Naperville RPM
In March of 2004, Bill Denton, Marshall and Mike Skibbe were standing around the Midwest Mod-U-Trak H0 layout at the Harper College Trainshow in Palatine, IL.
The consensus? We should be doing this instead of N-trak. Consistent midwest scenery. Double track mainline. Up high so you can appreciate the details.
Over the summer Bill propped his three module set of New Lisbon N-trak modules up on PVC leg extensions, raising the rail height to 53″. Mike and Marshall built a six-foot module frame, 18″ wide, and utilizing spline roadbed construction proofed on the BraNch-Trak layout and their CGW home layout. This new module moved the track down to two, and 10″ and 11.25″ from the backdrop respectively.
With an invite to set up at that October’s Naperville RPM, orchestrated by our friends in HO Mod-U-Trak, we set up as MiNi Mod-U-Trak for the first public show with Bill’s 19″R end loops capping off the ends of the layout. We’ve located three photos from the archives.
Bob Gallegos of Walthers and Bill Denton at the first set up, Sunshine’s Naperville RPM.
Mike and Marshall Skibbe’s Chicago Great Western F-unit set running at MiNi Mod-U-Trak’s first set up.
Bill Denton, Bill Pearce, and Charlie Vlk ponder all things N scale at the first public showing.
Memories. Look at the transition module with a fallow field, before the first batch of “broom” corn was ever planted. And if you look close, we were still dropping in N-trak style connecting tracks between modules before we settled on running the track right up to the module ends.
