Applied Ferroequinarchaeology

Some of us contributors on this blog are into the model side of railroading. Yet, I haven't seen much about that aspect here. So I thought I'd break the ice. It isn't railfanning per se, but it is the reason behind it for many. Recent travels have given me some renewed interest. Therefore, I'm also about to illustrate why many railfans exist in the first place.

Now the last thing I'd do is brag about these photos. The shot above is a rather poor shot as far as model photography goes. Unfortunately it's about as good as my camera gear will do without an infusion of real money; money I'd rather spend on seeking out the real thing or buying model stuff. There's too much going on in either picture and neither is the best spot on my layout. Some weathering would be nice and since when did the prototype provide "meets" such as these that can be viewed from a convenient 200 foot tower? However, the photos will illustrate my labored point; models facilitate a great form of expression as well as escape.

How else but through model railroading can you get many of your favorite lines, many of which you may have never have seen alive, or which may never have seen each other in the same place, to exist in harmony in your own home. Some go a different way and create a "composite" or even totally fictional railroad. Fiction is certainly less confining so many of us mix "prototype" with "fictional" when we model. Getting a single piece of real railroad equipment into your own home would be a "Manhattan Project" if you ever tried to do it. Models are far simpler. (for simpler minds?) And, as a retired minister told several of us while we chatted trackside this summer, "It's the only place on earth where you are in complete control of your own little world."

This urge to "re-create" also partially explains the "ferroequinarchaeology" bug in most of us. We seek things out in order to find better ways to model them. How many of us have walked around a weed covered foundation or hiked a roadbed to that old trestle just so we can get a sense of "what was". I've walked over a barely visible wye roadbed, stepped around old timbers rotting in a field and just gazed at the landscape in order to get a feel for the long gone Rio Grande Southern's operations on Lizard Head Pass or the Denver and Salt Lake's Rollins Pass snow shed maze. We then pour over photographs, plans, drawings, historical accounts, timetables and manuals. We wander through museums and historical societies. All of this in pursuit of the perfect "model" within the artificial world we have created. Present-day modelers seek "what is" but essentially have some of the same challenges when it comes to interpreting what they see with their own eyes. Even then, in the end, we all only use a tiny fraction of what we discover. I never did model anything of Colorado's narrow gauge for all the hunting I did as a teen. (Maybe it was the high price tags and high skill required for this specialty field.)

Camaraderie is another reason to dabble in model railroading and seek out the real thing. The recent expedition to Pennsylvania reminded me of this. The Fiddler had a bunch of local modelers over to try out his basement empire for the first time while we were there. What a bunch of pro's. They hang out at other people's operations constantly and know how these things work. They seemed to be easy going and all were experts in some aspects of railroading - because of the same urge to investigate and seek information about railroads past and present. Each had their own interests and seemed willing to share them with the others. What a fun evening. Something that doesn't happen as much in Maine as elsewhere. Some of those guys go to "operating sessions" several times each week! I didn't even get past the paperwork, radio gear or the wireless throttles, so I stayed out of the way mostly.


Model railroading is fun and all but I'm no zealot like some I know. I just have a little fun now and then and am by no means a "master modeler". We make fun of people who are so obsessed with perfection that they are "rivet counters" - that is, someone who feels a model (and often the modeler who built it) is inferior unless every rivet is precisely where it was on the prototype. These folks are known to fully model the insides of engines and cars, piece by microscopic piece. Some have been known to remove and replace all the side braces on a molded car body because they were off by a couple of scale inches. (that's dedication to accuracy!) Most of the guys I know enjoy a more relaxed approach and shoot for that perfection but are happy with something that merely approaches it. Thank heavens for them too because my eyes can barely see the rivets on my tiny N scale cars. You won't find me counting them even if I cared to know how many to look for.

BTW - I loosely model the New Haven and the various "Anthracite Roads" roughly radiating out of Maybrook Yard in upstate New York. It's a "composite of real but with a fictional twist" sort of line, like many are, after all the site of the yard is now a truck terminal for Yellow Freight. No more rail yard. The layout sees a few "run-throughs" from Maine that manage to make their way down there, giving me an excuse to have Maine Central as well as Bangor and Aroostook equipment make the rounds. Now, if I can just find a plausible storyline for Colorado and Southern run-throughs, I'll be a happy camper! Gray over red SD9's and silver cabeese mingling with the Scranton peddler freight! It's fun to be King!

Here's to actually applying all that ferroequinarchaeology while maintaining a firm grip on reality! May we avoid having it all figured out, or achieving total perfection, so that we can have something to keep us interested in perpetuity.

I think we can look forward to many more slide shows mixed with adult beverages, in the name of "research".

BC