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Your Chance to Give Back

Written by Russ Segner
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By Russ Segner

Once again, the 4th Division will stage its 45th Annual Model Train Show over the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, January 19–21, 2019, at the Pacific Science Center. And we need YOU!

We all enjoy the benefits of this hobby; the PSC Show is a way for you to share that love with the public. It only takes a few hours.

Plus, the PSC Show is the Division’s single largest means of financial support. Without its proceeds, you wouldn’t have all the wonderful things the Division makes available, things like our many monthly clinics, our modular groups, the Spring Meet, the Achievement Program, the Grab-Iron Service Award, our website, and more. Give a few hours and our hundreds of members get a year of benefits.

But what can you do? Here are just a few of the needs you can fill:

1. Staff the outreach table to convince new members to join the NMRA

2. Tend a hands-on model railroad for kids

3. Teach a short class in any aspect of modeling (rocks, trees, weathering, you name it!)

4. Help us load-in or load-out. We need you during the time slots below:

a. Friday load-in: 5 – 9 PM
b. Saturday: 6AM – 6PM
c. Sunday: 9AM – 6PM
d. Monday: 9AM – 6PM
e. Monday load-out: 6 – 9 PM

The PSC requires that every volunteer undergoes a background check, but they make it simple. Just go to their website during January and complete a form. (Details will follow later.) Parking may be provided (details are coming for that, too).

Right now, before you forget, volunteer a few hours by emailing David Yadock at hi61izq@hotmail.com or calling him at 425-226-7518. Spread some joy!

Model Train Show, News

Burien Clinic Opens September 27th

Written by Russ Segner
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By Russ Segner

Let’s start this season by sharing some of our rail experiences this summer.

I will have photos and some videos of the National narrow Gauge Convention in Minneapolis. Bring your photos or video on a flash drive.

Jeff Otto’s Messabe Northern

Doors open at 7:00 with program at 7:30.

WHERE:

Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive
425 SW 153rd Street
Burien, WA 98166

Burien Clinic, News

September 2018 Eastside Get Together Clinic – Redmond

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By Alex Brikoff

Welcome back everyone!

The September 2018 Eastside Get Together Clinic will meet on September 20, 2018.
As always, the Clinic is at the:
Redmond Community Center at Marymoor Village
6505 176TH AVE NE, Rm. 202
REDMOND WA 98052-4930

Doors open at 7:00 PM and meeting starts promptly at 7:15 PM

We will begin by mentioning any noteworthy, upcoming model railroad and railfan events in the area for the fall months ahead. We will also have a Model of the Month contest and Rail Photo of the Month contest. So, please bring your best models and photos for the contests! Winners will have first choice of many fine items from our Door Prize table.

This month’s clinic will be “What I did on my Summer Vacation, Railroad-wise” and moderated by Alex Brikoff. This will be a round robin where everyone in the room will have a few minutes to tell the rest of the group what they did over the summer months in terms of model building, railfanning or anything else that has to do with railroading. I encourage everyone to bring photos on a flash drive to go along with your talk since we will have a projector there. Participation is optional but encouraged! I will talk first about our trip last month to the NMRA National Convention in Kansas City, MO.

We will have refreshments and snacks available as always. We’ll also have a great selection of Door Prizes to give away at the end of the clinic.

See you there!

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic

The Footplate, July 2018

Written by Russ Segner
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Russ Segner

Bill Scheef’s Wind River Railway logging layout

Most of us spend a lot of time planning and building our dream layout. Sometimes, however, it comes time to tear one down and sell or give away special parts. What do you do with pieces of a marvelous layout which is being taken down?

The incline lands in the Wind River yard.

As your Superintendent, I get frequent calls from families who need to dispose of a layout. Right now, some of us are removing parts of one of the very finest logging layouts I have ever seen. Parts of it will go to the Mt Rainier Scenic Railroad and Logging Museum.  The mechanism, sound and lights are all intact.

Although it’s 11′ long, it is movable.

It has been moved once before and, although it is Sn3, changing the track to HO, HOn3 or On30 is all that is needed to make it the centerpiece of any layout. Contact me if you are interested at 206-200-2211.

The tram house is at the top of the incline.

Superintendent’s Message

Burien Clinic – June 28

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Russ Segner

HOn3, HOn3, HOn3

Have you looked at Hon3 lately? This scale was a longtime favorite of model railroaders who were challenged by space too small. The growth of HO and advent of N and On30 has pushed Hon3 into the background. Now, with the introduction of Blackstone Models, good flex track and tiny electronics, Hon3 is enjoying a resurgence.

Jim Vail was a great model builder in Hon3 and his Glenwood & Black Creek railroad became one of the very best layouts. Jim filled his large layout in Santa Cruz with hundreds of fine structures and trackage that made operation a real joy.

We will look at some of his work in videos and photographs. I am lucky that I was able to visit his layout twice, once just a few years ago. And now, I have three pieces of rolling stock from his layout now being dismantled following his death early this year.

Come and see what he built and shared with us in visits to the layout  and through the hundreds of articles he wrote over the years, particularly in the Short Line and Narrow Gauge Gazette.

Thursday June 28, Pacific Northwest Railroad Archives in Burien, 425 SW 153rd St

Doors open at 7:00 and program begins at 7:30.

Burien Clinic, Narrow Gauge

2018 Spring Meet on Saturday June 9th

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Russ Segner

The 4th Division’s 2018 Spring Meet will be held at the Redmond Community Center at Marymoor Village (formerly Lake Washington Institute of Technology), 6505 176th Avenue NE, Redmond on Saturday, June 9th.

The Spring Meet web site is 4dSpringMeet.com, which includes an online registration page and venue details. The cost is a measly $20 for NMRA members. If you register by Tuesday May 29, you’ll get a free box lunch. You can register at the door, but you’ll probably not get a box lunch. Non-NMRA members are still welcome; if you haven’t been a member for a while, you join the national for a six-month “trial membership” for another $20.

There will be at least two simultaneous clinics, plus a Make & Take session. Click here for complete details.

Convention or Meet

Burien Clinic – May 24, 2018

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Russ Segner

The Burien Clinic will meet this coming Thursday at The Pacific Northwest Railroad Archives in Burien. The meeting will begin at 7:00 PM.

David Yadock will lead a program about helpful hints for structures, easy to make bridge abutments, and layout scenery. Dave’s large HO layout features many interesting scenes inspired by John Allen and he has incorporated many clever solutions to separate scenes and bring focus to his many fine bridge structures.

Location:  425 SW 153rd St, Burien

Burien Clinic

BURIEN CLINIC REMINDER

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Russ Segner

 

We will meet again Thursday April 26 at 7:00 pm at the Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive located at 425 SW 153rd St, Burien.

We will view Volume Two of West Coast Railroad Logging from Catenary Video Productions. Volume Two covers challenges which faced railroad construction, including inclines, cableways, and powering through snow. Plus parbuckling, wrecks, log dumps, mills and the “end of the show.”

Geography and time have brought enormous changes to the art of transforming raw logs into useful lumber. Producer-archivist Don Olsen, spent over two decades amassing rare footage spanning 50 years, which detail logging by railroad on the West Coast – with a focus on equipment and techniques. His dream has become a reality, with the release of this Two Volume set of DVDs.

Jim Sabol spearheaded a team that provided research on the subject. Filmmaker Warren Haack directed this unique program, which is presented in 16×9 widescreen format with stereo sound.

This is the best information and imagery of western logging I have ever seen.  Join us.  Bring your models and/or photos to share.

Burien Clinic, News