Big News... There is a Trader Joe's opening in Lee County, Florida tomorrow.
No kidding, this is big news. I watched the local NBC news at 6:00 and the CBS news at 11:00, and they both had features on how excited everyone is about the new grocery store.
There are people lined up at the door already. It is going to get into the 40s tonight! That is insane.
There was an Aldi opened about a year ago in Cape Coral, and there were lines out the doors for weeks. Same thing happened when a Bravo Supermarket opened in Fort Myers a few months ago.
What is it about new supermarkets? None of them are as good as Publix, and Florida is literally saturated with Publix stores.
Oh well. I might go into the Trader Joes' for some chili sprinkled dried mango slices in six months or so.
The World Is A Beautiful Place.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Heartland Division CB&Q I hope all people in that house got out safely. Looks like a bad one.
The local news just reported that the house was occupied by a mother and her two teenage children. Everyone got out OK and no one was hurt.
The Fire Department suspects the fire started in the garage, but the investigation is not complete.
Ooo that house fire looks bad,
I smelled smoke earlier and it was neighbior firing up BBQ in the rain.
I imagine one could go thru 10k rounds of ammo pretty quick at 400 rounds per 50cal belt. ( the whole 9 yards)
I get second round shot Saturday.
We are still trying to set up our expanded shot clinic.
They have not decided where to put it, the one large place we have has a bad bottleneck for crowds to traverse
Eveing Diners
Flo, give the gang and I a please and Dirk and Robbie a dog treat.
Kept telling my wife she needed to look into smething! She had been reciving Chase acount information, a Chase Debit Card and Casher Check for $5.41? She said it was all fake, and well I all so sort of thought that as well.
Nope, it is a real account. Seems someone open a Chase Checking account in her name! Got a Chase Bank number from a friend that has a Chase account and I made the call with Sue on the other phone. Account was open New Years Eve. She recived a statment that showed a deposit of $161.00 and goggle payments of $0.98 till only $5.41 was left.
We filed a Fruad report with Chase and Maryville PD. Friday I will call the major credit bureau's and report it. Thinking about getting Life Lock after this. My credit score is up too 763 and that is worth protecting!
Trains ran great and Dirk say's Woof, Woof daddy.
Later, Ken
I hate Rust
Good evening .
Kevin .... I hope all people in that house got out safely. Looks like a bad one.
Jim .... Thank you for sharing pictures of that interesting turntable.
Everybody ..... Have a good night.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
That's not just a minor home fire.
York1 John
I heard a lot of sirens outside.
A home on my street, seven houses away, is on fire.
Good Afternoon,
We got the storm last night but only 5" of snow. Getting colder though, -30 by Sat.
NorthBrit Dave, Dad was in a RAF squadron #77 based at Full Sutton in Yorkshire. Although he was RCAF, his squadron had personnel from all over the Commonwealth. His crew was from Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The Squadron Leader was a Brit.
Got the Red Caboose box car done. It turned out nice.
Time for supper.
CN Charlie
-
Jim, those are neat pictures you took. There are a lot of people who would love to see what you saw there.
Hi Everyone,
Making a semi-rare appearance here. Ed had said that the diner was going from KC to Denver. Well I'm probably way late, but I do have a couple of pics to share from a town along the way. The pics are of a manually operated turntable, which you may find interesting. I took these when I borrowed my Dad's camera and rode my bike to the RR yards in town and just happened to "get lucky" as it were.
BTW: the turntable was dismantled within the following ten years. I went back to the spot some years after the pics were taken and all traces of it were gone.
The pics are of a locomotive being turned.
scan0012 by Jim S, on Flickr" alt="the crew turning the loco" width="102" height="768" />
scan0011 by Jim S, on Flickr" alt="Rock Island 1339" width="102" height="768" />
Enjoy!
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Heartland Division CB&QMy accomplishment of the morning: ...... I received my second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
That is great news. My wife and I do not even qualify to get on the Florida waiting list yet. She will qualify before I do.
York1Now the tables have turned. When we talk to them, they are telling us to be careful driving, be sure to eat the right foods, call us when you get home, etc.
My wife and I are mid-transition with our babies. The oldest one worries about us all the time. I think this is because she is the only one in a real position to help us out if we needed. The middle one is all involved in her own little world right now and is full of worries. The youngest does not sem to worry about anything at all.
I am certain it is just a matter of time before they all are worried for us.
I've lost track of where we woke up this morning -- New Mexico? Utah?
I just got my first vaccination. We get the second one in 28 days.
For years, my wife and I worked and raised our daughters -- and we had the normal worries -- don't drive too fast, be careful, watch out, call us when you get to your destination, etc.
Now the tables have turned. When we talk to them, they are telling us to be careful driving, be sure to eat the right foods, call us when you get home, etc.
What brought this up was that the girls have been worried about us getting the virus. They all were so relieved this morning when they heard we were getting the first dose. We can't talk to them without them giving us advice on taking care of ourselves. We are now the kids and the kids are our parents.
Howdy ....
My accomplishment of the morning: ...... I received my second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Be back later. ..... Cheers.
My granddad, also named Alvie, was in a USMC air transport unit stationed at Cherry Point MCAS in North Carolina, as well as in the South Pacific. He had been a crew chief and even logged some flight hours on R4D transport planes. The Navy and Marine's version of the DC-3/C47. Towards the end of the war and into 1946 I understand, he was in Tsingtao China. He had great stories to tell up until he passed on in November 2016. In the mid-90s as a teenage aviation enthusiast he introduced me to a friend of his who had been a dorsal turret gunner on B24 Liberators. I was only 13 but remembered so much of what the gentleman had told me about that time. He mentioned a story one time of getting ready to shoot at a German fighter plane and said before he could pull the triggers a P38 Lightning had destroyed the plane he aimed at.
In April 2019, a friend of my mom's from college in the early '70s had organized a funeral service at Arlington National Cemetary for his father who'd died around 2001 and they discussed his life as an Air Force fighter pilot including his time flying P51 Mustangs on bomber escort duty over Germany during the WWII. It was fascinating to say the least.
Alvie
Good Morning All,
25 F and cloudy this morning. I'll have just a regular to go please Zoe. Like most veterans, my dad didn't talk much about what he went through in the Pacific. He got to Australia while things were still really dicey and bounced around from one bomber group to another depending on who had flyable equipment and a need for crew. He only did a couple of missions in B-17's and 25s spending most of his time in B24s when they showed up in quantity. He island hopped with the 13th bomb group of the 5th airforce (I don't have all that info in front of me) under General Kinney. Because he was a little guy they put him in the Sperry turret in the belly of the plane. He had to run the turret down and up for take off and landing and get in through a hatch sans parachute. Long range missions were flown without fighter cover and were the most difficult and dangerous. He was shot down on one of those missions in 1943 off the coast of the Phillipines and was one of only a couple of his crew to survive because he had to hand crank the turret back up since the hydraulics were out, put his chute on and bail out. He was so long getting out he was far away and missed being shot in his chute or life raft like most of the rest of his crew. He spent a couple of days in his one man life raft ending up on Mindanao where he was found by friendly guerrillas and sheltered until they could get him picked up. That was the expurgated version and I didn't even hear that until after I had been drafted and he wanted to give me some inkling of what I was getting into. It wasn't until I was going through some of his papers after he passed that I found out he was in such bad shape when he was picked up that even after hospitalization he was unable to function and had to be shipped home (though he still got over 50 missions in). What they called combat fatigue then we now know as PTSD. Truely we will always owe a debt to his generation. J.R.
Hello all. Dawn is going for her 'Covid 19 jab' today. I go tomorrow.
Interesting conversations about WW2 aircraft. My mother was in the Air Transport Auxiliary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transport_Auxiliary
I may get time to run a few trains today.
Thoughts & Peace to All who Require.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Hello Railfans!
Top of the evening to ya! Hope everyone is doing well.
Ed) Seems to me i remember reading in a C&O book about the H8 that went something like this.... " .... and had a firebox the size of a formal dining room." To me, that seats atleast 8 or more!
Concerning that massive bridge picture above...
What the "bridge guy" thinks: HUBBA HUBBA!
What the rest of us are thinking: "I just got a great idea for gondola loads."
The last time i fired a steamer, the trip was so short i only got to work the injector.
Kevin) I hear you on the 8' x 9' bedrooms of the '80's. My last residence was of such quality. Came away from there with a great appreciation for shelf based layouts!
With a door in, plus a closet door to swing in aswell, you know you gotta be creative furniture wise when the doors are open. Even the shelving cant be centered on the wall. Perfect for a nursery but thats about it!
In General) Thanks guys for sharing your info and storys on the warplanes and the relatives who flew them. Fighters and bombers alike! Im always up for a good read like that.
Have a great day everyone, keep the world spinning til its my turn again.
Clear Ahead!
Douglas
Good morning guys. Been laying low in the corner with a few top shelf drinks to keep me company. Had a really up and down last week or so. The good: We finally received the dining table we ordered back at the end of August. We were told 2-3 months then. What do you do? Then we bought a new travel trailer at the end of the week. That will be nice! Our little pop-up was just too small. The kids aren't getting any younger and we do all enjoy camping. Now we'll actually have the space to enjoy it when we must be inside. The bad: Found out over the weekend that someone tried to use my identity to claim unemployement benefits in Kentucky. (Thanks Equifax for letting my personal info get compromised ) Of course this attempt was right about the time I had my credit reports thawed so I could get the loan on the trailer. Luckily, it appears that was the only attempted use of my information and no damage was done, but who knows what could be coming. Will have to stay vigilant.
Love the WWII discussion. Anybody been to the museum in New Orleans? It's fantastic!
Take care fellas.
Mike
SeeYou190How would a fireman even look through all the embers and heat to see what the corners looked like?
Foot on the pedal to open the door. Coal scoop in your hand used to direct the air flow through the firebox door. The draft was strong enough that the blast of air would "clear a path" so you could inspect the firebed. Clinkers looked dark, sometimes black. Thin spots would be bright. Shoulder and upper arm protecting your face from the radiant heat.
You could "skip" the rounded bottom, back of the coal scoop against the firebox opening while slinging the coal in. This would fan the coal out and give it a little extra velocity to hit those distant corners.
To hit the back corners you would "flip" the scoop 180° just as the lip entered the door opening. It was awkward for me to hit the right-back corner because uou had to contort yourself to get your wrists to twist that way.
You'd get the "eye" from the engineer if you lost your rythm (or hit a low joint and lunged) and the scoop caught the door and coal showered the inside of the cab
Fun Stuff! Ed
gmpullman Even with the stoker you still had to hand-bomb the corners.
How would a fireman even look through all the embers and heat to see what the corners looked like?
I walked into my bedroom and tried to imagine it as a bed of coal and heat. I can't.
I honestly cannot even imagine. A firebox that big literally sounds like hell.
SeeYou190That is insane! I cannot imagine looking into a firebox that cavernous.
The fireman's prayer:
Please don't let the stoker jam
Conversion to oil was probably a blessing. Even with the stoker you still had to hand-bomb the corners.
The good ol' days Cheers, Ed
gmpullmanFor comparison, the firebox of a U.P. Big Boy is 8 feet by 19.5 feet!
That is insane! I cannot imagine looking into a firebox that cavernous.
The short answer is about 15 seconds of total fire, delivered in seven to eight two-second bursts.
A Spitfire MKI and II had eight (8) Browning .303 machine guns, each with 300 rounds and a rate of fire, when sustained, at 1,150 rounds per minute. A total weight of 2,400 rounds was carried. Each gun delivered about 19 rounds per second, so 152 rounds per second total.
The Air Ministry found in tests, (the ones that determined eight guns vs. the previous two and then four per wing), that a two second burst at close range, meaning closing in below 300 yards, with eight guns, gave the best effectiveness and balanced armament weight with maneuverability. A two-second burst would deliver over 300 rounds potentially in a 6-foot circle at 300 yards.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I took my wife to the dentist today. It was all very bad news.
She needs to go back on Monday and have three teeth extracted. She will need at least a partial, and maybe a full set of dentures to correct everything.
I got nothing done on the house, but we spent a lot of time together today.
Good Evening,
The Handley-Paige Halifax my father wasin carried a 4 gun rear and upper turrets that had .303 machine guns. He flew in Mk.llll and Mk.lv versions with Bristol radial engines. Earlier versions had nose and side guns but the Brits flew mostly night missions and found fighter attacks came from the rear. They once got trapped by searchlights but escaped as their pilot was really good and could do the side slip U maneover really well. He said your stomach went to your throat doing that maneuver. Their plane had quite a few patches from flack.
Brent, I'll go with my father's opnion as he was actually there and saw what happened. Fatigue induced sleep was a real problem on the return of a 7 hour mission. Dad said the pilot was often saying on intercom ' Fox are you awake' The gunner's name was Fox.
C
N Charlie
BATMANThe two main reasons the bombers could not shoot back would be because either the gunners were dead or severely wounded or they would just be out of ammunition. Those .30cal and .50cal rounds were heavy and they could not carry as much as you might think. Weight of the bomb load and fuel load would also affect how many rounds they could take along.
A B-17g would carry over 10,000 rounds of .50cal along with the full bomb load. 1,000 of these were in the Sperry Turret.
That is quite a bit of ammunition, I think.
There were a few B-17s that were converted into gunships, the most famous being "Old 666" (serial number 412666). These could supposedly carry in excess of 40,000 rounds, some even being 20mm guns, but there is nothing official since all were field custom modifications.
There are stories of a B17 being equipped with 40mm Bofors A/A guns in the waist positions, but these are 95% likely untrue.
Good evening.
Ed ... Thanks for the Darango and Silverton pictures. I rode on it in 1965. I should dig out my old 35mm slides to see what can be salvaged,
John York 1 ..... Thanks for posting the Royal Gorge photos.
Brent .... I like the photo of the CP train on a steel trestle.
Everybody ..... Have a good evening.
BATMANthat has a 53" x 17" unfinished train room in it (no windows).
Your not gonna get much Model railroading in that little closet! Now if it was 53' x 17' that would be great!
Sorry! I just couldn't resist!!!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
BATMANThis is the interior of a Baggage dormitory car on the Canadian, does anyone (Ed) have any more pics of the inside of one of these cars?
I've got the same photo, Brent. Got a floor plan, though:
Budd_Cdn-Dorm by Edmund, on Flickr
Got one for that guy that likes bridges:
That’s a lot of bridge… by Mike Danneman, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed