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Show I. t " , ; i L i . , " - m M . 1 - i J ) 4' -V. . F-;r . ; . ; ' - V- . ' ' I i - i:' , -'';'s,-t -c..V t - rd'W Vi mix - ' Robbins continues third generation train hobby V -ft 1 ;S ' v' - 'v ' rv.v . iff y-'i By MARCKLLA WALKKR Ken Robbins of Pleasant Grove has followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and his father and taken up model train collecting as a hobby. In the basement of the Robbins home is a large room, completely filled with a (rain layout. It has taken Ken about three years to complete this particular layout. Ken's love of trains was instilled in him when he was a little boy by a father and grandfather who loved trains, too. Ken said that his grandfather lived on Second West at Ninth North in Salt Lake City. The train tracks went right in front of their home. They would watch the trains go by all the time and they were fascinated by the steam engines. Three or four times a week his dad would take them to see the City of Los Angeles go by and they would race the train down the street and wave at the engineers. Instead of taking Ken fishing or on picnics, Mr. Robbins took young Ken to watch the trains. Ken's grandfather bought the first Lionel Train that was ever made. It was "G" scale (called gauge 1 now) and was very large. Ken said it looked like an electric train and the track was about three inches wide. Every year Grandfather Robbins would put up a 10'xlO' train display around the Christmas tree. This took three grown men about 80 hours to accomplish each year. They started the project about two weeks ahead of time, Ken said. Ken's grandfather, father and uncle were the three who put it together. People came from all over the city to see this beautiful train See Trains Page 2 Ken Robbins places ore cars on his model of Bingham Copper Mint, a part of his model train layout. Above he adds finishing touches to three-year project. Three generations of model trains Continued from front page display. It was the highlight of Ken's Christmas each year to see that display. Ken got his first train when he was five years old. His dad got a large layout on a table when Ken was about eight. Ken's father, S. Kenneth Ken-neth Robbins, Sr., still has a big layout at his home in Salt Lake City. Ken built a train layout that covered one-third of the basement when he first got married. He and his wife, Juanita, quickly had five little boys and those little boys did not want to stay out of the train set. They would take pieces out to the sand pile and out in the yard and raised the wrath of their father each time they did. He has had a train layout in the basement of every house he has lived in. When the kids were smaller and had to sleep in the bedroom he now uses for his layout, he made it so that it could be hung on the wall out of the way at bedtime. Now there are only three of eight children living at home and so Ken now has an entire room, 27' by 14', to house his magnificent hobby. Ken, who holds a PH.D in Educational Psychology, said that the most satisfaction is in the building and creating of the model railroad with its towns, scenery and stations. He enjoys taking natural things of the earth and bringing them into the display He will use rocks, leaves, twigs, etc. to add to his layouts. He explained that this latest project is kind of the fulfillment of some of his dreams. Before he begins to build the layout he draws out on paper the way he wants the design to be. Then he builds a model using balsa wood to create the scale and bench work and putting everything where he wants it. He uses nylon filament to form the railroad track design. Now he uses the HO guage but he also has the 10 guage. In the recently completed layout, Ken has included a model of the Open Pit Bingham Copper Mine and has trains on the different levels of the mine. He went to the actual mine and picked up rocks which he has used to fill the train cars and to place about the area. He has included Geneva Steel Mill in the layout and he drafted his wife, an artist, to paint the Steel Plant with Timpanogos in the background. In some instances, the background of the layout may be a mural but in other places it has been painted by his wife. Ken has constructed mountains, tunnels, trestles, lakes and rivers on his layout. Miniature towns with stores, post office, homes and, of course, a railway station dot the layout. Trees, flowers, switching devices train signals and even a round house have a place on the layout. Miniature automobiles wait at the train crossing and even a statue of Brigham Young can be seen. Ken took the apparatus from a lazy susan, hooked it up to electricity elec-tricity and it makes a perfect turnaround tur-naround for the train at the roundhouse. roun-dhouse. Ken has used indirect and direct lighting to illuminate the layout. Lights shine from the windows of the tiny buildings. Ken has used about 400 feet of track on this latest layout. He estimates he has spent about 750 hours a year on the project. Ken's dream is to inherit his father's layout one day and fill an entire basement with a train layout He would like to use all different guages and types of trains. His favorite engine is the Hudson Locomotive. It was one on the New York Central Railroad. Ken said that many of the engines that his father owns are now collectors items. The hobbyist said that after spending a day at work at BYU where he works as assistant director of Education Weeks and teaches religion classes, he enjoys spending three or four hours in the evening working on the train. He said it makes him feel refreshed He added that the creative building adds something which is meaningful and brings joy and satisfaction to him. Ken is a Boy Scout merit badge counselor for model railroading So far only one of Ken's seven sons, Curtis, has shown an interest in continuing the tradition of model trains, Ken said. A model railroad club is just ThYs cLn Th County-he This club w,ll sponsor a display on Jan 18 at the Continental Plaza on Th i??ubhcisinvited to attend There will be no charge. tUle"Q- |