Skip to main content

Grab Iron Posts

Tacoma Clinic

Written by Al Babinsky
Leave a Comment

By Al Babinsky, Photos by Al Babinsky

Model of the Month Winner

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic by welcoming all. There were no newcomers present under the 46 attendees. Walt Houston reported that the Convention in Lynnwood was a great success and a number of our clinic attendees received awards and ribbons for their efforts.

Walt Houston was the recipient of the Golden Grab Iron Award and Ed Liesse and his wife gathered the Couple of the Year award.

Dave Faucett who won a few awards spoke briefly about why to be a member of the NMRA and what you get out of it. He met a number of people that were involved in the many different aspects of the Hobby and would otherwise not have known.

George Bourcier from Tacoma Trains presented “What’s new at the Hobby shop” which included new books, decals, hoppers, tank cars, and motive power. He also had several boxes of rolling stock from an Estate sale, they will be available in his store for any body to look at and purchase. Herb Buhl presented the Bring and Brag (Model of the month) which included several Diesel locomotives a boxcar, an engine facility, a G scale Ozark Miniatures logging disconnect, and a Builders in Scale water front structures building housing a law office and several businesses on the ground floor with rooms to rent on the upper floors. Dave Faucett won the model of the month with his Builders in Scale structure.

The clinic for the month was presented by Dale Kraus and was called Update on DCC. Dale demonstrated on how to set up locomotives with sound so that the engine would start and spool up prior to the locomotive moving. This was done by setting CV2 and CV3 with a high number and then using the consecutive thirds principle to get the correct setting. His next demonstration was on how to install a decoder in an older style Athearn. He cautioned that prior to closing up place the locomotive on a programming track to insure that there are no shorts or other problems and always use a programming track to check out your locomotives prior to use and changing the address.

Next month clinic will be at a different location due to the fact that November 11th is Veterans Day and the Library building is closed. The location for next month clinic is at the “Church for All Nations” at 111 112th Street at 7:30 PM. Park near the main entrance and the clinic is on the 2nd floor.

The clinic for next month is a Power Point presentation by Al Babinsky on the Miniature Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany, a fascinating display of automation and operation. Hope to see you there and bring friends and enjoy a great evening.


Tacoma Clinic

Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic

Written by Gordon Garnhart
Leave a Comment

Gordon Garnhart

There were 22 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Community conference room on October 13th. The meeting was started with Steve Jaffrey, as project superintendent, presenting a first draft and distributing copies of the rules for the upcoming scratch built structure competition. Finalized contest rules will be distributed at a later date.

Susan Gonzales distributed copies of the newly revised and updated list of books, annuals, catalogs, DVDs, handbooks, journals, magazines, VHS tapes and other literature that various members have in their personal libraries and have made available for others to use.

The featured speaker for the evening was John White, who repeated the talk he delivered at the banquet for the Pacific Northwest Regional Convention in September in Lynnwood, Washington. His subject, “Development of the Concrete Tie Market in North America”, was well prepared, well delivered and well received. His talk was accompanied by a series of very descriptive slides. This was a very personal story of John’s involvement with concrete ties from 1972 to 1999. This covers the period when there was no market for concrete ties until there were seven plants making nearly two million ties a year, three of which were owned by the company he founded. His presentation was a mixture of history and anecdotes of the challenges he faced to get the product accepted by some very skeptical railroads interlaced with additional details of production challenges with all new equipment. A lively question and answer period followed.

We will next meet on Wednesday, November 10th when Roger Ferris will bring some estate sale offerings and will also lead a Make & Take session.

The meeting was concluded with the usual drawing for several door prizes generously donated by Performance R/C Hobbies on Fairhaven Avenue in Burlington.

Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic

Eastside Get Together Meets Thursday, October 21

Written by Al Lowe
Leave a Comment

JJ Johnston

Meeting on Thursday, October 21, Bellevue Four Square Church.

We’re back in business. To kick off our next meeting after the summer hiatus and the Cascadian Convention, we are planning a blockbuster meeting. “TREES & MORE TREES” is our presentation and our sought after presenter is Charles Jackson. Charles will be showing us how to make incredible trees, he will demonstrate his tree making machine and he will share many new scenery products at unbelievable pricing. He’s also bringing from scenery products which he is donating as door prizes. You have this opportunity to see Charles’ presentation before anyone else in the area. That’s why the Eastside Get Together rocks.

AND, we’ll have the usual great array of activities including the Model of the Month, bring stuff for sale, free coffee and donuts, fabulous door prizes and a great time for all.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic, Grab-Iron

Miniature Wunderland

Written by Al Babinsky
Leave a Comment

Al Babinsky

Miniature Wunderland Main Station

Miniature Wunderland Main Station

On my recent trip to Germany I spent a couple of extra days to stay in Hamburg to visit some of the sights, one of which was of course the Miniature Wunderland of You-Tube fame. The display is located in the Speicher district (Warehouse) of Hamburg, built at the end of the 19th century. It occupies the 3rd and 4th floor at one end and covers an area of 1150 square meters (app.10000 sq ft). At this time there are 7 theme areas with a total of 11 planned. The areas shown are Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia and US, most of which is fantasy with some of the icons built as scale models and compressed to fit the space.

At this time there are 1,2000 m (7.5 miles) of track about 830 trains with 14,100 pieces of rolling stock. The longest train is 14.5 m (46 ft) long. There are 1,200 signals, 2,500 switches, 40 computers. About 300,000 lights, 200,000 figures, 215,000 trees and 5,500 vehicles. At the time I was there, the control room was manned by three persons who operated the layout. They operated the trains and vehicles which included emergency vehicles responding to fires. Scenes include a soccer stadium complete with 15,000 spectators and, of course, the two teams playing, an amphitheater complete with spectators, and a fair with its visitors.

The Swiss area extends from the 3rd floor to the 4th floor. From the 4th floor you can look down on the town and the walk down the stairs to the 3rd floor. While descending, you have the ability to look at scenes such as a below-ground station as you can find in many European cities. From the 3rd floor you can look up to the top of the mountain which is supposed to be the Matterhorn complete with cable cars. The major city on the layout is Hamburg with its icons and the Hauptbahnhof (Main Station).

Miniature Wunderland Control Center

Miniature Wunderland Control Center

The two cities where you see the operating vehicles are Knuffingen and Hamburg as they travel on the roads and stop and start as traffic signals change. All vehicles have lights which operate they include signal lights and operating stoplights, the emergency vehicles have operating flashing blue lights, sirens, and do-da horns.

The Scandinavian section has a fjord with real water and several ships that remotely operated. It has a winter scene along with a mining operation, the underground portion of which can be viewed through glass panels. In the US area you can a see pueblo scene which changes into a high desert area around Las Vegas which represented by its casinos, a miniature Mt. Rushmore, Yosemite  National Park with Half Dome, redwood trees, Cape Canaveral (Kennedy Space Center), Miami, and Key West with its overseas railway.

To my surprise there was a modern Puget Sound transportation item at the station, the commuter train called Sounder. I believe the longest train which operates on the layout is in the US section, a freight double-headed by Big Boys. The section under construction is the airport with most of the scenery, runway, taxi ways and terminal ramps finished. Some lights are installed a couple of buildings are there, no aircraft yet. All in all, a very well-built layout with all the tricks that are available to make it seem real. The lighting used fluorescent lights, white, blue, and red to simulate the 24-hour cycle from night to dawn, day and dusk back to night. I was there on Saturday, which was probably not the best day; I had to wait about 45 minutes to get in. The occupancy is limited to 600, which makes it very crowded and hard to take photos.

If Gene Swanson still has the June clinic spot open I would like to do a PowerPoint presentation of Miniature Wunderland. I have about 80 photos that I took and I also bought a DVD of the layout which is about 2 hours long, too long for the clinic so a presentation will have to do.

Miniature Wunderland Underground Station

Miniature Wunderland Underground Station

Miniature Wunderland Nursery Scene

Miniature Wunderland Nursery Scene

Miniature Wunderland City Scene

Miniature Wunderland City Scene

Articles

You’re Invited to an Ops Session

Written by Al Lowe
Leave a Comment

Tom Enloe

The Cherry Valley RailRoad & Pacific North Western Railway holds operating sessions on the second Saturday of each month. The November session will be on the 13th. Anyone interested in operating with us should contact me at tomenloe@aol.com or Steve Haas at steve.haas@comcast.net.

For those not familiar with these op sessions or the layout, the layout is 28’ x 42’, HO scale, set in 1954, NCE DCC, with operation by timetable & train order. The building opens at 10 AM, the session starts at noon, and we run until 4:30 PM. During the PNR convention, we had 14 guest operators; we normally run with 15 – 18.

Operations

Tacoma Clinic News

Written by Al Babinsky
Leave a Comment

By Al Babinsky

There is no report for the September clinic since I was in Germany at that time and Gene forgot to give me the information. I will however write a small report with some photos from my visit to the Miniature Wunderland in Hamburg.

I have to let everyone know that the November 11th clinic will be at the Church for All Nations at 111 112th Street E. at the usual time of 7:30PM. The Pierce Couny Library Admin. Bldg. is closed due to Veterans Day. The church is on the same street as our normal location just past Pacific Ave. towards Tacoma. If you’re driving on Hwy 512 take the Pacific Ave exit from either direction and go to 112th Street E. which is south of Hwy 512 towards Parkland.

Tacoma Clinic

DCC DEMYSTIFIED – 4

Written by Dale Kraus
Leave a Comment

Dale Kraus

Speed Matching

Before getting into consisting, one more step needs to be taken. To have a smoothly running consist, all of your locos should run at (about) the same speed for a given speed step. Exact matching may be theoretically possible, but is far too fussy for practical implementation. What we really need is for the locos to start together and run realistically without excessive “bucking.” Unless they all run at about the same speed the faster locos will drag or shove the slower ones, decreasing the tractive effort and causing the faster locos decoders to run hot. This is not a good idea. 

To accomplish speed matching we need to use only three CV’s: CV2 (starting speed), CV5 (top speed), and CV6 (mid range speed). Assuming you have already slowed down your locos (DCC Demystified-3), follow the steps below for a “good enough” solution. 

First, select the loco that starts at the lowest speed step (usually step 2). This will be used as a standard for comparing the others. Place this loco on a three-foot long (minimum) test track. This can be on your layout, but I prefer a separate track. Take another loco and temporarily give it the same address as the “standard.”  Place the second loco on the test track about six inches from the standard, and start the locos. Adjust CV2 on the second loco until they both start at the same speed setting. To avoid having to take the “standard” loco off the track, simply tip it up on the far rail and place a sheet of paper under the wheels on the near side. Do this step for all your locos. Just doing this step will cure 80% of the problems that occur during consisting if you have already used CV’s 5 and 6 to slow down your steel steeds. If you are going to operate your RR before finishing the speed matching be SURE to return all locos to their primary addresses!! 

That’s enough for one night … go take a break. 

The next time you get ambitious, take the “standard” loco and one of the others and place them on your main line, about a foot apart. (If necessary, change the address of the second loco again.) Start ‘em up and go quickly to main line speed. Note if the second loco lags behind or catches up. Use the paper under the wheels trick to isolate the standard loco and, using Program on the Main, adjust CV5 on the other up or down. Check the two together again and change CV5 as needed. Repeat this drill with the other locos. Note here that they will NEVER run exactly at the same speed. Just get it close, as minor differences will not matter. Now, set CV6 to the mid-point between CVs 2 and 5. That will do it. 

Before you quit, remember to reset the addresses of all your locos.

Articles

Quiet Moments at Karlsberg

Written by Dale Kraus
Leave a Comment

Dale G. Kraus, Photos by author

Karlsberg Hauptbahnhof

As an experiment in posting directly to the Grab Iron, Here are two “moments of implied action” at the Sudwest Deutsche Eisenbahn Verein Karlsberg yard.

In the First photo an 03 Pacific and an E13 1-C-1 await their scheduled departure times at the Karlsberg “ Hauptbahnhof” while an 0-8­-0T drills the coach yard.

Karlsberg Engine Terminal

The second photo shows a class 18 light Pacific and A Class 41 Mikado nose to nose in the engine servicing facility, while to the left a small mogul is about to get it’s water tank filled (just as soon as someone climbs up and opens the hatch.) Final checks and lubrication is being done to the pacific and the mike, while the roundhouse super is making a point to the guy with the lube oil cart.

Articles