Creating a Realistic C&O
Mike BurgettDescription
Mike Burgett aims to fully immerse the operators in the Chesapeake & Ohio model railroad. He desires to give them a sense of actually working a shift on the railroad. His dedication to realism is beyond the imagination. As a matter of fact, Mike explains that there are times when operating sessions get so intense that at the end of the night they have to clear their mind and realize they were not working for the real railroad.
Creating a Realistic C&O
In part eight of the 11-part Chesapeake & Ohio series, Allen Keller and Mike Burgett discuss the realism of the layout. Mike took on the challenge of recreating the Chesapeake & Ohio without any tangible experience with the prototype. He strived for accurate scenes through extensive historic research. In this particular video, Allen guides Mike through a dialogue with respect to the operating sessions of the Chesapeake & Ohio. This video also offers some intimate footage of the model railroad while they speak.
The Chesapeake & Ohio team operates under full CTC rules just like the prototype would. The same guidelines and regulations enforced on the real railroad are applied to the operating session of the model railroad. Although the operating sessions are very strict and precise, Mike ensures that his team still has fun. He alludes to the concept “blending laughter with rules syndrome.” He explains how that description is applicable to the way in which his team functions together. He also mentions model railroad solutions versus prototype solutions and explains which option he believes to be the best choice in modeling.
Maintaining realism in a model railroad layout can be a challenging task. It requires a large amount of research, time and dedication. The Chesapeake & Ohio operating team perfectly illustrates the amount of effort it takes to perform an accurate operating session.
Now you like for the operators to feel like they've become immersed in the C&O of 1965 and actually worked a shift. Tell me about that. What does that involve? Well, you know, going back to... I have no personally tangible experience with the C&O. This is my way to experience the C&O. So, the whole historic research and the accuracy of the scenes and the trains and the equipment is my way of creating, if you will, a miniature time machine. You know, when I look at JD Cabin, that's what JD Cabin looked like in the '60s. You know, it's a museum model, if you will, from the accuracy standpoint. But along with that, getting your mind in my operator's mind, engrossed in... We're moving coal traffic. you know, that is the purpose. And there's times that it gets intense that at the end of the night, you actually have to stop and clear your mind and realize we weren't working for the real railroad. Oh! And trying to make people think like a railroad is really, I think, the key business decision, you know. The railroad's a business, it's there to make money. And we tend to forget that as modelers and rail fans that it's not there just to have pretty trains go by it's there to turn a buck. Yeah. Yeah. But you don't make it boring. You don't make it tedious for people. You wanna make it fun, but even though you're still being very particular. Well, I call that the blending laughter with rules syndrome. Okay. There's rules. We try to adhere to them and do them right, but at the same time, everything has a comical value to it. So, you know, we're never afraid to laugh during an operating session. You won't come down here and find a bunch of stone faced individuals walking around all quiet. There's a lot of conversation, a lot of laughter, but the box cars are switched right. I think where we fall down is when we look at our model railroads and we try to complex it with a model railroad solution versus a prototype solution. Prototype railroading is infinitely simple. It's point A to point B operations, you know. And, as modelers, we tend to make a lot of concessions because we're thinking modeling. If you think prototype and you think that's simplistic it's like Allen McClelland said, you know, "Prototype practices are sound and true." They are the solution.
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