It's always sad to lose a grandparent, but it's good that you've had the opportunity to know them. My family had a habit of late-in-life children, so both of my grandfathers were long gone by the time I was born. (One was actually born before the Civil War.) One grandmother had what was probably Alzheimers, so I really only had one grandparent that I ever got to know. Likewise, my own Dad died very young (yes, Mike, quitting smoking was the right thing to do) and my own little girl was too young to remember my Mom, but fortunately my in-laws are still alive and kicking, so she'll have a lot of good memories of grandparents. Rejoice in a life well-lived.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Work on the layout is proceeding. A work train is ready to head out.
I'll take a Bacardi breezier before I go.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Afternoon Gents;
Just a glass of water or a soft drink, whichever is the easiest.
Lawn Bowling greens are done. Of course we had more sand than needed. Oh well....
Had the wrong date for the Woodstock show. That will be on the agenda for tomorrow after Breakfast and before curling.
Got to help the wife. Dinner party tonight for one of our neighbors who sold his house and has decided to move into a condo.
Thanks for the drink. Will check back later if time permits.
GUB
Ah, time to settle down with a few friends and a few beverages. I'll start with the usual. Joe, a round of Harpoon IPA's for the group. All of you really should try this stuff.
I went to my LHS today, but it was the Local Hardware Store. Scubaterry got me the dimensions of the cranks to operate my work cranes. I've still got the cranes, but the cranks vanished long ago. So, armed with that knowledge, I picked up some brass rod and now I can fabricate the cranks, and once again (after 40 years) I'll be able to raise and lower these things.
On my way out the door, I also grabbed the solenoid core from my coal loader. Again, it's an old toy from the 1960's, but in this case I lost one of the cores that opens the hatches and dumps the coal. I thought I'd look for a piece of steel, and machine it down to fit. To my great surprise, the young man took me to one of those long aisles of little drawers, and there it was. The perfect piece of steel, almost exactly the right size and shape, was sitting in a drawer. Now, this is a chunk of metal about a quarter inch square and about an inch and a half long. Why would they stock something like this? Who, other than me, would buy it? On its left was a piece a little smaller, and on its right a piece a little larger. For 65 cents, I had the raw material for an irreplaceable part of my old coal loader. Man, my day was made. (And, this hardware store has free popcorn.) In case you're wondering, it's O'Conners True Value Hardware in Billerica, Massachusetts. Eat your heart out, John Madden. Ace ain't the place for me.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/4309
This will definately be more than a one day project. Had something happen a few minutes ago.
This happened just a couple of minutes ago. What's wrong with this picture?
Hi There;
Jeffrey; You could be on to something there. It looks like one of those cars with sliding trucks to allow for uneven loading.
Tom
Well, somebody had a few too many Old Milwaukees. I'll stick with another Harpoon.
Work is progressing on the tanks and truck loading dock for Burns Fuels. The kit contains a number of barrels, coming on the sprue as left and right halves. Since I'll be burying a few, I can use half barrels and double my yield. I'm pretty much done with painting all the small parts for this section of the kit. I didn't like the look of the "concrete" pad everything sits on, so I spread on some ballast under the tanks and turf between them, and then pre-soaked and glued the whole thing, just like track. It's just a soggy mess right now, but I'll know tomorrow how it turns out.
Evening All!
I'll have a glass of your house red. Thanks. Well it's been awfully quiet here this weekend. Oh well... I guess everybody's been busy, likewise also. Let's see... we had a small going away dinner party lats night for one of our neighbours. The house was getting too much for him considering his health hasn't been all that well. Lots of good food, good wine and of course lots of good company and conversation. It's too bad I didn't get to know him because he is a wealth of information on our community. I guess we'll just have to throw another dinner party.
This morning we went to the Woodstock model train show after Breakfast. Now... I've been to this one in the past and I didn't really appreciate this one. Today, however was quite different. People, Holy Crap there was a lot of people at the show. It was wall to wall people. Had to sharpen the elbows just to get through. For all those that say this is a dying hobby, you wouldn't know it from this show. All ages from the very young to the old and every age bracket in between. Lots of venders and a few layouts. One very large club layout - the Thames Valley Central Modular Railway Club.
Anybody here Curl? Well, let me tell you there are parts of my body aching that I never knew even existed. Maybe I should have a Scotch instead or pehaps I should have dinner now.
Gotta Go! Will check back later.
OK, house red it is. We had some folks over for dinner, and after the beers (chilled mugs!) we popped the corks on a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot. Both from California, and both quite nice. I made up my mother-in-law's pork tenderloin:
1 2-part pork tenderloin, fat and connecting tissue trimmed off
1 good-sized garlic clove
1/4 cup soy sauce
Cayenne pepper to taste
Honey
Sesame Seeds
Marinate the two halves of the tenderloin in the soy, garlic and cayenne pepper for a few hours, overnight if you've got the time, turning occasionally. Tie the two halves back together with twine. Place in a baking dish, and spoon honey on top. Sprinkle on a reasonably-solid coating of sesame seeds. Bake at 375, 30-45 minutes until firm and pink inside, but not gray. Cut it open and look. Don't believe the thermometer, or the clock.
This went over well on a brisk October evening with roasted potatoes, spaghetti squash, garlic bread and a tossed salad. Even the kids liked it. Our guests brought over a home-made apple strudel, which baked while we ate dinner. Quite a nice feast, all in all.
I put the layout in show-off mode earlier in the day, and got to demonstrate the new sound-equipped 0-6-0. Nice to have one state-of-the-art loco among my rag-tag fleet. I'm coming to the conclusion that for me, the steam era is where I belong. Maybe I need a diesel with sound to check out that theory. What do you guys think? Am I just seduced by the sound of steam?
Nooo-o-o-o-o-o! (add doppler effect as needed.) I just looked and I'm at the top of the page again! Well, set 'em up, Joe. White wine for the ladies, too.
Here's the lineup of the three locomotives I'm using right now.
#1 - Athearn F7 in KCS gray livery
#2 - Bachmann GP50 being made over for MKT
#3 - Proto2000 GP30 in KCS gray livery
The cheap power pack powers my switch machines.
The Beer Barn on page 2? Not happening! BUMP! Here's today's weather data.
Leesville, LA 71446 10/23/2006
Wind Chill: 43°F
Humidity: 64%
Dew Point: 36°F
So Far TodayHigh: 50°FLow: 46°FRain: N/A"Rain Rate: N/A"/hGust: 10mph NNE
High: 68 °FLow: 45 °F
Today: Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 60s. Northeast winds around 10 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear. Lows in the mid 40s. Light and variable winds.
JB: The shellacing is a step that seals the surface, enabling me to use MUCH less paint than would normally be required. Without it, the drywall compound (just plaster with retarders added) would soak up tremendous amounts of paint and would chip easily. After sealing, the surface is very easy to paint (one coat, usually) and won't chip easily.
This is the one clear shot I got of the oil company. I was in a bit of a hurry with company coming and all. I've got to dig out the oil truck from my pile of new and used parts under the layout. Unfortunately, the reputation of steam engines for sniffing out marginal trackwork has proven true. The new 0-6-0 has found a couple of spots that nobody else had any trouble with, so I'll be doing trackwork before any new scenery projects. I might put down some plaster cloth, though, because that's quick and then it will be dry by the time I'm ready for the next step.
Burns Fuel sits across 3 different lift-offs over the subway tunnels, so it will be a challenge to put all of this removeable scenery together without a lot of obvious seams. I've been working on applying plaster cloth over plastic wrap to get a thin scenic layer at the edges of the liftoff that conforms to the permanent scenery, but is not attached to it. With a little vegetation, I find that I can hide the lines pretty well.
As for the buried toxic waste, I've got a bulldozer already at the site. I never noticed it before, but the dozer operator could be Waylon Smithers.
PA derailment pics.
Hey guys, here's pics from the derailment in Pennsylvania, starting with a map.
Flames continue to rise today out of the scene of last night's rail car derailment that triggered explosions, fire and evacuations along the Beaver River in New Brighton.
Flames shooting out of wrecked tankers last night after the derailment on a rail trestle.
Flaming jets rise from some of the wrecked tanker cars authorities said were carrying ethanol.
Officials estimated that as many as eight of the rail tanker cars were engulfed in flames after the wreck
One cold one for me Joe...and set up the house too!
Jeffrey, thanks for the pictures! Going to be a bit of clean up after that one! Hope anything spilling into the river was truly, mostly alcohol....Might have less impact!
All went well in the garden today and I've caught up on most of the chores too...Then it was off to work. Work went OK too, but what can I say....Work is Work! If I didn't have to work for somebody else, me thinks life could / would / should be a lot more simple! I would not only be able to stay on top of all the daily / monthly / yearly chores I have around here....I'd have time to work on the railroad too.
Maybe one more Joe...A Pale Ale with a wedge of lime!
How about joining me for a Russian beer?
Russian works!!! A goodly portion of my roots are Russian! And I'm real proud of that.
And, hey, let's face it...A good beer, is a good beer no matter it's country of origin.
Here ya are, one beer!!
That's better. Should wash down a few beer nuts with that mug. I'll take a Tall Toad. (One of the beers from the old Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comics of the 1960's. That and Tree Frog beer. Anyone remember those? I might make up decals and put them on the sides of buildings, just for a laugh.)
I massaged that track again, and got it to work better for the 0-6-0. Unfortunately, it's still "temporary" trackwork, held down with bent paper clips. That part of the layout leads up to the Moose Bay Bridge, and I'll need to pull the bridge off once I get to the scenery stage over there. So, no glue-and-ballast yet. I'll just have to take it slow around that turn.
I dug the pit for burying a few barrels, and built up some piles of dirt around it for the bulldozer to push back in. It's got some plaster cloth on it, too, so maybe over the weekend I can put on some gypsolite and maybe even think about painting it. The CFO heads down to Florida to visit her parents for a week on the first of November, so I'll likely have some time to do serious scenery work.