Jeffreys Track Side Diner - MARCH, 2019: Upstate New York

[howmus]

Afternoon folks!

Janie, I could use a refill for the decaf if you have time.  Please and thank you!

GMTRacing

Thanks for the tours. I really should go to the Glen early sometime if the FGLK still runs passenger in September. Looks like fun.

 J. R., unfortunately the FGLK only does runs for contracting entities at this time.  They used to run their own tours (like the one I am showing] to some events, but they found even with excellent ridership they were losing money after paying all their own staff and keeping the ancient old cars in good shape.  That said they have done some really nice upgrading to some of the cars and do rent them out for special runs from time to time.  The R&GV RR Museum did our Railfan trip on the FGLK last Fall as the LA&L which goes right by our Museum was being repaired every weekend last year and we couldn't use that or our 1941 NYC Cars (Empire State Express cars). 

Anyway, back to our tour of the Finger Lakes area (Geneva to Solvay, near Syracuse).

This sign along the ROW always gets some comments....... Wonder if they use NCE or Digitracks?

Some of the old buildings along the ROW.  Many are now derilict and ready to be torn down.....  (sad)

But not all.  Many have found new life with other businesses:

The train heads back to Geneva yard:

One of the best things, I think, is to see the sun setting over beautiful Seneca Lake, "The Heart of the Finger Lakes"!

Have a great day!

73

[dti406]

Been another hectic weekend, bowled in my league Friday evening where I had a 177-222-219 for a 617 Series.

Both Saturday and Sunday worked at the Ohio Women's State Bowling Tournament, had to be there at 7:00 am to verify the settings on the lane dressing machine, then I took tapes on two of the alleys each day to verify the dressing machine was working properly.  Worked on other various duties until everybody was done bowling.  I have 8 more weeks of this to do.

I managed to do some decaling after I got home as relaxation after a long day. I also started on building a couple of Athearn Genesis kits, using their exploded parts diagram and no instructions, what a PITA.

Back to work today, auditors are in asking their usual questions, I love training their new hires every year on how real accounting works and not just theory.

Rick Jesionowski

[BroadwayLion]

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good morning .... JUst checking in. 

Yesterday was like other Sundays we have had in recent weeks. We went to church, and then we drove to Nashville to visit my MIL. We returned home late last night. 

Other non-model-railroad interruptions include working outside doing Spring clean up. Also, we completed our 2018 tax returns, and the reduced tax rates helped.

I'm just starting scenery in areas of the layout surrounding the coal mine I'm putting together.

Everybody: ....  have a nice day. . . 

 

 

[GMTRacing]

Good Morning All,

   Just a regular to go this morning Zoe. Off to Saratoga Auto Museum to pick up a load of cars we loaned over the winter. 

   Thanks for the tours. I really should go to the Glen early sometime if the FGLK still runs passenger in September. Looks like fun.

   Harrison, my son went to SUNY Plattsburgh for college. Pretty familiar with the area now and it's lovely. Not sure I'd like to winter there though. They had tunnels between the buildings at the school so you could get to class no matter what. Not sure if it was for the snow or the wind but you can't help but notice all the trees are permanently bent over in open areas.  

    Spent all my free time on the layout yesterday trying to sort out electric gremlins.     CUL, J.R.

[SeeYou190]

I made it home from Georgia today. I stopped at the Welcome Station on I-75 on the way in.

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There were flocks of lovely young coeds from Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, etc., all heading into Florida for Spring Break. There were so many groups taking turns posing by ther "Welcome To Florida" sign.

.

If I was a younger man, I know where I would be this week.

.

Instead, I will be in my Tampa office trying to figure out how to enter packing slip codes into the parts management software so I can close some back-logged project work orders.

.

Sometimes it might be good to be young again, but only temporarily.

.

-Kevin

.

[BATMAN]

Good afternoon from the Edge of the Pacific. High O/C today at about 14c.

Big Daddy people can talk about anything without animosity if they accept facts. Unfortunately, that is hard for many to do. I tend to be a rather "matter of fact" person and it rubs a lot of people the wrong way. I will talk about absolutely anything anyone wants to talk about and not get emotional about it. However, as soon as they tell me the Earth is flat, there is not much point in carrying on the conversation and we move on.

The kid was supposed to fly to his annual hockey tournament in Alberta on a Max8 next Friday. It is a good thing Air Canada keeps a few of the oldies as spares.

The kid is just getting over Norwalk virus and it put him in the hospital for some IV treatment. He phoned the health nurse and she told him to get to the hospital as he was really dehydrated. They had him plugged in 5 minutes after he walked in the door. Not sure he will be much good for the team as he is pretty wasted. He had all his assignments for school done a week ahead of schedule as usual so there is no worry about his school work.

Bear, loved the rotary engine and the Camel. That is some kind of crazy way to control the throttle. I think if someone asked me if I could fly any plane I wanted it would be the Spitfire hands down. The P-51 and Corsair would be close seconds. The best I could ever do was the Piper 181. Went up with a crazy man in Australia when I was there once. The landing strip was the beach and we did every stunt in the book, fun times.

There is a company not far from my house that builds replica WWI planes and they have dogfights over my house all the time. They go so slow it is painful to watch sometimes. The first one of the season was just a few days ago. There were three Fokkers and a bunch of different biplanes. I may go for a ride one day as they do take you up for a fee.

 

I always wanted to own a Pits Special, I think I am too old for it now even if I do win the lottery. They aren't too expensive to buy, but just like a boat, it is all the cost that comes with ownership that adds up fast. 

I watched LA LA Land the other night. Man, it must have been hard to shoot and it really makes you appreciate how talented those people are. The shots were so long (continuous), it is hard to imagine how long it would take to reset if someone screwed up.

The kid had his first screwup ever when he was doing Deadpool 2, his mind went blank halfway through the shot. It was from sheer exhaustion as it happened after 14 hours on the set. It took 20 minutes to reset for the shot, he felt awful about it but he said the Director wasn't bothered by it at all and told him not to sweat it. 

I have decided to take a week or two off from working out as the body is telling me I need a rest. I will feel really good when I start back up again. Just have to remember to not eat as much as I normally do. I will have to drop at least a thousand calories a day or I'll turn into Goo-Man.

They just announced on the news that the TV show Super Natural is ending. Those guys have become part of the furniture around here after 15 years. They were always filming in the areas around where we live and we would chat with them when we take the dogs to the park. The park is really just a wilderness area that starts down the road from us. They had all these portable buildings they could put up and take down in no time. I remember once they had put up a whole gas station once in under two hours, it was amazing. 

Well time to go have a beer, that is the only booze I have in the house right now. Spent most of the day in the trainroom, so it was a good day.

All the best to all.

 

[Track fiddler]

Evening Diners.

Another great day at the Randolph Railroad Days train show.  Some Trackside photos for ya.

My friend Gary our Railroad Club host had noticed I had been admiring a coaling tower for about 3 weeks.  He gave it to me for helping both days at the show. 

Some sweet old man that has passed had scratch built this coaling tower.  He really did a great job.  Now it will find its new home on my layout and still be appreciated.

Thanks for looking and have a great night.

TF

[GMTRacing]

Henry,  probably something around not wanting to promote or encourage such activity even though there was a whole NPR segment on the subject. J.R.

[BigDaddy]

Not one usually lacking  in imagination, I am having a hard time imaging why discussion of someone riding a train, without a ticket, or a passenger car, generates more animosity than the average discussion of NCE vs Digitrax or DC vs DCC that it has to be banned.

Without discussing the pros and cons of such rail travel, what is hateful about the topic?

[Harrison]

BroadwayLion

UPSTATE begins at Gun Hill Road... Everybody knows that, even out here on this side of the Hudson River.

 

ROAR

 

Don't bite me for contridicting Lion, but True upstate NY starts north of Albany. where I live is called the "North Country", like my blog, North Country Trains. 

Here is a shot of a CSX freight in Blauvelt, NY, a jog west and north of the city.

And here we are in Tarrytown, the closest my parents would get to the city.

A bit of a stretch from Albany is Plattsburgh, the closest city to were I live. The trains are few and far between, with 4 freights daily(3 of which come through in the night.) and two Amtraks.

Be back soon,

[howmus]

Afternoon Folks!

Actually there are several "definitions" of parts of New York State....  For anyone who lives in the "Rotten Apple" (just kidding but that is a term used in "Upstate NY" often (incorrectly) to describe New York City), Upstate refers to anyone who lives anywhere else, with the exception of Longisland (said as one word with a hard G) in New York State.  "Upstaters" know better as there is the Adirondacks, Southern Tier (the two rows of counties along the southern strip of NYS), Central NY (Syracuse Area), The Finger Lakes (where I live) just to the West of Central, NY, The Rochester Area, and Western NY including Buffalo.  New York State has a very variable topography, and is changing state!  A huge amount of things to see and do!

Guess I should continue the trip from Geneva to Solvay (Near Syracuse) on the FGLK, since the last post was 4 pages ago about it....

Here is some of the scenery seen from the coach we rode in (this is from the Fingerlakes to the Syracuse area).

Lots of water here in the Finger Lakes!  This is the North end of Seneca Lake, the heart of the Finger Lakes.

Head waters of Seneca Lake:

The Outlet from Seneca Lake:

Going through Waterloo, NY ....  The old High School downtown.  I recorded several concerts there, BTW.

The old locks in Waterloo, NY

Seneca Falls, NY:

The Town Park:

The old Passenger Station in Seneca Falls:

I'll finish up the trip later....

I need to 21

73

 

 

[cudaken]

 Afternoon Diners

 Flo, give the gang and I a please JR a nice glass of port and leave a stein outside for Ulrich.

 Was going to do more yardwork but had to take the wife to the grocery store. By the time we got back it was time for a.

 Mighty Confused B&O F7a. To quote Maxwell Smart "I was this close chief!" Messed with the F7a again last night and runs fine on DC. While it was on DC I cleaned the wheels well, I had been getting the code 308 on decoder pro, no acknowledgment from the engine.

 Ran it after the decoder reset on DCC with default address 3 and it ran! Great Happy Happy Joy Joy! Then I used Decoder Pro to rewrite it orginal CV's and sat it on the track looking forward to dragging some freight! It just sat there like a lump of coal? I did not feel like pulling the other B&O F7's to try the restart fuction 6 so it will set another day.

 ATF on the rails up date. Few days ago I started to run a old friend a SW 800 swicher. Before I could hardly keep the wheels clean and finally gave up on it. Had to clean the wheels very few hours, it is very lite. I have been running it now for 4 days with out a hitch.

 Later Ken

[BroadwayLion]

UPSTATE begins at Gun Hill Road... Everybody knows that, even out here on this side of the Hudson River.

 

ROAR

[Autonerd]

I always say that you can tell where someone is from in New York by how they define "upstate". For a lot of my friends, it was anything past the Tappan Zee bridge.

I lived in the suburbs of NYC, and then I moved upstate -- to Rochester. Which, of course, is not upstate New York, it's western New York, but we must call it upstate lest we inadvertently acknowledge that anything north of the line between Oswego and Glens Falls is not, in fact, part of either Canada or Vermont.

I now live in Los Angeles, and I am gobsmacked by the sheer natural beauty of the western US, but I could (and, when possible, do) drive around New York State for days and never get bored. It is, in its own way, one of the most picturesque places in the world, and I mean that sincerely. Billy Joel got it right with New York State of Mind.

Aaron

[GMTRacing]

Good Morning All

    A coffee and a blueberry bagel please. Most of my chores are done now just finishing up laundry and sorting after the rest gets out of the dryer. 

   I share the dislike of late night unintended calls. It was worse when we were down under and people would call at what ended up to be 2 or 3 in the morning. I finally put the phone on airplane mode at night. 

    Still trying to find the short that has shown up between two blocks of the main lines. It carries into the throat of the service yard and stalls anything trying to enter the yard. Fortunately most of the wiring is easy to access though it is all under the layout. Better yet, I don't have all the fascia and front finished either so I don't have to take anything down. I just need to come up with a plan to track down the fault. So far visual examination has failed me. 

    Bsck to chores. I will try to check in later.  Cheers, J.R.

[York1]

maxman

BigDaddy

I've heard that target shooter use upside down bifocals. I don't understand the concept because you need to see your sights and the target, but working on a variety of project, looking up, reverse bifocals might make sense.

 

 Don't know about target shooters, but I understand that some of the mechanics in one of the service centers belonging to the company I used to work for did that.  That was because they worked on the underside of railcars and were always looking up.

I know an electrician who uses glasses with bifocals on top.  He does a lot of overhead wiring of lights.

[BigDaddy]

I'm in a bad mood today.  My SIL butt dialed my wife's cell phone at midnight.  I was wide awake on the second ring, but my wife slept until it stopped ringing.  She set a distinctive ring so we knew who it was.

Given that she and her husband are my age, you immediately think heart attack, stroke or accident.  None of the above, just an unintended phone call.  I did not go back to sleep until sometime after 3.  The dog and the wife had no such trouble and were snoring away in short order.

I got carried away with ballasting yesterday and realized this morning.  I need to add a pair of feeders.  

[mbinsewi]

Good morning all, coffee and sweet rolls on me, just because I'm such a nice guy. 

One of the live rail cams I watch is RailStream.  Most weekends, at the Chesterton, IN location, I see lots of young people taking train pictures, and rail fanning.  Not sure if this is all school project related?  or just general RR interest, but it is cool to see.

Nice car TF, I'm sure it's the novelty thing.  Family members, through the years have gotten me Badger decorated cars, WI cars, Green Bay Packer cars, cars decorated with different beer brands, (wherever would they get THAT idea?), and even a car decotated for Crown Royal.

Have a great day all !

Mike.

[wojosa31]

Track fiddler

Found a Minnesota car at the train show. I don't know if these things are just a novelty or if they really existed on a railroad. For 6 bucks how could I not buy it. & it's MTL

That's quite cool. The State cars date back to the Bi-centenial, and were quite common. I started collecting the Trains Minerature version, but never found more than about 6 of them. back then I shopped two LHS and pretty much was limited to what they had to offer. Think I had NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD and probably VA. 

Boris

[hon30critter]

JaBear,

Thanks for the great videos! The sound of the rotary engine constantly kicking in and out gave me heart palpitations! I was constantly expecting the thing to fall out of the air!

Cheers!!

Dave

[Track fiddler]

Evening Diners.... hope everyone's having a great night

Good evening Bear.... Just wanted to drop by and say thanks for the video on the Sopwith Camel.  I finally found time to watch it after my busy day in Randolph.  Never seen one fly,  Enjoyed.  Those things sure are rough runners. That was a good video,  you could really see the turning difference.  I don't suppose there's too many of those things around anymore.

I never thought about it, but your explanation of the rotary engine and the gyroscopic effect sure clarified things as they had to do with the turning effects of the plane.  Makes perfect sense now.

Thanks.    TF

 

Found a Minnesota car at the train show.  I don't know if these things are just a novelty or if they really existed on a railroad.  For 6 bucks how could I not buy it.  & it's MTL 

The road number on the car is the year Minnesota became accepted as the 32nd state.

[maxman]

BigDaddy

I've heard that target shooter use upside down bifocals. I don't understand the concept because you need to see your sights and the target, but working on a variety of project, looking up, reverse bifocals might make sense.

Don't know about target shooters, but I understand that some of the mechanics in one of the service centers belonging to the company I used to work for did that.  That was because they worked on the underside of railcars and were always looking up.

[NWP SWP]

Henry, as far as I know it has I have a seafood allergy so I don't eat crab and other crustaceans, but theres quite a few successful seafood businesses in my area, BP has a really bad reputation down here since then, all the BP stations closed within a year of it, if you intend to make a trip down here let me know you can come visit the Midsouth Model RR Club.

[BigDaddy]

Steven, I have the stomach equivalent of an earworm after talking about crab cakes.  Has Louisiana seafood recovered after the BP oil spill?

My rustoleum spray paint that was in the garage turned to pudding.  I was able to clean the nozzle out twice and then they died.   No doubt they froze in the garage this winter.  Maybe a bath in my ultrasound cleaner would have saved them, maybe not.

I like to use rattle cans on my flex track that is going to be straight.  Do not waste your money on those testors paint pens for track weather.  They bounce over the fingers that hold the rails and leave unpainted areas on either side.

I miss-measured my PSX for terminal blocks.  It's dark underneath the layout, I have to look up, which doesn't work well with bifocals so my measurements weren't even close.  I've heard that target shooter use upside down bifocals.  I don't understand the concept because you need to see your sights and the target, but working on a variety of project, looking up, reverse bifocals might make sense.

 Edit  It was the annual Sock Burning Day in Annapolis, MD.  You can go to most formal events, with a coat, tie, boat shoes and no socks in this town.

https://www.trbimg.com/img-5c969dae/turbine/cgnews-ac-cn-sock-burning-20190323-pg-007/750/750x422

[cudaken]

 Afternoon Diners

 Flo, give the gang and I a JR the wine list and leave a stein outside for Ulrich.

 Maxman I now work for a small and getting smaller local company. Rather not say the name at this point because of how keyword searches work. Don't think the owner or GM (he is a train guy) would like what I have posted about the owners wife being a dingbat.

 Bear I like the video! I had confuse the term Radial and Rotary. With out a carburetor was raw fuel just sprayed in?

 Ed Thanks for the veido! While I did not successively get the QSI decoder reset it did move under it's own power on DC and the lights came on! So there is still life in the engine and decoder! I am 90% sure the Mighty B&O F7a will roam the rails again.

 Got some needed cleaning down on the front porch.Wife was not home so I threw away a lot of her junk fake flowers and general crap she left outside.

 Later, Ken

[GMTRacing]

If you really want to know here you go. It even features a mention of your favourite Kenny G. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_breathing

Door finished, on to cleaning the shop.   J.R.

[maxman]

RideOnRoad

While Philip Glass’s compositions are not for everyone, they are not simple and repetitive, but complex and multi-layered. The symphony’s meme featuring Cody was making light of the incorrect perception that his pieces are the same thing over and over.

Ah, okay that makes sense.

RideOnRoad

she had to learn the skill of circular breathing

Is that similar to learning to "breathe thru you eyelids" ala Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham"?

[Bis]

JaBear- when I was in USAF tech school we had an older teacher that was a mechanic way back when and he told us that the true test of a good pilot was not his flying ability but his bowels

[Track fiddler]

Good morning Diners.

Hosting a booth at Randolph Railroad Days, Minnesota.  Two days of fun

Come on down.

TF