Looking back, Bob's fascination with trains probably began in front of
his grandmother's house in East Liverpool, Ohio. It was here that he
has vague memories of watching steam trains on the double track
mainline along the Ohio river. In front of the house was a red brick
street, just across the street and down the hill was the tracks with
the river beyond. As a young teen Bob built a 4 x 8 foot HO layout and
dreamed of the grand layouts shown in Model Railroader magazine. His
favorite model was a steam engine and 2 passenger cars that looked alot
like the train from the TV series, Wild, Wild West. The
famous TV train has a home at the California State Railroad
Museum. Alas, when a drivers license was obtained the layout was
forgotten and eventually sold for a total of $50. :(
Upon graduation with a AA degree in electronics, Bob was given a
Vivitar camera system as a gift by his parents. This led to
experimenting with B&W film developing, printing B&W images,
printing color images from slides, a home darkroom, some wedding
photography jobs and a lasting interest in photography. Then came a
spouse, a home, a BSEE degree and a family for the next 20 years.
During that time the boys in Cupertino invented the Apple Macintosh. Also during that time
a
Lionel train was purchased for the kids for around the Christmas tree.
The train was purchased at M. B. Klein Inc. Baltimore
oldest hobby shop. This was the same hobby shop that Bob's father took
him to as a young teen. This time Bob was the father and Bob had a
paying job. Suddenly a grand layout was something to dream about again.
Bob's 1st N-scale layout was constructed on a 4 x 8 foot sheet of
Homasote, placed over a 1 x 4 inch wood frame. Click on the thumbnails
below for views of the layout. It's a bit of a spaghetti bowl design,
but it worked out well for developing the needed modeling skills for
the next layout. This layout may be disassembled for it's structures
for the new layout or may be sold as is. The management has yet to
determine its fate.
Now as Bob's kid's started college several things came together. Bob
had some free time to use creatively. Digital camera's could produce
images as good as film. The World Wide Web was a great place to share
information and to produce some income. So using a Apple Mac G5, a
Nikon D70, and interests in web page authoring, photography, and
railroads, www.rnbphoto.com was born. The
goal of the web site is to feature prototype railroading and model
railroading to promote interest in model railroading as a hobby and to
explore the possibilities of the web as another source of income.
Bob's 2nd N-scale layout plan is illustrated below, click on the image
for full size view. It's designed loosely on the N-TRAK module concept
with three modules measuring 2 x 4 ft. each, in the center and custom
return loop modules on each end. The left most 2 x 4 module is nearly
complete. Just the wiring for DDC operation remains. Also below are
several pictures taken on that module.
