Note: I am the Clinic Chairman for Prototype Rails, so my report is therefore biased.

Prototype Rails 2011 is now behind us, and I had a great time, as usual. Attendance was 251, which is approximately the same as last year. We had most of the "usual suspects", as well as some new faces.

Clinic Summary:
Overall, things went very smoothly. We had a slate of fine clinics, and I received a lot of positive feedback on Jack Burgess' clinic on using Photoshop. We had several clinics by manufacturers, including Intermountain, Pacific Western Rail Systems, and Rapido. There was a nice series of passenger car clinics as well as a bunch of freight car clinics. Clinics on modeling techniques were popular (as always). Scott Mason brought a small compressor and demonstrated airbrushing techniques in his clinic, and we used a video cam + projector to magnify Jon Cagle's hands as he showed how to build a resin tank car kit. The award for "most anachronistic use of technology" had to go to Bernard Kempinski. He did his clinic using an Apple iPad - but his clinic was on Civil War Railroads! Shake-N-Take, as usual, was a highlight for the freight car folks. Perhaps we'll have a Passenger Shake-N-Take in the near future.

Ballroom and Displays:
There were a lot of fine models on display, including from the ultra-detailed and prototypical, a modeler's very first kit w/ updated details, and my personal favorite: a nicely weathered Gould tank car lettered for Switzer Tank Lines. Also notable were some beautifully weathered O-scale freight cars. Most of the usual vendors were there, and I spent some $$ buying books from Speedwitch Media. Notably absent were Branchline Trains, Broadway Limited (I think they left early), and Walthers. Of course, the ballroom was THE place to be to see the new Rapido reefer, and to catch up with your modeling buddies.

The Weather:
The weather was MUCH better than last year, and 68 degrees is plenty warm enough to go out for a stroll on the beach. On Monday, it got up to about 78.

The Food:
I'll confess that I did not eat at the hotel at all. We had oranges from Harvey's to snack on, and went out to eat at: Florida Seafood [the regular hangout of the modelers from Chicago], Sonny's BBQ (the brisket sandwich is decent), Slow-N-Low BBQ (the brisket sandwich is terrible), Roberto's Little Havana (aka "The Cuban Place" - highly recommended), Coconuts on the Beach (great grilled fish), and The Lobster Shanty (great broiled rock shrimp - better than Florida Seafood, but you'll pay for it).

The People:
The REAL reason to go to a Prototype Modeling meet is the people. Everyone is interested in (surprise!) prototype modeling, and everyone is willing to share their ideas, techniques, research, etc. And of course you get to see your friends, some of whom you may only know from a Yahoo!Group somewhere.

Details of what Jeff saw:
As usual, events began on Thursday with Op Sessions and registration. The Thursday dinner was not well-attended, and in fact, I went to Florida Seafood with some of the "Chicago [and Indiana] Mafia" instead. It is my conclusion that most of the folks who show up on Thursday now have "favorite" restaurants, and that an organized dinner is no longer necessary.

We started clinics on Thursday night (see the schedule at http://prototyperails.com ). I attended Mike Brock's railfan videos that he shot of N&W 1218 and N&W 611, with a little bit of UP 3985 and UP 844 thrown in. It was all well-shot, and we got to hear every whistle blast, and saw every S-curve in Appalachia! After that, I presented selected slides from the Rock Island Technical Society's "Don Ball, Jr Collection". These were well-narrated by RI guru Steve Hile. Steve hadn't seen the slides until about two hours before the presentation, but was able to make insightful comments anyways!

On Friday, I enjoyed Tony Thompson's presentation on Prototype Waybills and how they can be adapted for our model railroads. I think I asked more questions than anybody else in the room. I also saw Steve Hile's clinic on Rock Island stock cars, and learned that Rocket Express will be producing some of them as resin kits. I am among the many disappointed folks who will not be able to buy the Westerfield kits (see Al's message on STMFC). I attended Jim Singer's "Prototype Oddities 3", which focused mostly on strange passenger train consists in the midwest. There was a particular focus on the "camp trains" (which took kids to camp in the summer). After a quick dinner, I attended Doug Harding's clinic on Meat Trains and Operations, a subject that is of great interest to me.

Saturday I saw Doug Harding's other clinic, "Meat Packing Plants and How to Model One". I followed that with Sperandeo's clinic on modeling signals. It should come as no surprise that his emphasis was on signals as used by the AT&SF. After dinner I went to Tony Thompson's other clinic "Transition-Era Tank Car Modeling", followed by Richard Hendrickson's "The North American Freight Car Fleet in the 1950's". Both were very interesting and dovetailed nicely with the books I purchased from Speedwitch Media (the tank car book and the two box car books).

End of Report.

Regards,

-Jeff

At 12:57 PM 1/12/2011 -0700, you wrote:

Clinic Summary:
Pacific Western Rail Systems, and Rapido. There was a nice series of passenger car clinics as well as a bunch of freight car clinics.

I heard there was even a diesel clinic but that's off topic :-)

Clinics on modeling techniques were popular (as always). Scott Mason brought a small compressor and demonstrated airbrushing techniques in his clinic, and we used a video cam + projector to magnify Jon Cagle's hands as he showed how to build a resin tank car kit.

Very helpful, especially for Annette who was stumped on his tank car kit and I wasn't much help...

I'll confess that I did not eat at the hotel at all.

Good move.

Florida Seafood [the regular hangout of the modelers from Chicago]

For reasons known to some on this list, I prefer to avoid that place.

The Thursday dinner was not well-attended, and in fact, I went to

Florida Seafood with some of the "Chicago [and Indiana] Mafia" instead. It is my conclusion that most of the folks who show up on Thursday now have "favorite" restaurants, and that an organized dinner is no longer necessary.

It sure isn't necessary at that place (Silvestro's)... ouch. Gadawful overpriced and the only thing worse than the service was the food. Should have gone to Sonny's but we had already done that a couple days earlier in Haines City.

Hard to believe I've been to all 11 (eleven) Cocoa Beach meets. It's the only meet where I've been to every single one... well, Marion but so far that's only a quantity of 1 and I will try to get another streak started.

We did successfully beat the storm... left 7:20 Sunday morning and were north of Atlanta by 4 pm. We got to Knoxville around 7, and with no precip seen yet I figured we were out of the woods. It caught up with us in Cincy on Tuesday.

Andy

Andy Harman writes:

It sure isn't necessary at that place (Silvestro's)... ouch. Gadawful
overpriced and the only thing worse than the service was the food. Should
have gone to Sonny's but we had already done that a couple days earlier in
Haines City.

I was likewise disappointed with Silvestro's. Originally, the "deal" with them was for three dinners at a price of $30 each. This was to include a dessert. I decided that that price was a bit too high and asked them that if we eliminated the desert what would that do to the price. The result was that the price would be $25...supposedly including a gratuity. They also informed me that they would not be able to do prime rib but would, instead, have filet mignon strips. Since this suited me, I agreed. So, we have the dinner and one of the choices is prime rib and the price was $31.80. Given that I had no written agreement and that, by the time I received my check, many had left, and, wanting to get back to the hotel, I chose not to dispute the issue. Upon further review, I probably should have. Another lesson learned.

Mike Brock

On Thu, 13 Jan 2011 09:23:53 -0500, mike brock wrote

have filet mignon strips. Since this suited me, I agreed. So, we have the
dinner and one of the choices is prime rib and the price was $31.80. Given
that I had no written agreement and that, by the time I received my check,
many had left, and, wanting to get back to the hotel, I chose not to dispute
the issue. Upon further review, I probably should have. Another lesson
learned.

I got the feeling from the moment we arrived that they didn't really want us there in
the first place. The menu had no prices on it, which is another bad sign ("if you have
to ask...").

It's tough to find a restaurant that can handle a large group and both do a good job
with the group AND not screw their regular customers who have the misfortune to be there
at the same time. We walked out of one of our favorite places back last year, after
waiting an hour with no food. Waitress blamed kitchen, hostess blamed large group, I
blamed owner. Owner blamed waitress, but admitted that even after 25 years in business,
they just can't predict what a large group will do to the kitchen. We've been back. I
mainly just wanted to know what night of the week to avoid.

Andy

On Thu, 13 Jan 2011 09:23:53 -0500, mike brock wrote

the issue. Upon further review, I probably should have. Another lesson
learned.

Perhaps the lesson can be returned in kind. Surely there's a local web site for
reviewing restaurants. If everyone who was there last week made a "contribution" there
could at least be some sense of justice.

Andy

Tom,
For sometime now the MER has beenusing a laptop at the registration
desk and making name tags for the walk-ins.
Chuck Hladik

Thanks to Mike and Jeff for all the hard work. Having experienced the behind the scenes side of conventions, I can appreciate that if a convention is running smoothly, it means that there was a lot of heavy lifting done prior that only make it look smooth.

Could I ask a favor regarding the name tags next year?
Last summer at the end of our NP Spokane convention, two attendees asked me if I could have "larger lettering on the nametags next year".
I listened and it will be - however that point was driven home this last week. I think the names were 24 point at CB 2011, however now I am thinking about 36 point as a minimum, and more if we can work it.

PS - guys thanks for the warmer weather this year.
Jim Dick - St. Paul

Jim Dick observed:

Could I ask a favor regarding the name tags next year?
Last summer at the end of our NP Spokane convention, two attendees asked me if I could have "larger lettering on the nametags next year".
I listened and it will be - however that point was driven home this last week. I think the names were 24 point at CB 2011, however now I am thinking about 36 point as a minimum, and more if we can work it.

Good point. One issue for me is the name tags worn by walk-up registrants. They are hand-written, presumably by the attendees themselves, and to be quite honest, a tag that just says "Vic" or somesuch really doesn't tell me who that person is. Maybe the locals all know, but many of us aren't local. Plus we get forgetful as we age! Just like on the STMFC, full names, written legibly, would be appreciated.

And hang the tags where we can read them. I don't want to stare at your nether regions to read the name tag hanging on your belt....

Tom Madden

I had made this request to Mike Brock directly at the meeting, pointing out
that Jeff Aley’s handwritten tag was much more legible at ten paces, with
its ¾” bold marker letters, than the printed labels in (maybe as large as)
24 pt normal face type at three feet.



The best name tags I’ve seen have been engraved on plastic (oh, yeah, far
too much for this meet, this was a bunch of semi-regular attendees at an
annual event) where the first name was in probably 60pt type, and the last
name was smaller. Good for when you want to get someone’s attention, but
don’t need to say “Mr. Brock, sir?” Of course, Sir Brock needs that
appellation anyway . . .

SGL



From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...] On Behalf Of
np328
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 2:05 PM
To: STMFC@...
Subject: [STMFC] Re: Prototype Rails 2011 report





Thanks to Mike and Jeff for all the hard work. Having experienced the behind
the scenes side of conventions, I can appreciate that if a convention is
running smoothly, it means that there was a lot of heavy lifting done prior
that only make it look smooth.

Could I ask a favor regarding the name tags next year?
Last summer at the end of our NP Spokane convention, two attendees asked me
if I could have "larger lettering on the nametags next year".
I listened and it will be - however that point was driven home this last
week. I think the names were 24 point at CB 2011, however now I am thinking
about 36 point as a minimum, and more if we can work it.

PS - guys thanks for the warmer weather this year.
Jim Dick - St. Paul








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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Last week as I scanned the various name tags of those attending Cocoa Beach
for people unknown to me, but that I needed to talk with, I realized that I
was having difficulties discerning some of the names. After cleaning my
glasses to make certain that wasn’t the problem, I realized the names should
be printed in a larger font, or everyone move slower to allow others time to
focus on their name tag.



Since I retained my name tag from the show, I decided it might help if I
printed my name in the largest bolded font that will fit the holder. I then
inserted my new name tag into the holder for future use. If we all were to
do the same, it could help eliminate some of the problem at future shows.



Larry Sexton



From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...] On Behalf Of
Schuyler Larrabee
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 12:05 AM
To: STMFC@...
Subject: RE: [STMFC] Re: Prototype Rails 2011 report





I had made this request to Mike Brock directly at the meeting, pointing out
that Jeff Aley’s handwritten tag was much more legible at ten paces, with
its ¾” bold marker letters, than the printed labels in (maybe as large as)
24 pt normal face type at three feet.

The best name tags I’ve seen have been engraved on plastic (oh, yeah, far
too much for this meet, this was a bunch of semi-regular attendees at an
annual event) where the first name was in probably 60pt type, and the last
name was smaller. Good for when you want to get someone’s attention, but
don’t need to say “Mr. Brock, sir?” Of course, Sir Brock needs that
appellation anyway . . .

SGL

From: STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com> ] On Behalf
Of
np328
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 2:05 PM
To: STMFC@... <mailto:STMFC%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [STMFC] Re: Prototype Rails 2011 report

Thanks to Mike and Jeff for all the hard work. Having experienced the behind
the scenes side of conventions, I can appreciate that if a convention is
running smoothly, it means that there was a lot of heavy lifting done prior
that only make it look smooth.

Could I ask a favor regarding the name tags next year?
Last summer at the end of our NP Spokane convention, two attendees asked me
if I could have "larger lettering on the nametags next year".
I listened and it will be - however that point was driven home this last
week. I think the names were 24 point at CB 2011, however now I am thinking
about 36 point as a minimum, and more if we can work it.

PS - guys thanks for the warmer weather this year.
Jim Dick - St. Paul

=======
Email scanned by PC Tools - No viruses or spyware found.
(Email Guard: 7.0.0.18, Virus/Spyware Database: 6.16690)
http://www.pctools.com <http://www.pctools.com/?cclick=EmailFooterClean_51>
=======

=======
Email scanned by PC Tools - No viruses or spyware found.
(Email Guard: 7.0.0.18, Virus/Spyware Database: 6.16700)
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I enjoyed all the clinics I attended. Friday morning I was pressed for time and ate beakfast at the hotel. The buffet was very disappointing. The fried potatoes were dry and hard, the bacon overdone, and the scrambled eggs firm, but watery. I won't eat there again. The "banquet Saturday evening was also a disappointment. It was poorly attended. I was looking for the opportunity to sit and chat with some attendees as in previous years. Next year I won't participate.
Jared Harper
Athens, GA

Jared Harper writes:

I enjoyed all the clinics I attended. Friday morning I was pressed for time and ate beakfast at the hotel. The buffet was very disappointing. The fried potatoes were dry and hard, the bacon overdone, and the scrambled eggs firm, but watery. I won't eat there again. The "banquet Saturday evening was also a disappointment. It was poorly attended. I was looking for the opportunity to sit and chat with some attendees as in previous years. Next year I won't participate.

Every year that I run Prototype Rails I notice that Lincoln was correct. You can please some of the people....I also notice that the most difficult aspect of the meet has nothing to do with railroading but has everything to do with food.

OK...first, I respect Jared's culinary opinions. In fact, if I recall correctly, Jared is a food guru. I, OTOH, am primitive with regard to food...some say with most things...and can easily consume peanut butter sandwiches with satisfacrtion. Nevertheless, I was quite pleased with the hotel's breakfast [ although I would have preferred biscuits ] and will eat there again. I like overdone bacon. OTOH, I like underdone bacon. Just primitive I guess.

Now, with regard to the Sat dinner, fully 31 signed up for the dinner by Thursday, Jan 6. Usually we have about 70 by then. The hotel has to order the food by Friday morning now, Jan 7. To add to the difficulty, the hotel was booked due to the Extreme Makeover crew staying there. The hotel felt obliged to provide a location for dinner for the other guests. This was probably a mistake. However, only 45 or so attendees signed for dinner before Friday. Some of this was due to the fact that we have in previous yrs accepted dinner ticket purchases as late as Sat morning. At any rate, we were allowed only 46 diner tickets by Friday at noon. Obviously this is not satisfactory and I am studying the situation. Keep in mind that the meet makes NO profit from the Sat dinner and, frankly, it just adds to the stress and work of putting on the meet. It becomes a non winning propersition. If we don't have an arrangement with the hotel, service will be very slow. In that case, we are basically sending attendees out on the street to find whatever they can. In many cases, that's what they wish. Many attendees now know what restaurants they wish to go to. OTOH, newbies don't and the weather can be a factor as well. I welcome suggestions. However, keep this in mind. Back when I worked for NASA we had an unwritten rule. If you found something you didn't like, you were given the job of fixing it. Sooo...you going to provide biscuits, Jared? <G>.

Mike Brock
Prototype Rails Chairboss

I like hearing about the experiences encountered by registrants of CB. I have
not yet been to the event, but I am certain that the Jan 2012 meet will be
attended by me, and I am looking forward to being there. I enjoy ferreting out
different eating palaces, part of the fun while in a strange community. My first
time in Miami we looked for an authentic Haitian restaurant, and found one in a
private home. I enjoyed that meal far better than any Dennys.

On another point, my observations are that only CB and Naperville are skewed
towards "Transitional" modelers, every other PM I have attended has been
Post-Apocalypse (after the nuclear war ending everything after my time frame
(hence my not even admitting anything happened later). We need to encourage our
flock to stem off the invaders.

-Andy Carlson
Ojai CA




________________________________
From: mike brock <brockm@...>

Jared Harper writes:

I enjoyed all the clinics I attended. Friday morning I was pressed for
time and ate beakfast at the hotel. The buffet was very disappointing.
The fried potatoes were dry and hard, the bacon overdone, and the scrambled
eggs firm, but watery. I won't eat there again. The "banquet Saturday
evening was also a disappointment. It was poorly attended. I was looking
for the opportunity to sit and chat with some attendees as in previous
years. Next year I won't participate.

Every year that I run Prototype Rails I notice that Lincoln was correct. You
can please some of the people....I also notice that the most difficult
aspect of the meet has nothing to do with railroading but has everything to
do with food.

OK...first, I respect Jared's culinary opinions. In fact, if I recall
correctly, Jared is a food guru. I, OTOH, am primitive with regard to
food...some say with most things...and can easily consume peanut butter
sandwiches with satisfacrtion. Nevertheless, I was quite pleased with the
hotel's breakfast [ although I would have preferred biscuits ] and will eat
there again. I like overdone bacon. OTOH, I like underdone bacon. Just
primitive I guess.

Many attendees now
know what restaurants they wish to go to. OTOH, newbies don't and the
weather can be a factor as well. I welcome suggestions. However, keep this
in mind. Back when I worked for NASA we had an unwritten rule. If you found
something you didn't like, you were given the job of fixing it. Sooo...you
going to provide biscuits, Jared? <G>.




.