Good morning. I can't believe the weather. It's 72° outside. It's absolutely perfect. This is unheard of for us to have cool weather like this in August. I'm not complaining.
I think this is day 11 for our quarantine. I'm not sure if I'm counting correctly.
My computer is having issues after a Windows 10 update last week. All my passwords for each site were gone. It now will save passwords, but then forgets them when the computer goes off. I thought it might be the browser, but it is doing it on all three browsers.
I think I will try using one of those programs that remembers all the passwords.
I really don't have any Mexico train pictures. That means you get treated to family Mexico vacation pictures. Are you thrilled?
We were in Tulum, the Mayan ruins on the Yucatán Peninsula. That's one of my daughters on the very top left. Since we were there, they have stopped allowing people to climb on the temple.
Have a good day, everyone. Time to sit with the dog on the front porch rocking chair in the nice weather.
York1 John
Henry,
Sorry to hear about your friend. I don't understand why these things happen to good people either.
In an effort to cheer up a Monday, how about a little lunch dessert on me everybody. If you've never had flan before, make an effort to try it. It's delicious!
Mike
I've been awake for 3 hours. It woke the dog up and he started barking. Lots of lighting and distant thunder, but the street is hardly wet.
I found out a nurse I used to work with, who has been battling melanoma, with mets to the brain, was in a house fire. Evidently WV has no burn units because they sent her to Pittsburgh where she spent the last week of her life. Why is it such bad things happen to nice people?
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
York1The train through Copper Canyon in Mexico would load campers onto flat cars. You could sit in your camper, or I've seen pictures of people sitting in lawn chairs on the flat cars traveling through the canyon. It looked like such a good time:
Hi John,
That does look like a good time, although personally I'd have a bit of difficulty doing the bridges!
Thanks for the video.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Eveing Diners
Flo, give the gang and I a please and Dirk a dog treat.
Sort of a good day. I felt like doing some stuff, I got the front yard cut and was going to cut and flame thrower the rear yard. But life got in the way.
Why does a 15 minute job winded up to take 2 hours? Sharon and Shawn brought over the bigger window A/C unit today for the bedroom. Ran into all sort of problems. We did finally get installed and bug proof. Wife drove my daugther nuts and made her so mad she sat in her car.
Later, Ken and Dirk says Woof, Woof.
I hate Rust
Hi Everyone,
The subject of fish tacos and their origins came up. Here's the scoop.
I had always thought that Rubio's in San Diego was the inventor of fish tacos, but not so fast. It seems that most sources believe that fish tacos originated in either San Felipe or Ensenada in Baja. Both claim to have invented fish tacos.
The story has it that Rubio would spring break in San Felipe and loved the tacos from a particular vendor named Carlos. Rubio asked Carlos if he would like to start a company in San Diego together and Carlos declined. However, Rubio did persuade Carlos for the recipe and got the list of ingredients, but not the proportions. After exhaustive experimentation, Rubio got the proportions down and the rest is history. Apparently Rubio went back to San Felipe to generously thank Carlos, but he had moved. That's the story and fish tacos from Rubio's are very good.
Sorry, no picture of fish tacos.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
The better version. Nothing like the original.
Did someone say tequila? (Okay, so it was yesterday. I'm a little late to the party.)
Richard
Good afternoon! Have a nice month in Mexico.
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
MLC and John ..... Thanks for the well wishes.
The Mark Twain Zephyr, built in 1934, is being moved from Madison, IL near St Louis. It will be relaocated to Wisconsin where it will be restored and made operational. .... Yesterday, the power car made the trip to Wisconsin.
Photos from Facebook.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
I painted the small area above the front door where I fixed the ceiling.
The new color of my house will be a boring basic beige. The change of color signals a new era in my life. This will be the first time since 1981 that have not lived in a pink house.
When the painting is complete, I will need to find a new favorite John Mellencamp song.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Heartland Division CB&QTomorrow afternoon, I will have surgery in my second eye. I'm looking forward to it because the operation in my first eye was so successful. I'm very happy with vision in my "new eye".
Praying for perfect vision by Wednesday.
Garry, good luck on your second new eye surgery.
we shall be leaving the southern commnad today heading back to the wilds of western KY
Hola.
Dave .... The photos of Mexican railroad equipment is interesting.
John York 1 ..... The video of campers on flatcars in Mexico is remarkable. Definately a unique way to travel.
..
Tomorrow afternoon, I will have surgery in my second eye. I'm looking forward to it because the operation in my first eye was so successful. I'm very happy with vision in my "new eye".
So, tomorrow and Tuesday I will not be here.
In New Orleans, the best Mexican food actually came from a small cart. Manuel's Hot Tamales were great. Manuel's shop was about a block from my school, and you could find the cart at various places in mid city.
Despite the look of the cart and that you're buying food on the street, these were by far the best Mexican food you could get in New Orleans.
People actually drove into mid city in the evening to find the street vendor to buy these.
They don't do this anymore, but ever since I saw it years ago, I wanted to do it.
The train through Copper Canyon in Mexico would load campers onto flat cars. You could sit in your camper, or I've seen pictures of people sitting in lawn chairs on the flat cars traveling through the canyon. It looked like such a good time:
Good morning
Cool and pleasant starting out on the porch with my coffee.
My little chipmunk friend showed up again for his unsalted peanuts. Still a little shy. Been working on this one for a few years. I've been hopeful to tame him like the ones at the resort when I was young.
One would sit in my lap while another on my shoulder down at the dock house. So tame I could pet them. I dont see that happening with this chipmunk this year. They certainly pack their cheeks closer to Fall storing food for the winter, it's always just one more.
Speaking of Munks, I wonder where Brother Lion has been. I kinda miss that guy with his off the wall humor.
Finishing my plaster-paint job today. Didn't think it would drag into Sunday. Now-a-days, a weekend day feels just the same as the rest to me anyway I hate to admit, the up and down cutting in the baseboards is a little tougher than it used to be
Thanks for the Train pics and narrating Dave, ...Enjoyed. Liked my airplane history lesson too Ed, ...Intersesting.
Enjoy your Sunday guys
TF
Excellent photos, Dave Thank you for that. I've seen photos of the double-decker doodlebug before. What a neat Tijuana Taxi
Aow about an interesting Sunday morning history lesson?
By coincidence, one of the planes I have flown in, a TAG airlines de Haviland Dove (N2300H) wound up at the bottom of Lake erie due to a wing falling off. Metal fatigue, not manufacturing specs was to blame, though.
I hope everyone is getting along well this second day of August.
Cheers, Ed
Here is a map of the Union Pacific de Mexico trackage:
A fresh looking SD70ACes in Ferromex livery. Not sure when the picture was taken. It contrasts greatly with the condition of most of the Mexican railroads' equipment:
Mexico has a railway museum:
Okay, here's some creative Mexican railroading. It would be an interesting scratchbuild, but you had better check your bridge clearances before running it!
More Mexico Railway Museum artifacts:
I guess this is the other extreme as far as what Mexican locomotives look like, and I thought that North American locomotives could get pretty ugly!
Wow, look at these guys!
Old time Mexican rail crew!
A less pleasant time in the history of Mexican Railways:
More new Mexican locomotives, this time in Ferrosur livery:
Mexico City light rail transit:
Interesting images.
That's all for now.
Here is some really grainy footage of the N de M operating in 1964. They used steam up until 1966.
Here's a short video of an N de M train operating in Mexico. The terrain is steep and hilly. The curves are really tight! Perfect for modelling!!
You want a good burrito go to Guadalajara in Downey California best burrito I have had.
My introduction to Mexican food was El Cholos in Los Angeles. I haven't been there in 10 or 15 years and holey moley those are LA LA land prices on the menu.Eastern US Mexican isn't nearly as good as it is the the West....New Mexico, Arizona, Tejas, Colorado, California. I don't know what Chipotle Mexican Grill is, but it's like none of the above.PBS has a series "Pati's Mexican Kitchen" When you think of a Mexican woman, the picture in your mind is not her, nor is it every South American man or woman.
Finally I know someone with covid, my SIL. She had it in May, knew she was sick, and still went to work. There she found out that the person next to her was diagnose with it and they sent everyone home. That was in May, she just told my wife today, who worries retroactively. The SIL still does not have her sense of smell or taste back.
A nurse I worked with for 25 years posted a pic on Facebook 'Enjoying the Beach' with a picture of the most gnarly toe nails you would ever want to see with the ocean in the background. The nurse if from Iceland, blonde and still spectacularly gorgeous. They are not her toe nails, for those who have no sense of humor.
For the record, I have seen worse, we call them rams horns.
Kevin .... To me, the Santa Fe 4-8-4 would be the best part .
OK... really great tacos... I drove about 300 miles out of my way to try these once because I was told this place was incredible.
In Fort Madison, Iowa, on Avenue G, there is a little local bar called "Cabaret" that makes an absolutely incredible taco. These are not authentic Mexican tacos, definitely the American version.
If you don't believe me, read the Google reviews. It is worth the trip if you are anywhere nearby.
And, there is a Santa Fe 4-8-4 on display in Fort Madison near the river.
hon30critterSo, show us your favourite Mexican dishes, including the recipes if you can, and explain what it is great about them if you will.
If you want to see any of these I'm afraid you'll have to pre-order.
the best place for authentic Mexican food in Houston was down on Navigation street. It was as Kevin said I was the only one who spoke English, but I had enough highschool and college Spanish I could order etc.
My favorite item is Tamales. There is a version of Tamales here in the Mississippi delta area (home of my southern Command) that are an offshoot of Mexican tamales, they are great as well but have a different flavor.
Most "mexican" food in Texas is Tex-mex which is differnt from West-mex ( California)
N de M had a decent roster of 4-8-4 Niagaras. These were built in 1946 at Alco right along side the New York Central's thoroughbreds. The only difference is that you could see these monsters still running in September of 1966!
N-de-M_484 by Edmund, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
My only trip to Mexico was earlier this year. We went to Cozumel, an island off the east coast. That was the embarcation point for our Caribbean cruise. It was one way, so we didn't return through Mexico.
No trains out in Cozumel, but we did see a local freight on one of the Caribbean islands.
We went out for Mexican food last week, one of the higher end places. Nice setting, but the food was not impressive. I prefer the place just down the street that has beer and plain old beef tacos. Fish tacos are fashionable, but not satisfying to me. Are fish tacos every served in true Mexican places?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
One of my first trips to Mexico was as a geology student in college. We were staying at the Copper Queen hotel in Bisbee, AZ, and touring the mines in Douglas.
The hotel bar closed at 1:00 a.m., so we headed across the border to the Mexican bars.
One thing we didn't think about was coming back into the U.S., at 3:00 a.m., with quite a bit of tequila under the belt, and nothing but driver's licenses as IDs. The border agent was not happy, but I guess he figured that this was such a stupid story from a bunch of drunk college kids that it must be true.
My other trips to Mexico have all been great. The people were welcoming, and the food was great.
My last trip there was two years ago. We drove to Puerto Peñasco to stay a few days. In the evening, the shrimp boats came in, and at the docks we could buy all the fresh shrimp we wanted, for literally pennies a pound.
I don't think we have any plans to return, since we still have so many other places to see and a declining number of years to travel.