By Jeff Moorman

Can you believe it? The 2013-14 model railroad clinic season is almost upon us. Join us on Thursday, September 5, 2013 for our first clinic of the year. Our topic will be what did you do (model railroading-wise) during the summer. If we have time, I also have some slides of the model railroads set up at this summer’s National Train Show in Atlanta

Our last meeting was in June when we did a layout tour. We tried the self-drive approach as opposed to the group transportation we always used in the past. It seems to have worked pretty well. There were 4 layouts open at slightly different times over the evening.

I found it very educational and low key. There was plenty of time to talk to our hosts and thoroughly appreciate their work instead of feeling rushed to keep up with a group and get on to the next location. If you weren’t there, you missed some fine modeling, including one layout with 3 different gauges of the same scale all working together to deliver goods for the customer.

On behalf of the Seattle-North clinic I’d like to heartily thank our hosts: Richard & Doris, Ron & Judy, Gary & Sherry, plus the Swamp Creek and Western Model Railroad Club. You all contributed to a very entertaining and interesting evening.

And I’d like to personally thank (again) Bobj for doing all the “heavy lifting” to arrange for the availability of these fine layouts.

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. The parking lot is at the rear of the church. For regular meetings enter the lower, left side of the church from the rear lot.

Meetings are the first Thursday of each month, September through June. However in June we often do something different, like a layout tour. Doors open around 7:00 PM and the program starts at 7:30.

Remember the next meeting is September 5. The meeting after that is October 3. Hope to see you there or at least sometime on down the line.