Thanks Ian! Dave and the Martin’s.
My friend in Florida was named Dave. He was the choir director for a big church! A deeply religious man. Shortly before he passed, I half jokingly asked him to put in a good word for me when he got to Heaven! It was a year later that I had my life saving surgery, maybe he did put that word in for me?
It took a few years to develop the skills to make it. According to those in the modeling hobby, they said it looked like the work of someone with 20+ years experience. But I’ve always been a quick study. I bought the grasses and shrubs and cacti from a company called:
https://www.scenicexpress.com There are people who do this stuff for money! They make models and sell them, and do commissioned jobs, if someone wants something specific. I saw an O scale water tower for $4,000! (O scale is Big) if I had to pay myself minimum wage, I’d have to ask $7,000 for the train station! But I doubt anyone would pay that.
And I also wonder if I had built this for myself, rather than someone else, it may not have turned out as well. Wanting to do something extra nice for my friend drove me to do more, and do better.
But I had a flash of an idea last night! It’s a model of the actual train station, which is still operational in Southern California, I wonder if they would want to buy it? They may want to put it on display in the historic train station? And they may be more likely to pay more for it! I’d really hate to part with it, but as they say, every man has his price. I suppose $2500 could persuade me to pass it along? And it would always be on public display with my name on it! And that money could buy some real STEREO! I’ll always have the photographs.
Russell