Ok, Why the Stories?

“What is a railroad without men to make it go?”
- Peppy

Ok, so why the stories? I mean, they are fun to read, but aren’t they just distracting you from modeling? Good question.

My philosophy of model railroading is that a great model railroad is about people, not trains. To make a railroad believable people have to be involved. It makes the lifeless steel breath in air and open its eyes.

The stories paint a picture of the characters that make the railroad what it is. The crazy engineer, the brave miner, the town drunk and the old lady and her chickens on the track make the layout appear to be in the real world. It colors it just like the paint and stains we use on plaster. You become part of their world.

Its one thing to know that a small locomotive has a hard time getting up a steep hill, yet when we ride along with Peppy and Pedro we see the railroad with their eyes. What are they doing? Watching the oil fired boiler, looking for boulders, drinking in thick smoke and sweating in the extreme heat. So what does that tell us about the railroad? Because we sat down and wrote what it would be like to be Peppy we can understand the condition of the railroad, the rocks along the right of way, and the oily soot on the cab. Writing forces us to make notes about the scenery, the conditions of the trackage and the operations of the layout. It FORCES us to focus on realism and to put the plans on paper. When we are done we know that there is an empties load that goes to the mine and they carry guards to ride down with the load.

In fact, the little fact about Jose and German being on the train allowed me to really think about the cargo they are carrying. Silver rich ore. Silver worth steeling. With guards, we need a place for them on the train. We need a guard house. We need guns. It adds a whole dimension to the layout. Just writing this paragraph right now made me realize that we probably need to take the payroll up the mountain once in a while, so we’ll need even more guards!

The last layout we build had a mine. So, behind the church, we added a graveyard with an open burial scene. Morbid? Yup. But what was its purpose? Mining is a deadly business. The reality of that is painted by the open grave and the man’s small children standing beside it. The town is not about the train running around it. It’s about the business of digging coal out of the ground which is the life blood of the people, and what takes their life on occasion. The miners give up part of their life every day to dig coal out of the ground so they can feed their children who grew up to be…miners. I think these types of modeling effects are what made the last layout so visually realistic. It literally drags you in to the lives of the people that live there. It becomes real.

The story paints the picture of the layout and is a very effective tool for making you think. Ask you self…

• Who are the characters on my layout?
• What are they doing?
• Why are they doing it?
• What is their reward?
• What are their fears and concerns?
• Who do they interact with?
• What do they hear, feel, smell, touch and taste?

Can you imagine being Pedro? You are in the 110 degree heat sitting on top of a 200 degree steel boiler. You are surrounded by rock. Buzzards are flying overhead. By putting yourself in the cab of that locomotive you can “see” your layout! Just as real as if you were in Mexico. I’ll guess you are going to put some canteens in the cab!

Just sit down and write a story about your railroad. It only has to be a page or two. You’ll see what you missed!