One of the most talented and versatile model railroaders ever to serve on the MR staff was Don Reschenberg, who was not only an artist/cartoonist and technical draftsman, but a model builder, track planner, photographer – he seemed to be able to do it all, and that was at a time when the also multi-talented Gordon Odegard was on staff as well. He was on the masthead from 1956 (the John Page editorship) through all the years of Paul Larson, to 1963, the Linn Westcott years. After he left MR to work for the Schlitz Brewery (I recall reading a joking plea for free beer when he left) his name more or less disappeared from MR, except early on, some articles in the file continued to appear.
Some years ago some of us on the forum were talking about him, and the late Andy Sperandeo posted a bit of information from Don, who had contacted him after he was told that his name was being mentioned:
Today’s Milwaukee newspaper has this obituary for Don.
Dave Nelson
Reschenberg , Donald “Don” Found eternal peace on January 7 at the age of 85. Don is survived by his children Kevin, Kris (Phil), Kay (Steve), Kurt (Tia), and Keely (Tristen), along with 7 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. Don served as an Army Lieutenant, was known for his art and articles in Model Railroader magazine, retired from Jos Schlitz Brewing Co as the Employee Services director. Don painted a Great Circus Parade poster, which can still be seen at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Don had many hobbies including model railroading, woodworking, painting, fishing, photography, and the Milwaukee Choristers, and a love for animals. Private services were held.
That’s very sad. Don didn’t appear in the magazine as often as some others, but his work was always high quality. He worked on some of the early project railroads, such as the classic Tidewater Central. My sympathy to his family and loved ones.
And who can forget the Portage Hill & Communipaw project railroad in the early 60’s. That was all Don’s doing. Probably one of my all time favorites. As an adjunct to the series, he also did an article on neat things one could do to a Ken Kidder Mogul. He also used a United Ma&Pa 2-8-0 from his Platteville & Calamine on the PH&C. The layout construction series also appeared in the book “Popular Model Railroads You Can Build” http://trc.trains.com/Train%20Magazine%20Index.aspx?articleId=4545&view=ViewBook&bookId=175
I think the Platteville & Calamine equipment was Gordon Odegard’s models. The PH&C series started in Model Trains magazine, and moved over to Model Railroader when Kalmbach decided shut down Model Trains. Model Trains was targeted for ‘entry level’ modelers…
I still enjoy Don’s articles in my bound volumes of MR and even have some of his Portage Hill & Communipaw articles in Model Trains loose issues. (My eldest brother caught the model railroading bug while in the Air Force during the Korean War and when he came home to find I also had Model Railroad Fever, he gave me gift subscriptions to MT until they folded, in my teens.)
Between Paul Larson, Gordy Odegard, and Don, I learned to love the early 20th century era I still model today–except I had to go back into O scale because of my aging eyes. Don’s sketches and drawings usually accompanied their many prototype articles from their excursions to record interesting railroad features in out of the way places. As Mork used to say, “Heavy sigh.” I’m glad I still have the printed material to illustrate my daydreams of the Good Ol’ Stuff.