Model Railroad Heros

[Anonymous]

Who do you think are modelers' modeler? Unstated heros? Ones who really contributed to our hobby unselfishly?

My picks (only a few of many)

Gordy Odegard - took the most complicated stuff and made it understandable

Art Curren - Took three everyday kits and made great structures from them.

Keith last name unknown - What an electronics genius. And he shared it all with everyone.

Tony Koester - described operation, prototype modeling

John Armstrong - nothing more need to be said

Who else?

[AggroJones]

Ron kuykendall-- in GMR vol 21 he mentioned that he wrote like 40 articles on weathering and structure modeling, and got no response from the public. He said "no calls, no cards, no letters".

[Anonymous]

My Model Railraod Heros. Thats a lengthy list.

Lets See.

John Allen, He showed everyone the way.

W. Allen McClellend. He showed everyone how.

John Armstrong. He Showed Everyone why.

Dave Frary and Bob Heyden. They showed everyone how to make it beliveable.

Jim Hediger, He showed us how to make it cool.

Andy Sperandeo. He brought all of us here.

Jim Kelly. He showed us the other way.

Lionel Strang. He got us to think "What If" and then showed us what to add.

Don Spiro (An RMC regular) He shows us how to Bash Cars together.

Art Curen. He told us what to bash, how to bash, and when to bash.

Tony Keoster. He gives us somthing to think about every month.

Irv Athearn. He got must of us started.

Bill Walthers. The man who started an empire.

and Finally.

Al Kalmbach. He started it all.

[vsmith]

Malcomn Furlow who showed that the impossible is not only possible, it looks really dam good!

[JDCoop]

There's tremendous talent on the above list, and I would add the following:

Wayne Wesolowski for his craftsmanship
Harold Russell Jr, Harold Geissel, and Julian Cavalier for their scale drawings
George Sellios for giving us infinite detail on a grand scale
Jim Six, Mike Rose,and Mont Switzer for their locomotive and rolling stock modeling/detailing/weathering
Dean Freytag for his industrial modeling
Earl Smallshaw, John Swanson, and Robert Smaus for their structures
Lou Sassi , John Nehrich, Lee Vande Visse, John Olson, and Michael Tylick for their scenery and detailing
Jeff Wilson for painting and weathering
Ray and Renee Grosser for capturing the magic of a specific time and place

I know there are many, many more names that could be on this list, but these are the modelers, as well as many of those already listed in previous posts, that I admire and who inspire me.

Jeff

[AntonioFP45]

Don't forget Dr. Richard Kamm, who with Keith Guitierrez help bring command control forward with the CTC 16, basically the ancestoral technology of today's DCC.

[IRONROOSTER]

I would add Linn Westcott, long time editor of MR, author of several early books.
Enjoy
Paul

[Anonymous]

You know what the coolest thing is? None of the above guys will ever enter a forum and say "I am the expert there is only ONE way to do things" even though each and every one is truly way above expert. That is the sign of greatness!

[johncolley]

I would add to all the above:
For the tremendous project he has undertaken to bring Model railroading and operations techniques available to anyone with a vcr or dvd player - Joe Fugate
For his insightful presentations of yard throat design and for daring to present an alternative form of layout design by thinking of modules as dominoes - Dave Barrow