JJ Johnston

The illustrious Eastside Get-Together chair, JJ Johnston, welcomed 29 attendees to this first gathering of 2014. He had the usual introduction/recognition of his “VIPs” attending (officers and committee chairs of the 4th Division and MMRs. He then gave an update on the distribution of the Christmas collection to the church. The monies were divided between two ladies in need of help with their rent and other expenses. He read thank you notes from each of them.

Announcements included David Yadock on the Pacific Science Center show this weekend and the continuing need for volunteers to help out with the unloading/loading at the beginning and end of the show plus relief for other volunteers during the show; Russ Segner on the upcoming PNR convention at the Tacoma LaQuinta hotel from June 18 – 21, get registered, select your tours, and work on those contest models; Roger Ferris on an upcoming giant sale of 12 estates, PFM collection and many of Jim Noonan’s cars and engines as well as his layout!

The “Model of the Month” had two entries: Russ Segner displaying several pieces of wood (for identification purposes) from the Snoqualmie museum (also part of his later presentation) and Di Voss displaying a bottle of “Bull Frog Snot” which he explained he was trying on one of his locomotives to get better traction (report next month). Russ ultimately “won” the “contest” (?).

After the usual break, Russ Segner did a presentation showing the reconstruction work being done on one of the passenger cars at the Snoqualmie museum. In this case it was a Barney and Smith Day Coach #210. He got interested in working on the reconstruction just prior to the National Narrow Gauge convention in 2012 after a visit to the museum  He said there are about 8 volunteers working on the car on a regular basis but there’s a lot more restoration work to be done and the museum would be happy to welcome additional volunteers. Russ had a power point presentation with many photos to show indicating what the car looked like before restoration started and the progress since then. Unfortunately, the computer with the presentation and the projector did not want to cooperate with each other very well, so all the photos couldn’t be seen.  Russ promises to redo the presentation at a later date. However, what was shown provided a great look at what can be done in restoring old equipment to usable condition.

Come join us February 20 for our next Get-Together with a special clinic to be presented by Lee Marsh of Issaquah discussing how he designed and built his fabulous GN Cascade Division layout. A photo of his layout recently appeared in “Trackside Photos” in Model Railroader magazine.