Gathering ideas Preparation and persistence is the foundation of good modeling/Bob Walker B
ack in the early 1970’s, Bob Tyson, Don Lukens and I were spending another Friday night
in a local Hinsdale, Illinois gin-mill, when Lukens blurted out “I’m tired of this joint, let’s go somewhere else!” While he undoubtedly was referring to the dump down the street, Tyson’s re- sponse was immediate. “Let’s go to Golden, Colorado and get
some Coors!” You guessed it, the next 48 hours was a bit of a whirlwind that entailed a little over 2,000 miles and resulted in seven cases of Colorado kool-aid. Not to mention several hun- dred slides of the Union Pacific and D&RGW as well. We piled into Tyson’s other hobby (fast cars), a 1972 cherry red Pontiac Bonneville, which was big, fast and able to carry a lot of cargo. We also went up to Central City for a small C&S fix, and checked out a few stone structures along the way. There was not a lot of sleep involved, but, as trips like this usually do, the miles eased by pleasant- ly. The trip was not just about a beer with narrow gauge overtones, unavail- able in the Midwest, but some railfan- ning and modeling gathering info as well. The three of us and a few others, were building a railroad in a friend’s basement at the time, strangely named the “Colorado Central.” Thus this could also be considered a research trip. In my current business endeavors (HO scale freight cars), I have been on a mul- titude of research trips, the least pro- ductive of which, yielded a ton of useful information. When you are single and in your mid-20’s, you can do some of this crazy spur of the moment travel stuff, and
WATER TANK IN RICO, COLORADO
Scratchbuilder’s Corner
the memories (and photos) will last a lifetime. As you grow older, perhaps more planning should be involved, and be sure to make room for some sleep
CHAMA, NM COALING TOWER
ting the road” for some field research. Nowadays,
it’s pack the motor home
with food, clothes, and camera gear, and head for Southwestern Colorado or head off to wherever the National Nar- row Gauge Convention, Sn3 Sympo- sium, NMRA National or Trainfest, is being held. I’m sure there are a few I’ve omitted, but you get the general idea. I have discovered yet another hobby within this most diverse of hobbies,
Frequent road trips to an area such as southwestern Colorado (top, belowand opposite) gives a modeler an opportunity to photograph prototypes that turn into detailed models.
time. I am a few years older now, with probably a half million miles or so un- der my belt, but still really enjoy “hit-
PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
which consists of chasing down aban- doned railroad rights-of-way. The one I’m fixated on is the Rio Grande South-
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MARCH 2014
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