Hi All,
Just a quick note and passing along a letter from the STL RPM meet. Q Connection will be attending the meet with our wares including two tables of BRHS publications and products. Hope to see you there!
Dave
Greetings fellow prototype modeler fans.
We are asking your society to share this updated information regarding the upcoming 16th annual meet in Collinsville, Illinois.
With only 7 weeks to go, your STLRPM hosts wanted to encourage you to plan your trip, get your hotel rooms and bring your models to this year’s gathering.
A few of the highlights:
THEME
Our 2023 theme, The Layout - A Weekend At The Theatre", will feature several clinics offering numerous famous layouts and provide insight from every aspect of the layout from planning your pike for operation to excellent scenery and structures. Truly a vast array of all aspects of creating that stage on which you run your trains through their motions, just like the prototype railroads do every day.
CLINICS
The St. Louis RPM will present 21 different clinics and a Keynote Speaker that offer the vast range of topics you've come to expect from an RPM meet. While we tend to focus on the annual theme with about 1/2 of the clinic supporting our deep dive into the theme of the year, the other half cover presentations on cutting edge subjects of interest to today's modelers. So whether you want to be amazed at the beauty of the layouts presented, or need to hone your skills on the many facets of this great hobby, you can keep busy for two days in the clinic rooms.
EXHIBIT AREA
We have learned that everybody likes something different. So during the St. Louis RPM, we work hard to bring you a huge variety of exhibitors that provide a close up look at what is available for YOU to take home with you. This is known as an incredible collection of our hobby's leading manufacturers, lots of fresh start up entrepreneurs bringing to you, their latest items that we have all been waiting for, and those precious vendors of hard to find research materials including books, photo's, and authentic railroad resources to give you a look into the prototypes past. For many, the icing on the cake is the selection of parts, models, kits, and other "necessities". that our handpicked group of retail hobby vendors will offer you during your time at the meet. All in, you can visit almost 200 tables
HISTORICAL SOCIETIES
Not only will your favorite historical society be there to help you with your questions, upwards of nearly 20 other societies will be present with loads of precious information that is hard to find anywhere else. Some attendees make the trip just for the incredible volumes lurking among the visiting groups from all over the country.
LEARNING STATIONS
Not familiar with this concept? It's kind of new to gatherings like this. We want to have specific areas on the exhibit floor where you can go and sit at a table, and " be shown" how to do something that you were hoping to learn more about. This year we have topic such as hand laying track, spray painting, DCC topics, painting backdrops and more. Just follow the tall banners to that table and have a seat!
SOCIAL EVENTS THAT CATER TO YOU
An RPM meet is known for its friendly nature, and to expand on that, we offer several ways to meet others with common interests. Starting with Thursday evening, we suggest that you arrive in Collinsville in time to join the informal gathering at Bandanas BBQ . That is followed by a night cap in the lounge area of the Double Tree by Hilton, our host hotel. Then on Friday evening, you can visit a couple of famous home layouts as featured in the annual tour. We will also offer an exclusive viewing of the model on display after the normal hours in the exhibit area have ended for the evening. Before closing the Gateway Center for the night, we end the formal presentations at the Gateway Center with our Keynote Speaker that will focus on the theme of the year. And finally, we cap off the night with our traditional RPM Round Up, in the lounge of the Double Tree lobby area. There will be hot delicious appetizers and plenty of RPM'ers gathering about 8:30 or 9:00 that night as they return from the Keynote Speaker or the home layout tours or a dinner out with fellow modelers.
MODELS
We are saving the best for last, as we describe some of the highlights of attending the St. Louis RPM meet. We provide the space, and encourage fellow RPM attendees to bring their models to show and share them with the rest of us. We attract thousands of models from around the country. They come in all gauges and scales, stages of completion, era's and types from structures to locomotives to freight cars, and dioramas. You have to see it to believe it. Call us about our Early Entry Modelers program and bring YOUR models to share with others.
WEBSITE
How do we do all this and how can you learn more and how can YOU participate? Just go to our website and look around. You can find more details on all these topics and get help with hotel information by just searching for < www.stlrpm.com >. Then we recommend that you take your time, learn about all this and get yourself a hotel room.! Still have questions? The website posts other resources to help you get started as well.
On behalf of the entire team at St. Louis RPM we hope to see you soon!
Lonnie Bathurst
Jeff Kuebler
Mark Lewis
David Lowell
Brian Mcquitty
Dave Roeder