Bruce Carpenter’s Model Railroad Hobby
Bruce CarpenterDescription
What captivates Bruce Carpenter and his operating buddies when they visit his outstanding layout, and what motivated him to build a basement-sized modern era railroad in the first place? Learn what originally sparked his interest in the model railroad hobby and keeps his interest piqued in preparing for and then managing a four-hour operating session for seven fellow layout owners. The planning, anticipation and rush of energy as an operating session begins is probably not unique to the model railroad hobby but is an aspect that really enthuses Bruce.
Bruce tells Allen Keller that providing the opportunity for his friends – at least for a short time – to experience jobs they will probably never hold in real life is an aspect of the hobby he really enjoys. As a railroad modeler, you can be a civil engineer, an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer and several other professions as you create your world in miniature – just some of the many reasons he cites that the model railroad hobby is the greatest pastime in which to be involved!
There's nothing that is a greater feeling to me than about five minutes prior to starting an operating session. Everybody's ready, you know, they're all pumped up, ready to go, and you know, here we go, we're gonna move roughly 1,000 freight cars. We're gonna do that in 40 to 50 trains. There's a yard operator, a tower operator, a dispatcher, all of which will probably never get to do those jobs in real life, but I've been able to provide that to people that want to want to, or that always wanted to try that, and to me, that's the neat thing is satisfying the needs of the people that come down here. I want to make them feel they're home. They had a good time. Personally, the layout, aside from all the other things, is it was a personal goal to do something like this. I don't recall the issue, it was a "Craftsman" magazine. It was a large Union Pacific layout, and the photos, when I was in grade school was just so realistic. I just knew that someday I wanted to do something like this. And at that time, I didn't have any goal in mind, obviously, but as I got older, I kept having that thought in my mind, someday I'm gonna have a basement size layout, and I want it to be scenic, and I want it to operate well and interact with people. Model railroading is probably the greatest hobby anyone could partake in. It allows you to be a civil engineer, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, a model builder. I think it makes you aware of the surroundings. It tends to make you focus on real life things that you try to portray and model. And I think most people that are pretty serious modelers, they pay attention to things, they're very attentive. They notice the details, they notice the small things, the fine points. And I think that makes a great model railroader. Bruce is right. The details of life and railroading do make a difference. Capturing those on a layout is the hard part. I think you'll agree that the BNSF is an outstanding reflection of modern railroading. This freelance railroad is based on an idealized prototype, with industries designed to fit the concerns of Bruce and his operating group. The car card system that Bruce created allows him to share the fun with seven other layout owners. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe is a great model railroad because Bruce has created a heavily trafficked modern railroad the way he likes it, with up-to-date rolling stock and locomotives.
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