I just can't seem to get motivated to keep a blog going. Have started one on my model railroading exploits and my infrequent jaunts trackside several times in the past decade.  But I always slack way off and then it becomes just another dusty bytesite. Maybe it's because I basically dislike spending more time at the computer than needed, even on my big old desk top, than I have to.  I thought maybe that will change now that I'm retired and we've finished the move to North Carolina and are settling into a truly relaxed "taking things as they come" attitude.

WELL, let's give it another shot. 

For those of you that haven't been email or Facebook pals of mine (Facebook...where I do 95 percent of my electronic connection anymore), let me give you a little background. My previous model railroad was a double-deck effort. After moving to Kansas City in 2000 and having all that room downstairs, I let my dreams run wild and had grand dreams of my "last" layout. I was so impressed with what Jim Providenza was (has) been able to do in a relatively small area with two levels on his Santa Cruz Northern,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XESsJzhXfEY     and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOJDVRjn4Cg
<if you care to click or cut and paste and see a really fine railroad>
that I read all I could on helixes (remember this was almost 16 years ago when the decision on the merits of double decking layouts was still vague and debated) and picked Jims' brain clean.  And the double deck bug bit. 

The first few years, I really buzzed along on the work.  I hand-lay all my own track - even turnouts - in Codes 83-70-55-40, but even that didn't slow me down much. I was working 3-11pm at my railroad job, and Patty was working the usual 8 to 5 routine, and so I could spend a whole morning downstairs and not feel guilty!  And on Monday and Tuesdays (my rest days from the BNSF), it was ALL DAY on the HO!

Then came the privileges of seniority and shifting to having weekends off. And then a nice third trick (11pm-7am) job on a district I truly loved.  There went the ability to devote full mornings or days off on the layout progress.  When I'd be getting up about 2 in the afternoon, it was time for outside yard chores and house stuff, and that took me to supper time and then enjoying the evening with Patty. Oh don't get me wrong....my work situation was great, and I loved that we had weekends off together after eighteen years of marriage.

Looking back, the change in available time for work on the layout was a blessing, as I realized SOONER than LATER that my grandiose layout would never stand the chance of getting completed to a reasonable state of completion, like model railroads are ever "finished," right? And by 2009, I got the jolt that retirement wasn't THAT far away.  And we certainly weren't going to stay in our present house, let alone Kansas City. I thought lots about what I could do, and even pared back the layout to get rid of the lower level and the helix, and thought I might get my butt in gear on that slimmed down design.  But, no.

And so about 2010 it ALL came down.  1-800-GOT JUNK was upset that I had a "half price" coupon.  What a garage full of stuff they had to haul away.  What a mess in the two months or so it took to pull it all down and get ready for it to be hauled away! But the elephant in the lower level was now gone, and my mind started grinding away on other thoughts for a model railroad. 

What size? Oh, MUCH smaller.

Where ? No clue yet, just started looking at retirement destinations, and that would obviously decide on layout space and design depending on a basement, a spare room, or whatever situation.

When? At least three or four years down the road. 

And with what? Holy Cow - did I have WAAAAY too much rolling stock, engines and other stuff than I'd need on this future layout.

By 2011, I had a plan, or so I thought.


MORE ABOUT THAT in the NEXT BLOG ENTRY.  If I keep doing this, this time...