So, the wife and I went and ran on a near by model railroad of a guy we met doing work with a Frisco historical group. He happens to have a huge basement that has most of the Frisco's Northern Divsion from KC to Springfield modeled in it. We'd seen it once before but never run it. We finally had a chance to be in on one of his operating sessions. Wife had a blast, and so did I. I've run railroads before but never this formally. Even the club I belonged to was more demonstration operation than anything else. We played at local switching and such but we had not formal waybills or anything like that. The Frisco model was fairly informal as operating sessions go, but there were car cards and waybills, and verbal track warrants of a sort. It was a blast! I worked a local, while wife ran through freight and Kansas City Terminal transfer jobs all night. We both had a great deal of fun, as I'd hoped, and wife was very interested in the whole thing. This was wife's first time operating a model railroad. I think I've got the bug in her ear.
After the session the owner of the railroad was telling us how his wife had picked out a new house for them, so they could have a bigger basement for his trains, even one with plumbing for a toilet etc. And she found them a great house, even though she's not a big train person herself, it is near perfect for model railroading. Huge, and well laid out. And he's done an awesome job building in it. It's a great set up and we can't wait to get back their and operate again.
So we were talking about my plans for the railroad today and wife says, "you should use the basement". hmmm... Since my plan was for the garage, this is a big shift. We had discussed it years ago and she had resisted the basement, or at least any portion of it large enough to be worth while, which is why for the last couple of months I've been working on the idea of shelves in the garage. After talking today, it's clear that I misunderstood her a little, and she me, the last time we talked about it. She was enthusiastically in favor of me utilizing the whole basement for a railroad. Well ok then.
So now, my old plan is out the window, and I'm starting from scratch. I have slightly less wall space to use but the upside is I can do peninsulas now where I couldn't before. There's also a laundry room and a bathroom I need to work around. the Laundry room needs to stay clear, but the wife had no problem with a lift out in front of the bathroom door, giving me even more usable space.
So now, a new plan, totally new. I am, at this moment, going to be sticking with the Parks Harbor idea. I still like it, and it's still the kind of switching I want to do. I'm still not a huge fan of hidden staging yards and trains that magically appear. But it does give me some pause. There are now more possibilities. I could do something bigger. The Chicago Terminal or something from Detroit. Zug Island maybe. I could even try the Frisco Clinton Sub (the railroad I run a small section of in 1:1 scale) which was scandalously left out of the Frisco set up we ran the other night.
As of this moment I'm thinking along the lines of an expanding PHI. I still like the car float idea, and my existing design, in concept at least can be expanded to the broader strokes.
We'll see how it goes... I really liked my design, and I'm not sure how comfortable I'll be chaning it. I think it may be fore the better in the end though. We'll see how we progress.
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