Jeffrey’s Trackside Diner for February 2025




Welcome to month II of 2025 everyone. January saw a bit of a resurgence in Diner participation, let’s hope the numbers keep climbing with new patrons joining the fold.

As always we can talk about what ever we want in the diner, however, if we do want to have a subject to focus on may I suggest “communications”?
There are communications along the line that involved telegraph/telephone lines, signal lights/towers, microwave towers that lead to whatever we have now which probably involves satellites.
Then we have crew communications onboard the actual train itself over the years. From early whistle signals to the crew in the rear, to radios and what have you.
So if you have photos and/or stories of coms along the line, pipe up!

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Good morning Diners. A cold February day. A large coffee please, Chloe.

Communication.
Did you ever get the chance to talk any of the railroad staff like this lucky boy?

David

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Why, yes! There have been several occasions when a locomotive crew have invited me up for a look-see and a chat. That was back before the Zero Tolerance policies came to be.

This may have been one of the first times for me. Chatham, Ontario around 1960.

6218_Chatham-cab by Edmund, on Flickr

Sure was nice back when railroading was more of a ‘human’ (or humane?) endeavor.

Cheers, Ed

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You were a lucky lad, Ed.
Most of my early life I travelled by bus; even long distance.

David

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Morning all!

No, I’ve never gotten the chance to interact with anyone on the railroad. In fact, apart from some small historical tours my train riding experiences are quite limited. I live near an Amtrak line but my daily life doesnt require it, and I’m not close to any metros.

However I did get the chance to visit Japan last year, and between daily subway rides, a couple of longer distance rides, and a few trips on the Shinkansen, the train lover in me had a wonderful time. I’m very jealous of their transportation network.

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Good morning, diners. I’ll have some bacon, eggs, and black coffee, Chloe.

Not much going on out here on the Plains. Cold wind, cloudy, no snow, etc. Another good day to work on the layout.

Communication!

I was very young, but remember seeing a scene like this. My father always took me down to the Union Pacific mainline to watch trains, and we got to see the man from the station pass information to the train that was moving along pretty fast. That was in the 1950s.

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Good afternoon everyone. Zoe, tin roof sundae please.

I’ve had a couple brief conversations with the short line crew that services where I work. Unfortunately, nothing but business each time. I used to know a fellow that was an engineer for CSX and worked out of Grand Rapids, MI. He brought me some maps of the yards at the ends of the runs he was usually running. That was pretty neat! Never could figure out how to get on a run with him though.

Finally getting some layout time today. Working on putting together some of the Walthers track bumpers. I see they now come assembled, but that’s okay. I get three times the number in kit form, and they are easy.

Brent, thanks for opening the February diner. How have you been feeling? Hope recovery is back on smooth rails.


Cheers everyone!

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Back in the early 70’s a friend and I went down to the Michigan Central station in Detroit and took a ride out to Kalamazoo. The conductor came along and saw our cameras and started talking to us and then said come with me,so we did. We ended up in the locomotive because the engineer liked cameras and we were able to talk and watch everything in the front end

Best to all on sick call and those recovering :angel: :angel: :angel:
Duke

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Gidday Chloe, I haven’t been in for a while so you had better put a round of drinks for the patrons on my tab, please. Al large cold lemonade in a frosty glass will be my poison tonight, please.

A belated welcome to mdmasc91.

The New Zealand Railways Road Services buses were a godsend not only to a young Bear, but also other travellers either to young to have a driver’s licence, or a car, or on limited means.
While they came in different models, some well upholstered and more powerful, the basic Bedford S while neither fast and with basic bench seating allowed a young Bear, relative freedom at something like a cent a mile, if my memory serves.

Restored NZRRS Bedford SB 3583 by Wayne Duncan, on Flickr

You could “hail” the bus from anywhere along its route, usually the main provincial roads/state highways, which was great, the downside being that sometimes especially on a long trip, it could seem that the bus was continually grinding to a halt and then slowly getting back up to “speed’ before repeating the whole process again and again!
Still, it allowed me and my fellow school mates the ability to play sports for our city high school, and semi-regular trips away to a youth camp.

While I view such travel with a sense of nostalgia and with rose tinted glasses, after gaining my licence and purchasing my first motorcycle, I never looked back.

Thoughts and Best Wishes to All that need them. Kia Kaha…
Cheers, the Bear. :slightly_smiling_face:

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It was similar with Samuel Ledgard buses in ‘hailing’ them to stop. Once they were in the Leeds City boundary they could only stop at bus stops. Therefore ‘Sammy’ had to have bus stop signs erected in Leeds.

David

Good morning all.

Received a birthday present yesterday to add to the collection- a Bachamann DCC ready 4-6-2 light pacific in B&O livery. Guess I need to figure out what decoder I want to use in it. That puts me at 4 different 4-6-2 engines for my railway. I guess we could say I have a favorite locomotive!

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Hello all, did anyone miss me?

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Welcome back, Jimmy_Braum.

David

thanks. Sadly a lot has been going on in my life since I last posted in the forum. I had planned to come back sooner, but I got tangled in the whole “403” thing that hit the forum last year and I was unable to log in until recently.

Notes: I have received 3 of the 7 certificates needed for MMR, and currently actively working on 2. I had a friend who became a musical mentor pass away last month from a rare form of brain cancer, and that hurt to read. I’ve been working on getting my name out there as a musician, and it’s kind of working- Ive already got 3 or four local gigs lined up for this year.

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Happy Sunday everyone. Janie, sweet iced tea please.

Jimmy, welcome back! I’m sorry to hear about your friend.

Disappointing ebay experience lately. I was trying to buy a CDU on Ebay as I’m not inclined to build one (having trouble finding schematics for one anyway), and the Circuitron Snapper is pricier than I expected. I placed an order for one from overseas (Great Britain), but the total price was fair and they said they would ship internationally. That seller promptly cancelled the order stating there was a problem with my address. Hmmm. Tried another, again from overseas (also Great Britain), and their listing explicitly stated they would ship to the US. Great! Placed my order, and the seller contacted me saying they couldn’t ship the one I ordered as the size of it made the shipping charges exorbitant. They suggested a different model they sold and provided me a link. Follow the link, and it says shipping to the US not available. Frustrating. I ended up paying for the Circuitron unit from trainz.com. Hopefully this ends this saga. I was trying to run trains last night and that troublesome switch machine was entirely uncooperative. It is located in a spot where you cannot reach it from inside the layout, and with the lift out in place across the layout entrance, its just a pita to deal with like this.

Quiet day so far. Hopefully it stays that way.

Cheers guys! Mike

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Gidday Jimmy, yes. Though I did see in a NMRA Division newsletter, (was it one of Ray Howards Northeastern Region newsletters??) that you were still modelling and doing well at it. :+1:

Sorry to read about your friend.

On other business, it looks that a moderator is going to be very busy!!

Thoughts and Best Wishes to All that need them. Kia Kaha.
Cheers, the Bear. :slightly_smiling_face:

It amazes me that these tactics work. How on earth could anybody go to their favorite model railroad forum and think “Wow! It’s my lucky day! I’ve been trying to find the help phone number for this random loan app and here it is in my model railroad forum! This must be legitimate!” :roll_eyes:

On the other hand, look at the reward points this spammer is racking up! :rofl:

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Morning all.
Iys really wonderful to finally have temps above freezing again. Here south of Pittsburgh, we had a MONTH of sub freezing temps, and three days with lows of -15 or lower.

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You have to fight through the cold weather and endless waves of spam on the forum. Sounds like a tough time!

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Here in Calgary, Alberta, we are enduring a cold snap. All the way up to -13F at the moment and that will be about it for the next couple of days. But last Wednesday I was out on my bicycle in balmy +50F temperatures. Just typical of what the weather can be like here. The chinooks are a very welcome break when they blow in.

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