WOOHOO! Yes sir, I'll be grillin' and enjoying some american beverages this weekend to kick off a great week!
From America's 200th, my Bachmann Bicentennial caboose still equipped with period-correct Rapido couplers.
GF wanted see all of my Bicentennial stuff, so it's all on the coffee table, including my AFT !!! Realized I still need CRI&P E8 and BN SDP40. Burgers are marinading, brats are thawing, fridge full of Old Style, and NASCAR is 7 miles away this week !!! Since I'm in IL, I will enter "No Comment" in the fireworks section !!!
Let's not forget our friends up North--it is Dominion Day for Canada today. July 1, 1867, the Brits gave Canada its freedom to keep US from seizing it in payment for the Alabama and other Confederate Pirates outfitted by Britain in violation of their laws. They later paid US $7 million.
Happy 4th of July early, Have to get the flag's and stuff and decorate the front yard Not a lot of stuff but enough!
Let's also celebrate with an N Scale Liberty Bell Special 4-6-4 Hudson as produced by Kato for Con-Cor for the 1976 Bicentennial, along with a matching set of cars. This Hudson is a fine running locomotive.
Conrail's short-lived bicentennial locomotive leads sand empties through Boon, MI. This is the only Bicentennial thing I have right now, I'd like to do a freelanced Ann Arbor unit (based on the DT&I bicentennial scheme) down the road though!
Happy Independence Day... and remember to NOT ruin your 4th by having a fifth on the 3rd. I didn't get into the bicentennial locomotives, rolling stock or caboose thing because (theoretically) my modeling era ends in 1970. Though... IIRC... I may have bought ONE of the Atlas U25B in the SP bicentennial scheme about 10 years ago.
Happy 4th! As i live in the Netherlands now, no fireworks or parties for me, but my husband and I will be enjoying cheeseburgers, fries, and a nice cold Great Lakes Dortmunder later! Everyone have a great day of food and fun!
The Gadsden Flag (Don't Tread On Me On the Union Jack background), the MIA-POW Flag, and Old GLory herself are out at dawn and will fly till dusk. No trains but flags I have .... Thank you all Veterans!
I am putting together a train honoring veterans and POW/MIA's to go with the new Atlas SD that is coming. Only 3 cars as of now, but will most likely make some more and a special caboose. Thanks to all who have served ! ! ! Carl
Also on this date, July 4th, the cleanup of the carnage on the battlefield at Gettysburg commenced. Many of the dead were left where they fell and it was up to the town people to bury them. Others were buried in shallow unmarked makeshift graves which on occasion were either later exposed or were plowed up by farmers plowing their fields. Finding of bodies continued into the 20th century. There is something about Gettysburg that causes people to continually flock to the battlefield to this day. Every year PCN, the Pennsylvania Cable Network, broadcasts a very informative multi day series covering the three days of the battle with guides from the National Park Service as well as other historians providing the narration of what happened on various sites on the battlefield and using letters from soldiers and reports of their officers as well as written recollection s of both and the townsfolks too as their sources. I have been there four times thus far and plan on going back some more. There is a certain aura that one experiences there that is hard to describe. As a veteran myself that feeling is palpable. It is very similar to that which one experiences at Arlington but unlike Arlington there are no neat rows of white grave markers. The battlefield is kept pretty much like it was over 150 years ago. Most of the grave markers that are there read simply, "Unknown" with possibly a unit designation. It is indeed, a special place where the founding concepts of this country were put to the test and not found wanting. That this battle was waged on the eve of the celebration date of our nation is, in my opinion, not a coincidence but a reminder. Let's all hope that as we go forth, we will not need any more reminders of what made this nation so different from all the others.
Well I don't have any Bicentennial locomotives to display but realize that they would fit in with earliest era of my current layout. The SP repainted 3 locomotives and the WP did 2. Plus the SP did a caboose. So that will be something to add to my shopping list or perhaps to paint one myself. My plans for today will include painting some industrial structures for the layout and later grilling steaks for my wife and I. She will be making the Margaritas. Have a great independence day everyone, and let's remember all that we have to be thankful for.