By Jeff Moorman

This Thursday (November 6) is our next clinic meeting and the clinic topic will be using your smart phone as a wireless DCC throttle. Our own Dennis T. will be the presenter. If you have an iPhone and want to try this out at the meeting, download an app called WiThrottle Lite before you get here. It is free! There are similar apps for Android phones, but I cannot speak to their being compatible with exactly what will be demonstrated.

And, speaking of apps, why don’t you bring along your favorite railroad-related smart phone app and show us all? Since we never got to modelling tips last month, I’ll use that prize to award whoever shows us the niftiest app.

Thanks to all that came to last month’s clinic. Sorry about the cramped quarters in the library. It was a surprise to me as well. I was assured that that was temporary for October only. It was good to see some folks back who had recently been subsidizing the local health care industry.

By all accounts it was a good clinic, but we never got around to covering some of the things planned. Special attendees included Michael Highsmith, the new Pacific Northwest Region President (who also still wears the hat of Fourth Division Assistant Superintendent) and Bob Rorabaugh, the new Fourth Division Membership Chair.

Some informative and lively discussion ensued. There seemed to be a consensus that (like it or not – and model railroaders seem to be mostly “not” people), the world is changing, the hobby is changing, and the NMRA needs to change to remain viable.

There wasn’t so much agreement on just what those NMRA changes should be. But, history shows the NMRA can change, although it can be a slow and convoluted process.  For example, I can remember the days when every other editorial in a model railroading publication seemed to bemoan the fact that plastic kits would mean the end of “craftsmanship” in the hobby.

Today’s issues seem to be printing parts, getting young people interested in the hobby, and virtual modeling. If you have ideas along those lines, Mike and Bob would love to hear them.

Show and Tell had some interesting items. Dennis T brought an eclectic mix of one BN HO snowplow, one private road HO doodlebug, one N scale GN doodlebug, a Z scale locomotive, and a kit you can buy that lets you build the base structure of a T-TRAK module. Tom K had pieces of a 1952 American Flyer starter set someone had bought as a present for his Dad.

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. The parking lot is at the rear of the church. For regular meetings go up the steps to the main entrance. We meet in the Fireside Room which is immediately to the left inside the door.

Meetings are the first Thursday of each month, usually September – June. However in June we often do something different, so there may be no “regular” meeting. Doors open at 7:00 PM and the program starts at 7:30.

Remember the next regular evening meeting is November 6. The one after that will be December 4. Hope to see you there or at least sometime on down the line.