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Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic Dec 2015 Report, Planning Layout Future

Written by Cliff Green
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Rich Thom / Photos by Dick Haines

Twenty-seven regulars gathered at the Summerhill Residence in Oak Harbor for the December meeting of the Skagit Valley & Whidbey NMRA Clinic. Four from the Mt. Vernon NMRA clinic group made the long journey from the mainland, and Barry Anderson braved the sparse wintertime ferry service to come over from Port Townsend. Clinic Chair Rich Blake welcomed two guests this evening, Mike Garcia, Coupeville and Mike Piccone, Oak Harbor.

In opening remarks Rich observed that Performance R/C Hobbies, in Burlington, had closed its doors in November after over three decades of serving R/C hobbyists and model railroaders. We extend sincere thanks to owner Susan (Suzie) Thornton for maintaining a stock of basic model railroad supplies over the years. Rich reminded everyone to patronize the remaining hobby shops in the Seattle-Tacoma area to help keep them financially viable. Upcoming events were reviewed, which can be found on the PNR website or the 4D events page. Susan Gonzales announced that the mystery “make and take” planned for the January meeting was no longer a mystery: we will be building Rock Details for Structures. If you are eyesight-challenged, Susan warned, bring a magnifier.

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Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic

Eastside Get Together this Thursday, Dec 17

Written by Cliff Green
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JJ Johnston

Dirty Santa Party! Celebrate with us this Thursday, the 17th at 7:30 and get the gift of a lifetime. That’s right. You need to bring a wrapped gift and write the scale on the outside. That’s it. And when it comes to your turn, you can take somebody’s gift or pick a new one. There are always great choices.

Church Fund. You all have been extremely generous with your donations to the Church for a member(s) in financial need who we will select from recommendations offered by the Church. If you did not get a chance to donate last month, you still have time to give at our meeting. Please be generous as the Church has been very good to us during the year providing us with free coffee and setting up the room and letting us use their facility rent free. Thanks to many of you who have already participated.

Next month’s clinic will be in Redmond. Further details will be provided in a future Grab Iron post.

For Eastside Get Together location and other information, see the 4D Clinics page.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic

An Intro to Free-mo Part 2 – Building a Platform for Track and Scenery

Written by Cliff Green
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by Alan Ashton and Frank Wilhelm with contributions by Jerry Barsness and Mike Tietz

Editors note: Welcome to the second article on Free-mo by Alan Ashton. The previous article is available by clicking here, or by filtering with the category “Free-mo”. Alan welcomes discussions and feedback by comments at the bottom of the post or by e-mailing him at inwafreemo@gmail.com. If you’re interested in helping promote Free-mo in the 4th Division (e.g. event notification or writing articles) please contact me at gi_editor@4dpnr.com.

The second installment (in PDF format) of our series on Free-mo is available to read or download by clicking here. In this article we discuss some of the details related to construction of a module. Later, we will cover leg options, electrical connections, command and control, and track planning.

I’ve also created a “module cost estimator” spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel) to help you determine what components you will need to build a module. In order to get some data into the worksheet, we are “building” a four foot, two main line module (26″ endplates). The model doesn’t take track or scenery into account but you can add items if you wish.

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Articles, Free-mo

Westside December Clinic is Tuesday the 8th

Written by Cliff Green
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Bill Hupé

The Westside Clinic is tomorrow Tuesday December 8th, 2015. Last month Jack Hamilton presented a clinic on basic wiring.

This month’s clinic: Weathering Rolling Stock. Walt Huston is coming up to present his hands-on clinic on weathering.

This is our White Elephant gift exchange and annual food bank drive. For those of you who are new, our White Elephant exchange consists of you wrapping a model railroading related item for exchange; old or new; useful or not; Give one get one.

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

A Narrower View – Helper

Written by Cliff Green
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Syd Schofield

Editors note: Welcome to the tenth 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.

Some of the terrain crossed by the narrow gauge railroads had easy grades for long distances. Small locomotives (the miniatures previously mentioned) were adequate. However, when push came to shove (or push and shove) was required for a steeper grade, a helper locomotive station was often built. This localized the operation of the enhanced motive power and kept the costs to a minimum as the added fuel and operation was only used briefly. Such was the standard practice that a town in central Utah (Helper, Utah) is actually named for this activity. The grade to the west of town to Soldier Summit is the price (also a nearby town, Price) that the latecomer Denver and Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) paid for the otherwise easy route between Grand Junction and Salt Lake City.

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Articles, Narrow Gauge

Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic Nov 2015 Report, BNSF Bellingham Sub Ops

Written by Cliff Green
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Rich Thom / Photos by Rich

The Skagit Valley & Whidbey NMRA Clinic’s meeting on November 11th was attended by 22 regulars and two guests. Guests were Dave Johnson, an Oak Harbor resident and long-time friend of regular Alan Murray, and the evening’s clinician Bob Stafford. In opening remarks, Clinic Chair Rich Blake observed that it was Veteran’s Day and asked: “How many attendees had served?” Many hands went up, to applause and thanks from everyone. Susan Gonzales reported that the October 24th special shop tour and train ride at the Northwest Railway Museum had been enjoyed by 12 clinic members, family and friends (click here to see the previous Grab Iron article). Susan was thanked for making the tour possible, and added that it might be repeated next year. Rich mentioned that a work day is a possibility, too – there’s always plenty of work for volunteers at the NWRM. Finally, longtime clinic participant and modeler Curt Johnson let it slip out that November 11th, meeting night, was his birthday. Accordingly Susan presented Curt a cake, but it was only an inedible, 1:1 scale model of one – a hat, which of course Curt had to don. Moral for SV & W clinic members: don’t reveal your birthday.

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Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic

Mt Vernon Clinic Report November 24

Written by John O'Connell
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By John O’Connell / Photos by Al Carter, George Stephenson, and John O’Connell

Twenty two, including five guests, were in attendance when Ted Becker opened the Clinic. Ted advised that this is an NMRA, Pacific Northwest Region, 4th Division, sponsored event.

Announcements

Performance R/C Hobbies is closing this week. The Clinic sent flowers and a card is circulating to wish Suzie well in her retirement. She offered a variety of odds and ends she still had on hand to the Clinic and they are free for the taking. She will be missed.

Roger Johnson has been working hard to prepare the last stages of his layout for an open house December 11-13, Friday (7-9 PM), Saturday (1-4 PM) and Sunday (1-4 PM). If you need directions, email Roger at skagitrailbird@gmail.com.

The December 22 Clinic will feature a “Super Show and Tell” along with “Diorama Build Status” and “Mini-Clinics”.

Note: The January Clinic begins our new day and date: on January 14 (the second Thursday of the month) Mike O’Brien will share his tree building process.

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Mt Vernon Clinic