Finally, another modeler in Sulligent!

I ran into a former student of mine in our local supermarket yesterday afternoon. I taught him over a decade ago. He was a good kid then who has turned out to be a fine young man. We were discussing working and paying bills when he mentioned having "an expensive hobby." I had to ask. He said, "Well, I'm getting into model railroading." I said, "You've got to be kidding me! Me too! I didn't know there was anyone else around here into model railroading." He's just getting started. His system is DCC, so he doesn't have much yet. He's trying to buy quality stuff as he can afford it, rather than buy lots of cheap stuff (more or less, the opposite of me).
He asked a lot of good questions and seamed to be soaking up advice. Now I have someone to share my limited knowledge with. It'll take me 15 minutes or less to tell him everything I know. He doesn't have many freight cars yet, so I'm going to pay back those who have given me things by giving him some cars to run along with a few other things I no longer have use for. I'm too young to remember the Frisco (only the Frisco freight cars that BN used), He's too young to remember BN, so he's modeling solely BNSF. I told him that my layout looks like a time machine; AT&N, Frisco, BN, & BNSF... at separate times or in any combination at any time... a time warp, if you will. Instead of a mad scientist like Doc Brown from Back to the Future, I'm more like a mad modeler railroader, running stuff from different time periods, simultaneously. Being a high school band director, during this time of year (high school football season), I really am a mad model railroader; mad that I have to work so much that I don't have time for model railroading. This too shall pass. The end of the 2016 Alabama high school football season is on the horizon, and with that, the beginning of my 2016-2017 model railroading season is on the horizon as well.

 

Has your friend had time to go to the Frisco website and check out our information? Be sure to have him check out the layouts that are on the website. Maybe he will join us soon.

Joe

 

I sent him links to the site as well as the off topic forum and explained to use off topic for BN & BNSF. I told him there's a lot of our line's history on here. I certainly can't help him with dcc.

 

Thank you. I enjoy being a band director (most of the time), but not as much as I enjoy being a railfan. I wish I could figure out a way to turn railfanning (or band directing for that matter) into a lucrative career. NS runs right in front of the school (and football stadium) where I work. Like clockwork, during halftime of each of our last four home games, a S-bound, NS power-move arrived from the north and stopped at a mill on the north end of town to pick up 2-4 cars of plywood and carry them south. It was difficult for me to focus at halftime while hearing a train headed my way, knowing I was missing out on some switching action only 1/2 mile away, and hoping they wouldn't come by the stadium until the band's break in the 3rd quarter... not because it would distract from the halftime show, but because I wouldn't be able to see the train. Fortunately, it came through during our break, during all four games. Last week, my daughter was on the sideline with me at halftime. When the train blew it's horn, I leaned over to her and whispered, "Fourth home game in a row with a train!" She looked at me and whispered, "Don't even think about it." I whispered back, "Well if you don't care about trains any more, why won't you part with your Thomas the Tank Engine collection." She whispered, "That's different!"
Marching band/football season is extremely time consuming and exhausting for me from mid-July until football season is over. I do about 50% of my annual work load in 33% of a calendar year (mid-July to usually mid-November). With the exception of testing a locomotive for 5 minutes, I haven't touched my layout since July. However, we are almost done with football / marching season. Our football team barely earned a spot in the playoff bracket and will travel to play the region champion from another region, in the first round of the single-elimination, state playoff tournament tomorrow night. I'm secretly hoping that our team loses, and brings an end to my 2016 football / marching band season, and ushers in the beginning of my 2016-2017 model railroad season.

 

I've learned of a third modeler in my area! A CSX engineer retired a few months ago and move from Tennessee to Beaverton, AL, just 7 miles down the B'ham sub from Sulligent. He recently joined the facebook group, "Trains of Mississippi" and introduced himself. When he stated that he lives in Beaverton and that he is a modeler, I was thrilled.
Last night, as my wife and I were leaving a restaurant, she began talking to a lady who was leaving right behind us. My wife is a teacher and introduced the lady as a new substitute teacher. The lady introduced her husband as Doug Ellis. the retired engineer/modeler that I've been talking to on facebook. We talked for a few minutes. He also models in HO scale but he doesn't have a layout yet at his new residence. He's planning on building one soon. As soon as we get moved and I get my next layout started, I want to have them over. Our wives seem to like each other already so that should make it even easier for us to get together.
Including me, that makes three modelers that I know of within seven miles of each other. At this rate, we may have to start a club soon. As small as Sulligent and Beaverton are, we could model both towns, in HO scale, inside a single pizza box. However, since our membership would consist of a college student, a teacher, and a retiree, we probably couldn't afford to buy a pizza... not even a personal panned pizza... not even if we pooled our money. We would probably have to split the cost of a used 18"-radius circle of brass snap track, meet at the park, set our track on a picnic table, and use a 12v battery in one of our vehicles to power a train.