1 week ago the Garden State Division of the NER/NMRA had a
meet at the Scotch Hills Country Club in Scotch Plains NJ. They used the WIP format (Works in progress)
of clinics where there are stations where a clinician will be located and the
attendees rotate every 30 minutes from one station to another. Each station covers a subject that the clinician
presents with about 15-20 minutes of info and 10 or so minutes of Q&A. They also can be hands-on clinics where
attendees can work along with the clinician and pick up a new skill. I gave a clinic on standardizing your car fleet: proper
weight, metal wheels, couplers all the same and at the right height etc. I discussed the importance of setting your
standards and having each car meet those standards before they ever hit the layout.
Other clinics presented at the meet were:
Dave Ramos- Building Fast Tracks turnouts
Craig Bisgeier- Casting parts in resin
Tony Koester- Kitbashing buildings
Ralph Heiss- Weathering rolling stock
Joe Calderone- Creating retaining walls out of meat
packaging containers
Bruce De Young- Applying and weathering dry tranfers to
rolling stock and structures
Ted Pamperin- Using creative methods and materials in
building your layout
The WIP format has been used in the NJ Division for a few
years and has been successful. GSD’s
version was a big hit and my hat goes off to Jim Fawcett and the whole GSD crew
for putting together a fun meet.
Here
are some pictures from the day’s event:
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| Craig Bisgeier demonstrating resin casting. |
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| Joe Calderone demonstrates how he builds retaining walls from meat packaging. |
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| Bruce DeYoung and his dry transfer clinic. |
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| Yours truly and my clinic on car standardization. |
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| The Commodore, Ralph Heiss and his weathering clinic. (See! He's still alive even though he doesn't update his blog! :) |
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| MRP editor Tony Koester and his kitbashing clinic. |
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| Ted Pamperine discussing using some different and unique materials to build your layout. Ted was a major influence and help to me in developing my Gator Foam bench work. |
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| Dave Ramos giving his clinic on building Fast Tracks turnouts. |
All in all, every clinician was in agreement that the time flew by and we all had a lot of fun doing the GSD meet. :)
On another note: The Valley Forge RPM Meet is coming up fast and again will be held at The Desmond Hotel and Conference Center, March 28-30 in Malvern PA. I'll be there again and I will be doing an update to my last clinic on modeling the Ma & Pa RR 1943. Last time out the clinic was well received and we had a lot fun during it. Now, just know that if it's after 12 noon, there will be a good chance of a Stoli Martini with a twist sighting in the general vicinity of my lectern. I like to keep my clinics informative, but also lighthearted. I do not try take myself too seriously. If you plan on attending the Valley Forge meet stop on in to my clinic and say hi. :)
