By Wayne Gravelle

Author  Bio "Big" Wayne Gravelle is an author, graphics artist, and microchip designer in Silicon Valley, California.

"Big" Wayne Gravelle is an author, graphics artist, and microchip designer in Silicon Valley, California. He comes by the nickname "big" for obvious reasons - Wayne is 6'5" tall and tips the scales at around 300 pounds. Wayne has three children and three grandchildren and recently bought a home with his domestic partner, Marilynn, in a nice residential neighborhood in Pleasanton, CA.

For several years Big Wayne was editor in chief of AW NUTS Magazine (Always Whimsical, Not Usually To Scale) and he is also a member of the Bay Area Garden Railway Society in San Jose, CA. Wayne has written a science fiction/fantasy novel and a textbook on microchip design.

Wayne cut his teeth on a Lionel train set as a young child in New Mexico and he and his father built an N-Scale layout when he was in school. Many years later he got hooked on HO-scale narrow gauge railroading in Colorado and, after a move to California and the sad demise of his close-up vision, he gave up on model railroading altogether.

Enter Bruce Bates... At a microchip industry picnic in 1983, Big Wayne met Bruce and the topic of discussion turned to model railroading. They became fast friends and Bruce introduced Wayne to large-scale railroading. Now the trains were big enough that "Big" could see what he was doing again! The rest, as they say, is history.

With renewed vigor Wayne started building rolling stock, engines, and structures and in 1996 his whimsically kitbashed LGB Porter won "Best in Show" at the 18th National LGB Convention. The Porter now resides in Nurnberg, Germany in the permanent collection of Wolfgang Richter, President of LGB.

Wayne has agreed to contribute to LSOL a series of articles on whimsey in model railroading, including articles, how-tos and maybe some contests and other competitions to promote whimsey in the hobby. He encourages readers to send in examples of their whimsical railroad projects so we can share them with everyone.

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