Yes, it’s that time of the year again, early January, and one of my favorite events, the Prototype Rails meet, was held once again at the Hilton in Cocoa Beach, Florida. This was the 23rd renewal of this event, and I have attended all but one. The late Mike Brock ran this event for nearly all those years. Now his one-time deputy Marty Magregian has taken over, and it ran as smoothly as it did under Mike.
Once again, it was a delightful meeting, primarily a gathering of the freight car community, and I know many of the modelers who attend. This year there were 210 attendees, along with 25 last-minute cancellations due to illness, an unusual proportion.
As is true for me at most meets like this, the clinic program is my core priority. I did give a talk myself, but will have to say that the program this year, assembled as always by Jeff Aley, was really outstanding, with many excellent talks. There were a few late scratches, but most of the program went off as advertised. One person we were all delighted to see giving a talk was Tony Koester, giving an update on his layout. Here he is with his opening slide.
A close second in my regard is the huge model display. As always, there were really a lot of terrific models exhibited. One of the ones I really liked (and was impressed with what it took) was Fenton Wells’ Birmingham Southern box car. This was a 1937 AAR box car body, 10 feet inside height, but with a PRR-style flat roof and flat plate ends. Fenton built it from an IMWX box car kit, with a Red Caboose X29 roof, and an end made by filing the kit end flat and adding Archer rivets. Decals are K4.
Another model I liked was one of Bill Cialini’s modern cars with well-executed weathering and graffiti. This covered hopper, well paint-patched from a previous owner, is a good example.
As is true every year, most of the ballroom is filled with vendor tables. This is a wonderful chance to see new products or smaller vendors who you might otherwise not know about. And between all clinic sessions, a good crowd was taking advantage of the opportunity.
One striking vendor display was by 3D Central Trains, showing a huge range of 3D-printed parts, as you can see below (for more on what they do and what you can buy, go to: https://3dcentraltrains.com/ ).
For just a single example, below is the underbody for a 60-foot woodchip car, showing the way that underbody brake parts can be printed in one piece. (You can click on the image to enlarge it if you wish.)
Their representative did say that they prefer not to print grab irons and ladders, as they are difficult to make scale size and even if achieved, would be quite brittle. But everything else looks great. And as I’ve been saying for some time (see for example this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/11/more-amazing-3-d-printing.html ), I believe this is just the thin end of the wedge in the future of our hobby.
A great meet, one I always look forward to, and always enjoy. If you, dear reader, have never been to Cocoa Beach for this meeting, I strongly suggest you consider it next January.
Tony Thompson
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