Model Railroader
February 1965
80 pages
Editor: Linn Westcott
Managing Editor: Willard V. Anderson
Let’s see what nuggets of information await us in the February 1965 issue. After thumbing through the new product announcements and new product reviews, we land on the Railway Post Office whereby the editors make a statement on the publication of compliments and complaints. They write: “When letters come to us both pro and con on a given subject, we try to select a letter that represents the consensus of each side. We also tend to favor letters that develop interest, either in what they say or the manner of presentation. A false impression occurs from this practice: since we often print derogatory letters about specific features, we have heard the comment that a great number of model railroaders are complainers. This is not really true. We get very few letters of complaint and many of praise; but we believe that legitimate complaints should usually be represented.” Contrast that to 60 years later and the ability to post almost (note I said almost) anything on a forum or social media or even making a video for the world to see. You once had editors sort the wheat and chaff but now you get the wheat and the chaff (and sometimes dirt, rocks, and other assorted gook.) On one hand, the gatekeepers could potentially prevent pertinent information from being disseminated while on the other hand we have a virtual free-for-all today. We used to have gatekeepers to ensure the quality of feedback and filter out the nonsensical and rude. Today we have greater access to greater information but have to deal with trolls and self-righteousness and rudeness and well, all sorts of things that can’t be discussed in polite company. Both ways have their pro’s and con’s. Flip a coin. One thing that hasn’t changed is that our hobby has the appearance of having a lot of complainers, but like 60 years ago, that really isn’t true. The complainers now just have easy-access to worldwide platforms with larger audiences to hear or see them yell at the clouds. Thank goodness that we have unfollow, mute, and delete at our disposal, as well as the ability to scroll by at the speed of fingertips. The information superhighway can sometimes (often?) get wrong-way drivers.
Continuing on that theme, the At the Throttle by Linn Westcott column addresses manufacturers and what happens when they make a mistake in their design that deviates from the prototype. He addresses the fact that an ordinary customer may not care about this but the well-informed modeler may not want the model. Sounding familiar at all? Mr. Westcott, after explaining the few options manufacturers have at that point, asks the question: “What to do about it?” Mr. Wescott answers with an observation: “What we sometimes do now is not effective. Many a manufacturer I have visited has shown me letters from modelers that we could not be proud of: some are downright rude. Granted, the maker went ahead with insufficient first-hand knowledge; but he had no criminal intent, as some letters would seem to imply.” Mr. Wescott’s recommendation is for manufacturers to search the ranks for those who do have the accurate information and to work with those well-informed modelers to determine how far to correctly follow the prototype. Sixty years later and substitute e-mail and online posts for letters and does it sound any more familiar? Sixty years of lighting-up the makers of our hobby products. Kinda sounds like a marketing slogan.
Now on to the meat of the issue. First up, notable MR figure, Jack Work, contributes a multi-page article on scratchbuilding figures out of wire armatures and water putty. I’m sure there are a few modelers making figures from scratch, but with the availability of ready-to-install figures on the market including 3D printed figures, this has slipped from relevancy. It does not appear to be a overly quick process so the time involved in scratchbuilding figures detracts from the ability to work on other areas. I’m not saying that modelers no longer do this or there is no need for this, just from a practical standpoint this hasn’t aged as well decades later.
Next up is a prototype photo and drawings of a Ohio Public Service wooden interurban combine car #21. The material presented shows the combine as originally built with a fender and also with the wooden pilot that came later. In 1965, the combine still survived at the Ohio Railway Museum in Worthington, OH. As a side note I took the onramp to the information superhighway to see if the car still survives. As of 2022, the car is still at the same museum but is stored outside under tarps. If you want the complete history of this car, columbusrailroads.com has the information and a lot more photos. I’ve got one foot in the analog world and one foot in the digital world and I feel just fine. MR pointed me in a direction and online searches rounded out the details. Even though the website did an exquisite job presenting the photos and history of this car, one thing they did not have was scale drawings. Thanks, MR!
Vincent Bernard gives us an article on the crossing gates at Dover, NH. The article has information on how the signals are operated automatically and manually, as well as provides many pictures of the signals and infrastructure needed to operate them. The location of the signals are where tracks cross a 4-way intersection at a diagonal and at an intersection whereby a side street meets another street at an angle. It makes for a visually interesting arrangement in each case. What is also great about these photos is what is in the background. In one there is a good shot of a brick signal tower that had been razed by the time the article was written. Sometimes the gold is in the article itself and sometimes the gold is in details not directly related to the subject. These photos are also great to be able to see the details, from guard rails to curb painting to vehicles to signs. Another detail about the intersection is that the intersection traffic signals were mounted to the actual crossing signal post.
The Dollar Model Project brings us a scratchbuilding article for a Silk Car. There are no photos, but there are drawings, diagrams, and instructions including on how to fold your own diaphragms. The Silk Car is a high-priority head-end wooden baggage car specifically designed to carry silk. The cars were also used for tea and other special lading when not being used for silk. According to the article, raw silk shipment across the U.S. was highly lucrative. As the cargo was perishable and valuable, it was handled with the utmost care and speed. The train would be waiting at the pier for the ship to arrive and be unloaded. A caboose or rider coach would be on the rear, the best motive power on the front, and the crew was hand-selected to operate the train. Once the train was on its way, it had rights over every other train on every division on every railroad on its journey east. As the train was of “considerable consequence to be handled across the nation in the fastest possible time within the bounds of safety.” I wonder how far those bounds were stretched. An educational modeling article. The best of both worlds.
A one-pager is up next with photos, diagrams, and information for a Pittsburgh & West Virginia trackside phone booth located at a team track siding in Fairhaven, PA. It was a simple shanty set upon two ties. There were also a diagrams for the interior and the placement of the shanty in relation to the track and other lineside components. It could be a simple one-evening project that adds a bit of detail and character to a layout.
MR staff craft the next article that outlines design considerations for yards in relation to their Maryland & Pennsylvania project layout. In this case it is a small yard, but even with that, certain components need to addressed such as arrival, runaround, classification, drill, service, and storage tracks. In a more holistic approach for their layout, they are also incorporating in the number of industrial spurs, the number freight cars either used or spotted on those spurs, and the types of cars needed to both determine their roster and also the size of yard needed. It is a good mental exercise to consider when designing your layout to figure out the capacity of industrial spurs (and interchanges) and the frequency of rotation of inbounds and outbounds, while also considering the number of cars in trains in route, to determine to size of your yard. To be able to switch the cars out, you will need to also consider your propensity to use your yard for storage as opposed to operations lest ye clog the yard and stymie your switching ability.
The next 2 articles were of the ordinary sort. The first was adding new track to their project layout after all the track had been already installed. Nothing earthshattering or too exciting. The next was an article on upgrading commercial trees for the project layout. Based on materials available then vs. now, makes this one mostly expendable.
However, a little snipet in Bull Session retains its relevancy. In the December 1964 in conjunction with the staff project Maryland & Pennsylvania project layout, staff mentioned a rebuilt wooden caboose with a side door for less-than-carload service. In Bull Session 2 months later, they produced a photo. The prototype had a sliding side door rather than being inset. With this tidbit and photo, you can model your own with little fanfare by simply adding a sliding wooden door to the outside of a caboose (unless you want the door open with a detailed interior, then lots more fanfare is needed). It would be as simple as gluing the door and track to the outside of the caboose with few other detail changes. Don’t model the Ma & Pa? I think it would work fine for a freelance caboose or even a MOW type of caboose. This is why I at least cast a gaze upon all of the pages as there are juicy little bits hiding here, there, and yonder.
MR Clinic dealt with modifying a code 100 three-point gauge for small rail codes for handlaying track as 60 years ago gauges for non-code 100 rail were few and far between and not available at all for a few codes. Code 83 had not arrived, but you could get rail in codes 40, 55, 65, 70, 95, and 100. They also addressed spiking smaller code track. Interesting from a historical perspective but I believe we have it all worked out now. In another part of MR Clinic, there is a close-up picture of a self-guarding frog if you would need it for any reason.
Well, that’s it for our 60 year wayback machine. Once again, the mine still has gold in it, it is just that some of the articles are now pyrite while others are still 24 karat gold. Ultimately it is up to you to determine which is which.
Jeff
