TOWN FOR OKTOBERFEST CELEBRATION

A miniature town that was built in one month.

What did you do during these past months for entertainment during the COVID-19 crisis? Many people reported to me that they stayed home -- they watched an enormous amount of television, many movies, very depressing news and gained lots of weight from eating way too much! But Ed Spicer, of Pine, Arizona, built an entire town during that time. Here is his inspiring story:

Ed, a long-time resident in the village of Pine, sat down with me to explain how he productively used his home-mandated sequestered time during this COVID-19 pandemic crisis. He decided to create a nostalgic town -- from a time when all was easier, perfect, simpler and reassuring. The painstaking detail work that it required was monumental -- from my point of view. I could never deal with those tiny features of his buildings, streets, vehicles and town folks. I asked Ed how he got into creating miniature layouts.

He told me that he started at 10 years old when his Dad was into building O gauge train layouts. He was allowed to run the trains but not to build structures or infrastructure as his Dad was into just running multiple trains on bare layouts. Years later, when he left the Air Force in 1971 and attended graduate school with very little excess money and time, he began building his own layouts for entertainment and has continued to today.

He told me, “I discovered an ability for spatial relationships at the age of 17 when I received an exceptionally high scoring on spatial relationships when taking my college entrance boards. I didn’t know what that meant until later when I became a fighter pilot. Dynamic, three-dimensional relationships were essential in air combat maneuvers (ACM) also called “dog fighting.” I was lucky and found that job easy with my innate skills.”

Later in life, his knowledge of static three-dimensional relationships was helpful in designing buildings as a structural engineer for a career. Ed said, “My discovery of spatial relationships got me into building model railroads fifty years ago.”

It sounded like his devotion to building in miniature with the exact scales/gauges was a delight for him. It would render me senseless. He considered that the current issues with the pandemic made it the perfect time to do something at home that would be fun and worthwhile. So, he entered a national contest, National Model Railroad Build Off, sponsored by Walthers’ Model Railroads, the business that supplies products for building model railroads.

Ed chose the theme “Heart of the Homeland in the 1950s” and set his town in Colorado during Oktoberfest. Certain elements of the town were predetermined by the sponsor and the rest of the creations for the town could be the options of the builder. He also chose HO gauge (which is precisely 1:87 ratio.)

He chose to emphasize several things in his planning: the time period, the season, the culture, the dynamic animation/activity, the relationships between the figures that would be relevant and then to make sure everything fit into a static storytelling adventure that would entertain anyone who looked closely at the scenes. Each part of the town has a different scene and tells another story of what would be happening during that time in the 1950s.

Ed modestly admitted to me that he has attained first place awards in many competitions throughout his life: in high school track and football, NCAA soccer, in road rallies, air rallies, kayaking and architectural design and more. Ed was hoping to round out his diverse first prize collections by winning first place in the building of this model railroad town. But alas, it didn’t work out. His consolation was that several professional people in that arena thought he should have won. And besides, he had great fun doing the project.

YOU be the judge now, as you look at these dioramas with photos and read the descriptions. Have fun visiting parts of Ed’s 1950s town set in Colorado. See how many more things you can find than what I have listed.

Dairy Queen Oktoberfest scene with the barmaid bringing beer to the chess players; (Ed’s favorite) the hungry hobo on the sidewalk just breezed into town and is looking longingly at the food layouts; the cows going home for the evening and the horse and doggie talking over the fence while the young kids are waxing the car in the parking lot.

The Town Music Gathering Place -- the Gazebo. It is Saturday afternoon -- the young people are dancing to rock and roll music; little children are at the hot dog stand; the organ grinder with his monkey and the departing couple is disappointed the music was not waltzes. Look closely to discover more for yourself.

Buildings closed for repairs. The painters and the roofers are hard at work. Two gentlemen loafers are leaning against the building ogling a passing female with another nearby female ready to come to her defense if needed. There is one man running on the sidewalk as he is late to the music performance and his wife is waiting impatiently with her hands on her hips. Also, there are the bicyclists heading out for another run around town.

Construction site. This scene was added when builder Ed ran out of roadway materials for the streets. Here we see workers are pouring a concrete sidewalk and another worker is adding sidewalk framework. The engineer is working with the theodolite (electronic device like a transit) to assure the sidewalk is properly aligned. Another worker is picking up the fallen cones while the other worker directs traffic.

I could see that, to really appreciate this town -- so well built and with so many fun activities going on to enjoy, I would have to come back and walk down each street and visit each scene to get the full flavor of this celebration.

I thanked Ed for letting me visit his peaceful mountain town during its Oktoberfest celebration and I suggested he submit his impeccably constructed town with all its true-to-life-stories to another contest.

If you liked parts of his display shown here and would like to know more about building models as a fun project during this pandemic, you can contact him initially via his email: flybynight67@msn.com. He has graciously offered to email you photos of all 27 scenes submitted for the competition if requested.

If you don’t get a quick response, Ed may be planning another one of his popular fly-by-night travel-adventures around archeological sites. Yes, just another one of his passions – and certifications.

Builder Ed has lifted the train station building to show you the passengers loading onto the Durango and Silverton train and the workmen on the platform are giving aid to the woman who has fainted.

I hope you can think big about rewarding things -- like constructing small miniature towns which tell interesting stories while you are staying home to get through this pandemic. May your healthy choices bring you peace and opportunities to feel creative!