I didn't see a place for new member introductions so I'll put it here, if it's in the wrong place my apologies . My son and I have been long time readers of the forum and I must say there is a lot of valuable information here. I've always like trains to some extent. I had an HO set growing up that I would always play around with. My son on the other hand has loved trains since he was 3 and he started off with a Thomas and Friends O gauge set and we have since grown our o gauge collection. We are in the process of building an around the wall layout in a section of the basement the wife and I set aside. With all the great information here and videos out there on the internet I think we might be able to pull it off.
I am excited to find a group of enthusiasts concerning O gauge scales modeling. I grew up going from yard to yard, train to train to measure and photograph the Sacramento Northern and Pacific Electric Railway cars for Dad's (Bill Hoffmann) scratch built cars. I see there was an article about him in a forum in 2015. He built over 700 cars with exquisite detail from Northern bass wood (apple crates in the 1930's). I have been looking for articles in the various Railroad magazines about and by him. The last one I found, besides yours, was a 1986 article in the Model Railroad Magazine.
A few details for those who are old enough to remember him and had questions in the 2015 post: Dad lived in San Francisco, La Habra Heights, CA, Westport, CT and finally in Orinda, CA. Each home had a large but plain layout and an incidental house. In La Habra Heights it encircled the garage with a connecting section attached to the garage door completing the circle when the door was closed. He did not make much scenery, just lots of track, transfer tables and car barns for running the cars he built. They were powered by the track and an overhead live wire for the trolley pole or pantograph. His early cars had flywheel engines and later cars had little engines he acquired in Japan while doing business for Rheem there in the 1960's. He did not die in the 1980's as someone in the forum suggested. He should have from lymphoma, but survived. Each time he had chemotherapy, he would bring one of his scratch built cars, wrapped in newspaper and unveil it to the eager eyes of the doctors and staff. It was this ceremony that kept his mind and spirit alive while his body failed. Building the 500+ piece cars gave him purpose. He survived against the odds! Next he encountered a very rare and often fatal sarcoma, requiring the amputation of his right ring and little fingers on a right handed modeler. After some depression about his future as a modeler, he figured out how to build with three fingers. At this time it was the British Columbia and Oregon Electric. Later in the 1990's he went blind from macular degeneration, glaucoma and cataracts. He continued to make his scratch built cars by feel and the tiny peripheral vision he retained. He moved to Orinda in 1991 and had a difficult time building a new layout without eyes, but he did! The paint jobs on his cars were not as good by this time. He finally passed away in 2003, leaving my brother and me this historical collection of hundreds of trains. He maintained that those who retired from work without a compelling interest in something, such as modeling, died within two years. He out lived his life expectancy by 20 years! I am now left with the responsibility of finding a home for his cars. They are an amazing legacy. I am in communication with the Smithsonian Museum. Some of his precisely detailed Pullman cars were solicited by the California State Railway Museum in Sacramento. I would enjoy suggestions. There are some nice pictures in the 2015 forum about him......
Laurel-Rose von Hoffmann-Curzi
Welcome.
