald United Methodist Church (same location as the Seattle North Clinic) on Saturday, August 30th at 2 pm. The church is located on the west side of Hwy 99/Aurora Ave N, just North of 175th, between the Cadillac dealer and the Deseret Thrift Store (where Al shopped before every clinic!).

Al had spent much of the past couple of years selling a large part of his train collection, but was still buying up to the day he passed. A true model railroader! The family and Railfun are currently working on an in-house estate sale of his collections of G, On30, HO and other train related items, as well as his extensive military collection of tanks, uniforms, and other items. This may occur near the end of September. Another notice will be sent out when the date is chosen.

Bobj Berger

Ask not what the Annual NMRA Pacific Science Center Show can do for you, but ask what you can do for our Annual NMRA Pacific Science Center Show! For 40 years this model railroad show has been the primary source of 4th Division funding of member services and projects such as the clinics, module program, and video library (to name but a few of our member services). We have been able to do this because of the volunteer efforts of the committee and those displaying their hobby work, and the staff of the Pacific Science Center.

Each year we have magazines to give away at the NMRA-PNR-4D Membership table. These magazine “gifts” have always been well received by the kids and adults (and even a few members too!). A couple of years ago “Railfun Model Railroad Estate Services” began storing and then donating the magazines from the estates we had under contract for the show. We have not run out of magazines to give away during the show.

This year we have a new problem because we have over 15 estates in contract, another 3-4 pending, plus we no longer have one estate storage locker that was used for both trains and magazines. We are buried in model trains and related items and have run out of space to store the magazines for the PSC Show donation.

We need someone to step up and agree to store about 20 cardboard boxes of Trains, Model Railroader, MRC, etc the next 5 months until the January 2015 show. We could even store them in more than one place if one person does not have room for all 20 (or so) boxes. Currently they are stacked on my front porch and the Truly Unpleasant Mrs Berger has indicated her dissatisfaction with this arrangement! These are all clean non smelly magazines and all they need is a dry place to sit until the show. We can deliver even if need be.

So how about it, are you ready to step up and participate in the best model railroad show in the Northwest and possible the entire country? You even get to read them yourself!

Call PSC Show Board Member Bobj at 206-948-0862 or email at camelrenter@yahoo.com and begin your volunteering for your hobby. Thanks for your consideration, and keep on model railroading.

Alex Brikoff

The 4th Division Education Committee is in need of volunteers to work on the 4th Division Video Library. Stu Rogers, the current video librarian, is stepping down and would like to turn the video library over to someone else. The Education Committee will be taking charge of the library and making some improvements to the service coverage as well as the efficiency of the library. Here’s our plan:

The 4th Division Education Committee has several projects that it will be working on over the next several months. Improving the Video Library is one of them.

1. Find a new Video Library Chairman to work with me to find three additional dedicated volunteers to administer the library. The new video library chairman will take over Stu’s current duties that will include the following:

2. These four volunteers should be able to meet the following requirements:

3. Each of these four video librarians should live in each of the four geographic directions with Seattle being at the center. By this I mean, one should live north of Seattle, another east of Seattle and the third and fourth should live in the other two directions respectively.

If you would like to be a part of this project and participate in this 4th Division opportunity, or just to find out more about it, please contact me, 425-466-1490 or abrikoff@frontier.com.

Russ Segner, Superintendent of 4D/PNR/NMRA

I am calling a meeting of the 4^th Division Board of Directors to be held March 8, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. at Mitzel’s Restaurant, 22330 84^th Ave S, Kent (253) 395-3635.

The major business of this meeting is to deal with two vacancies on the Board. One will be the Director position held by Mike Highsmith prior to his move up to Assistant Superintendent. The term of the position runs through August 31, 2015. The second position is that of Secretary. This is a position appointed by the Superintendent with the concurrence of the BOD.

I have put forward the name of Tina Brikoff for Secretary. If you wish to put your name forth for the vacant Director position, please contact me at russseg@gmail.com. Please be prepared to be at the meeting with a statement of qualifications and why you are interested in serving in the position. After discussion, the BOD will make a selection.