JUNE, 2021
Jeffrey's Trackside Diner
For the JUNE Diner our host, Kevin will guide the Diner patrons by automobile through the beautiful environs of These beautiful United States This is sure to be an enjoyable ride!
Please join in and suggest or contribute ideas for locations to visit or trains to see in your favorite locale. Perhaps Kevin can fit something into his tight itenerary
The Diner Staff and Patrons wish Kevin and his wife well as they navigate the highways and see the sights on their multi-state journey! May Godspeed.
Where It Has begun Since 1957 by Craig Sanders, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
Be sure to send the folks plenty of post cards
Ye Olde Dog House Cafe & Motor Court, Horse Cave, Ky. by Boston Public Library, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
Hi Ed,
Thanks for moving the Diner!
Kevin,
I'm looking forward to following your adventure! I hope you have a safe and happy trip.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Ed, thank you for opening the diner.
This is installment number one.
Today we started in North Florida, and ended in South Georgia. Not much of a trip, but it was a lot of fun.
I did see this pair of CSX locomotives in Wildwood, Florida.
In Hilliard, Florida we saw this really neat tow truck at a local garage.
Then the road took us to Waycross, Georgia. This beautiful building was in downtown, and it had a great look that would be a real eyecatcher on a layout. I love the reverse bay windows beneath the arch.
Waycross also has this restored station, with caboose, that is being used as office space.
One of my favorite subjects to photograph are small churches. I found this beautiful example of one in Manor, Georgia.
Then we trekked over to Valdosta for dinner at the Smok'n Pig Barbeque.
The Smok'n Pig is not great barbeque, but it has been consistently good. That was not the case today. It was terrible.
The food was cold, my pork was dry, our waitress was not fully trained, service was slow, and they were terrribly understaffed.
I am afraid that restaurants are going to be similar to this as we travel. It must be difficult to start up again after running at diminished capacity for so long.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the first installment! It's great!
SeeYou190Then the road took us to Waycross, Georgia. This beautiful building was in downtown, and it had a great look that would be a real eyecatcher on a layout. I love the reverse bay windows beneath the arch.
That building is a great find. It appears to be triangular, or at least, it certainly isn't rectangular. That creates huge possibilities. It shows that any building can be made to fit almost anywhere. It is a fine example of thinking out of the box.
Too bad about the BBQ place. I feel sorry for anyone in the restaurant industry after having to deal with Covid closings and uncertainty.
Good morning Diners. Tea and toast please, Brunhilda.
A great start, Kevin. The tow truck looks cool.
Our younger granddaughter came over yesterday and stayed overnite.
An easy going day today, so see where it takes us.
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
Good morning all! Chloe, can I get the special with a grape juice please? Thanks.
Kevin, enjoy your road trip! Looking forward to hearing about all your adventures.
TF, enjoy yours too!
Got a few projects done over the weekend, starting with two new entry doors on the house. Not difficult jobs, but time consuming. My wife got our deck coated with that "deck over" stuff. Looks good enough. Should do the job of getting a couple more years out of our deck before we replace it. The old boards are in rough shape, but this coating did a nice job of filling in cracks and covering up the rough spots.
JR, are you out there? All settled in to your new house?
Cheers guys!
Mike
Good Morning,
I'm up early as I had a 6 am telephone visit with my Doc to review the results of my annual last week. He wants to do more tests including a CT scan of my kidneys. He said it likely is nothing of concern but wants to be sure.
Kevin, great photos. Sorry to hear the restaurant wasn't up to par but I read that they are having staff problems everywhere so not surprising.
A heat warning has been issued for the rest of the week with 85-90 F temps.
Our planting continues. I hope to start the annual car clean up starting with the exterior wash and wax. Then I will do the interior.
More coffee is in order.
CN Charlie
As a reminder, this is the route we are taking for this journey.
Kevin
Good morning .
Ed ... Thanks for the move.
Kevin .... It looks liek a fun trip. Enjoy it !
Everybody...... Have a good day.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Good morning, everyone. Just coffee today.
Thanks for getting our June trip started, Ed.
I love road trips, and Kevin seems to be the perfect host for one. He takes very interesting pictures.
At our interstate interchange, we have fastfood places -- McDonalds, Arbys, BurgerKing, Dairy Queen, JimmyJohns, and Wendy's. Wendy's is the only one with its dining room open. All the others are drive-thru only. None of them can get enough people to work to keep the dining rooms open.
The non fast food restaurants out there do have sit-down dining, but they are also struggling, and service is not up-to-par because of the lack of workers.
When we go on trips, we drive our Expedition. If we go downhill, put it in neutral, and turn the engine off, we can get up to 15 mpg. It was not made for the mileage! However, it can pull a loaded coal train.
Have a good first day of the month, everyone.
York1 John
Kevin, you have a stop pinned in West Virginia, looks like Beckley or Charleston?
What brings you there if I may ask? Only about 6 hours from here.
Sheldon
Good afternoon Diners! Thanks for the Diner move. Must confess to feeling a split personality or location as I found the old Diner still open this morning and posted this there:Forgot to save my reply before going off to look for a photo! So, I'll get back to that later. For now, happy to report at long last success in getting a Digitrax DN163A4 to talk nicely to me. Should soon be able to restore CBNS 1563 a GP-15 to service. It's the right hand one in this pic from some years back: Test ran it and 1) the wheels are dirty, and 2) it howls like a banshee (never actually heard one of those, but the howl is legendary! So I've stripped it down and am hoping that reassembly will realign whatever is causing the noise. (Not a sound decoder issue as it isn't so equipped.) Testing each phase of the reassembly prior to the decoder by applying 9v DC to the motor tabs. There is a loudish whine, we shall see what full assembly brings...next up the decoder goes in. Test - lights but no motion Argh! So back to the bench yet again. This is getting a tad frustrating.
So I checked the motor tab-to-decoder contact, and brought the tabs up through those slots in the decoder for good measure. Back on the track, loco runs and is a little quieter doing so. Yeah! (I think to myself.) ran loco around to where I generally do the wheel cleaning (rubbing alcohol on a tissue over the tracks.) Switch to reverse – no lights, no motion nothing. Back to the bench –
It was the motor/decoder interface which was giving the trouble. All running well now, picked up a couple of tank cars and they are doing circuits to (hopefully) bed in the drive train and further quieten down the noise. Less of a howl now anyway. One of the things I’ve done recently (Feb?) was to swap out all the wheelsets to metal. Keeps the track a bit cleaner – as does running trains more frequently which is what I’ve been doing – bar the last couple of weeks.
“Well, I see by the clock on the wall…” (Canadian brethren of a certain age will be completing that quote in their heads ) …that it’s dinner time around here. Later…
"There are always alternatives, Captain" - Spock.
Kevin, great pic of the CSX Geeps. We're heading to FL to vacation soon. I'll spend some time looking at the railroads while I'm there.
Labor is short everywhere, from what I hear. Minimum wage stuff.
My young son just got his first job. At Walmart gathering carts. He applied and they hired him on the spot. They pay him $12 an hour to patrol the parking lot, gathering up carts from 18 cart stations.
It sounds like easy work, but they schedule him for 8 hour days, and he spends all of it on his feet basically walking back and forth from the building to the parking lot. When the 18th station is cleared, the first few are full again.
Its constant, and boring. Frankly, it sounds hard to me, especially when the little motorized cart pusher is broken. His first pay check was over $500, and he was proud. Good money for an unskilled teenager.
And he complains because others don't show up for their scheduled work. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.
I guess finding other work is too easy, or they don't need to work.
- Douglas
Heartland Division CB&Q Kevin .... It looks like a fun trip. Enjoy it !
So far it has been very enjoyable!
York1I love road trips, and Kevin seems to be the perfect host for one. He takes very interesting pictures.
Thank you for that. I will try to keep goop pictures coming.
ATLANTIC CENTRALKevin, you have a stop pinned in West Virginia, looks like Beckley or Charleston? What brings you there if I may ask?
The day before that stop we will be antiquing all day for my wife's enjoyment. The day after, we are going to the Age Of Steam Roundhouse in Ohio.
DoughlessMy young son just got his first job. At Walmart gathering carts. He applied and they hired him on the spot. They pay him $12 an hour to patrol the parking lot, gathering up carts from 18 cart stations.
You need to be careful... that could lead to something.
My wife got a job a Walmart as a part-time cashier in the late 90s for some extra Christmas money, and five years later she was Overnight Manager of a Supercenter!
Today we took off for Atlanta. This might be the last time I ever visit Atlanta. I don't see any reason I will be back this way again.
The only stop along the way was at the Big Peach Antique Mall.
An entire section of this mall was closed off, and about 1/4 of the remaining stalls were vacant. We only found one small little thing to buy. Not as good a stop as it used to be. Hopefully this set back is temporary.
Then we went to Atlanta. Atlanta has a beautiful skyline that includes the NOROLK SOUTHERN building.
The only train I saw today was a light rail train downtown.
In the 50+ times I have been to Atlanta, I have never been to the Georgia Aquarium. I fixed that today. The Georgia Aquarium is magnificent.
Photography of then exhibits is all but impossible. This is the best picture I have out of more than 100 shots.
Then we went to Hattie B's Hot Chicken for dinner.
The meal was good, but not the excellent level of enjoyment I have come to expect from Hattie B's. Same problems with low staff levels and poor service.
I hit no traffic in Atlanta. I left the aquarium at 5:00, and drove 3 miles to Hattie B's in 7 minutes! I left Hattie B's just before 6:00, and drove I-20 to the 685 West Loop to I-85 North through Spaghetti Junction. The car never slowed down below 45 miles per hour.
That was an Atlanta Miracle!
Nearly all the driving today was on the Interstate. I filled up the car in South Carolina, and the thing got 37 MPG today! This little car is amazing.
The World Is A Beautiful Place.
Good morning Diners. Tea and toast please, Flo.
Wall to wall sunshine all this week.
Kevin. We are experiencing the same challenges here with poor service and low staff levels. Maybe one day life will get back to what we remember. Great pictures. Love the light rail train.
Good morning diners! Flo, a stack of blueberry pancakes please.
Kevin, I've always wanted to see the Georgia aquarium, but haven't spent more than an evening in Atlanta. They always are tough to photograph. That Malibu has the same engine as my wife's Cruze. It is impressive. If you can point that car down a road at 55 mph with no stops, you can get over 50 mpg, and still have enough get up and go to be fun.
Taking my daughter to soccer practice tonight for the last time this season. Two games this weekend, and we are done with travel soccer until August. Not sure what I'll do with all the extra time I'll have. My daughter plays on a team that is 65 miles away from where we live. Practices and games take a huge chunk of time.
Got the new decoder installed in my new F3B unit and it solved the mismatched start-up speeds I was experiencing with the A unit. Good to have that pair running together.
Have a great day guys!
Water Level Route Taking my daughter to soccer practice tonight for the last time this season. Two games this weekend, and we are done with travel soccer until August. Not sure what I'll do with all the extra time I'll have. My daughter plays on a team that is 65 miles away from where we live. Practices and games take a huge chunk of time.
Wow!!! 65 miles to travel to play soccer. That is commitment.
One of my grandson's and elder granddaughter have an easy walking distance to their soccer club.
Water Level RouteTaking my daughter to soccer practice tonight for the last time this season. Two games this weekend, and we are done with travel soccer until August. Not sure what I'll do with all the extra time I'll have. My daughter plays on a team that is 65 miles away from where we live.
When my middle daughter was really competitive with karate, twice a week I drove her to a special school 40 miles away.
Those car rides with just me and her were some if the best times ever.
NorthBritOne of my grandson's and elder granddaughter have an easy walking distance to their soccer club.
SeeYou190Those car rides with just me and her were some if the best times ever.
Good morning. Bacon, eggs, and coffee, please.
SeeYou190 Then we went to Atlanta. Atlanta has a beautiful skyline that includes the NOROLK SOUTHERN building.
Looking down (!) at my in-laws and fiancé before we were married. First time meeting them. We were at that large round hotel in Kevin's picture in downtown Atlanta. I'm not sure what the lobby looks like today -- This was over 40 years ago.
Hope everyone has a good day.
Water Level Route We were at that point once, but my daughter's skill level outgrew what was available locally in terms of both coaching and competition some years ago, hence the change to a team an hour from home.
We were at that point once, but my daughter's skill level outgrew what was available locally in terms of both coaching and competition some years ago, hence the change to a team an hour from home.
That makes sense.
Fortunately there are good soccer academies in the area for my grandchildren. (Some better than others). We shall see where they go.
Good morning
We traveled through Hill City South Dakota on our way to Deadwood last night after driving 8 1/2 hours seeing all the sights.
My phone is extremely glitchy over here so a post takes close to an hour if adding pictures.
I see the train a coming.
It's rolling round the bend.
On my way to Deadwood, traveling the road my friends.
It seems to me Kevin has a little competition in the Black Hills. I wonder if Mr. Edward's is of any relation to Stratton?
We're off to Sturgis this morning
Have a great day gentleman
TF
Interesting looking loco that. I don't think I've seen a split saddle tank, if that's what it is, before. Panier tanks I'm more familiar with from the old GWR in Brit; and saddle tanks like the good old "Docksider" I've had as models. (even scratch bulding an oil tender for one back when I was in HO.) Sorry about the focus on that, can't do-over as that layout is long gone! The idea was to enable a Docksider to be used for railfan trips!
Most of today has been grass cutting and other yard work. I'm off to see if that Digitrax decoder will program easily.
Post Card!
George and I were hanging out a few days ago
I seen a mountain goat climbing around but couldn't get the camera set up quick enough before he took off.
Much better reception in Sturgis but I'm running out of free roaming
Here ya go, TF. Taken on the Black Hills Needles highway in 2017. He stood there for a while allowing everyone to get a good shot (picture).
More great travel photos!
My wife and I are looking for vacation ideas. We have one big problem in that I can't walk very far at all so most organized tours are not workable. We are considering a road trip.
Can I ask a couple of questions about yours?
- What time do you start in the morning? By 'start' I mean when do you actually start driving to your next destination?
- Do you have a set itinerary or can you do whatever you want?
- Have you made hotel reservations or are you just finding accomodations as you go?
Thanks,
hon30critter Hi Kevin, More great travel photos! My wife and I are looking for vacation ideas. We have one big problem in that I can't walk very far at all so most organized tours are not workable. We are considering a road trip. Can I ask a couple of questions about yours? - What time do you start in the morning? By 'start' I mean when do you actually start driving to your next destination? - Do you have a set itinerary or can you do whatever you want? - Have you made hotel reservations or are you just finding accomodations as you go? Thanks, Dave
Obviously I won't answer for Kevin, but I can share what my wife and I have done.
When we travel, it is almost always "freelance", pack a bag, fill up the tank, and have a list of possible targets.
Seldom any reservations, never with any "groups".
Years ago we went to New England, after doing a few things in Boston, Salem, Plymouth and few other spots, we got to Newport. Being old house lovers, we spent the whole rest of the trip there. We did every mansion tour in the town.
More recently we went on a long weekend trip to Niagara Falls, she was bored after one day, would not go to the Canadian side. We left Niagara Falls and went to the Pierce Arrow museum in Buffalo, the Corning Glass Works in Corning and the National Warplane Museum in Geneseo NY. We had a blast.
Many similar trips, sometimes to ride trains and do other stuff along the way.
My wife hates the feeling of being "controlled", she hated Disney World. We are not much for crowds, we try to do stuff at the slow times.
She will sleep anywhere as long as it is clean, that all she wants out of a motel/hotel, clean bed, hot and cold running water.......
ATLANTIC CENTRALMy wife hates the feeling of being "controlled", she hated Disney World. We are not much for crowds, we try to do stuff at the slow times. She will sleep anywhere as long as it is clean, that all she wants out of a motel/hotel, clean bed, hot and cold running water......
While I prefer to have a planned destination, the above comments describe me very well.
OTOH, my wife loves to be entertained. Finding her own entertainment is a challenge. But she would give up all entertaiment to just sit on the beach, in shade, and read a book. Fine with me, as I can find something else to do
Like a train shop or go find some RR tracks and see what's happening.
I've spent 25 years of my life traveling nearly every week for the job, and have learned what's important to me in a hotel/motel. Been to every kind of hotel made. In the end, what is important is a comfortable mattress, hot water, good water pressure, a flushing toliet, proper temperature control, and floors above you made of concrete so they hide footstep noise. So try to say in a high-ish rise rather than a three story stick built HI Express or Hampton Inn, etc. IOW, they have to get the basics right. The high end features and services are just a waste, IMO.