Philosophy Friday -- Tell Us a Story About Our MR Past

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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This is just for fun so be nice to each other!

I’ve been talking recently to some folks who have been in and around the MR industry for a long time-- 50+ years in some cases-- and I’ve been hearing some interesting stories about people and places and layouts and such involved in Model Railroading over the years. I realized this morning that there’s a lot of MR people, trivia and lore that probably a lot of us (including me) don’t know, or only know a snippet of, or maybe have “heard the name”, that would be interesting to find out more about.

Today on Philosophy Friday, tell us a story-- about whomever or whatever you want-- something out of your history or some history you know about. Tell us about our past.

I’m looking forward to reading your stories.

John

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Here’s some examples of what I mean-- who are these people? What are their stories? Not just what’s been printed in the hobby press-- who are they really? What else have they done? What are they like? (Or were they like?) Did they like to laugh? Were they serious?

Here’s some folks I’ve heard about or read about, just as examples. But I’m not asking necessarily for anecdotes about famous people-- it could be anybody, you, a friend, your dad or granddad-- something that happened to you that made you smile, or think, or a lesson-- anything. Tell us about the past.

How about Jack Parker of Central Valley? What’s his story? I’ve heard he is a brilliant modeler and yet I’ve hardly heard of him.

Earl Smallshaw? I’ve seen his articles in MR for years. I reckon he’s no longer with us at this point, but he was a fantastic modeler. Who was he? What’s his story? Where (else, besides MR) can you find his works?

Jack Work? I’ve read some of his articles in MR but other than that I don’t know anything about him.

Howard Zane-- I know he lurks around here somewhere-- I’ve recently bought his book, waiting for it to arrive-- but what’s his story (Yeah, I know, read the book… :slight_smile:

Allen McClelland and the V&O?

Tony Koester and the Alleghany Midland or his new NKP layout?

John Allen and the Gorre & Daphetid?

John Armstrong and his Canandaigua Southern?

Bruce Chubb and the Sunset Valley Railroad?

How about our own Cayuma… Byron Henderson?

How about Al Kalmbach or Hal Carstens? Apparently both were model railroaders in their own right. What are there stories, aside from publishing magazines and books. What were their own modeling efforts like?

What about Frank Ellison and the Delta Lines?

I know there have got to be a lot of stories out there concerning these people and others-- they don’t have to be famous-- it could even be a story about you or one of your buddies!&

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I recently found out a lot more about the legendary “LaVancil Rail”. Turns out Gene LaVancil had (reportedly) about 200,000 feet of code 81 rail manufactured for use as O-guage 50 lb rail. Over its history it was marketed a O-guage rail and not HO-scale rail so there has been almost no notice or knowledge of it in the HO community other than in specialized circles. For instance, it is (or was) sold with Central Valley switch kits and also through Proto:87 stores. Though I’ve heard that it may not be available through either any longer. It was never incorporated into Flextrack of any kind so was never available commercially in that form.

Now I’d like to find out more about Gene LaVancil himself-- what motivated him to have the rail manufactured (aside from potential commercial interests)-- was he a model railroader? If so, are there examples of his works anywhere? What is the rest of his story?

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Wow, tough crowd tonight… [:-^]