Schuyler, Charlie, Tony and friends on the List,

In deference to Mike wanting us to move on from this thread, I could not
leave without putting in my two cents worth. I must agree with Charlie
Vlk regarding Model Railroader's importance to the entire model railroad
hobby. It is the magazine that ties us all together, regardless of
whether you are a vestie or whether you are an RPM.

It carries most of the advertising for products that we all use and is
usually the first magazine that receives the ads from the
manufacturers. It is the magazine that most beginners in the hobby
start with. We cannot forget that before we were RPMs, we were all
beginners and some of us were vesties too. Remember when all that you
could afford was an Athearn box car for $3.00. As a young newcomer and
later when I was raising a family, money was a scarce commodity, so it
was the vestie toys that kept us going. MR is where the beginners find
the toys that they need to get started. Many never get beyond what we
call the toy train stage, but eventually a number of them do!

My first encounter with the scale hobby was through Model Trains
magazine in 1950 that an uncle (who was a PRR brakeman at the time)
bought me. About a year later, I happened upon the November issue of
Model Railroader that our next door neighbor who was a Pennsy conductor
was throwing out. I can still remember one of the lead articles being
"Plastic Lakes and Streams."

I went totally into HO in 1957 with a Gilbert American Flyer NYC Hudson
(Sorry, Ben, but I had to start somewhere and that was it!) freight set
and got hooked on the Pennsy later that year when my neighbor, who was a
year older, started out with an American Flyer PRR B6sb 0-6-0 switcher
set. From there, Penn Line supplied PRR H9s 2-8-0s and other PRR kits
and I had built several small layouts by the time I completed high
school. In the time between high school, I spent a lot of time riding
steam excursions and hanging around with the PRR/RDG/PRSL railroaders at
the freight yards, engine terminals and towers in South Jersey. In 1966
I joined the Silver Valley Model Railroad Club in Camden New Jersey. The
club was a hot bed of structure and equipment builders and out of a
total of 35 members, five of us were PRR modelers and had most of the
road power and rolling stock on the layout. Under the tutelage of a few
of these modelers, I learned how to rebuild brass, assemble those tough
urethane kits and use an air brush. Most of those people are still my
friends today.

By this time I had hired out on the PRR (1965) as a Block Operator and
started taking pictures and collecting all the magazines that were
available at that time. Main Line Modeler under Bob Hundman and Model
Railroading (later RailModel Journal) under Dick Schleicher gave true
prototype modeling a tremendous boost and I became a true believer.
Still, today, there is a tremendous amount that I still do not know, but
through this list and the people who are on it, I can find the
information that I need to continue.

Today, we as prototype modelers, have the greatest array of equipment to
choose from and the largest amount of prototype information that has
ever been assembled to work with. For me, retirement from the real
railroad is only about 6 months away at most. After that, I will have
the time to finally build some of those urethane kits that I have been
squirreling away for the last ten years.

Let us not knock the beginners and the general interest magazines that
they and a lot of us read. It is they who will become the future RPMs
and it is up to us to help them to do so! And yes, the Prototype Police
will have to continue to be vigilant in keeping us from the mis-steps
that sometimes befall us and take us astray! Remember, Life as a
Railroad Prototype Modeler is good!

Tom Olsen
7 Boundary Road, West Branch
Newark, Delaware, 19711-7479
PH: (302) 738-4292
E-Mail: tmolsen@...

Schuyler G Larrabee wrote:

Tom Olsen makes alot of good points. We were all beginners at some time.

Lou Ullian
Coon Creek Lumber Co.

Thomas Olsen wrote:
I went totally into HO in 1957 with a Gilbert American Flyer NYC
Hudson (Sorry, Ben, but I had to start somewhere and that was it!)

You obviously have me confused with that group of SPFs who run around
convinced that if they touch anything New York Central, they'll melt
faster than the Wicked Witch of the West in a downpour. Have you
forgotten who was advocating a NYC USRA-design steel boxcar in
styrene a couple months back? [Mandatory STMFC content.] Remember,
I plan on modeling Englewood in Chicago, and will need a goodly
amount of NYC equipment. (Anyone have an HO scale Mohawk they want
to sell at a reasonable price?)


Ben Hom