President Reagan funeral

[Javern]

watching it today got me to wondering if anyone has modeled a funeral on their layout, perhaps a cemetary with a funeral going on.

[cwclark]

haven't done that one.....But I do give my condolences to the Reagen family...personally i thought he was a great president and human being...he got us out of a frightful cold war with the soviets, cut out a bunch of wasted government spending..(like getting those SOB's that can work off the warfare rolls)...tore down the Berlin wall, and got the US back up by the boot straps..we had just got out of the vietnam war, or military was faultered, and the country's morale was at an all time low, yet, he gave us hope and got us to believe in ourselves again that we are a strong nation and that we can do impossible things...gonna miss him...he was a great American....Chuck

[bsteel4065]

I do wish everybody would stop saying that Reagan pulled down the Berlin Wall. He didn't. The Soviet Union collapsed within itself and was brought about by the Russian people. Not Ronald Reagan.

[Anonymous]

woodlands scenics new figures at a Funeral are pretty neat, put a small cemetary behind the country church on my layout,

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bsteel4065

I do wish everybody would stop saying that Reagan pulled down the Berlin Wall. He didn't. The Soviet Union collapsed within itself and was brought about by the Russian people. Not Ronald Reagan.

Not to start a political flame war but he was a big reason in the Soviet collapse.

[cwclark]

the reason?...well..do you remember a program called "star wars?"..reagan's idea was to have a missile defense system that supposily could "zap" any incoming missile before it hit us...the russians believed that we had such technology and they fell over themselves trying to create such a system..it financially broke them and it was all a muse!.. the guy didn't actually get a big hammer and tear it down himself but this particular program led to the financial collapse of the soviet union.....so in a sense...he did tear the wall down in a round about way...Chuck

[n2mopac]

I have to agree with dougal. The collapse of communism was eventually inevitable, in my opinion, as the human drive to progress will eventually prevail over government oppression. I believe Reagan had a great deal to do with hastening it, however, as he created an atmosphere where the USSR could abandon communism and know that it would be welcomed into the world community again and helped to recover from the economic and political damage caused by communism. Ronald Reagan made that message clear while never commin off as soft on communism and tough on American defense. These are assuredly to his credit.
Ron

[orsonroy]

The collapse of the USSR was no more inevitable than that of Nazi Germany. Look around; do you see Red China collapsing? Instead of appeasement and detente, Reagan tried something the Democrats never did: outproduce, out spend, and out grow them. We then took pictures and showed them to the Soviet people. Once the poor slobs under the heel of Communist oppression saw that they were living in their own stink, they rebelled.

10 years before the fall of the Berlin Wall (1979) the USSR was a pretty vibrant nation, with a growing economy and a generally happy (brainwashed) people. Most of the Far East had turned communist within the past 10 years, communist insurgencies were growing in central Africa, and several countries in South America were poised to fall under the yoke of communism. It was by no means a dying system. As an example, if Reagan hadn't intervened and supported the Afgans (for right or wrong, as seen today), the Soviet Union well could have conquered all of the Middle East, choking off the oil supply to EVERY westernized nation. Not a pretty thought.

And the Berlin Wall was in East Germany, not the Soviet Union.

[Anonymous]

No cemetary scene.. but I remember goiing to see the RFKennedy funeral train... just north of Princeton. Was running hours late, partly due to crowds.

As for how much Reagan contributed to destroy communism... Sheesh! Reagan had more to do with the East's collapse than I want to credit him with BUT....

The system collapsed because:
1. It was corrupt... and corruption rots from within. (does that in Any country)
2. It polluted the east bloc to the point that the populations rebelled... Poland's Solidarity was NOT a Reagan creation. And the dead forests of Czechoslovakia got the Church to protest... making a populist revolt possible. (You cannot put down a populist revolt without French-revolution style bloodshed).
3. The Soviets had lots of contracts to supply Western Europe with oil... Germany was a HUGE customer. Even Russians know that to get cash, you need to deliver, and the maintenance of pipelines in the Brezhnev era was pitiful! Detent was a part of the equation, too... thanks to Nixon (who I Really didn't llike)
4. Oh, there was that Reagan guy, too. He best contribution in my book... "Plausible denyability" (aka, subverting the constitution).
5. And did you forget the Pope... funny that Pres. Bush remembered to tribute him just last week - for helping do a large part!

[Anonymous]

The most powerful thing a man can do is have others believe in their ability. We've seen these men in our fathers, teachers, coaches, good bosses and a lot of us saw this in this president. It's what empowers, creates, and overcomes inertia at the personal and group. We've witnessed this many times. It's why we remember, JFK, '69 Mets, 1980 Miracle on Ice, and President Reagon. May America continue to have a good brace of men like these.

[Anonymous]

While I don't plan on modeling a cemetery or funeral procession, I do plan on modeling a very old, solitary grave. One along the lines of one that I saw many years ago, just a little ways off of a trail in the Rockies. It was obviously something from the 19th century, the rocks overgrown, only the upright of the cross remaining, and weathered enough that it blended in with the rest of the forest. Just some little detail that can be tucked in amongst all of the trees on the layout.

---jps

[AltonFan]

A number of the cemeteries in the Chicago area are located next to railroad tracks, and I've given some thought to building a module based on a Catholic cemetery where some of my grandfather's people are buried. It includes a dramatic outdoor altar that would be rather modelgenic.

At least one Chicago cemetery, Rosehill, actually had a station with facilities to accept caskets. I think a few other cemeteries, located along commuter lines, had platforms for those visiting cemeteries.

While I am a Ronald Reagan fan, I really do not think this message board is the venue to discuss the achievements of President Reagan.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jschuknecht

While I don't plan on modeling a cemetery or funeral procession, I do plan on modeling a very old, solitary grave. One along the lines of one that I saw many years ago, just a little ways off of a trail in the Rockies. It was obviously something from the 19th century, the rocks overgrown, only the upright of the cross remaining, and weathered enough that it blended in with the rest of the forest. Just some little detail that can be tucked in amongst all of the trees on the layout.

---jps

[#ditto] what he said,

I want to do something similar, very small cemetary old and neglected. I alway thought that a cemetary i saw in photos from south america would be interesting to model, This was a very old cemetary on a hillside, so old that the hill had eroded exposing the coffins which were sticking out of the hillside.

BTW I not going to say Yeah or Neah about Ronnie Raygun [C):-)]
and the fall of the Soviets (Unless you ask me really nice, but read fast as Bergie will delete it ASAP! ).

But what I can REALLY do without was the NONSTOP TV coverage on EVERY SINGLE $#@%^ING CHANNEL!!!!! Please next time an ex-president kicks the bucket just allow one or two channels to cover it. It was the SAME CABLE FEED VIDEO TO EVERY FREAKING CHANNEL! Sheeesh! I couldnt change channels to see a different angle because it was the SAME CABLE FEED!!!


[banghead][banghead][banghead]


[soapbox][soapbox][soapbox]

PS was I the only one who noticed that Nancy R was REALLY out of it? Like shellshocked. Wonder if she was on some kind of SERIOUS medication I guess...she could barely focus on what was happening.

PSPS did anyone else note that after all of the blithering blathering talking head speakers at all of the memorials and services, the only speakers who said ANYTHING of true meaning, was when his three kids got to speak at the final service on Friday evening. They were the ONLY speakers who said anything truely meaningfull the whole week...Hats Off to remembering what their father truely ment to them!

[Jetrock]

I'm not exactly modeling a funeral, but there is a picture of a graveyard on my backdrop--there is a graveyard a block from where my prototype ran, and so I took a photo from a block away of the entrance--I have to scan the photo and "zap" out a few out-of-place objects like traffic lights but otherwise it makes a pretty good backdrop and is absolutely authentic.

Re: Reagan--most of what people say about him is nonsense. His "tax breaks" actually raised taxes (mostly on the middle class), government spending went up, up, up during his administration (sure, he slashed some welfare budgets, but spent more than he slashed on military adventures) and turned us from the world's biggest lender nation into the world's biggest debtor nation in eight years. He spent the Soviet Union into the poorhouse, but unfortunately he dragged us down with them--we're still trying to pay off the fiscal excesses of the Reagan years.

Although I must give the man credit for signing the bills that allocated funds for the California State Railroad Museum while he was governor of California...although now the "Gold Coast" will be known as the "Ronald Reagan car" because he was wined & dined on it...it's the kind of thing that would make Lucius Beebe spin in his grave...

[Anonymous]

About cemetaries: as they don't get destroyed by the elements or recycled for use elsewhere, they are often all that is left of old ghost towns in mining and logging areas. They can be very evocative, lost in the encroaching woods. Adding one near your abandoned right-of-way or old branch line could be a very touching monument to the people who lived, worked and died in the area.