by Rick Bivins

First off, as one can see in this issue, several members have taken time to arrange a few rail fan trips this winter…..undaunted members of a “frigid rail fan group” no less. This winter has not been kind to anyone, our friends “up north” and “down south” have all seen harsh conditions. Some still are!!! But a few spirited (desperate to get out perhaps) individuals took it upon themselves to get out anyway. I have always had a good time in Gorham Illinois, regardless of the weather. Recent trips to there and Princeton Indiana have all been good. But Saturday March 8, 2014 I drove all the way to just south of Nortonville KY… (a whole five miles for me) to one of my favorite spots to watch trains. Of course my front porch is a pretty good spot! But I still enjoy going to Romney Siding at the Hopkins/Christian County line on Hwy 41. In one hour and 55 minutes I saw five trains with power from five different railroads! CSX of course plus BNSF, NS, UPRR and CP. Now that to me is a good two hours!

As for my “almost monthly” contribution to the newsletter, I said in the last article while describing my model railroad project, “Here is the plan…sorta”. Well….I have since changed things around. I still plan to have people over to enjoy the trains, mine and theirs etc. But the layout has morphed from a complex group of tracks that with Steve Miller’s help was pretty cool. The up and over idea really appealed to me as did adding “big” scenery as I tend to call it. But by the time I was two thirds of the way through the hard part, that is laying track, I realized it wasn’t practical. The “pile on more track” syndrome had kicked in. My layout was just a mass of track.

So, I decided to explore other track plan ideas, each one ended up the same

way. The result of this is “I cannot put twenty thousand square feet of layout in a five hundred square foot building….even if I go vertical with the track!” So….I will have to make a decision, do I want a loop of track going around and around, maybe with a siding and a staging yard or possibly twice around or have a switching layout with industry’s to set out and pick cars from or can I get all of it in there or………SEE, that is how it starts!

Or……I could add another twenty one feet to the building and then I could……..