Why do grown men play with trains? Is it a primal attachment to
childhood, nostalgia for the lost age of rail travel, or the stuff
of flat-out obsession? In this delightful and unprecedented book,
Grand Prix legend Sam Posey tracks those who share his "passion
beyond scale" and discovers a wonderfully strange and vital
culture.
Posey's first layout, wired by his mother in the years just after
the Second World War, was, as he writes in his Introduction, "a
miniature universe which I could operate on my own. Speed and
control: I was fascinated by both, as well as by the way they were
inextricably bound together." Eventually, when Posey's son was
born, he was convinced that building him a basement layout would be
the highest expression of fatherhood. Sixteen years and thousands
of hours later, this project, "the outgrowth of chance meetings,
unexpected friendships, mistakes, illness, latent ambitions, and
sheer luck" was completed. But for Posey, the creation of his
HO-scale masterpiece based on the historic Colorado Midland, was
just the beginning.
In "Playing with Trains," Sam Posey ventures well beyond the
borders of his layout in northwestern Connecticut, to find out what
makes the top modelers tick. He expects to find men "engaged in a
genial hobby, happy to spend a few hours a week escaping the
pressures of contemporary life." Instead he uncovers a world of
extremes-extreme commitment, extreme passion, and extreme
differences of approach. For instance, Malcolm Furlow, holed up on
his ranch in the wilderness of New Mexico, insists that model
railroading is defined by scenery and artistic self-expression. On
the other hand, Tony Koester, a New Jersey modeler, believes his
"mission" is to replicate, with fanatical precision and
authenticity, the way a real railroad operates. Going to extremes
himself, Posey actually "test drives" a real steam engine in
Strasburg, Pennsylvania, in an attempt to understand the great
machines that inspired the models and connect us to a time when
"the railroad was inventing America." Timeless and original,
"Playing with Trains" reveals a classic, questing American world.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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