After a typically dreary Monday in the real estate racket, I drove home to the new house, exhausted and a bit blue after paying a pile of personal and business bills. I dragged myself into the kitchen for the emptying-of-pockets-into-the-customary-drawer ritual. I greeted Jophie, visiting Sharon, and granddaughter Liana somewhat perfunctorily.
"How'd it go at work today?"
"Oh, the usual typical Monday in the real estate business. Where's the Scotch?"
I absently fanned through the day's stack of mostly junk mail waiting for me on the kitchen counter. But, then, "what to my wondering eyes did appear" but a see-through, polyethylene-cocooned copy of the latest "run" of O Gauge Railroading! Instantly, the weariness in my aging bones and my otherwise negative mental outlook from the day up til then disappeared as if by magic! I grabbed a pair of kitchen scissors and carefully cut open the encapsulating shipping bag and pulled out the glossily clad copy of OGR's Run 264. I examined the rich cover of brightly inked enameled paper, the overhead lighting reflecting back at me, seemingly spotlighting the iconic red OGR logo in the upper left-hand corner.
The first thing that caught my eye from the white-emblazoned headlines on the cover, was in the lower right hand corner, "Jim Barrett Visits Steve Brenneisen's Ross Custom Switches". Steve is a good friend and one of the most liked and admired entrepreneurs in the three rail hobby industry, both by consumers as well as business competitors, and a very interesting and entertaining character to put it mildly! I couldn't wait to read Jim's interview with Steve about his unique and famous line of three rail turnouts, track, and accessories, all "proudly made in the USA" at Steve's historic former mill building in Norwich, CT. I was itching to turn to that feature and start reading!
But, before I could open the magazine and search for the Brenneisen-Barrett interview in the table of contents, I noticed the banner headline running across the entire top of the front cover that said, "EQUIP YOUR LAYOUT WITH QUICK & EASY CATENARY" Wow! That instantly captured my attention. "Quick and Easy" was not a phrase I would have associated with miniature catenary of any design and construction. Nonetheless, I've been searching for years to discover practical yet prototypically accurate looking catenary system components to install on my own dream layout where I hope a scenic mountainous division will feature electric locomotives used by both the Great Northern and Milwaukee railroads in the Pacific Northwest during the golden age of passenger railroading when first generation diesels were just starting to come into their own. This article might be the answer to my quest.
Despite my excitement about those two articles of great interest to me, I decided to resist the temptation of the moment and not violate my usual ritual of new OGR run perusal of leafing through the magazine, getting an overview for what other literary goodies would be priorities for me to read later at my leisure. Like most OGR readers, I suspect, I invariably check out the product review articles by George Brown first, to see what revelations about new and exciting locos, rolling stock, accessories, and related train items George will lay on us this time. To my pleasant surprise were not one but two interesting review subjects in Run 264, one on the new tooling Lionel Legacy GP35, and of even more intense fascination, a second run-in-a-row product review installment on the spectacular new Lionel ZW-L transformer that promises to become a hobby icon just as its predecessor ZW did some 65 years ago! In my nearly 20 year readership of OGR, it has been quite rare for a new product offering to earn a coveted successive run installment from an OGR reviewer due to insufficient column-inch space to publish an adequate review! I could already see that this was going to be a very special run of OGR!
Anxious to get started, I still couldn't resist checking the "head end" pages to see what hobby-related topic was stirring Editor in Chief Allan Miller's juices in this issue. The title of his usual op-ed piece immediately intrigued me. Titled "The Scale (R)evolution" and prominently featuring a colorful Lionel page from one of the heady pre- or post-war catalog days of yore at Lionel featuring a dominating and highly detailed black and white drawing of a scale 700E Hudson and a man and a young boy in the lower right hand corner, with Dad pointing towards the Hudson and a nearby double-button Lionel accessory activation device in the foreground. A white lettering on red background caption read, "That's the scale model for us, son!" Seeing that, I knew I was going to enjoy even more than usual Allan's thoughtful philosophical piece concerning where the hobby's been over the 113 years of its existence, and where he thinks it's headed now.
Then I spied an interesting page and a half piece on the ever inventive Walter Matuch's latest adventure, this time converting his New Jersey based Ready Made Trains Corporate offices-in-a-barn headquarters to solar power. Can the day be far off when we shall see more and more daytime operations of toy train layouts being powered by roof-mounted solar panels, or is this yet another quirky and good humored stunt by this toy train iconoclast and innovator? One thing's nearly certain, if Walt's doing something new, it might not be too long before we're all experimenting with it too! We'll have to read the article to discover what he's up to now, but whatever it is, it should be entertaining and just a little off-beat from the rest of the O gauge world!
The regular features seemed better than ever this time as well. The "Smoke Signals" section of new product announcements in this run features a very attractive framed rectangular graphic presentation for each featured item and write-up as an emphasis to the approach of Father's Day gift-giving next month. The "Readers' Rails" segment featured a crop of special and intriguing photos portraying beautiful layout scenes sent in by members of the readership.
The cover picture article features Jim McIntosh's gorgeous multiple level 3-rail layout, with photography by OGR's own Jim Barrett and entitled "Empire Builder". Jim McIntosh is a fan of scale detail and very authentic looking but tasteful weathering of structures, locos, vehicles, and rolling stock. The extensive collection of photos is truly spectacular and I can't wait to delve into the article describing how Jim created this masterpiece pike.
I flipped a few more pages and a color-emblazoned photo of a Milwaukee Bi-Polar electric in Hiawatha colors running under scale catenary and rounding a double tracked super-elevated mainline curve almost literally leapt off the page at me! The article by Don McCuaig describes how to build authentic wood-poled catenary on his under-construction mountain-themed Milwaukee Road layout. The project is in progress at Don's home in Maui, HI, of all places! I couldn't wait to see what came next in Run 164, but priorities being what they are, I simply sank into the nearest comfortable chair and devoured his step-by-step article. Don's well crafted prose and uncluttered photos show clearly how to construct scale-proportioned catenary modeled on the systems used by the GN and Milwaukee Road on their Pacific Northwest lines to traverse the scenic settings of the 20th Century Mountain West. It's a great article, and will inspire my own efforts in that aspect of my own future layout.
Following the catenary feature is a charming little piece with photos and composition by Pastor Randy Bynum of Nampa, ID about his tiny On30 pike built to fit in a small space at home or to be transported to train meets and events in a Jeep! Randy's layout construction features hand-laid two rail solid steel trackwork, an elevated mining branch, and even a hidden staging yard all in a 4 1/2 by 5 footprint! Despite its diminutive size, Randy was able to design a track plan to serve two industries, mining and cattle shipment for both realistic switching and prototypical operations! Quite an accomplishment in O scale and only 22.5 square feet! I think it's the best "small layout" article I can remember reading in OGR....truly captivating!
Following Randy Bynum's article is a piece I've been waiting a long time for....1:1 steam and diesel locomotive engineer, modeler, corporate pilot, and OGR Publisher, Rich Melvin has in his "The Empty-Load Trick" written and lavishly diagrammed the answer to a question that I've wondered about forever, but was always afraid to ask about.
When Lynn Gaines and I visited John Shankland's epic layout in Melbourne, FL a few years back following a York meet, John showed us a couple of crowd pleasing sleight of hand "tricks" that he had incorporated into his layout. One was perhaps the more familiar and easy to understand logging illusion where a Shay or Heisler with a load of empty spine log cars climbs a grade to a forest where it disappears into a tunnel, only to reappear a short time later running in the opposite direction with all its cars now fully loaded with logs. John accomplishes the illusion with two identical consists and engines and a hidden mini-staging yard out of sight inside the mountain tunnel. One of the trains' consists is made up of empties and the identical engine and consist is made up of loaded cars facing the opposite direction, in this case, running down grade.
The site of the other "trick" is located on a peninsula with a mainline that runs out perhaps 30 or 40 feet, around a 180 degree curve and back up the other side of the peninsula which is divided down its center with a view-obscuring backdrop and different regional scenery on opposite sides of the view block backdrop. On one side is a coal mine with a long loading shed for strings of coal hoppers and the other side opposite the mine and obscured from a layout spectator's point of view on the other side of the peninsula is a coal-fired power plant. As we toured the layout with John, he simply mentioned this feature in passing but didn't really go into much detail about how the illusion was designed to operate within each industry's hidden portions inside the hilly scenery and industrial buildings on opposite sides of the backdrop. I didn't really understand the inner workings, but was too embarrassed by my lack of creative imagination to ask John to explain further at the time. Rich Melvin's thoroughgoing piece in this run of OGR explains the illusion and how to design it into a layout in well illustrated and easily understood detail. I've always heard that in the practice of "magic", the hard part is not pulling the rabbit out of the hat, but rather getting the rabbit into the hat in the first place! Rich's well-illustrated article explains the whole process!
Following the demystification of the "Empty-Load Trick", Ed Boyle's regular "Collector's Gallery" brings us a detailed look at the Lionel Collectors' Club of America's 2012 LCCA National Convention commemorative pre-war O gauge "Lakeshore Limited" set which was designed by our own fellow Forumite, "Loco Louie" Lou Caponi. It's a beautiful set, and Ed as usual treats us to a behind the scenes, in-depth look at the set's creation and associated collectible significance.
"Rail Tales" in this run is a fascinating piece of creative writing that conjures a literary explanation accompanying Steve Fetterplace's layout diorama of the "Haunted Power Station" that forlornly awaits its demise through demolition. The mini-article is lavishly illustrated through photos of the diorama by the author himself and written in the style of a legitimate news story datelined in an ersatz New York City newspaper named the Staten Island Advance! Brilliant!
Finally I reached something else special that I had been eagerly looking for as I thumbed impatiently through Run 264, the interview article with Steve Brenneisen of Ross Custom Switches by Jim Barrett in his "Backshop" segment. I won't attempt to summarize Jim's departure from his usual troubleshooting and question-answering format, but the interview is a great read. Having known Steve well for several years, I already knew some of the details of his very interesting life with toy trains. I've written admiringly about that in the Forum years ago after first getting acquainted with Steve at my first series of York Meet attendances. I predict that You'll enjoy reading Jim's interview with Steve Ross Brenneisen as much as I did. In the well worth emulating tradition of Joshua Lionel Cowen, the founder of Lionel Corporation, Steve chose his middle name, Ross, for his company, a name that he thought would be easier to remember, spell, and pronounce than his family name, Brenneisen. At the conclusion of the all too short article, Jim hints cryptically that the saga of Steve Brenneisen, toy train fanatic and creator of one of the most influential hobby companies in the industry will see at least one more installment in the next run of OGR....I can't wait!
The bottom line on Steve is that for most train lovers who decide to start train-related businesses, the process of changing orientation from hobby to money-making enterprise often erodes or destroys their love of the hobby. In Steve's life, this has, to his great credit, not been the case. He still effuses enduring love for the hobby, his involvement in it as both an entrepreneur and as a hobbyist in his own right, and for the people in the hobby who are both simultaneously his friends as well as loyal customers. I think it safe to say, that as much as the modern luminaries of the hobby industry such as Mike Wolf, Dick Kuhn, and others have influenced the course of the contemporary toy train hobby and the industry that supports it, Steve Brenneisen has with his innovative turnout and track products contributed as dramatically as anyone to the recent revolutionary changes to our pastime over the past several decades.
As a kid in the hobby, making switches by hand for himself and others, he unwittingly revolutionized the three rail toy train hobby from the moribund collecting and (barely) operating niche of pre- and post-war Lionel trains into the vibrant modern high rail, high tech, 1/4" scale hobby that we are familiar with today. I for one am glad that OGR has recognized the contributions to the hobby, and the editorial value of telling Steve Brenneisen's fascinating story to its readership. Steve's is a great biography that has contributed to the enjoyment of our hobby in countless positive and uplifting ways! I can't wait for "Chapter Two" in Run 265, Jim!
George Brown is a man always busily testing and reporting on new products in the hobby and constantly laboring under the magazine's looming editorial deadlines to get those reports shipped off to the World Headquarters of OGR in Poland, OH. George rounds out Run 264 with a slightly nostalgic look back at the Lionel MPC-era's production runs of colorful "high cube" box cars and their inexpensive but fun collectibility in his "The Helper Engine" section at the caboose-end of Run 264, and bringing to a close, one of the finest issues of OGR I can remember in my 17 or so years as a subscriber. Congratulations to the entire staff of our beloved OGR for informing and entertaining us all once again with an outstanding magazine.
VeryImpressedBear
