The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-12-15

a labyrinth of tracks 5000 feet long
extending through three rooms OF
the Chicago Historical Society build
ing. The exhibit is partially con-
structed and Is scheduled to be
opened to the public before Christ
mas.
Tolstead, 61-year-old retired con-
sultant engineer said that one train
will be able to run Is minutes with
out duplicating its route.
IT am building this up for the
pleasure of small boys-and a few
that have grown up, or perhaps
have not grown up, including me-"
he said. "It's been on my mind for
As years."
At its present construction stage,
the exhibit is a mass of tracks
strewn haphazardly about between
a miniature roundhouse, a jack
knife bridge, a 45-foot truss bridge
and a railroad car ferryboat.
The ferry will transport cars over
q lake" six inches deep which COW
ers most Of the 35-by-70-foot main
room. It will trail two wires along
the lakes metal lotion. These will
gather electric power from a central
platform from which it will be OPP
Grated. The ferry, copy of one for
merly operating at Port Costa, Cal,
will be steered by varying the speed
of either side paddle.
The truss bridge is modelled after
one across the Missouri river IA
miles north of Omaha, Neb. The
jack-knife bridge, with a four-foot
span, is opened and closed by cleo
tricity and 50-pound Weight con-
cealed in one end.
Each ACKNOWLEDGEMENT the bridges
and industrial operations perform
ing like a many ringed circus-will
be controlled individually from a
central control platform. While one
locomotive is humping freight cars
into siding others will race along
1890 feet of main line.
A car bumper, modelled after sew
eral in Norfolk, Va, and Conneaut,
O., and already completed, over
turns coal barges and empties their
loads through chute into coal
barges in the lake.
These operations and an au-
thentic signaling system provide a
model railroad that can duplicate
any actual railroad operation, Toll
stead said.
He has employed several men at
part time on its construction. His
one full-time employee Is Theodore
Saunders, 35, former professional
artist, who switched to model train
building because, he said, he is lust
a fellow who haunts the toy depart
mentS at Christmas"
Saunders, who has exhibited his
paintings at New York, San Fran
cisco. Philadelphia and the Chicago
Art Institute, is designing and
building the landscapes. In his bag
OF tricks are:
A field of cut wheat simulated by
a doormat, cornstalks made from
broom straws, a lawn of velvet,
plowed ground made from coffee
grounds. a six-inches-deep lake
made opaque and deep appearing
by dash Of milk of magnesia and
locomotive snow plough which
digs chalk and flour snow.
The sound effects include a pho
nograph equipped with recordings
of a train gathering speed, sustain
ing speed and stopping. The phono-
graph, controlled from the central
platform, synchronizes sounds with
operations. Loud speakers are hid
den in the landscape and only the
speaker nearest a passing train op-
crates, so that the sound appears
to come from the train.
With an affectionate touch, Toll
stead demonstrated an electric
mechanism looking much like a
pipe-organ, which he purchased
from the New York Worlds Fair.
He pulled lever and out came the
lonesome wall of the engine whistle.
He pulled another and somewhere
coal barge moaned in the night.
"You know" he said, my son,
Elmer (Elmer, Jr., %, mathematics
instructor at Brown university,
Providence, r. ~ used to be inter-
ested in trains, too. When he was
small boy he wanted to be a rail
road engineer, so I got him toy
train.
IT took great liking to that
train"
He gave a toot on the sound eff
fects machine boat whistle.
IT guess that's why he took up
mathematical