Author: Roger Johnson

Roger Johnson, photos by Roger Johnson and Bob Gilbert

Twenty-six folks attended our last clinic of the season to enjoy an excellent program (see below) and some delicious brownies baked by Paul Koren’s wife. Thank you Mrs. Koren! Ted Becker, our MC, once again opened with encouragement to join NMRA, the sponsoring body for our meetings through the 4^th Division of the Pacific Northwest Region

Announcements reminding us of upcoming events included:

• 4^th Division Spring Meet in Bellevue Saturday June 6^th
• NMRA National Convention in Portland OR August 23-29

Tool of the Month: Al Carter brought our attention to a web site that has the free graph paper generator, where you can adjust the graph squares to represent a scale foot in your given scale, very handy for scratch builders. The link to the web site is http://www.incompetech.com/graphpaper/lite/

Bring & Brag items featured:

• Two more of Paul Koren’s fine resin box cars
• Nick Muff displayed more of his 3D printed sugar cane cars by Shapeways
• Roger Johnson showed a color palette displaying the five brick colors he uses
• Roger also displayed the home made hot wire foam cutter he made for under $15

Our program for the evening was about Tesoro Logistics’ crude oil rail off loading facility on March Point, Anacortes. R. L. (Bob) Gilbert did an excellent job telling us about the construction and operation of Tesoro’s rail offloading facility at its March Point refinery. This writer was so interested in what Bob had to say that he didn’t take notes until he got home. So any meandering and/or inaccuracies are the fault of the writer, not the speaker.

The facility was completed in September of 2012 located at the bottom of the slope on the west side of the point. The site originally proposed was higher up the slope but it was determined that there were some wetlands in that area which could have been mitigated but the alternative site was determined to be the best option to be able to proceed in a timely and economically feasible fashion.

The facility consists of a concrete pad 1,600’ long by 110’ wide lying in a NNW to SSE orientation parallel to the Fidalgo Bay high water mark 200’ to the west. There are four tracks built into the pad, each able to hold 25 cars or a 100 car train. Bob described a very complicated and comprehensive infrastructure under the pad for the collection of the crude oil, control of emissions and capture of any oily water (he claims it rains around there occasionally) that may accumulate. These include piping, wells for inspection and testing, pumps, etc., the details of which were somewhat dizzying to this writer. Under it all a single piece rubber diaphragm extends the full 1,600’ by 110’ facility to catch anything that may escape the more sophisticated capture devices above.

Under normal conditions, one train arrives each day, hauled to the refinery site by Burlington Northern Santa Fe. A train can be ready to roll out of the refinery within 12 to 18 hours from the time it enters. At the gate, the BNSF crews are replaced by crews from Savage Services. These folks conduct the rail and off loading operations under contract with Tesoro. They bring the train in, break it into 25 car cuts and back them into the offloading facility. They then proceed to offload the crude via 4” hoses attached to the underside of each car with the oil draining out by gravity into a 36” recovery line underground. The vent is opened at the top to avoid a vacuum forming inside the tank car. Every other car is vented with emissions from the emission recovery system via an emissions recovery pipe that leads from the underground recovery line to the car’s top vent. The other half of the cars take in regular atmospheric air to equalize the pressure.

Once enough oil has been collected, pumping it from the offloading facility to the refinery (7,000’ distant and 200’ higher) begins. There are three pumps, each rated at 2,500 gallons per minute (GPM). They are brought on line sequentially to pump at the rate of 7,500 GPM when all three are running at 100%. This flow rate is essentially equal to 10,000 barrels per hour (BPH). One tank car holds approximately 680 barrels (42 gallons/barrel). Thus a 100 car train carries 68,000 barrels. At a rate of 10,000 BPH the train can be emptied in approximately 6.8 hours.

There is also a team of UTLX people on site to do any repairs or maintenance a tank car may require. If repairs cannot be completed soon enough to return the car to its train there are contingency cars on site for replacement, with the repaired car put in the contingency group when repairs are complete.

As noted above, a full 100 car train is carrying upwards of 68,000 barrels or 3 million gallons of oil. What is called West Texas Intermediate is a common benchmark used to gauge the prices of various types and grades of crude oil. The current value of WTC is approximately $52/barrel but Bob indicated that the oil they bring in is priced somewhat less than that. He was understandably vague on Tesoro’s actual cost. This writer did a hypothetical calculation using a cost of $40/barrel resulting in cost of a train load at the gate of slightly more than $2.7 million.

With regard to environmental safety, Bob indicated that they have had zero spills and zero injuries since inception of the operation in September 2012. As an indication of the extent to which Tesoro goes to avoid environmental damage, before the cars are drained, each one gets a hand placed fiberglass drip pan placed underneath it to catch any stray drips from the fittings. On a final note, while recent tank train derailments that have been prominent in the news do not pertain to the refinery itself, the over the road transportation is obviously part of getting the oil from the ground to our gas tanks, so it is of concern to Tesoro and other producers. Bob pointed out that while improving the integrity of the cars is important, the most important thing is to eliminate the derailments. No matter how a tank car is reinforced, if it hits the ground at 50+ MPH there is probably going to be trouble (my words, not Bob’s).

Thank you, Bob, for an outstanding presentation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the last clinic of the season for the Mount Vernon group. A total of 140.5 (an 8 year old son of one of our adult participants) people attended the eight clinics for an average of about 17.6/session. Our email list has 56 addressees on it and we have another 17 names of folks who just drop by from time to time, including a fellow from Texas. A schedule of interesting and informative programs will be developed over the summer months and announced in the next newsletter in mid September. Have a great summer!

Text & photos by Roger Johnson

The April 2015 Mount Vernon Clinic of the 4^th Division, PNR, NMRA was attended by 21.5 souls. Ted Becker opened the session with words encouraging NMRA membership, echoed by Al Carter.

Announcements reminding us of upcoming events included:

• Olympia area layout tours Saturday May 16^th
• 4^th Division Spring Meet in Bellevue Saturday June 6^th
• NMRA National Convention in Portland OR August 23-29

Tools of the Month discussed were the use of scalpels instead of hobby knives for work bench projects and small dipping cups (we won’t tell here where Ted got these) for mixing small paint batches.

Bring & Brag items featured (please see photos below):

• Another of Paul Koren’s fine resin box cars, this one a Nickel Plate model. It was very nicely painted with TruColor paint sprayed on with an airbrush with decals depicting the early days of the Nickel Plate Road graphics.

• Ivan Musinich brought a pair of McKeen gasoline motor cars, the prototypes of which we built by the McKeen Motor Car Company in the early 1900’s. McKeen cars had a distinctively nautical look with sharp bows, rounded stems and round windows that looked like portholes. The smaller model car pictured was scratch built by Ivan’s brother around 1955 from an article in Railroad Model Craftsman. It is now DC equipped and compatible. The larger 55’ car is a Ken Kidder model found at the Monroe show. Ivan restored it to closely model the car Northern Pacific purchased in 1909, equipping it for DCC with a TCS decoder.

• Two nicely weathered flat cars by Curt Johnson, on one of which was a steam winch kit built by Curt and Iver Johnson.

• Mike Pettruzzelli brought a very nice sound decoder equipped N scale Shay.

• Rick Troyer displayed what is believed to be a fire instruction car painted in a Great Northern Pacific Railway scheme. One side is all red and the other is green with flames all along the bottom. If you look closely at the familiar Goat herald you will notice that the background is the red and black NP monad and the goat has transformed into a dog. Rick would welcome any information concerning this car, either model or prototype.

This month it was decided to go with several mini clinics so the evening’s program consisted of five brief presentations (please see photos below):

• First up was MMR Nick Muff telling & showing us how easy and inexpensive it is to delve into the world of 3D printing. With slides, oral explanations and sample items passed around we learned about Shapeways, a 3D printing company, and Autodesk 123D Design, free downloadable software for 3D design. One designs the desired item using 123D and then uploads it to Shapeways. After analyzing the design for printability Shapeways will print the item, generally for $3 to $5 per unit, depending upon size and complexity. Although 3D printers are available for consumer use, the sophistication and quality of the Shapeways output results in superior items. And Shapeways handles all of the maintenance and repairs, if any.

• Next up was Tom Buckingham demonstrating construction of spline sub roadbed. With a small piece of bench work with risers he, with Al Carter assisting, built a sweeping 5± foot curve of roadbed in just a few minutes. Simply stated it requires long thin strips of wood (Tom used three) separated every few inches by small wood blocks, all glued together. What starts out as rather wobbly strips of wood winds up quite rigid and suitable for model railroad sub roadbed.

• Bob Stafford then demonstrated is technique for quickly weather rolling stock using several acrylic craft paint colors and mixes thereof. He uses both washes and dry brushing and to speed the process employs a small heat gun to dry each coat, enabling him to add coats after only a very few minutes. He keeps an old sock handy to wipe up any excess liquid or oooopses. Thinning and brush clean up are done with windshield fluid to avoid droplets forming and for quick drying.

• Ted Becker followed with two topics, the first of which was a progress report on his experimentations for staining wood. He had tried two vinegar and steel wool “soups”, one of which steeped for about ten days and other only a day or so. He also used alcohol based leather dye and diluted India ink. He said only alcohol based leather dye should be used to avoid warping. To emphasize the point he lifted a bottle of alcohol out of his project bin but it turned out to be a half filled liquor bottle. (These experiments may go on for a while.)

• Ted also demonstrated dry brushing for weathering shingle roofs, both the uniform laser cut type and the more rustic Campbell’s variety. Especially effective, in this writer’s opinion, was an octagonal peaked roof on which Ted had daubed various weathering type colors on the Campbell paper shingles.

• Wrapping up the evening was Al Carter demonstrating dry sponging weathering and paint fading on brick modeled structures. He uses some small wedge shaped sponges available in the cosmetic department at drug stores and supermarkets.

• Al also had a couple of demo samples showing a way he developed to mount under layout Tortoise switch machines without having to get under the layout. The Tortoise is mounted on a rectangle of hardboard the same thickness as the cork roadbed and replaces the cork for about three inches. A rectangular hole is cut in the sub roadbed into which the Tortoise is inserted with the hardboard rectangle mating with the cork roadbed at each end.

Next month’s clinic will be a presentation by Robert Gilbert, of Tesoro Petroleum, talking about Tesoro’s offloading facility / rail operations at its March Point refinery. For location and hours, go to the 4D Clinics page.

Bring & Brag photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mini Clinic photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roger Johnson

The February 2015 Mount Vernon clinic of the 4^th Division, PNR, NMRA was attended by nine fellows. While a small turnout no one was disappointed they were there.

The Mt Vernon Model Railroad Clinic is a NMRA sanctioned event with the 4^th Division of NMRA providing a modest sum of seed money to help us get started. While NMRA membership is not required to attend the clinics, it was once again heartily encouraged. Please let Al Carter or Roger Johnson know if you wish to join NMRA.

There were several announcements of upcoming events (editor added a couple):

• First up is the Monroe Model Railroad show & swap meet to be held at the fairgrounds in Monroe Saturday and Sunday February 28^th & March 1^st. Info at http://www.unwclub.org/unwshow.html. All proceeds go to 4H.
• 30^th Annual Sn3 Symposium in Bellevue April 16-18, 2015. Info at http://sn3symposium-2015.com
• The annual Olympia area layout tours will take place May 16^th. Per the NMRA Pacific Northwest Region calendar, additional information will be available from Scott Buckley, sbuckley54@comcast.net
• 4^th Division spring meet is scheduled for Saturday June 6^th. Contact Russ Segner through the 4^th Divvision web site for more information.
• Portland Daylight Express, the NMRA national convention, will be held August 23 – 28, 2015. Additional information is available at www.nmra2015portland.org

Our Show & Tell (or Bring & Brag) segment featured another of Paul Koren’s fine resin box cars, this one an outside braced “sawtooth” type by Speedwitch. The model is very nicely painted with TruColor paint sprayed on with an airbrush. Unfortunately I could not get any photos this month due to my camera being out of town with my wife.

The presentation this month was “Weathering Buildings with Bragdon Weathering Chalk” by Bob Stafford. He put together a Power Point presentation on weathering buildings using Bragdon Weathering Chalks. The program shows how some buildings were finished using oil stains and dry brushing before applying chalk. We learned what kinds of brushes he uses to apply the chalk and the use of over spray when needed. Also included was making and weathering of roads. He brought several examples of his work and of the brushes he uses. As indicated earlier I was unable to take any photos.

Next up March 24^th is “Slim Rails to (Almost) Anywhere” by Rich Thom. As many of you know Rich is not only a very good model railroader, he is also an excellent photographer. Rich offered what he called “shameless promotion” of his presentation:

Was there anything even close to any of Colorado’s magnificent narrow-gauge railroads (insert your favorite here) in Latin America? Yes! To prove it, we’ll see American-style narrow-gauge steam in Central and South America — Baldwin locos and American-style equipment and operations. Also, some inspirational scenes showing there’s a prototype for everything. Attempting to cover all of Latin American steam in one evening is impossible. Included in the program will be five of the very best narrow gauge railroads.

by Roger Johnson / Photos by Paul Koren & Roger Johnson

The January 2015 Mount Vernon clinic of the local Fourth Division, PNR, NMRA was attended by 14 folks including two spouses. We hope they will return and be joined by even more spouses. Let’s hear it for co-ed clinics!

The Mt Vernon Model Railroad Clinic is a NMRA sanctioned event with the 4^th Division of NMRA providing a modest sum of seed money to help us get started. While NMRA membership is not required to attend the clinics, it was once again heartily encouraged. Please let Al Carter or Roger Johnson know if you wish to join NMRA.

There were several announcements of upcoming events (editor added a couple):

• First up was the Monroe Model Railroad show & swap meet to be held at the fairgrounds in Monroe Saturday and Sunday February 28^th & March 1^st. All proceeds go to 4H. Info at http://www.unwclub.org/unwshow.html
• 30^th Annual Sn3 Symposium in Bellevue April 16-18, 2015. Info at http://sn3symposium-2015.com
• The annual Olympia area layout tours will take place May 16^th. Per the NMRA Pacific Northwest Region calendar, additional information will be available from Scott Buckley, sbuckley54@comcast.net
• Portland Daylight Express, the NMRA national convention, will be held August 23 – 28, 2015. Additional information is available at www.nmra2015portland.org

Our Show & Tell (or Bring & Brag) segment featured:

• A Southern Pacific ‘outside braced’ auto boxcar model built by Paul Koren from a kit by Speedwitch Media.  The model represents a car made in the early 1920’s, modified in the 30’s and retired by the late 40’s (likely).
• An Athearn 50 ft gondola modified by Bob Stafford for cement bottle service. Car has holes cut into the sides to allow for the attachment of air hoses and unloading hoses to the bottles. Bottles have been modified with brass wire lifting straps. Lackawanna’s fleet of bottle cars operated between the cement mills on its Bangor and Portland Division and New York Harbor. According to Bob each of the bottles held 11 tons of cement headed for construction sites in New York City.

 

 

 

 

 

The presentation for the evening was titled “Structures on a Diet,” with Roger Johnson showing how many plastic kits on the market today can be reduced in size, primarily the footprint, to better fit into the limited real estate of our layouts. There were numerous slides showing how he has done and how he is doing this on several different structure kits. While his work has thus far been limited to plastic kits the same techniques could be used on other material. In addition to making structures smaller Roger showed some other kit bash examples including modification of a stock pen to mate a loading ramp with his meat packing house and a combination of two freight house kits into an unusual three story structure. This project is based upon an Art Curren kitbashing article in Model Railroader in the early 1980’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up February 24^th is “Weathering Buildings with Bragdon Weathering Chalk” by Bob Stafford. He has put together a Power Point presentation on weathering buildings using Bragdon Weathering Chalks. The program shows how some buildings were finished using oil stains and dry brushing before applying chalk. We will learn what kinds of brushes he used to apply the chalk and the use of over spray when needed. Also included will be the making and weathering of roads. If you have seen any of Bob’s work you know you want to catch this clinic.

Roger Johnson

Photos by Nick Muff, Al Carter, Tom Buckingham, Paul Koren

The October Mount Vernon clinic of the local Fourth Division, PNR, NMRA was attended by sixteen men, one of whom is from the Dallas, Texas area. As a Peterbilt employee, he frequently visits the local Paccar Technical Center and decided to give us a look. Please come back again, Don Winn.

The Show & Tell segment featured:

• a model of the Kansas City Southern Restaurant by Nick Muff
• a completed and very nicely painted & lettered resin kit box car from Paul Koren
• some German miniature cars/trucks from Tom Buckingham
• an abandoned gas station that time passed long ago by Al Carter
• Folks are encouraged to share their modeling projects and techniques with others

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Modeling Tips & Tools suggestions included:

• a selection of nice, quality tweezers made in Pakistan available through Grizzly Industrial in Bellingham
• the use of Mylar-type sheets for window glazing in industrial type buildings to represent very dirty and/or frosted windows
• styrene brick (and other materials) sheets from The N Scale Architect which feature several different brick arrangements, arches, etc.
• Vector Cut for very intricate laser cut details

Tom Buckingham, Clinician for the evening, showed us pictures from his September visit to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany. For those who do not already know, Miniatur Wunderland is the world’s largest model railroad, presently occupying over 14,000 square feet but still growing. This reporter will stop here with the barely believable statistics. For more information see the layout’s website. Tom’s photos showed most of the main features of the layout including many pictures of the seemingly infinite number of details, such as a penguin with his (her?) pet polar bear cub on a leash waiting at a station for the nest train and a couple making out in a convertible.

Coming attactions: the November 25^th clinic (fourth Tuesday) will feature Nick Muff showing us how to use Joel Bragdon’s Geodesic Foam scenery process.

Other items of discussion included:

• Rich Blake, spokesperson for the Skagit Valley & Whidbey clinic advising that they have a Yahoo Group page established for sharing ideas and asking questions.  More information about this will be included in our next newsletter.

• NMRA membership was again encouraged with benefits including the NMRA Magazine which has developed into a very nice model railroading magazine.

• Entry for future meetings will be through the rear door on the west side of the building which is kept open in the evening. This passes through a kitchen, then into the hallway. A sign will be posted at the correct door (as I understand there is a second back door).

Continuing the tradition established by the Skagit Valley & Whidbey group, anyone who wishes can meet at the Round Table Pizza restaurant at 5:00 PM for a no host pre-clinic dinner.  The restaurant is located on the North side of College Way just east of the freeway. See this link for a map and directions: http://tinyurl.com/lpcfa7x

Finally it was decided there would be no December clinic as the fourth Tuesday falls on the 23^rd, only two days before the Christmas Holiday, when many folks have full schedules already.