EDITOR’S SOAPBOX: Having fun! Changing the guard ...
About the Editor
Charlie Comstock has been a regular columnist, author, and on the editorial staff of Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine since its inception. To learn more about Charlie, click here.
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’ve still not recovered from the shock. Joe Fugate phoned me one night to talk about MRH stuff and casually mentioned, “I’m promoting you to editor.” What? Why would you do a fool thing like that? I’ve been involved with MRH (sometimes even contributing) for what seems like nearly forever. I’ve written articles, interviewed layout owners, edited content, produced video, pasted up articles, and assembled issues of the magazine itself several times. But why me? I guess Joe had confidence in me I wasn’t feeling at the moment! Or maybe he was desperate! Well Joe. I’m honored, and to you, the readers of MRH I’ll do my best to maintain the quality of our little model train magazine.
If you’re a layout builder and your layout is done, now what do you do? There are some modelers who live for the construction process. When their layout is done, what’s left to build? So they decide to start over! If your desire was for a railfan layout when you started, but you’ve caught the operations bug (more like a flu actually) since then, a layout that was great for watching trains roll by is likely not well optimized for op sessions. Etc. Which brings me to my main point – If you’re not happy with your layout, it isn’t fulfilling its purpose – to have fun. A layout that’s not fun either
becomes a dust collector or it gets torn down to make way for a new layout. But over time we all change don’t we? Since we’re all changing, both physically and in our attitudes, I believe there’s no such thing as a lifetime layout. The nod under that was no trouble at all when you’re 50 can become quite an impediment at 70. The prototypically incorrect track arrangement at town X which didn’t bother you 10 years ago starts gnawing at you if you catch the prototype modeling disease or conversely, the yard throat modeled exactly after the prototype may be recognized for an operational bottleneck on a model railroad. Heck, folks have been
Figure 1: Tom Miller’s Fn3 Little Colorado was designed for railfanning. There’s lots of gorgeous scenery, the trackplan is a convoluted loop for continuous running, and there are very few lineside industries to be served.
Phew! And now on to something that’s model railroad related. It seems sometimes that the number of well-known (or outright famous) model rails that are tearing out their layouts might become an epidemic. Why would someone destroy a gorgeous, fully finished model railroad? This is largely speculation but, because they’re bored?
Page 12 • Issue 11-03 • Mar 2011 • Editor’s Soapbox, page 1
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