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RICHARD ROSSBACK KITBASHES A SKYSCRAPER

Roger Wasson’sSolid Rock Railroad

George Brown Reviews the New

Williams by Bachmann44-Ton Switcher

Tom Masterson’sNew Railroad

in the Old West

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Down and dirty O gauge

“Hello! This is Roger Wasson calling.” “Who?” I asked.“Roger Wasson. I’m calling from the

airport in Memphis. Several acquaintances have recommended I contact you. I would like to take you and your wife to lunch this afternoon. I want your opinion and ideas regarding my train layout.”

And so it began. We had lunch that day, and my wife,

Mary, and Roger’s wife, Louanna, quickly became friends. We visited their home soon thereafter. Roger basically had an oval of track laid on a Ping-Pong table.

“What am I doing wrong here?” he asked. I told him that he wasn’t doing anything

wrong if he was having fun. In any event, I agreed to draw up a track plan and teach him the basics of the hobby. The plan I came up with featured a decent mainline run, some

good industrial switching, and a large coal mine. It also proved to be fun to operate.

After reviewing the proposed plan, we cut a hole in one wall to put the train under the house to hide it this way. To increase the apparent size of the layout, we installed a cut-to-size mirror, built a shelf along the top of the mirror, and painted it to look like a street. Then we added a number of building fronts and used 1:72 scale vehicles on the street in order to maximize forced perspective to add depth to the scene.

The coal mine was Roger’s first attempt at building something of this type and it

turned out to be impressive. He became interested in lighting buildings, industrial areas, signs, street lights—you name it—and he brings it to life with lights. They add a ton of interest to the layout.

We used 1/8˝ tempered Masonite for the backdrop because it is flexible enough to allow for gentle bends. The type we bought is white on one side, which pro-vides a suitable undercoat for painting the sky. After fastening the Masonite in place, we taped, sealed, and sanded the joints the way you would do with drywall. Roger rolled on a couple of coats of sky blue, and, presto, we were in business.

This Solid Rock Railroad Really Is

Article and Photos by Vernon Hart

The colorful Texas Special is captured on film near Springfield.

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A branch line local works the Chicopee Mine.

The Solid Rock Railroad

features a sophisticated track arrangement that allows for varied operations.

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Here is a view of the Springfield depot.

The Sunoco oil refinery is near downtown Springfield.

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I had some old stencils available for mountains and clouds. I used camouflage brown and camouflage green spray paint to lightly dust in the mountains. I then dusted in the clouds and a hint of fog on the mountains using flat white spray paint. It admittedly does have a bit of a whimsical look, but we were trying to create a light, relaxed, fun atmosphere. Additionally, there are no seams or wrinkled paper to contend with.

Mary and I accompanied Roger and Louanna to the fall 2003 TCA York meet in Pennsylvania (about a 1,000 mile trip for us). We traveled in Roger’s old Plymouth van because I had advised him that we would need a lot of room to haul stuff. At the meet, we purchased a number of cus-tom buildings, trees, ground foam, scenery items, locomotives, rolling stock, and of course the obligatory Amish souvenirs.

The morning we left York, we spent a lot of time trying to get everything into the van. It wasn’t working! I suggested that perhaps our wives could be strapped on top—sort of like the Griswalds did with Grandma in National Lampoon’s Vacation movie. Roger bought into the idea, but our spouses soon informed us that this plan had been vetoed. At last we figured out what we had been doing wrong: you can’t pack the van first. You have to put the wives in first; then you pile stuff on and around them. This made for an interesting return trip! At rest stops along the way, we had to partially unload the van in order to get the passengers out and then figure out how they and all the stuff would fit back in.

The layout took a giant leap forward with all the new goodies from York. We had virtually everything needed to fin-ish the layout. I told Roger that all the buildings probably should be put in place first; then we would add sidewalks, dirt, grass, rock, and weeds. The idea is you do not want to see a crack at the base of the buildings. At this point I also mentioned that we needed some sand—perhaps a coffee can full or so. Roger disappeared and returned a few minutes later carrying a small, half-full play bucket of sand. I asked him where he found it so fast. He admit-ted it came from the little girl next door’s sandbox. The next day, Roger visited a home improvement store and replaced the girl’s sand with clean play sand. I assume he returned her play bucket as well.

An imposing trestle crosses over John Brown Falls.

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With buildings in place, we proceeded to create some streets. We used drywall joint compound poured and brushed into place. We used more water to thin it and a brush to smooth the surface and then added sand distributed with a tablespoon, employing a side-to-side motion like sowing grass.

We gathered small bits of old rotted wood from the nearby woods. I crumbled this between my thumb and forefinger, apply-ing where more texture was desired. Then I added different colors and sizes of ground foam. A mist of water containing a few drops of dishwashing liquid was used to thoroughly soak areas to be scenicked, and this was followed by a spray application of glue to hold everything firmly in place. I like Woodland Scenics cement, but I also use white glue thinned with water so it can be sprayed. I use old Windex bottles or other spray bottles to make a fine spray. I repeat this process as I add rocks, weeds, bushes, and whatever else to various scenes. The end result is scenery that is rock solid and can even be carefully dusted.

We added Arttista and various other brands and types of fig-ures and critters to the layout. Vehicles are the commonly available 1:43 scale—a tad oversized, but that’s hardly noticeable.

Roger now had a very fine layout, but before long he wanted something bigger and better. A huge crawl space under the house

The railroad’s repair facility at Springfield handles both light and heavy work.

A switch engine operates next to the MFA grain elevator at Springfield.

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beckoned. He surmised that the first step to make room for a door would have to be blasting a hole in the foundation under the crawl space. I asked if he was serious about excavating the crawl space under his house. He explained that he had already contacted the original builder of his home to set up a meeting to explain what he had in mind. The result of that meeting was a ton of useful information and how-to instructions. I was a bit disappointed to learn that no dynamite was to be used. That would have made such an interesting story. Instead, he hired a professional to remove part of the concrete foundation beneath the crawl space opening, thereby creating a doorway that matched the height of the floor in the adjacent room where the original layout was constructed.

Now I needed to produce a track plan for this 46´x 30´ area as soon as possible. His plan was to dig trenches wherever I planned for aisles to be located. He would then remove just as much dirt from under the benchwork area as necessary for him to be able to wiggle under the layout for access and wiring.

We discussed everything that he wanted to include in the new layout. Additionally, we needed a branch line that would connect to the original layout. Soon enough, I produced the plan.

There is a massive limestone quarry about two miles north of Roger’s home and another about two miles south. Surprise, surprise! When Roger began excavating, he hit solid limestone rock. Most people would have quit then and there, but there is no place in Roger’s vocabulary for the word quit. He had a vision and would see it happen.

He began work with a pick and shovel. Louanna pointed out that nowhere in the rehab instructions for heart patients could she find anything about breaking solid rock into little rocks. Ever the innovative fellow, Roger visited the local hardware store where he purchased a heavy-duty 1/2˝ drill along with a supply of masonry drill bits. He would need more! He began what became a two-year project. He would drill a series of holes, and then using a pry-ing motion, he would remove small quan-tities of rock. He used a small sand pail to carry the resulting gravel. One snowy winter day during a visit, I noticed that there were no tracks in the snow outside the door, even though I assumed he had started a gravel dump somewhere. When

When this power supply is turned on, the lights dim in the entire city.

This tranquil scene is an Amish farm just outside of Springfield.

Tilley’s trailer park models where Roger lived back when he was building engines for Richard Petty (really).

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The Lyon Street tunnel in Springfield is located near the main yards.

Texaco has an oil facility at Winona.

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This lift bridge is situated at the entrance to Roger’s underground digs.

The view from above shows inside the Springfield roundhouse.

I entered, I noticed very little gravel near his workplace. When I asked what he did with all the gravel he was manufacturing, he grinned and showed me. I had to get down on hands and knees to look. Under the house, the part not used for the new room, there were a number of little piles of gravel. Roger would take a pail of gravel, wiggle on hands and knees into the other crawl space, and dump it there. Hadn’t I seen a prison movie about escaping a prison camp by digging a tunnel with a tablespoon? In any event, if I am ever sent to prison, I want to be in the cell with Roger. He won’t be there long!

When trenching was eventually finished, he laid down a heavy layer of vinyl plastic sheets. This moisture barrier covered everything: foundation and all floor areas whether trench, trench wall, or under the layout. It has proven to be extremely effective.

Next, he began to lay little steel beams, all precisely level. Atop the beams he put down a layer of premium quality subflooring. At a few pounds north of 200, I can testify things are rock solid. I wish that the floors in my home were that solid.

For the next step, all walls were covered with foam sheet insu-lation. At this point he hired a crew of carpenters. They installed 1/8˝ Masonite walls in the entire room. Valances were added for all future benchwork. The gentle curving walls are perfect for hanging quality backdrops. There are no sharp corners on this layout.

Roger leveled areas outside the trenches to about 30˝ high. He then constructed very sturdy L-girder benchwork on top of them. I was able to walk or crawl on top with no give or sway anywhere. I am pretty much “old school” about layout construction, so we

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Switching activity takes place at the Campbell 66 truck terminal.

A junkyard is located just across the tracks from the Texaco facility at Winona.

used Homasote laminated to particle board for the sub-roadbed.For level areas we used the same materials for all sub-roadbed.

The track was laid with electrical drops about every 6´. In a few weeks, the layout was ready for final wiring and testing. Using the techniques described resulted in very few problems.

He is justifiably proud of this amazing accomplishment and has fun showing people his Frisco coonskin logo that proclaims the Solid Rock Railroad.

One of the highlights of the layout was to be the Frisco’s Springfield depot. We knew from the start that it would have to be built from scratch. Additionally, the track plan I developed for Roger called for a half-depth structure to make best use of the available space. Locally, Drury University offers a degree in architecture. Roger borrowed the original blueprint for the

Springfield depot from the local museum and then went to the Drury campus. He was linked with a talented architecture student who by coincidence needed to construct a scale model structure to meet a graduation requirement. Talk about a win-win deal! The student gets all materials needed for his project plus a nice builders fee, and Roger gets an accurate half-depth building for his layout.

He also contacted David Duhamel regarding the construc-tion of some special buildings. Campbell 66 Trucking is a local icon, and Roger wanted to include a large warehouse for them somewhere on the layout. David constructed a large, highly detailed building of a size and triangular shape to fit the available space. Roger also obtained several other buildings from David. I built the huge MFA silos as well as the car repair shop. The oil

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Here are a few early photos that documented site preparation activities that provided the foundation for Roger’s Solid Rock Railroad.

refinery is from Stans Tanks. Many of the other buildings were collected from Mizell Trains and Hobbies in Denver, now sadly out of business.

Roger built several large sections of scenery from sheets and

blocks of foam. They are amazingly light and easy to move for access. Several large unfinished areas of scenery remain, but this is really a very good thing. If Roger should ever finish this layout, where would he tunnel to next?

With digging finally complete, Roger poses with his handiwork.

A crew of professionals was used to install the walls.

Roger’s grandson, Cody, gave a hand at painting the new walls.

Here’s how things looked after the first of 13 backdrop installations was completed.

Roger lays track at Springfield yards.