This news has not been verified directly by me, but it comes from a person I trust - “Shortliner” Jack Trollope, on a different web forum (The Gauge).
Jack posted a few hours ago to say that he had very recently gotten a reply from the wife of Carl Arendt (of the micro layouts web site fame), saying that Carl is in hospice care, and is not expected to live very long.
This is very sad news, both for Carl’s family and friends, and for the model railroading community.
My deepest sympathy to Carl and his family, and my most heartfelt gratitude to Carl for the work he has done to present small layout to the world. Carl has indeed been “The giant of the small layout” as someone formulated it over at the Yahoo group Micro/Small Layouts.
Edit: According to the funeral notices in the Olympian for March 6th, Carl H. Arendt Jr of Lacey, Wa, passed away at home on Friday March 4th 2011, at the age of 75.
Carl´s Small Layout Scrapbook has provided many an inspiration for my own layout ideas. Carl dedicated a lot of his time to promote small layouts and has turned into the worldwide guru for those short in space and funds.
I am very proud that one of my ideas made its way into the February mid-month special issue and I do hope that this will not be the final edition of his famous website.
Wow, I was wondering what happened to the website. I’m building a micro layout and his website was full of many interesting ideas. My thoughts go out to his family through trying times like this.
Oh, I’m devastated…Carl’s site was one of my fave’s, the first thing I went to at the begining of each month. Carl’s enthusiasm and humor were infectious and inspiring and his site provided many examples of clever solutions to problems we all run into. I too wondered what was going on and prayed it wasn’t this. All I can do is pray that angels be sent to him and his family.
One thing I do hope is that his site doesn’t fall. Perhaps one of the site regulars, Shortliner or someone else, could take it over. It’s just too valuable a resource to even contemplate its demise.
I looked forward to his website every month, not only for the layout ideas, but
for the humor and creativity expressed through the layouts. His website was a
constant reminder that the hobby was all about having fun.
While I didn’t know him personally, he seemed like the kind of person one would
enjoy meeting. In all, that’s a good way to go, being liked by those you know and
those you have yet to meet.
I had the privilege of getting to know Carl quite well before he moved to Washington state in 2009. He was everything everyone has said. He was funny, creative, generous and very intelligent. But more importantly, he was a gentleman.
I’ve always been amazed at how he was able to create and maintain a model railroad website that attracted a worldwide following in this age of SIGS and specialized niches for everything imaginable. The concept of micro-layouts seemed to transcend devotion to a specific prototype or type of railroading and was something almost anyone anywhere could enjoy.
He’ll surely be missed by many people around the world.
I’m saddened to hear the update of Carl’s passing. The only real consolation we have is the fantastic body of work and the inspiration he provided. That, and for those of us who believe in realms beyond our corporal one, imagine the conversations between Carl, John Allen and John Armstrong on layout design!
Based on my past experience with excellent websites that were the personal project of just one dedicated guy who then died, now is the time to preserve or print out those parts of the site you like the best.