RPM Meet, Enfield, CT...by Don Janes

An example of some of the fine modelling found at the Enfield RPM meet last weekend.  These milk cars were brought by Ray Muntz

A Weekend of Model Railroading

     This past weekend I attended the 2018 RPM meet in Enfield, Ct.  The show was held at the Holiday Inn and I had a room at the venue hotel.  I traveled with friend and B&M modeller Bill Moore from Imlay City, MI.  We left on Wed. afternoon and traveled to Bennington, Vt.  The next day involved railfanning at North Bennington, Vt, North Adams, MA, Shelburn Falls, MA and East Deerfield yard a near Greenfield arriving at Enfield in time to have dinner and register for the show. As usual the show was well organized.  There were four clinic rooms, a large model display room, a vendor's room, a White Elephant room to sell things privately and a room for Bob's Photos, all in close proximity to one another.  The dining room was central to everything.

        There were many clinics covering topics from modelling Truro, NS to Car Ferry service in New York City to #D printing.  I attended eight clinics in all and was very impressed by the presenters and the knowledge they shared.  The modelling was exceptional as usual with many models on display covering a wide range of eras and subjects.  This is the place to go to see some top notch modelling.  ESU and Rapido also had information booths set up in the display room.

      One thing I was really happy to see was the number of Canadian modellers attending that have Blogs listed on the sidebar of this Blog.  Hunter Hughson who authors "The Niagara Branch"and Ryan Mendell who has the "South Paris Switcher" both had some great looking models on display.  Unfortunately I did not get a chance to meet them in person.  Also attending were Pierre Oliver displaying and selling his Yarmouth Model Works Kits and parts. Pierre also runs Elgin Car Shops where he builds kits for customers. I also had a nice visit with Chris Adams from Connecticut who has the "Valley local" Blog.

     On Sat afternoon Bill and I skipped out of the show and headed to the Connecticut Eastern Railway Museum in Willimantic, Ct..  It was a good afternoon and I even ran into Art Hall, a museum volunteer and reader of this blog.  Art gave us loads of great information and it was a pleasure to meet him. Thanks Art.  I will do a separate post on the museum shortly. 

    It was a really great weekend full of modelling displays, clinics and meeting up with old friends and making new ones.  If you are ever looking for a good modelling event to attend I would highly recommend this one.

    

Our first stop was a quick look at the North Bennington depot and freight house.  We were there too early to catch a train.

Our next stop was in North Adams where this NS freight showed up within 5 minutes of our arrival.  We hoped in the car and went to the east portal of Hoosac Tunnel to catch it exiting the tunnel there.

When we arrived at the tunnel another railfan advised us not trains had come through so we were in luck, so we thought.  After two hours it still didn't show.  Pan Am is noted for trains sitting more than moving  We concluded the train had been held at North Adams so continued on.

Here we see Ryan Mendell's display and some of the individual models below.

Ryan's kitbashed GT caboose

Here we see a great looking model of a CN RPO used regularly on the GT

This GT crane is a very impressive model along with the tool car that goes with it.

Chris Adams gives us a big smile as he displays his nicely finished New Haven RS-1 and RS-2

Hunter Hughson had a very nice display of Penn Central equipment that is featured on his Blog.

Pierre Oliver behind the Yarmouth Model Works kits and parts he had for sale

Jim Dufour's scratch built State Line NH depot

This modeller had a nice display of B&M engines in various states of completion