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For the size of the area that I was going to use for my model railway, I had enough structures and scenery (trees, trees, thousands of trees.....) to model. There were also 14 bridges in the 28 miles and plenty of other structures. But if I was going to simulate operating this railway per the prototype, I wouldn't have much work to do. There were very few sidings and a typical train consist was one or two boxcars, one flatcar and a combine. This just wasn't enough to support much of an operating model railway. I was going to have to embellish reality with a healthy dose of what could have been. This is where my imagination and my interests took over. I started to create individual scenes using the places that existed along the real railway, but making them more than they ever were in real life. These scenes were comprised of bringing together a number of small elements, real and fictional, to create a context.....a story that could be told in text and photographs. Some of these details were entirely imaginary, but they were always buttered with a heavy dose of the plausible.
Clarence Sherwood is not terribly impressed with that tractor he just bought. It’s right in the middle of potato harvesting, the axle has broken, and he’s had to haul out the horses to run the digger……just serves to reinforce what he believed in the first place; “ If man was meant to use wheels, he would have been born with them instead of legs”
Occasionally, these stories are true:
A Mouse in the House
I had just entered my train room when I heard a scratching sound coming from Porter Road. Since there is normally very little commotion caused by the local residents in this sleepy little settlement on my Hampton & St Martins Railway, any sound at all would be unusual. As I glanced right, I spied a field mouse galloping toward me across the 300’ long Gully Bridge. At the end of the trestle, he took a right turn and disappeared under my layout. After the shock wore off, I hoped that he had appreciated the convenience of the trestle that kept him from having to climb down the 100’ to the bottom of the gully and then back up the other side.
Over the next few days, I began to discover a sinister side to this tiny visitor. First, I found that a moose (not mouse) and three fishermen were toppled over into the stream where I had placed them. I hesitate to guess what the attraction may have been, but thankfully, none of the victims had drowned. The next attack came against my model trees. I discovered clumps of 3-4 fallen spirea trees and piles of seed husks conveniently piled on my track. My layout was to have thousands of trees on it, so this rodent invasion was moving way past humorous to downright threatening. At least he didn’t seem to be picking on the majority of my trees, those made with oregano shrub tops. Armed with peanut butter, I set my first trap. The trees continued to fall. The trap was re-armed, this time with cheddar. The trees continued to fall. Success finally came with Cheez Whiz; Paul Bunyan would no longer work his deeds on MY railway.
I cleaned up the mess to prepare for a visit from some of my fellow model railroaders. When they came over last Thursday night, I related the story of my mousing adventures. During the conversation, I noticed a few seeds at the infeed door to the large sawmill that graces the St Martins wharf. To my shock and everyone else’s laughter, I discovered the building was full of downed trees and seed husks.
In this near-tragedy (the mouse might take it as something more serious), I did find a bright light. I consider it a compliment to my modelling skills that Paul Bunyan recognized my sawmill as a place to deliver trees. I also learned a lesson to pass on to my fellow modellers. Although I may be generalizing a bit, mice seem to prefer spirea over oregano - I guess they don’t care for Italian cuisine!
Now, off to the computer to make a new sign renaming my sawmill to R.O. Dent Lumber…………..
Some stories are told in the businesses that carry the names of families throughout the area. These include O'Dell, Sherwood, Parker and Miller to name a few. Others are more tongue-in-cheek - Shit Creek Paddles, R.O. Dent Lumber Co, M.R. Phlatt Bearings, or GWH (Gambol, Waite & Hope) Tannery.
After several frustrating attempts to recognize the ownership of the mine, they finally settled on "Glebe Mine" and saved several gallons of sign paint in the process. Done with apologies to Blazing Saddles, but the local Johnsons were my wife's ancestors, and apparently had a hand in manganese mining in the area
Zombie Apocalypse !!
Not really........a set of painted figures ready to place on the layout. I recently discovered that a base coat of flat black helps to tone down otherwise too bright top colours and gives them a more natural look
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