I’m finally getting caught up after the recent RPM-East prototype modeler meet, so it’s time for an update. I started my RPM experience by attending a Thursday night operating session on Roy Ward’s HO scale West Virginia Central & Pittsburg (correct with no ‘H’ at the end). I had a great time working a couple different jobs.
Friday morning, I worked with the event crew to set up projectors and laptops in the presentation rooms, and handle a few tasks that arose in the early moments of check-in and registration. It was great meeting modelers as they arrived. Many of them set up their models in the display room after getting situated. The presentations had a smooth 1:00 pm start.
Many RPM meets are scheduled in the months ahead. Bookmark the RPM Event Calendar site so you can make plans to attend a prototype modeler meet this year.
Later that night a throbbing headache settled in and I ended up missing most of Saturday with a virus. It isn’t fun traveling a distance to an RPM and becoming sick. A similar virus hit me a year ago at the Valley Forge RPM. With the help of a few other modelers, I’ve posted a gallery of RPM-East images to document the event.
The virus had loosened its grip by Sunday morning so I could visit with my daughter’s family. I was feeling great on Monday, making the return drive to metro-Nashville uneventful.
I traveled to northeast Ohio before the RPM to visit with family and some model railroad friends. I checked progress on John Albaneze’s HO scale layout that follows the Wheeling & Lake Erie’s Carrollton branch. John models after the merger with the Nickel Plate Road and has done a nice job with the modeling.
Except for becoming ill and missing much of the Saturday RPM-East schedule, it was an enjoyable week on the road visiting with friends and family. Now that I’m mostly caught up, I can return to the workbench and finish off a pair of B&O resin boxcar kits.
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Thanks for the write ups and pics Eric. Funny coincidence….unless he has 2 of them(and their was only one prototype ex EL bicentennial SDP45) that is the engine I swapped with Den Lippert a year and a half ago or do. I just wanted the underframe for a future IC SD40A(SD 40 machinery on an SDP45 frame for the bigger tank) so we traded his standard blue conrail one for the bicentennial. see you in August here in St Louis.
https://pbase.com/ehansmann/image/168992680
Thanks for your comments, Loren. That’s a great story on the loco parts trade. Is your IC loco ready for an RPM? – Eric
Eric:
Thanks for putting together the photo report. Enjoyed.
So sorry you were bitten by the bug and missed most of Saturday. Two years in a row…you must be jinxed. Hopefully no repeats.
And thanks for all you do with the blog and other efforts. You are one of the good guys.
Thanks again.
Thanks for your comments, Chuck.
I certainly hope I’m not jinxed on RPM hotels. I was fine for the 2018 St Louis and Chicago events! – Eric
I got sick during the L&NHS Convention in Nashville last September so I feel your pain. At least I got to see Bill Welch’s presentations.
Thanks for the report and pics.