Today was really a neat day in every aspect. The folks who came to Lincoln were: Carl Shaver (CShaveRR) and his wife, Charlie (Mudchicken) and his wife, Ed Blysard and his wife, Brian (blhanel) and of course Mookie and the Driver. They all are the nicest people I have ever met.
Ed gave me a whole bunch of cool stuff like old Southern Pacific timetables, railroad safety guides, safety cards, a pair of BNSF gloves and a railroad lantern. Mookie had BNSF mugs to hand out, Carl brought 2007 UP calendars and Brian brought everyone an enlarged copy of his avatar which has to be the best photo I've ever seen.
After eating lunch we all went to Mookie's train watching spot and saw 16 trains in two and a half hours. Some of the track in that area is in really bad condition and I think a derailment is probably in the future. Here are a couple of photos I took.
This last one is my favorite.
It was really an honor to meet everyone and I hope we can do this again sometime in the future!
Willy
....Willie2:
Good report....glad everyone made it to the destination safely and that everyone had a good time with the visit.
Wish you would have included a photo of your gang assembled.
Quentin
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
I didn't post the group photo that I had on my camera because for some reason I'm not even smiling. I don't know what exactly was wrong with me in that pic, but the one Brian posted is much better.
I also forgot to wish Pat Shaver and Aimee Blysard a happy birthday in my first post. Happy birthday, ladies! They share an October 10th birthday with me.
thanks for the report and the picture.we saw a few trains of all sizes saturday.hope everyone makes it home safely.
stay safe
Joe
Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").
Being Crazy,keeps you from going "INSANE" !! "The light at the end of the tunnel,has been turned off due to budget cuts" NOT AFRAID A Vet., and PROUD OF IT!!
DrummingTrainfan wrote:Looks like ya guys had alot of fun. Where exactly is "Mookie's Spot?" That looks good; so maybe I'll take a look at it next time I'm in the Lincoln area for railfanning.
It's at 1st and J. It is kind of tough to find so I would suggest a Mapquest before trying to find it.
locomutt wrote:Very nice pictures and report Willy,sounds like everyone had an enjoyable time.Now,would somebody kindly "identify" ALL the "culprits" on the "Most Wanted Poster"?!!(some are recognizable,some are not!!)
Front Row: Carl Shaver and Ed Blysard
Middle Row: From left to right: My mom, me, Carl's wife and Ed's wife.
Back Row: Mudchicken, The Driver, Brian, my dad and Mudchicken's wife.
Picture Taker: Mookie
.....Brian {Ia}:
Thanks for posting the group photo....I have just now had a look at it and have not seen any others if there are some following....
....Brian {Ia}:
A bit of trivia....You mention of rt. 30...That national highway passed through my little home town in Pennsylvania {Stoystown}....as main st. until 1937 when it was bypassed around ouside of town to eliminate several nasty curves a one lane bridge and some other features that needed attention.
Modelcar wrote:....Brian {Ia}: A bit of trivia....You mention of rt. 30...That national highway passed through my little home town in Pennsylvania {Stoystown}....as main st. until 1937 when it was bypassed around ouside of town to eliminate several nasty curves a one lane bridge and some other features that needed attention.
blhanel wrote:BTW, does anyone know the exact syntax for substituting another word for a link so that I can fix my previous post?
Replace xyz with url.
[xyz="link address"]Whatever text you want[/xyz]
I see this is my 3,000th post. I still have a few thousand more posts until I make it to SP's SD40T-2s' number series.
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
Just made a copy of your posted group photo and wrote the names on it. Came out very good. Sounds like all had a good time and I suppose Ed and company will make it back down to the "swamp" as he calls it sometime today. Looking on my atlas it looks like Ed had roughly 800 mi. of running his hot rod each way.
Wow! Looks like you guys had a great time. Sorry I couldn't join you. Did get to participate in a mini-meeting though. Caught up with Chad and his dad up in Cheyenne. Alas! the weather was a little less than spectacular for taking pictures (but I never let that stop me!). Should have some shots up this afternoon or tomorrow at the latest.
-ChrisWest Chicago, ILChristopher May Fine Art Photography"In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration." ~Ansel Adams
Replying to myself:
Anyway, Willy, we were watching Channel 6, the NBC outlet in Omaha, Sunday morning. Turns out that their weatherman, Mike Born, is a guy our older daughter went through school with--we watched him grow up! If you ever wind up on TV, I hope you enunciate a little better than he does. He also has the Nebraska pronunciation of Norfolk which drives Mookie, Pat, and me up a wall (I'm told there's a story behind the "Nor-fork" pronunciation, but it still grates).
Pat and I spent Sunday morning seeing some of the sights around Lincoln that we were interested in, including the Sunken Garden. We got together with M/D and the Blysards for dinner, then went back to the train-watching spot. It was almost totally dead! We got to meet Craig, someone who visits the crossing a lot while M/D/M are there (that's Mookie, Driver, and Millie). So, since nothing seemed to want to come by us, we joined everyone over at Mookie's house for cookies and drinks until bedtime. I think Ed and Aimee left for home earlier than we did, and we have only gotten about halfway home. But we got to Iowa City (near here) on the way out after having left in mid-afternoon, so we should have no problem doing our errands tomorrow (including Rochelle!) and getting home while it's still daylight. We had no rain today, but we have our umbrellas and jackets with us for the birthday weather tomorrow.
Joe and Stacey, a belated happy anniversary wish from Pat and me. Matt should be getting a postcard from everybody later this week.
Happy 16th, Willy! I wish we could "gift" you with a trip to Chicago, but we'll let your parents decide when the time is good for all of you.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
It was a perfect weekend! We have the nicest people in the world right here on the forums!
And BNSF - you made me so proud of you! You cancelled the weekend picnic and performed beautifully for us! I was so pleased!
Everyone should experience this kind of a get-together at least once in their life! What great memories!
Mookie
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
I sure wish that I was living a lot closer to Lincoln. I would have been able to join all of you folks in the train watching fun and been able to meet a lot of neat people for the first time. I know that there is a lot more activity on the BNSF in the Lincoln area than here where I live.
My sister Renee and her husband Tim Lutz live in Lincoln, so the possibility of eventually taking a bus to Lincoln for a weekend with them is not out of the question........then I would be able to join the rest of you folks for some action.
CANADIANPACIFIC2816
Big Q,
Around 1780 something miles.
The Mag didn’t like that 10% ethanol gas, but no choice in the matter.
It still got 24 mpg at 80 mph going home.
I have a suggestion for the President.
Instead of sending the detainees to Quantico…
If he stuffed about five of them in a Geo Metro, stuck a Wayne Newton CD in the player, and made them drive across Kansas up 81, they would be babbling all the info we need in about two hours.
We did find where they hid all the trees…at the rest stop in Saline County.
My god, I have never been so bored in my life.
I would rather drive from Midland to El Paso.
At least they move the tumble weeds around some for variety, and throw in some oil wells so you have something to focus your eyes on.
No matter which direction you looked, Kansas was gray.
And they seemed to only be growing hay…hay as far as you could see, miles upon miles upon miles of hay.
Found one single cotton field, all by itself…almost stopped so my eyes could get used to seeing something besides hay!
And there are subdivisions in Kansas, both right beside highway 81…one of them had 20 houses, the other 12.
I will have to do my reporting in installments, because there is so much to report on!
But a warning to Willy.
My wife was trying to find a way to sneak you into our car and get you back to Houston to meet our middle daughter.
Like you, Beth has a lot of extra gray cells working full time.
She plans on being the first woman to live on Mars, and at 13 she is already working on college credits.
Having two aunts that work at NASA doesn’t hurt her chances of getting into the Astronaut corp.
Anyway, I made Aimee quit, because I was pretty sure your parents would miss you after a while!
Lincoln was a blast.
My first though was quaint, but then I realized that quaint doesn’t work, because they are modern too.
It is just that they decided to keep a lot of their older buildings in the downtown area, unlike Houston, where if it is older than a week or two it gets torn down for a newer, better building.
I found buildings with Coke a Cola logos painted on them, from the 30 and 40s…architecture that would make any modeler or artist drool!
Turn of the century stuff mixed in with 20s and 30s art deco, next door to gothic stone work and spires.
And the people there were just as friendly as you could want…you got that small town feeling from a big town crowd!
And what ever Mookie used as a bribe to the BNSF trainmasters and dispatchers worked just fine.
The afternoon we were there as a crowd was jam packed with trains.
In one hour, they ran over a dozen coal trains, both empty inbound and loaded out bounds, along with a good number of mixed freights.
A people report on the folks there will follow when the coffee kicks in…
But I really wan to take a moment to let Willy’s parents know that they have managed, in this day and our somewhat lax culture to raise a fantastic young man.
At his age, he has already made some of the decisions that most kids get around to nearer 20.
He is well mannered, polite to a fault, intelligent and fun to be around.
And when he talks about the things that interest him, he lights up!
I think the forum members should keep an eye on this young man, because in a few years, he will be running the National Weather Service, NOHA, or something along those lines.
I am pretty sure he won’t be happy just being the local weather man, and I am just as sure there are bigger and greater things in store for him.
So, Beverly and Tom, just to let you know, you guys did a fantastic job as parents, the rest of us should be so lucky.
Well, the coffee pot just chirped that it was done with my morning fix, I think I will pour a cup, go out front and breath our flavored air, so more later…(never trust air you cant see!)
Ed
23 17 46 11
Hit the swamp around 10 pm...we stopped a few times to eat and shop for ...nick knacks(aughhhh)...like Aimee needs more shot glasses!
Question,
Did you print your avatar photo yourself, or have it done?
It is an outstanding photo, going on the wall with my train photos.
Shopping again today for wood to make frames.
....Ed, that was a good report of the weekend...Very interesting. Sounds like all participants had a wonderful time.
I believe Kansas is one state that so far I have missed....Maybe I do not need to put it on my "need to see list"....
Sounds like your Mag. did a good job for you Ed....decent milage at that pace. Speaking of such stuff....our gas price here now has dropped to 1.95....Hope it stays that way for the upcoming weekend as we motor to Pennsylvania.
We've been in great weather here too these last few days but our local {Indy}, TV weather man actually mentioned snow flakes possible this coming Thursday...!!
It's been in 70 and even low 80's at times here lately and today to touch about 70.
Brian {Ia}, those are great looking photos you posted last evening at 11:11pm....and a close look at that set of diamonds really does look like some update, repair work should be started soon....
Look forward to more of your reports Ed...
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