Me and my buddy were in the shed out back. I used to live in that delapidated old building a few years ago, before I got my new house. He and I were digging through piles of gear, old boxes, and anything interesting. Among other things that I have had including the tunnel I built for a layout that for some reason never got built, I found one of the very first building I have ever scratch built.
Using 2 empty packs of players from back when players was under $12 for a frame, I glued barbeque skewers evenly up the SIDEs and put a vertical log going up each corner. The roof was missing, so I slapped one together from spare passenger platform rooftops I am not using. I turned it into the Farmington Flag-Stop P Station and Rural Freight Depot.
There it sits, looking perfectly at home, next to a yet-to-be painted curved platform in the small rural community of Farmington. The track side of the building is raised so the doors are at platform level, whereas it is at ground level on the road side of the building.
I think it's pretty cool to stumble across something so awesome as the very first scratch built building one has ever made. It's also ROCKin that I get to use a structure from the very first layout I had. I presumed a lot of stuff had been burnt up in a fire I had where I used to live, but this one little 20*40(or so) log building hath lived on.
Has anyone else ever made any DOPE discoveries, such as going up to the dump and stumbling across a box of ROLLing stock, or maybe you find a rare starter set still in unopened box that someone would have, unknowingly, thrown it out? How about your own Personal Stash of stories, something? The God or Universe or Spirit or whatever you call it sometimes gives us little bits of joy in the most unexpected places to make sure we don't lose our minds from life.
The closest I have come -- I was walking back to my car with a buddy after a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game; we were parked on dark city streets in a residential neighborhood and it is probably 10:30 pm or later. Someone had put a pile of trash near the curb for the city to pick up the next day and one of the items was what was left of an old HO layout on what looked like about a 4' x 4' sheet of plywood painted green. It was more or less just a small oval of brass snap track most of which was damaged or missing, but one of the two 9" straight track pieces was an Atlas girder bridge. I had no need of the bridge per se but you might recall that Atlas sold and probably still sells those girders separately in a package as a flatcar load (also good kitbashing fodder if you want a longer bridge). I figured since it was thrown away as garbage I could remove just that part of it that was still usable and that I wanted. My friend really laughed at what a mess I made of my fingernails and hands trying to pry up that bridge, which I didn't really want or need and which at that time was being sold cheaply brand new by Atlas. But I had to have it because it was trash. There was some blood .... I'd had a few beers.
I no longer recall if the Brewers won or lost that night -- back that long ago they probably lost -- so this find took some of the sting off the game result.
I don't know why I even remember this or why your story reminded me of it.
Dave Nelson
Hi JJRR,
Any chance of you posting a photo of your first scratchbuilt structure? You made it sound pretty interesting so I would love to see it.
I don't have to go far to discover lots of interesting 'long lost' things. All I have to do is go through all of the storage drawers that sit right next to my workbench! I have purchased a ton of stuff over the years that I had great plans for at the time. I think sometimes that I figured that if I was spending money I must be doing some great modelling. It is interesting to dig down to the bottom of an overflowing drawer and discover things that I had totally forgotten about.
However, now that I am heavily involved with a club that is building a new layout, lots of that stuff has proven to be quite useful. For example, I purchased a small fortune worth of Tomar signal parts years ago. Those parts are being used to scratchbuild searchlight signals for the club as we speak. I have hundreds of LEDs. Lots of them will go to the club as well. Then there are the mini bread boards that I bought when I thought I would get into Arduinos. The Arduinos fried my brain so I haven't gone there (yet at least) but the breadboards are great when chopped up to use as bases for the signals.
I have no regrets over what I have spent on the hobby. I enjoyed every minute and every dollar of it even though my back problems have precluded me from building my own layout. My Layout is at the club, and it is far bigger and far better than anything I could have concocted on my own.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I would also very much like to see a picture of the building.
.
About ten years ago I receive a call from my Father's widow. I seemed he had paid monthly rent on a storage locker in North Fort Myers for 20+ years. She was not going to pay for it anymore, and told me to get everything out of the inside because in a few days it would go into default.
Eveything in there was junk, except for one box, that had my Avalon Hill game collection and my Dungeons and Dragons books from when I was in High School. Somehow all that cardboard had escaped the mildew and moisture.
None of the trains I was hoping to find. All my comic books were ruined. I had no idea they were in there.
-Kevin
Living the dream.