Part 1. At age 71 I’m about to finish my rookie adult layout. But it is not my first rookie layout. As a kid I had 0-27 really early, on a 4x8 my daddy and uncle had made, was given a Lionel HO set when I was 12 to put on a 4x6 (remember those?) on 24” sawhorses , the largest size any parent ever felt was needed for a kids layout. But then my dad gave me the April 1961 RMC and that was it, I was going to be a model railroader. I was able to talk the folks into letting me cut the old 0-27 layout down the middle into 2 2x8’s, which I made into a L-shaped shortline with a runaround track and 2 track yard on either end, with a full 3’ of rural right of way between each, representing 20 miles of track. My dad had taken 3 of my pals and me to see the Reader RR in 1963 and that visit set my thinking in indestructible never-changing concrete to model a shortline or a branchline, forever diesel free. That was the worst layout ever trackwise. I was determined to model bad branchline track and did it by burying the fiber tie brass rail flex track (remember that?) in Perma-Scene (remember that stuff?). So it got out of gauge and never returned correctly. But I never replaced it because I was in the middle of converting to Kadee couplers two cars at a time, it was all I could afford. It didn’t matter because my three or four “Zamac “ pot metal engines barely ran at all anyway. But.... that ratty layout, with the smell of floquil paint, Walthers Goo, and wet Perma-Scene in the air, meant more fun than I’ve ever had, even with all the stuff I have today. This was my first of two rookie layouts I’ve had, the late and beloved first “Midland Western.” Part 2 to follow
Enjoyed your narrative, Patrick! I'm 67, and like you, the smell of Floquil, Walthers Solvaset, and fresh cut lumber, brings back so many good memories. Back then our lives were simpler, the models (and modeling) was simpler... but the fun was real and the memories lasting. Model railroading has got to be one of the best (craft oriented) hobbies going. Andre
Part 2 . A little more about the first Midland Western.... and how it came to be what it was. Besides the 1963 trip to see the Reader, a couple of other things got me into shortlines and branchlines. One was an article in a long gone magazine called “Model Trains”, called “choose a branchline.” The other was a growing awareness and appreciation that our town, New Iberia LA, was home to TWO branchlines ..... the Midland Branch of the T&NO and the MP branch down from the former NOT&M, originally a FRISCO effort. My buddies and I started going to the MP more than the T&NO for one reason. The T&NO being a mainline, they were always running us off the property. The MP on the other hand was the end of a 50 mile branch, no supervisors anywhere. It was more like “morning boys, how y’all doing” or “Come on in the yard office and cool off awhile.” The best one was one scorcher August day, some switchman said “man, it’s really hot today. Why don’t you boys get a cool drink of water in the roundhouse.” Man , we were like rockets going in that engine house. That was the best cold drink of water I ever had, with a GP 7 coupler knuckle 24” from my face, the loco idling away the whole time. Another time we’d been riding bikes for an hour or more back and forth on a road following a Geep in the yard. We finally sat down on the switchmens’ bench in front of the yard office when the hogger waved us up in the cab! 3 of us 15 year olds rocketed up into that cab and rode back and forth in the yard for an hour blowing the horn at the yard throat grade crossing. Then, the crew knocked off, drove us home and came in to see my layout! Oh boy, cool cool cool, more than a kid could bear. Well, sorry for rambling but that’s some of how I got into the MP the way I did. How could you not? I’ll get more into the layout in Part 3.
Patrick: Boy, I can sure relate to your experiences. It was an amazing time to be a rail nut in the 1960s into the 1970s. The culture of the railroads was so much more accommodating then. Like you, I have had impromptu encounters that resulted in cab rides et al during that time. Mop? LOTS of good memories there for me, too. Biggest Mop impact for me was back in the mid-60s I was fortunate to spend most of a Saturday once at the sprawling Mop yard at KCMO. I was taken there by a Mop Carman that worked evenings at my dad's supermarket. Along with getting to spend time in the car shops, engine shops, etc, that eventful Mop Saturday I also enjoyed a lengthy ride in a yard goat (EMD SW or NW) as they thrashed cars in the yard. Needless to say, when I got home from that memorable experience, my Athearn blue-box and Tyco red-box Santa Fe equipment were soon adorned in Jenks Blue (Floquil) and Mop buzzsaws (Champ, I think)! All fer now. Andre
Ok Part 3. Around 1965 I somehow acquired a few H K Vollrath MP 8 x 10 steam prints, including a couple taken in New Iberia. I was immediately taken in by them and resolved to make myself MP 2-8-0 no. 1019 out of what I had on hand - a Mantua mikado that I shorted the frame using an Atlas track saw (man - how much work was that - no Dremel , couldn’t afford it) and the boiler from a scrapped Varney Casey Jones that had never run right to begin with. I had no money to spare and no modeling skills whatsoever but when you are young you go ahead anyway without worrying or thinking much . A Varney Old Lady 2-8-0 was where I should have started but $17.95 couldn’t be had. Right away I found out that the Casey Jones boiler wouldn’t fit over the Mantua motor but that didn’t stop me, I made a boiler from a cardboard mailing tube and a cab from a scrapped Athearn Hi-F (remember that?) geep with an extended cab roof. Don’t remember how I made the domes or the smokebox doors. Used the Varney tender, made it an oil burner with a cardboard oil bunker. Actually put the oil burner stack light and perforated stack cover too. Used champ decals and By God I actually had myself an MP 2-8-0.. That ran. Didn’t run long though. Discovered girls, and guitars which girls liked. And although I always kept a minimal tangential interest, model railroading went in a box in the attic for 41 years. Part 4 soon, actually getting to the second rookie layout.
Part 4 In the fall of 1965 I was at a crossroads. I had lately managed to acquire two brass engines at deep discount, a Wabash Mogul and a Ma&Pa ten- wheeler, both perfectly suited to my short line. I’d painted them up (by brush) much like the Reader’s polished scheme- Silver smokebox, boxcar red cab roof, bright green wood cab window frames and doors, bright red injectors and plumbing fittings, bright yellow handrails on the tender and pilot beam, yellow diagonal safety striping on the footboards like the DM&IR, and polished brass cylinder heads, bell and 5 chime whistles. They were Midland Western no. 1 and 2 respectively. Those babies were beautiful. They won second place at the NMRA Lone Star convention that year, along with a drovers caboose I’d made out of a Tyco 1860’s combine. I finally figured out how to make weedgrown track that stayed in gauge. I had the shortline thing down . But. I had been trying to learn guitar playing. And I learned just enough to get the attention of young ladies. The layout stood idle for a year. Then after I’d left for college my mother packed most everything up without asking me and put it away up high in a closet. That was fine, I checked on everything and it all seemed fine. Until one day she dislodged the box with the brass engines which went 9’ down to the floor. They were reduced to a bunch of broken bent up pieces. It literally killed me. I sold the parts to a guy at school for $20, and signed out of model railroading for 20 years. I made one stab at starting up again in 1986 or so, bought a couple of Atlas Alco road switchers. But I had a small house by then, I’d inherited a ton of furniture, and had no space for a layout. Everything went into a drawer and the attic. 2005, everything changed. Part 5 next.
AWESOME, Awesome, and Awesome! Somewhat akin to my story, except never got into the guitar bit! My father worked for the oil company that was serviced by the Reader; I have had numerous cab and caboose rides in #108 switching the refinery and riding the caboose back to Reader with my dad picking me up there - all long before they went touristy.
I’ll do part 5 tomorrow. But I just retired last month and am now a FULL TIME MODEL RAILROADER! Well , sort of, between the domestic obligations one must to to keep one’s privileges. I get 3 full days a week more or less.
Part 5: The loss of the two brass engines really affected me. Model railroading went into eclipse for a very long time and I didn’t pay much attention to the prototype either for many long years when I should have been . Between 1967 and 2008 railroading completely transformed but I wasn’t there to see it. I always thought that railroading in the early 60’s was steam era railroading without the steam engines, and 1966 was probably when I first felt even that slipping away - the first time I saw a low nose geep on an SP freight. I was already on my way out anyway but I remember feeling sadness at what that sight represented, even though it was a boon to the crews. I don’t remember ever again going down to the railroad to watch the action. The biggest loss was the abandonment of the MP branch back home when an oil rig accident in 1980 flooded its major customer, the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine at Jefferson Island LA. It’s all on YouTube to see. But I wasn’t there when my old friend died. I didn’t live there anymore. My railroading was already all in a couple of boxes in the 130 F attic, where it stayed from 1981 when I bought my house until 2005. You might wonder why 2005. That was a big year down here because of a little event called hurricane Katrina. Part 6 soon
I remember Katrina, that's the year the Watco Timberline went under. Unfortunatly they didn't want to take down the cross arms at the gated crossings. Well they was wrapped around every tree that was left standing. Hard to imagine the wind damage, trees were everywhere, everyone lost power to their homes, didn't matter cause they had no roof anyway. They derailed three loaded tank cars, and made a unwise decision to get cranes to rerail. It's the first time I ever seen a crane roll over. The operator was experienced he just stepped out on the tire and it rolled like a cartoon he just walked off onto the ground. Man everyone just exploded. Money was just like the Tidy Bowl man "round" "round" "round" the bowl we go, "down" down" "down" the toilet bowl. They soon went broke, fired everyone and got rid of the Conroe line. They just didn't have the experience to run a line like that.
Part 6 Before 2005 I thought about model railroading a lot and must have talked about it, because she gave me an Athearn train set one Christmas. Space, time, and life always intervened though. Hurricane Katrina didn’t destroy my house completely but the flood and a fire afterwards did destroy all my furniture including most of the model railroad items I’d saved from 40 years before. The inside of the house had to be stripped down to the bare studs. I eliminated a few walls and after a year the renovation was finished. It was beautiful, looked like an art gallery with hardwood floors, white walls, and track lighting. But it was Empty with a capital E. No furniture. So I put on the rational thinking cap. I’m only going to live here 10 years till I retire and move. Do I want to fill the house up with furniture I have to haul in 10 years? Or do I want to fill this empty 850 sq. ft. house with a LAYOUT. The one I never had room for before. The house had actually become a work week crash pad only. No real living happened there. So I bought a bed , borrowed a few other small items, and started planning THE LAYOUT I HAD ALWAYS WANTED. Part 7 next
Part 7 I don’t know how I found out about DCC and sound steam locomotives but it was pretty quick that it happened. Right away I bought 2 Bachmann undec 2-8-0’s and two ATSF 2-10-0’s, all trying to be reasonably close to MP prototype. Then the avalanche of period rolling stock started. Early on I decided to try to replicate in some sort of spirit the long gone MP branch back home I remembered in steam as a child, but set 1946 as the date. Not only had model steam engines become radically better since 1966, so had rolling stock. In particular, Accurail OB boxcars began to populate the pre-layout shelves. I also found that “limited run” and “pre-order” had profoundly changed the planning of purchases. No longer could you wait, you had to buy it now, when it first appeared, or you weren’t going to get it. The advent of eBay has softened this some, but there are still things I want that haven’t been available for many long years now. I operated those engines with a Bachmann EZ command back and forth on the dining room table for a couple of months but soon, the wave of actual-layout-hunger could no longer be stilled.
