We’ve all heard the phrase ‘there’s a prototype for everything’ at least once during our model railroading careers, but here’s an example I’d like to share - namely, a prototype for glued down ground cover.
Here in Brisbane, there are several trees planted along the sidewalks. Each tree is planted in a ‘square’ taken out of the footpath, and the trunks are surrounded by pebbles. These pebbles are actually glued in place, to prevent scattering.
So there you have it - a prototype for something we modellers have to do. Are there any other examples?
Legend has it the Long Island Railroad in its very early days put cutouts of passengers in their coaches to give the impression that more people were riding than was the case. Fast forward to the printed window strips in passenger cars that Lionel and Tyco had with outlines of people.
Saw something along this line once on I believe a Good Heart rail-fan video. The video chronicled a steam locomotive pulling a passenger consist and the production company cut grass along a river bank so they could get a shot of the trains reflection in the water and there was another spot where it was crossing under a plate girder bridge and If I remember correctly it it was either recently painted or just didn’t show up good on camera so the one of the crew weathered it with brown spray paint to simulate rust streaks.
On the old “Canadian” into Ottawa one evening, the single unit (an FP9A) had been giving trouble as it came down the Ottawa River valley. It finally died, again, a few miles short of town. The initial rescue engine was an FPA-4 pointed west, which coupled up and hauled us into the station. So yes folks, it was an A-A set of cab units, coupled nose to nose hauling that train. At Ottawa the FPA-4 was replaced by a roadswitcher that had been brought over from the freight yard. About 11pm on a cold February night so no pictures possible, and by the time I realized what had been up front they had separated the units anyway.
I think that was in 1988. The next year I tried twice in February to use that train, and both times one way or the other it was solidly booked. And the following year it was one of many routes eliminated, because “not enough people were riding it”.
