Train pr0n, ctd...
Mar. 23rd, 2003 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanpaku_backupI don't want to give things the evil eye by writing them down, but the baby has entered what can only be considered a fabulously serene and happy and playful period over the last few days. Staying awake much longer, grasping and playing with (!) things put in front of her, babbling and gurgling a lot, smiling like crazy. She woke up at 2:30 last night and refused to go back to sleep, so I sat up with her from 3 to 4:30 (we had Indian food the night before and so I wasn't able to sleep anyway) -- all she wanted to do was smile and have her eyes open very wide and gurgle a lot. If this phase could only last for a while...
Anyway, serendipitously, we caught wind of a model train show at the RI Convention Center in downtown Providence and went there today. The baby was in one of her best moods ever and looked eagerly at all the trains whizzing around.
Of course, I knew going in that there was no way to get out of the place without spending a lot of money. What I was really jonesing for is a model of a big railway station. The Marklin Z-scale catalog had a beautiful model of a Berlin railway station and I thought that would make a fun project. Fortunately no one had that one for sale at the show... We were just a couple of exhibitors away from the door, when I caught sight of this:
An N-scale model of the Worcester Union Station, which I have actually been in. (It's a little creepy. Recently renovated to pristine beauty, but Worcester is a pretty decrepit place and there were no trains the day we came in -- your voice would echo through the enormous hall.) Anyway, my heart sank when I saw that it was $325. Rather a lot to throw away on a whim.
But then I saw a much smaller station kit, for an N-scale "Union City Station," that has a lot of the ornate decorations and windows and a pretty elegant design:
They didn't have the kit there, but the guy will send it to me, and it's only $70, which is a lot more sane. I also picked up a pretty, tapered-end corregated lounge car from the Penn Central for only six bucks. The thing was apparently made in 1969, during the brief two-year period that the Penn Central actually existed. (The PC, forerunner to Amtrak and the largest transportation company in the world when it was founded, is famous in train lore for its incredible mismanagement and bankruptcy.) I got it as much for novelty value as anything else.
Okay, so it has been a while since I threw $70 out on something stupid for myself, but the Mrs. talked me into it by pointing out how many movies we will be missing in the next couple of years. Plus if I build a train line the baby will follow the train around with her head (she already does this when you push something in front of her). See how easy it is to rationalize?
Anyway, serendipitously, we caught wind of a model train show at the RI Convention Center in downtown Providence and went there today. The baby was in one of her best moods ever and looked eagerly at all the trains whizzing around.
Of course, I knew going in that there was no way to get out of the place without spending a lot of money. What I was really jonesing for is a model of a big railway station. The Marklin Z-scale catalog had a beautiful model of a Berlin railway station and I thought that would make a fun project. Fortunately no one had that one for sale at the show... We were just a couple of exhibitors away from the door, when I caught sight of this:
An N-scale model of the Worcester Union Station, which I have actually been in. (It's a little creepy. Recently renovated to pristine beauty, but Worcester is a pretty decrepit place and there were no trains the day we came in -- your voice would echo through the enormous hall.) Anyway, my heart sank when I saw that it was $325. Rather a lot to throw away on a whim.
But then I saw a much smaller station kit, for an N-scale "Union City Station," that has a lot of the ornate decorations and windows and a pretty elegant design:
They didn't have the kit there, but the guy will send it to me, and it's only $70, which is a lot more sane. I also picked up a pretty, tapered-end corregated lounge car from the Penn Central for only six bucks. The thing was apparently made in 1969, during the brief two-year period that the Penn Central actually existed. (The PC, forerunner to Amtrak and the largest transportation company in the world when it was founded, is famous in train lore for its incredible mismanagement and bankruptcy.) I got it as much for novelty value as anything else.
Okay, so it has been a while since I threw $70 out on something stupid for myself, but the Mrs. talked me into it by pointing out how many movies we will be missing in the next couple of years. Plus if I build a train line the baby will follow the train around with her head (she already does this when you push something in front of her). See how easy it is to rationalize?
