I, too, love the GG1. Even though I model the Milwaukee in the transition era, I still had to have one. I had a Lionel one in O scale when I was a kid. The one I've got now is a Bachmann.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Hi Everyone,
Brunhilda, coffee with cream, please.
I think it's sad when all of those marvelous structures like roundhouses, etc. go the way of the dinosaur. In my home town, the UP had a roundhouse and other servicing structures. I had been to that roundhouse as a kid several times. The roundhouse is gone. The turntable is gone. I don't know if they tore the turntable out completely or just took out the turntable and filled in the pit. In any event, one would never know that those things had been there. Not far from the roundhouse there used to be a thriving flour mill, a fairly large operation. There were two tracks usually full of boxcars full of grain being processed 24/7. Now it's all abandoned. Oh well, as they say, you can never go back home, meaning that if you do, nothing is the same as when you left.
Today I went over to one of the nearby suburbs. I got stopped by a train at the grade crossing. "Oh goody," I'm thinking. "Hmmm, only a single Canadian Pacific locomotive at the front. Must not be a very long train." 10 to 15 minutes later with a long string of tank cars, "Ok, there's a pusher loco at the back of the train. What's this? Kansas City Southern?! Oh, no merger promotion going on here!"
I would imagine there'll come a time when the Western roads merge with the Eastern roads and be coast to coast. Ya know, I hope it doesn't happen, but look at what's already happened with mergers. Part of the interest is all of the different roads that were once active.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
up831I think it's sad when all of those marvelous structures like roundhouses, etc. go the way of the dinosaur. In my home town, the UP had a roundhouse and other servicing structures. I had been to that roundhouse as a kid several times. The roundhouse is gone. The turntable is gone. I don't know if they tore the turntable out completely or just took out the turntable and filled in the pit. In any event, one would never know that those things had been there. Not far from the roundhouse there used to be a thriving flour mill, a fairly large operation. There were two tracks usually full of boxcars full of grain being processed 24/7. Now it's all abandoned. Oh well, as they say, you can never go back home, meaning that if you do, nothing is the same as when you left.
Way back when I was in High School I learned the "Songs of Travel" Cycle by Ralph Vaughn Williams. I performed the entire Cycle several times in my Career. The one I always had trouble with being able to sing and not get emotional was "Wither Must I Wander". "Home No More Home to me......" IIRC it was the last song in the Cycle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGolIP1A3Y4
(I sang it better! )
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
I took my sons to NYC from Baltimore in 2008 or 09. There were a bunch of GG1's parked off to the east.
In 1958 and a few years later, my father took me on the same route and we had breakfast in the dining car and the toilet emptied directly on the tracks. I still have the passenger timetable somewhere. I think one way was $9. I wish we had booked the parlor car.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Trackfiddler posted the 4935... I got to run that one, fancy paint and all...! Just around New Haven motor storage, but back when I was a young hostler we always liked those moves, we got an hour extra for towing the power car along with it.
Since the topic is roundhouses, here's a pic of the old New Haven roundhouse at Cedar Hill engine terminal:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.ct0338.photos/?sp=79
(can't find a way to grab a link directly to the pic)
By the time I got to work at Cedar Hill (I actually got called for only one job at the engine house back in 1979), the roundhouse still stood, but all that remained in use was the "lead" and the [locked down] turntable -- so you could get clearance to throw a switch and then move back to another track outside.
Not long after that, they had it all torn down.
OldEngineman(can't find a way to grab a link directly to the pic)
Here's OE's photo. Be sure to look at all the details. A pair of sand towers on the ground. A crew of M-of-W workers cleaning up a pile of ties but it looks like a length of new track there, too?
New Haven HAER by Edmund, on Flickr
I spent a day at New Haven passenger station back in '73. So much to see and so much activity. Even then it was half of what it had been just ten years before.
Amtrak_New-Haven_11-71 by Edmund, on Flickr
New-Haven_Norwalk-Ct by Edmund, on Flickr
NH_EP5_Jet by Edmund, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
Good Morning Diners. Chloe, large coffee and a side of bacon please.
Well, my auditor and I are currently in a disagreement about something he is hung up on. We'll see where it lands. He's been very sensible so far about things, but just keeps getting hung up on this topic that, in our site's opinion, we are meeting. Funny thing is, if he wants to push it and write it up as a finding, I am auditing a site in his area in two weeks where they all work together to address the "issue" he is bringing up, and how they handle it doesn't meet the stance he is taking with us. His own approach doesn't meet what he wants to write us up for but he is arguing that how they do it is good! Not that there's revenge in an audit or anything, but nothing like putting a target on yourself.
up831I would imagine there'll come a time when the Western roads merge with the Eastern roads and be coast to coast. Ya know, I hope it doesn't happen, but look at what's already happened with mergers. Part of the interest is all of the different roads that were once active.
Have a good one fellas.
Mike
Ray: Pretty song. Unfortunately fo me, the lyrics are a little bit lost. To my ears the lyrics are little more than vowel sounds of varying pitch. I would guess that the singer was being picked up by a condenser mike. He's about 30-36" away from it, unlike rock bands who practically swallow the things. Back when my ears would allow me to mix for music at church, I always miked the singers with condenser mikes because they never got upon them. I digress. Anyway, thanks for posting.
Good morning, diners. Lots of black coffee this morning.
What nice days to live on the plains. Farmers are planting, birds are fighting over territory, warm days and cool nights!
Yesterday, Daisy the Dachshund (she's still alive and kicking) and I spent several hours in the rocking chairs on the front porch, with neighbors stopping by to talk, just enjoying the great life. It looks like today will be a repeat.
up831Now it's all abandoned. Oh well, as they say, you can never go back home, meaning that if you do, nothing is the same as when you left.
That's the truth! I barely recognize my hometown now. Even the house I grew up in looks foreign to me. Trains used to stop in that town -- now they just roll through.
OldEngineman, that is really a neat photo of the New Haven roundhouse. Lots to see in that old picture.
Water Level RouteHis own approach doesn't meet what he wants to write us up for but he is arguing that how they do it is good! Not that there's revenge in an audit or anything, but nothing like putting a target on yourself.
This sounds like you might have some fun in several weeks. Your line of work sounds awfully difficult to me -- I would be lost in ten seconds of explanations.
Ray, I remember some of the Ralph Vaughn Williams 'Songs of Travel', but I guess I never really appreciated them. I do like the Robert L. Stevenson's poems that inspired Williams.
BigDaddyIn 1958 and a few years later, my father took me on the same route and we had breakfast in the dining car and the toilet emptied directly on the tracks.
Henry, that is the same year I spent two days and nights on a train. I remembering stepping the flusher and holding it open so I could watch the track ties going under the train. It didn't take much to entertain me back then.
I hope everyone has a great day. If you're not retired, Thursday means that Friday is tomorrow! There's some brightness on the horizon. If you're retired, Thursday is the same as Friday (or Monday) -- they're all great.
York1 John
I asked my doctor if I gave up delicious food and all alcohol, would I live longer? He said, "No, but it will seem longer."
York1Kevin, the picture you posted yesterday reminded me of my recent trip through Utah, with the red rocks. Am I close?
Yes, that picture was taken in April, 2019 just South of the Wyoming border in Utah.
up831Oh well, as they say, you can never go back home, meaning that if you do, nothing is the same as when you left.
Not true if your childhood home was near the campus of the University Of Florida. Everytime I go back I am so amazed how much is still exactly the same, even the places we used to live.
These pictures were taken in 2015. They look pretty much the same as 1975 when I was riding my bicycle around these same places.
-Photographs by Kevin Parson
The University Of Florida was the perfect place to grow up.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I did an Internet picture image of a couple of houses I grew up in as a kid. One was instantly recognizable as nothing had changed, even 50 years later. All the houses and the church across the street were the same as I remembered them. The earlier house I lived in looks like it always did, but when I lived there it had a huge farm across the street. It now looks across at the loading dock of a large big box store. The character of the entire neighborhood has changed. Even the street name has changed, from one which almost duplicated another street in town to one that was deemed more politically correct.
Anyway, we're back in South Carolina again on the GF's real estate hunt. The weather is clear and in the low 70s. A bit windy, though.
MisterBeasleyThe character of the entire neighborhood has changed.
When we moved to Cape Coral in 1982, we had one of the original GDU houses. Ours was on the intersection of two river access sailboat canals, one was deep dredged.
The little GDU house was only 1,100 square feet.
As time progressed, it made no sense to have a $30,000.00 house sitting on a $500,000.00 lot. In the 2000s the house was torn down and replaced with a 4,500 square foot monstrosity with a boat house and 30 foot high pool cage.
Nothing in that neighborhood looks the same.
I just looked on google at my childhood home. The trees planted against the fence in the back yard, barely reached 6' now they are 30'. Other than that it looked the same. However I still follow the Baltimore news and there have been robberies and stabbings a couple blocks away.
SeeYou190The little GDU house was only 1,100 square feet.
I don't know what a GDU house is. I looked in Google and came up with a method of hog farming.
https://www.nationalhogfarmer.com/reproduction/gdu-management-working-toward-future
Were there hog farms where your house was built? This is a GDU Feeder:
https://pigeasy.com/pigeasy-products/gdu-finishing-feeder/
Sometimes acronyms and abbreviations trip me up. I need a glossary
Good evening all. Nearly caught up on the jobs to do after being away on holiday. I need another one.
Most of my childhood homes have been demolished and the areas now so different. So much so I would not like to live there anymore.
Locomotive Sheds at Carlisle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1s0xg-FwQo&ab_channel=TrainsTrainsTrains
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Good morning from the magnificent West Coast, it is a perfect day and I am not going to do a thing.
We had just had the MILs celebration of life which drew a good size crowd and then last weekend had my sister's 50th anniversary bash which had an even larger crowd. Then Monday a couple of nice young ladies flew in from Europe to pick up their new puppy and are staying with us for a week. Apparently, they are movers and shakers on that side of the pond and that meant the house has been full of dog people coming to have a visit. When the talk turns to all dogs all the time I go find something else to do. Four pick-up loads of bark mulch was it. So I am down at the road sprucing up the landscape and people arrive I don't know so I tell them I am the gardener and tell them to just go up to the house. A little later once I am really sweaty and dirty I go grab a couple of Coronas and join the party out on the patio, getting funny looks from the guest. My wife then says, "let me guess, he told you he was the gardener"?
My son just got engaged on Tuesday. They flew down to Mexico on Sunday where he booked a top-floor suite that comes with a private butler and he popped the question on the deck as the Sun was going down. He videoed it and posted it to their FB page after for all of us to share. They grow up so fast, it seems like yesterday I was tieing up his skates for his first venture out on the ice. They are already hinting that they might want the wedding here at the house. I see more gardening in my future.
With Gordon Lightfoot passing away I have been hooking up with a lot of old friends. Starting in the late sixties Gord was big on our playlist and we would sit with our guitars on the deck or in the backyard daily playing for hours. Lots of stories are remembered as some of these guys went on to be top-caliber musicians and recording studio owners in Vancouver. One of my best friends who use to play lead guitar for us still tours as a fairly well-known classical guitarist. I remember when he left for Guildhall in London to chase his musical dream in 1980. Over the years he would get back to Vancouver on occasion and show up at the house with his guitars and we would play mostly Gord tunes for hours, he hit every note perfectly even when a few years had passed between visits. Neither I nor a couple of my lifelong friends have been able to pick up our guitars since we heard of Gords' death, maybe today.
The wife and my daughter have taken our guest over to Vancouver Island for the day and I have the place to myself along with five dogs. My future Daughter-in-law just posted a photo of them having mimosas and brunch by the pool. I sent her a photo of the bark mulch in the back of the truck to show her what the poor working class has been doing.
Vancouver 1906, click to enlarge and explore.
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."
NorthBrit Nearly caught up on the jobs to do after being away on holiday. I need another one. David
Nearly caught up on the jobs to do after being away on holiday. I need another one.
gmpullmanI don't know what a GDU house is. I looked in Google and came up with a method of hog farming.
GDU stood for General Development U... Something.
That was the company that was contracted to build the houses in Cape Coral back in the 1960s.
They were built cheap, and on the most desireable homesites, since they were the first houses built here. There are only a couple left now. They were awful.
They could be identified by the single car garage or carport that was flush with the front of the house. There were three populat floor plan choices that all had identical front elevations. Two master bedrooms; master bedroom and two small bedrooms; or master bedroom, one small bedroom, and large room fully open to the back yard. Ours was the third option.
I did a Google search for GDU House In Cape Coral, and found nothing. I guess the term has gone away. Only us 40+ year residents will know it. I might be the only 40+ year resident in Cape Coral. The average age here in 1982 was like 68 or something.
BigDaddy However I still follow the Baltimore news and there have been robberies and stabbings a couple blocks away.
Cape Coral is just starting to get real crime, and the police are clueless about what to do. I have a feeling in 30-40 years all of the remaining polish will be off of this gem.
Evening
Been busy around the building since we returned from our five day getaway skipping around Wisconsin.
It seems my semi retirement part-time work around here has changed to full-time for Spring, Summer and Fall. That's okay, as I've learned to deal with it, cuz November through February has always been dead months in construction since the beginning days.
John, Still love Model Railroader magazine just as much as the little Kid in me did, and have no complaints about it either. It's anticipated when it's due, and always get excited when Judy pulls it out of the mail box and reveals it to me
OldEnglishman, I've always loved that GG1 myself, as it has a set apart character to it. It's really cool that you, and Ed as well, got to ride at the helm in one of those. If you block out the midsection in your mind, the thing looks like a gigantic gangster mobile sitting on the tracks for crying out loud...
Ya see it? That's a lot of character! It's not your everyday locomotive that has that kinda character
Forgot to compliment you the other night Mike, how impressing your hard work on that beautiful wooden stairway paid off This carpenter always appreciates beautiful wood that is put together well. And also well aware, how difficult sandwiching boards inbetween for a tight fit is. I'm hoping, if you put carpet back, you'll just do a runner, or center rug treads, and leave that beautiful wooden craftsmanship, revealed to view on both sides of the stairs
Well, I'm rewarded with Friday, Saturday and Sunday off, before looking at another condo rehab on Monday. Ju-Ju has those three days off too
Have a great evening guys
TF
Attuvian1 Another job or another holiday? John
Track fiddler If you block out the midsection in your mind, the thing looks like a gigantic gangster mobile sitting on the tracks for crying out loud.
Now I know what to do with that Tyco GG1 shell I have been holding onto.
SeeYou190 Track fiddler If you block out the midsection in your mind, the thing looks like a gigantic gangster mobile sitting on the tracks for crying out loud. Now I know what to do with that Tyco GG1 shell I have been holding onto. -Kevin
You Go Kevin Can hardly wait to see that one
BATMANMy son just got engaged on Tuesday.
Hi Brent,
Congratulations to your son on getting engaged!
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Good Evening,
Beautiful day here, 68F and sunny. We are cleaning up the back yard before the front and that is the logical sequence besides SWMBO say so.
Had a pair of mallards visit today and go for a swim in the pond. Beautiful sight.
Speaking of childhood homes, I drove by mine today as it is on the way to a small specialty grocery. I was picking up some clotted cream for the scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam we are having on Sat. morning while watching the Coronation. The house looks much the same as does the neighbourhood. It was a nice area 70 years ago and still is today. The house was built in 1928 and was the location of my first model RR.
Well time for tea.
CN Charlie
Ed, thanks for posting the Cedar Hill Roundhouse pic.
The yard tracks off to the right were once the New Haven's westbound departure yard, but I'm going to guess that this pic was taken around mid 1970's, and that property was by then used by Amtrak. They eventually built their rail plant there, and when they rebuilt the Shore Line, work trains originated there as well.
As for the South Norwalk pic, back when I was about 12 (1962), I used to walk over from East Norwalk, and then find an empty baggage cart (a car or two behind where the second silver coach is), and sit there for 4-5 hours at a time, watching the trains come and go.
Never thought back then I'd end up running FL-9's and those coaches (at least for a little while)...
OldEnginemanNever thought back then I'd end up running FL-9's and those coaches (at least for a little while)...
Thanks for sharing your experiences on the old New Haven, OE. I've only visited a few times in my RR journeys back in the early '70s in the Amtrak 'Rainbow' era.
One time I camped out for a few hours at Shell (New Rochelle, SS 22) tower. What a beehive of activity!
NYNHnH_Shell_Tower_11-71 by Edmund, on Flickr
For those not from around there it is where the 'Hell Gate' line from Pennsylvania Station meets the connecting line from Grand Central and continues north toward Boston. The passenger activity alone was nearly endless. I saw one of the few remaining P-5as there still running in Penn-Central black.
FL9s2_Shell-Tower by Edmund, on Flickr
And a GG1 with the PRR stripe still visible:
GG1_4883_Shell-Tower by Edmund, on Flickr
Somebody's having trouble with the steam generator!
Good Morning Diners! Happy Friday! Flo, coffee and a massive cinnamon roll please.
The audit at work is over. Thank goodness. The auditor I was having a disagreement with finally saw the light yesterday and agreed we were meeting the intent of the requirement he was hung up on. Out of 5 audit subjects, the one I am responsible for was the only one without a finding. That felt good!
Track fiddlerhow difficult sandwiching boards inbetween for a tight fit is. I'm hoping, if you put carpet back, you'll just do a runner, or center rug treads, and leave that beautiful wooden craftsmanship, revealed to view on both sides of the stairs
Looks like our house will be overrun with teenagers Saturday. My daughter and one of her friends are going to prom and had decided to get ready at our house. Then we found out a bunch of their friends (they are sophomores so can't just go to prom) are coming over the "help them get ready". I already warned my wife we need to stock up on snacks. They'll clean us out, I'm sure. Still, it will be fun.
TGIF!
-Photograph by Kevin Parson
Good morning everyone. Chloe, I would like two of those chocolate frosted doughnuts and a large black coffee. Thank you
Water Level RouteLooks like our house will be overrun with teenagers Saturday. My daughter and one of her friends are going to prom and had decided to get ready at our house.
I miss those days so much. When my baby/baby daughter got ready for her Homecoming dance with her friends in 2012, I had no idea that would be the last time my house was over-run with teenagers.
Enjoy!
Mighty quiet in here.
Chloe, bring me a slice of strawberry pie, and I will just sit in here all alone and enjoy it for a spell.
Downright stagnant, does anybody have any air freshener? A few people have to move around in an establishment for it to function.
How come no one filled up the cookie jar?
Vali Hi Drive Inn was just before you got to Hudson Wisconsin, only about 40 minutes from our place. We had been going there for at least 30 years, and they had their last season last Summer. A developer bought them out. We bought some cheesy T-shirts because we knew that was it.
The Starlight is the last one in Minnesota.
Ain't never been there, they tell me it's nice
Litchfield, in Meeker County is about an hour and 45 minutes away. They do have a Hilton in that town, so we're planning on going this Summer.