No. 188: Chicagoland RPM

Chicagoland RPM wrapped up last week and it was a great success and a lot of fun. The meet was hosted by Resin Car Works on Friday, 27 October and Saturday, 28 October 2023 at the Northern Illinois Conference Center in Naperville, Illinois. Around 400 modelers from around the US and Canada attended.

The NIU Conference Center, below. It was a gorgeous fall weekend.

The two-day event featured 35 clinics, 115 vendor and historical society tables, home layout tours, modular layouts in-house, a fun Friday evening social in the NIU atrium, and lots of camaraderie and fellowship. At right is Bonnie Hodina hard at work at the entry and registration table. Eric Hansmann is in the background behind the table. He did a lot of heavy lifting to make the event happen.

The image of Bonnie hard at work conjures up good memories. Here, below, Ed Hawkins is checking in with Tricia Lofton at Naperville RPM in 2004. Ed has done great work with model manufacturers over the years, and we always had a lot of fun wondering what secrets he kept in that briefcase.

Below. 20 years later, Martin’s vision is still alive at the NIU Center. This is one of two vendor rooms, both of which were busy all day. Model sales aren’t the main event at Naperville, yet they are an important part of RPM events. There were 30 model vendors and five historical societies present in 2023.

Below. Speaking of vendors, here’s Mike Gruber of Mainline Photos helping a customer with photo selection. Mike is a terrific guy. John Fuller was also at the event. Bob Liljestrand of Bob’s Photos was scheduled to attend, but he had hand surgery the week before and couldn’t make it.

Our hobby is continuously evolving and here’s proof. This is 3D Central, run by Matt Herman formerly of LokSound. Matt knows the hobby well and had some incredible 3D-printed models on display. 3D CEntral can be found online at https://3dcentraltrains.com/.

Here is Pierre Oliver, center, from Yarmouth Models. Pierre brought a lot of new models and even more stories to the event. Yarmouth’s website is http://www.yarmouthmodelworks.com/.

Below. Here is one of the two model display rooms. Incredibly, both rooms were full. Not a table went unused. I counted over 1,500 models on display. In the foreground is Loren Casey’s Monclair grain elevator, which was 3D-printed to match the prototype exactly. The elevator is located just southeast of Belleville, Illinois on the former Illinois Central lines.

Below. Clark Propst brought his fleet of nine M&StL RS-1s to the meet. Clark’s fleet includes one of every paint scheme–except the Mikan scheme–that Louie RS-1s carried in through the 1950s.

Seth Lakin brought a cool display of Big Four and Monon locomotives and cabooses for display.

My buddy Fenton Wells brough a great display of HO scale rolling stock. Fenton doesn’t model the easy stuff. Every model he builds is kitbashed or partially scratchbuilt, and every one is expertly built, painted and weathered. Fenton is a good friend and a fine man–very generous. He’s always happy to help his fellow modelers get it right.

Jim DuFour was at Naperville, and he brought and big display of beautifully-finished freight cars from his B&M layout. Jim’s is a great guy and his inspirational website site can be found on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/12504598@N04/albums/72177720312431719/with/53307077893.

I met Mr. Darrall Swift in the model room and we chatted for an hour late on Saturday afternoon. Darrall models the NP in the Pacific Northwest, and builds Northern Pacific freight cars from scratch. Here’s an example of one of his gondolas. Note the hundreds of individually-applied rivets. Unlike most of us who cut the heads off Tichy rivets and place them individually, Darrall leaves the stem in place and drills holes one by one to place the rivets. It is incredible work.

If you ever wondered “Why Naperville?” Darrall’s work is why.

The clinics are the main event at Naperville. Steve Hile put together the program which included 35 clinics, almost all of them presented twice. Here’s Jason Klocke, below, during his Modeling the Chicago Great Western clinic. Jason is a CN engineer and always gives a great show, and has one of the most inspirational layouts you’ll ever see.

Below. Here’s Clark Propst hard at work, presenting a clinic on his M&StL Story Branch layout. It was a fun clinic and as always I learned a lot from Clark. We were able to heckle him a little bit too, which makes Clark’s clinics a lot more fun.

Naperville is about the clinics, but it’s the people that make the meet what it is. Here are more modeling friends, from left to right: Lee Gustafson, Mike Schleigh, Bill Pardie, and Preston (I didn’t get his last name, sorry Preston!). Preston had that big smile on his face the whole weekend.

The Midwest Mod-U-Trak crew set up their modular layout in the NIU atrium right next to the registration tables. The layout is fantastic. Bob Koczik and crew had the layout up and operating on Thursday evening in about three hours.

Here is a meet on the HO scale layout. Trains were running from about 8:00 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. or later on Friday and Saturday. The layout operated flawlessly.

Here’s a much-earlier iteration of the HO scale ModuTrak. I took this photo at Naperville in 2005. The current layout is completely new. The Grand Master Bob Koczik can be seen in the teal shirt at center, 18 years younger.

The N scale Modu-Trak layout was set up along the walls of the larger vendor room. It is a fantastic layout as well. A crew of about eight guys had it up and running in about two hours. The operator behind the layout with the big smile is Bill Denton. He is one of the finest men you will meet in the hobby, and along with Mike Skibbe is the inspiration behind the N scale layout.

The N scale ModuTrak guys are very organized and have a website and blog available at https://www.modutrak.com/. That’s Chris Zygmunt with the friendly wave.

Below. More modelers. Right to left is Craig Wilson, Jerry Hamsmith and Ed Rethswisch. Ed is one of the best model builders I know. His work can be seen all over the RCW site.

Below. Tom Wencl (left) and Tom Klimczak (right). I spent about an hour horsing around with these guys in the model rooms.

On Friday evening we enjoyed a social hosted by the RCW crew in the NIU atrium. Attendees enjoyed food and drink and the vendors and layouts were all open for enjoyment. Here, below, is Tom Madden, the man behind many resin casting products we enjoy.

There’s plenty more about the meet online. You can find a good wrap-up on the Resin Car Works site at http://blog.resincarworks.com/2023-rpm-conference-wrap-up/ that includes links to a lot of other photos sites. Chicagoland was a good time and I hope we can all get together again next year.

Meanwhile, back on the layout…

Jeff Otto, the boss of Oak Hill model Railroad Supply, was at Naperville and delivered the last section of track for my Hermitage Road layout. I had asked Jeff back in September to build me a 30-degree crossing. He brought it to the meet and showed it off the whole weekend as a demonstration of his custom-building capabilities.

Jeff is a great guy and a lot of fun to talk to. He’s got a lot of new, cool products on the way. I talked to him a few times before the meet and sat down with him for an hour during the meet. His website can be found at https://www.ohrtracksupply.com/.

The crossing is beautiful and already in place on the layout. It looks great and is right up on the aisle where is can be seen and appreciated. More to follow soon as I get the last few tracks installed and operational.