by Al Babinsky / Photos by Chip

MMR Gene Swanson opened the clinic on time as always with 46 modelers present, there were no newcomers except one old newcomer, Clint Cannon who had not been to a clinic since we moved from TCC. Several announcements were made one of which pertains to next month clinic.

Please note: Next month’s clinic will be on the first Thursday, June 7th at the Parkland/Spanaway library at Pacific Ave and 138th St.

The Tacoma clinic layout tour is scheduled for the 12th of May, and the TNW Swap meet and open house is on May 19 -20. The 4D spring meet is cancelled and will be rescheduled prior to the Narrow Gage convention.

What’s new at the Hobby Shop presented by Bill Deutscher from Tacoma Trains included items such as T-shirts with various rail road logos, Budd 10-6 sleepers in Amtrak IV scheme, El Capitan cars, Kato double stack runner pack, Microtrains 4 pack, each car for a different rail road, N scale cars from several manufactures, tank cars from Atlas in N and HO scale, and Atlas Trainman freight
cars.

Model of the month featured a set of buildings for background silhouette that were cut in half and slightly kit bashed to form a city block. A kit bashed ON30 Forney that had a swivel tender, an entry from German manufacturer Brekina a fifth wheel rail bus for the Sylter SVG in HO scale, and a purple freight car used for wine transport along with a scratch built passenger car and gondola. The winner of the model of the month was Scott Groff with his kit bashed Forney.

This month clinic was presented by Joe Welsh and was titled “The Art of the Streamliner”. The clinic started with how the Streamliner came about and what went into the various designs of the cars and motive power. The rail roads hired industrial designers like Loewy, Dreyfuss, and Kuhler to design their cars and locomotives. Loewy designed the GG-1 and PRR cars, Henry Dreyfuss designed the 20th Century Limited along with its Hudson Locomotive, and Otto Kuhler designed for the Milwaukee Road. His design included the FM diesels and the Hiawatha consists. Brooks Stevens designed the California Zephyr 5 dome car train which was to be run in the day time to allow passengers to see the spectacular scenery.

Again next month clinic will be on June 7th at the Library at 138th St. and Pacific Ave. at our usual time at 7:30 PM. Hope to see you there, this will be our last clinic until September.

Model of the Month Winner