Models from the Display Room at RPM East

 

The image above is Moynihan Hall at Penn Station from the start of my journey to this year's RPM East. I took Amtrak and thoroughly enjoyed the trip with no driving on the claustrophobic Penna Turnpike. The meet was held at a new location this year, Westmoreland County Community College. The facilities were quite good and the model display room was the best lit one I have ever seen. It made squinting at details quite a bit easier. The modeling was some of the best I have seen at an RPM. On to the models... all mistakes in names, comments, etc., are mine!

Adam Chilcote of Plate C displayed numerous fine models, including this Tangent 60' GSC flat with AMB laser cut deck, Moloco draft gear, Plate C Peacock hand brake and cushion return springs, K4 and Microscale decals, Sergent couplers and a scratchbuilt 3D printed load. Whew!

Adam scratchbuilt this Cumberland Valley GE gondola

Adam started with an Intermountain tank car frame and added a 3D printed tank, dome, and dome platform detailed with PSC stanchions, Yarmouth steps, Tahoe trucks and Microscale decals

Adam removed the fishbelly from the sides on a Tangent gon to replicate one of the WM's straight side sill gondolas

Matt Hurst's presentation at the meet was about Supplee milk cars and the Huntingdon & Broad Top. He showed off these fine cars to supplement his talk

Matt also displayed this beautiful and highly inventive replica of a PRR X24 auto car that started as a BLI PRR stock car! Kudos for a job well done 

Chip Syme had several models on display including this ACFX "candy striper" tank car 

Chip also brought this PC flat car with Manitowoc load

Dave Owens of Northeast RPM fame had a ton of fire equipment models on display from Magnuson, Ralph Ratcliffe, Athearn, and others

Jackson Glazer modeled this ex-Santa Fe Guilford SD26

John Frantz modeled a Conrail/PC ex-PRR GLa hopper using a Rapido model as the starting point

Local modeler Dennis Lippert had a large selection of models in the display room, including this N&W/Fruit Growers car

Bob Meier displayed this late 60s big Alco in Reading livery

Eric Hansmann ably carried the torch for the pre-Depression era with this D&H Seley hopper using a private run resin mit

Mike Niedzalkoski, perhaps the person traveling the shortest distance to the meet, showed off this N scale Walthers model of Penn Central 3215, a snack bar car rebuilt from a NYC 64-seat coach. Yes, the interior is detailed! 

Mike Hauk presented a clinic on modeling PRR X29 and B&O M-26A and -B box cars and brought along fine models to illustrate his topic

John Flanigan IV used two Bowser hoppers to replicate this WM homebuilt wood chip car. It was lettered with decals from Mt. Vernon Shops

Jack Consoli brought along this in-progress 'bash of a Montour Mikado based upon a Rivarossi B&O S1 class 2-10-2. There's a lot of work here including turning down the drivers to get correct 57" ones, modifying the frame and pilot, and updating other details

Jim Panza showed off this F68CH TTX flat car based upon a Scale Trains model, including plate steel load

Bernie Kempinski displayed some of his stunning Civil War era modeling efforts

Jason Mauser custom painted and detailed this to replicate a PC E8 

Tim Moffat built this model of a Pittsburgh Railways 4200-series car from drawings

Prolific resinator Dennis Williams had numerous models on display, including this Sunshine PRR X37B

Will Jamison scratchbuilt and then made resin copies of the covers to add to this P&LE gon based upon a Proto2000 model

Will also presented a fascinating clinic about the Mather MIne and how he is scratchbuilding a model of it. The preparation plant is shown here

Steve Salotti used a Westerfield kit to replicate Santa Fe class Sk-P stock car 52786

Gus Minardi displayed this very long and amazing replica of the Pennsy TrucTrain. The three locos are P2K GP-30s with PRR-specific details and Microscale decals. The F39 flat cars are Walthers and Overland models with Middle Division decals. The trailers are scratchbuilt, kitbashed, RTR and kits. The N8 cabin is a custom painted brass Alco Models offering

Bob Cronin also had several vehicles and trailers on display

Bob used Resin Car Works parts to model this P&E hopper

 

Brian Carlson added a nice load and weathered this Tangent PRR G31B

Darrall Swift displayed this scratchbuilt CB&Q box car with Moloco ends. If anyone knows the source of the roof ribs, please leave a comment (unless they're removed from a commercial PS roof!)

Hunter Hughson showed off this in progress PRR rebuilt X29G based on an F&C X29D with new side sill and detailed underframe

Kaylee Zheng displayed this in progress model of a proto freelance Amherst Belt Lines SW1500 using an Athearn Blue Box model as the starting point

John Ainsworth had a display of his 45 years of scratchbuilding in brass, including this Frisco 2-8-2 built in 2009 on a cut-down United frame and mechanism

Tom Haag had a ton of fine models on display. This DT&I 50' PS-1 began as a Kadee undec car that was redetailed, painted, and lettered with K4 decals

For this model, Tom started with a Tangent PC G41A, relettered the hoods to represent earlier ones and used a Walthers coil load

Tom Devenny weathered a Walthers GSC flat car to produce CGW 3011

John Brown displayed his impressive scratchbuilt model of the C&O freight station at Thurmond, WV

Terry Kolenc modified an Athearn blue box car to replicate a UP A-50-15 with a raised roof for service from Boeing in Wichita to Seattle 

Scooter Hovanec produced these beautifully weathered models of railbox and WC cars

Andrew Raith brought this scratchbuilt CNW gon

PFE Presentation file from RPM East

 

Here is the link to the presentation file from RPM East this past weekend. While it is very similar to the presentation from Cocoa Beach, there are a few updates.

Flat Car Friday (Saturday!) - Southern Pacific F-50 family

This version of Flat Car Friday is less a focus on a specific prototype or load and more about a detail. The prototype shown here is one of the SP's (or perhaps an SP-affiliated road's) numerous 50-ton flat cars in the classes F-50-5/-8/-9/-10/-12. The photo illustrates the side sill and stake pocket details quite clearly. Fairly obvious also is the person taking a break on the deck surface. What I want to emphasize, however, is the condition of the deck. The boards are quite distressed and chewed up. This is something most of us try to emulate in our models, but looking at this image makes me realize that I still have some work to do to develop and improve my technique. This image is one of many from the FSA/OWI collection at the Library of Congress.

Greetings from Morocco

1909, untitled, location not recorded, Lewis W. Hine (1874-1940)

Way back last autumn, I agreed to travel to Morocco with my partner, Laura, to attend a yoga retreat outside Marrakech. We made plans to stay a couple days in Madrid en route and wouldn't you know it, while attending the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, primarily to view Picasso's masterpiece Guernica plus other works by acclaimed (and not so) Spanish artists, I stumbled upon this photograph. Not only was it American and railroad-related, but it perfectly illustrated one of the problems with shifting loads and box cars with wood ends. The prototype is from the SP family of roads, although I don't have my references here with me in Morocco (!) to add more info. As you can see in the image, the end of the right hand car had been breached recently and no doubt would have required repair very soon. 

Below is an image of me and a group of Moroccan boys from a tiny village we hiked to, after I played a little goalie for them on their soccer pitch in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains.

Flat Car Friday - Santa Fe Ft-7 95057

 

This week's image is from Epping, New Hampshire, ca. the late 1960s and contains a nice load. The car is Santa Fe FT-7 no. 95057. The FT-7 class continued the Santa Fe's use of GSC cast steel underframes, begun with class FT-W in 1951. The FT-7 class was different in that the 100 cars were 70-ton capacity and 60 feet long. The underframes supplied by GSC were finished by the Santa Fe (addition of brake equipment, trucks, decking, etc.) in 1956 and assigned to series 90900-90999. The car shown above is loaded with International tractors. The adjacent car looks to be a Northern Pacific or Burlington car (although I can't make out the lettering to make a definitive determination.) The machines loaded on it are International-Harvester. Both were part of International-Harvester (Farmall tractors were part of I-H, too.)

There will not be a Flat Car Friday post next week

Update on Etchings from Presentation

 During my presentation at the latest Hindsight 20/20, I alluded to the fact that due to the shipping delays in receiving my test etchings due to the Royal Mail hack from late December, I could not inspect and assess what I had received. I spent a few more hours looking at some of the parts, and have a few photos to share.

The first photos are of the ladders for PFE R-40-25/-26 reefers. The primary difference between the two is the -25 class used traditional ladders with treads (rungs) riveted to the ladders stiles while the -26 used Wine-style ladders where the rungs had bends that fit into holes in the stiles, that once attached to the car held the rungs in place. What is displayed here is the -25 riveted style. Compare the prototype photo, above, to the etchings shown below. The sill steps were attached to a bracket that was also integral to the bottom of the ladder stiles, with the entire assembly attached to the bottom face of the side sill in two locations.

The next group of photos are of etchings for a Chicago and North Western PS-1 auto car. Common to all but the earliest PS-1s, that arrangement featured an integral ladder stile, sill step, and bracket attached to the bottom of the side sills, similar to the R-40-25 shown above. [the prototype photo below illustrates this arrangement on a Maine Central PS-1 box car]

There was an interim style of end ladder on PS-1s, with a "jog" in the lower portion of the right stile. Early PS-1s had straight stiles, while later ones had the same "jog," but with two wider bottom rungs, as opposed to one. [note: I could've done a better job bending the little jog to make it straight!]

The last parts I will highlight are two types if zee bars. Most PS-1s had crossmembers that were 4" zee bars. An etching to replicate that is shown in two views. The other simulates a 3" zee bar that will be used to replicate the stringers between the body bolsters and end sills. The photo illustrates the cross section. Etchings such as these have many applications as zee bars were quite common. Until I have more to report...

Larger Etching Bending Tool - RP Toolz Piranha

In my presentation about etchings, I mentioned that I was in the market for an etching bending tool with a longer bending edge. In the past, I have used a small "Hold and Fold" from the Small Shop. I first visited their site looking for a larger version of their tool, but found that it has been discontinued. My next stop was UMM-USA where I found just the thing, the RP Toolz "Piranha" 195mm photo etch bending tool. I ordered it ($60.99) and it arrived within a few days. Not only do I love its longer working edge, but I have also found it to have stronger clamping than the Hold and Fold, making it easier to bend some of my recent creations that have long edges, but relatively narrow bits to grab to facilitate bending. The top piece can be unscrewed and rotated 180 degrees, as well, providing some flexibility. I am 100% satisfied with the Piranha. I highly recommend it. If this is too large for your needs, UMM-USA does have other options. Just use the search tool at their site.

In the next couple days, I will share a few updates to etched parts I referenced during the presentation