Live from Boise following the Idaho Erben's one post at a time…

Running the HO

With the recent sabbatical from the kids, I had a chance to think more than usual without some of the usual distractions. At some point, I found myself disinterested in the computer, and had flipped around and was admiring the collection of HO equipment on display in the computer room. I slipped back 15 years ago when, around this time of the year, we would load up in the car and roll across the two-lanes of the mid-west, slowly navigating our way to 725 Harvard Road. I'd wake up (usually hours after sunrise), eat some breakfast, then slip downstairs to my Grandpa's layout (as well as the coolness of the cellar, it was July in Pennsylvania), flip on 610 WIP, and lose myself for hours operating on the layout. It usually took a day or two to clean the track enough to run something all the way around, but that was half the fun.

As Lauren and I grew up, and into the college days, and the summer vacations tailed off, my Grandma started making plans to remove the layout. One summer day, Tate and I loaded up in a pickup and a horse trailer, and had one of the most memorable trips ever. Oh if there was only twitter and an iPhone back then. We rolled out of Chadron probably sometime mid-afternoon, and headed up through the badlands of South Dakota to I-90, and turned eastward. I remember evening in eastern South Dakota near Sioux Falls, and a little bit later stopping at a truck stop in Minnesota (it had a big windmill, perhaps the Windmill Truckstop) and indulging in biscuits and gravy (it was my kick at that time).

After eating, we made it an hour or so down the interstate when it started to rain, and we started to lose the lights. We stopped, jingled with things, and had em working again for fifteen minutes to our exit when poof, out they want as we came down the offramp. We monkeyed with them for a bit, they came to life, and we pulled up into a little town around midnight as the rain stopped, and pulled into an old gas station parking lot under what might have been the only street lamp in town, and kicked back for a few hours of rest, our plans to hit Chicago around 3 or so in the morning were dashed !

The next morning, Tate thumped on the door of the cab (having slept in the trailer) and we were off -- probably about 5:30 or 6 in the morning I imagine. The air was crisp, cool, and sweet, and I am pretty sure it was a Sunday. We made good time, with no need for lights, and blew through Chicago without much traffic to contend with. At some point, we stopped for lunch and picked up some fuses, and tried to see if that might help as evening began to set on us. Alas, it was not to be, and we wound up pulling up in a truck stop in the Cleveland area. Monday morning, we found a parts store, and picked up a new headlight switch, and away we went. Across Ohio, and into PA we went. For whatever reason, I cannot quite recall the way we came through PA...perhaps we came across I-80 and then dropped down into Philly, or perhaps picked up I-76 and then the PA turnpike. Either way, we pulled in that night, grabbed some cheesesteaks and pizza, and relaxed.

The next day we spent dismantling the layout. There were two sections -- the larger portion was perhaps 12 x 16 maybe, 14x18 maybe, with a couple main lines running around in an oblong shape, a third main that went up and over and back around, with a decent little yard for switching. On the other side of the furnace was a 4x8 setup my Grandpa built for my dad that connected to the main layout, allowing one to have a fairly long run from the main layout to the secondary layout, with a portion skirting behind the furnace.

There was no way to remove the layout in once piece -- unfortunately we would have to make a cut or two to get it up the stairs and out the door. I believe we wound up taking the main layout out in four pieces, and I think we were able to keep the 4x8 layout in tact, save for the connections to the main layout. After the deconstruction, we went off to dinner with my Grandma to an Italian joint she fancied. The next day, we woke up, well rested, and after breakfast, started our trek westward. Seeking to see parts of the country we might not otherwise see, we zipped west on the turnpike to Harrisburg, and then turned south. At this time, the headlights were fine, and we were setup to roll any time, any hour. Somewhere in West Virginia, we were cruising along at 60-65, and bam, we lost a trailer tire. Tate's skills changing a tire are legendary, and we literally were back moving in like 15 minutes. We took the first exit, winding up a hill to a gas station, looking to see if we could track down another spare as we totally lost the trailer tire. The gas station (convenience store) was not a service station, and had no idea about a tire shop. We pulled out, but with the trailer, we decided to make a three rights to a left maneuver for whatever reason. The road we turned on took us down a hill into a valley, we passed a few homes, then poof, a repair shop was right there. We stopped in, and picked up a spare tire for the trailer for about 15 bucks, and away we went.

We ran into more rain that day in Kentucky, but were having a blast. Somewhere in the southern tip of Illinois, Tate and I had a Mountain Dew challenge, and I pounded three of them in like five minutes, and have never felt that funny (and then sickish) in my life. I was a loopy bird for a bit, annoying Tate to no end I am sure. At some point, we tired, and pulled off in a truck stop parking lot. The purr of the big old diesel's sleeping away the night though was a bit much for Tate back in the trailer, so we crossed the street into a Mickey D's parking lot, and picked up some Z's. The next morning was another summer in the midwest morning, heavy air, sweet smell, and sure to warm up. We ate at a Bob Evans, and were on our way to Omaha to swing in and see my dad. He was working that day, set to get off around 7PM, and we made good time up through Missouri that we were rolling through Council Bluffs, about to get onto I-80 for the trip over the bridge into Omaha when we lost the rear left tire on the pickup. Luckily, I had plenty of room off the left lane I was in, and was able to get off the road, and we again tried our hands at tire removal and replacement. The tire was shot, and not wanting to be without one, we headed over the river into Omaha to my dad's house, dropped off the trailer, and drove around looking for a magical hill to drive up to find a tire shop. We finally found a tire shop that had some used tires, and picked one up to replace our spare.

We had a good meal with my dad, and slept in a house and showered again so we could once again stand each other in the pickup. We headed out the next day with the relatively short jaunt to Chadron, taking the Highway 20 route which clocks in around 420 miles. The layout made the trip fairly well -- a few pieces were jostled and knocked some track and other items loose, but all in all, it was in decent shape. We unloaded, returned the trailer and pickup, and there things sat for years.

Fast forward to Sunday night. I decided last week to build a little HO layout for the kids. They are very interested in my N Scale layout, but things are either too small, or too fragile for them. Tyler is listening very well, and close to being able to do things with the layout, but cannot quite rerail cars and such with a delicate hand. With the HO, his motor skills are a little more suited to things and can learn how to properly handle things and build up the knowledge. Anyway, with the boxes of my Grandpa's stuff around the house, I figure it is good time to put together a few tracks, a couple turnouts, and share a little bit of that fun I used to have with my Grandpa's items that I had all those years.

After Nora went to bed, we pulled out a couple pieces of track, and pulled out some locomotives that have not turned a wheel in years that have sat on display on my shelf for years now. I was not sure quite what to expect, but as we nudged the throttle up, things began to move, and fairly well for the extended storage:

For the next hour or so, we pulled out various locomotives and rolling stock, and build one and two car trains, with and without a caboose, and ran them back and forth.

Tyler did very well, only running into the end a few times, and neither time was he totally oblivious to his actions, he just got caught up with the watching the train and not watching the throttle. The next morning, after waking up, he and Nora rushed into the computer room and wanted to run their trains:

I do not have a clip handy at the moment, but Nora has run trains back and forth, and can change direction and start the train moving very well. She does not quite understand the stopping action yet, but she enjoys things for a few minutes. This weekend, we have some rearranging going on in the computer room, so stay tuned to see how things grow, change, and develop in the front room on Chapala Way.