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Eastside Get-Together Thursday, April 21st

Written by Ken Liesse
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By JJ Johnston

Don’t forget the Eastside Get-Together, next week, Thursday, April 21, 7:30 PM at the Bellevue Four Square Church in Bellevue. Our group sends condolences to the Hill family and will take a moment of prayer to remember our friend Dennis.

TOPIC: Join legendary modeler C.J. Riley, MMR, for his clinic “Layout Planning On A Prototype Theme.” He will feature a slide presentation
illustrating the concept of modeling from the prototype to create a more believable model railroad. We’ll see prototype and model slides illustrating the concept of CJ Riley’s Kanawha & Western Allegheny RR. Further info is available in Allen Keller’s Great Model RRs Vol. 3, available from the video library. Video Librarian Stu Rogers will be there, so maybe he will bring some copies of this early video.

Of course, we will offer all the usual stuff that makes the Eastside group so popular; Stuff like free coffee, fresh donuts, the Mart with great prices on railroad items (bring some of your own to sell too), super door prizes donated by Steve Depolo, the red-hot Model of the Month competition and a great venue with convenient parking. See ya.

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Eastside Get-Together Report

Written by Ken Liesse
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Article and photos by Ken Liesse

Thirty-nine members and one guest were in attendance as JJ Johnston presided over the St. Patrick’s Day version of the Eastside Get-Together Thursday evening. Most members were dressed for the occasion by wearing something green, especially Bobj Berger and Jim Easley. Bobj sported huge, bright green glasses while Jim brought some class to the event with a green bow tie (yes, it coordinated with the rest of his outfit).

Several people had announcements for the good of the order, starting with JJ’s reminder of the upcoming Olympia layout open houses. Ed Liesse let everyone know that if they change their email address, to make sure the new address is given to the NMRA headquarters with Ed copied in, or just sent to Ed and he will forward the new information to National. (eeliesse@aol.com) Please pass this information on to others, as those who have changed their addresses may not be receiving the information.

Bobj Berger announced that Rev. Roger Ferris suffered a stroke on March 15. Roger is still in the hospital and Bobj was not sure when he would be going home. Bobj brought several estate sales for the mart, augmented by some items Russ Segner supplied from Earl Mann’s estate.

Mark Anderson let everyone know that he will again be heading up the train show in Issaquah, which is now set for August 13th from 10 to 4. Russ reminded everyone of the upcoming NRHS convention in Tacoma and its accompanying steam trains, including Daylight 4449. He also mentioned the upcoming steam special at the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railway on May 21st. Bobj said that NMRA members could get a discount for this trip by purchasing tickets from RailsNW.com (www.railsnw.com).

JJ announced the passing of long-time Eastside participant Paul Miller. Paul had recently been diagnosed with cancer and entered the hospital shortly after last month’s clinic. Peter Ormiston brought a card for members to sign and will present it to Paul’s family. We then held a moment of silence for Paul, Roger and the victims of the recent earthquake in Japan.

Bring and brag had six great entries this month. Jim Easley won with a G scale model of a building at Bernina Hospiz in Switzerland. Jim’s building was made mostly from Styrofoam and was a lot lighter than it looked. Other entries included Di Voss’ mockup for a brewery he’s building for his Everett & Monte Cristo, Bob Biese’s loaded gondola, a 1935 American Flyer train brought in by Jim Martin, and a Campbell fire station from David Yadock. The field was rounded out by John Socha-Leialoha’s latest creation, an HO scale model of a slag cart. Additional pictures of these models can be seen at https://picasaweb.google.com/ken.liesse/EastsideClinic31711#.

After the break, Jim Sabol presented a brand new clinic on the nuances of how real railroads move cars from A to B, including a look at why they would want to in the first place. The focus was the importance of freight yards to the real railroads and how we can use them in our modeling. Jim showed how it was possible to have realistic operations with a yard made up of just two tracks. As was appropriate for the day, the featured load in Jim’s clinic was a boxcar full of beer. We all assume it was green fro St. Patrick’s Day.

Jim then passed out plans for the yard on his own layout; a 10’ x 55’ monster built in O scale. Even though the tracks are not complete, Jim already has the operation of the yard mapped out and is ready to implement operations on his layout from the first day of “power on.” We thanked Jim’s wife, Mary, for bringing Jim with her to the meeting to present a wonderful clinic.

The program for April’s meeting has not been determined, but JJ is looking into the possibility of having the June meeting at Chooch Industries in Maple Valley. More information on this will be forthcoming.

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Eastside Clinic Report

Written by Ken Liesse
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Article and photos by Ken Liesse

35 members and guests were on hand for the Eastside Clinic held Thursday night, February 17. JJ Johnston kicked off the evening with announcements, including that of the stolen equipment from the Monroe train show (see details in another section of the Grab Iron). He also announced that Bob Beise has earned AP certificates in Civil, Electrical and Volunteer. Only four more and Bob will earn his Master Model Railroader.

Frank Dekker mentioned that 4D was in possession of several concrete pier blocks that had previously been used at the Pacific Science Center show. The blocks have brackets to hold 2x4s and are now surplus. Anyone having use for such blocks should contact Frank.

Jim Sabol let everyone know that there will be several opportunities to see mainline steam action in the northwest this summer, with the National Railroad Historical Society convention being in Tacoma. In addition, the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railway should be firing up Baldwin #70 this coming week. If the engine passes her boiler certification, she will be part of the triple-header run at the railway in May.

Roger Ferris brought five cases of the Mart for member perusal, and mentioned that member Al Robinson (who attends the Shoreline clinic) would be selling off his collection of brass engines and other equipment for health reasons. Anyone wishing to learn more about this sale should contact Roger at railfun@frontier.com.

We had two entries in the Model of the Month contest.

CJ Turner's Model of the Month winner.

First place went to CJ Turner for a model that Di Voss brought in! The model was a Bar Mills kit to which CJ had added an extensive interior, including billiards tables and shooters. CJ had built the model for Di, hence Di bringing it in to show. The other entry was from Rob Jones, who brought an extensive collection of N-scale equipment, some of which Rob had just purchased at the Monroe show. George Chambers also brought in a collection of old model railroad catalogs for folks to see.

Di Voss announced that a proposal is being put before the NMRA BOD to possibly have the 2015 or 2016 national convention on a cruise down the west coast. Details of the trip are still being fleshed out, but the cruise would probably leave from either Seattle or Vancouver (meeting the international port of call rule) sail to San Diego, possibly stopping in Portland and San Francisco. If anyone has any ideas on this proposal or would possibly like to help put it on, please contact Di.

Ed Liesse reminded us that this year’s NMRA convention is being held in Sacramento, CA, July 3-10. This is a good opportunity to visit a national if you’ve never been before as it won’t be out this way again for another four years.

After the break, Jim Easley gave a presentation on the garden railroad he helped build at the Emerald Heights Retirement Community in Redmond. Jim and his wife are residents of the community, and Jim wanted to build an outdoor layout around the duplex in which they live. After approaching the management at Emerald Heights, it was decided that this should become a community project with a central place for the new railroad. Jim agreed to head up the project and held his first meeting, thinking he would get a handful of his fellow retirees to help out. Turns out fifty couples showed up for that first meeting! Committees were assigned, plans were drawn up (including a neat little profile model of the area where the layout would be built) and construction commenced. During the planning stage, it was decided that the group would model the Seattle & Lake Shore, since it ran through Redmond. High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) was used for the sub-roadbed, with all LGB track. Even a shed was built to protect the equipment and make it easier for the “engineers” to get at their equipment (no bending). All in all, Jim estimated that over 250 residents of the community took part in the building of the railroad. This included folks who were interested in construction, planning, gardening, and even a guy who bricked up the lone tunnel in the plan. At the end of construction, the CEO of the community presided over a “Gold Spike Ceremony,” and officially opened the railroad.

Emerald Heights is an extremely active community, and their in-house TV station made a documentary on the process of building the railroad. Jim presented this documentary to us at Eastside, and everyone was in awe of what the community has accomplished. Jim is also now working on the layout he wanted in the first place, which will be a replica of Swiss railroading, a subject dear to Jim’s heart.

At this time, we do not have a program lined up for the March meeting, but rest assured JJ will come up with something. If you would like volunteer to give a clinic, contact JJ (jj@jtwice.com). He’ll be more than happy to sign you up. Additional photos from the clinic can be viewed at https://picasaweb.google.com/ken.liesse/EastsideClinic21711#

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Learn To Build A Garden Railroad

Written by Al Lowe
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by JJ Johnston, photos by Ken Liesse

Eastside Get Together. Mark your calendars for next Thursday, February 17, at 7:30 pm. The legendary garden modeler Dr. Jim Easley will describe the steps to design and build a garden layout. His work with residents at the Emerald Heights retirement community is a model of taking a group of people with varying talents, working together to create a stunning achievement in garden railroading. Jim’s presentation will also include a time-lapse video of this marvelous layout from start to the golden spike finish.

Thanks to Di Voss and Bob Beise for their informative January clinic on making turnouts with FastTrak jigs. Model of the Month was won by Jim Sabol and his almost all scratch built O scale 2-6-6-2. Due to the length of our program, door prizes were not awarded so this month we will have double door prizes. Plus the mart is always available for you to buy and sell railroad items, free coffee and fresh donuts. Join the fun.

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Eastside Get Together Meets Thursday, October 21

Written by Al Lowe
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JJ Johnston

Meeting on Thursday, October 21, Bellevue Four Square Church.

We’re back in business. To kick off our next meeting after the summer hiatus and the Cascadian Convention, we are planning a blockbuster meeting. “TREES & MORE TREES” is our presentation and our sought after presenter is Charles Jackson. Charles will be showing us how to make incredible trees, he will demonstrate his tree making machine and he will share many new scenery products at unbelievable pricing. He’s also bringing from scenery products which he is donating as door prizes. You have this opportunity to see Charles’ presentation before anyone else in the area. That’s why the Eastside Get Together rocks.

AND, we’ll have the usual great array of activities including the Model of the Month, bring stuff for sale, free coffee and donuts, fabulous door prizes and a great time for all.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic, Grab-Iron

June Kreitler Passes

Written by Al Lowe
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Dave Kreitler

I am sorry to inform you that on this past Tuesday, June Kreitler passed away unexpectedly during the night. June had been a 4D member for many years. In that time she served as Treasurer for the division as well has played a significant supporting role in events such as PSX96 and the National Convention PSX2004.

Her interests in the hobby were varied from introducing her children to American Flyer trains, to helping them build their first HO layout, to exploring N scale T-Trak modules, and more recently trying her hand at O scale craftsman kit building.

She enjoyed all the crazy things we do in this hobby such as crawling around the steam donkeys at Camp 6 to get critical measurements and stomping through the brush to get photos of some old rusting piece of iron or some building that is about to collapse – regardless of how hard it was raining.

She enjoyed riding trains too whether it be the geared triple header at Mt Rainier or taking Amtrak’s Empire Builder across the country with 4 children.

While her failing eyesight limited her modeling in recent years, she still kept track of local events and attended local train shows. She always enjoyed getting out to see what folks were doing and touch base with the model railroading community. Her spirit will be missed.

For anyone interested there will be a service Saturday evening (August 7th) at Flintoft’s in Issaquah at 7:00 p.m. The spirit of the service will be an informal celebration of her life. For directions, more information, or if you cannot make the service and would like to leave a farewell note, visit http://www.flintofts.com. The family is asking that in lieu of flowers, anyone wishing to do so please make a charitable contribution to the King County Humane Society.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic, News

Eastside Get-Together

Written by Al Lowe
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JJ Johnston

Summer is coming and we are on hiatus until our October meeting. June is our big event at the Snoqualmie Railway Museum (see articles on pages 4 & 7). No clinic in July or August; September is our PNR convention. Our May meeting, attended by over 30 folks, heard an amazing and humorous clinic about operations on the Apple Route presented by Dave Liesse (of the famous Liesse model railroad family). Dave’s photos, his handout, and his discussion were quite informative for those of us needing more knowledge about operations. Thanks, Dave! We also took a special moment of silence and prayer to commemorate the life of modeling legend, Brian Ellerby, who recently passed. Brian owned Evergreen Scale Models, Inc. and meant much to our hobby. God bless you, Brian.

Our Model of the Month included entries from CJ Turner, John Salzetti, Jim Sabol, Rob Jones, Bob Beise and our winner, George Chambers. George shared his marvelous model of an S scale house.

I would like to thank all in our group for their continuing attendance at our meetings. We set an attendance record of 52 a few months ago and we continue to be blessed by the involvement of all our clinicians, who give so generously of their time and talents, and our own group volunteers. I would like to thank in particular CJ Turner for always having the coffee brewing and a wonderful assortment of hand-selected donuts each month. Clay Hanson has done a great job being our greeter/ambassador and making sure everyone has a ballot for the door prize drawings and Model of the Month voting. Many thanks to Stu Rogers for bringing the video library and for single-handedly converting all those VHS tapes to DVDs. We are always indebted to Roger Ferris and Bobj Berger for bringing their estate sale items to us at extremely attractive pricing, for hauling it all in and out, and for adding their anecdotal comments to our meetings. I also appreciate 4D Superintendant Dennis Hill’s attendance at our meetings, along with our 4D treasurer, Sherman Stevens. Ed Liesse serves in so many ways, we thank him and wife Gay for all the time they give our Division. We truly appreciate the support we get from MMRs Max Maginness, CJ Riley, and Di Voss (who also serves as NMRA Conformance and Standards Chairman). Of course, special thanks to our friend and modeler Steve Depolo, owner of Inside Gateway Hobby Store in Bellevue, for his very generous donations of our valuable door prizes each month. Please thank Steve when you are in his store. The Eastside Get Together rocks the house.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic