Two how-to books about scenery and dioramas

 Cody Grivno, ed. How to Build Realistic Scenery (2010)
Hal Miller, ed. Model Railroad Scenery Step by Step (2018)
 

These two books both fill a need, or rather, two. The first is encouragement. Many modellers feel adding scenery is beyond them. Scenery is artistic, not technical, and while we North Americans aren’t fazed by technical challenges, art appears to be beyond us. For that, you need that mysterious something labelled “talent”. Technology merely needs skills, which can be learned. Well, most of them can be learned by any one of us. We each suffer from some technical phobia and clumsiness.

The other need is for clear descriptions of the techniques and technologies used to “build” scenery. (Note “build” instead of “create”, which soothes the anxiety many modellers feel when they contemplate adding trees and such to their layout.)
 

Both books consist of articles that appeared in Model Railroader. They cover a wide range of scenic problems and their solutions. Some can be applied as is to any layout, others can be adapted. Each article includes enough information that, once a modeller has gained some experience, they can suss where and how to modify and adapt alternative materials and methods. The covers display the range of topics covered. Both books are still in print, along with many others. Useful not only for model railroaders, but also for anyone who wants to make dioramas. Available online at Kalmbach's online store
Recommended ****

Building an HO scale Locomotive from Wood

Building an HO scale Locomotive from Wood and Card

(Model Railroader, May 1972)

Back in the days before CAD/CAM and cheap injection molding, model locomotives of specific prototypes were rare. The makers in Japan and Korea supplied limited numbers made with brass. The first examples in the late 1940s and early 1950s were cheap, but by 1972 quality had improved and prices had risen to two to four weeks average pay. Most modellers made do with repainted cheaper mass-market models that were “close enough”. These cost a couple of days pay. Adding details representing a particular railway’s house style helped the illusion. But if you wanted something as close as possible to your favourite road’s engines, you had to scratchbuild.

Culling masses of obsolete paper recently, I came across an article by A. E. Sima Jr (aka Bud Sima). He described how his poor soldering skills prompted him to try his hand using wood and card for building a locomotive. He wanted a model of the Maryland & Pennsylvania’s heavy Consolidation (2-8-0) steam engine. He bought a Varney 2-8-0 to adapt, but when he took it apart in preparation for repainting, the boiler casting encountered the basement floor at a high speed and broke. Bud was left with a mechanism. He decided to make a locomotive body to fit.

The article describes how he did it. He drilled out a suitable piece of wood dowel (to make space for the weight), and cut out a space at one end so it would fit over the motor. He cut cab sides from sheetwood, but did use sheet brass for the cab roof. He made some details with wood, card, wire, and sheet brass, and bought others. In those days, several manufacturers offered dozens of details such as bells, smokestacks, feedwater heaters, steps, brake cylinders, and so on. The tender body was cut from a block of wood and wrapped in card. A dress snap made the electrical connection between tender and locomotive. So “for a surprisingly small outlay of cash”, Bud got what he wanted. I’m sure he inspired others to try their hand at scratchbuilding too. Model Railroader helpfully reprinted its plans and photos of the Ma & Pa locomotive.

Bud writes in a friendly conversational style. The photos and diagrams are adequate for the purpose. Nowadays, we would see a bulleted step by step description, with more photos. Anyone who’s put together a handful of kits would have little trouble emulating Bud’s project. The modern builder would use plastic tube and sheet material instead of wood. There are far fewer details parts available, so fabricating them might be a major challenge. Even so, Bud’s article could be just the inspiration needed. It’s available online for any subscriber to Model Railroader’s online services.

I enjoyed re-reading Bud’s story. ***

If you don't have space for a model railroad, read this book.

 

 Mat Chibbaro. Model Railroading in Small Spaces. (1998) The perfect book for someone living in a modern condo or apartment. Chibbaro covers everything. His Christmas Tree layout can be stored in a closet and taken out for occasional play with one’s children. A couple of N-scale layouts can be built into tables or bartops, under glass. The top of a row of storage cabinets is space for a switching layout. And so on.
     Chibbaro provides step by step instructions, beginning with the Christmas layout. Every project builds on skills learned in the previous one. He’s built every layout he describes, so we learn from his mistakes as well. The illustrations are good enough that an experienced builder hardly needs the text.
     Out of print, but worth a few dollars if you can find a copy. ***

Model Railroad Building tips

 

 Jeff Wilson. Basic Structure Modeling (2005) A well-done overview of the craft, with good co-ordination of text and photos. In the Olden Days, the photos would have been line-drawings. Each chapter deals with one main aspect (plastic kits, roofs, painting, etc). Wilson writes clearly, adding significant detail and tips in the right places, and cross-references to other chapters when the current topic skims over some important content.
     Like any such book, best suited to the reader who has tried the craft and realises they need to know more. Wilson could have emphasised a couple of points, such as the need for painting both sides of wooden (and card) parts. I found it a welcome reminder and organiser of what I already knew, which added up to inspiration for building a couple more small cabins. Just need to decide on the colour first.... ***

Photography for Modellers

 

Mark Hembree, ed. A Treasury of Model Railroad Photos (1991) An odd duck of a book. Four skilled photographers of model railroads (Dave Frary, Malcolm Furlow, John Olson, Paul Scoles) write about how they do it. Beautifully printed, deftly organised text, diagrams, and photos, a pleasure to look at, and to read if you want some insight and instruction. But the puzzle is, Who is the intended audience?  Photographers who want to specialise in scale models? Scale modellers who want to take better photos?
     The four photographers write well. They use 35 and large-format film cameras, hence the emphasis on lighting, exposure, and film choice. Anyone who took photography even semi-seriously in the pre-digital age will feel a few twinges of nostalgia reading about main and fill lights, daylight filters, four-minute exposures and the problems of reciprocity. The advice about lighting, focus, and depth of field is still relevant, and the photos repay study for angle, composition, and so on. The photographers were better known as modellers. That’s why this book is a puzzle: model railroaders looking at layout photos don’t think of them as photographs, but as documents, and inspiration.
     A good book. ***

A Mixed Threesome: Art, Model railroading, Tolkien.

Notebook Magazine (Issue Two, 2007) Issued by a “An Edmonton Art and Writing Collective”. Works are accompanied by answers to a standard interview. The art is generally pretty good, some with a regrettable tendency to shock and annoy, the rest interesting experiments in style and media. The writing is at best average, most of it should have been edited. Much of it assumes that if you have an interesting story to tell, you don’t need to make it interesting.
     I looked up all the contributors online. Most have disappeared from public view, but Timothy Atherton (photos), Heather Millar, Stephanie Jonsson, Bruce Barry are among the few that have continued to make art. Interesting mag, not a keeper. **

Art Curren. Kitbashing HO Model Railroad Structures (1988). Kitbashing??? The art of using the parts of kits as raw material, rearranging them, cutting and splicing them, and of course painting them and adding new signage, in order to create a structure that better fits the layout design. Curren was a master at doing this. Some of his creations are fairly obvious variations on the basic kit, e.g., Maple Street, five houses made from the same farmhouse kit. Others are new designs, e.g., the Perry Shibble Fruit & Produce Co-op, which began life as a small brewery. That name shows his skill at creating groaners, too, but by the mid-80s punning names were already becoming unfashionable.
     Curren writes well, tossing in the odd warning of possible mishaps, and ‘fessing up to changes he made when he realised his original concept didn’t work out. As inspiration this book is excellent. As a set of project instructions it’s pretty good, too, as most of the kits are still available, most in new packages. Cheap plastic kits will be with us for a long time, and for the modeller willing to ignore instructions, mess with a perfectly good kit, and practice painting and weathering skills, they will continue to provide raw materials for unique buildings better suited to a layout theme than the originals..
     Out of print, but recommended if you can find a copy. ****

     J. R .R. Tolkien. Smith of Wootton Major (1967; 2nd edition 1975) Illustrated by Pauline Baynes, a distant connection through an aunt. That’s why I bought the book, a very handsome object, beautifully printed on heavy paper. The story itself feels like an experiment in folktale, with its chronicle-like stringing together of events, minimally sketched characters, and matter-of-fact assumption of magic and Faery as realities.
     At a feast of the Great Cake a boy swallows a Faerie star, which not only gives him a talent for singing, but grants him access to Faery, which he visits regularly. The cook’s Prentice is implicated in all the major events, guiding the human actors into making the choices that are best for them, and for Faerie too.
     I enjoyed reading the book. The black and white drawings are well done, but lower the production values of the book-as-object. Apparently, the publishers didn’t think it worth the cost of commissioning colour. No doubt a collector’s item for the Tolkien fan. It merits its own entry in Wikipedia. ***

Setting the Stage: Scenery for Model Railroads

Carl Swanson, ed. Model Railroader: Best of Scenery. (2020) Collection of articles, some revised, all well done, most brief and to the point. Model Railroader staff and the contributors have perfected the art of combining pictures with text to help the reader learn. Three stories show layouts with impressively plausible scenery. Throughout, there is the explicit and implicit advice to observe the world around you. Recommended. ****

Model Railroad Nostalgia: Classic Articles from Model Railroader

[Kalmbach Publishing] Classic Articles from Model Railroader. (1980) Begins with A. C. Kalmbach’s 1936 story about his own layout, and ends with a 1964 review of “OOO scale”, which soon after became N scale. In between we get Frank Ellison’s story about operating on his Delta Lines, John Allen on weathering, Linn Westcott on eliminating derailments, Jack work on building an HOn3 caboose, etc. The selections amount to a history of model railroading, including its increasing contrast with railroad modelling. A salutary reminder of the difficulties of working with paints that might dissolve each other, the lack of detail parts, the need to kluge scenery from plaster, dry colour, weeds, varnish etc. And a nostalgia kick for anyone who was around in those days, for whom Ellison and Armstrong’s emphasis on layouts designed for operation was a revelation. Worth picking up if you find a copy. ****

Mitchell's Layouts: mentored by Ellson and Armstrong

     Don Mitchell. Walkaround Model Railroad Track Plans (1991) Don Mitchell’s track plans showed up not only in Model Railroader but also in the NMRA Bulletin and other magazines. He emulated both John Armstrong and Frank Ellison, and occasionally mentions them as mentors. He begins with ergonomic constraints, such as typical reach, and discusses principles of layout design entailed by giving his clients what they wanted. Thus a few of these layouts are for the train watcher, but most are for operators, or those who just want to watch trains occasionally when operation doesn’t appeal.
     All the layouts were designed for specific spaces, so they also show what can be done when nooks and crannies and stairs and furnaces and other obstacles force compromises. The smallest, the Oakville Central, is 37" x 70", to fit under a bed. It’s an oval with a short runaround track, a small yard, and a bunch of industrial spurs. It does nicely as inspiration for an N scale layout-on-a-door (a once popular style), which would allow a couple of passing sidings, and additional yard track or two, more spurs, and (most desirable) a more expansive scenic effect
     The largest design is for the San Diego Model Railroad Museum. It’s more of a guideline,  

showing a carefully arranged mainline depicting Tehachapi Pass, with both operator and public viewing spaces on three levels. The yards, industrial switching areas, etc, are left up to future development. The design supposes phased construction, so that something worth displaying can be created quickly, and the extensions into the rest of the display space can wait for revived enthusiasm and renewed funding. The Wiki article about the Museum doesn’t mention Mitchell, and the existence of several other layouts suggests that only phase one of his design (the pass itself) was built.
     Most of Mitchell’s designs are for fairly large spaces, half a basement or garage. He prefers lobes accessible from both sides, but accepts the occasional need for pop-up or rear access. He likes eye-level or higher backdrops to help focus attention, and mentions the need for adequate ventilation. In discussing operating scenarios, he had to consider the limitations of DC control systems; many of his designs would be a joy to run with DCC. His style is less personal than Armstrong’s and Ellison’s, but he does allow himself an occasional pun. A book worth studying. ***

John Allen, the Genius of Monterey

     Linn Westcott. Model Railroading with John Allen (1981) The first few signs of Allen’s genius were few and hardly noticed: a few photos, and a couple of articles in the model railroad magazines in the 1940s. Then people took notice, and editors solicited more photos and manuscripts. By the early 1960s, John Allen was famous among model railroaders. His Gorre and Daphetid demonstrated what Frank Ellison had pioneered in America: that a well-designed layout was a combination of visual and operational concepts whose purpose was to provide the operator (and casual visitor) with the impression of a complete world. The goal was plausibility. Layout designers have taken this principle to heart ever since, whether the layout was based on the owner’s imagined fantasy or on some slice of actual railroad.
     The Gorre and Daphetid is a fictional bridge line across the Akinbak mountain range, somewhere in western America. It provides vital local transportation in an area with few and dangerously steep and winding roads. It’s not much of a money-maker, and its management has bought most of its rolling stock secondhand. Passenger traffic serves mostly tourists who appreciate the spectacular bridges and scenery.
     Westcott gives us a history of Allen’s layouts, an overview of the final version, information about rolling stock and operations, and a glimpse of Allen himself. Allen was friendly and enjoyed showing off his work, but he was an intensely private man. His work must represent the person.
     Allen died in 1973, and his house burnt down a few days later. Little of his work was salvageable. It lives on in his photographs and a short film. Westcott himself died in 1980 while editing the final version of his book. Bob Hayden led the editing team that put Westcott’s manuscript into print.
     The production standard is very high. Westcott’s style is clear and conversational. The book is out of print, but is worth a search. ****
    There are several websites devoted to John Allen and the Gorre and Daphetid. A search will find texts, pictures and the short video. George Sellios's Franklin and South Manchester was inspired by John Allen's work. Through his Fine Scale Miniatures company, Sellios offfered several kits based on the GD, beginning with a wood water tank. 

Inspiration for Model Railroaders

    Mike Shafer, ed.  Railroads You Can Model (1976) and More Railroads You Can Model (1978) Out of print. Just what the titles say: Overviews of several railroads with suggested trackplans. These books are part of Model Railroader’s successful attempts to shift the hobby towards modelling prototypes, not only in appearance but also in operation. Each article describes the line, summarises the operations, and illustrates settings, rolling stock, and locomotives.
    As history of the lines covered, well above average. Anyone who wants to base his layout on, say, The Ontario and Western or a branch of the GM&O, would find the articles very useful. The modelling suggestions are track plans, most of them redolent of the spaghetti-bowl school: get as much track as possible into the (always insufficient) available space. But there are also signs of the coming revolution: “holding tracks”, now known as “staging”, figure in most of them, and track arrangements emulate the prototype. Several of the plans assume a garage-sized space, so that the track to scenery ratio is relatively low. Photos of structures and industries prompt the modeller to create prototype scenes.
     A nostalgia trip for the older modeller, a good source of information for the neophyte or railroad fan, and inspiration for anybody in the hobby. Worth looking for, I think. **½

Twelve Railroads to Inspire Model Railroading

     [No editor credited] Railroads You Can Model (2002) Kalmbach’s Model Railroader for some years had a regular “Railroad You Can Model” feature. These were collected into two previous books, and finally a dozen were republished in this collection.
     As the foreword points out (twice), these track plans are guides. With a couple or three exceptions, they aren’t meant to be built as drawn. They show how to adapt the information about the prototype into a workable design with enough detail to begin building. Two of the chapters show how the pieces that represent towns and yards could be placed around a room and spliced them together with additional track. (Such pieces are now called “Layout Design Elements”, or LDEs). The larger plans are merely one possible arrangement of LDEs, and as such are a good guide to layout design.
     Most of the plans are for large rooms, single garage or half-basement size. A couple are 5x9 feet, slightly larger than the traditional 4x8 foot starter layout. For most readers, the book will have as much interest as a collection of histories (The Ma & Pa, McCloud River RR, G&MO, NY&O, etc) as a collection of track plans. **½

So You Want to Build A Model Railroad... (Mid-sized Trackplan)

      Ian Rice. Mid-sized and Manageable Track Plans. (2003) Rice doesn’t design track plans. He designs layouts. The difference is that a layout has a theme, usually based on a prototype and one or more of its locations. While layouts rarely copy the prototype exactly, a good design will use the tricks of selective compression, key structures, and characteristic landscapes to create a believable impression of a real railroad.
     It’s not much of a trick to arrange track to fit a given space. Many model railroaders do that with actual pieces of track placed on the table or benchwork, which has also been built to fit the space. But whether the trackplan is drawn or sketched on paper or a computer screen, or laid out with actual track, the challenge is to translate the trackplan into a layout. Rice has the gift of visualising the end result, so he includes buildings, scenic elements, and often view blocks to encourage the visitor to see only one scene at a time. His layouts tend to be a string of dioramas.
     Rice also selects a time frame, and describes the locomotives, the traffic, and other components that will fit that time frame. He fits the benchwork to the trackplan, not the other way round. His layouts feature not only sweeping curves of track but sweeping curves of benchwork.
     The layouts shown here fit four standard sizes: a 12ft x12ft bedroom; a 10ft x 16ft corner of a basement; a 10ft x 20ft single garage; and a 20ft x 20ft double garage. Almost all use a 24 inch or larger minimum radius. They are certainly manageable, in time, money, and space. Rice discusses these and other constraints and determiners of model railroad building in the first three chapters, then offers fourteen plans, with accompanying discussion.
     He’s a good writer, if somewhat too fond self-deprecating lame jokes. Anyone who’s starting out in the hobby will find this book useful and inspirational. The model railroader who’s become dissatisfied with what’s been built, and is willing to tear down and modify or even start over, will find this book a good source of ideas to guide the redesign. Recommended. ***½

How to Plan Your Model Railroad.

     Tony Koester, ed. Model Railroad Planning 2018 (2018) The annual Model Railroader special issue on planning layouts. Better, on designing them, but the word “design” hasn’t become comfortable usage for model railroaders.
     This one has 15 articles, mostly of the “how I did it” variety”. Each includes a track plan with summary stats such as room size, mainline run, curve radii, etc. The articles focus on the process of deciding what kind of layout the owner wanted, and how they arrived at an acceptable version of it in available space and time. Most of the layouts are large to very large, based more or less accurately on some prototype, and intended mostly for operation by a multi-person crew.
     A couple of exceptions: David Barrow built a small shelf layout in O scale, depicting a small town, perfectly suited for solo operation, and (like all his layouts) about as simple as a layout can be. It’s not much more than track on plywood, with a couple of building mockups and photos of industries tacked to the wall. It's the layout as game board.
     Two layouts, planned by professionals, are designed primarily for train watching. One of them uses vertical staging: shelves along the wall above the work bench, reached by spurs off a helix that hides one end of a folded-dogbone mainline. Each shelf hold two tracks, slightly separated vertically so that the train in front doesn’t completely hide the one at the back. The owner can turn from his work to watch his trains.
     The other one uses a spiral (pioneered by John Armstrong), which allows long runs between towns, and a division point that plausibly requires engine and crew changes, block-switching of through freights, and assembly of local switch runs. This layout gives the owner both the train watcher’s thrill and the pleasure of operating with a crew of friends.
     The lead article by Doug Tagsold tells of how he returned to Colorado narrow gauge modelling, but wanted more reliable mechanisms than HOn3 could guarantee. He devised a scale of 1:72, using HO track and rolling stock tweaked to have the narrow-gauge look. The gauge works out to 3.95 ft (approx. 3 ft 11"). Not exactly narrow gauge, but the overall impression is plausible, judging from the photos. 1:72 is a popular military scale, so there’s lots of material available for scenery.
     Most of the layouts allow both train watching as well as operation, but as usual operation is the main goal. For the average hobbyist, the stories inspire, and may encourage the vaguely dissatisfied to tear down and rebuild with a better notion of what they want from their layout. For the beginner, it’s a showcase of what’s possible, and may help them avoid the beginner’s mistake of trying to have it all. Koester's summary of "Seven things not do" should be tacked up on the wall of every layout room. ***

Great Model Railroads 2016

     Kalmbach Publishing Co. Great Model Railroads 2016 It’s time to review another of these special annual Model Railroader issues. Model Railroader is a strong proponent of operations: the owners of all the layouts featured here either designed them for operation, or added operations after exposure to the entertainment value of the railroad game. They also want a stage for the trains, the actors in the drama, as Frank Ellison described it in his articles about the Delta Lines, a showcase for railroad-like operations in the 1940s and 50s. So the layouts look good, interpreting or echoing some prototype and set in a recognisable time.
     The articles generally follow the “How I Built My Railroad” format, which will be helpful to the novice. Since the magazine is intended as inspiration and showcase, this makes sense. However, I sometimes wonder whether page after page of basement- or garage-sized layouts might not overwhelm the new modeller, who more likely has a small bedroom or a corner of a family room available. The layouts here range in size from 299 to 1800 square feet. Most are in the 400 square foot range.
     That being said, the photography is excellent, the concepts are interesting, and every builder has solved some common problem in an unusual way. The most successful layouts, to my eyes, are those that use a minimalist approach. That is, design a track plan based on the prototype, which disliked spending unnecessary money, and so tended to build just enough track to get the job done. Use enough scenery to give the trains a setting. Avoid cluttery detail, but set up scenes that tell a story. Use colour and lighting to create the ambience desired, which is of course the illusion that we are looking at a miniature universe. Give the operators what they want while giving the mildly interested hangers-on something to look at and enjoy.
     While these layouts are large, they not complex. They all provide a full evening’s operation, some with a half dozen, other with a dozen or more players. The make playing at railroading easy enough to avoid frustration, and complicated enough to hold interest.
     A few faves:
    The Shasta Route (HO, Southern Pacific), a well thought out train-watchers layout with grand vistas and some switching to keep the puzzle-solvers busy. There’s enough staging to allow for a satisfyingly busy day down by the tracks.
     The Appalachian Route (On30, fictitious), which creates a nice early 20th century ambience for the nostalgia buff who likes to see small trains in large landscapes, and lots of laid back switching in towns and villages hosting small and medium-sized businesses.
     River City (HO, Minneapolis & St Louis), which recreates a few miles of small town railroading, with enough operation to keep a half dozen or so people busy for relaxing evening. The builder kept close to prototype track arrangements, but fudged a bit by including some defunct businesses to increase work for the peddler trains.
     This issue is no longer in print, but back issues are available from Kalmbach, and many hobby shops will still have a few copies on their racks. ***

Model Railroading thoughts in 1966 (Highball, November 1966)

In 1996-67, I edited Highball, the newsletter of the 6th Division of the Pacific Northwest Region, National Model Railroad Association. Recently I found a piece of it, this editorial I wrote in the November 1966 issue, after the October 1966 fall Meet (which was in Lethbridge that year). Here it is, as written, with a few typos corrected.
----------------------------
We have a rather slim issue this time, a fault I hope to have corrected next time. I was hoping for a report on the Fall Meet in Calgary; I remember asking for one, and almost wrote one myself. I didn't see Dr. Livingstone's mammoth collection of locomotives, and am told I missed something. I believe it. The Heritage Park Tour apparently was worth missing; either that, or the cold froze all charity out of my informant's system, like salt separates from seawater when it freezes. I rather liked the banquet, and not only because I won a prize (it's the first I've won in years). No; but a chat with Ross McIlveen suggested to me that model railroaders as a group are a very nostalgic lot. What we're really trying to do is recapture the first wonder that trains aroused in us. . . We lost our childhood on a railway train, and ever since we've been chasing real, imaginary, and model trains trying to find the one train on which it steamed away never to return. – Now the layout visits: always fascinating. Two of them were definitely train-watchers' layouts, with lots of room to see a really long train (especially on George Oliphant's layout), and just enough complication of loops and scenery to prevent the whole show from being boring. The other three were modelers' layouts, two of them in the John Allen style of total realism; and one an example of English condensed realism, and very typically and competently English, if the impression made by English modelling magazines is any guide. – That last layout made me feel a bit odd in the throat: my first memories of trains as splendidly self-sufficient, wonderful and beautiful machines are set in England, in the pre-British-Rail(ways) days. Mr. Jarrett models LMS, whose marvellous crimson-lake (maroon) I knew only on branchline coaches and short, six-coupled engines. But the lordly green, black and copper of he GWR' s Halls, Manors, Castles and Kings! The shiny, deliciously chocolate and cream carriages. And Oh! the smell, the sudden heat, the shaking earth when the express London-bounded by, the engine breathing hard and light, and the wheels of the train singing on the sixty-foot long bull-headed rails. – I've watched a Hall, a minuscule engine* by our Canadian standards, pass over the level-crossing a block from my home at better than sixty-per, trailing eighteen or twenty sixty-ton carriages behind her. – In 1947, the four great systems, the GWR, the LMS, the LNER, and the SR were combined as British Railways, and for the next ten years the usual color of an engine was black.

HO Railroad That Grows

     Linn Westcott. HO Railroad That Grows (2nd ed, 1972) First published as a series of articles in Model Trains, the book is a nostalgia trip. The hobby has changed enormously since then, but the spectacular technical changes are I think less important than the changes in philosophy. Beginners now learn that they should define their interests, and then consider how a given layout design may meet them. Are they model builders? Train watchers? Operators? Do they want prototypical accuracy, or an invented world? What are their craft skills? And so on. They also have many more resources in local clubs or groups of modellers who welcome newbies and help them avoid mistakes.
      The book leads the reader from an oval (carefully constructed so that future changes entail the least possible effort) to a complicated spaghetti-bowl of a layout on which two trains can be operated through a town, a tunnel, over several bridges, and around two reversing loops so that a train can go round and round clockwise, and then counter clockwise, and then clockwise again. A couple of industrial sidings offer switching, but there’s no discussion of how to operate train.
      Westcott’s strength is his  conversational step-by-step instruction. He  explains why some things are done with the future in mind. He warns about possible glitches, and suggests alternatives. He covers every aspect of layout building. Builders were invited to submit photos of their versions The book includes three of them, sadly not of high enough quality to allow study of the owners’ interpretations of Westcott’s advice.
      This book was a game changer, I think. It made the building of a layout less daunting: at every step,  it would look finished. It inculcated the sense that a layout could be rebuilt any time in any way you liked. More recent books about Model Railroader’s project layouts include a chapter on operations. That’s the only lack here. Even if one will never build this particular layout, the book is worth reading. It’s short, clear, and could well inspire one to start. Out of print, but used copies may be found here and there. **½

[Pendon Museum]. Bringing the Past to Life (2015)

     [Pendon Museum]. Bringing the Past to Life (2015) The latest guide to the Pendon model railway, the brainchild and legacy of Roye England. Roye came from Australia to the UK in 1925. That was a time when even native-born Australians thought of the UK as Home, and Roye was shocked at the difference between his image of the country as a green and pleasant land and the reality of industrialisation and rapid modernisation. He resolved to preserve the England that was rapidly disappearing, and the medium he chose was a model railway.
     One may argue about whether the situation was as bad as Roye believed, but one can’t argue with the result: an amazing and beautiful recreation of the ambience of the Vale of the White Horse. Pendon not only fulfilled Roye’s vision, it inspired a higher standard of railway modelling. The people that gathered round him and helped him build the layout pioneered not only realistic modelling of  the railway and its setting but also realistic modelling of railway operations.
     The book includes a brief biography of Roye England, a history of the layout, and descriptions of its present state and operations. It’s worth reading merely as an account of one of the great model railways, but its emphasis on its function as a museum reminds us that we need to know the past in order to count the cost of the present and be wary of heedless innovation.  England was not as nice a place to live in as Roye believed. Working the farms was backbreaking, dangerous, and unhealthy: farmers had and have among the shortest life expectancies. The caste system that’s still a drag on Britain was even worse back then: the happy servant stereotype we like to watch in Downton Abbey was and is a fantasy. Even with railways as densely built as they then were, travel was expensive and time-consuming. There have been many changes since the 1920s. This museum model railway reminds us that not all change is progress.
     The text is brief but sufficient. A bonus is the Madder Valley Railway, built by John Ahearn, one of the pioneers of railway modelling. The pictures are well reproduced. A good souvenir and introduction to the Pendon. ***

Pendon Museum

     Most railway modellers and many model railroaders know of Pendon, the vision of Roye England, an Australian who came to England in 1924 and was appalled at the rapid modernisation of the countryside.  He conceived of a museum that would show rural England of the 1930s in model form. He chose the Vale of the White Horse as his inspiration. The models would be of actual buildings, and the landscape would recreate typical views and villages, with scenes showing the daily lives of the inhabitants. The result is a wonderful layout on two levels, with just enough railway traffic to keep the railway modellers interested, and more than enough models of buildings, fields, road junctions, village greens, ponds, bridges and trees, as well as dozens of figures and vehicles, to please anyone who likes to see miniatures. For some reason, that includes almost all of humankind.
  

 

In other words, this is not simply a model railway. It’s a carefully imagined and constructed vision of England in the 1930s.  Th trains are authentic. The slate-layer repairing a roof, the hay wagon, the kitchen garden, the village pump, the bus stopping at a road junction, the oldsters sitting outside a pub, these and many other details tell the story of a time past. Many of the models (and the field notes about the prototypes) form a valuable historical record, an aspect of the layout that may not be fully appreciated by many visitors.
     England’s vision of accurate models of existing buildings and accurate impressions of typical landscapes necessitated new modelling techniques and materials. Many of the modellers who helped him build Pendon wrote articles which have influenced and improved modelling of all kinds. More importantly, Pendon raised expectations, so that commercial railway models these days are built to a far higher standard of accuracy and precision than 80 years ago.

     If anything, there is too much to see. Pendon requires several visits, the first two or three to get a good overall sense of the landscape, and subsequent ones to study the models and scenes. I’ve seen it three times now, and recall earlier versions when the upper vale scene consisted mostly of bare plywood with a few village scenes here and there. I hope I’ll get to see it again in a couple or three years. Highly recommended, especially for anyone who likes history. ****

Model Railroader, June 1950

     Model Railroader, June 1950 I rescued this issue from the trash at the club. Apparently it was too out-of-date to interest the members. But it’s a fascinating look at the state of the hobby in 1950, by which time the post-war boom had prompted innovations that with surprisingly few additions and enhancements are still with us. The major change since then is the miniaturisation of electronics and the improvements in plastics, both accompanied by large reductions in costs. The price/quality ratio of model trains has improved by at least an order of magnitude.
     Income has also improved since the 1950s and 60s, so that real prices are much lower than back then. For example, at minimum wage, I would have had to work about four hours to buy an Athearn boxcar kit. Now, an Accurail boxcar kit costs about 1½ hours. And it comes with metal wheels, a KD compatible coupler, and more and better details.
     Skills have also improved, for although there’s proportionally much less scratch-building and kit-building than there was back then, the quality is higher. The biggest visible change is in the look of the models and the layouts. Modellers these days expect scenic realism and take prototype fidelity for granted, so much so that they carp at minor discrepancies that wouldn’t have rated even a passing comment in 1950.
     The how-to articles took a lot for granted. An article on building a S scale hopper consists of two photos, one large and two small drawings, and text to fill up 5 columns of a two-page spread. It includes instructions such as “Spot and drill No. 67 holes for the grab-irons.” The drawing calls out the dimensions of the grab irons, but not their positions. A knowledgeable modeller might be able to place the grab irons correctly, but clearly accuracy was not a major concern.
     The lead article by Frank Ellison discusses where to locate industries. This and many others he wrote where gathered into a book in 1954. I still have my copy, much worn, and rebound to protect its precious pages. Ellison was a pioneer of operation. His articles did a lot to help modellers operate their trains in a railway-like manner. The second major article shows how to super-detail a Yard Bird switcher (made by John English). Lots of advice, and several photos from different angles with the details called out. The author has obviously taken care to research the details to be added, something that also helped improve modelling skills and raise the bar on prototype fidelity.
     Most of the articles are short, and consist essentially of collections of workshop tips. They show that at the time modellers wanted to know about ways of adapting whatever was available to make better models as cheaply as possible. Hobbies were still a somewhat suspect pastime. Improvements in leisure time and disposable income would eventually create the craft and hobby industry that we know today, but back then money and time was supposed to be used for more useful pursuits, such as renovating kitchens.
     I enjoyed re-reading this old magazine. ** to *** (2012)