As a young boy, our family was below average income and there was never an allowance and seldom anything new. Typical to the time and situation, if you wanted something you built it or fixed something that was second-hand. One advantage I had was that I was very creative and artistic. I was fascinated with creating with different materials and colors. Some of it came well, but some of course didn’t.
When NGMC was started, it was built on this very premise; everything in the store has to be built, modified or painted. During the same time, I started collecting and studying old model railroad catalogs and magazines (WWII and before) to get ideas for new products that were once provided, but the suppliers disappeared. Reading these I was surprised by the breadth and depth of the modeling that occurred. While many think the modeling of that time was simplistic, in many cases it was more advanced than today as it required so much effort and knowledge to accomplish certain tasks. More so, they often had limited materials at hand and those materials were very difficult to acquire due to the War restrictions on both raw material and manufacturing. The true modelers figured it out, they made due, and crafted their empires!
The past few years the pandemic and economy have created a similar situation as the supply of product has lessened while prices, for those that can afford certain things, has increased dramatically. As well, the loss of suppliers is noticeable in some scales, putting the market in a somewhat similar position of the late 1930s and 1940s. Engines, lumber, plastics, etc all fell victim to the supply chain woes of recent. Some has rebounded and some hasn’t.
With that said, we have an opportunity to reboot and inspire the hobby using traditional methods, tools, and approaches to complete a large percentage of our model railroad layouts. This of course does not mean we cannot embrace new technologies, but is does give the opportunity to not being obliged to wait and pull something out of a box. Hence, the movement I have coined is ‘Modeling 1940s Style.’ Using old publications from the 1930s to the 1960s, I will both test and modify older approaches that can cost very little or nothing at all. We will embrace the fine art of dumpster diving, begging, and borrowing! If able, I will create new methods inspired by these as well.
I hope you find this journey enjoyable and if you would like me try or test a method or process, contact me.