Visiting with a Master

 I have a lot of respect for masters of their craft.  That can take many forms, of course, but in the hobby of modeling railroading there are a handful of people that clearly have become a master of their place in the hobby.  Tony Koester is one of them.  

Thanks to the great fortune of having been born in New Jersey, I early on had exposure to reasons to return here after college, and of course this state is also the one where Tony settled many years ago as well.  His career took different turns but he remains a resident of the state, and to add to my fortunate location, his home is about 35 miles from mine.  I am grateful to count Tony as a friend and as someone who has come to operate on the Onondaga Cutoff.  I am a regular member of his crew on his Nickel Plate Road, too.  

A few years ago, Tony was inspired to create a few of his popular and well-regarded 'Trains of Thought' columns that featured my two sons and their youthful exuberance about model railroads.  In each of the December 2021 and April 2022 columns, Tony used a photo of the boys and offered thoughtful reflection on how the hobby is growing - and how to keep staying both grateful and excited for that.  I thought it would be fun for the boys to have Tony sign the columns for them to take with them as life goes on.  The boys had yet to see his railroad, and it was time to change that.  

So,  I asked if we could make a visit.  Tony accepted and welcomed us, giving the boys a full tour of his fabulous masterpiece - the Nickel Plate Road 'Cloverleaf', the 3rd Sub, his HO scale railroad.  

Always a gracious host, Tony showed the boys different parts of the railroad and reminisced on stories he had from people he knew in the towns.  

Before leaving the boys were curious about the stairs and the 'secret passageway' as they called it to Charleston Yard.  Tony invited them up and an iconic image presented itself.  I call this one 'Looking up':

After the tour, Tony sat in the kitchen to sign the magazines, with the boys appreciating the moment and the opportunity that it was to be there.  

It will be a day they remember, and now we have a little token of printed and signed articles to carry along for the ride to come.  There are masters out there, and any time you can spend time with a master you can find ways to learn, to appreciate, and to grow.  I am excited for what the hobby is becoming - and especially excited that the boys enjoy it with me.  

Little here, Little there

 The heat and humidity found us as soon as July did this year, and it has been well timed with the onset of summer activities.  We had a more busy June than normal, with Susie's promotion to the new school for her upcoming 7th grade year along with the school play and family vacations.  As we get past Independence Day and settle into July, there is time here and there for some smaller layout projects that help to keep momentum on progress.  

I am happy to report that the two CP intermodal flats we started last month are finished and have turned out great.  Rapido really filled a niche in the HO market with these.  

Check out the details here!  What I remember most seeing these in the 90's was the faded CP 'Action Red' paint and the open grating in areas where there were unlikely to be tires.  This saved considerable weight but kept the car safe for personnel and mechanical workers.  It is awesome to see these in HO scale!

 Meanwhile the guys at ScaleTrains continue to impress, with two recent offerings really just continuing to set an extremely high bar for the hobby going forward.  Each of these two are stunning models.

These are stock offerings, all I did was add weathering to these.  They are so beautifully rendered that I had to take some outdoor shots too.

 

Utterly amazing details - look at the lettering on this medallion!  As you can see this unit ended up very clean looking even after weathering, and that is because it is: the Onondaga Cutoff is set in 1994, and this unit was delivered in springtime 1994.   The D&RGW GP30, on the other hand, is more than 30 years old by that point, and is showing more age.

We have discussed that principle here before, but it is a major reason I enjoy weathering so much (especially as the hobby advances and delivers better and better models out of the box) - weathering customizes each model to fit an era and location.  It is part of modeling and is one that as time passes we can get better and better at.  

Speaking of that, too, the 3D printing world is getting to the point where it is hard to believe our fortune.  A well-known Conrail fan purchased an old Conrail hi-rail truck at auction, then had it 3D scanned and now it is available as a kit from a seller on Facebook.  Mine got some paint last night.

Modeling maintenance of way has a lot to do with railroading, and things are so good these days we even have perfect scale model kits of maintenance trucks!  

Can't go wrong these days, everyone.  There is a lot to enjoy now and more to look forward to.