Haupt was Right

The future site of the expanded Falmouth sits above the bookshelves and TV.

One of the reasons Herman Haupt ordered the construction of the truss bridge at Potomac Creek was that he was worried about the effect that a freshet would have on the support structure of the bridge. So he had the construction corps build the truss bridge that I also modeled to replace the trestle. Well, it turns out, the Aquia Line did endure a freshet, in 2019! It didn't destroy the bridge but it did cause flooding in the basement. As much as 5 inches fell outside, but only about a half inch of water flooded the basement where the Aquia Line resides. Luckily the Aquia Line layout survived with just very minor damage, though it did get a lot  of dust during reconstruction. I had planned to remove PoLA in December, so the flood just expedited that process. Tom is rebuilding PoLA in his basement and making good progress. More on that later.

The only remaining vestige of PoLA is the hole and wires in the wall by the stairs.

Over a month later, we are still rebuilding, but the majority of the heavy work is done. Viewers are unanimous that they like the new look. My niece, Katrina, helped with the color selection. Apparently, grays are in now.  I tried to explain that this is a Yankee railroad, but the interior design fashionistas had their way.  If you want to remember what is was like before the flood, check Model Railroad Planning 2020. There will be an article on PoLA in that journal.

Mom is enjoying the new crew lounge

I reconfigured the crew lounge to prepare for the Aquia Line expansion in 2020. The main change was to move the TV from the east wall to the south wall. Luckily each of these walls were prewired for the TV coax cable. It just took a little debugging to get it all to work. I also consolidated most of my books and magazines to the south wall shelves. It's nice having most of my library in one spot. And yes I have read nearly all those books, and consult many of them periodically.

The new layout plan includes a large bridge above where the couch is now. Falmouth will reside on a shelf along the 20 foot wall on the south side. The expanded sidings at Falmouth will allow us to run longer trains.  The beer mugs and Roman helm will have to find a new location when I start expanding Aquia.

The gray color scheme really accentuated the difference in color temperature of my recessed lights. I had replaced  the bulbs one by one over the years without paying attention to the specs of the lights. So I had a mix of LED and CFLs with varying color temperatures.  So I went to the store and got a set of matching 5000K lights. Once installed, the difference was amazing. I still have 2700K lights in my office. Now to me, that light looks too yellow. I'll replace those next.

Some of my gaming buddies are lobbying for military art prints on the walls and a gaming table in the center. But I am hesitant to add them, as I plan to paint sky on the walls above the expansion.  If I have a gaming table, it will be portable and able to be stowed in one of the closets.

A few days ago we had a torrential rain storm that lasted about 30 minutes. The newly designed sump pump worked as planned. Then yesterday, we had a brief power outage on a sunny morning. Again, the back up battery powered sump worked as designed,.

I still have to set up my office, rebuild my modeling workbench and finish cleaning the layout and installing curtains. But that will have to wait while as we are heading to Birmingham, Alabama to visit my daughter and son-in-law and help them with their new house. They have lots of work to do. It's nice to know we are leaving the Aquia Line in decent shape.