I was about to become a victim of my own success. Lou Sassi, photographer for Model Railroader magazine who shot almost exclusively for Great Model Railroads, was shooting Rick Spano's Sceniced and Undecided for GMR. Lou remarked that he was always looking for new layouts to shoot, and Rick (strongly) recommended that he come have a look at my White River. He arrived to see a layout that was barely 20% done, and immediately said he wanted to shoot it for the next issue. He asked, "How much do you think you can get done in a year?" I answered (very nervously) "Maybe 75% or so." He replied, "I'll be back."

Then, in a strange one-two punch, I was laid off from work. This was one of those perfect "good need/bad news" scenarios: good, because I'd have loads of time to work on the layout. Bad, because I'd have no income.
 

And so it was off to the races. I worked like a fiend, but being jobless left me in emotional as well as financial limbo. I easily lost track of what I was doing, and by the time Lou was ready to shoot, I had maybe 50% of the layout done. He said that it didn't matter; what was done was so incredibly detailed that he had more than enough material to shoot. (The photo above is one of his, reproduced with no permission at all.)

But Lady Luck (or whoever was responsible) wasn't done with me. My wife filed for divorce. And immediately thereafter, the NMRA asked that my layout be on their layout tour. I should probably have said no: the layout resided in a small condo bedroom, with barely space for four or maybe five people at most. What was I supposed to do with the four or five huge busloads of visitors on the way? Not to mention that I was an emotional wreck from the divorce. But I agreed, and thankfully Rick Spano was available to help organize the flow of visitors through my condo.

Finally, when the NMRA tour was done and the dust had begun settling, I suffered a nervous breakdown. As a consequence, I destroyed the layout and quit the hobby for a while. And still, I look back on these times as being the zenith of my modeling career, even if it was my emotional nadir. Story of my life, actually.

Back < Index > Next

Copyright © 1996-2026 by David K. Smith. All Rights Reserved.