Q & A with Duane Johnson

A lot of times when woodworkers come and visit the shop they've got questions for me but in this case, Duane Johnson from Hammond is here and I've got some questions for him. Duane has been making models and you like mostly make model trains, right Duane? The model steam engine is my favorite to make, yes. And you worked for the railroad, right? I worked for the railroad 46 years.

And you've been on track ever since? Since 1990, I've been on track. Here's the thing that I'm amazed by. Duane will look at a picture, right, and you're not using a plan for this cool stuff you're making. So, how do you, from the picture, how do you get the dimensions and the scale and all the stuff you need?

'Cause the models are amazing, they look very accurate. Well, the big boy I built took four years to build but that was off the plan. I had the book of the original building and I cut it down to 1/32nd and it's still over five feet long. Wow! The 261 engine, the Milwaukee 261, I built that just looking at the engine itself.

It was sitting in Burlington and what picture I could get, I built that in a month. So then, how do you know- Do you know the size of the real thing and then from the picture you're scaling that down to what you're building in the shop in order to keep everything proportionate? That is right. Once I got the dimension of the drive wheels, I think I built them all the same size but most of them are the same size. The drive wheels?

The drive wheels, yes. And why steam engines in particular? What is it about the steam engines that really- There's more action to the steam engine. The diesel engine nowadays don't impress people. Because you've got that arm, the steam engine's got the arm going on the drive wheels?

They got the action and they got the smoke and the noise, yeah. It looks like the finish on your models is really good and, we talked about this earlier, you're hand-painting these, right? Yeah. So, for people who are wanting to do this at home, do you got tips? Is it about paint selection, is it about being patient?

How do you get such a nice paint job on these? That's a good question... because I just paint it out of a black paint can. Like paint that somebody would buy at a hardware store? Or from a model store?

Just out of a hardware store. The letters up here on the big boy, my wife painted them and on the back of the caboose was 25,000 gallons and she had to use one piece of the brush and paint between heartbeats to get the letter that small. That's amazing, very patient. She did a very beautiful job on the sides. What kind of wood do you use for the ones that are gonna be painted?

Anything I can get ahold of. Okay, so you're not worried about it specifically being a, you know, a lot of people use poplar cause it paints well but you're not, just whatever you got. The big boy, I wondered how long a piece I could turn in the Shopsmith. So, I opened it up and that's what I turned the boiler for out of a treated four-by-four. Really?

And when I got that done, then I figured I'd build the big boy. Then in addition to the smaller models, you're also doing some backyard stuff. You've got some trains that are like playground-sized trains, right? Yes. Out by Richmond on highways 65 I've got the playground equipment that he requested I build.

What scale are those? Them I had to plan for so I have no idea what the scale is. But you were thinking each of those cars weighs about 500 pounds. Yeah. They're a pretty good size.

With the treated lumber, yes, that's what they all go by. They're holding up real good and they're about 12 years old. And you were doing all of this work on a Shopsmith, right, a Mark 5? On a Mark 5 Shopsmith, yeah. Well this is cool stuff and very glad Duane stopped in.

You got to see some of the behind the scenes video stuff. Any smart comments from you for me? I just wanna thank you, George, for inviting me. Happy to have you! It's great having people stop in and we kinda never know when it's gonna happen.

I'm very thrilled that Duane stopped in today.