Category: Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic

By Al Frasch / Photos by Perry Lambert & Al Frasch

Al Carter presented a fascinating clinic on making roads for a layout. He does seem to have an inordinate fascination with both asphalt and concrete surfaces, probably something from his ill-spent youth. However, he did indicate via both pictures and actual samples, the making of realistic roadways.

Especially interesting was the use of numerous brick material as a kind of underlayment for asphalt and concrete surfaces, with the brick showing through in places. It’s a great way to model older roads in industrial areas of cities or even back alleys!

Al used Red Devil OneTime Lightweight Spackling for making roads that won’t shrink. Spread the material between two styrene strips to create a roadbed; use several thin layers if you need to have it deeper.

Al also showed many samples of cracks in road surfaces and explained how to make them look realistic. Micron brand pens make excellent cracks on prepared roadways.

Plus, he explained that asphalt is not black, but weathers to shades of gray. He creates roadway stripes with colored pencils rather than tape or paint.

Rich Blake / Photo by Al Frasch

Gordon Garnhart

After 8+ years of faithful service, Gordon Garnhart, our Skagit Valley and Whidbey Club NMRA Liaison, has handed over the reins to former 4D Superintendent Al Carter.

Gordon has provided monthly clinic reports for the Grab Iron and worked with the Division Treasurer to secure funding for our meetings. His efforts are directly responsible for growing our club from just a few members to now more than 35!

We also enjoy a fantastic monthly meeting venue in Oak Harbor at the Summerhill Activities Center due to Gordon’s efforts. Gordon also, on his own initiative, provides our club with a monthly personal presentation on current local and national publications and newspapers on railroad and modeling-related subjects. His articles are always a source of interest to club members. Gordon’s contributions and service to the club and the NMRA are greatly appreciated.

Allen Frasch

The Skagit Valley & Whidbey NMRA Clinic presents a great clinic this month on February 13th: “How to Model Roads and Streets” by world-famous modeler, Al Carter. Just kidding about being world-famous (unless you count YahooGroups), but he does present a good clinic about roads and streets.

We will meet at the usual place, Summer Hill Retirement facility, OakHarbor, at 7:00 pm. Please email afrasch@whidbey.com if you need directions.

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Gordon Garnhart

There were 35 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility on Wednesday, November 14th. The program for the evening was a very thorough and interesting digital slide presentation by Al Carter entitled “The Tabooma County Railway: Choosing a Private Roadname – Developing a Plausible History.” He showed many progress pictures of the three model railroads he has built over the years, all called “The Tabooma County Railway.” The railroad has a history – more than just three incarnations in basements/bonus rooms over the past 24 years. It has grown, from a desire way back in the mid-1970’s to create his own model railroad empire with a unique identity, to an evolving, but “complete” idea in the form of a layout with a purpose and life of its own. He explored the concept of creating your own railroad, including:

• Why a mythical railroad?
• Geographical setting
• Time period
• Choosing a name for the railroad
• Relationship to real railroads
• Freight customers
• Passenger service

He also showed a series of photos of other layouts in the area, and talked about their themes and histories. The presentation included some anecdotes, how-to’s, and some lessons learned. He then showed some highlights of this September’s very successful National Narrow Gauge Convention in Seattle.

Please note that we will not meet in December. Our next meeting will be on January 9th at 7:00 PM in the conference room at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility in Oak Harbor. John Mann and Tom Hawkins will conduct a joint presentation “Locomotive Tune-ups – both Steam and Diesel.” We hope to see you there.

Gordon Garnhart

There were 30 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility on Wednesday, October 10th. The program for the evening consisted of a series of mini-clinics on a variety of topics pertinent to model railroading. All of the presentations were enhanced by the use of a small television camera focused on the model being discussed and the hands of the presenter. The signal from the camera was fed into a laptop computer and from there to a digital slide projector which projected the action onto the wall. This arrangement enabled people in the back of the room to see the activity as well as those in the front row. Rich got the ball rolling with a demonstration on how to simulate a rusty surface on a model. The prototype surface would be iron or steel, of course. But the technique can be applied to any kind of surface on a model, such as the plastic body of an automobile.

Steve Jaffray explained how to apply special texture details to a model by using MicroMark’s rivet decals. Then Phil Gonzales covered several aspects of fine tuning freight car trucks. Rich Blake showed and discussed several kinds of switch stands.

by Gordon Garnhart

34 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility on Wednesday, September 19th for our first meeting of the season. Rich Blake opened the meeting by congratulating Tom Hawkins, long time participant in Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic activities, on winning third prize in Model Railroader magazine’s 2012 nationwide layout design contest for the best that would fit in a 200 sq ft space. The write-up appears on pages 64 – 66 of the October issue.

Rich also gave a report on the death of Gordon Jones, a member of the group who died Saturday, August 25th after an unsuccessful battle with a malignant brain tumor. Jack Tingstad offered his fine layout to be included on the tour circuit on the first day of the 32nd National Narrow Gauge Convention held in Bellevue, September 12-15. He only expected 4 or 5 individuals because Coupeville is so far away, so he declined offers for assistance. But to his surprise, he had an estimated 50 people come through at various times throughout the day.

Our featured speaker for the evening was Eric Erickson, a retired engineering manager for the Seattle Water Department since 1988. He has spent years doing research about Logging and Sawmilling in Washington State leading to a number of books about the subject as well as transportation histories. He has provided numerous interactive slide show histories on both subjects throughout Western Washington. His latest book, Mile Post: A History of the Arlington-Darrington Branch of The Northern Pacific Railway. 1899 to 2009, was available for sale at $40.00 each at the clinic.

Eric presented an interactive slide show about logging and sawmilling including logging railroads. He is Vice-President of the Anacortes Antique Machinery Show, which held its free annual show on Saturday, September 8th in Anacortes. Featured were antique fire apparatus, old tractors, engines and more. His other activities have included:

• Life member and past Board member of the Issaquah Historical Society
• Past Board member of the Association of King County Historical Organizations
• Past Board member Black Mountain Forestry Center
• Member of the International Order of Hoo-Hoo’s
• Past Historian for the Pacific Northwest Section American Water Works Association (States of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho).

Our next meeting will be October 10th at 7:00 PM in the conference room at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility in Oak Harbor, which will return us to the second Wednesday of the month. It will feature a series of mini-clinics on a variety of subjects pertinent to model railroading. We hope to see you there.

Gordon Garnhart

There were 25 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility on Wednesday, June 13th. Rick Blake opened the meeting with a word of appreciation to John White for his able leadership of the clinic these past twelve years. He also gave a report on the health of Gordon Jones, a member of the group who is currently receiving radiation treatments.

The main program of the evening was a series of mini-clinics. Al Carter showed slides of layouts that will be featured at theNnarrow Gauge Convention in Bellevue in September. Rich Thom showed and discussed a “Model of a Model.” It was a small mock-up about 18 inches long of his entire HO layout. He made it after he designed his track plan, but before he began construction of his layout, to help him visualize how the layout would appear when finished. He said that it was very helpful and prompted several adjustments to his track plan that proved to be beneficial. Rick Blake demonstrated a technique for weathering a flatcar wooden deck.

Sue Gonzales showed an example and described her method for weathering a cattle car. Steve Jaffray was intrigued with a unique 50 foot long, combination baggage car and caboose. He looked for a kit, but nothing was available. So he scratchbuilt the car from plans. And while he was at it, he did an excellent job of detailing the interior. Incidentally, Rick brought a video camera, which was linked to a computer, which in turn was linked to a projector, so the image of what each of the exhibitors was showing was projected large on the wall enabling everyone to see easily. Alan Murray described his method for building portable benchwork for modules.

Tom Hawkins showed and described the use of many examples of jigs and fixtures which he has made and used over the years. Dick Haines demonstrated a method for duplicating parts from an original using a rubber-like plastic molding process. John White showed examples and discussed the uses of Gatorfoam in scratchbuilding structures. Gatorfoam is an extruded polystyrene foam board bonded between two layers of Luxcell wood-fiber veneer. It is easy to work with and is very resistant to warping. And lastly, Alan Murray showed a method he uses for weathering timber construction. Our group is truly fortunate to include so many talented and accomplished individuals who are willing to share their experiences.

We will not meet during July and August, and our September meeting will be a week later than usual because of the convention. So our next clinic will be on Wednesday, September 19th at 7:00 PM in Summer Hill Retirement Facility. It will feature Eric Erikkson, who will talk about “Logging and Live Steam.” See you there!

By Rich Thom / Photos by Al Frasch

John White recently handed over the reins as Clinic Chair of the Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic, an enthusiastic group of modelers and rail enthusiasts which meets monthly in Oak Harbor. John served as SV&W Chair for twelve continuous years, if not a record certainly an admirable span of leadership. Over these dozen years, our clinic gatherings have shown considerable growth not only in numbers but geographical span of attendees as well.

John White opens a meeting of the Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic

During John’s chairmanship, he organized over 100 clinics embracing a broad range of model railroading skills and techniques; railroad history and prototype railroading; “make and take” sessions; and of course layout visits. Swap table and “show and tell” nights alternate months during the year, and in recent years a popular annual modeling contest has been included. John and his wife, Valerie, have also encouraged additional group socializing by hosting a “Wassail” party each December in their Anacortes home, during which John’s fine On30 layout is fired up for operation, too.

During John’s watch, clinic attendance has steadily increased, requiring three ever-larger venues over the past eight years as we outgrew each room. Currently the SV&W Clinic meets in the Summer Hill Retirement Facility in Oak Harbor. From the 2004/5 to the current 2011/12 season, during which John kept attendance statistics, average attendance nearly doubled from 17 to 30, with a peak (reached just this March) of 37. We may soon need a new meeting room! Clinic attendees come from a relatively wide area: all of Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands; Mt. Vernon and Sedro-Woolley to the east; and Bellingham to the north. The “Skagit Valley and Whidbey” name was the shortest we could devise, but certainly isn’t inclusive. Guest clinic presenters have come from all parts of the Puget Sound region.

For those of whom have not heard the story (John was the Guest Speaker at the September 2010 PNR Convention Banquet), John, now retired, was responsible for introduction of concrete ties into use by North American railroads. He was a principal in establishing three plants in the U.S. for manufacture of these ties.

John White working the town of Concrete on his On30 Skagit Valley Eastern

John is also an outstanding modeler. Beginning first in OO-scale with British prototypes, he shifted his focus to the Great Northern in HO-scale. Ultimately he abandoned both for On30. John’s present layout, the Skagit Valley Eastern (SVE), fills most of a 14ft. x 51ft. room.  The SVE, set in the late 1920’s, is loosely based on the Skagit River Railroad built to haul men, material, food, equipment and a lot of cement to various dam projects on the Upper Skagit River.

The SV&W Clinic meets ten times a year on the second Wednesday of each month, September through June. Two volunteers have stepped up to continue John’s work: Rich Blake as the new Clinic Chair; and Susan Gonzales as Program Organizer. Follow the SV&W Clinic’s activities by reading the Grab Iron reports by our NMRA Liaison and Reporter, Gordon Garnhart.