The C & AR has its own blog !

After some thought and nagging by some friends, I've finally decided to get a blog together to chronicle and somewhat organize my research, planning, construction, and operation of my layout.  Having grown up in Canandaigua, I remember as a kid, train tracks running through town, but never cared why there were there.  I thought it was neat to watch the train go by on my way to school.  I've been known to walk along the tracks coming home as well.

I had a layout as a kid, but unlike many, many other model train geeks, did not have the Lionel O scale set.  My dad had an HO layout set up for me to play around on.  Just an oval with a figure 8 inside, I would go down there and just run trains in circles for hours.  Back then, the only option was DC power, so I had 2 transformers, one for each track, and would run a little steam engine around one loop and a diesel passenger train around the other.  There's just something about the sound of a model train, and the smell of the motor working hard.  I was a kid after all, so I would push the engines to their limits, either pulling all the cars we had, or just cranking up the throttle to see how fast they'd go (or both).

Anyway, after getting married I built my own layout, still more loopy, than point to point, and never came close to finishing it (about 6 years) before we moved.  We're settled now (I hope) and I've dug out all my magazines, and started listening to podcasts, watching You Tube videos, googling for various things to start planning.

In my things, I found an old newspaper from Canandaigua that my mom sent me when I was in College.  It was an article about John Armstrong's Canandaigua Southern railroad.  I read that and realized THAT was what I was going to do.  I was going to build HIS layout in HO.  I found the issues of Model Railroader where his layout was featured, and realized - I didn't have the room to do it, although it was freelance, so if it wasn't 100% identical, who cares, right?  Well after trying to make it fit in my space, I gave up on cloning his track plan.  However, I stayed with the Canandaigua theme and started researching that.

I finally discovered, after probably 30-ish years, what those tracks were for in town.  I found the New York Central, history about the same rails I saw as a kid. I saw the charter, and many documents and controversy about the start of that railroad.  I now had a purpose and a plan, and that is how the Canandaigua and Auburn Road came to be.