NER - Roomettes Hands-on Clinic

All the seats are taken for this hands-on clinic.

The only hands-on clinic I could attend was Roomettes. Barry Silverthorn did a great job taking a pretty large group through building up the interior kit. With about 20 in the room he kept moving to see how we all were doing. I did not get my interior into the building while there. I wanted the lights turned on to position the rooms properly. More on my model and how it looks with the Roomettes installed...George Dutka

A short clinic to start off.

One of the two upper rooms is assembled and ready for the LED.

Some extra guidance is always nice.

Roomettes display model of the kit I was building.

All three rooms are together and lights installed. When I got home a bit of canopy glue was applied to the edges of the lights to keep them secure. Once the rooms are in place one does not want to go back in for adjustments.

Bellows Falls Co-Op Creamery - Bellows Falls

A photo of a original sign that has been saved.

I recently found a few more views of photos tied to the Bellows Falls Co-Op Creamery in Bellows Falls, Vermont...enjoy...George Dutka

I posted a copy of this photos back sometime ago regarding the Bellows Falls Co-op creamery. This copy is a lot clearer.

Some damage to the creamery from a 1938 hurricane.

A Port to More Fun

A bit of switching happened through the day at this years convention.

If you read the NMRA Magazine you would have seen this layout not all that long ago. A nice looking detailed switching layout...George Dutka

One got to operate an Alco switcher using NCE if the urge was there.

The water tower is printed on the background and looks very realistic.

What's in the Box No. 35

My DPM structure, the Roomettes package and my NER guide book at the hands-on clinic last weekend.

The Roomettes kit interior I worked on at the NER convention is for Mongillo Jewelers that fits inside DPM Kelly's Saloon which I had assembled before attending the clinic. More on construction and the clinic in another post...George Dutka

The roomette comes with three rooms which need to be clipped out, folded and glued. There also are three LED lights and an interior counter detail.

Jack Ellis - Modeling with a Master

This was the display table that Jack brought along of kits he has built or altered. He also had Bar Mills kits for sale and also a lot of detail packages that you do not normally see.

Jack Ellis of Bar Mills Scale Model Works presented a 3 hour hands-on clinic at the NER Convention where two walls would be finished and weathered at the end of the clinic. It was a bargain for $10 which included the kit and Jack's expert assistance. This clinic was fully booked early on and not available for a late arrival such as me...George Dutka

This is the kit that the group built and a great value for $10.

Jack used the same kit to build these two structure.

More of Jack's projects. There was some good deals on other kits and a big box of 50% off offerings.

Wordless Wednesday No. 345

Johnsonville Tower - N Scale

The B&M Johnsonville tower in N scale.

The contest room had some N scale models for judging during the NER convention. This model is from a kit that has been very well done...George Dutka

NER Convention - A Second Look

A scratch built engine by Tom Oxnard in the contest room.

It was a short trip to the NER convention. I took in all day Friday and just half on Saturday before heading home...I wanted to be in London before dark and it is a good 5-6 hours. I attended the Roomettes hands on clinic, two clinics by Lou Sassi , RMC editor Otto's presentation and Gatorfoam Dave's updated clinic. The last one I attended was on PanPastels which I had to leave half way through to head for home. Was nice to see how others evaluate PanPastels. I did not get any railfanning in or layouts although there was a lot to see...more to cover through the week...George Dutka

Tom's write-up for his great looking engine.

F&C was in attendance. They also ran a hands-on clinic which was full well before the beginning of the convention. Steve offered me the new Deleware Lackawanna &Western 1924 ARA kit at the convention discounted hands-on clinic fee...foolishly I have another kit to build...who knows when.

A diorama in the contest room awaiting judging.

Otto had a great clinic on the history of RMC and also the changing scene of the hobby...not to mention he was plugging what he is looking for in article form.

Gatorfoam's dislpay cases are all formed from their products. Roomettes was setup right across from Dave, I will cover it and Bar Mills in separate posts. I sat in on the Roomettes clinic, the Bar Mills clinic was sold out.

First time I have seen a Micro-Mark booth as a vendor at an event I attended...hope to see them more in the future. If one put in an order at the show on Friday it would be ready for pickup on Saturday without shipping charges.

Cheryl and Lou Sassi explained scenery along the right of way with Cheryl explaining her methods of making trees, weeds and grass.

One of Cheryl's HO scale trees on display.

Checking out the tree.

Lou Sassi was one of the feature clinics on Friday evening. Lou did a great job explaining his converted trucks and cars. Don't worry if you missed this one as they are all going to be articles in MR. He also took us through some of the conversions he has made to his rolling stock. A great feature for On30" modelers. This clinic ran an hour and a half.

The last clinic I attended was on PanPastels and one of the better attended clinics I was at. Check out PanPastels in the October 2019 RMC issue.

NER Convention - Syracuse

I am currently in Syracuse for the NER - NMRA convention, our NFR next door neighbour. I decided last minute to attend although I am only taking in about half of it since I need to be home for Sunday...more on what I saw next week...George Dutka

The contest room opened at 5pm Friday. Models were just showing up when I looked through the room after supper.

There was some vendors and displays included in the main hall.

Rust Bucket No. 8

July 1976, Ken Patton photo.

I did a bit of cropping to get a better look. This time we look at a rusty old MEC car found on an arriving train in Bangor, Maine...George Dutka

Snapshot - September 2019

A staged scene using my barn and pumpkin field really adds a lot to this view.

This months snapshot is staging scenes on the WRD. One of my original scenes removed and saved for future use shows up from time to time in  staged layout photos. On this occasion back in January 2015 I was using it in two locations...here is how I did it...George Dutka

At the Northfield Falls crossing I once again used my farm scene as staging.

A stool and as many boxes, tubs and cardboard are used to get the right height for this view. This farm-pumpkin scene should be once again included on the WRD when it is remodeled...if not it will be more of these views.

Wordless Wednesday No. 344

Hamilton, Ont. Sept. 2019

At the Station - 1945

If you model 1945 your best stock up on military figures.

Some views from an unknown location during 1945...George Dutka

A goodbye scene.