Yes, this year starts off with celebrating the 165th anniversary of the Pennsy Horseshoe Curve! At the time this was an engineering marvel and is still in operation today allowing freight to quickly move across the mountains of Pennsylvania. The meeting is held at the Northwest Railroad Archives building in Burien. The Archives location is at 425 SW 153rd Street in Burien. The meeting will be held on Saturday March 30th and starts at 12:30 PM.
Al Baker will do the honors of presenting a condensed
version of the History of the Pennsylvania Railroad from the perspective of an
Altoona native. This is the presentation
he gave at the 50th annual meeting of the PRRT&HS last year. He will also provide videos of the Horseshoe
Curve as it was when he was in high school.
This presentation was well received at the Annual meeting and should
provide a wealth of information about the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Horseshoe
Curve, and the local Altoona area.
Mike Bergman will be bringing several books to the meeting. These will all be for sale. If you want books about the PRR, NYC, EL, B&O, or LV now is the time to get them. The proceeds will go to the National Railway Historical Society.
As always, everyone is invited to attend. There is no cost to come to the meeting. The meeting goes to about 5 PM. After the meeting there is a no-host casual dinner across the street at Vince’s.
This year the Fourth Division will hold its annual Spring Meet on June 22, 2019, at Tacoma Community College. Three classrooms will host informative clinic sessions from 9–4. The 4D’s Annual Meeting will be held during lunch, and the GoldenGrab Iron winner will be revealed and new MMRs announced. And there’s even a free lunch (assuming you pay in advance).
4dSpringMeet.com will be updated with complete information about the 2019 clinic in a few days. You may also preregister there via Paypal.
One extra cost option will be the Make and Take Clinic: “The DPM KIT Done Right,” hosted by Jack Hamilton. Email Jack promptly if you’re interested. You can read more about it in the latest Train Ordersr.
June 22, 2019 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Tacoma Community College 6501 South 19th St Tacoma, WA 98466-6100
The 2019 Sn3 Symposium is just around the corner. Come explore some of the finest Sn3 model railroads on the planet. There will be excellent clinics, a vendor room, world-class layouts on display, and a contest.
Sn3 Symposium – Bellevue Sheraton April 4 – 6 12 clinics featuring national instructors Local layout tours Check the website for details. www.sn3seattle.com
Other notable events coming soon:
Kootenay Express 2019 | May 29 – June 2, 2019
The Cranbrook History Centre is a museum and archive dedicated to the research, preservation, and restoration of heritage pertaining to the history of Cranbrook and the Canadian Pacific Railway. It is located adjacent to both active railway operations and the Convention Hotel. https://www.kootenayexpress2019.ca
The March 2019 Eastside Get Together Clinic will meet on March 21, 2019.
The Clinic will meet at the: Redmond Community Center at Marymoor Village 6505 176TH AVE NE, Rm. 202 REDMOND WA 98052-4930
Doors open at 7:00 PM and meeting
starts promptly at 7:15 PM
We will begin by mentioning any
noteworthy, upcoming model railroad and railfan events in the area. We will also have our Model of the Month and Rail Photo of the Month contest.
Bob Rorabaugh will also have the “Buy ‘n
Sell” table available during the evening.
So if you’ve got anything model railroad related you’d like to find a
new home for, contact Bob and he’ll help you do that.
This
month’s Clinic topic will be our much anticipated: “Eastside Get Together Mini Clinic Event”. There will
be four of us presenting six mini clinics on various model railroading topics. These mini clinics are designed to give you a
glimpse into some of our favorite modeling techniques. Although they may be just quick techniques,
it is still something that is useful to share with our fellow modelers.
Syd Schofield
Wheels and Rails at the Interface
A close-up explanation of how rail and
wheels interact with each other at point of contact.
Syd Schofield
Rock Casting Tools and Materials
Tools and materials needed for
creating rock castings.
Syd Schofield
Track Guard Rails
Turnouts and Crossings
Bridges, Tunnels and Trestles
Russ Segner
Layout Design
Designing layouts for operation
JJ Johnston
Easy Roof Shingling
Overview, tools and technique
CJ Turner
Using Acrylic Paint
Overview, preparation and use
We will have door prizes, refreshments and snacks available as
always.
For this month’s clinic, we are unable to meet at our usual location due to circumstances beyond our control. Fortunately we have found an alternate location – a room in the Burlington Public Library. Here are the directions:
Burlington Public Library 820 E Washington Ave. Burlington, WA 98233
Highway 20 to Fairhaven Avenue, East on Fairhaven Avenue (past Suzy’s old hobby shop), Right on Anacortes, Left on East Washington Avenue
Enter through the front doors, conference rooms are off the lobby. We are in the Skagit River Side room.
We will have some limited snacks and coffee available but it will probably go fast so plan ahead.
Entrance is through the rear doors (southwest side) not the main entrance on the street. Parking available next to the building and along adjacent streets.
Some local options available but our lunch break is only an hour. Highly recommend brown bag lunch for all participants.
Read on for more details on our clinics this year.
Ted Becker – Introduction to
Arduino
– What is Arduino? What can it do for me as a model
railroader? How does it work? How do I get started? How do I
learn more? There will be several projects on display and working.
Some of these projects you can do with off-the-shelf components and canned
software. Many model railroad functions can be done with more flexibility
and less cost with Arduino compared to other products. Bring your
questions. Bring a thumb drive so you can take home a lot of (hopefully)
useful information.
Jon Bentz – Updated L Girder Benchwork Construction – A different take on classic L girder design.
This will consist of Planning and layout of benchwork, photos of benchwork
constructed to date on my home layout, and full size samples of benchwork to
share with the group.
Didrik Voss – Create Your Own Virtual Railroad with Trainz – This clinic will explain
how to get started creating your own virtual railroad in Trainz. Didrik will show how he
downloaded the topographic maps for the Everett & Monte Cristo Ry, laid the track and
is currently creating buildings and structures based on photographs and Sanborn
maps.
Roger Johnson – Decoder
Installations & General Soldering – Roger Johnson will demonstrate decoder installations for
pre-screened projects. Prerequisite: If you would like to have a decoder installed in one of your
locomotives, email details to Roger at skagitrailbird@gmail.com no later than March 15th. Please include locomotive
(scale, maker, model, approximate year made) and decoder (make & model #,
if already purchased). Note: Depending upon time and the complexity of the project walk
up requests may (or may not) be accepted.
As time allows he will also demonstrate general soldering
of such things as LEDs and resistors, track and power bus, control panels,
multiple and other components and brass stock for framing signs.
Al Carter – Weathering With Pan
Pastels – How to use Pan Pastels to apply
weathering finishes and touches to both rolling stock and structures. We
will also look at how Pan Pastels can be used instead of paint to color
structures. You will have an opportunity to try your hand with this
technique, and if you want, bring a car to weather – Prequisite: Please first
spray your car with Dullcoat or a similar flat finish. This is approximately a half hour clinic,
followed by:
Al Carter – Improving The Appearance
Of Flex Track – How
to take that shiny plastic flex track and improve its appearance by applying a
base coat of acrylic paint (thanks, Martha Stewart!), then weathering the ties
with water based oil paints, then the rails, and finally the ballast.
Sample track will be provided so you can try your hand at this technique. This clinic is also approximately a half hour
long.
Russ Segner – Layout Planning – My clinic will focus on
some basic ideas helpful in planning a home layout. I will use several
layouts as examples with photos and track plans. It will be a Power Point
presentation with handouts. Questions will be welcomed. My home layout, The Coal Creek Lumber
Company, is point to point Sn3 lumber and mining and is built around the
perimeter of a 19 foot by 16 foot bonus room.
Rich Blake – Handlaid Turnouts and Soldering Basics – This clinic we will explore track soldering jigs (i.e. Fasttracks) and how to properly solder track and other electrical doo dads. Soldering is a craft that when done properly will last for many years, when done improperly will cause many headaches. This clinic will show you some best practices when using soldering equipment for model railroading. PREREQUISITES: If you want some real solder practice please bring a 40Watt or lower soldering iron and iron holder/stand if you have it. We will have solder/flux and other materials available for practice.
Don Jones – Passenger Car and
Caboose Lighting Options, using
LEDs, super capacitors, pickups and light boards – Included will be
“cheapo home made” wire and tube pickups for Athearn passenger
cars with modified Rapido light boards using LED’s and super capacitors.
Also to be
shown will be Streamline Back Shop pickups and light boards for Rivarossi
passenger cars and clones. Included will be examples of Voltscooter Electronics
light boards.
I will
bring examples of the Voltscooter and Streamline Back Shop boards installed in
Rapido and Walthers passenger cars. For the Walthers passenger cars I
will bring and example which uses the Owl Mountain pickup lug kit used to
improve the passage of current from the car trucks to the light board.
I will show
examples of the space saving KSQ2 miniature board which eliminates the need for
a separate resistor and diode rectifier when lighting DCC passenger cars.
Caboose
lighting with marker lights will be demonstrated using the Light It board from
NCE.
Consultation
services will be available for hard to light cars.
Three positions will be on the ballot: ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT and two DIRECTORS.
The
duties of these positions are as follows:
The ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT shall perform all duties assigned by the Superintendent
and serve in the Superintendent’s absence.
DIRECTOR. Serve as the direct representative of the members. Act in the best
interest of the members in the management of the Division.
The
Board of Directors currently meets 6 times a year, generally in the area of
Tukwila or Kent. The meetings usually last for about two hours.
This
is a great opportunity to serve the 4th Division and at the same
time, earn points for you Volunteer Certificate in the NMRA Achievement
Program.
If
you or someone you know is interested and willing to serve, please contact one
of the Nominating Committee members:
East Side Get
Together Clinic Report, February 21, 2019
The
February gathering of the East Side Get Together Clinic at the Redmond
Community Center was started promptly at 7:10 PM Thursday evening by Alex
Brikoff. VIPs in attendance (4D PNR Officers and Master Model Railroaders
and new attendees) were introduced.
Clinic Introduction
Some
of the significant gatherings and conventions coming up this spring and summer
are:
28th Annual United Northwest Washington State Train Show
(Monroe Show) – February 23 & 24, 2019
Sn3 Symposium, April 4 – 6, 2019 at Bellevue Sheraton, Bellevue, WA
Kootenay Express, PNR Regional Convention, May 29 – June 2, 2019 in
Cranbrook, BC
4th
Division Annual Spring Meet, June 22 at TCC
Science Building (Tacoma Community College) from 9 AM to 4 PM
NMRA National
Convention, July 7 – 13,
2019 in Salt Lake City, UT
National Narrow
Gauge Convention, September 4-7, 2019 in Sacramento, CA
Russ
Segner brought several copies of a local early railroad publication assembled
by the Northwest Railroad Archives staff. Copies of the very
professionally done book was for sale at $20 and contained very detailed
descriptions and illustrations of the Seattle and southeast King County area’s
formative years of railroad activity. Bob Rorabaugh brought several
estate sale model railroad items for adoption. He also noted the
application of desktop computer keyboard boxes as storage containers for
HO-size rolling stock. He passed out some free samples of these as well.
The
evening’s clinic was a given by local model railroad craftsman, Paul Vaughn, on
scratch building a Gauntlet Track. Paul bestowed his acquired knowledge
of scratch building these very unique turnouts without using Fast Track
jigs. He presented slides as well as
several colorful large teaching aids to demonstrate the more critical aspects
of the necessary turnout construction accuracy based on NMRA Standards.
Paul Vaughn’s Informative Displays And Presentation
Model
of the Month was awarded to William Alexander for his two “A” F-unit Spokane,
Portland and Seattle HO scale diesel locomotives.
The next meeting will be on March 21, 2019. Don’t forget that our next clinic will be the much publicized Mini Clinic Event! Stay tuned for more details!
February 2019 Eastside Get Together Clinic – Redmond The February 2019 Eastside Get Together Clinic will meet on February 21, 2019.
The Clinic will meet at the: Redmond Community Center at Marymoor Village 6505 176TH AVE NE, Rm. 202 REDMOND WA 98052-4930
Doors open at 7:00 PM and meeting starts promptly at 7:15 PM
We will begin by mentioning any noteworthy, upcoming model railroad and railfan events in the area. We will also have our Model of the Month and Rail Photo of the Month contest. The sign-up sheet for our “Mini Clinic Event” in March is full. We have six people signed up, so all the slots are gone. Don’t pass up this opportunity to learn modeling techniques from your fellow modelers.
Bob Rorabaugh will also have the “Buy ‘n Sell” table available during the evening. So if you’ve got anything model railroad related you’d like to find a new home for, contact Bob and he’ll help you do that.
This month’s Clinic Topic will be: “Building Stub Turnouts and Other Unique Trackwork”. Paul Vaughn will be here to show us some of his techniques for scratch building turnouts and other unique trackwork such as crossovers, gauntlets and other unique and out of the ordinary track arrangements.
We will have door prizes, refreshments and snacks available as always.
Saturday, March 23rd Mount Vernon Senior Center – 1401 Cleveland St., Mount Vernon, WA Doors open at 9:00 – First Clinic at 9:30
Everyone is welcome! This year’s event will provide modelers with several mini-clinics with presentations & demonstrations on:
Weathering with Pan Pastels – Al Carter
Introduction to Arduino – Ted Becker
Improving Appearance of Flex Track – Al Carter
Layout Design / Planning – Russ Segner
Installing DCC Decoders – Roger Johnson
Railroad Simulation with Trainz by Di Voss
More to be announced…
The Golden Grab Iron committee will be making the GGI award presentation at this clinic. Roger Johnson is requesting people bring locos and decoders for him to install.
NMRA Build Competition and Photo-Match Contest A variety of scratch built and kit built projects will be on display (all scales) for the final judging and awards presentation. Come see what some of the best modelers in the region have put together as they complete for a table-full of neat prizes!
Sponsored by Xtrains Model Train Supplies
Swap Tables will be available – no dealers please. Just modelers looking to thin out their stock. (For more info on the swap tables, contact: Al Carter at tabooma@msn.com)
Bring your friends. Learn from the best. Have fun!
