Telling Christmas: book THREE How It's Made: March 2017

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

REFLECTIONS ON YEAR ONE 2015: March RWR

By March, I had gotten away with building the clock tower in the guest bedroom, but space was already getting tight; besides, we needed to get rid of that storage room. Same could be said about money—it was tight—we stopped north pole construction and began transforming our guest bedroom into a more spacious studio to accommodate what was to come from storage and the express. And when we launched the studio, the living room got re-grouped.

We had all along wanted to vacate our storage rental and replace the queen size bed with a smaller and more 21^st century version. This transition remodeling required several trips to big box stores and mattress firms. In addition to the 20 some-odd decorative grass woven baskets acquired to fill the new bought shelves, we added new lighting, a remote controlled bed and wall mounted TV wired to cable . . . and a new modem for computer, installation etc. Each task required multiple deliveries and installations, and shuffling.

The rental storage space was reduced by 50%, which required sorting out our stuff vs. Kathleen’s. Our stuff moved to the new shelves and baskets. Her stuff required moving to a new smaller storage, new shelving and repacking. Meanwhile, appointments had to be kept over months with our dentist 100 miles away, for those 11 crowns for me (replacements, they were-the military can be hard on teeth).

The TV even required multiple visits to Ace Hardware in order to mount and recess electrical and cable wires. Only then all had to be rewired because I wired for basic cable versus HDMI cable. So, what the heck! I rewired the sound system in the living room while I was at it. The 1^st quarter of 2015 rocketed on.

Concerns from the peanut gallery (INSERT: That’s me! KMR) in February had been that the structures were gaining size and scale, exceeding our allowable footprint! Not to be deterred and since our original concept was to have the Christmas tree in the center of the complex, we had gone on a road trip to acquire the remaining track and switches. Once we had the additional track and emerging clock tower in hand, we had gone about rearranging the living room furniture, laying the track out on the floor as based on the plan, placing the clock tower in its position, and ricocheting back and forth to storage to get the fireproof, faux tree, etc.

Mind you, we had that first go round (including setup and takedown) in February. In March, yet again, we temporarily install the Christmas tree back (out of storage) into the living room to make sure the overhanging branches will clear the proposed plan and future structures. Everything went well, I thought, except I was not going to have a chair to look at TV unless the plan was reduced from east to west. With a gulp, I got some changes accounted for in the scope of work, and then again put the Christmas tree back into storage.

At this time, it begs to be said in brief, that the tree came out AGAIN after the platform was constructed AGAIN in the studio, and then put back into the storage room. Karen would have no possibility of a crisis (as she called it) at Christmas.

REFLECTIONS ON YEAR ONE 2015: February KMR

February 10 . . . Freight and Passenger Depots

February 15-26^th . . . Christmas Hall

It must be emphasized: Christmas Hall was—well, let’s suffice it to say a lot of pre-design was not involved in Christmas Hall. Richard went straight to to acid-free hardboard and threw up the elevations of a 3-story building, then started cutting it out and gluing it all together with nary a sketch in sight.

“Had I realized how much effort it would be to frame out and GLAZE over 50 windows and doors, I might have rethought the design. Each door, each window was stick constructed.”

RWR

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

REFLECTIONS ON YEAR ONE 2015: January KMR

Needless to say, pieces for the clock tower and viaduct had to be constructed in segments so they could be spray painted various colors, then assembled. "The exciting part was having the train go through the clock tower," he told me later. I think it was a vision of that moment to come that led him to persevere without fail.

At each stage, new elements kept coming to mind, he said, and were added. The roof required lots of time—for dormers and individually laid basswood shingles, soffits, fascia, brackets, windows, coins, flagpole and more color.

The dormers on the clock tower roof went through several variations, including arched copper roofing which did not work or satisfy! Finally the new dormers reflected the northern rigors—and all buildings were seen as needing concrete, even concrete shingles. And still, we both laughed, the whole layout would have to be understood as under a bubble against the fierce extremes of weather at the Pole!

The clock required finding a dial image on the computer. Then it was necessary to find the right transparency and score the isinglass to cover and brighten the clocks appearance. It was backlighted, which created another challenge, in that the roof system had to be removable. Along the track viaduct, red runway lighting was a natural but created another design problem—where to store the battery packs. It was decided the north face of the viaduct would be Christmas Hall and the south face would be the freight adventure. East and west would be supported by ground works for the laying of the tracks and cutting into the glaciers with retaining walls.

And January sped by . . .

Monday, March 20, 2017

Reflections on 2015 from The Editor: January KMR

January: always a time of reflection, isn't it?

Of necessity, and believing that pictures truly are each worth a thousand words, the layout of YEAR ONE 2015 for this publication was compressed to a simple calendar portrayal of photos in brief of what was in actuality a year's worth of endeavor on many fronts. Always joyful, it was. And delightfully busy.

I remember . . . our story well.

January 14, 2015:

The construction odyssey began. Having viewed, yet again, our great favorite, the Universal movie Polar Express on blue ray, we set to choosing elements of the North Pole story to feature. Time, obviously, was a big factor in the story—dreamtime, timeless yearnings, times of decision and commitment, Christmastime! And so much more about time. That made the dominant feature a clock tower. Polar Express had a great clocktower through which the train barreled. We wanted something like that.
Faith in God—Father, Son, and Spirit was essential—Believe!
Journeys and place, challenges and rewards would enrich the experience.
Trains! Trains were the transport to and through it all.

Richard started by building that clock tower and elevated railway viaduct in his own unique way. His ideas flowed simply from sketches. From them, he drew up on acid-free board what looked good to him; and the form began to take shape "in my mind", he said.

He also said later he had had no idea how much effort it would take to detail the clock tower and viaduct. Lights needed to be installed. Soffits and fascia needed to be imagined and constructed. Chases for wiring had to be established. The Roof!? (Imagine a lot of forehead rubbing here!) continued . . .