Working steadily in a small warehouse office in Hoboken, computer graphics designer Joseph Spano has created a new scenery concept for model train sets.
Scenictrac, Spano’s patent-pending innovation, is a colorful sheet of thin cardboard 70 inches long and 8.5-by-11 inches wide that serves as scenery for model train villages. The first two types of scenes in stock are a country backdrop featuring barns, a diner, a train station and water tower; and a Christmas-in-the-city design with a church and snow-covered evergreens.
Spano has been perfecting the designs for eight years.
“When Scenictrac is placed under the tracks,” Spano said during an interview in his office last week, ” train layouts have a beautiful view.”
James Pentifallo, owner of Ridgefield Hobby in Ridgefield, is a distributor of the product. During the holiday season, he said, the item sold well and it currently continues to attract a large segment of novice model train enthusiasts.
“It is doing quite well, actually,” Pentifallo said during a phone interview last week. “It is a quick fix to model train scenery.”
Spano has been a graphics designer in Hoboken for more than two decades. He has worked with renowned designers, most notably Howard Wexler in New York City, who is the creator of the popular Milton-Bradley board game “Connect Four.”
“I’m friends with many designers,” Spano said. “The idea is to come up with a concept that people would need that is not out there already.”
Spano is the executive director of the company J.S. Design on Observer Highway in the mile-square city. His modest size office is complete with two pinball machines, a variety of Yankee baseball memorabilia, and many stalled toy creations.
“When my son comes by, we play pinball,” he said.
Spano’s specialty is advertising graphics for promotional materials, logos, packaging, character design, and promotion specialties from concept to finish for businesses. One of his favorite projects was designing promotional materials for the Yogi Berra Museum in Montclair and a stage for a play in Hoboken a few years ago that featured Hollywood actor Danny Aiello. The play was written by Hoboken playwright Louis LaRusso. “I’m an art director and designer. I build models and concepts,” he said.
Both Spano and Pentifallo agree that Scenictrac will soon be a well-known product in hobby stores throughout the region and possibly beyond. The product was featured in the January of 2002 issue of Classic Toy Trains magazine, and hobbyists are rapidly discovering it, according to Pentifallo.
The scenery works with “O” gauge model train sets.
“With the accessibility of it, anyone can use it,” Pentifallo said. “It goes great with that first model train set.”
Scenictrac is priced at $19.95, plus shipping. For more information, call Ridgefield Hobby at (201) 943-2636 or J.S. Design at (201) 963-6316, or visit www.scenictrac.com.