Dan will bring his exceptional skills as a meticulous modeler and inspiring teacher to the Spring Modelers Meet. With a passion for sharing his expertise, he conducts clinics aimed at guiding both novice and seasoned model railroaders toward achieving new levels of proficiency and mastery.

Beyond his live clinics, Dan has contributed significantly to model railroad literature. He has published many articles offering modelers a wealth of information on various aspects of the hobby. Dan models in N scale and has an exquisite home layout, the Milwaukee Road North Montana Line.

If you want to learn about custom decals, operations or the Pere Marquette Railroad, Fritz is the guy! Fritz has been in the hobby a long time and is currently planning a layout based on the Pere Marquette Chicago Division. Being a member of the Pere Marquette Historical society, he has published an HO scale guide to modeling the railroad. Fritz was also part of the crew that put together and ran the Operations Road Show which taught basic model railroad operations to those new to operations.

As a clinician, Fritz not only imparts technical know-how but also instills creativity in his clinics. One of Fritz unique projects includes the Haggis Decal Project, which serves as an experiment in distributing decal artwork via the Internet and shows his expertise in creating custom decals.

Looking for a different scale? Doug has taken to modeling the Colorado & Southern in 1/72 scale. At this scale, HO (1/87) track becomes 3 foot narrow gauge! This allows him to use HO mechanisms, track and other components to keep the costs low and the enjoyment high. Doug’s other passion within the hobby is operations and the C&S delivers with regular op sessions using Timetable and Train Orders.

Doug is an expert in Colorado mountain scenery with instructional videos, clinics and publications going back many years. His articles and publications serve as comprehensive resources, offering enthusiasts a wealth of information on various aspects of the hobby.

Getting her start in modeling with 1:12 scale dollhouses, Brook moved over to HO scale when her husband Jay took up model railroading. To date, Brook has built over 300 structures, and has received the title Master Model Railroader. Brook’s scratch building techniques are a joy to behold and she takes great pleasure showing others how to build structures and other scale items.

Jay and Brook’s layout is the HO scale Michigan Lines which depicts many of the railroads radiating out from the Detroit waterfront to the various communities across SE Michigan. The layout includes many of the Qualman’s favorite scenes from the area including a scale model of their current house right down to the bird feeders in the yard.

Dave McMullian models the railroads of Maine including the Boston & Maine, Maine Central, and Bangor & Aroostook. These railroads have not always been well represented in ready to run models. Dave has taken great care to find ways to recreate the models he loves through super detailing and learning new skills like 3D printing. Dave will present multiple clinics on how he managed to recreate some of the most notable locomotives and rolling stock of these railroads.

Jim is both a large scale enthusiast and and HO scale modeler. Jim is the owner of the AI Railroad named for the crossroads ghost town that he lives near. This outdoor railroad is 1:6 scale on 7.5” track gauge, that he hosts the Northwest Ohio Live Steamers Club. The 2,500 feet (3,500 including yard) of track runs around and through his property of almost eleven acres. The yard has an operating water tower for the live steam locomotives and a ramp for loading and unloading of the locomotives and rolling stock onto trucks and trailers for transport.

Jim has been working on a hand built SD60 with Tsunami sound (yes a Tsunami in a large scale locomotive). Jim will share with us the adventure to build this 1:6 scale behemoth.

Jim is a prolific scratch builder and brings lots of insight and techniques to build almost anything on your layout. Jim has a personal preference for rustic steam era structures especially wooden structures. Jim’s home layout was 100% complete until recently. In order to have more modeling opportunities, Jim has expanded his layout and plans on scratch building almost everything on the new addition.