Clinics

Clinics


NERPM features more than two dozen clinics focused on a variety of model railroading topics – weathering, prototype information, layout overviews, techniques and specific pieces of equipment.  We welcome presentations from everyone. That model you’ve been working on, or project you’ve been researching, could very well be a great clinic. 

NEW FOR 2026 - OJT
The staff of the 2026 NERPM presents "On the Job Training" or "Hands-on Learning Sessions."
Set up throughout the meet will be tables exclusively for "Hands-on Learning Sessions."  These tables will be set up throughout the day and differ from the "standard" clinics in that you are a participant, along with the instructor!  Read each clinic summary carefully to see which are designated OJT, as well as what to bring to these sessions! 
NERPM 2026 Clinics - List is in schedule order
Time Presenter Title Description
Thurs, 7 pm Matt Herson Conrail and its predecessors To mark the 50th anniversary, Matt reaches into his vast photo collection to present Conrail and its predecessors.
Thurs, 9 pm Ryan Trombly Southern New England in Kodachrome A presentation featuring railroad negative and slide images from the 1960s to 1990s taken in the Hartford and Springfield metro areas with a focus on the Springfield line and surrounding branch lines. 
Fri 9 am Dave Ramos Modeling Manhattan’s West Side: Three Railroads, One Cohesive Layout The challenge and opportunity of modeling the west side of Manhattan by focusing on three key railroads organized into a layout built in four independent parts. With so many prototype operations across Manhattan, Dave will explain why he selected these particular lines and how they best capture the character and variety of the area. The presentation also highlights how a relatively small layout can still deliver dense, engaging operations—ideal for modelers who want to start compact without sacrificing realism or activity.
Fri 9 am Peter Ness TOFC Service on the New Haven Railroad 1937-68 – Part I: History A look at the history of TOFC operations on the New Haven Railroad from launch 1937-1968, discussing New Haven TOFC history from 1937 through the transformative years to the “pre-intermodal era” in 1968. 
Fri 9 am Mike Boland Passenger Cars and Passenger Trains Mike’s program focuses on passenger cars and passenger trains; what cars make up a passenger train consist, from headend cars to all kinds of observation cars, and everything in between.  He'll take a look at types of passenger trains and the motive power that pulled them.
Fri 10:30 am JT Burke Electronics soldering JT covers choosing the right equipment and solder, to setup, technique and the science behind it. 
Fri 10:30 am Mal Houck Scratch building a steam locomotive - Start to finish. The title says it all.
Fri 10:30 am Matthew Zuccaro Using AI for Your Model Railroad  Artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT are opening up new possibilities for model railroaders of all skill levels. In this introductory clinic, we’ll explore how AI can be used as a practical tool to generate scenery ideas, develop industries and prototypical operations, convert prototype measurements to scale, and even match airbrush paint colors from reference photos.
Fri 1 pm Mike Sparks Eastern States Farmers Exchange - A Northeastern Farmer-owned Cooperative An overview of the company's facilities, products and means of delivery to the customer.  Long before the advent of Tractor Supply and Agway, it was companies like Eastern States that farmers turned to for animal feed, seed, fertilizer, lubricants and building supplies - the bulk of which was distributed by rail.
Fri 1 pm Nick Santo Power Bridge Stay Alives This clinic will talk about stay alives in general and then look at the applications and features of the NixTrainz Power Bridge stay alives for HO, S and a few N scale DCC locomotives.
Fri 1 pm Ron Poidomani Modeling Mill River Junction SS-79 on my HO Scale New Haven Railroad Layout This presentation will discuss how I am modeling Mill River Junction SS-79 New Haven, CT. I will show you how I used prototype maps and historical photos to help design the area. Layout operations will also be discussed, including what a typical ops session looks like on my layout. In addition, I will show updates to the layout build progress, including new areas being modeled: Cedar Hill Yard, a foundry, New Haven Trap Rock, and a new switch job currently being added to future ops sessions. 
Fri 2:30 pm Steven Meyer The Shay—More than a Logging Loco Clinic describes the prototype Class D 4-truck Shay and the new model from Broadway Limited.C4
Fri 2:30 pm Bill Schneider The Old Woman in the New Basement Bill Schneider discusses researching and building his personal 18’x30’ double deck prototype-based layout based on the New York, Ontario & Western in upstate New York state circa 1947. The discussion will include where he finds prototype information and how he tries to capture the essence of a scene. He will also discuss designing and making your own laser-cut structures with a hobby-level laser cutter, making your own photo backdrops and more.
Fri 2:30 pm Irv Thomae When the Photos Don’t Seem to Match: Modeling the Montpelier & Wells River, circa 1940-41 Historic photos of this classic Vermont branch-line are full of contradictions.  This clinic will detail collaborative efforts to resolve some of them.
Fri 4 pm Ed Olszewski  CaroVail Fertilizer Blending Plant - Auburn, NY The plant was originally Agway built in 1964 and is still in use today served by the Finger Lakes Railway. The plant has gone through several updates and expansions through the years. The plant receives hoppers full of potash and tank cars with liquid fertilizer and ammonia. The plant has two tracks for hoppers and two tank car unloading sites. It is located on a stub spur off the FGLK main on the west side of Auburn, NY. In addition to the fertilizer plant there is a small cinder block building on the siding which is used to transload pallets of bagged onions from semi-trailer to boxcar. In the past there was also a dirt business which used heavy duty canvas bags loaded with dirt formulated for baseball diamonds and horse race tracks. These bags were loaded in open gondolas. This track plan would be ideal for a small shelf switching layout with prototype operation.
Fri 4 pm Glenn Annis The Central Vermont Railroad's Southern Division 2nd (hand) District...The West River Railroad.  The brief story of CV’s 36-mile West River branch, which was a repository of second-hand equipment, structures and bridges. 
Fri 4 pm Evan Tong Planning, Printing, and Painting: Applications of Computer-Based Design and Manufacturing for Model Railroad Rolling Stock This clinic covers the general approaches and procedures used to design, produce, and finish HO and N scale models through synthesizing computer-based techniques such as CAD, 3D printing, and cutting with traditional modeling techniques to create accurate and prototypical models of unique prototypes.
Fri 7:15 pm John Brown  Transporting wheelsets on CP and now CPKC.  Modeling CP and now CPKC  wheel sets new and used as they are transported from Vaughn yard in Toronto Ontario to western Canada.
Fri 7:15 pm Bill Badger The Rich Lumber Co. in Manchester, VT After logging operations in Pennsylvania and New York, Rich Lumber moved to Manchester, Vermont, where it built a mill, a small company town and railroad up the mountain complete with a switchback. From 1914 to 1919 Shay locomotives brought spruce logs down to feed the mill, until fire ended the operation.
Fri 7:15 pm Peter Muto Bellefonte Lime Traffic to New England A comprehensive overview of lime industry traffic from the PRR's Bellefonte lime district to destinations in New England to include an overview of commodities, customers, traffic patterns, and equipment from the 1940s-1970s.
Sat 9 am Tony Koester Two-town branch line in Proto:48 MR’s Consulting Editor Tony Koester will discuss progress he has made building an O fine-scale tribute to the Mogul-powered Wabash High Line branch in western Illinois ca. 1953
Sat 9 am Tony Sissons Creating a GP33ECO Locomotive Using a test resin shell casting given to me that looked somewhat like an ECO locomotive and an old Athearn chassis, which I later established did not fit this resin cast chassis, I almost created a GP33ECO engine, more of a fantasy freelance engine.  The build involved removing 50% of the roof, rebuilding it, and adding many other details noted in the photos, replacing and/or building with scratch-built detail parts.  This clinic is a sequenced step-by-step journey of the build, creating a freelance GP33ECO running number GBFX 4371. 
Sat 9 am Ramon Rhodes The Challenges of Designing Practical Staging into Your Railroad In this presentation, we will look at various design ideas of how you can add multiple staging tracks and yards to your railroad that will improve its operational flexibility.
Sat 10:30 am Dave Oppedisano Staging for the Lakeside Division Layout room preparation and staging construction for a 1200 square foot multilevel layout. 
Sat 10:30 am Rick Abramson How to Paint a Brass Steam Locomotive  Disassembly, preparation, priming, painting and finishing a steam locomotive.
Sat 10:30 am Will Jamison Building a Vermont Railway 50' stretched green boxcar. Building a Vermont Railway 50' stretched green boxcar, used in service at the Proctor and Gamble plant in Mehoopany Pa.
Sat 1 pm Ted Culotta PFE's Postwar Steel Reefers In the postwar years, PFE added 10,000 new all-steel reefers, a number greater than the entire fleets of many other refrigerator car companies. They augmented a fleet of earlier all-steel cars and rebuilt or refurbished wood and composite cars. All three classes (R-40-23, -25, and -26) had subtle, distinctive differences. All have also been offered in HO scale, yet all of the models miss details. This presentation presents the prototypes as well as how to accurately model them in HO.
Sat 1 pm Jim Fellows Moving Spuds Modeling steel reefers from the BAR and MDT used to move potatoes in the 1950s and 60s.
Sat 1 pm Tom Murray Amtrak's Amfleet -  prototype history and modeling  The title says it all.
Sat 2:30 pm JT Burke DCC Sound System Installation Design The title says it all.
Sat 2:30 pm Neil Schofield Expanding the CP Rail in Vermont  - adding the Central Vermont Interchange at Richford Neil details the expansion of his CP Rail layout to include the Central Vermont interchange at Richford, VT and how he chose to enhance the scenic and operational characteristics of the Central Vermont operations to support a dedicated operator.  He'll review the challenges of installing an aisle swing gate and making the most of limited space to selectively compress a scene.  The clinic will cover benchwork through the initial phase of scenery.
Sat 2:30 pm Ken Akerboom ORERs How to use Official Railway Equipment Registers in your modeling. Ken will discuss what information you can find in these documents.
Sat 4 pm Earl Tuson Milk Tank Cars, 1903-1930 The history of milk tank cars prior to the establishment of the General American-Pfaudler joint venture in 1930. Car designs and rosters, businesses and mergers, dairy handlers, and routings will be covered.
Sat 4 pm Ron Hoess Modeling British Railways British model railroading can best be described as small shelf-type layouts often referred to as exhibition layouts. Because of their small size these layouts can be built relatively quickly at minimal cost. This talk will describe the construction of one such layout with the emphasis on capturing the feel of an English countryside branch line.
Sat 4 pm Dave Owens DODX 38000 Series Flatcars As tanks increased in weight, the Army needed a heavy duty flat car to carry them. Dave built a train by modifying the old AHM/Roco cars. The new DODX cars from Rapido are game changers and capture the prototype beautifully.
Sat 7:15 pm Mike Rose Closing in on Completion of the Lehigh Line Mike Rose discusses the basic completion of the Conrail portion of his Lehigh Line model railroad.
Sat 7:15 pm Matthew Hurst Got Milk? The Pennsylvania Railroad was not know for milk train operations like in New England, but did run over numerous lines that required daily milk service.  One operation in particular was centralized on the PRR/H&BT interchange of Supplee Milk cars out of Philadelphia, PA.   Matthew will cover the operations and opportunities presented in modeling this operation. 
Sat 7:15 pm Eric Hansmann Ventilated Boxcars Reviewing a unique freight car design from 1897 to 1962
Hands-on Learning Sessions
Ongoing through the weekend Butch Eyler/Dave Oppedisano/Tony Sissons Weathering techniques and demonstration Gather round and ask questions as Butch and Dave transform freight cars into pieces of art. Butch is one of the most amazing modelers you will ever find. His weathering skills and talents are unmatched. Dave is an amazing modeler and artist too. There is so much to learn from these guys.
Fri 10:30 am Ted DiIorio Hands-on Weathering Bring your car, and I’ll bring everything you need to get started with a quick and easy weathering technique using AMMO by MiG weathering products. Ted urges you to join in with a car you want to weather. He also hosts a weekly weathering workshop on YouTube.
Fri 1 pm Jack Labeck Ballasting track Jack will demonstrate how he ballasts track. He welcomes questions and you're welcome to try your hand at ballasting.
Fri 2:30 pm Steve Funaro PRR GR gondola kit, overview and assembly (Sign up at registration desk) Steve will discuss the PRR GR gondola, then lead assembly of the one-piece body kit. LIMITED to 12 people each session. YOU WILL NEED THE FOLLOWING TOOLS: X-acto knife with #11 and #17 blades, Pin Vise with #78, #74, 1/32” and 1/16” bits, Flat Nail Boards (Black Emery on Foam Core), Small Pair of Cutting Pliers, Small Needle Nose Pliers, Tweezers, Kadee #58 Couplers, 2-56 Screws, Pair of Trucks Kadee 2D-F8, Super-Thin CA Cement (Cyanoacrylate). COST IS $30.
Fri 2:30 pm JT Burke/Nick Santo Electronics soldering Sit down with JT and Nick and ask questions, try soldering and refine your skills.
Fri 4 pm Ted Shasta Round table discussion on anything you want Ted will lead a round table discussion where the goal is to share knowledge, solve problems, motivate you and to enhance the enjoyment of our hobby. 
Fri 4 pm Ted DiIorio Hands-on Weathering Bring your car, and I’ll bring everything you need to get started with a quick and easy weathering technique using AMMO by MiG weathering products. Ted urges you to join in with a car you want to weather. He also hosts a weekly weathering workshop on YouTube.
Sat 9 am John Sacerdote Hand-laying Track The basics to get you started:  The right tools and a different technique!
Sat 10:30 am Ted DiIorio Hands-on Weathering Bring your car, and I’ll bring everything you need to get started with a quick and easy weathering technique using AMMO by MiG weathering products. Ted urges you to join in with a car you want to weather. He also hosts a weekly weathering workshop on YouTube.
Sat 1 pm Steve Funaro PRR GR gondola kit, overview and  (Sign up at registration desk) Steve will discuss the PRR GR gondola then lead assembly of the one-piece body kit. LIMITED to 12 people each session. YOU WILL NEED THE FOLLOWING TOOLS: X-acto knife with #11 and #17 blades, Pin Vise with #78, #74, 1/32” and 1/16” bits, Flat Nail Boards (Black Emery on Foam Core), Small Pair of Cutting Pliers, Small Needle Nose Pliers, Tweezers, Kadee #58 Couplers, 2-56 Screws, Pair of Trucks Kadee 2D-F8, Super-Thin CA Cement (Cyanoacrylate). COST IS $30.
Sat 2:30 pm JT Burke/Nick Santo Electronics soldering Sit down with JT and Nick and ask questions, try soldering and refine your skills.
Sat 4 pm Ted DiIorio Hands-on Weathering Bring your car, and I’ll bring everything you need to get started with a quick and easy weathering technique using AMMO by MiG weathering products. Ted urges you to join in with a car you want to weather. He also hosts a weekly weathering workshop on YouTube.

 
 
and now the schedule!
(Please note that this is tentative and subject to change by meet time)




ATTENTION ALL MODELERS:
We are always looking for new clinics and layout owners interested in showcasing their work. Please contact Dave Owens at neprotomeet@gmail.com or call 860-209-8155.