In all the brouhaha about John Allen, there are other hobby pioneers (besides the ones I mentioned on another thread) that need to be mentioned. I’m going to limit my discussion to 1965 and earlier. Some of these may not be considered greats, but I mention them because they articles they wrote had sufficient impact for me to remember them 40 and even 50 years later, even if I remember only a single article. You other old fogies may remember some of these names.
Frank Ellison: I don’t remember when Ellison died, but I do remember reprints of Ellison’s articles on his O scale Delta Lines. Ellison was the first, AFAIK, to view the model railroad as a stage and the trains as actors telling a coherent story. In a sense, In a sense, Ellison was really one of the first operators.
Malcolm Vordenbaum: In a 1957 MR article (I forget which issue) Vordenbaum wrote an article about several Penn-Line locomotives he had modified to remove their Pennsy characteristics. This mostly involved grinding off the Belpaire firebox and then detailing them with Kemtron (now part of Precision Scale) and Selley (now part of Bowser) castings. Vordenbaum, a Texan IIRC, detailed those locomotives so they would look right at home in a Western setting. Granted they were free-lanced, but Vordenbaum created a fleet of locomotives that had a consistent look to them, much as they would have had they been models of actual prototypes.
Terry Walsh: Terry was one of the earlier ones to indulge in operation. In 1961 or thereabouts, MR published an article about way freight operation on Terry’s West Agony & Inchoate. As I recall, his trackwork consisted of True-Scale milled roadbed upon which rails were laid. For you youngsters, True-Scale made a line of track products (among other things). One of the products was essentially a combination of roadbed with the ties milled into a single piece of wood. The primary drawback of this is that the ties were all of uniform length and were all perfectly parallel to each other
Bill McClanahan’s railroad was the Texas and Rio Grande Western. (As you probably know, his scenery book is still worthwhile reading if you run across a copy.) Had a great sense of humor too.
Jim Findley wrote a number of fine and funny “Letters from Jim” for Model Railroader years ago about his experiences with model railroading while he was in Korea. He also wrote a number of good articles on structures which he designed and scratchbuilt.
Paul Mallery’s many books on trackwork, bridges and trestles, electrical work and operations still have much of value.
Herb Chaudiere was the first to achieve realistic sound from a moving locomotive. His ideas and the technology used were later developed by others into the PFM and PBL sound systems. If you’ve got sound on your layout or in your engines, you’re following in the footsteps of Herb Chaudiere and his work with the Puget Sound Display group.
Bill Schopp, who wrote The Layout Doctor and locomotive conversion articles every month in Railroad Model Craftsman. He could, and did, chop up two or more brass steamers to convert them into some other locomotive which he was interested in building. At least once, he built another locomotive from the leftover parts.
I’ll have to restart going through the many back issues I’ve got hidden away, and uncover some more of these names. It can be a lot of fun.
Ed, thanks for the trip down memory lane and the correction on McClanahan’s railroad name. Your comment about Herb Chaudiere jogged my memory. IIRC, he installed the sound system in the tender of a Varney 4-6-0 that had been detailed for Northern Pacific. Wasn’t that about 1959 or 1960?
I remember the “Letters From Jim”. I also remember the rather funny article he wrote about the gasholder he built and lettered for the “Kimchee Gas Works”. IIRC, the gasholder was inst
A couple others, Jack Work… Though they predate Me, I’ve sought out his articles on the magazines… Mel Thornburg, Still gonna build that Wabash Mogul one of these days… BTW, The branchline they kept it alive for was
From Bement Illinois to Sullivan if I remember correctly… A 9 mile stretch that connected with the Illinois Central (from looking at the Wabash system map I have) At Sullivan… The loco was used there because there was a bridge along the route that they basically deemed too rickety or weak for the diesels to travel over safely due to loco weight.
I gotta mention Doug Smith,I still credit him being the father of card cars and waybills.Then we have Lynn Westcott that drove the hobby through the pages of MR.Then those unsung NMRA heros that figured out the standards and RPs…Then those that wrote the countless articles that help improve the hobby in general…The list is endless.
Mooney Warther’s carved railroad models were featured in Model Railroader at least once. Ernest “Mooney” Warther carved scale models of steam engines and other railroad items out of bone, ivory, and fine woods. A website devoted to showcasing his models, which are exhibited in a museum in Dover, Ohio can be seen at: http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/Warther.htm
Both Bill Clouser and Bob Hegge were well known for excellent modeling to exacting standards. Bill Clouser built at least one model commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution. Bob Hegge’s photographs of the fine scale standards models which he built were unsurpassed.
Al Armitage pioneered in modeling with styrene. To model in styrene in his day, you bought sheets of styrene plastic, and cut strips to the dimension you needed, and built with those. Clapboard siding was made from strips of clapboards which the modeler produced one at a time, and glued up to produce the finished wall. His structures are among the best ever produced by anyone. It’s probable that the interest produced by Al Armitage’s articles in the modeling community led Evergreen Styrene to develop their line of materials.
Lastly, I remember at least two articles produced under the pseudonym of “Gonpher Coughie.” One was on painting an engine, the other a practical joke piece on building a kit. As I remember, the one on engine painting had pretty decent information in it.
Cyril Durrenberger - I assume he’s still with us, in fact I’m curious if this (http://www.utexas.edu/research/ceer/cyril_bio.htm) is him. Like John Armstrong a great trackplanner, but I find Cyril’s trackplans easier to follow as well as simply easier to implement. If I didn’t already have an established prototype I’d be implementing his Galveston Wharves layout from the May 1983 Model Railroader.
I think Eric Brooman’s UTAH BELT is extrodinary. While the only time i’ve seen it was in GMR 2006 it inspired me to create my own freelaned railroad-illinois central. i like the idea of keeping a layout in the “exact present”
I’ll second those comments about Bill Clouser’s models. And some of the photos of them were the most realistic ever to appear in MR…bar none. In fact, at one point there were a series of letters-to-the-editor complaining and insisting that they were outright fakes and had to be of the prototype…the only such compaints to MR I can ever recall. The question was dispelled once and for all a month or two later, when a full shot of Clouser’s photo-diarama appeared in the magazine.
Neither should Earl Smallshaw be overlooked. He’s contributed outstanding modeling articles to MR since he was a teen back in beginning of the 1950’s. Some of his structure-building ideas and articles, the latter spanning an incredible 1951 to 2002, are among the best and cleverest I’ve ever seen in the hobby’s press. Earl also originated the concept/statement, “Don’t bother modeling what you can’t see”, when talking about the rear and hidden walls of structures…a concept I’ve followed religiously down through the years!
Great thread guys. I have Bill MCClannahan’s Scenery for Model Railroads. IT is kind of fun comparing the techniques in his bood to some of the ones used now.
W. G. Hoffmann - Absolutely magnificent Sacramento Northern and Pacific Electric rolling stock, scratchbuilt virtually board for board and bolt for bolt. He took Best of Show in at least one of the old Model Railroader annual competitiions (1948, I think).
Paul Larson - Articles on building interesting structures, followed by a stint as editor of Model Railroader.
Bill McClanahan also had a regular cartoon in MR. ‘The Silver Plate Road’ viewed model railroading from a Vanderbilt perspective. The main character (‘Mister Van’) and his trusty butler Gwyl did their railroading in white tie and tails (which didn’t stop Mister Van from dumpster diving for perfect handrail wire).
Eric Stevens authored a series of detailed structure articles in the early '50’s. That huge wooden coaling tower that was a staple of the hobby for years (and showed up in Trackside Photos innumerable times) was originally an Eric Stevens model.
I’m not checking my sources before posting here, but I believe that Bill Hoffman has habitually won first place in the NMRA Nationals for traction models, and passenger equipment. Year after year. If I’m not mistaken, one year he had first place models in something like four or five categories.
Forgot about ‘The Silver Plate Road’ cartoons. Very funny, and an excellent illustration of Bill McClanahan’s wit and sense of humor.
While Bill was, by far, author/artist of The Silver Plate Road the longest, he was, in fact, not the originator of this humorous feature but rather its 3rd consecutive Brass Hat. The full story of the creation and evolution of TSPR is complex and interesting enough to warrant an article all by itself…especially concerning the unusual talents and background Bill brought to it. Piece by little piece, it’s story is all included in MR over the years but it takes a diligent reader to ferret out all the details. Of course, this was only Bill’s contribution to the humorous side of things and doesn’t begin to outline all his other contributions to the hobby.
My collection of library-bound volumes of MR from the 1960s and 1970s has been one of the best sources of info and inspiration I’ve ever found: when I picked up a book in 1999 with a pictorial of the “Crooked Mountain Lines”, I found that a lot of it was exactly as I remembered - I loved the depot that Hegge copied from a Whit Towers article.
YUNGKURTH!!
-as in Chuck! His Gum Stump & Snowshoe STIL pops up!! This little switchback-equipped switching layout has been copied as many times as ‘The Timesaver’, I’d venture. I remember the day I bought the September, 1963 issue of M.R. Yungkurth’s Bellefonte & Snowshoe was the featured layout- and I STILL like it! Matter of fact, a couple of days ago, I spent a couple hours designing a roster (out of my collection)for this railroad(-the GS&S was a space-challenged early layout that Yungkurth built; the B&S was the result of all his planning and grief. The 9/63 article was way ahead of its time in many respects: Chuck spends time on prototype planning, research, etc., PLUS he was one of the first to advance the theory of staging- in this case, the railroad is a twisted dogbone; ther scissors wye at the west end is the terminal. The “back towns” are actually staging areas. He goes into operating this smallish (about 13’ X2, with an about 7-8’ X 2’ terminal to the west. The dogbone bends down for about 6’ to the east, where the other loop is. The railroad has a small roster, consisting of, 1.)The ubiquitous Ma & Pa 2-8-0 by PFM, 2.) the semi-ubiquitous Ken Kidder 2-6-0 Mogul ($17.50 in 1963…), cut down to an 0-6-0 switcher for Snowshoe, 3.) some kind of geared engine- a Shay or Climax and 4.) an unidentified steamer- Chuck! If you read this, PLEASE tell me what it was… I’ve been waiting forty years (I actually looked up your address on the Internet, not 48 hours ago to resolve this mystery!) All-in-all, the B&S was one of the greats!
Chuck Yungkurth’s bosom-pal, Bill Livingston- whose Venango Valley Railroad was known second only to the G&D back then, passed on several years ago. He had a V&T Reno, modernized with a steel cab, etc., that I would love to find! And I have a fat c’book!
Chuck Yungkurth. Still with us, I believe and One of The Greats!
So many memories, so little time to re-read all those back issues still again. I started with Truscale track. There are days I think Atlas flex was the best invention since DC.
You remembered one of the two I remember most from the '60s The other was Ben King. IIRC he was a leader in detailed model photography. There was even an article in MR about building a stero camera. Again, IIRC, he specailized in buiding logging roads and had some very detailed scenery for that time.
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