Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
The latest southwestern Pennsylvania prototype modeler meet is in the books! The 2025 RPM-East event was another success with 250 attendees spending their March 21st & 22nd on the Westmoreland County Community College campus in Youngwood, Pennsylvania.
Continue reading “2025 RPM-East summary”
I’m sure a few readers are wondering why I’m promoting 2024 railroad prototype modeler (RPM) events ten days before Christmas. Well, the event calendar picks up in January!
Continue reading “2024 RPM calendar”
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.
Continue reading “Red River RPM and more”
I enjoyed another RPM Chicagoland meet recently. A number of Pre-Depression Era modelers (the Pirates) attended, as seen in the lead image. That’s me, down in front. Two Pirates were missing at the time of the photo shoot. It was great to catch up with this group in face-to-face conversations and enjoy meals and drinks together. It’s been nine years since a couple of us began corresponding about railroads and industries of the 1900-1930 decades. We’ve learned a great deal from our collective and advanced our individual modeling skills.
I’ve been lax in blog posts for awhile. Summer chores and heat have sapped my hobby energy. This hobby lull has also slowed my work with the Resin Car Works blog. I’m headed to the St Louis RPM this weekend and hope the event recharges my energy. There are a few things on file that I need to wrap up before sharing with you. We’ll see what comes up in the next few weeks.
I visit other blogs to keep my inspiration alive. Please visit the blogs listed in the right column on the main page. The work shared on Gene Deimling’s blog is just amazing.
I’ve been doodling ideas for the next layout project. The garage renovations have not progressed well but layout planning moves forward. I received the latest Layout Design Journal recently and found lots of enjoyment in the issue. This is the publication of the Layout Design Special Interest Group and well worth the membership. Check out their website for details. Issue #61 features three very nice manageable switching layouts with lots of ideas.
That’s it for this post. I’ll snap some photos in St. Louis and share them soon.