mick Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 I've just about given up with any DIY skills I might have had. I'm not keen on paying what might appear extortionate prices to have the work done for me but I've found that in the end it's often much less hassle. I don't have the patience or the inclination that I had 20-odd years ago. I actually installed Ubuntu on an old PC a few months ago but couldn't make head nor tail of it. I really wasn't impressed despite the hype and eventually reinstalled good old Windows. I take a long time to learn new tricks these days. I actually threw that old PC out the other day - 'recyled' is probably the correct term. I hadn't drawn attention to it but yes, it has gone a bit quiet on the forum again. In fact I sometimes think that its because it's so quiet that some new members make a first post and never return. Then again I wonder if it's something I say or do that keeps people away. It got to one point where I was purposely refraining from replying to posts because it looked like I was the only one on here and continually posting replies to everyone. Winter isn't the best time for a garden railway and at this time of year most people have other things on their mind so perhaps things will return to normal (or at least things will start to improve) after the New Year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted December 15, 2011 Author Share Posted December 15, 2011 I was sort of feeling like the manic house bound weirdo because I like to read and respond more than anyone it seems. I do agree with you, people are in their cold mode, they'll come out of hiding before too long. I do miss hearing from the various members about their latest but that will have to wait till spring. I guess I do like to shop around and wait a bit, but once i've paid for it, I want it and I want it now. i am redirecting myself toward track purchases now as I think the layout is more critical than the stock. i need some points and some new lines to run on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted December 17, 2011 Author Share Posted December 17, 2011 Stuck in my head: "> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted December 17, 2011 Author Share Posted December 17, 2011 I was very saddened to find out today that Cezaria Evora passed away at age 70. I think she is one of the finest singing voices the world has ever heard. "> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted December 31, 2011 Author Share Posted December 31, 2011 Well... We had snow... We had cold... Now we have warm, it was 41 at 10pm last night, but the thing that brings warm is wind. The natives called it the shinook; or the snow eater. It comes down out of the mountains and blows everything around. (When I was a teen we had storm with over 100 mph winds like this. I had to walk home and kept getting knocked over by it.) So now we have 45-75 mph wind. Can't run trains in that either. Guess it's time to go crazy posting on the forum again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 We had 'severe' winds again a few days ago and I recorded the highest gust since I started recording data with the weather station - exactly 40.0mph! I couldn't begin to imagine what 100mph winds would be like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted January 1, 2012 Author Share Posted January 1, 2012 I heard from someone outrageous wind speeds the other day. I spoke to my dad the meteorologist about it and he said they were only 45 mph. We're back to icy cold and gusty now. i was wondering if one can see my layout from space so i went to google maps and looked at the satellite pics of my house. Kind of blurry and hard to tell. The street level shots are old, they date from before I had the layout. Time for google to update so everyone can see my train set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 I visited the mogolon railway again and there were some new pictures. http://www.freerails.com/gallery/589/589_301205_150000002.jpg' alt='URL>'> http://www.freerails.com/gallery/589/589_301205_130000000.jpg' alt='URL>'> http://www.freerails.com/gallery/589/589_301205_140000001.jpg' alt='URL>'> Woody's layout is stupendous as always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 Had a nice day yesterday. It snowed. Sara and I walked to do errands; like go to the post office to ship a package, etc. Then the weather gave us the idea that we really needed to have coffees with Frangelico in them. There something about hazel nut liquor that is perfect on a cold day. We went to a couple different bars and none of them had Frangelico, so we ended up buying our own and heading home. Coffee was perfect! It got cold last night. I mean real cold. Last time I checked it was 3 F. I had to take the dog I'm watching out to do his business and the poor little guy nearly froze to death. It's the kind of cold that makes snow become squeaky and crunchy when you step on it. Sara teases me about my weakness with cold, she grew up in the north where winter is always like this and worse. I just cringe at the thought of constant sub zero temperatures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 This is possibly the finest train video I've ever seen. One of you Brits who has caught the colonial train bug. ">" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; i had to watch it without sound. you guys know how i feel about music in train videos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted January 16, 2012 Author Share Posted January 16, 2012 Ok so here I go again. Warning warning lots of stupid stuff here! So I am obsessed with utility vans. I get obsessed with car types. Parcel vans also cause a pavlovian eyebrow raising. The other day I was wondering about the word van. We don't use it very much over here. i wondered about it's meaning and origin and decided that some time in the future i would have to look up this word Van. Tonight while looking at train cars on ebay I came upon something I had never seen before; the siphon G van; fascinating thing. I love finding train things I have never heard of before. it seems like I know so much about trains and then a siphon van comes along and changes it all. I wasn't sure why it would be a siphon, you see over here they had these water troughs where steam engines could take on water at speed. I thought maybe they pick up water, somehow they must siphon something. So i did research on them and discovered they were the Brit equivalent to what we call a ventilated reefer car mixed with a milk car. Of course this brings me full circle to the van part of it all... Looking up the word van: it's a contraction of the word caravan... which comes from a covered vehicle or a group of travelers who go around in a group for safety... It seems it comes from the Italian, carovana... which in turn comes from the Persian, Karvan. So now I/we know a great deal more about van. So when we speak of vans, in a sense we are speaking Persian. So moving right along... For well over a decade now I read British news. I do so because it has a different slant on things. Our news tends to be sort of prejudiced about some things so your news gives me a different perspective. and I can compare two articles from different perspectives. I also just chortle with glee over how some of the news is reported over there. This story about missing tortoises: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-16563362" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; It's all fine till I hit the last line, ""Also, anyone who is offered tortoises in unusual circumstances should report it." I guess I better take note of that. If anyone ever offers me tortoises under unusual circumstances I most definitely will report it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essex2visuvesi Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 How can you be offered a tortoise in unusual circumstances? "There I was officer, minding my own business waiting for the bus when this man in a long raincoat and sundglasses came up to me and the lady sitting next to me and oppened his coat saying "Wanna buy a tortoise guv'nor?" suffice to say the lady sitting next to me was expecting something else!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted January 16, 2012 Author Share Posted January 16, 2012 Well I'm not sure, but the article did warn against unusual tortoise offers. I'm taking it to heart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grockle Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 PSST.........................PSST........................PSST want to buy some motorised tortoises.......?? http://www.dccsupplies.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=283" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanerg6e Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 How can you be offered a tortoise in unusual circumstances? "There I was officer, minding my own business waiting for the bus when this man in a long raincoat and sundglasses came up to me and the lady sitting next to me and oppened his coat saying "Wanna buy a tortoise guv'nor?" suffice to say the lady sitting next to me was expecting something else!" What about the chap that opens his coat and the lady that takes one look and says, 'no thanks I'll smoke me own' Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted January 27, 2012 Author Share Posted January 27, 2012 been a while since I commented here. Grockle is helping me out with a utlity van and I won a royal parcel van on ebay. I think i'm van'ed up now. This week I found work doing carpentry, not really my trade but hey it's cash. The weather has been perfect all week. Heading into the weekend today, it's SNOWING! no train rolling this weekend for me. Grrr... Ok off to get on scaffolds and install wood ceiling all day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted January 28, 2012 Author Share Posted January 28, 2012 I googled up some images of an old layout that I posted over here: http://www.oogardenrailway.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=241&start=170" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; while googling i stumbled on the other albums i had forgotten about. First off is a tourist line my second wife took me on. There are some good shots of Denver and Rio grande F7a's, and shots of me with my ex wife. I also managed to get some interior shots of the train, got one of the interior of the kitchen car that is kind of cool. http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1135705324042562162JcUZVm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Years ago I was the video engineer for an arts college. I built their TV studio and audio recording studio. While there I could take art classes for free so I took quite a few computer graphics courses. When I took my intro to Photoshop I made this collage with pictures that my grandfather had taken. He was a radio man back in the early days and had a four call letter handle. i think it was w9wj, or some combo of those letters. He designed radios and antennas for use on the railroads. He also installed the first radios in chicago police cars. So here is the link to my photoshop project you'll probably like the old stills I used. I should try to scan them properly at some point as the project used pictures of pictures. http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/1096390303042562162rPPJNE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; So there are some odds and ends that relate to trains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleanerg6e Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Those shots of the D&RG look great. My first thought on seeing the photo of you and your wife was 'My god it's Lionel Richie. But I gather your not Lionel Richie or you'd be dancing on the ceiling (especially with his bank balance) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traingeekboy Posted January 30, 2012 Author Share Posted January 30, 2012 Oh man, i just have a generic look. I get compared to so many famous guys. It's kind of funny. Yet this is the first time I am getting compared to a black man, now that's funny as I am as white as can be. Look at the trains man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ba14eagle Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Griff Love the pictures of the D&RG and I especially love the open top car - health and safety nerds over here would die if you tried do something like that! The locos look really smart - but do they really sound good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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