# Musicians who worked on Railroads - Req. for rkapuaala



## catherine yronwode (Oct 9, 2013)

Hello, Mr. Kapuaala,

I am developing a G-scale (Bachmann Big Haulers) garden layout based on the imagined intersection between the ET&WNC in Tennessee and the old lines acquired by the Southern Pacific which at one time ran through my area of Northern California, including the Northwestern Pacific and the Petaluma and Santa Rosa RR. The theme is the commonality of European-American country music and African American blues music among musicians who both worked on railroads and were recorded as commercial singers from the 1920s through the 1960s. The name of the line is the East Tennessee and West Northern California Railroad.

Each musician will be represented by a musically soundscaped depot, with a diorama of the musician's likeness, including instruments and subsidiary figures. 

It is my belief that these figures would be of interest to other garden-scale enthusiasts, as they often accompany their youtube videos of their garden layouts with music of exactly this type and era -- but they have no figures representing musicians on their layouts. 

By limiting myself at the start to musicians who were actually railroad workers before embarking on professional music careers, i hope to increase the cross-over appeal of the project, extending it to fans of country music and blues music as well. 

I am NOT a sculptor. I wish to engage the interest and the services of a sculptor. I have purchased figures from scalehumans.com and you mentioned on your site that posting here was the best way to contact you regarding suggestions for other figures -- so here i am!

The first figure i would like to suggest is Jimmie Rodgers ("The Singing Brakeman" a.k.a. "The Blue Yodeler") who worked a variety of jobs: m-o-w on the Mobile and Ohio RR, brakeman on the New Orleans and Northeastern RR, switchman on the Southern Pacific, etc. Among his best known railroad songs are "Waiting For A Train" (a.k.a. "All Around the Water Tank"), "Ben Dewberry’s Final Run," "The Brakeman’s Blues," "Train Whistle Blues," "Hobo Bill’s Last Ride," "The Mystery of Number Five," "Let Me Be Your Sidetrack," and "The Southern Cannon-Ball" (a hilarious song about failing whistles, bells, and trains that prevent the singer's marriage to an engineer's daughter).

There is great film footage of Rodgers performing "Waiting for a Train" at a depot set, recorded in 1930. It is available in two different takes (with two different directors) on youtube. Included are two actresses, one an old lady in a rocking chair, knitting, and the other a depot cook making Jimmie's breakfast coffee. These could be "anywhere" figures, and, painted in various ways, would help fill the need for female spouses of early 20th century railroad workers.

The second figure i would like to suggest is Jesse Fuller, who started as a hobo when very young, then worked on the Frisco, but spent most of his career as a Southern Pacific fireman and, after his children were grown, as an m-o-w worker on the Southern Pacific out of Oakland, California. He wrote and recorded many great railroad songs, including "Listen Here, Mr. Fireman," "Beat It On Down the Line," "Leaving Memphis, Frisco Bound," "Jesse's New Midnight Special," "The Monkey and the Engineer" (which was recently made into a lovely illustrated children's book), "Lining Track," "Railroad Blues," and "San Francisco Bay Blues."

There are good photos of Fuller taken during the 1950s and there is film footage of him as well, on youtube, although the films are from a bit later in his life, after he had retired from the SP in the 1960s and was a full-time musician. He was a one-man band, and any figural representation of him should include the remarkable foot-operated piano-bass he invented, the fotdella, and his foot-operated high-ht cymbal. 

A "loose guitar" would also be of use as an accessory, because it could be added to a Preiser-type seated woman painted to represent another great railroad song writer who was not herself a railroad employee, Elizabeth Cotten, best known for her song "Freight Train." 

I understand that commissioning the Jimmie Rodgers and Jesse Fuller figures for my exclusive use would be a very expensive venture, but i believe that interest in these figures would be such that others would purchase them as well. I am floating the idea here, to see what interest is expressed.


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks for your message and your order Catherine. I got it this morning and was working on some site updates so I could not contact you immediately and so probably this is as good a place to let you know that I will not be able to ship your items till Weds at the earliest as I need to cast a few of them. 
These sound like very colorful people, and while they do intrigue me, I'm not sure when or if I can get going on them. Funny, for some reason I always thought Woody Guthrey wrote 'All Around the Water Tank'. It's a great song and I've loved it since I was a kid, trying futile to reproduce that little bit of yodeling they did in the chorus despite the complaints of the neighbors and our dog. 
I've long planned to make a scale guitar, being enamored with the instrument all my life. 
At any rate, it will probably be a few years before I even consider any of the individuals you have listed here as my plate is quite full and I'm on a tight budget. I've had to scale down my production as the cost was exceeding what I was able to recover, so I have around 12 figures that haven't even gone in to production yet and about that many I'm currently working on. 
I also have 2 long over due live steam projects and structures and cars I would like to finish,,, someday  The point being, I don't want to get your hopes up needlessly. I also cannot spare the time to research and find the necessary photographic information to undertake such a project. HiRes images of people who are more well known is hard enough to find. 
But I will say this, if you find a huge stash of Hi resolution images (any image that is bigger than 1024x1024 pixels in size, then there is no telling what I might do. My attention span is very short and I've been known to just drop everything if something catches my fancy, which is one of the reason, things get fixed slowly around my house and I have so many disparate figure studies on my site. Although, if I do that now, my wife will probably break my arm or some other important parts of my body.... she really does want the garden path in the front yard finished and the entertainment cabinet in the media room (although she said she would settle for me just plugging up the big hole I put in the wall to accommodate the piece).


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## catherine yronwode (Oct 9, 2013)

hanks for your reply. 

First, i am fine about any proposed delivery time on the order i placed -- we have not yet even begun to lay track! 

I am aiming for a running train by mid-April, 2014, in time for an open house at my place in early May 2014. So no worries! 

As for the proposed pieces, i do understand your need to do other things in life. I am a writer and shop-keeper, myself, and know full well the push-and=pull between artistic and craft ventures and getting things straight around the old homestead. 

First -- the "loose" guitar: 

If you only make one, it should be a Martin, please. This was the most popular brand during the steam era. Here is a high-res image that should suit your -- and my -- purposes:

http://www.guitaraficionado.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/martin.jpg 

When you get that link to open, you will see that it comes with a magnifying (+) icon -- click again for a HUGE size image!

Next, the people: 

I will spend some time getting you high-res pictures. I believe that this will be possible. I will contact you by posting in this thread regarding more additional links when i have material for you.


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Been a Martin fan all my life. I used to play a friends a long time ago, but have never been able to afford one. The image you provided seems to be a Martin Dreadnaught. Note that originally Martin Dreadnaughts were made by Martin for the dealer Oliver Ditson Company and the name Martin did not appear on that guitar till around 1931. 
I have not decided which guitar I will make, as I was planning on making the first a Stella 12 string in honor of one of my most favorite blues musicians, and composer Huddie William Ledbetter circa 1909 (dread naughts weren't developed till 1916). 
Can't wait to see images of your layout.


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## catherine yronwode (Oct 9, 2013)

Oh, wow! A Stella 12-String!!!! WOW! That is fantastic! I need that (or any 12-string) for my Jesse Fuller figure! He was an SP fireman and m-o-w worker, and wrote many railroad songs. I knew him when i was young -- he was a huge influence on my life and on my decision to build a garden railroad to honour railroad musicians. 

Pictures of my "layout" at this stage would be pictures of a pile of bubble-wrapped ET&WNC Big Haulers cars by Bachmann acquired used and new from assorted ebay sellers -- LOL! 

We begin the design process on October 28, with hope for one train running on one road by mid April 2014.


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