More Color More Color - O scale trains

OSTReed ArtimInterviews O Scale Realty1/4 scale model of the old Colt Arms factory in Patterson, New JerseyEditor’s note: I was introduced to Reed Artim’swork through the photography of Jeb Kriigel. I’dseen Reed’s work at local O scale meets but I hadno idea that everything on his table had beenscratchbuilt. I finally met Reed in person and wetalked about doing an interview for O Scale Trains.I met up with Reed, Jeb and their wives at the YorkTCA meet in April where we did this interview.OST: How long have you been doing this [custombuilding structures]?RA: About four years, seriously. I was trying toresurrect my trains from when I was a kid. One ofthe problems that I always found as a kid was to addrealism to my layout in terms of buildings that wereavailable. Most were Plasticville buildings. Otherbuildings were just out of my price range.This time, when I went to build my layout, Iwanted realistic structures. But when I went to lookfor structures after being out of trains for years, Ifound that unless you were in HO or N, there wasn’tthat much available that was really realistic looking.So, I started scratchbuilding my own buildings.I started with a haunted house I saw in a magazine.Then I built the church my wife and I weremarried in. Next came a gas station. I built whatwould be appropriate to a town.OST: How did you come up with the plans to dothose buildings, for example, the church you weremarried in?RA: The church wasn’t that far from my house soI went down there and took pictures. I used the sizeof the doors to get the overall scale of the building.The model is a little smaller than it should bebecause the church itself is immense.People don’t understand, especially O scalers,how high buildings and trees really are. You look ata tree outside and you see that it is 100 feet tall, thattree scales out to 25 inches tall. Well, 25 inches is abig tree. Most people wouldn’t even think about puttinga 25 inch tree on their layout. And, the samegoes for buildings. I did a barn and people said,“Boy, that’s big.” Well, did you ever stand next to abarn? It’s a big structure.I try to build my buildings to scale. There aresome people who want them scaled down. Theydon’t want them too big. A lot of the kits that yousee, you’ll notice the floors between windows arenot to scale, you might only have a six foot ceilingand nothing really in between the next floor. A lot ofthose aren’t scale, so I try to make [mine] a littlemore to scale. But, if people want them smaller Ihave to build them the way they want. I’ve had peo-O Scale Trains • 21