I'm not as lucky as Hyde on the 70's show. No chance of waking up married to a stripper. But thanks for asking LOL. Only on TV. The Capri wire strippers are on the way. Shipped.
I don't think the Postmaster General or whatever he's called, was kidding. First class mail service has slowed down. A news network Quoted him as saying, he will be slowing down first class mail service and wasn't going to use as many planes to fly the mail. Maybe he's going to trucks with trailers on the trains. Do you think? Then we can go to where he dumped out the mail on the street and sort it for ourselves. Talk about cost savings. Still waiting for a DVD, Vintage West - Union Pacific and it's been over a week and the better part of the second week, since I ordered it. Capri wire strippers should be here this weekend. Maybe, today. That would make for a great weekend. Once I get the hang of how to use them I may just get this, "Wireus Repairus" done. I found a few more pictures. I'm going to have to hang my head in shame as this proves-me to be a big Bachmann hypocrite. Yep, it does, as you will see. These diseasels and the livery they came in, were a product of Mike Haverty's time as President of the Santa Fe Railroad. It was good to see the Red Warbonnets back pounding the rails. Nice! To nice not to buy... them. Above: I saw these at a Hobby Shop in Hollister, Ca. Despite my better judgement, I just had to have them. My Dad was ahead of me buy one locomotive and I finished the Lash-up, buying two more. You have to agree...or not. They look good together. Despite the truck mounted couplers. Oh, I can find a way to hide the obvious hole, I hope. Now what does this all mean. Besides the obvious. Well, we need era specific equipment to run behind it. We looked around not finding what we wanted. We decided a visit to the San Juan Bautista, Doodlebug Hobby Shop was in order. There we found... well...see for yourself. Below, another look at this new train, after they crossed over the Dry Gulch Arch Bridge. Below: Stretched out across the Dry Gulch Arch Bridge. I think two of these are Roundhouse and if you think I like the way the knuckle couplers hang off them? I don't. MTL's have replaced them. Below: Bringing up the rear of the train a Wide Vision Caboose. We do cabooses, crummies, hacks, and whatever else you wish to call them. I was trying out different digital camera's that were given to me. Now I know why they were given to me. Grainy. I believe the caboose is Atlas's offering. The camera's are okay, but I was expecting more from the caboose. There is a Rest Of The Story. Those C44W's are no longer owned by the H&P all three found there way to new homes thanks to E-pay. Before I forget: There is a new E-bid out there some people are happier with. All three of these units ended up with cracked gears. The new owner sent them back to Bachmann. He can tell the same story others can. Not pretty. That's it for Friday Morning. Later.
Saturday morning. Clear skies the temp is at 39 F. I got up this morning and realized we are at the end of the week. Almost time for the Eagle to drop a load. Wondering if the Stimulus Check will finally show up. There is a "Rest of the story", as related to the freight train above. The one with the Red Warbonnet's on the point. We've been talking about Security, and the sticky fingered hungries. I had made an acquaintance and befriended a professional Carnie Clown. He was also a better then average Magician. Better, because I learned a lot from him, the hard way. I had invited an alleged friend over to see this train. Minutes or just after this train was displayed. Pictures taken. Like you saw it. I turned around with my back to him and then looked back at the train and it was missing three of the smaller, shorter box type train cars. He was gone. Perfect M.O. for a thief. He later brought me some box cars off his layout. Why? He is a pack-rat. I think it was an hour later he showed back up at my train shed door with three very used box cars, saying he wanted to give them to me. Wheels, trucks and couplers were all but gone. Cars had been beat-up. I looked at him and said. I'd prefer your giving me back my three box cars. The ones you took. Blank look on his face, changing to a I'm offended, saying "You don't trust me", and then a pity me look. No, I don't and that was a little to obvious to ignore. He was my security breech and had been for sometime. You might need to know. That was the last time he was allowed to visit my railroad or travel with me to various hobby shops in the area. He was messing with my reputation as he stole stuff from most of those places. The one time they caught him, he talked his way out of it and still managed to get out the door with a N scale locomotive. I can go on for hours here with stories, the facts of which I was able to piece together with the help of a friend who owned a hobby shop in San Bernardino and another friend in San Dimas, Ca. He was fencing or selling off my stuff at both of these hobby shops. Talked one of them into taking his consignments. Mine actually. Selling directly, mainly to customers visiting the hobby shop. While stealing from the same hobby shop. Not the fellow you want riding "Shotgun" with you. I still have most of the freight cars. I did sell off some older stuff and gave away a bunch of stuff to a fiddler. There you have it, the rest of the story. I'll let you figure out what the lesson of the story is and the moral.
My Capri Wire Strippers beat three other items I ordered earlier. The store that shipped them to me must understand the importance of this tool. A shout of of thanks to them. An E-pay find. Here is a picture of the new pair along with the other two wire strippers I've enjoyed using. These wires are about to get their toe nails trimmed. Sorry about the picture. Wrong setting. Macro would have been better.
Big Jake, I don't know if you know it or not. I can't add a like to your post or use the reply feature. I can do this. So, thanks for your comments. I do agree with you?
Haw, haw, haw, haw, haw and one more haw. Not a chance in hell. Besides it would scare you. See what happens to an old man. That's scary. Remember, I don't have a camera that takes good videos...YET!! I will show you the results of stripping the wires and wire nutting them back together. Will that do? The word games we could play...right about now. To funny, just to funny.
Just some more exposure. Say what? Sunday Morning. There's always an uncanny and almost creepy silence to Sunday mornings up here in Idaho Country. In Big Bear Country, I'm used to the main drag in to town, about 135 feet from my tin can of a mobile home. Horn's honking, motor's being revved. Loud linguistics's of expletives I wouldn't be able to repeat here. Ambulances, Fire Trucks, Sheriff's/Police and CHP's screaming through town. Followed by toe trucks. Those that have chains on, the proverbial banging, thumping, clanking of tire chains across the pavement. Aiiyiiyii !! A On Going Ski season and let that anger and noise begin. New leaser's of the ski slopes wanted to provide unlimited ski lift tickets. To take advantage of such. People would park in private driveways, in front of private driveways, in other business parking spaces. You could call the police to have them removed but you had to pay for the towing and impound fees...up front. One business owner took his tractor and towed the cars that parked in his business parking spaces, dragging them out into the street. I'm sorry officer, I don't know how they got there. Now the county has to remove them and impound them. Funny how that works. I think you'll like these shots and I don't think I've already shown them to you. If I have...well...my bad. Not the prettiest picture. Now's I remember why I didn't use it. Wall to the left. Got's to keep the cold wind from blowing into the train shed. This is the last train I showed you, above in a previous posting. Stretched out over Dry Gulch Arch Bridge. Below two expediter trains. Note the D&RGW lead unit with the trailing Missouri Pacific unit. At the time I bought these at Long's Drug's in Moreno Valley, Ca., Long's was still open and Jim was still in charge. I acquired them in one fell swoop. SD50's, if memory serves me correctly? I felt lucky too find a MP unit in UP yellow livery. I actually saw a unit like it going through Victorville, Ca. Just after the Merger between the two. Trailing in behind them and bringing up the rear of the train. Those infamous cabooses. The black caboose is supposed to be a Rio Grande. You should be able to read Rio Grande just below the cupola. Improperly lettered and I'm hoping they will come up or out with one that is done right. Do you think? Should I hold my breath? Don't think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it will do for now. That's it for now. Edited add on: I just checked my inventory and according to it. I'm missing the RioGrande unit. I have several containers of un-inventoried stuff (spell check didn't like me using that word, go fish) and will be looking for it. Sigh!! Later.
Okay, so...I'm not stripping. You wouldn't like it any-old-way. Yes, I did use the new stripper she is 60 years old with a tattoo...oh never mind...that isn't important. My new Capri Wire Stripper? It works great on my 20+ gauge wires. Not so great on anything smaller. I didn't know I had anything smaller. I do? A real laugh, I'm told. Uhh...err just what should I be focused on here? The trains? I will be busy with the layout. Yes something on the layout is going to get stripped. Not near as much fun as the alternative but once I can get trains running I might forget about the other. Hey, hey, hey. I found the Rio Grande SD50, right where I thought I'd find it. Inventory will continue later. "Wireus Repairus" is first priority of business. Whew!! Later!!
Good to hear operation "Wireus Repairus" is still going and that you found that DRGW unit! Been enjoying all the layout pics and can't wait to see some new ones once the wiring gets futher along
I will be working on the layout today. Eventually there will be new pictures to show you. Just not yet. Here are some shots of the Southern Pacific Lark as it works it's way up through the Helix on the mainline. That would be ConCor's GS4, in the lead. Note the bridges above. The Rio Grande, as this road line will be in charge of the Coal District. Yes, it's been replaced. This area known as Dry Gulch, will scenic up nicely and should make for some interesting train shots. Below: Today, the Lark has some Daylight cars in it's consist. These are a mix of ConCor, and Kato streamline passenger cars. Behind the passenger train you can see a Southern Pacific freight train drifting down grade in the Coal District. You can see the end of the freight train, the caboose above the diesels. Good looking trains. If I say so myself. Over to the right upper hand corner. You can see the new Kato bridge being prepped to go in. I wanted to paint it black. Waiting for a windy-less day to do that. Below: Bringing up the rear of the train is a Kato, Southern Pacific Observation streamline passenger car. Scratching my head and wondering how this got past the ever watchful eye of Kato. The roof should be painted black. Oh, I saw some gray roofed passenger cars but mostly on the Union Pacific's, City of San Francisco. Oh well, it will do for now. Got's to get to work.
I would not be able to afford her either, but wouldn't it be nice! on the other topic... Canon VIXIA HF R800 is a really good camera for the money. IT uses SD cards (high speed 10+ type) for the film and records in MPEG-4 format which 99% of all computers will play out of the box. I use this camera for my stuff and I am very happy with it. Best part is I dont need any special cable or interface to get the videos to my computer, I just remove the SD card and install it in my laptop. This will work for you too if you have an SD card reader, if not they are pretty cheap. Oh and these are the full sized cards, not the easy to lose or swallow micro cards.
Thank you for this suggestion. I will give this a look see and check it out. I think I said the same thing twice. Huunh?
I have the cheaper version, Canon VIXIA HF R400. This was bought years ago and it's been performing like a champ. Keep it on MPEG-4 format (it can also do AVCHD) and no conversion needed once it gets on the computer.
I've been wanting to name the Coal District something different. It is a Rio Grande Connection to the Santa Fe, Union Pacific and Southern Pacific as well as the Western Pacific. I've thought about Craig District. Once a day the Craig Local would leave Denver as a mixed train. To deliver mail, passengers and other goods to the communities along the route. The other name that came to mind is Yampa Valley District. As this train was also called the Yampa Valley Mail and later reduced to Yampa Mail. I'm putting this out there to see what you might think. Feel free to jump in here with your likes or not or even another suggestion. Yampa Valley District. Craig District. Or other. A shout out of thanks to all who have visited, the likes and those of you who have participated. You make may day. Later!
