September 2007 - the 4th Division • PNR • NMRA

Issue 492 • September 2007 Page 5
Skagit Valley Clinic
Gordon Garnhart
Our June 13 meeting was unusual. 23 people gathered at the home of Diz Schimke, on 8 rural acres near the town of Bow. We enjoyed
a pleasant picnic of submarine sandwiches as Diz, born in 1961, entertained us with many interesting historical details of logging in
Skagit County. His 99-year-old grandfather has been a inspiration and source of legend and lore. Diz has a life-long interest in narrow
gauge railroading, with a collection of over 200 railroad lanterns and other related memorabilia.
Diz has built an excellent 2' gauge 4,000' rail line looping his property. He has restored a Porter locomotive and delights in operating
it. The venerable machine started service in 1896 for the Hecla Mining Company in a silver mine near Wallace, Idaho, running on compressed
air, on 18" gauge tracks. It was converted to wood-fired steam about 1937 for surface duty, and then converted to 24" gauge. In
1950, it was sold for its scrap, but was salvaged and stored until 1993. Diz has carefully restored the old engine and followed all certification
procedures required by law.
A young man in our group, Dan Stokes, is serving with the U. S. Navy in Iraq but expects to return in a few months. He sent a recent
e-mail message saying, “My time here is winding down and I’m really looking forward to getting back home and spending some time with
my family and, of course, my trains!” Email him at stokesda@hotmail.com.
On Wednesday, September 12, 7:00 PM we will be visiting Al Frasch’s excellent N scale layout in Freeland. Parking is limited, so
please carpool if possible. Hope to see you there.
Our first clinic of the new season is Summer
Adventures 2007 on Friday, September 21, at
7PM at Scott Buckley’s home. Share summer rail
adventures and watch presentations by local railfans.
Door prizes, popular vote model contest, and
lots of interesting discussion as usual. So, bring a
modeling project and join us for an evening of fun
and adventure! For directions, call Scott Buckley,
360-357-9185.
As this table shows, we have a full year of activities
planned. Note: the * indicates a date that’s
differs from our normal meeting night.
Clinic & Modular Group Reports
Olympia Clinic
Date Program Location
September 21 Share summer adventures, June field trip review Scott Buckley’s house
October 19 Tools and Jigs, show and tell, bring your favorite tools George Hansen’s house
November 16 Railroad videos shot by Clint Brown Clint Brown’s house
December 14 * Christmas party, gift exchange Robert Grove’s house
January 18 Prototype Railroad Presentation Roundtable Pizza
February 15 Hands-on layout construction Jeff Shultz’s house
March 21 Layout Tour Preview TBA
April 18 Slide Presentation by Scott Buckley Scott Buckley’s house
May 16 Weathering Freight Cars Clint Brown’s house
June 8 * Picnic/Field Trip TBA
Seattle-North Clinic
Bobj Berger
For our June clinic, we rented a historic 1963 Seattle Transit Flexible bus from the Metro Employees Historical Vehicle Association,
and with driver and MEHVA Board Member Douglas Thomson, set off for a “Three Hour Tour” of six model railroads in four stops!
First was Ethan (Stu) Rogers two layouts, the Enumclaw, Tahoma & Anacortes Railroad, Humptulips Division and a great Brio layout.
The ET&A is an N-scale freelance Northwest railroad, with DCC, double main, handlaid code 40, 55, and 70 track and turnouts, and
handpainted backdrops (as we’ve seen in his clinics). As we were leaving, Joe Farnik pointed out that Stu needs to do a clinic on his workspace
tool holder!
Our second layout was Burr Stewart’s freelanced, 1970s era Great Burlington Northern Railroad, a nicely sceniced HO and HOn3
layout, selectively compressing GN/NP/BN from South Seattle to
Bellingham and east toward Stevens Pass. It is double and triple
decked, with 1,000+ feet of track and over 150 turnouts. It even has
a “Lego Town” on its lower level that had the kids enamored. Another
bonus is his N scale layout upstairs. He even had some O-scale
trains on display. Some enjoyed operating his new On30 engine. Everyone
was dazzled by the many trains and rolling stock running
throughout the basement layout! Check it out at http://
www.burrstewart.com/.
Our third tour was MMR Paul Scoles’s fabulous Pelican Bay Railway
& Navigation Co., a Sn3 layout set in 1895 Northern California
mountains and forests running to seacoast, as a common carrier of
mining and forest products. His layout has been featured in Narrow
Gauge & Shortline Gazette, Model Railroad Planning (in 1996 and 2000),
and 70+ other magazines (with 18 covers!), and in Green Frog videos.