INSPIRATION

As I mentioned in one of my recent posts, the SMMM, in addition to being a fun weekend, recharges our modeling batteries.   Seeing what others are doing in such a casual setting and an environment that is so facilitating in answering questions and proffering helpful information, no matter your pre-existing knowledge on the steel industry, you leave full of ideas.    My son Jimmy was especially motivated and has been down in the basement almost every free moment since the event, last weekend.  Jimmy, who usually takes a book or two with him on car rides or around the house, has been carrying around the  Morning Sun Steel Mill Railroad book,  Steel Mill Modeling, by Bernard Kempinski, and the Cyclopedia of Industrial Modeling by Dean Freytag.   Besides running trains, Jimmy has been building and painting some of the Rix Ingot cars.  These will mostly be used in our Electric Melt Shop.  He also has modeled a beat up mill gon from one of the ST&D kits.   He gets more skilled with every model he finishes and is far more advanced in the building and painting department than I was at age 16.   I hope it is a hobby he stays with for life.   At the meet last week there was a Mr Burnside that had a Metallurgical Coke Facility on his layout that supplied the Blast Furnaces on his son's layout - I thought that was real neat, and something to maybe look forward to in the future.