7th Street Shops
is a member of 7th Street Group owned by Derrell Poole
and Vicki Tartaglia. Vicki is the Web Designer and
Master of the Group. She operates The Embroidery Depot.
Please contact us if you have embroidery needs (Custom
Logos for shirts, hats, aprons etc.) and If you are a
pet owner please visit
The Pawprintz Boutique, unique bedding, personalized
pet collars and apparel. Please visit Vicki’s
sites if these topics interest you. If you like our
sites and would like Vicki to design your website she is
a professional web designer and can fulfill your needs;
please
contact us.
Derrell Poole has been a model builder all of his life.
At age 4 he “helped” his father build a 1/72 scale
model of a P-41 Tiger Hawk. His exposure to model
railroading came early when his younger brother Curt
received a Gilbert HO train set (shown below) for his 5th birthday.
Derrell’s parents may have misjudged their sons’
interests for Curt didn’t show the same interest in the
trains as Derrell did. To offset the misplacement
Derrell managed to obtain a plastic train set that he
“wore out” in the dirt of the family back yard (it was a
cheap plastic toy).
When the boys were 12 & 13 they received an HO Race Car
by Aurora for Christmas. They both delved into that
hobby along with Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars. By this
point both were active model builders each with
substantial collections of 1:24th scale cars as well as
military planes, ships and other types. They both tried
their hand at Balsawood flying models, the type that
used rubber bands for propeller power.
The following Christmas Derrell talked Curt into
agreeing to ask for an HO scale model train set to go
with the race cars. When the set was given to the boys
the fun was to race around the track and dodge the
train at the crossing. But soon Derrell was drawn
completely into model railroading while Curt took up the
Unicycle (he became quite good at that). Derrell soon
began building his first layout based on “The HO
Railroad that Grows”, a Kalmbach publication authored by
Lynn Wescott. Wescott soon became one of Derrell’s idols
and to this day considers him to be one of the best
editors “Model Railroader” ever had. Derrell also
admired John Allan and Irv Schultz. Today he considers
the St. Clair & Northern to be one of the best model
railroads ever built and has nearly every article Irv
published.
Derrell built a second 4’x6’ layout at age 16 in the
family basement that was based somewhat on E.L. Moore’s
layout. This layout actually had scenery on it.
Eventually he sold it to a friend as he had discovered
narrow gauge in books like “Rails Through the Rockies”,
“Historic Alpine Tunnel” and “The DSP&P”; even as a
young teenager Derrell loved history and read all that
he could find on Colorado. Of all the railroads in his
native state it was the DSP&P that truly inspired him.
From these beginnings, an appreciation of history and a
devotion to the South Park began a life long love of
model building, historic accuracy, historic research,
attention to detail and above all true American
Craftsmanship. One of his favorite bylines is
“Craftsmanship is 80% tenacity and 20% skill”.
As a young adult, Derrell joined the United States Navy.
He briefly became involved with a Honolulu based HO club
while stationed at Pearl Harbor. He also had a great
interest in military miniatures and built 1:72 and 1:35
scale models while in Hawaii. When he returned to the
Continent at the end of his service he continued his
interest in model railroading. He built an operating
NWSL HOn3 shay and traded it for a brass import HOn3
engine. He then built a DSP&P consolidation from a
Kemtron Class 60 kit as well as a 2-6-0 from the 0-6-0t kit.
His experience included Model Die Cast HOn3 2-8-0s both
inside and outside frames. He became an active member of
the Slimrail Modular Group and built a couple of
modules. But HOn3 wasn’t satisfactory to him and he
traded or sold all of this small scale equipment for
On3. His first model was a Precision Scale C&S #60 kit
that he built, rebuilt and finally revised into C&S #
62. If Derrell was a prolific builder in HOn3 he was
extremely active in On3.
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DSP&P
built from an HOn3 Class 60 Kemtron kit.
One of Derrell's first efforts at building
in brass. |
This
On3 model won Best In Show at the Rocky
Mountain
NMRA Regional
Convention at Idaho Springs in 1990. |
At the 6th National Narrow Gauge convention in Denver
his 3 C&S box cars won first place in the Freight Car
Division contest. These cars were later featured in the
Mar/Apr 1987 issue of the “Narrow Gauge and Shortline
Gazette”. Derrell went on to win numerous trophies
including best of show at the 1990 Rocky Mountain
Regional Convention of the National Model Railroad
Association in Idaho Springs, Colorado. This model, a
Colorado & Southern cinder car with working doors was
later featured in the August 1991 issue of Model
Railroader.
Derrell went on to develop a greater scope of
understanding of the narrow gauge freight cars that
belong to the
C&S. He published dozens of drawings and
as complete a history of these cars as has ever been published. He
started a small basement company “the C&S Connection”
(the name referenced the connection between the C&S and
D&RG at Buena Vista and Nathrop, Colorado). This company
distributed his drawings as well as On3 parts for
building cars of the C&S. He also built custom
models under this company.
In the mean time he was a staff member of the 13th
National Narrow Gauge Convention and continued to win
placement trophies at all such conventions he attended.
He published a 4 part series on C&S Refrigerators
between the Sept/Oct 1991 and Mar/Apr 1992 “Narrow Gauge
and Shortline Gazette” as well as an article on a C&S
outfit car in the May 1996 issue of Model Railroader.
Robert Grandt commissioned Derrell along with Kenneth
Martin to write the text for Narrow Gauge Pictorial
Vol.VIII. Russ Reinberg recruited Derrell to write for
“Outdoor Railroader” in 1994 and several of his pieces
appeared in that magazine. Derrell was also a Charter
Member of the Colorado & Southern Historical Society
where he also authored a few pieces in the “Beartrap”.
Derrell Left the hobby of Model Railroading for several
years in 1996 but was still active in model building. He
returned to Model Railroading in 2002 again with HO,
HOn3 and finally Sn3. He is currently the Managing
Editor of the “Colorado Narrow Gauge Quarterly” and
regularly contributes to that magazine’s content. He
recently resigned from the Resin Kit Manufacturer “The
Cimarron Works” where he worked as a master builder and
research consultant. Derrell is often consulted by other
manufacturers in their projects to produce fine scale
models. He is always eager to share historical
information and to help other modelers improve their
building skill. He is an expert at installing DCC
decoders and finds wiring a layout in the old block
system a distasteful task. He is a self taught
programmer of decoders.
By profession he is a degreed draftsman with skills in
AutoCAD 3D as well as other 3D programs. He is also
familiar with electronics, a skilled craftsman in
building in metals, wood, plastic, and resin. He is an
expert at repairing and customizing brass models. He
understands and has been involved with processes that
include laser cutting, photo etching and rapid
prototyping. He is a professional developer of masters
for lost wax casting as well as spin casting. No project
is beyond his capability. He names among his friends
such well know modelers, historians and manufacturers as
Rick Steele, Harry Brunk, Doug Heitkamp, Bill Meredith,
Hol Wagner Jr., John Robinson, John Parker, Jerry Kitts,
Dave Grandt, Robert Grandt, Chris Lane, Gary Kohler,
Bill Schaumberg, Don Meeker, Keith Wiseman, Pat Turner,
Russ Reinberg, Kenneth Martin, Paul Vaughn, and many,
many others. He is building a layout based on the Trout
Creek Pass district of the C&S in 1909 in Sn3.
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