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A few good men and women still needed for PSC show this weekend

Written by Cliff Green
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Frank Dekker

Wanted: A few good men and women for PSC show helpers, Jan 18-21, 2013.

The 39th Model Train Show is at Pacific Science Center on January 19-21 (Saturday through Monday), with setup activity on Friday evening, January 18.

The 4D gets good compensation from PSC for the work done to plan and organize the show. We can use some more volunteers to help execute the plans. If you can help with any of these assignments, please contact Frank Dekker, rekkedrails@juno.com, 206-817-3049, with your availability.

We have parking support for our volunteers on Saturday, and for those who can’t find street parking on Sunday or Monday. We have on-site parking for our exhibiters and volunteers with limited mobility. We have a crew lounge with coffee, lemonade, hot-cocoa, donuts, and fresh fruit.

Friday evening:

  1. need 2 more door monitors to open / close loading doors and ensure only the right people come in
  2. need 1 person to help monitor parking in the Denny Way turnout during the early evening
  3. may need 2 abled-bodied men to help 4D Hi-Rail move equipment into the building

Time needed varies, but we would like you on-site about 4:30. Most will be released by 7:30. Set-up ends at 9 PM.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday:

During the show, we could use 2-3 volunteers for an all-day shift, or for 10-2 and 2-6 shifts on each day. You will be rotating through several assignments: monitor crew lounge, give breaks to “solo” exhibiters, monitor “child-operated” layouts.

If you are some distance away (e.g. Tacoma, Skagit, Everett), consider forming carpool and commit to 1/2 day of help and have the other half to enjoy the show.

Monday evening:

Same needs as Friday, but the timing different. Show take-down starts at 6 PM, and actual movement through the doors will vary between 6 PM and 9 PM. Most helpers can be released by 8 PM.

Thank you for giving your support to the 4th Division by helping with this show support.

Model Train Show

Skagit/Whidbey Clinic

Written by Alan Carter
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Al Carter, Photos by Al Frasch

 

Rich Blake makes opening remarks at the Skagit/Whidbey January 9 clinic

There were over 30 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility in Oak Harbor on January 9th for the first Skagit/Whidbey Clinic of 2013. The topic of the evening was locomotive tune-ups by John Mann. John’s co-clinician, Tom Hawkins, wasn’t able to attend, so John ably filled up the allotted time, talking about basic tune-up procedures on both diesel and steam locos. John emphasized the need to not over-lubricate loco’s, as it results in a build up of gunk and crud. John recommends products from Hob-E-Lube as lubricants. For cleaning loco wheels, John’s method is to use a hemostat to hold a folded piece of paper towel soaked in 91% alcohol (the 70% type contains too much water), and running it over the wheels. Another tip: for adding weight to your locomotive (and rail cars, for that matter), check out the Pinewood Derby displays, as they often have products for weighing race cars, in many sizes and shapes, including tungsten paste (moldable).

John Mann describes techniques to tune up a locomotive

A couple of new folks showed up, including Al Jones from Samish Island (recently transplanted from Connecticut), Eric Erickson of Anacortes, who gave a clinic last spring on logging railroads, and Tom Buckingham from Camano Island. Years ago, before his move to Camano Island, Tom used to attend the Eastside Clinic. Welcome, guys!

Jay and Sally Huff dug deep into their closet and found a whimsical model of an Auto Train diesel (U-Boat, I think) that Jay had, ah, modified way back in the mid-70’s by adding oversized “slicks”, as well as a high performance engine and exhaust. This was a “back at you” barb directed (way back then in the early days of the Whidbey Island Model RR Club) at Al Carter, who, being a diesel fanatic, had painted a small 0-6-0 steam engine, pink. Touche, Jay!

Jay Huff's highly modified diesel

Jay Huff’s highly modified diesel

The clinic in February will be on modeling streets, roads, highways, etc, including modeling street trackage, by Al Carter. The date will be February 13, at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility in Oak Harbor, and the clinic starts at 7:00 pm. All are welcome, and all are welcome to get together at San Remo’s restaurant in Oak Harbor at 5:00pm for dinner prior (no host). Hope to see you there! For more information, call Al Carter (360-399-1226) or (tabooma@msn.com), or Rich Blake (360-632-6220) or (slugmasher@oakharbor.net)

Al

Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic, , ,

Dave Woodrell to speak at Eastside Clinic

Written by Al Lowe
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JJ Johnston

Please plan to attend our first 2013 meeting at 7:30 pm, next Thursday, January 17. Our special keynote speaker for the evening will be Dave Woodrell, longtime modeler and narrow gauge celebrity whose layout has been featured many times in print and video. You may recall Dave presented a scenery clinic previously to our group.

Dave will be presenting his wonderful eulogy on the life and times of the late Brian Ellerby, a renowned modeler and owner of Evergreen Styrene. Dave’s fabulous slide presentation was given to standing room only crowds at the recent narrow gauge convention. You won’t want to miss this significant part of our local modeling history on an amazing individual who touched the world with his contribution to our hobby.

Of course we will have the usual array of party favors, particularly door prizes from Steve Depolo, Inside Gateway; model of the month; stuff for sale and donuts with coffee. Also a report on our Christmas Fund recipients. See you there.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic

Mapping info needed

Written by Al Lowe
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CJ Riley

My friend Bill Metzger does the rail maps for Klambake. His current project is the Seattle/Tacoma area. He could use some help with data from any era regarding routes, names of yards and junctions, interurbans, etc. He has a month to wrap up. Anyone with info they can share can email me.

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Eastside Get-Together December Report

Written by Al Lowe
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JJ Johnston

There were about 40 attendees at 2012’s last Get-Together. As usual, JJ Johnston welcomed everyone to the meeting. Frank Dekker reminded us that the Pacific Science Center Show over Martin Luther King weekend, January 19 – 21, 2013, is less than a month away and, as usual, help is needed Friday night for move-in and Monday night during load-out. There is always the need during the show for help, as well, relieving people at the various exhibits to give them breaks. Jeff Moorman, the co-chair, is still working on the exhibit layouts since Building 4 will not be available due to the King Tut exhibit. If you can help, let Frank know at rekkedrails@juno.com. He would appreciate being contacted! Frank also mentioned that he was giving up his position as co-chair of the show. He and his wife are looking at a vacation home inMichigan for more time visiting with grand-children.

JJ thanked everyone who donated to our Christmas fund to our host church and passed the hat once more for anyone who didn’t get the chance at the last meeting or wanted to add more. The money will be used to help several church members in need this Christmas. The final total of monies donated was $714! JJ will report more information on the two families selected for financial assistance at our January meeting. Thanks to all!

The Model of the Month had several entries and was won by David Yadock for his Interlocking Tower built from an old Campbell kit.

After the usual break, JJ outlined the rules(?) for the Dirty Santa gift exchange. A number of items changed ownership during the evening as one person decided the gift someone else had was better than taking a chance on selecting their own from the table! At the end of the evening, everyone seemed satisfied with their gift and, wishing everybody Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, the last 2012 Get-together came to an end.

Please reserve Thursday, January 17 for our next meeting, featuring Dave Woodrell presenting his fabulous eulogy regarding the life and times of legendary modeler and Evergreen Styrene owner Brian Ellerby. Dave gave this eulogy to a standing-room-only crowd at the recent National Narrow Gauge Convention. Don’t miss it!

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic

Seattle-North Clinic – New Year Begins January 3

Written by Jeff Moorman
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By Jeff Moorman

Please come join us on Thursday (January 3) for our first clinic of the New Year. Our general topic will be doing historical research and a brief look at NW logging.

In December we looked at a film of rotary snowplow ‘OY’ in operation on the Colorado narrow gauge. It was interesting to see all the preparation that went into getting the plow, pushers, and crews ready. And the comments about the big storms of the past provided a lot of context. But the most fascinating, was seeing how the plow and two pushers worked the drifts using only whistles for communication.

Rotaries liked a slow steady pace, but when the snow got deep they had to go in, back out, go in, back out, etc. It was wonderful to watch. I couldn’t help thinking of trying to duplicate the process with models using DCC. You would need two pushers, operating independently. Their operators would have to be out of sight of the plow and each other, in order to best simulate communication with whistles. And you would need a plow operator with a whistle capability.

Show and tell had two participants, but multiple items each (all in N scale). Dennis T had 7 engines on display a few of which he spent considerable time on to rescue from their deplorable “as acquired” condition. He also had a few flat cars where he had utilized old N scale motors as loads. Rob J had an observation car and a GN caboose in custom paint. He also showed us half a dozen resin vehicles and a very nice overreach container lift.

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, except July and August. In June we usually do a tour. Doors open around 7:00 PM and the program starts at 7:30.

Remember the next meeting is January 3 and the one after that is February 7. Hope to see you there or at least sometime on down the line.

Seattle-North Clinic

10th Annual Olympia Model Railroad Layout Tour announced

Written by Al Lowe
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Scott Buckley

Be sure to mark your calendars for Saturday, March 2nd, as this is the date of the 10th Annual Olympia Model Railroad Layout Tour.

There will be at least eight layouts on the tour. Various scale and gauge combinations will be represented, including N, HO, On30 and 3/8n20. Some of the layouts have been featured in national publications, and some have been on national convention tours. Most of the layouts are in various stages of construction, which will give visitors an opportunity to see each builder’s construction methods.

As with previous years, a few of the layouts will be open early, while a few will stay open later; which will give visitors the opportunity to see as many layouts as possible.

We hope that you will take the opportunity to visit our layouts. As I say every year, there aren’t many chances to see these many layouts at one time without spending the money to attend a convention.

Additional information will be provided in late January. In the meantime, please email me if you have any questions.

Layout Tour, Olympia Clinic

Tacoma Clinic

Written by Al Babinsky
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Al Babinsky, Photo by Skip

Dirty Santa, MMR Gene Swanson, opened the clinic and greeted the normal crowd of 38 modelers. Due to the scheduled activities most of the normally scheduled items were cancelled. We did pass the cans and had our Bring and Brag (model of the month) there were a number of nice models and for the first and only time we had prizes for the first three places.

Walt Huston brought a long N scale auto boxcar and a bay window caboose. Gene Swanson a LaBelle kit old time gondola, Dale Kraus a ready to run 0-6-0 from Bachmann that was kit bashed into a 0-6-0T. Jim Murrey brought a building flat, John Pritzlaff Hardware Co made from DPM brick modules, the building flat is part of his Milwaukee Road passenger station scene. John Miller had 4 hoppers two those Varney models and a pull toy.

The model of the month winners was; Jim Murrey 1st place, Gene Swanson 2nd place, and Walt Huston 3rd place. After that we started our buffet consisting of croisanwiches, noodle salad, veggie and salami and cheese trays and for desert cake, pie and ice cream.

With all hands filled up, we started Dirty Santa and the first name drawn picked a Milwaukee Road jigsaw puzzle with NYC key and a $20.00 dollar bill attached, which was promptly stolen by Bob Ayers who in turn lost it to Jim Murrey. Scott Taylor pick a HO car with $20.00 gift certificate attached which was stolen by Gene Swanson and Skip stole it from him. A digital caliper and screw driver was stolen from Dave by Diane Kraus. Scott Taylor had to give up his present 5 times. As the first person to draw is allowed and the end to steal from all present he choose to reclaim the Milwaukee Road Puzzle.

We closed our clinic with a door prize drawing which had a number of gift certificates, calendars, models, and books.

Dave Liesse entertained us with his keyboard during the buffet and the accompanied the clinic crew while they sang “we wish you a Merry Christmas” at the conclusion of the clinic.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and hope to see you all at our next clinic January 10th at our usual place, the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. at the corner of 112th Street and Waller Road. The clinic will on Plaster less cloth shell scenery given by Jim Sabol. Hope to see you all there.

Building flat 1st Place, Long and short 3nd place, LaBelle old time gondola 2nd place

Building flat 1st Place, Long and short 3nd place, LaBelle old time gondola 2nd place

Tacoma Clinic

4D Discount on IMAX Film

Written by Al Lowe
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Frank Dekker

4D members will save $2 per ticket on the exciting Rocky Mountain Express IMAX film, now playing at Pacific Science Center’s Boeing IMAX® Theater.

Rocky Mountain Express propels audiences on an exhilarating journey of a lifetime deep into theRockies along steep cliff edges, spiraling tunnels and through some of the most beautiful and rugged landscapes on Earth, while revealing the heroic human drama and epic engineering involved in shaping a nearly impossible transcontinental railway link.

It’s a great holiday film for the whole family and a perfect addition to the 39th Annual Model Railroad Show! Offer valid for tickets purchased at PSC with the code “GAP-I$2NRS”. Valid through January 21, 2013.

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Speeder Rides at Iron Horse Express 2013

Written by Al Lowe
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Tom Crawford, IHE Registrar

If you have never been on a speeder ride through the Niles Canyon you are truly missing something. For those who don’t know what a speeder is, it’s a small gasoline engine powered “car” that runs on standard rails. Riding on one is an absolute blast!

The group that owns the speeders takes them all over the place. It’s like a motorcycle gang on rails. (Okay, I’m joking, but you got the idea.)

Enough speeder owners have volunteered their speeder so that we can have 15 people for each time slot.

The rides are on Thursday, April 4, and run times will be 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and 2:00 PM starting at the Niles Canyon Railway’s Sunol Station. The rides are $25. We will carpool to the Station.

You can see a YouTube video of a velocipede in action here. By the way, the popping you hear in the video is not the velocipedes, but rather another rail car.In addition to the speeders we will also have two velocipedes and one hand pump car to operate in the Niles Station area while you are waiting for the speeders rides, or when you get back.

Speeder riders must wear long pants and closed shoes, preferably not tennis shoes. They will also be required to sign two legal releases, one for the speeders and one for the railroad.

To sign up for the speeder rides, you must be signed up for the Iron Horse Express 2013 Convention. Sign up for the convention, and the speeder rides, at the convention website under “Outside Activities.”

There are a limited number of speeders and seats. Whatever spaces are not sold by March 1 will be opened to the public.

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