Afternoon all from slightly overcast SunnyCal--temperature's a balmy 85 with a slight Delta breeze and high, thin clouds. Wow, CLOUDS!! Almost forgot what they look like. Of course I shouldn't say that with Ike more than slamming into almost the entire Gulf Coast.
Our news, of course, is that terrible wreck in SoCal at Chatsworth--the news photography looked absolutely devastating. Predictions are from 20 to 30 dead, as the rescuers are still having trouble getting through the wreckage. The Metrolink loco and first car telescoped, and according to Metrolink, the train was carrying around 350 passengers.
I suppose what makes me wonder about all this is that most of UP's trackage in SoCal is single track with passing sidings, and the line out of Chatsworth is heavily used by both Metrolink and Caltrains--it's part of the old SP "Coast Line" between LA and San Francisco. It's never been a heavy freight line, I understand that UP only schedules 8 trains a day at the most between LA and San Jose/Oakland on it. The southern portion between San Luis Obispo and LA is very heavy passenger commuter service. Which makes me wonder why UP would have a freight scheduled over that line during rush hour to begin with? Just speculating, mind you, not trying to throw blame on anyone. However, someone told me that UP's freight traffic in California is dispatched from Omaha, Nebraska. OMAHA? Now THAT doesn't make much sense to me. Frankly, if I were UP, with the amount of daytime passenger traffic on the old Coast Line, I'd do what SP used to do and schedule major freight movements at night. That line is single track from San Jose 400 miles south to LA, and there are NOT that many passing tracks on it.
End of rant. Sorry, of course we won't know for quite a while what happened and why, but it's a terrible tragedy.
Jeff: Why don't you keep that Rio Grande loco as a 'loaner'? That's one handsome diesel. Glad you were able to cure the truck problem.
Well, I hobbled out to the garage today, leg was feeling pretty good--took a look at what I have to do--vacuum spiderwebs (why do spiders like tall Evergreen trees so much, anyway?) and the track, run my track-cleaner around, which I did, and generally made a nuisance of myself until my re-built knee said, "Yo, kiddo--ENOUGH!". I'll finish it tomorrow. Take the make-up brush out and dust off the buildings. BTW, it's not 'dust', it's POLLEN. And the garage has been closed since I took my whacker through the glass coffee table three WEEKS ago. *** stuff just SEEPS in. I will be so glad for our first rain of the season where the stuff will just get slammed into the ground!
But, with the vacuum and track cleaner, I got a train around the Sub today, at least. I think it missed me, LOL! God knows I've missed IT! Still working on the tank kits, came up one flat-car short. Cured that by hobbling over to Bruce's the other day. He said I looked so distinguished with the cane. I told him where I would be GLAD to put said cane, we laughed. Got the flatcar. Now I'm set. Hopefully.
Well, that's it from me, lately. Prayers to all in the path of Ike, I hope the damage is not too great for EVERYONE in its path.
Best to all, and prayers to those in need.
Oh, PS, for those of you who always ask: Lowell's doing just fine, thank you. He's actually starting to put a little weight back on. Not much, but enough to feel when I pick him up. As I told the vet: I don't think that God and St. Francis need him quite yet.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
-Morgan
Evening Gang: Today only held a couple of sprinkles of rain and a light breeze. Ike went too far east to give us any trouble. I worked in the shop for the most part. I cleaned up and lubed the casters on one of my " tea carts " so I could put the tool box and holders for the milling machines stuff on it. It now resides by the wall to the left of the Bridgeport milling machine. I am making slow progress on getting the place straight but progress. I haven't worked on the 1.5 cars because they are outside and it's been raining just enough so I can't prep them for paint.
I'll also ask about Jerry. I'm getting a bit worried.
Well I guess I'lll head for bed.
Good Night All
Good Morning from Tipton IN !
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
Packers1 wrote:Jeff, don't paint over that loco PLEASE! just say the Midland gulf bought it and decided that it was too good of a paint scheme to mess up, so they just put Midland Gulf rwy. in white letters under the rio grande lettering or something.
Jeff, don't paint over that loco PLEASE! just say the Midland gulf bought it and decided that it was too good of a paint scheme to mess up, so they just put Midland Gulf rwy. in white letters under the rio grande lettering or something.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Good morning all,
The death toll in CA with the train crash is now 25 according to the AP.
Jim you can get HO scale chain fairly cheap there is some on sale at the bay; also the Walther's catalog sells it by the foot.
I started the tear out of the third room in the basement for the train layout expansion and found some areas will need new framing and new cement board installed.
Lee
BM1 Lee Soule USCG (ret) L.S.&W Railroad Serving the Lower Great Lakes
Mornin, just a to go cup, please Janie
A man and his wife entered a dentist's office.
The wife said, "I want a tooth pulled. I don't want gas or Novocain because I'm in a terrible hurry. Just pull the tooth as quickly as possible."
You're a brave woman," said the dentist. "Now, show me which tooth it is."
The wife turns to her husband and says: "Open your mouth and show the dentist which tooth it is, dear."
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/4309
Just a quick post here and I'll play catch em ups later! Been way too busy the past few days with Ben's baseball games and a cooking demo I did yestarday.
Dad's surgery went great on Thursday! He is home resting now and feeling a little pain, but mostly trying to get the bowels to move again! from the docs and he has a follow-up visit next week then monthly check-ups for the next year.
Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and prayers, your continued support is always there when we needed it through out the years!
Our friends and family in the Houston area are mixed in their Ike events, some have been without electricity since 9:00 PM Friday night and some did not loose power at all. Hope they get back to normal ASAP. Storm surge in parts of Louisiana forced a levee to spill in the lower Placquemines Parish, which is only about 60 miles south of where my parents live.
Hugs and prayers to everyone!
Ryan BoudreauxThe Piedmont Division Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger eraCajun Chef Ryan
Dick:DER JOHN: You don't have any spare time this weekend? I will have to talk to Kris about this....I did get time last night to snag 2x Kato/Atlas GP35s on the Bay. Delivered for less than $40 each, not bad, I thought. I also have been able to do some more on the re-concreting of the container dock. By no means as swift at this as Jeff ( the spray-scenery Michelangelo? ), but I am experimenting with the media I'm using, as well as running out of a couple of them (coloured-when-wet spackle and ordinary, faster drying spackle) and am about to fill in the remaining area with good old plaster! (I've made a dam for that all around with the ordinary spackle) the end result may be, when painted, the effect of different concretes, I don't know, time alone will tell. I'll use a different colour mix for the concrete this time, less grey, more like the colour of the inside of a cereal box, if you know what I mean.
DER JOHN: You don't have any spare time this weekend? I will have to talk to Kris about this.
Tom:
It's never been a heavy freight line, I understand that UP only schedules 8 trains a day at the most between LA and San Jose/Oakland on it. The southern portion between San Luis Obispo and LA is very heavy passenger commuter service. Which makes me wonder why UP would have a freight scheduled over that line during rush hour to begin with? Just speculating, mind you, not trying to throw blame on anyone.
Here's to your being able to put that cane away in a suitable hygienic storage soon Glad to hear Lowell's on the mend too. I don't envy you the lifting on a bad knee. Rosie-the-rapidly-aging-dog had to be lifted into the van the other day, and that was a surprising weight.
Ryan: That's grand about your Dad's op, and the family not being baddly affected by Ike.
I'll grab a quick JR Regular to go please, as I've got to get to that plaster pour if it's going to happen at all today. TTFN.
(Sorry about the bolding, but I didn't do it, and can't seem to lose it in Edit)[(:]
"There are always alternatives, Captain" - Spock.
The Atlas shell has been repainted and is now in MGRy colors. I still have to resinstall the windows and number boards. Here the shell is sitting on a Bachmann frame while it dries.
A strongin a 0-8-0 Steam Loco mug, please & thanks.
***Ryan, that is good news about your Dad. Continued healing! Also, hope those relatives of yours have their power back on soon. Quite a mess left behind from Ike.
***Jerry, sounds a bit dreadful for you. Don't they make weekend calls for situations like yours? Yikes!
Rob
Morning all. Supposed to be 85 here in SunnyCal today in the Valley and clear as a bell. I read that Ike wasn't as horribly devastating as they thought it might be, but that they won't know the extent of the damage for some time. I wouldn't have wanted to be in Houston, though, with all of those tall glass skyscrapers. I hope that our friends in its path escaped serious damage.
Has anyone heard from Terry?
Ryan: So glad to hear about the successful operation. Now here's prayers for his VERY quick recuperation.
Jeff: Nice repaint job on that Atlas, even if you DID have to cover up my favorite railroad, LOL! Actually, I've always liked your color scheme a lot. Looks very good on that loco.
Der: Yes, it seems that they've decided that the Metrolink engineer DID run the signal. On the news last night, they speculated about everything from drugs and alcohol to the fact that he might have been Texting some teenagers who were interested in his operations. Typical news-hashing, the man is dead and not able to defend himself, of course. It's a terrible tragedy, of course, the worst US rail disaster in 15 years, but if I were the media, I'd keep speculation out of the reporting until all the facts are known.
Funny thing, though, it made me think of UP and passenger traffic here in SunnyCal--UP is one of the worst offenders when it comes to giving up even a teensy bit of 'right of way' to passenger traffic. One of the busiest passenger lines we have here in this state are the numerous "San Joaquin" passenger trains that run from Sacramento/Oakland south to Bakersfield on largely BNSF rails. Now BNSF has about 20-30 freights scheduled up and down the Valley per day from Bakersfield to Richmond/Oakland, and there are at least 8-10 "San Joaquin's" scheduled on the same 200+mile single track route. That's a LOT of traffic on a single track, and BNSF makes sure that meets are properly scheduled so that both passenger and freight arrive at their destinations clear and on time. But evidently getting UP to co-operate with Amtrak, Caltrains and Metrolink is like trying to pull teeth without anasthetic. 'Tis a puzzle, it is.
End of rant. Unfortunately, here in Northern California, at least, UP is not the most popular kid on the block.
Well, leg's feeling fine today, I'm going to go out and see how much more of the resuscitation I can do on the Yuba River Sub. Oh, and did I tell you--Sunset has pushed back the release of my Z-6 until December or January. I hope that this is not going to become a shadow of BLI's current predicaments--I put a deposit down to hold one for me, hate to cash it in on something else if Sunset backs out. We'll see.
Off to feed Lowell, Spooky and Gizmo, then out to the garage, today.
Best to all, prayers to those in need.
Jeff, that GP40 looks good in that paint. I didn't want to try detailing it (much less try to put Kadees in it), but I'm taking it you like that old Atlas/Roco.
We might have a future Rio-Grande modeler in the mist.
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
Very funny packer
I just like the Rio grande paint scheme. I'll be sticking to my ARR, lol.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
Packer wrote:Jeff, that GP40 looks good in that paint. I didn't want to try detailing it (much less try to put Kadees in it), but I'm taking it you like that old Atlas/Roco.Jeff, don't paint over that loco PLEASE! just say the Midland gulf bought it and decided that it was too good of a paint scheme to mess up, so they just put Midland Gulf rwy. in white letters under the rio grande lettering or something.We might have a future Rio-Grande modeler in the mist.
Check your PM's.
lol.
Sawyer, I actually like the Rio Grande paint scheme too, along with the SP. I grew up around the both of them in San Antonio. It's kind of a wierd story how I ended up modeling the BN, considering I have only seen 1 or 2 BN engines in my life. (A Gp38 in Rochelle, and an SD40-2 somewhere in Idaho or Montana)
evening gang
a tea to go please girls
well its all started again the new lot of little cherubs have started to arrive and seem to be alright for the most part just beeing shown the sights and houses of liquid refreshment so in for a busy night
will try and get back on later
Tropical Storm Ike; current position: 100 NM west of my house. The winds here have increased to 45 KTS and expected to reach 60 KTS by midnight. The air temp has gone from 68F to almost 90F. The Browns and Steelers are playing tonight 11 miles west of my house, so if you're watching the game you just might see my house, LOL. Hopefully Lake Erie isn't warm enough (72F) to generate any really bad weather. Lights are flicking so I guess it's my turn to lose power tonight.
Jeff, I like the paint job on the locomotive.
I've been working on the MoW equipment the last 2 days. One more coat of black on the roofs and they will be ready for decals. I'm also assembling that 80FT TOFC kit I bought at LHS for $5.99.
Ok I'm on battery power now, more later if I can.
LSWrr wrote:Jeff, I like the paint job on the locomotive.
Tall glass of lemon water, thanks.
Here are a couple pics of the other end of my deck project. Will be back on it sometime tomorrow, after a hay run.
You can see where the future screened porch is in this pic. Will have to replace that center post with two others, so that the storm door can be centered. In the next pic at far left, you can see the priority end of the porch (HDL) which I completed first. Eventually all of this will connect up into one large deck area.
***Philip, my studio/workshop is (and always has been) a somewhat bright red, although I can see how in these pics it's difficult to tell. It is being transformed into a proper house, rather than rebuild the entire log home from scratch, which would have cost more than the insurance funds would allow for. The log home was more brown in color. That was the color I wanted my studio to be in when we built it, so it would match the log home and all the out buildings. The wife mistakenly ordered gallons of red paint by mistake, so it has been red ever sinse. Kinda funny, actually. It's just a color and there are more important things in life to me than that..."except in my artwork".
***Jeffrey, that was a pretty big tree. Will be interesting to see if it damaged the structure below the smashed rails. Do you know how old a tree it was?
Alex