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Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society Meeting Saturday October 20th

Written by Anton Faulk
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By David Yadock

There will be a meeting of the PRRT&HS on Saturday October 20th. There is no cost to attend. The meeting will be held at the Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive in Burien (425 SW 153rd St, Burien, WA). Check the website www.pnrarchive.org for directions. The meeting starts at 12:30 pm but the building will be open earlier.

This meeting will be a round robin of presentations from the attendees. It will be a group format and will be about the PRR and what is available on the internet about this famous railroad. It will be a way of compiling a list of information and entertaining videos that are available on the internet about the PRR. The meeting is very informal. Come and join us. As always, we even welcome New York Central fans!

After the meeting there is a no host dinner at Vince’s across the street.

Railroad History

Seattle North Clinic – This Thursday October 4th

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Lisa Murray

Burrlington Railroad Open house
The NMRA North End Clinic is pleased to announce that its October clinic will be held at the home of Burr Stewart. NMRA members and guests are welcome to join us as we visit his expansive HO layout and run trains.

Bring your HO scale DCC engines (and favorite rolling stock, etc) to run during what should be an enjoyable evening and a great way to introduce the hobby to your friends and family.
Light refreshments will be served.

Ample parking can be found on the left side of the house and along the street.
Please follow the signage and enter the house at the door at the RIGHT of the house.
NOTE: The layout is in the basement of the home and is NOT handicap accessible.

Home of Burr Stewart
204 NW 112th Street
Seattle, WA 98177

Lisa

Seattle-North Clinic

Lynden Train Show and Seattle’s First Railroad

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Russ Segner

The Lynden Train Show is this coming weekend, Saturday October 6 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and Sunday the 7th from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Several of our modular groups will be there. I plan to be there Saturday. The location is:
Northwest Washington Fair & Event Center
1775 Front Street
Lynden, Washington 98264

Congratulations to each of our clinics with great starts to the season. This is an opportunity to share our experiences in model railroading. Spread the word amongst your friends who share interest in trains. Each clinic is encouraged to post in the Grab Iron an article of recent or future topics.

There is an opportunity this Friday evening to hear an excellent presentation about “SEATTLE’S FIRST RAILROAD”, the early movement of coal from Newcastle to Seattle by means of a Tram and Incline. Coal cars were barged across Lake Washington and Lake Union, over narrow-gauge tracks which went up what is now Westlake Avenue to a Pike Street pier.

White River Valley Museum
918 H Street SE
Auburn, WA

The program begins at 7:00 PM. Never before seen photos and maps will be shown. Join me there.

Russ

Model Train Show, News

Burien Clinic Opens September 27th

Written by Russ Segner
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By Russ Segner

Let’s start this season by sharing some of our rail experiences this summer.

I will have photos and some videos of the National narrow Gauge Convention in Minneapolis. Bring your photos or video on a flash drive.

Jeff Otto’s Messabe Northern

Doors open at 7:00 with program at 7:30.

WHERE:

Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive
425 SW 153rd Street
Burien, WA 98166

Burien Clinic, News

Clinic Report – East Side Get Together, September

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Syd Schofield, photo by Anton Faulk

East Side Get Together, September 20, 2018

After the summer break, the East Side Get Together Clinic got together at the Redmond Community Center.  Alex Brikoff called the group of interested railroad enthusiasts to a low murmur around 7:15 Thursday evening.  VIPs in attendance were introduced and upcoming events of interest were announced.  See the Grab Iron for those details.
 
The evening’s presentations were on summer railroad-related activities.  Robin Peel presented a summary of his trip to the 2018 Sn3 Symposium in Minneapolis this past summer. Robin then announced that the 2019 Sn3 Symposium will be held in Bellevue, WA next April 4-6, 2019. He also announced that the 2022 National Narrow Gauge Convention will be held in the Puget Sound area, location and details are still TBD. Two European railroads, in Norway and Spain, were presented with slide shows and narrations as well as a collection of pictures and videos of western US.  Photos from a trip through the Panama Canal were presented, showing the unique locomotives used to pull various vessels through the locks at the canal. A recap of the NMRA National Convention in Kansas City, MO was given by Alex.
 
Model of the Month was won by Ted Becker with his two-story frame house, nicely built and weathered.  Anton Faulk showed a picture he took of a railroad tunnel-bridge-tunnel across a shear canyon walled abyss (complete with train) in Spain.  Equally spectacular was his vantage point for the photo on a suspended walkway “trail” on the cliff wall.

Photo of the month winner. A Renfe Avant train through El Chorro gorge in Spain.


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Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic

Golden Grab Iron Nominations Requested

Written by Anton Faulk
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By Ted Becker

The Golden Grab Iron Service Award is given each year to a member of the 4th Division, Pacific Northwest Region, National Model Railroad Association, who exemplifies extraordinary service to the organization. The selection committee is comprised of the immediate past three honorees. It is time to solicit nominees for the 2019 recipient. A list of past recipients is on the 4D website here.

Submit your nomination with the name of the member and a list of their contributions to the hobby, the NMRA and the 4th Division plus a short bio. If you have submitted a nomination in the past, please resubmit. Email your nominations to Ted Becker at: rail.bird@att.net.

Ted

News

Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic Report – September – “Great Northern Steam Locos & Standard Plans”

Written by Rich Blake
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Article and Photos by Rich Thom Unless Noted

Clinic Chair Rich Blake welcomed a bumper crowd of 31 who gathered at our Oak Harbor venue for the Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic’s first meeting of the 2018-19 season. Four from our “sister” clinic in Mt. Vernon joined us, and Rich welcomed as well two new guests whom we hope will become regulars: Dennis Persson and Jon Bentz. Dennis is building an n-scale layout, and Jon a large On30 pike. Jon, a member of the Pacific Northwest On30 Modular Group, has a 14’ x 39’ space for his planned southwest-Colorado themed “Rio Como” railroad, designed from the outset for operations. We look forward to the first open houses of both layouts—no pressure, Dennis and Jon! Rich thanked Susan Gonzales, our Program Chair, for the very successful Whatcom Railway event this summer, which drew over 40 participants from both the Whidbey and Mt. Vernon groups; if similar interest is expressed next year, the event may be repeated. Rich reviewed the regional calendar as well as upcoming clinics for the season. In October, the popular “mini-clinics” will be the program, followed by Mark Malmkar, MMR (on a topic yet to be revealed) in November. December will see our traditional “Wassail” evening of an entertaining program plus pot-luck, and January, a “make-and-take” evening. Spring programs are still open but one will definitely be a repeat of our joint sessions with the Mt. Vernon Clinic, at their venue, with lots of “hands-on” clinics in “walk-around” format.

Mike O’Brien from the Mt. Vernon party announced this year’s modeling contest, which he has titled the NMRA Build Competition and Photo Match Challenge, open to all Mount Vernon and Skagit Valley and Whidbey attendees. There will be three contest categories: (1) structures, scratch-built (any scale); (2) structures, kit-built or kit-bashed (any scale); and (3) rolling stock, scratch-built, kit-built, or kit-bashed (any scale). The Photo Match Challenge can be any of the above or anything else related/useful on a layout. The contest is open to individual or team entries. The projects must be new and not something contestants have built previously. The build dates are now through March 2019—so get going, modelers! Judging will be at the joint clinic next spring. Mike has donated about $1,500 worth of prizes in all scales from his business Xtrains Model Train Supplies. Thanks, Mike!
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Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic

September 2018 Eastside Get Together Clinic – Redmond

Written by Russ Segner
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By Alex Brikoff

Welcome back everyone!

The September 2018 Eastside Get Together Clinic will meet on September 20, 2018.
As always, the Clinic is 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 for the fall months ahead. We will also have a Model of the Month contest and Rail Photo of the Month contest. So, please bring your best models and photos for the contests! Winners will have first choice of many fine items from our Door Prize table.

This month’s clinic will be “What I did on my Summer Vacation, Railroad-wise” and moderated by Alex Brikoff. This will be a round robin where everyone in the room will have a few minutes to tell the rest of the group what they did over the summer months in terms of model building, railfanning or anything else that has to do with railroading. I encourage everyone to bring photos on a flash drive to go along with your talk since we will have a projector there. Participation is optional but encouraged! I will talk first about our trip last month to the NMRA National Convention in Kansas City, MO.

We will have refreshments and snacks available as always. We’ll also have a great selection of Door Prizes to give away at the end of the clinic.

See you there!

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic

Whidbey Clinic 18/19 Season Starting 12 Sept.

Written by Rich Blake
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By Rich Blake

The Skagit Valley and Whidbey clinic will start it’s 2018/19 season on 12 September at the Summerhill Retirement community rec room in Oak Harbor.  (165 SW 6th Ave) at 7:00pm.  Our guest speaker will be Eric Erickson who will provide a presentation on the Great Northern steam locomotives and track plans in the northwest.  Eric will have several historical photos to support his clinic which came from the Charles and Dorothy Wood collection.  We look forward to some interesting and locally significant prototype history from Eric.

 

Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic