No sign of the Bad Water Western RR

Ad for 1973 MRIA show

I looked through all the 1974 issues of Railroad Modeler looking for other stories and photos about Tom Daniel's Bad Water Western RR layout as promised in the January issue but found none. 

Surprisingly I did find a mention of it in an article John Olson wrote that introduced his Mescal Lines layout to readers of Model Railroader's January 1984 issue - the famous 50th anniversary of MR issue. In the section on the railroad's background story he notes that:

"We [JDL: 'We' as in the Mescal Lines RR] connect the eastern Sierra with such serious and hardworking slim-gauge roads as the Bad Water Western of Tom Daniel (in Western Arizona), the Pelican Bay Ry. & Navigation Co. of Paul Scoles (who models the Northern California sea coast) and, of course, the Fiddletown & Copperopolis Ry. of those great old Carl Fallberg cartoons (we're still looking for it on the map!)."

Maybe I shouldn't be too surprised by the mention as John Olson also had a module on display at the 1973 MRIA show. Olson and Daniel likely have a connection that goes way back.

I'll have to see if Railroad Model Craftsman has anything to say about the 1973 MRIA show. Stay tuned!

Tom Daniel's Bad Water Western RR

Tom Daniel's Bad Water Western RR layout; RM Jan '74

Last night I was re-reading John Olson's article about his Cielo Lumber Co. layout that appeared in the January 1974 issue of Railroad Modeler. As often happens I wound up rummaging through the entire issue. In the process I stumbled across this photo of a little 2'x4' layout built by Tom Daniel. 

You may recall that a few years ago I wrote about how Tom Daniel was one of Railroad Modeler's founding contributors. He published a number of articles there from Dec '71 to Nov '72, but then wasn't seen again in its pages. Well, even though he didn't have an article in the Jan '74 issue, this photo of a layout he built for the Model Railroading Industry Association show held in Orange County, California in October 1973 was in it. So, it looks like he was still doing something with model trains in '73 and '74.

The accompanying article about the show mentions that Daniel's diorama "... incorporates a large highway in a logical manner. More on this in later issues." Well, this is 30Squares, so I'm off to look up those later issues :-)

Running back to Bill Schopp

Vince alerted me to these 2 excellent videos by Tom Pierpoint about customizing brass locomotives. It's very impressive stuff.

Interestingly both make a tip-of-the-hat to Bill Schopp and his legendary loco customization projects.

The other thing that's been on my mind this week is The Guess Who. When I was in Austin recently I got into a long discussion about this and that in a record store with my friend's cousin. Somehow we got onto the topic of The Guess Who and their early 2000s Running Back Thru Canada tour. Since I've returned I've gotten all nostalgic and have been playing the videos from that show. There should be no doubt that Winnipeg is the great music city of Canada.

Town & Country Charger...via the E. L. Moore School of Design?

Last fall I bought a stack of old Car Model magazines. It was the Sept '72 issue that got me started as a serious model maker, so I have a sentimental attachment to the magazine.

I was re-reading a few from the stack last night and came across this story in the June '70 issue by R. Keith Blackmon on how to add exterior wood paneling to a 1/24 scale car. He chose a Dodge Charger for the treatment!

The car looks quite handsome and gives me some ideas. But, the big question is: since it used 1/32" thick balsa for the edge trim, was this E. L. Moore inspired? :-)

Model of LBJ's ranch house

We were visiting Austin, TX recently and had the opportunity to tour the LBJ Presidential Library. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Austin. It's a fascinating building and the exhibits are excellent. Being interested in miniature folk art buildings my radar instantly latched onto this model of LBJ's ranch house.

The model was made by Mr. Ralph Doppler and given to the president and first lady on Easter Sunday, 1966 after the service at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg. According to this Facebook post at the Friends of Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park:

"Mr. Doppler was a local refrigeration engineer who would later be honored by the Gillespie County Historical Society for his work on wooden scale models of historical buildings."

Ladybird Johnson noted in her audio diary:

"Mr. Ralph Doppler who makes models for a hobby had constructed a very minute, detailed, excellent model of our Ranch house, complete, even to the Eagle over the front door of the stone part." 

I'm not sure what scale it is. Maybe something between O and S? It hardly matters. It's quite a decent model and well preserved.