The Full Story of "Veranda Turbine"

Lee:

You need to think about a career in Hollywood.

LOL nice story... but shouldn't you be running trains?

With the imagination you have, your layout will never be finished.

Very funny.  There's a screenplay in there somewhere.  I always knew that engineers, nerds, and geeks had an inner mad man (mad in the sense that it is a necessary component to any artistic endeavor).  The artistic endeavor shows in the evolution of your layout.

Hey Lee,

You are retired,right?

Norm

Pretty imagitive.

He's gone mad...TRUELY MAD!!!...maybe from all those years of the SIMPLE GREEN!....but I loved it!!!

I can't believe I read the entire story...WHEW!!!  Very imaginative Lee....when do you find time to work??? 

Alan

Well done. Consistently first rate.

Looking forward to the continuation of the saga.

Lee, That is the story for just one of your characters.  What about each of the other figures on your layout.  Pat B.

How much to hire her for an appearance on my layout?

I'd like to hire her to come and sing at McCuaig's Maui Lounge, which had its grand opening not too long ago, on my layout.  Matt

That is absolutely brilliant Lee.  And now that I know for certain that the Carthaginians invented time travel, I can happily ignore any small historical or geographical inconsistencies on my apology for a layout. 

 About $15 - MTH Railking Set 12, Assortment 1 product number 30-11074 (photo below).  It includes a dog and five figures:

• "Hollywood" Veranda is the figure nearest the center - the best "babe" figure I know of in O gauge.  She comes in a bikini and very with unevenly painted skin (I bought 15 of these sets to get all the figures I have of her, and all were just the same - I think she is supposed to be covered with beach sand smudges in places).  I cut and moved arms and legs and put a skirt/dress on her (tissue paper, painted) on her for many of the figures I have on the layout.
• Veranda in later Motherhood is the leftmost figure in the set.  I use her about three times on the layout.  I use another figure from somewhere else once (picture of Four's birthday party with is new toy train set) and am not sure where it came from.  The little kid on the extreme right I use twice on the layout as her youngest son.
• The figure in the upper center, repainted with a t-shirt on and a gun glued in his hand, is the guy running from Trayne Rekk on the final slide.

Veranda in later life - the figure in the black dress entering her Tipton-Turbine building, is from another figure set - I don't remember which, but she is unmodified and I have "old Veranda" on my layout only the one time.  

And now I know!  Good story.

Great tale, Lee!  Certainly, given her fabulous body, I can understand where the name "Veranda" comes from.

Can't wait for the sequel.

Paul Fischer

Frank Ellison wrote in one of his many articles on "The Art of Model Railroading":

"...model railroading is definitely a play.  It is the presentation of the drama of railroading in which the tracks are the stage, the buildings and scenery are the setting, the trains are the actors and the operating schedule is the plot." 

Lee, you have taken this one step further with your inclusion of a real story - people and the trains to create a more dramatic and dynamic plot. 

I do hope you are holding on tightly to your imagination, because you are clearly tiptoeing on the very edge out there.... 

It is fun to witness your storytelling.. Don't stop now, just don't fall off the edge...

Lee,  Outstanding!  Your imagination definitely works in 1:1 scale!  I wonder if Veranda knew Esther Williams who would have been her comtemporary and just passed away.  

I think you could turn that into a good novel.   

What an amazing and well-detailed episode of child's play and imagination!  Congratulations, Lee!

Thank you for all the wonderful replies. Yes, I have a definite Hollywood connection to my layout.   I had/will continue to have a lot of fun with the characters I weave into the town and trains on my layout: imagined ones like Veranda Turbine and Nigel Quick (a retired British race car driver), and "real" characters like Lucas Doolin (Robert Mitchum's character in Thunder Road), and Dutton Peabody III (grandson of the editor of the town paper in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance).  I try to make a story and have all these folks show up together, stories interwoven, etc. (Nigel runs a sports car garage, John Beresford Tipton III loves sports cars, etc.) - fun. 

My favorite Veranda scene is not actually in the story above.  Here she is walking in front of the Union Monitor building after having had lunch with her husband.  All these gentlemen are distracted, but that guy in the red jacket is about to do serious damage to himself with that fireplug!

Owwww!!!  I've been there, done it!  A low blow indeed.

. 

Thank you for your concern, Wood! And I'm sorry it took more than a day to reply, but I had lent my camera to someone and had to get it back 

I am so glad you reminded me about not falling over the edge, because I have wanted to set up the scene below on my layout for some months and kept putting it off.  The residents of San Beattadaise have discoveedr that the world ends - at the edge of the layout.  They seem to show no fear, but a lot of curiosity.

Ha ha!  I thought about doing a scene like that myself... maybe even dremel cutting an auto or two in half to place right at the edge!

So, Lee.....

About your cocktail hour...

And that hookah/bong under the layout?

BTW, do you ghost-write for Big Bang Theory??

.

.

.

.

.

Sounds like Gollywood....really does!

KD

Lee, I don't know how I missed this post when it first came out but it sure is a beauty!I think that you would classify this as a historical novel in the Reader's Digest condensed version. Not trying to steal any of your thunder but I believe that your humor and mine have a lot in common. That is why I enjoy reading your posts. Continue to be on the edge and leave some room for me!

Great read and the story line is amazing! Each setting is great Lee! Thanks Terry

Lee,

I loved your story and the way you worked it into your layout. Which came first the story or the layout? Are you sure it isn't real?

With so many Veranda's on your set I can see why you spend so much time there.

Lee,

Greatest back-story of all time! Thanks for keeping us (and you) entertained.

That is, by many orders of magnitude, the best layout story I've ever read. 

Lee's creativity knows no bounds and his execution is nothing short of amazing.  I like the edge of layout idea so much that I'll be looking at my layout today to see where I can incorporate Lee's idea.

Thanks, Lee!

That is priceless! Be careful with your copyright, though. The plot line of Queen of the Incas sounds like something a stoned studio head would actually want. 

also, gotta love Three's train set expansion. Haven't most of us wanted to do that?

All that money and she only has the one red dress?

loved it!

I WANT to see GG1 G.I.!!!!!

PS....the story is very Orson Wells ish.....

Lee is an invaluable resource of all kinds of imagination....a true inspiration that can kindle creativity in others!! 

Alan

Lee:    Your imagination knows no bounds,  Absolutely  delightful and wonderful.  Good for you.

Lee, that was incredible. As a real film archivist for the past 44 years for a major NY modern art museum, I was absolutely taken by the story! Loved the way you fit the film titles to the narrative, and the story was so much fun.

Well done!!!

Take care,

Artie

Lee,

Awesome story.     Shouldn't you be making movies?

George

Lee,

Didn't Veranda have a rivalry with Magnetta? 

George

Great and imaginative story Lee