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Grab Iron Posts

Time Well Spent At Home

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Alex Brikoff

This time at home could very well be a blessing in disguise. While people might be concerned with the next COVID-19 closure or announcement, I’m happy to announce that my layout is a Coronavirus free zone and that work is continuing on various projects on the layout. Having said that, I’d like to share with you a couple of photos of a set of Accurail Refrigerator cars that I built up recently. They feature Kadee whisker spring couplers, Athearn metal wheels replacing the plastic ones that came with a kit. Also, all the car numbers are unique. I did have to change one of the car numbers using techniques that were presented in last month’s “Decaling” clinic by Nick Muff and Al Carter at the Eastside Get Together Clinic. Finally, the cars were weathered using Bragdon Weathering Powders applied using a dry brushing technique.

I hope you enjoy the photos and are encouraged to work on your modeling projects while spending your time at home. Stay safe, stay healthy!

Alex

Articles

Mt Vernon NMRA Clinic Special Interest Discussion Group

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Tom Buckingham

Jim Betz and Ted Becker have been discussing some kind of online activity during the current “lock down”. To that end, Jim has created a Special Interest Discussion Group called PNWRRModelers. It can be found at:

https://groups.io/g/PNWRRModelers/

PNW Railroad Modelers is a discussion group for model railroaders in the Pacific Northwest

The “host”, Groups.io is a “replacement” for yahoo groups if you are familiar with that. If you were a member of a yahoo group you have probably already learned how to use groups.io and are active in some groups. To gain access you will need to click the “Join The Group” button and then make a post to it to introduce yourself to the other members. The first post will go to Jim and he will approve it (this discourages scoundrels) and you will be live from then on.

The only thing you have to do is to choose which type of notice for posts you will get from the group. Most will choose “Digest” mode which means that you will get one or at most two digests a day that will collect all the posts for that time period. You will get that in an email. You can read and forget, read and reply, or just ignore/delete.

According to Jim it’s really easy to use.

Tom

Mt Vernon Clinic, News

Bob’s Resignation And Gratitude

Written by Anton Faulk
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4th Division Membership Chairman Bob Rorabaugh steps aside from the role:

I must express my appreciation for the privilege of representing the NMRA and, in particular, our 4th Division (PNR), as the “face” to the public.  My resignation was official at the end of February.  These last five or six years went quickly by.  It’s time to pass the baton to someone with fresh enthusiasm and ideas.  It’s past time for me to actually build a layout!  

Note well:  I’m willing to serve and support our next Membership Chairman as others have assisted me.  I’ve prepped ahead promotion material, put some procedures in place, and can actually “stand in” on occasion, if needed. Call any of the Board members you know (or me) if you are interested in what the role entails.  My cell # is 206-948-9511

Again, I’m grateful for friendships formed with members of the 4D Board, help from some of you, and for this way to express my love of/interest in people.  The many of you I’ve met made representing you and our shared hobby a delight.

Respectfully,

Bob “Stumpy” Rorabaugh

News

Email Scam

Written by Russ Segner
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Some of you may have received an email recently purporting to come on behalf of one of the 4D or PNR officers or board members. The email tries to persuade you to buy gift cards or send money electronically to help someone in distress. THESE ARE SCAMS. No one from the 4D Board or any PNR leader will be asking for money to be handled in a manner in which the funds cannot be traced.

Lots of folks at home right now, so these types of scam are common. Delete the email.

Russ Segner, 4D Superintendent

News

Scratch Building

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Russ Segner

Mark Hills is a long time local model builder focusing on D&RGW.  He has weathered many of my collection of HO Rio Grande work equipment and cabooses.  I saw this posted on Facebook and though it a great and complete article on scratch building.  So, I am sharing it with his permission on the Grab Iron:

https://atlasrescueforum.proboards.com/thread/8014/building-rio-grande-covered-finished%C2%A0

Enjoy and post some of your model building now while we staying home.

Russ

Articles

Cabin Fever – Projects

Written by Russ Segner
1 Comment

By Russ Segner

“I haven’t got time!” I hear that a lot. But now, many of us have a lot more free time than we planned. So, I’m asking everyone who now has time to share with the rest of us some of your current model railroading projects. It can be a model, a wiring project, decoder install or some part of your layout.

Larry Sloan has answered my call to member to share your current projects with this, a new control panel for one of his HO modules. Larry is a member of our HO modular group, the Seattle Pacific & Eastern, headed by Mike Slease.  Larry is also one of the leaders of the new HO Free-Mo modular group now joining the 4th Division. This is a group that was formerly located in the Tacoma Freight House, now the Amtrak station. They lost their permanent layout, so they went mobile.

 

Here is another shot of a demonstration Larry built to show at clinics which shows the various capabilities of DCC. He unveiled it at our recent Pacific Science Center Show.

Well done Larry. Let’s hope others will pitch in and share some of their work with the rest of us.

Russ

News

Cabin Fever

Written by Russ Segner
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By Russ Segner

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a little shut in by the news. My wife, Susan, and I have plenty of supplies and are not venturing out for awhile. So, what to do? Susan has her knitting and we are both brushing up on our cooking skills.

I have decided to really get serious about finishing my MMR. So, time to build those four scratch built cars. It is also time to finish some detail work on structures and scenes that I hurried through when building my layout. Speaking of the layout, I really miss the time we had planned to share with the recent Sound Rails visit by model railroaders from out of our area. I also will miss our local layout tour in Tacoma.

The one other thing I am doing is preparation of a video presentation describing my layout and how it operates. This will let me share with those visitors who had planned to be here for Sound Rails and who will not get to see my layout. I am suggesting that many of you who have layouts also prepare presentations of your layouts to share by means of our 4D website.

This is an opportunity to share with all in the 4D what you are doing on your projects as well. How about a three to five minute video or a short article with photos?  Just send the link to your youtube video and a summary description to gi_editor@4dpnr.com.

I have posted some short segments on YouTube which will be a part of the larger presentation. Search for Coal Creek Lumber Company.

Russ

News

Clinics For The Week Of March 16 Are Cancelled

Written by Anton Faulk
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The Clinics for the week of March 16 are cancelled due to the situation with the COVID-19 virus. As the situation changes day to day, the events calendar is being updated as needed.

Clinics cancelled this week:

  • Mount Vernon Clinic, Monday March 16th
  • Eastside Clinic, Wednesday March 18th
  • Olympia Clinic, Friday March 20th

If you have a question about the status of an event, you can check the events calendar or contact the clinic organizer who can be found on the clinics page.

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic, Mt Vernon Clinic, News, Olympia Clinic

Tacoma Layout Tours Postponed

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Kevin Klettke

Hello Model Railroaders,

The Tacoma area layout tours which had been scheduled for the weekend of April 18th & 19th are being postponed until further notice. The current situation with the COVID-19 virus makes it imperative that we do our part to be responsible and take every measure possible to prevent possible exposure of our membership, our families and our community. We will discuss rescheduling this event when circumstances allow.

Please be safe.

Kevin

Layout Tour, Tacoma Clinic

Clinic Cancelled – Eastside Get Together for March 2020

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Alex Brikoff

Due to the health risks associated with the current COVID-19 Coronavirus epidemic, the City of Redmond is acting on King County Public Health’s latest recommendations to close the Redmond Community Center at Marymoor Village until, at least, the end of March.  All events and meetings have been cancelled until such time that the Center reopens.

Consequently, the Eastside Get Together Clinic on March 18, 2020 has been CANCELLED due to the Redmond Community Center being closed for health concerns associated with COVID-19.  The Eastside Get Together Clinic will return as soon as possible when these health risks have passed and the Redmond Community Center reopens!  We will stay current on all developments regarding this and forward them on to you through the Grab Iron.

Meanwhile, stay healthy and, hopefully, all this will soon be behind us!

Thanks for understanding!

Alex 

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic