Today,
we made our way to Cocoa Beach, only to find that
our
rooms were not ready. We feared that the weather would worsen, so we headed
off to the Merritt Island Nature Refuge to shoot some Florida scenery for the
segment. On the way, we were turned around by many Space Center guards, all
armed with automatic weapons and extra clips. We got some footage of the
launch pads, and wildlife, as well as some of the palm trees and palmetto. By
that time it was late in the afternoon, we were all tired and headed back to
hotel. We checked out the Ron Jon Surf Shop, and had dinner at a (or course)
seafood restaurant. The rooms had internet access, so we holed up, and closed
up shop for the night.
Today is gray, with a chance for
rain. It’s a good thing we shot the wildlife refuge material yesterday. It
wasn’t great, but better than today. Today’s subject was the logging railroad
of Lou Ullian. Here you are, in eastern Florida, just south of Patrick Air
Force Base, and once you step into the layout, you are whisked to the Pacific
Northwest and the logging industry in the early 1900s. Lou has done an
amazing job capturing the look and feel of the tall timber forests and the
logging operations. It is well detailed, and beautifully appointed. Plus he
has added lots of realistic sounds. Lou makes the trees, and his friend, Mike
Brock, makes the rocks and castings. Between the two of them, it is quite a
layout with lots of great detail. Both Mike and Lou are retired from NASA,
and were close friends with the astronauts. It was fun listening to them
detail their experiences in the Space Program, as they saw it all, from the
first monkeys to the Space Shuttle. Every time I looked at the layout, I
would find new things. It wasn’t just the logging, but details such as rail
joiners, and other attention to small items. They weren’t so obvious that
they stand out, but rather serve to add depth to the whole scene. The trees
alone are worth a second look. There are about five hundred trees on the
layout and are basically of three types.
One
is the rope and wire arrangement, where you glue a piece of hemp rope between
two pieces of wire, and then spin it in a drill. The unraveling hemp
makes great branches, which are then flocked with ground foam. Also in
evidence were furnace filter trees, and the much more difficult, but
impressive, individual branches glued into a trunk and then flocked.
Mike and Lou worked well together. We said our goodbyes and headed
further south to Vero Beach.
DAN ZUGELTER LAYOUT - PROGRAM 611
February 18, 2003
The sun
finally came out today. So the sky is blue, and the grass is green, but it
is still chilly, at least by Florida standards. It was off to the C&O
Railroad of Dan Zugelter. Dan modeled an area of West Virginia in 1938
around the town of Hinton. This town was very important as it was a change
point for the C&O crews as trains made their way across the Allegheny
Mountains. There are millions of trees on the mountainsides. These were
all made with clumps of polyfoam, spray painted black, and then dipped in
ground foam. The resultant “tree” was then glued in place. The scenes are
all accurate reproductions of the scene as it existed in 1938. Pictures of
the area from 1938 were used as the basis for the modeling of the
structures, placement, and scenic elements. This really is a wonderful
depiction of the way it was in West Virginia prior to WWII. Dan had two
friends in to help him. Nat Huggins and Dennis Realley were both involved
in the construction and operation of the layout. The engines are all brass,
and as you can tell from the stills, look quite realistic. Other thing that
was pretty cool was the lighting effect. The room’s lights are on a dimmer
system, which is in turn connected to the fast clock. So you can cycle an
entire day through the system. To get the rosy glow of sunrise and sunset,
Dan ran strings of red and orange Christmas lights between the edge of the
scenery and the right of way. Cut in the system, and the lights go down; the
sunset/sunrise comes on, and eventually fades to night or day. We finished in good
time and headed back to the hotel. From there it was the usual – check
email, dinner, TV and bed. We are too predictable. It is amazing to think
that just a few years ago we made do with a pay phone, and paper and pen.
Now it seems as if we could hardly survive without computers, email, cell
phone, PDAs and scanned images.
we made our way to Cocoa Beach, only to find that
our
rooms were not ready. We feared that the weather would worsen, so we headed
off to the Merritt Island Nature Refuge to shoot some Florida scenery for the
segment. On the way, we were turned around by many Space Center guards, all
armed with automatic weapons and extra clips. We got some footage of the
launch pads, and wildlife, as well as some of the palm trees and palmetto. By
that time it was late in the afternoon, we were all tired and headed back to
hotel. We checked out the Ron Jon Surf Shop, and had dinner at a (or course)
seafood restaurant. The rooms had internet access, so we holed up, and closed
up shop for the night.
Florida, just south of Patrick Air
Force Base, and once you step into the layout, you are whisked to the Pacific
Northwest and the logging industry in the early 1900s. Lou has done an
amazing job capturing the look and feel of the tall timber forests and the
logging operations. It is well detailed, and beautifully appointed. Plus he
has added lots of realistic sounds. Lou makes the trees, and his friend, Mike
Brock, makes the rocks and castings. Between the two of them, it is quite a
layout with lots of great detail. Both Mike and Lou are retired from NASA,
and were close friends with the astronauts. It was fun listening to them
detail their experiences in the Space Program, as they saw it all, from the
first monkeys to the Space Shuttle. 
Every time I looked at the layout, I
would find new things. It wasn’t just the logging, but details such as rail
joiners, and other attention to small items. They weren’t so obvious that
they stand out, but rather serve to add depth to the whole scene. The trees
alone are worth a second look. There are about five hundred trees on the
layout and are basically of three types.
One
is the rope and wire arrangement, where you glue a piece of hemp rope between
two pieces of wire, and then spin it in a drill. The unraveling hemp
makes great branches, which are then flocked with ground foam. Also in
evidence were furnace filter trees, and the much more difficult, but
impressive, individual branches glued into a trunk and then flocked.
Mike and Lou worked well together. We said our goodbyes and headed
further south to Vero Beach.
This town was very important as it was a change
point for the C&O crews as trains made their way across the Allegheny
Mountains. There are millions of trees on the mountainsides. These were
all made with clumps of polyfoam, spray painted black, and then dipped in
ground foam. The resultant “tree” was then glued in place. The scenes are
all accurate reproductions of the scene as it existed in 1938. Pictures of
the area from 1938 were used as the basis for the modeling of the
structures, placement, and scenic elements. This really is a wonderful
depiction of the way it was in West Virginia prior to WWII. Dan had two
friends in to help him. Nat Huggins and Dennis Realley were both involved
in the construction and operation of the layout. The engines are all brass,
and as you can tell from the stills, look quite realistic. 
Other thing that
was pretty cool was the lighting effect. The room’s lights are on a dimmer
system, which is in turn connected to the fast clock. So you can cycle an
entire day through the system. To get the rosy glow of sunrise and sunset,
Dan ran strings of red and orange Christmas lights between the edge of the
scenery and the right of way. Cut in the system, and the lights go down; the
sunset/sunrise comes on, and eventually fades to night or day. We finished in good
time and headed back to the hotel. From there it was the usual – check
email, dinner, TV and bed. We are too predictable. It is amazing to think
that just a few years ago we made do with a pay phone, and paper and pen.
Now it seems as if we could hardly survive without computers, email, cell
phone, PDAs and scanned images.
