Reply To: The Guy With The Train In His Basement

[Patte Rosebank]

@ADDled, I’m not really looking at it from the outside.  I’m standing in the middle of doorway.

I think Jason is pretty amazing.  He has a unique project; he’s doing what he loves, and he’s appreciated for it by his peers and by his wife.

I found his site because I’m fascinated by old subways, streetcars, and passenger trains.  You should have seen my eyes light up when I visited the Halton Radial Railway.  When I went to the London Transport Museum, I was more excited than the school kids there.  And I occasionally have happy dreams in which I’m riding in one of the TTC’s old Gloucesters again.

So I think having an exact 1:1 scale replica of a passenger coach (especially a type that I’ve actually ridden on) in a person’s basement is one of the coolest, most unusual things imaginable.

It was Jason’s list of “accidents” during the building process that made me think he might have ADD.  It sounded to me like they were caused by inattention and not doing things in the proper order.  I’ve had quite a few “accidents” that way when I’ve tried to make something, but I’ve never managed to set a power-saw on fire.  Yet.

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When my brother and I were little, our dad had a model railroad in his workshop, in the basement.  We’d spend hours there, helping him build the models and custom-paint the rolling stock into old livery, and listening to his stories about riding on those old trains when he was a kid.

When Dad lost interest in the model railroad, my brother took over and made it his own special world.  It was a terrible day when Dad got rid of the train table to make room for Mom’s new pantry.  Dad kept one piece:  a CP switcher in maroon livery.  It lives on a shelf in his study.

But that model railroad started something big for my brother.

Today, he’s an expert on HO scale plastic figures, and he just published his second book on the subject (“The One Inch Army II”).  I designed the cover and the promotional materials, but the research, writing, and layout are all his own.  All 800 pages of it!

When people see his hobby room for the first time, they just stand there, with their mouths hanging open.  It’s filled, floor to ceiling, with his collection of about 400,000 figures, plus dioramas and sets.  It’s so full, there’s no “room tone” echo at all.

When I go with him to hobby shows to help sell his book, it’s great to see how much he’s appreciated by the toy soldier community.  It’s a relatively small percentage of the general population, but it’s a very loyal one, and it’s scattered all over the world.

He’s a bit eccentric, but he definitely doesn’t have ADHD.  He has an MBA and a solid career, and when he sets his mind to something, he plans carefully, and does it gradually over time, so it’s done right the first time.  I don’t.

That second book took 10 years of research, and about 4 years of writing, and it’s huge.  I could never have done that, so I have a real appreciation for someone who could.

And I especially appreciate someone who can devote several years to bringing back a train that I remember riding on when I was little.

I wish I could buy one of Jason’s Turbo Train models, but without Dad’s model railroad, I’ve nowhere to run it.  (sigh)

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