Category: Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic

Rich Thom

The Skagit Valley and Whidbey (SV&W) Clinic got off to a great start at its first meeting in Oak Harbor on September 10th, with Chairperson Rich Blake welcoming everyone back after the summer break. Actually most members met in August at John and Felicia Marshall’s home for a BBQ, also featuring John’s growing (they always do!) outdoor G-scale railroad. This added “bonus” meeting has become a tradition thanks to the Marshalls’ hospitality.

Rich noted tonight’s attendance was 27, a good beginning for the season (last year’s average was 28). New member Steve Shelley—modeling in HO scale—was introduced and welcomed. Rich reviewed the season’s clinic topics and regional calendar of NMRA and other events. Clinic members again plan to support many of the events such as the Pacific Science Center Show, the Monroe Train Show, and others.

Rich Blake presented the evening’s clinic, “The Art of Ops.” Several members already host regular operating sessions; and others plan to. The theme of Rich’s talk was how guest operators should prepare themselves to help make the session run smoothly. It also improves your chances of getting invited back!

Homework Before the Op Session

If you are invited to operate on an unfamiliar layout, there’s a lot you can do before showing up, anxious to move your first train. Most hosts have abundant material available describing the things you need to know about their railroad. They will email it to you, refer you to a website, or perhaps reference published articles. In addition to this layout-specific information, guest operators should know basic railroad operating practices.

• Prototype or Theme/era for the Layout—The host will tell you the location and timeframe his layout recreates, and will appreciate guests having some basic familiarity with it, which can be researched on the internet.
• What, When, Where and How—The host will almost always provide a Track Plan, Timetable, or often an entire Employee Timetable. Study these carefully. There’s nothing more frustrating than being handed a throttle and told to take a train from A to B, and not having the slightest idea where A and B are.
• General Rules of the Road—Be familiar with general rules, such as can be found in the General Code of Operating Rules, which can be downloaded from the internet.
• Layout Owner Rule Set—Sometimes provided in advance, sometimes not. If they are, read them. How are cars uncoupled on the layout? Is sound used, and does the host want you to use realistic whistle signals? (Know them.) Does he want you to not touch his cars and locos under any circumstances? Does he wish nothing to be placed on the layout, even “harmless” paper? Owners can be very sensitive about such things, and guests should know them.
• Train Control—How is traffic controlled, TT&TO, Track Warrants, CTC etc? Know the basics of these methods, and refresh yourself with the details of the one used.
• Car Forwarding—The host will usually specify the method used: car cards, switch lists, tab-on-car, etc. Know how to use them beforehand.
• DCC/DC—The host will specify whether he uses Lenz, Digitrax, MRC etc. If you are not familiar with the manufacturer’s equipment, do your homework. Instruction manuals can be found on the internet. Also don’t forget how to operate on a DC layout—there are still some around!

At the Layout

Encountering an unfamiliar layout, especially a large and fully-scenicked one, you’ll usually be wowed and start looking at all the details. But right after the orientation tour, you’ll be expected to run a train. Focus on what is operationally important first!

• Electrical Panels—Some are user friendly with clear diagrams, others less so. Ask if some are confusing to you.

• Turnout Controls—Know where they are and how to use them.
• DCC/DC—Locate the DCC plug-in panels.
• Signals—Know the indications! On a CTC layout, for example, if you don’t know what yellow over red means, ask the host for a cheat sheet. Most have them available.
• Problem Trackwork—This refers to complex, not poorly laid, track. Locate complex trackwork that you will need to negotiate, such as three-way and slip switches. If they are aligned by the road crews, know how to throw them to avoid embarrassment when your train gets there!
• Defer admiring the layout until after you are comfortable with the things above.
• Self-Prep—Take with you the accessories that you may need. Operating usually requires four or five hands, to hold train orders, throttle, radio, car cards etc. Pack an apron with pockets and/or neck lanyard; small flashlight; pens/pencils, spare uncoupling picks. If you take your own throttle, pack spare batteries.
• Give Feedback to the Host—He will appreciate knowing the bugs that you’ve encountered. Remove bad order cars, and fill out bad order forms if provided. Blue flag problem trackwork. Identify any locos that need attention. Taking photos of bad order items and sending later also works. Always stay for and contribute to the debriefing at the end of the session.

And Slow Down!

The final section of Rich’s talk addressed slowing down for more realistic operation, illustrated with video clips, some of which Rich shot on his On30 modules. It’s common to see switching moves performed in an op session at a speed impossible in the real world, without brakemen moving at the speed of light that is. Using “one potato two potato” counting to insert simulated time for releasing hand brakes, uncoupling, walking to and from ground throws, etc., Rich demonstrated how these operations can be done much more realistically, more than doubling the time usually seen in typical sessions. Simulating brake tests, setting retainers, and other prototype operations can also add interest and slow things down. Finally, several video clips showed some of the bad habits that even experienced operators can develop over time. One of the best: grabbing a freight car with your left hand to create slack (probably moving the loco at the end of the cut in the process) while uncoupling with a pick in your right hand

Operating can be fun for both guests and host, but guests need to do their half of the work: do the homework!

Tom Buckingham / Photos by Al Frasch

Clinic Chairperson Rich Blake called the May 2014 meeting to order with 39 members in attendance. 

Rich announced that there would be no meeting in June. He was scheduled to run the clinic but has become unable to due to recent commitments. The group talked about the idea of canceling the June meetings altogether as it consistently has the lightest attendance. After some discussion it was agreed not to hold meetings in June.

Once again Rich appealed to the audience for someone to step up and take over the job as snack coordinator. Rich also shared the preliminary clinic topics for next season (September 2014 – May 2015). One important date on the horizon is the annual picnic at John Marshall’s home on August 9^th . Rich also mentioned that the 2015 NMRA convention will be held in Portland August 23-29^th. It’s not too early to make plans to attend.

Our clinic was run by Dr. Nick Muff showing us how he adds working headlights and taillights to his fleet of HO vehicles. Nick shared an interesting pictorial history of his various layouts from the time he was 10 and how lit vehicles ever got into his layout plans in the first place. He insists he never planned to light vehicles. However, by the time he got ready to do the scenery on his current layout, he decided to start on the right end of his layout and fine tune his skills as he got to the Kansas City Union Station. In the process he reached his first road. In the background was a small town and he added a couple of lights to buildings  in the village. The next logical step was to add lights to a couple of vehicles on the road and the rest, as they say, is history.

The first step is to select the vehicles. You must consider the purpose of the road—general thoroughfare or industrial with primarily trucks; time of year—convertibles don’t work well in the winter; your era—but don’t have all cars from the same year. Once those decisions are made select the actual vehicles. The more detailed cars should go toward the front and the less detailed, less expensive cars towards the back.

Good sources for cars are Greg’s Garage in Saginaw, Michigan, Woodland Scenics, Jordan kits, MiniMetals and others.

When assembling the vehicles, some will be ready-to-run while others will require a good bit of work. When using cast resin vehicles he first paints the window areas with Micro Mark “Mask-It” liquid masking film. Next goes a coat of primer before the paint. Then the details go on. Nick feels figures are one of the most overlooked details in vehicles—especially convertibles (Al Carter would agree.). He had a wonderful photo of a convertible with four occupants just for Al who was unfortunately out tooting his horn at another event in Oak Harbor.. All of his vehicles have license plates—another excellent detail. Some vehicles get white wall tires. He prefers using commercial stickers instead of hand painting them.

Some of his vehicles have open doors and trunks. His preferred method to accomplish that is to make repeated scribes around the door or trunk with a scalpel with a #11 blade until the job is finished.

His taxis all have the “available” sign on the top. Some are lit. To accomplish that he positions a tiny LED below the sign and holds it in place with Canopy Cement. Canopy Cement, dries clear, holds well, but remains slightly “gummy” which allows you to reposition the light later if necessary.

Now  the vehicles are ready for the lighting. Drilling the holes takes patience, but is not difficult (metal being the exception). Once the holes for the wires have been drilled, Nick uses a slightly larger drill to hollow out some recess for the actual LED. Nick uses Golden White and Red surface mount LED’s from Richmond Electronics. The LEDs can be ordered with or without the leads attached. He strongly recommends getting them with the leads attached. Once the headlight LED’s are in position he puts a small drop of Canopy Glue, which acts somewhat like a lens, consequently it is hard to actually tell that the lights are square and not round. Canopy Glue is also used to hold the tail lights in place.

For Taxi’s he uses the Golden White LED glued under the roof top sign, the light that “leaks” through looks perfect as an interior dome light. However if you wanted the dome light “off” he uses a small dab of Pactra Racing Finish TESRS 50”Outlaw Black”. It is quite thick and very black and will cover the leak with one coat.

As to the LED’s themselves he had several pieces of advice, the most important being to test the LED’s before installing them and be sure to use the appropriate dropping resistor when connecting an LED to power, otherwise your LED is gone. As he is fond of saying “once you let the smoke out they don’t work any more”.

When Nick is done with all the above steps he weathers the cars. His favorite medium is Bragdon Weathering Chalks. Bragdon Chalks are mixed with a powdered adhesive that is activated by the heat generated by brushing it on. Another weathering technique he favors is a light wash of dilute black paint over the grill areas. It make the detail stand out and makes it look more realistic.

It was a wonderful clinic filled with many great ideas on vehicles. Thank you Nick!

For those of you who missed the clinic, Dr. Muff has authored a booklet titled “Lighting Vehicles Using LEDs” offered through BHI Publications. Their website is : http://www.bhipubs.com/

Remember, no meeting in June.

by Rich Blake / Photos by Al Frasch

We kicked off the March clinic with a short discussion on recent and upcoming events. One recent event of note was the 10^th Annual Pacific Model Loggers Congress at the Camp 18 Restaurant in Elsie Oregon held March 2^nd. Rich Blake attended the meet and gave a report on some of the fun things to see and do in that part of the country especially the vast collection (his words “butt-ton”) of logging equipment on the Camp 18 property. It is a great place to go if you are researching logging history and would like to view and inspect prototype equipment.  e also did our duty and reminded everyone about the Regional PSX Tacoma Event in June.

This clinic was very special in that our feature clinician was none other than the Chief Mechanical Officer of the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad – Stathi Pappas. His clinic, titled “Steam Locomotive Systems and Technology” was a fascinating look into the inner workings of steam locomotives and how you can apply the prototype’s systems to more accurate modeling. Stathi is not only a vast storehouse of knowledge as one of the few people in the US that has rebuilt several steam locomotives for operation, he is also an adept and entertaining speaker. We got to hear quotes like “Why would anyone want to burn goofy black rocks??” in reference to coal locos and “Baldwin was the Ford of locomotive builders” you can guess what that means.

Stathi enforced the point that understanding locomotive systems is key to proper detailing on models. He talked about the difference between “Superdetailing” and “Stuperdetailing” where in the latter example too much stuff does not a better model make if it doesn’t make sense with the rest of the systems. He used several photos to describe the various systems and how they operate. More importantly he also described “why” things are the way they are on the various locomotives. Sometimes it is aesthetics and sometimes it is function with the point being that every time a locomotive came out of a repair or rebuild cycle, it was always different than when it went in. We got into a lot of specifics and it was a very interesting discussion with many club members asking a lot of questions about loco systems. Stathi covered many detailed topics including:

All of the photos Stathi used were of MRSR locomotives and his own personal locomotive – the “Chiggen” a former Santa Cruz Portland Cement Porter 0-4-0T that Stathi rebuilt from the ground up including fabricating a new boiler. (see more on this loco here:  www.scpc2.com) The pictures themselves were amazing in that they detailed many areas of locomotives during the rebuild phase that are not normally seen in finished form.

He concluded the presentation by reiterating the fact that understanding the systems and knowing that everything on a loco is the way it is for a reason makes for better modeling and it is all up to the modeler as to how far they want to go with their individual detailing.  He then spent another hour answering questions of which there was a plethora. Overall it was one of the best and most informative prototype clinics we have ever had. Hats off to Stathi for taking the time and allowing us the opportunity to dive into and learn about the fascinating subject of steam locomotive technology with a true expert in the field.

If you would like to see some of Stathi’s projects in action then come out to the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad this May 17^th for the special “Steam Up” event. The goal is to have no less than six operating steam locomotives running for photo shoots and run bys.  This should be a “must do” event for any steam fan and especially any of us in the Pacific Northwest since it is virtually in our back yard. Check out the schedule at www.mrsr.com.

Bob Rorabaugh

Ross Jacobus, long time model railroader, died on January 26, 2014 in Port Townsend, near three of his four daughters and their families.

Our Port Townsend NMRA guys rolled out a welcome carpet. John Colley in particular picked him up Wednesday evenings and took him to the club where, to the sound of running trains, Ross would sometimes drift off to dream a spell.

Ross had doted on two special wives, out-living both. He was loved by his girls, all four of them now in their fifties. The words they used of him: intelligent, curious, willing, humble, humorous, honorable, kind and “always there for us.” The memories of our North Seattle and Eastside clinicians include “always that smile,” “most awesome host with refreshments,” “willing to help or explain if asked,” and “crazy hair.”

He once asked this ol’ farm boy to prune his fruit trees, then paid me with a Bachmann HO Doodlebug. While pruning, I lost a spring from my small clippers and knew I’d never find it in the weeds and grass. Then, several Sundays later I noticed Ross walking through the church’s lobby with a spring in his step. Was that my spring? He just smiled at me.

Ross apparently didn’t “teach” his daughters the “what” he knew about loving God, spouse, family and work. Instead, he modeled the “who” he knew. He fleshed out many of the qualities of God’s relational love of His people. I asked his family to have a chat with their absent dad. “How do you like where you are now?” and “Would you mind if we leaned into the same heavenly Father’s love?” “Oh and tell our mom we’re coming, too.”