A Tale of Three Depots.

Back in 1996, when I first began my HOn3 Layout, I wanted to make the most of this experience, including making more buildings from scratch. I knew I would need a nice depot, and I had some ideas of how I wanted it to look. Among other things, I definitely wanted a tower like the Rico depot on the Rio Grande Southern. But I wanted it to have a caricature feel, exaggerating the vertical/Victorian charm. One thing I like about being a model railroader is openly sharing ideas with other modelers. It's flattering to see another modeler do something after having been inspired by your work. Such was the case with my depot. I was flipping through an old model railroad magazine and found a depot with a tower similar to the one in Rico, offset rather than centered, but larger, almost top-heavy. I took the idea of this new tower and worked it into a depot that I thought could've been in SW Colorado.

I enjoyed the look of this depot so much that I carried it over to my next modeling adventure: my On30 mini-layout/module. I changed a few things such as the siding, and window arrangements, but the essence of the building was the same, and the results were equally charming. And when last I built my Garden layout, I once again resurrected the same depot design, only this time I built it out of red sandstone in honor of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Depot at Glenwood Springs.

This unique depot style has been so much a part of my modeling, I decided to go back and see where I got my ideas. I found it...sort of. I found an article on the St. Clair Northern, built by Irv Schultz, NMRA Master Model Railroader #142. There is a little depot on this layout that had the signature tower that inspired me. There were no pictures of this depot in the article I found, but I did find another larger two story depot with the same architecture, and I knew immediately that somewhere long ago, I'd seen other pictures of this wonderful work. Irv passed away in 2000, but after seeing his work again, and realizing the influence he had on me, I felt it only appropriate to give credit to this great modeler.

Below are images of my three depots. If anyone has an image of Irv's little depot from the St. Clair Northern, please send it to me. I'd be honored to put it up here.