Since I just received my Medicare card and have officially joined the “I remember when…” age, I figured I’d devote this blog to the club’s creation and my early modeling years.
My Sunday School teacher learned that I had an interest in model trains and did such thoughtful things like taking the boys in his class on field trips to see some basement sized layouts in the area. Then he made the mistake of showing up in class with a beautiful 5 stripe Pennsy diesel (remember those rubber-band powered Athearn engines.) That did it! I began to unmercifully pester him to start a model railroad club. Being the nice man that he was, he finally caved in and said he would seek another adult, or 2, to act as advisors and try to get a club together for his pestering “kids”. The church nucleus included Mr. Evans, me, and my friend Bruce Genter. Mr. Evans recruited Larry Patterson who later added 2 boys he knew from Gloucester: Matt Wycoviak (?) and a kid named Eddie. Bruce’s father also wanted to become involved and he went out and bought a Tenshodo Great Northern 4-8-4 which we all drooled over. The early weeks were spent building models in the Church basement. By now I had graduated to Mantua Metals and Ulrich kits.
That was the club nucleus. Another of my role models joined later. He was a Pennsylvania Dutchman, named Wayne Ziggler, who worked at the Navy Yard doing electrical work on submarines. (I was modeling at his house the night the U.S. nuclear sub Thresher was lost.)
He was a man with a lot of great stories. The workers at the Navy Yard would often volunteer to go on shakedown cruises (extra money in the paycheck) of the vessels they worked on. The U.S. Navy would test their repaired/upgraded submarines by taking them out in the ocean, diving to 100’, checking for leaks, and then surfacing. Then they would repeat the process and dive to 200’ and so on until they reached the sub’s maximum rated diving depth. (I think it was in the 400-600’ range).
Well a decade after WWII ended, the U.S. Navy was upgrading its submarine fleet with nuclear submarines and it decided to sell off some of its older diesel subs to its NATO allies such as Turkey. Wayne decided to volunteer for a sea trial on one of these subs with the Turkish crew. The Captain motors the sub out to sea and immediately orders a dive, to the sub’s maximum depth. The Americans on board immediately voiced their protests. The Turkish captain, through his interpreter, just replies “you told me the ship was fully repaired, don’t you trust your work?”
To their horror, he then commences the dive. Meanwhile pipes are leaking and prayers are being offered up at an ever accelerating rate. Well, obviously the ship held together and they returned home safely, with Wayne vowing to never go to sea again with a foreign skipper.
Anyway, I digress. Mr. Patterson found a location to build a model railroad. It was in a basement, under a store, in Gloucester. The catch was we had to clean out the basement, and paint the walls and floor before we could begin building. To begin the scene, picture a basement from your favorite horror movie. Opening the street Bilco doors, you clamored down the creaky wooden steps and then transversed the first part of the basement in a hunched over position until you got to the room we were to use. Many weeks of trash removals later, we were finally ready to begin.
Then a track plan contest was held (no prizes). Two entrances (opposite ends of the same wall) added to the design fun. I was always sketching track plans back then. Matt, me, and I believe at least one of the adults produced submissions. My submission won. (I ran across the tattered remains of that plan when I moved last year.) It was not one of my more practical designs. For visitors to see the layout they had to transverse s duck-under to get into the room and a duck-under to escape.
Mr. Evans was only there part of the time and it was soon evident the adults had taken over, so my interest in the club began to wane. Bruce had reached the age where girls held much more interest to him than trains and I was tiring of the arrangement and travel. Mr. Ziggler was picking me up and returning me home. I mentioned to him that I was probably going to drop out and he said that he also was not satisfied with some of the decisions taking place. So we decided to both leave and started modeling together in my basement. We had an 8’x12’ L shape railroad (Tru-Scale track) well under way. (I believe the layout benchwork was constructed from Wayne’s old picket fence.) Wayne taught me a lot about carpentry (doing it right, counter-sinking the screw holes, etc.).
But college was approaching and my time was becoming more and more consumed by the lovely daughter of the Westville Baptist church minister (another excellent Preacher). By then, Wayne had acquired an Atlas N Scale PRR passenger train that totally enthralled me. It seemed to hold the track much better than my HO models. Soon I sold off my HO gauge equipment, disassembled the layout and started a 50 year collection of N Scale equipment which eventually culminated in my old 18’x19’ basement layout (http://www.allscalelayouts.com/R/Aspfiles/DetailPage.asp?Xfer_Code=20001280&Scale=N). Anything I have achieved in modeling is a result of the men who shaped my modeling future, particularly Ed Evans and Wayne Ziggler.
The Gateway Model Railroad club went on to greater things. 50 years and several moves later they (http://www.gatewaymodelrr.org/) have a great layout on Browning Road in Brooklawn, NJ. Ed Evans remained involved for the rest of his life and Larry Patterson is still with them. (Larry has produced some excellent models including a replica of the Tabernacle.)
There, that should be a blog worthy of my rambling Medicare status! J Happy modeling!
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