Naperville (Lisle) 2014 RPM Report

By Marty McGuirk
I had the last minute opportunity to attend the “Naperville” (actually, it’s in Lisle, Ill., but old habits die hard….) RPM meeting last week.  It was great to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones.  I’ve always enjoyed this meeting since I went to the very first one organized by Martin Lofton.  Joe D’Alia took up the banner when Martin passed away a few years ago and has done a great job keeping this “RPM National” meet going.
I was in the hotel for no more than five minutes when someone asked about including another of Bill Welch’s excellent clinics on this blog.  Apparently Bill mentioned during his presentation that he would ask me to post the clinic here. The answer is I’ll be happy to – once Bill sends me the file!
The following report was developed from what I observed and heard about, with some details I gleaned from others on the STMFC Yahoo Group.  Please feel free to comment with any corrections, additions, or changes.  I didn’t take many photos so if anyone has pictures of the items mentioned below please let me know and I’ll incorporate them into this post.
There were no new steam era freight car models announced at the meeting, but we did have some status updates on projects we already know about and one or two interesting items.
Andrew Dahm (Westerfield) was present and he was showing some new items he is working on, including double deck Rock Island stockcars.  As a New England modeler that’s not terribly interesting to me … but it's a neat car. I was very interested in a new casting for supporting house car roofs that will soon be a part of his kits.  This will be available separately - currently shown HERE on the Westerfield web site for 1500/4200/4300 series kits. 

Yarmouth Model Works "wavy side" Wabash welded boxcar.

Yarmouth Model Works (owned by Pierre Oliver, one of the co-moderators of this blog) was there with his new HO scale Wabash boxcar with the wavy welded sides. I picked up a few of Pierre’s newer etched metal items, specifically end braces for running boards and replacement stirrups for Intermountain boxcars and reefers. Yarmouth Model Works has been developing HO scale versions of the AC&F proprietary end and roof. Sample prints have been on hand for a while now and Pierre’s been showing them to a select few.  He did mention that in a year or so it his intention to release a number of 40' boxcar kits featuring the AC&F end, roof and "Carbuilder" end.  That's all he’s prepared to say at this time.

In the Display Room Saturday morning I had a chance to see the Resin Car Works, (a new enterprise from long-time Sunshine pattern maker Frank Hodina) AC&F HO scale Acid Tank cars.  Along with the tank car was something of a surprise – an Illinois Terminal class B electric locomotive.  Sideframes and the Loco superstructure are resin with NWSL drives in each truck. Frank also shared some details on his next HO freight car. More on that at a future date.
Finally, at various points during the weekend I heard rumblings of new models in the works. I was told Kadee has a new HO freight car well along in the tooling process. It will be available about the end of the year or early 2015. I also heard at least one, possibly two other new transition era cars that will be announced “….sometime in the next few weeks.” And indications are both will be available on announcement.  We’ll see.
For those planning ahead it was announced that Lisle RPM Meet will be third weekend in October at the same location. Check this WEBSITE for more details.