As some folks here probably recall I’m modeling the South Pennsylvania Railroad, the semi-fictional railroad that almost was, that is now the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
In general progress has been proceeding apace until about a month ago when my wife and I renegotiated the space plan a little to include moving the basement HVAC unit and getting rid of the mechanical closet. That opens up a lot of space in our basement and makes both me and my wife happier since she gets the rest for her quilting We’ve been waiting-- almost a month now-- for my brother and his crew to come up and move the HVAC stuff around.
So in the interim my son and I have tossed together a temporary layout by laying down some pink foam across the benchwork and pinning down some track.
We made a little 4-track stub-ended yard at the one end, added a mainline and a couple of passenger stations, and a little “town” with some industries at the other.
We sprinkled some buildings around to give it a “railroady” feel.
Really? While I groan for any semblence of “historical fidelity”, it sounds like just the ticket for “hysterical accuracy”… any idea which el-cheapo companies we’re referring to?
Yeah, we were waiting for the work to get done in the basement to move the HVAC stuff, the water heater, and take out the mechanical room walls and the walls from the closet behind it. Now that its been done I need to lay tile on the floor and fix up the walls and ceiling and then I can get back to railroading…
Here’s the link to the next phase in case you didn’t see it:
Wait til you try and take that throttle away from him some day…lol kids are the best part of life with maybe rains running a close second put the two together and thats what it’s all about.
Yes, I agree. And he has a brother… who is currently approaching 1yo, so I’ll have a built-in operating crew.
I’m trying to indoctrinate them early and get them trained in the use of trains, and how to operate them, how not to touch them and pick them up unless absolutely necessary, and to respect the layout.
I’ve been personally annoyed-- read that mostly as anxious and impatient-- that we’re operating on pink foam-- I would like to move on to the building of the “real” layout… But recently I’ve been rethinking that position a little and realizing that we’re also operating in a very forgiving and cheap environment also. There isn’t much he can hurt except for the trains themselves and so far he’s shown a remarkable amount of respect for them.
Initially he wanted to touch them all but has come to realize/accept there are differences between the ones he has (Thomas & Friends, etc.) and the ones we run on the layout. I also let him play with the castoffs and RIP cars-- stuff I either don’t want or has problems such that I don’t care if anything bad does happen to them. So he gets his chances to touch them and play with them and stuff. He’s really very, very good about the “real ones”.
I think having an opportunity to play with the other ones has helped. I also semi-structure his play time with the others and get him to see if he can re-rail them and smoothly couple & uncouple them. He has some trouble with the coupling, but he’s getting to the point where he can re-rail them-- not completely without difficulty, but he can do it.
The only real “harm” that’s befallen “the layout” thus far is him leaning on it (the pink foam) to reach things, particularly turnouts-- and when he’s bored
We’ve been waiting-- almost a month now-- for my brother and his crew to come up and move the HVAC stuff around.
