Hi TF
I'm very sorry to hear about your dad passing away. I hope he was happy until the end.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Sorry, John. That sucks.
Terry
Terry in NW Wisconsin
Queenbogey715 is my Youtube channel
John, sorry to hear of your loss, losing parents is the tough one. Make sure to drop in and chat with your friends here, it will help.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
York1 I took a trip to hike the five national parks in Utah.
I have not visited any of the National Parks in Utah. I did visit Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, which was a wonderful visit.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
TF, So sorry to hear about your dad! My thoughts and prayers are going out to you and your family!
Ray
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
TF, my condolences to you on your Dad's passing.
CN Charlie
Good morning, diners. Bacon, eggs, and black coffee, Chloe.
It's a nice cool morning on the plains. 65° does not happen very often here in August.
Several years ago, I took a trip to hike the five national parks in Utah. On the way home, I came across northern Arizona, and saw what I thought looked like an electrified railroad. I couldn't get close enough, but when I got home, I looked it up.
It was the Black Mesa & Lake Powell RR. It ran on 78 miles of track, and it was built specifically to move coal to the Navajo Generating Plant, all on land in the Navajo Nation.
The power plant closed in 2019, and the railroad quit running. I didn't take this picture -- I saw only the tracks and catenary, and I didn't get to see any trains running.
I hope everyone's day goes well.
York1 John
TF: Condolences on the loss of you Dad.
I got a text message this morning that one of our maintenance guys died last night of a brain aneurism; he was very well-liked. Life is way too short.
Tried to do a little work in the train room Saturday night and discovered that my tool box, which I have had for at least 42 years; had broken. It was a large plastic tackle box that I had modified to hold all of my model railroad tools and supplies. My wife gave me a new stacking tool box for Christmas a couple of years ago; so I started the process of moving my stuff into the new tool box. I have a lot of tools....
My thoughts and prayers are with you TF.
Mike
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
My condolences to you and your family, TF.
Sunset on the Sunset Route by Mike Danneman, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Track fiddlerBack from Wisconsin with close family in two twin rooms. Buried my dad a couple weeks ago
TF, you have my sympathy. Time helps, but we will always miss people who we were close to. It's great Judy is so understanding and helpful.
Condolances from the entire Council of Felids.
https://youtu.be/QfBAEHd4m7w
My Dad died
TF
Evening
Just got back.
Back from Wisconsin with close family in two twin rooms.
Buried my dad a couple weeks ago and Judy forked over a little weekend getaway that was very well needed. Just love that woman.
Started drinking heavy again after not. Saying goodbye to my Dad and now trying to put everything to rest. I know the heavy again didn't help but somehow helped to ease.
I'm home now and starting to try to get back to normal.
I like Building Bridges!
Evenin' folks!
Been a long but good day here in the Finger Lakes! Quite a bit of Family stuff goin' on. Just got home from my son's house and checked the site.
Here are some photos of a bridge still in use by the Finger Lakes RR that goes way back to the NYC branch that came over this way.
Shge's looking a bit old but still safe I guess.
73
This Massachusetts Central train is running on the former Ware River branch of the NYC's Boston & Albany which ran through the town of Barre Plains where my dad was born and raised:
This is my grandfather who was agent at the Barre Plains (B&M) station:
barredepot_FXT by Edmund, on Flickr
and some years later at the B&A brick station:
Barre_Plains-1955 by Edmund, on Flickr
That's him on the right (might even be wearing the same tie!) with my sister probably in '55 or so.
I hope everyone had a good weekend —
Cheers, Ed
There have been a lot of good photographs this month, but this one is really next level beautiful.
GREAT JOB RICK!
-Photograph by ricktrains4824
Good morning, diners. Sunday -- Donut Day!
We have some thunder and lightning this morning, but no rain. Rain is predicted tonight, so I guess I will have to do the lawn today.
With the photos and talk of boats on trains, it reminded me of where I used to live. In New Orleans, we lived about a block away from City Park. At the end of my street, Higgins had a large lumber yard. Right behind my house, Higgins had his factory that produced PT Boats and landing craft.
The buildings are all gone, but the contrete floors are all still there. There is a pauper's cemetery there that was between his factory and the lumber storage. At one time, he ran out of room for the boats and the city gave him permission to store some of the boats at the cemetery.
The boats had to be moved by rail to the Industrial Canal. Higgins built another boat factory at the Industrial Canal, but his City Park factory continued to produce both landing craft and PT boats. My daughters and I would ride our bikes around on the concrete. Great history.
The houses in the background are still there.
Here is the house on the right side background of the first photo as it appears today. My house was a block on the other side of this:
The Rapid City, Pierre, Eastern RR has a short connection into northwest Nebraska.
Have a good day, everyone.
gmpullman The larger craft are 38 foot Cabin Picket boats.
Hello everyone, I am back at home.
I had a few great days in Orlando helping my daughter move into her new house. She has two other young female housemates. One just graduated UCF with an art degree, and the other is a senior at UCF. My daughter will be starting at UCF in the fall. They seem like great kids, and I hope they can all get along.
The house was built in the mid 1950s, and it was fully remodeled in the late 1970s. It has all the 1970s luxury items. Central vacuum, intercom system, interior glass walls, and all the other stuff. It is crazy.
The front yard must be about a full acre. The back yard is long and narrow going down to the lake. They only have about 50 feet of lake frontage, and you cannot even see the lake from the back porch. There is a small dock on the lake.
There is a house down the street for sale. It was built in 1949 as a two bedroom one bath. The one car garage was later converted to a third bedroom. Asking price is $690,000.00, which is dirt cheap for a lakefront house in this part of Orlando. I wonder how much work it needs.
She bought a female Golden Cavalier puppy. It is amazingly cute, but it was ridiculously expensive. She seems very happy where she is at now.
There have been a lot of good photographs of short lines. I am still catching up. Thank you to everyone that has shared this month.
Hello diners. Flo, a club sandwich and a chocolate malt please.
Just got done watching my youngest play in a charity soccer tournament. They went undefeated through their bracket (yay!), so that was good. The bad part was the weather was miserable. We started the day at 9:00 with 78 degrees and 92% humidity. Their final game was 82 degrees and 84% humidity. I was about dying watching the games, much less playing in them. Four games in all for her team in that heat. Yuck!
It is a work weekend; but I needed a break so I dropped in for a few minutes. I don't have pictures, but my favorite shortline in Texas was the ex-Santa Fe San Saba sub from Lometa to Brady. I discovered Lometa on drives to and from college; there was still a four stall wooden enginehouse there. I was able to photograph it in the early 80s before it blew down in a windstorm. The Santa Fe spun the line off to a shorline in the 90's because Brady was a source of sand for glass making, locomotive traction, and fracking.
There have been at least 3 shortline railroads operating this branch since divesture by the Santa Fe; the Gulf Colorado and San Saba; the Heart of Texas; and the Central Texas and Colorado River. The line was mentioned in an article in Trains regarding the line's rebirth due to the increase in haulage of fracking sand. At one time there were at least nine sand plants in Brady. The Heart of Texas suffered a devastating timber trestle fire on the approach to its bridge over the Colorado River in 2013. The trestle was eventually replaced with a concrete structure, but who knows how much traffic was lost to trucks as a result.
The line is currently embargoed as the oil industry has learned that it can frack with locally sourced sand; no need to transport special sand thousands of miles.
I am modelling this line in Santa Fe days; starting with one of the towns (Eden) at the end of the original branch; the line was abandoned to Brady in 1972. Eden featured a grain elevator on the actual main end of track; another grain elevator on the house track; a wool warehouse on the house track. In livestock days; there were a couple of tracks at the stock pens. I know Eden received tank cars of petroleum products, but I am not sure if there was a separate spur to an oil supplier. There was also a wye, with a two stall enginehouse in the middle. There was a single siding at the depot. I believe that I can selectively compress all of this into about 25 feet.
Always appreciate it when John takes me back to my childhood home.
Here in Georgia, another shortline is the Chattooga & Chickamauga. Uses ex Central of Georgia and some TAG (Tennessee, Alabama, & Georgia) rail lines. Another recent acquisition by Genessee & Wyoming. Before that, they used to run an old CF-7 which was a bit unique.
Another video. Too bad the steam train excursions stopped last year ago (2 minutes in to the video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65YnXyvj2rw
- Douglas
Good Morning all.
Zoe - One of those yummy looking cinnamon rolls please. Thanks.
Glad to hear that those ill are recovering. Been quite busy lately, but have been peeking in the windows.
Shortline discussion - In my immediate area, we have 3 separate shortlines, The Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad, The Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad. I will include some pics and details throughout the month.
For now, a sample of each railroads operations.
B&P - In my area, it is mainly local train operation, with WAER, Warren-Erie and return, mainly Monday-Friday, performing all local industry and interchange switching enroute. It is ex-PRR rails, then became CR, then ALY (Allegheny Eastern Railroad, created for Hammermill Paper Corp.), before going to GWI via the B&P. They interchange in Erie Pa with NS&CSX, and in Corry Pa (and Salamanca NY) with WNY&P. Various industries are scattered from Warren through to Erie.
Here is my latest pic of WAER, westbound towards Erie near the small village of Elgin Pa (west of Corry.)
Buffalo&Pittsburgh WAER by Richard Woodworth, on Flickr
The open hoppers, from the Pittsburgh&Shawmut Railroad, were hauling gravel in this pic, headed to the Erie team track.
The WNY&P line runs on old Erie rails from Meadville Pa east to Hornell NY in my immediate area, with mostly Local ME1 (Meadville Turn Job 1) making a 2 or 3 day appearance in my immediate area. They interchange at Meadville with NS, outside Oil City with the OC&T, Corry PA and Salamanca NY with B&P, and Hornell NY with NS.
They run an almost exclusively ALCO/MLW roster, with everything from a small RS18u through the big MLW C636's, including a set of 3 Alco C430 units. They recently acquired a set of rebuilt ex-CSX AC6000CW's, now downrated to 4400HP, for the eastern end, to run the Keating Summit line.
Here is a pic of two of the rare C430 units westbound returning to Meaville at what the railroad calls Lovell Pa.
WNYP ME-1 05/10/22 by Richard Woodworth, on Flickr
The last time the big 636's were on this end of the line, they were hauling coal hoppers from storage near Salamanca NY to Meadville Pa.
WNYP 637 & 638 Smoke Show by Richard Woodworth, on Flickr
The OC&T has a passenger excursion from Titusville PA south through Oil Creek State Park, on ex PRR rails, and handles all local freight in and around Titusville on both the ex-PRR and ex-NYC lines. They have a M420W, and a pair of S2 units.
Here is one of the S2's at the Titusville station for a excursion trip.
OC&T 75 by Richard Woodworth, on Flickr
I will provide more details on all later on. (Including a pair of "Prototype for everything" points.)
Layout - Benchwork rebuild is making progress! YAY!!!!!!!!
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.
Good morning, everyone. Bacon, eggs, and black coffee, Chloe.
Hot and humid outside. So what else is new?
About 50 miles west of me, there is a large parcel of land that at one time housed the Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant. Through WWII and the Vietnam war, it was a major supplier of bombs. The area had a lot of train tracks that went through the various sections of the plant.
After the plant closed and most of the buildings taken down, the tracks remained. Today, the area is being marketed for it's industrial possibilities, with the tracks connecting to both UP and BNSF. Lots of track for car storage and lots of sidings for connecting to some sorts of industries. Not sure what the area will eventually look like.
Hope everyone has a good Saturday. The waitresses are lonely.