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4D Layout Tours On June 20th

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Burr Stewart

The next Fourth Division layout tour will be held on Saturday, June 20, from 10:00 – 11:30 am. It will feature virtual layout tours by Joe Green and then Byron Osborn. The Zoom info will be sent in a Grab Iron email on Friday at noon.

Joe Green’s C&O Ryder Gap Subdivision is an HO scale, proto-freelanced switching layout set in the mountains of Virginia in May 1974. Four crews are responsible for serving the subdivision’s industries, including Back Creek Paper, Mill Gap Lumber, and Highland Chemical. The railroad uses scenes, track plans, and modeling that is heavily inspired by the prototype’s operations in Covington Virginia, Thurmond West Virginia, and Cass West Virginia. The layout is located in a large garage in Sequim, WA, and holds periodic operating sessions.

The Boeing Club layout is an HO layout 26’ by 50’ in size covering two decks of the fictional NW railroad Seattle and North Cascades during the 1950s. Construction began in 2011 with track work completed several years ago, operations with NCE DCC using car cards and way bills and scenery about 60% complete. The layout is located at the Pacific NW RR archives in Burien. Operating session are held twice a month but are on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic. The presentation will be made by club President Byron Osborn.

Burr

Layout Tour

June 2020 Eastside Get Together Clinic

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Alex Brikoff

Announcing the Eastside Virtual Get Together Clinic to be held on THURSDAY, June 18, 2020 at 7:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time

Hello, everyone!  Yes, the Eastside Get Together Clinic is alive and well during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.  Although for the time being (and that may be a while), the Eastside Clinic has become the Eastside Virtual Get Together Clinic.  Our first virtual Clinic will be held using ZOOM next Thursday, 06/18, (We are switching back to Thursdays by popular demand!).  One of the benefits of virtual clinics and meetings is that the barriers of geographic distances (and traffic woes) are removed.  All you need is a computer and an internet connection!  So I would like to extend an invitation to ALL of the 4th Division and ESPECIALLY our fellow 4th Division members in the state of Alaska, to join our Clinic next Thursday, meet some of the modelers here in the Puget Sound area and see some outstanding model work that has been done in this area.  Here is the log in info:

Check your Grab Iron email for the Zoom meeting information.

Our virtual Layout Tour will feature Lee Marsh’s outstanding layout depicting the Great Northern Railway’s Cascade Division during the transition era of the early 50’s.  Lee is an outstanding modeler and that certainly comes out in his layout.  Of late, Lee has gained additional notoriety by having his layout featured in the June 2020 Model Railroader magazine. 

After the Clinic, we will have some time for other folks to show off their latest model work in our “Show and Brag” segment.  The Clinic will wrap up with some administrative comments and quick discussion about our virtual Clinics. 

Alex Brikoff

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic, Layout Tour

4D Board Meeting Followed by Virtual Layout Tours

Written by Russ Segner
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By Russ Segner

Topic: Board meeting
Time: June 6, 2020 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada) The meeting will be chaired by Russ Segner, Superintendent. It is open to the membership of 4D PNR. This is a budget meeting.

The virtual tours will start at the conclusion of the Board Meeting, approximately 11 AM. These are layout tours of Bill Sornsin (HO) and Janice & Barry Dupler (HO/HOn3)

Check your Grab Iron email for the Zoom meeting information, or contact Russ at 206 200 2211.

Russ

Layout Tour, News

Layout Tours – June 6 Sorinsin and Dupler

Written by Russ Segner
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By Russ Segner

This Saturday on June 6 we will feature two impressive layouts.
These are virtual layout tours of Bill Sorinsin (HO) and Janice & Barry Dupler (HO/HOn3) These follow our scheduled Board Meeting.

Time: Jun 6, 2020 – The virtual tours will start at approximately 11 AM.

Check your Grab Iron email for the Zoom meeting information.

If you need help, call Russ at 206 200 2211

Russ

Layout Tour, News

Tacoma Layout Tours Postponed

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Kevin Klettke

Hello Model Railroaders,

The Tacoma area layout tours which had been scheduled for the weekend of April 18th & 19th are being postponed until further notice. The current situation with the COVID-19 virus makes it imperative that we do our part to be responsible and take every measure possible to prevent possible exposure of our membership, our families and our community. We will discuss rescheduling this event when circumstances allow.

Please be safe.

Kevin

Layout Tour, Tacoma Clinic

Having Fun At The National Convention

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Bill Messecar MMR

Having attended the National Model Railroad convention in Salt Lake City July 7-13 I thought I’d share some of the fun stuff you can do at this once a year event. My friend and I arrived by car Sunday afternoon July 7 in time to register and attended an excellent clinic by Bruce DeYoung about “Blending Backgrounds and Foregrounds”. His key message in placing back drops behind the foreground scene is to “Blend It’, Bend It or Hide It”.

There were five clinic tracks with up to eight a day per track so 40 clinics each day. The challenge was choosing a clinic among so many good choices including history, scenery, and many others. Another of my favorites was Tools, Tools, Tools by Doug Geiger MMR. On Wednesday I joined the Layout Design folks to tour 25 layouts throughout the great SLC area. I choose to travel north to Ogden to visit Rob Spangler’s excellent Western Pacific double deck layout set in the 70s. Rob hosts regular operating sessions using car cards and way bills with Digitrax DCC. I’m attaching a photo from that visit.

Rob Spangler’s Western Pacific layout

Another beautiful layout I visited was set in the 1880s built by Steve Blodgett called the Bear River Railroad. You can see Steve in my attached photo. This layout is only run by Steve and runs beautifully with long passenger and freight equipment built by Steve.

Steve Blodgett and Bear River Railroad

After attending more clinics Thursday I traveled to Alpine, UT about 30 miles south of SLC to operate on Ted York’s famous Santa Fe Cajon Pass layout. Ted hosted almost 20 operators in various jobs that kept us all busy the entire night using real Santa Fe switch lists and train orders. I’ve attached a photo of the San Bernardino yard where I operated a switch job.

Ted York’s Sante Fe Cajon Pass layout

Friday morning was the National Train Show, always a highlight that attendees get in free. This is a wonderful opportunity to see the latest products offered by hobby manufacturers, people selling their model RR stock and many excellent modular layouts. The NMRA convention will be in St. Louis next summer so plan to attend.

Bill

Layout Tour, Model Train Show

North End Clinic’s Annual Home Layout Tour – June 6th

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Lisa Murray

This Thursday, June 6, will be the NMRA 4th division’s north end clinic’s annual home layout tour.

We are pleased to announce that there will be 3 amazing layouts on our tour this year. While it *may* involve a bit of extra driving on your part, it will be worth it.

The tour starts at 7:00pm at the Swamp Creek and Western layout which is located at the Edmonds Amtrak station. They have been gracious to be open and operate trains for us. If you haven’t seen this HO scale layout, you will be impressed at the level of detail of many of the scratch built structures. 
Swamp Creek will be open from 7:00 to 9:00pm.

Here is a link for more information about Swamp Creek:  http://scwrra.org
Maps and information for the other tour stops at the Swamp Creek location. The other two layouts on the tour are open from 7:00pm to 10:00pm. Here is information about the layouts, which are both located south of Edmonds:

  • The first is Burr Stewart’s Burrlington Railroad HO layout. Many of you have visited Burr’s layout before, but as train layouts are always a work in progress, there is always something new to see when you visit.  Here’s a link to Burr’s blog about his layout:  http://burrlingtonnorthern.blogspot.com

These tours are open to NMRA members and a guest. If possible, please RSVP to Lisa Murray at mattinata@outlook.com or 206.310.6778 so we can get a sense of how many will be attending. 

Layout Tour

A Very Busy Spring

Written by Russ Segner
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By Russ Segner

The 2019 Sn3 Symposium is just around the corner.  Come explore some of the finest Sn3 model railroads on the planet. There will be excellent clinics, a vendor room, world-class layouts on display, and a contest.

Register now at www.sn3seattle.com!

Sn3 Symposium – Bellevue Sheraton
April 4 – 6
12 clinics featuring national instructors
Local layout tours
Check the website for details.
www.sn3seattle.com

Other notable events coming soon:

  • Kootenay Express 2019 | May 29 – June 2, 2019
    • The Cranbrook History Centre is a museum and archive dedicated to the research, preservation, and restoration of heritage pertaining to the history of Cranbrook and the Canadian Pacific Railway. It is located adjacent to both active railway operations and the Convention Hotel.  https://www.kootenayexpress2019.ca

Convention or Meet, Layout Tour, News

North End Clinic Annual Tour of Homes, June 2018

Written by Al Turnbull
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by Lisa Murray

On June 7, the North End Clinic will once again host a layout tour. Each year the group organizes a tour of model train layouts in local homes so that members can see real life applications of the modeling ideas presented at 4D NRMA clinics.

This year we will be visiting two professionally designed HO layouts, as well as a professionally designed N scale layout. Also we will visit a vintage train collection that focuses on pre-war tinplate standard and O gauge trains which can run simultaneously on custom 5-rail track.

The tour is open to active NMRA members and their guests and will run from 7 to 10pm on Thursday, June 7, 2018.

The tour will start at the Edmonds Historical Museum (www.historicedmonds.org) which is located at 118 5th Avenue North in Edmonds, WA. All of the homes on the tour are in the Edmonds area.

Members will check in at the museum to receive a map and directions to the different homes on the tour. They will also be able to visit the permanent train display at the museum and meet the museum volunteers who keep the layout operational and open to the public.

Because the layouts on the tour are in private residences, we ask, out of respect for the people opening their homes to fellow modelers, that members limit the number of guests that they bring. We also encourage you to carpool if you can, as parking may be limited at some of the locations.

Also, for those members with limited mobility, please be aware that walking up and down stairs is required to access one of the layouts.

A big thank you to Bobj Berger for organizing this year’s model layout tour.

Please contact Lisa Murray at 206.310.6778 or mattinata@outlook.com if you have questions or need additional information.

Layout Tour

Coal Creek Lumber Co, Model Railroading On TV

Written by Russ Segner
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Russ Segner

Update: Here is a link provided by John Prentice from “Seattle Refined” with video and a picture gallery: http://seattlerefined.com/lifestyle/we-took-a-ride-on-a-tiny-train-and-loved-it-all-aboard

This Thursday, February 2, at 3 PM, KOMO TV, Channel 4, will broadcast a segment on local model railroading. The broadcast will feature the recent train shows as well as a segment of video taken of my layout, “The Coal Creek Lumber Co”. This is part of the “Seattle Refined” community show, in case you want to set your DVR.

Al Lowe, Fred Hamilton, and Dave Woodrell joined me in an operating session on my layout. The session lasted over an hour. No derailments or collisions. It was a lot of fun and I hope many of you can see it.

Layout Tour, Operations