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Eastside Get Together February Meeting

Written by Al Lowe
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JJ Johnston

Once again our enthusiastic Eastside Get-Together chief honcho, JJ Johnston, welcomed about 50 attendees to the February meeting. He introduced/recognized the officers and committee chairs of the 4th Division in attendance as well as the MMRs. Don and Beth MacLaren did a great job filling in for our Welcome Ambassador Clay Hanson with making sure everyone had a name tag and ballot for the Model of the Month and door prize drawings.

We had several new attendees with us: Mike Dziubinski modeling in N Scale; Pete Murphy modeling in HO Scale; Jim Linden modeling in HO Scale; Richard Moore modeling in HO Scale; Craig Jackson modeling in High-Rail; Lee and Nancy Marsh modeling in HO Scale. Lee will be presenting our clinic later.

Announcements were by: Rob Jones, 4D Membership Chair, described some new ideas to promote membership such as having a “membership chair” in each clinic and doing clinics at libraries or other venues; Jim Sabol touting the release of the new DVD West Coast Railroad Logging that he helped put together selling for $25 cash or $29.95 check (this is the DVD he talked about several months ago and treated us to some of the old movies being used in the DVD) and reminded everyone of the upcoming annual logging event in Elsie, Oregon; Bob Rorabaugh telling about the swap meet in Chehalis March 29 and 30; David Yadock thanking everyone who attended and/or helped out with the PSC show which had over 12,500 attendees for the 3-day weekend show and that the Science Center staff will be working to get things rolling earlier for next year in the way of announcements and posters and that he would like to see more smaller layouts made available to spread around the Science Center for more variety (all scales are welcome!); Roger Ferris commented that the last of the PFM materials were available in the Mart; Russ Segner mentioned that Joe Fugate, of Model Railroad Hobbyist, would be the speaker at the Convention banquet in June and that the election of two officers for 4D were coming up and, if you wanted to run for either of these two positions, to contact Mike Highsmith or himself.

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David Yadock’s Santa Fe F-3s

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RMC article on Jim Noonan’s layout

Model of the Month had four “entries”: David Yadock with an A-B set of Santa Fe F-3s found on his shelf and added a decoder, working Mars light, marker lights and a tune-up; Bobj Berger displayed an RMC article on Jim Noonan’s layout stating that the layout was available for sale and can be moved since it was built in sections; Bob Rarabaugh displayed “PUM”(Piles of Unusable Material) or a slash burn pile that he had made; Russ Segner displayed his “scratch built in no scale” cash donation box for the Bellevue library using mahogany, but had to build a bigger one. And the winner was … Bob Rarabaugh with his pile of trash!

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“PUM”(Piles of Unusable Material)

Di Voss was asked to report on his evaluation of using “Bull Frog Snot” for traction on one of his engines. He applied it to a ten-wheeler which before application DSCN3297could pull 2 cars up a 2 ½% grade. After the application the ten-wheeler could pull 6 cars up the 2 ½% grade! He applied the “Snot” to only the gear-driven driver. He said it worked just like a rubber tire on the wheels.

After our break, Lee Marsh gave us a wonderful presentation on the construction of his layout, “Head of the

Lee Marsh

Lee Marsh

Rake – GN Cascade Division” in HO Scale.The layout is basically an L shape 12 feet wide at the base of the L and 32 feet long, built 51 inches from the floor with a 24” minimum radius. Being a civil engineer, the benchwork is very solid but includes some unique access hatches to get to hard to reach locations. Lee and his wife Nancy moved to WashingtonState in the 1980s and began exploring the StevensPass area where they encountered the BN line over the Cascades. All this scenery and complexity of getting the railroad through the mountains solidified the idea that he wanted to build a mountain railroad. He began developing a layout plan in the mid-1990s and knew he wanted a main line run through the mountains. He liked the late steam and early diesel equipment and eventually ended up on the 1951 time frame. Knowing he couldn’t include faithful reproductions of the features along the GN line he decided to freelance using Everett and the GN main line over the Cascades. He started construction in 1996 and figures it’s about 80% complete today.

The layout includes five staging tracks underneath the upper level permitting staging of the primary trains and two three-track stub yards for staging of local trains. The upper level is reached via two helices. One is near the end of Delta Yard in Everett and the other is at the other end of the layout going toward what would be StevensPass if the layout continued that far.

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The scenery is hard shell which provides space beneath for the staging. The backdrop Is hand-painted from photographs taken in June north of Skykomish. Since this is mountainous territory there are a number of bridges and trestles all of which are excellently done. Naturally, there has to be a lot of trees of all sizes and shapes and Lee has been fortunate to find a company that can make any kind of tree he needs. When you see pictures of the layout, you really feel like you’re in the Cascades!

One week later, on Saturday March 1, Lee held a private open house of his layout exclusively for those who had attended his Thursday Eastside presentation. Very impressive and stunning scenery. Assisted by Mike Dziubinski, the trains ran very well and it was a great time for everyone to be able to spend some time admiring Lee’s work.

Lee will return to the Eastside monthly meeting on April 17 to present a clinic on the use of Helicon Focus, a software program which creates incredible depth of field photographs. Attendees will be invited to bring their cameras and use them in actual situations. Watch for more information.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic

Tacoma Clinic

Written by Al Babinsky
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Al Babinsky

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic on time with 34 in attendance; we did not have any newcomers in the crowd. Russ Segner was introduced as the new 4D super and told about his work at the Snoqualmie museum and at the DuPont museum. The DuPont museum has the only narrow gauge railroad in this area; it is a 2 foot gauge.

Mike Highsmith is the assistant super and is in charge of the nomination committee for the upcoming elections and asked that everyone vote when the ballots arrive.

The Tacoma Clinic layout tours will be held on May 10th with the layouts grouped, 5 are in the Tacoma area and 4 in the federal Way area. The Tacoma tour is in the morning and the Federal Way tour in the afternoon with a lunch break in between to allow for time to transition between the two areas.

There was an announcement about the Mount Rainier Scenic RR having a steam up of 5 locomotives plus one guest locomotive on May17th.

The IPMS (International Plastic Modelers Society) has a spring show at the Renton Community Center on April 12. For information on the go to their website at: http://www.ipms-seattle.org/springshow

What’s new at the hobby shop presented by Bill Sandstrom of Tacoma Trains, there were a number of items from Athearn, Walthers, Kato, Microtrains, and Wheels of Time.

The Bring and Brag had several entries, Scott Taylor brought his scratch built track models that were built for his civil AP certificate, and they consisted of a #5 RH turnout, a 90 degree crossing and a gauntlet track. He used downloaded drawings from “Fast Tracks” which are available from their website. Chris Clancey brought a GP-38 that he painted for the Weyerhaeuser logging RR; Russ Segner brought a laser cut kit for a repair shop that is a project in progress. Walt Huston had an N scale diorama. Scott Taylor won the Bring and Brag award.

After the break MMR Gene Swanson and Mike Shaw presented this month clinic on basic scenery. The presentation was made with a diorama showing the how it was done by using a video camera and a wall mounted monitor. They also had photos of Gene’s layout where you could see the final result. A very informative clinic with a great handout and of course the use of video and photos. I will have the handout as well as some of the photos attached to this report.

Next month clinic will be on the AP program and is presented by Jack Hamilton. The clinic will be at our usual place in the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. at the corner of 112th street and Waller Road at 7:30PM, hope to see you there.

Basic Scenery 2

Basic Scenery 1

 

Tacoma Clinic

Seattle-North Clinic Talks about Brass – March 6, 2014

Written by Jeff Moorman
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By Jeff Moorman

Please join us for our next meeting on Thursday, March 6, 2014. Our guest speaker will be a railroad enthusiast and brass collector.

If you weren’t there for last month’s guest speaker, you missed a very interesting and entertaining evening. Dave Honan is a civil engineer for HDR here in Seattle and he specializes in railroad and transit design in 12 inches to the foot scale. We also discovered he is an excellent railroad photographer and slide show producer.

Dave talked about some projects he’s been involved with which varied from coal hauling railroads across the Great Plains to local transit works. Hearing about everything he has had to deal with was fascinating. He mentioned lots of things I had never considered before. Here are a couple:

When you plan the route of a railroad in varied terrain, not only do you need to look for a pretty steady grade, but you should match the volume of material in cuts to the volume of material used for fills. That cuts down on earth “moving” costs.

Another item of design concerns coping with grades that have curvature. A curve adds drag to the train. So if you have a big curve in the middle of a long grade, when the train rounds that curve it till get harder to pull. The prototype solution is to reduce the grade through the curve, so there is a more consistent drag. For example, consider a long 2% grade with a 90 degree curve in the middle. The basic grade might be designed at 2.25% with a reduction to 1.5% through the curve in order to even out the motive power effort required to get to the top of the hill.

Dave finished out the evening by showing a couple of photo presentations he has done. My favorite included scenes from a narrow gauge peat railroad in Ireland (I think).

For show and tell Dennis T brought along an N scale model of a U-50 locomotive. He had added a decoder to the older loco, which was quite heavy. He said it pulls like gangbusters.

I brought along a kit for the Penryn Fruit Company. This is a small wood HO structure that will be the standard kit for a special contest at the regional convention in June. Everyone in the contest builds the same kit using the same basic rules. You can find out more on the convention’s website – http://www.wnrr.net/PSX2014/contests.html. Now that I have the kit I guess I shall have to build it, especially since it looks pretty straightforward.

We meet at the Ronald United Methodist Church, 17839 Aurora Avenue North, Shoreline, WA. That is on the west side of Aurora (State Route 99) between 175th and 185th Streets and more specifically, between the Cadillac dealer on the south and Deseret Industries to the north. Going southbound on Aurora, make a right-hand turn into the church driveway immediately after passing the Deseret location. The parking lot is at the rear of the church. For regular meetings enter the lower, left side of the church from the rear lot.

Meetings are the first Thursday of each month, September through June. However in June we often do something different, like a layout tour. Doors open around 7:00 PM and the program starts at 7:30.

Remember the next meeting is March 6. The meeting after that is April 3. Hope to see you there or at least sometime on down the line.

Seattle-North Clinic

Ross Jacobus, 1925 – 2014

Written by Al Lowe
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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.”

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Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic

Why Attend a Convention? – Part II, PSX2014

Written by Ken Liesse
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David Yadock

There are several good reasons to attend a convention. I’m sure you have heard all of them before. None of which mean anything unless you attend! What other venue allows “behind the scenes” access to several local notable attractions? Is there another venue that gives the visitor unfettered access to multiple detailed how-to clinics? Where do you get to see home layouts and actually see how others are working in the hobby? There isn’t any, except at a convention. This is only part of a convention, there is much more!

Where else can you meet fellow modelers from places both near and far? This is one way to increase fellowship in the hobby. You can meet and greet with old friends. More importantly, you can make new friends in the hobby at a convention. New members to the NMRA can become acquainted with fellow members and find ways to become more active in the hobby. The convention allows members both new and old an open line of communication and put a “face with a name”. Sure, there is the internet, Grab Iron, and other forms of electronic communication but a convention allows fellow modelers a time to learn, to socialize, and to expand the hobby. All this and a bargain price!

PSX2014 Logo I think the above mentioned items are the important aspects of attending convention. Sure, they sound like a sales pitch but they are true. I admit going to a convention takes some time out of an otherwise busy schedule. The important thing is to make the time available and be an active part of the convention. Everyone needs to seek out the newer members and introduce them to your circle of friends. I feel this action helps promote the hobby from within that is bound to expand the hobby to more than just the NMRA. A convention is a good way to accomplish the social part of our hobby. It is a necessary part of this hobby we call model railroading.

Get the details at the PSX2014 website: http://www.wnrr.net/PSX2014/

Convention or Meet

Why Attend a Convention? PSX2014

Written by Ken Liesse
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Roger Nulton, MMR

To me, the most rewarding benefit of NMRA membership is the privilege of attending conventions with fellow modelers. Over the past 25 years, we have attended dozens of them: locally, in the West, and nationally. My favorites are the Regional conventions: they have all the benefits without the high costs and the crowds. Especially attractive is the opportunity to visit great layouts at our leisure without relying on a bus and following a schedule.

PSX2014 is to be held in an excellent location for railfans. The La Quinta convention headquarters hotel is literally surrounded by railroads, and the Tacoma Amtrak station is at our doorstep! We are close to “Freighthouse Square”, the old Milwaukee freight station that has been re-purposed into shops and restaurants. Freighthouse Square is also a stop for the Tacoma “Link” light rail system, which can take you directly to the Washington State History Museum, containing the fantastic HO layout of the Puget Sound Model Railroad Engineers.  With all the activities that are planned: prototype tours; layout tours; contests; clinics and more, it’s going to be a great convention!

If you haven’t registered for PSX2014, there is still time before the price goes up. Visit the website at http://www.wnrr.net/PSX2014/

Convention or Meet, ,

Next Board of Directors Meeting March 8

Written by Cliff Green
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Russ Segner, Superintendent of 4D/PNR/NMRA

I am calling a meeting of the 4th Division Board of Directors to be held March 8, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. at Mitzel’s Restaurant, 22330 84th Ave S, Kent (253) 395-3635.

The major business of this meeting is to deal with two vacancies on the Board. One will be the Director position held by Mike Highsmith prior to his move up to Assistant Superintendent. The term of the position runs through August 31, 2015. The second position is that of Secretary. This is a position appointed by the Superintendent with the concurrence of the BOD.

I have put forward the name of Tina Brikoff for Secretary. If you wish to put your name forth for the vacant Director position, please contact me at russseg@gmail.com. Please be prepared to be at the meeting with a statement of qualifications and why you are interested in serving in the position. After discussion, the BOD will make a selection.

News

Tacoma Clinic February Report

Written by Al Babinsky
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Al Babinsky, Photos by Chip

Since I was not able to attend the clinic I want to thank Chip for doing the steno duties and taking the photos which will comprise most of this report.

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic and asked for announcements. The primary announcement is the 4D convention in June at the LaQuinta inn in Tacoma.

Walt Huston presented Scott Taylor with 2 civil AP awards.

The video library was available and Bill of Tacoma Trains presented What’s New at the Hobby Shop (rather slim as can be seen by the photo).

Bring and Brag (model of the month) had several entries with the winner being Diane Kraus’s control tower.

Tip of the Month: Construction foam does last, with an example layout (recently disassembled) lasting 12 years. Gaps for a juicer and reverser need distance.

After the break Jim Sabol presented his clinic on successful soldering:

If you’re doing something wrong, stop it, if you aren’t doing something, start.

Different metals solder differently and you need to learn each and make sure that both pieces are clean. Use whatever methods work best, such as sandpaper, files, scrapers, and acid (if needed). Do not use acid when soldering electrical components. The soldering tip needs to be clean and tinned and use rosin core solder and flux with electrical components. Hold both parts still until the solder turns dull and then clean off excess flux. Always use the correct size soldering iron for the job, large pieces need a high wattage iron and electronics need a low wattage iron. Walt Huston and Dale Kraus assisted in a demonstration soldering N scale equipment and decoders.

Next month’s clinic will be on layout presentation and will be presented by Dale Kraus.

Due to a little timing problem we could not get our usual place, so please note that next month’s clinic will be at the Summit Library 5107 112th Street East which is just of Canyon Road. The date is 13th of March at the usual time of 7:30 PM.

Soldering Clinic                                                                                                               Award Presentation

Jim Sabol

Presentation

Hobby ShopWhat’s new at the hobby shop

 

 

 

Bring and Brag4

Bring and Brag2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bring and BragBring and Brag3

 

 

 

 

 

Bring and Brag winner

Tacoma Clinic