Page 31 - REALLY What A time Book IX
P. 31
REALLY SO WHAT
What A Time
MY FAMILY
screen was bent into mountain shapes with deep valleys. It
was covered with plaster of paris then painted with snowy
peaks and forested hills. Trees and bushes were made from
sponges, and painted. The plains ran from the mountains to
the edge of the platform.
They had a few buildings, cottages, a gas station, and fire
house. It was a neat model and took up much of the living
room.
He built several small buildings to go with the display. A small
house with chimney and flower boxes at its windows. A train
station that was larger than the other models, and an even
larger farmer’s barn.
The barn was built to scale, not the train set scale, but to its
own scale. That is each cow stall; the steps to the hay loft
were according to the size of the entire barn. He painted it
several colors, both floors inside, were a chalky white, the roof
had two air stacks painted a light gray and the base of the
whole barn was yellow. I suppose he could have designed and
built anything, to any scale if he wanted to.
He would set up the train every Christmas, and both Joe and I
would run it for hours. Through the mountain tunnel, across
the plains to the station and back around. We really loved it.
When he was building or constructing anything, I never saw
him use an electric tool. No saw, drill or tool of any kind. His
chisels, drills, pliers, hammers and saws were all hand driven.
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