MERRY CHRISTMAS. Come join us for Hot Coffee, Tea and cookies. All are welcome

[rtraincollector]

Morning all, Merry Christmas to all, Hope it's a good Christmas for all.

[ChiefEagles]

MERRY CHRISTMAS to

all.

 

Off to Grandchildren's house.  

Have a great and safe one.

[Banks]

MERRY Christmas.

Back from Midnight Mass.

Enjoying some meat cheese and crackers to go with my wine before going back to bed.

Had a great time with the kids and grandkids at our annual Christmas Eve get together. Then a nap. We'll see them all again tomorrow evening at daughters house.

Nite all.

Prayers for those in need

[wrmcclellan]

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!

Many thanks to all of you in this community for many years of fun conversation!

[cheapclassics]

Good evening all,

Sunny weather today.  House is swept.  Packages are wrapped for wife.  Trains are in place and ready to run.  Went to Mass tonight.  Not crowded.  CTT came today.  I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas.  I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[Sturgeon-Phish]

It's a Christmas Miracle!!!

I was finally able to log in.  I've been trying for weeks!

Merry Christmas and may God bless!

Jim

I'm posting before I lose connection!

[anjdevil2]

Merry Christmas!!

I have wrapped up a Christmas Eve work stint.  8.5 hours, fortunately, at home.

First and foremost, Greetings and Salutations of the season to you, my fellow train-iacs.  May Santa (Babbo Natale!) grant you every wish and peace and health rain upon all of us.

We will have 18 attending tomorrows festivities. more will arrive on Wednesday, however, this will be another day of work.  

I am exceited to try to get the table up next Saturday in the train attic and I'll have to drive the roadrunner to Delaware on Sunday for temporary storage unless I find something last minute.  A friend will house the roadrunner until spring in his enclossed trailer.

The bike is another matter and it is smaller and I might find something sooner.  The garage is empty for now, save for the roadrunner, the bike and my rolling tool cart.

Tis appropriate, The Polar Express is on the TV....lol.

 

[fifedog]

Happy Christmas Eve, to one and all.

After 20 Christmas train excursions (6 in the past 72 hours), FifeClaus is exhausted.  I can't sit down without wanting to cat-nap.  We had a small landslide Friday night, which added a touch of excitement.  The county helped us clean up the track with their Kamatsu.  I wanted to mark the event with commemorative t-shirts (tap into the thrill-seeker crowd).

Trains were on a lot of the chidren's want-list, as were LOL dolls, Nintendo Switch, Barbie, Slime, puppies, ponies, Legos.  Most memorable request this year came from a young boy who wanted a "suit made of bacon".  His parents' stunned reaction confirmed this was way out of left-field.

Speaking of parents, for the most part, they showed a lot of self-control (except Saturday afternoon when there most of been something in the air).  Too many try to live through the screens of their i-phones, instead of just watching and experiencing the exchange between child and Santa.  Oh well...

[SPMan]

Not much to do today except try to get a haircut.  Will go to church tomorrow instead of the Christmas vigil tonight.  They will have a brass quartet playing at the mass tomorrow to enhance the service.  I like that.

Don, I didn't know they were doing trains this year at the Nixon Library.  Sounds problematic with the shut down.

Merry Christmas to all,

Ray

[Buckeye Riveter]

FINALLY, I am able to log into the forum using the same info as I have used for 14 years! I made three unanswered calls to subscriptions and wrote an email to renew. No response.

Thank you to Roger Carp of CTT for his help. He saw a photo I posted on the forum  and wanted to know the story behind it. One thing led to another and he asked me to write my story about the Marx Train set. 

The January 2018 issue has another personal connection, too. The story on page 36 concerning the American Model Toys O Gauge stockcars were made in Auburn, Indiana my hometown. One of the attorneys in Auburn has a beautiful collection of AMT trains. A friend of mine has a store south of Auburn and she sometimes has AMT train cars for sale at her antique store. 

Roy...Windows 10; 

MERRY CHRISTMAS to one and all!!!

 

[KRM]

Happy Christmas eve!

Not much going on here, Did egg sandwiches with my homemade Venison breakfast sausage this morning for wife and I . I added 1.4 tablespoon of real maple syrup into the 1# I had here and Boy oh boy did that make it GOOD!! I think I just about have it down now.

Thought I heard something on the front porch, then saw a opossum at the cat's heated water bowel.

We get a lot of opossums out here. Always have. I don't mind them, they don't hurt anything as far as I can tell but not sure I am up to eating one They seem to eat ,anything on the compost pile, deer corn, bird seed, old bread and just about anything else. I remember when we used to walk the train tracks, they were always run over in pairs. One on one rail and the next one on the other rail. Not the brightest animals out there.

Well best get going, The Son and his are on their way out to do Christmas here today.

 Have a good one!

[ChiefEagles]

49 and sunny.

Merry Christmas to all.  Have a happy and safe one.

[Banks]

Hello there,  

  been working on this post in Memo for a couple of days. I got up to pee and now wide awake.  
Almost ready. All gifts bought, and  wrapped. Still a bit of decorating and cleanup to do. Mrs made tater salad,macaroni salad, pickled eggs and deviled eggs, for Christmas Eve. Later   we'll add, ham, kielbasa and Ox roast.  The whole clan due here at 5.   

The yard is still to soggy for a truck load of coal so I bought  another ton for the farm house. Only had enough for a week if it gets cold. Even the Tahoe and trailer left ruts.     

                                                      Next day I boughti barrel of diesel fuel and added it to the tank at the town house. It was below 1/4 tank and I'll let the oil furnace take care of the heat there til I feel up to it.

Saturday evening we had all 4 grandkids while their folks were out. Went pretty good. The older ones usually pair up with the younger ones so there's usually no troubles.

Roy and 8N.....using Shutter fly the only way I can get inserting a photo to work is to open the photo then right click and select Copy Image. Then go back and paste that into the insert photo url line. I use Firefox on Phone and PC.   

   Best try to sleep, MERRY CHRISTMAS . 

 

Prayers for those in need

[cheapclassics]

Good evening all,

Busy today adding more lights and people to the layouts.  Just need to get the trains I want on the layouts set up.  Standard gauge layout is especially crowded.  Weather was ok.  Lucas will be home tomorrow.  Not much else going on.  I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[wrmcclellan]

8n,

After you copy the URL are you using the insert photo (step5) as described in Bob Keller's "How to Post Photos" thread at the top of the main threads page?

[SPMan]

Good evening all, my DIL stayed home from church today with her skin problem on her legs.  My son said she is out of pain but her legs are very red.  Don't know what to make of it.  Hope she can come on Christmas day.  I just stayed home all day today.  It has been pretty cool lately and they say maybe a little rain on Christmas day.  I am still fighting my crohns disease problem but hope it will calm down by tomorrow. I have been pretty lucky so far and have managed it with medication but it is being stubborn today.  Hope you are all well and doing the Christmas thing.  Talk later, have a good night.

Ray

[8ntruck]

We drove to the capitol city this morning to attend the Christmas Sunday service with my nephew and his family  The service was a lesson in carols type of pagent with the kids of the church assembling for a living cresh.  Our grand nephew (4 years old) was a cow.  We told him that his erformance was mooooving.

The minivan gave us a Christmas present - it turned on the check engine light along the way.  Stopping at an Auto Zone along the way revealed that the error code probably indicates a thermostat that is stuck open, preventing the engine from coming up to temperature.  Makes sense.  The light came on not long after we turned off of the two lane and onto the freeway.  Something to worry about after Christmas.

Roy - when I select a picture, then hit the share picture, I am not seeing the URL address. All I've been able to do is copy a link to SF, which does copy into the forum.  However, I'd rather display the picture directly in the forum, rather than have the other users link to someplace else in the web.

I know I'm missing something that is stupid simple.  My tech savy sons are coming to visit soon.  Hopefully, one of them can get me sorted out.

All for now.

[wrmcclellan]

8ntruck - Got your PM - Trains.com website has issues and I cannot reply to your PM (runtime error - whatever that is).

I have had trouble posting Shutterfly images also. When on SF, use the share button and then copy the URL that comes up in the window. Then paste that into the insert photo field.

Frankly I have given up on several of these features. With so many versions of Operating Systems (OS), browsers, and web page software out there I think no one can keep all software operating properly with it all. I continually have trouble with Apples Safari (a joke) and Win10 (better, but not as good as Win7). And every time Apple updates IOS, new issues appear...

[wrmcclellan]

Morning folks!

Happy Dec 23rd!

43 right now with a high of 57. Sunny!

Prepping for the sister and BIL arrival tomorrow.

All systems GO!

DJ - My Hallmark GGI disintegrated for some reason - guess they wanted to simulate zinc pest to be more realistic!

[cheapclassics]

Good evening all,

Busier day than expected.  Watched Man U totally wipe the field with Cardiff today 5-1.  Picked up stuff in yard.  Going to do layout prep tomorrow.  I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

 

[SPMan]

Good evening all, I have been AWOL quite a bit lately so I am trying to check in.  I am behind on all the news so can't comment on that right now.  I am as ready for Christmas as I'm going to be for a single person living alone.  My #2 son came over to day and did some heavy house work to help me clean the house for Christmas.  The kids are bringing Christmas dinner with them so I won't have to do any work.  I actually got some trains running this week for a change.  Resurected a couple of MTH proto 2 steamers and got them going again. N&W J and NYC Hudson.  Did some track cleaning and need to do more.  A friend loaned me a track cleaning car with big rollers that you soak with denatured alcohol.  I hope to gradually put all my engines back in service over time.  I need to replace a lot of traction tires which rotted out from no use.  Maybe the shop in Burbank has some.  My DIL has come down with some kind of skin problem on her legs and has been going to dermatoligist.  It is some kind of bacteria and the first meds they tried didn't work so now they are taking the shotgun approach with a new one that kills everything.  If that doesn't work she will have to go to the hospital.  She has been having a lot of pain lately with it.  Hope she can rally for Christmas.  She thinks she got this problem from wearing some kind of stockings that gave her a reaction.  It's always something.  Not much time left for the big day but hope you all are enjoying the season.  I enjoy the Christmas music on the radio which a couple of stations play all day between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Good night for now.

Ray

 

[wrmcclellan]

Evening folks,

Nice day today. Warm 60 and sunny.

Took a bunch of books from the office cleanup to a place here called Half-Priced Books. They buy used books and recycle books they cannot easily sell. Anyway I got $25 for a handful of books, a complete surprise. A lady in front of me got an offer for $0.75. I have a lot of technical and older Motor and Chiltin's car repair books. Apparently these types of books are popular resells.

Had a nice tour of a possible wedding venue for the daughter. It is a company that buys large unique homes that are on large properties and they turn them into wedding venues. They own 16 with 11 in Texas. This home had a 2 lane bowling alley and racket all court in the basement. The garage under the house was larger than my current home. Built like a French country mansion. 38,000 sq ft. The original owners built the place and only lived there 3 months.

DJ -

Dennis - safe travels to Oregon and Merry Christmas if we do not hear from you after the holiday.

Chief - yep, they are buttering up hiz honor!

 

[ChiefEagles]

54 and SUNNY.  Errands to run.  Have a good one.

[sir james I]

Another gloomy day. Current temp is 31 degrees.

My favorite Christmas movie is Christmas Vacation. 

CTT going to drop an annual issue, sad to see it going down hill, at one time it was a great magazine.

S.J.

[cheapclassics]

Good evening all,

Got month and year end done without much hassle.  Pain two tried to be a nuisance, but I just ignored her.  Good weather for a walk today.  Watched "Ernest Saves Christmas"....again.  I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[KRM]

wrmcclellan

Hey Kev!

Bob has been doing some free lance part time stuff as I understand it.

 

Tks Roy!

Good for Bob!!!!!     

[traindaddy1]

Hello: I've been attempting to sign on to the forum for several days without any success. (Must be my ancient computer and/or skills.)

Today, thanks to the Customer Service Department, I am once again "live".

Here's wishing all of you and yours, A Very Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year. 

[wrmcclellan]

cheapclassics

DJ's post reminds me of all the support the forum has given each of us at various times over the years. 

Ditto 

Bright, sunny, low 40's, only about 5* cooler than yesterday. 40-45 mph gusts yesterday piled all the neighbors leaves in our yard 

Finally taking it easy here. Been a hard road since the plumbing leak the weekend prior to Thanksgiving. 

DonB - moving those layouts for a couple of days is simply crazy. 

[cheapclassics]

Good evening all,

DJ's post reminds me of all the support the forum has given each of us at various times over the years.  Quiet day at work.  Ready to close the year tomorrow.  Helped wife by doing the dishes again.  Hope the baking is done soon.  I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[dbaker48]

Good Evening,

First and foremost, Soooo glad to hear Tyler is doing so well.  Hopefully he  won't have a lot of early childhood memories, of what he went through.  And, your entire family went through living hell.  I don't know how you could NOT feel that way on that day.  Just try to concentrate on how things are and not what they could have been.

Got my FIL situated in his new room, hopefully we have the right person there.  She is really loosing it mentally, I don't think she is far behind, but it will be worse.

We have done very little in preparation for Christmas, haven't done any shopping to speak of.   And no baking, minimal decorations.  But it is what it is.  Minor sacrifice on our part.

Lloyd called me today, and it looks like they are going to want all 4 of the layouts relocated.  AND, they think it could be done between Friday night and Saturday morning!!!!  That just AIN'T gonna happen.  Lloyd of course see the $$$, but its unrealistic.  At best it might be completed by the end of the week-end.  I don't really understand why closing down the gov't, would affect the access to the rooms the layouts are in.  Worse case for us would be they want them out as a result of the shut-down, then if it lasts a couple of days then want them back for the closing ceremonies etc.  Then we take them down on the 8th.  Should be interesting.

Sounds like I'm really negative, but I'm not!  Know things will get better soon, and I may get my wife back.  Were hoping the MIL well get envious of all the activity and sociallizing he is receiving.  And want to be there.

Anyway, Chief you know you could just move a TV in the crawl space.  

In the event I don't get back here before Christmas, sure hope ALL of you have a Merry one!