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Summer Projects

What’s on your workbench?

Any plans for a new project;
build some new structures, weather a locomotive or tackle some scenery?.

While I have some travel plans and am still working on some small structures for my layout, I am interested in promoting some new projects to be worked on through the summer and into the fall.

First, I am planning to build two or three small modules for a switching layout that can connect to some of the HO modular groups as a branch line.

Second, I am looking for some help in constructing some exhibits for the Newcastle Historical Society. These would be specific dioramas of coal mine scenes. To keep them small, they will probably be N scale or HOn3.

So, if you are interested, give me a call or an email.

Russ Segner,
206 200 2211
russseg@gmail.com

Burien Clinic – Thursday June 22

By Russ Segner

This Thursday is our last meeting this season in Burien.
We will resume our regular meetings in September.

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

The meeting is very important as we will evaluate what we want to do next season. There will be some changes, so be there to share your thoughts.

Several of us attended the Pacific Northwest Region meeting in Spokane last week and will report on our experiences there. It was a very interesting four days.

Our program will focus on industrial switching modules and possible establishment of one more group, probably in HO.
Our meetings are at 7:00

Layout Open House Saturday – June 17

  Stafford Jones will have his HO layout in Issaquah open this Saturday from 9:00 am to 4:pm. He is going to dismantle it in July, so everything goes including any portions of the layout anyone can salvage.

He features SP&S, NP and GN equipment. Many fine structures can be easily be removed.  He has up to date Tam Valley electronics and Tortoise switch machines. His address is:  2151 NW Pacific Elm Drive, Issaquah ( a condominium complex, watch for signs).  His phone is 425 223 0139.

Here is a link to photos of his layout.

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AhBTSQSpn0dng5B1jiQS6M2Z6kr_iA

Russ Segner

Eastside Get Together

This Thursday is our last meeting of this season in Redmond. The meeting is very important as we will evaluate what we want to do next season. There will be some changes, so be there to share your thoughts.

Spokane:  Several of us attended the Pacific Northwest Region meeting in Spokane last week and will report on our experiences there. It was a very interesting four days.

Our program will focus on modules and possible establishment of one more group, possibly in HOn3.

We meet at 7:00 at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center.

Place: 16600 NE 80th Street
Redmond, WA 98052

The Footplate – June 2017

Some good news and some bad news

Election brings some new experience and energy to the BOD

Two new members will be added to the Board of Directors.  Anton Faulk and Robin Peel are running unopposed for Director positions.  Both are professionals in the tech industries and each model in slightly different aspects of our hobby: Anton models  European railways and Robin is a narrow gauge modeler.  And we get to keep Al Lowe who will move to Assistant Superintendent.  So, look for some real emphasis on the technologies emerging in our hobby.  Kurt Laidlaw, our current Assistant Superintendent, has agreed to take on Education Chair.  He will coordinate creation of new clinics and expand the successful Make and Take Clinics.

Some new layouts are underway – Mike Stepner is well into his new layout, Steve Cox is beginning and Larry Sloan has a new house getting ready for layout plans.  But, some are going away.  Bill Scheef passed away last winter and his layout will be open for one last time on the 17th.  Another friend of mine,  Stafford Jones has a fine layout in Issaquah, but it must be torn down and removed completely by September. So, his loss is perhaps an opportunity for some of our members to get bargains from his extensive inventory. Much of his layout maybe can be salvaged for reuse.  Here is a link to photos of his layout.

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AhBTSQSpn0dng5B1jiQS6M2Z6kr_iA

It is HO with SP&S, GN and NP equipment. He has many fine structures, new electronics such as Tam Valley Frog Juicers and circuit protectors, code 75 Peco track, etc. He will hold an open house June 17 from 9:00 to 4:00.  His address is:  2151 NW Pacific Elm Drive, Issaquah ( a condominium complex, watch for signs).  His phone is 425 223 0139.

Our summer will be very busy outside at local railway museums.  Many will travel to railway sites around he region and some will attend regional and national Conventions.  Next week is the PNR Convention in Spokane, July will see many at the NMRA Convention in Orlando and a bunch of us will travel to Denver in August for the Narrow Gauge Convention.

So, get out and do some rail fanning, attend a convention or visit a location like Kitsap Live Steamers or Train Mountain.  All of these will inspire us.

Russ Segner, your Division Superintendent

206 200 2211

North Seattle Clinic

Seattle-North Goes on Tour June 1, 2017
By Jeff Moorman
Next Clinic:
The next regular Seattle-North clinic is not until September. BUT, on June 1 we will be doing a layout mini-tour before going on summer hiatus for July and August.
Do not go to the regular meeting place. The tour starts at 7:00 PM, June 1, 2017 from the Edmonds – South Snohomish County Historical Society and Museum building located at 118 5th Ave N, Edmonds, WA. From there you will be given directions to the other layouts. (4 total).
A few reminders:
• This is not a public tour, NMRA members and their guests only please.
• Pay attention to the handouts you will be given. Not all places are open for the full 3 hours (7 until 10). Some may open an hour later or close an hour earlier. Please honor the listed open hours for each particular layout.
• Be mindful of private property when you are driving around and parking in residential neighborhoods.

Any questions about the tour should be directed to Bobj Berger – 425 774 9165 – to whom we owe many thanks for arranging this year’s event. And many, many thanks to those who have agreed to let us see their modelling handiwork.

Last Clinic:
We continued our discussion of backdrops to include viewing the 3rd and 4th videos in Chris Lyon’s YouTube series about “Painting Backdrops for Large Layouts…”.
There were 3 contributors for show and tell.
• Aidin M brought along three of his recent additions. First was a HO 4-8-4 Northern from MTH lettered for the Norfolk & Western. Next was a small HO scale crane vehicle. And lastly an N-scale C&O wood chip gondola.
• Dennis T had a 4-foot module backdrop (for N-scale) he did using the techniques from the video series we have been watching. It had a lot more visual interest than the distant/middle/near layered hill approach that many of us are used to.
• Jeff M displayed an N-scale caboose (Atlas Trainman #35559). It was painted in the classic BN green with yellow ends. Each side sported a BN logo with the words “Burlington Northern” below, but the reporting marks said “C&S” (not “BN”). The Colorado & Southern was a subsidiary of the CB&Q, but when the Q merged with the GN, NP, and SP&S to form the BN in 1970, the C&S was not included. The exact reason for this is not apparent, probably some legal/financial/labor quirk. It finally became an integral part of the BN in 1981. At that time, the C&S didn’t have a paint scheme of its own, it used the CB&Q scheme with its own reporting marks. So between 1970 and 1981, new (or repainted) C&S equipment was done in BN green with C&S reporting marks or ID stencils.
Directions: We meet at the Ronald United Methodist Church, 17839 Aurora Avenue North, Shoreline, WA. That is on the west side of Aurora (State Route 99) between 175th and 185th Streets and more specifically, between the Cadillac dealer on the south and Deseret Industries to the north. Going southbound on Aurora, make a right-hand turn into the church driveway immediately after passing the Deseret location. There are parking lots at both the front and rear of the church. From the rear lot go up the steps to the main entrance. Once inside, the room where we usually meet is up to your left.
Meetings are the first Thursday of each month, September to May. In June we often do something different, so there is no “regular” meeting. Doors open at 7:00 PM and the program will start at 7:30.
Note that the next regular evening meeting will be September 7, 2017. Hoever, there is a mini-tour of 4 local layouts planned for June 1. See above for tour details. Hope to see you there or at least sometime on down the line.

Eastside Get Together May 18

Our monthly Eastside Get Together will be this coming Thursday at the Redmond Old Schoolhouse Community Center.
Time: 7:00
Place: 16600 NE 80th Street
Redmond, WA 98052

We will trace the research currently underway to locate and document one of the earliest railways in our area.

Remember to bring a color prototype picture to share.

Doors open at 6:45 with the program beginning at 7:00. Bring a model or project to share.

Railroad Prototype Modelers at Monroe

The PNW RPM is this Saturday!

The Pacific Northwest RPM crew is back for another year of Rails By The Bay, the Northwest’s own Railroad Prototype Modelers (RPM) meet. The gathering is scheduled for Saturday, April 29, 2017, 9am to 5pm, in Monroe, WA at the Evergreen Fairgrounds. There is a great clinic lineup this year, including a special guest from a well-known industry manufacturer:

-Bruce Barney: Modeling Gunderson Chip Gons with 3D printing.
-Craig Townsend: The Yellowstone RR.
-Jim Ruffing: Great Northern boxcars
-Blaine Hadfield: The Past, Present, and Future of Exactrail.
-Robert Scott: Simpson logging.

You can see more details as they develop, here on the northwestrpm.com website:

http://northwestrpm.com/RPM_Meet.htm