Category: News

By Ted Becker

Just a reminder, the Mount Vernon Gabfest and Swapmeet is coming up on April 30 from 10am to 3pm at the Mount Vernon Senior Center, 1401 Cleveland Ave. Entrance in rear. Covid vaccinations preferred, masking according to policy in effect for the City of Mount Vernon on the day of the event.

For a small swapmeet there is going to be a ton of stuff available. Here is a partial list of goodies compiled from the lists various vendors have sent me. Scroll all the way to the bottom for a special offering.

All Scales:

Electronics:

• Digitrax BDL168s with harnesses – 18 used.
• TCS decoders – NIP.
• NEC Pro Cab
• Tortoise & Atlas Switch machines
• Soundtrack decoders
• Sound system
• AR-1 Reverser
• Power packs

Tools & Supplies

• Scenery supplies
• Plaster cloth
• Styrene
• Air brushes, Iwata and Aztek
• Pastel chalks
• Hobby tools
• Painted backdrops
• Wire foam cutter
• Hot glue guns

Books:

• SP Daylight
• Assorted other books, some freebies

HO Scale:

Cars:

• Car kits, Intermountain, Red Caboose, Accurail, E&B Valley and others. Stock cars, tank cars, reefers and more.
• Assembled and RTR freight and passenger cars. Some fixer uppers.
• Passenger cars
• Vintage 1950’s rolling stock and locomotives
• BLI Passenger Cars
• Narrow gauge passenger cars
• Ore cars, 2 dozen
• Grain hoppers

Structures & details

• Steel mill, that’s right a sizable model of a steel mill (see additional info on steel mill below.)
• Highway Miniatures
• Figures
• Doors and windows
• Structure kits including a large selection of FSM and other high end craftsman kits.
• Assembled structures, some freebies.
• Couplers
• AmLtd Diaphragms
• Signals
• Micro Engineering switches

Locomotives:

• Brass, steam, ATSF & SP most painted, some DCC
• BLI GN Mikados, factory DCC sound, P2K 2-8-8-2
• Stewart F-units, GN & NP pre-DCC most new in box
• DCC/Sound engines needing repair, bargain priced.
• Varney and English 0-4-0s.
• Other locomotives, DC mostly GN, NP & UP

O Scale:

• Freight car kit.
• GMC bus kit
• 1950s Lionel set with accessories

S scale:

• Several DesPlaines hobbies and other S Scale freight cars

G Scale:

• “Grizzly Flats” depot kit

N,Z: No responses

There will be quite a few free items including several RR books. Some vendors will be offering quantity discounts. At least one vendor is planning some creative ways to boost sales, have fun and provide some bargain prices.

Plus this special offering from the Whatcom-Skagit Model Railroad Club:

Eastside Clinic will be held on THURSDAY, April 21, 2022 at 7:00 PM (lobby opens at 6:45 PM) PDT

The Eastside Clinic is inviting everyone to the April Clinic to be held virtually on ZOOM this Thursday, April 21, starting at 7:00 PM with our virtual lobby opening at 6:45 PM.  So be sure and save the date for the April Eastside Clinic this Thursday!  The log in info for the clinic is below.    

Topic: Eastside Clinic for April 2022
Time: April 21, 2022, 06:45 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join the Zoom Meeting at:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81258361097?pwd=ZTlOWVA1b083YVhyY2RFSDdoc3hLZz09

Meeting ID: 812 5836 1097
Passcode: 064672

Our Clinic this month is titled “Miniatur Wunderland Railway in Hamburg” and will be presented by Magnus Christerson.  The largest model railroad in the world, as certified by Guinness World Records, is Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany. In his clinic, Magnus will guide us on a tour of the layout which he visited in the fall of 2021.  During the tour, he will discuss how it was built, currently operated and future expansion plans. 

You can also learn more about the layout at these links:

https://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/MiWuLaTV
https://www.instagram.com/miniaturwunderland/

Alex Brikoff, 04/18/2022    

By Ted Becker

Topic for April is the finale of Ron Hopkins’ excellent series on scratch building, Part III: Parts and Details. Part III will describe creating a wide range of elements (such as ladders, pallets, chimneys, doors, windows, corbels, roof vents, etc), a few larger bits (like pipe racks, cabinets, and benches), and conclude with some thoughts about interior detailing with examples.

Coming up on April 30 is the Mount Vernon Gabfest and Swapmeet 10am to 3pm at the MV Senior Center. A ton of great items for sale. Most of it HO but other scales represented to. Watch the Grab Iron for a list of merchandise available and final details of the meet. Email me if you have questions: rail.bird@att.net.

The May clinic topic will be The Northern Pacific in Sedro Woolley presented by Kent Sullivan. Kent is an expert on Northern Pacific history. The amount of railroading done by the NP in Sedro Woolley was a surprise to me and Kent does an excellent job of presenting the material with lots of photos and maps.

Beyond May I expect to take the usual summer break and look forward to resuming clinics in September. Keep your fingers crossed that the rumblings about a new uprising of the virus are not true and we can resume in person clinics. For those of you who wish for the Zoom clinics to continue I ask for your help to twist the arm of a volunteer to assist with doing a hybrid presentation. I can do one or the other but not both without help.

4dpnrOrganizer MountVernon is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Mount Vernon Clinic, April 2022
Time: Apr 18, 2022 06:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83719820748?pwd=MG5pblBTN2NvWTdJdzZBR2VoWVlBUT09

Meeting ID: 837 1982 0748
Passcode: 700313

Clinic chairman Rich Blake will be presenting the April clinic. This one will be on techniques for creating rust and other weathering effects using paint layering, salt and hairspray. Clinic will be on April 13th at 7PM. 

ZOOM LINK

4dpnrOrganizer SkagitValleyWhidbey is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: SV&W April Clinic
Time: Apr 13, 2022 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81497755526?pwd=eXVNQUk4NXRweHhuV2xVUnNRWVBldz09

Meeting ID: 814 9775 5526
Passcode: 783700
One tap mobile
+12532158782,,81497755526#,,,,*783700# US (Tacoma)

Al Lowe

Hold the date!

The 2022 4D Spring Meet will be held June 4 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the Jackson Conference Center on the Everett Community College campus, 2000 Tower Street, in Everett. Click here for a Google map.

There will be some great clinics, a model contest (with no paperwork!), and a DPM kitbashing session. The 4th Division’s annual meeting will be held during the lunch hour. We’ll also announce the Grab Iron Award winner, some new Master Model Railroaders, and much more.

Register by Monday, May 30 and get your lunch for free! Or register afterward and you can watch the rest of us eat. Or you could bring your own lunch. We just want you to come!

More information to follow soon!

I have appointed a Nominating Committee to seek candidates for our upcoming election of officers. Their task is to identify and/or recruit candidates for one Director position and for a new Superintendent. Ed Ives holds the one Director position to be voted on and I do not know if he will seek another term. Ed has done a fine job dealing with train shows, especially the Thanksgiving Show at MOHAI as well as being a leader in our considerations in Board meetings.

I told the Board of Directors last week that I would like to see someone new step into the Superintendent role. I have served some ten years now and it is time for someone else to have a chance to lead all of you and represent the Fourth Division. It has been an honor and very rewarding to fill this position.

I want to thank you all for your involvement in the hobby of model railroading and especially in the Fourth Division. It has been a great pleasure to know many of you and come to understand your many individual talents. My term runs through the end of this year. I intend to stay very active in the 4D and look forward to working with many of you on your layouts and in operating sessions.

I hope whoever is elected will agree to step up early to work with me on the upcoming events which include planning for next year’s PNR Regional Convention. So, please give some thought to running in this year’s election. You can suggest to the Nominating Committee the name of someone you feel would be a good leader. You can, of course, put your name in the hat for either position.

The committee consists of Burr Stewart (burrst@hotmail.com), Dan Kellogg and Al Lowe. Please contact them to put a name forward, perhaps your own.

Thanks, again.

Russ

By Ted Becker

Some changes of plans for the Mount Vernon clinic. Due to the lack of volunteers to help with combined virtual/live clinic the clinics will continue to be virtual for the time being. Also, due to a memory lapse on the part of the clinic chairman the topic for March will not be the topic announced earlier.

Check earlier Grab Iron posts for information on the Mount Vernon Gabfest and Swapmeet coming in April.

The topic for March is the continuation of the series by Ron Hopkins: Scratch Building Part II: Rationale, Tools, & Examples. Ron is an excellent modeler and his clinics are quite informative.

4dpnrOrganizer MountVernon is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Mount Vernon Clinic March 2022
Time: Mar 21, 2022 06:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86803503388?pwd=ekhtYlVjZWs4TS9ydHh2elp2cmhsQT09

Meeting ID: 868 0350 3388
Passcode: 079402

By Ted Becker

Mount Vernon Clinic Gabfest and Swapmeet, April 30, 2022, 10am to 3pm at the Mount Vernon Senior Center, 1401 Cleveland Ave, Mount Vernon, WA. Free admission. The Senior Center Game Room will be open with tables and chairs to sit around and get reacquainted with people you haven’t seen for a while.

Table reservations are now open to everyone in the 4th Division. You are invited to reserve a table. One table per family. No commercial sales. A table can be shared by more than one person. This is a small swapmeet, a little over a dozen tables.

A nominal $10 donation for each table will be collected at the door. Half tables available for $5. Cash only. All proceeds will be donated to Senior Center Meals on Wheels.

Tables are 6’ or larger. There may be a few 54” round tables. Table selection will be first-come-first-served.

Doors will be open for set up at 9am and vendors are welcome once tables are set up.

To reserve a table email Ted Becker at rail.bird@att.net with “Table Reservation” as part of the subject line and your first and last name in the email. One table per email.

Covid precautions will be those in effect for the City of Mount Vernon or Skagit County. Fully vaccinated is preferred.