Ted the Toyman, Mad Jack and the Fairy Goddess Mudder

Debbie grew up taking care of herself. Well, that and everybody else around her. Her talent for being in charge was recognized and depended on from a very early age (the womb, perhaps?). She was born with a gift for actualizing not only her own dreams and visions but those of others. It was almost as if she could grant a wish with the wave of her hand. She became known as the Fairy Goddess Mudder because those wish-granting hands were often covered with the mud she used to sculpt clay goddesses. And mermaids and centaurs and all manner of myth, both faith and fancy.

Proficient in a myriad of mediums, she grew up to be an artist and interior designer and was known for ‘reclaiming’ ailing spaces. Whether you needed a simple coat of flat paint, a brilliantly colored mural, or a complete renovation, her City Beautifiers Inc. put the magic touch on all she touched in Columbus, Ohio.

Ted the Toyman simply never grew up. “I was born rich, spoiled rotten and never quit playing with toys,” he would say, half-jokingly. It was true. He never quit playing with toys. Nor collecting, making and dreaming of toys. Make no mistake, he has risen to the highest level of Lost Boy as he founded and curates his own Toy Museum which has had thousands of visitors.

When Ted began moving his massive collection of model trains to Chattanooga, The Great Train City, he hired the Fairy Goddess Mudder to help him build an additional four-thousand, two-hundred and fifty buildings.

Much of Debbie’s work in design and construction had been in low-income areas and she learned to improvise with materials.

“Trash to Treasure is my modus operandi,” the Godmudder says, “I have done so much for so long with so little,” she pauses for effect, “that I can make anything out of nothing in no time,” then with a smile, “Well… sometimes.”

Debbie went to Ted's Museum and inspected his collection. She wanted to know how he constructed the buildings so she could keep the new layout consistent with what he’d already built.

“In my dream…” Ted would often say (as he literally dreams of toys every night). In Ted's dream he wanted about fifty new buildings to expand his layout including a downtown setting with high-rises and hotels, a Riverfront stage with cargo ships down by the docks and a short train ride through the quaint little neighborhoods of Suburbia.

So, with nothing but cardboard, paper, paint, glue and a trusty old pair of scissors, Debbie, the Fairy Goddess Mudder thanked her lucky Fiskars and began to build houses and schools and stores and restaurants; tenements and high rises and fire stations and trees and landscapes and, well... a scale model of the Great Train City, all under the employ of Ted the Toyman who would often hover over the process and nit-pick the fine details of the finished work.

But in order to build the whole city to a uniform scale, they needed to have a bit of engineering wit.

For this they brought in Mad Jack. Jack is a civil engineer who, built the largest pipe in the state of Indiana. Big enough for a train that runs all the way to Cincinnati. He resigned his job as Marion County, Indianapolis Soil and Water Conservation District Engineer to play in a jug band. Jack makes and plays many musical instruments but specializes in harmonica, jug and fratois (washboard).

Mad Jack uses his world-class OCD and a six-inch ruler to keep Ted and Debbie honest and the whole miniature city in proper perspective.

“He builds the bones of the dream,” Debbie says.

“This three-turret Victorian was an inspired by a house we found on Google Earth. We went to the street view and looked down the cross streets to see more of the sides and back of the house. Jack found the appropriate size box to begin a plan for construction with a scale one quarter inch equals one foot. The finished house is 9.5 inches by 7.5 inches by 10.5 inches tall.”

Work on the Chattanooga Train Museum has been stalled due to the Covid 19 Pandemic.

Jack and Debbie are husband and wife and are life-long friends of Ted. Some of the names and places have been changed for various reasons. The friendship, scissors, magic and craftsmanship are all real

This house is just a small part of a whole city in a world that only exists in the convergence of three Universes; Ted the Toyman, Mad Jack and the Fairy Godmudder