Trains -- The Story
This has been a life-long love-affair that now manifests
itself in model building and photography. I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, but
moved away in 1961. Up till that time there were three railroads that served the
area, the Louisville and Nashville, the Tennessee Central, and the Nashville,
Chattanooga and Saint Louis Railroads. All of these roads are just a memory now,
mostly gobbled up by the CSX, or just abandoned. I have chosen to remember them
all by way of models. Some of them are painstakingly hand built or modified to
better represent the way things were railroad-wise in Nashville and beyond, in
1950. I was only 8 years old.
There is a model railroad in H.O. scale under construction.
(H.O. stands for "half- O" so designated when originated over 60 years
ago). H.O. is of the proportion "1:87" or loosely 1/8" per foot
scale. True "O" scale is ¼" per foot. It comes to these odd
numbers by having been converted from 3.5 mm per foot scale. Kinda like
"furlongs per fortnight".
This layout attempts to capture the spirit of one in
particular, the NC&StL. Sound your "Saint" when you pronounce
those initials. This road is one with a rich and colorful history, (particularly
the Civil War -- "The War of Northern Aggression" as it is sometimes
called down south). There are lots of interesting equipment and buildings.
It
runs as CSX now through some of the most beautiful country God ever made. Operationally challenging, the line is represented by selectively compressing
the main features into one room. It is the main stem from Nashville to
Chattanooga.
I have over 100 pieces of rolling stock (RR cars and
locomotives) lettered and detailed for that road, which I have accumulated over
the years. Two of my locos are models of Diesels that I’ve owned since the ‘50’s.
I started in earnest building NC (as it was called) models in 1967 when a friend
lent me a copy of Richard Prince’s Book on the subject. I bought the book
from him, and it is worn out by now!
Full-size trains
One other interesting aspect of all this model building is
what I call the "Phoenix Phenomenon". In late 1968 I was approached by
a group trying to restore a real steam locomotive to service. They were short on
steam savvy, and long on enthusiasm. I was already a pretty good mechanic from
all the cars I'd worked on, so when they asked "what’s a hydrostatic test
and how do you do it", I understood, and volunteered to show them. It did
not matter that I had never worked on anything but models. Thus began an 8 year
stint with the Indiana Railroad Museum. Yeah, we got that old girl up and
running and tested and all, and I became one of the engineers who trained other
engineers and tried to keep this teapot in steam. The IRM has gone on to bigger
and better things since those days on a rickety ex-Milwaukee RR branch in
Indiana. I have retired from the rigors of full-sized railroading due to health.
It was fun, but an enormous amount of physical work.
In younger years, I went on camera trips, in search of
interesting railroad action to photograph. Many were special excursions powered
by steam locomotives still remaining and lovingly restored. More often, it was
everyday down and dirty railroading that has now passed from the scene. So there
is a rather extensive collection of prints and slides taken 20-30 years ago that
piques the interest of even tepid railfans. There are even some movies and tape
recordings that are still good today. Pretty interesting stuff, mainly mid-South
and Midwestern. I don’t find modern railroading to be as interesting, since
there are only five mainline railroads operating now. Right or wrong, I don’t
usually waste my time and film, but I still like to watch whatever goes by!