PHOTOS BY GERRY LEONE Scratchbuilding Wesolowski Chemical Inspired by a Wayne Wesolowski model/Gerry Leone E
veryone has model railroad he- roes, and one of mine is no stranger to the pages of RAIL-
ROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN; it’s Dr. Wayne Wesolowski. Wayne’s voluminous arti- cles and ideas, plus his superb model- ing, have always been a great influence on me and inspiration to me. I’ve had the great fortune of not only correspon- ding with him, but meeting him and becoming friends. That said, when the time came to re- place a decades-old scratchbuilt chemi- cal plant on my Bona Vista Railroad, I knew the new establishment would have to be named for “Dr. Weso,” as he likes to be called. I also knew that, to honor this true craftsman, the struc- ture would have to be scratchbuilt. It
was just a question of finding plans for the right one.
Upon reflection I
thought, wouldn’t it be an extra kick if I used one of Wayne’s own articles to build it?
I poured through dozens of back-is- sues of modeling magazines and looked through Wayne’s books, and finally came up with one that seemed to be the professor’s “signature” structure, the CB&Q foundry in Aurora, Illinois.
Back in the September 1980 issue of RMC, Wayne began a two-part series on modeling the foundry, which he and his dad had visited when he was just a small boy. Wayne also included several color photos of the model in the recent re-issue of his classic Carsten’s Pub- lishing book, Model Railroad Struc- tures from A to Z. With just a few mental gymnastics, I knew I could justify transforming the
Friends for many years (left), Wayne Wesolowski and Gerry Leone share a passion for scratchbuilding. To start the model of Wesolowski Chemical (above), a mock up made from photocopies of the plans was mounted on cardboard for a 3D structure.
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN 73
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