Good Morning!
Friday 13th! Better to duck und cover today!
It has turned rather quiet in this place. The MIA list is getting longer and longer. I must be boring the folks with my Swiss tour, so I am considering to let it end right where we are. It´s only a short train trip to Zurich airport, from which planes will take you anywhere you´d like to go. Zurich airport is the hub for all of Switzerland.
Make it a good one!
BigDaddyDave surely the 80:20 rule is known in Canada? 20% of the people do 80% of the work. It's not just work, it's complaining, paying taxes, drinking.
You know what Henry? You are absolutely right! The 80/20 rule does apply. The best thing that I can do about that is to stop whining about it, recognize that it is a reality of life, and get on with the job of bettering the club!
A long time ago I used to teach basic community college level leadership courses for people who were trying to get into management positions. I think I should dig out some of those old lessons just to remind myself!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Afternoon Diners,
Ulrich- I didn't mind the Swedish trip.
I didn't have a comment or suggestions for the past week. I wish I did.
Modeling my continuing layout has a two week break. Hoping it will start up again soon.
I ordered a star wars Halloween accessory but it was going to be delivered yesterday. It has an No Access Alert on it. Apparently it was sent to a different mail truck for delivery that wasn't available on my route. It will be sent the next business day so I hope it's today.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
In preparation for selling the house, I've now go my entire workroom cleaned out. I boxed up a lot of unbuilt structures, rolling stock kits and a few Jordan vehicles, to be resurrected again if my layout ever finds a new home. I threw out a lot of junk, too, including old Athearn BB frames that would never run again anyway. I decided I didn't need all the old sprues with no parts left on them, either.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Afternoon Diners
Flo, Ed, Gary, Ulrich, Inch, Galaxy, Brent, Jan and I will have a please.
Ulrich My Friend, the dinner being slow has nothing to do with your hosting the Swiss Tour! I have enjoyed a few of the videos you have posted. Think it is that time of year where folks are trying to get outdoor stuff done.
Feeling a lot better today about life! Maybe because there is Sun Light, not sure.
Train Front The summer of 2016 I was wearing shorts and when I leaned over to turn the window A/C on my shorts caught on my PCM Big Boy and was falling off the layout! I got it to slide my leg so it was not a straight drop to the floor. Today I gave her a test run and I happy to report the engine run's just like before the drop! That means it still derails and headlight still does not work! But no worse than it was!
Later, Ken
I hate Rust
I bottled my homebrew today, 50 bottle of American pilsner.
Been watching youtube railcams from Railstream. They have a chat, which isn't interesting to me other than there are apps that enable some to track trains. However it is clear that most of these video railfans are teenagers. I caught a discussion of age and their dads were 45-59. It's encouraging that kids are not playing videos games but watching trains. There are more girls than I would have expected. Of course in this day and age, who knows, the girls may be FBI agents.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Haven't been around for months because I've been dealing with my dad's declining health, as well as warm weather "honey-do's." Even though weather is getting colder, I still won't be around much for awhile because my brother and I will be emptying out Dad's house after his passing last week. His cancer came back after about 15 or so years and metastasized. At the same time, he became unable to swallow solids. He fought well, like a good Marine, but pneumonia, dehydration, and septicemia finished him off last week, two weeks shy of his 83rd birthday. Since this all started, my advice to everyone is to get your papers all in order and make sure everyone knows your wishes so that, if you become ill or incapacitated, they'll be able to pay your bills and tell doctors and lawyers what has to be done.
Henry, wish I could have a bottle of your home brew. My brother does home brew, and he does an excellent job.
I have a Railstream subscription, and it's great. More sites added all the time. I never participated in any of the chats, or do I know anything about the demographics of the veiwers. I know my wife loves trains, and she is NOT an FBI agent.
Mike.
My You Tube
Uncle_Bob Since this all started, my advice to everyone is to get your papers all in order and make sure everyone knows your wishes so that, if you become ill or incapacitated, they'll be able to pay your bills and tell doctors and lawyers what has to be done.
Since this all started, my advice to everyone is to get your papers all in order and make sure everyone knows your wishes so that, if you become ill or incapacitated, they'll be able to pay your bills and tell doctors and lawyers what has to be done.
That's the reason that many years ago I finally got Mom & Dad to put me on their respective checking accounts as a co-owner so that if something happened to them at the same time, I can take care of bills and such.
Yep, get all your duckies in the same pond, and then all in a row. My mom and step dad didn't, and have no buriel insurance, or any savings. Their intentions were to "let the kids take care of it".
Step dad passed 9/21/2017, so all of us kids scrambled to get it all together.
You need to have power of attorney for financial, and health, all figured out and in writing, along with a will.
Wife and I are in the process of doing this. I'm 68, and she's 62.
Uncle Bob:
Sorry for the loss of your father.
Good morning, Diners !
Bob. .... Good to see you and sorry to hear about your father passing away. You have good advice.
Mike ..... Also good to see you in the Diner, and sad to hear about your step dad passing away. It is wise to havr affairs in order so the next generation can handle everything as needed.
Our journey of life will take us to the final destination, and it is best to prepare for that eventuality.
Ulrich .... I do enjoy your Swiss videos. Nice train rides, streetcars, etc. Beautiful scenery and remarkable engineering with bridges and tunnels. Your comment about your possibly being boring is simply not the case.
I had more time yesterday to work on the corner project of the layout. I made more sawdust.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Hot Dang, Page 5! My favorite!
I spent the week in a hands-on academy for piano techinicians. It was billed as being a good fit for beginners--it wasn't. I felt like I was in Top Gun and the most I had done was to have flown balsa models and read some books on jet airplanes. Oh well, live and learn. (I guess this was more of a case of living without the learning.) Unfortunately it wasn't cheap.
I am spending the next week with my son, the Amazon Marketplace Mogul talking about some work that may be available. Hopefully the cold weather won't be too much of a shock. The best part--I get to spend some time with my grandkids.
Richard
mbinsewiYou need to have power of attorney for financial, and health, all figured out and in writing, along with a will.
When my Mom was passing from this world some time back, I was going through her papers and found her "living will." It directed that she did not want to be kept alive by "extraordinary means" beyond any real hope of recovery. As it happened, that was the situation she got into. It was extremely comforting to me to read her words about this. I knew it was the right thing to do and would probably have asked the doctor to do that anyway, but it was far easier to do given that simple document. I've got a living will myself.
Uncle Bob,
Condolences on the passing of your Father.
Jan
Eveing Diners
Flo, Ed, Jan, Gary, Ulrich, Galaxy, Brent, Uncle Bob and I will have a Please.
Uncle Bob Sorry to read about your father's passing. I hope it was a peacfull one with no pain.
Work Front and it was WORK today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After 1:00 PM I was swamped and it stayed that way to after closing! I realy have no idea how many people came in the store today! What caused the biggest problem is most of the folks wanted to take the stuff with them while new customers where still coming in the store!
I was so busy that I did not get any of the paper work done. At 6:15 I got the last customer out of the store and felt like Ash Pit, so I locked up and blew the Fire Trap. Guess I am going in early Sunday so I can do the paper work and fax it in.
When I left I had a headache and I was 3/4 of the way home when I realzed I had not even had time to eat!
I think I did around $3500.00 in sales the hardway and made a extra $220.00 in spiffs.
Good but a hard day.
Later,Ken
Evening all! Flo (or whoever's handy), could I get an apple cider milkshake this evening? Don't know how to make one? Simple... take a package of apple cider mix, stir it into a little bit of milk and add lots of ice cream. (I like 'em thick.) Thank you so much.
Hobby Front: After a bit of consideration, I changed my mind slightly on the GP20 plow colors for one engine: the pink one of course. I decided that I couldn't justify not painting the plow pink to match the engine. Of course, that means that I have to hit the paint mixer again as I don't have any of the original paint that I mixed up when I painted the engine. I will have to even make it with a completely different brand of paint as well because the original color was mixed using the now discontinued Polly Scale color line. I have ordered some Humbrol Signal Red and another jar of White to see about mixing a replacement. This time I will very carefully document what mix I use so that I can replicate in the future if the need arises.
I did, however, document the mix for the Cascade Green color for the BN SD40-2. The condition of the shell is bad enough that the green will need to be repainted. I couldn't find the premixed crossover for BN green so I found a suggested mix online. In Model Master, it suggests a mix of 4 parts Panzer Olive (4798), 1 part Radome Tan (4722) and 1 part Gloss Green (4669). However when I got it mixed and tested, I decided that it was too dark for my liking so I added another 1/2 part of the Gloss Green which turned it very close (at least to me) to the green is on the Athearn shell. Even with the Gloss paint in the mix, it still dries to a flat finish. The drive I ordered for the engine arrived yesterday. It ran right off when I put it on the test track and has all the pieces except for couplers, which I plan to install Kadees on anyway. Then the next project is probably the long-sitting SD45 which involves installing the new nose headlight and rejigging the handrails to be accurate to the prototype. (By the way, thank you again to the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, MN for graciously allowing me to climb on the prototype NP SD45 in their collection to measure said handrails. One of the only museums I ever been in that you can actually climb on the exhibits.)
Mike:
Sorry for the loss of your step father.
When my parents passed away in 2013 almost everything was in good order. The only problem was with the cottage. The ownership was shared originally by six family members. Over the years as people passed away my dad ended up with three of the six shares. Unfortunately the owners of the other three shares put up a fight despite the fact that they hadn't used the cottage in decades nor had they put any money towards maintenance, taxes or insurance. Long story short, we had to buy them out. Had my dad approached the original owners after they stopped using the cottage we could have had the shares for free. That was the original agreement.
Bottom line is you never know what kind of worms are in the can! Check the contents out as early on as possible.
Good morning ! ... Coffee and donuts please.
Ken .... Evidently, your work is feast or famine, aand yesterdya was a feast day. Wow!
FRRY .... It siunds like you are beug careful to make your models prototypically correct. Glad to hear about it.
Dave and others .... Regarding estates and planning for them, etc. ... Other mother lived longer than our other parents and passed away in May of 2016. By then most of her financial assets were with a stock broker. the accounts were set up to be transfer on death (TOD). So when she passed away, her investmnts transferred immedialtely to me and my sisters. Easy. We had power of attorney since a few years before then. We moved her into a very assisted living facility several years ago where she was very happy in her final years. That is when she sold her house and moved prceeds to existing accounts with a stock broker. ...
Have a great Sunday, everybody.
Mike /others- Sorry about your dad. I sometimes forget how difficult it is when a person dies just to arrange everything.
FRRYKid- You could repaint the cowl or any part available in a dark purple. That could match or go with the pink color.
Ken- Sorry about your big boy falling to the floor. I would more depressed and upset, but it solve the problem.to the situation.
Evening Diners
Flo, Ed, Gary, Brent, Galaxy (where ever he is) Ulrich, Jan, Angelob and I will have a cold please.
Heartland Division CB&QKen .... Evidently, your work is feast or famine, aand yesterdya was a feast day. Wow!
Gary My reward for having a good day? The Company is going to add the new emplopyee Keith on Saturday! Just Great! Here I am looking for partime work because I am not making suffect money to pay the bills! Plus I hear he has a bad attitude toward managers. Told Larry (manger of the Florsant store) he was not going to take cash to the bank? Larry told him if you take in cash you have to go to the bank. His answer? Told Larry "problem solved, I won't take cash!" I can see this may get intresting, he is 6'4" and weights 300 pounds, I am 6'3" and do not like the answer NO!
Angelob I was no where near as upset as you would think. As much as I love the Big Boy they seem to hate me! I have had 3 of them, 2 Athearn and the PCM. First Athearn Big Boy could only pull 20 cars? Second one front truck would lift on the left side while going around a right hand turn? PCM Big Boy, had to fix it when I got it? Worked well for a few years and the headlight went out and started having problems with the tender derailing.
Later Ken
hon30critterWhen my parents passed away in 2013 almost everything was in good order. The only problem was with the cottage. The ownership was shared originally by six family members.
The soon-to-be ex-wife's family are in a similar situation. Her parents (now just her mother) own a beachfront condo in Florida, and their desire was to pass the property on to all 3 of the children jointly. The problem is that her two brothers are deadbeats, guys with no jobs and no assets who have sponged off their parents their entire lives. If it were to go through, they would pay nothing towards taxes, upkeep and condo fees but expect to share in any rental income, although one of them is living there rent-free right now so there would be no income. The right way to do this would simply be to sell the property and distribute the proceeds. If one child wants to have it, he should buy the others out at fair market value, but none of them should be forced to be an unwiling partner.
Skol Go Vikings
angelob6660 FRRYKid- You could repaint the cowl or any part available in a dark purple. That could match or go with the pink color.
That would solve the issue of not having any purple on the rolling stock, but I don't think it would go with the green on the top of the engine.
Just in case people have forgotten what that engine looks like, here is a picture of it and the matching caboose:
MisterBeasleyThe right way to do this would simply be to sell the property and distribute the proceeds. If one child wants to have it, he should buy the others out at fair market value,
Absolutely!
We had an offer to buy the place from two nephews. They offered us 15 cents on the dollar! Sorry, but I'm not flush enough to hand my nephews $100,000 of my assets. Nice try though.
Good morning.. Coffee and a pecan roll, please.
Ken.... Some "reward"..... Sorry to hear about it.
Dave ..... You could have made a counter offer at 100 cents on the dollar.
Everybody... Have a nice Monday.
Bear- Since I know you live in New Zealand. I heard about the potato chip shortage.
Ken- I didn't know about your bad luck with those locomotives.
Evenin'!
Janie, a cup of decaf would do nicely right now, please....
Been a few days since I have gotten in to post... Uncle Bob, sorry to hear about your Father! Mike, sorry to hear about your Step Father as well!
This was a strange weekend out at the Museum.... We had sold out crowds both days, 1,000 paying people for rides each day. We managed to fill out the train crew, but just barely. Staurday i even got a half hour lunch break... Sunday ate lunch on the caboose when I had fewer people on the fly.
Staurday started off with........ First family group that got on the caboose had just boarded when I heard a loud "THUD!!!" I had the ground crew hold the line that was waiting to baord the caboose and started to climb aboard when a family member ran out and told me that "Grandma" had fallen on the floor trying to climb up into the Cupolla! I got on board and sure enough the lady had fallen on her back smacking her head on the wooden floor. luckily she did not hit anything else on the way down. I did a quick evaluation (as per my now way outdated first aid traininjg) And found her conscious, able to move her eyes and talk, and able to move her hans and wiggle her toes... Fearing a concusion and/or neck injury I told not to move and that I would be right back.
I ran out to the porch on the Caboose and yelled, "I need help" and what had occured. The track forman called 911, and another car host hurried in to help. He seemd to take over so I went to calm the family and tell them what was happening. Turns out the other guy was also First Aid Trained but his had run out as well.. Anyway, it took 15 minutes for a County Deputy Sherriff to show up and almost 25 minutes for the Ambulance and EMTs to show. They checked her out, put on a neck brace, and got her on a backboard. (Guess I was right on my evaluation.) Then they couldn't figure out how to get her off the caboose! In the meantime the open air car had taken all the other guests up to the upper yard and then returned. The EMTs figured out they could pass the backboard over the rail on the caboose into the open air car and then easily carry her to the waiting ambulance. Of course we had parked the open air car about 60 feet away as we considered the caboose to be "blue flagged". Finally coupled them together very gently and got it done.
Rest of the day I managed to do my job, but all night I kept running the incident through my brain.... Figured out we likely played it out according to best practice. Sunday I talked with everyone involved and we agreed we did things right. In fact the deputy complimented us on how we reacted before he left. Have not heard how the lady is, but the family was concerned that they didn't get their ride (they were on their way to the hospital). We assured them they would get free tickets to come out again!
Sunday was busy but no real problems. I had two of my old students show up with their families. One has been a frequent vistor and we always have a good chat! He also makes sure to get on my caboose.... The other was a Hispanic girl that was just a sweetheart in Middle School and cute as can be as well. She still is a cutey and looks just about like she did as a kid, but has three little kids in tow. I feel old, I do. She didn't recognise me without the beard. I finally went over to her while they were waiting to start boarding in the upper yard and asked her if she went to school in Geneva. She looked at me and said yes. I said, well, I thought so. I was your Middle School Music teacher. Her eyes got big and she got all excited. Said, "Oh My God! Mr. Howard!!!" Got to chat for a bit with her on the trip back down to the Depot. That made my day. Until..........
We were tying up for day in the lower yard when I looked at the parking lot across the road and couldn't see more than a couple hundred feet down the L A & L tracks. Just turned and told the Conductor we might better stay on board for a while. He looked and went to his radio telling the Engineer to stay put. We got hit with a freak storm with over 60mph winds and horrendous rain. The storm hit the entire area and toppled a lot of large trees and branches from trees. Good thing we had just got everyone off the cars. The normal route I use to get to the NYS Thruway had a tree down across the road, and with quite a bit of other damage it took me a half hour of driving to find a way to the Thruway. Over 20,000 homes were without power. There was minor damage 50 miles away where I live.
OK, I have talked enough. Back to getting stuff done here. The Retired Teachers thing is on Thursday and I have a lot to do to be ready for it!
Later!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Ray. ... wow. You definitely did not have a boring weekend. I hope that lady did not have a serious injury.
Flo, Ed, Gary, Angelob, Brent, Jan, Galaxy, Urlich, Inch and I will have a Cold
I think it was Will Roders that said "If I had the choose between being Lucky and Good I take Lucky anyday!"
Work Front What are the chances at 11:00 AM 2 guys would walk in wanting 6 sets of Queen Mattress? Well I did today! Asked them "what is your budget?" I was watting for something stupid like $200.00 a set. I was stunned when I was told $500.00 a set! Got a $3400.00 sale just like that?
Gary I am slowly getting over having Keith at the store on Saturday. This last Saturday was the first good Saturday I had this year I think? Being kidding with Larry that we should be called Weekdays Only!
Angelob At this point in life and current layout I have pretty much given up on steam. I have had bad luck with all most all of my BLI steam engines. Well the PCM Y6b, well it is what all other steam engines want to grow up to be!