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Casket Company stuff. When queried about these shortcomings, he simply stated, “I don’t like scenery” or “I don’t scratchbuild buildings.” When asked if he ever tried either endeavor, the an- swer was, “No.”


He reminded me of a young girl I


once dated (and later married). We had gone out to a nice restaurant for din- ner. I ordered the lobster tail, and she had a steak. When I asked her to try a bite of my lobster (overgrown crawdad to her) the answer was a firm, “No! I don’t like lobster!” “Have you ever tried it?” I quarried. “No,” was the more than firm answer. She finally, after a degree of brow-beat- ing, grudgingly agreed to a small bite. I enjoyed my steak that night.


As to the gentleman and his railroad referred to above, apparently his com- fort zone did not include the likes of scratchbuilding


or scenery. I don’t


know him well enough to tell you what caused it, or for what reason he exited that rut, but he came out of it with a vengeance.


The story has a happy ending here


folks; RMC is still an upbeat family magazine. Once he discovered the art of scratchbuilding, it was fun. He be- came a building engine of monumental proportions. He canceled a full year of operating sessions to concentrate on structure building. And build he did, going from a few simple plastic kits to full scratchbuilding, skipping the inter- im step of building more complicated craftsman kits altogether. His skill set was already in place from years of pre- cise modeling, thus his structure mod-


els were as well crafted as his model railroad. About the only thing left for him now is to try his hand at some scenery. I just know he will be good at it. It is how he does the hobby. Any endeavor as complicated and multi-faceted as model railroading is an ever-expanding process. The learn- ing curve is a long one, and few, if any, of us is an expert in all areas of the pastime. I could clinically list all the facets of the hobby, like history, carpen- try, et cetera, but I would likely leave something out. Besides, the last thing I want this column to be is clinical. After over half a century of learning, there are still areas I am unfamiliar with. Were it not for the likes of Chris Zyg- munt, Paul Hecht, and Roy Kell, my railroad would be poorly wired and have no sound in


the locomotives.


Many engines would not even run very well. Some day I am going to practice what I preach and install a Tsunami decoder in a locomotive all by myself. When I first started scratchbuilding


(Taft was president I think), wood was my choice. The family basement was damp (a gross understatement) so cardstock was tried and discarded. In all honesty, wood fared little better. Styrene was not yet available in the form it takes today, and plaster, RTV molds, and such things were relatively unheard of and way beyond my limit- ed skill-set. Like I said, model rail- roading is a complex and life-long learning experience. So wood it was. I learned scratchbuilding from the likes of E.L. Moore and Paul Larson in the pages of RMC, Jack Work and Al


Kamm in MR, and Joe Wilhelm in Model Trains.


These gentleman


worked in wood, so I worked in wood. I grew comfortable with the medium and became conversant with all the subtleties that were involved therein. I did not know it at the time, but I was getting into a rut. The walls of the rut were getting


higher, and my habits were getting deeper. When Al Armitage wrote his now famous “The case for styrene” back in MR in the early 1960’s, I was young and not so set in my ways that I demurred a new path. I gave styrene a try (but only after Ever- green Scale Models made it practi- cal), and became somewhat familiar with another scratchbuilding medi- um. It was nice to have another ar- row in the quiver. By the mid-1960’s, I was reading every scratchbuilding article I came across just to see if there was some new or different technique in the pages. Fortunately, there almost al- ways was. Both major magazines had at least one scratchbuilding article per month, and often more. Reading the model press is still a good way to devel- op skills outside your perceived com- fort zone. There may not be as many features on crafting models from raw materials as there once were, but there is every bit the information and guid- ance. It’s there for the taking. The single best thing about this hob-


To model the scenes shown in these three photos takes time and various skills. The skills needed are not gained by being complacent. Many modelers find themselves in a rut or comfort zone. If one is to grow, however, new techniques must be tried and experienced.


RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN


by, for me at least, is not the trains. It’s the friendships you develop. I suppose one could model railroad in a vacuum, but I doubt it would be nearly as much fun. I cannot conceive of not having my friends over to run trains. Nor can I imagine staying at home and never go- ing to visit their railroads. I have ab- sorbed so many ideas from so many people that I sometimes wonder if there is ever an original thought in my head. No one of my acquaintance has ever kept their methods or tricks se- cret. They have all shared their knowl- edge and skill with others. I believe it is unwise not to seek the input of those more knowledgeable. It is good to wan- der out of one’s comfort zone and keep asking questions. I am going to close this month’s col- umn with a quote from Calvin Coolidge. “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Ge- nius will not; unrewarded genius is al- most a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Per- sistence and determination alone are omnipotent!” It is this persistence and determination that will continue to ex- pand our comfort zones.


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