otiscnj
Well-Known Member
New Update: Midway thru 2019
Since my last update, a number of things have resulted in little progress since my last post, mostly due to family. My now 93 year old Mother In Law, has been living with us, more or less full time, ever since Hurricane Sandy hit NJ way back in 2012. At that time, her house has been sitting more or less vacant. things really got beyond her in 2005, when her husband passed away, but she continued to buy a lot of things she didn't need, and the piles of stuff kept getting bigger and bigger.
About the same time, my wife got sick in 2016 and all the tests she had leading up to surgery for SCAD/UC/Krohns, etc, I started on a low level effort at first, to start to address my MIL's house, in terms of finding the 'gems' amongst the junk, there, while my wife was out of it, due to her illness. Eventually, my wife got well enough to return to work, as I did after the worst was behind us, however at that point, or by that point, I had found a lot of nuggets amongst the trash, and brought them home, since these things were jewelry or antiques vintage pieces of clothing, furniture, etc, which might be of actual value to someone. Dealing with my MIL's house, was something that my wife finally embraced some time in the Spring of 2018, which,. as we both have regular 40 hour a week jobs, we could only work on the MIL's house 1-2 days each weekend, for 2-3 weekends at a time, prior to burnout.
At this point, the house is virtually completely cleaned out, however there are still things to address, like bathrooms and a kitchen which haven't been updated in any significant way, since the 1970's or perhaps late 80's. As a result, we've spent a lot of time, and money this Spring, bringing the house somewhat into the 21st century, so that if the MIL needs intensive medical care, at some point, she, or we, have some money should she/we need it, for her. If we hadn't done that, the place would have been a knock down.
Per my last post, in 2018, I reapportioned the space I have for a 'railroad/railroads,' in some ways, swapping the location of the HO layout, with the O gauge layout, and focusing more on the O layout, than the HO. Prior to the end of 2018, I had expected to acquire a DCS set up for the O trains, however that has yet come to pass.
Since the start of 2019, I have only been to 1 hobby shop, once, and no train shows/flea markets, either locally or within my region. Haven't done much purchasing on line either, as paying to 'fix up' the MIL's house, as meant that my wife and I have no spare cash, whatsoever.
At this point, portions of the old P&S, shown in pictures above, have since been moved and placed in different locations in the basement, however no attempt has been made to get the layout 'up and running' regarding track, wiring, or anything else. Most of little time I've had for anything hobby related, I've been focused on getting the O gauge plan up and running, which hasn't happened as of yet. I haven't even run any of the O gauge locomotives I have, around a loop of track on the floor in a spare bedroom we have, that's how little time I have for frivolity such as model railroading.
Hopefully this will change, after the MIL's house is listed and sold, however at that point, I expect to have to deal with my MIL's older sister (currently 95), who still lives in the house she retired to , at the Jersey shore, back in the late 80's or early 90's, regarding where she's going to move, next, as she's pretty much outlived her life's savings, and she and her sister only rarely get along.
So, its liable to be a while, before much progress is made on any model railroad before I retire, in the next 10 or so years, if I live that long. At that point, I expect that my wife and I will be moving from our present home, as NJ will not be somewhere we can afford to stay, with any decent standard of living, due to the high property taxes, let alone, car insurance, fees, utility bills, etc, etc, etc.
Going forward, I'm either going to go whole hog into O, or continue to 'walk the line' regarding which will be my main pursuit, with an eye towards liquidating what no longer fits my lifestyle.
The other option, if I continue to 'walk the line' between the two scales, is to scale back the section of the P&S I'm modeling, from mainly Reading to Scranton, to something like Reading to Tamaqua, or there abouts, or make it more generic in nature, with the flavor of the Schuylkill Valley to Scranton, PA area, fewer, more composite locations. In the mean time, while my hobby time is so constricted, maybe focus on things like painting locomotives and rolling stock, + perhaps a few well detailed buildings, which would add a real finished touch to the scenes, if I ever get that far, again.
Since my last update, a number of things have resulted in little progress since my last post, mostly due to family. My now 93 year old Mother In Law, has been living with us, more or less full time, ever since Hurricane Sandy hit NJ way back in 2012. At that time, her house has been sitting more or less vacant. things really got beyond her in 2005, when her husband passed away, but she continued to buy a lot of things she didn't need, and the piles of stuff kept getting bigger and bigger.
About the same time, my wife got sick in 2016 and all the tests she had leading up to surgery for SCAD/UC/Krohns, etc, I started on a low level effort at first, to start to address my MIL's house, in terms of finding the 'gems' amongst the junk, there, while my wife was out of it, due to her illness. Eventually, my wife got well enough to return to work, as I did after the worst was behind us, however at that point, or by that point, I had found a lot of nuggets amongst the trash, and brought them home, since these things were jewelry or antiques vintage pieces of clothing, furniture, etc, which might be of actual value to someone. Dealing with my MIL's house, was something that my wife finally embraced some time in the Spring of 2018, which,. as we both have regular 40 hour a week jobs, we could only work on the MIL's house 1-2 days each weekend, for 2-3 weekends at a time, prior to burnout.
At this point, the house is virtually completely cleaned out, however there are still things to address, like bathrooms and a kitchen which haven't been updated in any significant way, since the 1970's or perhaps late 80's. As a result, we've spent a lot of time, and money this Spring, bringing the house somewhat into the 21st century, so that if the MIL needs intensive medical care, at some point, she, or we, have some money should she/we need it, for her. If we hadn't done that, the place would have been a knock down.
Per my last post, in 2018, I reapportioned the space I have for a 'railroad/railroads,' in some ways, swapping the location of the HO layout, with the O gauge layout, and focusing more on the O layout, than the HO. Prior to the end of 2018, I had expected to acquire a DCS set up for the O trains, however that has yet come to pass.
Since the start of 2019, I have only been to 1 hobby shop, once, and no train shows/flea markets, either locally or within my region. Haven't done much purchasing on line either, as paying to 'fix up' the MIL's house, as meant that my wife and I have no spare cash, whatsoever.
At this point, portions of the old P&S, shown in pictures above, have since been moved and placed in different locations in the basement, however no attempt has been made to get the layout 'up and running' regarding track, wiring, or anything else. Most of little time I've had for anything hobby related, I've been focused on getting the O gauge plan up and running, which hasn't happened as of yet. I haven't even run any of the O gauge locomotives I have, around a loop of track on the floor in a spare bedroom we have, that's how little time I have for frivolity such as model railroading.
Hopefully this will change, after the MIL's house is listed and sold, however at that point, I expect to have to deal with my MIL's older sister (currently 95), who still lives in the house she retired to , at the Jersey shore, back in the late 80's or early 90's, regarding where she's going to move, next, as she's pretty much outlived her life's savings, and she and her sister only rarely get along.
So, its liable to be a while, before much progress is made on any model railroad before I retire, in the next 10 or so years, if I live that long. At that point, I expect that my wife and I will be moving from our present home, as NJ will not be somewhere we can afford to stay, with any decent standard of living, due to the high property taxes, let alone, car insurance, fees, utility bills, etc, etc, etc.
Going forward, I'm either going to go whole hog into O, or continue to 'walk the line' regarding which will be my main pursuit, with an eye towards liquidating what no longer fits my lifestyle.
The other option, if I continue to 'walk the line' between the two scales, is to scale back the section of the P&S I'm modeling, from mainly Reading to Scranton, to something like Reading to Tamaqua, or there abouts, or make it more generic in nature, with the flavor of the Schuylkill Valley to Scranton, PA area, fewer, more composite locations. In the mean time, while my hobby time is so constricted, maybe focus on things like painting locomotives and rolling stock, + perhaps a few well detailed buildings, which would add a real finished touch to the scenes, if I ever get that far, again.
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