Weekend Photo Fun 4-16-21-??

Nice start Scott!  Lionel Centennial SD90 out and about.

Centennial SD90 and Lionmaster SD80 in a MU.  These MU as good as any Legacy I have.

                                                                        Another RARE find!

Weaver offered the some of the most accurate cars in the business. Really miss that wide selection of road names and products others wouldn't do.

@SIRT posted:

                                                                        Another RARE find!

Weaver offered the some of the most accurate cars in the business. Really miss that wide selection of road names and

Ooh Don like!!!

This week I'm again posting photos of something other than pictures of my layout. Many of you know that I live in Pittsburgh,  but probably most of you don't know that we actually have a subway here...in fact many Pittsburghers aren't even aware of it. But it has always been one of my favorite things about my home town. While no one would ever confuse it with the NYC subway or the DC Metro, I don't think there is any city our size that has anything like it. It is only two miles long (though the full rapid transit portion of our 24 mile Light rail system including the subway is about three miles long), but it is quite impressive with beautiful architecture and a portion that actually goes under the Allegheny River. Though my pictures were taken right after cars pulled out in both directions and there are no passengers on the platforms, it is heavily used. In fact, it is packed during Pirates and Steelers games.

I went out for a walk this past weekend on the North Shore and poked my head into this station (the North Side Station) which serves PNC Park. I always thought it kind of looked like a DC Metro station with its high vaulted ceiling. I kept hoping MTH would make an articulated light rail vehicle like they use here in Pittsburgh and in many other cities, but I could never convince them to do one. Anyhow, enjoy the pics!

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Came across this old photo today of our FIRST set-up at a local nursing home with our new modular layout. We used ScaleTrax which looked pretty realistic and had wide curves so we could run scale sized equipment. One of the lady residents came over to my wife at the time and said "See that train over there - That's the Santa Fe Super Chief. I rode it from Chicago to California when I was a girl". My wife was impressed!  We had a lot of good stories from those visits. The most memorable was a man in a wheelchair who sat by the tracks with his face beaming like a little boy - very excited. A nurse took me aside and said "That man has been here 7 months and this is the first time I've seen him smile!" I get choked up even now when I relate that story - what memories did we unlock in him that brought such joy?

That's me to the left with Professor Dave Alsop (center) and Ed Rynning (right) in photo. Both of them have passed and are missed in the club. This first outing was over 10 years ago now! We really generated some good will with these set-ups around our area but as we've gotten older it has become impractical to manage them anymore due to us being older and less able to physically handle the work!

A blast from the past:

@c.sam posted:

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Came across this old photo today of our FIRST set-up at a local nursing home with our new modular layout. We used ScaleTrax which looked pretty realistic and had wide curves so we could run scale sized equipment. One of the lady residents came over to my wife at the time and said "See that train over there - That's the Santa Fe Super Chief. I rode it from Chicago to California when I was a girl". My wife was impressed!  We had a lot of good stories from those visits. The most memorable was a man in a wheelchair who sat by the tracks with his face beaming like a little boy - very excited. A nurse took me aside and said "That man has been here 7 months and this is the first time I've seen him smile!" I get choked up even now when I relate that story - what memories did we unlock in him that brought such joy?

That's me to the left with Professor Dave Alsop (center) and Ed Rynning (right) in photo. Both of them have passed and are missed in the club. This first outing was over 10 years ago now! We really generated some good will with these set-ups around our area but as we've gotten older it has become impractical to manage them anymore due to us being older and less able to physically handle the work!

Great picture and story!

That's what it's al about......thank you for sharing......this is what we've all missed during the pandemic......

Peter

@c.sam posted:

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The most memorable was a man in a wheelchair who sat by the tracks with his face beaming like a little boy - very excited. A nurse took me aside and said "That man has been here 7 months and this is the first time I've seen him smile!" I get choked up even now when I relate that story - what memories did we unlock in him that brought such joy?

That's a great story.  Thanks for sharing that.  Anytime we can make someone smile is what it's all about.

Great job on that covered hopper, SIRT. I’ll have to keep an eye out for that one.

Layout take down continues.......but I realized, it was 10 years to the month when it was started, as the saying goes......."with a little help from my friends"......

Looking forward to the attic being finished and starting the new layout........

Have a great and safe weekend, folks!

Peter

Erie coal drag

A 2020 Christmas Layout memory

The last of the images of the small town (lower left in overall view).  All Catholic churches set up a CHristmas-time manger, right?

The new Sunset GP9 and GP7 in PRR

I am glad Scott offered the rarer passenger version of the GP7 with the air tanks on top.  The Pennsy ordered only  handful of them.  There is a photo in Wither's book "PRR DIESEL LOCO PICTORIAL VOL 8 EARLY EMD ROAD SWITCHERS" of one pulling a passenger train under the wire in Camden NJ,   So that's all I needed as an excuse to get one.

Starting my weekend with the Reading and Northern excursion to Hogwarts.

(someone asked about this Loco’s pulling power on an earlier thread, so I got curious if I could pull my six heavy weights. No problem there)

Man - You're OUTDOORS on a sunny day     Rip that mask off quickly!!!!

Another temp 7’x9’ layout built out of boredom.  I’ve been showing images of the 1^st one the last several weeks (Easter) and decided I enjoyed that enough to do another.  This was built back in mid-February.  As I’ve mentioned before with my Easter temp layout, I have so many beautiful Christmas pieces that I could never use them all on my 11’x14’ Christmas layout and I dislike having them just sit in boxes where I don’t get to enjoy seeing them, so I did this temp Christmas layout.

- walt

Another photo from my Xmas layout soon it will be nice enough to go outside and run my garden rail road

Great photos, videos, and stories everyone!   Here is my fun photo for this fine weekend!  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  Be safe = Be well!

Ariel shot of downtown Patsburg.

Patrick, most ariel shots are terrible'.. This one is very good and highlights this part of the layout'. Nice shootin'''...📷😊

Here's a photo more typical of what I usually post. This is a westbound passenger train hauled by a pair of K-4 Pacifics as they enter the east end of Jack's Narrows. This area of the layout is under construction and has a long way to go. It's the first photo I've posted of this part of the layout which after over 23 years of construction is now about 85% (or perhaps a bit more) complete:

For FEF but will be working on stage one of the new layout this weekend.

@c.sam posted:

.....A nurse took me aside and said "That man has been here 7 months and this is the first time I've seen him smile!" I get choked up even now when I relate that story - what memories did we unlock in him that brought such joy?

The National Capital Trackers has set up layouts at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in DC, and I was there in 2016.  We got the same reaction from the nurses and care givers that brought in residents of the home.  They said that was the first time many of their residents smiled in a long time, especially those with severe memory issues.  Not sure if the NCT will still do it, but I would go back again.  My biggest regret was not taking pictures of the residents when they started coming in.  This was during setup and those are my bridge modules.

Mt. Carroll Yards

Mt. Carroll Yards from a different angle.

The Great Northeastern Railway's (GNR) corporate headquarters.

Former GNR Chairman of the "Bored", the late Chaz Harrison, on one of his track inspection tours.

Great stuff so far. Sam, excellent story. Everyone has that childhood train kid with them always. Whether it is toy trains or real big one, excitement and adventure await at the throttle.

@Quarter Gauger 48 posted:

Patrick, most ariel shots are terrible'.. This one is very good and highlights this part of the layout'. Nice shootin'''...📷😊

Thanks Ted! I really appreciate your comment and compliment!   I'm not a big fan of ariel shots, however, this one seemed to work.  

@Artie-DL&W posted:

Great job on that covered hopper, SIRT. I’ll have to keep an eye out for that one.

Thanks Artie.

I have been on ebay for many years and never seen this car. Hope to find another for several weathering customers.

Actually, there’s at least one on The Public Delivery Track site. As soon as I saw the one you did, I thought I’d look for one myself, and immediately went to Beth’s site. I still have to order benchwork and track for my layout expansion, so why don’t you take advantage of my find?

My cats have been permanently banned from the train room. Tigger bit part of the cross off the steeple of St. Francis church, then stepped on the roof of the Texaco station, causing a cave-in. Midge was seen emerging from tunnel #2.

@Artie-DL&W posted:

Actually, there’s at least one on The Public Delivery Track site. As soon as I saw the one you did, I thought I’d look for one myself, and immediately went to Beth’s site. I still have to order benchwork and track for my layout expansion, so why don’t you take advantage of my find?

An LD car with shipping would be over 72 bucks.

Pictures from our front room.

The newly acquired Ahrens-Fox is heading down for a hose down, as soon as the guys finish with the Mack.

@Alan Rogers posted:

   

My cats have been permanently banned from the train room. Tigger bit part of the cross off the steeple of St. Francis church, then stepped on the roof of the Texaco station, causing a cave-in. Midge was seen emerging from tunnel #2.

@Alan Rogers

Alan:

It was impossible to keep Chaz away from the layout. The layout is in an open family room in the basement. There are no doors.

Chaz was very good. When he got on the layout, all he would do was walk the track around the city portion of the layout and occasionally sit on the track to admire his image in the mirrors we have as backdrops around the city. He sometimes knocked over a tree, but, nothing serious. Chaz always liked to watch the trains run from his perch on the arm of an over-stuffed love seat. He was a great cat and we miss him very much.

30 years ago in my first house, first Christmas.

@Randy Harrison posted:

@Alan Rogers

Alan:

It was impossible to keep Chaz away from the layout. The layout is in an open family room in the basement. There are no doors.

Chaz was very good. When he got on the layout, all he would do was walk the track around the city portion of the layout and occasionally sit on the track to admire his image in the mirrors we have as backdrops around the city. He sometimes knocked over a tree, but, nothing serious. Chaz always liked to watch the trains run from his perch on the arm of an over-stuffed love seat. He was a great cat and we miss him very much.

I am SO sorry for your loss.

A couple of shots taken while hanging out at the Austin Amtrak Station.

                                         Selecting cars for a Sunday run...

I would like to say thank you, to everyone that liked the pictures of our front room.