One Year Ago Today

That is one beautiful control panel.

Thanks Tim.

Truth be told, many guys in our club, myself included, were amazed by your depth of railroad knowledge, both 1:1 and 3-rail.

I hope that you can make it down to our layout soon. 

Jim

I'm very happy to read that you landed on your feet Jim. I wish you and the High Railers many happy years of RR fun. 

I'm blown away by the fact it has been a year already.  I remember your post about it and it only seems like a few months back.  It doesn't seem like it if you were involved in the club disbanding, but man, has it really been a year so quick?!

Glad to hear you are enjoying the new club.  

gg1man and 86TA355SR,

Thanks guys.

It sure was a great ride for me, even though the physical demands began to really affect my, I still had a lot of fun interacting with the majority of the public and running long trains.

IHR-MD will definitely be missed. I fondly remember my modular days from almost 20 years ago (Valley Toy Train Club/Tinplate Trackers Los Angeles) and while it was fun, I don't miss the loading/unloading/setup/take-down/loading/unloading sequence.

As SantaFeJim points out, the rest of us have moved on.  For those wondering what became of the layout, most of it did not get sold to other clubs.  My portion, the 52 foot passenger terminal moved to south Florida with me several years ago.  Jerry's(gnnpnut) portion is also now in Florida as I bought it.  Last month I closed on a 3000 square foot building air-conditioned with 14 foot doors on either end (hard to come by in Naples or at least on that is hurricane resistant).  For the last several months gnnpnut, Mike Robellard(my son) and I have been designing a new permanent layout utilizing Jerry and my modules in a more operational style layout all within the constraint of a 30x100 building.  You can see the current thinking below.  As we had at many shows, my passenger yard dovetails into Jerry's engine service facility.  The existing modules are going to be raised to 48" from 36" for convenience and to allow a second level below those modules for staging.  This drawing is primarily the mainlines as the center peninsula will be urban oriented industry switching and the top peninsula more rural.  The design team of Mike, Jerry and I are debating single track versus double track helix below the upper left portion down to the staging to make the layout a true point to point.  For those that never saw the layout, the passenger yard and engine facility are totally controlled by two sophisticated matrix-diode control panels that Mike designed and the three of us built.  It seemed a shame to let all of that work go away, hence the possible design compromises to "fit" the modules into a layout.  So for those who enjoyed the layout at the many shows over the years, thanks. but rest assured the bulk of the layout is alive and well here in Naples.  Best to all.

Jim your new layout design looks spectacular!  I commend you for taking on such a huge task.  I hope that get many years of enjoyment from your layout and look forward to seeing it as a featured layout in OGR or a TM video. 

As far as I can tell just about everybody that was in our club when it collapsed (with one exception) is still in the hobby.  It is not something that people give up on very easily.

Go with a 2-track main, the grandkids will love it.  

Enjoy.

Jim