Category: Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic

by Gordon Garnhart

There were 27 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Community conference room on January 12^th. Our mini swap meet brought a variety of items and some lively shopping ensued.

John White opened the meeting, calling our attention to a very worthwhile program called “Heartbeat, Serving Wounded Warriors”. It was started a few years ago by Janice Buckley of Snohomish, Washington, to provide support for the spouses and families of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The scope of the effort was recently expanded to help wounded veterans cope with their long recovery periods in veterans’ hospitals. Plans are beginning to come together to furnish kits of railroad cars or structures and/or supplying them with simple tool kits to give them something interesting to do. The thought was also expressed that the kits do not necessarily need to be railroad oriented.  Performance R/C Hobbies, located on Fairhaven Avenue in Burlington, will be actively participating in this program by furnishing some of the kits and tools.

John also called attention to the excellent job that Al Frasch does with his monthly “Skagit Valley & Whidbey NMRA Clinic” newsletter. It is a fine communications tool and serves as a bonding agent for the group.

Steve Jaffrey presented a very good program explaining how to scratch build a dilapidated building. He talked about various kinds of foundations used for barns, sheds and houses 100 years ago. He described methods of framing, and ways to distort the structural components to represent sagging and deteriorating conditions. He showed various kinds of roofing materials and passed around many examples of all of these aspects of construction. Steve talked about various kinds of paints, stains and thinners, and demonstrated techniques to achieve a weathered or neglected appearance. His program was well received.

We will next meet on Wednesday, February 9^h for a program presented by Max Maginness, MMR, entitled “New Zealand Railways”.

Gordon Garnhart

There were 27 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Community conference room on November 10th. The meeting featured Roger Ferris conducting a Make ‘n Take session and Bobj Berger with an interesting array of estate sale items. But the start of the program was delayed because both of these gentlemen were caught in a traffic snarl due to a collision on Interstate 5.

John White opened the meeting, calling our attention to a very worthwhile program called “Heartbeat, Serving Wounded Warriors”. It was started a few years ago by Janice Buckley of Snohomish, Washington, to provide support for the spouses and families of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The scope of the effort was recently expanded to help wounded veterans cope with their long recovery periods in veterans’ hospitals. At our last meeting the suggestion was made to furnish kits of railroad cars or structures to give them something interesting to do. At this meeting a further suggestion involved also supplying them with simple tool kits. These ideas were well received.
Steve Jaffrey presenting a finalized set rules for the upcoming scratch built Dilapidated Building Competition. Judging will take place at the June meeting next year.

Jack Tingstad spoke briefly about his annual Open House. Saturday and Sunday, November 27th and 28th, Jack will have his 10th annual Open House for the public at his Cloud City and Western HO layout in Coupeville at 508 Broadway. Admission is a can or two of food for the local food bank. Jack asked for volunteers to assist him with the many visitors that are expected.

Roger Ferris led a repeat of the very successful Make ‘n Take program he conducted in a clinic at the recent PNR convention in Lynnwood. There were many active participants painting cutting and gluing a small trestle for use over a culvert.

We will next meet on Wednesday, December 8th at the home of John White for “Wassail and Other Delights” on the Skagit Valley Eastern Railroad, an On30 layout serving logging and mining interests in a 1920s setting.

Gordon Garnhart

There were 22 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Community conference room on October 13^th. The meeting was started with Steve Jaffrey, as project superintendent, presenting a first draft and distributing copies of the rules for the upcoming scratch built structure competition. Finalized contest rules will be distributed at a later date.

Susan Gonzales distributed copies of the newly revised and updated list of books, annuals, catalogs, DVDs, handbooks, journals, magazines, VHS tapes and other literature that various members have in their personal libraries and have made available for others to use.

The featured speaker for the evening was John White, who repeated the talk he delivered at the banquet for the Pacific Northwest Regional Convention in September in Lynnwood, Washington. His subject, “Development of the Concrete Tie Market in North America”, was well prepared, well delivered and well received. His talk was accompanied by a series of very descriptive slides. This was a very personal story of John’s involvement with concrete ties from 1972 to 1999. This covers the period when there was no market for concrete ties until there were seven plants making nearly two million ties a year, three of which were owned by the company he founded. His presentation was a mixture of history and anecdotes of the challenges he faced to get the product accepted by some very skeptical railroads interlaced with additional details of production challenges with all new equipment. A lively question and answer period followed.

We will next meet on Wednesday, November 10^th when Roger Ferris will bring some estate sale offerings and will also lead a Make & Take session.

The meeting was concluded with the usual drawing for several door prizes generously donated by Performance R/C Hobbies on Fairhaven Avenue in Burlington.

Gordon Garnhart, Photos by Al Frasch

There were 25 people gathered in the modest sized home of Phil and Susan Gonzales in Oak Harbor on the evening of June 9^th.  They had hoped that the crowd overflow could spill out onto the back patio, but the weatherman did not cooperate. However, the layout was definitely worth the trip. They had sealed the door of a single car garage and devoted the space to a very interesting HO layout based on the Carson, Colorado, rail line that ran from Carson City to Keeler. It is set in the early 1940s during World War II. Theirs is a work in process, but they have made great strides, and are developing a layout that will lend itself well to rewarding operating sessions for four to six people.

In Phil’s own words:

It was a lot of fun to have everyone over, although it was a little nerve wracking in the days leading up to it  I started on the layout in October of 2005. Susan started helping about a year later. It took that long to get her hooked! The layout is 11’x16’. The continuous run is a folded dog bone of about 60 feet in length. The Eastern Sierra Pacific has about 75 feet of track, with about 25 feet of that using part of the loop.  We operate as a point to point, using a Digitrax Zephyr DCC system. There are two hidden three-track staging yards that are each nine feet long. The loop has a minimum radius of 26 inches and a maximum grade of 2.25%. The ESP has an 18 inch radius and a max grade of 3.5%. No helpers are needed as the trains are short and the length of the grade is not very long.

Susan’s biggest enjoyment is scenery and buildings. Downtown Deco is her favorite. She has painted most of the backdrop. She also makes the trees. I help with scenery by building the basic plaster shell, rock work and first layer of ground cover. She does most of the finish earth layers.

I do all track and wiring, and have started teaching Susan to ballast. I really enjoy wooden building kits and building and weathering rolling stock.

But the best part of it all is having a wife that has taken an interest in the hobby. Everyone should be so lucky.

We will not have a formal clinic during the months of July and August, but on Wednesday, September 8^th we will meet back in the conference room at the Summer Hill Retirement Community at 165 6^th Avenue in Oak Harbor where we look forward to enjoying a talk by Noel Holly from the Bellingham Museum about, “Milwaukee Electrification”.

Gordon Garnhart

There were 27 people in attendance at the May meeting. John White opened the meeting by leading a discussion of the clinic topics lined up for next year. As usual, John has done an admirable job of arranging for an interesting array of speakers and topics. Several comments and suggestions were offered and a final version was accepted.

Our principal speaker was John Mann, who has made a thorough study of the purposes and functions of the many Configuration Variables associated with Digital Command Control. He described some of the many functions that can be modified by adjusting the settings of CVs. He also called attention to the use of specialized decoders for the remote control of turnouts and signals.

John has installed DCC decoders into a number of N, HO and O scale locomotives for himself and for others. His talk included many practical tips on accomplishing a successful decoder installation. He showed, discussed and passed around many examples of decoders, sound system speakers, connectors, insulators and useful tools. Although much of his experience has been with Digitrax controls and Tsunami sound systems, he is also familiar with other product lines. He followed his presentation with an informative question and answer session. The meeting was concluded with a drawing for several door prizes donated by Performance R/C Hobbies, Fairhaven Avenue, Burlington.

On Wednesday, June 9^th, we will visit the home layout of Phil and Susan Gonzales.