Skip to main content

Eastside Clinic Call for Presenters

Written by Doug Oldenburg
1 Comment

By Doug Oldenburg

The Eastside Clinic of the Pacific Northwest Region 4th Division of the National Model Railroad Association is seeking individuals to share their railroad knowledge and skills at its monthly clinics.

We would like to broaden the circle and refill the pool of presentations. Might this be you or someone you know?

This is a call for clinics or presentations on any railroad-related topic, whether it’s model railroading or prototype railroading. Modelers are always interested in clinics that share scenery and weathering techniques. We also welcome presentations related to the region’s historic and current railroads – Northern Pacific, Great Northern, Spokane Portland & Seattle, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, subsidiaries or short lines, logging or mining roads.

Clinic Opportunities:

  • Show and Tell is one great way to get involved. Even if it is your in-work project or layout.
  • Presentation Clinics: Share your knowledge on any railroad topic. Presentations typically last 30 minutes followed by 15 minutes for questions. Longer or shorter sessions can always be accommodated.
  • Interest in in-person clinics is still being evaluated. We have attendees from here and yonder, and have not had very many people express interest in driving out to a clinic on a Thursday evening (usually third Thursday of the month).
    • Possible Make-and-Take Clinics: Engage attendees with hands-on demonstrations or workshops where they can actually see how something is done.

Why Present?

  • Share Your Expertise: Whether you’re a seasoned presenter or new to clinics, this is a fantastic opportunity to share your passion and knowledge.
  • Support and Resources: If you’re new to presenting, we can help you prepare.
    • We often use PowerPoint to organize our thoughts, photos, sketches and diagrams. Don’t worry – if you don’t have this, we can put it together for you (with your help) 😊

How to Get Involved:

Russ Segner is our current master of ceremonies, and Doug Oldenburg has been helping with some of the admin tasks. We would welcome anyone who wants to join in. Russ would very much like to retire from leading the clinics and we would love to see someone step up.

We hope you’ll consider presenting at one of our upcoming clinics and contributing to an enriching and educational experience for all attendees. Thank you for your consideration, and we look forward to your participation!

Our March clinic is scheduled for 3/19 so here’s your first opportunity!

Sincerely,

Russ Segner:  russseg@gmail.com
206-200-2211

Doug Oldenburg: douglas.oldenburg@yahoo.com
425-577-2928

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic,

4D Eastside Get Together clinic

Written by Anton Faulk

Our program will feature my photos of several fan trips on the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railway. Included will be several trips to Morton when the entire line was operating over the large trestle that burned recently. Included will be photos of many of the entire engine roster including the Willamette #2 and the three truck Heisler and Climaxes.
-Russ

4D Eastside Get Together clinic

Written by Doug Oldenburg

Our Eastside Get Together will be this Thursday 5/15 at 7:00 PM. Sort of snuck up on both Russ and myself. 3rd Thusday of the month already!

 

Russ will present photos of a recent trip to Promontory Utah (Joining of the rails in 1869). He has photos of the shops there as well as some spectacular HO layouts in the Salt Lake City area while he was there for the Sn3 Symposium.

We may have time enough for others if you would like to share any recent experiences or provide status or update on your own model railroads. Any photos would be most welcome. We would love to hear how everyone is doing!

Of course we will also have time to share any timely announcements.

Please contact Doug and/or Russ if you have any suggestions for future meetings.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Doug and Russ

 

Eastside Clinic 11/21/24

Written by Doug Oldenburg
Leave a Comment

By Doug Oldenburg

Please join us this Thursday for the virtual Eastside Clinic.

Now that most of the leaves have fallen, you may have a little more time to work on your model railroad projects! 🙂
We have no presentation planned for this month and instead are encouraging all of you to share what you are working on. What are you modeling and/or what do you want to model? Old time, the steam/diesel transition years, modern times or something else? Country, city or somewhere in between?
Do you have something in mind for Thanksgiving? Do you do something with model trains around Christmas?

If you have any photos, sketches, plans, etc. that you would like to share with the rest of us, you may share during the meeting or pre-submit to Russ and/or myself and we will build the agenda around what we get.

Topic: Eastside Clinic for November 2024
Time: 7:00 PM PST, Thursday 11/21/24

Join the Zoom Meeting at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84298224999?pwd=eS1m2i9vxnHbmWRpb4AVhmzgJHAe5P.1

Meeting ID: 842 9822 4999
Passcode: 648816

Thanks,
Doug (425-577-2928) & Russ (206-200-2211)

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic, , ,

Ted Becker, 1943-2024

Written by Alan Carter
15 Comments

It is with sadness that I am reporting that Ted Becker passed away on the morning of January 20, 2024, at the age of 80.  Ted was admitted to Bellevue Overlake Hospital on August 19, 2022, after he experienced extreme fatigue and difficulty breathing, and ultimately was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis.  After several weeks, some in the ICU, he recovered enough to be transferred to a care hospital in Seattle, and then on to a care hospital in Everett, where he has been for most of the time since.

He was making slow progress towards recovery and working with PT and OT personnel to build up strength, looking forward to the time he could return to his home.  Unfortunately, while at the care hospital, he contracted a MRSA infection, then contracted Covid.  Somewhat recovered from those infections, he then came down with pneumonia, which resulted in another trip to the ICU, this time at Providence Hospital in Everett.  He recovered enough to leave Providence and go back to the care hospital a couple of weeks ago, although once again he was intubated.  It is suspected that a blood clot caused his death.

Ted was a long-time member of the NMRA and the Fourth Division.  Both he and I go back far enough in the NMRA that we were able to take out life memberships, which category no longer exists.  For several years, Ted ran the Snohomish Railfans Clinic, and would often attend 4D clinics in Kirkland and Seattle (back in the Beacon Hill Clinic days).  He also attended numerous NMRA national and regional conventions.  In 2015 he and I started the Mount Vernon Clinic, at the urging of fellow model railroaders Tom Buckingham and Nick Muff (the four of us had been driving each month over to the Oak Harbor Clinic).

After retiring from Boeing, he and his companion, Janie, built a house outside of Granite Falls.  The house included a railroad room, of course, and he spent many happy hours designing (and redesigning) his layout and building (and rebuilding) it.

While hospitalized, Ted made use of his laptop computer and spent many hours working out a new layout design for his layout room.  He, like most model railroaders, was always dreaming and imagining his next layout.  He also, at my request, drafted up some CAD plans for a snowshed for my layout, which I have just about completed.  He was quite adept at CAD drafting.

Ted was also an avid radio control airplane enthusiast and was a member of a couple of flying clubs in the Monroe area.

His wealth of knowledge and years of experience in our hobby, and his willingness to help others, will be sorely missed in the Fourth Division.

Respectfully, Al Carter, Mount Vernon Clinic

Eastside Get-Together (Redmond) Clinic, Grab-Iron, Mt Vernon Clinic, Seattle-North Clinic, Skagit Valley and Whidbey Island Clinic,

Eastside Virtual Clinic

Written by Russ Segner

Let’s start the new year with a look at how to create realistic scenes on our layouts. We will use several examples from Dale Kreutzer’s fully scenicked layout in Port Orchard. Dale has taken photos at locations in Colorado he is modelling and created large backdrops, some over 20 feet in length. He has carefully blended the foreground materials with the backdrops in a manner that completely hides the transition from the horizontal to the vertical.