Welcome to Jeffrey´s Trackside Diner , this month located in Durango, CO to enjoy the first snow on the highline to Silverton!
This is a place to gather, a place without an agenda or a topic. It’s free to all, to read, to join in, or just to enjoy some virtual food. Our gracious hosts ask only that we avoid certain hot-button topics like politics and religion that sometimes raise tempers.
You’ll get to know the friendly staff just by listening. It’s a place to share your day, your concerns, your joys and sorrows. Welcome aboard.
Happen to be up late (for me). Found out that the 40-2s are not the correct loco for what I need. I need some U-boats. Most likely a pair of U-28Cs. I will have to paint them for BN but painting locos is nothing new for me.
The LION has come down out of the mountains. Must be a mountain lion what with all of the snow here. No wildebeests on these mountains, but him did catch a Jackalope. Lets pause our paws for some Jackalope scrabble and sticky buns.
Christmas Services…? Whale we do surprisingly little. Less in fact than on an ordinary day. There is a midnight service that starts at 10, but the LION does not attend that, him having sleep issues and all.
We begin our Christmas with the start of Advent. Music at office and mass shifts into an Advent mode, as does the Marion antiphon at Vespers. Our advent wreath is in the refectory, the parish has their wreath in the church. We ignore that.
On December 17th we shift into a deeper mode with the “O-antiphons” at morning prayer and at Vespers. (you would know these antiphons as the seven verses of “Oh Come, Oh Come, Emanuel”. (The song makes the last verse the first,silly composers!) It is also the day that we turn on the out door lights)
On the last workday before christmas we put up decorations in the house, a tree in the Community Room, as well as a tree and other decorations in the Refectory.
Christmas day we get to sleep in, there is Morning Prayer, then Brunch. After that the Mass of the day, a late noon prayer, Vespers at 4 and the Christmas Dinner after that.
We do not exchange gifts, but on Christmas eve we have our supper in the community room, we light the tree and sing carols. There is food all over the place until the end of the Christmas season, which comes early this year. (The feast of the Baptism is on Jan 9th this year.) And then we go back into ordinary time. We will take down our decorations the next day (the 10th).
Moment of silence in memory of those on the RIP Track.
Ulrich… Thanks for moving the Diner. I recall being in Germany in December and the Christmas festivities were impressive. … Durango / Silverton is a great location for the Diner. I wonder if there will be some snow plow action.
Ed … I too was in Durango and Silverton in the mid 1960’s. Only once however. A memorable experience for sure.
Lion … Interesting about life in a monestery. A couple of years ago, I received a gift which was a fruit cake from a monastery, but I do not recall which one. The fruit cake was excellent.
FRRY … The BN paint scheme should be relatively easy. Have fun.
It sounds like most of you have plans for December for your lyoputs or trains. I read your posts in the November Diner in response to my question. I think my next item on the agenda will be my bridge prooect. I will need at least three spans.
Train front - Worked out teh cost of a Hoe Ram * $1800 , verified with the well guy that their will not be a problem jack hammering rock that close to the well ( 35’ ) looks like fottings will not go in until next week now.
Ray - Why do you call him Fussy ? Is he grouchy or fussy over details and getting it right ?
MoeLarry - Hmmm Would have never considered using Christmas lights - thanks what a neat idea !
Ulrich - It is SO NICE having you open the diner again : ) And one of teh places on my bucket list to visit !
UP831 - Your comment made me laugh [:-^] Barn/trainroom ! I know I will call it my Brainroom !?
DER - ABBA fan? I read it first thinking what ? Singing ABBA train locomatives ? [:$] then I remembered teh singing group !
Ken - I learned teh same way. Except with cars. I was very poor early on and had to buy broken stuff and then fix it. I think there is a lot to be said for that way [tup]
Rob - LOL Steady camera on a moving train !
V8 - It sure is easy to spend a lot quick in this hobby isnt it !
Fourt - good to see you ! Looks like Murphy has been visiting you hard !
Lion - Fascinating ! What is “feast of baptism” ? Thanks for sharing.
Can’t do it. LION does not have a long attention span.
LION put the two spans of him side by side (sort of) to create the four track mane lion over the Gowanus Canal. Him will put bridgework between the two spans to make it look like a single bridge.
In Brooklyn, the bridge has no rounded top and is the equavlent of six tracks wide since the station platforms also trnasverse the bridge.
Our local mountain lion, we have several, killed several Appacas someone had on a farm and the owner got a permit to kill the lion. This lion has a tracking coller and had achieved a bit of fame around here in the news often. So now there are 100 protesters at the farm to save the lion. They want to charge the farm owner for endangering the appacas.
It’s been a year now since my LHS closed its doors. He was ready to retire anyway, but the new owners of the strip mall got greedy and significantly raised his rent, destroying his meager cash flow and forcing him out.
I now note with some satisfaction that the Maine Trains sign still graces the building and the roadside sign as well. After a year, the owners have not found a tenant so they are the ones losing money.
Good morning. I visit the Diner from time to time but tend not to post here (I post plenty elsewhere). It is still a bit of a shock to scroll through old threads and see Jeffrey’s name (and photo) on a posting. In addition to missing those who have passed away, I also remember some who were avid and useful participants in the Forums … and then just stopped and disappeared. Some of their old postings are now in the name of Anonymous. And of course I also miss Erik Bergstrom of Kalmbach who was our genial host/moderator way back. I still have my Forum Member T-shirt that Erik had printed up for us.
I live near Milwaukee and for many years the big deal here has been the annual Trainfest, which gets good coverage in MR’s new products lists and videos, and other YouTube vids. It is not a swap meet but focuses on operating layouts, clinics, displays, dealers and manufacturers. Families with kids are a big part of the audience which is usually in the 16,000 to 20,000 range over two days. I am a volunteer at registration (a place where frayed nerves can be seen on display - set up is no joke). It is hectic. Putting on a big show of this kind is a huge task and much of the work is volunteer since it is sponsored by our NMRA Wisconsin South Eastern (“WISE”) Division.
Having done my volunteer duty, for years and years I would walk the aisles of Trainfest with shopping bags in hand, all day (9 am to 5 pm) on both days. By Sunday night my feet and back would really feel the effects of those concrete floors, and my wallet would really feel the effect of two solid days of shopping. Since I always had my volunteer t shirt on I would help out where ever it seemed needed. And that had benefits too – once a guy at the Accurail booth just stuck a freight car kit in my hands with a “thanks for helping with this show” and I remember a
Thanks Ulrich for starting this months thread. Durango is a [tup][tup] for any rail fan.
Dave I saw an old Afro American, he was easily 90, dressed to the nine’s on a Sunday, so I am sure he came from church. He said to me as a boy he went to such and such hardware store and he could only look at the trains, his family could not afford them. He said “and now I can” It almost brought a tear to my eye that desire he had as a kid, never died.
Jeff´s last post was on November14th, 2014 and only a month later we had to learn that he passed away, all too sudden, all too soon.
Quite a number of folks are on the MIA list - Chris (AmanaMedic), RobbyP, the weathering artist, Lee Soule, Todd, Jim Rohde, young Sawyer Berry and lately, Galaxy, and many more.
I always wonder what happened to them…
It´s been another quiet day, wet & windy again. Petra and I did our weekly grocery run. We still have that uneasy feeling when we pass through that intersection. Today we were lucky and did not have to stop. While I seem to be able to handle the incident quite well now, Petra still suffers from occasional nightmares. She used to be a tough woman, but that has changed completely.
Flo, Ed will have a Crown Royal with a [B] chaser all so know as a boiler maker and I will have just have a [B]
Foot Front Seems my feet are in about as good as shape as I can hope. PA was pretty happy, seems the new shoes are finally right. While he was cutting off callues he nicked the flesh in a few spots and they bleed like a stuck pig! [Y]. Most Debatic’s he sees if he nicks the flesh, there is no blood. [sigh] My feet even still have some hair on them, which he thinks is outstanding!
YGW You have a PM from me. Be happy to post some photos for you! Just let me know here at the dinner that there was incoming mail. I hardly ever look at my E Mail unless I am looking for a job. Make subject 69 DAYTONA.
Train Front[banghead] What should have taken say 30 minutes turned in to a evening where I wished I was still collecting coins! Decided to speed match a Rio Grand PK 2000 SD 9 to the Bessmeer’s. Guess the Rio Grand motor is about shot, even at CV 5 set at max 255 way slower than the Bessmer’s.
If you folks use Digitax what % of throttle do you use setting CV 6? I settle on 35% which is the range I use most of the time running the Bessemer’s. Had to slow down the Rio Grand CV 6 to 103, it was faster at the lower speed? Just seems odd to me.
New Walther’s Bessmer SD 7. [banghead] Seems it only has power pick up from the rear truck! [banghead] Dang thing is what, 6 weeks old max?
All so had a de-railment in a 13 foot tunnel. That was sure no fun! Then I had to some honey do’s while trying to speed match the engines. So I had to warm them up all over. So it took 1.5 hours to do that should have taken 30 minutes. [:-^]
Dave One of the folks I miss a lot here at the site is Art Hill
YGW : it was a cheap way to get some warm white LEDs at the time, the sets were elcheapo at the Dollar General and so i used them in engines when I converted some to DCC.
Not much time. Meetings, problems to sort out at w**k…
Train front - Hoe ram being delivered today. Should start hammering away on the boulders. Footing may go in early next week.
Ken I will email you some photos. Thanks so much for posting these for me. I will have to take some time and get some help in setting up an account and learning how to do this.
Everyone else hope you have a great day and weekend.
Attn LION: My church would always use “Oh Come, Oh Come Emanuel” for the lighting of the Advent wreath candles each year. A new choir director and now we’re using something else, and I miss that tradition. We still usually sing it at the Christmas Eve service and it is a tune that I don’t want to end.
Been to Durango twice; first time back in the early '70s when it was still actually D&RG. On the more recent visit a couple years back I was photographing the locomotive up in Silverton during the lunch break when someone called me by name. It was the Fire Chief from Vinton, VA and I had been one of the arson investigators for neighboring Roanoke, VA. Something like 1500 miles from home and someone calls your name… good thing I wasn’t with some woman (it was a solo trip and Mrs was back home)! The quiet of the mountains should be great this time of year.
Dave N … Thanks for posting in the Diner nd shring some good memories. Feel free to post here more often. Thanks for the CHristmas greetings. I stsrted in teh Forum in 2007 and it must have been after Erik was involed with it.
M L C … I have some stnings of Christmas LED’s too. Ihave used them but not much.
I can’t load my new images into Photobucket. … Technology drives me crazy. Whatever happened to user friendly ?
