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Seattle-North Clinic Meets April 7th

Written by Jeff Moorman
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By Jeff Moorman

After introductions and announcements the first topic at the March meeting was operation, specifically operation on modules. The 4D NTRAK experience at the Monroe show was cited as an example. Instead of setting up in a big circle and running laps, they set up end-to-end and ran back and forth. Everyone, including the spectators, seemed to enjoy it. Of course, without DCC, it would have been less interesting.

So, we shouldn’t automatically think continuous loops in our own module plans. For example, just 2 standard banquet tables end-to-end would provide a 16-foot long run. And, of course, L and U shaped arrangements are easily possible.

In order to make point-to-point running interesting you would need at least one passing siding (or runaround track) and some spurs for switching. Therefore we should give that type of trackage consideration as we build more modules.

Next up we talked about ways to find out what color things were, if you are modeling an era before the widespread use of color film. Generally that’s any time before the second half of the 20th century. Here are some of the items suggested:

  • Paintings are usually in color and can contain a wealth of information about what things looked like and what color they are. Luckily the Internet provides relatively easy access to artwork.
  • Contemporary literature, including newspapers and magazines, can have references to the color of things, even though there might be no illustrations at all. National Geographic was mentioned as having color pictures before most others.
  • Costume reference books as used for theater and costume design are a super reference as to what people wore at various times in history.
  • Advertising posters and signs where done in color long before color photography. There are online and published collections of this material which can be very, very useful.
  • Museums seem an obvious choice. And don’t overlook hobby groups, such as farm equipment or automobile enthusiasts. They can be as dedicated to and knowledgeable of the object of their passions as we can be about model railroading.

I have again failed to get the photos ready on time for this posting. So perhaps I shall do a special photo gallery posting sometime soon.

Right now there are 2 things planned for the April meeting. First, we will do the track planning exercise, scheduled for last time that we never got around to. And second, the module kits should be here. So, if you ordered one, come prepared to pay. They are $9.25 for straights and $16.60 for corners regardless of scale. A few are unspoken for, so if you didn’t pre-order, bring your money anyway.

Remember the next meeting is April 7 and the one after that is May 5.

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) just north of 175th Street, between the Cadillac dealer and Deseret Industries. Note that there is still a lot of construction along this stretch of Aurora. Therefore, it might be best to be going southbound so you can make a right-hand turn into the church driveway immediately after passing the Deseret location.

Meetings are the first Thursday of each month, except July and August. Enter the lower level of the church from the parking lot at the rear. Doors open around 7:00 PM, announcements at 7:15, and the program starts about 7:30. Hope to see you there or at least sometime on down the line.

Seattle-North Clinic

Eastside Get-Together Report

Written by Ken Liesse
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Article and photos by Ken Liesse

Thirty-nine members and one guest were in attendance as JJ Johnston presided over the St. Patrick’s Day version of the Eastside Get-Together Thursday evening. Most members were dressed for the occasion by wearing something green, especially Bobj Berger and Jim Easley. Bobj sported huge, bright green glasses while Jim brought some class to the event with a green bow tie (yes, it coordinated with the rest of his outfit).

Several people had announcements for the good of the order, starting with JJ’s reminder of the upcoming Olympia layout open houses. Ed Liesse let everyone know that if they change their email address, to make sure the new address is given to the NMRA headquarters with Ed copied in, or just sent to Ed and he will forward the new information to National. (eeliesse@aol.com) Please pass this information on to others, as those who have changed their addresses may not be receiving the information.

Bobj Berger announced that Rev. Roger Ferris suffered a stroke on March 15. Roger is still in the hospital and Bobj was not sure when he would be going home. Bobj brought several estate sales for the mart, augmented by some items Russ Segner supplied from Earl Mann’s estate.

Mark Anderson let everyone know that he will again be heading up the train show in Issaquah, which is now set for August 13th from 10 to 4. Russ reminded everyone of the upcoming NRHS convention in Tacoma and its accompanying steam trains, including Daylight 4449. He also mentioned the upcoming steam special at the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railway on May 21st. Bobj said that NMRA members could get a discount for this trip by purchasing tickets from RailsNW.com (www.railsnw.com).

JJ announced the passing of long-time Eastside participant Paul Miller. Paul had recently been diagnosed with cancer and entered the hospital shortly after last month’s clinic. Peter Ormiston brought a card for members to sign and will present it to Paul’s family. We then held a moment of silence for Paul, Roger and the victims of the recent earthquake in Japan.

Bring and brag had six great entries this month. Jim Easley won with a G scale model of a building at Bernina Hospiz in Switzerland. Jim’s building was made mostly from Styrofoam and was a lot lighter than it looked. Other entries included Di Voss’ mockup for a brewery he’s building for his Everett & Monte Cristo, Bob Biese’s loaded gondola, a 1935 American Flyer train brought in by Jim Martin, and a Campbell fire station from David Yadock. The field was rounded out by John Socha-Leialoha’s latest creation, an HO scale model of a slag cart. Additional pictures of these models can be seen at https://picasaweb.google.com/ken.liesse/EastsideClinic31711#.

After the break, Jim Sabol presented a brand new clinic on the nuances of how real railroads move cars from A to B, including a look at why they would want to in the first place. The focus was the importance of freight yards to the real railroads and how we can use them in our modeling. Jim showed how it was possible to have realistic operations with a yard made up of just two tracks. As was appropriate for the day, the featured load in Jim’s clinic was a boxcar full of beer. We all assume it was green fro St. Patrick’s Day.

Jim then passed out plans for the yard on his own layout; a 10’ x 55’ monster built in O scale. Even though the tracks are not complete, Jim already has the operation of the yard mapped out and is ready to implement operations on his layout from the first day of “power on.” We thanked Jim’s wife, Mary, for bringing Jim with her to the meeting to present a wonderful clinic.

The program for April’s meeting has not been determined, but JJ is looking into the possibility of having the June meeting at Chooch Industries in Maple Valley. More information on this will be forthcoming.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic, , ,

Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic

Written by Gordon Garnhart
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Gordon Garnhart / photo by Rich Thom

There were 29 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Community conference room on Wednesday, March 9th. The mini swap meet brought some diesel engines, a variety of rolling stock, both freight and passenger, and a few buildings.

For the main event of the evening, Rich Thom showed some excellent slides and a fine video of Narrow Gauge Steam! In this program, Rich took us on a video tour of two of America’s favorite–and arguably finest–surviving narrow gauge steam railroads, central Pennsylvania’s East Broad Top Railroad and, in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, which is the longest surviving remnant of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad’s once vast 36” narrow gauge system. Although the same gauge, the two railroads are worlds apart in character. We were shown these railroads as they were 14 years ago and, although both survive, they offer today nothing like the activity captured in this program. On the EBT, all four of their then-operable 2-8-2 Mikados were in action for one of their last Fall Spectaculars. (Today only one EBT steam loco is serviceable.)

Opening the line in May 1997 for the summer operating season

On the C&TS, we rode the Cumbres Pass for the very last run of the last surviving D&RGW steam driven rotary snowplow, ALCO-built (1923) plow OY, as it cleared the winter’s snow on the 4-percent grade out of Chama east to Cumbres and beyond. Three of the railroad’s hefty Class K-36 Mikes were needed to push the plow slowly up the hill. We had an inside look at plow OY, as well as a ride in the cab of the lead K-36 as it cleared deep snow around Tanglefoot Curve. All during the slides and the video, Rich provided a running commentary on what we were seeing, including dates, places, and fascinating historical details. The video was complete with stereo sound for the steam enthusiast, and showed many details to inspire modelers. Most of the video and a great majority of the photographs were taken by Rich.

We look forward to Wednesday, April 13th, when Dick Haines will discuss various water effects that will enhance the scenery aspects of our layouts.

Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic

Chehalis Model Railroad Swap Meet

Written by Ken Liesse
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By Ken Liesse

On March 12th & 13th, the Olympia Capitol City Lions Club will put on their 26th Annual All Scales Model Railroad Swap Meet. The show will be held at the Yard Birds Event Center, 2100 North National Ave., Chehalis WA. Admission is $6.00 for adults and $4.00 for seniors and students. Children 12 and under are free with a paid adult. If you’re interested in a table ($27/day) or want more information about the show, contact Bill Zidel, 5143 Blacktail Ct. NE, Olympia WA 98516, ZidelRCSD@aol.com or call (360) 438-3503.

All proceeds (after rental charges) directly support Olympia Capitol City Lions Community Service Projects and is the clubs most significant fund raising event for the year. All labor is voluntary and is supplied by the club.

Convention or Meet, Member Ads

GNRR History Presentations Scheduled

Written by Al Lowe
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Jack Hamilton

The Kitsap Regional Library is sponsoring a presentation by Randy Dasho on A History of the Great Northern Railroads. Randy will speak at three locations, on three dates: the Sylvan Way Library Branch in Bremerton at 2:00 PM, Saturday, March 12th; the Port Orchard Library in Port Orchard at 2:00 PM, Tuesday, March 15th; and the Poulsbo Library in Poulsbo at 2:00 PM, Friday, March 18th.

The public is encouraged to attend. There is no charge for admission.

Railroad History

Railroad History Open House and Lecture

Written by Al Lowe
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Patricia Cosgrove, White River Valley Museum Director

Join the 4th Division’s own Kent Sullivan and the White River Valley Museum for a lecture and slide show about the history of the Northern Pacific Railway’s Tacoma Division on April 1, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. The cost is $5 adults, $4 seniors/children and free for museum membership categories Train Master, Conductor and Engineer. The open house is 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., followed by the lecture from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Kent will present a tour of the link from Puget Sound to Canada, circa 1955, with a special emphasis on Sedro-Woolley, Darrington, Arlington and Snohomish, as well as rare photos of businesses the railway served. He will also cover action on the NPR’s Sumas Line and connecting branches, and long-time Sumas Agent Lorren Coleman will provide commentary.

During the open house, be sure to check out Wrecked! Misadventures on the Northern Pacific Railway. The exhibit is on display through April 17 and explores pitfalls, pratfalls, hotboxes, split switches, telescoped trains, boiler explosions and derailments on the NPR’s sometimes bumpy journey over the Northwest. You can also climb aboard a 1924 NPR caboose in the museum’s permanent exhibit, “1920s Auburn.”

The next Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association and Museum railroad history lecture is Oct. 1, so mark your calendars now and stay tuned for more information.

Railroad History

Seattle-North Clinic – Next Meeting: March 3rd

Written by Jeff Moorman
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By Jeff Moorman

February 3 marked a milestone for the Seattle-North group. We were able to run our first train on a continuous loop of T-TRAK modules. Our guest speaker, Lowell Smiley from United Northwest Model RR Club (UNW), brought along a couple of modules we were able to connect with Dennis’ modules.

They left the train running all meeting long. Every time there was a lull in the conversation, you could hear the train over at the side of the room circling around the “layout.” It was music to our ears (or my ears anyway). I have some pictures that I am not going to have time to get posted. But, I will include them next time.

Lowell is a model railroad advisor for 4H. UNW started doing this as an outreach program for youth. He explained that their program began with just three 3 kids, 10 to 13 years old. Using T-TRAK made it easy to start a program and the small module size made it easy for every participant to take a piece of the railroad home with them. Not every kid is interested, but those that are really like the hands on aspect. Plus, building a T-TRAK module is not as intimidating as building something larger, although most participants end up with more than one module.

The program has been growing and they have monthly meetings in addition to a few scheduled shows. And now that things are up and running, the emphasis is to look beyond the plain track and scenery, and use the program to learn about history and geography. He ended his discussion by talking about the potential for yards and junctions so that they could do more than just run trains in circles.

It was interesting to see that some of the T-TRAK aspects that were appealing to the 4H program are also appealing the Seattle-North attendees, especially ease of start-up, simple wiring, and small module size.

Thanks, Lowell, for sharing with us.

Show and tell was mostly talking about the modules that Lowell brought and how they linked up with what we had. There was also discussion about what some members learned about T-TRAK by talking to exhibitors at the Science Center Show.

The evening ended with a brief chat about what sort of operation was possible on modules and what type the group might prefer.

Our next meeting promises the continuation of the operations discussion just mentioned, a little track planning exercise, and a mini-mini clinic on determining the color of something before color photos. Plus, of course, whatever you bring for show and tell.

Also in March come prepared to let us know if you want any T-TRAK module kits (straight or corner, N or HO). We will try to get these by the April meeting.

Our next meeting is March 3 and the one after that is April 7.

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) just north of 175th Street, between the Cadillac dealer and Deseret Industries. Note that there is still a lot of construction along this stretch of Aurora. Therefore, it might be best to be going southbound so you can make a right-hand turn into the church driveway immediately after passing the Deseret location.

Meetings are the first Thursday of each month, except July and August. Enter the lower level of the church from the parking lot at the rear. Doors open around 7:00 PM, announcements at 7:15, and the program starts about 7:30. Hope to see you there or at least sometime on down the line.

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Seattle-North Clinic

Accepting Nominations

Written by Ken Liesse
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By Ken Liesse, Nominations Chair

Once again, it’s election time in the 4th Division. This year, there are openings for three offices: Assistant Superintendent, Director Position 1, and Director Position 3. Current Asst. Supt. Jim Byerley has indicated that he will not seek another term in his office.

Your Nominating Committee is seeking individuals who would be willing to run for any of these offices. If you would like to run for one of these positions, please send a brief statement about your candidacy to any of the three members of the Nominating Committee: Ken Liesse (NMRAKen@liessefamily.net), Dave Liesse (NMRADave@liessefamily.net), or Ed Liesse (EELiesse@aol.com). If you prefer to submit your statement via USPS, please send it to the 4D Nominating Committee, P.O. Box 5072, Kent, WA 98064. This statement must be signed and should include your qualifications, why you are running, and an affirmation that you are willing to run for the office. We will accept a full name printed at the bottom of an electronic communication as a signature. Statements not including a signature will not be accepted.

As stated in the 4th Division By-laws, these nominations and statements should be in the committees’ hands by March 1st. However, by Board action at the February 26th meeting, this deadline has been extended to March 31st.

Superintendent’s Message, ,

Hobby shop closings

Written by Al Lowe
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by Bob Browne

Note: Bob wrote this as a a Letter to the Editor of the Seattle Times in regards to this article in February 22’s paper. –Al Lowe

Nice piece on the closing of American Eagles and North End Train Center. It is unfortunate that we live in times where the sources of much our learning is disappearing, the building of kits and railroads forces us to learn how things come together and how many things we take for granted are the result of technical revolution.

In addition to the electronic age taking away much of our free time and the potential for interacting with other age groups, shops like these are vital to neighborhoods and are not just part of the ‘Mall Scene’ where we see more and more jewelry, fancy clothes, food courts and telephone stores. The disparaged  ‘Strip Mall’ is where we find most of our necessary things such as groceries, drug stores, auto supply and even newspaper stands.

For the hobbies, we are doing it to ourselves as more and more of the sources of knowledge and assistance are moving to ‘on-line’ sellers and even these begin to dry up as inventory in shops that are closing is not replaced.

For my own life, it is a scene that will never be replaced. The 70 years I have spent in prowling hobby shops has been most enjoyable and a source of much knowledge. The ‘hands on’ feel of a product and the accessories that are needed to support it are gradually disappearing. Even the newsletter from our model railroad group has moved on-line and has largely disappeared. Thanks.

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