Reed's
Milepost 25.2
This is currently the end of track, the northernmost extremity of the layout. The track continuing off of the left edge of the photo, past Reed's Spur, ends in the stairwell -- eventually to be the site of a train elevator that will carry trains up to Sanders on the next level, and continuing on to Rangeley and Marbles. The depot and the section house are built from Mount Blue Model Company kits:
A close-up of the station -- people go in the door, bears go in the window:
Here is another example of animal-related humor, in the "turnabout-is-fair-play" category, on opposite sides of the Reed's section house:
This is another (very) subtle little scene that hardly anyone notices. That is too bad, because it represents another great story from Two Feet Between the Rails (Volume 1, page 377). In addition to his regular duties as an SR&RL engineman, Ed West ran a trap line out of Rangeley. One day he found a live bobcat caught in one of his traps, and decided that it would be fun to bring the animal into town on a leash. The bobcat was not predisposed to favor that plan. Ed did not show up for the morning departure out of Rangeley, but the crew found him waiting alongside the tracks near Dead River (not Reed's). Needless to say, Ed was in terrible shape. In the actually story Ed settled the matter by killing the bobcat, but I did not have the heart to do that -- I just put the poor creature on a leash, the way Ed intended.
Just to the north of Reed's station is a large pulpwood loading facility, the first of many such that will be needed from here north toward Rangeley (as well as several more along the route from Strong through Kingfield to Bigelow. These are many, many individual twigs -- fortunately there are many trees in our back yard, but fewer than there used to be. The three-track staging yard and future train elevator ("Rangeley") is just off of the left edge of the photograph.
