Paradise in the Basement

I like things like "spell check" and proper grammar...😁

Mark in Oregon

Arnold, I knew you would show a photograph of one of your ball parks.  My slice of paradise is intended to be a slice of “Almost Heaven, West Virginia” in my basement.  That is why I like the Western Maryland Railway in West Virginia, where we lived at one time.  Though my only scenery is the backdrops, I still was able to make a truncated version of the WM coal drag as I saw in print battling the Blackwater Canyon (Black Fork) grade.

My little paradise is in a spare room on the second floor. It’s not one scene or section. It’s the whole environment and the moment I open this door, a weight literally lifts off my shoulders and I’m transported a million miles away from the office, the world, and all that is in it. I’m literally in that paradise you refer to, Arnold. Seriously, there are times that I just take a break and sit on my stool without even turning on the layout and I feel that I’ve been recharged. It’s that good for me. I totally get what you are saying, Arnold.  Enter here-

Excellent room, Strap Hanger!  I know what you mean, I can just sit on my stool with my railroad all around me and things are better!

Arnold, you nailed it, paradise in the basement, I agree our train rooms are great places of relaxation and simply forget everyday issues. A place of calm, no worries, just a place to unwind, watch our little world that is pandemic free, and running our trains gives us a great bit of satisfaction. Great thread… Happy Railroading Everyone

Almost as good as paradise by the dashboard light, depending on one's point of view.

Mark, I tip my hat to your “Rocky mountain High, West Virginia”, as I wake up in my City that never sleeps, top of the heap! Only a fellow train guy understands that feeling we are talking about. Arnold nailed it by calling it our little Paradise.

Edited to reflect that I would literally kill to have LeapinLarry’s excellent man cave basement pictured above. Unfortunately, no basements in Florida. Thanks for rubbing that in, Larry. LOL!

@Mark Boyce posted:

Arnold, I knew you would show a photograph of one of your ball parks.  My slice of paradise is intended to be a slice of “Almost Heaven, West Virginia” in my basement.  That is why I like the Western Maryland Railway in West Virginia, where we lived at one time.  Though my only scenery is the backdrops, I still was able to make a truncated version of the WM coal drag as I saw in print battling the Blackwater Canyon (Black Fork) grade.

Mark, you are well on your way to creating a masterpiece of a model railroad.

@RoyBoy posted:

Almost as good as paradise by the dashboard light, depending on one's point of view.

RoyBoy, you gave me a great idea. I'm going to play the section of that great song by Meatloaf when Phil Rizutto makes the call, while the train is rounding Yankee Stadium.

Phil was playing shortstop in the 1956 World Series when Don Larson pitched the perfect game:

Its just a corner carved out of our small basement but it beats some of the alternatives. 😁

I need to take some new pictures. This is from about 3 years ago.

Bob

Looking forward to my new layout in the new houses basement, Going home to the motherland,

Pennsylvania!  the state has a few idiots but they are my idiots.  Go Phillies!

Thank you Arnold and Strap Hanger!!

Bob, 14 switches?  That's an awful lot crammed into a small space.

you are so correct it is a slice of heaven /paradise i call mine the train cave,,,,,i hate the phrase man cave,,,,train it is,,,and tonight i was like i'm not doing nothing,,,but plodded down and magic,,,,2 hrs later came up for food !

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

RoyBoy, you gave me a great idea. I'm going to play the section of that great song by Meatloaf when Phil Rizutto makes the call, while the train is rounding Yankee Stadium.

Phil was playing shortstop in the 1956 World Series when Don Larson pitched the perfect game:

Arnold,

Nice thread as always, but wasn't Gil McDougald playing shortstop that day?

@Sean007 posted:

Arnold,

Nice thread as always, but wasn't Gil McDougald playing shortstop that day?

That is very possible, Sean. Gil was another very fine player. I will Google Phil to check when he retired.

Sean, you must be correct. Phil played in very few games in 1956, and did not play in the World series that year.

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

That is very possible, Sean. Gil was another very fine player. I will Google Phil to check when he retired.

Sean, you must be correct. Phil played in very few games in 1956, and did not play in the World series that year.

Thanks Arnold - I thought that I had recalled Scooter talking about the game one time during a Yankees broadcast.

Anyway, right now my little slice of heaven is in one side of my garage!

@coach joe posted:

Bob, 14 switches?  That's an awful lot crammed into a small space.

A lot is a relative term Joe. I've actually got 16 now since I added a manual FT for the engine yard and the third spur in the main yard.

I take pride in the use of "crammed" too.

Pastoral paradise in the basement:

Wow, Arnold, you really hit a happy nerve!   I frequently find an excuse just to "...gotta run downstairs to get a _________...".  Sometimes what ever I was supposed to be getting is long forgotten and I get engrossed with the various vignettes around the layout.  Enjoying certain accomplishments, reviewing one thing or another maybe even quietly running some non sound trains.  (Two rail running is essentially silent)

Years ago the wife wanted to move from our former home but I resisted.  I finally gave in when she agreed to a ranch & that the RR can have run of the entire basement.  No strings attached.

Little did she know...the washer and dryer came upstairs and there is a lock on the basement door for little feet.

Ranch houses can have twice the basement area of a 2 story home with similar square footage.

Yes Arnold, Paradise is only 13 steps away!

If my childhood playground named Claremont Park in the Bronx were ideal, it would have had more sports facilities (and trains) such as this!

But then again I lived within walking distance from Yankee Stadium and the Macombs Dam ballfields so what more could I need!

Hard to believe that living there I grew up a Dodger fan!!!!!!!!

...so the perfect game wasn't a fond memory at the time, but you have to appreciate greatness:

Jim

Jim, your football field is a fabulous slice of paradise.

Speaking of that World Series perfect game, Sal Maglie (the Barber) also pitched a great game that day for the Dodgers, and he might have won but for Mickey Mantle's homer and great catch in deep left centerfield. You also have the Dodgers glorious victory in the 1955 World Series.

A wonderful book about the Dodgers, Ebbets Field and life in the 1940s and 1950s is Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Arnold

Arnold,

That great catch by Mantle was off the bat of my hero, Duke Snider!

I was spoiled in 1955. That was the first season I was old enough to be a real fan, and the Dodgers won! I missed all the previous Dodger losses in the World Series that Brooklyn suffered through.

That is a great book by the way. She also had some great commentary in the Ken Burns "Baseball" series on PBS.

Here's another example of creating our own paradise - the Hellgate Bridge in a much more scenic location - with steam! (and with apologies to my birthplace of Astoria, Queens - location of the actual bridge)

Jim

Great Post Arnold!

Welcome to my “paradise”.    My happy place is a 13’ x 19’ train room with a 6’ x 13’ shop area accessed through the door adjacent to the mountain.    This room is in the lower level of our town home.   My wife does not like it when I call it the basement.     It's a walkout so I guess it technically is not a basement.     We moved in eight years ago and I started from scratch in January of 2014.     I know that we all would die for more real estate, but I am happy with the space even though it can get a little crowded  when I entertain visitors.    In reality, it is "my world"; a collection of childhood memories and it functions just fine for me!    When I am there, I'm magically 15 years old again even though I'm in an  80 year old outfit.    

My pictorial tour:

Cheers, Dave

Jim Policastro, your train room is amazing and yes a great way to escape the outside world, great scenery, beautiful trains, truly a Paradise in your home, Darlander, your layout is amazing and your small miniature world of trains is well done, a great escape from the world we live in, yes this is our paradise, train heaven. Thank you Arnold for your creative thinking. Happy Railroading Everyone

Wow, great “train” caves everyone (love that term).  You ny baseball fans need to blow this up and hang it near your stadiums -

What gorgeous photos of spectacular layouts. You folks, indeed, have created your own paradise. I encourage you all to share your layouts as much as possible so the World will be a better place and more like paradise.

@Strap Hanger posted:

Wow, great “train” caves everyone (love that term).  You ny baseball fans need to blow this up and hang it near your stadiums -

Great idea Strap Hanger.

Darlander,

What a paradise! I really admire what you have done in your space. Very tasteful and not overdone.

Dave

Awesome post!! and awesome Paradises!

Paradise down by the water, thanks to Mod Podge:

Up to this point my paradise has the worlds most expensive scenery, LUMBER!  You folks are light years ahead of my domain.  Really great photos.

The basement layout is out-of-sorts right now, waiting for a few repairs and a repower with a couple of new Z-1000s. In the meantime, a lot of recent acquisitions have piled up on it which will need to be cleared away. Hoping to get back to operations soon:

PD

From yesterday’s running session with a few of my dear friends/family (before we hit the bottom of that last bottle of vino). I like to think of this as Paradise by the dashboard lights (photo taken by my guest) -

@Strap Hanger posted:

From yesterday’s running session with a few of my dear friends/family (before we hit the bottom of that last bottle of vino). I like to think of this as Paradise by the dashboard lights (photo taken by my guest) -

Strap Hanger, speaking of Paradise by the DashBoard, were you rounding third, and did you make it to home (plate)? LOL

And are you hoping for the end of time? LOL

Your layout looks like a very interesting one that is full of fun.

Lately, what has taken me to Paradise has been running my best modern locomotives with speed control.

Here we have my one and only Legacy with whistle steam:

More Paradise: here is an MTH Proto 3 NY Central RS3, made for JR Junction Hobby, hauling oil tankers through a small town in Upstate New York:

This is my little slice of "basement paradise"  in Northern Va.  I started this train room in 2015.  However I built the double helix in Flroida about 5 years earlier.