Dick Patterson model builder

Dick Patterson was a great model builder. I had the chance to photograph three of his model railroads - HO, HOn30 and On2 - all in his cellar. 

Here's his HO waterfront layout. The backdrop is painted but the water in the foreground is real and he had rigged a system so the tide went up and down. He had to treat the water so it wouldn't get moldy and smelly - he used Listerine. The container that held the water was fiberglass and was built like a swimming pool.

This is Dick's HOn30 Dolly Varden mine layout. He used N-gauge track and the mechanism's in his locos were from N-gauge steam engines. The scenery is all made from Sacrete cement and the layout weighted a ton - really. The background pine trees are toothpicks dipped in white glue and then in scenic foam - they are only about 4" behind the tunnel entrance the forced perspective works nicely.

Lobster Cove - again

Lobster Cove - a small layout built for the folks who owned the Franklin Mint. It was going to be part of a mail order project where you could buy the layout using your American Express card. It never happened but the layout is nice.

Bob Hayden scratchbuilt the lighthouse from the plastic cores of adding machine paper rolls (he saved these from the days when people used adding machines.) The top of the lighthouse was made so we could make molds and cast more of these in resin, just in case we had to build more lighthouses. All the rocks are foam castings from Scenic Express.

Timberline's Photographer's House

About 40 years ago I built the Timberline Photographer's House for a review in RMC. As with most of these structures I only built what the camera saw - In other words the back was blank. The structure ended up, against the backdrop, on my HO Carrabasset & Dead River Ry. I lost the structure when my cellar flooded in 1984.

Last week Bob Hayden found one of the original kits in his storage closet and decided to built it. He made a few changes:

1 - The kit had a glass wall and glass roof on the addition. Bob closed these up with material from the scrap box and added the shingled roof.

2 - He added a field stone foundation from an old embossed stone sheet made by Holgate and Reynolds.     

3 - He added modified Grandt Line shutters, porch posts and railings.

4 - And last, he borrowed the lightning rods from John Mitchell's Skeeter's Fly Dope kit and added them to the roof of this structure.

All in all a nice little kit that brings back memories of the old C&DR Ry. The kit can still be found, now and then, on eBay. 

I can't keep a secret (except when it comes to lobstering or BBQ) and I want to tell everyone about all the new things the EXPO boys have in the works. One of them is this billboard (there will be more, one from each EXPO organizer and not with my name on them.) These will come as a package of kits you assemble.

The EXPO boys are coming up with all types of new stuff for the November show. I can't wait to see them all.