This is a curiousity question and I don’t really know why all of a sudden I thought of this man’s name. He resided in either Illinois or Indiana if I recall right and back in the '60s I was impressed with some of his trackplans; he hasn’t published anything in nearly 40 years, however, so I am going to assume that he has passed on. Can someone either refute this fact or give me a date of death; I don’t remember either MR or RMC printing an obit for him but I may have missed it in passing.
Wow, that is a ‘blast from the past’! Bill did several track plans in RMC that has super graphics and nice perspective views of the track plans. I remember the ‘Smuteye Central’ on something like a 5x8 layout area. He did a 6’ 6" round ‘coffee table’ track plan as well. That was back in the mid 60’s.
Jim
There are several of his track plans, including the coffee table, in Bob Hayden’s Track Planning Ideas from Model Railroader . I think Baron was an architect, which might explain the spiffy graphics.
Here’s a link to his stuff:
http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=S&sort=D&output=3&cmdtext="BARON%2C+BILL"
Yes Baron’s track plans had a decided commercial art look to them, similar to some “hip” advertising of the 1960s.
Funny how guys who seem to be in nearly every issue of the magazines can just disappear. MR used to feature cartoons by H A Smith and then suddenly – gone. When they ran an obituary for the great modeler and photographer Paul Jansen it was years after the fact.
Dave Nelson
I, too, always enjoyed Bill Baron’s cartoons and track plan articles. In fact, I “borrowed” one of his nifty graphics from a track plan of his in RMC, a nice rendering of the Thomas 2-8-0 at the head of a freight drag that I use in my model RR correspondence. I wonder what happened to him, though I suppose Bill’s gone to the Happy Layout Room in the Sky.
I performed a rare act of intelligence (for me!) in the early '60s: I bought bound volumes of Model Railroader from 1950 through 1961. I’d been buying individual issues at one or the other of the hobby shops in the Milwaukee suburbs (I lived in Waukesha, which was an independent city in those days), but frequently was busy at other things in the summer months and forgot. (I finally wised up and subscribed, so I have individual issues from January, ‘62, to present–and I’ve since bought the 1945 through 1949 volumes, correcting a mistake I made when I decided in my callow youth that “there couldn’t be been anything of any interest in those pre-1950 years!”) I pored over those many wonderful issues in the bound volumes, falling in love with the Thomas Consol in the process, and got to know all the rivet-counters’ complaints, as well as those who worte interesting, thoughtful letters to the magazine. Incidentally, I now refer to my magazine collection as my “Paper Time Machine.”
Some things that intrigued me–and still do!–were the frequent photos and a letter of rebuttal, in the late '50s, from a modeler of the NYC named BOB DARIN! In the captions of his locomotive photos his address–in LA!–was given, so I’ve always wondered if it was the popular singer. I’ve often thought I should write a letter to MR and ask if anyone knew, but I now realize they probably wouldn’t publish it because it doesn’t concern what’s happening in their pages now.
Dean-58;
I “googled” Bobby Darin and linked to his wikipedia bio; it says nothing about model railroading but it does say that his birth name was Cassoto and Darin was, therefore, a fabricated one, a practice quite popular among Italian-Americans in the '50s and '60s. Therefore, it seems probable that the “Bob Darin” you remember encountering was, in reality, Bobby “Mack-The-Knife” Darin.
There was a post up here not too far back - it was in conjunction with the Rod Stewart article - discussing noted personalities who were model railroaders. I don’t remember Bobby Darin’s name being listed there but then I really gave the list only superficial attention.
Some things that intrigued me–and still do!–were the frequent photos and a letter of rebuttal, in the late '50s, from a modeler of the NYC named BOB DARIN! In the captions of his locomotive photos his address–in LA!–was given, so I’ve always wondered if it was the popular singer. I’ve often thought I should write a letter to MR and ask if anyone knew, but I now realize they probably wouldn’t publish it because it doesn’t concern what’s happening in their pages now. Does anyone know if Bobby Darin was, indeed, an avid model railroader?
It was a misprint. The guy’s name was actually Bob Darwin. The letter of rebuttal was in reference to a photo of an NYC Hudson he’d detailed and the editor added the comment “Shame, Bob, that’s a Mohawk tender”. Darwin replied that several Hudsons had received similar tenders during shopping and that he was correct (he was).
Darwin also did an 4 part article on detailing a Bowser Challenger beginning with the November, 1961 issue of MR. It was and is THE definitive article on detailing the Bowser loco. http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=S&sort=A&output=3&cmdtext="DARWIN%2C+ROBERT" . Darwin even milled the Challenger frame to spring the drivers. Cal Scale created its Challenger detailing kit not too long afterward . The kit is still available from Bowser as part #100325.
http://bowser-trains.com/holocos/challenger/challenger.htm
Andre
That multi-part superdetailing article would make my short list of all time great Model Railroader articles, and as I recall it invited negative letters to the editor because it involved, well, spending a lot of money. But anyone thinking of superdetailing a Union Pacific locomotive would be well advised to gather those old issues because it has not been done better since.
Some years later Darwin wrote an article about his super workshop, which obviously was a very nice one, and once again the letters complained about him showing off wealth. I think he mentioned something about listening to his stereo system while building models.
But I do seem to recall that this Bob Darwin DID have a connection to the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, but not as a headliner.
Dave Nelson
Yeah, I remember that brouhaha. People can get their shorts in a knot over the most trivial things. The current Bowser/Cal-Scale superdetail kit for the Challenger runs $71.30. In 1962 dollars, that’s about $10. IIRC, the Challenger was listed at $49.50 for the kit back in 1962. That’s the equivalent of about $350 today. The current list price is $141.45. The tender is still separate, but hey, the locomotive kit is selling for the equivalent of just over $20 in 1962 dollars.
I don’t care who you are, that’s a bargain.
As a matter of fact, compared to prices 45 years ago and adjusting for inflation, all the Bowser kits now being made that were in production then are selling for considerably less even at full MSRP. Adding to the savings are the fact that locos like the K-4 are being sold with superdetailing parts. The K-4 sells for less than $25 1962 dollars.
Andre
I’m not sure you’re right, Andre. I would’ve thought that Darwin would’ve complained about MR misspelling his name on his photo cut-lines–and again when they printed his letter of rebuttal–particularly as Darwin was in “Show Biz” himsel
Hello Poteet,
Reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated.
I googled Bill Baron Railroad and one of the vsites that came up was the forum and a 2008 posting by you and another gentleman. At the time I wrote articles and cartoons for MR & RMC I was teaching at the University of North Carolina or the University of Illinois. I started out doing that work mainly to supplement a meager salary but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I left academia as a tenured professor to become a capitalist. After many twists and turns, including 25 years living and working in New York city, I escaped to Taos New Mexico where I now reside.
Check out, <billbaron.com> My e-mail is baron@taosnet.com
It was great to know somebody was interested.
Regards,
Bill Baron
…and the other shoe drops…
[(-D]
Welcome, Bill. We don’t get many first posts like yours. [:)]
-Crandell