Article and Photos by Rich Thom
Clinic Chair Rich Blake welcomed 26 to the November meeting, first reviewing the upcoming calendar. Dec 11th will feature our annual Wassail, a tradition dating back at least a dozen years, with all invited to bring a (finger-food) potluck dish to share. The pre-clinic dinner at Alfy’s in Oak Harbor is annulled for this meeting only, and the starting time for the Wassail is 6:30 pm. For the January get-together (Jan 8th), modelers are invited to bring their latest models for detailed discussion of how they created them, and having their models judged (if they wish) for NMRA Achievement Awards.
![](https://4dpnr.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Fig-1-Jon-Bentz-Describes-Progress-on-his-Railroad-1024x666.jpg)
Several clinic members have layouts in progress including Jon Bentz (Fig 1), who described the status of his Rio Como Railroad. Filling the better part of a 14’ x 39’ room, the On30 pike re-uses many of Jon’s scratch buildings on all-new benchwork. A car float operation is featured. Helping Jon with the construction among others is Cliff Aaker and Alan Murray; Alan, for example, is building the overpass (Fig 2)—a work in progress—for a spot on Jon’s layout.
![](https://4dpnr.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Fig-2-Alan-Murrays-Overpass-In-Progress-1024x701.jpg)
![](https://4dpnr.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Fig-3-Ted-Beckers-Banta-Kit-1024x752.jpg)
Ted Becker brought in a model for display (Fig 3), a Banta Modelworks HO-scale “Crick Hollow Hardware and Miners Supply.” Ted has thoroughly re-purposed the structure and varied the details.
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