You Wouldn't Believe It!

 Week 50 (Dec. 10-16): “You Wouldn’t Believe It” for 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks

This story is one told by a friend, who we'll call Sam. Sam is retired from an architectural career, and I recently asked what kind of hobby he might have. He also spends quite a lot of time helping his wife who has a disability, so he cooks most of the meals and takes care of the house. But Sam has a good handle on his masculinity.

Over dinner he said he had found some enjoyment in forming some miniature paper buildings. He began by constructing some Main Street buildings and two houses from Cut & Assemble books.  They are completely printed in color, but need to be cut exactly (cue the X-acto blade) and folded precisely.  Those books were very popular in the 1980s and are no longer being published – but given the large numbers originally printed, they can still be found on Amazon and Ebay – here’s a sample link: Cut & Assemble Main Street by A.G. Smith.  The Main Street buildings are based on downtown Rocky Mount, NC – Mr. Smith's hometown – as they appeared in his 1930s childhood. 

The other buildings in Sam’s setup (train stations, roundhouse, Cortland Desk Company, etc.) he drew up himself with AutoCAD (architectural drafting software) and printed on cardstock, using the cut & assemble methods he learned from the books.  Above is a photo of a building that is a replica of one from the town where he grew up, Cortland NY.

 

He even had a reproduction of a catalog for the Cortland Desk Company at Archive.org Cortland Desk Catalog.  They manufactured a variety of wall-hung desks, resembling Victorian curio cabinets, which would open down to provide a writing surface and pigeon holes for paper, pencils envelopes and all kinds of things! 

Did I mention he said he had an aerial map of that town, drawn in 1892 of how it appeared at that time, based on exact flat maps, but showing the three dimensions of the town. This is the center portion of the map.

And here's a close-up showing the building of the Desk Factory...but don't miss the railroad roundhouse also (both toward the bottom.)

Sam didn't stop with building models of historic buildings, some of which weren't from Courtland. He also got into model trains. So this is what his hobby has resulted in so far...(sorry, the Panorama makes the front of the straight table look curved)

His rail yard, roundhouse, and the rotating bridge for turning locomotives (called a “turntable”) are all based on the map on the wall. The HO gauge trains work, and he showed me how one steam engine would go onto the turntable.  In the 1890s, before electric or hydraulic motors were added to the system, the turntable was rotated by the “Armstrong” method.  Two men man on each end of the bridge would simply push on projecting wooden handles!

See the little tilted post at each end of the turntable track? That's where they'd push it around!

Sam even went a bit further than just building model buildings...he built an HO gauge Snow Plow.  These snowplows were essentially heavily constructed boxcars pushed by a locomotive.   The Strasburg Railroad, in Strasburg Pennsylvania, has several operating steam engines a working Russell snow plow.  Here is a YouTube video of their 1890s snowplow in action: 

As is the case in many railroad towns, the actual depot has been abandoned. But Sam's looks ready for freight and passengers.

Thanks for sharing your hobby, with its truly amazing craftsmanship. A lot of little boys (and girls) and the "inner child" of a lot of us adults would love seeing this! Congratulations, 'Sam!'

Today's quote:

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

MARCEL PROUST This is the third night of hanukkah

Trains and Black Mountain NC

Hi for Saturday again.

Today's weather report (what's actually happened in the last 24 hours) - very chilly wind...though the sun did put in an appearance. Then back below freezeing overnight.

Sepia Saturday this week suggests something to do with trains!

Georgia O'Keeffe has the same thought that I do...have I any trains hidden in all my stashes of sepia toned photos? Any trains at all?

Here's an interesting Sepia Saturday that I shared last August, loading hospitalized patients on a train.

So here's a post from a few years ago, when I worked as a docent at our History Museum.

Black Mountain was a train town...which brought many visitors here in the past. No more though. The Interstate highway is the best way to get here now.

Unfortunately some young visitors moved things around yesterday while i was downstairs talking to others...so the train got all it's cars taken off the tracks. It's probably fixable by someone with a steady hand and eye.

It is lots of fun when it's treated well...has bells, whistles and some phrases too.

All Aboard!!

As I've been feeling less than par. I decided to repost from some older posts. I like having flowers to look at in January...so that's the topic I'll be using for myself. 

Today's quote:

Sometimes we purposefully, though unconsciously, cut ourselves off from the flow and the embrace of humanity so we can avoid dealing with painful issues.

A short race

On your mark...

 The train tracks are parallel to this road (Sutton) until the road makes a sharp turn about 100 yards ahead of this SUV.

So the train continued straight on its way, while the car went to the right to the stoplight on the hill that has been called "where your car rolls back at the light." Those are people who haven't got a good handle on a clutch, though most of them don't even have a clutch, as almost everyone drives automatics these days.

Anyway, that's the depot over in the shade on the far left.  The train (as usual) is coming with 2 engines in front, and one behind. It has already gone over the pass through the mountains to the east from Old Fort, and is heading downhill to Asheville.  I've heard there are 13 tunnels on the track through the pass...many switchbacks, which is probabaly why they have the engine in the rear.

Who one the race? The plane up above, of course!

Trains cause traffic jams sometimes

 What's up? The funny looking police cars conversational pose...but one car has the window closed, so I'd say he didn't really want to talk to the other one!  There is storage of various campers in the lot behind them, then the railroad tracks.

I was about 10th in a line of cars waiting for this westbound freight train with empty cars to slowly go by (I sat for about 10 minutes).

There was another train on a siding (behind the police cars you can see it) waiting for the brown coal cars to go by...and did the crossing arms go up after the first train had passed? I didn't wait to see beyond about 3 minutes, but turned around (after the police had left the empty parking lot) and drove all the way back to Black Mountain and crossed the tracks there.  The eastbound train hadn't made it yet coming into town.  But as I finally got back to the crossing (just blocks from home) I saw that cars were going through it.  Yay, the crossing arms finally had come up.  But before I parked in the apartment parking lot, I heard the eastbound train's whistle as it headed out...again making traffic wait for it to pass.

Clouds rolling in

Look past the foreground to the tops of those mountains...

Where there should be mountains is a wall of clouds pouring down into our valley

In the 10 seconds to take these pictures, at the red light, you can see how these clouds descended.  Didn't bring any change in the weather, but it was really neat to see temperature at work!

The train tracks go up to Ridgecrest, then over the pass to Old Fort to the east, with (I've heard) 11 tunnels many switchbacks between Old Fort and Black Mountain.