In the January 2004 issue of MR there is a letter from Kenneth Ducat who wrote his greetings as a full 70 year subscriber – he was not a charter subscriber but started his subscription in the year 1934 and bought the back issues for fifteen cents each, so he had a complete set of MRs.
As with many modelers of the time, Ken was introduced to scale model railroading by the 1933 International Exhibition in Chicago. When he wrote his letter he was still very active and building and improving his layout. I have just learned that Kenneth died this last August after a lengthy illness that prevented him from living at home or doing further modeling. He would have been 86 this fall, and is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren. Please allow me to pay a tribute to this veteran modeler, who was also my cousin and just a grand guy in every respect.
His letter did not mention it but Ken was also on hand for an historic event. One day in 1935 he was leaving the Milwaukee YMCA after some game or exercise, and as he walked out a man with an O scale locomotive in his arms walked in. Kenneth promptly turned around and followed the man inside and found himself at the first ever meeting of what is now the NMRA. When those present noted that a teenager was present one man wanted to order him out, yelling “this is an ADULT hobby!” But others let him stay. So while not a charter member of the NMRA, Kenneth was there at the beginning, if only as a gatecrasher! I wanted him to write this up for the NMRA magazine but Kenneth felt someone might object and unfortunately he never did.
Ken was an interesting man and in many ways a unique modeler. He had his undergrad and masters degree in engineering and his layouts were solidly designed and built, with perfect and careful and attractive drawings that planned them out. He once showed me the back of his control panel and the wiring was truly a thing of beauty in its neatness and organization. I doubt if many other modelers ha