Model train maker: A closer look at a legacy
"I started Tiger Valley Models in 1979," said model train enthusiast Guilford Mack Jr. "I bought some expensive grass locomotives imported from Japan. They were not very good, and I paid quite a bit of money for them, and I thought to myself that I could build something a lot better than this a lot cheaper, and that's why I got started."
"So I cashed in my retirement fund and built a room upstairs in the barn," Mack said, "and put all this stuff in there, and casting the models that I sell and also for myself. We put some talcum powder in the mold, the talcum powder acts as a lubricant for the metal flow. We place the teflon insert in put the piece in the mold, make sure it's seated, put it in the spin-caster, and when I close the lid it'll start to rotate."
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"Get Fresh clean metal, pour. Lift it out, spread the rubber apart and pull the casting out."
"I like building kits or scratch building from basic materials. The panels are my own design and built by myself. I use a strange system that probably no one else in the country uses, I use a dimmer switch to control the train speed," said Mack.
"The basic premise of this model railroad is the KISS principal, which means keep it simple stupid. There's a lot of wires because there's a lot of switch machines and a lot of blocks. All the panels have volt meter, amp meter, circuit breakers, reversing switches."
"Some of the scenic greets in here are the passenger station; that's 12 feet long with curved canopies over the train platforms. And then there's a 21 foot long tressel that crosses the basement going out to the outer walls."
"Well Tiger Valley was taken from my girlfriend's nickname, who I've been married to for almost 44 years, and the Valley came from the Lehigh Valley, so the two favorite things in my life," Mack said.
"It's been a work-in-progress for 36 years now and it will probably never be completely completed...I won't live long enough."
Mack says he draws his inspiration from real trains that were once a common scene in the Auburn and Syracuse areas.