from Ted Williams. His layout was a virtual house of mirrors; none of which were apparent to any of his visitors. Upon entering his smallish home and seeing the layout, your first thought was that he must have excavated his basement well into the Monterey hillside, making it ap- pear much larger than the house itself. The 20-plus mirrors were so cunningly placed as to make several scenes ap- pear far deeper than they were. I toyed with the title “mirrors” but realized that there are no mirrors on any of my railroads, and that I am clueless as to where I could put any. Scrap that idea! Back to Mr Allen, he was so far ahead of his time that he would be right at home in the early 21st century. I doubt that the way we practice the hobby today would surprise him in the least. A lot of what we do, he predicted. He described the concept of DCC to me over coffee, stating that eventually we would not need block wiring, which, in 1968, was a must. He was also a fine artist and photog-


rapher who knew just exactly how to use light to his advantage. He placed his model trees on the layout just as anyone would. Then he painted model trees (not real trees, but model trees so they would match the three dimension- al ones) on the backdrop in the shadow of the three dimensional trees. He painted them a shade or two lighter so the shadows themselves actually seemed to disappear. He also pioneered the concept of half trees on the back- drop, made in lighter colors, placed in the shadows of full trees. The effect was striking, to say the least. This young modeler was indeed awestruck. In that four-hour visit, I learned more about model railroading, lighting, geol-


ogy, photography, and showmanship than I did in any five-year period of my life. I can hear those who know me say- ing “Yeah Bob, but you’re such a slow learner.” That may well be true, but you know what I mean. Much of what we are trying to accomplish is to make a scene appear as realistic as possible to ourselves and our guests. To do that we must often try to fool the viewer, trick the eyes, and diminish the laws of physics. We need to use lighter colors than the prototype because they are viewed in half the light. I’ve seen many a super modeler brag about exact paint matches, only to have them turn to mud in his dimly-lit basement. At best our layouts exist on a cloudy day where a rainstorm is imminent. If I continue here, I’m gonna start some fist fights, so I’ll move on. The area I model, Southwestern Col-


orado, abounds in pine trees. Huge stands of evergreens are everywhere you look, separated by massive stands of aspens so bright in the fall they hurt the eyes. I needed a lot of trees. (My next railroad is going to be in the Arizona desert!). There are many background ar- eas of the layout where the trees are simply spike-shaped luan plywood painted dark green and flocked with conifer-green ground foam. Placed be- hind actual model trees, they are pretty believable. I took a 6″×48″ strip of luan and cut in those “shark’s teeth” such that there was only about a half inch of wood between each tree. The resultant strip of tree-like shapes were then easy to bend as needed and tacked in place with drywall screws.


My dear wife of 36 plus years, Donna, loves to shop. On vacation, there is not a second hand store, junk shop, antique store, or craft store in Colorado that she


has not been in at least twice. I long ago learned to just sit back and enjoy the ride, as she comes up with some of the darndest things “for your railroad dear.” One time, it was in Ridgeway I think, she came out with the most scruffy looking stuffed moose (a toy, thankfully, not a full size moose) you ever saw. After my discreet “what the @$#%@ is that?” She said, “Why it’s for weeds, dear!” And so it came to pass that turning stuffed toys into weeds became a secondary hobby for her, and she proceeded to “weed” the railroad.


Now weeding to most women is to go out in the garden and pull up unwant- ed plant life. To Donna, it’s rip a stuffed animal to shreds and glue down clumps of it on the railroad. Use little squirts of hairspray to attach various shades and colors of fine ground foam to simulate leaves and flowers, and you’re weeding.


I once took a picture of one very gut- ted bunny laying on the tracks at Plac- erville and sent it to Bill. The answer was a swift, “No Bob, this is a family magazine.” Long ago, I tried to slip some stuff past Tony Koester with the exact same results. Seems I never learn. Carstens hires only sharp-eyed editors. [Well, we try. We also know that Bob will get away with something like this one of these days!—Bill, Chris, Jim.] I feel sorry for the modeler that is so


serious about the railroad that no hu- mor is allowed in. In my case it is mostly done with figures. Often, the conditions on my chosen prototype were so bad that humor was nowhere to be found. I model wartime (fall of 1942) so there is little to laugh at there, as well. I still manage to have some fun with some of the mini-scenes. The postman in Ophir has been beset by hounds, as has a cer- tain feline on the station platform in Placerville. A worker has decided to move the “facility” at Vance Junction, much to his dismay. There are many such scenes on the line, mostly there to break up the “just a plain miniature railroad” syndrome. A pike has to have some character to set itself apart from the rest. Woodland Scenics makes a rather “ample” lady figure, which I have made use of “coming and going” with re- gard to a couple of outhouses, one in Placerville, and another in Dolores. Humor aside, sometimes things just go six ways from wrong. Spending hours on a plaster wall only to drop the stupid thing is not fun, nor is the Humpty-Dumpty act in the hours that follow. The results, however, are usual- ly rewarding: the wall looks better with the patch-concrete repairs than it did in its pristine state. When life gives you lemons, blah. You know!


RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN 65


well, blah, blah,


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