Moving Along

Delano, Jack, photographer. Chicago, Illinois. Loading a freight car in the freight house of a Chicago and Northwestern Railroad yard. Dec. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/owi2001014837/PP/>.

It is time to pack up the house and move to a new place. My lovely wife has accepted a new employment opportunity so we will depart El Paso late this month!

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Late May layout update!

Completed yard tracks.
Completed yard tracks.

It’s been a while since the last layout update. If you have been following along, you know the layout wiring is complete. All of the track has been painted and the fascia has been installed. The Wheeling Freight Terminal is looking pretty good.

 

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Surveying a new space

It’s been a busy month as my wife, Cheryl, and I relocated from the mid-Hudson Valley region of New York to the far west Texas city of El Paso. We arrived July 3rd with a couple of cars, a couple of dogs and some belongings. There was no time to visit El Paso to house hunt before our move, so we rented our new home on the recommendation of Cheryl’s UTEP co-worker. We have settled right in and spent time coordinating legal papers and exploring our new city and region. It was odd for those first couple of weeks as the moving van did not arrive until July 16. This offered plenty of time to decide where furniture would be placed and what rooms would be earmarked for other uses, such as the hobby room. Here’s how the hobby room looked shortly after we arrived.

Empty hobby room.

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Departure time, again

Moving again

Our time has come to a close here in the mid-Hudson Valley region. My wife and I have said goodbyes to friends and made our rounds to our favorite places. I’ve spent many hours over the last four weeks packing up the household and hobby goods in preparation for our move to El Paso, Texas. It will take at least a month to settle in and survey the hobby possibilities of the new home. I have a few ideas but cannot push forward without being on site. I have some blog posts to release here over the course of the next month, so new content will be posted to keep this from falling dormant. Here’s one last look at the New York hobby room before all the modular drawer units are wrapped up with plastic wrap.

still to pack

While packing I was surprised to find a large number of freight cars that are built, detailed, weathered and ready for use. There were also a couple dozen built freight car kits that need to be painted, lettered and weathered. I had forgotten about many of these cars and am happy that a layout ready fleet will be on hand in the new home. These cars will serve as ready inspiration to get wheels rolling along the rails in the next year.

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