The Anacortes Model Railroad Club is having their annual open house on Saturday and Sunday, November 4 and 5. The location is at 419 Q Avenue. Look for the railroad crossing sign and enter the basement from the north side. No hours specified, but safe to say 10 am to 4 pm.
November Meeting:
Date: Thursday, November 2, 2017
Time: 7:00 PM
Place: Ronald United Methodist Church
17839 Aurora Ave N
Shoreline, WA 98133
The November 2017 North End Clinic will be on Thursday, November 2 in Shoreline. The program will begin at 7:15 with announcements of upcoming model railroad and railfan events. We will also be discussing future program ideas for the clinic.
Our program this month will be a presentation by Mitch Schoonjans on Gotthard Pass and Trains of Switzerland.
Mitch will also do a short clinic on the weathering technique he uses. If time allows, he will also talk about German Semaphore signals.
We will also take time at the end for show and tell. There will be a table for you to display what you are bringing. Please arrive at 7:00, so we can set things up prior to the start of the meeting.
Time: 7:00 PM
Place: Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive
425 SW 153rd Street
Burien, WA 98166
Last month, I tried to show pictures and videos of the recent National Narrow Gauge Convention in Denver. Unfortunately, my equipment konked out due to operator error.
So, will try again. There must have been at least forty of us from the Northwest in attendance at the Denver Tech Convention Center. There were lots of visits to rail sites all over Colorado as well as some stops on the way there and back.
Twenty of us chartered the Parlor Car on the Cumbres & Toltec for a beautiful ride over Cumbres Pass at 10,000 feet. I will have good video of that trip as well as our tour of the shops at Antonito where Stathi Pappas is in charge of the rebuild of locomotive 168.
There were many fine modular groups on display and excellent model building in the contest room. And, we visited several very nice home layouts.
I will also present some shots of Sam Furakawa’s beautiful Sn3 layout which I helped prepare for shipping to Japan this November.
Russ
It is time for our October 20 meeting.
Scott Groff will be presenting
Dead Rail; Are you ready for battery powered locomotives?
Scott has been researching this topic and batteries in general. Come learn about this fascinating topic that might mean no more cleaning of the rails.
Remember, we are at the Thurston County Court House, 2000 Lakeridge Drive SW. Building 1, Room 152.
Meeting starts at 7:00 pm.
Maple Valley Train show this year will be
October 21-22
Saturday 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Sunday 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Gracie Hansen Community Center
27132 SE Ravensdale Way
Ravensdale, WA
For those who have not been to this show before it is a smaller show in the gym of the community center and is all trains, i.e. no vendor sales or tables.
Proceeds support the Greater Maple Valley Community Council.
Last year all scales except TT were represented.
4DNTrak, 4DHO will be there. Z scalers and live steam usually attend as well.
You can check with Ed Ives to see if the 4D Hi-Railers will be there as well (they often are).
Our local 4th Division of the NMRA exists to help us share with others our interests in trains, big and small. So, we support monthly clinics throughout the Northwest as well as modular layouts. It is all done by volunteers.
We start the year with some new leadership:
Robin Peel and Anton Faulk on Board of Directors and Al Lowe is Assistant Superintendent. There are new leaders at two of our clinics: Alex Brikoff at the Eastside clinic, Lisa Murray at the North Seattle clinic. Mike Slease has taken over as leader of the HO Modular Group
If you want to help, contact me at 206 200 2211.
Upcoming events:
The Lynden Train Show is Saturday and Sunday
Boeing Swap Meet on November 11 at Kent Commons
Opportunities to share your interests, experience and expertise in model railroading:
New Hon3 Modular group forming Let me know if you are interested. Contact me at 206 200 2211 or russseg@gmail.com
There will be a meeting of the PRRT&HS on Saturday October 21st. The meeting will be held at the Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive in Burien (425 SW 153rd St, Burien, WA). Check the website pnrarchive.org for directions.
The meeting will start at 12:30 pm with the building open earlier.
The guest speaker will be David Durkoop. He will go through the history and mechanics of the Raymond Loewy designed Broadway Limited passenger car “Mountain View”. He has firsthand knowledge of this since he owned and lived in the car for several years. This will be a very interesting presentation that will go into the fine details of passenger cars.
If time permits there may be a slide presentation from the Bill Volkmer collection.
There is no cost to attend this meeting and all are welcome.
We even welcome New York Central fans!!
After the meeting there is a no host dinner at Vince’s across the street.
Doors Open at 7:00 PM and Meeting starts promptly at 7:15 PM at:
The Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center
16600 NE 80th Street
Redmond, WA 98052
The October 2017 Eastside Get Together Clinic will be on October 19, 2017. 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 contests. The Photo category this month will again be Prototype – Color, by special request because we didn’t have any entries last month. So, bring your best models and photos for the contests!
Our clinic this month will be “Adding Prototype Operations on your Layout” by Bill Messecar. Bill is a 4th Division MMR and has a great layout that models the citrus fruit and produce industries of southern California, so I’m sure that his clinic will be very informative. The clinic will describe operations on the ATSF in the 40’s and 50’s and how he modeled those operations on his layout.
We’ll also have refreshments and snacks along with, possibly, some great door prizes.
Meetings are the third Thursday of each month, September to June.
Doors open at 7:00 PM and the program will start at 7:15 PM.
The September Mt Vernon NMRA Clinic was held at 7:00 on the 14th at the Mt Vernon Senior Center. Ted Becker opened the Clinic and welcomed 13 attendees. It seems summer travels are still not completed.
October 7, 8 Lynden Swap Meet, Northwest WA Fairgrounds Saturday 9-5, Sun 10-4
October 12, Mt Vernon Clinic – Mark Malmkar, “Passenger Train Consists”
October 14, 15, Chehalis Swap Meet
October 14, 15, Chilliwack, BC Swap Meet
October 21, 4th Division Make & Take, Mt Vernon Senior Center
November 9, Mt Vernon Clinic – Ted Becker, “Bridges”
November 11, 12, Vancouver Train Expo 2017, Pacific National Exhibition Forum
November 14, Boeing Employees Swap Meet, Kent
December 14, Mt Vernon- Mini Clinics, TBA
Ted distributed a questionnaire intended to elicit areas of interest for future Clinics. A digital version will be distributed for those not able to attend tonight’s Clinic.
Ted shared two items of interest:
The first, a Pantograph which we all know is an instrument for copying a drawing or plan on a different scale by a system of hinged and jointed rods. Ever a railroad connection, the second definition is a jointed framework conveying an electric current to a motor from an overhead wire. Ted’s was the former.
Ted’s Pantograph
Ted’s second device was a tool for uncoupling cars in tight spaces.
Ted’s Uncoupler
Ted, Al Carter, Tom Buckingham, Ray Vaughn, Nick Muff, Paul Koren, Mike O’Brien and Marty Day all shared what kept them busy during off season. Many brought the fruit of their efforts
Ted introduced his November Clinic topic, Bridges and briefly showed the evolution of crossing obstacles from fallen tree trunks to marvels of civil engineering. This will be very interesting!
John O’Connell introduced a brief monthly segment in which he will share his progress and challenges as he builds a Diorama for display at home.
Mike O’Brien introduced “Forest Floors,” making forest floor scatters from natural materials, which he’ll do as a clinic in December.
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This is my last year as editor of the Newsletter and the Clinic Report and will pass the baton after the May Clinic. Roger Johnson’s organization and documentation of the process has made this very easy for me and I will pass it all off. Please let Ted or myself know if you would be interested. Painful to remind you of the obvious: No volunteer for editor: no Newsletter or Clinic Report.
