The Model Railroad Hall Of Fame

[florynow]

Country Music has one.  Rock and Roll has one.  Model railroading ought to have one too.

There wold be separate toy train halls for Lionel, American Flyer, et al, so our hall would focus on the hobby side.

What would this hall be like?  What you would see when you first come in?  What would be some of the important pieces there?  I thought I knew where to start, but don't.

Maybe there would be stars in the sidewalk for Hal Carstens, A.C. Kalmbach, Bill Walthers, Gordon Varney, Irving Athearn, folks like that.  You'd start with a historical timeline linear exhibit that would probably start around 1934 when the Big Bang of model railroading seemed to happen, with Model Railroader, Model Craftsman, and Walthers all starting about the same time.............. going through the beginnings of HO ............ through kits and then RTR supplanting total scratchbuilding........... through cab control into DCC.... etc.

Some iconic pieces I think of first to be on display would be a Varney Little Joe 0-4-0, the Mantua Booster, and the Athearn Little Hustler to show how so many people first got started.  Then there would be the Athearn F-7 from the late 1950's, some die-cast steam engine kits, the early Revell and Lionel HO train sets .............

What else?  This is just the tip of the ice berg.

PF

[Nathan]

There are already two 'halls' if you will for model railroading.  One is the Hobby Industry Association that was MIRA at one time.  The have a hall of fame that already has over 50 names.

There are several museums of model railroad equipment.  The Sacramento Railroad Museum and the NMRA are putting together one from donations of equipment to the NMRA that has been happening for over 50 years.

[the Bach-man]

Dear All,
We are honored that  Lee Riley, Bud Reece, and Dick Maddox, in order of induction, represent Bachmann in the Hall of Fame.
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[ebtnut]

A few names off the top of my head that should be in the list:

John Armstrong - Layout planning
John Allen - Modeling and weathering
Gordon Varney - Varney models
Mel Thornburgh - Model loco construction
Linn Westcott - MR editor
Tony Koester - RMC editor
Bill Ryan - PFM
Levon Kemalyan - Kemtron
Cliff Grandt - Grandt Line
Bob Brown - NG&SL Gazette
Jack Alexander - Narrow gauge modeling

[phillyreading]

Another one not to be forgotten would be Joshua Lionel Cowen, the guy that started Lionel and standard gauge. Without J. L. Cowen American model railroading may not have gone very far.
American Flyer (A.C. Gilbert?) came out with O gauge then went to S gauge.
Another famous company would be Kadee Couplers, not just H.O but other scales as well.
Also Ives Electric Trains, 1930's.
Bachmann brothers from Philadelphia, Plasticville buildings.

Lee F.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

John Tyler, of Mantua
Robert Schleicher, author

[Woody Elmore]

John Paige and Paul Larson were past editors of Model Railroader. The Polk brothers, of Polk's Hobby Ship in Manhattan, were early HO importers. I'm sure these fellows are remembered somewhere.

Also, Bobbye Hall, one of the lone female hobby shop owners, was responsible for Hallmark Trains. Another female was Carmen Webster whose hobbyshop in NYC was known for years as Ma Websters.

I think all the lists have forgotten Frank Ellison, an early O scale modeller, who was a pioner in model train scheduling and operation. He's the inventor of the "smile" measurement. Sad to say, I really don't remember the difference between a scale mile ans a smile.

[ebtnut]

A "smile" is derived from the use of a fast clock.  If you operate your railroad with real time, then a train moving at a scale 30 miles per hour will take two minutes to go a scale mile, about 60 feet in HO.  However, most of us don't have the space for more than a couple of scale miles of main line.  In order to make your timetable look more credible, the "smile" is related to the fast clock.  If you use a 6:1 time reduction, then your smile would be 1/6 of 60 feet, or 10 feet. 

[Terry Toenges]

The Bach Man should be in there, too, for his considerable contributions to the model railroad industry on this board.

[2-8-8-4]

Lewis K. English, Sr. of Bowser Manufacturing, who passed away a couple months ago at I believe age 93, is a member of the Model Railroading Hall of Fame.  He was inducted in 2003.

Here's a link I found to some of the members:

http://www.hmahobby.org/railroad-hall-fame.html

Many of the folks mentioned above are indeed members.

[john tricarico]

i have my way at nominatios it will be
Peter Bianco founder of TRAINWORLD
and an sales associate of Bachmann Sol Weitman
i knew these to men very well and if a day comes there is a hobby hall of fame
they have my unamious votes