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Model railroad layout tour
Grab your copy of the latest issue of the national NMRA Magazine, check out the cover, and then turn to page 34 to read 4D member David Yadock‘s feature article, “The Sky’s the Limit.” It has many construction photos by David’s wife, Wendy, and some spectacular scenery photos by Paul Gornitzka.
Congratulations, David, on a beautiful cover and article!
Congratulations to our 4th Division Superintendent Russ Segner who was recently published in the Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette. A recipient of the Golden Grab Iron Service Award in 2013, his featured story is about his Sn3 Coal Creek Lumber Company model railroad. His home layout represents a 1930’s freelance logging and mining branch set in the state of Washington. A major structure based on the prototype Sanger Lumber Company mill is scratch built as is his LRB Mines mineral bunker. His mythical interchange between the Denver & Rio Grande Western and the Coal Creek Lumber Company gives Russ a chance to show off his motive power including Shays, Climaxes, Heislers and some rod locomotives. Finished scenery and great photos by Russ and Dale Kreutzer highlight four pages and promote the upcoming 30th Annual Sn3 Symposium to be held locally in Bellevue from April 16-18. Russ will hold an open house of his railroad during the convention.
The layout open house season is approaching. I truly hope that those of you who have never had your pike open for visitors will consider doing so, as it is always enjoyable to see what someone else is doing in this most diverse of hobbies. With that in mind, here are a few tips for the first-timer, in no particular order, which the “old veterans” can follow too. They are all taken from my experiences as both a visitor and a host.
It’s always good to get a second set of eyes. Invite a buddy over and have him or her take a look. It’s amazing what might be found. I once left a water tower smack dab in the middle of a turntable pit. Interesting, but not very prototypical.
If you are going to have a buddy help you run the railroad, get together a day or two beforehand and run the trains you have selected. Agree on where the trains will meet. In this era of DCC it’s really easy to have cornfield meets. These are interesting and prototypical… but embarrassing. Back in the Seattle NMRA national, a friend and I were running trains and yakking with the visitors when one of the guests remarked, “I don’t think you really planned that.” There on the grade, which neither of us could see well, were two steam locos, nose to nose and grinding away.
Remember: You’re among friends. If a gremlin pops up, we’ll understand.
Jack Tingstad gazes approvingly at Dick Haines’ latest improvements to his layout
For the June 2013 Skagit/Whidbey Clinic, the meeting was held at the home of Dick Haines, just north of Oak Harbor. Twenty Eight folks showed up to see Dick’s wonderful layout and enjoy his hospitality, not to mention a lot of great socializing among attendees.
Dick’s layout is unique in a couple of ways. First, it is in his attic, but this isn’t your normal attic. When Dick had his house built, he had the attic insulated and constructed with no supporting beams or other obstructions, and it has a nice, tall ceiling too – no stooping over, as in most attics! But, as with most attics, access is somewhat limited, via a pull-down stairway/ladder.
The second unique feature of Dick’s layout is his day-to-night lighting system. He has developed a method to transition from “daylight” to dusk to nighttime operations and he has really done a convincing job in this regard. “Nighttime” features include lots of building interior illumination, plus several vehicles with illuminated head and tail lights. And, of course, those headlights on locomotives are a must!
A view from the other end of Dick Haines layout
Dick had rigged up a small camera on a flat car that transmitted signals down to a television in his “crew lounge” area (the floor below the railroad), so those that were not actually upstairs could still see the action. It worked very well.
After a lot of folks had departed, Steve Jaffray hit upon the idea of adding a small LED flashlight to the top of the camera/flat car, and a train was run around the layout in darkness, with the flashlight illuminating the way. And the loco was being controlled by a DCC throttle from the second floor (the floor below the layout). Of course, one person was needed in the layout room “just in case” and occasionally, a pair of fingers could be seen reaching down from the “sky” to throw a switch.
Vehicles with their headlights on at night on Dick Haines layout
If you were unable to attend the meeting at Dick’s and see his lighting effects first hand, you can read about it in the May-June issue of the Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette.
The next meeting for the group will be the annual August journey to Coupeville to see John Marshall’s garden layout, as we have done for the past couple of years. Watch for more details in a special, shortened edition of our newsletter.
The Seattle-North June layout tours return on Thursday, June 6. 2013. And this year we have made some changes to let more folks participate. We have seen the success Olympia has had with self-guided tours and are going to adopt that scheme, but we are still going to do it on our regular June clinic night. And we are going to keep the destinations secret until the event starts.
The tour starts promptly at 7:00PM in the parking lot of the Edmonds Amtrak station, 211 Railroad Ave, Edmonds, WA. There you will be given directions to other destinations. Four layouts (all in SW Snohomish County) will be available for viewing. Each layout is open for at least 2 hours between 7:00 and 10:00PM. Two of the layouts will be in O scale (one narrow gauge) and two will be in HO (again, one will be narrow gauge).
As with all things in life, some rules apply:
See you at 7:00PM on the Thursday the 6th.
This Saturday, March 2, you can visit eleven — count ‘em, eleven — great layouts in one day in the Olympia/Lacey area. Visiting hours are arranged to flow from Northeast to Southwest to help you visit as many layouts as possible without backtracking.
Lucky us! These are among the finest model railroads in the Fourth Division, several of which are regularly written up in major modeling magazines and considered “must-see” during convention tours.
One such layout is the HO Tehama Valley Railroad of Scott Buckley, recipient of the 2012 4D Grab Iron Service Award. In its purpose-built, 25′ x 40′, climate-controlled room, the TVRR short line originates and serves the northern California town of Walnut Grove (freelanced but you’ll swear you’re in Chico or Colusa or Yuba City). Even as many towns north of Sacramento were strung out along the tracks and old Route 99, the thriving agricultural town of Walnut Grove is oriented to the tracks of the little ten-mile short line. The authenticity of the scratchbuilt grain elevator, feed store, packing house, fuel dealer, and cattle pens, along with a supporting cast of era-appropriate town buildings, convinces even casual visitors that this is indeed the northern Sacramento Valley. (Don’t miss the sturdy but economical benchwork of this innovative layout.)
Like most of the home and club layouts in Thurston County, the Tehama Valley is built for prototypical operation, with local freights shuttling loads and empties related to the predominant ag business and other community necessities between Walnut Grove and its interchange with the mighty Southern Pacific’s mainline at Hamilton City, as well as serving other small towns along the way. Even the scenery Scott Buckley has created convinces the guest operator that this is, indeed, Golden Bear territory.
Steaming out of Hamilton City headed east with the morning local, the summer sunrise in your eyes and deer grazing along the right of way, you half expect to see wisps of steam from distant Lassen Peak drifting across the rolling landscape of golden grass and black oaks. The friendly waves from ranchers stopped at the grade crossings in their pickup trucks tell you that the Tehama Valley road is both needed and appreciated by the hard-working citizens of this important crop-growing region. They will enjoy waving back to you, too, on Saturday, March 2, from noon to 5 p.m.
For a map to Scott Buckley’s Tehama Valley Railroad and the ten other layouts open on March 2, from N scale to 1:32 scale, email Scott. Ten more talented modelers and their helpers would love to share their layouts and their knowledge with you. Come visit!
IHX-2013 has a great lineup of model railroad layouts for touring and operations. We currently have nearly 50 layouts lined up, in scales from N to G.
We will have all the famous local layouts published in the model railroad press open for your viewing. Plus, we will have many new layouts never before open for touring.
Model railroads that you love to visit – like Jack Burgess’ famous Yosemite Valley Railroad, Jim Diaz’s Western Pacific Railroad, Otis McGee’s Southern Pacific and Dave Parks’ Western Maryland/B&O will reopen. New layouts include Mike Coen’s Western Pacific Oregon Division and the Carquinez Model Railroad Club layout. There will be layouts in all scales and for all interests.
As usual, at least a dozen layouts will open for operating sessions. Operators of all levels are welcome, from the first-timers to experienced. Everyone is invited to operate. If you’re new to operations, there will be mentors available.
There will be model railroad layouts in various stages of completion, to provide you with great ideas. Sign up today at http://www.pcrnmra.org/conv2013. See you at IHX-2013!
Be sure to mark your calendars for Saturday, March 2nd, as this is the date of the 10th Annual Olympia Model Railroad Layout Tour.
There will be at least eight layouts on the tour. Various scale and gauge combinations will be represented, including N, HO, On30 and 3/8n20. Some of the layouts have been featured in national publications, and some have been on national convention tours. Most of the layouts are in various stages of construction, which will give visitors an opportunity to see each builder’s construction methods.
As with previous years, a few of the layouts will be open early, while a few will stay open later; which will give visitors the opportunity to see as many layouts as possible.
We hope that you will take the opportunity to visit our layouts. As I say every year, there aren’t many chances to see these many layouts at one time without spending the money to attend a convention.
Additional information will be provided in late January. In the meantime, please email me if you have any questions.
You’ve heard us talk about it. Now it’s happening! Eastside Get-Together members should not miss our Thursday, May 17, monthly meeting. Dave Hikel, our recent clinician, has generously obtained a one-time permission for us to visit the North West Trunk Lines, a 3,200 square foot, O and On30 scale, layout owned by Peter and Laurie Hambling. This unique layout was recently featured in the Seattle Times.
It includes real world scenes from the western U.S. and Canada. Dave took over John Armstrong’s design for construction and enhancement. He drove over 16,000 miles to photograph and collect soil and rock samples of the areas modeled. Backdrops are hand-painted from his photographs. Dave created a control program based on an MTH Digital Command System integrated with a computer running RR & Co layout control software allowing the use of Apple iPads as local control panels during operating sessions. The scenery is exceptional. There’s so much more for you to see, too.
If you want to visit this unique layout, you must:
1. Parking at the Medina Elementary School, 8001 NE 8th St, Medina. NO exceptions. There is no parking available near the Hambling residence.
2. Ride the free van from the school parking lot to the layout.
3. The van will run round trips from 7:00 pm continuously until 10:00 pm. Dave will do a formal introduction and speak about computer control beginning at 7:30 pm. No admittance after 9:45.
The layout is only accessible down an outside stairway into the basement.
See you there!
Be sure to mark your calendars for Saturday, April 14th, for the Ninth Annual Olympia Model Railroad Layout Tour.
There will be at least eight layouts representing various scale and gauge combinations, including N, HO, On30 and 3/8n20. Jim Younkins’ N scale Mud Bay & Southern and Greg Wright’s 3/8n20 Consolidated Republic Mining Railroad have been featured in national publications. Most of the layouts are in various stages of construction, which will give visitors an opportunity to see each builder’s construction methods.
As with previous years, a few layouts will be open early and a few will stay open late, giving visitors the opportunity to see as many layouts as possible.
We hope that you will take the opportunity to visit our layouts. There aren’t many chances to see these many layouts at one time without spending the money to attend a convention.
Additional information, including how to request a tour map, will be provided soon. Meanwhile, if you have any questions, please contact me, Scott Buckley, sbuckley54@comcast.net.