Moving! (This is not a sad story.)

Into the life of every layout there comes a time to move, or be chopped up. This time has come to my Southern S-Line, which wasn't even very far along yet.

 

Here are the pieces of the layout I had in the train shed, carefully removed by the truck driver and ready to load. Fortunately, I have a new job, a new house, and a new knee (well not new, just repaired). I did learn a lot building this part of the layout. I doubt any of these pieces will be used again, but the Southern's S-Line is not dead. It is coming back better than it would have been before.



I'm now in South Carolina a bit south of Charlotte. This part of the state has hills, which means there are houses with walk-out, or in my case, drive-out basements on the side of those hills. That's what I have now. It also has a nice little three bedroom rain cover to keep the trains dry.

That's me in my new basement. The part where the camera is will stay a garage, with my heavy workbench in the foreground. There will eventually be space for the truck to park on the other side of the lumber rack and post. I'm going to build a wall about where I'm standing, and the trains will be be on the other side of the wall. The left hand door is at the bottom of the stairs. It goes into the downstairs bedroom. The right hand door is the laundry room.

Here's part of the bedroom. The far door is a bathroom, which goes through to the laundry. The nearer door is a closet.

This is the laundry room. The bathroom door is open on the left.

Yes, the washer and dryer are staying here. There isn't room for a laundry room upstairs. All of the walls, except for the ones on either side of the stairs, will be removed. The water heater is under the stairs. This will require professional assistance, since some of these walls are holding the house up! I'm planning on having a dispatcher's office and half bath next to the stairs, about where the closet is now. The ceilings are nice and high, so I will be mushrooming.

I hope to extend the modeled section of the railroad west, hopefully as far as Morganton, so I can include the entire run of the locals, trains 61 and 62. I would also like to include a bit of the branches to Lenoir and Lincolnton, and maybe a little of the Winston-Salem line. Stay tuned for more.