The first edition of the 22nd Avenue Running Track's single-track staging leg, built a decade ago, is about what you would expect for a first draft by a high school student. It generally did the job, but it was too short, unstable, and crudely finished. As part of the overall benchwork rehabilitation, I figured it prudent to completely replace it with one of higher-quality materials and craftsmanship. So into the scrap pile went the old one.

It's a "workbench" in function only, yeah. But over one weekend earlier this winter, I was able to set up a permanent, organized workspace that was not a) my computer desk or b) the floor, since one of these options was detrimental to my actual job-related productivity, and the other was detrimental to my increasingly-decrepit body (being a hockey goalie does not make you feel younger, believe me).

Since this layout departed my parent's house in 2015, it has lived on top of a variety of stacked boxes, plastic shelving towers, and laundry room racks. Now that it is settled in this corner of our office for the forseeable future, it deserved benchwork that was a bit more permanent.

It's been almost five years since I've posted on this site, nearly all of which was spent separated from my layout,  and most of which was entirely without model railroading. I'm not at all bothered by spending my mid-20's gallivanting around instead of playing with trains. But between the current state of both the world (melting down under a global pandemic) and my life (settled in a long-term rental house with my girlfriend, and rapidly becoming a crotchety old grandpa at heart), I figure I'll be hunkered down for most of the winter and will have probably the money, time, energy, and desire to really pick up the hobby again.

(It's an Of Monsters and Men reference, FYI. And the "steady" claim is questionable at best.)

Having an unfortunate amount of free time, and a layout in my living room instead of halfway across the country, apparently doesn't equate to things being accomplished any faster. Can you believe that?

Today the layout was finally returned to operational status as a single reunited piece, a process that ended up taking three weeks longer than I anticipated, due to real life being significantly busier than expected. But isn't that how this hobby usually works?

Tomorrow I (start to) drive to Maryland for a new job as a fresh college graduate, and along for the ride is the layout. Even as small of a layout as it is, I manage to own an even smaller car, so about 20" got (temporarily) lopped off one end with a reciprocating saw, in what is probably the least straight cut ever.

In about a month the 22nd Avenue Secondary might be making a 1700-mile trek across the country ('might' because I don't know if I'm actually going home between college graduation and starting work). Unfortunately this cannot be accomplished with the layout in a single piece, as compact cars can carry only the tiniest layouts whole. I would have to make a single cut somewhere around this line and split the layout into approximately 7- and 3-foot halves.

So over those twelve months (which is about to become seventeen, or more) there’s probably been less than two weeks or so of actual work, in three different stretches, but I did manage to get some things accomplished during that time.