TRAINS

This is the newest of hobbies. I have learned very quickly that a train hobbiest NEVER has the plan complete.

Rick started out in 1998 at the age of 52 to begin a hobby in model trains. N-scale was his choice.

Rick comes from a long line of family members who worked on the railroads over the years. His grandfather was an engineer and his father and uncles had various jobs on the railroad.

As a child Rick did get to go for train rides on occasion with his dad.

In 1998 Danalyn and I were trying to find out what he always wanted to do as a child but never did, and he said he never owned a model train. This was very hard for me to believe given his family history. With that information in mind Danalyn and I set out that Christmas to outfit him with some model train equipment. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever think that his childhood dream would develop into such an expensive hobby.

As you can see from the picture, Rick started with a large sheet of plywood and began to add track, road bed and scenery with the help of a friend. He was just getting this board well developed when he began reading about layouts.

In reading about layouts Rick discovered that modules were the way to go and began dismantling his master board and began a series of many boards. Rick has always been one to read a lot of material and has made no exception when it comes to reading about layouts for his train.

Rick´s Aunt Norma has supported him financially to develop his layout. This has meant a great deal to Rick as it afforded him the opportunity to move along at a greater pace.

One of the new highlights of our outings now is visiting model train shows several times a year. In addition to that we also make trips to any area where there are railway tracks or wherever we are visiting to have a look at the scenery around the track area. It may even require my taking pictures of trees, grass, clouds, old buildings and anything else in the area that may be needed in replicating the area of choice.

I have learned that this is a never ending task in shaping the layout. I have just a few pictures of what he is working on that you may want to look at. This is one area that I will try to update as new shape forms.

I hope that you can have an appreciation for the number of hours that it takes Rick to work on even the smallest area of his board. He does require assistance to lay materials and do scenery but he struggles constantly to do the job and becomes very frustrated when we aren't sure exactly what it should look like or even know what we are doing.