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Thursday 11/13/25
Hello Blue
We have sun and wind. 50s for the day.
I just finished mowing the front lawn for the last time this year. It chopped up the leaves. I never rake cause then we have to bag them. No burning. The larger back yard can wait till spring. Had a kidney ultrasound yesterday, I doubt that there is any change. I know there are some stones in there. It hurts when one decides to vacate. Bought gas @ $2.99, others were at the $3.19 mark.
S.J.
TCA.....Detroit3Railers.....Glancy modular layout(Detroit historical Society)
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First day of work in more than six weeks. Wasn't as hard to get up as I thought it might be after weeks of snoozing until the sun was up. Filled up my tank for the first time in two weeks for $3.02. Reduced the number of days left on the whiteboard in my office to 1073.
Got up to about 60 with a decent breeze which made for a pleasant lunchtime walk.
On the last day of the furlough I put up a bunch of LED lights (that I got for a song on Xmas clearance from Home Depot last year along with gutter/shingle clips) on the house per request of the bride. 600 lights installed before I plugged anything in (mistake). Even right out of the packaging I had a string of about 30 blanks in a row. Tried finding the culprit but ended up throwing up my hands and buying a string at normal price and installing after dark. Got accused of being a Clark Griswald lookalike up on the ladder.
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Good night folks
My kids are still on their cruise. They get back on Sunday provided there are no flight delays. So as a result, it has been just the wife and I for the past week. I had to reteach myself how to cook for two. We have been dealing with two woesome cats who’s primary humans are on vacation. We have some errands to run on Saturday. We will probably do some house cleaning.
My work has been going 10 to 12 hours a day six days a week for the past few weeks. The contractor is desperately trying to get as much paving as possible before the paving season extension expires at the end of the month and the majority of the local asphalt plants shut down for winter maintenance. This means I have been more tired than normal which could affect my train time.
In addition, I had a Cat Scan last week. I got the results yesterday and I have another hernia. I will be talking to the surgeon after Thanksgiving to see about our options.
I stopped at the local hobby shop and picked up six Bachmann Ringling Bros circus cars. I have always wanted to do a circus train.
I plan to run some trains and perhaps do a video and some photos. The kit building itch is back, so I want to build some kits.
I hope everybody has a good night
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Greetings, gang.
It's 54 under partly cloudy skies outside my window this morning. Clearing and the low 60s are scheduled for later.
It's been pretty quiet around here the last few days. Just leaf herding and the occasional minor project. The weekend ahead doesn't look to be much different.
I was chatting with some neighbors yesterday afternoon. I had seen them pull into toe driveway and wandered over as I hadn't seen her for a while. I could see they had been bickering so when she got out of the vehicle I told her to just use her cane on him. She said "No! I like the cane." Fun people.
Gas continues to drop. This morning it's down to $2.55.
All stay safe.
Tom
Life is simple - Eat, Drink, Play with trains
Occupation: Professional Old Guy (The government pays me to be old.)
Dinosaur Rider
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11-15-2025, 08:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-15-2025, 08:06 PM by BR60103.)
From my friend Dave:
CPKC Christmas train Schedule
https://gis.cpkcr.com/arcgis/rest/direct..._Route.pdf
https://www.cpkcr.com/en/community/HolidayTrain
The CPKC Christmas train will be out for its last run, apparently. The equipment is 25 years old.
Looks like it will head farther into the states than before.
David
Moderato ma non troppo
Perth & Exeter Railway Company
Esquesing & Chinguacousy Radial Railway
In model railroading, there are between six and two hundred ways of performing a given task.
Most modellers can get two of them to work.
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David, Thanks for sharing that!!
Wish I lived closer just to see one of them 
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Like Mikey I wish it were a little closer. The closest to me is 3 hours away.
Tom
Life is simple - Eat, Drink, Play with trains
Occupation: Professional Old Guy (The government pays me to be old.)
Dinosaur Rider
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Greetings, gang.
Clouds are moving in and the rain will follow this evening and overnight. Currently 40 with an allotted high near 50 with maybe a quarter inch of rain by tomorrow.
Frustrating day yesterday. I used some caulk remover to get rid of some caulk around the old basket strainers but it took 2 hours per application so it took a while to get that done. By then I'm thinking this will be a piece of cake. Put the plumbers putty in, tighten everything up and away we go. Wrong! I haven't been able go get the putty to seal properly. I'll try again today. Also need to make a Walmart run for a few staples such as beer and bread.
Gas is down to $2.52.
All stay safe.
Tom
Life is simple - Eat, Drink, Play with trains
Occupation: Professional Old Guy (The government pays me to be old.)
Dinosaur Rider
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Good evening folks
Nearly froze my butt off today with a concrete pour. Thanks to the heavens they decided to cut the pour short. I am still feeling the cold in my bones and that is why I am typing this after dinner in front of a portable heater.
Friday on the way home from work I stopped at Nicholas Smith Trains. I went in looking for a unicorn, a Broadway Limited Reading T1 in the Chessie paint scheme. No luck. I did, however, get the first cars of a future circus train. They are Bachmann Silver Series so I know I will need to at the very least change the couplers.
Saturday, we had a fairly good day. We put out our food donation for Scouting for Food. We ran our errands early. We got home and decided to clean out a couple of cabinets. Threw out a bunch of junk and found a couple of surprises. Sunday the kids got home from their cruise, so we spent most of evening listening to their adventures.
I did get to run some trains and make a video. I got some more organization done with the rolling stocks. Last year I bought several of the new Rivarossi 50 ft boxcars. They came with EZ-mate couplers which I changed out. I started with Kadee #148 but the coupler bounced around in the coupler box. I then tried a #5 coupler. It worked better but the metal centering spring stuck out and looked ugly. I was going to replace the Rivarossi couple box with a Kadee box but the Kadee was too big. I contemplated removing some of the center spine on the boxcar. Then I remembered the 30 series Kadee couplers. After searching for some time, I found my last envelope carrying #38 couplers. The small coupler box worked like a charm. I ordered some more. I also added a half ounce of weight, and the car was ready to roll. Now I have nine more to go.
I hope everybody has a good evening.
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Good Evening Everyone,
Today was a cold one with some rain and now a possibility of snow coming into the next couple of days. Tonight I am taking a break from scratch building and going to spend some time with the fiance and watch TV. Other than that nothing really is going on here other than trying to stay warm and cozy while it is cold outside. Have a safe night everyone.
Matt
I can smell a steam post ten blocks away and when I do clear the tracks because the steam express will be hi ballin through
Conrail's Blairsville Cutoff - A Fictitious Alternative Route Over The Allegheny Mountains From Blairsville, Pa to Cresson, Pa
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Two work days in a row which has meant setting the alarm clock. Things like that you don't miss after being told to go home for 43 days.
Personnel appraisal time again - I'm 2/3 done rating 18 employees. I'd put less time in on it, but it affects a potential bonus/salary increase for each one, and they are an exceptional group and I consider myself very lucky.
The LED string lights I put out last week.... Worked well for 5 days and then.... only 3 of the 6 strings were lit. Went out to reconnoiter after dinner in a cold rain and found the issue fairly quickly. Some varmint took a liking to the wire and cut through all three wires cleanly on one string - thereby rendering the downstream voltage nought. Fortunately, the full string was at ground level, so I was able to extract that string and take it down to the workshop. After figuring out the wiring scheme and with a little trial and error I resurrected the string, soldered the wires and shrunk some tubing over each solder joint and replaced the string. Hoping that thing with sharp teeth doesn't come back before the holidays are over, but knowing my luck....
I took a flyer on a couple of locos (sold together) on evil bay a few weeks ago, one was an Athearn blue box powered GP35 (B&O in Chessie System colors) that I was considering reuse of the chassis for a shell I have, but the other (I should have read the description better) ended up being a dummified and poorly weathered Bachmann F9A (also in Chessie System colors (C&O)). Did a bit of research on F9's and learned a lot - one important item being that none of the CS railroads ever rostered an F9. The motor was still in it (a small rear drive unit that probably wouldn't have pulled much), and it still worked, but wouldn't turn the rear axles. Pulled the trucks apart and found a considerable lack of gears in there. I had considered making it a Burlington Northern unit (they got most of theirs from the Northern Pacific) or potentially turning it into a FP9A (all of those were bought by Canadian lines and I've been thinking long a hard about some CN foreign power), but after my preliminary evaluation, the work and expense wasn't really justified. Decided to put humpty dumpty back together and clean it up. Pulled a lot of the decals/printing off in the process. Tried replacing the horn hook couplers with Kadees (odd shaft size that I didn't have a mate for), so put the horn hooks back on. With little hope, I put the cleaned unit back up on evil bay as a lighted dummy (with a full evaluation of what I'd found (or not found internally) and a full disclosure of the paint pulled off) for $12 plus shipping and it sold in less than 2 days. Never would have thunk it - maybe its just that time of year when people are getting ready for Christmas displays.
Looks like some colder, wetter weather heading toward the weekend which will give me some more time to consider the rest of the ACME supermarket build.
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Hello Blue......
Chilly with rain all day today
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Good evening folks
Another 10-hour day on the turnpike. I am still recovering. It was cold, wet, and windy as poured concrete today. It was the kind of cold that goes through you and into your bones. Six hours later, a bowl of beef stew, and a hot chocolate I still have not fully shaken the cold off.
Last night I worked on cleaning off the layout some. I also organized some rolling stock into bins. Tonight, maybe more of the same, but I am looking at a couple of kits I could build.
I hope everybody has a good evening.
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Greetings, gang.
Cloudy and 37 at the moment with a predicted high near 50. Similar conditions have been allotted to us by the NWS for the next several days with some occasional peeks at the sun.
It's been fairly quiet around the headquarters of the Backyard & Southern Rwy in recent days. I did get the basket strainers replaced in the kitchen sink after a couple of false starts and a few YouTube videos. Only activity in the near future is the start of basketball for one of the great-grandsons. There's another herd of leaves that need to be corralled but after the rain on Tuesday (with some actual thunder and lightning) and the fog and very high humidity (a steady 99%) since Tuesday the leaves are still very soggy. Maybe by Saturday or Sunday I can clean them up.
Gas price jumped miraculously from $2.52 to $2.89 yesterday about mid morning. I am positive that the jump had absolutely nothing to do with the approaching holiday.
All stay safe.
Tom
Life is simple - Eat, Drink, Play with trains
Occupation: Professional Old Guy (The government pays me to be old.)
Dinosaur Rider
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dull day here been drizzling all day so far and cold day for us desert rat only 56 at 1 am burrrrr.
Jim
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