Hello all, I’m fairly new at this forum stuff, but have been a model railroader for close to 20 years. I’ve been visiting here for a couple of months and have learned a great deal, so thanks to all for posting ideas and information.
The posting about the demise of the Virginian & Ohio raises a question from the January 1989 Model Railroader. This issue sealed the deal for me. The legendary layouts were magnificent, though, sadly, only the Cumberland Valley still exists. I think. Anyway, though magnificent, the cover story on the Vawter’s Hoosier Road really peaked my interest. I thought it was a great story and a great model railroad. I searched on the internet and found that Mr. Vawter has passed a few years ago, but I wondered if anybody knew if this model railroad was still in existence or if it has followed the path of so many others. There are many other model railroads that I wonder about but this one is first on the list!
I certainly hope that Tony Koester’s “Allegheny Midland” is still around. There were also layouts from Bruce Chubb and Dean Freytag.
Andy Sperandeo might know that status. Hopefully he, Terry or one of the other MRR staffers will chime in with an update.
Reading Tony Koester’s column’s over the years helped me appreciate the rewards of realistic scenery details and prototypical train operation more and more.
I know that Tony Koester’s Allegheny Midland is no more. He retired it and started a new layout based on the Nickel Plate Road. Bruce Chubb rebuilt his Sunset Valley in a mammoth model railroad. I don’t know about Dean Freytag.
Dean’s still very active in the hobby and still has his layout. I spoke with him a few months ago. Neil and the guys have a feature on the V&O planned for our January 2009 issue.
I know MR has been doing a series on classic layouts. As I have always said, I find the original small Gorre and Daphetid to be just as interesting as the large one. It was creative and interesting for its time, and proved you could do a lot of things with a little space.
The G&D grew out from the little layout and I think still was intact on the bigger line.
I’m glad MR is revisiting some stuff, a lot of neato stuff is in the old issues but you cant see them unless you find access to the old issues. Course I have issues here dating to the 40’s, so thats not a prob.