THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 9, 1996 TAG: 9610080163
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY BARBARA J. WOERNER, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 153 lines
WHILE CITY OFFICIALS debate and study the merits of a light rail train to transport passengers to and from Virginia Beach, several local residents have been laying track for years within the confines of their own homes.
The trains that run along those tracks are owned by members of the Tidewater Division of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA). This nonprofit organization of more than 200 members from all over Hampton Roads is dedicated to promoting railroading as a hobby.
Fewer trains will be running this week in members' homes as they scurry to prepare for their upcoming Model Train Show and Sale from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Virginia Beach Pavilion.
The show will feature a variety of layouts and modules with plenty of running trains. Themes range from Civil War to Jurassic Park and from city to country scenes.
And for those who don't know the difference between HO and G scale model trains, the show offers an introduction to the world of model railroading.
NMRA member Linda Coski will be among the experienced hobbyists on hand. Her interest in model railroading stems from her California upbringing where she remembers the steam trains coming into a local station.
``I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and I thought the most exciting thing in life was the 16th Street Station where the steam trains came and went,'' she said.
Coski spent her summers in the Sierra Nevada mountains and visited the old motherlode towns with her father. The timber industry in California was going nonstop at that time, and railroad cars stacked with logs were a common sight.
``All of my life, I have loved the fresh smell of wood,'' she said. ``From miles away in the Sierra Madre, you could smell the sawdust burners at the mills.''
Subsequently, Coski's layout inside her Lake Smith Terrace home is a miniature logging scene - complete with replicas of Shay locomotives pulling cars loaded with logs to a sawmill - and a town named Longshot.
``I named it that because the possibility of my ever finishing it is a real longshot,'' she said with a laugh.
Among model railroaders, the eternal building up and tearing down of layouts is a common thread that bonds. Yet, there is a diversity of talents displayed within the ranks.
``Some people are more interested in the mechanics and electrical elements with all the switches and wires - I'm more interested in the art aspect,'' Coski said.
Her HOn3 scale train - ``n'' standing for narrow gauge - that hauls the logs for the Thunder Mountain Timber Co. chugs along a wallboard backdrop that is curved where the corners of the room meet. Mountains and sky are painted on the backdrop with sculpted mountains formed from a webbing of cardboard, newspaper and pieces of paper towel that are overlaid with plaster.
Coski said most model railroaders employ their own special techniques for constructing their layouts. The trees that grow on the mountains around Longshot are constructed out of green bumpy chenille. They cling to the mountains much like the trees of the Sierra Madre as once seen through the eyes of their creator.
``This is all nostalgia for me and I think a lot of us model in the nostalgic sense,'' she said.
As a child, Coski used to request a set of Lionel trains every Christmas.
``After Christmas, I'd say, `I didn't get my train this year,' '' she said. ``My husband, Ben, decided to call my bluff one year and bought me a relatively inexpensive train set.
``Little did he know what he started,'' said Coski as she gestured toward her logging layout.
Steve and Sharon Prescott have been laying down model railroad track together for the last 20 years, through four houses and finally into the 24-by-40-foot room above the garage in their current Back Bay home.
``When we had this house designed, we made a room for trains,'' said Sharon Prescott, co-chairman of the Model Train Show and Sale and a member of the Tidewater Division of the NMRA.
The Prescotts' layout is HO scale. And to the untrained eye, it appears they have at least one of everything in HO scale and in some cases the only one of a kind.
The walls are covered with shelves that hold a myriad of train cars with familiar names like L&N, Chessie, Western Maryland and others not so familiar - like the fleet of train cars created by Steve Prescott that are painted and have decals to match the air squadrons at Oceana Naval Air Station where he is employed.
Even more trains and supplies are stacked under the 40-inch-high platforms that hold the tracks, towns and industrial areas of the Prescotts' layout. They estimate that there are more than 1,000 cars in their collection.
``We bought all this over a period of 20 years,'' she said. ``Every time we moved to a different house, we always had to get a larger room for the trains.''
Their layout now consists of a double mainline and double inner loop. A recent edition to the layout is a steel mill that came unassembled in roughly 400 pieces before Steve Prescott patiently put it together.
Sharon Prescott moved from one end of the layout to the other gluing tiny trees and characters in place.
``The layout really comes alive after you tie in the people, cars and your landscaping around the buildings,'' she said. ``It's a rare thing to ever say that a layout is complete.
``We hope to have ours finished by spring.''
Not all model railroading is confined to indoors. Dave and Sherry Caldwell happily turned over about one-third of their Kempsville backyard to their layout, which features the larger G scale trains. The whimsical layout includes a pond with a stream of water that arches from the mouth of a reclining frog, several other croaking frogs and a tunnel.
``I got my first train when my parents bought me a Lionel and I kept it,'' said Dave Caldwell. ``Back in the '80s I kept buying little promotional train sets offered by different companies and finally Sherry said, `Let's get one out.' ''
Soon after, the Caldwells started with a small layout that was HO scale until Dave Caldwell ``got bit by the bug'' of the G scale trains, which are about four times larger. Ever since, their Doggone Lines model railroad - named after four beloved deceased dachshunds - has been a husband-and-wife effort.
``This is just a fascinating hobby to both of us,'' said Dave Caldwell. ``You are the engineer, the conductor and the construction and maintenance crews of your own railroad line.''
Both Caldwells wear striped engineer caps sporting pins from various railroads they have visited and bandannas knotted around their necks. Several of the train cars that follow the Union Pacific engine around their garden layout are replicas of cars they have ridden on railroad excursions.
``I think that hobbies should be done on a daily basis,'' said Sherry Caldwell. ``Our theme is whimsical and we do what we want with it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos including color cover by STEVE EARLEY
ON THE COVER
Linda Coski adds a Shay locomotive to her railroad layout.
The timber industry during Linda Coski's California youth inspired
the Thunder Mountain Timber Co. and its surrounding mountain
village.
A HOn3 scale - narrow gauge - Heisler locomotive crosses a bridge in
Linda Coski's Thunder Mountain Timber Co. layout.
Linda Coski's layout inside her Lake Smith Terrace home is a
miniature logging scene - complete with replicas of Shay locomotives
pulling cars loaded with logs to a sawmill - and a town named
Longshot. ``I named it that because the possibility of my ever
finishing it is a real longshot,'' she said.
Photo by BARBARA WOERNER
Sharon Prescott and has a 24-by-40-foot room above the garage in her
Back Bay home filled with an HO scale layout and an estimate
collection of more than 1,000 cars. ``Every time we moved to a
different house, we always had to get a larger room for the
trains,'' she said.
Graphic
MODEL TRAIN SHOW
The Tidewater Division of the National Model Railroad Association
will hold its seventh annual Model Train Show and Sale from 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Virginia Beach Pavilion.
Admission is $3, with children age 12 and younger admitted free when
accompanied by an adult. Scouts in uniform with their Scoutmaster
also will be admitted free. by CNB