structures with board-for-board construction and their own
detail parts that they cast from Cerrobend, a low-temperature
casting metal. Their work “raised the bar” for model building in
the Bay Area.
This exposure to extraordinary model building caused me to
re-evaluate my building efforts. At that time I was building
freight cars using techniques more typical of the 1950s, not
the late 1960s. So I made a decision to do better and scrapped
all of my early models. I began building prototype freight
car models based on cars that I had measured myself. I also
made a real effort to duplicate these cars as closely as I could.
As I improved my skills, I eventually became involved in the
National Model Railroad Association model contests at both
the local and national level for a couple of decades.
Building good models is much easier with good tools. A good
set of tweezers was one of my first purchases. A very good
modeler who lived near be told me about a Bay Area jewelry
1: These are my Vigor tweezers that I purchased 35 years
ago. They are 4¼” long, which seems just right.
1
