MERRY CHRISTMAS
Wishing everyone and their pups, a wonderful Christmas Day
TF
Merry Christmas everyone! After busting my backside putting on a big Christmas Eve for my in-laws last night, I was looking forward to a well deserved good night sleep. Awake at 4:30. Go figure!
Brent, what a great gift of some beautiful new pups! Can we keep one in the dinner as a mascot?
Have a wonderful day everyone!
Mike
Mom looks relieved and peaceful —
That's neat that they're born already color-coded.
Goats ain't that way...
Luna_Star by Edmund, on Flickr
Train 5 at Crescent by Mike Danneman, on Flickr
Merry Christmas everyone!
Regards, Ed
gmpullmanongrats, Brent! A toast to you and the pups
Thanks Ed. Final count 6 girls, 1 boy, 1 stillborn male. Last born@0100hrs Christmas morning.
Santa came in two places.
Now to start cooking for 20 for Christmas dinner.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Congrats, Brent! A toast to you and the pups
Those are some big trees to have blown over, Dave. I recall a steam passenger special (611/1218?) that got caught in a storm and there was tree damage to some of the dome cars and injuries to the passengers in them. I'll have to see if I can dig up the details.
It has been a problem for Network Rail, it seems:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2702502/Trees-lining-rail-network-chopped-stop-blown-tracks.html
Crescent in the snow by Mike Danneman, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
It's a BOY!
The weather in southern Ontario has been pretty severe. One of the Via Rail trains travelling between Toronto and Ottawa had a large tree fall onto it and they have been stuck for more than 18 hours. They have run out of food and water.
Fortunately the train was moving very slowly because the train crew were having to stop the train to operate the crossing signals manually.
Apparently the train is in a very isolated area. That and the weather have made it impossible to evacuate the train, although some people have left the train on their own (rather foolish I'd say).
Via has been able to get fresh crews to the train. The third crew arrived a few hours ago. Apparently the weather is so bad that the taxi company in Napanee refused to drive them so they had to drive themselves.
Not much of a Christmas Eve for those on board.
There was also a second Via train that was hit by a tree, but the crew used their fire axes to get the tree off of the train so they were able to resume their trip.
I suspect that the rail companies will be expending considerable effort to remove potentially dangerous trees from the right of way.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Evening all, just dropping in to say Merry Christmas to all.
Moma dog has just started pushing 24 hrs behind schedule so it will be a late night, then 20 for Christmas dinner tomorrow.
The other guys will lay there for hours to make sure everything goes well. When one pops out tails wag like crazy.
howmusGood Christmas Even folks! I got a present sent to my car earlier today. Easy to set up and have alrrady used it a couple times!!! (big grin!) You can see an enlarged (multiple) show of what it is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfucQM07tGQ Enjoy! I will go out and run it at least once more before I head to slumberland tonight! (grin)
Ray, that is pretty neat. My daughter drives one; I'll have to show her this. She may already know about it.
York1 John
Headed south for Carbondale:
Illinois Central - 57th Street by d.w.davidson, on Flickr
We're hunkered down for the next few days with no where to go, thankfully. I ventured out to plow a little of the drifting snow but mostly for naught since the winds have replaced the drifts already. Got the bird feeders filled and there were lots of thankful little chirpers out there!
We did all our family gatherings before the weather turned nasty.
Have a safe and happy Holiday —
Good Christmas Even folks! I got a present sent to my car earlier today. Easy to set up and have already used it a couple times!!! (big grin!)
You can see an enlarged (multiple) show of what it is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfucQM07tGQ
Enjoy! I will go out and run it at least once more before I head to slumberland tonight! (grin)
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Good evening Diners. It is 6 degrees C this evening here in NorthBrit land. Therefore a large bucket of sunshine for everyone across 'the pond'.
Seen all the grandchildren; now they are off to bed.
A few things to do here before Santa arrives. The grandchildren will visit in the morning.
Charlie. We may not be there in reality, but you and your wife are in the thoughts and prayers of your railroad buddies. Stay Strong. Merry Christmas.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
"We're havin' a Heat Wave..... Tropical Heat wave!"
Yep! The weather guessers say it is Partly outside. Partly what, I don't know... Sky looks gray everywhere I look but somethimg called the sun appears to be shining. Temperature is all the way up to 10° F as well. The mail man just stopped and opened the mailbox, so there might be something I want to see out there. Guess I should put on my winter coat and mosey out to fill the bird feeder and check out the Mail. Why do they call it "Mail"? You have to pay a Fee to get things from here to there. Shouldn't it be called FeeMail?
It's 19 degrees F here in Delaware, still much colder than normal. It's only going down a couple of degrees tonight, so we're already past the most severe part of the cold. It's sunny out so that helps, too.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
A late good morning, everyone.
Charlie, I hope you can have a good Christmas in spite of not being able to have loved ones in. I often think of pioneer families who left loved ones in the old world, and settled out on the prairies, never to see family again.
We see Sun Dogs every-so-often, but probably not as commonly as you guys farther north. I remember as a boy my mother pointed them out, and now I can spot them whenever they're viewable here. Last year, one time they were so bright that it almost looked like there were three suns at the horizon.
The house cleaning here is almost done.
I have a basement refrigerator full of beer. I tell my wife that I buy for the sons-in-law, but I know they will probably drink wine, which means when they leave, I will be forced(!) to drink all that beer. When I retired, the doctor told me I could have two drinks per day, but never more than that. At that rate, the refrigerator will be empty by March.
One nice thing about the family coming. For years, we would worry about cooking meals for everyone here. Then, several years ago we all decided that we would all either eat out or get fast food in. One of the evenings, we will all go to La Cocina, a good local Mexican food place. I will probably exceed my doctor's directions since I love that place's Margaritas. By not cooking here, each person can get what they want. Since I did most of the cooking, it sure makes it easier.
I hope all of you having the remnants of the storm do OK, and you don't lose power for too long. In my local area all the power lines are buried. Naturally, the power lines into our area aren't buried, so if there is a major outage, we will go out. But it sure has helped stop local outages from trees on power lines.
Years ago, our power company started a major effort to harden the grid, burying lines and starting aggressive tree cutting. Some local people don't like the power company cutting tree branches that are over lines, but it sure has helped during storms.
We will have Church tonight and also tomorrow morning. I love the Christmas hymns.
Have a great Christmas Eve, everyone.
Good Morning,
I think we were the only area in the country not on a storm watch yesterday. We do have an extreme cold warning but it is sunny out there. Perhaps we wiĺ see the sun dogs today. I saw them earlier in the week. Amazing sight. I do have to run one last errand and am not looking forward to the drive. I have a low beam bulb out but it is far too cold to change it. I won't be going out after dark anyway. By law here low beams must be on at all times so the cars are wired accordingly. Hard on the bulbs especially in extreme cold.
Must say I'm envious of those being with family tomorrow. We won't as my wife can't tolerate any personal interaction due to her extreme fear of covid. Will try to make it an ok day nonetheless. Have a nice bottle of Merlot which may help.
Have a great Christmas,
CN Charlie
Morning diners.
Zoe - I've brought homemade Peppermint Mocha's for the diners. Can you supply some cookies to go with? Thanks.
Weather - Snowy, cold, windy, cold, and cold. Had a Blizzard Warning yesterday, downgraded to a Winter Storm Warning today. Waves on Lake Erie yesterday hit a whopping 24 feet high. Currently at my place, it is -1F, with a wind chill of -28F. Light snow, but might just be from the wind blowing it all over. Guessers are calling for an additional 4-12 inches by tomorrow.
Pretty much everything is closed here.
Ray - I had gotten woke up by the FD at about 01:00 Friday morning. There was a fire north of me, and with all the icy and windy conditions, the fire trucks were going, full code 3 lights and sirens, 30-35 MPH past my house. The speed limit is 55, and normally they blow by 60+ MPH. A gravel pit companies' maintainance building got destroyed by the fire. They called out 6 different departments in full, plus 5 more partial response, and only prevented it from spreading to the office building.
Hope all are well, best wishes for 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 All,
Merry Christmas to Bear and hope you have a good one.
Christmas Eve here for the rest of us and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays as well.
A toasty 1F here this morning. Yesterday it was 50mph wind gusts, torrential rain and 48F. We lost power and the generator didn't kick in so we called for help once the rain stopped as it was going to be cold later in the day. I checked the two shop buildings for damage as the power was off here as well and just got back out as they were closing the road for downed trees and power lines.
The electricians showed up and pronounced our generator d.o.a. with a siezed motor and departed. Naturally since it was dead and a new one was months away and the power was still off I started tinkering with it. The battery lost too much voltage when the starter tried to come on so I pulled the starter. It had jammed on engaged as our race car starters occasionally do so I freed the bendix and lubed the shaft bushings. With the starter out I was able to bar the motor over easily so that wasn't the issue. The starter however would barely engage the flywheel even with the spark plug out of the motor (1 cyl) so we called the techies back and showed them what we'd found. A new starter cured the problem and we had power. When the utility power came back on last night it wouldn't transfer back so we ran the gen set all night and called the techies back. Thankfully they are working Christmas Eve so they are bringing a whole transfer box to make sure they have the parts they need. It looked to my inexpert eyes like the master breaker on the transfer fried as it is half on (or half off for you pessimists amoung us). I don't mind messing with gensets but I draw the line at the mains and breaker boxes. Lesson learned anyway and I will add the genset and transfer to my preventative maintianence list and not just rely on the annual inspection by the trades.
The kids minus Rob and Jason who live on the left coast will be over tomorrow and my brothers Weds which will be nice. My sister in Nova Scotia refuses to sort her status out so is still without a passport so that visit will have to wait until the CFO gets her Instrument Flight Rating and we can fly up.
Hope the rest of you are well or recovering and that Ray doesn't run out of Christmas spirits. Bundle up Kevin - it's cold outside! Ciao, J.R.
I need to work today. We close at 5:00, so I need to be there at 8:30.
I am rarely out of bed before noon. I am going to be a walking zombie on the job today.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Good morning
Have said it before but always have admired that sketch of yours Bear.
A strapping young lad you were as a youngster Ed.
That sure is a cute picture of your Granddaughter visiting Santa David. Ya gotta enjoy seeing the magic in their little faces, as they grow up so fast.
Hope you can find your parka Kevin. If there is such a thing down there...
Cook day with Judy and some Christmas movies today. Here's kind of a silly Christmas card that came off the drawing board while doodling one year.
Merry Christmas
SeeYou190 It is SO COLD outside. -Kevin
It is SO COLD outside.
Geordie Lasses - Mind you don't slip.
York1All right, Kevin! That's enough!
It is SO COLD outside. The house only cooled down to 63 degrees. It is amazing how well insulated this place is.
Two days ago, this was the hottest December on record, now we are setting record lows.
Sixty years ago...
EJT_1962_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
Check out that tie!
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays everyone!
Good morning Diners. A glass of the Appletons, Bear has left please, Zoe.
Off to visit Son, DiL and grandchildren for Christmas Eve Party.
Grandchildren visit tomorrow. Then to visit Daughter, SiL and grandchildren for Christmas Dinner.
Seeing Santa.
Seeing Santa by David Harrison, on Flickr
1639806950420-01.jpeg.d50a34a4ebebf97a60e1a6ffee0149ac by David Harrison, on Flickr
Jolly Santa by David Harrison, on Flickr
Hi Bear,
You are a very talented artist!
Merry Christmas!!
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
All right, Kevin! That's enough!
Kevin, I was just watching the 'In Memorium' on Turner Classic Movies, and I thought of you when they showed Meat Loaf as one of the people who died this year.
I remember that you were in a scene with him in a music video.
Hi everybody.
We are wexpecting some very cold weather tonight. Should get into the 40s outside, the house will probably drop into the mid 60s.
MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYS!!!
Just shut the heat off in the garage, MR season is officially here!
Track fiddlerDang-It! I don't live in the Beer Zone RayCrying
Well..... Luckily a couple weeks ago I bought a fifth of Southern Comfort (The good 100 proof type) so I am settled in for the long haul. If I run out I will have to switch to a good Rum... Either way I should be able to ride out the storm. Don't head anywhere west of Pittsford in NYS though. It is closed!
You could just make a nice warm shelter though and stay put:
It is currently 3°F (or -16C) outside at the moment and I am about to climb into a nice (but not warm yet) bed and settle down for a Long Winter's Rest!