Texas Flood is the first studio album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. It was released in 1983. The title track was a cover of a song written and first recorded by Larry Davis in 1958. The lyrics of this powerhouse blues reflect on the destructive power of floods.
Fortunately, for the Saint Louis Lines, the recent water incident on the layout was more of a Rhode Island Flood . A leaking water supply pipe was caught just before it was about to completely fail and cause a catastrophic blow to the train room, and probably the rest of the basement.
Photos show the disruption to the layout room. 1) The hardboard backdrop had a small amount of water-damage and needed to be removed. A roughly 2 x 3 foot section of layout deck was removed to allow access to the water pipe. 2) Actual flooding was minor and confined to one corner of the floor. Several soggy-bottomed boxes and some pieces of lumber had to be dealt with. 3)Close-up of the leaking pipe elbow, which had developed a stress fracture – it must have been leaking for at least a couple of weeks.
The leak in the supply pipe was where the water line enters the house, just before the inside shut-off valve, so the water was turned off at the outside meter. My good friend Steve C. was here and did that for me. Thank you Steve! This was over a weekend. When the plumber arrived on Monday to assess the situation, and carefully turned the water back on to inspect the leak, water began to spray instead of just drip out of the damaged pipe! With no doubts where the leak was coming from, the plumber ran back outside and quickly shut off the water!
1.) New hardboard is installed (again, with the help of Steve C.). Access to the shut-off valve is behind the rectangular cut out in the backdrop. 2.) The layout deck is replaced and the track repaired. Because of the bench-work depth in this area, I left a new smaller permanent access that is just large enough for me to stand in, so I can work on redeveloping the area along the backdrop. An easily removed cover will be added in the near future.