I've Been Working on the Railroad!

 Well I was....Back when I bought my house in 1995 I had space in the basement to build a HO scale layout. So with a few crate panels I salvaged from work I built a 15' x 12' layout without knowing what I was doing! A fellow co-worker got me hooked. I noticed he had a copy of Model Railroader on his desk and told him I still had the original HO train I had as a kid somewhere in the attic. He began to give me extra track, locomotives and cars and I had to get going. My basement turned out to me my "dog house" and during those times I worked on the railroad! In 2004 we added a 2nd floor to the house and all railroad activity ceased. During the construction new plumbing and electrical work almost destroyed the layout.

      Where most model railroaders just put up telephone poles and leave it at that, but I strung'm up using thread! I used weeds found around the neighborhood as trees and spray painted them. I built lobster boats by carving them with a grinder out of rigid insulation then used paper plates to build the superstructure. The windows were from packaging material from those plastic packages that are always hard to open! White mini Christmas lights for the buildings interior and flat wooden coffee stirrers to build a bridge and a dock! And a bunch of other repurposed stuff. 

       So now I have to clear a path to the layout, carefully dust it, remove the cob webs and figure out the best way to clean the tracks.

Dust covers the steam locomotive.

Caboose alley.

MBTA F-40 pulling a B&M RDC , the old Buddliners!

Weeds for trees!

There's a lot of work to do.

Harbor

Gortons boxcar.

Another shot of the F-40.

I built this from scavenged parts to create this Cape Ann Railroad locomotive.

B&M Steam power!

Boston & Maine F-7

Daybreak over the city.

Sunrise over Harbor Cove.

Same place another day.

Look close and you'll see a listing fishing boat unloading at Ocean Crest.

Lobster boat heads to the inner harbor.