Model Citizens Page #5

on the park bench

to wait for the

trains to come by.

Of course, when my dad found me,

it wasn't the greatest

thing in the world.

At least it was fun

to be able to kinda

run away for a little bit,

to be in my own little world.

- [Voiceover] All of us are

born into a world of rules.

It takes most of us

a long time to learn

how to live in the

world of grown-up rules.

That's what childhood

is all about.

- [Voiceover] Washing up of

the more conventional kind.

A chore that comes

'round about once a week.

Obviously excellent training

for future husbands.

- [Voiceover] Then one

day, when we're grown up,

the rules we follow are our own.

(jaunty music)

For some, the rules

are pretty intense.

- Some people want every

specific

detail down to the last

bolt and rivet.

Those purists are

very often called

rivet counters.

- My primary focus

is really a lot,

the super detailing,

the rivet counting.

(laughs)

- I'm one of what

the people call

a prototype guy, I'm the

guy that counts rivets.

I know that a specific boxcar

has a specific door with

a certain amount of ribs,

certain amount of ribs,

and certain amount of ribs,

separated by a rivet panel.

I know this.

Yeah, prototype modelers,

what you call us dorks.

It's, I don't know, some people,

it bears with it a kind

of respect to some.

And,

an eye roll from others

that we're worried

about silly things that

don't really matter.

And if you put it

into perspective,

none of this stuff matters.

- Over the years I've become

more and more,

I suppose obsessive is

the only word for it,

in getting a finer

level of detail.

One of the things is,

I like taking photographs

at close quarters,

of models.

And so I like

photo-realism, if you will.

I like getting in

close with a camera.

And so I think,

it's not true with

every model railroader,

but there's a

certain group of us,

who really could use a little

more prozac in our diets.

Because we are

obsessive-compulsive about

a certain level of detail.

That would be me on some days.

Not everything,

but with specific

models, absolutely.

- I would say every hobby

gets a different portion,

share of obsessives who become

obsessive about that hobby.

And so we certainly have ours,

but I don't believe

that you have to be

an obsessive to be good at it,

or to be interested in it.

- [Voiceover] One Mecca for

obsessive model railroaders

and rail fans alike,

is the the Tehachapi Loop.

(energetic music)

The Tehachapi Loop,

connecting southern California

with the San Joaquin Valley,

is a helix, or spiral,

on the Union Pacific Line

through Tehachapi Pass.

The Southern Pacific

Railroad built the loop

in the 1870s to allow

trains to climb and descend

in less space than would be

needed without the helix.

The Tehachapi Loop

is represented

on layouts around the world.

It's a real unique section of

rail that's out there

and we were able to

put it in here in N scale.

This is a pretty close

representation of

what the Tehachapi

Loop looks like.

And it's awfully

cool to see a train

snake over itself on that.

- [Voiceover] There may be

no more famous depiction

than that on the La Mesa

Club layout in San Diego.

- [Bill] We find ourselves at

the Tehachapi Pass area.

(serene music)

- [Voiceover]

Cablevision by Elders.

- With me I have two

distinguished guests.

Here we have John Rotsart,

who is the Director Executive,

or the Executive Director,

however you wanna look at it,

of the Model Railroad Museum.

- [Voiceover] The famous San

Diego Model Railroad Museum

can trace its origins

to the early 60s,

when a bunch of young

guys who loved trains

decided to start a club.

We had some issues on,

just growing up.

And not

creating mayhem.

Because the

city of La Mesa

had an abandoned

firehouse building

in downtown.

Nebo Hall, on Nebo Drive.

And we requested

the city to give

the firehouse

to us

as a model railroad area.

So we were basically

street legal

to that extent.

By the late 1961.

- [Voiceover] Eventually,

the La Mesa Club,

learned to play by the rules.

(slow instrumental music)

With a half century of history,

they can do whatever they want.

There are a million ways to

be a model railroader today.

You don't even have to

declare your loyalties.

Though many do.

- There are some people who,

like the kid we

all knew in school

who memorized every

statistic of every

baseball player out there.

And there were some who only

dealt with a single team.

I'm interested in

the Santa Fe Railway,

and in a certain part of the

Santa Fe Railway in 1954.

So you might say I'm

only interested in those,

to use the comparison, I'm only,

used to the home

games the Chicago

White Sox played in July

of 1954.

So that's how

specific I've gotten.

And that means I only have

to have a certain focus

and I only have to have a

certain amount of knowledge.

I can't identify

half the locomotives,

most of the locomotives

that are running

out there on the tracks today.

In 2013.

I don't know what they

are, I don't care.

I have some passing

interest in it,

but I'm interested

in what ran in 1954.

And that's the extent of my

knowledge and all I need to know

and all that really

interests me.

I've narrowed my focus and my

knowledge in that respect too.

Which is great,

because my little brain

has only enough room.

- The funny thing about

prototype modelers

is that we're just

like football fans.

If you're a prototype guy,

you like your

Burlington Northern.

Or I like my Burlington,

the 1971, that's what I do.

And anything in 1972,

I don't do it because it

didn't happen with this stuff,

it's too new.

Anything before that,

yeah, it could be.

But the stuff after it,

1975 Burlington Northern?

Nah.

It doesn't work with this.

But it's like a

football fan in that

a Kansas City

Chiefs fan is never,

on his worst possible day,

gonna be wearing

a Raiders shirt.

Or he's never gonna be wearing

a Cleveland Browns shirt.

He may wash his car with

the Cleveland Browns shirt,

but he's not gonna wear it.

And the same thing

with train guys,

is they're loyal

to their railroad.

I probably wouldn't be wearing

a New York Central shirt,

ever.

I would wear a Burlington

Northern shirt,

I might wear a Great

Northern shirt.

SPNS shirt, maybe.

- I want my stuff to run

and look very realistic.

But I also want it to run

in a realistic setting.

So I've done my homework

and I know what this railroad

that I'm modelling looked like.

I grew up in one of the

towns that I'm modelling.

I did not grow up

in most of the towns

that I'm modelling so

I went back to Indiana

and Illinois and I

went to the libraries

and I went to the

Historical Societies

and I knocked on doors.

And I met a lot of

big German shepherds

when people didn't

want me there.

It's all part of the fun.

- Because I model

a certain period,

and in a certain area,

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