North American Prototype Modelers, Ltd.

Views around NAPM Click on picture for full screen image
Updated 3/3/2007

	Raring To Go! Two colorful stallions wait impatiently in the engine servicing facilities adjacent NAPM’s busy Union Terminal. Mike Sosalla’s Santa Fe F7 No. 43 will back in and onto its famous stainless steel Super Chief as Rick Zehetner’s Milwaukee Road FP45 No. 5 idles until train time for the Afternoon Hiawatha. Passenger trains have been integral to NAPM’s operating sessions for years, but now, with so many new detailed and affordable models available, the outlook for dedicated passenger sessions is improving!
	Making it Bigger Kit-basher Dan Christiansen adjusts the “peek-a-boo” boiler bay on the Ottawa roundhouse. The structure was originally a Kibri (European-style) 1890’s-vintage kit sized for small steam engines. Dan “Americanized” the architecture by stripping off the gingerbread decoration and adding 1930’s-type brick extensions to two of the three bays. The result exhibits the “added-to” look most roundhouses showed as steam locomotives grew in size and complexity.
	River Running Train 81, a westbound freight with Mike Sosalla’s GN GP20’s in the lead snakes across the tight bend in the Sandsoft River on its way to our major division point, Fleming Yard. There the train will be taken apart and reclassified during its scheduled two-hour layover. You may recognize this scene from the cover of the 2000 Walthers HO catalog. Mike Javoroski originally did the most of the scenery and Jim Newell kit-bashed the bridge. Over the years others have added new touches, like Alan Houtz who made the river come alive with rapids. The NAPM river aisle is a good example of how layout detail can be made better and better over time.
	Makin' Bacon George Thelen’s Soo Line F units cruise slowly westbound with the empty meat reefers of a unit train through corn fields and prairie grass created by members Alex and Tom Sansone. Here seen approaching Altoona and PI Tower, these cars will leave the west end of our railroad at Marango, but will return several operating sessions later with a higher priority designation.
	The Ground Plane Scenery detail expert George Thelen doesn’t work quickly, but no one’s complaining! His meticulous efforts are worth the wait! “GT” and photographer Mike Sosalla are currently detailing the ground plane east of Independence/Altoona, working their way westward spreading dried and natural materials like finely sifted “traffic bond” limestone and real “dirt”. Once GT gets everything ‘just so” a fine mist rain of water and white glue is used to fix it in place. Keep it up, George!
	BIG Power. A brand new Southern Pacific U50D draws the attention of a passing railfan who’s lucky enough to have his camera with him. Wearing SP’s “bloody nose” livery, the locomotive halts a Baron Moving truck in its tracks as it edges across an unguarded crossing in East LaSalle. One of the most scenic parts of the club’s high speed double-track main is overhead just beyond the brewery building.
	FORGOTTEN BUT NOT GONE. The fate of many a late-19th Century station is commemorated in Dave Karkoski’s super-detailed boarded-up station at East LaSalle, an often-unnoticed part of that now-famous part of the NAPM layout. Though “ELA” was featured as the cover story of the March, 2003 issue of Model Railroader, this old building didn’t even get billing on the site map. It stands forlornly just west of Zaremba Coal. Next time you visit, take a look -- it’s one of the best models on the layout.
	Lots of Action. Entirely oblivious to goings-on at the brothel next door, a Pennsy switching crew emerges from beneath the Weber Fire Door Manufacturing Co. plant on its way to retrieve empty coal hoppers from the brewery’s boiler plant. “Action” at the saloon, originally an abandoned building as Dave Karkoski first conceived it, was a last wish from long-time “Proto” Treasurer and unofficial tour guide Duane Wright, who left us in July 2006. The girls are overdoing it a bit, but that’s just as Duane had always described the scene to visitors.
	And Many More Miles to Go... NAPM stalwart Gary Lenz spends part of his Thursday work-night painstakingly adding a few more feet of ballast to the roadbed near the MarangoYard cutoff near what we know as Deer Park. Gary’s using a soft-bristle brush to tease the tiny pieces between the ties. Next he’ll spray a gentle mist of detergent-laden water, then finish up with a drenching of diluted white glue that will cement things in place hard as a rock! Even after 21 years of continuous construction progress, there’s still plenty of track and scenery left to finish and detail. As Gary always says, “Patience, boys, we’re getting there!”
	Inviting To The Traveller Nightfall in front of NAPM’s Union Station foreshadows the club’s future plans to institute full-blown night operating sessions. On the platforms outside the terminal’s brightly-lit interior spaces dozens of realistic scratch-made lamps illuminate platforms between waiting streamliners. Beyond them operating signals will show the crews the way to and along the main line. Emerging electronic technologies including reliably-lit passenger-car interiors, ever more realistic micro LED signals, street and structure lighting, and subtle overhead lighting will bring the club’s operations to a new dimension of realism. In the ideal, the biggest challenge may be avoiding collisions between real people in the darkened room!
	The Rush To Board! A seemingly endless parade of passengers moves beneath Union Station’s shimmering platform lights toward one of seven streamliners in this night-time scene at NAPM’s Union Station. The trains, each the favorite of a different club member, occupy only half the tracks in the cavernous train shed. Prototype passenger station operations are being studied. Full-scale terminal operating sessions will soon be in the planning stages.
	Train Time! A sudden lull at the concourse newsstand is sure indication that train time for the “400” is near. You can imagine the staccato sounds of slamming step wells and vestibule doors as the roar of the powerful diesels replaces the quiet drone of echoing voices and footsteps in the cavernous shed.
	Eastbound Freight A dusty Wabash mike heads a long freight out of East LaSalle on the portion of the road that’s single track during one of the twice-monthly operating sessions. The freight headed for the club’s main freight classification yard at Fleming, where all cars are sorted for predetermined destinations on and off the railroad.
	The Chief Arriving The club’s crack streamliner slows westbound in preparation for backing in at the club’s sprawling stub-end Union Terminal where a two-hour layover is part of the operating scenario. Fine-tuned computerized switches controlled from the operator’s hand-held DCC paddle allow the engineer to slide his train into any of the dozen train-length tracks that reside beneath the massive steel trainshed.
	River Crossing The Chief glides across the kit-bashed multi-span bridge over the Sandsoft River. The realistic sandstone bluffs and their crowning trees were the very first scenery built beginning in the late 80’s. The scene may look familiar: A photo of it was on the cover of Walther’s HO Catalog in 2000.
	No Stopping Here! A member’s GS-4 and “Daylight” train roars eastbound at full speed past the tiny rural depot and antiquated coal tipple at “High Bridge” and down the 70-foot-long aisle known as the “River Line”. It’s scenes like this that underscore the advantages of club membership over “going it alone”. Fine modeling from at least a dozen members is included in this view alone.
	Road To Industry This remarkable view looking North on busy Tippecanoe Avenue is a favorite location on the railroad. It’s easy to see why the editors of Model Railroader asked for a feature article about this place we call “East LaSalle” and used it on the cover of their March, 2003 issue. (Note: there are no trains in sight!)
	Heavy Traffic Congestion in the tight spaces between the rear concourse area of Union Station and the adjacent REA warehouse & transfer facility is particularly heavy in this scene.
	Parking at a Premium The depot’s “Traveler” restaurant generates its own local traffic in addition to that from railroad passengers, so the parking lot is often full even at slow train times.
	Pioneer Limited. The Milwaukee Road's Pioneer Ltd. is ready for boarding on track 4 of Union Depot, as a mix of sleeping cars make up the train. Consist includes former Union Pacific "Pacific" series sleeper built by Budd, with a "Raymond" and several "River" sleepers built by Pullman.