It’s that time of year again. Time to put on your engineer’s hat and work boots and red bandana, and take a ride on a REAL ( prototype scale ) passenger train.
This year we’re heading south, to the beautiful Nisqually River Valley, to ride the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad. Our passenger train is powered by Polson Logging Co. number 70. This 100-year-old steam engine is a 2-8-2 logging locomotive, built by Baldwin and later used by Rayonier timber company on the Olympic peninsula. It’s been beautifully restored, and is ready to begin operations now that the COVID epidemic is past.
Our trip will be on on Saturday May 11th, 2024. We depart the station in Elbe WA at 11:00 am, for a round trip to the logging museum at Mineral WA. The museum is still closed for construction work by the new owners, but we should get views of the railroad equipment stored outside.
Our annual train ride and picnic is put together by the Hi-Railers module group, but is open to all Fourth Division and NMRA members.
On the next page select the “>” arrow to “May 2024”
Select “May 11” and “11:00 am”
The adult ticket price is $37.00 ( or is it $40.00 ? ), with discounts for kids. Sorry, there is no discount for seniors. Don’t forget to select the number of tickets in each age category.
Bring your receipt, either a print-out or on your cell phone, and check in at the ticket office in Elbe. They will issue you an “official” ticket before you board the train.
Join us for a fun steam train ride. And tell ’em John Henry sent you.
It’s not often that you can say that model railroading is possibly life threatening and at the very least challenging. After spending a week studying the weather forecasts we decided to go ahead for the GTS Ridgefield train show. The Friday trip down I-5 was the best in a long long time, almost pleasant with a dry highway, little traffic and snow plows looking for work but none to be had.
We arrived at the venue with two hours to spare and we were greeted with news that the site map had to change due to cancellations and the new map was not ready. Eventually we were relocated to the middle of the hall and with that location it was desirable to build our layout in the mirror image of that originally intended or as best that we could. We pre-set the height of the individual modules to 36″ as over the years they were all over the show making it difficult to level the layout. It all went together quite well and trains were running by the time we left for our hotel five miles to the south in Vancouver Wa.
Saturday dawned with snow falling and we arrived at the venue by 8:00 am to complete the layout by hanging the drapes and completing the scenery. We had trains running at true three rail 0 gauge speed by the time the show opened. Surprisingly for me at least, there was a steady stream of public, not crowds, coming through the doors for most of the day while the snow continued to fall.
By the end of the day the parking lot was deep in snow, up to the wheel centers in our car, or so the snow had drifted. All the restaurants local to our hotel were closed but Fred Meyer was open with the offering of fried chicken and more fried chicken.
On Sunday the public were a bit slower coming into the venue but the numbers built up during the day. The trains however ran quite well and with no trains on the floor which is always good. Soon it was time to tear down and pack out with the big question, for me at least, dare I attempt the trek home that night or wait until the morning. A quick check of the highway led me to believe that the best action would be to stay another night in the hotel and make an early morning run north. The snow had stopped but there was plenty of it on the highway and was not conducive to pulling a trailer.
Monday morning once north of milepost 30 found the highway in excellent condition, air temperature about 15 degrees, light traffic moving at about 60 mph. There was just one stretch of fog to deal with but I made it home in three hours.
On the lighter side, for me at least, my wife had gone to the grocery store that morning and on arriving there found that the car doors had frozen shut and she could not get out of the car. She had earlier defrosted the doors with hot water and now paid the penalty. Not to waste the exercise she stopped at the side of the road to play Poke Mon Go just as I drove past. On pulling up at the house she followed and I was able to free her from her icy cage. My timing was excellent and I got an attaboy for that.
Well that was a mouthful, forever now to be known as the Kelso show.
This, the fall show, was a one day affair and not our preferred event, spending as much time setting up and tearing down as the actual show itself. Our reasoning for attending this time was to assess the event and the facilities as to whether we might attend their two day show next May.
The show was held in Kelso’s Three Rivers Mall, in the former Macy’s store, providing ample space, lighting and flat and level flooring. The organizers were very helpful and saw to it that we were in need of nothing for the show. To be honest, the show was more of a very good swapmeet than a train show with few layouts but plenty of space for more. The 9 am Saturday opening did not start with a rush but more of a dribble but steadily built up during the morning to form a good crowd. We met members of the public attending this show from as far away as Oregon to the south and Olympia to the north.
For this writer I would give two thumbs up for this show in the future as an opening event to the train show season.
A request in the Grab Iron called for restoration of an O gauge layout at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie, obviously a golden opportunity for the Hi Rail modular group to take action. The layout had formally been in the now defunct Bellingham Railroad Museum and would be resurrected in Snoqualmie. The Hi Railer’s would take on this task.
Contact with Emily Boersma the Museum volunteer coordinator was made to schedule a visit Friday November 20th for a quick assessment of the task at hand. Removing and relocating model railroad layouts might be done in one piece, unlikely, or with a chainsaw, more than likely. Emily advised that the Museum was looking at reopening on December 14th, pandemic allowing and would like the layout up and running by then. Friday came and the visit revealed a layout in essentially one piece, comprising three tracks and needing something like a modular set up at a show. We were advised that running on one of the tracks was never reliable and needs to be fixed. Yes, we can do this no problem. Hum, yes we hope so?
The first work session was scheduled for Tuesday November 24th where the team set about sorting all the tote boxes under the layout into trains, accessories and electrics. A quick look at the locomotives revealed that the mechanisms were dry as a bone and appear to have never been lubricated. A look under the layout revealed a spider work of wiring that was literally cut out to aid transportation, no color coding and any one’s guess as to which goes where. The easiest solution is to rewire, not something we normally do on a show set up. Lubricating locomotives and stock ensued, new color coded power feeders were added to two of the tracks. Soon we were testing locomotives and track. A good percentage of the locomotives needed something more than lubrication, one, a nice Great Northern electric on test made it part way round the layout before stopping in a cloud of smoke. Not good. Well not as bad as it could be as a light bracket in the locomotive decided at that moment to fail shorting out on the frame thus frying the wire. Cut off the wire and the locomotive runs fine but is without a working headlight.
In discussion with Richard Anderson, the museum director, he wished that by the 14th we have all three tracks in full reliable operation, all accessories working. As he said, he would like to see light and action. There is no evidence of previous automatic operation of signals nor barrier crossings and it would appear such operation would be desirable in the future. It was decided that this feature would be put on the back burner and handled in the New Year after everything else is fixed and operational.
December 1st was the next work session. Having gone through all the locomotives, lubricated all, repaired some and others put away for a more extensive overhaul. We moved on to the accessories to check them out, each showing evidence of extensive use. The lower inside track had been glued in place but about a six foot stretch had come adrift. The loose track was screwed down. The track was cleaned as best we could considering there are two tunnels on the line where the track is inaccessible within. Our first attempt to run a train on this track had the locomotive enter the tunnel at full gallop and derail out of sight and out of reach. Consistent running was finally accomplished by all locomotives on all tracks except for Thomas the tank. The wheel bearings on his passenger cars were so worn, through lack of lubrication, that the wheel flanges were scraping on the underside of the car floor. The drag of these cars causing Thomas to derail on the corners. The Museum did not consider they wished to buy new cars as would be reasonable. We offered to take these cars away to see if we could accomplish a repair as they are less than useless otherwise.
December 4th revealed the Thomas passenger cars with new brass bearings replacing those original Lionel plastic ones. Thomas now runs fine. GREAT!!!! The rest of the day was devoted to powering the lights, accessories and compiling a list of spare parts required.
December 8th and in what we thought would be the final day of work before the 14th taking our stock of new light bulbs and parts for repair of ailing accessories. Work was progressing in fine order even to a bit of beauty treatment to the scenery when Richard dropped by with the disheartening news of an extension of the lock down to January 4th and that the museum would remain closed through then. Not a huge surprise but obviously a hit to the museum with lost revenue during the holiday season. A quick assessment of our ‘plan’ showed that a revision was needed, we cannot justify delaying automation of the accessories until January and in reality that should be accomplished prior to Christmas. The rest of the work session was devoted to testing the signals as well as the barrier crossings for operation. As with most other parts of this layout few worked as is and by the end of the day by a means of cannibalization the three required functional barrier crossings were made out of seven nonfunctional ones. Neither of the signals were functional and both needed new components to make functional. It is doubtful that we can source parts locally considering these signals are at least 50 years old. Where is the Boeing swap meet when you need it?
December 11th, the final day and big push to put this program to bed with four members working on the layout; two servicing reluctant accessories; one under the layout wiring for the barrier crossings; one doing the final scenery touch ups and all tidying up around the layout. One of our members raided his home layout for a couple of color light signals set for automatic block operation that he donated to the project. These were added to the layout in the final minutes of the session. We have now been made official museum volunteers and need to sign in and sign out. A little training session will be required for other museum volunteers in how to operate the layout; put it to bed at the end of the day and awaken it in the mornings.
Overall it was nice meeting and working with Emily and Richard; good to work on a layout again and not quite like a set up at a train show. It was a learning experience especially in automation that we might add to our modular layouts. On the negative side if there was one, the floor of the building was darned cold and hard.
The Pacific Science Center Show last weekend was a great success. It was attended by 13,948 paid visitors and was our largest crowd in seven years. The credit for this belongs to the following groups and individuals:
Lisa Murray handled much of the organizing of volunteers and paperwork needed to keep things running. This was in addition to her being an active participant with the HO modular group. Her son, Aidan, was also there as an operator. Lisa also chairs the Seattle North Clinic.
The staff at Pacific Science Center was excellent and were able to respond quickly to some of the last minute adjustments that always occur with such a large show.
The 4D Hi-Railers, led by Ed Ives, were set up right
inside the Denny Way entrance with a 14’ x 20‘ configuration. Club participants
included:
Wayne Grinnell Ed Ives Jack Klapwyk Woody Mathews Ed Pennington Dan Peters Gordon Sandell
4D Hi-Railers
The 4D N-Trak layout, led by Al Lowe, was set up in
the Ackerley building. Per Al: “We staged an 1,800 square foot layout, which
was set up in the allotted four hours and removed from the building in 61
minutes. Between which, we ran dozens of trains, did a lot of switching, and
discussed model railroading with hundreds of guests. All in all, yet another
good showing for our club, the Division, and the NMRA.” Participants included:
Neill Clift Stephen Clift Dave Cook Mike Donnelly Thomas Dye Edwin Hill Kyle Ilk Kurt Laidlaw Al Lowe Dennis Terpstra Bud Thompson Cole van Gerpen
4D N-TRAK Group
The 4D HO Modular group,led by Mike Slease,
was also set up in the Ackerly building with a 24’ x 28’ layout. The layout featured its well-known
video camera car, which drew a large crowd around the TV monitor. Members participating included:
Gordon Crawford Norm Curtis Bruce Davis Lou Davis Paul Fischler Brian Pickering James Monroe Aidan Murray Ian Murray Lisa Murray Joel Scott Mike Slease Larry Sloan Rob Staples
Thirteen other individual displays were involved in the
show:
ANorthwest Railway Museum booth was set up by Emily Boersma. She was assisted by several volunteers: Peggy Barchi, Jim Hale, Pete Kirchgessner, Michael Ledingham, Dennis Snook, and Harry T.
Bill Harper brought his interactive HO switching puzzle which challenged visitors (and volunteers) both young and old.
Mike Pettruzzelli had two operating N scale layouts on display. He was assisted by Jeff Weinstock and Caleb Wright.
Al Turnbull had two displays—one the kids could operate and one that clearly demonstrated the construction involved in building a module.
Operation Lifesaver had an info booth manned by volunteers Weylin Doyle, Carol Kachadoorian, Alan Nelson, Brian Sims, Mike Turcott, and Martin Young throughout the weekend.
Bob Stafford brought his N scale industrial layout depicting some of the switching involved at Boeing in Everett. His interactive display drew quite a crowd.
Russ Segner’s On30 display was also popular with little operators and had visitors queued up waiting their turns all day.
The 4D/PNR/NMRA Booth was manned by John Owens. He almost ran out of magazines and literature.
Baby Gramps was there along with Doreen to display his intricate and fanciful dioramas. They were assisted by Kevin Buster and Frances Wolfe.
Dan Kellogg had an excellent display and demonstration of techniques in modeling water features.
Kurt Laidlaw demonstrated the construction of an N scale module complete with track work and wiring.
Larry Sloan built and demonstrated a very effective display demonstrating the application of DCC systems.
The vendor, Ravensburger, brought loads of Brio and wooden trains for the little ones to explore throughout the busy weekend.
Dan Kellogg demonstrated water modelling techniques throughout the weekend. The example on the right was made with glue, water, toilet paper, paints, and clear gloss.
Kurt Laidlaw demonstrated the construction of an N scale module, complete with track work and wiring
Larry Sloan brought an interactive DCC display
Bob Stafford’s N scale industrial layout, depicting some of the switching at the Boeing plant in Everett, was popular with young and old
Bill Harper brought his always popular HO switching puzzle
Al Turnbull had two displays—one the kids could operate and one that clearly demonstrated the construction in building a module
Mike Pettruzzelli’s N-scale layout
ON30 layout for small operators
Operation Lifesaver works to reduce the likelihood of collisions between people/vehicles and trains through rail safety education
Northwest Railway Museum
Several volunteers helped in the loading in Friday night and
loading out Monday evening. They also
assisted the many exhibitors with rest and lunch breaks. Volunteers included:
Dave Enger Anton Faulk Fred Hamilton Eldon Jacobson Aidan Murray Ian Murray Paul OldenKamp Burr Stewart John Thompson Dave Woodrell David Yadock
“Write a piece for the Grab Iron on the construction of layout modules”, they said, like there was only one. Each modular group in 4D have their own module standards and there is at last count five modular groups in 4D; two N gauge; one HO, one On30 and the O gauge Hi-Railer’s. I’m with the latter.
Why modular? – Modular layouts are a way of attending events, in plain view of the public, displaying our craft and hopefully encouraging new membership. This is something your very fine layout in the basement has difficulty doing. Within as little as four weeks you could have a basic module suitable for using at the next train show. The module can be transported in the trunk of the average car or the back of an SUV with plenty of room to bring you favorite trains to run. The added benefit is you’ll make friends both within your group and between groups. It can be a very social activity.
The ‘basic’ Hi-Rail module is a table 50 inches wide, 30 inches deep and a nominal 36 inches height with +/- 1″ adjustment. The table top is made of 1 x 4’s on edge for all four sides. The top is plywood 5 mm thick or upwards. Remember the thicker the plywood, the heavier this thing gets. The table sits on four legs, one close to each corner. The legs, either 1 x 2 or 2 x 2 wood may be permanently attached with locking hinges or removeable set in sockets. I prefer the former as you can’t get the, ‘Oh Gosh’ moment on set up at a show realizing that you brought the module and left the legs at home. This would not have been the first time for this to happen. The aim is that any module may connect to any other module using standard ‘C’ clamps.
Track – We use the O gauge tubular (not O27) or Gargrave’s flex track set on cork roadbed 4 inches and 7 1/2 inches in from the front edge in the table for a double track. The track and roadbed to terminate 5 inches in from each end. Ballasting the track is a teaser. One can use the commercial packets of O gaugeballast and buy several packets or an alternative. We use the latter; roofing grit, the stuff they use on wet tar roofing. It comes in a variety of colors. I bought some grey which in the event was more blue than grey. The ‘group’ was highly critical of this ‘grey’ so I have the best part of 100 pounds of this stuff to lose, somewhere. The second choice was builder’s sand, not play sand, screened using an old flour sieve. This yields a nice quantity of suitable gravel but makes for a heavy module. Remember, these modules are mobile and have to be lifted and carried. The last try is to use ground walnut shells as used for grit blasting paint removal. The color and size is good but the drawback is the minimum quantity to buy is 100 pounds. I’ve used this stuff for a good fifteen years and still have three quarters of it left. If you speak to me nicely I’ll let you have some.
Electrically we use two power busses, one for each track. Color coding the wiring is imperative. Since we use three rail track, a red 14 AWG feeder wire is used for the center rail of the outside track; yellow 14 AWG wire for the center rail of the inside track and all running rails to have white 14 AWG feeder wires. Power drops from the rails to the feeder to also be color coded the same as the feeders and be 16 AWG. All wiring to be stranded. Modules are electrically connected together using rectangular six pin trailer plugs.
Hi-Railer Modules on display
Scenery is your choice and shall be complete within your module or modules if you produce more than one.
NOW THE WARNING LABEL – Belonging to a module group is addictive (and fun).
Like most things module building can get out of hand. I started with one locomotive and ten freight cars with a need to run someplace other than on track on the living room floor. I could easily transport this all in a cardboard box. I started with one module carried in the trunk of the car, then needing a truck, then a trailer behind the truck, then a full size van to pull the trailer. All this because I now have at last count 26 mostly customized modules for specific use, more in various stages of build and of course numerous trains.
The Fourth Division celebrated November, which is National Model Railroad Month, with the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) over Thanksgiving weekend. Three of our modular groups had a great weekend: Hi-Railers, HO and NTRAK participated, along with a small On30 demonstration module. Attendance at MOHAI was way up and we received many positive comments from the public and MOHAI staff.
A BIG “Thank you” to those who set up and operated for three full days:
Hi-Railers: Sam Hayden, Gordon Sandell, Ed Ives, Woody Mathews, Dan Peters, Craig Ives, Marc Sachnoff, Mark Elster, Christoff Elster, Dave Enger, David Yadock
HO: Brian Pickering, Larry Sloan, Rob Staples, Aidan Murray, Lisa Murray, Ian Murray, James Monroe , Lou Davis , Bruce Davis., Mike Slease
4dNTRAK: Al Lowe, Dave Cook, Dennis Terpstra, Doug Bulger, Kurt Laidlaw, Mike Donnelly, Neil Clift, Peter Clift
Overall the 4th Division O Gauge Hi-Rail Modular Group had a successful showing this last weekend (Oct 1st and 2nd) at the Lynden Model Train Show, my personal favorite of the year. Setup took the usual 7 hours but was aided by an early start of noon on Friday. We had but one glitch – an electrical cross-over that took a while to trace down – but eagle eyed Wayne found the issue, an air gap that had closed. We really ought to replace these gaps with hard insulators to stop this re-occurrence, perhaps a topic of a work program next summer. Success, no trains on the floor.
A new member, Gordon, a fellow Brit, paid us a visit with his London and South Western0-4-4T locomotive and train, a vintage look but a modern train. We hope Gordon will become a regular attendee at the train shows.
Division-sponsored groups that will be present are The 4th Division HO Modular Group, 4th Division Hi-Rail O Gauge Modular Group, 4dNTRAK Modular Group, and The 4th Division OmNi-Rail Modular Group. The division will also have a membership booth.
The 4th Division HO Modular Group consists of about 20 active members with about 50 modules, a staging yard, and 6 corners. They get together monthly for breakfast. The group sets up its modular layout at about 8 to 9 events annually for charity, community service, 4th Division events, and fundraisers. For more information visit http://www.4dho.com.
The 4th Division Hi-Rail O Gauge Modular Group consists of about 18 members who collect anything from ancient Marx or Ives tinplate to the modern die-cast Lionel and MTH trains of today. The layout is O gauge, 3 rail. Boy do they run trains on it! The Hi-Rail Group has 24 modules, 4 corner modules and 4 yard modules, and the number is growing to build large displays with lots of moving trains. The current capacity of the layout is 4 long moving trains and 3 trolley cars. The group meets periodically as needed for breakfast and to conduct business meetings. The Hi-Rail Group attends 8 to 9 shows a year in the Puget Sound region, from Lynden, Washington to the North, to Portland, Oregon to the South. For more information contact Ed Ives at gresley7@gmail.com.
The 4dNTRAK Modular Group has been displaying modules and running trains for thirteen years. The group started out with four corner modules supplied by the 4th Division. Members have built more than 50 additional modules in the years since. The layout includes a new spectacular yard built in 2013 with 120+ turnouts and the capacity to handle many prototype-length trains! For more information, visit http://www.4dntrak.org.
The fourth and newest 4D PNR sponsored modular group is the OmNi-Rail Modular Group. The group has been running trains now for a bit over 2 years. The 4D PNR financed the construction of the four corner modules. The nine members of the group have built over 20 additional modules for public display layouts. The OmNi-Rail name is to represent “All Encompassing” for N Scale modular design. The intention is to bring NTRAK, Free-moN, and Bent Track to one club, so the design incorporates the best of each. It is also designed to accept older modules from these different disciplines with minor modifications. The design uses a dog-bone linear base design with no bridge tracks and power pole connections. There is also a one track branch line called the OmNi-Branch. The sky is the limit on different module designs. For more information go to http://omni-rail.net.
The 4D Hi-Railers were mentioned on page 2 of The Bellingham Herald this week, next to an article regarding someone found guilty of embezzlement. I assure you these two are not connected.
We made it to Lynden on Friday in fine shape with set-up almost complete by 5:30 p.m., due in large part to Sam and his new (silent) red truck. Yes, it came with a muffler! He says the color is “sunset” but we call it red. We heartily congratulate Sam on his new truck. I hope he doesn’t mind the leg pulling we give him on it.
Running was made without major incident and no derailing, finger poking etc., that we sometimes get. Even the Kiddies layout came unscathed for most of the time. Teardown and pack up took just two hours, which meant that we were out of there before dark.
We are looking forward to the Maple Valley Train Show on October 18-19, from 10-5, the weekend after next. Set-up will be on Friday afternoon from 1 until done. I’d like to know who plans to attend set up and/or running so I can pass the numbers on to the organizers. As in the past, they will provide refreshments for each day, free of charge. For those of you that have never been there, here’s a Google map.
