Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my dad. For most of my life before my parents moved to Florida, my dad had an elaborate model train set up in the basement. Dad was often down there, wiring lights, signals, running the trains, and making miniature houses and signs and landscaping. He was always very good with this hands and he created little worlds (one of the towns was “Claudville”) that I took for granted.
I would always stop down there and admire whatever Dad had added to to his miniature world. He had a huge train table that eventually extended into the next room. And it got even larger when they retired to Northern Michigan. He started out with Lionel trains, but very quickly turned to HO trains, which were much smaller and had a level of detail that was amazing. He made the train car you see by hand. Thankfully, at some point he gave it to me and I admire it more and more as I work in miniature myself.
When they came to visit me in San Diego, we would visit the model train museum in Balboa Park. There were always model railroad enthusiasts there, running the trains, chatting with visitors – it was tailor-made for my Dad.
I think – no, I know – that I would view my dad’s work in a different way today. Now, I know firsthand how difficult working in miniature is and how teeny-tiny HO scale is compared to the scale I work with. My dad’s hands often had a tremor, which made that work even more of a challenge, but he stuck with it.
By the way, I work in 1:12 scale. HO is 1:87 – so much tinier. 1 inch in miniature equals 12 inches in real life. In HO, 1 inch equals 87 inches in real life.
When my parents moved to Florida, he sold his trains. I can’t imagine how sad that made him, especially when I learned, later in my dad’s life, that he never wanted to leave Michigan. He only did it because my mom insisted on it.
I used to have that “Claudville” sign, but it disappeared and I have no idea where it is now.
I miss my dad. How I wish we could talk about our miniature worlds now. How I wish I had talked with him more about his incredible talent for making small things.
But I do like to think that I inherited his gift. And that maybe he’s smiling down on me as I work in miniature.
Stay safe.
Happy Monday.
