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Nominations Needed For 2017 Golden Grab Iron Service Award

Written by Cliff Green
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Russ Segner

Each year, the Golden Grab Iron Service Award is given to the Fourth Division member who best exemplifies outstanding service to the organization. The winner is chosen by a committee comprised of the previous three winners of the award. We are proud to present well over a half century of award winners, each of whom sacrificed many hours to this hobby we love.

We solicit your input on this with suggestions of names of people to be considered. The past recipients are noted on the 4D website at https://4dpnr.com/gi-service-award-winners/.

You may contact Jim Sabol at jimsabol@msn.com, Jim Younkins at jcyounkins@comcast.net, or Russ Segner at russseg@gmail.com.

This Award will be presented at our 2017 Spring Meet.

Grab-Iron

Spokane Fall Train Show Last Call for Modules

Written by Cliff Green
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Alan Ashton

Editors note: Alan Ashton maintains a Free-mo e-mail list (to join, e-mail Alan at inwafreemo@gmail.com) and is a member of the Inland Washington Free-mo Modelers. A previous post on 5th Division Free-mo activities can be viewed by clicking here, and the latest article on Free-mo standards and construction can be viewed by clicking here.

This is the last call for module participation at the Fall Train Show in Spokane. The deadline for registration is Friday, September 16th. If you haven’t sent us your form yet it is time to do so.

We are looking forward to a good sized layout with plenty of operating time on the weekend of October 8th and 9th. Saturday is set up and run time for participants and Sunday is the train show and swap meet. There is no charge for participation.

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Free-mo, Model Train Show

Westside Clinic in Bremerton on Tuesday, Sep 13th

Written by Cliff Green
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Bill Hupé

Tuesday, September 13th is our next 4th Division Westside Clinic. For our newcomers the clinic is held at the United Way of Kitsap Building in downtown Bremerton (647 4th Street) at 7:00 PM. Additional information including a map can be found by clicking here.

Jack Hamilton will be presenting a clinic on Steam Locomotives.

A reminder: This is the deadline for Aaron Lamar’s N scale layout competition.

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Westside Local Clinic

Eastside Get Together North (Redmond) Clinic is Thursday, Sep 15

Written by Russ Segner
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Russ Segner

We kick off the Eastside Get Together North (Redmond) fall clinic season this Thursday the 15th at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center. The gathering begins at 6:45 PM. Click here for additional details including an address and a map.

Mike Donnelly "working on the Chiggen" (by cleaning the smokebox) at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie (Photo by Russ Segner).

Mike Donnelly “working on the Chiggen” (by cleaning the smokebox) at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie (Photo by Russ Segner).

Our very special guest speaker is Richard Anderson, Executive Director of the Northwest Railway Museum at Snoqualmie. Richard has led the effort there for 22 years.

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Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic

Skagit Valley & Whidbey Happenings this Summer

Written by Roger Johnson
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Text & Photos by Rich Blake

John Marshall’s Garden Railroad Potluck

Over 20 enthusiasts and significant others showed up for the annual John Marshall garden railroad potluck event August 13th, 2016 in beautiful Coupeville WA. We were treated to his fantastic railroad, lots of social time and some great food prepared by John’s daughter. It was a wonderful time as usual with great weather. Thanks to all who participated. To see a video of the day click here.

Climax #6 Rolling along on John's garden railroad.

Climax #6 Rolling along on John’s garden railroad.

The crew of Climax #6 makes a necessary stop.

The crew of Climax #6 makes a necessary stop.

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Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic

Mt Vernon September Clinic on Sep 8

Written by John O'Connell
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 by John O’Connell   Photo: 10News.com

BNSF Stack Train Stopped by Fire in Cajon Pass

BNSF Stack Train Stopped by Fire in Cajon Pass

Thursday, September 8, 7PM
Mount Vernon Senior Center
1401 Cleveland Street, Mount Vernon
Click Here for map & directions

The Program

You will be a big part of the program as we all participate in “What I did this summer.” Whether it involved model railroading or full scale, live railroading – share what you did this summer to keep your hand in the game. Bring JPGs or PowerPoint Slides on a pen drive. Ted will have his laptop booted up.

Al Carter will put on a Painting Primer to help us get in the mood for the next month’s airbrushing clinic. He’ll cover rattle cans, techniques and open the floor to questions and open discussion on anything painting related.

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Mt Vernon Clinic

Selkirk Express 2016, PNR Convention – A Special Report

Written by Cliff Green
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By Rich Thom, Photos by Rich Thom

Editor’s note: In this month’s Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic’s PDF newsletter is a special report on the Selkirk Express 2016 PNR Convention which was held in Salmon Arm, British Columbia this past June. This is a very nicely written article with many photos.

Rich’s special report has been extracted to a separate PDF (thanks, Al Frasch!), and is available at https://4dpnr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Skagit-Valley-Whidbey-SpecialRpt-SelkirkExpress.pdf.

As usual with PDF files your computer (or smart phone or tablet) may need to install an Adobe PDF viewer application (click here for the Adobe download link; I recommend un-checking the optional software offers).

Articles, Convention or Meet, Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic

NW Railway Museum Hosts Grandparents Grand Excursion on Sep 10 and 11

Written by Cliff Green
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Peggy Barchi, Marketing/Events Manager

A reminder – the last full weekend of steam train rides for the summer season is upon us. On Labor Day weekend, the steam train will run on all three days, Saturday through Monday, September 3rd through 5th. Click here to view the previous Grab Iron post.

Special Weekend Event Pays Tribute to National Grandparents Day

Celebrate grandma and grandpa on National Grandparent’s Day, September 11! It’s the perfect weekend to take the grands for a ride aboard the Northwest Railway Museum’s antique train. On both September 10 and 11, a grandparent rides free when accompanied by a paying grandchild – of any age! Listen to the stories and share the memories of your family members. Enjoy a day together and experience the scenic beauty of the Cascade foothills aboard the Snoqualmie Valley Railroad.

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Northwest Railway Museum

Inland NW Railway Museum Grand Opening

Written by Cliff Green
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Alan Ashton

Editors note: To join the Free-mo e-mail list of Alan Ashton, e-mail him at inwafreemo@gmail.com. The previous Grab Iron post on 5th Division Free-mo activities can be viewed by clicking here. In particular, the previous post has an “under construction” photo of the Free-mo loop module shown below.

The grand opening of the Inland NW Railway Museum in Reardan was held on Saturday, August 27th, and there was a sizable Free-mo layout presented by the Inland NW Free-mo Modelers group. Representatives from Idaho were also there with both HO and N-scale Free-mo modules.

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Free-mo, Model Train Show, Railroad History