Category: Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic

Article & Photos by Syd Schofield

The NMRA/PNR Fourth Division Redmond Clinic for December was held Thursday evening at the Redmond Community Center, Alex Brikoff presiding.  The gathering was brought to order at 7:17 PM.  Notable and new attendees were introduced followed by upcoming events of interest being announced.  Refer to the Grab-Iron calendar for details.

***PLEASE NOTE:

An important announcement was regarding the day change of the Eastside Clinic.  Beginning in JANUARY 2020, the Eastside Clinic will be held on the 3^rd WEDNESDAY of every month at least through June.  The meeting room and start time will remain the same.

There was no Model or Photo of the Month contest this month as there were no entries. 

This evening was the annual Dirty Santa gift exchange.  The usual door prize random pick format was used with modifications for the Dirty Santa twist.  Everyone in attendance brought a holiday wrapped model railroad-themed gift with only the model scale marked, if applicable.  Only the size, shape and weight of the package disclosed the contents.  Upon the gift pick, it is unwrapped and revealed to the group, an important part of the process.

The first drawing, perhaps the least beneficial, started the process and continued until the last item is picked.  Starting with the second drawing, “stealing” previously picked items is allowed.  Any gift may only be “stolen” twice before the holder retains permanent possession.  To even the process the original picker can then “steal” any item, resulting in a fresh pick from the gift supply or a trade with the “thief.”  During and after the drawing and “stealing”, side negotiations for redistribution occurred. 

Seasonally appropriate (although non-alcoholic) refreshments (coffee and cookies) were provided by C. J. Turner and Di Voss.  Stronger beverages were rumored to be available at undisclosed, offsite locations.

 Syd Schofield

By Alex Brikoff

The December 2019 Eastside Get Together Clinic will have its monthly meeting on December 19, 2019.

The Clinic will meet 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.  We will also have our Model of the Month and Rail Photo of the Month contest.  This year, our “Mini Clinic Event” in March 2020, will be done a bit differently.  This month, we will be voting as a group to select four Mini-Clinic topics from the list of topics we put together last month. The winners will be announced at the end of this month’s clinic. 

We will be having our annual Christmas “Dirty Santa Gift Exchange” this month.  Everyone is asked to bring a small gift to participate.  It is requested that the gift be inexpensive (less than $10 – $15 value) and gift wrapped with ONLY the scale marked on it if necessary (no names).

We will have refreshments and snacks available as always.  The winners of the contests will have first choice of gifts from the “Dirty Santa Gift Table”.

See you there!!

**Clinic Change Next Month**

Also, please note that starting in January, the Redmond Eastside Get Together Clinic will be moving to the third WEDNESDAY instead the third THURSDAY.  This will be our new meeting day until the end of the clinic year in June.  I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may cause but we didn’t have much say in the matter.

Alex Brikoff

Article & Photos By Syd Schofield

The NMRA/PNR Fourth Division Redmond Clinic for November was held Thursday evening at the Redmond Community Center, Alex Brikoff presiding.  The gathering was brought to order at 7:15 PM.  Notable attendees were introduced and upcoming events of interest were announced.  The Grab-Iron newsletter will furnish schedule and content particulars.

***PLEASE NOTE:

One important announcement was regarding the day change of the Eastside Clinic.  Beginning in JANUARY 2020, the Eastside Clinic will be held on the 3^rd WEDNESDAY of every month at least until June.  The meeting room and start time will remain the same.

Model of the Month was by Dan Kellog.  He showed an HO scale diorama of the Chittiden Locks railroad bridge that will be used on his layout.  John Paschal showed three photos of steam locomotives at the East Broad Top Railroad repository/storage facility for Photo(s) of the Month. 

The evening’s clinic was by Russ Segner.  He presented an excellent clinic on the basics of model railroad scenery.  He discussed scenery design and considerations of technique based on his Sn3 home layout.

The winners of the Model of the Month and Photo of the Month were the first to select from many great door prizes that were available that evening.  The remainder were dispersed with the usual blind jar drawings, manned by Anton Faulk.

C. J. Turner was kind enough to once again provide our refreshments.

The December gathering will be the yearly tradition “Dirty Santa” gift exchange.  Everyone is encouraged to bring a railroad-related, identified by scale (if applicable) and unidentified on the wrapper.  The random pick drawing is for these items of approximately $10 in value.  The somewhat complicated and resultant, occasionally gentle chiding process will be explained at the meeting.  Side negotiations for redistribution are permitted.  

The meeting concluded by 9:15.

Syd Schofield

By Alex Brikoff

The November 2019 Eastside Get Together Clinic will have its monthly meeting on November 21, 2019.

The Clinic will meet 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

Besides bringing everyone up to date on the noteworthy model railroad and railfan events coming up, we’ll also be announcing some major changes coming to our clinic after the first of the year. You’ll definitely want to make note of those changes! We’ll also have our Model of the Month contest and Rail Photo of the Month contest. So, please bring your 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 presented by Russ Segner and will be the first of our new “Back to Basics Clinic Series”. Russ’ clinic will be entitled “Basic Scenery Techniques: Theory and Practice”. Russ will present his thoughts and ideas about basic scenery techniques which will include “geo-forming” hills, rock cliffs, creeks and other water features followed by how he installs ground cover, ballasting, shrubs and trees. He will then actually demonstrate these ideas and techniques on a small module that he has been working on.

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!!

Alex Brikoff

Article & Photos By Syd Schofield

The National Model Railroad Association Fourth Division of the Pacific Northwest Region (4d PNR NMRA) Eastside Get Together Clinic for October was held Thursday evening at the Redmond Community Center, Alex Brikoff presiding.  The gathering was brought to order and the program began at 7:15 PM.  At that time, notable attendees were introduced and upcoming events of interest were announced.  The Grab-Iron newsletter will furnish event times, schedules and other event details.

For the model of the month, Chris Cooney showed several HO scale buildings to be used on his HOn3 layout. 

Syd Schofield had a photo of #478, the narrow-gauge steam locomotive, one of three ALCO K-28 type on the Durango and Silverton railroad, the prototype of an On3 model he showed earlier this year.  Bob Rorabaugh showed a model tree typical of the massive trees brought down in the early lumber harvest in the Sierras and Cascades.

George Chambers presented pictures and stories of his summer trip on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad, and the Alaska Railroad.

Bob Stafford showed pictures of his recent Union Pacific 4014 “Big Boy” 4-8-8-4 steam locomotive excursion from Cheyenne, where it was restored, to Ogden for the 150^th Trans-Continental railroad Golden Spike anniversary.  There was a huge gathering along the entire way and massive attendance at the Promontory Point Historical Site. 

First choice door prize selection model of the month and photo of the month.  The remainder were dispersed by the usual drawing method, manned by Anton Faulk.

C. J. Turner was kind enough to once again provide our refreshments.

Syd Schofield

By Alex Brikoff

The October 2019 Eastside Get Together Clinic will have its monthly meeting on October 17, 2019.

The Clinic will meet 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 bring everyone up to date on the noteworthy model railroad and railfan events coming up in the area for the fall months ahead. We’ll also have our Model of the Month contest and Rail Photo of the Month contest. So, please bring your 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 a “twofer”. The first portion will be devoted to George Chambers and the conclusion of his presentation about his trip on the “White Pass and Yukon Railway” this past summer. The next portion of the clinic, titled “U. P. Memories”, will be a personal retrospective of somewhat recent Union Pacific history and operations presented by Bob Stafford. It will be a combination of slides and digital photos of UP operations in the western United States. This special presentation will be highlighted by photos of Bob’s chase of the UP 4014 across Wyoming to Ogden, UT this past spring.

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!!

Alex Brikoff

By Syd Schofield

The National Model Rail Road Association Fourth Division of the Pacific Northwest Region (NMRA 4dPNR) Redmond Clinic for September was held Thursday evening at the Redmond Community Center, Alex Brikoff presiding.  After a brief social interlude, the gathering was brought to focus around 7:15 PM.  Notable attendees were introduced and upcoming events of interest were announced.  The 4D Grab-Iron newsletter and Events Calendar are a great resource to keep you abreast of activities.

As we reminisced our train-themed vacation trip activities over the summer, several of the group gave short presentations about new layouts being designed, planned and built.  Due to the great interest we ran over the allotted meeting time.  It’ll be very interesting to hear the progress reports on these new layouts as time goes on.

For the model of the month and photo if the month,  Russ Segner showed two brass locomotive purchases, an Sn3 consolidation and an HOn3 consolidation.  Bob Rorabaugh showed an article on massive northwest tree stumps and the stories they hold.  Syd Schofield showed a picture of the Bear River bridge and trestle on the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad in northern California obtained at their museum in Grass Valley, CA. 

Bob Rorabaugh brought his usual “For Sale” items as an opportunity available to all attendees.  Due to the clinic running late, the door prize portion of the clinic was very abbreviated with a promise to return to the regular door prize give away next month.  The meeting concluded at 9:15 PM.

Syd

By Alex Brikoff

The September 2019 Eastside Get Together Clinic will resume its monthly meetings for the 2019/2020 Clinic Season on September 19, 2019.

The Clinic will meet 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 kick off this year’s Eastside Get Together Clinic season by bringing everyone up to date on the noteworthy model railroad and railfan events coming up in the area for the fall months ahead. We’ll also have our Model of the Month contest and Rail Photo of the Month contest. So, please bring your 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. 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, conventions or any combination of the above that has to do with railroading. I encourage everyone to bring a flash drive with photos to go along with your talk since we will have a projector there. Also, please try to limit your talks to 5-10 minutes to allow as many folks as possible to share their summer vacations with us. Participation is optional but encouraged!

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!!

Alex Brikoff

By Syd Schofield

NMRA, 4^th Division, Pacific Northwest Region, East Side Get-Together on 6/20/2019

The Thursday gathering officially started around 7:15, Alex Brikoff, presiding.  Notable attendees were introduced and upcoming events of interest were announced.

The presentation for the evening was by Dan Kellogg based on his experience with the BNSF Northwest Division.  He had a slide show of his N-scale three-tier shelf layout.  The spare(d) 10×10 home bedroom was configured for minimal disruption in consideration of future restoration.  The layout was built on a lightweight modular design with that in mind.  Dan showed the work-in-progress of the layout with one level, the downtown Seattle area, almost complete.     

The model-of-the-month was awarded to J. J. Johnston for his multi-story apartment building.  Photo(s)-of-the-month was given to Syd Schofield for his pictures of the restored and operating Virginia and Truckee Railroad McKeen motor car in Carson City.

The meeting concluded with the door prize drawings with the MOTM and the POTM winners getting first choices.

The regular 4^th Thursday of the month meetings will resume in September after the usual summer break of July and August.  The summer railroad-related pictures and stories will then be presented and discussed.

Syd

By Alex Brikoff

The June 2019 Eastside Get Together Clinic will meet on June 20, 2019.  

The Clinic will meet 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 be making announcements about rail events that will be occurring in the next month and during the summer months.   We will also have our Model of the Month and Rail Photo of the Month contest.  Don’t pass up this opportunity to show off your modeling and photography skills!  Bring your latest scratchbuilts, kit bashes or plain cool looking models to compete with your fellow modelers for the coveted Model of the Month award.  Also, be sure and bring photos from your latest railfan trip!  Anyone go to Wyoming or Utah for the inaugural run of the UP 4014 to Transcon 150?  Remember, if it’s on rail and you have a photo of it, you’re good to go!!

This month’s Clinic will be: “Modeling the BNSF Northwest Division in N-Scale”.  Dan Kellogg will be here to present his clinic that shows how he is building an N-scale layout based upon the modern operations of the BNSF from Seattle to Bellingham and up to the Cascade Tunnel on Stevens Pass.  The layout will be a three level shelf layout connected by a helix.  The clinic will provide an orientation to the layout plan and update on progress to date.  The clinic will also feature the actual three-level fabricated aluminum swing-gate that will soon be installed in the layout room to allow access to the room, while still affording continuous model train operation on all three levels of the layout. 

We will have door prizes, refreshments and snacks available as always.  Alex Brikoff