hobby inspiration – Page 3 – Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads

RPM update

As we turn the corner into the last few months of 2022, the RPM calendar has several events scheduled through October. Check the calendar for an RPM near you and make plans to attend.

The joint convention of the L&N and Southern historical groups was recently added. Several RPM presentations and a model display area are part of the Chattanooga event. The convention will be held at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, which will also host a couple events.

A few 2023 events have been announced, too. For your long term planning, save the October 27 & 28 dates for the Naperville RPM! It will be held in the Northern Illinois University conference center just mile or so from previous locations of this long running Chicago event. More details will be shared coming in early 2023.

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Red River RPM and more

Brian Ehni attended the Red River RPM near Fort Worth on June 25th. He sent along a few images and notes on the event. Here’s Brian with the report.

We were in the Grand Ballroom of the Forest Hill Civic Center, with clinics in room 202 and a nearby break room. The room was pretty large. They had free water and soft drinks in the kitchen, which were paid for by the $20 entrance fee.

Take me back to Tulsa

I recently attended the 2022 Layout Design and Operations Weekend in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I signed up to operate on three layouts and to present on Prototype Inspiration for Manageable Size Layouts. I had a blast!

New layout planning

I’ve been planning a new layout since late in the summer of 2019. I came across the image above a few years ago and it has inspired research into the Baltimore & Ohio’s Allegheny Yard branch in Pittsburgh. In the lead image we see the Allegheny River and the School Street yard sitting on the north shore, circa 1923. Today, the Pittsburgh Pirates play baseball along this shore at PNC Park. The stadium dominates the scene and would be hiding the building with the Teaberry Gum sign.

All images in this blog post are from the Pittsburgh City Photographer collection on the Historic Pittsburgh site, unless noted otherwise.

1926 B&O freight car fleet – 3

B&O class N-12e 322841 is a 1921 product of the Pressed Steel Car Company.

Do you recognize this coal hopper? I know you recognize the railroad name, but do you recognize the car design? It looks similar to many hoppers used in the first four decades of the 20th Century. The B&O had more than 1400 of these N-12e class cars listed in the October 1926 Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER). There were 14,364 overall N-12 class cars. Are you surprised?