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Train Shed Guided Tours Offered

Written by Al Lowe
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Sue Van Gerpen, Northwest Railway Museum

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Guided tours of the Train Shed Exhibit Building at the Northwest Railway Museum are being offered on the first two trains most Saturdays and Sundays. Purchase a Tour Pass in the Depot Bookstore and ride the train to the Railway History Center.  Enjoy a docent-led tour of the exhibits in the Train Shed. Re-board the train and continue your trip. (Tours not available during Fathers Ride Free, Day Out With Thomas and Santa Train.)

Experience the excitement of a working railroad while learning about the important role railroads played in shaping the character of the Pacific Northwest. The Museum is open 10:00 am – 5:00 pm daily.

Engine and Mt. Si

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The Northwest Railway Museum is also offering full passenger service aboard its vintage railway each Saturday and Sunday through October 28th. The Museum will offer scenic rides through the Cascade Foothills to the top of Snoqualmie Falls. Round-trip excursions are 75 minutes long. Board in Snoqualmie at 38625 SE King Street at 12:01 pm, 1:31 pm or 3:01 pm, or in North Bend at 205 McClellan Street at 12:31 pm or 2:01 pm. $10 children, $12 seniors, $15 adults, under 2 free.

Northwest Railway Museum

Ongoing Elections

Written by Ken Liesse
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Ken Liesse

​​Due to a mix up somewhere along the way, the ballots for the 4D elections were labeled to be postmarked by June 30th, 2012 instead of the intended May 15th. 4D will honor the June 30th postmark date and the ballot committee will count the ballots sometime in early July. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused anyone.

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Roger Ferris Downsizing Collection

Written by Al Lowe
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Al Lowe

Roger Ferris is downsizing his collection and offers these items for sale:

1.   A 1920’s GN Baggage Float (wagon) he completely restored with $700 in new oak frame and fir floor 40” X 10’ in green top and red running gear. Asking $1 500.  Will deliver in greater Seattle.

2.   Track maintenance tools: claw bar (for removing spikes), spike maul, alignment bars, tie tongs (for carrying ties to place, rail tongs for lifting and moving rail lengths, hand rail tongs, assorted chains, hydraulic spike puller tool, and more.

3.   25 kerosene railroad lanterns (switchman, switchstand and one electrified switchman) with assorted color globes (clear, amber, red, blue). Assorted prices.

4.   Six sets Pump handcar pre-sized oak for building frames, 25 handcar wheels (15” and 22” Sheffield), blueprints for building finished handcar. Includes three axle sets. Asking $350

5.   Complete hardware set for a three wheel velocipede plus access to pictures for use in rebuilding wood parts. Asking $150

6.   A manual rail drill with bits for drilling rail web bolt holes needs freeing up, lubrication and paint. Asking $150

7.   Bolts, nuts, washers for rebuilding wagons, speeders, velocipedes and oversized washers for wagon wheels.

8.   Signode clip-free steel strap cart, strap and crimping tool. Asking $150.

9.   Several airline food service carts. Asking $40 each.

10  24 furniture moving pads in good condition. Asking $100 for lot.

11.  A personal HO model collection built and un-built including brass and odd items in tinplate. Have a “file” custom built to take varied length cars with a 500 car capacity and a wall cabinet with racks for paint bottles and storage shelves.

12.  A fully restored 1926 Lionel #10 electric loco with new drivers, three passenger cars, original power-pak, two manual switches, track and all in a custom oak velour lined wood case with Lionel name plate. Asking $1 500.

13.  A 1950’s Fairmont track speeder. Motor needs work. Fiberglas top. Asking $450. Will deliver in Greater Seattle.

14.  Two speeder size 4 wheel flat cars. Asking $100 for the pair. One needs new deck.

For more information, or for an appointment to see something, call Roger at 206-546-8695 or email him at railfun@frontier.com.

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NMRA Forms Module Working Group

Written by Al Lowe
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Didrik Voss, MMR, Manager, S&C Department

I have created a working group called NMRAModules to review and revise the specifications for the classic modules as defined in the current Standards & Recommended Practices. If you are interested, or know of a group that has implemented this version of modules, please join the group and join the discussion. We intend to create a common set of specifications throughout NMRA that is up-to-date and uses current electronic components.

I envision other module groups that do not follow the current S&RPs will have their own working groups to develop their own specifications to be adopted by NMRA. For further information, contact me at davoss@pvmtengr.com.

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Eastside Visits Medina

Written by Ken Liesse
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By Ken Liesse

On May 17th, members and guests of the Eastside Clinic had the privilege of visiting Peter Hambling’s layout, the Northwest Trunk Line, in Medina, WA. This tour was facilitated by 4D clinician and long-time worker-bee on Peter’s layout, Dave Hikel. 60 or so folks visited the layout, an awe-inspiring affair that covers the entire basement of Peter’s house. The 3200 sq. ft. layout is based on a John Allen design and encompasses both three-rail O and On30. Dave and his team have made extensive use of computers in designing and running the layout, making it possible for the computer to run trains for open houses without need of operator interference.

Northwest Trunk LIne

The basis for the layout are individual scenes taken around North America that have caught Peter’s attention. Detail is paramount and each scene is even completed with dirt garnered from the places the scenes represent. Sound is also a big component of the layout, right down to the station announcements made when our demonstration train pulled into a station. Even the earthquake braces on the basement support posts were painted to match the posts themselves.

We thank Peter & Laurie Hambling for allowing us to invade their home as well as Dave Hikel for setting up the visit.  A most enjoyable get-together.

For more photos from the visit, click here.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic

BOD Meeting Set

Written by Ken Liesse
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Ken Liesse

There will be a 4D BOD meeting on Saturday, June 2 at 1:00. Location will be the Yankee Grill in Renton, as usual. This is our annual budget meeting, so if you have any budgetary needs, please get them to Sherman Stevens before the meeting. Sherman can be reached at shermanlss@earthlink.net.

Also, any other items of business should be sent to Jean Melvin before May 30 to be included in the agenda. drbear@blarg.net.

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Don’t Miss Eastside’s May 17 Meeting!

Written by Al Lowe
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JJ Johnston

You’ve heard us talk about it. Now it’s happening! Eastside Get-Together members should not miss our Thursday, May 17, monthly meeting. Dave Hikel, our recent clinician, has generously obtained a one-time permission for us to visit the North West Trunk Lines, a 3,200 square foot, O and On30 scale, layout owned by Peter and Laurie Hambling. This unique layout was recently featured in the Seattle Times.

It includes real world scenes from the western U.S. and Canada. Dave took over John Armstrong’s design for construction and enhancement. He drove over 16,000 miles to photograph and collect soil and rock samples of the areas modeled. Backdrops are hand-painted from his photographs. Dave created a control program based on an MTH Digital Command System integrated with a computer running RR & Co layout control software allowing the use of Apple iPads as local control panels during operating sessions. The scenery is exceptional. There’s so much more for you to see, too.

If you want to visit this unique layout, you must:

1. Parking at the Medina Elementary School, 8001 NE 8th St, Medina. NO exceptions. There is no parking available near the Hambling residence.

2. Ride the free van from the school parking lot to the layout.

3. The van will run round trips from 7:00 pm continuously until 10:00 pm. Dave will do a formal introduction and speak about computer control beginning at 7:30 pm. No admittance after 9:45.

The layout is only accessible down an outside stairway into the basement.

See you there!

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic, Layout Tour

May NMRA InfoNet News

Written by Al Lowe
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Gerry Leone, NMRA Communications Director

At Grand Rails 2012, there will be a drawing for four cab rides from among the participants in the Little River Railroad tour. The cab rides will be in the railroad’s #110, a 4-6-2 Pacific built by Baldwin, during its trip to Quincy and back. The train’s consist will contain a WWII troop car, two converted stock cars, and three cabooses. In addition, the Little River RR’s two other locomotives will be on display for photographs. In fact, you can even climb on them!

More convention news: The Grand Rapids Model Railroad Historical Society is producing an HO-scale model of a true local railroad landmark: the Bridge Street Signal Tower. The prototype, still standing near the convention hotel, was built by the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad to stand guard over the railroad’s crossing of five streets. Only 100 of these craftsman laser-cut kits will be available at a special Grand Rails 2012 Convention price of $65. Members can see photos and get a brief history of the crossing tower at www.gr2012.org/towerkit.htm.

The 4th Division of the Pacific Northwest Region has signed on as a co-sponsor of this year’s Narrow Gauge Convention in Seattle. The 4th Division will be signing up members for the NMRA throughout the event.

Because the NMRA’s Online Archives has been such a rousing success, several prominent photographers and collectors have donated their collections to the NMRA. The first is noted author/photographer Louis A. Marre, who’s donated hundreds of large-format negatives of many subjects. Gregory Sommers has also donated a large collection of freight car slides, and David Lange has donated a large number of scanned images from the collection of the late Jim Morris.  Watch for these exciting additions to the NMRA Online Archives in the near future. Hopefully continued donations to The Diamond Club will cover the cost of scanning and preparing the images.

Grand Rails 2012 is looking for volunteers who’d be willing to donate an hour or two of their time at the convention doing things like contest room security, helping with registration check-in, silent auction set-up and tear-down, and bus loading. If you’re interested and have an hour or two you’d like to donate, contact Mark Baldwin, Vice Chair of Volunteers, at gr2012volunteers@gmail.com for more details.

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Tacoma Clinic May meeting

Written by Al Babinsky
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by Al Babinsky / Photos by Chip

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic on time as always with 46 modelers present, there were no newcomers except one old newcomer, Clint Cannon who had not been to a clinic since we moved from TCC. Several announcements were made one of which pertains to next month clinic.

Please note: Next month’s clinic will be on the first Thursday, June 7th at the Parkland/Spanaway library at Pacific Ave and 138th St.

The Tacoma clinic layout tour is scheduled for the 12th of May, and the TNW Swap meet and open house is on May 19 -20. The 4D spring meet is cancelled and will be rescheduled prior to the Narrow Gage convention.

What’s new at the Hobby Shop presented by Bill Deutscher from Tacoma Trains included items such as T-shirts with various rail road logos, Budd 10-6 sleepers in Amtrak IV scheme, El Capitan cars, Kato double stack runner pack, Microtrains 4 pack, each car for a different rail road, N scale cars from several manufactures, tank cars from Atlas in N and HO scale, and Atlas Trainman freight
cars.

Model of the month featured a set of buildings for background silhouette that were cut in half and slightly kit bashed to form a city block. A kit bashed ON30 Forney that had a swivel tender, an entry from German manufacturer Brekina a fifth wheel rail bus for the Sylter SVG in HO scale, and a purple freight car used for wine transport along with a scratch built passenger car and gondola. The winner of the model of the month was Scott Groff with his kit bashed Forney.

This month clinic was presented by Joe Welsh and was titled “The Art of the Streamliner”. The clinic started with how the Streamliner came about and what went into the various designs of the cars and motive power. The rail roads hired industrial designers like Loewy, Dreyfuss, and Kuhler to design their cars and locomotives. Loewy designed the GG-1 and PRR cars, Henry Dreyfuss designed the 20th Century Limited along with its Hudson Locomotive, and Otto Kuhler designed for the Milwaukee Road. His design included the FM diesels and the Hiawatha consists. Brooks Stevens designed the California Zephyr 5 dome car train which was to be run in the day time to allow passengers to see the spectacular scenery.

Again next month clinic will be on June 7th at the Library at 138th St. and Pacific Ave. at our usual time at 7:30 PM. Hope to see you there, this will be our last clinic until September.

Model of the Month Winner

Tacoma Clinic

4D Spring Meet Rescheduled for Summer

Written by Al Lowe
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Al Lowe

You may have heard about the 4D’s Spring Meet, originally scheduled for June 2-3 which, due to unforeseen circumstances, has been rescheduled for a less-busy time of year, August 18-19, 2012. Once an annual occurrence in the 4th Division, the Board of Directors hopes it will become so once again.

We will meet August 18th at the Hilton Garden Inn, in Issaquah for a Saturday filled with the best clinics presented all over the 4th Division during the past year. This will enable all 4D members to see what only some local clinic attendees have seen. We plan to have three clinics offered simultaneously. Coffee, snacks, and soft drinks will be served. Lunch is on your own. (There is a restaurant at the Hilton and dozens more restaurants in Issaquah.) Saturday will end with a short General Membership meeting, concluding before 5:30 PM.

Sunday, August 19th will feature 4D layout open houses. Travel will be on your own, but maps, identification badges, and schedules will only be distributed at Saturday morning’s registration. The public is not invited so you will have plenty of time to enjoy the layouts to the fullest.

Registration is limited to the first 120 members to email 4D Treasurer Sherman Stevens. The cost is a mere $20, payable at the door.

Catch up on all the great clinics you missed over the past year, see some great layouts, and enjoy the camaraderie of the World’s Greatest Hobby. See you August 18th!

Convention or Meet