Model Railroad Inspiration and Technique

Dean, the South Ridge Line represents a multi-tiered transportation corporation with Andean Industries as the top of the pyramid. Did you base this on your own work experience? No, I really didn't, Allen. I always wanted a big railroad. I wanted a railroad that did a lot of things and that's why it operates in this particular fashion. And where I worked for a living, why of course, that's where the steel mill came into it. You worked at a steel mill? No, I sold securities for a living but I traveled in the rural of America, any place from Cleveland to Pittsburgh, to Youngstown to Andean. What's the purpose of the railroad? The purpose of the railroad is to serve Davies Steel Corporation. If it wasn't for Davies, the railroad would just be a streak of rust. Most people get started with Lionel or American Flyer, by and large, that's the same story over and over. Or they get in, they get a copy of Model Railroad or RMC, and they get started. You got started with Railroad Pulp magazine-- I got started with Railroad Pulp. And they were fascinating. And of course this was back when they were still building nice, big Northerns and articulated locomotives and even Pacifics and Hudsons. And I was just fascinated by this. Why have you taken a different approach to the hobby than others? That is, modeling a steel mill railroad? Well, I suppose because I have a big ego . What do you mean? I mean-- Well, the fellow that doesn't have an ego or that claims he doesn't have an ego's a hypocrite. And I do have a big ego. I like to be, I'm fascinated by this. You like to be different? I wanna be different. Everyone wants to be different. And this was one way to go to be different. I've become kind of the guru of the steel industry. I've worked with model die casting. And you go and you see a set of cars that they have available for the Southern or the NNW or the Virginian, and you say, "I did that". You did the research. I did the research, I did the artwork. It must be a thrill. It is, it is a tremendous thrill. Why does the steel industry fascinate you so much? Well, there's different rolling stock, for one thing. It's creative. The work to find these items, the research to dig in, it's amazing, the other thing I've done, I've done quite a lot of work for, I still call it J&L, but it's LTV. And they wanted some bottle cars, which are the cars that they carry hot metal in, they transfer hot metal. And they wanted some cars to give to men that were retiring. With the kind of job I had, I could go up and knock on the door. And I'd say, "I'd like to talk to somebody in sales engineering." And I'm very pleased to say I was never refused. I have a portfolio of black and whites of little Norma the Blast Furnace and the BOF. And they would look at this, "Mike, come over here, look what this guy's done." And they were very, very generous. That's where you got all the-- But you have to go and ask. Yeah. That's how you got all the information. That's where I got an awful lot of it. Dean, let's talk about the detail parts that go into steel mills and blast furnaces and things that you make. Nobody makes parts for steel mills. I mean, you can't go to Details West or Details Associates or-- Well, you can for the headlights. Well, yeah. But where do you get these unusual parts? I fabricate almost all of them. Styrene is the medium I like to work with. What about the scrounged parts that you have, Dean? I call them scrounged, but you obviously can't make every little item that you have. All right, let me go and get you a couple.