We were a poor family living in a government housing project when my parents saved up for months to buy us a Lionel O gauge Pacific Model electric train to run under the Christmas tree. The tree was purchased on Christmas eve when the tree lots would discount prices rather than take them unsold to the dump on the 26th.

After we were asleep.Mom wrapped our gifts, usually much needed basic clothing, while dad bought and set up the tree.

One special year my older brother and I agreed to only pretend sleep. We waited for the longest hour in my life until we were sure the adults were down for the night and we stealthily descended the concrete staircase from our bedroom, without waking our siblings, to the living room treasure trove.

After our ecstatic surprise, we joyfully retrieved the transformer that powered the locomotive, turned it on and discovered that by turning a lever we could control the speed of the train. After a continuous hour the transformer became hot so we called it a night. Mom insisted that we attend church before we opened or played with any gifts. This gave the transformer time to cool so our subterfuge and breaking of the rules was never discovered. This began my love of model trains.

When I was 26 and a captain in the Air Force, I build by first model railroad on a 4x8 foot sheet of plywood in our military base apartment living room. My then pregnant wife of one year graciously allowed a newer ever larger versions in the garages of our homes for the next 40 years. We moved to our present home in the 1980s.

I closed off the garage door with a false-wall bolted to the header, a divider wall with a door separating out the water heater and other appliances, hung a suspended ceiling, insulated the room to minimize heat variations which can effect train track performance and installed a new circuit breaker to supply the lighting and train power.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the next decade plus years and thousands of hours of fun work, the HO Neverdun Railroad grew to 30x22 feet, 3 levels, several hundred feet of track, multiple sidings and passing tracks, 2 rail yards, about 40 track switches, two control panels and capacity to run either direct current powered locos, or by throwing a toggle for each section of track, alternating current computer chip sound-producing locomotives on the same tracks, city and other scenery painted and plastered on the walls, craftsman kit buildings, a steel mill complex and thousands of feet of wiring.

The middle and lower levels also housed a narrow gauge end to end mining and logging railroad. I designed and built a specially cut wood complex, curved HO and HON3 5 foot long trestle with two integrated bridges over a planned future curved river and sawmill complex.

People came to our annual Christmas party to see the elaborate decorations and displays my wife built throughout the house and to see the trains run. It was always great food, fun and social renewal.

Once a week we would go to Loaves and Fishes in Sacramento to help prepare and serve food for the poor and homeless where we made friends and renewed our faith in and love of people.

One day we came home to find steaming water running down our driveway. We had recently replaced the water heater and the plumber had used rubber hosing clad with meshed wire for extra strength. Unfortunately the mesh did not protect the hose where it was joined to the screw-on couplings. That's where the rubber had slip while we were gone for about six hours. The steam was ejected toward the garage roof. Hot water dripped down in a torrent on to the false sealing causing it to crumble and fall onto the railroad destroying its electrical integrity.

The Neverdun Railroad became a fallen flag (deceased) entity, a fate similar to the Southern Pacific and many of the old railroads that built America. Although the prototypes are gone forever, most of the Neverdun structures and equipment remains in existence in storage, memories and photographs.

Christmas, model trains, and these memories have a special place at this time.

Happy holidays and a healthy, better 2023.

~ Raymond Leo Blai