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Down Under: Creative Use of Your Basement Space
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Charlie Atkinson Displays His Model Railroad Set
Carolyn and Cub Clinger
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Casey Jones Would Envy This Motorcoacherﾒs Trans-Continental Model Railroad
Country Coacher Charlie Atkinson has been an avid motorhomer for more than 30 years. He also loves model railroading. When Marcia and Charlie retired and began spending up to four months per year in the South, in addition to his extensive duties as Great Lake Area Vice President, Senior Vice President, and as the former FMCA President, it severely restricted his railroading activities. However, when Charlie and Marcia bought their 1995 36-foot Intrigue he quickly saw the railroading potential in those cavernous bays. He told Marcia there was so much space in the basement that he could easily accommodate a model railroad in it--and he did. Within the first year, the coachﾒs entry door was upgraded and replaced. Charlie used the 7-foot by 30 inch wide by 12 inches deep 3/8-inch plywood box the door came in as the base for his future railroad. They were wintering that year in Florida, so when they had settled in, he got busy working on the railroad. He cut the box down to 3 inches high, splitting it down the middle, and inserting a 10-inch splice in it. He then framed it with one-by-fours and put one-by-two runners on the bottom. Now he had a nice plywood tray, 7 feet long, 40 inches wide, and 3 inches deep. Styrofoam plastic foam insulation was then fitted to the tray and glued to the bottom.
Being an HO-Scale (87:1) modeler, Charlie knew he couldnﾒt fit much HO-sized layout into the space. So he designed an N-Scale layout to see what exactly would fit his available space. N scale is 160:1, approximately half the size of HO, so he designed a layout that appropriately fit the space and allowed Charlie the fun of running it. He drew the track plan on the Styrofoam, glued a cork roadbed, and then laid the track. He glued down and ballasted the track so it would remain firmly in place, positioning the wiring so all wires and electrical devices were protected by the one-by-two runners on the bottom. At this point Charlie was able to start running trains on the
track, but the rest of the layout was bare.
How to carry it in the basement was his next mission. He chose the compartment that measures 45 inches wide by 27 inches high and nearly a full 8-1/2 feet deep. Back to the hardware store he went, this time to purchase three 44-inch long pieces of black pipe cut and threaded on each end and six threaded flanges (one for each end of the three pipes). The pipe was hung on either end of the compartment with one in the middle, all about five inches from the ceiling of the compartment. The train layout could rest atop the pipes and slide in and out like a big drawer. With two inches of clearance on top and 22 inches of storage space below, the positioning
was perfect.
After a year of traveling, Charlie was satisfied that the track would stay in place as designed, so he set about designing the scenery. He glued the leftover styrofoam on to the right places, and formed the landscape with a shaping tool. He ﾓplantedﾔ trees and small town features like a train depot, firehouse, church, feed mill, and various downtown stores. The scene resembles a small town in the Hocking River Valley in Ohio, circa 1950ﾒs-1960ﾒs. Charlie made sure that the trees would fit the space allowed as they would need to stay fixed on the board in transit. The buildings come off and fit in a special case and the rolling stock of locomotives and cars are also housed in a special carrying case as well. The upper left corner of the layout has two tracks that can leave the area and enter a module Charlie has built for his roundhouse, turntable, and engine facilities. He built table legs with braces so the entire layout can be taken out of the coach and operated as a freestanding unit. Normally, Charlie will pull his train track partially out of the bay so one end rests on the bar in the compartment, and the other on the legs. The control panel is attached to the end protruding from the coach, but can also be moved to the side when the entire layout is out of the coach.
The town could truly be Anywhere, USA since it travels everywhere with the Atkinsons. The layout attracts attention wherever they are and with two walk-around throttles, people have a ball operating it. The Hocking Valley Railway has traveled coast-to-coast round trip five times and more than 50,000 miles. This railroading hobbyist is happily pursuing his passion wherever he may be parked for the evening.
A Million Dollar Kitty Condo
Eight lucky kitties escaped abandonment and drowning to live an enviable life on the road in a custom Country Coach condo. For two years and 20,000 miles, Carolyn and Cub Clinger have provided cozy living conditions, medical attention, custom meals and spectacular sightseeing for this well-traveled cat family. When the Clingers were preparing for their life on the road, they came to Country Coach with a mission. They wanted to purchase a coach that would provide living quarters for their cats and themselves. Recently retired resort owners from the Jackson Hole area, Carolyn and Cub were seeking a coach with a large heated (and cooled) bay area that would offer a source of power. They narrowed their search to the Country Coach Prevost Conversion. Today their cats travel comfortably in a customized living area complete with built-in condos, color TV, separate HVAC controls, specially designed screen doors and a ramp that takes them ﾓupstairsﾔ for ﾑhang-timeﾒ with Carolyn and Cub. The Clingers keep close tabs on the ambient temperature in the kitty-quarters via a remote thermometer. One cat suffers from a kidney disorder so it receives specially prepared meals of chicken, shrimp and rice, herbal remedies and twice-daily sub-cutaneous fusions to flush the ailing organs. Prince is a ﾓregularﾔ upstairs for closer monitoring of his health condition.
These eight very amiable cats respond to Carolyn and visitors in ways that only the most socialized cats would. Though their venue changes often, the Clinger cats donﾒt stray. Carolyn slides open the screen door and they come to greet, each one responding to their name. Carolyn beckons, ﾓCome here Miss Molly and lie down on this stool for meﾔ. Miss Molly happily jumps to a stool Carolyn offers outside the coach and immediately curls up, purring contentedly. Carolyn raised these once wild cats since they were 3-day-old kittens, so they think of her as their mother. It all began four years ago when the Clingers discovered the abandoned and nearly drowned cats in their well house. Carolyn rescued the kitties and dropper fed all six of them, despite their veterinarianﾒs warnings theyﾒd never survive. Ultimately the Clingers had each of these offspring and a consecutive litter, spay and neutered, including the mother, a feral cat that challenged them with capture. ﾓWe werenﾒt cat peopleﾔ, offers Carolyn. ﾓBut we couldnﾒt leave them to multiply and perishﾔ. Eventually they found homes for some, and planned to keep just three. However, when their resort sold, and a neighbor began shooting at and killing some of their cats, the Clingers packed up all the survivors and set out to find a way to house them in their new mobile lifestyle.
Cub and Carolynﾒs motorcoach is exquisitely decorated and immaculate from the inside out. Their black PT cruiser follows them wherever they go. Unless you visit the downstairs apartment, you may never know they travel with Macho, Prince, Tory, Skitters, Spikey, Miss Molly, Miss Kitty and Miss Beauty. Carolyn and Cub note they would downsize their cat count, if presented with the right surrogate home. But theirs is, indeed, a hard act to follow.
* As published in the WINTER 2004 issue of Country Coach Destinations
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