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There is going to be a talk at the State History Museum in Tacoma on September 2 at 3 PM. The title is Riding the Rails and the description is:
Chased from one town to the next while looking for work, many hobos lost life and limb traveling roads and rails. Come to this gallery talk with museum curator Gwen Whiting to hear more about those who rode the rails. Pass it on to others who might want to attend.
Click here for more information including directions.
My wife and I traveled to Salmon Arm, BC last month to take in the 2016 Selkirk Express PNR Regional Convention. The drive from Hope, BC to Kamloops and then on to Salmon Arm was a beautiful drive through some beautiful mountain scenery. The convention hotel was on the shore of Shuswap Lake. The view overlooking the lake was spectacular.
But what I found even more spectacular was that the 4th Division was well represented. It seems like everywhere I turned was a familiar face! Overall, I thought the convention was very well put together with a number of clinics that were historical in nature as well as covering a number of modeling topics as well. Although we didn’t go on any of the tours, I heard reports from folks that the tours were excellent. There were some incredibly well built models and great photographs entered in the contests.
Ted Becker receiving the 2016 Golden Grab Iron Award at the 4th Division Spring Meet.
On May 14th at the NMRA/4D Spring Meet, a surprised Ted Becker was presented with the 2016 Golden Grabiron Service Award for 2016 (formerly the Man of the Year Award). Called to the podium during the annual business meeting, Ted was presented with the award by a committee of the previous years’ winners Jim Sabol, Russ Segner, and Jim Younkins. In presenting the award, committee members remarked on how easy it was to unanimously and enthusiastically select Ted as his name kept popping up for all his many and continued services to the Fourth Division.
Among those clapping loudest for Ted were several previous award recipients: Scott Buckley, J.J.Johnson, Walt Huston, Ed Liesse, Gay Liesse, Al Lowe, Jeff Moorman, Jack Hamilton, Di Voss, Gene Swanson, Dale and Diane Kraus.
Paul Neumann and Dan Reilly, two Bremerton Northern Model Railroad Club members, will be missed.
Paul, 58, died of natural causes on May 3rd. Paul was a long time member of the BNMRR club. He was serving as Sergeant at Arms in the club at the time of his passing. Paul proudly served in the US Navy. He was a storekeeper and qualified in submarines. He retired from Puget Sound Naval Supply Center (PSNS) as a Chief Petty Officer. Paul served on board the USS Pogy SSN 647, USS Georgia SSBN 729 and the USS Louisville SSN 724. Paul was an avid railfan and was seen at hot spots taking pictures. I rode with him to the Monroe swap meet and I accused him of driving the railfan route. He was a collector and we always looked forward to his latest acquisition.
The Washington State History Museum in Tacoma is hosting an all-day video festival featuring the work of Tacoma railroad expert James M. Fredrickson (1926-2016) on September 10th, 2016. This festival is jointly hosted by the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association, Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive, and the Tacoma Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. The event runs from 10 AM to 5 PM. Click here for location and directions.
A 4th Division position with high compensation is open!
I need help with Grab Iron and 4D web site content. There are two main reasons – continuous (and at times high) volume, and (more importantly) we should have more than one person “managing the pipeline” of 4D news and information through the Grab Iron newsletter and 4D web site. In particular, Grab Iron post notification is currently a manual process (through Constant Contact newsletters) versus the previous automatic e-mail notification process. When I’m not available to create the Constant Contact newsletter, time critical Grab Iron (GI) posts wait until I’m able to create the newsletter. We need more than one person managing GI content to improve this bottleneck.
So what is the compensation? It’s not money or stock options (hah!). I’ve been compensated with the connections and friendships I’ve made in (and outside) the 4D community (whether model railroading or prototype railfanning). I’ve been compensated with the satisfaction of spreading useful information within the 4D community. I’ve been compensated with learning about aspects of this hobby I would never have thought about.
Tuesday July 12th is our next 4th Division Westside Clinic. For our newcomers the clinic is held at the United Way of Kitsap Building in downtown Bremerton (647 4th Street) at 7:00 PM. Additional details (including a map and contact info) are on the Clinics Page.
I apologize for not having anything planned. Any ideas?
I’m hoping Jack will be back and rested from the Convention and can share.
As always refreshments will be provided.
Please contact me if you have any related question at whopay@tscnet.com or 360-621-5041.
Tuesday June 14th is our next 4th Division Westside Clinic. If you are visiting for the first time our clinics are held at the United Way of Kitsap Building in downtown Bremerton (647 4th Street) at 7 pm. Additional details (including a map and contact info) are on the Clinics Page.
For those who haven’t heard, we unexpectedly lost another member of our group last week. Dan Reilly lost his battle to cancer.
Steve Hauff has agreed to do another of his great presentations: “Slim Gauge Diesels”. He will be presenting it at the NMRA National Convention in Indianapolis next month.
Steve Neupert suggested we do a “Bring Your Favorite …” Everyone bring your favorite model railroading thing to share and talk about. Preferably one you haven’t shared before – freight cars, locomotives, passenger cars, tools, etc.
See you all Tuesday.
While on a vacation trip in the middle of May 2016 to visit relatives and friends I was able to do a little rail fanning, as my wife and I drove across Missouri from St. Louis to Kansas City.
Fig. 1 – 18” gauge flat car at Ha Ha Tonka State Park
We stopped for a couple of nights at a B&B (bed and breakfast) in the Lake of the Ozarks area. We did some hiking at Ha Ha Tonka State Park where I found what was left of an old narrow gauge railroad. This 18 inch gauge railroad was used to haul stone from a quarry to build a European style castle home started in 1905. This house was being built by Robert M. Snyder, a wealthy businessman from Kansas City. He had bought 5,000 acres of land which is now part of the state park. He died in 1906 in the first auto accident in Kansas City. His sons finished building the stone house and it later became a hotel. It burned up in 1942 as sparks from one of chimneys caught the roof on fire. Only the stone walls still stand. There is a short piece of track with one flat car near the house. The flat cars were hauled by mules.
The Skagit Valley & Whidbey Island NMRA Clinic held its final meeting of the season on May 11th at the Summerhill facility in Oak Harbor. Clinic Chair Rich Blake welcomed new member Mark Malmkar, who recently moved from Nebraska to Oak Harbor. Mark is a long-time model railroader (since age 10) and has a large HO layout, 14 by 40 feet (still in storage back in Nebraska), which models a passenger line passing through the Colorado mountains. We look forward to its reassembly and Mark’s first open house. Mark also has his own business manufacturing interior details for passenger cars; readers can find his range of products on-line at http://www.PalaceCarCo.com.
Fig 1 – Ray Wheeler demonstrates hand signals
Clinic Newsletter-Master Al Frasch mentioned that he and Al Carter had colluded on a possible idea to have one joint meeting each season of the SV&W and Mount Vernon Clinics, at a location TBD. The thought resonated with attendees, so we’ll leave it to the two Als to flesh out the idea.