Jim Sabol

Scott Buckley receives Golden Grab Iron Service Award (Greg Wright photo)

Scott Buckley of Olympia was awarded the 2012 Golden Grab Iron Service Award during a ceremony at the September Olympia Clinic.

The award is the highest honor afforded by the 4th Division and dates from 1955. Per tradition, Scott was selected by a committee made up of the three previous winners, who this year included J. J. Johnston, Ed Liesse, and Walt Huston. The award is symbolic of the recipient’s dedication to the hobby of model railroading and his or her generosity toward one’s fellow modelers.

In presenting the award to an amazed Scott, Jim Sabol, representing the selection committee, noted Scott’s many years of volunteering with railroad museums both in Nevada and Washington, his leadership in planning and often hosting 81 monthly Olympia NMRA clinics from 2002 to 2010, and his propensity for showing up ready to work whenever friends need a helping hand.

In the audience and clapping enthusiastically were previous award winners Dale and Diane Kraus, and Keith Newsom.

A complete list of all the Golden Grab Iron Service Award winners is on the 4D website.

The complete text of the plaque Scott received is below:

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 service to the organization. For 2012 the selection committee, composed of the immediate past three honorees, has chosen Scott Buckley for his many contributions to the hobby, the NMRA, and especially the 4th Division.

Scott has known trains all his life, inheriting publications and memorabilia from his late grandfather, a career locomotive engineer, at the age of 9. Scott’s dad served as brakeman, conductor, and fireman on the Sierra Railroad before it became a tourist train. Scott’s volunteer career, firing engines, began there when he worked with school field trips during the summer of 1974. He qualified as brakeman and fireman as a volunteer and has had some training as an engineer.

Railroading sites and the Southern Pacific were close at hand when Scott moved to Sacramento and then Roseville, California. A special event at the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City provided a new opportunity for Scott’s volunteering over the next 6 years.

Scott joined the NMRA in 1990. Following the 1994 national convention in Portland and exposure to the Mount Rainier Scenic and Chehalis-Centralia Railroads, Scott moved to Olympia and the Pacific Northwest in 1996 and soon joined the 4D’s Tacoma Clinic. After several active years with that group, Scott was instrumental in successfully establishing the Olympia Clinic, which exists today. He often hosts meets and several clinics during the year and since 2004 has been responsible for organizing the annual spring Olympia Layout Tours and works with the Olympia Operating Sessions (Oly Ops) each fall.

Having built a house with a bonus room, Scott decided that 20 years of weekend, recreational railroading was enough and began devoting more time to his own layout, which features the Southern Pacific Railroad and will be included for the first time in the Oly Ops schedule in 2012.

Scott Buckley has given his time and energy, sharing his knowledge of trains and railroading for many years, providing educational opportunities to the public, as well as sharing his knowledge with fellow modelers. His Golden Grab Iron Award is well deserved.