TRAINing Indoors and Outdoors

   In an earlier posting I had mentioned being able to take advantage of my “hobby crossover” with model railroading when applying the waterslide decals onto my repainted Mirage. I have been a fan of railroads, models and the real thing, for quite a while, and have found an amazing number of ways that cycling has allowed me to enjoy railfanning.
   The number of rail trails that have been developed, particularly here in the Northeast, have allowed me to explore lines that had once hosted countless freight and passenger trains but now lie dormant. I can only imagine the huge steam or diesel engines rolling by, but at least now I have the chance to ride the routes they travelled on my bicycle. The rails are long gone, but I’m often excited to find remnants like signal towers or mile markers left by the trailside. 

   This summer Sue and I took a ride across the spectacular Walkway Across the Hudson, which was a former New Haven Railroad bridge high over the river at Poughkeepsie, NY. All along the bridge approaches to the west were reminders of the railroad past, including a couple cabooses on small sections of track. A few weeks ago I rode with some family members through the Lehigh Valley Gorge on what was once the railbed for the Central Railroad of New Jersey. Several of the former railroad bridges have been converted for trail use, and a parallel rail line is still active, providing some excitement with the occasional passing train.

The Poughkeepsie Bridge, when trains still used it to cross the Hudson River

   If we ever get out of this string of hurricanes/tropical storms, my father and I are planning a week-long trip from south-central Pennsylvania to Washington D.C. On our approximately 180 mile trip, we will start on the Great Appalachian Passage Trail, which was once the Western Maryland Railroad. Crossing over several spectacular bridges and through a couple long tunnels, we will eventually connect with the C&O Canal towpath at Cumberland, MD. While only mules used this part of our route, we will always be within site of the former Chesapeake & Ohio rail line (still active) on the other side of the Potomac.

   Because of my interest in architecture (my original college major), a secondary rail-related hobby of mine is “station collecting”, which involves a visit and a photo. It started with the major city structures like Grand Central in NYC, 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, or any of the Union Stations in St. Louis, Chicago or Washington, but evolved to include even the tiniest of rural depots I’ve found in our travels. I now have nearly 500 photos, and I found that a great way to find these smaller structures is by bicycle, including a little pre-planning of the route with online maps and help from the Railroad Station Historical Society website, which often provides exact addresses.

The Great Allegheny Passage Trail ends near the beautiful Cumberland Station, which houses the C&O Canal Museum in its ground floor

   I often have the opportunity to explore during family vacations. One memorable trip was a hilly 50 mile loop around the Letchworth State Park area of New York, finding former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (one of the railroads I model) stations. Another was a much flatter 35 mile ride around the Finger Lakes area, and included buildings from the Lehigh Valley (my other modeling interest) and New York Central Railroads. During our big cross-country trip in 2006, I found over 90 structures, mostly by accident because the highways follow the railroads so closely out west!
    My hobby crossover will be most evident in my third floor room – I hesitate to call it a “man cave” because, besides that being a really annoying term, everyone in my family can use it, particularly the two cycling addicts. Last year when I tired of lugging my bike out of the basement every time I wanted a winter workout, I was looking for a place to set up the windtrainer on a more permanent basis. I also wanted space to set up a TV or laptop in order to provide distraction from grinding away the monotonous miles indoors.
   On our third floor I had somewhat of a monster train layout that was a bit of a chore to maintain. I also came to the conclusion that since my boys were growing up and showed little enthusiasm in operating the layout anymore, downsizing it to something more focused with better performance for one or two people would give me the space I needed to set up the windtrainer.

In this scene from my old layout, a cyclist sprints across the Ridge Road Bridge that crosses the railroad tracks in Lackawanna, NY, just south of Buffalo.

   An added bonus to the layout makeover was that I also downsized my model railroad collection and had a nice amount of money to cover the improvements I wanted to make to the room itself. I had some track lighting installed to better illuminate the new layout when it is completed. I also found the hardwood floors to be in decent condition, so the nasty wall-to-wall carpet will be replaced with some nice rugs, but right now it serves as a "dropcloth" while I paint.
 
   I also looked into decorating the cycling side of the room with some vintage posters, but that leads me into the subject matter for my next blog post, so stay tuned.