In September 2008, I moved into the new house in which Version Two of the CR&E would be built. Immediate attention needed to be focused on getting the house organized, but before long I was in the basement finalizing ideas and getting ready for construction. Beginning in October, a group of friends helped me unfinish and then refinished the already finished side of the basement to make it more appropriate for a model railroad. The first piece of benchwork was hung on the wall in November 2008!
Steady progress was made in the initial layout room through summer 2009, when the same group of friends and then some labored hard to frame out the second room for the rest of the layout. Benchwork and basic trackwork was in place by Thanksgiving Weekend 2009 and we were up and running on a trial basis in December 2009.
Progress continued into February 2010, when the CR&E was a part of the NC Rail Run N Scale Edition. A group of visiting operators attended what was the first full-blown CR&E V2 operating session that weekend. The railroad experienced a few teething issues, but everyone seemed to have a good time. The layout and the crew that built it received a lot of compliments.
On April 17, 2010, the CR&E was back in full operations with its first official regular operating session. A dozen operators took part in the event, a six hour "dual session" separated by a lunch break. I was very excited to have the CR&E back in regular operation again, just 22 months after the embargo in a previous residence.
A few photos of the first operating session can be found on the CR&E's website at www.kntower.com, under the Version Two Ops tab.
I owe a lot of thanks to family and friends who supported the rapid, focused construction of this railroad. I hope to be able to share it for many years to come.
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