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What’s happening now in the 4th Division
After a two-month hiatus due to end-of-month holiday conflicts, the NMRA 4dPNR Burien Clinic was held at the Northwest Railroad Archives on January 25, 2017. The gathering was informal with a round-table discussion of visits to railroad preservation sites and model railroading activities. For the Show-and-Tell portion, Dave Yadock brought an HO scale trestle and Syd Schofield brought a brass HOn3 locomotive undergoing restoration.
Round Table Discussion
Show and Tell
Link to Mark Allen module pictures.
Mark Allen is moving and had has several HOn3 modules available. Mark is an award winning model builder, so these are a great start to building a new layout. Contact him at 206 227 1833.
The January 2018 East Side Get Together was convened Thursday evening January 18, 2018 at seven-fifteen PM By Alex Brikoff. The new(est) venue for the NMRA 4dPNR Redmond Clinic is the Lake Washington Institute of Technology, second floor, 6505 176th Ave. N.E, Redmond, next to Marymoor Park. We expect this location for the foreseeable future.
After welcoming all, special introductions of notables, coming events and general happenings anticipated, Didrik Voss gave a presentation some aspects of digital command and control (DCC) systems for model railroading. Di is the focal for some of the NMRA technical specifications. Max Maginness supported with his electrical engineering expertise.
DCC involves electrical, electronic and digital logic with most of the tedious and rigorous aspects taken care of by the several popular equipment vendors. However, there are some special trackwork considerations requiring special attention that Di addressed.
After a short break the several entries for model-of-the-month (or Bring and Brag) were presented as well as photo of the month. Winners of these categories were then allowed first pick of the many door prizes. Richard Moore was recognized for his Interlocking railroad operations buildings and SW-2 diesel switch engine re-motor project. George Chambers showed several color (it was color photo month alternating with black and white photos) for that competition.
Clinic Chair Rich Blake welcomed 28 modelers to the first meeting of the new year, including three from our “sister” Mt. Vernon clinic group, and guests BK and Nancy Blackketter. Rich along with Program Chair Susan Gonzales reviewed some of the plans for the remainder of the season: in March, a program about the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company, a 3-foot gauge line that ran for over forty years from the bar of the Columbia River up the Long Beach Peninsula; April, a joint meeting with the Mt. Vernon clinic at their venue; and in May, a tentative field trip to the Lake Whatcom Railway in Wickersham.
The evening’s topic was Working with Stripwood, and several brought in models either finished or “in progress” and described some of the methods used. We’ll show a sampling; your reporter apologizes for not getting photos of them all.
Fig 1 – Alan Murray’s Olympia Station
Fig 2 – Olympia Station Interior
An enthusiastic group of almost 40 modelers, including 5 first-timers, got together at the Pierce County Library administration building. to hear achievement program honcho Jack Hamilton present a clinic on “painting” structures and rolling stock . The “paint” he used was dry pastel pigments, tints, and shades by PanPastel ™. There are 92 colors available from www.panpastel.com. Since they are dry colors, the will not leak, splatter, dry out, or spill like traditional “wet” paints. If some gets on your clothes, it easily washes out . Application is easy using cosmetic sponges and brushes from your drugstore. Ask Jack about them. He’ll be glad to fill you in.
“What’s New” was presented by Rob of Rob’s Trains & Hobbies. Visit him at 5423 South Tacoma way, Tacoma WA 98409. (253) 678-1544
Five models were presented in the modeler’s showcase.
An HO/OO London Midlands Scottish RWY Beyer-Garratt from yours truly.
An HO Tourist Trap by Greg Price
A scratchbuilt section house/Shanty in O scale by Bobby Gallaher
A pair of HO U50s from Warren Kerr
An O scale store scratchbuilt by Mark Peita
The next meeting will be Thursday, February 8 at the usual hangout. We will have to find a new location in the Tacoma area before April as budget constraints have forced the P.C. libraries to “evict” us.
Russ Segner, 4D Superintendent
The 4th Division is a big part of all that goes on at the Pacific Science Center this weekend. Thousands of kids will bring their parents to see our trains and how we build and run them.
David Yadock is our chairman for this event and if you want to help, contact him at 206 399 0247 or hi61izq@hotmail.com.
This is our major fund raiser each year, so it’s a chance to help the 4D and you get to meet and share some time with many of our best most active model railroaders.
The January 2018 Eastside Get Together Clinic will meet on January 18, 2018.
Please note our NEW LOCATION is:
Lake Washington Institute of Technology, Redmond Campus
6505 176TH AVE NE
REDMOND WA 98052-4930
Doors Open at 7:00 PM and Meeting starts promptly at 7:15 PM
We will begin by mentioning any noteworthy, upcoming model railroad and railfan events in the area. We will also have our Model of the Month contest and Rail Photo of the Month contest. So, please bring your best models and photos for the contests!
Our clinic this month will be “Wiring Your Model Railroad For DCC” by Di Voss. This will be an updated and encore presentation of the clinic that Di presented last spring at the 4th Division Spring Meet. This clinic will cover the different aspects of wiring your layout for DCC from planning and research to surveying the market for the various components and, finally, to implementing and installing on your layout. Di’s home layout, the Everett and Monte Cristo, is an outstanding layout where Di honed and perfected many of the techniques that you’ll be hearing about during this clinic.
We will have refreshments and snacks available. We’ll also have a great selection of Door Prizes to give away at the end of the clinic. See you there!!
**Check the “Clinics” page for the map to the new location.
I am a member of a model railroad Yahoo group. This group specifically deals with John Allen’s ‘Gorre and Daphetid Railroad’. One of the members was able to locate this archived link about Earl Smallshaw and his layout. I thought this might be of interest to the members of the 4D and could be posted to the Grab Iron. He had a very nice layout and some very well detailed scenes. Here is the link-
https://web.archive.org/web/20170325112258/http://smallshawrailroad.com:80/index.htm
David
The theme for the January clinic (January 11th) at Mount Vernon is “Bring Your Own Project”. We urge all of you to bring a work in progress to work on during the evening. The tables will be spaced out like we did last year so there will be room to work and room to roam around to look at what others are doing. If are having a problem with a project bring it, there is a lot of expert experience available to help. If you don’t have a work in progress to bring come anyway. As always, you are more than welcome to display your completed models.
Don’t be shy. All model railroad projects are welcome. Wood, metal, plastic, paper or plaster. Structure, rolling stock, electronics, locomotive, layout design, painting, weathering, scenery, you name it.
This has been a very busy year in your Fourth Division. Many of you are at local train shows sharing our hobby with lots of families who just love trains. Thanks to all who take advantage of our times together to share your skills and enthusiasm for model railroading.