Date/Time
Date(s) - Saturday, November 8, 2025
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location
Brandywine Town Center
4050 Brandywine Parkway
Wilmington, DE 19803
Located near the intersection of US-202 (Concord Pk.) and DE-92 (Naaman’s Rd.)
Held at the Community Center in front of the shopping center near the fountain and pool.
Categories
On Saturday, November 8, 2025, the Philadelphia Division returns to the Brandywine Town Center Community Center to host a joint meet with the New Jersey Division. The address is 4050 Brandywine Parkway (at US-202 and Naamans Road), Wilmington, DE 19803. Doors open at 8:30am with the program set to begin at 9:00am.
A special program: Both clinics to be presented by the divisions’ superintendents, both of whom are Master Model Railroaders.
First up is Philly Division Superintendent Joe Walters, MMR titled, “Scratch Building a Schnabel Car.” The Schnabel car is a specialized type of freight car. It is designed to carry heavy and high and wide loads in such a way that the load makes up part of load. The load is suspended between the two ends of the cars by lifting arms. When the car is empty, the lifting arms are connected to each other to form a freight car that can be moved in a regular freight trains.
Joe will discuss how he built the largest Schnabel car in HO scale using styrene and cast resin parts that he made for this project. The car is the WECX 801, built in 2012 by the car builder Kasgro Railcar for Westinghouse Corp. The car has 18 trucks, 36 axles, and 72 wheels–truly the most interesting freight car out there.
Joe’s career consisted of experience in the mechanical departments at the Reading Railroad, Conrail, and Amtrak. Over a 32-year period he has held jobs as a car inspector, car repairman, foreman, general foreman, manager, and assistant superintendent. Joe is a prolific modeler, having presented a multitude of clinics on scratch building cars both at the division and regional level. He earned his MMR within two years of joining the NMRA. He now serves as Philly’s superintendent as well as its AP chair.
New Jersey Superintendent Glyn Thomas, MMR follows with his clinic titled, “Zinc Traffic and Ore Cars on the CNJ.” The Central Railroad of New Jersey never carried much iron ore traffic, but it did have long-term and important traffic in zinc ore from mines in northern New Jersey to Palmerton, Pennsylvania. This traffic was shared with the Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad. In this clinic, Glyn will provide a brief history of this traffic, and then discuss construction of models for all the types of car used in the traffic. An addendum will discuss other related commercial models, and a try-it-at-home iron ore gondola project.
Glyn is the superintendent and AP chair for the New Jersey Division. He earned MMR #632 in 2018. Hailing from the UK he modeled European prototypes before switching to the US. His latest modeling projects have included a basement-size layout based on Central Railroad of New Jersey’s Lehigh and Susquehanna Division, which is currently being rebuilt following a move, and a small layout based on the Minnesota Commercial’s Hennepin Branch. He has had photos and articles published in MR, RMC, and NMRA Magazine.
Many may recall last November’s Show & Tell where Philly member Stephen Richardson brought his “hi-tech” version of John Allen’s famous Timesaver switching module. So many had questions about the construction that Steve has prepared some very comprehensive documentation which can be viewed and downloaded at this link: RICHARDSON TIMESAVER. Check it out ahead of time so you’ll understand it better when you see it in person.
All attendees are encouraged to bring a model to the meet to display and discuss, if you like, during our Show & Tell session. Make sure to include your name and description of your project.
In addition, the Achievement Program Committee is now judging models at the meets. If you wish to have a model judged, please inform either Earl Paine or Joe Walters in advance of the meet.
As usual we’ll hold our 50/50 raffle, draw for door prizes, and offer coffee, donuts, and Philly soft pretzels.
The afternoon features some excellent model railroads for visitation. Hope you can make it!
