of the seems-like-forever Stanley Cup playoffs. The thing is, after just a month or so all the hoopla is forgotten, and it is hard to remember who won or even played unless it was your favorite team. In that case you get to savor their victory for a few months, but just a few because the new season is not far behind on the calendar and the pun- dits are already posting odds on who next year’s champs will be.
Collinsville, CT I
www.protocraft.com
n addition to the balmy days that are either great for cutting the lawn, painting the back porch, or taking a drive to see what you can scout up along one of the local rail- roads (preferred to either of the above or anything else that sounds like work), June brings Father’s Day, the NBA championship games (yes, Vir- ginia, there really is an end to the sea- son) and, in the same vein, the finish
There has to be something better. There is. How about something that is longer lasting in value, something not only memorable but an event that adds to your hobby enjoyment? June brings us the New England/Northeast Rail- road Prototype Modelers Meet in Collinsville, Connecticut, at the Can- ton Community Center.
I got there
again this year. It was worth it. The Collinsville RPM Meet: it means seeing friends and their models — and lunch at the LaSalle. It means an op- portunity to browse through the wares of the specialty suppliers and photo sellers there, people who help provide fuel for the “prototype modeling move- ment.” It means summer has started, but, no, model railroading is not being put on hold. Not at all! In fact, the hob- by gets pumped up by the modeling adrenalin that comes from attending a prototype modeling meet like this one.
Let’s start our tour of the display room at Collinsville with this engine terminal scene built by Jim Otto. After all, most of the models at these meets are intended to be on a lay- out rather than in a display case. This is, in fact, one end of three sections of Jim’s HO scale home layout tied together for transport; Jim says it is “B&M/Rutland derived,” and not a replica of a specific location. His friend, Rutland modeler Jim Dufour, calls it “rea- sonable Rutland” because it is so strongly reminiscent of that road. Actually, the round- house design is drawn from the Boston & Maine. The roundhouse and turntable are scratchbuilt, though the turntable girders are modified from an Atlas turntable Jim bought for about three dollars ages ago. The ash pit hoist is a modifed SS Ltd. kit (anoth- er piece of his hobby history), and the other elements here are either kits, kitbashed or, as he put it, “whatever worked.” What does work is that crane. He added motors and three DCC decoders to make it swivel, move the boom, and work the block and tackle. The diesels are Atlas with a few added details and weathering, plus DCC sound. Jim and his compatriot Ken Freeman did a seminar on designing your own models for laser cutting.
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