A Tale of Boyce F. Martin, Sr. and Boyce F. Martin Jr., Legendary Model Railroaders

I've been reading through old issues of Model Trains magazine looking for articles on streetcar layouts. When I'm on these expeditions I often latch onto names of writers who for some reason catch my attention. In this case it was Boyce F. Martin. What I found on this trip was quite surprising.

It turns out there were two Boyce F. Martins, father and son. Both distinguished, and both interested in model trains, but it was Sr. who became the prolific author in the model railroad press.

Boyce Ficklin Martin, Sr. (1 Apr 1907 to 31 May 1981) was formerly Assistant Dean at the Harvard Business School, Dean of the Emory School of Business, and President of the Louisville Cement Company. 

His byline was Boyce F. Martin, or sometimes just Boyce Martin. The Trains.com index tells me Sr. published 85 articles during his career: 39 in the NMRA Bulletin, 20 in Model Railroader, 15 in Model Trains / HO Monthly, 7 in Railroad Model Craftsman, and 4 in various books. There were also some letters to editors, and a mini-bio appeared in the May '52 MR. His first article was published in 1950, and the last in 1980; a good 30 year run. The University of Louisville Archives has a collection of his of model railroad article manuscripts, photographs, slides, railroad books, and correspondence. Their website states the collection spans the years 1948 to 1979, and takes up 10 linear feet.

Boyce Ficklin Martin, Jr. (23 Oct 1935 to 1 June 2016) was formerly a US circuit judge of the court of appeals for the sixth circuit, and from 1996 to 2003 was the chief judge of the circuit.

According to his May '52 MR mini-bio, Sr. got into the hobby in the late '40s when he bought Jr., who was 12 at the time, an O gauge tin plate train set and they both became enthralled by it. One thing lead to another and Sr. eventually built an HO layout called the Osage Railroad, which won first prize in MR's 1950 "How I Built My Railroad" contest, and is described in the Oct '50 issue of MR. That was Sr.'s first article, but his first publication in MR was a letter to the editor in the April '49 issue in response to a question in the Feb '49 issue that asked readers if the plural of caboose was cabooses or cabeese? Here's his response:

While goose are geese,
No moose are meese.
Two noose are nooses,
Cabeese? Cabooses?

The question's abstruse.
Poor crummy, caboose.
If fleece are fleeces.
Are cabooses cabeese?

Let's have a truce.
Call it caboose.
We all want peace.
Why not cabeese?

There might be some brave soul whose scalp fears no bullet creases
Who might even prefer some term like CABOOSESEESES!

Maybe this kind of word play ran in the family, or maybe Sr. didn't want to be outdone by Jr., who had provided this response in the Jan '49 MR to the "They prefer Varney HO kits, because" contest:

I prefer Varney kits because: Varney vends value. Vehicle veterans vow Varney's vast variety, valid virtues veto vexing vicissitudes. Veering, variable velocities vanish. Volume very vigorously vehemently vaunts. Varney's Vunderful!

The editor's literary review of that youthful prose of a future circuit court of appeals judge: canned corn from a good dictionary :-)

Snipped from Houses for Sale; note Sr.'s PCC through the suburbs

Although I always marvel at the apparent nonchalance of editors back then to publish verse and prose of various sorts, that wasn't what caught my attention. As usual, it was model structure articles. Sr. wasn't a structures specialist as his articles ranged over many model railroading subjects, but he did have a knack for them. I was especially interested in his April '52 MT article, Houses for Sale, where he shows photos of HO houses, both finished and under construction, and as befits a knowledgeable businessman, he explains how and why some real life aspects of the home construction industry should be represented on your layout thereby bringing out another level of realism not often seen on 1950s model railroads. In light of my recent postings about the development of suburban Scarborough in the same time period I found his article quite interesting. Sr. didn't limit applying his business knowledge to the housing industry. Being an executive in the cement industry he wrote a couple of especially insightful articles, A Ready Mix Concrete Plant in the Nov '52 MT and Freight Traffic at a Cement Plant in the Mar '51 RMC, on incorporating aspects of that business on your layout.

I don't know if Jr. ever continued on in the hobby beyond boyhood. Maybe a deeper dive into the articles will tell, but until that time, I'll just enjoy what's out there.

General store, Waupoos, Ontario, 1940s ?

The photo of Brampton's main street in the 1940s generated a lot of off-line discussion, so I thought I'd post this one of Brown & Son General Merchants in Waupoos, Ontario. I think this one was also taken in the late 1940s, but the early 1950s is a possibility.

This is another classic modelgenic building. Its simple structure would make it easy to build, and it has some interesting details out front - a later day Penny Model candidate :-)

Trolley pole rope loops

There are a lot of little jobs that need to be done on the layout to get it into a state suitable for running and photographing. One of the smallest is to add rope loops to the trolley poles to two members of the PCC fleet.

The Bowser PCCs come with rope loops on their trolley poles, but one of mine had a loop that was either malformed, or broken by my mishandling sometime ago. Either way, the pole needed repair. 

To create a new rope loop I took a strand of wire from a multi-strand picture hanging wire, bent it around a drill bit of suitable diameter, and after a little trimming, superglued it to the damaged trolley pole. The picture on the left shows the new rope loop after a dab of flat black paint. It's a little larger than the original, but it doesn't look too bad.

A similar update was made to the Con-Cor PCC's trolley pole. In this case though the model didn't start out with a rope loop, so this is an addition instead of a repair.

The next step for all the cars will be to add trolley ropes so the poles can properly engage with the overhead wire.

Main Street, Brampton, Ontario, 1940s ?

I'm spending a lot of time scanning family photos, and sometimes I find a few that might be of general interest.

I think this one is of Main Street in Brampton, Ontario, taken sometime after WWII in the late 1940s.

Clues? Well, there's the obvious one of a store named Brampton Radio Electric, and that tower in the background I think is part of St. Paul's United Church, which is located on Brampton's Main Street.  The buildings have a very Woodland Scenics look to them, and the autos all look like they could use a good wash. This looks like a classic model railroad street scene, but there are a lot more autos, and the street is much wider than is the norm. I'll update this post if I get any more information.

[14 January 2021 update: From the Brampton Historical Society: Thank you for sharing your old photograph of Main Street. Yes, indeed, it is Brampton way back when. Of course, as you pointed out, the Brampton Radio shop is a significant clue and certainly the iconic St Paul’s church in the distant background is a sure giveaway. The photo is taken from about where the old California Street joined Main St. and captures Main Street facing south. On the right hand side you’ll notice a ‘hotel’ sign which could relate to the late 1800’s Victoria House which sadly was destroyed by fire.]

Starting Thrifty's

Images of Thrifty's on Yonge harvested from the internet

Thrifty's was a retail store that sold blue jeans. I think it had outlets throughout Toronto, but the one that sticks in my mind is the one shoehorned between A& A records and Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street. It's the sign I'm stuck on. I think it would be quite striking on the layout. 

The building Thrifty's was in wasn't always Thrifty's, but until sometime in the early '70s (?) it housed Steele's Tavern. I show Steele's here because it gives a little clearer view of the building's structure. This Thrifty's was eventually taken over by an extension to the neighbouring Sam the Record Man.

There's going to be considerable guess work in building this structure, but the key to sizing it is the sign. I worked up a draft sign in Keynote using standard fonts to get a sign that seemed to have the right size. From the sign, and comparisons to A&A next door, I should be able to approximate the size and shape of the Thrifty's store. 

Now, I say this all the time, but this time gosh darn it I mean it, I want this build to be quick :-) It's more-or-less all facade, so the rest will just be a box. The facade appears to be all black, other than the sign, so that simplifies things a bit. I'm thinking of using some sort of progression modelling on this project, so maybe that'll help speed things up.