Mid-Atlantic RPM 2023

Tom Devenny redetailed, renumbered and weathered an Accurail hopper

I attended the Mid-Atlantic RPM on Friday and Saturday, September 15-16 in Hunt Valley, Maryland. As usual, the crew put together a great schedule of clinics at a top rate venue. Modelers obliged by bringing a bunch of fine models to display. I snapped photos of a few to share. Enjoy the fine work! [note that Jim Dufour also captured some of the work displayed and uploaded it to his flickr site.]

One of the hosts Shannon Crabtree had a train of RF&P hoppers on display

Jim Dufour brought a train's worth of finely detailed and weathered freight cars

Fenton Wells presented a clinic about kitbashing and displayed several of the subject cars, including this DT&I rebuild (Tichy base model) and the Norfolk Southern auto car shown below, kitbashed from an old McKean kit

Mike Pulaski displayed this finely weathered car

Randy Hamill displayed several passenger and headend cars with a high level of detailing 

Bill Schultheiss showed off a scratchbuilt (in-progress) B&M sand house

Toss Hermann had a few Ironton subjects for display including this caboose

Plate C had several 3D printed kits for sale, all well rendered

David Olsen had this Southern waffle side car to show

Louis Papineau used a Tichy car as the basis for the SCL stump car

Ramon Rhodes had a few models on display, including this nicely finished BNSF power

Not limited to resin freight cars, Bob Cronin showed off his vehicle modeling chops

John Flanigan IV lettered and weathered this WM Jordan spreader

Tom Potthast carried the S scale torch and had a lrge number of models to show

Eric Thur has been a one-man marketing department for MultiScale Digital and their amazing line of 3D printed loads

Eric also had some cars without visible loads, including this Proto2000 tank car with decals applied

PFE Presentation file from MARPM

 

Presumed to be the work of Bob Carlson; image from my slide files

My presentation about the PFE early 1950s fleet has been uploaded for reference (to be transparent, it is indistinguishable from what I presented at RPM East in March) The link to this and many of my other presentation files may be found here.

2019 Mid-Atlantic RPM Photos

I attended the Mid-Atlantic RPM meet this past weekend in Linthicum, Maryland (close to BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport). The recent history of this event has been a little unsettled as it had been hosted south of DC, in Fredericksburg, VA, with modest attendance figures. Under the guidance of Bernie Kempinski, in 2018 the meet moved to its current location. It offered a solid lineup of clinics and display space. This year, attendance grew considerably and the clinic lineup almost doubled. Things are looking strong heading into 2020. I snapped a few photos of things that caught my eye, although this is a sample only!

Richard Shulby displayed this fascinating PFE R-40-23 with complete interior, including floor boards, crates, and ice in the bunkers.

This SP&S gondola (Intermountain) and CP flat (Proto 2000) were part of a display on the Oregon Coast Railroad.

Kevin Olson brought this in-progress RF&P Berkshire, based on a re-detailed Bachmann model.

Pete La Guardia displayed this beautiful NYC tug.

Fritz Dahlin had several excellent vehicles on display, including a Pure Oil GMC truck (CMW body, chassis, and rear wheels with Matchbox cab, and Athearn front wheels) and an IH Emeryville tractor (Sylvan Scale with Microscale decals).

Jim Dufour had several structures featured in his inspiring clinic on the B&M's Cheshire Branch, including this USRA box car, repurposed as a freight house at State Line, New Hampshire, circa 1947.

Tom Devenny modeled an Erie gon using a Mantua model, following an article from RMC.

Clinic file from MARPM (as well as St. Louis RPM)

Yes, I know, it's been a looooonnnngggg time since I have posted anything. I aim to rectify that over the coming weeks. First up is the link to the presentation files from this past weekend's MARPM event as well as the St. Louis RPM in July. Both files may be accessed via this link.

The recent presentation, from MARPM, is a modestly expanded and revised version of my clinic on creating decal artwork (like that shown above.)

The second and older one is the clinic from St. Louis for this year's project car. The focus of the clinic is/was alternate center rivet, U-section/hat section steel box and auto cars.

2018 Mid-Atlantic RPM

The largest and most impressive model was the MV Danica Marie as created by host, Bernie Kempinski

This past weekend, I attended the Mid-Atlantic RPM held at the DoubleTree Baltimore-BWI Airport. I had last attended the meet a few years ago at its old location in Fredericksburg, Virginia. While the Fredericksburg meet was enjoyable, it likely suffered from its location and attendance was not large in numerical terms. This year's meet seemed, to this attendee, to have a greater turnout. I believe it was due to relocating to the area between Baltimore and DC. The clinics were of high caliber and the models on display were also high quality. Lastly, and not a trivial concern, is the fact that the hotel had good facilities, good lighting, as well as a restaurant and bar on the premises. Should Bernie and his team decide to continue the event, I have little doubt that it will grow given all these factors. I can certainly recommend it as a weekend well-spent!

I believe this scratchbuilt structure was the work of Stanley McAdoo...

... as was this Norfolk Southern SD70M

Bernie Kempinski showed off his fine etchings on the sides of these large auto loaders

Ralph DeBlasi brought several flat cars with interesting loads

Jerry Dembeck built one of the interesting PFE R-70-2s from a Sunshine kit

Fritz Dahlin created interesting aluminum bales from the real stuff...

... as well as resin interiors for his car models.

Brad Trenkamp displayed this incredible in-progress model of the American Can Company

It is scratchbuilt and features photos of real windows for the window sections. The effect is highly realistic and lends a usually unseen "3D" character to that element of the model. My favorite model from the meet!

Tom Devenny had a large number of freight cars on display, including this realistically weathered Branchline kit of a DT&I box car

He also detailed a Con-Cor model of an ACL ventilator, proving that toy trains can be modified into prototypical miniatures, too

Ted Dilorio conducted a hand-on weathering clinic and had models to illustrate his techniques

Todd Hermann displayed beautiful models of the CQ Tower and Maintainers' buildings at milepost 97 on the Lehigh Valley in West Catasauqua, PA, circa 1956

As always, Bill Hanley shared his highly details B&O models

Adam Henry flew the banner for N Scale with this Ma & Pa CF7 conversion... 

... as well as this scratchbuilt model of the lime loadout at the Vulcan Quarry in Hanover, PA

Butch Eyler held court promoting the virtues of Gouache as a medium for weathering (I agree)

At an adjacent table, Ted Dilorio and Ralph Heiss also offered hands-on weathering

Tom Potthast showed some S scale models, including this bridge from castings by Tom Meisner and custom decals for Landsdowne Avenue in St. Louis

Tom also brought this S Helper SW-9 decorated for Frisco

Adam Chilcote displayed this Penn Central with a structural load...

... as well as this NYC AAR 70-ton flat with highly realistically weathered deck.