Derailed…….

It has been said that all good things must come to an end. Platitudes aside, I have to report that the Chesapeake and Tenleytown Railroad is no more! Both the TT scale pike in the attic and the G scale garden railway have ceased to exist. I have worked on both layouts for many years with varying degrees of success, chronicling my trials and triumphs here on this blog. To me the most fascinating was my “conversion” from HO scale to N scale, only to end up tearing it all out to construct a totally new TT scale layout. Alas, again, it is no more.

Fear not. I have not lost my interest in everything railroad! Rather Brad and I have decided to leave Washington DC and move to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. We have spent over 40 years here in DC. First in the Adams Morgan area, then in Tenleytown. The transformation of the District during those 40+ years has been nothing but utterly amazing. However we both feel that it is now time to move on. The old house was built in 1939, a typical Mid-Atlantic brick colonial. Though it has served us well, it is rather small. Some of the ceilings are low, so we keep banging our heads. Because the house is over 80 years old, one can not just go to Home Depot to find replacement parts for many things that go wrong or break. Building standards were different back then. Doors, windows and the like all have to be custom configured and is all very tedious. Not to mention expensive! Noise has also become a major issue. Helicopters, airplanes, sirens, leaf blowers, constantly barking dogs, it all gets very tiring.

Our brick colonial. It has served us well. Bottom photo: The entrance portico with neon house numbers,                                                                 designed and made by an artist just up the street from us.

We had been looking for a new home for awhile. But nothing we had seen so far hit all the right buttons. But then Brad found this little gem on the Internet and we pounced on it:

The Dining Room. The cat does not convey!

Built in 2008 on roughly two acres. An airy and modern interior with lots of natural light. Located in Rehoboth Beach, in the US state of Delaware, the house is within walking distance of downtown. Oodles of room. A garage. A pool, and most importantly, lots of space for trains!

Rehoboth Beach started out as a Methodist Camp during the mid-1800’s. As the name suggests, it is located on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and just a bit over a two hour drive from Washington DC. Over time it became a resort town and a favorite place for retirees from the DC area. We have friends in Rehoboth, so we should have no problems getting into the social scene.

There is even a model train enthusiast club: the Delaware Seaside Model Railway Club. I intend to join as soon as possible!

Of course I had to dismantle both of my layouts here in DC. The attic layout was particularly hard to see go. I had just started to built a new layout in TT scale because of the attic space constraints. HO scale really did not work (too big) and my short flirtation with the small N scale just ended in disaster. (Read about that episode here). But dismantled it was. Space is not going to be an issue in the new house. Most likely I will go back to HO scale since I have a vast collection of rolling stock in that scale from many countries.

So the attic went from this:

to this:

I am not sure what I am going to do with the TT scale rolling stock. I really like this scale, it is near perfect. But supplies are hard to procure for this scale here in the US. Perhaps I will just put some of the equipment up as a static display.

The photo above: A TT scale Siemens Mobility diesel-electric locomotive made by PIKO. Part of the Siemens Mobility “Vectron” line. The new Amtrak “SC-44 “Chargers” are a derivative of this model, adapted for the US market. The electric version of the US “Vectron” adaptation is the Amtrak ACS-64 used on the North East Corridor.

Of course the G scale pike had to go also:

The way it used to be:

G scale (45 mm) stainless steel track ready for it’s new home.

So the adventure continues. Stay tuned.

All photos by Ralf Meier (iPhone 12 Pro)