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PNRA and BEMRRC Holiday Open House

Written by Cliff Green
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Gary Tarbox, PNRA Executive Director

For anyone within driving distance of the Puget Sound area, the Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive (PNRA) and the Boeing Employee Model Railroad Club (BEMRRC) are holding an open house December 26 – 31, 2016.

BEMRRC will have their new modular layout running for the first time and their permanent HO layout (under construction) at PNRA will also be open for tours.

PNRA will have displays and conduct tours of the preservation storage area with its newly installed mobile shelving.

Held in the archives are Northern Pacific (NP), Great Northern (GN), Milwaukee Road and Spokane, Portland, and Seattle (SP&S) materials, as well as logging, Interurban, Amtrak and short line resources.

Date: December 26 – 31, 2016 (Mon thru Sat)
Time: Noon to 6:00 pm on Monday thru Friday, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday
Location: 425 SW 153rd Street, Burien, WA 98166

Please contact me for information at Info@PNRArchive.comcastbiz.net or 206-349-6242.

Layout Tour, Railroad History

Photos of Eastside Layout Tour on Oct 1

Written by Cliff Green
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Cliff Green

Port scene on Kevin Klettke's Washington Northern HO scale layout (Cliff Green photo)

Port scene on Kevin Klettke’s Washington Northern HO scale layout (Cliff Green photo)

The 4th Division (PNR, NMRA) is fortunate to have a large number of excellent layouts, and I try to view them whenever there is a layout tour or open house. In particular, I’ve attended the well organized Olympia Layout Tour many times (thanks go to Scott Buckley and others for putting this together every year), and view as many layouts as I can on PNR Regional Conventions and other open house occasions.

Russ Segner organized an Eastside Layout Tour this year, split into two separate days, and I was able to attend the second tour on Oct 1. The Grab Iron post for that event, which contains descriptions of each layout, can be viewed by clicking here. There were four layouts open on that day, ranging in location from Fife to Newcastle, WA.

This is a selected set of photos that I took that day (I will upload photos of a couple of my Olympia Layout Tour visits in a future post). As is always the case on Grab Iron posts, clicking on the small image in a post will display the larger sized (and more detailed) image.

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Layout Tour, Narrow Gauge

Request for Photos of the HO Scale Rawlins, Lincoln, and Greeley Railway in Olympia

Written by Cliff Green
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Robert L Grove

Turntable on Robert Grove's HO scale Rawlins, Lincoln, and Greeley Railway layout (Cliff Green photo)

Turntable on Robert Grove’s HO scale Rawlins, Lincoln, and Greeley Railway layout (Cliff Green photo)

The Rawlins, Lincoln & Greeley Railway was one of the HO scale layouts in Olympia, Washington. It has been dismantled in preparation for a move. After dismantling most of the 9’×13′ three level core of the plan, I realized I had not taken any photographs in the past few years.

Anyone who visited “Central Wyoming in the summer of 1950” who has photos they are willing to share may e-mail digital copies to me at grove25@comcast.net. The RL&G was open during the 2015 and 2016 layout tours and open houses in Olympia. Your help will be appreciated and whatever you have will be accepted with joy.

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Layout Tour, Member Ads, Olympia Clinic

Eastside Layout Tour on October 1

Written by Russ Segner
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Russ Segner

On Saturday, October 1st from 1 to 5 PM is a wonderful opportunity to visit four fine layouts located about half an hour apart in Fife, Auburn, Kent, and Bellevue along the I-405 corridor and Kent / Auburn / Puyallup valley area. Take advantage of this chance to meet some great model railroaders and see how they have designed, built, and operate their layouts.

(Editor’s Note: The layouts are listed in south to north order. Two of the listings below have links to dedicated layout web pages, and the others have links to web pages with pictures of the layout.)

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Layout Tour

August 28 Eastside Layout Tour – BEMRRC Layout Added

Written by Russ Segner
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Russ Segner

We are pleased to announce that the Boeing Employees Model Railroad Club has agreed to have their layout open on Sunday August 28th from 10 AM to 3 PM. The address is 425 SW 153th St. in Burien (same building as the Pacific NW RR archive).

This is an addition to open houses at Al Lowe’s and Steve Depolo’s – click here to view the previous Grab Iron post with additional details.

Make a full day of it. Start with the Boeing Club in Burien (open 10 AM to 3 PM) and then head to Bellevue and Woodinville (layouts open from 1 PM to 5 PM). This is a great opportunity to see three excellent approaches to model railroading. For addresses and directions, email me at russseg@gmail.com and I will send maps and contact information.

Layout Tour

August Eastside Layout Tour Changed to Sunday, Aug 28th

Written by Russ Segner
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Russ Segner

The Eastside Layout Tour has been changed to Sunday, August 28th (from Saturday Aug 27th)

Two of the layouts originally scheduled for the Eastside layout tour in August have had to cancel. (Mike O’Connell’s mother passed away suddenly and the service is scheduled for the 27th; my wife, Susan, will be recovering from major back surgery the week of the 27th.)

The great news is that we will have two very special layouts open to 4D members and guests on Sunday, August 28th. Steve Depolo invites you to tour his Sn3 Alaska Pacific Rwy in Woodinville. The theme is “Mining in Alaska”.

This is a very large layout with all trackwork finished and scenery almost complete. Steve has scratch built many large mining structures and two complete waterfront scenes. All locomotives have sound decoders and are controlled by NCE. This layout will inspire you.

Al Lowe is one of our NTrak leaders and will show us how he uses his modules in a home layout. When not setting up at local shows, Al has several of his modules organized as a layout in his Bellevue home. These modules are highly detailed. Al has a very creative way of setting them up in his garage.

Both layouts will be open from 1 PM to 5 PM. For addresses and directions, email me at russseg@gmail.com and I will send maps and contact information.

Note – there will be another Eastside layout tour in October in the Renton and Maple Valley areas.

4dNTRAK Modular Group, Burien Clinic, Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic, Layout Tour

Eastside Layout Tour Proposal

Written by Cliff Green
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Russ Segner

Many of us visited layouts open in Olympia on April 30th. So far, several groupings of layouts throughout the region are open on weekends during the year, but there is no such opportunity on the Eastside (East of Lake Washington). These open houses are usually Saturdays from 1 to 5.

I am proposing a layout tour in the Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah, Renton, Maple Valley, Kent, Auburn, and other close by areas for a weekend in mid July.

If you have a layout you would be willing to open to members sometime this summer and are located in one of these areas, please contact me at 452-228-7327 or by email at russseg@gmail.com.

Burien Clinic, Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic, Layout Tour

13th Annual Olympia Model Railroad Layout Tour Saturday, April 30th

Written by Cliff Green
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Scott Buckley

This is a reminder that the 13th annual Olympia Model Railroad Layout Tour will be held on Saturday, April 30th. The following layouts will be on the tour this year:

  • Jim Younkins’ N scale Mud Bay & Southern Railway
  • Greg Wright’s 1:32 scale Consolidated Republic Mining Co
  • Brian Ferris’s HO scale Port Townsend & Southern
  • Scott Buckley’s HO scale Tehama Valley Railroad
  • Chuck Ricketts’ On30 scale Sherwood, Shelton and Sarazen
  • Dave Rakestraw’s HO scale PNW mainline and logging layout
  • Robert Grove’s HO scale Rawlins, Lincoln, and Greeley Railway
  • Dean Cody’s N scale KD&S Railroad
  • The Olympic Model Railroad Society’s HO scale Olympic Mountain Rail System
  • Ryan Bates’ HO scale McCloud River Railroad
  • Scott Groff’s On30 Quevic Valley Railway (new to the tour this year)

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Layout Tour, Olympia Clinic