Growing Doubts

With Irma bearing down on Florida, I'll take just a moment to express my hopes and prayers for those in its path. Please be safe. Even here in upstate South Carolina, I got emails yesterday and more today about preparing for Irma. Four Hours inland and this morning's reports were that we may expect Category 1 winds and rain if Irma continues.

Irma would be my fourth hurricane. I weathered a small one in Hawaii once on vacation, saw one run up into the Austin area while in college, flew to a conference ahead of one in Washington DC, and now Irma. I cannot even remember the names of the others. But its approach has just confirmed my feeling of ominous clouds on the horizon.

More than a month has passed since I expressed some doubts about the Tennessee Pass Layout I have been planning. And in that month, the layout doubts have continued to grow.

I still worry about the problems of reinstalling some of the modules should a new home be necessary - particularly the helix. It is so massive as a module - driven largely by the minimum curve radius that I just don't know if it would work. Oh, I am sure I can build it - and I can move it out - but could I ever move it in again. And if not, what is the point of moving it out, and without it, should I bother with making the rest movable.

But also in that time we have gained a new resident in the garage. My wife's sailing boat. It is beautiful, but the trailer is well, larger than I expected. It doesn't just take up a car space in the garage - but more like two. And so now when I look at the garage, I just don't see a future layout space, and so it looks like that expansion dream is pretty dead.

Worse yet, as we continue to settle into the home, I look at the remaining train space, and lament the closets along the one wall. Without them, the space is about 11 feet wide, minus a necessary aisle - so about 8 feet wide. With them, the space drops to just over 8 feet wide, but now requires two aisles. I had cheated and squeezed the Tennessee Pass Layout into this space, justifying a pair of narrow (e.g. 24 inch) aisles at each end. However, as the settling in process continues, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the closets will not be going in all likelihood, and that in fact, they will be needed to store some of my wife's collections. And if that is the case, a 24 inch aisle is not going to be acceptable. So, the space now drops to a width of maybe 2-3 feet.

Well, at that width, my 18" desired radius for standard gauge is pretty well out the door. I'd already compromised that down to 16-5/8" for the Tennessee Pass plan, but only in the helix and going downhill. Now, I'd have to be more drastic.

So, what are the options:

• Explore the implications of a 15" minimum radius for Standard Gauge.
• Consider Nn3 options instead.
• There is z scale as an option.
• Move to new concepts.
• Wait for new space to emerge.

So, at the moment, the Tennessee Pass plan is on the shelf. I'll have to look at tighter radii, going to an Nn3 focus, or maybe jumping to Z. Or even finding another option - or hobby - or simply remaining an armchair modeler. Maybe when the storm passes, some new ideas will emerge.