Category: News

Need to add a few ounces to your box cars (or any covered car)? Ten US pennies weigh almost exactly one ounce. Stick them together with superglue and cement them in the car. Since each penny weighs 1/10 oz., very accurate weighting can be done. This works well for box cars, tank cars, covered hoppers and gondolas, and passenger cars.

By David Yadock

Dry Gulch & Western – A Photo Series Part 4

Continuing along with this series about the Dry Gulch & Western I’ll explain one of the scenery techniques I used for the layout.  I decided early on to use some “old school” techniques.  Due to the size of the layout and various cost considerations I used the tried and true method of chicken wire and plaster.  I started with a rough frame using dimensional pine boards.  That created the contours of the mountains.  I then covered the wood framework with chicken wire to further form the shapes of the mountains.  After that was done, I draped plaster-soaked Crown C-fold paper towels to the wire.  Some of that work was difficult to accomplish since many of the mountains are very vertical.  Once that plasterwork was done, I added more plaster to cover the paper towels.  This added more strength and texture to the mountains.  The plaster I used was standard Hydrocal plaster.  The one issue I encountered was that it is very quick drying and would usually set within about 20 minutes.  So, the plaster work had to be done in small batches.  I would speed up the entire process by using multiple aluminum turkey roasting pans to mix the small batches of plaster.  These are inexpensive and very flexible.  The flexibility of the pan allowed for easy cleaning.  They were also large enough to allow the paper towels to be dipped into the thin plaster.  I used around 8 pans at a time and by the time I got to using the 8th pan the plaster in the first pan was completely dry and could be cleaned out just by flexing the sides of the pan.  I could usually do about 15-20 batches in an evening!  By the way, there was around 900 pounds of plaster used for the mountains.  Now, lets see some more of the layout.

Photo 16 gives you a view of the aisle that you just walked down in the previous photo set.  Allentown is on the right of the aisle and Newport is on the left.  This photo gives a really nice shot of the Newport yard and the shipping basin tracks.  It also shows the small control panel for Allentown on the right.

Photo 17 shows the small wooded bridge on the way to Gornitzka Crossing.  It is a Campbell kit.  At Gornitzka Crossing you will find a sawmill operation (only the log off-loading and finished lumber loading areas are on the layout), a stockyard, and a meat processing plant.  As mentioned earlier in this series there is a bi-level station fashioned after John Allen’s station at Corsa/Cross Junction.  My station copies the same station naming idea by having the lower station named Gornitzka Crossing and the upper part of the station named Hunter’s Glen.  The blue building in the photo is Scole’s Hideout, a speakeasy of sorts.  The tall timber trees in the center of the photo are constructed using Jack Work’s method of making trees.  Each tree takes about 2 hours to construct.  To the right of those trees is the Ellison main yard.  The hill and forest functions as a view block.

Photo 18 shows a more expansive view of Gornitzka Crossing.  Some of the scenery in this area was originally on Paul Scole’s layout.  I was able to salvage some of it and place it on my layout.  That was very challenging.  The tracks on the left are the mainline to the town of Dry Gulch.  The wooden tunnel portal on the left allows a narrow-gauge line to join up with the standard gauge mainline.

Photo 19 gives a better view of the narrow-gauge tunnel portal and the mountainous scenery to come.  Yes, the mountain on the left is another view block.  If you look closely you will be able to see the town of Alpine at the top of the photo.

Photo 20 gives a more panorama view of the overall scene.  We are almost ready to enter Dry Gulch; it is on the bottom left out of view.  This photo shows yet another forest of tall timber trees.  You can also see a hint of one of my largest bridges in the distance on the extreme left.  The mountain in this photo completely hides the town of Alpine that resides against the upper back wall of the layout.

Next time we will enter Dry Gulch, the namesake town of the layout.  There will be even more views of the mountains and some of the many bridges that traverse them.

Announcing the Eastside Virtual Get Together Clinic to be held on THURSDAY, July 16, 2020 at 7:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time

Hello, everyone! 

Yes, the Eastside Get Together Clinic is alive and well during the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.  Although for the time being (and that may be a while), the Eastside Clinic has become the Eastside Virtual Get Together Clinic.  Our next virtual Clinic will be held using ZOOM next Thursday, 07/16, (We have switched back to Thursdays by popular demand!).  One of the benefits of virtual clinics and meetings is that the barriers of geographic distances (and traffic woes) are removed.  All you need is a computer and an internet connection!  So I would like to extend an invitation to the entire 4^th Division and encourage you to join our Clinic next Thursday, meet some of the modelers here in the area and see some of the outstanding model work that is being done in this area.  The log in info for the clinic will be published in the Grab Iron a couple of days before.  So be sure and keep an eye out for the log in announcement in the Grab Iron.

Our virtual Clinic this month is titled “Modeling Lighting on a Modern Era Layout” and will be presented by Larry Sloan.  Larry is a very talented local modeler that is in the early stages of building a new layout.  He will talk about products and the techniques that he has used for layout lighting, building and street lighting.

The Zoom meeting will open 30 minutes in advance of the meeting for folks to visit.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88155574617?pwd=Rm01a1RhaGNralJnWWVZcVkvbmRDZz09
Meeting ID: 881 5557 4617
Password: 831769

After the Clinic, we will have some time for other folks to show off their latest model work in our “Show and Brag” segment.  The Clinic will wrap up with some administrative comments and quick announcement  about our future virtual Clinics. 

Alex Brikoff, 07/10/2020    

There will be an online presentation this Thursday evening at 7 PM showing the history of how coal was moved in the 1870’s from Newcastle to Seattle. This was a major effort beginning with construction of a tramway and incline to move coal to Lake Washington. Coal cars were then moved on barges to Lake Union and then by another tramway to a pier at Pike Street for ships to San Francisco.

Members of the Newcastle Historical Society have put together an excellent program with photographs, newspaper articles and maps, many of which have not been shared before with the public.

Here is the link:
https://kcls.bibliocommons.com/events/5ec9c4cd6ae8e7450013c80f

Please check it out.
Russ Segner your 4D Superintendent

TONIGHT at 7PM is our online Eastside Clinic.

Presenter is Lee Marsh. This is a great presentation of his beautiful HO Great Northern layout. He shares many ideas of how he built a large layout for photography and operation. All scenery is complete and as good as I have ever seen. There is a helix and hidden staging as well a main yard and engine facilities. Heavy electrics are featured with long trains – passenger and freight.

I have seen this twice now and am really looking forward to another look.

Here is the Zoom link. Call me if you have trouble reaching the site.

You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: 4D/PNR Eastside Zoom Meeting
Time: Jun 18, 2020 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84616222559?pwd=c21qSXBkb2h3amt5Z0x3cVdWZTFTUT09

Meeting ID: 846 1622 2559
Password: 300890

Russ Segner

206 200 2211

By Russ Segner

Now that we are doing more meetings online, I want to encourage all of you who are willing to present on a topic to let me know.

Presentations can be on any topic related to model railroading. Each session would be about 45 minutes total including time for some questions. Sessions could be live at your layout or workbench or prepared ahead of time by video and/or Power Point

Please email me with your thoughts or comments and any specific topics to present.

Russ
206 200 2211
russseg@gmail.com