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How Hurricane Destroyed Model Railroad
Blog reader Ken counts the day Hurricane Ivan destroyed his much of his model railroad.
A Bit of background – Back in September 2004 Hurricane Ivan caused widespread devastation in the United States and Caribbean. Ivan reached Category 5 strength in the Gulf of Mexico, becoming the tenth biggest Atlantic hurricane on record (Ivan was the size of Texas). Accompanying the weather system were 120 tornadoes. After reaching full strength, Ivan moved north-northwest striking Florida as an intense Category 3 storm. The hurricane caused an around US$18 billion (in 2004 money) of damage in the United States.
Let’s hear from Ken –
Here are some pictures of my layout taken the day before Ivan struck. An 80′ pine tree fell diagonally across the roof, crushing one wall and displacing the entire wall off the foundation. The building was deemed unrepairable. I’d at least taken all the rolling stock and locomotives off and put them in storage, so they were saved. I’ve salvaged some of the track and turnouts, but most were too damaged to use again.
Ken goes on to say –
Not saying I can’t learn something new, but I’ve been model railroading for 45 of my 64 years. I enjoyed your Tips book, and like getting the emails/links. I’m a member of two model railroad clubs, one for 21 years. I was a member of a third that gradually disbanded as the members died off. I’m not expecting to kick off any time soon, but who knows? My closest model railroading friends are even older than I am. One started his first model railroad layout when he was the age I am now, and he’s nearly 78 now.
We need young people in our hobby! We need a way to make the leap from “Thomas the Tank Engine” to actual scale model railroading. And we need females in the hobby!
How many ladies of any age do you know that are active, dedicated model railroaders? It’s 99.9% a male hobby, and it shouldn’t be. My daughter loved creating HO scale trees and shrubs, and helping me landscape the layout.
I lost that layout (and the entire 20 x 16 building) to hurricane Ivan in 2004. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ivan ) We were on the east side of the storm when it made landfall along the Mississippi/Alabama Gulf Coast.
Since then I’ve been helping my friends work on their layouts. One is a 12 x 16 N scale two-level layout, and the other (belonging to the 78 YO) is a 30 x 35 two-level HO scale masterpiece. Learning DCC technology has been a real experience after 40 years of DC block control layouts.
2 Responses to How Hurricane Destroyed Model Railroad
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My son loves trains and every thing about them ever since thomas the tank enigine when he was younger he is now twelve in july and has started a collection of hornby we are working on his own layout
Ken
I feel for you.
I have had a hurricane or two of sorts myself. I worked a career involving multiple moves and that meant ripping out the layout each time. It’s a heart wrenching prospect.
I am now retired and my wife and I have settled down close to Adelaide (South Australia) where the chances of moving again are slight and the climate and weather benign so hopefully no more “hurricanes”