Hello everyone and Merry Christmas!!
Once again it is time to move the Diner to a new location and a new theme. The November Diner was very interesting! Thanks everyone for your contributions.
As is our custom, we include a list of fallen modelers who have made great contributions to the hobby and the forums:
This month's theme will be Christmas trains. I'm going to start off with one of the best, and that is Canadian Pacific's Holiday Train. The train has been running through Canada and the northern USA since 1999. Unfortunately the train will be virtual for 2021 as it was in 2020 thanks of course to covid. However, here are some pics from past years:
I hope that you will all Have a very Merry Christmas!!!
Cheers!!
Dave
P.S. Since this is the top of the page, I'm going to offer you all a serving of traditional Christmas Plum Pudding with salted caramel sauce. However, you will have to be patient. The pudding won't be served until after Christmas dinner. It has to develop its flavour throughout the month. The flavour will be enhanced by soaking the pudding in a bit of brandy every week or so! And, as if there wasn't enough booze in the recipe already, when the pudding is presented it will be douced with a small amount of brandy and set aflame! The brandy burns with a beautiful blue flame. It is one of the highlights of Christmas in my humble opinion.
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Thank you for the seamless and smooth Diner move, Dave!
I hope everyone is in line for a great Holiday Season.
NYC_Century_xmas_lo by Edmund, on Flickr
I'll be right here in the observation lounge of The Century enjoying a nip of the Holiday Cheer!
Regards, Ed
Well, it is December 1st. In Florida that means one important thing... the end of Hurricane Season! YAY!
Now we get six months of paradise and lots of perfect days.
This year Hurrricane Season was a non-event. Nothing happened here worth mentioning. However, that is not how the local news reports made it sound today. They recapped the season as if it was just one storm after another.
Two of the Meteoroligists were having a discussion, and one said something like the reason this was such an easy season was because so many people took his advice and prepared for the worst. What? Preparing for storms keeps storms away? I don't think that is how this works.
The World Is A Beautiful Place.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Good morning
Thanks for moving the Diner Dave and Kevin for helping with the copy-paste email I think
Enjoyed the Canadian Pacific Christmas Train pictures you posted Dave. We went to the CP Christmas Train concert at the Union Depot in St Paul a couple years ago, It was fun.
I seen a lot of you are having trouble posting videos too. I thought it was just my phone. I wonder if the problem is on this end or the YouTube end. I have a video of the Christmas Train, but apparently not today
Saw the Led Zeppelin video in last night's Diner Mike, Thanks. I haven't seen a Led Zeppelin video in years. Listened to thier music a lot in my younger days and sometimes I still do. They have quite a few songs that are actually rather mello.
I still have all their CDs as I do many other bands. I'll listen to their upbeat stuff from time to time when I'm in the R&R mood,
.....Rambunctious and Rowdy!
TF
Good morning Diners. A large coffee please, Janie.
Raining and a lot more rain to come.
A busy day again. All to do with the run up to Christmas.
Just seen this video. Not much of Christmas (there is a Christmas Tree). Just amazed at the layout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFV4m_r4dj4
Thoughts & Peace to All who Require.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Good morning everybody. Boy am I up early.
I forgot to thank Dave for moving to the Diner this month in my opening post.
Sorry for the oversight, and THANK YOU to Dave for doing such a great job and posting all those Christmas trains.
Hi Everyone,
Brunhilda, coffee with cream, please.
I had never seen pictures of CP's lit up trains. I bet they're beautiful in person. With all those lights in intricate patterns, the crews must start working on the train in July.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Good Morning everyone. Flo, a white chocolate and caramel latte please.
Update on my oldest. Had a follow up with the surgeon last night. Good news again! For the first time since her surgery (July) the doctor could see the bottom of the incision (Think stab wound. Extremely narrow and inches deep originally.) Everything looks healthy and the doctor wants her back in a month. We've never made it a month between appointments since the surgery. There is even a chance it could finish healing by the next appointment. Fingers crossed!
Dave, that CP train is really incredible! Must be quite the sight to see rolling down the tracks. Would love to see it in person some day.
Have a great day Gents!
Mike
Nice job on moving the diner, Dave, I didn't feel a thing.
We've seen the CP train, unfortunately, it's going to be virtual again this year.
In the WI. north woods for a few days. Got about 3" of snow on the ground.
I'm getting around a little better each day after hip surgery.
Not much going on, as of right now. I'll be back!
Got to look for some of those train movies in TF's post in the general forum.
Later,
Mike.
My You Tube
Holiday Trains can come in all sizes!
Springer-CO6-11-13 by Center for Railroad Photography & Art, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
Good evening all.
I am ready to make concrete tomorrow and try out the new Ryobi mixer.
I am so excited!
I think we may have to tie a bungee cord or 2x4 to Kevin's caboose. Never knew anyone to be exited about cement work except outside of the porta-john.
Douglas
PS: Kevin, tell the truth now.... are you gonna initial it, or put S&G on it?
Good luck and have fun tomarow!
Hi folks,
As I mentioned in the November Diner, Lazers has come up with a really good idea for a future Diner theme. He has suggested that we visit the many short lines across North America, and perhaps study the way that the big train companies were formed as well. The topic interests him very much and he has several books on the subject. I'm going to suggest that we use the short line theme in February. January will be all about trackside structures that are not stations or freight terminals.
If you have suggestions for a Diner theme or location please let us know. The more people we can get actively involved, the better the Diner will be!
PM RailfanNever knew anyone to be exited about cement work except outside of the porta-john.
It is exciting when you get to try out one of these bad-boys for the first time!
Here is a Christmas Train in Waterloo, Ontario:
I believe this photo is from the West Coast Railway Museum in Squamish, BC. They run a Polar Express train on weekends from late November to late December. I could be wrong. There are lots of Polar Express trains:
I can't find any videos of the train. Anybody?
Here's one on the Hew Haven:
The weather's been mild up here as it's been hovering in the area of 50 degrees. That's pretty good for December.
I have a little job I'm working on outside the last couple days because it's so nice out, .....NO CEMENT WORK! Well, It's too far away for me to borrow Kevin's nice cement mixer as it's being put to good use anyway
I'm under the impression if a train has a wreath on it's nose, it counts as a Christmas Train
Casey Jones Museum in Jackson Tennessee.
Branson Missouri at Christmas time 2018 or 19? I wasn't too fond of this Christmas Train as it was shut down for the Holidays
Here was our living room and Christmas tree that was right across the street from the train at our hotel on Christmas Eve.
Reindeer?
The fire & water show synchronized to Christmas music. If you zoom in you can see the Bethlehem manger scene right across the river.
Happy Holidays gentleman
Good morning gang. Hope everyone is having a good day. Not much news from here. Is it just me, or has the diner seemed a little slow lately? Maybe everyone is just busy with holiday stuff.
Water Level Route Is it just me, or has the diner seemed a little slow lately?
The Diner has been very slow lately.
I am enjoying carrot sticks and coffee right now, then I am going to go outside and mix some concrete!
Good morning, diners! It's good to be back home. The best part of a trip is when your car is leaving town. The second best part of the trip is when your car is getting back into your garage.
It's also nice to be able to post from my laptop. I hate, hate, hate posting from a phone, and I especially hate trying to read things and look at pictures on a small phone screen. If they only made a laptop that would fit in my pocket ...
Last Christmas we took the family to northern Arkansas in the Ozarks. Something I wasn't really looking forward to, but turned out to be a highlight, was going to Silver Dollar City. They have probably the best Christmas display of lights I've ever seen. They even outdo DisneyWorld.
Here's their train:
The train stops at this site, and the man in the rocking chair tells the story of Christmas, with the lights highlighting part of the Biblical story. We rode the train in the day, but at night it must really be beautiful.
Even though I love getting home, I am just leaving to go to the store. In this case, out here, the store is 51 miles away. I love living in a small town on the prairie, but there would be advantages to living in a little bigger city with some actual stores.
I'll check in later. Have a good one, everyone.
York1 John
York1They even outdo DisneyWorld.
Dems fightin' words in these parts.
Hello!
2018 Santa Train to the North Pole by Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, on Flickr
Fun for all!
Good afternoon/early evening Diners. A large, strong coffee please, Zoe.
The snow is back with a vengeance. Not happy as I shall be out in it later tonight. Midnight to be precise, after babysitting grandchildren.
I have been 'battling' our internet/tv provider. They repeatedly said the fault we have is at our end. Not ten minutes ago they said they have a problem and working on it. Our internet is back on, but the television is not. Dawn is not happy!
Those of you posting imgur the pictures are not to be seen. Others yes.
Anyway, whilst searching for a suitable Christmas train film I came across this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiEjS-h687g
Not much going on here. We had a houseguest from out of state over for Thanksgiving, and he arrived with a case of Covid which he verified the next day, and thankfully left when it was confirmed. So now the GF has tested positive, too, although I am negative and have no symptoms. But she wants to quarantine for two weeks. She's getting over it pretty well.
She will let me go out for curbside takeout, but not to go grocery shopping. We still have a lot of Turkey Dinner leftovers. I have no mlk, which is my big complaint. We still have lots of beer, which I use every night to wash down my Old Man Pills. The morning pills go down with coffee. The dung will strike the rotating blades in a few days when she can't have green vegetables because we'll be out of them.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
SeeYou190SeeYou190 wrote the following post 7 hours ago: York1 They even outdo DisneyWorld. Dems fightin' words in these parts. -Kevin
I know, I know! The Grand Floridian is beautiful at Christmas! (Although it's been 25 years since I was there at Christmas. Hopefully it's still done as great as it was then.)
NorthBritThe snow is back with a vengeance. Not happy as I shall be out in it later tonight. Midnight to be precise, after babysitting grandchildren.
David, I know this isn't what you want to hear, but we were 71°F today. That was not a record for this date, but it was close. It was beautiful, and I got a lot of outside work done. Hopefully you will not have a problem driving that late.
Good afternoon from the sunny West Coast.
Well, it finally stopped raining, the damage is in the billions, CN hopes to be up and running by the end of the weekend and CP is still having washouts. The amount of rain we had in the last two weeks has smashed records by huge amounts 20% to 140% depending on the area. The massive amounts of rain and record high temps 23c/76f are melting the snowpacks and glaciers adding to the massive flooding. I spent the last few days helping people fight back the wet. I destroyed my back lifting things I had no business lifting so here I sit with a nice big glass of red.
For the first time in 20 months, I ventured abroad to the U.S. yesterday to take care of some biz for this Estate I am looking after. I dutifully filled out all the forms and loaded everything on my phone. When crossing back into Canada I went to hand my phone to the officer and she said, have a good day, and handed me my passport. I never ever get questioned about anything even in retirement so I guess my security clearance is still in effect.
MisterBeasleyShe will let me go out for curbside takeout, but not to go grocery shopping.
Why not order your groceries online and have them delivered? My daughter does that, they charge her $5.00 for delivery, she cannot drive to the store for that piddly little amount.
We were going to cut down our Christmas tree today but I was in agony when I went to put the chainsaw in the truck so we will wait a few days. Tomorrow sounds good, I cannot stand to sit around the house.
Lots of great pics already this month, I sure hope Christmas goes off without a hitch this year after missing last year's. 22 for Christmas dinner so I will build the plywood/sawhorse dining table and we will eat in the family room as the dining room is just not big enough. Should be fun.
My son turns 23 tomorrow, I could not be more proud of him. He had a job making well into six figures six months before he graduated University and now he is going to start working on his Masters while working. I asked him what he wanted to do for his Birthday and he said Canucks! So we are going to watch Sidney Crosby and the Pens Saturday night.
Looking at the Birthday greetings on his FB page is quite something, people from the movie industry and a lot from the hockey world as well from his 18 months of writing for one of the major sports networks. Last week he was asked to join the board of directors for disabled sports which he has raised a lot of money in the past by running marathons. We have worked a lot with wounded warriors in the sledge hockey part of the disabled sports programs and that is where his focus will be.
I saw Rapido was releasing some more dome cars so I ordered another one. Had a long talk with Dan from PWRS and got the goods on the world of how the industry has been managing the last 20 months.
The dinner gong!
All the best to all.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Good evening everyone.
All is well here, and I got a lot done today.
Will be back with pictures and updates in a little while.
OK, back with pictures.
This Royal Poinciana tree is about 18 years old. I had to remove an entire can of roots from this tree to lay the foundation for the next wall section. This was hard work.
Then it was finally time to fire up the new concrete mixer and give her a go.
There is something therapudic, soothing, and mesmerizing about watching concrete mix in a rotating drum.
It took 16 bags of concrete to pour this section of wall foundation. It was no effort at all, and took less than 90 minutes.
The new mixer was $400.00 well spent.
Good morning Diners. A large coffee please, Flo. In fact leave the pot.
John telling us it is 71 degrees where he is and we are wrapped up like Nanook of the North. Then there is Kevin hard at work with a new mixer. I need a mixer in my whisky just looking at the pictures.
A busy weekend with the grandchildren. Granddaughter number 2 here this weekend, taking her to the cinema at 9.00am tomorrow!!! A Rainbows (Junior Guides) special film performance.
Grandson number 2s birthday party on Sunday.
Steamlights 2021 Bluebell Railway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD2ffh5yAhU
Thoughts & Peace to All who Require