TedtheBuilder
New Member
Hi Members! New Guy here. I thought I'd join since I'm a long way into a fun model railroading project and realized I have nobody to share it with who is interested; and I'm digging the process and the results I've been able to achieve as a first-timer. Maybe someone here will like it too.
I was inspired by a chain of events that began with a random YouTube video about a really cool Inglenook Switching Puzzle made by a German Youtuber. I thought it was an interesting model-making project.
A couple of months later, while visiting a friend, I saw this amazing old train station and twin bridges nearby crossing the Colorado River - the Fort Yuma Southern Pacific Railroad Station built in 1877. I was blown away by the history of this dilapidated station - featured in the movie 7:10 to Yuma - and by some of the photos I found online showing the station in the 1940s as a California Agricultural Inspection Station. I learned that that bridge crossing was part of I80, the first US transcontinental highway project; and at the time, the next closest road crossing of the Colorado River was over 1,000 miles to the north! Besides being intrigued by the history and Old-West vibe of the site, I realized it set up perfectly as an Inglenook Switching Puzzle.
So that's how I got into Model Railroading at age 62. Over two years later, the project is almost complete, and I hope to be able to present it in full glory before the New Year. [Along the way, I also bought some Kato track and a Shinkansen, which is fun to setup and run, but it takes up a lot of space, so I can only set it up when Wifey is out of town for a few days.] I'm not sure if Model Railroading is for me, but I definitely love the process of building the terrain and layout, and I've learned a lot of new techniques along the way.
I was inspired by a chain of events that began with a random YouTube video about a really cool Inglenook Switching Puzzle made by a German Youtuber. I thought it was an interesting model-making project.
A couple of months later, while visiting a friend, I saw this amazing old train station and twin bridges nearby crossing the Colorado River - the Fort Yuma Southern Pacific Railroad Station built in 1877. I was blown away by the history of this dilapidated station - featured in the movie 7:10 to Yuma - and by some of the photos I found online showing the station in the 1940s as a California Agricultural Inspection Station. I learned that that bridge crossing was part of I80, the first US transcontinental highway project; and at the time, the next closest road crossing of the Colorado River was over 1,000 miles to the north! Besides being intrigued by the history and Old-West vibe of the site, I realized it set up perfectly as an Inglenook Switching Puzzle.
So that's how I got into Model Railroading at age 62. Over two years later, the project is almost complete, and I hope to be able to present it in full glory before the New Year. [Along the way, I also bought some Kato track and a Shinkansen, which is fun to setup and run, but it takes up a lot of space, so I can only set it up when Wifey is out of town for a few days.] I'm not sure if Model Railroading is for me, but I definitely love the process of building the terrain and layout, and I've learned a lot of new techniques along the way.
