"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
No where near as colorful as the Bear's examples but — a one-of-a-kind "heritage" unit just the same:
NS 1073 Penn Central Heritage Unit SD70ACe by James R., on Flickr
I "grew up" with the Penn-Central. It was difficult, at times, to witness what had become of three, once proud railroads but, like the occasional eccentric relative, you just had to grin and bear it.
The other day I came across a recipe that I had clipped from a Dear Abby column in a newspaper from 1996 for Pecan Pie. Tonight I made my first pecan pie in 67 years. I won't be leaving THIS recipe out in the rain!
pie-pecan by Edmund, on Flickr
Dig In!
Cheers, Ed
Diffrent kind of an engine.
Lion with two heads
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Kevin: Those soffits look great. I bet the hardest part of the job is working over your head. I could do it when younger, but now it is a beating to do any extended work over my head.
On one of our trips back to Texas I repurposed some scaffolding that my dad had distributed to sons when he and mom downsized two years ago. We orginally had five sections that we used to paint the two story plantation style monstrosity that my parents bought and renovated when I was in high school. It was repainted numerous times, I always got high duty as my mom did not want my dad working above the third level (I guess I was expendable).
Any way, my baby brother had three sections; has no need for more than one. Our Kansas house needs to have its soffits scraped and painted, and scaffolding would make that job much easier than standing on a ladder or two. Additionally, we will do some security cameras/lights as well. So we brought two sections to KS.
Good morning, diners. I'll have the usual.
Great work, Kevin. I have several places on my house that need repairs. Are you available to hire out? Our temperatures and humidity make working here much nicer if that will help.
My house also had a power ventilator, but I have put in other venting. I replaced the motor twice on the power one, and it went out again two years ago. I probably wouldn't have had problems if I had put in a more expensive motor. I put in more passive vents and left the power one there, unrunning.
The last movie I enjoyed we went to see in the theater was the first Knives Out. I have gone with the grandkids to see some of the super heroes movies, and I have gotten very tired of non-stop computerized action. I won't go again to those.
I'm sure the Oscars will do just fine without me watching.
Funeral today. And if that isn't enough, I have gotten a bad cold. I am going to miss the funeral of a good friend, but I'd hate to infect the other old people (my age) at the funeral.
Hope everyone has a good Friday. Superbowl Weekend!
How about a Union Pacific Southern Pacific locomotive:
York1 John
-Photograph by Kevin Parson
Good morning everyone, Chloe, I know this is not typical, but I really want a piece of cheesecake for breakfast this morning. Thanks!
hon30critterUp here in Ontario soffit is usually made from extruded aluminum. Yours appears to be much more solid. What is the soffit made of?
Down here, the alluminum soffit is also standard.
Mine is made from sheets of 1/2" PVC. This requires horizontal supports every 24 inches or it will sag.
This is the third time the soffit has been replaced on this house, and I am doing everything I can to make sure it is the last. The alluminum soffit comes down in 120 mile per hour winds. This should be good to 175 miles per hour.
I am over $4,000.00 in material cost. This had better work!
hon30critterAlso, it warms my heart to see how many soffit vents you have installed!! When I was selling roofing I ran into far too many situations where the attic ventilation was almost non-existant. Of course most of the roof decking was rotten
I don't know of anyone that has made that mistake down here. We have so much humidity in the air that full venting is an absolute must.
I have ridge peak vents along the entire roof, and a 1,000 CFM power venitlator in the attic that turns on at 150 degrees. It seems to run all the time except for a few weeks in Winter!
-Kevin
Living the dream.
SeeYou190All the soffit lights are in, everything works, and the project is over half way completed.
Hi Kevin,
Things are looking really great! I love the soffit lighting but I'm too cheap to have it installed in our home.
Up here in Ontario soffit is usually made from extruded aluminum. Yours appears to be much more solid. What is the soffit made of?
Also, it warms my heart to see how many soffit vents you have installed!! When I was selling roofing I ran into far too many situations where the attic ventilation was almost non-existant. Of course most of the roof decking was rotten in those cases so I had the less than enjoyable task of telling the home owner that my prediction that a lot of the decking would likely need to be replaced had come true and that meant that the cost of their roof would go up by several thousand dollars! Some of the mold growth that I saw was like something out of a horror movie! I had one house where the humidity in the attic was so high that the roof was sagging. You could squeeze water out of the roof trusses!!!
Needless to say, I am so glad that I am retired from all of that.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
-Photographs by Kevin Parson
All the soffit lights are in, everything works, and the project is over half way completed.
The lights make a huge difference in the back yard. These will be great once the rear firepit area is done.
MisterBeasley I agree with you about the movies, John. The last actual movie we saw was Top Gun, and before that the Queen (music group) biopic. The movies about superheroes and the cartoons don't interest me at all. Give me Miracle on 34th Street or Emporer of the North Pole anyday.
I agree with you about the movies, John. The last actual movie we saw was Top Gun, and before that the Queen (music group) biopic. The movies about superheroes and the cartoons don't interest me at all. Give me Miracle on 34th Street or Emporer of the North Pole anyday.
"I give you "At Dawn They Slept" I have the book, I read it twice, now I have audiobook to. I am just finishing the latest Tom Clancy wich is set in 1985 Jack and the Foleys were young and East Berlin was... Well East Berlin.
Wes, I was ther in the winter, amd we had march dowm and then up the steep inclines thaty were the pedestrian ramps under the highway. Sometimes we would slitp all the doen abd the be unable to get up the other side. Got so bad we would pos two flagmen on the highway to flag the traffic and let the companies march across omn the flat highway. And of course three or four companies were moving at a time. Maybe 499 men crossing and holding up traffic.
Evening Diners.
I believe a poster on the top of the page should be given a period of time to offer up goodies of their choice to the diner. After they fail to do this (ahem) we can put what we want on their tab. Surf and turf with me anyone? Thanks for buying Ray!
Got a few train things coming in the mail, supposedly tomorrow. Can't wait!
Mike
Tin Can. I'm sorry I missed your mother's passing. Sincere condolences. Lithium does not create oxygen. When mixed with water it forms LiOH and hydrogen gas. Not helpful for firefighters.
Kevin I sent you an email. I now have "Unlimited" access to "Premium" MR videos. That includes the Live workshop and some of the video series produced in 2021 and earlier. It says I should be able to see Q&A from the editor but I cannot
That and everything else is hidden behind the "Ultimate $7/mo paywall"
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
A big thanks to all of you who expressed condolences to my family and myself on the recent passing of my mother. I got back to work on Tuesday, but have been playing catch up and have not had time to visit the Diner.
Nor have I kept up with current movies. I can't think of one that I'd have any desire to see. I have a huge backlog of vintage DVDs that I dip into when the mood strikes, plus whatever I stumble upon at Netflix or Amazon.
The last movie I actually saw in a real theater was Titanic (1997) and even then was appalled at the whooping and shouting and general rudeness of the "adult" patrons. No thanks. After that I invested heavily in a home theater system that I've upgraded over the years but recently began to downsize (except the 60" LED TV )
I remember the ERIE
Erie Train by Todd Dillon, on Flickr
Special paint:
16-8927 by George Hamlin, on Flickr
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Afternoon folks!
THE WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
BroadwayLion Love that Chicago and North Western Locomotive. Rode a couple of CNW trains when I was in boot camp, a long long time ago. Like 50 years ago.
Love that Chicago and North Western Locomotive. Rode a couple of CNW trains when I was in boot camp, a long long time ago. Like 50 years ago.
Good morning, diners. Bacon, eggs, and lots of black coffee.
Sometimes in daily living, I forget how much of an old man I am. Yesterday, the town began replacement of a bridge about a quarter mile from our house. It's a concrete and steel bridge, so they had a crane with the big steel ball breaking up the concrete. How did I spend my day? Out there watching them break up the old bridge. I think the construction guys used to call people like me "sidewalk superintendents".
When my wife and I were younger, we would look forward to watching the Oscars to see if our favorite movies would win. Now, with the recent release of the Oscar nominations, I see that movies have bypassed me. I have not seen a single nominated movie. What's more, I don't care if I ever see most of the badly written movies coming from Hollywood. I'm not sure when good (in my opinion of good) screenplay writing went away. Maybe this is another part of getting old, but it seems to me that years ago, movies had interesting and usually entertaining story lines.
Yes, the word curmudgeon fits.
I hope everyone has a great day.
SeeYou190It sure is quiet around here this morning.
Everyone is out fighting fires....
Just an FYI to think about.... A single cup of gasoline has the same explosive power as 5 sticks of dynamite. (https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1auzbk/til_a_single_cup_of_gasoline_when_ignited_has_the/). We were taught at National Camping School (BSA) that a half cup of Gasoline has enough explosive power to lift a one ton weight one mile straight up in the air.... That was in the class teaching the reasoning behind BSA banning gasoline stoves. Yep there had been some bad accidents! They still allowed propane but fuel containers had to be changed and closely watched by the adult leaders. Scouts were not allowed to handle the fuel.
Hmmmmmm???? People drive around with how many gallons of it right underneath them every day? I'm not worried about battery fires. My son (Who teaches the technology and reports to the British PM and UK Pariment on the subject) says your risk in either vehicle is about the same actually. Yep! Life is a risk, I think!
Good morning everyone. Chloe, I will take one of those apple fritters to go along with my cup of coffee this morning.
It sure is quiet around here this morning. I hope everyone is doing well.
hon30critterInteresting locomotives! I love the restored versions. There is nothing like a fresh, shiny paint job to brighten the spirits! I guess that's why I am so reluctant to weather my locomotives.
hon30critterTo heck with reality!
BroadwayLion Not a day goes by when FDNY isn't fighting a Lithium Ion battery fire.
From what I have read, nearly all those fires are from cheap import electric scooters, bargain-basement electric bikes, and off-brand toys.
These are not originating from cell phones, name-brand cordless power tools, or electric cars.
Yes, Yes, a battery car. I drove one once a long tima ago. I think it had lead acid batteries. Sweet, but electric cars in the land of Dakota North... Gotta run the heat in the winter and a/c in the summer, and in the winter you also had more time with the headlights on. And Litium Ion batteries are a major fire hazard. Not a day goes by when FDNY isn't fighting a Lithium Ion battery fire. You cannot extinguish a Li Ion fire even if you dump the battery in a bucket of water. Like Magnesium it generates its own oxygen.
But help is on the way. They have begun to make Sodium Ion batteries. Charge faster and hold more of a charge longer. Sodium being far more plentiful than Lithium the should be lots cheaper, although nobody is going to bring the price down. Lithium is just one box directly above Sodium on the periodic table of pistachios. The Lithium takes more charge per pound than the sodium, so so you will need Na-Ion batteries than lithium, but not greatly noticable for toys, it may add another thousand pounds to your car. But the much greater milage and the quicker charging tymes will be a major benefit. And Na-Ion batteries will not explosively combust. You have all burned Na in school, and if you were not careful you likely enough burned some in the kitchen.
The MUSKrat is going to change Telsa over to Na-Ion or so I have heard, leastwise he is working in that direction ans assisting in the development of said battery.
Tuscan Lives —
prr 8102 139 by Todd Dillon, on Flickr
130518_6_benny by lmyers83, on Flickr
Once numbered in the thousands, it is a one-of-a-kind today.
CNCharlie Ray, I think it gets colder in Sudbury than where you are located. What is the power reduction when it is -25F? We can have that as a high temp for days on end with lows down to -40 but I haven't seen any tests at those temps. CN Charlie
Ray,
I think it gets colder in Sudbury than where you are located. What is the power reduction when it is -25F? We can have that as a high temp for days on end with lows down to -40 but I haven't seen any tests at those temps.
CN Charlie
Ah.... yep! That is a bit colder than we get here in the Finger Lakes!!! LOL! I have no idea what that kind of cold would do with batteries. I can remember back in my youth as a farm kid, that when it got to -10F or lower we had to worry more about the water lines freezing at the barn.... We had a FORD tractor, two cars, and a pickup truck that wouldn't start usually. We just bundled up, fed and milked the cattle, and stayed in the warm house the rest of the time. Used a maul and an axe to chop the ice on the cows watering trough several times a day.... Kept the hose in the milk house that had an electric heater to prevent freezing.....
I remember we did have an electric oil heater we could put in the pickup where the dipstick was to keep the oil warm enough to get that started. Also had a battery charger on the pickup overnight too. We DID have to get the cans of milk to the dairy every day....
Take care!
Yep... There is reduced range when it is VERY cold out.... I lose about 20% to 30% when it is very cold here. 50%? I think that guy should shut his windows and turn the heat down from High..... LOL I often will pre-warm the battery and preheat the inside of the car (Easier than scraping the ice off too...) before I leave which helps considerably. (Heating a gas car uses "waste" heat from the burning of fuel... )
Interesting article on that topic here: https://blinkcharging.com/is-a-cold-climate-a-deterrent-to-ev-ownership/?locale=en
Good Morning,
Our heat wave continues, supposed to hit 30F today.
I won't be buying an electric vehicle. I would have to get a new panel as I don't have a spare 220 circuit for level 2 charging. That would drive the capital cost to a crazy level never mind the high cost of such cars. I also was wondering about range in the cold we get here, not the so called cold tests I have seen conducted at -7C. I saw a post from a fellow in Sudbury who said the range of his Tesla Y drops 50% on very cold days. A hybrid would be a better option for me. However I guess all is moot as I plan on driving my Volvo for many more years. At my current rate of driving I will have a 20 year old car before I need another.
No big plans today. Might run the C Liner a bit. I am slowly getting the bait shop building painted. My wife was amazed at how straight the edges on the window frames were so not bad for 75 year old hands and eyes.
Coffee time again,