Retirement allows steady progress......

 Retirement has meant a should have a lot more time to keep this blog current.......but in fact it hasn't worked out that way.

I find I'm just as busy doing a lot of things that take time out of each day. Drive times to stores etc. has increased significantly from my Va Beach digs.  Living just south of Charleston (Ravenel SC) means dealing with a lot of traffic at times during the day. I'm not complaining......just a reality.

I have spent a good amount of time on my new On30 layout, modeling the section of the Sandy River from Phillips to Farmington. This is the first time I've decided to devote a lot more physical space to "scenic runs" rather than filling the space with more and more trackage. I like the way it's turning out.

As an example, here is my rendition of the Barker Stream bridge near Maplewood. I've devoted about 8' of space to try to get a train to look good crossing it.  There were a lot of photos taken from this spot and it is pictured in most of the books published on the SR&RL's. Have to change to lettering/numbering  on the engine and some rolling stock back to original SR as they were lettered for my previous freelanced layout.

I've enjoyed doing this type of scenery modeling. I'm trying to replicate actual photo locations whenever possible. Most all the Maine 2' enthusiasts have read the same books I did, so it's nice to have a common connection with them as they see the layout.

An End of Year Progress report

 Well I'm sure a lot of you will agree to saying "Good Riddance" to 2020 and hopefully the good times return quickly in 2021!

I've been making progress on the layout in a couple of areas......

Scenery has gone in north of Farmington......I've only got room to model the "upper" yard and the area around the station. The upper yard is where the pulpwood and board lumber were loaded onto Maine Central cars for the trip to the paper mills and south to Portland. 

A train of empty pulpwood racks is leaving the upper yard heading to Strong.

Just north of the yard is the box shop......I was able to reuse some of the structures from my previous layout to represent the mill.  The road on the right is Rt. 4 out of Farmington.

My goal is to capture as much "flavor" of the real SR&RL's as possible. I'll continue using structures from the old layout if they "fit"well. The object is to get the layout up and operating and then continue to enhance the scenes with new work. I'm trying to have my scenes look like the photos taken in years past along the Sandy River.

Starting over in Charleston.....

 I've been actively building my new layout in 1/2 of a "conditioned" garage. The split HVAC system I had installed as part of our retirement home in Charleston has been keeping the garage at a nice cool 72 degrees over the hot summer......so lot's of work has been done.

I'm continuing modeling Maine narrow gauge using a 30" gauge.  This version of the S&SR is based on (as closely as possible) the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes.  I've got enough room to model from Farmington (the Maine Central connection) up through the junction at Strong with the line continuing north of Phillips (staging).

The junction at Strong was a very busy place with trains passing up and down the mainline to Farmington and the connecting trains coming off the Bigelow branch (the old Franklin & Megantic RR.). Right now, the branch is a staging track but I have plans for a second level which will model the line north to Kingfield and then on to Carrabasset and and finally to the mill town of Bigelow.

(The red outlines represent lighting fixtures.)

Nothing too fancy construction wise, just 1x4" frames covered with 1/2" plywood and black board sheathing that I painted with a heavy coating of white latex primer to seal it. (I painted both sides). I've used this product before when I couldn't get Homosote and it seems to work well for me.  I dropped a section of the benchwork to allow for a bridge scene that I wanted to include (Barker Stream, north of Farmington)

I was able to get this far by the end of the summer. In the fall I finished up the track work and get my Digitrax system working and made a start on scenery.

The last ops session on the S&SR Rwy........

Thought I post a couple of photos of the last ops session we ran on the railroad before the "great tear down" prior to our move..........in attendance were Mark Chase, George Downer, Tom Colasudro and Bryan Brown.

                Given the importance of "the last run", a special timetable was produced.......

                The session begins building the first southbound milk train in Andrews......

                Mixed trains meet at Troy, where cars may be exchanged for the branch to Franklin or down to                         the Maine Central interchange at Burnham Jct.    

                Tom C. is working the Sheepscot yard.

                George is watching the action at the junction in Troy.

                Train #3 is heading out of Troy yard for the Maine Central connection at Burnham.

                S&SR coach "Tulip" was kitbashed from a Bachmann coach by narrowing her to a 6'6" width.

                Engineer "Brains" Brown takes a moment to reflex at the Andrews water tank.

            The last trains of the day meet at Troy.

                Bryan wonders if that steam donkey is a CHB model????

Mark, Bryan and George finished up there work and head to beans.......

It was a fun day and things ran pretty smoothly. I want to thank my "regular" crew and the visitors I've had over the years the Sheepscot and Sandy River Rwy. was running.

Next up will be the start of new construction in our retirement home in Charleston, SC.

End of the year 2019......a year that brought big changes......

As I had mentioned, we moved to Charleston SC (retirement) and are closing on our new home here tomorrow afternoon. Yeah!
I've got a POD full of stuff to unpack next week (and a "house" full of furniture to purchase thanks to my wife and daughter's efforts at selling all our previous furniture in Va. Beach using social media.....
I would take a photo on my I phone and turn it over to my daughter and the next thing I knew I was helping load our very nice leather sofa (very old and very comfy!!) into some smiling couple's SUV....."don't worry dad, they already paid you direct to your PayPal account!!
Not too bad, considering my wife has no idea how to access PayPal. Prior to this adventure I only used the account to sell off un-needed railroad items...(and of course buy needed railway items)

We were able to sell a ton of stuff that I had collected over many years. It was a mental struggle but I really didn't need them.

Duplicate and triplicate?? hand held power tools......did I really have 3 working lawnmowers!!?!
Let's see, that's 3 working compressors....I'll need 1.
3 aluminum 14' extension ladders........Let's see, I'm moving to a brand new, "hurricane ready", bombproof single story home in Charleston.......your right, I sold all three to a local young man starting his own painting business.

Lot's and lot's of hand tools, hammers, screwdrivers, way too many socket sets (cheap).....I did keep the Craftsman stuff.

I remember a guy at the garage sale who thanked me profusely for selling him an old 6-12 volt battery charger......he used it for "plating" and told me the newer models didn't work. I even sold a bunch of board lumber that I swear I had moved from the garage of our first home in Convent Station, NJ over 40 years ago!! (just could never let it go.........) That said it was really nice, old straight pine shelving that could have easily been used to build any one of my first 5 layouts!! Oh well. After a couple of last trips to the Va. Beach landfill to dispose of the old layout scenery and 40 yr. old 8' florescent 2 bulb commercial lighting fixtures. (boy did those heat up the layout room in the summer!) It was done.

The next morning we closed on the house and I drove the "Beverly Hillbillies" Ford F150 loaded to the gills with the remainder of the "critically needed" stuff I hid from the garage sale people and headed south.

"For the times they (may be) changing"........

I've been "retired" for just over a month now and some things are becoming obvious to me......with no commitment to "the daily grind of a job" (mine was never really a "grind"!) the days seem a lot longer!
We're in the process of having a new home built in Charleston and completion is scheduled for Nov. In the interim we are living as "guests" in my daughter and son-in-laws home here. Happily for us and them it's fairly large and we have our own section of the home so we are able to hide away and give them the time and space they need to survive our extended visit.........
So far it's been a lot of fun playing with my grandson every morning before day care and in the evenings before "tubby time" and bed time.
We've had some time to get out and explore our new digs and have been pleasantly surprised with the convenience of accessing downtown Charleston and living about 20 mins away in the Charleston suburbs.
So far, so good........

Of course, paramount in my mind has been the future plans for my modeling efforts. There's a lot to think about because the increased free time means there will be more options open to explore.

In the past 40 years of model railroading I've always built layouts that could be "operated" by small groups of guys who were really into the hobby and shared interests similar to mine.  I've modeled in HO, On3, On30 and lately have been researching the Irish 3' narrow gauge lines using 45mm. track (G gauge) and a scale of 1:20.3. While I haven't made any decisions yet, I can see some measure of large scale either outdoor or indoor.

More time to spend researching as well as seeing what a garage space of 20x20' can accommodate in On30 Maine narrow gauge.......

Lot's of fun converting an old Bachmann "Big Hauler" ten wheeler to an Irish 3' passenger loco.

Big Move.......Retirement!

Things have moved pretty quickly for me......I retired and put the house on the market.....it sold quickly (maybe too quickly!?!) and we were asked to move out in 30 days.  The offer was too much to refuse so we rented a POD packed up everything and headed to Charleston SC to be closer to grandkids.....
Having a home built so planning will begin on the next layout. Lot's to think about in the next 8 months while the house in being built.....we'll see what can be done.  Stay tuned.....tom