November Update

This 1923 Fordson tractor was found among a display of historic tractors on a recent quiet Saturday morning before the weekend tasks were tackled.

It’s been a busy month that won’t be slowing down any time soon. I enjoyed the RPM Chicagoland meet in late October then came home to close on a home purchase. That’s right; I’ll be moving again soon!

Actually, lots of stuff has already moved. The garage in the rental is nearly clear as all of those boxes have moved to the new home across town. Room painting is next, along with a couple of kitchen tasks. My hobby time will be limited for the next couple of months, but the holiday’s usually nudge the hobby aside as it is.

I know many of you are now wondering about the new hobby space. First off, there is no basement. We must have seen about 50 homes and none of them had a basement here in middle Tennessee. My lovely wife has offered me the garage for the new hobby space. The photo above offers is a decent look at the 21×25 foot space before lots more boxes came into the picture. Next spring, I hope to start converting this to an indoor space.

The Wheeling Freight Terminal will be set up in the new house and I hope to get it running again. An operating layout inspires more hobby action. I have another B&O prototype location in mind for the next layout project. I’ve found quite a few historic images and have scans of the ICC valuation maps. There will be more action than the Wheeling Freight Terminal, but I think I’m ready for it.


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14 comments on “November Update

  1. Colin 't Hart on said:

    21’x25′! Jealous! Good luck filling that 🙂

  2. Best of luck in your newly OWNED home….Oh and yes, looking forward to your filling up the new layout room 🙂

  3. rob dove on said:

    Interesting options, you could make the freight terminal one end of the New layout and extend a track north to go into staging which could represent North wheeling and the Pennsy. Then go South as far as space would allow and include things like the ware house district, maybe the Belmont mill, Hobbs lumber, bloch brothers, wheeling tile,LaBelle nail plant, and more staging. Lots of stuff to model just adding to your present layout via the neat map you shared with me.

    Looking forward to your future layout as well as reading about your plans in more detail.

    • Eric Hansmann on said:

      Thanks for the comment Rob. Your ideas make sense but the next layout will not focus on Wheeling. I’ll be moving up river. – Eric H.

  4. Joe Relation on said:

    Good rule of thumb is to marry someone smarter than you are. And your wife sounds pretty clever. You get space, but she gets the garage cleaned up from moving boxes and the like.

    • Eric Hansmann on said:

      I’m also lucky to have a spouse who understands that a spare bedroom just doesn’t cut it for a hobby space in a full house. She was also surprised at the lack of basements here. – Eric H.

  5. That tractor reminds me of my first attempt at a Jordan kit. I really wasn’t experienced enough to tackle such an advanced kit, nor did I have the patience to follow the concise instructions. Maybe one day I’ll redeem myself and build another using your photo as a reference.

    Good luck on the move and congratulations on the house. Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving.

    Galen

    • Eric Hansmann on said:

      Galen, that’s why I snapped the photo! I have a few of those Jordan kits to assemble. I took images from each side of this Fordson and a companion beside it. There were a host of neat tractors so I grabbed photos of a pair 1920s Case models and a couple others. These could be future flat car loads. – Eric H.

  6. Jared Harper on said:

    None of the houses you looked at had basements, ummm. Maybe middle Tennesee has too much bedrock.

    • Eric Hansmann on said:

      You got it Jared! The soil layer on top of the bedrock here is pretty thin. Blasting out a house basement increases the costs. Thankfully the weather is mild and we saw many homes with garages converted to interior bonus rooms. – Eric H.

  7. Peter on said:

    If you have not started the garage conversion, you may find this link and may be others based in the UK ans it’s something they do a lot !!

    https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/convert-your-garage-to-a-living-space/

    p.s. Thanks for the very useful information on freight car dates etc.

    • Eric Hansmann on said:

      Thank you, Peter! There are several points on that site that I will need to consider as the project moves forward. – Eric H.

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