Distant Cousins...

One of the enjoyable things about modeling railroading is the ability to share tasks and help modeler friends with tasks at hand.  Certain modeling efforts are essentially some form of production work:  adding metal wheelsets to cars, base-coat weathering, and checking coupler heights are good examples.  Each of these requires a bit of a production-line approach which allows for quite a bit of productivity.   

Another of these sorts of tasks is adding weight to cars to ensure they match the weight standards set by the National Model Railroading Association, or NMRA.  NMRA membership is optional but sticking to the standards they set helps eliminate variables, which in turn helps delivery of reliable operation.  

Friend and fellow author Jerry Dziedzic recently hosted an operating session where I was running a coal train when a hopper derailed.  It turns out the car was very light, and so I busted Jerry's chops about weight standards.  Jerry smiled and then at the end of the session handed me cardboard box with the entire train lined up on the bottom - and said 'you're such an expert, YOU go ahead a weight them correctly, then!' with a grin.  

I smiled sheepishly and took the invitation.  Jerry gave me some lead shot he uses for weights and I worked to get the entire 20-car train up to standard.  NMRA wants a minimum of 1oz per car, plus 1/2 oz for each inch of length per car.  That means that these little 34' hoppers should come to about 3oz.  I added shot below the car where feasible, filling cavities as I could and securing with canopy glue.  When that didn't get me to the standard, I added some in the bottom off the bays, which once glued in was also painted black.  We can see on the scale above that this one is now ready.

A side note is how nice Jerry's collection is: all these resin cars, built and painted by Jerry.  The variety of cars on his 1947 railroad is amazing.  There were so many different manufacturers that even the unit trains had a large variety of differences car to car.  

Beyond the project, though, the juxtaposition of the 1930's-era hoppers with the 1990's-era doublestacks is striking.  Sure, they are all trains, but that is quite a difference!  Still, while 60 years apart, the equipment can all benefit from the basics:  metal wheels, proper weight, and standard coupler heights. No matter your era, those constants are true.  Distant cousins they may be, but now, they will all run well!

A moment of pause

We simply must make time to pause.  Those of us in our middle-ages are tied to more things than we have time to consider each day, and those paths of thought don't get fully processed.  Instead, there is a slow and steady gradual buildup of unprocessed experiences, emotional directions and decisions.  The weight of that accrual can lead to a sort of 'numbness' to the other parts of life for which we once had more time.  

"More time."  Mentors have long suggested it is the most valuable commodity.  Well, time is sliding by at a rate that remains hard to imagine.   But undeniably it is the end of summer in 2026.  Compressed by the extra work effort that went into the World Cup this summer and the growing expectations for the regular day job, the summer of 2026 was overwhelming in some ways.  

And so, between alternating vacations and alternating time off, Jack suggested we spend some time hanging out.  Not on the OC, not with specific photography goals, but just hanging out along the railroad tracks - like we have done hundreds of times before.  Showers broke right ahead of our departure, so we grabbed a few beers and waited out the rain.  And then we headed out to our old favorite - the Lehigh Line, today's Norfolk Southern mainline to and from the New York metropolitan area.  In our youth it was the Conrail Lehigh Line and a frequent destination for our trips to watch trains.

The sun set as trains rolled past.  We did well on this Monday evening: 4 trains passed in about 2 hours, including the 23G, a high-priority intermodal train from Croxton NJ to Chicago IL, where it is handed to BNSF for the rest of the trip to Los Angeles.  The trains avoided the sun, but skies caught a setting sun on mackerel clouds. This was worth a photo at least. We talked of our careers, families, children's activities.  After 23G we had 28X, an intermodal headed east to Croxton, followed by 18N with loaded autoracks for Newark's distribution centers and finally H76, the NS local freight that handles switching along the handful of loose-car industries along the route.  Reflections followed on successes, and opportunities that went another way.  Should we take a promotion?  Should we plan to retire to work elsewhere in a few years?  Which way do we plan?  

When Jack had suggested this little outing, it was almost surreal: it has been a year or two since we did anything similar.  Life filled up calendars with all sorts of things required, some desired, and many obligations.  An evening at the tracks was a weekly thing for us in different times, something common, and yet even this remote suggestion in my heart had a shadow of 'too much.'  The boys would have enjoyed, but I knew this one needed to be Jack and I.  My family was home after a weekend when we all were in Central New York for a wonderful reunion, but still - leaving them for an outing still carries shadows for me.  There is a magic to the next few years, our three kids fully functional and healthy but still young and enthusiastic about life.  Susie's loving her first marching band experiences, the boys are growing into young men.  In time they will blossom and take flight on their own, which will also be wonderful.  And yet I know these days now remain special.  Dinners with 5 of us around our table.  Songs new to them, suppers they are now learning to make.  Forward looking thoughts.  Innocence continued, for now.  

And these are the sorts of things we can reflect on when we take a moment to pause like the old days.  Trackside, one-on-one conversations, focused thoughts free to wander where the banter takes us.  A small step, yes, but a reminder of what is good in life.  It is going to be a wild ride for the next 7 years with all three kids, too much to stay up with.  

Somewhere in all that bustle, as months pass, I am hoping to still make time for a moment of pause.