~~ Meet the
Crew ~~
[ Home | Robert McCord
| Peter Kirchhoff | Robert
Chant | Dennis Sullivan |
Gertie | Joseph Hamilton
]
Robert McCord:
 Hello my name is Robert (Bob) McCord from Santa Paula, CA., which is located in
sunny Southern California. I grew up and went to school in Texas and played most all of
the team sports, but football and baseball were my main ones. Today I am a manager at a
Credit Union, having retired after 20 years with GMAC Finance and before that spent 12
years as an Air Force Military Photographer. While a military photographer, my wife and I
lived in Germany for 6 years and also 1 year in Thailand. I have many interests and
hobbies that fill my spare time. To name just a few: auto racing, travel, family,
astronomy, photography, model ship building, wood working, computers and of course model
railroading. I have been married for 35 years to a wonderful lady from Boston named Carol;
we have one son Robert who is 34 and 4 grandchildren named Morgan,
Trinity, Christian and Skyler.
As a side note the railroad is named after my two granddaughters
Morgan and Trinity.
My previous layout was featured on one of the 1996 NMRA Long Beach, CA National
Convention Layout tours. We had over 185 visitors in two days and it was a very pleasant
experience. This was an experience that I would not hesitate to do again if the
opportunity were to present itself in the future. This layout was a fictional standard
gauge Regional HO railroad located in Central Wisconsin in the late 50's. It was a point
to point railroad that was originally wired for conventional multi-cab and block control.
Later it was converted to DCC Command Control. After that conversion and time spent
running with DCC, I can assure you I will never build another block controlled layout
again, for many reasons, many of which you will probably discover as you explore the site.
It is my hope that you will find something of value and use to you, in your modeling
and model railroading pursuits here. We intend to have a lot of details for you relating
to the overall construction of the MF< from start to finish (so check back for
updates frequently), the design process, CAD railroad designing and 3rd PlanIt, scenery,
lighting (both low voltage and 120v), bench work, structures (one of my favorite things),
DCC Command Control, decoders and their various installations (possibly), rolling stock
and motive power, some reviews (our opinions and experiences) of the many products we use
here on the MF< and our operations.
Our new layout is a fictional Standard gauge HO Switchback Logging Railroad located in
Upper Wisconsin with access to the Great Lakes during the mid to late 40's.
My chance meeting with Rob Chant took place just a couple of months ago when he
responded to a post I placed on the 3rd PlanIt Group and it has already resulted in a
couple of hundred email exchanges between all of us. This rather intense activity has
resulted in our making extremely large leaps in the design process of the MF< in a
very short time. Almost all of the principle layout elements were already known but the
footprint and usage of the room was less than optimal. Our teamwork and especially the
fresh input from Rob changed things quickly and made the final result possible. He blended
in very naturally and instantly became a valued crew member. During this process a strong
and hopefully long time friendship has developed. The internet has shrunk the distance and
although there is about 4000 miles between us, it really doesn't seem so. Many, many of
the major elements of this track plan have been either his original suggestion or his
quality modifications to existing ones. I strongly recommend anyone designing their own
railroad empire to confer with a couple of fellow railroaders when designing your plan, as
it not only gives one a sounding board for their ideas, but in many cases new ideas will
be floated out in the process and encourage a fresh look at the plan you are working on.
Many times I have noticed that while planning my layout, at some point things become
rather fixed and I get blinders on and never again look outside the fixed boundaries of
the plan. Fresh view points and critiques can revitalize and improve your railroad and get
you past something that may have been lurking as a problem in the back of your mind that
you, with the blinders on, could not get past.
It is a fact that the progress and quality of this plan is not the result of single
individual in our group, but rather the results of input from the whole group. However,
with that said, it must also be mentioned that all the technical design work and scenery
work in the cad program etc., has been Rob's! He has been a huge benefit to the MF<,
and whatever success it ultimately has will be in no small part to his significant
contribution. We are many times further along at this point than we ever would have been
without him on board. The PC track planning and design work is being done with a model
railroad cad program called 3rd PlanIt. I highly recommend it to anyone who is in the
process of designing their own layout and who has access to a fairly capable PC.
As for my partnership with Peter, he and I have been bouncing ideas and modeling
together for about 12 years, actually I think longer. Peter is a total Green and Yellow
guy (read CNW here). If it has anything to do with CNW he is up for it. He is a great
friend and partner in this hobby.
So come in and enjoy the site. Sign our guestbook and let us know what you think and
offer any suggestions you think could improve the MF<. Your comments encourage us
and help us make sure that the content on our site is what you want to see.
-- TOP --
Peter Kirchhoff:
My name is Peter Kirchhoff, and I reside in Oxnard, California. By day, I am the
Operations Manager for a leading auto parts importer and warehouser, by night, a husband,
father and grandfather.
Areas of interest include photography (I have an associates from the Rhode Island
School of Photography), woodworking, carpentry, electrical, basic mechanics, both
mechanical and architectural drafting (pre-CAD), computers, backpacking, playing the
guitar, most forms of music, writing, and most importantly, model railroading and
railroading in general.
Having gotten involved in model railroading at the age of seven, it was but a short
three years afterward that I was bitten by the Chicago & North Western bug, or hit by
the ball & bar, if you will. Growing up in Northern Illinois, the C&NW quickly
became my road of choice, having taken the bi-level gallery commuter cars to and from
Chicago many times during my growing up years. Living in this locale fostered my
fascination with the logging industry, and even though the C&NW had little to do with
it directly, other than hauling finished forest products to market, just modeling this
part of the country, the upper mid-west, is close enough to take me back.
I met Bob roughly 12 years ago while fulfilling the secretarial duties for one of the
local modular railroad clubs. During our association, we have built a totally operational,
partially sceniced, 20' X 20', point-to-point layout, arriving there only after countless
changes and modifications (most of which were for the better) to the original plan. This
time around, all the planning is being done up-front, with most everything being thought
out well in advance of initial construction. The credit for this is going to not only both
Bob and Rob, but to the 3rd PlanIt computer program which they both used to produce the
end result you will see, right here, as it happens.
I enjoy all phases of the hobby and am looking forward to the time when we can roll
from one end to the other, surrounded by breathtaking scenic beauty. Peek in on us from
time to time as that end result shouldn't take us too long to experience.
-- TOP --
Robert Chant:
 I am Robert (Rob) Chant from Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada where I have been
working as a Letter Carrier since 1984. I also have a degree in programming and over the
years have gained experience in both graphic and Web site deign. I have a very active
interest in railways, both prototype and model, and have been enjoying historical research
and designing layouts for about the last 20 years.
Although I do not own a layout, I did have the pleasure of designing and constructing
several HO scale layouts when I was younger. Right now, I live in a small apartment and do
not have the space for a layout, so I enjoy the hobby by designing layouts for others
using 3rd PlanIt software.
I became involved with this project after Bob requested feedback from the 3rd PlanIt
Internet group on his purposed MF< plan in August 2004. Later Bob introduced me to
Peter, a very close friend of his. Although I have never met Bob or Peter, I feel that the
three of us have become very good (long distance) friends.
This project has been very rewarding for me and I cannot wait to see the photos of the
layout as it progresses from dream to reality.
-- TOP --
Dennis
Sullivan:
I'm Dennis Sullivan, currently retired
from the U.S. Army and working as a Logistics System Analyst for
SAIC at Ft. Lee, Va. We are actively trying to solve some of the
Supply problems in Iraq.
One day in the mid 90's I dropped by Allied Trains in L.A. and
saw an incredibly neat HO layout in about 4' X 8' instead of the 20'
X 16' I had built. Fortunately, I relayed this story one day to a
friend at church named Jerry Hamilton who put me in touch with Joe
and Peter. They came over and delicately told me to start over :-)
They were already involved with Bob McCord and his Black River
Railroad and introduced me to him shortly thereafter. This is how I met Bob and
became involved with him and his Black River Railroad.
I was one of his crew members along
with Peter, Joe, Harold (Bob's F-I-L) and Bob. During this
time I was part of that railroads participation in the 1996 Long
Beach NMRA National Convention's Layout Tour where we hosted about
190 visitors in two days.
About a year later I was sent to Bosnia in
1997. During this deployment I became fond of using the German train
system to get around instead of automobiles and this rekindled my
interest in Model Railroading even more than before.
Upon returning to Oxnard, Ca, I
enjoyed building a "spaghetti bowl" in my garage in HO so my
grandkids could see trains running on Christmas as my brother and I
had done as children with our Lionel trains.
I was still in the
planning stage for my future railroad when the Army intervened once again
and sent me here to Ft. Lee, where I decided I could stretch my
retirement money further than in L.A. I am still in the planning
stages for my future railroad. Hopefully
I will learn much more from my compatriots on the new Morgan Falls and
Little Trinity Timber Co. that I can bring into play when
construction begins on my layout here in Va.
I am a huge fan of the PRR and B&O
Railroads and have been collecting appropriate brass equipment and
motive power for these roads for some time now, however with the
recent appearance of the fine Broadway Limited Locomotives I have
been finding these too attractive to pass up and have acquired
several of those as well. My roster is growing and is eager to get
into action when my future layout is up and running.
-- TOP --
Gertie (aka or better
known as: Cee Bar Wicked in Kansas):
I am a 3 1/2 year old female retired
racing Greyhound (sight hound) and have become a permanent member of
the MF< railroad and it's crew. My jobs consist of overall
security in the yard and engine facility, varmint control and hobo
chasing. That last part I really enjoy. I can proudly say not
one hobo has gotten away from me yet!
Here is a bit of history about myself
and my ancestors. I come from a long line of racing Greyhounds
(dating back well over 2000 years actually). We are considered one
of the oldest known breeds of dogs. Many very famous people
have kept us as their very valued canine companions throughout
history. General Custer had 15 of my ancestors and Alexander
the Great also had several just to name a couple of famous people.
Egyptian Pharaohs were famous for making us part of their lives and
culture. You can often see us in their paintings We have raced for
thousands of years for royalty and lived in their palaces, castles
and fortresses right beside them. So I guess I can say
that my heritage is something I am very proud of. As you
may or may not know we Greyhounds have great natural speed (a top
speed of about 45 mph) excellent eyesight and sense of smell as well
as great agility; all of which I use in my job here on the MF< to
keep pests, critters, kids and especially hobo's away from the
valuable railroad property. For all this hard work I get the
luxury of sleeping endless hours at a time (provided there are no
problems to contend with of course), 3 squares a day of high octane
dog food minced with a dash of pumpkin and occasionally yogurt, plus
all kinds of various treats. Bob and the other crew really
have made me feel at home and part of the team. We even have a
private 36' executive rail car we use to take extended trips around
the country side inspecting new routes to expand into (at least that
is what I hear) and other business opportunities. In this way
I get to see allot of great country side and some away time from the
roundhouse and daily chores. Even I need a vacation now and
then from the daily grind of big time railroading. Overall I
think I must say I have it made and don't tell the rest of the crew
but I feel pretty sure this is the easiest job I could ever hope for
and I certainly enjoy every minute of it. If I could change anything
I would just wish there were a few more hobo's around to chase.
That's always fun.
Peter the historian of the MF< is
helping me write a story of one of my early experiences out on the
railroad when I was really green and knew very little about all the
activity that occurs on it every day.
I think if my mom (Cee Bar Shirley) and
dad (Kiowa Sweet Tray) could see me today they would be very proud
of my job here at the MF< and how I have become a valuable asset
to this great crew.
-- TOP --
A Special Friend and Crew Member
- Remembered -
Joseph Hamilton:
 Joseph Samuel Hamilton was born on February 16, 1925 in Springfield, Missouri.
He spent his formative years on the family farm, but upon graduation from high school, felt
the need to serve his country and proudly enlisted in the U.S. Army, as our country was at
that time in the early years of W.W.II. Joe fulfilled his commitment, and emerging unscathed
at the end of the war, shortly afterward finding employment in the Signal Maintenance Department
of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. His railroading career was brief however, as it was soon
discovered that Joe was partially color blind, and the railroad
had no choice but to let him go.
Joe then moved out to California
(Click photo for larger Image)
and found employment with O'Keeffe & Merritt as a Mechanical
Engineer. He worked both in plant and in the field, doing custom installations and service for
many of the then current celebrities in the film industry. After spending many years with O & M,
Joe felt the need to move on and worked for a brief period for a local independent appliance
service contractor before gaining employment with the Oxnard School District as a heating and
air conditioning technician. Joe remained with the school district until his retirement in 1990.
Joe met Peter in 1985 when he joined the Ventura County Modular Railroad Club, one of the first HO
scale modular clubs in California. The two became partners in a three piece modular section and
developed a "best friends" relationship, a bond that lasted for the remainder of Joe's days. After
his retirement from the school district, Joe worked part time with Peter in the auto parts industry
until the business closed. At that time, Joe went into full retirement, keeping busy in his shop and
joined with Peter in working with Bob on his first layout. Joe served at technical adviser when it
came to actual railroading practices as employed on the layout, and would often times interject
thoughts and ideas into the mix to assist us in staying true to the prototype.
Joe was a master at building things from metal and wood. He took great pride in his efforts and had an
uncanny knack for seeing what things "could be", while examining the crude raw materials that they
currently were. He had a wonderful imagination and possessed the ability and know-how to see an idea
grow into fruition. Joe was an inventor, innovator, craftsman, model railroader and true friend.
Joseph Samuel Hamilton passed away on January 13, 2004. He is deeply missed.
- TOP -
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