Category: News

By Al Lowe

The 4th Division’s annual Spring Meet 2021 will be held online on Saturday, May 22 via Zoom.

We have some good clinics planned plus our Annual Meeting of all 4D members, the announcement of the 2021 Golden Grab Iron winner, the introduction of the new 4D MMRs, plus much more. All squeezed into two hours on a Saturday morning — and you don’t even have to leave the house, let alone shave!

Stay tuned to the Grab Iron and Wazz Up! for more information. For now, just add the morning of May 22nd to your calendar. There’s lots more information coming!

Al

By Ted Becker

Mount Vernon Virtual Clinic will be held on Monday, April 19, 2021 at 7:00pm. Meeting opens at 6:30ish.

Topic this month is Nick Muff’s adventures on the Westside Lumber Lines. You can expect an interesting and entertaining presentation.

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

Topic: Mount Vernon Clinic for April 2021
Time: Apr 19, 2021 06:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/98039109676?pwd=Z3VFRVVHdk5PQVhSNVA5TytOTGYzdz09

Meeting ID: 980 3910 9676
Passcode: 558074

Ted

By Brian Pickering

I have the opportunity to acquire, at no charge, a Printrbot Metal Simple 3D printer. I already have adequate 3D printing capabilities of my own, but thought that the 4D might be interested in having one available for checking out, in the same manner as the Turnout Construction Jigs and Tools which Larry Sloan holds for the 4D.

This offer is available for a fairly short time (a person in a Maker group at my company offered it for free, I responded first, but there is at least one other interested party), so if people can respond to me (Brian Pickering, bpickeri@gmail.com) to let me know of interest, I can gauge whether this would be something of interest for the 4D as a whole.

Brian

Eastside Virtual Clinic will be held on THURSDAY, April 15, 2021 at 7:00 PM (lobby opens at 6:45 PM ) PDT

Our next Eastside Clinic will be held virtually on ZOOM this Thursday, April 15, starting at 7:00 PM with our virtual lobby opening at 6:45 PM.  I would like to extend an invitation to all the 4^th Division to virtually attend this Thursday.  So be sure and save the date for the April Eastside Clinic this Thursday, April 15 at 6:45 PM!  The log in info for the clinic is below.   

The Eastside Virtual Clinic is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting:
Topic: Eastside Virtual Clinic

Time: Apr 15, 2021 6:45 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/96632292281?pwd=SVh4eGdaT3RiNlIxOXhGZ09ETG9lUT09

Meeting ID: 966 3229 2281
Passcode: 115537

Our Clinic this month is titled “How and Why to Build Resin Freight Cars”. Our clinician will be, Bill Messecar, who is an MMR and an outstanding modeler in the 4^th Division.  He will discuss the building steps, tools and skills needed to build resin freight cars. He will also discuss sources of resin freight car kits.

After the Clinic, there will be an opportunity for other folks to show off their latest model work in our “Show and Brag” event. 

Alex Brikoff, 04/13/2021    

Our presentation will be provided by Susan Gonzales on “Making your own flatcar loads”. This presentation will cover a variety of interesting flat car loads that can be made from products easily obtained at the dollar store, or your favorite online or boxstore retailer. As the price of purchased flat car loads has increased steadily over the past few years, I began researching what could be made at home. In doing the research I found some highly interesting and entertaining flat car loads. In particular, the Army and NASA seemed to have the same philosophy as the Priority Mail in that “if it fits, it ships”. Included in the presentation will be instructions on how to make your very own UFO which I built for a flat car load contest within our club.

Hope to see you all on Zoom!

Link:

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

Topic: SV&W April Clinic

Time: Apr 14, 2021 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/95011698039?pwd=cWkzUDUzVVBkdzVDSzVLU2NTbWJ5dz09

Meeting ID: 950 1169 8039

Passcode: 484962

One tap mobile

+12532158782,,95011698039#,,,,*484962# US (Tacoma)

By Ted Becker

Fifth in the series on using Arduino in model railroading. Topics this week will cover Tortoise and Twin-coil switch machines, panel indicators, coding for multitasking and timing without using delay() function.

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 Session, MV Clinic Special Edition #5
Time: Apr 12, 2021 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/97685090722?pwd=Vi9WYU1jM3ZLV25KR2pwL0NLVnpVdz09

Meeting ID: 976 8509 0722
Passcode: 059190

You’re in for a treat this Saturday, April 10, at our monthly Layout Tour Zoom meeting. The login details are below. First we will get an update from Bill Sornsin on the progress he’s been making on his huge HO version of the GN in the 1950’s from Seattle to Stevens Pass. Following that, Bob Stafford will give us a video tour of his now-dismantled HO version of the Lehigh Valley in PA. If there is time, maybe he will show us the plans he has for a new layout once his current home remodeling project is done. Here’s the Zoom info – be sure to log in with your full name as your Zoom screen name, so we’ll know to let you in:

Topic: 4DPNR April Layout Tours
Time: Apr 10, 2021 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84567528229?pwd=Wnk1SFhQRVZoZkxaRW5RTE1ZaC8rQT09

Meeting ID: 845 6752 8229
Passcode: 507984
One tap mobile
+12532158782,,84567528229# US (Tacoma)
+16699009128,,84567528229# US (San Jose)

Dial by your location
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Meeting ID: 845 6752 8229

You should have received by now an email notice with an electronic ballot. Al Lowe is running to continue as Assistant Superintendent. Alex Brikoff is running for a full two-year term after serving the remainder of Robin Peel’s term as a Director. Robin stepped down as Director but remains Treasurer. Robin will Chair the upcoming National Narrow-Gauge Convention in Tacoma next year. Dennis Terpstra is running for a Director position. Anton Faulk chose not to run again but will continue on as Editor of the Grab Iron and manager of our website.

Please do vote even though none of the candidate positions are contested. We are very fortunate to have capable people volunteering to fill positions of leadership. This helps us all enjoy our hobby all the more. The candidates listed above are examples of such leaders.

There are many moving parts to an organization like your Fourth Division. Some are more visible than others, but all are important. If you want to be more involved, please make it known to me, your Superintendent, or one of the others such as a Clinic Chair. We expect to be able to meet together soon in scheduled meetings and at some Train Shows. Now is the time to plan and prepare for display our modules and models. We will keep everyone tuned into activities as soon as possible.

Thanks, for your participation.

Russ

By Ted Becker

Fourth in series on using Arduino in model railroading. This session will cover handling servos in an array, individual position settings for each servo, turnout control with a function, 16 buttons to one input pin and introduction to route indicator.

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 Session, MV Clinic Special Edition
Time: Apr 5, 2021 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/91279083536?pwd=bGFLMTNJZHFOWVlRWWlwT1B4QmNFUT09

Meeting ID: 912 7908 3536
Passcode: 188141