Evenin' Folks!
Hope you all had a great first day of Christmas. (It goes on for 12 days you know....)
I dunno Ken, My only reply to the Pink Flamingo story is:
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Opps! I got top of the page. Eggnog (with rum) is on me. Drink up!
92
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
cudakenHer Christmas Card had the receipt in it and the name threw her for a loop!
OK, really? I'm glad it all worked, I don't consider giving the receipt of a gift as part of the deal, but whatever works for you.
We used a carpet shampooer (the typical "home" version) for years, and then the carpet started to fall apart. Come to find out, our carpet had jute backing, and the carpet cleaner never picked up ALL of the water, after the shampooing process, which eventuly rotted the jute, and ruined the carpet, and left marks on the original oak flooring under it. Lots of damage.
It was a great Christmas Day here, 55 degrees with the sun out, kids for dinner, cooking the Christmas beast on the grill, and neighbors and friends over throughout the afternoon and early evening.
Mike.
EDIT: Whoa! Ray posted while I typed, top of page, I'll split it with ya Ray, but I'll have a bit of Southern Comfort in my eggnog.
My You Tube
Hi Ed,
I got caught by the lack of email notices about PMs too. I thought you hadn't replied to my last one but the conversation tonight caused me to have a look, and there was your prompt response.
Thanks for the suggestions. If anything comes of them I will add it to the thread on signals.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critterThanks for the suggestions. If anything comes of them I will add it to the thread on signals. Dave
I haven't forgotten about you, Dave What I plan to do is round up a few of the signal bridges on my layout and take some photos with a ruler nearby so you can judge the dimensions and reduce them to N scale.
In the meantime, you can look at pictures here:
https://www.railroadsignals.us/
(You have to snoop around this site to find things) and adapt things for use in Canada, not much different, I presume.
And another source from this site, scroll down for some good detailed photos
https://www.railroadsignals.us/bridges/signalbridges/index.htm
Hope that helps, Ed
Thanks Ed,
For those of you who might be wondering what we are talking about, I have promised a friend that I would build (or at least try to build) an N scale three track signal bridge representative of something CN or CP might have used in the steam era.
There is a thread on my attempts to build N scale signals here:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/277895.aspx
I will continue the signal discussion on that thread.
Dave,
They look quite nice. good job. I have built some using fiber optic cable, and had reasonably (for me) good results. I marked the ends with the color I wanted the light to be, stuffed them down the tube, and then applied the color led to the colored strand. I was supprised as to the visibility of the light coming out of the signal head.
herrinchoker
Good morning.
A coffee with peppermint eggnog please.
I sure had a great Christmas Day with my Brother and Judy. I hope you all had a great one as well.
Today my daughter is taking me to a fun place for my Birthday. They have a great big miniature golf setup, tons of old pinball machines and some pretty good food
I'm 56 today, a little scary nearing 60 Looking forward to another fun day.
TF
Good morning! Hope everyone had a great Christmas, or is having a great Hanukkah, or had an adequate Festivus, or whatever. I'm keeping the great MR ship on course alone today, so it's good to see things have been quiet here. (I'm trusting they've been quiet, since I haven't scanned back yet. )
So, any thought to where we're moving the Diner next? How about New Year's Day in NYC? Lots of train action there. And I'm sure LION can tell us all about the subway system.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
Merry Christmas Steve, NYC sounds good to me. I'm sure Ed, gmpullman, will also have lots to offer, I've never been there myself. I like it from a distance, about 900 miles.
Good Afternoon!
December 26th is the second day of Christmas, quite like Boxing Day in the UK, only with all shops still closed. So it´s a very quiet day. Good!
Petra is spending most of the time in the kitchen, preparing all the goodies she wants to force-feed our son with. I have no reason to complain, though - I was able to snatch some of them for myself!
I´ll second Steven´s motion to move the Diner to the Big Apple for January 2020! We can have an early start watching the countdown on Times Square. I am all for it!
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
December 26 is my daughter's birthday. When she was younger, we moved the celebratory party to Valentine's Day because so many of her friends, and sometimes our own family, were away.
Shoppers know that December 26 is a busy day at the stores as unwanted or ill-fitting gifts are returned or exchanged.
NYC is fine with me. I love subways, and even model them. Before retirement, I had a picture of my Saint Anne Street station as a screen saver on my computer. A co-worker, a native New Yorker, kept staring at the screen and finally said that he didn't remember that station. I had fooled him with a photo of a model.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
NYC is great with me, too. The last time I was there, I stayed with a friend at Hicksville, Long Island. We road the LIRR into the city to sightsee.
York1 John
"Meet me under the clock" used to be heard often while in Grand Central— in reference to the unique, spherical clock at the information booth in the center of the concourse.
Sure, Manhattan and environs sounds like a great way to begin 2020.
RR_Postcards_0008 by Edmund, on Flickr
I'll be up at the bewitching hour and if no one has any objection, I'll take the reins for moving the Diner.
EL_Pocono by Edmund, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
Afternoon folks!
The Rotten Apple??? Well I guess if that's where the rest of you want to end up for the month of January...... LOL OK by me as we have to be somewhere. I guess being an old farmboy I prefer rural settings, but I will go with the crowd just as long as it remains virtual! My rotten sister asked me a while back if I have ever BEEN to NYC. I told her no but I have driven around the place several times on my way to somewhere else and didn't have any desire or reason to visit there. She of course being the nasty person she is told me all the wonderful things I have missed, none of which I really wanted to experience anyway. But the big rotten apple is OK by me...... Actually if I had somebody to actually go to the city with, I might have fun, but that hasn't happened yet.
The weather here in the Finger Lakes can be summed up as follows:
Hope you are enjoying the second day of Christmas out there!
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Thanks for sharing your cheerful disposition, Ray
I visited Manhattan and environs back in 1966, '68 and a few times in the early 1970s. Enjoyed every minute
Years ago I used to edit the newsletter for the model railroad club I belonged to. Every now-and-then I would come up with a simple crossword puzzle to spice things up.
Here's a sample, nothing fancy:
Crossword1 by Edmund, on Flickr
You can click, then download it from Flickr if you choose, then print it. I'll post the answers on Saturday
I'm just getting familiar with the program again so the above is basically a trial-run.
Have fun! Ed
Track fiddlerI'm 56 today,
HB, TF!!
Terry
Terry in NW Wisconsin
Queenbogey715 is my Youtube channel
I'm not a city guy, preferring a nice home in a quiet suburb where I don't have to go to sleep to sirens, and where I can afford a room big enough for a decent layout.
But, when I VISIT someplace like NYC or Boston, I love the restaurants and museums, attractions that are few and far between elsewhere. Each environment has its own virtues, and I am happy to have both available.
The last time I was there, I was living in Boston and the girlfriend was in Virginia. We each took Amtrak and arrived downtown within minutes of each other. For that distance, the train beats flying every time. We ate well and saw a Broadway show.
If you're there, visit the 9/11 Memorial. We sat and cried.
Track fiddlerToday my daughter is taking me to a fun place for my Birthday. They have a great big miniature golf setup, tons of old pinball machines and some pretty good food I'm 56 today, a little scary nearing 60 Looking forward to another fun day.
Happy Birthday, TF! It sounds like a fun day. Love the old pinball machines. By the way, you're just a youngster. Hope you have many more.
Track fiddlerI'm 56 today, a little scary nearing 60 Looking forward to another fun day.
Your just a kid, get back to work!
Happy Birthday TF. Have a few on me.
TF,
60 is nothing, wait until you close on 80----that is scarey-----don't know if you will see the next sunrise, or be part of it.!!
howmusActually if I had somebody to actually go to the city with, I might have fun
So much to see, from the Statue of Liberty, to the various museums, to riding in the first car of a subway. 10 years ago, another online group I belong to, had a get together in Central Park. I took Amtrak from Baltimore and since I had never seen the Brooklyn Bridge, I took the subway to Brooklyn and attempted to walk to Central Park
It was the Festival of San Gennaro street festival and there was all sorts of Italian food from real restuarants in the city. I ran out of time and had to take the subway again, and discovered the A train Express doesn't stop anywhere near Central Park.
Growing up within walking distance of John Waters, I better not comment on "Pink Flamingos"
Flickr, bless their hearts, shows me an ad between every 3 pics, unless I upgrade to Flickr Pro.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Good day, all it is 5c, cloudy with a snow advisory for tonight.
Sorry, I did not make it in to wish the gang here all the best for the season, to say I have had my hands full is an understatement. Getting POA to look after this lady's affairs is a rude eye-opening experience. So far she is over $400,000.00 out of pocket for reasons that never should have happened. She is well off but was made a ward of the Province as she had no money in Canada and nobody knew she had plenty South of the border.
On Christmas Eve I had a long meeting with her lawyer and had to then get Stateside and do battle with the insane banking industry that exists down there. I was dreading long lineups to cross the border but someone was looking after me and the lines were short in both directions. I must admit I was feeling a little ticked off by the whole thing as I wanted to be with my kids, I then started thinking about all our service people overseas not getting home for the holidays and stopped feeling sorry for myself.
I have had a number of meetings with the Minister that was supposed to be handling her affairs and he is the nicest guy you could ever meet. The church he ran is huge as churches and congregations go and nice as he is, saying he is dumb as dirt is an insult to dirt. I am not sure how he got to the position he is in. He is out of the picture completely now, unless he gets implicated in some of the shenanigans that have been going on, but I cannot see that as he is such a caring guy.
We had only 18 for Christmas dinner last night as some of the kids are overseas doing missionary work or just seeing the world. My Nephew and his wife are heading back to the Middle East to help with the boat people that just keep coming across the Mediterranian. I am most pleased when they come back from these experiences with a better understanding of what is going on in the world. When they are there in person they see real people in real situations that don't end after a 30-second news clip.
Two or three years ago my Sisters church sponsored two families from Syria and even though I am a Heathen and don't belong to the church I threw a few bones into the pot to help the cause. I met one of the families at a gathering recently and the Dad asked why we had not met at the church before and I told him I was a heathen and didn't go to church. He laughed and thanked me for the help in getting them to safety. This guy, his wife and three kids came to Canada with the clothes on their back and three years later he employs 78 people in a computer tech company he started. A lesson to be learned by a couple of deadbeats I happen to be related to through marriage.
Time to go and fire up the layout as tomorrow it is back South of the border to try and understand "The Bank Of America", all the other banks down there are great and there are no problems at all with them, it is like dealing with the mob with those guys. I am a tired guy.
All the best to all.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
How I spent my Christmas:
.
We went to Orlando this Christmas to spend time with my youngest daughter. She and her fiancé flew into Orlando for three days, and we drove up to meet them.
I rented a two-bedroom suite for three nights at the Caribe Royale Resort near the Walt Disney World Resort. The Caribe Royale is a magnificent hotel, and one of my three favorites in the Orlando Resorts area.
They had the lobby completely decked out for the holidays. The centerpiece was the thirty-foot-tall Christmas tree. There were six other beautifully decorated trees around the lobby.
The Grand Staircase was also well decorated.
This magnificent Gingerbread Village was up by the reception desk. It was full of fun details to look for. If the kids could find all the details and fill out a card they could win a private party in Walt Disney World.
This was the view from my living room:
My Christmas present to everybody was a meal at Charley’s Steakhouse on International Drive.
Charley’s is one of the best steakhouses in Florida. They cut and age all the meats in-house. The steaks are cooked on a carefully monitored grill that is fired by a combination of Oak, Hickory, and Citrus woods.
I ordered a 24-ounce Filet Mignon with all the trimmings. I cannot describe how wonderful this piece of meat was. My daughter had an 8-ounce piece of “Wagyu” Filet. My wife ordered the 24-ounce Porterhouse. My non-beef-eating-soon-to-be-son-in-law had a filet of Black Grouper.
This was an amazing meal. I left so happy and satisfied.
This new attraction on International Drive is called the “Star Flyer”. We planned to go up on it after dinner, but we were all so full we decided to put that adventure off until a later date.
Christmas Eve we opened our presents. I received this Magnificent Mint-in-Box 1977 C-3PO from my daughter’s fiancé! How cool is this?
Christmas Day, we burned out the last usage we will have on our 2019 Disney All-Access Passes. Had a great time and tried to squeeze in too much. The Christmas Day Parade at Walt Disney World is really something you need to see one time in your life.
We decided not to wait for how long it would take to get into the new Star Wars section. That will need to be for a future date as well.
This is me this morning under the waterfall at the hotel. It made it to 80 degrees on Christmas and the day after. What an incredible few days.
If you ever want to renew your faith in humanity, you should hang out by the pool in an Orlando resort on a perfect day. You will see families from the Middle-East with their lovely young women swimming in modest burkinis, women from Brazil wearing much less, and everything in between from all over the world. Everyone gets along, nobody is eyeballing one another, and everyone’s kids play together regardless of what they are wearing or what color they are. The children don’t even need to speak the same language to be able to play pool games with one another. It is amazing how we can all be in one place from all over the globe, and just swim and have fun amongst ourselves. It is truly an uplifting experience that fills you with warmth and hope.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
SeeYou190The children don’t even need to speak the same language to be able to play pool games with one another.
Kevin your report warmed my heart. A few Christmases back we were in Hawaii and my young son was playing with a young Japanese lad in the pool, my son asked if he spoke English too which the Japenese kid nodded no, and then he asked if my son spoke Japenese to which my son said no. In the end, it turned out they both spoke fluent French and had a wonderful time together over the next few days speaking French the whole time.
Oh, did I see a bite out of one of those gingerbread houses?
herrinchoker TF, 60 is nothing, wait until you close on 80----that is scarey-----don't know if you will see the next sunrise, or be part of it.!!
Well hmmm...... That's kind of a downer! I prefer to see the positive side of things. As fast as time has been going lately I'm sure I'll get to your age soon enough and that's OK too. For today I was just trying to have fun and I did.
I had so much fun today, it may take plastic surgery to remove the smile off my face
Thanks for the nice birthday wishes Terry, John and Mike The three more smiles added when I got home were like the icing on the cake.
Thanks!
Happy Birthday, TF! I am so tired right now as I read the threads not much in going in. Didn't mean to blow your big day off ya young punk.
Happy Birthday TF!
Sounds like you had a great time with your daughter and her fiance! I'm not sure I could tackle a 24 oz. filet. I ate enough on Christmas Eve and Christmas day that I decided to skip supper tonight.
BATMAN Happy Birthday, TF! Didn't mean to blow your big day off ya young punk.
Happy Birthday, TF! Didn't mean to blow your big day off ya young punk.
God I love humor..... Thanks Brent.
Dave, I hear ya. I've been eating like a horse.
My PJ's replaced my blue jean's so fast when I got home tonight it would make your head spin
Thanks
Track fiddlerMy PJ's replaced my blue jean's so fast when I got home tonight it would make your head spin
I took off the PJs, put on the shorts and got on the bike for an hour and burned off 1500 calories, had a shower and put the PJs back on and here I sit.
Okay here is a first, the kid next door came over and asked if I could look at his car as it would not start. It was not his parent's regular car but a loaner, they are out and the kid has to get to work. I got in and it started right up, he said what did you do? I shut it down and as I turned the key it started back up just fine. He says oooooohhhh you have to turn the key!
He has only had his DL a short time and only has experienced push-button starts. Where's my Rum?