Shades of Manheim…
A few months ago Chris began collecting information, plans and design thoughts together on his blog for the Manheim Industrial. Pairing my Hilton-Mears GE44t with a Walthers chemical tank wagon seemed to be a neat way to imitate the lines character…
 |
| Manheim’s East Penn crew are working the spur at Ferrell Gas with leased 44t 1220. |
You know, I absolutely love two things about this photo, the flexibility of Kinross, another blank canvas, and Modelu figures…
Sometimes life can seem a little overwhelming. In these darker moments it’s not always possible to enjoy our hobby in the way that might help or heal. Speaking from experience, taking a sideways step sometimes can help. Where modelling projects felt too far from my grasp, a quick operating session on Kinross with appropriate stock led to the idea of posing the 44t with a tank wagon… it looked good, and his photo is the result. Take care out there this month, the hardest of the year in many ways, and good health to you all. More soon…
I love that photo. This is one I think I'd like to print and frame. It's also one more example of "inspiration" because, in this case, it's evidence of connection. In this frame I see Manheim but I also see Coy in a way I don't think I could have ever realised, and I see Charlottetown and 1754 shoving a load into the propane dealer on Allan Street. This is the power of model railroading at its finest and I'm grateful for this moment -- it just feels so good right now.
ReplyDeleteAs in our conversations like the recent ones on the Ballard-Wantage (by the way wouldn't that alone be a neat name for that project? The Ballard-Wantage Street Railway...a once electrified railway, like Yakima, now stripped down to a remaining customer...) I am attracted to a kind of stripped down minimalist model railway design that doesn't overwhelm me with a shopping list of to do list items and leaves me alone to tinker with things as singular items; and when operating that same simple layout divides time between the work and tasks of shunting freight cars and running trains to the wonderful joy and contentment we can absorb from just watching our model trains moving through finished scenes.
...but it's more too
Stripping down the model railway maybe also removes some of the major identifiers allowing the layout to almost assume a certain generic identity that allows it to be easily reimagined into similar scenarios. As a tool to connect friends, it widens the array of potential connection points. If we create something to share with our friends we shouldn't burden this with too many conditions; it's less important we see it exactly the same way as we connect with it with equal energy. In this way, this simple, complete, and beautiful scene is all at once Hilton-Mears shunting one carload, a tank car for Coy, and a carload at Allan Street in a 1988.
As I write this I keep scrolling back up to look at the photo -- it's just so beautiful. I mentioned about how I thought this simplified scope balanced the layout and I want to add one more point but it also simplifies our sense of what we're doing when we're operating the railway. In this space of the operating session we're trying to create a moment for immersion in the story. In a more complex operating scheme with many more complex car movements our attention is focussed on that broader scope but here it's just a car and an engine. It's easy to slip into this story and make it feel real; this simplified model might operate as the real thing would; and that feels very realistic.
"I was distracted and needed to be doing something. I wandered down to the crossing not expecting to see much happening because while the railway is still present it's seldom busy so I'm discovering that our relationship is maturing based on time we spend together doing nothing. Today though there was a tank car and the sound of a pair of Caterpillar engines that always seem to be at run eight no matter how slowly they're inching through the grass. Sure, they have to run slowly because that's the safe way but sometimes that speed feels like it's because it's been a while since they last ran and at this age sometimes it's too easy to forgot where we left the rails last time and we're sort of feeling around in the grass to find them again. Finally we make it to the end of the line and it's a shove back to place that tank car. Hand brakes on and the car tied down it's time to go home. Somebody should be writing this down so we'll know how to get back here next time we need to."
Chris
Thank you Chris. I don’t have any more words that can be added to such a wonderful reflection and connection point. Thank you.
Delete