The uncompromising discipline of single-themed focus

[FJ and G]

Back as an undergrad I had this art teacher who I didn't really care for that much. Kinda boring, didn't really spark an interest in art, but it was one of those easy credits that were mandatory.

But he did have an unusual single-themed focus in life. He had a fetish for windows. He roamed the entire state of Arkansas and Missouri, photographing windows (of course it's a wonder he didn't get arrested or shot at). He would return with the pictures and then do window paintings. He had hundreds of slides of his work that he showed one day.

He didn't do doors. He didn't do roofs or chimneys. He was singly focused on windows. I've got to admit, that he had me fascinated there, showing all his window paintings. He, of course included the window frames, so there was a natural frame, and the frames, some of them had character with paint chipping, cracks, ivy, you name it.

Sometimes a cat was framed in the window. Or a horse in the case of a barn window. For a 2 hour class showing nothing but windows (it was a summer cram course that's why the 2 hours), I left having visions of windows for some time and it's a wonder I didn't become a peeping tom after the experience.

I get fascinated in the same way looking at single-themed layouts. Other layouts are great, with industries of all type, the requisite yard, roundhouse and reversing loop, and other "essentials" you'd never dream of not using.

But it is the single-themed focus layouts that really get my attention. These uncompromising characters were so firm in their goals that they were not distracted from adding that "must-have" item that would detract from that goal or vision.

You know the types. Fertig (sp?) and his Davis Steel Mill, a guy in latest 05 MR trackplanner who focused just on a Great Lakes port in which several scale vessels took up a good portion of his real estate. The one guy who just modeled an engine shop with multiple engine tracks to move his locomotives around on (hey if you really dig locomotives this is for you).

At one time even I was focused for a while on a single-tracked 2-mile segment of Abo canyon, but eventually succumbed to the temptation of another track and some spurs. I didn't have what it takes to be one of the single-themed masters and that failure of mine makes me appreciate all the more these stalwarts.

[Anonymous]

I'm a big proponent of theme-based layouts. The theme might be a particular railroad, a particular section of the country, a particular era, a particular season, a particular type of railroading or industry, or even something else. A theme ties everything together, and also forces the hobbyist to devote some time to studying the prototype that is related to the theme. Themes also help to keep down the expense of the hobby because the theme modeler tends to be more selective about what he or she purchases.

[Anonymous]

Hello Dave: I have to agree on staying focused on one theme, I figure if I stay focused on the western prairie provinces I can ship grain & spring water to Molson & Labatt breweries, & from there to retail stores. How is that for staying focused on one industry? Kind Regards Steve "It's Saturday Night & Were Live"

[Anonymous]

I entertained commencing a single theme project for a while, and I may still do it. When I was in my formative years, four or five to about sixteen, my father ran a cotton compress and warehouse. The building was 317,000 square feet, and an O scale model of it would be seventeen feet long. I made a post here when the horror of that realization dawned on me. But it has a lot of advantages as a theme. There was a five hundred foot freight siding at the compress, and the main line ran by about a hundred feet away. On the other side of the main line, there was a small freight yard where our boxcars were staged and the boxcars for the other industries in town that used rail freight. The yard was busy enough in those days that there was a full time switch engine there, and they were still running passenger trains two or three time a day. The depot was about two miles north and had a wooden water tower, and there were four tracks running parallel at the depot, down to two by the time the mainline passed us. The compress had a Webb 80 cotton compress which would be fun to model, along with the requisite boiler and coal yard. I have even found a source for scale cotton bales. I am just not sure that I could afford to fill a seventeen foot warehouse at two dollars a bale. Maybe just in the doors.

Any way, the major advantage to all this is that it is pretty much gone, so nobody could argue about the accuracy of my recollection. Old Fools.