By Rich Thom / Photos by Al Frasch
John White recently handed over the reins as Clinic Chair of the Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic, an enthusiastic group of modelers and rail enthusiasts which meets monthly in Oak Harbor. John served as SV&W Chair for twelve continuous years, if not a record certainly an admirable span of leadership. Over these dozen years, our clinic gatherings have shown considerable growth not only in numbers but geographical span of attendees as well.
John White opens a meeting of the Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic
During John’s chairmanship, he organized over 100 clinics embracing a broad range of model railroading skills and techniques; railroad history and prototype railroading; “make and take” sessions; and of course layout visits. Swap table and “show and tell” nights alternate months during the year, and in recent years a popular annual modeling contest has been included. John and his wife, Valerie, have also encouraged additional group socializing by hosting a “Wassail” party each December in their Anacortes home, during which John’s fine On30 layout is fired up for operation, too.
During John’s watch, clinic attendance has steadily increased, requiring three ever-larger venues over the past eight years as we outgrew each room. Currently the SV&W Clinic meets in the Summer Hill Retirement Facility in Oak Harbor. From the 2004/5 to the current 2011/12 season, during which John kept attendance statistics, average attendance nearly doubled from 17 to 30, with a peak (reached just this March) of 37. We may soon need a new meeting room! Clinic attendees come from a relatively wide area: all of Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands; Mt. Vernon and Sedro-Woolley to the east; and Bellingham to the north. The “Skagit Valley and Whidbey” name was the shortest we could devise, but certainly isn’t inclusive. Guest clinic presenters have come from all parts of the Puget Sound region.
For those of whom have not heard the story (John was the Guest Speaker at the September 2010 PNR Convention Banquet), John, now retired, was responsible for introduction of concrete ties into use by North American railroads. He was a principal in establishing three plants in the U.S. for manufacture of these ties.
John White working the town of Concrete on his On30 Skagit Valley Eastern
John is also an outstanding modeler. Beginning first in OO-scale with British prototypes, he shifted his focus to the Great Northern in HO-scale. Ultimately he abandoned both for On30. John’s present layout, the Skagit Valley Eastern (SVE), fills most of a 14ft. x 51ft. room. The SVE, set in the late 1920’s, is loosely based on the Skagit River Railroad built to haul men, material, food, equipment and a lot of cement to various dam projects on the Upper Skagit River.
The SV&W Clinic meets ten times a year on the second Wednesday of each month, September through June. Two volunteers have stepped up to continue John’s work: Rich Blake as the new Clinic Chair; and Susan Gonzales as Program Organizer. Follow the SV&W Clinic’s activities by reading the Grab Iron reports by our NMRA Liaison and Reporter, Gordon Garnhart.
