03-08-2011, 11:45 AM
G.E.C.,
I can understand your frustrations. For decades I was the only one whom I knew who was a model railroader. I built my models at home, alone. On the occasion when I would go to a hobby shop, the people there were always friendly (although some were ... "different") but none friendly enough to strike up a conversation, get to know you and invite you over for an operating session.
Even for the two years when I managed a hobby shop in a big mall, it was so much of a job (including cutom painting and custom building for customers "on the side") that I never had time for my own model work and absolutely no social life at all (I got divorced during that period as well, making life even more solitary and putting me at risk of becoming ... "different.")
But prior to all of that, from 5th grade on, I was growing up in Wayne, PA, on the four-track Pennsy "Main Line." I saw DD-1's, P5a's, GG-1's, E-33's, E-44's and I rode the locally infamous "Red Cars," the Mp54 "rattlers," on a regular basis; every day into the city in the morning and back out at night during my freshman year in art school. I railfanned at 30th Street, 52nd Street, Zoo Tower (interlocking,) got to know the operator at Overbrook Tower and sat up there with him at night watching "the board" on many occasions, and didn't learn much about "moldy diesels" until later. I can remember being disappointed when my train from Suburban Station back out of the City in the evening would be Silverliners rather that the old Red Cars because you couldn't open the window!
Juice was King in our neck of the woods! And none of this piddling along at 20 mph ... The Broadway Limited came through Wayne station on the inside westbound track at better than 80 mph! Cool stuff! I can see the twin vortexes of loose paper and small trash following the OBS as it disappeared towards Paoli and points west in my mind's eye. The visual memory makes me smile ... it's a fond memory!
I understand your feelings ... and I have an appreciation for "things with pantographs that run under the wire." When I was in the Army and living in a barracks with 43 other guys, although model building was difficult due to space constraints and lack of non-military storage, I did manage to build two Walthers Mp54 Commuter Coaches, with pants (one powered) and I still have them (packed away in boxes.) My models and model working tools were kept in a box in the trunk of my car.
So, if you wish to discuss Juice Jacks, PM me ... I'll welcome the discussion!
I can understand your frustrations. For decades I was the only one whom I knew who was a model railroader. I built my models at home, alone. On the occasion when I would go to a hobby shop, the people there were always friendly (although some were ... "different") but none friendly enough to strike up a conversation, get to know you and invite you over for an operating session.
Even for the two years when I managed a hobby shop in a big mall, it was so much of a job (including cutom painting and custom building for customers "on the side") that I never had time for my own model work and absolutely no social life at all (I got divorced during that period as well, making life even more solitary and putting me at risk of becoming ... "different.")
But prior to all of that, from 5th grade on, I was growing up in Wayne, PA, on the four-track Pennsy "Main Line." I saw DD-1's, P5a's, GG-1's, E-33's, E-44's and I rode the locally infamous "Red Cars," the Mp54 "rattlers," on a regular basis; every day into the city in the morning and back out at night during my freshman year in art school. I railfanned at 30th Street, 52nd Street, Zoo Tower (interlocking,) got to know the operator at Overbrook Tower and sat up there with him at night watching "the board" on many occasions, and didn't learn much about "moldy diesels" until later. I can remember being disappointed when my train from Suburban Station back out of the City in the evening would be Silverliners rather that the old Red Cars because you couldn't open the window!
Juice was King in our neck of the woods! And none of this piddling along at 20 mph ... The Broadway Limited came through Wayne station on the inside westbound track at better than 80 mph! Cool stuff! I can see the twin vortexes of loose paper and small trash following the OBS as it disappeared towards Paoli and points west in my mind's eye. The visual memory makes me smile ... it's a fond memory!
I understand your feelings ... and I have an appreciation for "things with pantographs that run under the wire." When I was in the Army and living in a barracks with 43 other guys, although model building was difficult due to space constraints and lack of non-military storage, I did manage to build two Walthers Mp54 Commuter Coaches, with pants (one powered) and I still have them (packed away in boxes.) My models and model working tools were kept in a box in the trunk of my car.
So, if you wish to discuss Juice Jacks, PM me ... I'll welcome the discussion!
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln