Hey All,

I know I saw it somewhere .. either in the docs, or in some teaser shots that Rich G. posted as he was working on the scenery around Lucille. I was sure I saw something about what the Mertz's do with their four sidings ?? But I can't seem to find anything on the subject anywhere now !!

From the "look and feel" of the place, I just treat it as a general warehousing operation .. with boxcar loads in and out. Anybody doing anything differently .. or can you help me find the reference .. before I lose the rest of my mind ??

Thanks in advance for any help,
Bob Kambach

Well I know I am treating it like a general warehouse in my activities.

Doing the same here! But I started having these "Senior Citizen Moments" (as my late Mother used to call them!) once I slid past 50 . So there may be something I missed as well!!

Well.... if you look on page 12 of the Suddenly manual you will find there is absolutely nothing said about what Mertz does. So I'll give you a little background information right here and some trivia too. I'll start off with the trivia first. Most people will probably think that the name Mertz was inspired from the name of the town Lucille. And between the two they'd be right thinking there's an association there with Lucille Ball. And that is correct. But that's not the whole story. Mertz was a name my older brother gave to this pet cat of mine back when we was younger. I have no idea where he got the name from. It's a shortened version of Mertzal. The cat's real name was Tuffy. He was a stray kitten that came into our backyard while I was hoeing down some weeds. I brought in the little critter and showed him to mom so we kept the little feller. For whatever reason when I was naming the company there I named it Mertz after the cat. So that's how Mertz got its name.

So anyway... what does Mertz merchandise? Well... little cat toys I guess. But no really, it's general warehousing. Kind of like a team track of sorts. Local stores needing a means to bring in merchandise big enough for rail use Mertz to do so. The long building beside the rail building is part of the Mertz too. And did you know that Mertz was a vital part of Lucille's growth at one time. Bet ya didn't know that did ya? See, back before the grain mill grew to what it is now, it used to be pretty small and much like an old barn. In time as the area of Lucille grew the old grain barn was torn down and the new mill replaced it. Though not exactly on the same site the old site is fairly close by. But back then the grain was taken by truck to Mertz stored in old burlap type sacks and shipped out by rail. Nowadays it's all done there at Lucille Grain but Mertz continues to be an integral part of Lucille. You may have noticed that Lucille doesn't have its own piano store. You did notice that, right? Well, pianos are actually brought in by rail and rolled down the ramp into the storage facility where merchandisers are able to sell the things. The only drawback is they sit in that musty storage building and that tends to make the things terribly out of tune. This explains why you've never heard of a famous country western singer ever coming from Lucille.

Now that you can take to the bank.

Rich G

Guys,

At over 60, I look at it like this...

What ever floats my boat(activity) at that moment is just fine with me. As long as I don't park no boxcar at the Suddenly Refinary filler plugs things will be just dandy.

Sharon:

Roger that.....

Mal

Rich et al,


>>"Most people will probably think that the name Mertz was inspired from the name of the town Lucille. And between the two they'd be right thinking there's an association there with Lucille Ball. And that is correct."<<

Well now !! But wasn't there somewhere that you had mentioned that fact in writing !! That's the part of all this that is driving me nuts !!

Rumor has it that "Marvelous Marv's Magical Music Mart of Marietta" is planning a major shipment of banjos and "gee-tars" to Lucille. There's probably a future C&W star out there somewhere !!

To all the other kind folks who also admitted memory blanks on the issue ... welcome to the "Suddenly Senile Switchman's Society" ... weekly meetings to be held at the Mertz warehouse .. But I don't remember which night !! Please do try hard to remember to attend !!

Here's a pic the newly acquired Mertz Inc. Trackmobile moving a boxcar load of musty old pianos to the storage track.

Regards,

Bob Kambach

Gee, it was mentioned some time on here long ago in a galaxy far away I would think. Most likely way back in the days when it was just Canton-Suddenly I'm sure.

Rich G

Rich: I like cruising this section just to hear the "tales" of the many of your wonderful creations. Besides being an excellent creator of routes I find you do be an engaging storyteller as well. This wonderful forum is full of interesting characters who have character as well. Asking a question in this section is like priming the pump. Thank you for all your interesting contributions!!

Hi again all !!

You must all think I'm just this side of "Nutso" .. but I finally found the post that I was thinking about. In the process, I also figured out (another sign of my semi-senility !! ) .. that if you want to find "ancient history" posts .. you've got to change the search page to look back more than the default "30 Days".

"Lo and behold" .. says he !!

In a 06/09/04 post by sixman, helping to correct the mis-spelling of Mertz on the great track diagrams of Canton-Suddenly done by Craig (ckawahara) there is the mention of the Mertz' and Lucille Ball.

>>>the sidings after Newton are "Mertz" (as in Lucy and Ricky's landlords) not "Metz". <<<

Being assured that I wasn't "making things up", will finally let me go back to running trains, until my next "Senior Moment" occurs. Heh Heh !! .. that probably means that you'll hear from me soon again !!

Regards,

"JerseyBob" Kambach (President, "Suddenly Senile Switchman's Society")