From electric trains to electrical engineering
By Minnie (Smith) Stoumbaugh
It had been a few years since the last road equipment did its preparative work, leaving a layer of dust up to three inches thick on Wolf Creek Highway. Today we call it Sunset Highway. The time was mid-1946. Looking for adventure, the five younger Smith kids had climbed McChesney Road (now 87th) and hiked through the woods to play: Roy, age 10, Fern, 12, Gene, 14, Floyd, 16, and myself, Minnie, age eight. Just east of the present day Highway 217 connector we found that someone had dumped some old stuff under the trees on the north side of the highway. We were all excited to find an electric train set, including track and a few cars!
We brought the pieces home and the boys found that the parts were all there, but the engine wouldn’t work. Dad, being an electrical engineer, helped them disassemble it to clean the brushes of the motor. Roy and Gene especially paid close attention to what Dad told them and both learned a great deal of basic electronics from it. And they got it running!
Yes, they had it running very well! But if it went at full speed, it would tip over on the curves. Well, trains are like any other hobby, it’s not long before you need to upgrade. We all had paper routes, so using the wire banding from our newspaper bundles, the boys fashioned a wire frame to hang over the engine. These were to hold miniature sand bags to lower the center of gravity. Having learned this principle, they were happy the train stayed on the tracks at higher speeds—“higher speed” being a relative term. Since this worked so well, we began making sandbags to prop up the tracks to create rolling hills for the train to climb.
Mom’s New Home treadle sewing machine came to live with us just before the onset of the Great Depression. Good timing as Mom kept our clothes mended and occasionally made us something new to wear through the difficult years of the Depression. So Mom gave us fabric scraps and we made the bags on her sewing machine. Because they were small, less than two inches wide and maybe three inches long, it was challenging to keep the sand in the bags. Clearly, Mom was very patient as we did our best to clean up after ourselves when too much sand went down in the workings of the sewing machine!
One day Roy was working hard at the sandbag project, and before he knew it, the needle went right through his thumb—through the nail and all! He rinsed it with cold water to stop the bleeding and continued with his work.
Having had so much fun and learned a lot from that first train, Roy later used his paper route money to upgrade to a nicer, used train from a friend. We all enjoyed many a rainy day with those trains.
But that was only the beginning. Later Dad and the boys made a radio from a kit. Upgrade in 1950: build your own television! And put an antenna on the roof, of course.
Gene went on to study electronics at Portland State College. He might have gone farther but he didn’t let his schoolwork interfere with his extra-curricular activities. So it wasn’t long until Uncle Sam invited him to use his knowledge in the United States Army. After his tour of duty Gene was an electrical technician working for the telephone company until his retirement.
Roy, on the other hand, was a serious student taking the highest math he could in high school. Next he went to Oregon State College to gain his Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering. Since his studies were considered “critical skills,” Uncle Sam gave Roy a deferment from the draft. So he later returned to Oregon State for his Master’s. Roy’s life-long employment was with Hughes Aircraft, which he said could have just as well been called “Hughes Electronics.” Reflecting gratefully, Roy said, “I learned much more than I would have if we had bought a new train that didn’t need any repairs. It wasn’t just a toy. It was an introduction to my career.” |
