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Westside January Clinic is Tuesday the 12th

Written by Cliff Green
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Bill Hupé

Happy New Year!

The next Westside Clinic is Tuesday January 12th, 2016. I will not be at this month’s clinic. Jack Hamilton has graciously agreed to run the clinic this month. He will also be presenting this month’s clinic “How to use your volt/ohm meter”. This is part of our new series of clinics on “The Road to MMR”.

Last month Walt Huston presented his “Hands-on” clinic on weathering. We also had our White Elephant gift exchange and annual food bank drive.

As always we will have a “Model Contest” and “Show And Tell.” Coffee and cookies will be provided. Please come and bring a friend.

If you are visiting the first time our clinics are held at the United Way of Kitsap Building in downtown Bremerton (647 4th Street) at 7 pm. Additional details (including a map and contact info) are on the Clinics Page.

Westside Local Clinic

Selkirk Express 2016 is Seeking Presenters

Written by Cliff Green
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Russ Segner, 4D Superintendent

The PNR Regional Convention – Selkirk Express 2016 – will be held June 15-19, 2016 in Salmon Arm, BC.

There will be bus trips to the Kettle Valley Steam Railway and to the Revelstoke Railway Museum, layout tours, clinics, contests, a public show, and a Free-mo meet. Additional information is on the Selkirk Express 2016 web site.

The committee is seeking clinic presenters. This is a great opportunity to meet model builders from all over the northwest and to share your skills and interests in the hobby. Contact Mike Barone, clinic chair directly at fmikebarone@gmail.com.

Convention or Meet

Welcome, New 4th Div Members, Attend a Clinic

Written by Cliff Green
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Cliff Green, Grab Iron Editor

Welcome, new 4th Division members! Every month I add new (or re-newed) 4D members to the Grab Iron subscriber list, so this may be one of the first Grab Iron posts that you read.

The 2015-2016 model railroading season is well under way and there will be many interesting and fun events – click here to see the 4D calendar. (On a side note I’m looking into ways that interested readers can subscribe to be notified whenever an event is added or updated. A quick “shout out” to Stephen Winter for requesting this functionality and a technical evaluation is under way.)

If you haven’t attended one of the many excellent clinics in this Division I highly recommend them – the presenters are skilled modelers and most of the clinics have at least one (if not more) MMR (Master Model Railroader) attending. More information on 4D clinics is available by clicking here.

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Grab-Iron

New Eastside Get Together Clinic Meeting Location

Written by Cliff Green
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Russ Segner

For January and February (at least) the Eastside Get Together Clinic is moving from Bellevue to Redmond and will be held in the Redmond Public Library. The clinic begin and end times are changing slightly because we must clear the building by 8:45 PM, so plan to join us at 6:30 with the meeting to begin at 7:00.

Date: January 21, 2016 (same 3rd Thursday of the month)
Time: 6:30, out of the building by 8:45
Location: 15990 NE 85th, Redmond

Our program features Brian Pickering and is titled “Let It Snow”.

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Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic

Small Layout Needed for Pacific Science Center Train Show

Written by Cliff Green
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David Yadock

Do you have a small layout that you would like to display at the PSC Train Show? It doesn’t have to be large and can fit on a tabletop. A Timesaver layout or something similar would be greatly appreciated. We have an area in the upper Denny location of the PSC needing model trains to show to the eager young ones (and parents) attending the Train Show. Either a “hands on” layout or a “show and tell” layout is fine. We will have 4th Div volunteers to help with watching or running trains on the layout.

Please contact me at hi61izq@hotmail.com or 425-226-7518.

Model Train Show

Seattle-North Looks at Sound on January 7, 2016

Written by Jeff Moorman
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By Jeff Moorman

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:

  • Before the country settled on “standard gauge” there were all sorts of gauges in use. For example, the Erie was originally constructed as 6-foot gauge.
  • An Erie financier was once swindled out of $1,000,000 of Erie stock by a British con man who fled to Canada. At one point this led to a state governor wanting to call up his militia to invade our northern neighbor.

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Seattle-North Clinic

A Narrower View – The Branch Line

Written by Cliff Green
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Syd Schofield

Editors note: Welcome to the eleventh article of a series on narrow gauge by Syd Schofield. The previous article is available by clicking here, or by filtering with the category “Narrow Gauge”. Syd welcomes discussions and feedback, which can be made by clicking on the comment link at the bottom of the post.

As the common carrier railroads grew to service larger and wider areas than the linear path from A (departure) to B (destination), the construction of a branch line followed, at least when the market supported and the terrain allowed. Railroads often pursued interesting routes to get to the destination in the shortest distance, frequently in a path unsuitable to the standard gauge requirements. In the case of access to the mines near Westcliffe and Silver Cliff in the Wet Mountain Valley, the surveyors chose the Grape Creek Canyon. This area is in south central Colorado from the Royal Gorge route of the Denver & Rio Grande, then a dual gauge line. In the challenging accomplishments building the line along the Arkansas River through the Gorge (running gun battles with rival railroad construction crews notwithstanding), it probably didn’t seem too difficult a task for the veteran builders.

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Articles, Narrow Gauge