Building a Great Railroad by Glenn Hoffmann

He preferred this material because it could be cut cleanly, glued easily and because it was not a conductor of electricity. Rather than make this a complete construction article, Bill will explain just the methods in which the most interest has been shown.īasically, his cars were made of wood. The car selected is his O-gauge Sacramento Northern interurban # 1009, which may be remembered by some oldtimers as one of the winners in the 1948 MR model contest. This being the case, I thought it would be of interest if we had Bill discuss some of the methods and materials used in the construction of one of his cars.

I suppose such curiosity is universal, for many modelers who saw his vast collection of interurbans would question him as to how they were built.particularly when they find out how little time he spent on each model.

He was always interested in how other model railroaders built their equipment. ''Bill'' Hoffman was a former resident of San Francisco in the 1940s and early 50s. If I'm not mistaken, one year he had first place models in something like four or five categories.'And so it goes. 'I'm not checking my sources before posting here, but I believe that Bill Hoffman has habitually won first place in the NMRA Nationals for traction models, and passenger equipment. He took Best of Show in at least one of the old Model Railroader annual competitiions.' (1948)Another comment from a reader of Model Railroader magazine. Hoffmann - Absolutely magnificent Sacramento Northern and Pacific Electric rolling stock, scratchbuilt virtually board for board and bolt for bolt. Not every class, every CAR! Worked in wood.'From Model Railroader magazine:'W. Hoffman was on the West coast and built a model of near every car that the Sacramento Northern had. 'The two outstanding O scale modelers were Bill Hoffman. His specialty was scratch-built O-scale trolley and Interurban cars.Īs a prelude to this story I'm about to tell, read these quotes from various model publications. Hi Everybody- I put together some interesting information on pioneer traction modeler 'Bill Hoffmann', who was an early day member of the Eastbay Model Engineers Society in Emeryville, CA.

Building a Great Railroad by Glenn Hoffmann