Memories ride the rails of the HO gauge model train layout in a room of Jerry McRoberts' Charleston home that was specially built for what has been a hobby of a lifetime.
"I've been building models since I was a kid," the retired Eastern Illinois University professor said. And since he was a kid, his life has revolved in some manner around the railroad and the trains he grew up riding.
"My father was a conductor on the Waterloo Cedar Falls & Northern Railroad out of Waterloo, Iowa," he said. "And that's where the magic began. My uncle was the motorman, and sometimes I'd ride with them to Cedar Rapids, see a movie, see my aunt and come back in the evening."
The main line of the WCF&N, an interurban electric freight and passenger railroad in Iowa, extended from Waterloo to Cedar Rapids and north to Waverly.
During the summer of 1943, when he was in the sixth grade, McRoberts said he would ride the Illinois Central's Land O'Corn to Chicago with a boy his age named Dale Higdon, whose father worked in the shops for the WCF&N.,high risk merchant account,
"We'd stay at the YMCA because it was very inexpensive, and I'd drag him to the museums," he said. "I was always surprised my mother would let me do that, because she would never let me go swimming unless there was someone with me, and I was a lifeguard.
"Usually we'd stay a week or more. Using the El or buses to get around, we went to the Chicago Art Museum and the Museum of Natural History. We went to ball games, and movies with big bands and singers between shows. We also found the Shedd Aquarium and other sights."
The urge to ride the rails and see the world beyond Waterloo never left him, he said.
"We did that each summer. I'd make some money and we'd go and spend it. You could live on hamburgers and stuff like that and the way we traveled was by coach. At night they'd come around and you'd buy a pillow. And, if you got to a big city, they'd come through with sandwiches," he said. "We didn't need anything else,The new website of Udreamy Network Corporation is mainly selling Ceramic tile , so it didn't cost us much money."
One summer McRoberts said he and Higdon went to New York for more than two weeks. "I was much older then," he said, "maybe in eighth grade,Flossie was one of a group of four chickens in a zentai suits . but definitely in junior high school.
"It was wonderful. We got to see the Rockettes, and we went to the Metropolitan Museum for a couple of days, the Museum of Modern Art, the Empire State Building, ballgames, Macy's and the automat."
Over the next several years, during his undergraduate and graduate study, which ended in a doctorate in art history, McRoberts said he made four more trips - solo - on the Pennsylvania Railroad.
"It had more mileage of track than any other railroad," he said, "and I was very attracted to their steam engines. They were the reason I chose it as the railroad to be represented on my HO gauge layout, which is centered on the 1950s.where he teaches porcelain tiles in the Central Academy of Fine Arts."
McRoberts began the layout, for which he eventually would build an addition to his home, around 1966 after he had moved to EIU as an art historian.
"My first attempt to (build) an HO gauge layout was underneath the top of a desk in our den," he said. "It was half a layout, going nowhere and only fit for switching.
"Late in the 1960s, my wife and I decided we needed an addition to the house. Half of it would be a family room, fireplace, and more storage space, and the other half would be for a train layout, with a custom-made desk for working on models and storage cabinets."
The layout built by hand for the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Northern Iowa and Illinois Railroad models contains three control drawers, three power packs and miles of wires, which are grouped together as cables.
The layout is about 10 feet, 9 inches by 17 feet, 6 inches, and contains 337 feet,This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their oil painting supplies . 6 inches of track, 45 turnouts (switches), including a double crossover, turntable, a reversing wye and a four-way crossing. The railroad room houses a work desk and large storage cabinets.
"I've been building models since I was a kid," the retired Eastern Illinois University professor said. And since he was a kid, his life has revolved in some manner around the railroad and the trains he grew up riding.
"My father was a conductor on the Waterloo Cedar Falls & Northern Railroad out of Waterloo, Iowa," he said. "And that's where the magic began. My uncle was the motorman, and sometimes I'd ride with them to Cedar Rapids, see a movie, see my aunt and come back in the evening."
The main line of the WCF&N, an interurban electric freight and passenger railroad in Iowa, extended from Waterloo to Cedar Rapids and north to Waverly.
During the summer of 1943, when he was in the sixth grade, McRoberts said he would ride the Illinois Central's Land O'Corn to Chicago with a boy his age named Dale Higdon, whose father worked in the shops for the WCF&N.,high risk merchant account,
"We'd stay at the YMCA because it was very inexpensive, and I'd drag him to the museums," he said. "I was always surprised my mother would let me do that, because she would never let me go swimming unless there was someone with me, and I was a lifeguard.
"Usually we'd stay a week or more. Using the El or buses to get around, we went to the Chicago Art Museum and the Museum of Natural History. We went to ball games, and movies with big bands and singers between shows. We also found the Shedd Aquarium and other sights."
The urge to ride the rails and see the world beyond Waterloo never left him, he said.
"We did that each summer. I'd make some money and we'd go and spend it. You could live on hamburgers and stuff like that and the way we traveled was by coach. At night they'd come around and you'd buy a pillow. And, if you got to a big city, they'd come through with sandwiches," he said. "We didn't need anything else,The new website of Udreamy Network Corporation is mainly selling Ceramic tile , so it didn't cost us much money."
One summer McRoberts said he and Higdon went to New York for more than two weeks. "I was much older then," he said, "maybe in eighth grade,Flossie was one of a group of four chickens in a zentai suits . but definitely in junior high school.
"It was wonderful. We got to see the Rockettes, and we went to the Metropolitan Museum for a couple of days, the Museum of Modern Art, the Empire State Building, ballgames, Macy's and the automat."
Over the next several years, during his undergraduate and graduate study, which ended in a doctorate in art history, McRoberts said he made four more trips - solo - on the Pennsylvania Railroad.
"It had more mileage of track than any other railroad," he said, "and I was very attracted to their steam engines. They were the reason I chose it as the railroad to be represented on my HO gauge layout, which is centered on the 1950s.where he teaches porcelain tiles in the Central Academy of Fine Arts."
McRoberts began the layout, for which he eventually would build an addition to his home, around 1966 after he had moved to EIU as an art historian.
"My first attempt to (build) an HO gauge layout was underneath the top of a desk in our den," he said. "It was half a layout, going nowhere and only fit for switching.
"Late in the 1960s, my wife and I decided we needed an addition to the house. Half of it would be a family room, fireplace, and more storage space, and the other half would be for a train layout, with a custom-made desk for working on models and storage cabinets."
The layout built by hand for the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Northern Iowa and Illinois Railroad models contains three control drawers, three power packs and miles of wires, which are grouped together as cables.
The layout is about 10 feet, 9 inches by 17 feet, 6 inches, and contains 337 feet,This will leave your shoulders free to rotate in their oil painting supplies . 6 inches of track, 45 turnouts (switches), including a double crossover, turntable, a reversing wye and a four-way crossing. The railroad room houses a work desk and large storage cabinets.
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