Robert Hegge

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I was wondering… is the Robert Hegge of the Crooked Mountain Lines the same person that did photography at custom car shows in the 1960’s?

I was wondering because years ago in the 1990’s I was at a St. Louis Hobby association show at the South County Recreation Complex. This was a swap meet geared primarily at plastic model kits, but there were always vendors of other items that might interest modelers.

One vendor was an older man who was selling some program books from the big International Championship Car Shows from the 1960’s. I bought some, and he mentioned that he had taken some of the pictures in them. I didn’t look at them until I got home. I found in the 1964 edition, there was a page with his picture, mentioning that he was the photographer and that he was Robert Hegge from St. Louis. I wish I had opened it up right there and seen his pic, I would have spoken with him more.

At the time, I was not paying much attention to trains, but as I thought about the name, it sounded familiar. I eventually recalled that name being connected with a layout featured in the train mags.

So… were the car show photographer and the train guy the same person?

2

From this site it would appear so.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/bob-hegge-what-ever.417778/

[:)]

3

Not familiar with his works, but for those with archive access

4

Wow! That’s intersting. I loved Bob’s work. He had an O scale electric railroad set in the mountains sort of like the G&D. He called it the Crooked Mountain Lines and it was truly spectacular modeling. Now knowing his photography job it explains the superb photos of his layout.

oldline1

5

Well, now I’m not sure about this.

Robert Hegge is listed at findagrave.com as having passed on 7-27-1983.

I’m sure this is the correct person, Kirkwood Missouri, has a camera on his marker

(looks like he was cremated).

There’s no way I saw this guy & bought those books from him before the date

listed for his death. 7-27-1983 was a few months after I graduated from High

School. I was not doing any model work at the time, and I know I got these books

after I moved into my current house, which would have been mid 1990.

Soooo… Is the grave mismarked? Not likely.

Then,who was the guy who sold me the books & said he took some of the pics in them? Hegge’s Ghost? Not likely.

Did Hegge fake his death? Not likely.

Perhaps I should bring this up on the Jalopy Journal.

6

Never thought I’d see the day someone would use puns and gravestones in the same message.

7

Never thought I would see the day when someone would wait over three years just to come back to their thread and say thanks but no thanks.

-Kevin

8

The October 1983 issue of Model Railroader has a brief obit for the “real” Bob Hegge, noting that he had had 37 articles published in MR and more were waiting in the files; that he died of spinal cancer at age 67; and that he was a professional photographer, in addition to being a superb modeler.

I guess I can see how the OP would like to nail this down with the one audience that might actually know more facts. It isn’t clear but did the person you dealt with claim to be Bob Hegge? Or did he only claim to have had some of his own photos published in a book that as it turned out also had Hegge photographs?

Obviously the hot rod/jalopy guys have also retained interest in Hegge. This from 2010:

Folks Of Interest - BIG NEWS Bob Hegge Collection Found!* | The H.A.M.B. (jalopyjournal.com)

Dave Nelson