A little philosophy A way of looking at modeling/Bob Walker W
ay back in the mid-1950’s, when I was just getting seri- ous about the hobby, there was a huge hue and cry in the various hob- by magazines about plastic HO freight cars in particular and pre-assembled models in general. Letters to the editor columns in both major publications were
full of dire predictions, and
prophets of doom. Out of the woodwork they came, full of righteous indigna- tion. “The hobby was dying,” moaned one. “It’s already dead,” boo-hooed an- other. “No one builds anymore,” they bleated. It was written that plastic is junk, and should be banned! Ready-to- run modelers are not model railroad- ers, they are merely fat-cat train collec- tors. (Yes, folks, there were some pretty shrill and downright silly viewpoints in those days). I think Hal Carstens and Paul Larson (the two editors-who were friends) published these letters for comic relief for the majority of us. In the earliest days of the hobby, from the early 1930’s until after World War II, building most everything from scratch was the norm. It was not just freight cars that were built from raw materials, but track, turnouts, struc- tures, and even locomotives, were com- monly built from scratch. After the war, when a lot of companies were flush with machinery and capital from war work, there were a lot of new kits introduced. Some rather enterprising people saw the writing on the wall and produced many a product that was here-to-fore only available to the hardi- est of “craftsman” who built his locomo- tives from old tin cans and his freight cars from balsa wood blocks. I put the word craftsman in quotes because if you saw some of the models that actu- ally made it into print (which was a big deal back then), you would laugh your head off. By today’s standards, some were a joke, and that’s being kind. Today we are not so prone to hyste- ria, at least where our hobby is con- cerned, and the models that make it into publication today are pretty darn good. Here it is over a half century lat- er, and the builders in this hobby are still with us, and better than ever. The world did not end, and model railroad- ing soldiered on quite unaffected by the sayers of doom. If the NMRA meets, Narrow Gauge Conventions, and the several prototype modelers meets are any indication, the craftsmanship area 54
of the hobby is alive, and doing quite well. The materials and tools available to the builder today are vastly different than what was around back then, mak- ing it is far easier to be a craftsman these days.
Ready-to-run products are more pro- lific than ever, with the variety of mod- els available in that form being better, in every way, than the highest level wood craftsman kit of that ancient era. It is no longer just cars and locomo- tives, which can even be bought ready to roll, but pre-weathered (NOT a new idea folks) as well. There is not much you can’t get in a ready to go fashion these days. Track now comes “pre-bal- lasted”, structures are available all built up, and even the telephone poles come pre-strung with “wire.” You can even buy your trees ready to plant. With most of the major components (to a degree, even benchwork) available
PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
ready-to-go, the skill level required to even be in this hobby, seems to have dropped several levels. I now will some- times get the feeling that, to be a mod- el railroader, all you need is a check book and some space. Of course, this gross over-simplification is a bit mis- leading, even if it is ever so slightly on the true side. Real model railroaders have to develop, just like athletes or doctors. The hobby is way too diverse to me mastered in a short period of time. Even back in the fifties, you could certainly have a model railroad with very little in the way of skill. If you were only vaguely aware of which end of the hammer was the one you hit the nail with, and thought a screwdriver was only for opening paint cans, a lay- out was not beyond the realm of possi- bility. All you needed was a 4 × 8 foot sheet of plywood on two saw horses, holding a simple Atlas snap-track plan, and a train set. Buy a few green sponges on sticks (the un-named M vendor, who is still with us, called these things “trees”), and you were off to the races. A Life-Like grass mat, a simple power pack, and some Plasticville buildings, and you were a “model rail-
When visitors to a layout see a well crafted pike, they are really noting that the structures are not generic or like anyone else’s models. Scratchbuilt or kitbashed buildings and cars have a certain creative care and pride put into every corner of them and deserve praise.
FEBRUARY 2012
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