Telling Christmas: book THREE How It's Made

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

REFLECTIONS ON YEAR ONE 2015: February KMR

February 10 . . . Freight and Passenger Depots

February 15-26^th . . . Christmas Hall

It must be emphasized: Christmas Hall was—well, let’s suffice it to say a lot of pre-design was not involved in Christmas Hall. Richard went straight to to acid-free hardboard and threw up the elevations of a 3-story building, then started cutting it out and gluing it all together with nary a sketch in sight.

“Had I realized how much effort it would be to frame out and GLAZE over 50 windows and doors, I might have rethought the design. Each door, each window was stick constructed.”

RWR

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

REFLECTIONS ON YEAR ONE 2015: January KMR

Needless to say, pieces for the clock tower and viaduct had to be constructed in segments so they could be spray painted various colors, then assembled. "The exciting part was having the train go through the clock tower," he told me later. I think it was a vision of that moment to come that led him to persevere without fail.

At each stage, new elements kept coming to mind, he said, and were added. The roof required lots of time—for dormers and individually laid basswood shingles, soffits, fascia, brackets, windows, coins, flagpole and more color.

The dormers on the clock tower roof went through several variations, including arched copper roofing which did not work or satisfy! Finally the new dormers reflected the northern rigors—and all buildings were seen as needing concrete, even concrete shingles. And still, we both laughed, the whole layout would have to be understood as under a bubble against the fierce extremes of weather at the Pole!

The clock required finding a dial image on the computer. Then it was necessary to find the right transparency and score the isinglass to cover and brighten the clocks appearance. It was backlighted, which created another challenge, in that the roof system had to be removable. Along the track viaduct, red runway lighting was a natural but created another design problem—where to store the battery packs. It was decided the north face of the viaduct would be Christmas Hall and the south face would be the freight adventure. East and west would be supported by ground works for the laying of the tracks and cutting into the glaciers with retaining walls.

And January sped by . . .

Monday, March 20, 2017

Reflections on 2015 from The Editor: January KMR

January: always a time of reflection, isn't it?

Of necessity, and believing that pictures truly are each worth a thousand words, the layout of YEAR ONE 2015 for this publication was compressed to a simple calendar portrayal of photos in brief of what was in actuality a year's worth of endeavor on many fronts. Always joyful, it was. And delightfully busy.

I remember . . . our story well.

January 14, 2015:

The construction odyssey began. Having viewed, yet again, our great favorite, the Universal movie Polar Express on blue ray, we set to choosing elements of the North Pole story to feature. Time, obviously, was a big factor in the story—dreamtime, timeless yearnings, times of decision and commitment, Christmastime! And so much more about time. That made the dominant feature a clock tower. Polar Express had a great clocktower through which the train barreled. We wanted something like that.
Faith in God—Father, Son, and Spirit was essential—Believe!
Journeys and place, challenges and rewards would enrich the experience.
Trains! Trains were the transport to and through it all.

Richard started by building that clock tower and elevated railway viaduct in his own unique way. His ideas flowed simply from sketches. From them, he drew up on acid-free board what looked good to him; and the form began to take shape "in my mind", he said.

He also said later he had had no idea how much effort it would take to detail the clock tower and viaduct. Lights needed to be installed. Soffits and fascia needed to be imagined and constructed. Chases for wiring had to be established. The Roof!? (Imagine a lot of forehead rubbing here!) continued . . .