GSD Works in Progress Meet/Valley Forge RPM

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:

Craig Bisgeier demonstrating resin casting.

Joe Calderone demonstrates how he builds retaining walls from meat packaging.

Bruce DeYoung and his dry transfer clinic.

Yours truly and my clinic on car standardization. 

The Commodore, Ralph Heiss and his weathering clinic.  (See!  He's still alive even though he doesn't update his blog! :)

MRP editor Tony Koester and his kitbashing clinic.

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. 

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. :)