I was recently going over some OLD MRR’s and found myself wondering about whether one could write up a log that contains either the seed for a story or a story about their operating sessions as a kind of on-going staged history re; their RR. All prototype RR’s have a History but what about the little odd/silly/hilarious things that sometimes goes on? How do you remember those episodes?
Been there, done that - at least as far as the broad brush-strokes of history are concerned. (My history fills six closely-spaced typed legal-size pages, covering the history/politics/engineering aspects of how the rails in the Upper Tomikawa Valley got to be what they are - and why.)
The idea is valid, for an individual who wants to ‘scrapbook’ such things for his(her) own railroad. Thirty years from now you and Junior can laugh about the way Junior stabbed the Limited by spilling his (fill in beverage of choice) on the key turnout…
OTOH, someone else with no interest in your railroad (or mine) would probably be bored to tears. I sometimes feel that way about my own fictional history - and I have a vested interest in the results.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with a history starting in 1664)
I wrote a little something in a previous thread which was very winding and wordy.
Anyone not really interested in the layout itself would also probably be bored with the story. If they did ask this is the story I will use.
A local mountain village had a wagon and wheelwright shop. Since the newfangled automobile (Aka horseless carriage) has been told about these parts the demand for wagons declined. The Owner of that business lobbied over rounds of hard cider in the saloon to build a big industry in the next valley over to take advantage of this new auto talk dreaming of a life of ease and cider. The local Blacksmith realized that he will be very worn out if he tried to keep up with the new steam forges in the big city and so decided to build a factory that will do the work for him. The Brick and Charcoal maker realized that they can make money both ways by getting the thing built and then feeding it with fuel to run. At least until the forest holds out long enough to start shipping that coal, oil and gas in by rail. So everyone was happy. Except the local landowners who did not take kindly to thier hollows and dales experiencing the modern industrial age. But some more hard cider took care of that.
By the time the factory was built, all the local apples were used up by the animals long past worn out and ready for green pastures. So the merchants got togehter again in the saloon and pooled thier money to lure the railroad into laying track thier way. Or was it making use of the saloon to wine and dine the large railroad’s MOW crew while stripping all the rail and ties away. Who knows?
Anyhoo, the deed was done and a branchline built. There was prosperity and work for all; the people rejoiced.
Until the school children realized that they can go to college far away in the big city by train instead of trying to make a living in a small town. That is how things started to dec
The history for my RR can be found here. The layout is still under construction, so more will be added to the history as the layout progresses.