Category Archives: RPM

St. Louis RPM summary

The recent St. Louis RPM meet was well attended with more than 650 through the doors. Additionally, there were nearly 3000 wonderful models displayed. Bill Welch sent along his thoughts on the meet with a few photos. Links to photo galleries are posted at the end. Here’s Bill!

Here is my take on what I saw and heard at the St. Louis RPM. Bob’s Photo had about 20 binders that he characterized as new photos, both color and B&W, in addition to his usual array of old milk crates of photos sorted by railroad.

Continue reading St. Louis RPM summary

RPM Chicagoland update

Planning for RPM events continues through the year. Mike Skibbe sent updates for the 2018 RPM Chicagoland meet. Dates are set for October 18 – 20, 2018. Here are some details Mike shared.

  • Bon French, chairman of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art, will be the Thursday evening Banquet speaker.
  • It’s the 25th anniversary of this RPM conference! There will be a special Friends of the Freight Car dinner and celebration with Tricia Lofton as honored guest.
  • The 2018 mini-kit will be a Fruit Growers Express truss rod reefer

Registration is now live, so make plans to attend and bring your models to display!
Here’s the registration link.

Resin Car Works update for the RPM


The Resin Car Works minions have been busy prepping a new release for the 2018 RPM Chicagoland. An HO scale, 50-foot 10-foot 5-inch interior height, Soo automobile boxcar is in the works. These will feature new etched brass ladders from Plano Model Products. Decals and detail parts are in hand. The master patterns are complete and should be cast soon.

These Plano ladders will be available later this summer (2018). If they sell well, additional variations will be added to the Plano line.

A New Year

Delano, Jack, photographer. [General view of a classification yard at the Chicago and North Western railroad’s Proviso yard, Chicago, Ill]. Dec. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/2017878010/>.
Here we are at the start of another calendar year ready for projects and adventures to unfold. This blog began in March 2015 and there have been 135 blog posts since it started. After the Resin Car Works website was set up, Frank wanted to launch a blog. He wanted to share his modeling and layout work, in addition to updates on new resin freight car kits. That’s how it began.

Continue reading A New Year