I was flipping thru the Feb 06 issue of Model Railroader when I saw an article by Michael Gross called “More than Bells and Whistles”. It’s about adding period music to enhance the time theme of your RR. That brought to mind something I’d thought about before. On my birthday, my Mom sent me a small book called “1965 Remember When… A Nostalgic Look Back in Time”. From a model railroaders perspective, these are great little books for setting the mood on a time themed layout. For example, did you know that in 1965 (our RR era), Joe Nameth inked his first pro contract for $427K for three years? That the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show? That Chervrolet was pimping the Corvair? That Batman, Hogan’s Heros and The Andy Griffith Show were tops on TV? That the St Louis Arch was completed? That the average American income was $6469.00? That the average price of a new car was $2614.00 (kinda puts those auto racks in perspective[:D] )? There’s much more info such as top song and movies, sports trivia, period advertising, etc.
This little book is packed full of cool info on our RR’s era. They are available cheap for most years. I’ve seen them for sale at Cracker Barrel Restuarants.
I love historical info like this. Does anyone else see how this can make model railroading more fun?
I’ve seen a few books like that at the cracker barrel. They sell em pretty cheap.
“The Lord made fishing and the Lord made trains, and the Lord made the wife to take em all away.”
I am definitely big on historical data to add to the flavor of a model railroading experience–I especially like to find histories and old ephemera related to the things I model!
V for Victory, Americas Home Front During W.W.II. by Stan Cohen. Lots of stuff in that book… The way people dressed, worked, lived otherwise, advertisements, cars, rail photos… I’m sure it isn’t complete by any means but it’s still a pretty cool book for the era. Found this particular one on ebay several years back…
Jeff
Cool. I’m glad I’m not the only other MR guy that likes the historical aspect of our hobby.
Heck, I actually spend a LOT more time doing research on railroad history than I do working on my layout! Old issues of RAILROAD magazine and other periodicals from your layout’s period are a great way to get the feel for how railroading looked in a particular era…just look at their “today’s railroading” section!
Seeing one of my motivations is “remembering when”, such little details are wonderful. I put all sorts of little things that I recognize even if no one else does. Right now I am putting Sugar Loaf from Winona on top of a mountain in Northern Minnesota. I will like it. I also have a collection of train songs from many eras. I play them and jump around through history like crazy.
Every year at Christmas, friends of mine give me a gift subscription to “Reminisce Magazine.” You can take a trip down memory lane going back to the forties with ads, stories, photos, etc. Lots of nostalgia in every issue for me. Never thought of using it in the way suggested by Grande Man, but I will now.
Tom
Every year at Christmas, friends of mine give me a gift subscription to “Reminisce Magazine.” You can take a trip down memory lane going back to the forties with ads, stories, photos, etc. Lots of nostalgia in every issue for me. Never thought of using it in the way suggested by Grande Man, but I will now.
Tom