By Rich Thom, Photos by the author unless noted.
John White, who passed away on March 21st at age 90, was well-known around the NMRA PNR’s 4th Division for serving as chair of the Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic for twelve continuous years, 2000-2012. During John’s leadership, average SV&W Clinic attendance doubled, drawing attendees from all of Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands as well as western Skagit and Whatcom counties. Eventually, due to the distances traveled and outgrowing our meeting room, the group divided into the current SV&W and Mt. Vernon Clinics.
Perhaps less well-known across the division was John’s On30 Skagit Valley Eastern (SVE). John was an outstanding modeler and went through a succession of prototypes and scales (as many of us do!), first modeling British prototypes in OO-scale, then the Great Northern in HO. Ultimately, he settled on modeling Skagit County short lines in On30.
The SVE, set in the late 1920s, was loosely based on the Skagit River Railway built by Seattle City Light to haul men, equipment, and a lot of cement to several dam projects on the Upper Skagit River. As John himself described his SVE: “Much poetic license has been used in the type of traffic and scenery!” The layout also incorporates two fictional SVE subsidiaries, the Sauk, Oso & Western Railway and the Wickersham and Chuckanut.
The 14 ft x 44 ft layout consists of four legs, each 2 ft wide and made up mostly of 6 ft x 2 ft modules. Two of the legs comprise the SVE, the third the SO&WR, and the fourth the W&C. All four legs are connected by an oval behind the scenery which permits any train to go from any leg to any other leg. A partition wall down the long dimension of the room divides the layout space in two and supports hand-painted backdrops.
The largest town modeled is Concrete, spanning about 30 ft of one of the two legs representing the SVE. Here is a station, engine house, turntable, a Seattle Light & Power powerhouse, and a representation of the town’s vast Superior Portland Cement plant, which John re-imagined as Skagit Portland Cement. Concrete, near extensive limestone deposits, produced enormous quantities of cement over several decades.
The locomotive roster and rolling stock consist mostly of Bachmann products. To many, John added additional details from sources such as Backwoods Miniatures. Of all the elements that make up a model railroad, John enjoyed building structures more than any other; most were scratch built. Just a few of them are illustrated in these photographs. For his larger buildings, John utilized Gatorboard as a structural base for its rigidity and humidity resistance, gluing siding and roofing material to it. John described his methods for building structures, his standardized 6 ft x 2 ft modules, scratch built turnouts, and many other topics at SV&W clinics over the years.
John’s Skagit Valley Eastern was frequently opened for visitors, including at least once for the Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia “NG Open House” event coordinated by Dave Kreitler. SV&W Clinic members were fortunate to be able to keep up with the layout’s progress during other open houses and, later, operating sessions. The op sessions utilized written train orders and switch lists, a dispatcher, trainmaster, and up to four crews to keep an equal number of trains moving over the railroad.
John and his wife Valerie also hosted a “Wassail” party in British tradition each December, offering food, drink, and camaraderie in their Anacortes home, open to all SV&W Clinic members and all other modelers in the area. The SVE was of course fired up, too. The Wassail was held for at least nine years and was always one of the best events of the year.
John was an active member and supporter of the NMRA and the 4th Division. He was the Guest Speaker at the September 2010 Pacific Northwest Region Convention Banquet, where he described the history and technology of the concrete tie business in North America in which he was an industry pioneer. John received the NMRA 4th Division Superintendent’s Award in 2012 for his exemplary service as the SV&W Clinic Chair.
