I went to Wickenburg to visit my old friend, Harold. It was his layout, the Black canyon Railroad, that was the operating base for the Black Canyon Model Railroad Museum. The railroad itself is at An Affair With Trains on Deer Valley Road across from the airport. Harold is still recovering from a stroke that took most of his ability to find the right words to string together and all of his chances at modeling.

This visit was for the express purpose of taking the beginnings of a brag book up to him. With about twenty 8×10 prints of several of the scenes on his railroad placed in sheet protectors and secured in a binder, he was transported back to his railroad. He spent 37 years working on his hobby, and overall I got to share about fifteen of those years helping and operating and maintaining the layout.

Shortly after he and Anne had moved out of their long-time home in Phoenix, they moved to a retirement ranch in Wickenburg. Shortly after that Anne fell ill and passed. Harold downsized again, to a smaller apartment at the same ranch. Then he had his stroke. Now he is in assisted living at the ranch.

The joy in his eyes and the look on his face were worth every effort to get the pictures together, and I have about another 150 – 170 shots that I need to cull through and add to the book. The first thing he did was show off his book to one of the staff members there. You could see the delight in his eyes, and I saw the level of caring of the staff at the assisted facility.

Harold is in good hands.

Chat ya later…

Thanks for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, and Wear Red on Fridays!

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