Seattle-North Goes on Tour June 1, 2017
By Jeff Moorman
Next Clinic:
The next regular Seattle-North clinic is not until September. BUT, on June 1 we will be doing a layout mini-tour before going on summer hiatus for July and August.
Do not go to the regular meeting place. The tour starts at 7:00 PM, June 1, 2017 from the Edmonds – South Snohomish County Historical Society and Museum building located at 118 5th Ave N, Edmonds, WA. From there you will be given directions to the other layouts. (4 total).
A few reminders:
• This is not a public tour, NMRA members and their guests only please.
• Pay attention to the handouts you will be given. Not all places are open for the full 3 hours (7 until 10). Some may open an hour later or close an hour earlier. Please honor the listed open hours for each particular layout.
• Be mindful of private property when you are driving around and parking in residential neighborhoods.

Any questions about the tour should be directed to Bobj Berger – 425 774 9165 – to whom we owe many thanks for arranging this year’s event. And many, many thanks to those who have agreed to let us see their modelling handiwork.

Last Clinic:
We continued our discussion of backdrops to include viewing the 3rd and 4th videos in Chris Lyon’s YouTube series about “Painting Backdrops for Large Layouts…”.
There were 3 contributors for show and tell.
• Aidin M brought along three of his recent additions. First was a HO 4-8-4 Northern from MTH lettered for the Norfolk & Western. Next was a small HO scale crane vehicle. And lastly an N-scale C&O wood chip gondola.
• Dennis T had a 4-foot module backdrop (for N-scale) he did using the techniques from the video series we have been watching. It had a lot more visual interest than the distant/middle/near layered hill approach that many of us are used to.
• Jeff M displayed an N-scale caboose (Atlas Trainman #35559). It was painted in the classic BN green with yellow ends. Each side sported a BN logo with the words “Burlington Northern” below, but the reporting marks said “C&S” (not “BN”). The Colorado & Southern was a subsidiary of the CB&Q, but when the Q merged with the GN, NP, and SP&S to form the BN in 1970, the C&S was not included. The exact reason for this is not apparent, probably some legal/financial/labor quirk. It finally became an integral part of the BN in 1981. At that time, the C&S didn’t have a paint scheme of its own, it used the CB&Q scheme with its own reporting marks. So between 1970 and 1981, new (or repainted) C&S equipment was done in BN green with C&S reporting marks or ID stencils.
Directions: We meet at the Ronald United Methodist Church, 17839 Aurora Avenue North, Shoreline, WA. That is on the west side of Aurora (State Route 99) between 175th and 185th Streets and more specifically, between the Cadillac dealer on the south and Deseret Industries to the north. Going southbound on Aurora, make a right-hand turn into the church driveway immediately after passing the Deseret location. There are parking lots at both the front and rear of the church. From the rear lot go up the steps to the main entrance. Once inside, the room where we usually meet is up to your left.
Meetings are the first Thursday of each month, September to May. In June we often do something different, so there is no “regular” meeting. Doors open at 7:00 PM and the program will start at 7:30.
Note that the next regular evening meeting will be September 7, 2017. Hoever, there is a mini-tour of 4 local layouts planned for June 1. See above for tour details. Hope to see you there or at least sometime on down the line.

By Jeff Moorman

Next Clinic:

The next Seattle-North clinic is Thursday, May 4, 2017. We will continue to explore the subject of creating layout backgrounds.  We’ll see the next installment in Chris Lyon’s YouTube series on “Painting Backdrops for Large Layouts…”. And a couple of members have promised to bring along more examples.

Last Clinic:

The fallen flag mini-clinic concerned the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad. The T&G was a 100-mile-long, Class 2, standard gauge railroad in southwestern Nevada. It was active (sometimes just barely) from 1905 until 1947.

We continued our discussion of backdrops. First, those that wished had a chance to actually try painting some of the “blob, blob, blob” backgrounds shown in the prior clinic’s video. Yes indeed, you can get a presentable range of background foliage colors using a mix of just Mars Black and Lemon Yellow.

I brought a 4-foot backdrop section from a practice module I did many years ago. Nothing fancy, but it did show the impact of adding a little haze between the various “layers” of mountains/hills.

We viewed the second backdrop video in the YouTube series by Chris Lyon. This showed a few ways to enhance the basic “blob, blob, blob” technique previously used to establish the base terrain.

There were 3 contributors for show and tell.

• Aidin M brought a couple of HO express boxcars. One forty-footer lettered for the UP and one 65-foot Amtrak example. It was interesting seeing the differences as they represented two separate eras in railroad operations. Also, they sparked a lively discussion of just want LCL traffic Amtrak handled, and when.
• Bobj B had three various collections of tie dating nails, used for decades to document the manufacture date of wooden railroad ties. One was Bobj’s own collection and two were collections he had acquired. It was interesting to see the variety of “nails” used. Everything from miniature spikes to oversized brass tacks.
• Dave N showed a couple of HO maritime pieces. One was a harbor tug built from the almost ubiquitous plastic kit from Revell. The other was an aggregate barge from a Kibri kit. Both were very well crafted.

Directions: We meet at the Ronald United Methodist Church, 17839 Aurora Avenue North, Shoreline, WA. That is on the west side of Aurora (State Route 99) between 175th and 185th Streets and more specifically, between the Cadillac dealer on the south and Deseret Industries to the north. Going southbound on Aurora, make a right-hand turn into the church driveway immediately after passing the Deseret location. There are parking lots at both the front and rear of the church. From the rear lot go up the steps to the main entrance. Once inside, the room where we usually meet is up to your left.

Meetings are the first Thursday of each month, September to May. In June we often do something different, so there is no “regular” meeting. Doors open at 7:00 PM and the program will start at 7:30.

Note that the next regular evening meeting is May 4, 2017. The next regular clinic after that will be September 7, 2017. In the interim plans are well underway for a local mini layout tour on June 1. Keep checking the Grab Iron for the latest details. Hope to see you there or at least sometime on down the line.