People who visit my layout often mistake me for a “serious” model railroader. While I may be enthusiastic, eager, enthralled, happy, engaged and other positive attributes, I am not entirely serious.
I often have fun placing humorous or disconcerting elements in various scenes. As I have said before, I amuse myself sometimes.
I was busy repairing some cars on the rip track (mostly missing coupler springs) and noticed a few cars I had set aside for special purposes. I was in an amused state so I set to work creating some flat car loads that had been languishing for want of a proper frame of mind. Since this is all in fun, I didn’t pay much attention to prototypically securing the loads to the flat cars. Properly researching and constructing such things would have taken all the amusement out of the process. Forgive me.
This flat car was a previous effort. The back story is the City of Boulder, Colorado was struck by a tremendous flood and their eponymous park landmark was washed away. The City of Loveland offered to help out by hand selecting a replacement in the Westside quarries. It was loaded onto a flat car, secured (by amateurs) and sent on its way. Shortly after starting out on the hilly, curvy GW main, it was noticed that the cargo was not secured well. The junior brakeman was enlisted to stabilize the load. Since the trip was lengthy, a stop was made to appropriate a farmer’s privy.
The Loveland city park had a small loop of track that pulled a train for kids to ride. The old tired steam engine “Fred” finally gave up the ghost and a search was done for a replacement. It turned out that the Southern Oregon Live Steamers in the Medford Railroad Park had recently ordered a gas powered C&S SD40 to pull their kid’s train. When it arrived, they discovered a mistake on the order form that specified the wrong scale and it was way too big. The ever friendly manufacturer said, “Tough break, not our fault” and refused to take it back. It was offered to the Loveland parks department and shipment was arranged.
This is an N scale SD40 that was acquired through E-bay. I was converting my old layout (then 70s era BN) to 60s era C&S power and was desperate for SD40s. Easy to find SD40-2s but SD40s were scarce. Yep, the E-bay ad was a little vague on scale and the cute little bugger has been sitting on a shelf waiting for a purpose.
Northern Colorado was recently bitten by the Monster Truck craze but didn’t have the required talent to build any. A search was done and the SCTA (Southern California Timing Association) happened to have some earlier models that were being replaced by super sized versions like by Big Foot and Grave Digger. For a nominal fee, the smaller trucks were offered to Ft. Collins for the cost of transportation. The extra wide load required special handling across the country.
Casa KaBooth is a trendy art gallery in Johnstown owned by the wife the GW superintendent. She is always on the lookout for special pottery and had recently discovered some huge ancient pieces in an area of New Mexico known for really big stuff. Purchase terms were worked out and shipment was arranged. However, the loads were too big for the Johnstown team track and are bring dropped off at the Johnstown elevator track. It may require the use of the GW’s American Ditcher crane to lift the enormous things off the flat car. For an extra fee, of course.
I was just informed that really huge pottery is a reality. Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico thought it would be cool to have some really big pots at the entrance and contracted with the San Ildefonso pueblo to have some made out of concrete. They are people size, just like the pots here. Who would have guessed?
Casa KaBooth was actually a sign we had made for our house. My wife’s name is Karla Ann, hence the KaBooth. And, if you think about it, it might translate as “House of Caboose” in honor of my train layout.
George Booth
Director of Everything, The New Great Western Railway
http://users.frii.com/gbooth/Trains/index.htm
