The Valley Local: August 2023

Thursday, August 3, 2023

Throwback Thursday - NERPM 2016

Not sure who took this photo or how it ended up on one of my thumb drives (so if you took it - or know who did - please let me know!), but I just discovered it and it sure makes for a great "Throwback Thursday!"

As best I can deduce, this must've been taken during a "make and take" clinic hosted by Don Valentine during the 2016 NERPM. He was showing us how to convert an Accurail kit into a pretty accurate rendition of a Grand Trunk Western door-and-a-half boxcar. I even finished it - eventually. Click here for the details.

But what really caught my eye - and prompted me to share the photo here - was the now-familiar faces and future friends assembled here. . .

Of course, Don himself (facing the camera, looking down) who I already knew . . . But I'm also seated right next to Ron Poidomani (I don't think we'd even met yet) and at the same table with Jim Dufour (whose layout I'd just seen on a layout tour the previous year).

Since this photo was taken, Ron and Jim have become great friends and fellow collaborators. Little did I know then, while obviously intently focused on what I was doing at the time, that I'd be getting a lot more than an accurate boxcar out of that clinic.

Such stories are testament to what a great hobby this is.