Inspiration & Nostalgia

Warning!!!

The following image may cause certain addictive behavior in young people and/or some adults...

Model Railroader Magazine, June 1957

I first viewed this photo when I was about 9 and I haven't been right in the head since. This is THE image that inspired my hobby. The picture appeared in the June 1957 issue of Model Railroader, though I saw it sometime in the 60's. It's a very small chunk of a legendary (among model train folks) layout called the Gorre & Daphetid. Built by the late John Allen over a period of 20 years it was absolutely amazing. Among other things, John extended the scenery to the basement floor. Standing in the aisleway visitors were literally in HO scale canyons. John died from heart failure in 1972. The layout outlived him by 2 weeks. His house was totally destroyed in a fire and the work of a lifetime crumbled to ash. The only things remaining are photos and a locomotive, maybe two.

Although this blog started with a focus on the N scale model railroad I was building it has evolved. Currently I've dabbling with HO scale. It was the scale I started with fifty odd years ago. At that time, in early 1960;s, my brother-in-law Jim was a model railroader with a stack of Model Railroader from the '50s. As I remember we were visiting my sister for some reason. I found those magazines and started reading them. I got so enthralled that I sat there the rest of the afternoon with half the stack on my lap, completely distracted by the wonder of those miniature railroads.

The one image that has always stuck in my head is the one at the top of the page. If Jim's magazines had whet my appetite, this picture sealed my fate, so to speak, and I was caught up in the hobby for the rest of my life. My first layout was pretty much awful by anybody's standards but it wasn't the typical flat table top most "newbies" seem to start with. It had a mountain with tunnels and a cut and grades. The mainline, such as it was, actually climbed that mountain to a 6" elevation and came back down.

I called it the Last Chance & Fairplay after a plan I had seen in Model Railroader. I didn't follow the plan, which was too large for the small house we lived in, but I did borrow the name. The LC&F was all of 4'x8' in size and took up half of my bedroom. The motive power consisted of a Mantua 0-4-0 from our Christmas layout and a AHM 0-8-0 lettered for the Indiana Harbor Belt. The Mantua got it's tender modified to resemble the tender seen on the upper bridge in John Allen's photo. The 0-8-0 got repainted green, if I remember correctly, because I liked the Southern's green steamers. Rolling stock consisted of the cars from the Christmas train set and a few Mantua 1860's cars. There was also two diesels, both by AHM. One was their SW1 in the Southern livery. The second was a Monon BL-2.

The diesels and some Mantua coaches got repainted in a rather unstriking black and gray paint job with a white stripe sometimes separating the two colors. I think I also did a boxcar in grey and even lettered it with a black marker. Needless the say, with its gloss paint and freehand markings it was pretty ugly.

I scratch built a few structures and used some Revell buildings my Dad bought for the preformed beaded foam 4' x 4' layout we had under the tree every year. I refused to use the Plasticville buildings, they were so out of scale! Last Chance depot was an Atlas kit while the town of Fairplay was graced with my balsa wood station building. There was also a red grain elevator, also made from balsa built rather loosely after the one MR built for their Maryland & Pennsylvania layout. neither one of the balsa buildings had window frames and such. At the time I thought they were beyond my skillset

My pride and joy were the enginehouse and water tank in Last Chance. The enginehouse was one of Fine Scale Miniatures first kits. It had windows, doors and even a stone foundation made from separate small pebbles. The water tank was built from plans in Model Railroader and was supported by a brick pump house. I used brick paper to cover that. Decades later it still seems to me that the bricks on that paper were more to scale than any of our current kits. Anyway, the tank was balsa that I scribed to simulate individual boards, with thread for those rings that hold the tank together. I built the water spout, frame, counter weights and pulleys myself. I thought it looked "pretty cool" in '60s speak.

So much for nostalgia. All that stuff is long gone and only one or two photos fuzzy photos remain somewhere. The current project is still in the pre-planning stage. We are in a new home and there is no place to put it yet.

The HO Scale Lehigh & Atlantic Railroad

Today I find myself looking back to the Gorre & Daphetid more than I ever have. Relax, I have no intention of reproducing the Great Poobah's masterpiece. John had trains of those very short ore cars that I always loved. Although I think John may have used Varney kits, I went on EBay and bought a bunch of old Roundhouse cars and kits. They are super simple to build and have cast frames that add more than enough weight to hold them to the track.

A String Of Ore Cars & Quotidian Viaduct

John also possessed those Kadee disconnect log cars that I've wanted since I saw them. Got some of those from EBay, though they tend to be pricey. To haul the ore cars abound I repowered two Athearn "Hustlers" with 24 volt Canon motors (from EBay of course) and shortened Roundhouse boxcab shells to fit. For moving the log cars I acquired old Roundhouse Shays. Unfortunately, I read two many articles on how they should be "improved" and now they are being "unimproved" so they will actually run. There's also a Rivarossi Heisler to stand in for the Shays.

I got my hands on another AHM SW1 in Southern livery. Are they all painted for Southern or is it just me? I repowered it also using the 24 Canon motor I used in the boxcabs. Why 24 volt? Because I didn't read the small print. It works out though, those three locomotives can move at a scale 2 mph and the motors may last forever.

Boxcab "Oil Electric"

Hustler Repowered With "Travis Drive"

The majority of my locomotive roster is steam, something I was determined to do this go around. They are a mix of IHC and Mantua, inexpensive and reliable. Only two are conventional cab steamers. The bulk are "camelback" types, fulfilling another wish. I have a fascination with the anthracite lines in the Northeast. My N scale roster consists of road names like Lehigh Valley (and the other "Lehigh" lines L&HR and L&NE), Reading, Erie, Lackawanna, and any other road that served same region. Granted the Mantua & IHC camelbacks are not "exact" replicas. They are generic as camelbacks go and that's all I'm aiming for.

A cornucopia Of Camelbacks

Mantua 4-6-2 Pacific Camelback

IHC 4-4-0 Idles On A Siding Next To Quotidian Viaduct

IHC 2-6-0 Moving Up Siding Past Yard

I'm also using DCC, although It's a second hand Atlas system. It's a relabeled Lenz product and despite a few quirks, works just fine. Most of the steamers sport Digitrax SDH166D sound decoders. I use the least expensive. They make noises that sound like a locomotive, which again, is good enough for me at this time. I bought several Commanders after blowing one up. There is small "glitch" that can toast the main board. The easiest way around it is to use a separate Commander for programming decoders. I got a few more foe a ridiculous price. So now I have DCC control AND a completely separate programming station.

Atlas Commander Decoder Programming Station

Jeez, kind of ran on there. Sorry. I guess since I haven't updated this blog for quite some time I saved up a lot to say.

Anyway, more to come. Thanks for listening

Regards,

Frank