Rough Construction

 I do not, as a general rule, know anyone in the hobby around here. They do not know me. My old circle of friends endured years of Me; at home; in the train room; and while I was at work. They all saw,  first hand,  what I was capable of. 

I AM NOT A MODELER. I am not capable of building good models. I don’t, as a rule enjoy assembling model trains. “If I can’t get it out of the box and on the rails in ten minutes…”, you’ve all heard, or more accurately read, me saying that.

I developed a construction skill in the entertainment business. FAST not necessarily good. My rough framing will not win medals for beauty, but it will pass inspection. 

Over the thirty odd years I spent in the entertainment business it was “Get a concept Thursday afternoon, and have it built and in front of the camera by Monday or Tuesday.” The parts the camera didn’t see didn’t get finished. Then tear it all down Wednesday and start over again.

I recently got a lot of flak from some local modelers about my loud talk, and I fully admit my mouth gets me in all my trouble, my lack of a layout, and my boasting that I build fast. Well I do build pretty fast. Maybe not Doug Tagsold fast, but who else does?

Anyway this hurt my feelings. My older friends had seen my prior results, and non railroad projects. Why won’t these people around here, who have never seen me before, not accept my word for it?

When we moved from Southern California, 2600 miles, across the country the only thing I was sure of was that I would have no trouble finding and making friends. To be honest, it’s been the hardest part.



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