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The monthly 4D clinic in North Seattle
The next Seattle-North clinic is this Thursday, February 4. The program will be a sort of potpourri. The series on fallen flags will continue, a brief report on the recent Pacific Science Center show will be given along with a discussion of the likely nature of future shows, and there will be a short follow-up on modelling winter railroading.
Next Clinic:
The first clinic of the calendar year is this Thursday, January 7. The general topic will be demonstrating what can be done with DCC sound decoders. This will include sound equipment you can install in steam locomotives and some freight cars.
Prior Clinic:
We started by continuing the series of mini-talks on fallen flags. This time it was the Erie Railroad. Here are a couple of interesting facts:
Next Clinic:
The last Seattle-North clinic of the calendar year is this Thursday, December 3. The general topic will be winter railroading.
Everyone is reminded that construction work at the church continues. You must now enter the property from Aurora Avenue N. The back entrance off Linden Avenue, which many found so convenient, is fenced off.
Old Business:
Before I forget I want to acknowledge that we had one “Show and Tell” entry at October’s clinic. Dennis T brought a N scale diesel. Said locomotive was brass, which made it a bit unusual since we don’t see much brass in N. Dennis acquired this diesel in the auction held during last summer’s NMRA convention in Portland.
Prior Clinic:
The start of November’s clinic was different. Jack Hamilton, the NMRA’s Western Region Director, was on hand to present a “Fellow of the NMRA” award to long time Seattle-North clinic supporter and attendee, Roger Ferris. Roger has been a model railroading advocate for decades at the local, regional, and national levels. It was nice to see his efforts rewarded with this prestigious award. Click here to see the award presentation in more detail.
Next Clinic:
Our next clinic is this Thursday, November 5. Our general topic will be mining, continuing the theme started last month.
Important Warning: Construction work at the church continues. You must now enter the property from Aurora Avenue N. The back entrance off Linden Avenue, which many found so convenient, is currently fenced off.
Prior Clinic:
October’s clinic was about coal mining in the Pacific Northwest presented by our 4D Superintendent, Russ Segner. This was an expansion (with some new material) of Russ’ clinic about coal mining in Newcastle, WA, which some of us may have seen previously. It seems like no matter how much you think you know, someone will dig up (pun intended) something new and interesting.
Next Clinic:
Our next clinic is this Thursday, October 1. Our topic will be coal mining in the northwest, presented by Russ Segner, our Fourth Division Superintendent.
Prior Clinic:
September’s clinic was mostly a round table discussion. One topic was the traditional “what did you do this summer (railroad-wise)”. This was followed by a lengthier dialog regarding trends in the hobby. The initial list of trends came from what was seen and heard at the National Convention in Portland.
Next Clinic:
Yes, it is before Labor Day and yes, the Seahawks are playing a game, but this Thursday is the first Thursday in September. And that means it is clinic night.
We’ll start by covering the latest trends in the hobby, based on some of our experiences at the National Convention. And we’ll chat a bit about the convention itself. And we will end with a round robin discussion of what we did (railroad-wise) this summer.
The church’s remodel looks to be mostly done, so we should be back in the “Fireside” room, which interestingly doesn’t seem to have a fireside any more. But, of course, things are always subject to change.
Next Clinic:
Our next clinic (7 to 10 pm, June 4, 2015) is not a clinic at all, but a layout room tour with four stops in the Edmonds and Lake Forest Park area.
None of these layouts have been open for general viewing before and two will likely never be open again, since they are being sold.
Carpooling is highly encouraged, since these are all residences without special parking facilities. As always, please be mindful of where you park and of keeping the neighbors happy.
Starting Address: Everything begins at Brent C’s, 3744 NE 165th St, Lake Forest Park. The house is located on the NW corner of NE 165th St and 39th Ave NE in Lake Forest Park, in case the address is deceptive. Enter through the garage. On this first layout tour stop each carload of visitors will be issued a “Track Warrant” with directions to the next three train rooms, which are all within a mile or so of each other in Edmonds. Call Bobj’s cell phone at 206-948-0862 if you get lost or need additional directions.
What you can expect at Brent’s:
This is a large HO layout with more buildings than most of us have ever seen on a single home layout. Most of these buildings will be for sale (see the “Note” below). We will not only visit the basement layout, but also the upstairs train display room.
Note: [Friday hours updated 6/3/15] Immediately following our tour the hundreds of buildings and vehicles will be removed and assembled in the garage for a model railroad estate sale this coming weekend. On Friday, June 5 the estate sale hours will be from 5 – 10 pm and the Friday sale is for NMRA members only (the perfect way to start your 4th Division Spring Meet weekend). On both Saturday and Sunday the hours will be from 10 am to 4 pm and will be open for everyone.
What you can expect at the next three stops:
Bob P’s: This HO empire in a lower level of the home was constructed with grandkids’ operations in mind. The owners are now contemplating a retirement downsize so the rolling stock and all supplies (including track) are for sale. This layout mostly follows USA prototypes, but there are some English trains as well, plus some stories about getting them and building the layout.
Craig J’s: Combining households resulted in the original layout space being converted into living space and a new train room was created in a former bedroom. The room has wall shelving displays of O and Standard Gauge trains and accessories, a work/repair desk, and is all next to the antique toy room you pass on the way in.
Harley O’s: This is another lower level HO layout, based on the Great Northern transition era in the Pacific Northwest. The layout is fully scenic’d and completely fills the room. There are stunning views of mountains and trees. A spur runs into the next room and we all hope for future expansion!
Here are some pics of the train rooms we’ll see:
One of the layouts on the Seattle North Layout Tour
Brent C’s double decker layout, on the Seattle North Layout Tour
Bob P’s layout, on the Seattle North Layout Tour
Prior Clinic:
If you missed last month, you missed a treat. Our clinician was Dave Honan, a civil engineer specializing in transportation. But Dave is also a train buff and a photographer. He awed us with pictures of the steam rebuilding program at the Northwest Railway Museum, followed by 2 AV presentations – one on coal mining and transportation, and one on modern urban transit.
Don’t take my word for the beautiful pictures. Go to his website at davehonan.com and see for yourself. Thanks, Dave, for a wonderful program.
The next meeting is June 4 at 7 pm when we embark on a North End Train Room Tour (see directions above). The next regular clinic is September 3. Hope to see you there or at least sometime on down the line.
Brent Carlson 1943-2015
We have learned from Kathleen Carlson that her husband Brent Carlson, long time Seattle-North Clinic and Eastside Get-Together attendee, has lost his many-years-long battle with cancer. Brent was well-known from his huge amount of HO structure and billboard purchases at Clinic Marts and model railroad swap meets. For a time he also participated with the HO Modular group.
Brent retired as a CPA auditor a few years ago and he and Kathy traveled many of the the world’s most beautiful and interesting museums and locations. They also had a wonderful time cruising and attending car shows with their classic Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible. In typical Brent style, he bought a complete second Cadillac, disassembled it and stored the pieces out of the way and all around the house for any future replacement needs.
Brent attended the March Thursday night Eastside Get-Together, went to a doctor appointment the next day, from where he was hospitalized, and unexpectedly died the following Monday. He leaves his widow Kathy, two daughters, Jeanine and Maureen, and three grandchildren.
Besides travel, car cruising, Bible reading, and great food, model railroading was Brent’s passion. He loved collecting completed structures and graphically-illustrated billboard boxcars and trucks (as his layout pictures demonstrate). There are hundreds of buildings and thousands of vehicles. Before his illness, Brent liked to have a sales table at swap meets to have early access to those completed structures and vehicles (no kits!). Kathy has recalled how he loved helping Railfun (Bobj & Roger) set up for meets in the last few years, as it also gave him early access.
Kathy has agreed to open the layout for its first, last, and only open house tour during the June 4, 2015 Seattle-North Annual Train Room Tour. This tour will include three other never-before-seen train rooms in Edmonds and will begin at Brent’s with both his layout room and his upstairs train room. The address and details will be announced in the Grab Iron next week. After the tour, the layout, structures, rolling stock, vehicles and all other details and supplies will be sold by Railfun the following weekend, with details to be posted in the Grab Iron.
Brent Carlson’s collection of structures.
Brent Carlson’s double deck layout.
Brent Carlson’s double deck layout showing some of the many structures he collected.
Brent Carlson’s colorful collection of billboard rolling stock.
Next Clinic:
Our next clinic will be this Thursday, May 7. Our clinician will be Dave Honan, a Civil Railroad Engineer. You may remember Dave from last year when he came to talk about some of the 12 inch to the foot railroad projects he had worked on.
This time it will be a two-part presentation. The first will take a look at the Steam Program at the Northwest Railway Museum, featuring operations with SCPC No. 2 and also the early restoration work on NP 924.
The second part will be a short multimedia show on urban rail transit.
We also intend to do a short preview of the June tour (see below).
The church continues its remodeling effort. We will not know what room we will be in until after this is posted. So, just come in the main door and we’ll have someone direct you.
Prior Clinic:
Last month we showed the first cut video of Dr. Scott Campbell’s layout, done by none other than Scott himself. The home and layout have since been sold and Scott has moved away, but it was a real treat for those who had previously seen it in person.
Scott called his railroad “The Great Burlington Northern” and it was full of scenes of the Pacific Northwest. Many of the places were instantly recognizable and some represented places related to Scott’s life. Almost everything on the layout had a story and hearing Scott relate those stories was very interesting.
Only Michael P brought a completed name tag to the last meeting. For those who picked up a name tag blank at either of the last two meetings, don’t forget to wear it and show everyone what a marvelous job of decorating you did.
A Few Words About the June Clinic:
Thanks to the efforts of Bobj Berger we will not have a regular clinic in June. Instead we will participate in a North End Train Room Tour. We will have the opportunity to see four locations, none of which have ever been open to the public before. And two of these will likely never be open again, since they are for sale.
Here is how it will work. We’ll provide you the address of the first stop (either at the next clinic meeting or via a later Grab Iron blurb). Once there, we’ll provide the addresses to the other three locations. All locations are in the Edmonds / Lake Forest Park area.
The start time is 7:00PM on June 4. Carpooling is highly encouraged, since these are all residences without special parking facilities. And hopefully, if we do not run over any lawns or irritate too many neighbors, we’ll get future opportunities to visit more of these never-before-seen train rooms.
Oh, and if you see Bobj, don’t forget to thank him for setting this all up.
Directions: We meet at the Ronald United Methodist Church, 17839 Aurora Avenue North, Shoreline, WA. That is on the west side of Aurora (State Route 99) between 175th and 185th Streets and more specifically, between the Cadillac dealer on the south and Deseret Industries to the north. Going southbound on Aurora, make a right-hand turn into the church driveway immediately after passing the Deseret location. The parking lot is at the rear of the church. From the parking lot go up the steps to the main entrance.
Meetings are the first Thursday of each month, usually September – June. However in June we often do something different, so there may be no “regular” meeting. Doors open at 7:00 PM and the program starts at 7:30.
Remember the next regular evening meeting is May 7. The last meeting of the clinic year will be a specially arranged North End Train Room Tour on June 4. Hope to see you there or at least sometime on down the line.
Next Clinic:
Our next clinic meeting is this Thursday, April 2. We intend to show a video of the building of a local layout by Dr. Scott Campbell. It contains many recognizable scenes from around Washington State. We were originally going to show this in February, but things didn’t work out.
And, time permitting we’ll say a few more words about operating on small layouts.
The church continues its remodeling effort. I will not know what room we will be in until after this is posted. Just come in the main door and we’ll have someone show you where to go,
Prior Clinic:
Last month we talked about adding interest to “playing” with trains on a small layout (even if it is just a short shelf). It seems to work best when you try to simulate a task done by real railroads. There needs to be a purpose to your play.
Some ways of imagining little layouts as parts of bigger railroads were discussed. We ended with a few words about using chance (i.e. dice or a coin) to introduce an element of randomness to these operations.
Dennis T brought another of his N scale T-TRAK modules to show. This one had a river running through it. Two substantial bridges were needed to get the mainline tracks and a diverging branch across the water. Plus, there was a nice little park / playground down by the river for use by the area’s model residents.
Dennis also brought along a sample of a wiring buss he devised to power his module set-ups.
Dennis T power buss
Dennis T module end
Dennis T module end 2
Dennis T module overall
Dennis T module playground
For those who picked up a name tag blank at the last meeting, don’t forget to wear it and show everyone what a marvelous job of decorating you did.
Directions: We meet at the Ronald United Methodist Church, 17839 Aurora Avenue North, Shoreline, WA. That is on the west side of Aurora (State Route 99) between 175th and 185th Streets and more specifically, between the Cadillac dealer on the south and Deseret Industries to the north. Going southbound on Aurora, make a right-hand turn into the church driveway immediately after passing the Deseret location. The parking lot is at the rear of the church. From the parking lot go up the steps to the main entrance.
Meetings are the first Thursday of each month, usually September – June. However in June we often do something different, so there may be no “regular” meeting. Doors open at 7:00 PM and the program starts at 7:30.
The next regular evening meeting is April 2 and the one after that is May 7. Hope to see you there or at least sometime on down the line.