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FOR SALE: Minicraft mini power tools

Written by Al Lowe
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Al Carter

I have a set of Minicraft mini power tools: 2-1/4″ table saw, 3″ sander, and a drill press.

All are powered by a power center with a speed control. These tools run on 0-18vac and can all be plugged into the power center at the same time, and, of course, can run at variable speeds. I’ll also include lots of extra sanding discs and blades for the table saw. The drill press, which accepts small drill bits, is great for repetitive drilling of small holes.

I’m asking $100.00 for the set; less than half the original price. By the way, this is the 18vac set, not the more common 12vac set.

Email me here or phone 360-399-1226.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Remember: classified ads are a free benefit of your NMRA and 4D membership! Just email your ad to Al Lowe here.

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Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic

Written by Gordon Garnhart
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Gordon Garnhart

There were 35 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility on Wednesday, November 14th. The program for the evening was a very thorough and interesting digital slide presentation by Al Carter entitled “The Tabooma County Railway: Choosing a Private Roadname – Developing a Plausible History.” He showed many progress pictures of the three model railroads he has built over the years, all called “The Tabooma County Railway.” The railroad has a history – more than just three incarnations in basements/bonus rooms over the past 24 years. It has grown, from a desire way back in the mid-1970’s to create his own model railroad empire with a unique identity, to an evolving, but “complete” idea in the form of a layout with a purpose and life of its own. He explored the concept of creating your own railroad, including:

  • Why a mythical railroad?
  • Geographical setting
  • Time period
  • Choosing a name for the railroad
  • Relationship to real railroads
  • Freight customers
  • Passenger service

He also showed a series of photos of other layouts in the area, and talked about their themes and histories. The presentation included some anecdotes, how-to’s, and some lessons learned. He then showed some highlights of this September’s very successful National Narrow Gauge Convention in Seattle.

Please note that we will not meet in December. Our next meeting will be on January 9th at 7:00 PM in the conference room at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility in Oak Harbor. John Mann and Tom Hawkins will conduct a joint presentation “Locomotive Tune-ups – both Steam and Diesel.” We hope to see you there.

Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic

Olympia Clinic November Report

Written by Al Lowe
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Jim Sabol

No wonder they were tired!

Modelers at the November 16 Olympia Get-Together left town about 7:30 p.m., traveled 1,500 miles to Salt Lake City, Durango, Silverton, Cumbres, Chama, Alamosa, Antonito, Golden and Denver, Colorado, viewing every possible narrow gauge steam locomotive, car, and interesting infrastructure along the way, and were still home by 9:30 — all through the magic of Scott Buckley’s terrific camera work last summer.

Over 1,000 photos were viewed by the happy audience. And that was only half the shots that Scott took! Great PowerPoint show, Scott! Multitudes of ideas for weathering, structures, and yards.

An added bonus of meeting in Scott’s layout room was seeing the exciting progress he has made on his Tehama Valley HO railroad, which now reaches all the way from Tehama to the Southern Pacific interchange.

Models and samples of craftsmanship and artistic ability were shared by Paul Vaughn, Larry Williams, and Greg Wright. Greg won most popular model with his scratchbuilt 1:28 scale train of a log car, a flat car, and a MOW car.

Chuck Ricketts took up a collection which, when enriched by his personal donation, will provide a train set for a child who otherwise might not be able to obtain one. Think of a young boy or girl at Christmas time, with nose pressed to hobby shop window, with a dreamy but sad look. Chuck inspired the Tacomaclinic guys last year to place a contribution can with George Boucier at Tacoma Trains for the same purpose — a project that, thanks to George’s personal contribution, was very successful in making train sets available to several Tacoma-area youngsters.

We reviewed reports of layout owners Ry Bates, Scott Buckley, Brian Ferris, Chuck Ricketts, Greg Wright, and Jim Younkins who, on November 3, opened their layouts for guest operators from Oregon,Eastern Washington, and all points between for the price of a contribution to the Thurston County Food Bank. Visiting operators contributed over 175 pounds of food and $90 cash and had a grand time running trains on one layout of their choice in the morning and another layout in the afternoon.

Once again everyone present for the evening held a winning door prize number and carried home some treasure. “Itza muracle!” exclaimed Sue Ritter.

Our next meeting is the annual Christmas social get-together at the home of Ron and Carol Beghin on December 14.

Olympia Clinic

2013 PNR Convention Status Report

Written by Al Lowe
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Tom Waters, Co-chair

As a lot of you know, Boise will host the Northwest Regional Convention next year, June 26–30, at the Boise Hotel and Convention Center (formerly the Holiday Inn, across from the airport).

All of the usual convention functions will be on the agenda: clinics, model contests, prototype tours, silent auction and even a two-day train show! Our web page includes information on registration, hotel reservations and more.

We begin on Wednesday evening with a BBQ at the Boise Depot. Joel Slagg will give a clinic about the history and move of Big Mike.

There are some new things in the works that we’ve never done before; see the web page.

If you can share your model railroad with us, tell Clyde Queen, layout tour manager.

If you have or are part of a modular club, tell Tom Waters.

If you are interested in presenting a clinic, tell Bob Parrish.

There are 30+ people actively planning this convention. But don’t let that stop you from volunteering to help.

By the way, if you’ve never attended an NMRA Regional Convention, you’ve missed a great time. Just ask me, I’ve been to eight or nine and I had a great time at every one!

Convention or Meet

November NMRA InfoNet News

Written by Al Lowe
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Gerry Leone, NMRA Communications Director

National Election

NMRA Secretary John Stevens announced the 2013 National election candidates. Ballots will arrive early next year. The candidates are:

At-Large Worldwide Director

Stan Ames
Mike Brestel
Larry Smith, MMR
Leslie Eaton, MMR

Atlantic District Director

Alain Kap
Kathy Millatt

Western District Director

Larry Alfred, MMR
Jack Hamilton, MMR

Other News

President Charlie Getz has named Jim Lupfer head of the Convention and Trade Show Department, replacing Bob Amsler, who remains NMRA Counsel.

An interview with President Getz is in the current Model Railway Show podcast. Jim Martin talks with him about his plans for the NMRA. To listen, click here, or go to iTunes and download Episode 44. All episodes remain on the TrainLife website, so you can listen to them anytime. In two weeks, Charlie will return to the podcast to discuss “The Magic of Scale Model Railroading” exhibit at the California State Railroad Museum.

Western Director Jack Hamilton and his committee are working on a new Long Range Plan for the NMRA. Jack is still looking for input from members, and writes, “The October edition of NMRA Magazine put out a general call (“NMRA – Where do the tracks lead?”) to members for input for NMRA strategic planning. There have been a number of excellent responses to the call but not nearly in the numbers that might be suggested by the normal level of grousing and gripes about the organization. This is your opportunity to make a difference and have some direct say in the direction the NMRA takes into our future. This is your organization and your ideas and input will be treated with equal value and respect. Please read the October article and make your desires known to me at westdir@hq.nmra.org.”

Allen Pollock, Museum Committee Chairman, would like to put the word out about fundraising efforts for the California State Railroad Museum’s “Magic of Scale Model Railroading” Gallery Project. Allen writes, “You’ve read the article by President Getz in the November NMRA Magazine about the Gallery project. I’m asking for your help. We’re close to making it happen, so please discuss the idea of making a donation with your Region or Division Boards. If all participate, we’ll be successful in raising the $250,000 we need by early next year to receive the matching grant. Right now we already have $160,000 of the needed funding. If you have any questions or need additional info about this unprecedented chance to spread the word about our hobby, contact me directly at 573-619-8532.”

From Vice President of Special Projects, Bill Kaufman: “Sometime in February, the NMRA national will send out an Electronic Bulletin. It will be filled with calendars, Divisional success stories and the like. Sent out every two months, it is not intended to replace NMRA Magazine, but to be a collection of teasers with links to info. We hope you like it. One key to its success is email addresses. We currently have emails for about 75% of our members but more is better and we know some of what we have are wrong. If your email address has changed (or you never gave it to us) please send it to secy@hq.nmra.org.”

Brett Lambert has left the Kalmbach Memorial Library to pursue other career interests. We wish him the best and thank him for his many years of service. In his absence, requests will be handled by the HQ staff.

The Standards and Conformance Committee has been working with Bachmann and Soundtraxx to be sure both companies are in conformance to NMRA standards for DCC decoders. In the past there have been some concerns about each company’s wiring harnesses not meeting specs.

The Winter Board of Directors Meeting will be held inAtlanta,Georgia, on February 8–10. All NMRA members are welcome to attend. Times and location will be announced later.

News

October Tacoma Clinic Report

Written by Al Babinsky
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Al Babinsky / Photo by Chip

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic and asked Leon to come forward to make a presentation. Leon presented the NW Emergency Food Network with a check of $1,250.00 which was collected during the last year of clinics.

An announcement about last Saturdays Boeing swap meet was made. Another announcement concerning a donation can at Tacoma Trains Hobby store was made asking that anyone who stops by to ask for the can and make a donation. These donations are to be used by the Hobby Store owner to help youngsters to buy a model train that they otherwise could not afford.

It was mentioned that Tony Bentley is at Manor Care in Tacoma due to a mishap and would be glad for anyone to stop by.

Next month is Dirty Santa, so don’t forget to bring a wrapped gift marked as to the scale and the price to be at your discretion?

Bill Deutscher from Tacoma Trains presented what’s new at the Hobby Shop. He had a number of new items from Lionel, Atlas, Micro-Trains and some calendars and books.

Click to enlarge

Model of the Month or as we like to call it, Bring ‘n Brag produced a number of fine models Chris brought a couple of locomotives one with a custom paint job. Scott Croft a kit bashed kit of the Crystal Springs Creamery, Jim Murrey with a building flat of the Milwaukee Road Railroad Express bldg., Dale Kraus a 3 stall engine house for his 760mm narrow gage railroad, Jim Cobb 2 model A trucks, Patrick several hopper cars with loads, and Paul Rising a model of Barnacle Bills Tavern which was the subject of our clinic. The winner was Scott Croft with his creamery.

After the break Paul gave a clinic entitled, “A Case Study in Model Development  and Construction.” The subject was Barnacle Bills Tavern and how it came to be built. The tavern is part of the PSMRE display layout at the Washington State History Museum. The problem was that the building is not there anymore and no pictures exist to our knowledge. Paul was able to find someone that had worked at the tavern and by asking question about the building he was able to come up with a general idea of the building and being an architect was able to convert that information into a plan of the building from which he could construct the model.

An excellent clinic with a couple of great handouts for those who might want to try such an endeavor.

As mentioned next month clinic will be given by Dirty Santa and we hope you can attend and enjoy the evening of fun and food. We will meet at our usual place at the Pierce County Library Admin. Bldg. at the corner of 112th Street and Waller Road at 7:30 PM.

Tacoma Clinic

Eastside Get Together this Thursday

Written by Al Lowe
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JJ Johnston

Reminder: The Eastside Get Together meets this coming Thursday, November 15, 7:30 PM, Bellevue Four Square Church. An exciting evening is planned with a presentation from one our most popular clinicians, Jim Sabol. Jim will present his new clinic on “Plaster-Less Cloth-Shell Scenery” and as always his information, humor and displays are always entertaining.

We always ask this time of year for you to bring a small donation for our annual Christmas Donation Fund to assist in modest financial assistance for a member or two of the Church where we meet. This is in consideration for the Church providing us rent-free space for our meetings, room set-up and the free use of their coffee supplies. Over the past years we have been able to positively impact the lives of several less fortunate people who attend the Church and who have been recommended to us by the Church Pastor. We appreciate your consideration and gifts.

Bobj tells me he will be bringing some built European buildings for sale at the Mart. I have seen these structures and they are extremely well done. As always, video library, model of the month, free coffee, donuts and good times.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic

Eastside Get-Together October report

Written by Al Lowe
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Ed Liesse / Photos by Ed Liesse

Click to enlarge

JJ Johnston welcomed a smaller than usual group of attendees this month (Presidential debate? Seahawks game?). Announcements included the Ravensdale Train Show, October 20–21, the 33rd Boeing Club Swap Meet in Kent, November 10, and the next 4th Division Board of Directors meeting, November 17 at Mitzel’s Restaurant in Kent.

There was no video library or Mart this month. There were three Model of the Month entries. David Yadock won (again) with his scratchbuilt King Truss trestle.

After a short break, Russ Segner gave a presentation on the DuPont Museum and the restoration work being done there. He said Fred Foreman, head of Public Works for DuPont, is leading the rehabilitation effort at the museum. The townspeople are also getting behind the effort and have provided a covered shelter and electricity for the on-going work. The current work is the rebuilding of a 3-foot, narrow gauge flatcar. There is a sibling car at Ft. Lewis that provides an overview of the finished product. Pictures of the DuPont car before reconstruction started revealed the extent of work to be done! The work crew is usually 4–5 people but more are welcome. It’s full scale, 12″ to the foot modeling! If you’re interested in helping out and getting experience rebuilding full-size railroad cars, give Russ a call at 425-228-7327 for more information.

The next meeting will be Thursday, November 15. This will also be our chance to make donations for our annual gift to the church for the support of those in need.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic