Hi everyone and WELCOME to Jeffreys Track Side Diner for August 2023!
I hope that you are all having an enjoyable summer. For August, how about we discuss the subject of depots. Depots can range from a small shed sized whistle stop to giant big city terminals that handle a dozen different railroads. This should prove to be interesting, so let the fun begin.
Enjoy!
Jim
Well, for some reason I can’t seem to get the RIP track to post. I’ll continue to work on it, but it had been 6 hours since last posting for July so why not move it now even if there’s a few more hours of July at least in Central time.
So, welcome all and I hope theres some great info on depots this month.
Hi Jim,
Thanks for moving the Diner. You have chosen an interesting topic.
The RIP track is in its proper place so I guess you sorted the problem out.
Cheers!!
Dave
August Already! Only 5 more months of Summer to go!
Depots should be great.
-Kevin
Good Morning Diners. Flo, bacon, eggs, and pancakes please.
I just saw an article that a group has restored a couple former New York Central cars and are offering a 20th Century Limited experience. The cars are restored to show what a trip in the late 40’s would be like. Round trip between New York and Albany. Tickets in the tavern car include sandwiches but not drinks run $150 and tickets in the observation car include a chef cooked meal plus drinks and hors d’oeuvres for $300. Sounds reasonable to me for a fun experience like that. I would sign up if I were closer.
This should qualify as a depot. My dad’s brother-in-law, Stanley Mackenzie, was the B&M agent at Warren, New Hampshire when the Dartmouth Outing Club decided to stop by on a Sunday afternoon:
Flying-Yankee at Warren, NH by Edmund, on Flickr
My dad grew up in the town of Barre Plains, Massachusetts and he and his brothers spent lots of time at the solidly-built Boston & Albany depot.
barreplains60 by Edmund, on Flickr
While his father, Francis, was agent for the B&M in the same town.
barredepot_FXT by Edmund, on Flickr
That blue, porcelain station sign now hangs in my little pavillion down by the pond.
Pavillion by Edmund, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
Good afternoon Diners. A coffee on the go please, Zoe.
Temple Mills & Orient Way Sidings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II1kl4aZPWQ&ab_channel=DestinationTrainsPlanes
David
Good morning, everyone. It’s been a busy morning, it’s almost noon, and it’ll be a busy afternoon.
Jim, thanks for starting the diner in a new month. It’s always a pleasure reading the posts.
Mike, that sounds like a great ride on a tourist railroad. It’s too bad we can’t experience the full effect of that train by spending the night heading to Chicago.
Ed, that’s an interesting background of your family’s railroading history. And that’s a great looking pavillion on your property. How far away is the caboose?
David, that’s a neat aerial tour of the Temple Mills depot in London.
We spent four days in Vernazzo, Italy, hiking and riding the trains. The train station is right next to the tunnel portal. Standing on the station deck, you can feel cool air being forced out of the tunnel by the approaching train before you can see or hear the train coming.
Have a great day, everyone.
We moved my Dad this weekend. My brother and niece started the process two weeks ago. My wife and I went down last weekend to pack, and Thursday to start the move. He is moving into my sister’s new home that includes a bedroom and a bath for him. She and her husband moved to Lubbock to be near their grandchildren. My Dad isn’t a hoarder, but he had a lot of stuff packed into a 2 bedroom duplex. It took two trips in a 20 foot truck to move him and his woodworking projects. One of my brothers took a 15 foot truck of stuff to Wisconsin. We took a pickup load last week to Kansas, and followed it up this week with an 8 foot trailer. Both of my kids and all of my siblings came to help pack & load. My baby brother rented a roll off dumpster Monday morning that we filled 3/5 way full (we had already taken 2 truck loads to the transfer station). My wife and I cleaned until 4:30 Monday afternoon. It was 109 on Monday, btw. I lost 7 lbs. over the long weekend.
Oh, and our pickup truck broke down Saturday while we were in Wichita Falls. It was repairable, but not ready until Monday afternoon. My daughter stuck around to help and to transport us. My brother in law let us borrow his pickup to pick up the trailer.
My son texted last night that he and his wife have made an offer on a house in Wylie, TX. So it looks like we will be painting and moving for them later this year.
Hi Everyone,
Brunhilda, coffee with cream, please.
Offering my own contribution to the topic. The picture is of the UP depot at Manhattan, Kansas back in the mid 1950s. I remember this structure from when i was very young. The sign was the UP overland route logo and at night was lit up with neon. It had the red neon and blue I think Xenon, but not sure about the gas. Anyway, it lit up red and blue. I seem to remember the station as being red brick. Not sure on that either, but it was brick with stone.
Manhattan KS depot mid 50s by Jim S, on Flickr
I’ll have to see if I have any more depot pics.
Knowing Manhattan, I’ll bet it had some of that light-colored limestone in it somewhere. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a city with that much stone in the buildings.
I installed the new battery in my wife’s car this morning. That was a pretty easy chore.
The roof was delivered, and it is now sitting in my driveway. The installation begins tomorrow.
-Photograph by Kevin Parson
It sure is white!
-Kevin
Hope it goes well! The house looks great. I really like those stone accents and retaining wall. I also like what looks like concrete edging around the gravel planting bed. It looks like that make mowing the yard easier when you can get one side of the mower onto the concrete.
You’ve done a nice job!
Its about 200 feet or so, John. Far enough that if party goers are still reveling at the pavilion and folks want to sleep at the caboose there’s no problem, yet close enough that the ‘facilities’ are nearby.
Hops Arbor by Edmund, on Flickr
I know I have better photos showing both the caboose and pavilion but I’ll have to dig further. The caboose would be well to the right in this photo:
Distant Pavilion by Edmund, on Flickr
Actually in this view you can see the caboose far off to the left looking from the path to the pavilion:
One of my favorite depots in a scene that just reeks of ‘Railroadiness’
Thurmond - Dec. 1969 by Joseph Petric, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
-Photograph by Kevin Parson
Good morning everyone. Chloe, I would like a hearty bowl of granola with raisins and dates.
They are up there installing the roof now… so much noise!
I had the concrete landscape curbing installed 22 years ago. That was one of the best things I ever spent money on. Having a permanent border in between the stones and the grass has been worth every dime.
-Kevin
The battery died in the GF’s Mini Cooper a while back. We couldn’t jump start it. We couldn’t find one anywhere locally, and none of the local shops would touch it. Minis are made by BMW, but the BMW dealer wouldn’t touch it. She had to have it towed to Annapolis, Maryland, about two hours away.
I hate this trend to make things unrepairable. Whatever happened to jump starting your car, driving to Sears and getting a Die Hard dropped in while you waited?
There’s only one shop in my whole county that will work on electric cars, too.
My boss had a Chrysler 300, the older body style, and one of the rear wheels had to be removed to access the battery compartment.
My 2015 Impala is a pretty basic car. Nothing seems hard to work on.
My 2008 Colorado is as easy to work on as my 1976 Chevrolet C10 or my 1989 Ford F150 were.
None of this matters for my next car… it will be electric.
-Kevin
Replacing the battery on my Harley requires the removal of the seat, a side panel, and the skin from my knuckles.
What is it like changing the battery in an electric car? I know they eventually need to be replaced. I wonder if it’s like replacing a motor in a regular car.
For the most part the Batteries today will outlast the car itself. Tesla, I know has some tech in place to limit the damage from overcharging the cells which shortens the life of the batteries. Normally you only charge to 80% and you never want to totally empty the charge in them. My Tesla Model 3 is about 4 years old now and I see no change at all in battery function and range. Found this online…
“Most manufacturers have a five to eight-year warranty on their battery. However, the current prediction is that an electric car battery will last from 10 – 20 years before they need to be replaced.”
There is at least one production Model 3 Tesla out there with over 1,000,000 miles on it and the batteries supposedly are still fine.
73
