A Few Words About Wordless Wednesday #263

You may have noticed a lull in activity hereabouts. Yup, it's that time of year again at work. It's super busy, but at least it's predictable. Part of it's charm. #sarcasm

But stay tuned - there are some additions to share. If you're a member of the Valley Local Facebook Group (which you should definitely join if you can), you've already gotten a little preview...

ANYhoo..... Turns out I got a helping hand on today's content, in the form of a guest post from . . . well, read on . . .

* * * * *

I was somewhat surprised by Chris’s Wordless Wednesday photo. I sent
him a comment asking if I was disqualified from the “contest” of
naming the location in the image.

The reason? It was a photo I had taken, back in 1978 if I recall
correctly. I was at first unable to think how Chris had ended up with
the image, but then remembered that I’d had him scan the slide for a
presentation I did a year or two ago about the yard in Willimantic (a
video of that presentation is on line here). Chris responded that all
scanned images go into a folder on the Photo Library PC and are
randomly selected for his screen saver. He had probably seen the image
pop up and, having forgotten it’s origin, had taken a screen capture and
posted it to find out if anyone knew the area depicted.

Long winded way to get to the point: the image shows the Willimantic,
Connecticut yard from the foot bridge looking East. The two story
building to the left is the former New Haven RR Bridge and Building
department engineering office, now demolished. To the right side of
the image is a Central Vermont section house built to the hip roof
Grand Trunk design, also now long gone. The track closest to the B&B
office is the former New Haven line to Boston via Putnam, CT - at the time
of the photo owned but no longer used by Providence and Worcester. The
right hand bridge and tracks are still Central Vermont when the picture was
taken on a gloomy November afternoon. Today the tracks in town are all
owned by Genesee and Wyoming subsidiaries P&W and New England Central.

Pieter Roos

Friday Fun - Railroad Wives and SOs: What Goes On?!

(We interrupt our regularly-scheduled blog with our Second Guest Post, penned by my SO, aka "the Missus." I should probably feature her more often - her first post is the 4th Most Popular Post EVER on this blog - Enjoy!)

We were getting ready to leave for work last Tuesday morning when I stepped into the front garden to stake up a branch on my rose bush that had fallen on the grass. As I did so, a neighbor I’ve never met before was taking her morning walk, turned down the driveway, and cautiously approached me.

“Um, do you mind a totally random question?” she asked.

Thinking she was going to ask how I had such fabulous roses growing in late October, I mentally prepared myself to explain about landscape roses, proper pruning, etc.

“What happens here on Thursday nights? All the cars…I mean, is it some kind of multi-level marketing meeting?”

*****

We live in a small seaside town, where, for the most part, neighbors keep to themselves unless there’s a hurricane warning. Everyone is polite, willing to help if needed, and they don’t ask questions. Which is why, over time, they have apparently been eaten alive with curiosity about the Mister’s Thursday night New Haven Railroad photo library meeting (and occasional op sessions).

"I'll raise you one.... locomotive photo, and take a station..."

Our first clue was two Christmases ago, when I decided that we should make more of an effort to know our neighbors. I baked cookies and the Mister and I stopped over to the house next door to deliver them and wish the family a Merry Christmas. The Mister had assisted with generator duty for him and his wife during Hurricane Sandy, but I had never met them.

The neighbor was surprised but welcomed us in, and at one point in the conversation, the Mister mentioned something about the Thursday night crew. You could see recognition dawn like the proverbial sun.

“Oh! So that’s what all those cars are there for every week. The neighbors and I had wondered about that!”

The Mister was then equally surprised to discover that our neighbor was the last tower operator for the New Haven RR in town, and was able to borrow his old interlocking diagram to make a copy for his control board. (Apologies in advance to all the wives and SOs whose misters are now going to ask for dozens of cookies to meet all their neighbors).

And the neighbor on the other side, whom we know pretty well, told us that the woman who lives across the street complained to him about the cars parked all over the road. She couldn’t understand what we would possibly be doing to have all that company every week. And whatever it was, could he please tell us to make sure they didn’t park on her side of the street? Maybe she felt left out for not having been included.

But this morning’s encounter was the most interesting yet. Marketing meeting?! I told her it was a historical society thing, since we were in a hurry and it would take too long to explain about the trains and the photographic cataloging. She thanked me and we went our separate ways.

When I got back into the car, and told the Mister what happened, we had a good laugh. And then we speculated what those neighbors who weren’t asking must think actually happens. 

Our favorites:

1.       a basement gambling casino

2.       "historical society," cataloging 1940s pinup art

3.       a secret cult

And non-railroad people think it’s a dull hobby. Obviously they’ve never been to our house on a Thursday night!

Weekend Words for RR Wives

(We interrupt our regularly-scheduled blog with our Very First Guest Post, penned by my SO, aka "the Missus." If you, too, are lucky enough to have such a person in your life, show them this post. They may find some of what follows awfully wonderfully familiar. Enjoy!)

When the Mister and I have new guests to our home and they see all the trains, a question I am often asked is some version of “Do You Mind--?” What they are really asking is, “Do you mind that your entire basement has been taken over by model trains?” “Do you mind that your upstairs bonus room is taken over by model trains (and railroad photographs)?” “Do you mind that your entire house is taken over every Thursday evening - and a few other weekend days a year - by (mostly) men who love model trains and prototype trains?” This is accompanied by either raised eyebrows or a wincing expression akin to that of biting into a juicy lemon.

            The answer is, in a word, no.

I knew from the time the Mister and I began dating that the Mister loved trains. The fact that on our third date he told me over dinner that we were close to the train yard where he worked as a high school student, and asked excitedly if I wanted to see the boxcar, um, "Pullman Troop Sleeper," that he lived in, gave me my first clue that I was not dealing with a sports-obsessed, video game-loving sort of man. The fact that I – still not knowing him very well and agreeing to go to said train yard in complete darkness in a rural area with one state trooper before the days of cell phones without having had one sip of wine – was excited to share this meaningful piece of his past with him gives you another clue: that his passion for trains was so sincere that I, who am normally so paranoid careful, didn’t stop to think about the craziness of this expedition until after the fact. (I didn’t tell my parents this little story until years later.)

I guess my enthusiasm for abandoned rail yards passed muster, because three years later the Mister proposed to me on the Cape Cod dinner train. It was a total surprise – I wasn’t suspicious in the least when he asked me to walk back with him to check out the empty, antique dining car. On our honeymoon, we took a train trip down to Savannah and Charleston. Although Amtrak doesn’t exactly evoke the luxury of train travel in Cary Grant’s North by Northwest, we enjoyed watching the landscape pass by in a way a plane just doesn’t permit. So when we returned home to our apartment, and he asked if I minded a small, 4’ x 6’ layout at the top of the stair landing, why would I say no?

Benchwork I

And why would I say no when, upon moving into our first house, he wanted to finish the unfinished basement for a train room? I had no plans for it, and as his collection of books and models grew, it was easier to keep them there, all in one place, than divided among the upstairs rooms. I gladly accompanied him on road trips to photograph factories for the proposed Naugatuck Line, and then the Berkshire Line--which is quite lovely in autumn--when he was researching his first few layout concepts.

Benchwork II

But, alas, after many, many versions of track plans and Building Benchwork II, we had decided once again that we needed to move. Our former city was too congested, and our neighbor’s new addition seemed to disturb the water table which was causing flooding every time we had a heavy rain. While the Mister worked his late hours in spring, I traveled with our real estate agent to our new dream town, forty miles away, and fell in love with our current house: fireplace, attached two-car garage, big yard, no major renovations needed. I knew that the first thing the Mister would counter-argue was, “it’s too big.” Compared to our tiny 1927 house, this house had so many extra (to us) spaces that upon seeing the bonus room for the first time, I thought to myself, I don’t even know what we would do with all this space! And then I got a Wonderful, Brilliant Idea. The bonus room could be The Train Room. No need to put the books and the models and the photo library in the basement! Two floors up and it could rain all it wanted! While it still took a tiny bit of convincing, papers were signed and boxes were packed and a really heavy train layout full of Vermont stones (literally) were loaded into the U-Hauls (thanks Tom!) and off we went. The Mister now LOVES his aerie/clubhouse, and sometimes even I and the cats are allowed in.

As a train wife, I am thrilled that the Mister has a hobby that engages his mind and fine motor skills, gives him a break from his work, and has allowed him to meet and become friends with so many kind, funny, and generous people. They are like family (we see them more often than our actual families!) and in a world where, despite social media, rates of loneliness are soaring, we feel so blessed to know each of them. What woman wouldn’t want that for her Mister?

So, what if your Significant Other has recently shown an interest in trains, or you have met a new man who offers to take you to a deserted rail yard on your third date? What if, before you can pronounce "ferroequinologist" much less spell it, the model railroad magazines begin to take over your coffee table? What if you have no clue who Tom Brady is, but are starting to really get Lionel Strang’s inside jokes? And what if you know you’re at the point of no return when you are grocery shopping and an engine for Shoreline East goes by behind the store, and you think, that’s a GP-40 (true story)! How do you adjust to this new lifestyle?

Here are a few tips that may help:

1.       Set Boundaries: Give your SO a dedicated spot for his new hobby. The Mister has the basement and train room to do what he likes. That means no train stuff in the other, shared rooms of the house. It also means I have no input when he 1) rehangs doors or removes them entirely 2) punches through the walls to connect the track through the rooms or 3) blocks the fuse box with a liftout. (The pink foam board blocking the basement window is still a point of contention.)

2.       Be Prepared: You never know when, on a visit to a relative’s house or a weekend road trip, you will stumble across abandoned track, bridge abutments, dilapidated factories or mills, or cabooses in the woods that Must.Be.Documented.For.Historical.Record. Bring a book, a podcast, your knitting, or a crossword puzzle, because this could take a while. If it’s time for an Op session, plan a Girls’ Night Out with your friends. Reunion Weekend? Time to do a big house project you can’t get to, or visit family and friends out of state.

3.       Per #2, make him drive his own vehicle.

4.       Hide Your Good Tupperware and Kitchen Gadgets. Apparently they are good for mixing Ground Goop and other non-edibles.

5.       But also designate limits on storage of recycled containers:

Above all else, I will leave you with advice from my grandmother, who, when asked, never minded my grandfather’s bowling nights: “It keeps them out of the bars!” Indeed.

(When she's not guest blogging here, the Missus maintains her own website at http://www.shorelinewriting.com Now excuse me while I go hide dispose of some recyclables)