“Thank you for flying LUFTHANSA and have a good day!”
What´s this? Where are we?
Good Morning Folks!
It is October 1st, and I have moved this month´s diner to a new location. This month, we will be touring Germany, starting out in Hamburg. This is what we will do this month:
Visit Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg
Chase & ride steam trains in the Harz Mountains
Take the train ride down the Rhine Valley
Enjoy a day at Munich´s famous “Oktoberfest”
Take a ride on th Wendelstein mountain cog railway
Visit Garmisch-Partenkirchen and tike a ride up to Germany´s highest mountain
Visit crazy Ludwig´s Neu Schwanstein castle, take a boat trip on Lake Chiemsee (paddle wheeler) and ride a train with Germany´s oldest steam loco still in regular service
Visit Nuremberg and the Deutsche Bahn Museum there
Chase & ride steam trains in the Erzgebirge mountain region
Visit Dresden
Visit Berlin
Ride the steam train on Rugen Island
Ride the “Molli” steam train in Bad Doberan and, last but not least
It sounds like it is going to be a fun month with quite a bit planned. I finished ballasting today and painting on the “oily residue”. I also fixed the ballasting in the coal yard by filling in the areas with WS fine rock then filling it over with the black ballast.
Tomorrow I have to work for 4 hours then I’m going to the train club. I haven’t been there for 3 weeks so it will be good to see everyone again.
Simeon- That is a nice coal scene.
Sue- That is a great backdrop that shows real artistic talent.
Garry- Congratulations on being published in MRR. I just saw it today. This is real validation of your modeling ability.
Barry- That is a neat picture of the store/gas station.
Lee- Have fun at the show. I have been disappointed in the local one here the last 2 times I have attended.
Today I got my bills paid, got my loan payment lowered by $23 and got close to $500 to play with, got my groceries and got home without breaking anything. This afternoon I installed a 9-pin DCC harness in a Bachmann FT (cut out all the resistors and capacitors in the process) and got it packed for delivery to it’s new home. This evening I’m working on a Front Range GP7 kit. It’s about halfway done so far. At this point it’s main saving grace is that it has a Mashima motor. I’ll have to really tone it down as it’s low speed is faster than the fastest Olympic runner and the top speed is somewhere in the realm of warp 8.
Just got caught up from the previous edition of the diner. Now I’m starting off in here for the new edition. I always liked Germany, had an aunt and uncle stationed over here for 14 years at Ramstein Air Base. Even got to come over here myself once as a teen, my aunt and uncle paid for the trip and I loved it. Quite a beautiful country.
Well, not much happening at my house this weekend as Amy is at a women’s conference out of town and the girls are with my parents (they gotta spend some time with grandma and grandpa you know). I went and saw the movie Courageous with some friends tonight and all I can say is WOW, its amazing!
Welp, I’d better get off to bed as I DO have to w**k tomorrow morning.
Rob: On your starter diagnosis. The small wire is what runs from the ignition switch and through the Neutral Safety Switch on the transmission. If you have a maintenance manual for it, there should be wiring diagrams in the back, if you don’t, let me know and I will get one pulled up and give you the proper wire color that you need to check. Basically sounds like you’ve got a crapped out ignition switch (not the key half, the electrical half), or possibly the Neutral Safety Switch. You’ll know as soon as you chase the wire back from the starter to the NSS, then up to the Ignition switch. Sorry that I’m not any closer to you (IIRC you’re in northwestern GA, and I’m in southeastern Alabama). Again, I hope that this helps.
{hey, just cuz my MIL is German doesn’t mean I know more than “nine”, “danka shoene”,“kindergarten”, “ich bin ein Berliner” [thanks to President Kennedy} and a few swear words I can’t print here!!! I also speak Russian…“Nyet”!!!}
GOOD MORNING!!! Today is Saturday, October1, 2011!!!
Hold on to your little booties, maties, and warm up the “bier Garten” is gonna start getting chilly!!! {I’ll take a glass of fine Rhine wine, please…never did like beer…}
JUMPING GERMANY, How did we get here?, I must have slept all the way.
One good thing about this location is that we will have one of the best Tourist Guides in the Country, Right Ulrich ??? For the time being, tell me where the hot potato salad and bratwurst is ?
In that sauerkraut is there any swebils.? [ check spelling}
I know Petra will have all the desserts ready or will be teaching the new staff how to accommodate us in that area.
I think I’m going to like it here. But I need more sleep.
Most folks in Germany also speak English, so there is no language problem
Traveling around by train is easy to do, there is hardly a place which cannot reached by train.
Just imagine all of us could do a tour like this! We´d ride in a special train, pulled by a pair of Pacifics! Actually, such a tour was done last year to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the opening of the first railroad in Germany. Must have been quite an experience.
Johnboy - I have never seen Zwiebel (onions) in Sauerkraut. I guess it is just a myth that we eat Sauerkraut all the time - it´s the Polish who live off that stuff.
Galaxy - I am just glad Kennedy did not give his speech in Hamburg [swg]. A “Berliner” is also a sweet pastry, filled with jam and covered with sugar glazing - plenty of toothache!
Petra has volunteered to provide the lady´s program - it will be loaded with art, history and cooking.
I came across this piece when doing some research for a friend of mine who is going there to do a little examining of his own there…google this and you find a whole pile of interesting information about this region.
Well, it is windy and cold out there this morning…44F and winds of up to 50mph expected today, tonight, tomorrow…lasting into tomorrow night…hermetically sealed house is the name of the game here…[:-^]
Have a weekend on-call that might be a little short today…my throat feels all scratchy …when that happens, I expect to soon get a cold coming on…
Flo, I’ll just have a bucket of OJ and a coffee for now please…I’ll be at the RC for a bit…
An engine someone told me was not in a Ford Galaxie…[^o)]
Evening folks, Can’t believe we’ve made it all the way to Germany in october!
Thanks Ulrich!!
Speaking of FORD GALAXIES we currently have a 72 sitting in the drive way. It is an American built imported and converted to RHD in Australia by Ford Australia. It is a great car. What we can’t figure out if it’s got a 427 or 460 in it. It also runs on LPG, good fun to drive. I do love those old fords.
Don’t know if I’ll be doing much work on the layout tomorrow. I’m looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow morning…Tough day of cricket today.
I’m curious, are there any Doctor Who fans around these parts?? I know we have plent of Ziva NCIS fans… [:-,]
Good Morning!! One of them pastries over there please. That “Berliner” sounds like it’s right up my alley[:P]. Yup, coffee too. Thanks.
Germany huh. Odd with the places I’ve been, Uncle Sam never sent me to Germany.
I will not be drinking any beer while I am here however. I have had German beer and quite frankly I don’t care for it. Or at least the ones I’ve had. I don’t like dark beers or anything bitter like Sam Adams. Give me a good cheap Pabst Blue Ribbon or a Lone Star if you got it and I’ll be happy as a pig in new mud. Germans would say I like to drink dish water. I like my dishwater.
Barry- I’m not a bettin man, but everything I can see in that picture, radiator, engine, master cylinder, and I think I can make out a basic shape or style of the grille, says a 1963 Galaxie with a 427. And a very nice one at that.
Still feelin blah. I don’t know. Kinda run down, tired. Just not myself. Haven’t been that way for a couple three weeks. Thought maybe it was pining for a lost love, then I realized I don’t have one so……maybe I need to eat more fruit.
ANYway, I’ll probably go out and mow Mom’s yard for the hopefully last time, then who knows.
(door flies open, comes sliding in like a Kramer entrance ) Someone say Ziva!? Where!? Oh.
Aussie Jim- Providing the engine in your Galaxie is one of those two only, the best way to tell, or possibly the easiest, is to look at the block. If the bottom of the block where the oil pan attaches is about even with the center of the crankshaft, or bottom pulley on th efront of the engine, It is a 460. Of those two. If the bottom of the block extends lower than the pulley say by a few inches, making the block without the pan look like a “Y” from the end it is a 427. No expert by any stretch so that’s about all I know about those. Other than, evn though I’m a Chrysler guy, I sure wouldn’t turn down a 427[:D].
EDIT: (ahem) sorry. By “below the pulley” I meant below the center of the pulley. Or about even with the bottom of the Dampner.
Good Morning all of you guys in the diner, I just wanted to pop in and tell you all how much I enjoy following your post. You all seem like a great bunch of people! I really like the way you try and help each other. It’s fun for me to see what each of you are up too. Anyway thanks for letting me snoop on you all. I hope you all have a great weekend!! Thanks, Thayne
Barry I knew what the engine was as soon as I saw the air clearer. Same engine I had in my Cobra Mustang. In 68 Shelby and Ford where fighting and Ford did not want to lose out in SCCA racing. So they started making Cobra Mustangs. They only made 500 of them and most i think came with 428’s. The first 50 of the cars did get the 427’s and I had one of them.
Jame’s Ford here in the states stop making the 427 in 1967 (reason only 50 of them where used in the 68 Cobra Mustang) but In The Land Down Under these rules sure don’t count! I would guess it would be a 390, I think they where still making them in 1972.
Have you ever seen the Australian Dodge Charger?
They could be had with a In Line 6 Hemi with 3 2 Barrel Carb’s. Stock they where 14.5 cars in the quarter and did not take much to get in the 12’s.
Ulrich With you being our tour guide this month, are you going to post some pictures of the highlights of the tour?
Guys…my favorite discussion was at a cruise night when someone came in and bellowed abouts that they never put 427’s in the Galaxie…I took him to my car and showed him the motor and asked the gentleman whether he even read the manual that came with the car…which I then provided for his 'enlightenment…[swg][:-,]
Only plans today are w**k then the train club. Tomorrow I think I will get the layout Skirt put up correctly. It’s just hanging down now. I will try to get around here later tonight.
we have arrived at Hamburg, starting point of our journey throughout Germany.
It is the second biggest city in Germany, sporting roughly 2 million inhabitants.
We will tour the port, spend a day at Miniatur Wunderland and will have our dinner at Övelgönner Fährhaus, a traditional fish restaurant, serving the best fish in the world.
Cocktails will be served at the Tower Bar, overlooking Hamburg and the port.
It´s wonderful (wunderbar) to watch the sunset there!
Tomorrow, we will travel to Bremen and on to Bruchhausen-Vilsen, where we do some railfanning along Germany´s first museum train line.
