The pot of coffee is always on [even after 2 years have passed]. Come on in. Sweet ice tea too.

[Roger Bielen]

Thunder storms are moving through this afternoon.

SASK,

Unlike you getting your railroad hardware from known sources, when I was in college our fraternity "acquired" one, if not the, last "Look Out for the Locomotive" signs in northern New Jersey. It was a cast iron oval about 3' wide, complete with its 4"diam. X 10' post. Wonder if it still is in the yard at the old faternity house. Made the front page of the B section of the newspaper. Perps. unknown.

[FJ and G]

Chief,

Back in 1974, went to northern Ontario and caught and ate monster Walleye and Pike, so I know it must have been good. Got ate up by horseflies and stuff, cause went about this time of year.

-----------

Couldn't get BB the beagle off the rabbit trail last night. She ran close to 3 hours. Went thru a swamp too, chasing the bunny. I picked off about 20 tics from my skin. Got Advantix on her but some of the tics stuck cause they must be bugspray resistant.

[wrmcclellan]

Wow! Hot here today! Over 95 at last look.

Worked school end-of-year party today with lots of kid games outside. Hot, humid, and pretty miserable for the adults. Kids had agreat time.

Off to chaperone my daughters Jr. High end-of-year and end of the school dance. They are "repurposing" the Jr. High next year - so after 35+ years, it converts to a magnet elementary school. The this year's dance (formal) is a big deal.

Bike rodeo at the school tomorrow morning, so have to be up early for that.

Have a great evening all!
Roy

[ChiefEagles]

Evening all. Rainy and windy in VA. Rumor has it a northeasterner is coming. Have not seen much of one yet. Temp has dropped 10 degrees in an hour or so. Off to the room for some rest and relaxation. Cough and Cough. Jon, all the Holiday Inns I have stayed in, that have computer rooms, are free. Now I'm a Gold Priority Club memeber but I do not think that matters. HAve a good evening and God bless.

[pbjwilson]

Turned out to be a nice day after starting out grey and cool. Did some gardening and started to clean up the garden railroad. The weeds took over last year so have lots to do before we can run trains. E-bays got an interesting item - Hafner wind-up - it's coming up on the end of the auction so I'll sign off. Happy railroading everyone.

[Dr. John]

Wow! What a storm we had this afternoon! I kept looking for animals to pair up two by two.

Thought I'd share a picture from Prattville. It's the old Continental Eagle mill on Autauga Creek at the foot of Main Street. You can see the remains of the old railroad trestle near the bottom of the picture. The mill was built in the 1830s and operated off of water power. The mill still operates but this building is no longer used. Plans are to turn it into a museum.

[Kooljock1]

Morning! I got to sleep in until 5:55!!! Whoo Hoo! Last night I was out late introducing the Marvelletts and Temptations at a station sponsored concert here in town.

Man, did they all sound good!

Along with the Temptations was Ray Davis from Parliment Pfunkadelic. They did an acapella version of Old Man River that just kicked!

It amazes me at how good their moves are after all these years...

My wife and I made an offer on a new house yesterday, but the housing market around here is worse than eBay. From the time the offer appeared in the paper in the morning to the time we talked with the owner, the bidding went up by $11,000. We bumped it up by another $2000, but I'd bet it goes above that by Monday.

Ah screw it! The basement was all laid out wrong anyway!

Jon [8D]

[spankybird]

Live from Roger's Corners Ohio, It’s Saturday Morning!!!

The ever-faithful Buckeye, who is currently out of the country, has sent me these photos to post this Saturday morning.

The lake


The boat


Buckeye piloting the boat down the lake.


Wish you were here,
Buckeye

[FJ and G]

Jon, Dr. John,

Investment in new housing is going crazy. If that old mill were in DC, developers would quickly turn it into a condo development.

Prices going thru the roof and taxes are climbing rapidly to match higher assessments. I'm not so sure it is the best time to buy; at least in certain areas.

My dream home is a ranch house with large basement somewhere on a dirt road miles from anyone in South Dakota, next to a fishing lake with a pack of beagles, basement full of trains, and a beautiful maiden.

[FJ and G]

Gee, Tom, you posted when I did and must have been reading my mind about the lake and dream home area. That pretty much is the picture that says it all.

[spankybird]

Good Morning from NE Ohio

temp is at 50 deg and going to 70’s with Blue Clear Sky’s.

What a great start to the weekend.

Kooljock – how great that must have been.

Dr. John – great pic. Last night I was checking the Weather Channel and you folks were getting wet. Hope all is ok today.

Pick of the Day


all be safe
tom

[cnw1995]

Wish I would've been there, Kooljock. A beautiful day here today - cloudless blue sky - I'm going to start cutting the grass - I'll probably need a scythe! then head over to work on the church, and later watch little league. Hope to get down in the basement tonight. I hope you enjoy good weather whereever you live today. You should see this housing market too - while not nearly as overheated as any on both coasts, a 'sea' of new subdivisons marches on into the west - now close to 60 miles from Chicago...

[ChiefEagles]

Morning gang. Off to the grind. [;)] Sunny and nice at the VA coast. Have a good one and God bless.

[jonadel]

Good Morning from Stormy Iowa,

It's been a week since the heavy rains but this morning looks like we are in for it at least until noon.

David V., I understand your desire to get away from it all in SD. It's a great place if you like wide open spaces, big winds and cheap taxes. We have friends that have built summer homes around lakes in the state and they love it, your dollar will go much further there than most other places. Plus the quality of life is so much higher but I won't even get into that. Fifteen years ago when we moved on to this acreage we thought we were in the country but now the big money has found us and the homes going up not far from us are just spectacular. We are well insulated on our property from that issue but the stupid regional airport that they want to put in less than two miles from us has lots of folks concerned. In many ways I'd like to stop progress and bring back steam engines to the bike path .7 miles from our house! How wounderful that would be to hear that lonesome steam whistle[:)]

Saw Star Wars yesterday (Sith), EXCELLENT movie but might be pretty scary for the younger ones. George Lucas is an amazing talent.

Jon

[Dr. John]

Good morning, all!

Great pics of the fishing, Tom! Looks like y'all were having a great time!

Dave, yeah, I guess there's something in all of us that would like a place like that away from it all. I enjoy going to brother-in-law's cabin up on Lake Martin, about an hour's drive from here. Great fishing and boating, lots of wild game, but unfortunately, no basement for a layout. He DOES have a large double garage that he used to keep a boat in. Hmmmm . . .

[Anonymous]

Good Morning, Everyone!

Right now it is pouring rain outside! It's supposed to stay like this for most of the weekend. This is a long weekend with Monday off, being Victoria Day.

My uncle brought home the switch stand. It actually isn't the complete stand, just the bottom base part with the lever. It's pretty dirty/rusty, but it's complete. It ought to be pretty easy to make the top part of it by sticking a pipe on top or something. I already have the coloured discs that go on the top of a switch. I'm going to display it by my layout.

Roger, That's pretty cool! It's amazing what relics survived on the railroads and it's great that that piece of history was saved. It would be nice to know what hapened to it. This reminds me of reading about trainspotters in Britain in the late 1960's when many simmilar things, such as signs and various items from stations, were starting to disappear. Throughout the nation, people everywhere were taking these things like mad at an astonishing rate. Today, such items are highly collectable and sell for thousands of dollars. Just imagine the many railroad artifacts that were once common many years ago and could have been saved. They're right when they say that hindsight is 20/20!

[ChiefEagles]

Taking a break. Chargers are slow today. Cough Cough. Came back to take some cold meds. Chat later.

[wrmcclellan]

Chief, - sorry to hear you have another cold. Lousy thing to have when it gets hot out.

It hit 97 here yesterday and I think it is over that today and very humid.

Daughters dance went well last night and bike rodeo went well (hot - 84 at 7 this morning) this morning. Too hot to do anything outside til later, so my neighbor and I packed up the boys and took them to Star Wars. Walked right in and the theater was basically empty. They are starting it every 30 minutes here at our local 16-plex. When we came out, there were people waiting in lines for the next showings. Pretty good show - but not enough of the "tongue-in-cheek" humor that made the original so much fun.

I agree - Dr. John - great photo and Kooljock - cool!

Have agreat weekend all!
Roy

[ChiefEagles]

Lowrance rep and I quit and came to hotel. All the rest of the reps had quit at 6 PM. Taking some meds and going to bed. Trying not to get pneumonia. Seems I really get sick every time I come to Hampton. Have a good night and God bless all.

[dougdagrump]

Evenin' All,
Seems like summer has arrived, no humidity as the thermometer tickles 100*. We've already had a few small brush fires but thank goodness nothing bad yet. If it stays this hot for an extended period I'll bet the fire bugs will be out and about.
I ran my "Galloping Goose" at the museum yesterday and it was an absolute hoot, don't know who enjoyed it more, me or the visitors.

[Anonymous]

Hey Doug,
Was that the goose from the bay of e ???
I bought a SPSF merger SD 40 Tunnel Motor loaded yesterday. Should arrive next week. Has a cool paint scheme.
High of 62 today, low tonite around 45.
Lots of rain this week.
Grand opening of cop shop next week, and yes I will post some pics.......Tim

[tschmidt]

Evening everyone,

It was a busy day. A few of us traveled up to Buffalo to help do some work at an inner city church. It turned out that we were up in an old organ chamber and literally cut out the old sound chambers and baffles. It was a very dirty and hot job that took most of the day. But I did get to a train store on the way home and picked up a train car.

Roger B, you are right, if I would have lost the bet I probably would have also had a hot fudge sundae! I will probably take her for one anyway. Thanks also for the tip on the restaurant next time we get to Athens, GA.

Saw the new Star Wars movie last night. It was pretty good. A lot of action and it tied everything together pretty well. It might be fun to go back and watch the original episodes again.

Hope you all had a good day.
Tom

[spankybird]

Good Morning from NE Ohio

with Blue Clear Skies and temp at 55 and going to into the 70’s again. They say we will have rain latter in the day. I better get the garden done this morning.

Chief – See you are not used to working, hope you are felling better.

Tschmidt – what type of train car did you pick up [?]

PE – Tim – looking forward to you pics.

Doug – you should have taken some pics of your goose running.

All be safe
tom

[ChiefEagles]

Morning ALL. Going to spend a few hours at BPS and then hit the road. Slept from 8Pm until 7 AM. Did get up and take some more cold meds. That was a good rest. Of to home to see what is at the house. Wife said that a train engine came. Maybe the CN SD70 that is PS1. Will convert it to TMCC with a quick kit and not expensive at all. All have a great day and God bless all.

[Roger Bielen]

Been a busy morning, after doing the Sunday crossword went out and started the yardwork at 8:30. Weedwacked around the house, 12 trees and 600' of fence. While it was still cloudy and a nice breeze decided to trim the shrubs along the front of the house. Posted a picture on SPF while I took a break. Just took a shower and now I can spend some time on the computer.

Started working on that farm plot for the layout. Have the area tilled and starting to plant. Made an engine driven pump last night to lift water from the river up to the farm, now to find something to use for pipe.

[jonadel]

Chief, I think you and I need to get together and find a Dr. who could get us well. I've never been this sick this long in my entire life. When I came down with Pertussis last November I didn't know how hard it would knock me down and now this last week it's Bronchitis with the beginnings of Pneumonia. I really hope this last batch of medicine works as I'm tired of going to to the Dr. I'm also to the point of not running the smoke on engines and that's sad. Maybe a month in St. Thomas would do the trick[8D]

Jon

[dougdagrump]

Mornin All,
Woke up the neighbors this morning, started work on the lawn a little after eight. [:D] Wanted to be done and inside before it started getting HOT. Thank goodness only a relatively small area in front needing attention today.
Tom, Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any photos other than when I first put it on the tracks to charge the battery. Kinda got a little busy and lost track of time.

For your viewing pleasure, GOOSEY, before it woke up.



Like I said before, this is one of the best $90 investments I ever made.[^]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ChiefEagles
Maybe the CN SD70 that is PS1. Will convert it to TMCC with a quick kit and not expensive at all.

Good morning Chiefie, Which kit is it that is quick and inexpensive for PS1 conversion ?

[wrmcclellan]

Hello All and Happy Sunday!

I found some photos for PETim and Buckeye. These are from the disaster road trip (where the family Windstar engine shot craps in Yellowstone and had to be towed to Idaho Falls to be repaired) a few years ago.

This first photos makes it clear that farmers in Idaho know which side their bread is buttered on!





Here are the Snake River falls that run right through the center of Idaho Falls which are across the street from the Best Western I stayed in waiting for the van to be repaired. Beautiful country up there.





And there is a beautiful park there on the river.



Get up that way if you ever get the chance.

Hope you all had a great weekend.
Roy

[ChiefEagles]

PETim, the DD Equalizer is about $120 and plugs in to sounds board. [Jan 2004 CTT] Have not talked to Tains America. Got the engine [LN] and even with $120, will be a lot cheaper than the new MTH CN with PS2 [close to $400]. Then I might get it a couple of years from now. [;)] Well, Jon, hope you get better. Got Dr's apt tomorrow PM and hope she can fix me up so I can hit the airways by Thursday AM. May end up on TV on this trip. Something about me going fishing on Sunday PM. Buckeye will really blow a gasket if I catch walleye and get paid for it. [:D] Now to the recliner and cough cough cough. [:(]