Clinician List

Click on a Clinician's Name to see more details including a list of the Clinics that they are presenting.

Name Bio
Auburg, Doug

2015 National Convention chairman

Baker, Stuart
Barney, Bruce

Bruce has over five years experience in 3D printing and has been published in the Southern
Pacific Techinical & Historical Society journal on this topic.
He is also the owner of AL&W Lines, where he creates high-quality models of Espee structures.

Besougloff, Neil

Neil Besougloff has been editor of Model Railroader magazine for 8 years. Beforethat, Neil was editor of sister publication Classic Toy Trains for a decade and was a newspaper editor in Florida and in his native New Jersey.

Bisgeier, Craig
Black, Rodney
Blake, Bob
Blake, Rich
Bronson, Dick

Dick Bronson is co-owner and hardware designer for RR-CirKits, Inc. Model Railroading has been his hobby since he was a child in upstate New York. In 1998 he started a website offering "kits" of "circuit" boards that he had designed for his own model railroad, and called the site RR-CirKits. In 2003 He was offered the opportunity to build the original LocoBuffer, and by 2004 had redesigned it into a finished product, the LocoBuffer-II, and turned RR-CirKits into a full time business.

Dick and his wife Karen live in Waxhaw NC, the home of the only remaining wooden foot bridge over the CSX. Standing on the bridge while a train passes a few feet below you is the most exciting action in town.

Brown, Bill MMR

Bill Brown has been an NMRA Master Model Railroader since 2006 and his home layouts and modules have appeared in several issues of Model Railroader Magazine, Railroad Model Craftsman, and The Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette. Bill is a past division Superintendent, is on the national contest staff for the NMRA, and is the AP Chair for The Northeastern Region. Bill's models have won several awards over the years including the Gold Award for Best of Show at The Detroit National Convention, and had a photo selected Best of Show last summer in Cleveland. Bill has given clinics at several national conventions. He recently parlayed his love of photography into LARC Products, a small business that provides backdrops and graphics worldwide.
(www.LARCProducts.com), a small business that provides backdrops and graphics worldwide.

Bunza, Geoff

Geoff Bunza started as a Model Railroader at age 6. His interest in modeling the New York Central was cemented when riding on a NYC fan trip to Harmon in 1966 behind S-Motor 110. He fed his interests through college becoming a member of the Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC) at MIT while getting his doctorate in Electrical Engineering. He has given clinics throughout the US on scale model animation and written articles for Model Railroad Hobbyist, Railroad Model Craftsman, and the New York Central Historical Society Model Magazine. He is a life member of the NMRA and holds an Extra Class amateur radio license.

Burgess, Jack MMR

Jack Burgess models the Yosemite Valley Railroad circa August 1939.

Butts, Gary
Cameron, Ken
Catania, Chuck
Chandler, Mike MMR
Chubb, Bruce MMR

Dr. Bruce Chubb is a Master Model Railroader and the author of the model railroading books, How To Operate Your Model Railroad, The Computer/Model Railroad Interface (C/MRI) User's Manual and the two-volume Railroader's Application Handbook - a complete thesis on railroading applications. Bruce is a renowned author in Model Railroader and NMRA Magazine with over 60 articles to his credit. He is a major speaker at numerous NMRA national and regional conventions. Bruce, a retired electrical engineer in digital systems applied to aerospace, is currently occupied full time building and operating his Sunset Valley Oregon System to model ten prototype railroads operating in the Pacific Northwest. Additionally, Bruce is involved helping others incorporate the benefits of a computer interfaced to their model railroads via JLC Enterprises.

Chubb, Janet

Married to Bruce 60 years, Janet is the mother of two grown daughters and has been a
Nature Center Instructor in Land and Wild Life Preservation. She is trained in crises
management and has worked the "Crisis Hot Line" in Grand Rapids Michigan handling a
myriad of problems including drug overdose, deep depression and suicidal tendencies.
As a result of Bruce's well known obsession with Model Railroading, Janet is frequently
asked by rails and non-rails, "How do you put up with Bruce spending 12 hours per day
7 days a week in the basement with his hobby?" Or, "How can I get my significant other
to understand and not resent my railroading hobby?"



As a result of these questions, and some arm twisting by NMRA officials, Janet was
asked to develop a clinic explaining, "Her Side of the Sunset Valley Story" or
basically, "How to make your love grow as the hobby grows". Janet has presented
this story at numerous national and regional conventions, both as a clinician and
featured speaker for the NMRA and for Railroad Technical and Historical Societies.
Additionally, Janet's story was published in the March 2007 issue of Scale Rails.
To make things even better, Janet has now combined her story with Bruce to create
the even more dynamic presentation covering "Both Sides of the Sunset Valley Story".

Clark, Robert A.

Bob has been a docent at the California State Railroad Museum for 18 years, intrepreting the railway post office car, diner, and sleeper. He is a member of the Sacramento Modular Railroaders club and has a home layout modeling the Erie around Elmira, N.Y. about 1952.

Comstock, Charlie

Portland 2015 National Convention clinics chair.
Owner and builder of the Bear Creek & South Jackson railroad featured in the Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine.

Dance, Mark

Mark Dance lives in Vancouver, B.C., with his "understanding and patient" wife Christiane and their two children. He has been an N scale modeler for 36 year. The Columbia & Western and it's operations have been described in a number of articles in the hobby press including Model Railroad Planning 2012. The C&W is also scheduled to appear in Great Model Railroads 2016. Mark has a degree in mechanical engineering (robotics) and spent 20 years as a product designer/inventor and manager.

Decker, Bill

PDX 2015 National Convention - SIG coordinator

Deis, Paul
Draper, Barry
Feeney, Dr Kevin
Ferenc, Jim

Jim Ferenc lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and has two adult children. He has modeled the Colorado and Southern Ry. Northern Division (standard gauge) in HO scale since 1991. He and a group of operation-minded friends first brought the C&S to life in 2000, and operate monthly. Jim is also the owner of Boulder Creek Engineering a small company creating animation products for model railroads, including talking defect detectors, speedometers, track scales, and more.

Forsyth, Stuart

Stuart A. Forsyth, a life member of NMRA, has been researching Cajon Pass (from Colton to Summit) since 1959. As Secretary and then Chairman of the Pacific Coast Chapter of the R&LHS, he helped create the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento. He currently serves on the Archives Oversight Committee of the Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society's Western Archives, which are located at the Depot in San Bernardino. While his layout of Cajon Pass has yet to be built, he has learned a lot over the intervening years. Now that he has retired from his most-recent position as Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, hopefully he will have time to turn dreams into reality in his large garage in San Diego.

Fowler, Don MMR
Freeman, Henry

Henry is VP for Operations of the B&O Railroad Historical Society. He has been a clinician at NMRA National and Regional Conventions, Prototype Modeler meets and B&ORHS conventions. His articles have appeared in Model Railroader, Model Railroad Planning and the Operations SIG's Dispatcher Office, as well as B&ORHS publications. Henry is a retired newspaper and digital publisher and editor. His newsrooms won numerous national awards, including a Pulitzer Prize.

Frey, Robert
Fugate, Joe

Publisher Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine

Geiger, Doug MMR

Owner and builder of the HO scale Granite Mountain Railway. Doug has had many articles,
reviews and editorials published in various model railroad publications. He was a
contributing editor for 12 years for Model Railroading ("Ding") magazine and has given
many clinics at both regional and national NMRA conventions.

Getz, Charlie

President of the NMRA.

Gore, Jim MMR

Modeling with the masters instructor.

Grivno, Cody

Associate editor, Model Railroader magazine

Grossman, Tom

iwata-medea airbrushes / Tag Team hobbies

Gurries, Mark

Mark Gurries is model railroader since 1973 and a DCC user since 1996. He is a professional Electrical Engineer who works in San Jose California (Silicon Valley). His expertise is in Power Design & Management directly applies to DCC technology.

Hall, Edwin MMR
Hamilton, Jack MMR
Hamm, Bob MMR
Hanley, Don

Editor, Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine

Harris, David
Hauff, Steve

Steve Hauff is a well known author and editor:

  • Co-author: The Willamette Locomotive, The Climax Locomotive, Steel Over the Willamette
  • Editor: Tall Timber Shortlines, Trainmaster
  • Published in more than 20 rail publications in four countries

He has also lectured on rail subjects in the US, Australia and Japan.

Headon, Fred MMR

Modeling with the masters instructor.

Henderson, Byron

Byron is the editor of the ldsig's Layout Design Journal.

Highsmith, Michael

President of the Pacific Northwest Region.

Hobbs, Paul
Hopkins, Ron
Houtz, Alan

iwata-medea airbrushes

Houzvicka, Frank
Huberman, Dan
Ingraham, Paul

Paul has been involved with modular railway modeling since 1974 when he built an Nn3 NTRAK module for the NMRA national convention in San Diego. He subsequently became the first Modular Standards Chairman on the NMRA national engineering committee and modular layout coordinator for the 1977 PCR and 1981 National conventions.
Paul developed the Interail modular standards that pioneered ideas now embraced by Freemo, One Trak and the European NEM modular recommendations.
Always having international railway interests, Paul has built layouts with Swiss, British, and Canadian themes as well as his current AsiaNRail modules.
For over 20 years, Paul was the owner of Interail/Intermodel and designed and manufactured the first N scale double stack container cars and related intermodal models in the 1970s to 90s.

Ireland, AJ

A.J. is co-owner of Digitrax.

Ireland, Jarrette

Jarrette Ireland is the Manager of Sales and Support at SoundTraxx. A modeler since childhood and a part-time trainman with the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Jarrette is well versed in both the hobby and the industry. In addition to assisting customers and dealers, Jarrette has presented clinics on the many features of SoundTraxx products, sound, and DCC at both the NMRA and National Narrow Gauge conventions for the past 5 years. He also serves as Vice President of the Hobby Manufacturers Association Model Railroad Division, and on the Education Committee.

Ireland, Zana

Zana is co-owner of Digitrax.

Jameson, William
Johnson, Greg

Greg has been an active modeler in both N scale and HO since 1968. His layouts have been featured in Model Railroader, Model Railroading, N Scale Railroading, Great Model Railroads & Model Railroad Planning. He has also presented many clinics at various NMRA national conventions over the past 30 years.

Johnston, Jeff

Jeff Johnston has been a frequent convention clinician and a long-time contributor to the model railroad hobby press with more than 50 stories published in MR, RMC, Timber Times and other publications. He authored "The MDC Shay Handbook", the "How to Paint a Steam Locomotive" video and continues his work on restored steam locomotive and model railroad hobby videos and articles. He and his wife Pam are building an HO scale standard gauge layout based on the Sugar Pine Lumber Company/Minarets & Western Railway circa September 1927.

Judge, Robert
Kang, Rick

Rick dispatched trains and trained dispatchers for the SP.

Kaufman, Bill
Keena, James
Kempinski, Bernard

Owner of Alkem Scale Models.

Klettke, Kevin
Knapp, Tom MMR
Koester, Tony
Kooning, Clark MMR

Modeling with the masters instructor.

Lewis, Dan MMR
Lovely, John

I have loved trains since WWII days, watching the SP in the San Timoteo canyon. Yes I vaguely remember steam, mostly in helper service. I spent most of my adult life in passenger transportation - busses and now as a Conductor with Grand Canyon Railway. I model HO, HOn3 and 1:8 scale, 7.5" gauge.

Madsen, Greg

Retired electrical engineer and software developer.

Webmaster for PDX2015

McGuirk, Martin

Prototype modeling columnist for Model Railroad Hobbyist.

McRee, Duncan

Owner of Tam Valley Depot

Merrin, Ed
Mindheim, Lance
Moignard, Mick

Mick Moignard has been modeling D&RGW and RGS prototypes in HOn3 since the mid 70's and with DCC since 2000. Mick considers DCC and onboard sound to be the greatest thing for the hobby since we abandoned keys for electricity.

Morden, Bruce

Bruce has written articles for the Layout Design Journal since 2001.

Muff, Nicholas MMR

Dr. Muff has been collecting brass model railroad equipment and modeling in HO scale for over 50 years. He has a large home layout with a focus on passenger railroading from the late 1940's to the mid 1950's. The center piece of the model railroad is a scale recreation of Kansas City Union Station and downtown Kansas City. The stage for the model railroad is set by a full scale F-7 locomotive cab and a ACF passenger car mock-up. He enjoys CAD drawing and over one hundred of his articles and plans have been published. He is a member of the National Model Railroad Association and several historical societies. For twelve years he has been involved in research, drawing and production of fine-scale HO brass models of steam and diesel locomotives and passenger equipment of the Mid-west. He is a Radiation Oncologist practicing in the Washington State.

Murphy, Dennis

Dennis Murphy is a ship captain by trade, but mostly he teaches at a maritime institute in Seattle these days. He has been published on three continents, in five countries, in multiple publications.

Neumann, Seth

Seth is a retired electronics industry professional. His home layout features the Union
Pacific in the San Francisco Bay Area's Niles Canyon in 1999 where he hosts regular op sessions. Seth specializes in communications systems for model railroads. He's developed telephone systems for several operating layouts and presented numerous clinics on the subject. He also designs power distribution, DCC, signaling and other electronic controls for model railroads.

Nicholas, Lee

Owner/builder of the HO scale Utah Colorado Western.

O'Connell, Mike
Parks, David
Paul, Kermit MMR
Petrarca, Bruce

Bruce writes the popular DCC-Impulses column in Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine.

Petrarca, Linda
Priest, Stephen

Editor, Railroad Model Craftsman

Providenza, Jim

Jim is the owner/building of the HO scale Santa Cruz Northern railroad. He has been
published numerous times.

Racz, Balazs
Robinson, Gary

Gary Robinson was a lone wolf model railroader for nearly 50 years and in many scales at one time or another. Since 2000 Gary has been sharing
with and learning from other modelers. Currently working primarily in HO, Gary is a member of the Poway Station (HO) modular club and Short Track (N) Railroad.
He also serves as the Vice President of the PacificSouthwest Region (PSR) where he frequently leads workshops. Gary is looking forward to sharing his knowledge at the national convention level.

Schutzer, Mark
Sedaker, Steve

Steve Sedaker is Vice President of the Pacific Railroad Preservation Association (PRPA), and also on the Board of Directors for the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation. Steve has been a crew member on the 700 since 2006, and his key responsibilities are crew staffing and operations for the 700. Steve also sits on various ORHF committees and is active business and financial planning activities at ORHF and the Oregon Rail Heritage Center.

Simmons, Jimmy

Jimmy is the owner of Monster Modelworks.

Smith, Don

As a young boy, Don was been fascinated with the stories his Grandfather of driving
steam locomotives through the Canadian Rockies for the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
His Grandfather had the honor of driving the "Royal Train" from Field to Revelstoke,
B.C. in 1939 with The King & Queen of England onboard during their royal tour of
North America.



Don joined Pacific Western Rail Systems / North American Railcar in 2006. NARCorp
manufactures HO & N scale rail cars with attention to accuracy and detail. NARCorp
is producing the protypically correct National Steel Car 3400 CuFt Potash hopper
for the NMRA 2015 convention car.

Smith, Lowell

Lowell is a passionate 'operator' and owner of Lowell Smith Signature Series, producer of 'Specialty Model Trains'. Lowell was a founding member of Columbia River N Scale and a train producer for The Walt Disney Company.

Spangler, Rob
Steinmetz, Pete

Pete Steinmetz has been an avid modeler since childhood. He modeled HO Transition for many years, then did a stint with N Scale. Like many N Scalers, he found his way to On30. While in On30 he discovered the joy of operating trains with Battery Power and Radio Control. He was fortunate to be one of the founding members of the Dead Rail Society. As the interest in Dead Rail grows and matures there is more opportunity to help people make the transition to Dead Rail. In addition to Dead Rail, Pete has done considerable research in Weathering Techniques using mixed media. He has been especially interested in techniques used by military modelers. He is working as an advisor to Ammo of Mig as they develop a line of weathering products for model railroaders.

Stenzel, Norm

Principal at Train Control Systems

Studley, Steve
Talviste, Mike
Thomas, Gilbert
Thompson, Mat

Mat Thompson grew up in Oregon. He now lives in Gainesville, Va. His HO scale Oregon Coast Railroad was featured in Great Model Railroads 2014. With a nearly finished layout, his present hobby efforts go into hosting and attending operating sessions.

Thompson, Tony

A long-time SP modeler in HO and a California native, Tony Thompson is interested in SP history, and has published both magazine articles and books on this subject. He wrote the modeling column in the SP Historical and Technical Society's magazine, Trainline, for 25 years, and served five years as the Society's President. He is retired from a career in university teaching and research, as a materials scientist interested in mechanical properties of materials.

Tousley, Donald
Van Arnem, Bob
Van Gilder, Chip
Walker, Roger MMR

Roger is a retired geology professor/consultant, with a special interest in realistic scenery. My clinic will emphasize rocks on a layout, and ways to make them realistic. My own layout has more than 300 painted plaster castings, all made from my own resin molds.

Warris, Tim

Owner of Fast Tracks, manufacturer of precision turnout construction jigs.

Waterstreet, David L.
Weinheimer, Bob MMR
Williams, Mark MMR

Like so many of us, I had a train set as a Christmas gift (American Flyer) as a child... and then life happened, and there seemed to be no time for model trains! I got back into the hobby in my late 40's, and have built four layouts since (two of which have been sold, but I still have the socond and fourth and enjoy them in rotation). Each of these have been small enough to transport to various shows and exhibitions, and each has had a different theme. My interest in the CB&Q and its Zephyrs comes form the fact that I was born in Illinois and rode on some of their trains as a kid and as a young adult, including the fabled California Zephyr.

Wright, Greg MMR

Greg Wright has been modelling since 1975 in HO, HOn3 and 1:32 scale. His current railroad,
the Consolidated Republic Mining Railroad, is built in 1:32 scale in a 22' by 14' space,
smaller than many HO scale layouts. Greg's layout has been featured in Railroad Model Craftsman,
Finescale (Outdoor) Railroader and numerous times in the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette.
Greg received MMR #520 in the fall of 2013.

Youngblood, Peter MMR

Modeling with the masters instructor.

Zeek, Jim MMR

Growing up in Placerville, CA, the son of a saw filer and the fourth generation of loggers and mill men, Jim began helping his father by the time he was tall enough to align band saw teeth as they passed by on a grinder and by age sixteen, had completed apprenticeship as a filer. Instead of moving on to work as a filer's helper Jim enrolled in Forestry at Oregon State (OSU). During college and graduate school, summer employment was found in a box factory as machine operator and at a saw mill as a laborer around mill and woods; including cat skinner recovering rails left behind by scrappers.
Following a twenty year professional career in management in the mid-westestern and eastern U.S., Jim returned to California and worked for eleven years for Michigan-California Lumber Co. and its successor Sierra Pacific Industries as a machine operator and quality control technician. Jim retired in 1997 to work on his organic farm.