My Dad.
He passed on his love of the Norfolk and Western and Virginian steam. Many a warm Sunday afternoon we stood trackside and watched the Js charge by with those beautiful red trains and the wonderful whistle blowing for the Route 17 crossing. And the Class As with those endless strings of hoppers rolling along fast, in both directions, seemingly without regard for whether they were loaded or not. Or the VGNs BAs and 900s charging along on their single track main, close enough together that I wondered who could possibly be controlling things.
He died in 1959, just seven months before 611 made her last run. My greatest joy in model RRing is that I can recreate some of that glory and watch it roll by - right at home.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Initially it was Allen McClelland. The first model railroading book I ever bought (other than a magazine) was The V & O Story. After that came John Allen and then Eric Boorman's fantastic Utah Belt. Bruce Chubb's book, How to Operate Your Model Railroad taught me everything I wanted to know about model rr ops!
Another great influence was Bob Boudreau and his Fundy Northern (whose work IMHO doesn't show up nearly enough in the pages of MR these days!)
I've also been inspired by the many great layouts featured in MR and RMC as well as those in the Great Model Railroads Video series. Two of the latter being Don Casslers B&O and Doug Geiger's Granite Mountain.
And, of course, I would be remiss if I negelected to mention the great layouts of fellow Utahns Lee Nicolas and Ted York.
In model railroading there is plenty of inspiration to go around!
-George
"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."
The list is long and varied and many of the already mentioned people have had a role in feeding my MRRing "disease"...Along with many that I have met at conventions and tours.
But I have to give great credit to my Dad for an American Flyer around the Christmas tree in 1957 and then the building (Dad, brother and myself) of a 4 X 8 empire in 1959.
One other person is a major standout in my mind and that is the late Allen R. Morrel of Eastham, MA. He and I met at an NMRA convention a good many years ago and became good friends over the years.
That 1959 empire got packed away in the mid 60's and I had been an "arm-chair-want-to-be modeler" for many years, always waiting for extra time, the right place, the right time in my life, the money..... After attending a few clinics and tours with Allen, talking about his pike and my dream....He gave me three words of advice: "Just do it". I truly credit Allen for getting me started with my Colvin Creek Railway project which is now into its tenth year!
In 1970 when I was 8 years old my parents took me to Germany to visit family... My cousins had a beautiful Marklin HO scale layout...to this day I remember how impressed I was with it. So I guess I'd have to say my cousins (who I've never seen or spoken to since) were my biggest influence in getting started in the hobby.
My late cousin Richard Gregory, who was always dropping by and taking me up to Donner Summit to watch those big Cab-forwards rolling by, non-stop. And my great uncle Tom who was a fireman in Truckee, CA and let me ride the cab of his big AC-6 from Truckee to Norden when I was just a tiny tyke.
And my high-school buddy Rich Miller who introduced me to HO when he decided to get rid of all of his Athearn, Varney and Silver Streak stuff because he'd decided to go with O scale. I ended up with four Athearn metal boxcars, two Varney metal refrigerator cars, two Silver Streak wooden reefers and an Ulrich metal drop-bottom gondola for the amazing amount of $5. Still have them. Still run them. Saw Rich a couple of years ago at an all-class high school reunion, told him. His jaw dropped.
And John Allen, because like me, he liked bridges. Lots and LOTS of bridges, LOL!
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
My grandparents whose farm abutted the CNW line between Escanaba and the iron mines.
My parents who bought me Lionel 027 trains when I was young and took me on the City of Los Angeles from Chicago to LA and back.
A buddy's dad who was a brakie for the Soo and used to take us along when he fired up the stove in his caboose before a trip.
David Barrow
Iain Rice
MR, RMC and N Scale mags.
My father, hands-down.
He's an old-fashioned take-photographs-then-draw-his-own-plans-then-build-from-basswood-metal-and-cardstock kind of craftsman.
I would spend hours as a kid watching over his shoulder as he scratchbuilt. In fact, I went with him on many a fossil-hunt to take measurements of some long-neglected lineside structure in the wilds of rural Pennsylvania, only to watch him reproduce them in exacting detail on his workbench.
I've been influenced by almost every model railroader I've ever met or read about, but none so much so as dear old Dad.
Modeling the Rio Grande Southern First District circa 1938-1946 in HOn3.
Here is my list:
And for the current crop....
Jim Bernier
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
I’m going to take a different approach on this as mine was not really a ‘who’, but a ‘where’: The Elmhurst Model Railroad club when I was a kid. Their layouts (particularly the N-scale layout) ignited my interest in this hobby. Maybe not the end-all-grandest layout in the world, but it blew my socks off as a kid.
Sadly, it no longer exists.
In chronological order:
John Allen--what an inspiration.
Joe Fugate & Charlie Comstock--for excellence, and to certain extent, my nemeses CNJ831, whose work is also excellent, but I may never see eye-to-eye with. It would much easier on me if he was a crappy modeler.
and Art Hill & UK Guy for doing it right in front of my face. Makes me think there's a chance for the rest of us.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Noone in particular influenced me. I just saw various layouts and locos over the years that set the spark off within me. Actually, what really did it was a magazine I found in the break room at work about twenty years ago that had a story in it about model railroading, and within a couple of weeks afterward I was building my first layout...
Tracklayer