I should be driving the first spike any day now!
Bob Nicholson
SHABBONA RR 9 - "The Right-of-Way"
I had sorta' burned myself out in the big push to prepare the
SHABBONA locomotive fleet in the weeks prior to the 1982 NASG
convention in Cleveland. The Miller Alco S-4's, #'s 27 & 28, were off
the roster, replaced by the RS-2 and the RS-3's. One reason was
because of the obvious appearance conflicts between the S-4's and
their RS-1 soul mates. I worked on The F-7 A-B-A set (SHABBONA
#'s19LAB) project using American Models FP-7 body shells and had them
running, but not painted, at the MRIA show in Minneapolis in October,
1982.
Bruce Giles and Jettie Pageant were there, with pilot models of more S
scale diesel locomotives they planned to import, based on the success
of the RS-3 project and its derivatives, the RS-2 and RSD-4/5.
SHABBONA never acquired any RSD 6-axle power, staying with 4-axle
RS-3's and the RS-2.
I was frustrated to the extreme because the house in Lacon had been
chained to my ankle for three and one-half years now. Nicholson's Law
was giving the ol' auger an extra twist or two just for good measure!
Finally, I ran out of patience and looked for a small house in Ft.
Madison to satisfy my layout instincts with a -ahem- "small temporary"
layout until I had a permanent residence. I ended up purchasing, in
December, 1982, the house at 2314 Ave. D, where I lived until 1994.
Skip the "temporary", I couldn't get more permanent than that!
One look at the full, dry basement and my first impulse was, "Oh,
boy! I'll have something up and running in no time!" Yeah, right!
Anybody else ever feel that way? First order of the day was replacing
the hot water heater, which made ominous garlic and onion-type
grumbling sounds deep within its bowels on one of the first nights I
was there. Then there was the old upright piano in the basement.
If it got down there, then surely it would get back out - so I lined
up some help. Came the big day, we raised our eyes to the top of the
stairs, locked them momentarily on the hard right into the kitchen,
and "Heaved"! By the the second step, we realized it wasn't going
anywhere in one piece, at least not beyond the basement. It made a
nice, warm fire in a local fireplace. I hated to do that, but it was
the only way I could get it to leave.
Then there was the issue of the basement walls - can you imagine the
World's Greatest Layout with a concrete block wall for a backdrop?
Well, neither could I, starting with a casement window on the West
wall that let in enough direct sun to boil a goldfish, so I closed
that in with concrete blocks. After that, the dream was to drywall the
basement walls with smooth radius curves in the corners and from the
walls to the basement ceiling, indirect lighting, painted backdrops,
you know, the whole ball of wax.
The reality was, I realized too late the guy at the lumber yard knew
even less about drywall framing than I did, and ended up with
superficially square corners, yards and yards of drywall tape along
with tons and tons of drywall mud to hide scores and scores of onsight
muddle-ups. Along with the flourescent shop lights in the bare floor
joists, that was the good news. My optimistic plans for the concrete
floor likewise mellowed substantially, and blue is a nice neutral
color for a backdrop, isn't it?
By the end of 1983, I had an almost finished (at least to my lowered
specifications) basement that just happened to have a house on top of
it although getting the piano out would have been easier had the
house not been there. Now, time to get down to the business of
building a layout.
Stay tuned -
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