One Millionth Viewer Checks In Today
Wow! What a blast it has been sharing my model railroad with friends, acquaintances and fellow railroaders world wide.
And...today, January 9th, saw my one millionth viewer to my blog showcasing the layout.
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This is a big thrill for me.
I began the blog back in February, 2006.
I showcased our Friday night train running.
Indeed, it is the friends you meet in the hobby that is the most rewarding aspect for me.
B&M FT 4255 leads a trio of F-units on its way into North Dover.
It will be hauling the train that will pierce the banner.
Going back to 1997, I would like to thank my good friend Trevor Marshall for designing the track plan for the layout on my behalf as I was relatively new to the hobby at the time.
Seeing as we were confined to a small 11x13 spare bedroom in the basement, we had to be quite creative as I wanted a wide variety of traffic coming into my town of North Dover.
Trevor came up with the notion of having the staging surround the layout.
I'd also like to thank another friend Marty Phillips for putting in a tremendous amount of grunt labour preparing the room and creating the benchwork based on Trevor's plan.
Two other very special friends in the early years are Bill Meek and Stan Conley who began running trains in the group with me from the start.
Indeed, this is a tremendous hobby.
Well...here we go!
Our One Millionth Viewer!
Yeah!
Yabba dabba doo!
Here's to a million more!
Why would this Canadian operate a Boston and Maine/Maine Central model railroad?
Initially I wanted to model the TH&B, the railroad Trevor was modelling at the time seeing as I liked the paint scheme of that railroad in the diesels I saw while running Trevor's layout...a maroon and cream livery.
While visiting Trevor's railroad one day he shared with me a hard cover book on another railroad. The diesels carried the maroon colour but accented the maroon with gold rather than cream. The subject of the book was the Boston and Maine Railroad.
While looking at the pictures in the book I recognized a number of places I had visited as a kid. You see, our Canadian family would go camping each summer across the border and down to the various New England states.
The die was cast!
The Boston and Maine it would be!
When Trevor became involved in the planning of my railroad he also fell in love with the B&M and went on to model the railroad in steam days!
As the train passes the banner and continues on its way...it's time for me to close out this entry.
Thank you to all those who have checked in on the blog. Here's to many more postings!
All the best, Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
