Weekend Update 11/11/18

[mrhedley]

the wife spent the Hobby budget

A neighbor has two Harlequin Great Danes.  I believe she paid over 2 grand for each.  That's serious hobby cash!

[jpwisc]

A neighbor has two Harlequin Great Danes.  I believe she paid over 2 grand for each.  That's serious hobby cash!

We are on our third Great Dane, all AKC purebreds, and we have never paid that much for a pup.

[ChristianJDavis1]

Unfortunately, regardless of what people say (and regardless of whether the terrorists were killed or not), to me the terrorists won.  They have changed our lives and the way we do things pretty much for the foreseeable future.  What used to be normal is no longer so.  Now you can' t even take photos of large buildings or public transportation without arousing suspicions.  Remember how easy to was to get on a airplane or train back in the '70s or '80s?  No more!  Now you almost have to strip to be allowed on an airplane.  And those long lines for security screenings. . . We persevered, but our lives have been made less enjoyable, and more difficult.

I used to go to the Logan airport in Boston and drive up to the top level of the parking garage to take photos of the sunset over Boston, or just some photos of the planes.  Nobody ever bothered me. I haven't done that for decades, but I suspect if I tried to do that now I would have security swarming around me in no time.  It is sad.  Yes, if you were lucky enough to be able to enjoy a ride in a lounge of a Turbo Train, only separated from the engineer by a thin glass wall, you were lucky - this is not to ever be repeated. 

Not to detract from the message of your post, and it's not really the same, but New Jersey Transit's Riverline trains remind me a lot of that shot of the turbo's observation deck. The only thing separating you from the single crewman is what I imagine is plastic-coated glass and a door handle (and security cameras if you count those as a deterrent). I've routinely seen them open the door when people knock, too, so it's not like they are locked in there.

Also another extreme case, I was able to ride in an NJT cab car (in the cab) after our train was disabled and a second train brought in to push us into Atlantic City. Most passengers went to the other, non-disabled train, but I chose to stay behind in case they needed help moving an elderly woman in a wheelchair (we were out in the marshes, so we couldn't wheel her outside or down the five foot drop to the ground). Being nobody was around I assume the engineer stopped caring and let me stand in the cab with him while we were pushed into AC (he had control of the unit behind us). Long story short, I don't think rail crews are as guarded as they could be (probably for their convenience), but I do agree; it's hard to have a mass-transportation hobby when the automatic assumption is that you are up to no good. I remember being surrounded by armed officers while in the parking garage of Philadelphia's 30th street station. They apologized after realizing what was going on, but also warned us to be careful.

[prr7161]

Built some more line poles minus insulators on most, deciding whether the t will look ok,

(Attachment Link) (Attachment Link)

The insulators are a nice touch, but with or without I think the second photo in particular looks great.  The mood takes me right back to railfanning 30 years ago...

[Angus Shops]

Riding in the 'dome' on the Turbo must have been an amazing experience. And those lineside poles are superb; personally, I think the lack of good products in this area is a huge hole that could be easily filled by some enterprising manufacturer.

On the home front, I attended the Vancouver Train Expo and purchased a pair of great photos of Golden BC in 1963. This helps to reslove a huge research problem for me. These are colour photos taken by a photographer standing in the middle of the tracks east of the station, looking west. Great photos, from a number of perspectives.  They show of the layout of tracks and facilities in 1963 (5 years after my 1958 'as modelled' date, but no problem), including an enclosed water tank, what I'm told is a 60000 gallon service oil tank, a huge bulk oil storage tank, what looks like a good sized pump house, the ready tracks that would have housed the the helper engines (in steam days), and a clear image of all the small details around the station area. In those days the only (or at least main) road access to Golden crossed the CPR tracks immediately west of the station at grade. I've never been able to determine if there were two or three tracks in '58; correct answer is two. I'll guess the third track appeared after the grade crossing was replaced by an overpass sometime post '74. That grade crossing must have really messed up both rail operations and road traffic back in the day. I remember sitting in a dome car right on top of that grade crossing during the Canadian's station stop on a trip in 1974 (I was 14, going from Vancouver to Kenora, Ont., SOLO). The photo includes a FM C Liner sitting, headlight on, just short of the grade crossing and facing the photographer on the same track on which the photographer is standing. Awesome. And you should see the cars (automobiles) in the photo; a whole range of great big late '50's/early 60's classics with huge fins and tons of crome, include a mauve coloured beauty on the grade crossing but not quite between the photographer and the C Liner. I've always imagined Golden populated by dusty pickups and clapped out beaters in '58.

I also met a tremendously helpful fellow from the Revelstoke Railway Museum  who has already sent me some mapping and more photos of Golden. I'm really appreciative of all the help; what a great community. And, if you can't tell, I'm excited to make some real progress. I also made some progress on layout construction, mostly involving starting on landforms and rock cuts in the 'scenery before trackwork' portions of the layout.
Geoff

[Maletrain]

Remember how easy to was to get on a airplane or train back in the '70s or '80s?

I remember getting to O'Hare thinking that I had a 1 hour layover, only to be told that some travel agent had messed-up on the time zone changes, and my connecting flight had already boarded.  I ran down the other corridor to the gate and saw that the gangway door was closed and nobody was around, but the plane was still there.  SO, I opened the door and walked down the gangway to the plane, where I found the plane door was closed.  So, I knocked on the door (politely) and a stewardess opened it and let me board.  How many times would I have been shot doing that today?

To get back to railroad content, I also remember getting caught in B&O's Brunswick railyard more than once.  I was a teenager with a Brownie box camera and a notepad in my pocket.  The railroad employee would ask what I was doing there, and I would tell him what car I was looking for so I could take pictures and notes to make a model.  After telling me that I was not allowed to be there, I was taken to the car I was looking for and allowed to take pictures, before being escorted off the property and told not to come back "because it is dangerous."  Sometimes, the railroad employee would even hold one end of my tape measure for me.  But, they always made sure they were not visible in any of my pictures.  Today, I would probably get an all-expenses-paid trip to Gitmo for that.

[chuck geiger]

Went back in and re did this:

[nkalanaga]

That looks even more like parts of eastern Washington.