Monthly Archives: August 2012

Regurgitated Information – The Opposite of Research

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The Baldwin drawing for the walkways over the radiator openings on the AS-16’s

How many times have you heard a modeler spew something about a model, that you know to be dead wrong? And you know darn-right well they have not researched it at all, they are just regurgitating something they heard another modeler say. Did that person look at what they were talking about or did they just spit out what they were told? And once it has been repeated often enough, everyone believes it.

One of the reasons I moved some of my modeling interests away from the PRR was the number of times I heard guys comment about the Sunset H-9’s. They all said the same thing about the belpair slope. Did anybody question what research the first guy who said that looked at to make such a statement? Most guys have pointed to the line diagrams of the class. Well these drawing while they are railroad drawings are not accurate for boiler shape. Did anybody research it on their own? Did anybody look at it against photos? Nope they all regurgitate it on que, just like Pavlov’s dogs.

What I have found is that most people that tend to do this have NEVER done any research on their own. I’m not talking about opening a Morning Sun book and believing the fiction that is their captions. I’m talking about assembling a pile of photos (with dates) and looking for the details and when they change.  I’m talking about digging through company records at a museum or a private collection. I’m talking about actually going out and measuring a freight car or a real building. I spent most of a day measuring and photographing the PRR GLe I found in South Amboy back in the early eighties. Or even just doing a full photo study of a car with a hundred or so images not just the three normal images in a photo study; the Three Quarter, the End View and the Broadside.

Even the best authors can miss things. Case in point, one of the Reading Myths, the after-coolers on the FT’s were put on during a shopping in 1956. In a recently published book, on page 111 that statement was printed, there was a photo on the bottom of page 112 with a 1950 date with the aftercoolers on the locomotive skirts. I first thought maybe there was a typo with the date. But most likely not, as the hand grabs were still black and the safety grabs over the windshields and on the nose are not there.  Also on page 110 there was a 1954 photo with the after-coolers also.

Just because it is published does not always mean that it actually was!

So either accept what the manufacturers produce and say is right, “nobody will see it anyway” or get off you ass and do some research.

Good prototype modeling starts with good prototype information.

2012 Strasburg O Scale Show – August

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Eastbound train going through Lebanon, PA

I attended the Strasburg show today. Even though it was only three weeks from the National, it appeared to be well attended. I saw a number of vendors that were not at the National. So we were not looking at the same materials on the tables that didn’t sell at the National as some had feared.

There was the typical stuff on the tables, some dealers but more guys selling off some of their extra stuff, some at bargin prices and some high prices. I did pick up a few kits and even found a box of proto48 wheelsets, but nothing big. The highlight of the day for me was Bob Jones brought me a set of pilot castings from his T-1 kit. They are a two part casting for the pilot. There are some differences but they are very close to the K-1 pilots.

Joe G. was showing off a couple of new things at his table. He had an example of the new turnouts the he has recently posted about on his site. There was a rather large crowd around the times I passed by.  That and being they are gauged for O scale and not proto48, I didn’t get a good look at the new products.

For the first time in a while, I was not selling off some of my surplus models at the show. It felt good to be just a modeler in the crowd. I got to see and talk with a bunch of other modelers today instead of having my conversations interupted by other’s questions about stuff on the table.

Another nice part about not being behind a table, I didn’t have to stay at the show until the end. I got in walked around for about an hour and then my wife and I had the day to wonder through the countryside.

We started our wondering with a late breakfast at Jennie’s Diner out on RT30.  I have been stopping there after the shows for a couple of year’s now. It’s a Silk City Diner built in Paterson, NJ in 1959. Love it’s look and the food is not bad either.

Then we headed up through Cornwall, PA to Lebanon, PA. I wanted to see what was left in Lebanon since studing photos from the ’50’s. The Station is there but not much else. Not one siding downtown anymore.

We worked our way east on the Reading Lebanon Valley Branch. Besides exploring Lebanon, we wondered through Prescott, Myerstown and Richland. I even got to see a couple of Norfolk Southern movements on the line.

Jennie’s Diner on Route 30

Station area Lebanon, PA

Myerstown, PA

Richland, PA