We are pulling together a diverse slate of model and prototype presentations for the 2024 RPM Napervile/Chicagoland event. A tentative presentation schedule will be posted near the end of September. Here are the presentations with a short description.
1 – Scott Kremer – 2025 NMRA National Convention Introduction
Why should anyone who regularly attends RPM meets be interested in Station No. VI 2025, next year’s NMRA National Convention? Scott plans to describe why and help you find out what is different about this convention and how it is made for you.
2 – Ray Breyer – History and Roster of the Fowler Boxcars
Ray’s clinic will include research into the Fowler style single sheathed boxcar. The discussion will focus on the prototype and include all known model options.
3 – Doug Harding – Midwest Grain Elevators: Wood, Concrete, and Steel
The clinic includes a large number of vintage photos covering construction and details of various types of grain elevators. Also, covers how the elevators worked and the use of grain doors. There is also a brief look at HO models.
4 – Dick Harley – PFE 57-foot Mechanical Refrigerator Models
Beginning with the R-70-13 class in 1963, on through the R-70-25 class in 1971, PFE acquired 10,700 57-ft mechanical reefers built by Pacific Car & Foundry. This clinic will show you how to RTR/kit-bash all of those car classes in HO scale using the Red Caboose R-70-15 cars/kits and the InterMountain R-70-20 cars/kits. Data for other scales will also be mentioned.
5 – Jerry Hamsmith – Illinois Central All-Steel Automobile Cars
The clinic reviews the prototype history of the early all-steel automobile cars of the Illinois Central. Coverage begins with cars acquired in 1937 and ends with those built by the railroad in 1947. These cars are traced over their lives through the mid-1960s.
6 – Ed Rethwisch – Building Some IC Automobile Cars in HO scale
Ed follows up on the prototype history of the IC auto cars with a discussion of how to model various of the single-sheathed and all steel cars in HO scale.
7 – Tony Koester – Proto:48 tribute to the Wabash’s Mogul-powered 11th District in Illinois
The Bluffs, Ill., to Keokuk, Iowa, branch of the Wabash was powered by F-4 Moguls, and Tony Koester has acquired two O scale beauties built from Kemtron kits that have been converted to fine-scale (Proto:48) track standards. With “a little help from his friends,” he’s building a U-shaped two-town tribute to this branch made famous by David P. Morgan and Philip R. Hastings on his three-seasons porch with hand laid code 100 and 83 rail. This clinic shows his progress to date.
8 – Jason Klocke – Bricks, Butter and Baldwin Electrics: The Mason City and Clear Lake and Iowa Terminal Railroads
The oldest continuously operating electric freight railroad is located in Mason City, IA. The current day Iowa Traction Railroad has its roots in the Mason City & Clear Lake Railroad and the Iowa Terminal Railroad. Jason will be speaking about the Mason City & Clear Lake Railroad through its transition to the Iowa Terminal Railroad, utilizing many previously unseen color images and movies. The program will focus on the railroad from 1950-1975, its operations and customers.
9 – Ted Culotta – Tips for Using Etchings to Create Parts
Etchings have numerous uses in modeling. The parts are thin in profile, capture shapes well, and are quite durable compared to styrene. This discussion will show how to create such parts and how to apply them to models. Note that they are not just for things like rolling stock; they have many applications and other uses will be touched upon as part of the presentation. No prior experience creating or using etchings is necessary!
10 – Roger Hinman – The Other New York Central Steel Baggage Cars, 1939-1968
Having reviewed the NYC standard design steel baggage cars in last year’s RPM, this presentation will look at the balance of the NYC baggage car fleet in the final three decades of the railroad’s existence. The other cars consist of new procurements, second hand acquisitions, and rebuilds of other car types into baggage cars.
11 – Eric Hansmann – Team Tracks and Team Yards
A historical review of team tracks and team yards in cities and towns. These facilities are key for serving local customers who do not have dedicated rail service. They are also important delivery points for retailers and wholesalers that served the local population. These underutilized layout additions can increase layout operational interest and play value across many eras.
12 – Chris Vanko – A Modeling Time Machine
Chris will discuss forward dating available kits (HO scale) to make them appropriate for more current operating eras.
13 – Bill Darnaby – Scratchbuilding a Monon Steam Locomotive
Scratchbuilding the Monon’s Ubiquitous J1’s. Bill describes how a simple conversion of a USRA mike turned into a major scratch building project. Covers the prototype history and input to the project that led to unanticipated modeling decisions. The modeling techniques involved cover making everything from scratch except the running gear and frame.
14 – David Leider – Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad
This clinic covers the history of the Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad. David will start with the need for a new terminal railroad, and then continue with who built it, why it was sold to the five member railroads and how the SF got involved. He will take it to the start of Amtrak and the ultimate fate of the railroad.
15 – Steve Hile – Wilson and Company Refrigerator Cars
Steve will review the history of this interesting company and its cars, many of which were built in company shops. He will then show some modeling examples and the kit building and bashing to obtain them.
16 – Rich Remiarz – Modeling the GN Mid-1950s Freight Car Roster – 40′ Box Cars, Pt 1
The first of a series of clinics covering the Great Northern freight car roster as of July 1, 1956. Each clinic will take a group of cars, discuss the prototype cars in detail, showing all of the variations, and then discuss how to model the cars accurately. This clinic will cover the first half of the 40′ boxcar roster.
17 – Jim Panza – Railbox – Prototype and Modeling
The clinic describes the acquisition of the initial 10,000 Plate B boxcars, the move to Plate C cars and finally, the combination double door ABOX cars. Besides describing equipment and matching with available models, it will describe the financial default and how the first 10,000 cars ended up being owned by certain railroads.
18 – Mont Switzer – Freight Cars of Muncie, Indiana
In this clinic, 11th in the series of Favorite Freight Cars, Mont introduces the various freight cars that were unique to this Midwestern industrial town in the 1950-1970 era. Represented are the yellow The Ball Line boxcars, colorful Marhoefer Packing Co., reefers, massive Westinghouse Schnabel cars and Delco/Remey anthracite hauling covered hoppers. Modeling opportunities will also be presented.
19 – Dan Munson – Thoughts and Tips for Model Railroad Photography
Dan shares his tips and thoughts on how to get the best possible shots of your model railroad. The clinic will discuss camera angles; different ways to use lighting; how to use image stacking programs like Helicon Focus, to add depth of field to your image; using white balance to improve image true colors and color temperature; how to get inspiration, and the use of magic beans in model railroad photography.
20 – Clark Propst – Moveable Structures at Karlberg
Clark discusses the process of scratch building or modifying kits of structures that can be changed on the layout to enhance operations.
21 – Bob Hanmer – Western Mesabi – Designing from the Prototype
This clinic will look at designing an operating model railroad that is based on a real area. The goals and constraints will be discussed as will the tradeoffs in the design. The clinic will also talk about my inspirations for modeling a specific time and place.
22 – John Golden – Small Layout Design and Construction
This clinic encourages attendees to build a small model railroad and includes many small layout design examples in small-town, industrial or single-industry settings. The clinic focuses on the design concept and construction of Hermitage Road, John’s 7-foot x 18-inch portable switching layout.
23 – Fenton Wells – Wood Refrigerator Cars of the Fruit Growers Express: FGEX, BREX and WFEX
Fenton plans to cover a bit of the company history, the prototype cars, their differences, and also an overview on how to model the various car types.
24 – Matt Herman – Current State and Expected Future of 3D Printing for Model Railroaders
Matt, from 3D Central, will be discussing the current state of the art for three dimensional printing and what the future for it and model railroading going forward looks like.
25 – Nelson Moyer – Modeling Structures from the Prototype
Structure modeling takes many forms, including enhancement of commercial kits, kit bashing, and scratch building from various sources of information including photographs, Sanborn maps, engineering drawings, and railroad plans. The clinic covers information sources, research methods, material selection, planning, decision processes, and construction of wood and plastic models, some of which will be available for examination.
26 – Steve Holzheimer – Industrial Buildings Using Paper and an X-Y Computerized Cutter
A low cost computerized X-Y cutter offers the opportunity to build buildings of any size economically. Steve shares his experience designing and building a large industrial structure using primarily printed paper stock.
27 – Jim Singer – Unique Midwestern Passenger Trains
The clinic provides examples of passenger train oddities. Jim shows “all of the things model railroaders don’t think ever happened”. Jim discusses consists, equipment, documentation, photos and other interesting information to make operating sessions a bit more interesting.
28 – Aaron Gjermundson – NP Radial Design Roofs
The Northern Pacific railroad designed and used a radial house car roof from the early 20th Century into the 1930’s. It became a signature element for their boxcars, stock cars and refrigerator cars. Aaron will discuss their design and construction along with ways to model it effectively.
29 – George Toman – Modeling NP And SOO Twin Hopper Using Resin Car Works kits
George covers building both a Northern Pacific HM Class 34’9” and a SOO Line HM Class 34’9” using RCW’s newly released resin kits. His research and photos will help anyone build a more accurate model of either or both of these two similar cars.
30 – Craig Wilson – Ann Arbor Railroad Single-sheath boxcars, 1919-1962
Three groups of single-sheath cars built between 1919 and 1924 made up the backbone of the Ann Arbor RR boxcar fleet for more than forty years. The clinic will present the history of these cars and the process of creating accurate models of them in HO scale via an injection-molded plastic kit, a Speedwitch resin kit (which was based on an actual AA car), and a “hybrid” model using an Accurail kit and 3D printed parts. The models will be present in the display room at the RPM.
31 – Jeff Halloin – Protofreelancing the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway in the 1950s.
Jeff has built a short line on an L shaped shelf based on what the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway might have looked like in the 1950s. This presentation will focus on a brief history of the prototype, Jeff’s struggles (and failures) to get the layout concept right, how he adapted the north end of the Litchfield & Madison Railway (originally a CP&StL subsidiary) to model a stub end, out and back granger branch with guidance from Clark Propst, and some photos of the layout. Jeff’s HO railroad is featured in an entire chapter in Tony Koester’s new book, “Modeling Shortline Railroads”, which is due out from Firecrown Media (formerly Kalmbach) this fall.
32 – Seth Lakin – Modeling Arched Roofed Masonry Buildings
Arched roof masonry buildings are extremely common in towns and cities. Many housed industries along the railroad and yet they are rarely modeled. The clinic looks at two prototype buildings in Michigan City, IN and how I modeled them.
33 – John Greedy – Iowa Meat Packers of the 50’s
The presentation focuses on the 1950’s period of growth and consolidation of the meat packing industry. Learn who the IOWA packers were and where they were located. Some plants were a virtual revolving door of ownership.
34 – Chris Barkan – The Development of Freight Train Air Brake Systems
The development of the automatic air brake in the 2nd half of the 19th Century revolutionized North American freight train operation. Since then, the design of air-brake systems has continued to evolve to meet the increasing demands of longer trains, longer and heavier cars, increased operating speed, and to improve braking performance and safety. This clinic will describe the basic engineering design of modern air brake systems, how they developed, and several special adaptations needed to accommodate modern freight train operating conditions. The presentation will include consideration of how certain aspects of the freight car brake system can be modeled.
35 – John Brown – Automobile Frame Loads
John will follow the development of shipping passenger automobile frames from companies, like A O Smith in Milwaukee, to assembly plants for GM, Willy’s, Ford, and other manufacturers. These shipments involved specially equipped gondolas, and later, flat cars, as well.
Resinators Gathering (TBD)
Like all RPM meetings, we encourage interactions with our fellow modelers throughout the day. But some who concentrate on building resin freight car kits have requested that we provide a specific time and place for them to meet. During the Saturday lunch hour has emerged as a good time for this gathering. By that time, participants should have figured out how to squeeze in some lunch along with the interactions. You may be able to pre-order a box lunch from the on-site NIU Café.
A tentative presentation schedule will be posted near the end of September.
Make your plans to attend the 28th RPM Naperville/Chicagoland. Visit the Registration page for details.
As details are confirmed, we will update this page. Individual clinicians and schedules are subject to change, for obvious reasons.
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