I start my MRH blog with a brief story of my new beginning and some much-deserved acknowledgements of people to whom I owe inspiration, knowledge, and thanks.  I am beginning what will likely be a multi-year journey in the creation of my new N scale prototype-based layout to replace my former and dismantled HO scale freestyle.  It has been several weeks coming up with my new design, and there are some people that deserve thanks for getting me to where I am today on it.  I will post images this week of the final design I settled upon.  But tonight, my acknowledgements and thanks.

First, I thank my wife, Sheri-Lynne, who allowed me to start this journey almost 4 years ago when I suggested wanting to take up model railroading.  We were living in an apartment, but I mused about it and she was ok with it.  However, I guess I wasn't very clear in the degree of my musings, because she was quite surprised to come home one day to see the dining room table moved closer to the living room and an L shaped 2' wide set of benchwork occupying about 32 square feet of the dining room.  "But see, I built you shelves underneath" I said.  And while she was a bit overwhelmed, she never asked me to undo what I had started. Since then, she helped me move the three sections I built to different cities as we moved, and even bought me the occasional structure kit.  We since bought our forever home that we are now empty-nesting in. She agreed to my using 1/2 the guest room as my train room, and has supported my decision to ditch that prior layout altogether to switch to N scale.  And she has become my willing photographer as we visit locations that will be featured on my layout, providing images of prototype buildings and trackwork, and clearing up with those visits some mistakes in my track plans in some locations (including a major error I had made in Bartlett at the roundhouse.)   I am a very lucky model railroader indeed in my opinion.

Second acknowledgement goes unbeknownst to him to a boyhood friend, Bruce Miller.  We spent several summers going into the white mountains of NH, hiking Mt Washington, and stretches along route 302 in Crawford Notch.  I will never forget one trip where we hiked to Arethusa falls, and then on the trail heading for Frankenstein Cliff.  But we lost the trail, had to bushwack our way through the woods down to route 302, and hike back along the road to the Arethusa falls trail parking area.  We were parched and tired, but it had been an adventure and forever cemented that stretch of road between Bartlett and Crawford Notch in the anals of my favorite memories.  And so when I realized I wanted to model that stretch of railroad, I knew that memory had a lot to do with it.

My third acknowledgement goes to many of you, who have helped me in forum postings to work through some of my ideas and questions, helping as I refined my ideas for locations (in addition to Crawford Notch), benchwork approaches, subroadbed approaches, etc.  

Finally, I must give a special acknowledgement to Marc Stowbridge of the Silver Lake railroad in Madison, NH.  Marc did something perhaps simple, but utterly amazing and wonderful for me today, and forever impacted a portion of my planned trackwork and scenery.  One of the locations I had decided on in my layout is the small station and siding at Madison NH, on the old B&M line from Dover up to Conway, NH.  My wife and I made a stop this morning at Madison, to photograph the current railroad there, and especially the restored station.  It was before the railroad opened for the day for rides, but we walked about taking our photographs.  At one point, a seasoned gentleman looking every bit the railroad man comes out of a building and walks over and says hello.  He knew right away I was a model railroader.  We spoke for a few moments, and then he said he was about to go out to do a track inspection, would we like to come along.  My wife and I accepted, expecting to be walking the tracks.  But no, we were led over to a very small electric vehicle on the tracks, and soon we were off down the siding.  Soon we were at the switch, and Marc invited me to throw the switch.  I must have reacted like a little kid, of course happily agreeing to do so.  He showed me the switch lever, told me what to do, and I did it myself.  Off we continued down the track.  For the next 1/2 hour or so, Marc explained some track history, stopped for me to photograph bridge abutments and culverts, explained about eskers, and beaver fields, and beaver trails in the marsh.  He asked me to oblige in retrieving some trash in the woods we spotted, and of course how could I not do a little something to earn my keep on the trip. By the time we got back to the switch, I was ready and willing when he asked me to do the honors again, not even getting out of the car himself to supervise.  For the briefest moment, I was a little bit of a railroad worker myself.  When we finally disembarked from the small car, he introduced us to his wife who was awaiting him, and shared a bit of our tale with her that would remind her of his own past adventures taking over a dining room.  We shook his hand and wished each other a good day.  Tonight, one of the finishing touches on my track plan was to alter my Madison, NH stretch. It is a longer bit now, and will feature one of those beaver ponds, and some eskers, and the spirit of this fine gentleman who shared a few minutes of his day on this short stretch of old railroad.  And I knew that while I am still at least a couple weeks away from starting my benchwork, that it was time that I begin to capture my journey, and give some thanks for those that have helped me get to the point I am at.

-Ed