Page 4 - All Scale Rails Magazine Issue 3 July August 2015

www.AllScaleRails.com

Artist & Photographer

Russ Porter

By Bonnie Domrois

When it comes hours of his childhood were spent watching
to painting and the passenger trains coming and going to and
photographing from various stations all over the city. There
railroads in all was a small CNW yard that young Russ
their glory, the played in, pretending (as many boys of that
first name that era did) to fight Indians from the fire breath-
often comes to ing locomotives.
mind is Russ The 1933-1934 Chicago World’s Fair pro-
Porter. vided a special opportunity for Porter to fre-
Through the quently ride the South Shore Railroad to
bristles of his Michigan City, Indiana. There he visited the
paintbrush and railroad shops, photographing all the fascinat-
the lens of his ing equipment that filled them. There was
camera, he little doubt that somehow young Porter would
poured his love of railroads and ships into his be involved with his passions for trains for the
work in an attempt to open our eyes to the rest of his life.
beauty that he saw. His artwork is more than The 1940s brought a brief stint in the mili-
simply a picture to be hung on a wall and ad- tary and eventually led into Porter’s HO scale
mired; it’s a record of bygone days and a way model railroading empire. Since modeling
of life that is fading quickly from the memo- supplies were scarce at the time, he had to get
ries of those who lived it. creative in order to expand his hobby. He
With pencil in hand, Russ Porter was al- made some of his models with a lead foil on
ready sketching out the Chicago and North light cardboard that he could score and roll.
Western (CNW) steam locomotives that He then used a blunt needle to create the ‘riv-
passed through the yards near his home by the ets’ on his model. He enjoyed modeling the
time he was seven. His father was so proud Arid Southwestern part of the country, dub-
that he kept a copy of this sketch far past bing his layout: the Western Valley Railroad.

Russ’s grade school years. Born and raised in Porter studied commercial art at the Acad-
Chicago, there was no shortage of material to emy of Fine Arts in Chicago and, later, the
inspire the creative side of Porter. Many Carl Schurz Evening College of Chicago. He

4 All Scale Rails