Thanks, Jim, being a bit of a history nut I love posting bits along the way.
Speaking of history, yesterday will be remembered as the day the U.S. opened the border back up and the Canadian snowbirds were on their way to Kevin's part of the world. The race to the border was newsworthy.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Hi Everyone,
Brent: Thanks for posting about the Edmond Fitzgerald. A lot of information. Well done. For whatever reason, I listen to the song every November 10th. I have absolutely no connection to anything related to the ship, lake boats, or anything else, but I still play the song. If Gordon Lightfoot had never recorded the song I probably Would've never heard about any of it.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Good morning from sunnyville.
I think today will be the final chopping of the leaves as we had a blustery night and the stragglers are now off the trees. The John Deere will then get blasted with the pressure washer and tucked away for 4 months.
Ricky, good on you for your driving habits. A daughter of a friend got a job delivering auto parts and got three speeding tickets right off the bat and each one cost her a week's pay and an increase in her own insurance premiums. I had a talk with her about how she should never bow to pressure from people to put herself or others at risk. Speeding is going outside the workplace safety envelope.
JR, love hearing the details, highs, and lows of your profession. Sounds like an interesting life you have there.
I had a 1990 Mazda RX7 TurboII. I bought it new in 1989 and sold it to a racing team for probably twice what I thought it was worth in 2004. I had a bidding war for it that I'll never understand. I have no idea what category of racing it would be in. I was told it had something to do with the VIN # as it showed it was one of only three RX7s that came from Japan to North America with that VIN # that year. I took the money.
It was 46 years ago today that the "Fitz" left port for the last time.
This is probably tangent to the subject, but in this month's MR, there's an article about sprucing up grain elevator models. Hopefully, here's a couple of pictures of a sweet little grain elevator complex in Rapid City, SD. This is obviously a small market operation in reality, but would make a really nice model on a medium to large size layout. Hope you all like it.
Grain Elevator 1 by Jim S, on Flickr" alt="Grain elevator in Rapid City" width="600" height="800" />
Grain Elevator 1 by Jim S, on Flickr" alt="grain elevator complex" width="600" height="800" />
Grain Elevator 1 by Jim S, on Flickr" alt="elevator and flour mill" width="600" height="800" />
Good morning all.
Chloe - Let's have one of them lovely looking cinnimon rolls. Thanks.
J.R. - Congrats on the win!
Garry - Glad you are doing a bit better. Wishing a speedy recovery.
Ed - Running trains for that long sounds like great fun!
Sitting here with my good doggo today, who is less than happy. He had to have surgery yesterday, and has "the cone of shame" today. While the surgery went well, they did send the removed tissue for a biopsy. Hopefully it comes back as a "FLT" and nothing else. (Funny Looking Thing.)
He had a swelling growth inside his nose, and nothing could explain why. No injury, no thorn or twig from a bush, nothing odd, just some odd growth. So, while hopefully it was not malignant, not too sure. He is certainly breathing easier now though.
Weather - Our "lake effect snow" fizzled out... Maybe a 1/4 of an inch, tops!
Layout room remodel - Not as far as I would like, but progressing.
Driving discussion (countinued) - I also never speed. Back when I delivered the auto parts, one of the others employed ther stated, in front of a customer, that I take way too long to run deliveries. I simply replied that it takes as long as it takes, as I am going the speed limit.
Her snotty reply, still in front of a customer, was "You don't have to go the speed limit you know."
That was her big mistake. I've done retail long enough to know there are certain things you never do, and getting confrontational in front of customers with another employee is one. So, as she was not in any position to be scolding me, as she was simply a coworker, not a supervisor or in charge of anyone or anything, I kind of taught her that lesson...
I replied "I'm 33 (at the time) and I've never had a speeding ticket or collision with another vehicle in my life, and I don't plan to start now. If you dislike that, you run the longer delivery trips. However, you are correct. I do not have to go the speed limit. It's perfectly legal for me to drive slower than that if I so choose."
The customer (who knows me well) laughed her head off. The owner, who was listening in on all this but waiting to see how I handled it, did the same. (Had it been a random customer who did not know me, I would have left off the last bit of my reply.)
Many times I have avoided a collision or accident simply because I never speed, tailgate, etc..., and go slower in snowy, slick conditions. When semi's or locals are going slow, there tends to be a reason.
So while others are out wasting money on speeding tickets and collision repairs, I have that money to spend on trains.
Hello to all those I did not mention by name.
Hope all are well, best wishes to those not, and all enjoy the day!
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
Garry, good to hear from you!
Let us know what the doctor says tomorrow.
I know it can get discouraging, but slow is better than none at all. Still praying.
York1 John
Good morning.
The corner booth is full this morning. David, Ed, Mike, JR, Kevin, and John York 1 : It is good to see each of you.
JR ... Congratulations on your racing success.
Update on me. It was three weeks ago when heart issues sent me to ER. Now I have been home for two weeks..
Recovery is progressing slowly but generally in the right direction, but there have been minor setbacks. I am on oxygen. I see my cardiologist tomorrow.
I thank each of you who posted encouragement to me.
Have a good day.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Good morning, everyone. Bacon, eggs, and black coffee, please.
Not much going on today. More leaves to work on. A meeting tonight -- at least this meeting is held at a restaurant and we eat while the meeting goes on.
I'll be working on the wife's Expedition this morning, getting ready for winter. With so many projects going on, the layout has been ignored. I see a lot of work coming once the snow comes.
J.R., good to have you back, and congratulations on the winning.
Thanks Kevin,
It's been so nuts I haven't had the time and with no layout a lot of the motivation is lacking as well. Hopefully as the season winds down and the outdoor work at the new place diminishes I can get after planning the layout room.
Ciao, J.R.
J.R. Good to see you back with more stories. Congratulations on the win!
Don't be such a stranger.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Good Morning All,
Back after two weeks on the road. It went well enough for us but I was glad to sleep in my own bed last night. Got a bunch of blood work done when I got back as I have a bunch of follow up appointments through early December starting with the neurologist tomorrow. Oh Joy.
Nothing on the layout front yet and I haven't caught up post here so I'm just flying blind for now.
At Daytona I helped my son who is crew chief on one of the Pescarolos we run. The Peugeot we run had a problem and dropped out before halfway but the Pescarolo ran through to the end (actually 4 sessions in a 24 hour period with time between sessions - it's complicated) and we came first overall. Not as good as two years ago when we finished 1,2,3 but a good result especially with the Chevron B21 we also ran (different crew) finishing first in class.
thuJuan Daytona bankingmbnail (1) by J.R. Mitchell, on Flickr" alt="" />
The Pescarolo at the bottom of the picture is a Lemans Prototype that finished 4th at that race when new - the best showing for a privateer at the time against the factory Audi's. Driver in tis pic is the owner Juan Gonzalez Moreno and the co driver is Butch Leitzinger. The Corvette is a former factory team car with a motor built by our friend Dan Binks who worked for Corvette Racing. It ran untestricted and wow was it fast - just not quite as fast as us though.
Good Morning All!
hon30critterPlum pudding is usually served with a white or carmel sweet sauce. I'm going to offer our guests some brandy butter as well. Brandy butter is made with 90 grams of unsalted butter, 90 grams of brown sugar and 6 or 7 tablespoons of brandy all whisked together. A scoop of vanilla ice cream is a nice modern touch.
John, to go with those heated gloves while snow blowing.
Charlie, is your wife a picky eater? Even if you forgot to season it, grilled chicken is usually okay unless it's burned down to charcoal.
David, glad to hear you get the monitor off. Hopefully all is well.
Ed, neat pics. I wonder why the one was touched up with the Erie markings on the cranes. They even did the third one in the back as well. Sounds like fun running the trains too! I don't know anyone in my area to do that with, so it's lone wolf all the time for me.
MLC, I hear you. My oldest daughter would put up Christmas decor the day after Halloween if we let her. She usually starts listening to Christmas music sporadically in October, gradually ramping up to listening to it daily starting about this time. Not much different from me when I was a kid. Your comments got me to thinking about getting mine up. Rain forecast all weekend, so that might be out. We'll see.
Garry, Lion, TF, JR, Ray, Brent, Ricky, Bear, Douglas, Rich, Jim, et al. chime in when you can.
Mike
Hello:
Loading War-time supplies. Can't really tell if those crates are moving from the gondolas to the embankment or vice-versa?
Erie Crane by Edmund, on Flickr
That stacked rail there looks like the Bullhead type used with chairs in the UK. Any thoughts, David?
More loading. This photo was retouched with ERIE being penned onto the whirley.
ERIE_Whirley by Edmund, on Flickr
I had a friend over Sunday and we ran trains for five-hours straight! Lots of fun!
Cheers, Ed
Good morning Diners. Tea and toast please, Brunhilda.
Only half an hour to go wearing the heart monitor then I can takeit off and return it to the hospital.
Will be back later for some of Dave's plum pudding.
A short film of getting supplies to Russia.
Convoy of lend-lease materials arrive in Iran and go to Russia by way of the recently British-built Trans-Iranian railway.
David.
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
I don't have any, but I could sure use them when out running the snow blower:
Good afternoon everyone.
Talking about cold weather... we are in for another unseasonably "cold" evening tonight.
One of the people I work with is an older Cuban woman. I was talking about people asking for heated gloves and such. She said "I know, I heard about how cold it gets up here in the North, but until you live in it, you just can't understand."
It never ocurred to me that for Cuban people, South Florida is "Up North!"
They are probably in as much shock as I am when I spend a Winter day in Jacksonville! Maybe we should start selling heated gloves.
Good Evening,
Another warm day here. It hit about 50F..
John, my wife is like yours. She is up to 4 a. m. and rarely gets up before noon. I get up with the sun which is about 7:30 now to put out the bird feeders. When it was earlier I did go back to bed afterwards. We haven't been missing birds here. Plum pudding isn't christmas cake. It is steamed and served hot usually with a sauce. Often brandy is pourd on it and set alight. Nice when it is still on fire when it hits your plate. In our family we called christmas cake fruit cake. I never liked it. My mother would age hers about 6 months.
I did a bbq or grill per Kevin. Didn't do it right per my wife the chicken ended up in the garbage. Well my wife's did, I ate mine and it was fine. I won't do chicken again. Trying hamburgers tomorrow. Last time before the weather changes.
Tomorrow I have to finish getting the yard ready for winter. More pots to empty. If you don't they will freeze and crack. I may pump the pond too.
CN Charlie
York1Dave, I've never had plum pudding. Is it anything like what we call a fruitcake?
Hi John,
The two are very close. Traditional plum pudding is boiled in a muslin cloth as opposed to being baked in a pan.
By the way, there are no plums in plum pudding. The term 'plum' comes from 17th century England (or thereabouts) and it referred to any dried fruit, usually raisins and currents. Candied fruit like orange and lemon rind and cherries are also added. Some people add chopped nuts. The recipe that I followed came from a cookbook published in the 1700s.
Plum pudding is usually served with a white or carmel sweet sauce. I'm going to offer our guests some brandy butter as well. Brandy butter is made with 90 grams of unsalted butter, 90 grams of brown sugar and 6 or 7 tablespoons of brandy all whisked together. A scoop of vanilla ice cream is a nice modern touch.
It is traditional to pour some brandy over the pudding before serving, then dim the lights and then set the brandy on fire! The effect is very eye catching! As soon as the flames go out the pudding is served and the warmth from the pudding helps to soften the brandy butter.
I have decided to make a second plum pudding for New Years.
Cheers!!
Dave
Edit:
Top of the page! How about plum pudding all round!?! Those of you who might not be interested in the pudding can just have a snifter of brandy. In fact, everyone can have a snifter of brandy!
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Indoor stuff is lit, I have no outdoor stuff yet. We enjoy are Christmas decor.
First time we put ut up this early. I blame that which we can't talk about.
York1I wasn't sure what a Martha Stewart Christmas tree was
MLC, I'm planning on getting the outside house lights up by Thanksgiving, but they won't be turned on, nor will any indoor decorations go up until the day after. Nothing like being ready though before the weather turns.
Kevin, it was incredibly warm up here this weekend. Temps were all the way in the upper 50's! I was grilling burgers in a T-shirt. Watched a soccer game yesterday in a T-shirt and wind breaker. Needs to drop about 40 degrees before I would want heated gloves on. And then I would have to buy some, although I have thought about it before. Heated socks are a thing too. Don't have those either.
Brent & David, neat videos.
Lion, maybe today you make it to the subway.
TF, get the new phone up and going yet?
Anyone I missed it wasn't intentional.
Have a great day everyone!
Good morning, diners. Nothing for me this morning, Chloe, I'm headed out the door for the dentist.
Another autumn day, another day to pick up leaves. I now go over the lawn twice, once with it set to mulch, and one with it set to vacuum up. I don't have to stop to empty the bag nearly as many times.
SeeYou190I had to be at work at 11:00 this morning, so I am very tired. This early morning was too much for me. I am going to go to sleep for 11 or 12 hours.
I laughed when I read this. This is the story at our house with my wife still in bed at 11:00 a.m., and I'm finishing a full day's work by that time. Then I'm falling asleep by 9:00 p.m., and she's in the middle of her day.
David, I hope you can get rid of the heart monitor tomorrow and resume normal life.
Lion, I think I asked one time, but short of putting in an elevator, is the only other answer to move the subway to a lower floor? I'm sure that would be a major undertaking you probably would not want to do.
Brent, interesting pictures. I've often thought the same thing about my area, wondering what those people would think if they could see this now. In the 1800s, wagon trains came through my area headed for Oregon and California to get good farmland. Little did they know they were walking across this prairie that would become some of the best farmland in the entire world.
There's a neat old Twilight Zone episode called "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim". It's about a wagon train that stops with a sick boy. His father goes to look for help, and over a hill he finds himself in modern times. He is even amazed at the hard-surfaced highway. Great episode.
MLC, do you light all the decorations already, or just get them up and ready? I know some other people who put up Christmas stuff, but don't turn on the lights yet.
Bear, I just finished a crossword puzzle with one of the clues, "Switzerland of the Pacific". I hadn't heard that before, but it was pretty easy to figure out they were talking about your country.
Mike, I'm out of the decorating loop, but I wasn't sure what a Martha Stewart Christmas tree was.
Charlie, I'm glad you were able to enjoy your patio. Do have many of your missing birds back yet?
Dave, I've never had plum pudding. Is it anything like what we call a fruitcake?
Everyone else who is not mentioned, I hope you all are doing well. Have a good day.
Good morning everyone. I fell asleep early last night, and woke up early today. I wish Chloe could just give me an I.V. of coffee today.
It was cold yesterday, very early, and unusual for these parts. It dipped into the fifties. I had a dozen inquiries yeterday about heated gloves. I did not even know heated gloves were a thing. Nope, we don't carry them.
Good morning Diners. A coffee on the go, Janie. A busy day ahead.
Because I had collapsed when I had Covid, I had a heart monitor fitted this morning. It is just to monitor what my heart is up to. I take it off tomorrow and return it to the hospital.
A couple of videos of railway modelling.
A German WW2 Military train.
WW2 Diorama of Operation Abyss
Thoughts & Peace to All who Require.
David
136 years ago today a promise was kept to British Columbia.
I wonder what they would think about how far their railroad reaches today?
This will be my only contribution to the Diner Topic for this month.
This is my model of a captured Polish armoured artillery train in German service during World War 2.
I hope all are doing well. I had to be at work at 11:00 this morning, so I am very tired. This early morning was too much for me. I am going to go to sleep for 11 or 12 hours.
The World Is A Beautiful Place.
Yes, Yes, I plaanned to go to the train room this afternoon, but I looed at my watch.... Is it THAT late already, so i retired to my room instead.
THEN I discovered thast I had not changes all of my clocks!
Oh well, I got more days than I got clocks (or leastwwis I do so hope!)
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Water Level Route Good Morning All. Flo, I'll take a large sea salt caramel latte with a chocolate glazed donut. Make it two. Got to messing around with a Genesis F7 last night. I noticed the rear coupler was drooping and found it was loose. Then I was reminded why. If I tighten the screw all the way on the cover, the coupler won't move. Just too tight. Obviously leaving it loose enough to move is loose enough to work free. Looked up the Kadee conversion on their website and it said a #38. I had the parts to piece a #38 together, but when I put it on, the rear truck hits the couple box and won't sit flat. Ended up having to scab together a box out of a combination of Athearn and Kadee pieces and file the shank down on a #5 coupler to about half thickness to get it to work. Poor design. Happy I've gotten myself down to the layout and got some things accomplished this week. Nothing worth sharing in WPF, but progress none the less. Happy Friday! Edit: Top of the page again?! Have some of the donuts with me guys.
Good Morning All. Flo, I'll take a large sea salt caramel latte with a chocolate glazed donut. Make it two.
Got to messing around with a Genesis F7 last night. I noticed the rear coupler was drooping and found it was loose. Then I was reminded why. If I tighten the screw all the way on the cover, the coupler won't move. Just too tight. Obviously leaving it loose enough to move is loose enough to work free. Looked up the Kadee conversion on their website and it said a #38. I had the parts to piece a #38 together, but when I put it on, the rear truck hits the couple box and won't sit flat. Ended up having to scab together a box out of a combination of Athearn and Kadee pieces and file the shank down on a #5 coupler to about half thickness to get it to work. Poor design.
Happy I've gotten myself down to the layout and got some things accomplished this week. Nothing worth sharing in WPF, but progress none the less.
Happy Friday!
Edit: Top of the page again?! Have some of the donuts with me guys.
Donuts! We are on the weigh!
Good afternoon.
I just finished putting a new radiator into the Saturn.
No one around here carried the radiator so i had to order it from Rock Auto. It was half the price if I had ordered one thru the auto store.
Put all new hoses and new thernostat in.
Garry, glad to see you on the board, we keep praying for a speedy recovery.
We put out all of our Christams decor and trees yesterday.
finished out the bigtree today. i know its early but we want to enjoy our stuff.
Good morning, diners. It's donut day again.
When I was a kid, my brothers and I got a Lionel train for Christmas.
We had a set of the small green plastic army men that every boy had back then. We would set up the army on the railroad, and then the war would begin. While the train was running, we would shoot rubber bands to knock over the army men, or knock them off the train.
I'm sure that today's parents would find what we were doing was not PC, but we had a great time.
My oldest brother gave the train to his oldest son, and I haven't seen it for 40 years.
Pretty amazing train built for war:
I hope everyone has a good, healthy Sunday today.
Good morning Diners. A large coffee please, Zoe.
A quick visit as we are going out soon.
NZEF Desert Railway - North Africa 1942
Slideshow of photographs of the rolling stock and railway line constructed and used to great effect by the Allies during the North African campaign of the Second World War. These previously unpublished photographs from the North African campaign, circa 1942, were taken from the personal photo album of a member of the 16th Railway Operating Company, 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force.