Illustrator Bob Wegner was the go-to guy for railroad maps

It was my bittersweet duty last week to write an obituary for illustrator Bob Wegner, one of the all-time greats from the heyday of Kalmbach Publishing Co. He was a versatile illustrator and (best of all from my perspective) a railroad mapmaker extraordinaire. Bob put in more than 40 years at KPC, turning out hundreds of beautiful maps for Trains and Classic Trains magazines. He died Jan. 6 at age 83.

It occurred to me there was more to say about Bob than would fit in a short news obit, both about the man specifically, but also about how his work was emblematic of the classic era of Kalmbach’s Art Department. The fact is, Bob was part of a cadre of Kalmbach designers who really knew how to interpret a railroad on paper. They were all good at it, and Bob was probably the best.

When I first reported for work at 1027 N. Seventh Street in downtown Milwaukee in August 1974, the art department was up on the sixth floor, a big room where six or seven designers practiced their craft in the old tradition: massive drafting tables littered with drawing pens and pencils, proportion wheels, T-squares, and sheafs of tissue-thin drawing paper.

In those days, Kalmbach was exclusively oriented toward trains, both the prototype and the model; our only magazines were Trains and Model Railroader, along with a busy schedule of Kalmbach Books related to the same pursuits. It was fun to hang out in Art because nearly everybody could talk trains, especially Art Director George Gloff and Assistant Art Director Gil Reid, both of whom developed separate reputations as railroad artists.

And then there was Bob, who never exhibited railfan tendencies but nonetheless became his own kind of expert. In my early years at the company in the Sales Department, I didn’t often draw Bob as a collaborator; my promotional work usually got assigned to Gil. But 11 years later, when I came back to Kalmbach as a Trains staff member, I came to know Bob as a dogged researcher who had learned to marshal all the necessary map resources, from USGS maps to Rand McNally atlases to railroad-specific history books, sometimes even railroad corporate engineering documents. When he later began using Adobe’s Illustrator software, he mastered online research.

Over time, Bob got to the point where he needed little guidance from an editor. As longtime Classic Trains Editor Rob McGonigal put it, “Bob was a total pro. The maps he produced, often with little direction, were unfailingly clear, accurate, and informative.” Those last points were critical, for woe to the railroad editor who faced the ire of readers who caught map mistakes. One of the first things I learned in my newspaper career was, “Most of all, never, ever make a mistake in an obituary!” You could say the same thing about railroad maps.

A good example of Bob’s work is shown here, a small, modest map of the Rutland Railroad that accompanied a memoir by Rutland sales rep Heaton L. Bullock, from the Winter 2000 issue of Classic Trains. The mere existence of the map underscores its importance: how do you understand nearly any railroad story without a map? Bob’s work here helped get Bullock’s points across. Throw in all the little details Bob provides — cities and towns, rivers and lakes, connecting railroads, beautiful line work — and you have a minor masterpiece.

I shouldn’t make this all about Kalmbach’s two prototype railroad magazines; my former colleagues at Model Railroader would be all over me. The fact is, Bob was equally skilled at drawing complex MR track plans. Former MR Editor and Publisher Terry Thompson had this to say: “Bob’s artwork was always spot-on — pleasing to the eye and filled with information for the modeler.”

Bob’s versatility went beyond track plans, as Terry relates, recalling one of the magazine’s many project railroads. “We asked Bob to design a herald for our Turtle Creek Central. We told him the slogan was ‘The Route of the Dashing Turtle.’ We expected a turtle in jogging shoes or something similar, which was what we were thinking. Instead, Bob delivered a turtle with a top hat and cane, which was equally appropriate but much more clever. That was classic Bob, taking an idea and making it just a bit better.” (Note: Bob’s original artwork was updated with a Photoshop version by another Kalmbach whiz, Rick Johnson.)

Readers of Model Railroader liked the logo so much that the magazine had decals made. Today, more than 20 years later, those decals remain in the Microscale (www.microscale.com) product line; just search “Turtle” on their website.

As Bob approached retirement in the late 1990s, several of us railroad editors began to be concerned about our future needs, and we worked with Art to get other designers more involved in map making. Several people stepped up to the plate, but we also recruited a freelancer who emerged as Bob’s true successor: Bill Metzger.

We met Bill through a mutual friend, Chuck Weinstock of Pittsburgh, now vice president of the Lexington Group in Transportation History. Bill turned out to be a godsend, with his deep knowledge of the railroad industry, peerless design skills, and unflappable irreverence. Metzger also tips his hat to Wegner, recalling a dinner he had once with Trains editors Jim Wrinn and Matt Van Hattem and Kalmbach designer Johnson.

“We called it ‘When Mapmakers Go Wild!’ if you can imagine such a thing,” says Metzger. “It was a good time and I enjoyed his company. It was also my first — and last — encounter with cheese curds. Even though we only met the once, Bob taught me a great deal. I was learning mapmaking and illustration on the computer and the best maps I saw were his. So, I copied him and my tenure at Kalmbach was something of a success.

“Few were the nits that got picked. I stood on the shoulders of a giant. Bob literally showed all of us the way.” Bill, a lot of us old Kalmbachers second that emotion.