text and photos by Mike Thomas
It’s always fun to see what other modelers are up to, and the best ways of doing that is by going and seeing their layouts. It can be especially eyeopening to visit a layout you’ve never seen before, or one that’s had major improvements made since last you were there. Usually we have to wait for a once-a-year show like the Division’s Fall Meet to get invited into a new basement, but thanks to a good deal of effort by Hank Kraichely, we’ve had our opportunities to see others’ pikes quadrupled this year.
This latest edition of the Gateway Division quarterly layout tour took place on Saturday morning, December 1, and took us to St. Charles County. It was dubbed the Fallen Flags Tour because the four layouts modeled either roads that have been merged into oblivion, or were free-lanced roads based on long-gone lines. We got to inspect Herb Koenig’s Cordite & Flat River, Bill Wehmeier’s Missouri-Kansas-Texas, John Russell’s Rock Island, and Bob Johnson’s Pseudo-Soo Line. There was some amazing and inspiring modeling to be seen on this tour.
The Division’s thanks go to all four modelers for opening up their layouts to us!
