Page 16 - NMRA Roundhouse September October 2020

I model the 1970s Lehigh Valley in HO scale. I arrived at this combination via Rio Grande layouts in N and HO scales and a couple of years living in the North East USA.
One aspect of the hobby I really enjoy
is building and detailing, locomotives, freight cars and structures. My big failing is that my modelling projects suffer from “mission creep” and end up taking much longer than expected. However, I have ended up with a set of detailed loco- motives and cars from North Eastern railroads, all ready for the layout I will build (maybe, one day). I especially enjoy making credible, detailed models from very basic kits – silk purses from sows’ ears as shown in the photos.
I made an unusual detour from model- ling during the 1990s. I produced some railroad art.The art and modelling are both very time-consuming and one of them had to go. It was the art that went and I have now sold most of my original paintings.
Over the years I have been quite in- volved with modules. In 1995 the Region built a switching module “Thorn Tree Flats” as part of the 50th Anniversary activities. I looked after this for several years, taking it to public and Region events. It was fun to operate and very photogenic as the accompanying photo shows. It still exists and is held by Ron Gager. Although I have built a couple of layouts, most of my current activity is centred on Freemo modules.As a result I have found I enjoy the “operations” side of modular railroading and each month produce a layout design and the associated switch lists for our Bearwood Group meetings.
All this module involvement doesn’t mean that modelling has stopped. Im- proving my modules and adding more detail provides lots of enjoyment and challenges and I find the hobby even more absorbing and satisfying than I did back in those early N-scale days in the 1960s.
Tom Winlow
A detour into art in the 1990s. “Rio Grande in the Rockies” is in oils and 27”x 20”
“Silk purses from sow’s ears” The Penn Central G31b gondola was kitbashed from the toy-like Con-Cor model above.
ROUNDHOUSE-September/October2020-75thAnniiversaryIIssue
TOM WINLOW REGION PRESIDENT 1994-1996
Thorn Tree Flats was very photogenic. I kitbashed, detailed and painted both engines
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