The 1/87 Vehicle Club's 2001 East Coast Meet, held June 24, 2001, in South Plainfield, New Jersey, was a terrific gathering of modelers from the Northeast, Georgia, Texas, California, and Virginia. Those attending were treated to some extraordinary modeling in the contest and display categories. The vendors on hand also treated meet attendees to a wide variety of truck, bus, auto, and equipment models that are not usually seen in the region's hobby shops. Special vehicles, custom painted models, and limited production items from Europe were all available! For a look at the contest category winners, check out Photo Gallery 33!

Some of the most interesting items displayed were the numerous models in various stages of progress. Ralph Ratcliffe, Dan Goins, Dave Magnenet, and Bob Johnson treated folks to the various stages of modeling progress.

The photo above is Ralph Ratcliffe's modified Resin Unlimited Seagraves hook and ladder unit under construction. As you can see, Ralph is well on his way to next year's possible winner in the emergency category!

This is another of Ralph's fire trucks in progress. This unit is based on a cab from the AHM/International molding and scratchbuilt body. Those white wheels and tires are Ralph's own resin castings.

The monster Caterpillar power chassis above is part of a mining dump truck Dan Goins is building from a D&K Models resin kit. Dan has added extensive additional detailing such as hoses, cables, filters, radiator screening, hand rails, and steps.

Interestingly, Bob Johnson's Barrett 55' double deck livestock trailer wasn't quite finished in time for the show. Missing are all those brake and marker lights included in Lonestar Models' kit and the rear bumper was a casualty of the long trip from California. Fortunately, the judges were impressed and perhaps didn't notice!

Above is the photo of "before" and "after" of the most difficult part of the conversion - stretching the roof to 55'! The bottom roof is spliced vertically just to the left of the words "Roof splice".

Left above is the 2 door cab S-series brush fire truck from Boley. On the right is the 2001 International 4400 version of the brush fire truck. All of the brush fire truck series use the same body with different cabs.