a picture a day....

@farmerjohn posted:

Underground mining in western KY.  Really slowed down in real time but not on my layout. It's going strong as ever. Keeping the lights on. COAL.

Wow John..........I'm getting claustrophobic watching this underground operation.

FOR TODAY: ( what's left of it. )  The engine crew, Buzzy Lawford and Whalen King, are pretty darn frunstrated.  They've got work to do and the drivers of these trucks have parked their trucks on the team track and went to lunch.   "Who does that!!" exclaimed Whalen.  "Who belongs to these trucks?!" Buzzy yells to the team track foreman on the ground.   " I sent someone to the Becky's Lunch Room to tell those meat heads to get the #%^&# over here pronto!!" yells Big Sid Pickett the team track foreman.   Of course Big Sid doesn't realize that Otto Obermiller, one of the truck drivers, is standing directly behind him.  .... Just another day on the railroad!

@Dallas Joseph posted:

Wow John..........I'm getting claustrophobic watching this underground operation.

Me too !!!!!

Very effective scene. Gives me the willys.

John it looks like Super-O track running through the underground mine.  Is your whole layout Super-O?

Coach Joe. The super o track is only in the under ground mine. It looks so much better than any other track  I found. My main layout is all gargravesbut I used Atlas in my round house because it matched my turntable

FOR TODAY:  A heavily weather beatin Docksider has never been through the wash rack over at the locomotive servicing facility.  Coated in multiple decades of grime this little beast keeps on keeping on everyday!!  

Actually this is a weathering job I did for a friend.  I put the final touches on today.  The last touch will be to seal the locomotive with Dullcote.  

Poor little guy gets no love at all.

Morning guys, great photos Patrick and nice weathering job!

Here is my offering for this wet Sunday, a friend brought these over, not sure what I am going to do with them. But they don't need weathered! LOL

@mike g. posted:

Morning guys, great photos Patrick and nice weathering job!

Here is my offering for this wet Sunday, a friend brought these over, not sure what I am going to do with them. But they don't need weathered! LOL

Thanks Mike!   Your friend did you a solid by giving you some pre-weathered engines!  LOL!  Enjoy the process of fixing them up.  

Here's an idea for creating a scene using these two engines  ... In their current state, you could set them off on a distant siding that's been longtime disconnected from the mainline.   Surround them with a thicket of brush to create that old abandon locomotive look ... just thought.

@trumpettrain posted:

Thanks Mike!   Your friend did you a solid by giving you some pre-weathered engines!  LOL!  Enjoy the process of fixing them up.  

Here's an idea for creating a scene using these two engines  ... In their current state, you could set them off on a distant siding that's been longtime disconnected from the mainline.   Surround them with a thicket of brush to create that old abandon locomotive look ... just thought.

Thats a good idea but they could be more valuable in the dead line for the scrapper's torch. I did read about a long abandoned logging RR engine house in the Maine woods with two engines still in it. Only accessible by off road trail and no track around for decades.  Vandals finally caught up and torched it not too long ago.

@mike g. posted:

Here is my offering for this wet Sunday, a friend brought these over, not sure what I am going to do with them. But they don't need weathered! LOL

No goofing off now Mike.     It looks like there needs to be a little black soot around the smoke stack.   Maybe a match and  some pine needles down the stack .

Whatever the case......it looks like you have a challenging project on those boring days

Have fun sir.

Thanks guys, I really like Patrick's idea and it sounds fun to build. I will probably just set them aside till I get to that point!

Been awhile since I’ve posted here. Took this today at Kimbrel Coal Co.

FOR TODAY:  Early this morning the unloading crew is hard at work.  Dusty Scriggs is on the forklift only to realize he'll need to get a larger machine to off load that huge crate that Lloyd Grasson has at the door of that boxcar.  Ain't no way that those tiny forks can hold that big o'l crate.  Boss man Jim Higgins, wearing his signature hard hat, is oblivious to what's going on as he's feeling a bit hung over from last night's night out with the boys.  He thinks to himself " My head is pounding, my joints are stiff,  my stomach is queezy, and it's only 7 a.m.  It's going to be one loooooong gol dang day!"   Recently retired Lenny Kline stands all to himself as he observes the the goings on. .... just another day not the railroad.

@trumpettrain posted:

FOR TODAY:  A heavily weather beatin Docksider has never been through the wash rack over at the locomotive servicing facility.  Coated in multiple decades of grime this little beast keeps on keeping on everyday!!  

@coach joe posted:

Poor little guy gets no love at all.

Well Joe...........getting " no love at all " IMHO would be assigned to being a dusty shelf queen.

@farmerjohn posted:

Coach Joe. The super o track is only in the under ground mine. It looks so much better than any other track  I found. My main layout is all gargravesbut I used Atlas in my round house because it matched my turntable

I always like when locomotives are parked in the roundhouse this way. Most of us model railroaders have the front of the locomotives facing out.

J611. The real reason I pull the locos into the roundhouse is so I can see the numbers on the tenders . I don't know if that's provincial or not but it works for me. Thanks for you're comments. It makes our hobby fun. Farmerjohn

A park display of a caboose which is from 1945. Makes a great  scene in a modern day world of trains. Wow so much fun not only in memories but in real life.

FOR TODAY & TOMORROW:   Mr. Preston Tucker takes his hat off for Mother's Day as he announces " Tomorrow is Mother's Day!  So bring you mom on down to Smith Brothers Automobiles for the mother of auto deals!  Put mom into a brand new Tucker Torpedo.  We're  offering  a special deal for all mothers tomorrow only!  Let your mom be the first on her block to own a car with seat belts, a pivoting center headlight that syncs and pivots with the steering wheel, an air cooled rear engine, great fuel economy, a trunk in the front and a whole lot more!!"

Great photos everyone!

@farmerjohn John, I love the caboose park scene, I hope you wouldn't mind if I put something like that somewhere on my layout!

@trumpettrain Patrick wouldn't that be a nice surprise to be able to pick up one of those these days!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mothers day!

Still working on this scene but it's come a long way. A lot of detail to come yet. So much fun .

Now the pillars are in place. Makes a scene come together. The farm sceneis how I grew up. So many memories.  ⁹

@farmerjohn John great farm scene but I have to ask, did you also grow up near or next to RR Tracks?

FOR TODAY:   "Dag nabit!!  It's Friday afternoon and I can't believe we have a derailment on our hands!" says Big Gus Brimley, the wreck crew superintendent who wears his signature yellow hard hat. "  I know what you mean Big Gus.  It's going to take several hours before we can get the big hook on site to help clean up this mess!  Clem Watson, the on site foreman, replies.  "We'll be here clear to tomorrow morning!  My mother - in - law is visiting this weekend and I'm not a fan!   I was going to leave for a weekend fishing trip tonight at 6 p.m.   Guess I'll  have to grin and bare it because she ain't leaving till Monday afternoon.   Hmmmm!!  Well at least I won't have to deal with her tonight!"  

Meanwhile, up in the tower,  MOW General Superintendent Linwood Custer surveys the damage.  His beedy eyes scan the mess before him.  After a few moments  he asks in a demanding tone of voice " Who the !!^^#( was the engineer on this train?  Looks to me like it could have been Full Throttle Thorton!!"  Without saying a word tower operator J.D. Stuckerly slowly nods his head in an affirming way.    ... Just another day on the railroad!

Mike. The Illinois  Central had  a branch line from horse branch to Owensboro which was a mile and half from our house. My grandfather  had a farm in sight of the railroad. In 1957 they were still running steam on that line and I still remember  that engine.  That line was abandoned  around the early 80s.

Pstrick, sure looks like the guys are going to be working overtime!

John, what a great way to grow up! We had an old line near us but it only ran for a little while after I was old enough to enjoy them. Just diesel engines running coal cars from the local small coal mine.

On a road trip with my wife. We were in the Mt Rushmore area and found a train called the 1880 train . A wonderful ride it was with all the history of the area and the gold mines it  served. It is one of the few lines which had a third rail for narrow gauge on the same tracks. That lets us 3 rail hobby guys off the hook.  A Baldwin  2 6 6 2 pulled the 8 car cars which were beautiful  . It had a 6 percent grade  out of hills city and had no problem at all.

FOR TODAY:  Irma and Maude wait for the next train.  These two have been known throughout their lives as being practical jokers.  It's cousin Ida's birthday today and these two sisters want to pay her a visit, bring Ida a gift,  take her out to dinner, knock back a few drinks, and just go wild!  ... at least as  wild as these ladies, now well into their eighties, can get.  At last year's birthday celebratory dinner for cousin Ida,  Ida returned from the bathroom only to find Maude's false teeth in her mug of beer.  

Still  on my bucket road trip. We rode the Durango  Silverton  railroad and it was spectacular.  I don't see how the engines stay on the side of the mountain. There are places that the road bed extends only about 3 feet from the straight down cliffs. Kind of scary. 

Thank you for the excellent photographs, John!  I’ll bet all of us who haven’t been, would love to go there too!

Another stop we made on our way home was North Platte Nebraska.  Home of Bailey Yard for the UP railroad. This is the largest yard in the world. I was here in 1977 and it only had a small viewing stand by one of the humps. Now they have the Golden Spike tower which is 8 stories high to view the yards which are 8 miles long and a mile wide. They have 2500 employees there and the yard is a busy place. I model the UP and after seeing  all the locos I'm going to weather more of them.

FOR TODAY!  It's vacation time and the VonKleg family is high tailing it out of town in their new Woody and Airflow camper trailer.  Word has it that they are heading up to Grinders Switch where there's a perfect camp spot for watching trains.  O'l Earl VonKleg is an avid train fan too!  

@trumpettrain posted:

FOR TODAY!  It's vacation time and the VonKleg family is high tailing it out of town in their new Woody and Airflow camper trailer.  Word has it that they are heading up to Grinders Switch where there's a perfect camp spot for watching trains.  O'l Earl VonKleg is an avid train fan too!  

I liked this scene !

Ron

@trumpettrain posted:

FOR TODAY!  It's vacation time and the VonKleg family is high tailing it out of town in their new Woody and Airflow camper trailer.  Word has it that they are heading up to Grinders Switch where there's a perfect camp spot for watching trains.  O'l Earl VonKleg is an avid train fan too!  

Yep .  A great scene Patrick.   Can almost hear the ' Woody '  purring along and some sqeaking of the hitch.

Nice .

Thank you Dallas and Ron!  Glad you liked the scene with the Woody and camper

FOR TODAY:  It's one of those ice cream kind of days!  

Lex Klosterman gives back up directions to the driver of a refrigerator truck. ( Not shown in photo ) Once in place the load in the reffer car will be transferred to the truck.  There's no ice cream finer than Ellicott & Sons!!  It's a huge favorite of Patsburgians!   Buzzie Belkins, who drags a pallet, is hoping to sneak a free sample during the transload.

At the first jingle of the bells kids run for the ice cream truck.   Ice cream has a way of putting everyone in a  good humor!  

@farmerjohn John what wonderful photos of your trip! I know from what I see I would have been like a little kid in a candy store! Thanks again!

@trumpettrain Patrick, love the woody and camper scene. There is a guy near use that takes old campers and re does the whole inside with state of the are equipment, but he leaves the outside looking nice and old! LOL

@mike g. posted:

@farmerjohn John what wonderful photos of your trip! I know from what I see I would have been like a little kid in a candy store! Thanks again!

@trumpettrain Patrick, love the woody and camper scene. There is a guy near use that takes old campers and re does the whole inside with state of the are equipment, but he leaves the outside looking nice and old! LOL

Thanks Coach Joe!

FOR TODAY:  Hanging out in the park playing hooky from school today.  This seems like a good hiding place.  Oh darn!  There goes Mr. Norris the school board truant officer in his Renault.  I hope he's not going to my house!  Yikes!!

@trumpettrain posted:

FOR TODAY:  Hanging out in the park playing hooky from school today.  This seems like a good hiding place.  Oh darn!  There goes Mr. Norris the school board truant officer in his Renault.  I hope he's not going to my house!  Yikes!!

Patrick,

This is funny.

Ron h