As some of you may know, the Kaskaskia Valley Railway has been evolving, continuously from the golden spike laying of the HO version in 1982 to the large scale version’s first figure 8 put on the ground in the backyard in 1996. The HO version had always existed and was a lower level of the bench work in the basement, under the coal mine at Owl’s Bend, and an HO helix supported the turntable and engine service facilities on the Southern Division of the large scale KVRwy. The last large scale operating session of the KVRwy was November, 2010. Almost all the HO track has been pulled and put in storage. The Helix and engine service facilities are gone to other St. Louis area railroads. As time and need requires much of the trackage is being moved 28 miles south to the Bluestone Southern right of way and other locations needing salvageable track and bridges.
The second build of the Timesaver was once again displayed at the 2015 East Coast Large Scale Train Show with its partner the Inglenook Switching puzzle. The build log of this is in the Articles section here, titled - “Rebuilding the Timesaver on the KVRwy”
http://www.largescalecentral.com/articles/101/rebuilding-the-timesaver-on-the-kvrwy
(I know a few of the pictures don’t show)
As Jan and I prepare to move in to a retirement duplex and sell our house of the last 40 years, I am looking at the future locations for my railroad addiction. The “Timesaver” was always built as my retirement railroad. I have been looking at many options and sharing these thoughts with some of you. I became intrigued by the modules advertised in Model Railroader called Kam Konnect Modules by David Conway of Houston, Texas. Would these be the basis of the new HO switching layout? Should I rebuild the “Timesaver” and “Inglenook” puzzles again? After being taken down and reassembled too many times, the benchwork is showing wear. I know this version of the “Timesaver” has been to the ECLSTS, at least 8 times, besides club layout setups 3 or 4 times a year, the National Narrow Gauge Convention and 2 time to Perry, Ga. to the Southeast Large Scale Train Show.
But after talking to David Conway of Kam Konnect, he stated they would have to change design and increase weight of his modules to accomedate the large scale weight and the biggest they have built, so far, is for O scale and their product may not meet our needs. And he would have to come up with solutions for shipping.
Looking at the old “Timesaver” modules we feel this design will meet our requirements. We haven’t had any problems with structure of our Timesaver Modules and we have succeeded with a way to protect during all the moving. We’ve already resolved this, so now what? Build again? My son and son-in-law already have almost all my big power tools.
Dan Patterson has shared the Alcove with us, with his fantastic engine carriers and ground throws. He’s a member of our club and we have been talking about the wearing of the modules. He has some ideas using t nuts and machine screws to resolve the wearing created by the wall board screws and he has said he can build duplicate modules for anything I need.
Since the Inglenook is no longer confined by thickness, as it was in our basement being “Helper Siding”, because of tracks running under it. And the fact that I always wanted to have removable “Car Float” Cassettes. Dan is going to rebuild the “Inglenook” puzzle modules and if I haven’t worn him out with that project, I may have him build some new modules for the HO switching puzzle I’ve had floating around in my head.
The “Timesaver” modules went to his shop, yesterday. Along with plans for the new, bigger and better “Inglenook”.
Stay tuned.
Best stay closer to the ground, but there are thoughts of different configurations for different needs.
