November Anniversaries

 

30 YEARS OF OPERATIONS ON THE S.N.R.!

November 1994 was an important month in the history of the Suffolk Northern.  For one, I broke my leg skiing at Breckenridge, CO, and spent my Thanksgiving weekend getting a titanium rod screwed down the center of my left tibia**.  That hardware is still in place.

** -- What does that have to do with the SNR you ask?  Well not much really -- 

mainly it was the "other" big thing that happened that month.  

Although the downtime from being in the cast did allow me to get the 

Central Valley truss bridge built for the river crossing at Dominion.  👍🙂

But more importantly, just before that happened, the original crew and I held the first shake-down operating session on the SNR -- at least, on the portion of it that was in the previous house.  I was proud to have gotten that far with the layout, a mere two years after buying the place.  What's better is that like the titanium rod, that layout is also still in existence -- it just got moved to the Apple Hill house, and expanded to the current configuration.

So in celebration of 30 years of operations, I thought I'd reprint a page from the website that follows the four stages in the layout's evolution -- affectionately called "HO Railroad That Grows," after the classic old Kalmbach book. That's down at the end of this post, following the announcements. 

It's operating with friends that makes the whole enterprise come to life -- it's the big payoff on all the effort and time.  The modeling and layout-building are just there to form a map on which to play the game -- at least to me.

So come celebrate with me.  And if you've operated over here, thanks for being a part of it.  Take a look below to see how it came to be.

ACQUISITION OF A LONG-SUFFERING SPOUSE

November is also the month of our wedding anniversary, and 2024 marks 35 years.  I'll spare you the mushy details, but I thought you might enjoy the card I created for Barri.

Tanks    for 35 great years

I don't know what you ever saw in me...

And after this card, you may be wondering yourself...

Let it be known that I did not, and would not, set out specifically to acquire two tank cars with our names on them just to create an anniversary card.  That would be pretty tacky.  Even for me. 

BUT -- having already acquired those two models... innocently... independently of one another... I would be remiss in my role as a smartass not to use them, to remove the seriousness from what otherwise is a pretty important event.  I believe it was Barry Goldwater who said "Extremism in the pursuit of comedy is no vice."  Or was it Stan Freberg.  

Anyway -- having a couple of well-developed senses of humor is fundamental to what's kept us together for so long.  Thank God she tolerates the railroad, let alone me.  It's a wonder I push it like this...

THANKSGIVING

Speaking of being thankful, November brings with it Thanksgiving.  And always at the top of the list of things I'm thankful for, just after my family, is the hobby of a lifetime -- and especially, friends to pursue it with.  Just as we led in with, it wouldn't be worthwhile if guys didn't enjoy coming over to run my railroad with me.  Or at least, tell me they do.  It was my primary goal for the whole expedition.  Friends old and new, from 4 years to 45.  Can't beat it.

So a very happy Thanksgiving to you and yours -- and please remember, you're on somebody else's list too.  

H.O. RAILROAD THAT GROWS

"I get attached to things, Reggie!"
-- Nick Nolte, Another 48 Hours

I wouldn't say I never throw anything away.  But I pretty much hate to throw things away.  Especially if they've got remaining value, and/or, invested "sweat equity".  And I definitely hate to do things over.

There is some combination of influences at work that includes:

• The lazy man,
• The thrifty Dutchman,
• The conservationist,
• The waste-abhorring accountant, and
• The aging frugal Dad.

Anyway, the current Suffolk Northern contains elements from (count 'em) three prior layouts.  I didn't exactly begin life in the hobby with the expectation I would re-use almost everything I'd ever built.  However, every time I had the opportunity to build a new layout, the previous one just seemed to fit right in.  The real estate developer will tell you it's cheaper just to bulldoze and start fresh, but for me that wrecks a lot of character and history.  Plus I like the challenge of adapting what's already in existence.

The track plan below shows the evolution of the current SNR.

I built the Timesaver the summer between high school and college, mainly to prove to myself I could handlay track, so that I'd never have to do it again.  I even cut my own ties on a table saw - my friend Darren Williamson is fond of pointing out that such an effort should have yielded approximately 4x as much sawdust as product.  (It did.)  The Timesaver folded up so it could be carried, like a briefcase, and the original hinges are still in place under the buildings in St Amour.  It's bumpy track, but reliable - fairly ideal for an industrial area.

I extended the Timesaver into the shelf layout for the first apartment my wife and I had, which was the first floor of a two-family.  From there it went with us on a two-year assignment to Seattle and back.  It featured staging on a piece of shelving that could be attached to the RH end, allowing cuts of cars to be moved on and off the layout similar to a car ferry.  That shelf is still in use too (although now stationary), above the workbench. The house sits at the corner of Stettinius & Erie avenues, giving name to a key SNR predecessor road.

In the previous house I re-used the shelf layout as the back half of the industrial switching district, St. Amour, which was handy since the building flats were already done for it.  The layout occupied about a 12' x 16' space, plus the staging loops around and behind the bridge module.  The house sits at the corner of Millsbrae & Atlantic avenues, also giving name to a key SNR predecessor road.

When we moved into the current house, some of the track alignments had to be changed at the interfaces with the new parts, but the components are all substantially the same as when originally built in 1993-94.  

Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!