I've Gone Down a Rabbit Hole

 

Family vacation to Rockport, MA this fall

I have gone down a rabbit hole while construction of the 4th Subdivision remains on hiatus. Why it is on hiatus is a different topic. So, what is this rabbit hole of which I speak? Mainly it all revolves around my new fascination with HOn30. Over the past year, I started watching Thunder Mesa Studio, a YouTube channel; family vacations over the last decade have been to mid-coast Maine and coastal Massachusetts; and a recent Susquehanna Division membership meeting sucked me further down the rabbit hole.

Richard's modules

One member, Richard Clouser, brought some N-scale mini dioramas to the "member's showcase" portion of the November Susquehanna Division membership meeting. Some were official Mini-Dioramas, while others were built on scrap foam that still interlocked with the Kato Unitrack used in the mini dioramas. The link above will take you to a guidebook that explains the concept of using the mini dioramas to actively engage children in model railroading. I ordered some Kato 124mm straights and 183mm curves in narrow gauge, N gauge rail width but larger ties (52-120 and 52-220), thinking that I could play around with the format. I also discovered a Facebook Group -- N Scale Pocket Sized Modules. The key to all of these formats is to use 25mm thick (1 inch) insulation foam with a 1mm overhang of the Unitrack, so they all can interconnect. At our meeting's raffle, I won a pile of older Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazettes further enabling my descent.

Again, I have followed Dave Meek's Thunder Mesa Studio on YouTube for a while now. His focus is on mini-layouts, many set in the southwest, often narrow gauge and based on the imagineering of early Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm railroads. His more recent project is a more realistic HOn3 railroad. While his style is not really my cup of tea, his videos are entertaining, informative, and his modeling is top notch. He has created some On18 locos based on the Kato 11-109 mechanism that are kind of cool and affordable. One of the issues that I am discovering with HOn30 is that not much is made in that scale, at least in ready to run format. Another interesting aspect of his work is his art studio or gallery approach. When our electrician and I finally get together on finishing the work in the basement/train room, I am wondering about having several smaller railroads rather than growing my 4th Subdivision into phase four or five of TOMA development. I am definitely planning on revitalizing the Ingleton plank. We'll see what develops. . .

No. 9 at Alna on the W, W. & FR

In researching HOn30, again not a very popular scale, I came across a four-part article in an early seventies RMC: Thatcher's Inlet written by Bob Hayden and posted online. He developed the plans for this build after visiting the sea coasts of Maine and Massachusetts. Having visited similar spots on family vacations I found this article fascinating. HOn30 doesn't exactly match Maine two-foot narrow gauge, but it is close enough to interest me. When we visited the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway a few years ago, I picked up a book and took a lot of photos. A fair amount of information is available online as well. Fooling around with some simple narrow gauge mini-modules and/or sketching some ideas for a New England/Maine HOn30 harbor scene may scratch my itch enough that I can climb out of this rabbit hole.

Or, am I just digging myself deeper?