A piece shown on Chicago Tonight about the guy that keeps the MSI (HO) model train display running:
http://chicagotonight.wttw.com...05/28/msis-train-guy
Rusty
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Well, "the guy" is a model railroader and his father was a CTA trainman. And he (William) not only starts work at 6 a.m. but has a train collection that is actually larger than the Museum of Science and Industry's fleet of trains and cars.
I call that heroic and I hope to shake his hand.
I just remember when the MSI's train layout was O gauge and Lionel Santa Fe Warbonnet engines rolled where Athearn BNSF units do today.
"HO trains weren't designed to run 8 to 10 hours a day", he says in the piece. That's probably true, but a lot of O gauge trains would have a tough time with that schedule, also. The key is constant maintenance and swapping out equipment.
This layout is beautiful and impressive, but it always seems much more "delicate" the the old 2-rail O Gauge layout. Of course, I grew up with the old layout, and I would make a beeline for it whenever we visited the museum. I used to go up in the balcony and look down on the old layout, watching the Warbonnets and the blue/yellow F -units make the entire circuit.
Make sure you view the engineer's view video at the end of the piece. You can see a number of the museum's other train displays, including a rear view of the #999.
Rusty...thank you so much for posting this. I think this is one of the best interviews centered on that layout I have seen.
Alan
