I have a friendship started at a Naperville decades ago. A good modeler, Ron also is very helpful to the local Montecello Illinois railroad museum. When Ron was told about a pair of tank cars at a local ADM plant which were to be scrapped Ron worked out a purchase for donating the tank car pair to the museum. He later gave an endowment of enough money to fund the restorations which has now been recently completed in glorious tank car nervana. Ron is a special guy, even beyond this tank car pair, for he has purchased a section of Iowa farm land which he has been working by hand to restore the property to High Grass Prarie condition. He has the property destined to be donated to a group dedicated to preserving Iowa High grass Prarie. A great modeler, and an even greater person!

I have mentioned to folks many times that when at Naperville I seemed to always be missing some clinic due to my being occupied in conversation with interesting modelers. From early 20th Century modeler Howard Garner, to late TOFC modeler, Richard Yaremko and numerous others in between, I have had great stays at Naperville. The loss of these events thisn year reminds me how much I appreciate the RPM meets. Thanks go to the pioneers, such as Richard Hendrickson and Tony Thompson who sensed the importance of such gatherings.

-Andy Carlson

Ojai CA

Hi Ron,

Finally done!  Lots of time spent getting cars shimmed to correct coupler height, repacked, and air systems worked over to get them tightened up so they'll work as intended.  The newer of the two, now AESX 105, put up a real fight with air leaks all over the place.  Had to replace nearly all the flange gaskets on the brake valve pipe bracket, re-seal the nipples/couplings at both angle cocks, replace the brake pipe cutout/dirt collector, and found the retainer/exhaust pipe was plugged with dirt that had become the consistency of concrete, causing the brakes to release really slow.  GATX 7297 wasn't nearly as recalcitrant, other than a badly corroded brake cylinder.

Kent

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