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Milwaukee Road Modelers Meet August 27–29

Written by Al Lowe
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John M. Reid

The Cascade Rail Foundation is sponsoring a Milwaukee Road Modelers Meet the weekend of August 27–29 at the Cedar River Watershed Education Facility, 19901 Cedar Falls Road SE, North Bend (I-90, exit 32). The cost is $15 for both weekend days or $10 for one day. Box lunches are available for $9. All proceeds go to the C.R.F.

Friday: There will be a van tour along the old Milwaukee right-of-way through the Cedar River watershed on August 27th, from 10 AM to 4 PM for only $10/person. Registration is required and is limited to 21 people.

Saturday: There will be a model display in the morning plus clinics by Doug Nighswonger on MOW equipment and Mike Faletti on modeling bridges, structures & freight equipment. There will be slide shows by Al Currier on Milwaukee history and George Werkema on the Bellingham branch line.

Sunday: There will be presentations on Milwaukee history by Allen Miller, Paul Krueger, John Crosby and Noel Holley.

To register, contact David Newcomb, 206-799-3833, arch@davidnewcomb.com.

Convention or Meet

Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic

Written by Gordon Garnhart
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Gordon Garnhart, Photos by Al Frasch

There were 25 people gathered in the modest sized home of Phil and Susan Gonzales in Oak Harbor on the evening of June 9th.  They had hoped that the crowd overflow could spill out onto the back patio, but the weatherman did not cooperate. However, the layout was definitely worth the trip. They had sealed the door of a single car garage and devoted the space to a very interesting HO layout based on the Carson, Colorado, rail line that ran from Carson City to Keeler. It is set in the early 1940s during World War II. Theirs is a work in process, but they have made great strides, and are developing a layout that will lend itself well to rewarding operating sessions for four to six people.

In Phil’s own words:

It was a lot of fun to have everyone over, although it was a little nerve wracking in the days leading up to it  I started on the layout in October of 2005. Susan started helping about a year later. It took that long to get her hooked! The layout is 11’x16’. The continuous run is a folded dog bone of about 60 feet in length. The Eastern Sierra Pacific has about 75 feet of track, with about 25 feet of that using part of the loop.  We operate as a point to point, using a Digitrax Zephyr DCC system. There are two hidden three-track staging yards that are each nine feet long. The loop has a minimum radius of 26 inches and a maximum grade of 2.25%. The ESP has an 18 inch radius and a max grade of 3.5%. No helpers are needed as the trains are short and the length of the grade is not very long.

Susan’s biggest enjoyment is scenery and buildings. Downtown Deco is her favorite. She has painted most of the backdrop. She also makes the trees. I help with scenery by building the basic plaster shell, rock work and first layer of ground cover. She does most of the finish earth layers.

I do all track and wiring, and have started teaching Susan to ballast. I really enjoy wooden building kits and building and weathering rolling stock.

But the best part of it all is having a wife that has taken an interest in the hobby. Everyone should be so lucky.

We will not have a formal clinic during the months of July and August, but on Wednesday, September 8th we will meet back in the conference room at the Summer Hill Retirement Community at 165 6th Avenue in Oak Harbor where we look forward to enjoying a talk by Noel Holly from the Bellingham Museum about, “Milwaukee Electrification”.

Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic

June Kreitler Passes

Written by Al Lowe
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Dave Kreitler

I am sorry to inform you that on this past Tuesday, June Kreitler passed away unexpectedly during the night. June had been a 4D member for many years. In that time she served as Treasurer for the division as well has played a significant supporting role in events such as PSX96 and the National Convention PSX2004.

Her interests in the hobby were varied from introducing her children to American Flyer trains, to helping them build their first HO layout, to exploring N scale T-Trak modules, and more recently trying her hand at O scale craftsman kit building.

She enjoyed all the crazy things we do in this hobby such as crawling around the steam donkeys at Camp 6 to get critical measurements and stomping through the brush to get photos of some old rusting piece of iron or some building that is about to collapse – regardless of how hard it was raining.

She enjoyed riding trains too whether it be the geared triple header at Mt Rainier or taking Amtrak’s Empire Builder across the country with 4 children.

While her failing eyesight limited her modeling in recent years, she still kept track of local events and attended local train shows. She always enjoyed getting out to see what folks were doing and touch base with the model railroading community. Her spirit will be missed.

For anyone interested there will be a service Saturday evening (August 7th) at Flintoft’s in Issaquah at 7:00 p.m. The spirit of the service will be an informal celebration of her life. For directions, more information, or if you cannot make the service and would like to leave a farewell note, visit http://www.flintofts.com. The family is asking that in lieu of flowers, anyone wishing to do so please make a charitable contribution to the King County Humane Society.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic, News

OLY-OPS 2010 Announced!

Written by Al Lowe
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Greg Wright

Save the date Saturday, November 6, 2010 for OLY-OPS 2010. Early registration for people who have participated in the past will begin in August. Make plans now!We hope to have one new layout and new scenery and progress on all the other layouts!

Watch for more information around the 1st of August. Please feel free to call me at 360-352-5386.

Olympia Clinic, Operations

Command Control Demystified, Part 2

Written by Al Lowe
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Dale G. Kraus, MMR

Continuing this sporadically produced screed …

Myth #3: Track switches must be “DCC Friendly”

This is perhaps the most persistent myth in all of digital command control. Somehow, the word has gotten out that all of the all-rail-frog (i.e., Shinohara™) switches are unusable and that older insulated (dead) frog switches, such as the Atlas Custom Line™ must have their frog castings powered. Prospective DCC converts at my old shop often voiced this concern. The modeler was reluctant to take the leap into DCC for fear he would have to rip out and replace all his old turnouts. I don’t want to put too fine a point on this, but …rubbish!

This myth stems from two characteristics of the commercial all rail switch: First, since the points are connected together with all metal tie bars and a pivot bar, both point rails carry the same polarity as whichever stock rail the points are touching. This means that the frog also has that polarity. From these characteristics, a fear has developed that loco and/or car wheels will short out the command station when rolling through the points. Not possible! If both the wheelsets and the switch points are built to NMRA standards there will be a substantial air gap between the wheels and the open point rail. If you experience shorts, check the wheelset back-to-back and the point-to-stock rail clearance using your NMRA standards gauge. One of these is seriously out of tolerance.

Second, because the frog polarity changes with the point position, the open end of the frog rails must be insulated from the inner rails of the attached track. Two insulated rail joiners are the easy fix. The outer rails of the diverging tracks need not be insulated from the stock rails of the switch. Regular metal joiners may be used there. If you do not insulate the inner rails, you will have a short! It is also necessary to assure good electrical contact between the points and the stock rails. Keep the inside surface of the stock rail clean (use a Bright-Boy) and make sure the point closes completely and firmly. Be sure no bits of ballast or glue interfere.

Lastly, the Custom Line switches need not have their frogs powered unless you are using really small, two- or three-axle locos. Occasionally one of these frogs is installed one- or two-thousandths of an inch higher than the metal rails. A few strokes with a fine cut mill file laid flat on the frog will cure this.

More later.

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