I haven't been active here for a couple years. Now that I'm back, I thought it might be a good idea to post a new intro for the newbies and bring the old heads who remember me as "scrmcurator" up to date. If you're not interested, OK, just ignore this!

During the summer of 2007, I met a fantastic lady named Heather. That's about when I quit reading this board if memory serves -- now you know why. ;o) Heather is incredibly intelligent, creative, and has an Irish temper on steroids. She came with three kids, now ages 16, 13, and 12. The end two are boys, the middle one is a girl. Heather and I were married in October 2007. The next day, I was laid off. And so started a lovely, wonderful streak of luck for the next couple years!

From the start, I proudly showed off SCRM and tried to get my new family involved. They helped me with the exhibit gallery a LOT. But apparently, the enemies I've made at SCRM over the years (I *am* an outspoken, opinionated SOB) extended their hostility to my family. Now, you can mess with me all you want and I'll take it. But DO NOT mess with people I love. Long story short, we told them where they could run those trains in no uncertain terms, and it wasn't to Rion Quarry.

Not long after, we moved to the Upstate. Heather's ex lives in Easley (that's where the old Pickens RR cuts off of the Southern's Washington-Atlanta main). We wanted to be closer to her ex so the kids didn't have a two-hour ride for their every-other-weekend visits. We wound up settling in Taylors, which is just east of Greenville. We hope to move one more time in a few months, as we're trying to buy a house instead of renting.

In April 2010, I found a paid, part-time position at Cleveland Park in Spartanburg, SC. The park has a pair of MTC G-16 trains, typical three-car "Suburban" consists. Both were originally purchased by the Spartanburg Kiwanis Club. The park's mainstay since 1961 has been the 884, currently painted in Southern Railway green. It was built in 1957 and originally installed in Mary Wright Park. The Kiwanans moved it to Cleveland Park in 1961 and sold their original train from that park, #652. The 652 dates from 1952. It went to Charleston, SC, then Milledgeville, GA, before being purchased back by Spartanburg County in 2003. It never really operated after its return -- the tranny leaked oil and the brakes didn't work.

I've spent this past summer restoring the 652 to operating condition. I had to re-plumb the brakes on all three cars. I also added a supplemental vacuum pump on the engine, and am in the process of getting the drumhead and marker lights working again. The park had the County maintenance shop overhaul the locomotive, which fixed the leaky tranny and other issues. The 884 also has some bad oil leaks, once the 652 is reliable I think I'll tear into the 884 and see what I can do with her.

I'm also working on some track repairs over the winter, as there's been no appreciable track maintenance since 2002. When I started, my first project was smoothing out some of the sun kinks -- they had gotten so bad they were starting to cause derailments. Right now, I'm in the midst of a project to fix a drainage issue (the track was the drainage ditch!) and construct a six-rail maintenance crossing.

My Parktrains website has languished for several years, but I'm finally working on it again (nothing like actually getting my hands on a parktrain to inspire work on the site!). It can be found at http://trainweb.org/parktrains.

Welcome back! Having a job, full or part time, that falls in line with your hobby, can't be all bad. Sounds like you are the sole manager of the train sets down there. And not a minute too soon!

Good luck!
Mr. Ed

Welcome back Matt, congrats and best wishes.

dave

And now I know why I didn't hear back from you when I was trying to catch up with you at SCRM this past Summer! Good luck and best wishes, Matt!

Hi Matt:

Let me also offer a big welcome back. Being an SCRM charter member, I'm disappointed that you apparently received the bum's rush. But I'm glad to hear you're back in the swing of things and hopefully enjoying a stable life.

Thanks!

There are a total of three of us who run the trains. The other two are retired guys who just like being around the kids and running the train. One's a retired industrial mechanic, so he's a good resource for advice, but he's not interested in doing much more than that. The park also has a really good maintenance guy who builds and drives race boats as his hobby. I'm an OK mechanic, but I'm not very good with engines, so Scott does the infernal combustion maintenance and I handle the purely railroad-related stuff.

Here are a couple photos of the trains. The "engineer" of the 652 is "Fred," our Halloween ghost engineer.





We'll be running Saturday, Dec. 11, for a Santa Train event (weather permitting) from 10-12. I'll be the operator. If anyone has a chance to stop by and see me, please say hello. The 652 will make her second public debut, hopefully for permanent operation this time!

Matt -

Welcome back. Missed your reports from SCRM. Hope things go well for you in your new career.

Les

Sounds like the perfect combination of the three of you. Rare to find people that work together that well.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Matt;

Good to see you here again. And thanks again for all you have done to shine some light on the Park Trains scene.