Model Display Room

A wide variety of models were displayed at this event. Here are a few that caught my eye. My apologies if I spelled a name incorrectly or misidentified anyone. 

Chuck Davis displayed several Lehigh Valley coal hoppers. These HO scale models had several upgraded details and other modifications to follow the prototype. This is an upgraded and detailed Hobbyline kit.

Eric Thur displayed a number of HO scale resin freight car kits. Here are two Funaro & Camerlengo Pennsylvania Railroad F22 flat cars with a special load from American Model Builders.

More to come!

Eric

More models!

Larry Kline displayed several O scale models, including this fine New York central caboose.

Ron Parisi displayed this scratchbuilt New York Central stock car. 

More to come!

Eric

Reading ventilated box car

My personal modeling focus is 1926, so this HO scale Reading ventilated box car was a nice surprise in the model room. Ventilated box cars on many railroads were quite numerous before the Depression, but the numbers tapered off as equipment aged. Only a few thousand ventilated box cars survived in service past 1953. the Reading retired or rebuilt their ventilated cars to box cars before WW2.

Sadly, there was no info posted as to who displayed this work. 

All of the lettering meets the standards of the 1920-27 timeframe, which is one of the more challenging aspects of modeling this era. Here's the end.

Very nice work.

Eric

More Central stuff

I did not realize how many images I snapped of NYC models until I started posting the update. Robert Steiskal displayed a number of HO scale models, including this interesting NYC container car that was an old Ambroid kit.

Robert displayed quite a few hoppers, too. 

This is just a fraction of the models displayed at the RPM-Valley Forge event. I hope other attendees post additional images. 

Eric

Presentations

There where nearly 60 presentations at the RPM-Valley Forge event and they touched on a wide range of topics. Here's Dave Ramos building an HO scale #6 double crossover with Fast Tracks tools.

Ralph DeBlasi kept weathering several freight cars during a few time slots. Here he encourages a paint application to dry with a hair dryer.

Many presentations featured a blend of prototype detail and modeling ideas. 

Eric

It's strange that so many of the models still have

the Kadee trip pins?  It's hard to find a prototype car sporting them.....DaveB

Operating on the Susquehanna

RPM meets often have a few layouts open for operating sessions before the event begins. I was able to join the Thursday night crew on Steve Salotti's HO scale New York, Susquehanna, & Western Railroad. I snapped a few images along the way, but I had to keep my attention on the timetable!

I started off on a commuter run then moved to the M&U switcher. Here's the train along a bridge on the upper level. Part of the Edgewater switching district can be seen on the lower level. 

Steve has done a nice job of capturing the northern New Jersey towns and scenery. Here are a couple of semi-urban scenes from along the right of way.

Many structures had a nice finish and fit into the scene well. Here's a new building that is being fit into place.

Steve had a variety of freight cars operating on the layout. Many of these are resin freight car kits that model specific prototypes. These two shorty covered hoppers caught my eye a few times as I worked different jobs during the session.

Thanks to Steve and his regular crew for an interesting night of operating.

Eric

Operating on the Lackawanna

Friday morning found me on a crew headed for Jim Dalberg's HO scale Delaware, Lackawanna & Western. Jim has built a large layout with many operational characteristics. Here are a few scenes from his layout.

The layout is multi-level and starts at the Lackawanna Terminal. Staging for Buffalo and Scranton are located above the Terminal.

The Lackawanna ran through Anthracite country and Jim has a few breakers on the layout using painted and weathered mock-ups until a scale model is built. 

Many scenes along the layout are shallow and Jim uses relief structures and photographic prints in many places. This is the small yard at Netcong in a quiet moment before the session began.

Here's another view of Netcong near the freight house. This is in the far end of the photo above.

I pulled duty for the Dover Drill and worked the entire session on this local. Here's just a portion of Dover, which is a very long town with two branch lines, the small industrial area below, and a CNJ interchange. There are about a dozen car spot locations in the industrial area and I had to think through my moves before opening the throttle. I really enjoyed the experience, although I may have missed pulling the CNJ interchange. Don't tell Jim!

That's my quick summary of the RPM-Valley Forge event. I hope other attendees will post a few more images.

Eric

Era

It seems like the west coast RPM meets skew modern, or at least to the diesel era.  Did this one have a greater representation of earlier prototypes?

All eras

Many eras were represented, but I snapped photos of the models that caught my interest. As you can tell, my interest isn't very modern. I hope a few other attendees will add more images here. Ramon Rhodes displayed some nice BNSF power and I recall a few other modelers displaying work from the 1970s, but I did not capture any images. I'd say the model display was evenly split between pre and post-1960 prototypes.

Eric 

Thanks for posting Eric. The

Thanks for posting Eric. The models look really interesting. Nearly all would be close to gone in my era but very interesting and the photo quality was very nice as well.

Rob in Texas