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Arduino Session #8, MV Clinic Special Edition

By Ted Becker

Topic for this week is using EEPROM followed by a run through of useful built-in functions.

Videos of previous sessions are in an unlisted YouTube list. Links to these videos can be found in https://groups.io/g/PNWRRModelers/files or email Ted Becker for the link. rail.bird@att.net.

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

Topic: Arduino Class
Time: May 10, 2021 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/94355637035?pwd=R2lNaTZpNE5ja0tvUzdEYlBkQUJmQT09

Meeting ID: 943 5563 7035
Passcode: 994837

Whidbey Virtual Clinic May 12, 2020 – Panama Canal Passage 2020

In early 2020 Paul and Nancy Rising took a 16-day cruise from Florida to California through the Panama Canal. On March 1 their cruise on the MS Rotterdam took them through the canal. This presentation documents that day long experience and shows how railroads facilitate that passage.


Presenter: Paul Rising

Background: Paul is a retired architect and has been an active model railroader since the early nineties and is an NMRA Member. He is Charter Member of the Puget Sound Model RR Engineers and has served as Scenery Engineer at the Washington State History Museum exhibit since the mid-nineties. Paul has presented NMRA clinics on numerous scenery subjects locally, regionally and at national conventions.

ZOOM LINK

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

Topic: NMRA Whidbey Clinic MAY 2021

Time: May 12, 2021 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/94838546624?pwd=VkJLRGdZRk53R2lIS2g4L3dvYy8xdz09

Meeting ID: 948 3854 6624

Passcode: 161641

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+12532158782,,94838546624#,,,,*161641# US (Tacoma)

Spring Meet Clinics Announced

Al Lowe

Mark 10:00 a.m., May 22nd on your calendar now so you don’t miss this year’s 4D Spring Meet. We will meet via Zoom, right on your computer or phone. We’ll have some important announcements, plus two MMR clinicians and a few surprises.

Di Voss,MMR, NMRA Western District Director

Di will discuss how he created the virtual Everett & Monte Cristo Railway on his computer using Trainz and the various tools and programs needed so you can do the same.

Gary Jordan, MMR, Gilpin Tram Railway

I was tired of operating my layout alone. Burr Stewart had a session with several operators in remote locations. I thought I could do the same thing. He used Zoom and some old cell phones at strategic locations with access to the layout provided by JMRI on each operator’s cell phone throttle and their computer as a Zoom meeting client. I thought, ‘That could work on the Tram!’

Superintendent Russ Segner will announce this year’s Golden Grab Iron winner. We’ll hold our annual business meeting (in merely a few minutes). Jacob Wright will show off the new 4D Facebook page. And much more. How can we pack all this in to a mere two hours? Show up and see!

We will post Zoom access links in the Grab Iron a few days before the meet. We’ll open up at 9:45 for you early birds who love to chat before meetings. But you have to provide your own coffee!

4DPNR Layout Tours this Saturday!

May’s 4DPNR Layout tours will take place on May 8, at 10:00 am PST, and will feature an HO NP home layout presented by Robert Richard, and the HO club layout of the PSMRE in downtown Tacoma presented by Steve Carter.

Bob Richard, a long-time model railroader and NP railfan, has focused his HO layout on the town of Easton, WA in the 1940’s, when heavy articulated steam and the new FT diesels ruled the cascade mountains. He is copying the prototype Northern Pacific track, buildings and operations as closely as possible, and his layout tour will show us a combination of prototype photos, layout photos, and a live video demo of trains in action. Expansion plans are also on his mind, and he’s looking for input from the rest of us.

The PSMRE layout tour will give us a chance to get behind the scenes of this large layout in a working museum in downtown Tacoma, how it has transformed over the years, and how the group organizes themselves and their operations. The Puget Sound Model Railroad Engineers (PSMRE) layout is at the Washington State History Museum.  Built as a museum exhibit that also provides a challenging Operations environment, as it represents the Tacoma area in the 1950’s. Largely focused on the Northern Pacific’s operations, they operate trains from the Great Northern, Milwaukee Road and Union Pacific.

The zoom info for this meeting is shown below. As usual, we will open the meeting about 9:30am for technical checks and informal discussion, and start the layout tours at 10:00am. Please use your full name in your Zoom screen name, and add your division if you are outside the 4DPNR group, so we will know you are safe to let in from the waiting room. (As usual, this meeting will be recorded and posted on our 4DPNR YouTube channel for later viewing.)

Topic: 4DPNR Layout Tours for May 2021
Time: May 8, 2021 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88440554588?pwd=Z0Z1a21Qc0pBcHpJUG9tNVg0TVFZUT09

Meeting ID: 884 4055 4588
Passcode: 100460
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Meeting ID: 884 4055 4588

Arduino Session #7, MV Clinic Special Edition

By Ted Becker

Topic for this week is I2C devices with an introduction to how to use them. I2C devices can open up a world of additional uses using only 2 pins on the Arduino. We will touch on using a LCD display for debugging.

Videos of previous sessions are in an unlisted YouTube list. Links to these videos can be found in https://groups.io/g/PNWRRModelers/files or email Ted Becker for the link. rail.bird@att.net.

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

Topic: Arduino Class
Time: May 3, 2021 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/95710566451?pwd=YW1hM21qOCt4V0xjclFZd05adW5kUT09

Meeting ID: 957 1056 6451
Passcode: 356548

Bridge No. 4, Where are You? Come Find Out this Thursday, May 6, at 7pm

UPDATE (5/2/21 5:00pm): This post was updated to include a biography of our guest presenter.

The North Seattle NMRA Clinic (also known as the North End Clinic) will be holding its May meeting this coming Thursday, May 6, at 7:00pm.

This month Mike Intlekofer will be presenting on A Few Things You Didn’t Know About the Railroad Bridge at the Locks. His presentation on the history of the single-leaf bascule bridge at the Ballard Locks includes rare photos and maps of the area.

Mike Intlekofer was born in St. Paul, and his family followed the GN westward, spending some time in Minot, N.D., before finally settling in Seattle in the Magnolia neighborhood. He attended the UW and received degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering before embarking on a career in marine electronics and medical devices. Mike now spends his time volunteering for the Newcastle Historical Society, hobby farming, restoring antique equipment, and dabbling in ham radio.

A huge thank you to Russ Segner for organizing this talk for our group.

Of course, the clinic will be virtual. The Zoom meeting will start at 7:00pm, and the lobby will open no later than 6:45 pm. Here is the information for the meeting:

Topic: North Seattle NMRA May Clinic
Time: May 6, 2021 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
https://zoom.us/j/92275515173?pwd=YWhnaU92ZmoyY1lZbG5URUhDQTUxdz09
Meeting ID: 922 7551 5173
Passcode: 157588

Looking forward to seeing you on Thursday!

Lisa Murray
Chair, North Seattle Clinic
northseattle_organizer@4dpnr.com
(P.S. Before you get too impressed I had to google the type of bridge….ha ha!)

A Northwest Railroad Archives Special Program

By Russ Segner

I am pleased to announce a very Special Event presented by Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive in Burien, WA. In partnership with Newcastle Historical Society and the the Newcastle Library, King County Library System.
This is an Online Event May 12th, 2021 at 6pm, “Uncovering Community Stories from Railroad History”.

This is a program featuring Gary Tarbox of the Pacific Northwest Railway Archives. Gary will discuss our local Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive and the stories and treasures it holds. Access to railroad records and maps can expose new dimensions to research, local history and communities. This presentation will help all of us interested in Northwest railway history with particular emphasis on the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, SP&S and Milwaukee Road.

Space is limited, so register early. Please register at this link to receive the Zoom invite. http://1.kcls.org/railroad
Here is the Registration Link: http://1.kcls.org/Railroad
Facebook Event for sharing: https://www.facebook.com/events/198816921628517

Russ

Vote! Now, please.

By Al Lowe

The 4D’s annual election of officers ends this Friday evening. You received your ballot via email on April 1. That’s a whole month for you to vote. But time is running out. Please do so.

Remember: voting ends this Friday evening, April 30th, just before midnight. So dig through your old emails, find the one that came just after midnight on April Fool’s Day, open it, click the link inside, and VOTE!

Al

Arduino Session #6, MV Clinic Special Edition

By Ted Becker

Sixth in the series on using Arduino in model railroading. Topic this week will cover a grade crossing controller and how to analyze a project to break it down into parts to start writing the code. The end result should be a sketch you can use to control your crossing gates and lights.

Videos of previous sessions are in an unlisted YouTube list. Links to these videos can be found in https://groups.io/g/PNWRRModelers/files or email Ted Becker for the link. rail.bird@att.net.

Topic: Arduino Session, MV Clinic Special Edition #6
Time: Apr 26, 2021 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/94295882390?pwd=VGhvOWZUSkR5eUp0WkhTb0VJN29kQT09

Meeting ID: 942 9588 2390
Passcode: 486577

Ted