A Tribute to Bob Hamm, M.M.R.

My friend and mentor, Master Model Railroader Robert "Bob" Hamm, recently announced that later this year he will be moving to Florida. As a result, his magnificent HOn3 layout will need to come down. His layout, known as the "Iron Gorge Subdivision", was featured in the September 2017 issue of Model Railroader magazine. A track plan of the layout as it existed then can be found here. It has resided in his current house since 2000, though portions of it were built before then. Sadly, he was this close to finishing it.

He invited people to view his layout for one last time and so sadly I went to record it with my camera. My apologies that some of the pictures took on an orange hue. 

Bob has been a modeler and member of the NMRA for about fifty years, and has served it faithfully. He was a chairman of the Northeastern Region (NER) convention in 1997 and co-chaired it again in 2001. He served as a leader in every position in the Hudson Berkshire Division and for eight years on the Board of Directors of the NER. For eight years he was the on the NER Board, and was the NER contest chairman for twelve years. In 2007, he took over as the National Contest Chair and held that post for eleven years. He has qualified for 10 different MMR certificates and earned his MMR in 2003. 

He is, unequivocally, the finest modeler I have ever met. It was for this reason that I wanted him to judge my structures and rolling stock for my MMR certificates. If they passed his judgment, they must have been okay.

He is a retired mechanical engineer with a resume that includes research and developement for the space shuttle's main engine, work on a north sea oil platform, and twenty years riding nuclear submarines conducting research projects (no, he doesn't glow in the dark).

I first really got to know Bob in the fall of 2018 when he graciously offered to host interested modelers at his house to work on projects for our Master Model Railroader certificates. I remember getting hopelessly lost on the way up for the first night, and then being totally amazed at his HOn3 layout upon entering the basement for the first time. And his workbench alone was awesome? No wonder he could create such wonderful models. This was his "tool" bench. He actually builds his models in a comfortable office connected to this. 

And on the other side of the aisle? More flat workbench space. Wow.

Out of the group of 6-8 people who took him up on his offer I was the only one working on rolling stock, a D&H bobber caboose which later became my first piece of rolling stock to earn a merit award. Bob gave me lots of insight into what I should and should not be doing to not only maximize judging points (my immediate goal) but also improve my modeling skills as a whole (my long term goal). Through inspiration and/or fear he taught me how to strive for my absolute best, whether it was scratchbuilding windows instead of using castings; cutting and applying 3,618 individual cedar shingles on a roof; adding interior and exterior details to structures that most people would never even notice; or researching prototype pictures to justify decisions instead of just guessing. 

When my models didn’t live up to the requirements necessary for a Merit award he would kindly point out areas to improve on. And we had a lot of laughs too, such as when I randomly picked a Sinclair gas station to model and it turns out his father used to own one! Yeah, that model received a lot of scrutiny during judging.  

 

A modeler must certify when they submit their MMR paperwork that they will agree to assist other members in this subject whenever possible. Bob certainly met that requirement, and for his help I am tremendously thankful. He may be an excellent modeler, but he is also a fantastic teacher. His legacy will live on in. And, my last structure which was a wooden engine house protects a steam engine lettered for the Hamm Surman Lumber Company in his honor. 

The below picture is the exterior wall of a bathroom in his basement. He decorated it to look like a station house!

This winter I decided to start a new column in the Hudson Berkshire Division's Form 19 newsletter called "Derailed" where members could share anecdotes of failed modeling projects. I asked all of the readers to submit stories but specifically quipped (only partially joking) that Bob probably had never made a mistake in his life and wouldn't have anything to share. He thought it was funny...

And then, when I recently visited him, he presented me with the model below. It looks like a nice passenger car, and it is... it earned him a merit award in 1972. When I asked why he was giving it to me he confided that it contained a mistake. When he explained what it was I could only roll my eyes... it was something no one would consider a "mistake" except him. But now it is a secret that we both share, and I will treasure the model.

I will truly miss him, but his layout will live on through my own models. He was the best teacher I could have asked for.

His crew lounge was filled with Colorado narrow gauge artifacts including real railroad china, track spikes, and metal pieces from bridges.

His workshop was filled with piles of immaculately built structures that had no where to go. He is definitely a builder more than an operator.