Before Christmas Deadline!

[DCmontana]

Some of you may know that I am a superintendent of schools in a small town in Montana. Each Christmas I bring my layout to school and run the trains for the kids K-12. Up until this year, my 4' by 10 1/2' set up seemed OK, but I decided this summer that I had to expand. I bought a new drug store and there was no room for it, so expansion was the order of the day. I made a plan for a 5' x 12' and with all good intention to right to work on it. Took the old one apart and got some plywood and ...procrastination set in. I suddenly realized that it was November and while eating Thanksgiving dinner was struck by the fact that as soon as the Broncos finished the Cowboys, I had to shift into high gear.

Right now the three 5' x 4' modules are framed and covered by homasote (nothing is fastened down yet, including the homasote) and they are mounted on the saw horses, modified by my most efficient maintenance man, giving a secure platform in which to lay the track and scenic the layout. I have the track all layed out and am delighted by the fact that my relatively simple plan works and fits nicely. This layout is designed to be taken apart and moved much easier than my old one. The basic plan is the same, but now I have 18 more square feet to work with. But, the clock is ticking! I must lay the track (I use regular old Lionel 0 gauge tubular track on cork roadbed), put on the roads, buildings, tunnels, and scenic it, than take it apart and move it to the school, set it up, and be ready to run trains by 0830 hours Tuesday morning, December 20, 2005 AD. Did I hear someone say, get to work ***???[:0]

My original train came Christmas 1952. It was the first set in the catalog with the 2056 engine. Seven years ago I had Ready to Roll in Miami go through the engine and paint it, decorate the tender for the Milwaukee Road, and convert the smoke unit to liguid. It pulls 5 of the 9500 0-27 Milwaukee passenger cars. I have a lot of Milwaukee rolling stock and my town is an imaginery place in Montana on the old Milwaukee Road. I try to combine some interesting scenery, town activity, depicting a fall afternoon in the late 50's in Montana. The mountains have snow and the town is warm and sunny. The switch yards are busy. The layout is a good representation of what a dad and his son (s) would have built back a half century ago (by the way, I have a soon to be three year old son).

I did my old layout six years ago in a similar amount of time and had it at school for the students. We have a good time and think about this, the school district is paying me to run the train for a lot of kids. It doesn't get much better than that.

But, will *** make it in time? Will the new layout measure up? Will the log car, the coal car, and the milk car unload as they should? I would appreciate any suggestions or encouragement any of you can offer!

I will keep you posted!