Verne often posts on the Model Railroad Hobbyist forum. I, too, miss his N scale model railroad. He does beautiful work no matter what scale he works in !
We get together every time I am in Phoenix, but that has been a while ........ I was fortunate to inherit the bulk of his N scale collection.
I've got Verne's N Scale Norm, and Sue, and the dog, and the cat..... at a retirement home in Flagstaff, living just above the tracks on my layout. And his incredible handmade telephone poles, some really nice freight cars, and a few other things. We're still in regular communication. I got out to visit him JUST AFTER the Arizona Divide layout had been taken down. Nothing left but the benchwork and backdrop, and there was On30 track laid out on it.... He does great work, but I missed the N layout by THAT MUCH. I met Verne on the Atlas forum, and we were mutually astounded to discover we were modeling the exact same spot on the Santa Fe, him in 1948, and me in 1972.
I would have loved to get those telephone poles.......But they were already gone to a good home with you Randy. Still, I was happy to help him out and happy to have his handiwork running on my rails.
Pete, these change factors may be true for some people. Turning away from model railroading is not one for those of us who love this hobby and "have creosote and cinders in our blood." I am 75 years old and do not remember anytime when I was not interested in trains. I started asking for "an electric train for Christmas" before my parents thought I could take care of one.
I don't think Pete was suggesting a loss of interest in trains. Perhaps a loss of interest in n scale, a prototype, online forums etc.
What I was suggesting are such as job changes, growing family, income versus a few spare dollars for hobbies, availability of any decent spare time, health issues, etc. And yes, there are some (thankfully, not many) who leave the hobby, never to return.
I miss Verne's N scale layout, as well as the now defunct, On30. Some of which has found a place on this gentleman's layout: http://thundermesaminingco.blogspot.com/ I miss John Sing's weekly photo updates of anything model railroading. I know he's still out there, just isn't very active anymore.
He has stopped by here, infrequently. Last rumor I'd heard, he was busily searching for a new employer? If so, hope he has already located something good.
Last update I got from him was a yes on that, down in Florida now. Still in IT, gainfully employed (last update 5 days ago). When he was with IBM he had unprecedented ability to travel - both the blessing and a curse - all over the world. I expect John will surface again on a more regular basis, but probably not so much to his former haunts. Until I followed this thread I didn't realize Verne was moving to HOn3. And that for a second time, his work is being sold off and absorbed to other modelers. Actually, that's an incredible testimony to the quality of his work. I certainly had to admit that there were definitely some things he did that were better than mine. I still can't figure out how he managed to glue individual colored insulators on telephone pole crossarms. I've only proven I can consistently glue them to the end of the tips of the tweezers.
Exactly! Nothing sinister intended. My youngest brother had one of those IBM jobs where he seemed to be the eternal rover. Laid off a while ago, he found a defense contractor job were he is, again, the eternal rover.
He's no longer with us, but I also miss Bob Woods (Longtrain) contributions. When I jumped to N scale way back in 2003, he kindly invited me out to Sun N Sand while I was on a business trip there. I think we ran on the layout from about 7PM to well past midnight, and he had to work the next day. We talked like we'd know each other for years. Great fun, and I got a wealth of information on N scale through him that evening, as well as on Atlas and here. We need more guys like that.
There are folks whom their whole life doesn't revolve around model railroading, eating, sleeping, going to work and then model railroading again. Although with some of the early AM posts I have seen we may need to take sleeping out of the equation for some folks. There are many times when my workbench does not have a railroad project on it and there are sometimes weeks spent doing other things not even remotely connected to a railroad. Today I spent about an hour working on another track plan. then I went to my domestic diva chores, watched a little TV, read some, and most important rebuilt my 20 pound tomcats' scratching post. I have a bunch of things on my daily and monthly bucket list to get to and once the weather turns halfway decent the workbench and locos will start to collect dust.
Dave Meek, owner of the Thunder Mesa where Verne's On30 stuff ventured off to is ALSO going to be a contributor with Verne to MRH's Freelance column. just FYI. I'm really excited for this column.
I see Phil from time to time although it's been a while come to think of it. Last time we talked he was playing a show with his band. He said that project was consuming a lot of modeling time.