Al Carter, Photos by Al Frasch
Rich Blake makes opening remarks at the Skagit/Whidbey January 9 clinic
There were over 30 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility in Oak Harbor on January 9th for the first Skagit/Whidbey Clinic of 2013. The topic of the evening was locomotive tune-ups by John Mann. John’s co-clinician, Tom Hawkins, wasn’t able to attend, so John ably filled up the allotted time, talking about basic tune-up procedures on both diesel and steam locos. John emphasized the need to not over-lubricate loco’s, as it results in a build up of gunk and crud. John recommends products from Hob-E-Lube as lubricants. For cleaning loco wheels, John’s method is to use a hemostat to hold a folded piece of paper towel soaked in 91% alcohol (the 70% type contains too much water), and running it over the wheels. Another tip: for adding weight to your locomotive (and rail cars, for that matter), check out the Pinewood Derby displays, as they often have products for weighing race cars, in many sizes and shapes, including tungsten paste (moldable).
John Mann describes techniques to tune up a locomotive
A couple of new folks showed up, including Al Jones from Samish Island (recently transplanted from Connecticut), Eric Erickson of Anacortes, who gave a clinic last spring on logging railroads, and Tom Buckingham from Camano Island. Years ago, before his move to Camano Island, Tom used to attend the Eastside Clinic. Welcome, guys!
Jay and Sally Huff dug deep into their closet and found a whimsical model of an Auto Train diesel (U-Boat, I think) that Jay had, ah, modified way back in the mid-70’s by adding oversized “slicks”, as well as a high performance engine and exhaust. This was a “back at you” barb directed (way back then in the early days of the Whidbey Island Model RR Club) at Al Carter, who, being a diesel fanatic, had painted a small 0-6-0 steam engine, pink. Touche, Jay!
Jay Huff’s highly modified diesel
The clinic in February will be on modeling streets, roads, highways, etc, including modeling street trackage, by Al Carter. The date will be February 13, at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility in Oak Harbor, and the clinic starts at 7:00 pm. All are welcome, and all are welcome to get together at San Remo’s restaurant in Oak Harbor at 5:00pm for dinner prior (no host). Hope to see you there! For more information, call Al Carter (360-399-1226) or (tabooma@msn.com), or Rich Blake (360-632-6220) or (slugmasher@oakharbor.net)
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