Sunday, June 22, 2014

2014 Bay Area Prototype Modeler’s meet



The Rail Druids of Northern California gathered on the Summer Solstice yesterday in Richmond for their annual homage to modeling the prototype.  It was my first time to attend, despite now living farther from St. David’s School than I have for the last seven years.  The day started with a quicker than expected transit on the 101 mile journey.  A good thing since I was half an hour later than I’d planned.  The lack of construction on the “Fix 50” in downtown Sacramento gave me back that time and I arrived and parked just before opening time at 0900.  The journey’s highlight was an interesting contrast between Stonehenge and Manhattan in a short piece on Morning Edition.  Manhattanhenge set the tone for this post. 

On entering the hall, I was confronted with a decision, how many raffle tickets to buy, and which raffles to enter.  The second was easy, not an N scaler, cross that off; separate brass car auction, maybe, oh darn, its an SP baggage car, not so much; HO scale, Ok that fits well.  Now how many?  You want to be in on the action, but most of the goodies are soooooo modern, and I model 44, 1944 not 2044 and the prize table is laden with a great choice of ExactRail’s current production and other modern goodies, there are a few that might fit my era, the gift cards give you a choice, there were some cool decal sheets, but nothing I wanted to spend my mom’s inheritance on.  $1 each or six for $5.  I lay down an extra $5 with my entry fee. 

Into the sacred space to greet my fellow worshipers and find some of the high priests.  I belong to the Santa Fe sect, seems a majority of the attendees adhere to that heretical Southern Pacific branch.  Unlike Sunni and Shia, there were no car bombs or suicide belts present and we all learned from each other. 

The model displays were impressive, Henry Baez had some beautifully weathered BNSF Diesels.  I was so engrossed listening to him describe his techniques of building up from the bottom and using a short, very thin brush to apply weathering to seams and door latches that I totally forgot to photograph them. 

The first Santa Fe item to catch my eye was Phil Villalobos’ former business car 2nd 10 in its final incarnation as Bunk Car 203739.




Bill Vaughn, an active BNSF train service crewman, began his career as a  switchman at Richmond.  His conversion of a Proto 2000 single door box to a Fe-21 is inspiring. 




I need one of these unique Santa Fe single door 50' box cars.

I displayed three of my in progress passenger cars.  Walthers 8-1-2 and Branchline 14 section in modification with Tom Madden roofs and Steam Ejector Air Conditioning as well as a BR 12-1 converting to a 13 section non-AC car, also with one of Tom’s fine roofs. 

In the first three worship services that I attended that day,  High priest of the State Belt, Bill Kaufman, delivered an informative talk on his very small sect.  Well done and I learned a few more things about the switching district that connected to my modeled area via car float.

Harry Wong, one of the several SP Mullahs, presented a VERY detailed look at their SDP-45s.  And yes Fenton, there is a Santa Claus, as some kind soul taped his presentation. 

Blair High Priest (vice president) of Production for ExactRail also gave an interesting talk on their business practices that brought a warm glow to the friends of the freight car.  I was impressed with his candor and commitment to their business model that includes a high fidelity to prototype.  Unfortunately for me (but fortunate for my bank balance), one little detail of his presentation will make it difficult for me to obtain many of ER’s high quality models in the future.  To achieve this level of detail, they extensively measure and photograph an actual specimen before constructing the molds.  Great for accuracy, but not so much for extinct species, many of which I need on my layout.  You modern guys have it lucky in that regard.  Fortunately, several specimens of interest have been conserved in zoos (aka museums) so I have some hope to contemporaries to their Rib Side car of which I could use a couple.  Blair actively sought input, suggestions and feedback from the congregation.  After the service when I had a chance, I did suggest an X-3 tank, as UTLX had gobs and served the Standard Oil Refinery at Richmond that Santa Fe switched.  Blair confirmed Supreme Ayatollah Richard H’s remarks at the Naperville conclave that ER did have an X-3 in work.  It won’t be out this summer, but he said the research is pretty much done and it is next in the pipeline.  That is good new for the pocketbook also as it gives time for accumulating wealth.  Anyone have the winning lotto numbers?  I forgot to ask if they give case and gross discounts.  I need a LOT of X-3 tanks.

I met some old friends whom I’ve not seen in a long time, including Charlie Slater, himself a High Priest of my Santa Fe sect.  Charlie is also a retired railroader and offered a comment after Harry’s service that “If it worked, they put it on.” And that during the rebuild of the Santa Fe’s FP45s at San Bernardino, “When a unit was ready, they would use a crane and pull the top hood off the stack to mate with the frame.  If the numbers didn’t match, they’d just repaint them.”  A good explanation for the profusion of horn types seen.

As the day came to a close the second an final auction numbers rang softly through the display hall.  My comments to Blair about X-3s were interrupted when I thought I heard 1568.  Deaf in the right ear and not sure that my cross hearing aid had conveyed my winning #, I asked for a repeat.  Alas, it was what I thought I heard, I had won one of the door prizes, one of the very few I could actually use, a Fox Valley B&O wagon top box in the express green scheme.  A lovely parting gift.

John Barry
Cameron Park, CA

The day after the summer solstice 2014

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