Air brush is good. One of these days I'll get one. Big John Dalton of this newsgroup used to champion the use of Delta Ceramcoat. I have used a bit of it with excellent results. I was passing thru one of those big craft shops this weekend and they had a huge display of paints, all flat, all water based, every conceivable colorm and only $2 a bottle.
David Starr
David J. Starr spake thus:
Hopefully you can do better than $2 a bottle; I think I've seen it on sale at Michael's (big chain) for a buck or so. Of course, the reason I like it so much and have so many colors is that I got mine for about 10 cents a bottle when a couple of hobby shops went out of business (both in Redwood City: one was Trains, Planes and Automobiles; anyone remember it?).
Sure, I remember Big John. Very decent guy. (For those here who don't know, Big John was a regular here until he died, what? about 3 years ago?). Very sweet (and funny) guy.
Does anyone know if there are any pictures of Big John's modeling work online anywhere? I never did see any of his stuff when he was around.
I too remember Big John. When he died, a bunch of readers of this newsgroup from all over the world collected, IIRC, well over $1000 to restore an RDC's seats in his name.
Anyone have pictures of the RDC seats with the plaques on them?
I think that Peter King might still have them on his website. I believe that it is
You might also try the Danbury Railway Museum. That is where the RDC is located.
Greetings,
Frank Rosenbaum just sent me an e-mail asking about the photos. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of the seat plaques. My digital camera died before I could get the shots, and I haven't replaced it. But rest assured that the plaques are there.
For those who weren't here, one of Big John's first modeling projects was a train of old Athearn dummy RDCs converted to tourist-train service. When he died, I proposed a memorial project. At the time, the Danbury Railway Museum was soliciting funds to replace the seats in their New Haven RDC #32. I suggested to the group that we might purchase a seat in Big John's name. (The seats were $200 each.) The group was enthusiastic about the project, so I made the necessary arrangements.
We did raise enough to buy a seat. The first day. The donations came in at a steady pace for several weeks. When it was done, we had nearly $2000. A couple of individuals kicked in the last few dollars to make it an even 10 seats.
I had the pleasure of making a formal presentation to the museum. Several of the museum members knew of the project, but none knew how much was raised until I announced it. They were shocked, and quite pleased.
NH #32 is a mainstay of DRM's weekend yard rides. I rode it the last 3 weekends as a car host on the museum's Santa Claus Specials.
Here's a link to the pictures. The first page tells about the project, and lists the donors. There's a link to the second page, with pictures.
I'm still amazed at that response. Most, if not all, of the 90 contributors had never met Big John, but only knew him through his newsgroup postings. There really is a "web community", at least there was in this case.
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