 |
|
|
|
Lenoir Model Train Museum
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Large pictures are available by clicking on the small pictures. They are rather large, to show as much detail as possible, and will take some time to load.
|
Lenoir Model Trains..The Cedar
Falls Historical Society is indeed fortunate to have received the
personal collection of William J. Lenoir. Several museums were in competition to receive the
collection and in early May, Ken Halverson came to Cedar Falls to visit
the museums of the Historical Society and discuss the Lenoir collection.
The Board of
Directors unanimously accepted the collection in a special board meeting
in June of 1995. Larry Alger, Bob Hardman, Don Tamisiea, and Norm Wright
volunteered to travel to Tampa to bring the collection to Cedar Falls.
On June 23, the group flew to Tampa to disassemble the layout, pack the
collection, and truck the collection back to Cedar Falls. On Friday,
June 28, the evening of Sturgis Falls weekend celebration, Larry and
Norm arrived with the rental truck loaded with the collection and
layout. The
collection consisted of hand-built, brass steam locomotives,
gas-electric cars, passenger cars, freight cars (from most railroads in
the U.S.), railroad structures, and a large track layout. All items were
built by Bill Lenoir to the scale of 1/4 inch to the foot (known as O-gauge scale). Mr. Lenoir was one of the pioneers and all-time greats in
model railroad history. He was a master railroad model builder who was
internationally known for building outstanding steam locomotives from
scratch. He built almost 300 locomotives, which sold from $ 2,000 to $
5,000 each. Photographs of his locomotives have appeared in numerous
books and magazines. His
first steam locomotive, a New York Central 4-6-4, was chosen for the
cover of the very first issue of AI Kalmbach's "Model Railroader
Magazine" in 1934. Born
in Chicago on September 30, 1910, Bill Lenoir lived part of his
early years with his grandfather in Lombard, Illinois. It was here
where, as a youngster, Bill enjoyed watching trains on the Chicago Great
Western as they passed through town. This, plus occasional rides on the CGW, made Bill a lifelong fan of that railroad. Bill's
father was a draftsman producing patent drawings and Bill studied
drafting at a vocational school in Chicago.
Bill graduated from Crane Technical High School in 1931
and probably would have become a railroad man, but the depression was on
and the railroads were not hiring. His first job was patent drafting. In
the early 30's he was a member of the Chicago Society of Model
Engineers, and later joined the Chicago Model Guild. He was a charter
member of the National Model Railroad Association. He
built his first scale model locomotive in 1932 and after that time he
had an active interest in one-quarter inch scale railroading. The first
engine built for a customer, the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, who had just been enhancing the operating layout and displaying the highly
detailed historic models of the Chicago Great Western Railroad. Baldwin,
Lima, Alco and other locomotive builders might still be listed on the
New York Stock Exchange as financial giants paying fat dividends to
stockholders if William J. Lenoir - master model maker - had anything to
do with their destiny. Modest to an extreme, Bill was a master
machinist, pattern maker and one of the very few artists in model making
industry.
From 1935-1936 he worked for
W .K. Walthers, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Walthers' first O-gauge
material was marketed. Then in 1936-1937 he went to the Scale Model
Railways, Huntington, Indiana. In 1940-1941 he developed the Saginaw
line of Pennsylvania Railroad engines for the Saginaw Pattern &
Manufacturing Company, Saginaw, Michigan. Then along came World War II
and Bill served in Uncle Sam's army for 3 1/2 years as an ordnance
machinist and saw overseas action in Italy and the Philippines. He
decided that after his discharge he would have no more to do with the
model business and moved to Tampa, Florida, to work in his
brother-in-laws' prop and costume shop which catered to Ringling
Brothers Circus and the Holiday On Ice, but someone heard he had been
discharged from the army, asked him to build a locomotive and he was at
it for the remainder of his life. From a beginning in the late 1940’s, Bill was president, mechanical
draftsman, superintendent and the entire labor force of the Lenoir
Locomotive Works, located in Tampa, Florida. Bill continued building
locomotives until his retirement in 1987. All of his locomotives were
built from the same blueprints used to build the real locomotives by
such companies as Baldwin, Lima, Alco and other locomotive builders. At
his peak, Bill could turn out a locomotive in five or six weeks. In his
early years, Bill scratch built all of the parts needed for an engine.
Later, as good quality castings became available, he used commercial
parts to speed construction. He could machine anything he needed in his
well-equipped shop, often supplying parts to other manufacturers such
as Lobaugh or Athearn. It has been said the Bill Lenoir was a true gentleman. Very quiet and
unassuming to the point of being shy, Bill never bragged. He didn’t
have to, his work did it for him. He had a lot of friends around the
country and many of the Scalers were sorry when he retired, but that
time comes for everyone. In Bill’s case, his legacy will always remain
in the wonderful historic models he created. Today his models can be
found in both private collections and in museums.
NATIONAL
MODEL RAILROAD
ASSOCIATION The National Model Railroad Association is the largest organization devoted to the development, promotion, and enjoyment of the hobby of model railroading. The NMRA was founded in 1935 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in order to provide a service to the hobby of model railroading! O Scale News - On Line Museum listing TrainNet.org - The roots of the thriving worldwide community of TrainNet.org go back to early 1986 when the CompuServe ModelNet Forum opened two railway oriented message boards.
|
|
- TOP Visit the Cedar Falls Historical Society ã
2002 |
|
