We All Love Model Trains- Support Your Local Hobby Store

I made my last visit to Bruce's Trains, my local hobby store once known as the Whistle Stop, shortly before heading to Roanoke in 2011.  I walked the aisles and looked at the new double-stack well cars and the tri-level auto racks for sale.  I said to myself, "Wow, if the kid I was could see all of the model trains they make today."  To me, this was perhaps the finest store on earth.
The kid in me wanted to return to Bruce's trains when I came back to Sacramento from Roanoke.  Fall was in the air, and I said to myself, "Wow, this reminds me of the days when I would get the Athearn blue boxes so many years ago."
To my sadness, Bruce's Trains was gone.  Such is the story with many of our local hobby stores.
Local hobby stores are more than places that sell model trains.  I made many friends as I first learned about trains at the Whistle Stop.
Athearn made Southern Pacific SD40T-2's with a snoot nose and the Rio Grande version with a standard nose.  It was not until a kit-basher came into the Whistle Stop and showed all of us that he had detailed a Rio Grande Standard nose version with the Southern Pacific light package that I began to see the essences of detail each railroad had.
The Whistle Stop gave me a chance to learn about railroads I had never seen.  I would walk up and down the aisles of Athearn blue boxes and MDC freight cars, looking for cars I had seen go by on Southern Pacific.  Ever so often, however, I would open a box, such as an old Seaboard Air Line box car and it would intrigue me enough that I would add it to my collection.
Lee, who worked at the front counter, would often ask me, "So how are your model projects coming?  Are you still working on Union Pacific and Southern Pacific?  Have you ever thought about Western Pacific?"
All I knew about Western Pacific was a few stray GP40-2s that I had seen roaming the now Union Pacific system.  My mind could not stretch back far enough to model Western Pacific in its entirety.  Mentors such as Lee at the Whistle Stop, however, first sparked my interest in railroads that were fading away or were before my time.
I am very grateful that as a kid I had a local hobby shop to go to.  Local hobby shops are a place for us all to learn about trains and for us to compare our model railroad projects.  I feel we should all work to support our local hobby store.

 

Great Days at the Whistle Stop, My Local Hobby Store

Every so often when I was growing up, my mom would take my brother and me to Sacramento when our report cards came out.  I always chose to visit the Whistle Stop Train Store.
It was great to walk the isles and see all of the Athearn Blue Box freight cars and imagine the train that I could build.  Southern Pacific 50 foot box cars made me think of the trains that moved through Davis.  As the men at the counter talked about Western Pacific and how it was sadly gone, at that moment, I guess my interest in our historic railroads began to grow.
I would listen for hours about the Santa Fe and its conquest of Cajon Pass and what it would be like if and when Southern Pacific and Santa Fe ever were to merge.  "What do you think of that Kodachrome Scheme?" they would ask.  I learned a lot from visiting the Whistle Stop.  Those were truly great days at my local hobby store.

Drawing the Southern Pacific Daylight and Cab Forward in 1992

There I sat, at the Vallejo Great Western Train shows, with my drawings of Desert Storm locomotives Burlington Northern 1991, Union Pacific 3593 and Conrail 6707.  Burlington Northern 1991 had been popular at every railroad I had visited over the summer, so I was eager to take it to a train show and sell prints of it.
I sat, determined.  But railroad enthusiasts kept walking past my booth.  All wearing Southern Pacific, Western Pacific and Santa Fe shirts and hats.  I kept asking, "Would you be interested in a 1991 print?"
They said, "These are nice, but do you have the Daylight?  Do you have the Cab Forward?  Do you have the Black Widow?  Do you have Western Pacific?" 
Heartbroken, I did not sell a single print at that first train show I attended.  But my heartbreak quickly turned to determination.  In short order, I went into the studio and drew my first steam locomotive, the Southern Pacific Daylight 4449.  In short order, I drew the Cab Forward, Black Widow and several Western Pacific locomotives, as well.
Soon, it was time for the next Great Western Train Show in Vallejo.  We headed down there with my new drawings.  "Hey, this Daylight drawing is great," people said.  "Good job on the Cab Forward as well.  I'll show my buddy this Western Pacific engine you did."  I was truly becoming a railroad artist.

Chicago Burlington & Quincy-Way of the Zephyrs

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy was known as the Way of the Zephyrs.  CB&Q connected the Midwest with the Rocky Mountain states.
The sides of Chicago Burlington & Quincy freight locomotives and its freight cars were adorned in the slogan "Way of the Zephyrs," advertising CB&Q's famous Zephyr passenger trains.

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy's passenger service is remembered in name today in Amtrak's Chicago to San Francisco Bay Area California Zephyr Passenger service.  The California Zephyr was the flagship train of the Chicago Burlington & Quincy, operated in cooperation with the Rio Grande and Western Pacific railroads.

Chicago Burlington & Quincy also operated the Twin Cities to Chicago leg of the Great Northern Empire Builder, another train which lives on in Amtrak service.

To see more of my Chicago Burlington & Quincy artwork, visit

http://www.andyfletchertrains.com/chicago-burlington---quincy.html