Once again into the breech...

     This morning is not a good morning. It just isn't. so I have dug into google and blogger and found my blogs. Ramblings seems to be the best fit for this. It isn't about model railroads. It isn't about trains. It is just about this morning. I don't want to work today. I just want to crawl under a rock. I have a list of things to do, and I don't want to start any of them. I understand how people become hermits and just try to disappear from the world. Yet at the same time I don't understand it. I believe the military actually gives us many coping mechanisms to push through things like this. I wonder if I need counseling or a support group. For now I rely on friends, family and my Lord. 

Philippians 4:6-8New King James Version (NKJV)

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 

8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

     Sometimes it feels easier said than done. I am very blessed. Despite that, anxiety and depression can hit me like a freight train. (Yes I like that metaphor better than a ton of bricks, go figure.) Well this is the first time in over six years I have touched my blogs. But things I have read say journaling is important both to improving life and work. So the big question is, should I do this like this, public, or private with pen and paper. Should I let people in or keep to myself. Is this a form of treatment or self medication? Should I seek help. I also need to use my GI bill. I have many books piled up waiting to be read. And then there is my Bible.

     Lord help me make it through this day.

Getting out of the arm chair...

...seems to be a difficult proposition. I find that many years have passed since I started looking at Model Railroading again and I need to get moving. After looking at http://www.bronx-terminal.com/ I find myself inspired to get moving once again. So what should I do?

Model Railroad Design (or Armchair Model Railroading)

I find that I often complicate things. While I have my ideal design for a model railroad I know that even basic pieces of it are beyond my ability at the moment (mostly space considerations, but also some monetary ones). So I try to look at what I have and see what I can figure out what I can do with that with least initial output at the moment. Most of us who have studied something about design understand many of the limitations of the 4'x8' sheet of plywood (or foam insulation).

Scott Perry of Layout Design Service, http://www.layoutdesignservice.com/, has come up with a paradigm breaking spin off of the sheet of plywood in his Heart of Georgia beginners layout, http://www.layoutdesignservice.com/lds/samples/betterbeginnerlayout.htm, which gives the ability for much wider curves and to have four scenes where the 4'x8' only really gives you the ability of two scenes.

Now I really like Scott's design, but I won't copy it. But the one foot width eight by nine foot rectangular shelf is a great plan. Deciding what to do with it is the hard part. With only twelve inches, eighty seven scale feet, it is not possible to model much more than the railroad right-of-way. There are great advantages there, to start with you save money! All those buildings not on the right-of-way cost money. You also save time in building them.

My plan was to build the New Jersey side of the Pigeon Point (Wilmington, Delaware) to Carney's Point (Deepwater, New Jersey) carfloat operation. But I have run into a number of problems at this stage and think that for this first layout, that is not the way to go. I may still try to hit the carfloat angle. I have to say, the idea of a working car float that can be used for staging and operation sounds like a really fun idea.

What is a Hobo?

A hobo is someone who rides the rails, preferably for free. "This perhaps begs the question, what is a hobo?, and what differentiates them from a tramp and a bum? Probably the most succinct definition and one with which most hoboes agree, is that of Dr Ben L. Reitman who stated that: "The hobo works and wanders, the tramp dreams and wanders and the bum drinks and wanders." (Anderson 1923, 87) Most hoboes are unanimous in that they are committed to the work ethic, as Road Hog (1997) a hobo for over forty years insists, "Real hoboes are workers...". To be sure there are some differences in emphasis, some "worked to be on the road" and others were "on the road to work". Whatever their motivations they became part of a distinct caste, that of the hobo."* They are an honorable breed that follows a code:

Hobo Code
As inscribed in the Annual Convention Congress of the Hoboes of America held on August 8, 1894 at the Hotel Alden, 917 Market St., Chicago Illinois;

1.-Decide your own life, don't let another person run or rule you.
2.-When in town, always respect the local law and officials, and try to be a gentleman at all times.
3.-Don't take advantage of someone who is in a vulnerable situation, locals or other hobos.
4.-Always try to find work, even if temporary, and always seek out jobs nobody wants. By doing so you not only help a business along, but insure employment should you return to that town again.
5.-When no employment is available, make your own work by using your added talents at crafts.
6.-Do not allow yourself to become a stupid drunk and set a bad example for locals treatment of other hobos.
7.-When jungling in town, respect handouts, do not wear them out, another hobo will be coming along who will need them as bad, if not worse than you.
8.-Always respect nature, do not leave garbage where you are jungling.
9.-If in a community jungle, always pitch in and help.
10.-Try to stay clean, and boil up wherever possible.
11.-When traveling, ride your train respectfully, take no personal chances, cause no problems with the operating crew or host railroad, act like an extra crew member.
12.-Do not cause problems in a train yard, Another hobo will be coming along who will need passage thru that yard.
13.-Do not allow other hobos to molest children, expose to authorities all molesters, they are the worst garbage to infest any society.
14.-Help all runaway children, and try to induce them to return home.
15.-Help your fellow hobos whenever and wherever needed, you may need their help someday.
16.-If present at a hobo court and you have testimony, give it, whether for or against the accused, your voice counts!
http://www.hobo.com/hobo_code.htm

*See the article written by Colin Beesley: http://www.northbankfred.com/colin1.html "The American Hobo" Also checkout all information at http://www.hobo.com/ .

Influence

I am a Reading man, I was raised a Reading man, I will always be a Reading man. But I am not without susceptible tendencies to other areas due to outside influence.

Yesterday a flat package arrived in the mail from an awesome friend, thanks Rob, in socal (southern California). The 2008 Union Pacific Calender featuring the UP's Heritage Fleet. You can see some shots of these locomotives at the following link: http://www.trainweb.org/richard/UPHeritage/UP_Heritage_Photo_Shoot.html
Between those awesome paint jobs on the new SD70ACe locomotives honoring the fallen flags of the UP and the shots of the Centenials, FEF and Challenger it is enough to make anyone become a UP man.

My current read is "Set Up Running: The Life of a Pennsylvania Railroad Engineman, 1904-1949 (Paperback)by John W. Orr (Author), James D. Porterfield (Introduction). See it at: http://www.amazon.com/Set-Running-Pennsylvania-Engineman-1904-1949/dp/027102741X
You can read reviews on Amazon, they all basically say the same thing. If you like trains or railroads, this is a must read. I can easily imagine myself backdating my modeling to steam just from reading this book. I am not even halfway through and it is already one of my favorite books.

My primary railroad influence comes from my mother and her Uncle, Roy Sillman, who was a Reading Engineman basically at the same time as OP Orr was with the PRR. Uncle Roy, Aunt Gertrude, and my Grandparents were regulars on the Reading Rambles and my grandparents operated a toystore in Olney (Philadelphia, PA) that my mother grew up working in. I grew up with trains running around the Christmas tree (Mantua W&A General), trains on a carpeted platform in the basement (American Flyer S-guage with operating log loader and passenger platform) regular trips on Reading Lines commuters from Lawndale to the Reading Terminal in downtown Philadelphia with my mother and semi regular trips to Strasburg to ride the train and meet some real famous hobo's at the picnic area. When Uncle Roy passed and I got my hands on his railroad books and pictures. Reading the Reading Power Pictorial and a few other books solidified my interest in the Reading Lines. Between the old camelbacks, the Crusader, the 4-8-4 T1's from the Rambles and the mighty (if hated by train crews) Fairbanks Morse H24-66 Trainmasters. Being a child of the modern age the sleek and powerful PRR GG-1 Electric is one of my top favorites. But I am forever, a Reading Man.

Oh, and while I am rambling on, check out Hobo News: http://www.hobo.com/news.htm.

The Sincerest Form Of Flattery

There are greats in the world of model railroading. Some are better well known and some are less well known. Two are John Allen and John Armstrong. Both have designs very worthy of copying in whole or in part. The original Gorre and Daphetid has been copied many times in many scales (I’m even considering it myself) and the Timesaver switching game is everywhere in many variations. John Armstrong’s Candaigua Southern, quite the signature rail road and his many writings on model railroad design have far reaching effects throughout the hobby. Both have plans published in Linn H. Westcott’s “101 Track Plans for Model Railroaders” including the original G and D plan with a turntable the paradigm breaking Quachita and Ozark which is a clever rearrangement of standard four by eight beginner layout to a one foot wide seven by ten foot doughnut of a shelf plus a ten foot yard section, absolutely brilliant. So, to all of you who are have copied their layout plans, way to honor the legends!

The Story Begins

This will be about my hobby and my quest to build my model train layout and my studies of prototype or 1:1 scale trains and my 1/87 or HO scale trains. I am a Reading man. That is pronounced like the town in California, Redding, not like the thing you do with a book. I do love to read also. The Reading Railroad, also known as the Reading Company and Reading Lines is one of the four railroads on the original Monopoly boards (as opposed to Star Wars Monopoly, Star Trek Monopoly and all the other versions out there now). The other three railroads are the Pennsylvania Railroad (which had my favorite loco, the GG1), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the "Short Line" which is an abbreviation of the New York Short Line built by the Reading between Philadelphia and New York. Please remember that The Reading was primarily a regional freight hauler whose hub was Reading Pennsylvania even though the offices eventually moved to Philadelphia when Reading Terminal was built.

My focus is the Reading's Wilmington and Northern Branch in the 1950's with some leeway in either direction for various personal reasons (mostly I would like to run what I would like to run or keep certain freight and passenger operations after they would otherwise have ceased.) I chose Wilmington because of the Wilmington Pigeon Point Carfloat operation serving duPont and Carney's Point through Deepwater in southern New Jersey .

I am afraid that this will not be the most organized post as I still need to figure some thing out about how I want to do this.

Well that is all for now. Best Regards, David