You Can't Get Lost - Day 26

 

As you can tell if you have followed this blog, I like trains, travel, museums, Harvey Houses and the southwest.  That would include the Santa Fe railroad.  Twenty years ago, a group of Very dedicated volunteers started the Wheels Museum which is currently located in the Santa Fe Boiler Repair building in the Albuquerque rail yard.  It is a diamond in the rough, they are in their seventh location since starting and are involved with all forms of transportation from railroads to classic and old cars to model trains to model car kits.  The second room you enter is the Fred Harvey room.  

The biggest second generation (high end hotels like the El Tovar and La Posada) Harvey House was built in Albuquerque in 1899 and named the Alvarado.  It closed in the 1960's and was eventually torn down.  

 It has been replaced by the Transportation Center, a combination depot and bus terminal, which was designed in the style of the old Alvarado. This section represents one of the wings of the old hotel.  The main terminal building and the entrance looks more like the old hotel, but we drove past it before I realized the extent of the building.

The museum has three separate model train layouts, an O gauge and two HO gauge. 

This layout is 30 feet long and represents travel in New Mexico, including hot air balloons that go up and down, mining trains, military trains plus freight and passenger trains.  There are gondolas going up and down a ski mountain, a waterfall feeding two lakes, there are five levels of track and five different train loops.  

A second HO layout 

 

 An O gauge layout with the modern track.  The central third rail is narrow and dark, so it doesn't stand out like the older, full sized central rail.  

And example of a Garden Gauge. It is a

about twice the size of the O gauge.  

I can't deny that it has gotten my juices flowing for a new train set.  However, this time I would be going for an N gauge, about half the size of an HO.  And I still have the idea for a model layout with several sections that I considered long ago......

That afternoon's highlight was a nap, a full-bore, lay down on the bed and sleep nap.....

I also spent some time with Tyler.  He is a Junior in Computer Science and has been doing some really creative stuff with 3D printing and computer aided microscopy. He has built and rebuilt two 3D printers and has made things as interesting as a  wheel with a central axle and internal gearing that allows it to rotate, all eight interlocking pieces being printed at the same time, in place.  Amazing.  

It has been good to be with the family again, Jere and Tom and Jaye and Lyndon, and Tyler and Byron and his family.  Thanks everyone, I've had fun.  And Bob and Loraine, and ......