Ulrich:
Thanks for posting the recording of "Zorba's Dance"! It is one of my favourite pieces of music and I'm not even close to being Greek. I'm going to go looking for a CD.
Hey, top of the page again. Strawberrys and whipped cream for everybody please.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
YGW's Photo Tour OF:
Bob Macionis' HO Layout!
The following photos are of Bob Macionis layout. HO scale set in the 50s. 900 sq. ft. , 1600 feet of track, 1000 sq. ft. Scenery, 350 freight cars, 60 steam & diesel locomotives and needs 15 people to fully operate it ! The control system is by NCE.
Part II
Diesel fueling station and coaling tower. Turn table.
Evening Diners
Flo, Ed, Jan, Yannis and I will have a please.
Yannis That is a B-26 Marauder right? While the Army called it a bomber, it was used more for close ground support. Now the P-38 and B-17, they get the from me!
Jan You jumped out a perfectly good air plane for fun? You are a idiot! I got paid $75.00 a month to do it! Hum, maybe I am the idot?
Glad you are having good results with the ATF / Maval Mystery Oil. Have no idea to why it works, but dang it sure does! Guess the old timers using clipper oil are way smarter than us kids!
Ulrich I hope for the best for you and Petra.
Galaxy Are you still with us? Hope it the new job that is keeping you away from the dinner.
Later, Ken
I hate Rust
Good evening all.
Zoe - Just a nice RBF please. Thanks.
Ulrich - I am sure there are better, less stressful, and much easier ways to get a helicopter ride. Please take care!
Yannis - Nice airplane!
Brakie - My vote is UFO. {Cue the music....} "They're baaaaaaacccccckkkkkk....."
Ken (And Jan) - I'm not sure which is more crazy... Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane for pay, or for fun.... I think it's a toss up between the two. (Or, would that be a throw down? Now I'm really confused. )
Weather - I'm not even gonna look outside right now... I think them did something not very nice with our weather.
W**k - Well, guess who has to w**k tomorrow...
Hope all are well, and all have a good night!
"And good night, Mrs. Ockmonic, where ever you are." - Alf
(Sorry, I couldn't resist the Alf quote... This whole alien theme made me do it!)
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
Part III
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Yannis you might not have seen another thread I started where I mentioned Logan Holtgrewe. He was one of the founders of Severna Park MR club. He decided to build airplane models and built all the allied and enemy aircraft of WW2.
http://www.museumofflight.org/Exhibits/holtgrewe
His wife asked him what he was going to do now? He built all the WW1 aircraft.
http://www.museumofflight.org/files/interactives/holtgrewe_wwi/index.html
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Henry: Impressive collections! Both of them. The builder must be proud and the museum lucky.
JaBear: Many thanks for posting up this video!!!! It is the first time i see the Dora before the depot gunship modifications. I really enjoyed this since the Pacific Theater of Operations is my favorite in WW2.
Ed: Many thanks for posting up these photos of the very very nice layout!
YGW: Many thanks for taking the photos of the said layout!
Ricky: Hi Ricky! Thanks for the plane compliment.
Ken: It is a B-25 not a B-26. In the Pacific indeed it was mostly used as a close air support airplane as you say, in the European theater it got heavy use as a medium bomber. B-17s and P-38s are also great! I got one of each started up as models (but are currently stored in a semi-built state). The story behind the B-25's name is interesting, being the only airplane named after a person. The person was General Billy Mitchell, a firm advocate of bombers (vs ships) which did result in an early end of his career.
Ulrich: Very very nice layout!!! I especially like the scene you mentioned with the bridge and church. Thank you very much for posting this! How are you feeling today?
Angelob: Hi there! thanks for the kind words about the plane!
Afternoon Diners,
It's been mostly quiet for me for the past week.
I looked at some HO Amtrak Superliners, and locomotives. I also researched and farther detailing the some what small layout in the works.
I think my HO layout was a phase. But I know I was almost done with my N scale layout. I believe I'm just into buying, and drawing instead of building.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
Yannis,
Go to the Texas Flying Legends website and you will see the B-25 "Bettys Dream" that your model is made of. It took part in the 75th. celebration of the raid on Tokyo. It was the largest gathering of B-25s since WWII.
herrinchoker
Part IV
This is a very impressive gorge/mountain on the South Fork & Flemington. This literally extends from the floor to the ceiling. It is approximately 7' tall !
Part V: The Final Chapter
Had a rare day where I felt good! Before work I got the frontyard cut, after work I got the rearyard cut. To bad I had to go to work, I may have gotten a lot more done!
Yannis One of us is confussed but more than likely it is me. B-25 was the Mitchell used on the Doolittle Raid. It had a plexglass nose with a single 30 or 50 cal. Later in life the B-26 Marauder had a soild nose where it had 6 and then 8 wapons. B-26 had no bottom turret and and to turret was toward the rear by the tail.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_B-26_Marauder
Then there was the Douglas A-26 Invador. Guess that was more on the line of what I was think of in the ground support roll.
"That is a B-26 Marauder right? While the Army called it a bomber, it was used more for close ground support"
I just did a copy and paste from my answer.
YannisKen: It is a B-25 not a B-26.
So did they remove the plexglass nose and add the weapons later in it life?
Galaxy You still here? Hope you are enjoying the new job!
give Ken some of the aged stuff, made yesterday.
Ken,
The B-25 Mitchell had many variants. Some, like you remember had the plexi nose with a single .30 Browning. Others like the PBJ-1J had a solid nose with 12 .50s, a single .50 on each side, turret with twin .50s over the wing, and twin .50s in the tail. The PBJ-1H had 8 .50s in the nose, along with a 75MM cannon, single .50 on each side, turret with twin 50s. over the wing, and twin .50s in the tail. The J model had 6 .50s in the nose, turret with twin .50s over the wing, single .50 on each side, and twin .50s in the tail.
The Martin B-26, flying cigar, or flying coffin-so called was solid nose, but there were plexi-nose variants as well.
The Douglas B-26 started out as the AAF A-20, medium bomber, and was phased in as the B-26, when the Martin was phased out. My BIL flew as bombadier/navigator on the 26s in Korea. I remember the first Puff was a worn out WWII DC-3, with two .30 cal. mini-guns. Now Puff is two Vulcans, 40MM BOFOURS, and a 105MM Howitzer, in a C-130 with an unreal computerized fire controll center.
Jan
herrinchoker I remember the first Puff was a worn out WWII DC-3, with two .30 cal. mini-guns. Now Puff is two Vulcans, 40MM BOFOURS, and a 105MM Howitzer, in a C-130 with an unreal computerized fire controll center.
I witnessed Puff (although we referred to them as "Spooky" back in 1966/1967) in action on a number of occassions. The guns output was like a ray or solid stream of light with a constant roar. Also impressive was the number of flares that could be dropped & would light up the area like a football field at a night game. Never laid eyes on the actual aircraft though. Back then, they were all AC-47s. I can only imagine what the C-130s can do today.
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA
Ken, another round of beers on me! With respect to B-25 mods and phases there were many permutations on the subject.
The B-25 had two major phases, the B/C/D/G (early) and the H/J (late). Top turret was on the waist area of the fuselage on the early ones, whereas on the late ones top turret was right after the cockpit. Various mods were done especially on the early ones, which did borrow elements which were later standardized on the late versions, such as a tail gunner position, bulged waist gunner positions etc.
The early ones had a plexi-nose which was painted over and had holes cut in it for field-mods including the 4-gun nose one as seen on the Dirty Dora. the G version was all metal nose but it was a shorter nose. This variant had the added 75mm gun and 4 50cals. H version was similar to the G one.
The J version had a sub variant with a factory made metal 8 gun nose (Betty's dream is such an example), which in combination to the 4 side blister package guns and the 2 from the top turret, brought the forward firing 50cals up to 14. The J version also had plexi noses with (less than 8) guns in similar field mods as the ones seen in the C/D variants. My Duchess (bat nose, 5 guns mod) is such an example.
If i am not mistaken the B-26 Marauder never had a metal nose with the exception of experimental aircraft as far as i have seen/read. It did have extra side blister guns though for straffing. The A/B-26 Invader did have a metal gunship nose variant.
The AC-47 is another one of my favorite gunships! (I actually have two AC-47s in my collection and no C-47s...go figure).
Tom i bet it was an impressive sight to have seen a Spooky with all guns blazing. I read that it was like a guardian angel for the troops back then.
Herrinchoker: Impressive footage (the 75th event). Thanks for mentioning this! Much appreciated.
Yannis - Going back to that 66 / 67 time period, did you ever model the US Army's Mohawk & Caribou aircraft. Both were impressive looking & very versital aircraft.
tcwright973 Yannis - Going back to that 66 / 67 time period, did you ever model the US Army's Mohawk & Caribou aircraft. Both were impressive looking & very versital aircraft.
Tom i got an 1/48 Mohawk in the stock of unbuilt kits which is on my to-do-list. Railroads though have taken over most of my time
Next to WW2, the Vietnam era is my favorite modeling era, be it USAF, USN or USMC and have read a lot of books on the topic some included strategic analyses of the airwar. My last started up project was a Thud in 1/48 with superdetailed resin cockpits and all... but iron horses have dominated my benchwork ever since.
By the way, my layout and RR modeling period is 66/67 (actually from 1964 to 1967, but if i want to be very precise is 66/67).
I take it you have an interest in the Nam era as well?
On the modelling front, i made good progress on a building for my layout during the weekend. I must take some photos and post them over in WPF.
A nice warm cup of coffee on me, for those of you that are waking up (a bit after lunchtime here so i might grab one myself).
We've had a lot of Greek food here in the Diner lately because of Yannis, which brings up another discussion question. Though we have a few members from outside the United States, most Diners live in the U.S., where few can claim significant native heritage. So... how about we share a daily special from wherever your ancestors come from?
I've explored one side of my ancestry back to 1600s France, in the Poitou-Charentes region, which is famous for its goat cheese and its Torteau Fromage, a kind of cheesecake made from goat cheese. So, dig in, then tell us about your culinary heritage!
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
Richard: Congratulations on your son's masters. That is quite an accomplishment. I went back to school when I was 45 to get mine. It was hard, to say the least.
My son graduates Sunday from Purdue with Civil Engineering degree. It took him five years; but football interfered.
Train front: I am working on the modular layout again. Last week I finished new legs and got it up and running. However, when I took it down, I inadvertantly damaged the rails on one module. That discovery came as I was soldering in feeders; it was easily fixed, but I am going to be more careful in handling the modules. Feeders are finished on two of the three sections; working on the buses on these two. One is finished.
When complete, I'll use Anderson power poles to connect the modules together, and to the control station. I think I am going to build a tray for the Zephyr control box and mount it to a stool. That is the easiest way I can think of to control the layout; I can't mount a control box to the side of the layout because of the design of the new legs.
I should define "running" this layout so far. Until the wiring is complete, I am hooking a power pack to the rails with alligator clips...
In repy to Steve's post. Although my heritage is Austrian / Eastern Eurpean; my mother's family operated a truck stop / restaurant in her youth; serving basic comfort foods and Tex Mex offerings. She makes the best enchiladas on the planet. She makes the sauce from scratch, hand rolls them, and bakes them to perfection. My contribution would be cheese enchiladas.
Desert would be her German Chocolate cake, with pecan coconut frosting; again, made from scratch.
We always had a garden; and had fresh vegtables. She makes a sweet/sour shredded, sauted cabbage that I can eat my weight in, it is so good. I believe it is has German culinary roots.
I was born in Utah (sort of like a foreign country) and have already shared my photo of green Jello and carrots.
Richard
I am the only one who has a problem when the diner hits five pages? The navigation buttons on the top and bottom get all screwed up when I am on fifth page. Instead of displaying 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 it displays -1, 0, 1, 2, 3. Only on the last page and only when there are five pages. Anyone else?
RideOnRoad I am the only one who has a problem when the diner hits five pages? The navigation buttons on the top and bottom get all screwed up when I am on fifth page. Instead of displaying 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 it displays -1, 0, 1, 2, 3. Only on the last page and only when there are five pages. Anyone else?
Yes it bothers me too.
YGW- Thanks for the Bob Macionis layout he has a very impressive details.
Steven- My ancestors is mostly Mexican, Italian, and Sweden. Am one of those people who don't really research the culture or "foreign" food. Like those tv commercials.
Last night I bought a Micro-Trains NYC 34' wood caboose. Although I got tired of not having one and got frustrated knowing that their isn't going to be prototypical version. At least I would have one to run a New York Central freight train
Good Evening!
Well, it´s past 6pm in my neck of the woods and that should qualify the time of the day as evening, doesn´t it?
I spent nearly all day to collect all political essays and articles I have written over the last two years. Most of them were published in an online magazine during that time. The collection will be a sort of political legacy , a literary answer to the question future generations may ask - "what did you do, when ...".
RideOnRoad - sounds like a browser problem. Are you using a mobile device?
Steven - my heritage is simple - I am plain German from both sides. My father´s family originates in the easternmost part of what was once Germany, in a small town south of Koenigsberg, which humble remains are named Kaliningrad since 1945, capital city of the Oblast Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave, located between Poland and Lithuania. My mom´s ancestors come from Lower Silesia, formerly Austrian, but later on Prussian after Frederic 2nd, King of Prussia, defeated Mary Theresa, Empress of Austria. We can trace back our heritage all the way back to the 13th century, but that won´t earn me an extra dime these days. My wife has some French/Belgian blood in her veins, but there is little else we know.
By profession, I can look back on a long list of railroad people, most of them served with the Royal Prussian Railway Administration (KPEV). One of my forefathers made it to a certain fame when his name and story was published in a 1920 book called "Der deutsche Lokomotivführer im Weltkriege" (The German Locomotive Engineer During the World War).
In terms of food, the culinary heritage is nearly lost in today´s kitchen. No more dumplings, pork knuckles, Sauerkraut, bean soup, pork chops and roasts, tons of greasy sausages and cabbage prepared in various ways. It´s a lot lighter kitchen these days, lots of Italian stuff, a few French gratins, Mexican chilis, and burgers & hot dogs. Add to that steaks & fries and that´s what you will find on our table - once Petra is back to eating all that good stuff again. Not to forget the Wiener Schnitzel, though, and all the goodies (cakes) she makes. Cakes and pastries maybe remain the only German traditional food we have today.
That cake looks delicious, mind if I have a slice - in spite of the late hour?
Lunch time
Phheeewwww The VP just loaded me up with another building of five units that I had not expected to be taking on... so basically I will be doing double duty in the same 10 hour days...
Hope you all enjoyed the RR pictures. The photos do not give you the WOW factor when you walk in and see the layout. When I looked at teh gorge scene I literally stopped in my tracks and just stood there admiring and stunned. Very impressive.
Ed thanks so much for posting
Due to the work changes and extra load I may not be in here as much in the next several weeks.
Gotta run
TTYL
YGW
Russian and Latvian on my father's side and Croatian on my mother's. This is Gibanica from a small area in Croatia which is nothing like a Serbian gibanica. It is filled with a walnut, egg white, sugar mixture.
Afternoon folks.....
Chloe, just a cup of decaf for me.... No nothing to eat.... I have been thinking though of the suggestion Stephen made about ethnic foods. I used to tell my 8th. graders at the Middle School when we would start our "World Music" unit that most of us actually come from many parts of the world ourselves and each class represents all kinds of places around the planet... Then I would tell them that I am English, German, Irish, Scotch, with a little Bourbon mixed in someplace. I wonder sometimes how I managed not to get myself fired.... Did get many "talking to's" in my career after the principal stopped laughing when Mommy called to complain about what I said. But I am predominately English/Scottish heritage on my Father's side. (English, Irish, & German on my Mother's.)
Now as a kid growing up, one thing that was not allowed in the house was the old English Heritage recipes my Grandmother used to make. Especially the Spring Tonic she made from bitter herbs she picked in the hedgerows on the farm. She would make up a gallon or so of the evil tasting concoction that she boiled down form the stuff. She then made all the members of the family drink a couple cups of it. If you were able to keep it down, you had to stay near the outhouse for the next day or so. It was supposed to be good at removing any internal parasites you picked up since the last "Spring Tonic" and in her words, "It was good for what ails ya!" I took my father's word for it..... She also was fond of making things like this:
Ahhhhhh.... Steak and Kidney Pie! My Father and the rest of the family as well insisted it tasted pretty much like what the second ingredient was supposed to produce. My generation was spared having to find out by experience! Grandma only used lard (Made back when she was on the farm) in the kitchen from.... ah.... I guess it was called Beef Sueit and other fat from the poor cow that got slaughtered by Grandpa. She wouldn't use anything else for making pies! Now I liked the apple and cherry pies she made but my Mother wouldn't touch them! My Grandfather Howard died of a major Heart Attack at age 62..... That should tell you something.
So, YGW, maybe the VP figures that he will get less complaints from the crews you supervise on the job for you being mean and expecting them to do their jobs by spreading out your work load to twice as many jobs.... LOL I do like the steady completion you are doing on the hobby barn. Very, very nice. that is going to be a great place to go and hide out I think.
I'm taking a break from doing the slide show for the MLK Schoalrship Dinner. Have about 100 photos chosen ready to be put into the Powerpoint show. Hope to have it done by tomorrow evening at the latest. Then I can print up tickets, Reserved Table signs, the award certificates, and the Dinner Program... Busy time of year.
Lawn needs to be mowed again. May do that if it ever quits raining. In the first week of may we have had 2.7 inches of rain. The average rainfall here for May is 3.1 inches... Dealing with lots of water down cellar..... Would like to get the raised beds tilled and ready to be planted, but they are just mud at the moment. Currently 49°F outside and it will get down to 35°F overnight. We are stuck in a wierd and inusual weather pattern at the moment...
I'll leave you with this....
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
LION is well, LION on both sides.
28th generation from Godric Gryffindor who in turn traces roots back to Gandalf the Grey.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS