a sentimental farewell to (model) trains (and all but one building)

[elisem]

A couple of decades ago, Mike and I were accumulating rolling stock and buildings for the N scale layout I was going to build with his help. The road was going to be the Chicago, Bordertown, and Western, and trains would travel from a fairly realistic Chicago up through a Wisconsin that was time-shifted into my childhood there, and then on to Bordertown, where the scenics would shift into Faerie proper, and onward.

The rolling stock is all on eBay now. I should start on the building kits, but I have to sit down and breathe for a bit.

It would have been an interesting layout, with a narrow straight run all the way down the length of the attic and then room to spread out at each of the far ends.

One building I won't be selling is the N scale newspaper office Mike built for the Herald Trumpet, a building where a lot of a particular story I was working on takes place. There are advertisements on the walls for Dean's Finest Vegetable Preserve ("Good for Ladies' Complaints. Healthy for the Digestion. Harangue Your Grocer.") and for Kushner & Sherman's Full Strength Fairy Dust, Accept No Substitutes. The other things can go on and make someone else happy, but that one stays with me. It makes me smile every time.

Comments

[dantesspirit]

May they bring others joy and lasting memories.

(I'd check it out, but we do H scale, unfortunately. Or Lego scale.)

[davidgillon]

The road was going to be the Chicago, Bordertown, and Western

Oh, what a great idea for a layout!

[china_shop]

and trains would travel from a fairly realistic Chicago up through a Wisconsin that was time-shifted into my childhood there, and then on to Bordertown, where the scenics would shift into Faerie proper, and onward.

That's such a cool idea! ♥

[azurelunatic]

That sounds like a great building to keep.

[pameladean]

Is -- is that my vegetable preserve? I had no idea!

I'm so sorry that this did not come to be, and glad you are keeping the newspaper office.

Life should throw fewer boulders at us, I tell you what.

P.

[elisem]

It ever so very much is your vegetable preserve! I thought he had shown you, but that probably falls under the terms of the JMF Compliment Exchange.

(For those who didn't know Mike, the JMF Compliment Exchange was an informal process whereby we acknowledged that fact that Mike rarely gave compliments flat out to the people whose work he was praising, but instead would rhapsodize (for Mike-like values of rhapsodizing) to someone else about it, and so periodically we would make sure to pass such compliments on to the actual person they were about.)

I shall get a photo of it and send it to you. "Harangue Your Grocer" cracks me up.

[brooksmoses]

I would also quite like to see a photo of the building, when you have a chance to make one.

[elisem]

Let's see if this side comes through:




Oh, good!

[elisem]

And the other side:



I posted image descriptions. I hope they come through. I might need to do something more to make that happen. Am learning.

[elisem]

And the glorious front view:

[brooksmoses]

That sounds like a lovely idea for a layout, indeed!

Do you have a pointer to the eBay listings? I have some model trains, and while most of them are HO, I have been accumulating a small N-scale train to run on the local club's N-scale layout, and would be delighted to have a few cars or engines with this history to them.

[brooksmoses]

Actually, because you are in some ways a predictable lioness, I have found the listings. :)

[elisem]

Oh, good! Also, I sent an email to you (which may have gone astray) asking if you'd like a particular HO boxcar (well, the shell that goes over the working stuff, anyhow) that Mike made which says "Another Load of Bits for Traveller, the Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society." Let me know if the notion tickles your fancy, and we can arrange it to come to you.

[brooksmoses]

Oh, yes, that would be a delight to have! Thank you!

(The server for my dpdx.net email address needs me to poke at it, and in the meantime the emails there are not entirely going astray but are difficult to get to. Sending email to my gmail address, which is the same name as my username here, works much better for now.)

[jenett]

I am making pleased faces over here.

(Elise asked me if I knew anyone who might be right to ask, and I immediately went "Brooks!" I am glad to be accurate in this matter.)

[brooksmoses]

And it is such a lovely thing to have friends who know one so well, as well. Thank you! The boxcar arrived a couple of days ago (along with some things from the eBay auctions), and I am very pleased to have it.

Interestingly, it turns out that it's not quite a partial boxcar -- it's a complete intermodal container except for a floor which most model ones don't have anyway. I was thinking about that in the shower just now, because it was puzzling me a bit; normally containers are just labeled for the shipping company. Why would someone use a container for this?

The thing is, while for many people the reason might just be "it was convenient and had space on the side for the logo", that doesn't seem in character for Mike. And a non-obvious reason seems entirely in character.

So, why would Mike use a container for this?

Well, I guess a big reason people normally don't put ads on containers is that they spend a lot of time on container ships where nobody can see them, so there's no point.

And the thought of "ships" reminded me: This is Traveller. The journal is a journal for interplanetary travelers. So the "bits" in this container are likely to come from someplace off-planet (or perhaps to be going to someplace off-planet), and of course they're in a container because nobody wants to repack cargo at the ports.

I still haven't figured out why the journal owns their own container and put a marketing slogan on it (and, based on the slogan, probably owns many containers), but at least now I know why it's not a boxcar.

So, indeed, I am quite pleased by the puzzle as well as the container itself.

[elisem]

Oh, that all makes a great puzzle! And yes, an intermodal container carrying Traveller bits makes so much more sense than a boxcar, in Mike-like ways of sense, if only we can figure them out.

Do you know about the ship he named after his dialysis nurse? Class of ship, really. It's the Blakeway class First Response Vessel. His dialysis nurse was Deb Blakeway (there's a photo of her on page 4 of the Nathan Hale D.A.R. chapter newsletter) and the two of them got on very well. So one day, when the newest Traveller book came in, Mike and I went down to the dialysis center (he only went down once in a while, because he did CAPD, continual ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, at home every day rather than doing hemo at a center several times a week) to show her the book. I remember her being thrilled, and then she and Mike went off to the photocopier and came back with a lovely photocopy of the schematics and info about her class of ship, which she proudly pinned to her cubicle wall. It was pretty much awesome all around.

[brooksmoses]

I didn't know about that ship, but that does sound utterly delightful all around!

[elisem]

Also it's entirely possible, knowing Mike, that the journal owns multiple containers from the same urge that led Lucius Beebe to arrange that the paperwork for the sale of his soon-to-be-former private railroad car be scheduled for signing a number of hours after he acquired that private car's successor, just so he could say truthfully that he had once owned two private railroad cars.

[brooksmoses]

Hah, that's an excellent story about Beebe, and yes, that does seem plausible.