See my train a leavin’
“Canada’s largest model railway is facing the daunting task of tearing apart its massive layout and years of rebuilding in a new location. A planned condo development is driving the Model Railway Club of Toronto from the basement area it has called home for nearly 70 years.”
- Globe and Mail, 6 Feb 2013 [hat-tip 4SlicesofCheese, who added "This is kinda depressing, and I don’t even like trains."]
There’s gotta be a blues lyric in here somewhere…
- vreaa
I thought I’d seen all kinds
Duh-DAH-duh-Dah-duh
Of housing bubble pain
Duh-DAH-duh-Dah-duh
But now on top of it all
Duh-DAH-duh-Dah-duh
The hype’s displacing model trains!
Oh I got the condo-hype blues.
Spelled C!
On!… Doh!
…Yeah!
I wonder if we could adapt Royce’s lyric to Arlo Guthry’s “City of New Orleans”…
Nobody was croonin’ the Blues when the MightyChooChoo ‘O Chattanooga was King… of course, Condos had been invented yet.
[NoteToEd: Musicologically, BigBand "Sweet" was the SoundTrack 'o the GoldenEra 'O Rail... and no, I don't have a train set but CanadianPacific did once let me borrow one of theirs.]
[NoteToEd: I don't think... somehow... that one would air so well today.]
[NoteToEd: Never underestimate the power of advertising.]
I believe our miniature world on Granville Island still remains!
And in a few years when later there will be the hole in ground. Hobbyists will say that’s where the train museum used to be. It was torn down to build condos that never sold during the bust.
Driving that train, high on cocaine
Condo developers watch your speed
Trouble ahead but everyone says that its fine
Housing bubble never seemed to cross anyone’s mind…
We had all the coolest trains
Had ‘em in a train museum
Fun Saturday
Only cost a buck and a half to see ‘em
But don’t go dreaming all condo
That isn’t worth the time and trouble
They buried my paradise
‘Cos of the housing bubble
Late last night,
I heard the backdoor slam,
And an orange Maserati,
Took away my old man.
Toronto has everything big cities have, Vancouver has nothing big cities have
But… we do have the biggest of something in the world.
The biggest housing bubble.
Model train, she left me
You know she left me for ‘The Blues‘*…
Yeah, my model train she left me,
Oh yeah she left me… for ‘The Blues‘
Now I’m so sad an’ lonely,
I just don’t know what to do.
I’m standin’ in the rain,
rain is fallin’ on my head
yeah, I’m standin’ in the rain,
water tricklin’ down my neck…
Gonna buy me one-na these presales,
gonna get my baby back on track.
Condo man he tells me
buy three, or none at all
Condo man wants to sell me
three (count ‘em three) or one or two
Says I can put ‘em on the card,
flip ‘em before anythin’ is charged.
Now I’m standin’ at the station
with my brochure in my hand,
yeah I’m at the sky-train station,
doing math on the back of my hand..
Guess I’ll take a real train outta here,
figure my baby will understand.
* ‘The Blues‘ – a funky, hip new young development, coming to a corner near you! Look out for special presale promos, to be announced soon! Guitars to first 25 lucky owners!
Oh… yeah!
Rennie baby,
I’ve got the Presale Blues!
Oh, vreaa … don’t give them any ideas!
Woke up this morning.
And the sales were down.
Woke up this morning.
And the prices were down.
All right then, ED… if it must be TheBlues… here’s your SoundTrack…
I almost forgot, ED… If you know your Blues… then you know your BluesDevelopment… should really be called…
TheCrossRoads…
‘The Crossroads’
Excellent, on many levels.
I remember going to that exhibit as a child. Hopefully they can find somewhere else even better.