Quote from: Philip on Today at 11:11:00 AMThanks for the photo James. I agree the dormers were for natural light. Was this the prototype Tom Yorke based his kit on? 

I just fed what Mr. Yorke put on the cover of the box to Goog. My only visit to the general area was driving from San Jose to Yosemite via Merced.

Good afternoon (barely, at least in Eastern Time)!

Curt, is your multi-level junction photo somewhere in Lehigh Gorge?

Rick, eating eggs is a bad habit that develops most often when chickens don't have access to proper nourishment. Sometimes the flock actually disciplines them (often fatally), most chicken owners stew them when caught.

TomO, playing subject to biased referees as often as you've reported sounds a little like abuse to me. I'd have changed sports, or switched to something much less competitive. My stepson dropped HS track & field because the culture was too much running is life.

Layout time after lunch...

Quote from: Orionvp17 on Today at 10:36:25 AM...Apparently cracked a few ribs a couple of weeks ago when I tripped on something invisible on a wall-to-wall carpet in the store, so no lifting for awhile.  Sale of the building went well, though, so now I need to deal with a raft of gummint forms about which I knew nothing....

I wish you a speedy recovery, Pete.  Not sure the forms will help, but bureaucracy is generally felt to be preferable to force of arms...

Modern "internet search for what AI feels like showing us" found only this photo, though I'm sure there are thousands on photo sites:

https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/491/images/Railtown%203-1-23%20(Merritt)%20(23).JPG

The building is at ground level, though there might have been a slightly-sunken loading area on the RH side.  The prototype's big dormers and gable window are clearly there for interior lighting.

Good morning, Jeff and late-rising crew members. I slept later than usual this morning; no hurry because I could hear the storm outside. It rained off and on all night, with gusty winds NWS says could reach 45 MPH. Not enough to be an issue down in the valley, but my 2nd wife is no doubt feeling it up on top of the hill.  Plenty to do indoors today, though, including lighting a stove to offset the forecast high of 51F.

Good morning, Jeff, Jim, Dave and later arrivals.  Clouds are closing in, so if any mowing is to be done today, I need to get off the computer.

Our 2024 trip included almost a week on the Rhine above Basel. The nicest view we got on our day trip to Lucerne was from the old city walls, but we got there by walking up from the river bridge area and there were lots of stairs.  A much broader view is available by riding up to Mt. Pilatus on their cog railway.

Good morning, Rick, Curt, Ron, Larry and later arrivals.  High 50s and sunny in the lower Merrimack Valley this morning, clouds later, showers this afternoon.  One chicken was missing from the coop when I did evening chores; I found her in poor condition in the combine shed, she was dead this morning. If I was right in suspecting her of egg-eating, I won't miss her and there's a woodchuck hole she can go in after I eat breakfast.

Today's business starts with mechanical chores and the lawn, maybe some layout work after the showers arrive.

Good evening, all. Another mostly pleasant day at Seashore: Rain forecast yesterday ended up as a couple of light showers that blew past quickly. A small crew made progress on the double slip switch, while our Speed Swing operator mounted the big magnet and swept up bits and pieces left by the excavator-mounted scrap shear. Late in the day I changed the Speed Swing over to our hydraulic tie grapple and picked up a few of the old ties removed by the contractor last week.



Pettibone 441-B Speed Swing built 1974 as Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority #4307. Taken 7 years ago to the month, it's up on Hi-Rail carrying a new tie to a small-scale replacement project. It sits higher above the rail than RR-owned Speed Swings; the MBTA ordered it with trolley back-to-back distance Hi-Rail wheels and set high enough to clear their subway 3rd rail.

Good evening, all. Seashore was in the 80F range today, with decent breezes but less cloud cover than the weather-guessers had led me to hope for.  We used our old Section Gang Machine (a 400 lb tie inserter) and Pettibone Speed Swing to change two more switch timbers, but I had to leave early for a Selectmen's meeting.  Then a lot of Shabu-Shabu for dinner.  Almost done with my computer, good night.

Good evening, all. High of 85 in the lower Merrimack Valley, mostly sunny today.  Spent most of the morning seeing the vampire, then helping my wife during her first meeting with a new PCP. Rest of the daylight hours were the usual work on the ancient double slip switch. Dinner at home, fetch milk and my kid, now at the computer working on my report.

Tomorrow will be all track work with the same high but more clouds. We decided to replace two more timbers, should be 11-footers by where they are under the central frog castings.  Depends on whether we can rent a small excavator in the morning - we learned the nearest place had closed at 4 PM by driving there...

Good afternoon, Jeff, Bob and onlookers.  It rained almost an inch on the lower Merrimack Valley from yesterday through late morning. 50F early on, but after the clouds departed eastbound, it's been sunny and warmed up to the 70s.  I'm done paying bills (between health insurance cuts and inflation, about 50% up from 2024) so time to take my sweater off and open more windows.  Lawn needs mowing but it's still too soggy.

Nobody from my High School class died in US military service, but one lost his son in Afghanistan.  And several friends came home with life-changing injuries.

Good morning, all. Light rain started earlier over the lower Merrimack valley. We're most of the way to our forecast high of 55F.  More rain tomorrow, but forecast to be warmer.  Yesterday's memorial for a Seashore friend did me some good. We'd both been at the same college and worked in high tech in the Boston area but didn't meet till 45 years later at the trolley museum. The informal part of the event was at a surviving farm where he and his son volunteered. He was an amateur musician and the 25-member band he'd played with performed half a dozen songs. And his trolley friends came from far, far away.  After dinner, I got back to organizing my 6400-track music collection (I like owning tunes a lot better than renting).

Curt, thanks for the WM Scenic picture. I realized that when I visit the kid near Harrisburg, I'll only be 2 hours from Cumberland instead of 9.  His choice has already given me first visits to Strasburg and Orbisionia, and Altoona was on my mind. Cass isn't a day trip from that part of PA but the museums in Baltimore are.

A few more storms to come off the upper floors, then layout work all day.  I'm on the list of afternoon layout tours after a HUB/Seacoast NMRA Railfun in Derry NH on June 6.

A relative will be driving to NH from Charlotte NC next week.  So if someone in range of me wants this tub, I could ask her to pick it up and bring it to the NH seacoast.

Quote from: deemery on May 22, 2026, 02:54:23 PM

Quote from: ReadingBob on May 22, 2026, 12:53:50 PMI'll start playing around with structure placement to see if there's any room leftover for track work.

Track is over-rated on a model railroad. 

I resemble that remark (having worked on track about 40 days so far in 2026; hardly any of it on a model RR).