Per several requests, I have begun to compile a statement of relevance
to the inspiration and motivation behind SHABBONA RR
Bob Nicholson
Chapter 1 In the Beginning . . .
. . . was a void an emptiness of gloom and despair. Oh, sure, there
had been the obligatory American Flyer trainset, and before that,
Marx, but by 1964, that was all gone. Evidence of failed attempts to
meld a random, oddball cumulus of HO into a credible operation
littered a barren model railroad landscape. No real direction or
purpose threatened to extinguish the last flickering coals of a
once-healthy passion for trains and railroads.
Then, one those remaining coals flickered briefly, thanks to a
special trip to the old All-Nation hobby shop in Chicago to inspect an
S "Gauge" (as was the general term in those days) wood craftsman stock
car kit. It followed me home, complete with a pair of Northeastern
trucks. Still unbuilt when I hired out on Santa Fe a short time later
and moved several times, it eventually sank out of sight in a quagmire
of HO stuff in cardboard boxes that pursued me wherever I roamed.
Then it happened. In early 1972, my roots were finally established in
my own little piece of terra firma. One morning as I was
scratchbuilding an HOn3 boxcar at my workbench, with no premonition or
forewarning, one of those old Northeastern trucks surfaced, in plain
sight. To this day I do not remember how it got there, much less from
whence it came, but after about a week of sitting there, it still
hadn't gone away, leaving me only one recourse get a sample copy of
the old S Gauge Herald from an ad in Model Railroader.
Subsequently, I ordered a MILWAUKEE ROAD composite gondola wood
craftsman kit from Bob Ristow's Wisconsin Central Supply, and also
acquired a copy of S Gaugian. I built the gondola and read the
magazines, which set the hook properly. Next came a Rex 0-6-0 kit from
Wisconsin Central Supply, which I built and numbered #51. I was still
in a quandry over a name for the railroad when the local newspaper ran
a series of articles about an old Indian chief from pioneer days in
the area, Chief Shabbona.
Chief Shabbona had demonstrated an overwhelming degree of honesty,
decency, and common sense in dealing with early-day pioneer
self-proclaimed adversaries who exhibited virtually none in return. In
a brief moment of remorse, they named a town after him, calling it
"SHĂ'-bǔh-näw". The idea of using the name, however, came from a
non-resident of the area who pronounced it, "Shă-BŌN'-ǔh". Thus,
SHABBONA RR came into an existence that has survived several [most
unbuilt] incarnations over the years.
- to be continued -
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