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!
A Nominating Committee has been appointed to receive nominations for the upcoming election. 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.
The current holders of these positions will be asked if they wish to continue and if so, their names will be placed on the ballot.
If you know of someone interested and willing to serve, or if you wish to nominate yourself, contact one of the Nominating Committee members:
The 4th Division would like to extend their appreciation to all those volunteers that came out last weekend to help with the Pacific Science Center model train show. Your efforts helped make the show a big success. This year there were over 12,000 visitors that passed through the gates of the Pacific Science Center.
Hi-Rail
Ed Ives Wayne Grinnell Greg Goodell Cole Garcia Jack Klapwyc Sam Hayden Woody Matthews Gordon Sandell Ed Pennington
NTRAK
Al Lowe Doug Bulger Marco D’Agostino Thomas Dye Dennis Terpstra David Cook Mike Donnelly
Whidbey Island Model Railroad Club
William Harper
HO Modular
Mike Slease Brian Pickering Lisa Murray Ian Murray Aiden Murray Rob Staples Lou Davis Bruce Davis Eliot Griffiths
Jamie Morrison Brianna Philip Ivor Griffiths Evan Griffiths Drew Stamatiou Carrie Stamatiou Lewis Ramsey Ryan Ramsey Thaddeus Ramsey Holly Ramsey Carissa Gillis Mike Gillis James Gillis Paul Styron Jennifer Lopeman Tyler Lopeman Ben Lopeman
Those Helping with the Show
Russ Segner Jeff Moorman Don Melnick Joel Scott Eldon Jacobson John Thompson Ed Liesse Burr Stewart Anton Faulk George Hinchliffe Mark Elster Robert Stewart Robin Peel David Yadock
The
January gathering of the East Side Get Together Clinic at the Redmond Community
Center was started promptly at 7:15 Thursday evening by Alex Brikoff.
VIPs in attendance (4D PNR Officers and Master Model Railroaders) were
introduced.
The
March 2019 East Side Get Together Clinic will be our Mini-clinic Event titled “How I do Stuff on my Layout”. It will be a series of ten-minute presentations
of favorite modeling methods presented by six members and attendees of the
Eastside Clinic. All six of the Mini-Clinic slots are already filled.
Model
of the Month was awarded to George Chambers for his Kemtron kit-built On3 Shay
painted in the Shasta Logging Company of California colors. Syd took
photo honors for several recent pictures of historically significant central
Colorado locomotives.
George Chambers Kemtron kit-built On3 ShayCentral Colorado Locomotive Photos by Syd Schofield
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 $20.00. It contains very detailed descriptions and
illustrations of the Seattle area early years of railroad activity.
The evening’s program was a given by local craftsmanship authority, Ted Becker. Ted came down from the Mt. Vernon area to share his knowledge of crafting tools and materials. Ted’s storage container called “Ted’s Tub” contained many interesting items. As he picked each item to describe in some detail the use and source, we all learned something of value for the hobby. Our thanks to Ted for coming to share his knowledge with us.
Ted’s Tub of Tricks and Tools
The
next meeting of the Eastside Get
Together Clinic will be on February 21, 2019 at the same location. Our
clinician will be Paul Vaughn. Paul will be presenting “Building Stub Turnouts and Other Unique Trackwork”.
Later
in February, the South End Group will return to their fourth Thursday of the
Month meetings. Their meeting in February
will be Thursday, 2/28/19 in Burien. It will be at the Northwest Railroad
Archives storefront adjacent to the Boeing Model Railroaders’ layout on 153rd
street, a couple blocks from the Electric Train Shop.
The Skagit Valley and Whidbey’s first 2019 clinic was an excellent event presented by Susan Gonzales.
SV&W’s Make and Take Clinician Susan Gonzales showing her coiled steel rolling tool.
Our objective was to show various types of open car loads and explore different techniques for making loads using common materials found at box stores. We started out the clinic with a display of various clinic members cars and loads and some show and tell on each.
Mike Garcia brought two HO flat cars with a nicely detailed logging donkey and the other with diesel engine loads. All loads were tied down properly.
Curt Johnson had two HO cars for work train support. One car contained sets of ties all blocked and staked together and the other with sets of rail segments with blocking in between.
Curt’s dad Iver brought a couple HO logging support cars with a steam donkey load and a camp cabin load complete with outhouse.
