[PRR-talk] Camp Hill Report was By train

[Bruce Smith]

On Mon, May 19, 2008 5:16 pm, Frederick Freitas wrote:
>   As an aside, was there anything noteworthy from the Camp Hill meet?
> Those of us who were otherwise obligated would like to know.
>
>   Fred Freitas

Fred, Folks

It was, as usual, a wonderful meeting!  I flew in Wednesday evening and
landed in a light rain.  Thursday cleared a bit and John Frantz and I went
on  a field trip to see the one and only N4.  We gots lots of photos and
measurements, so expect a TKM article on building this cabin sometime
soon.  I know lots of other people used the day for railfanning, as we
bumped into some of them at Lewistown!  Thursday evening John Dziobko
presented several carousels of his slides ranging from the late 1940s
through the 1950s and 60s.  Perhaps some of the most interesting were not
of good enough quality to appear in a book, but were loaded with
information anyway.  I know he had several shots of Columbia that I would
LOVE to see again!

Friday dawned cold and wet, setting the weather for the rest of the
meeting, and I thought that the folks on the train trip were in for a
miserable day, but apparently, most of them had a wonderful trip!  Back at
the hotel, we were treated to the usual series of great talks.  The model
room had about 100 models including Al Parker's amazing coal dumper, this
year in a complete diorama with coal boat and all.  Andy Rubbo also had a
section of his catenary (and gave a great talk on it).  There were lots of
great contest and display models, although we could always use more, and
the model room always seemed to have a number of folks hanging out, shoot
the breeze and talking PRR Modeling!   In spite of the nasty weather, lots
of folks did the layout tours on Friday night.

I thought that the vendor room was a little less populated with "deals"
this year than in some previous years, but notable items (at least for me)
included the following:
-the new 1960's John Dziobko book from the PRRT&HS
-The Westerfields had their new R7 models (original and lap seam roof)
-F&C had a test shot of an H25 and the X26C kit to sell
-Crown Custom was there selling brass cars, and lots of their stock of
brass trucks (Railwork, and Rail Classics)
-old friends like Bethlehem Car Works, Bob's Photos, Model RR Stoneworks
and several others were there as well.

On Saturday afternoon, there was an hour of "meet the modeler" in the
model room.  I really enjoyed the chance to talk to a lot of people about
my models, although I missed the opportunity to ask some other folks
questions because I was so busy describing my X31s <G>.  The room was
packed!  Immediately following that we had the Modeler's Forum where we
talked about issues facing manufacturers, how we work with them on
projects and how contacts with manufacturers are handled.  I had the
opportunity to announce that a "major manufacturer" will produce a model
of the largest non-articulated and most powerful 10-coupled steam
locomotive in the world (Did I just see some Lines Westers perk up <G>?)
in plastic with sound/DCC.  Expect an official announcement within the
next several weeks.

Sunday, I and many others dropped by Harris tower and then hit the layout
tours again.

I know the usual suspects were up late every night in the bar talking,
what else, trains!  Attendance was nearly 400 BTW!

Regards
Bruce

Bruce Smith
Auburn AL