| The modular layout is O-guage 3-rail and it's current size is 16 feet wide and 32 feet long. It is the handy work of just one man Grant 'Corky' Dozier, a former performer with the Ringling Bros Circus. Over 20 years in the making, Corky has built and collected thousands of pieces for this vast collection and is proud to share his display with the general public. Because of the size of his collection he can only display portions of his total collection. Background-- Corky has had a love of trains and the circus for most of his life. Some of his fondest memories from childhood were of building circus wagons or going with his father to the train station. He would skip school to go watch (and sometimes help) the circus set up. He used to dream of "running away with the circus". While he was in his early 20's circumstances led him to follow his childhood dreams. He ended up joining the circus as "Corky The Clown". He ended up chosing the name from his old surfing days--when people used to comment on him popping up like a cork. Circus On the circus train he would build circus wagons (at this time it was HO wagons) and send home to his mother. After several years on the road he decided it was time to settle down. His mom wanted to know what to do with all the wagons. He built his first real HO display. Using his creativity, talent and knowledge of the circus he built a very realistic 4 X 12 foot replica of the circus. After building and displaying this circus he decided to move to "O" scale. This resulted in a 20 X8 foot "O" scale circus. |
| Trains As a member of Circus Model Builders for 30 years, Corky had displayed his circus at various shows. At one of these shows he was invited to show at the National Train Convention in Atlanta in 1995. He was unsure because he didn't have moving trains. He was assured they'd love it. The crowds were very impressed with his display, but kept commenting "too bad the trains don't move". At this point, Corky decided he needed a train to go around the layout. He started attending train shows and fell in love with the engines from Mike's Train House (MTH). He bought one engine--and was hooked. Since then he has acquired quite a collection. When Corky and Sharon started dating she saw his collection and he kept talking about having a modular layout to take to train shows. They attended several train shows together. Not seeing many layouts of the size and quality of what she'd seen in the basement, Sharon started pushing Corky to put his plans into an actual layout. We bought the lumber and a trailer to carry everything in and started building. After 6 months the module you see at the train shows was completed. Unfortunately, due to time and space constraits we are only able to show about a third of his total collection. Future Our plans are to open a public permanent display with his total collection along with mountains, a lake and tunnels. We are hoping to be able to accomplish this some time this year. We hope to see all of you at our permanent home. |
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