There really is a prototype for everything!

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

We’ve all heard the saying ‘there’s a prototype for everything’, but I always thought there were some areas that weren’t really be covered by this.

Covering ‘ground’ with artificial materials to simulate natural elements, painting buildings to seemingly stretch the area and disguising appliances coming up through the baseboard (e.g. switch machines) as part of the natural environment are routinely done in model railroading. Well, it seems there’s a prototype for this, too. Seems the the entire hobby has a prototype right here!

Incidentally, this would be interesting to model on a WW2-era layout as well…

2

True, but sometimes you need a good story to back it!

3

All the big west coast military production plants were similarly disguised.

My folks worked in one of them. Dad was one of the 10% of the labor force of draft eligible males that an industry could protect. He had come from a farm and his older sister had worked on the farm, he knew women could do mechanical work and trained them to make the planes.

4

Nothing newsworthy about this. They were doing that in the UK and probably Germany as well long before the U.S. of A was reluctantly forced into W.W. II.