Details

Written by NV NTrak

Vital Statistics

Builder: Club

Year Built: 1993

Current Owner: Club

Module Type: NTrak 3' Corner

Additional Features: River

Gallery

Description

by Dave Freshwater

Foggy Bottom was created as a club corner prior to 1994. At the time, it was a "plywood plain." A glance at the underside sometime will show these origins. The design followed the NTRAK How-To Manual exactly.

In February 1994, Foggy disappeared into the recesses of Plum Loco Shops. It re-appeared in June with the current scenery, a river having eroded through a Styrofoam® knoll. Matt Schaefer did the basic scenery work that exists to this day. But look closely and you will see the contributions of many members made during Back Shops and M*A*S*H sessions over the years.

In October 1996, I became the proud adoptive parent of Foggy Bottom. My first project was to provide a measure of stability. The How-To Manual only shows three legs for a three-foot corner. The river bed displaced the one leg from center of balance. After carving out the inside of a mountain, I found room to add a fourth leg. Coupled with carriage bolts to insure that the module can't be lifted off its legs, Foggy, while wobbly, became less of a threat to nearby toes prior to clamp-down. Of course, since becoming a trailer dweller, Foggy has a problem holding onto leg bolts. But it only causes a problem for toes when folks forget to grab the legs while repositioning it at clamp-down.

Putting the 4th leg inside the mountain has caused a new problem that had to be solved. We tend to push legs into their pockets until they meet “solid” resistance. The pocket for the 4th leg is the underside of the Styrofoam mountain. That pounding has created a few cracks in the layers of foam. We were going to have a mini-Mt. Saint Helen’s on our hands at a show. Foggy made a visit to my garage so I could put some hardboard under the foam and over the legs. Some hot glue and foam completed the repairs.

At the time I became an adoptive parent, all the heavy traffic on the lines had begun to take a toll on the rails. A track repair crew was organized from the Maintenance of Way (MOW) force during the 1997 annual meeting. Leonard White and Fred Obermeyer were kind enough to let me get in their way as we laid all three lines before the meeting. I got the ballasting and track wiring done during the following week, so that Foggy was back in service for the Upper Marlboro Greenberg Show the following weekend. There are rumors that the MOW crew, following the prototype's lead, is going to install flange oilers, to reduce the wear from all high-profile wheelsets. (Besides, I took lots of notes about the flange "greaser" installation outside my old office window and want to put them to use.)

During the summer of 1997, a bridge pier was added. While the bridge itself is a solid plywood piece, the MOW crew got tired of explaining to operators that the box girders that meet at center span didn't need support. You are warned against exceeding the speed limit on the bridge, though. More than a few cars have made it into the riverbed to join that old wrecked hopper. One of the more spectacular wrecks proved that Deluxe Innovation knuckle couplers really do stay coupled, and lead to a bulletin board posting out at the factory for a while.

In 1999, Foggy Bottom got outfitted with a second set of wiring, allowing it to be used as an inside corner without any jumper wires. Foggy and Drye Creek are both constructed this way. It causes some confusion when the set-up crew sees all the Cinch Jones connectors on each end. But, once they realize that you can’t connect the same type connector (male to male or female to female), things go together quickly. And it is still easier than trying to find a complete set of corner jumpers in the power box when we do a curvilinear layout with inside curves.

While 4-foot modules may be a Superintendent's friend, Foggy Bottom is a workhorse. The plaques have long since disappeared, continuing another club tradition (maybe they ran off with the carriage bolts). But, Foggy has been included in at least one national or regional convention layout each year since 1995. Foggy was set up as an inside corner at Crossroads Atlanta '95 and the uNconvention in 99. It was part of the NMRA Mid-East Region layout at Hunt Valley (95) and Hagerstown (99), RuNNiN TraiNs (96), PlugNPlay (97), Magic Rails (98), Edison (2000), and the N Scale Collector’s Convention (2001). With the convention line up of the next few years, Foggy’s streak ought to still be intact when we host N Scale East 2004.

A lot of Foggy's history isn't apparent, but large portions of its history are recorded on its underside. Matt started the tradition, recording the weight of the module as it was converted from plywood plains. I've continued the pattern, so that Foggy's future custodians will appreciate the role the module has played. Since you have all that white space on the underside of your modules, why not record some of their history, in a location that is not going to be misplaced?