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Did Dixie D survive Ernesto???

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Did Dixie D survive Ernesto???
Posted by Capt Bob Johnson on Friday, September 1, 2006 12:26 PM

I note this morning that the VA Beach area apparently took a beating from Ernesto!   Was wondering if Dixie D is as under water as many of the tv pictures show the area to be.  Looks like gas stations are in the middle of Norfolk harbor!

If TJ is washed out, I guess I'll have to tell Julio and Carlos to saddle up the MOW train and go down there and give that boy a hand!

They were supposed to work on the Roundtuit and Faraway tomorrow morning, but I hear it's going to be a trifle damp for that; so I coud send them down there for a nominal fee!

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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 1, 2006 2:01 PM

Capt Bob, T J ,   FJ AND G , and all the  G R R  people  i hope are all right  and not taking on to much water , it's just started to rain here in pa.  

   CHECK in when you can????????  .     BEN

 

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Posted by Capt Bob Johnson on Friday, September 1, 2006 6:54 PM

Well, here in Slower Lower Delaware the wind is blowing 30 - 35 with gusts up as high as 50.  Raining fairly heavily and steadily.

Reportedly the beach areas are losing power, but we're still afloat and on shore power, my generator hasn't had to kick in as yet!   A few branches flying around, but haven't seen any major trees down or stuff like that as yet!

My only problem is that the Mexicans won't be able to work on the retaining wall on my railroad tomorrow!

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Posted by tangerine-jack on Saturday, September 2, 2006 2:54 AM

The Dixie D has survived just fine, Bob.  Thanks for asking.  I’ve just got a little clean up to do from leaves and such, nothing at all really.  The storm was unusually furious for a while, as often is the case when a large storm front breaks apart.  We got a lot of rain and sustained winds around 45-50 mph with squalls, at times visibility was less than 20 feet.   Not a lot of flooding in my neighborhood, but other areas, particularly RT 13 on the Eastern Shore and downtown Norfolk were under water.  There were 2 local deaths storm related, so that makes Ernesto a very serious storm indeed.  I saw a number of cars under water and rolled into ditches and some trees blown down, but we never lost power in my local area.  Mercifully, the storm only lasted a few hours so damage was limited.  It’s rather pleasant outside right now and the streets are drying very quickly, almost like nothing happened at all.  Strange thing the weather, scares the crap out of you for a while, and then acts like everything is fine.

The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"

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Posted by Capt Bob Johnson on Saturday, September 2, 2006 2:46 PM

Good, at some point during the night we lost electricity.   I awoke at 0400 and generator was putting away.   Apparently shore power was out for about 3.5 hours according to difference in gen powered clock and the one in the house that is not!

Only prob on the RT&FA was that a gfci kicked out on big pond pump and had to be reset this morning.

Could have been much worse.   We did get a couple of gusts of 70mph on my annemometer, but mostly sustained wind in the 30 - 35 range.     Hoping to get some running time in tomorrow afternoon.

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Posted by Camaro1967 on Saturday, September 2, 2006 5:35 PM

Bob, further south of you we lost power too.  Most of the night, plus half the afternoon.  Today my layout looked just like those news reports you see on TV of towns hit by hurricanes. Leaves and branches everywhere. What a mess, but no serious damage. No trains running today.  I should of taken a picture.

Paul

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Posted by Train 284 on Saturday, September 2, 2006 6:23 PM
Great to hear everyone is okay!     
Matt Cool Espee Forever! Modeling the Modoc Northern Railroad in HO scale Brakeman/Conductor/Fireman on the Yreka Western Railroad Member of Rouge Valley Model RR Club
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, September 2, 2006 9:31 PM

There are other people in the world besides Americans, what do all the initials mean and what is Dixie D?

I regards what has been said here as about equal to a group of people all speaking a foriegn languae in front of you, knowing you do not understand what they are saying.

Rgds Ian

 

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Posted by John Busby on Sunday, September 3, 2006 8:44 AM

Hi guys

Good to hear you all survived

hi iandor

The Dixie 'D" Short Line, Dixie D for short is TJ's railroad empire

regards John

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Posted by Capt Bob Johnson on Monday, September 4, 2006 11:55 AM

And my layout is called the "Round Tuit & Faraway"; cause I'll do it when I get around to it, and that's probably far away!

Ernesto was a tropical storm we recently had which was strangely stronger up here than it was down South!   Whilst official records say we had a max of 50MPH winds, My annemometer registered a max of 72, and the Phila Maritime Exchange reporting station at Cape Henlopen noted gusts of as much as 80MPH!    A mess of rain in a short while.   Developers have paved over so much ground surface that there is little place for the runoff, so major flooding in places that would not have flooded with twice as much rain 20 years ago!

gfci is a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter; an electrical safety device.

MOW train = maintainance of way train

Julio & Carlos are some immigrant laborers (with green cards) I sometimes hire to assist with the work on my railroad as I have a bad back and can no longer do a lot of it.

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Posted by FJ and G on Monday, September 4, 2006 3:05 PM
we had maybe 6" of rain? Hadn't rained in weeks so the garden plants seemed thankful. No damage. Ernesto cooled the weather down as well, so was able to plant more trees and groundcover. Just wish had more vacation time.
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Posted by tangerine-jack on Monday, September 4, 2006 9:50 PM
 iandor wrote:

There are other people in the world besides Americans, what do all the initials mean and what is Dixie D?

I regards what has been said here as about equal to a group of people all speaking a foriegn languae in front of you, knowing you do not understand what they are saying.

Rgds Ian

The Dixie D Short Line is my garden railroad and was named in honor of my oldest daughter's seeing-eye dog, Dixie.  Dixie was from a D batch litter, officialy called "Dixie D batch", and as you can guess, it soon became Dixie Doggie.  I left it up to my girls to name the railroad and so there you have it.  Good thing God has allowed me to live in the land of Dixie, so the "Dixie D Short Line" name hardly raises any eyebrows around here.  A CSA flag with a Robert E. Lee portrait and the Dixie D name in gold letters completes the logo. "Lux Lucet In Tenebris" translates from Latin to "the Light Shines In the Darkness" 2001 is the year I laid track.

Dixie Doggie now resides in her own special "Dixie cup" on the dresser.  The current dog is Zodie Z, I can't even imagine............................

Bob and Dave, yes I believe the wind gusts were very near to the 75 or 80mph as stated, sustained probably around 45 or so.  The bay was churning with foam and 20-30 ft swells, impressive and scary at the same time.

The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"

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