I’ve got some four-legged lawn mowers that are up for the job. Get 'em while they’re young, cheaper to ship.
Goat Kids by Edmund, on Flickr
I hear the Deshler coach yard will have lineups of Pullmans available for occupancy during the nights before and after the show!
B&O Eckington Yard Shriners Convention by Edmund, on Flickr
Off to yet another doctor visit today. This time for a pre-op visit before having a lipoma removed. Always something!
Cicero sure loved a Holiday!
Cheers, Ed
Attuvian1: Regarding Aerotrain: As a kid in Cleveland, I read about this new train in the newspaper, and then one day on our way to Euclid Beach Park, as we passed by the Collinwood shops-- there it was: a (large) speck of silver in what seemed a sea of black or dark-colored traditional railroad equipment. To say the least: it stood out. Frankly, it looked weird; as if something from the age of the Jetsons was in an old railroad yard. I never saw it again. Nor have I missed it.
Ed: Good luck at the doctor’s. Cicero is a great name for a tabby; I’ve filed that name away for future use.
Batman: I rode the Ontario Northland in 1983 and decided I wanted to ride the Budd cars in BC next. I made plans, but something came up and I never got there; I regret it to this day.
Best wishes to all us Yanks here for a happy Independence Day weekend.
Good morning, everyone. It’s a little late in the morning, but I’ll still have bacon, eggs, and coffee, Brunhilda.
Ed, I hope the doctor’s appointment goes well. I’ll take those goats!
NKP_guy, my wife grew up in Euclid. She has talked about Euclid Beach and has great memories of being in high school and going there with friends. She hasn’t been back to Cleveland in fifty years.
Bear, what’s the airline ticket cost from NZ to Omaha, NE? Not sure I can get a ticket for you before the lawn will need cutting again.
Fairbury, NE, is another small town that saved its station after the railroad left. This station is an unusual style for Nebraska train stations, but I understand this style was more common for Rock Island stations elsewhere. The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific was one of the great railroads that was unable to survive. At one point, UP and Rock Island considered merging, but that fell through.
Fairbury, NE, Rock Island station:
The Rock Island RR even had a song!:
Have a great day, everyone.
Cicero was near and dear to my heart! He died too soon of feline leukemia. Never a peep or whimper out of him, a true friend to the end. He arrived one night after I came home from second shift. No idea where he came from but I offered him a meal and we were friends for life! This was about the time the Richard Gere movie “Chicago” came out on DVD and I really enjoyed it. The one song in there (Cell Block Tango) the girls repeated Cicero and of course I knew of the huge Burlington yard just outside Chicago.
Cicero Playful by Edmund, on Flickr
He loved the crisp, white Pullman sheets in the upper berth of the caboose:
Cicero Pullman pillow by Edmund, on Flickr
Doctor visit was just a quick Q & A with the assistant surgeon. Had some blood drawn at the same facility then went shopping at Trader Joe’s next door. Blood test results were in my inbox before I got home!
All good for now!
Cheers, Ed
Hey, Ja Bear, got a question for you from my wife.
My wife loves kiwifruit, but only if it is picked in New Zealand.
She hasn’t been able to find it lately in the grocery store, but it finally turned up yesterday.
Her question is, is it harvest time in New Zealand?
Rich, the kiwifruit spouse
Good morning Diners. Just a quick visit.
Arches underneath Leeds City Station now catering for people. Cafes and drinking establishments abound.
Good morning, everyone. 
Babysitting grandchildren is easier than babysitting their dog. This dog needs to be walked 425 miles per day, and he isn’t tired when we get home. I’m counting the days.
Welcome home, David. Let us know how your mini-vacation went.
The Missouri Pacific RR, or MoPac, was a major railroad before merging with Union Pacific. At the time of the merger, MoPac had more track mileage and more newer locomotives than UP. It had a branch line that went about 25 miles from where I now live.
I hope everyone has a great Friday, and for those in the U.S., a happy 4th of July!
Happy July 4th, everyone. I hope the weather is a bit nicer in America, than it is here at the moment.
Hi John,
I have read two different accounts saying that when the UP and MoPac merged, it was really like the MoPac was taking over the UP, for some of the differences that you list.
Myself, I can never tell the difference between the Jenks Blue colour and the lighter Eagle Blue colour and I’m unsure which livery was used in later days.
Paul.
Firstly, a Happy 4th of July to all the US diner customers; from down under it appears that you need it!
Gidday Rich, I’m glad your Good Lady likes a “Kiwi, I’m flattered.
Rant warning!!! While it may have been a supposedly clever marketing ploy by some overrated marketing person marketing “Kiwifruit” as “Kiwi,” most New Zealanders find it annoying, to say the least, as it is how a lot of us refer to ourselves; “Kiwi” being the nickname bestowed to New Zealand soldiers in WW1, not a darn fruit! (Which was still known as a “Chinese Gooseberry” when I was a young chap, marketing strikes again!)
But back to the actual question, the kiwifruit harvesting season runs from March to June/July, so I’m 99.99% certain that your Good Lady is eating NZ grown kiwifruit. My daughter has just come back from 2 months in Europe and said that she purchased some Zespri NZ grown kiwifruit at a reasonable price.
Kiwifruit is on my supermarket list, the irony being that we get the “seconds,” which I don’t mind as they are cheaper, are generally larger, and the taste is not affected if they may be a little misshapen. 
Cheers, the Bear. 
Hard work!! by Bear, on Flickr
Howdy diners. Flo, a glass of sweet iced tea please.
Hope my fellow U.S. diners still have all of their fingers today. 
Mere seconds after the city’s fireworks ended the sirens started with ambulances and first responders flying about.
Tiring last couple of days. Smoked a brisket and pulled pork for the holiday, which kept me up most of the night of the 3rd. Then of course all the fireworks the night of made sleeping a difficult proposition until the wee hours of the morning. Then, the dog having had knee surgery on the 1st, takes much care so when he woke early with a need to go out, it was up and at 'em this morning. The morning coffee and soda at lunch has well worn off. Early bedtime tonight?
Hot one today. Good day to sit inside by the a/c. Unfortunately, the basement by the layout is not the place to be. The dehumidifier in the basement has it plenty warm down there right now. Ugh!
Good afternoon, diners. It’s a hot, humid day. It’s also 3:30 p.m. Central Time, so it’s time for an ice cold beer.
I’m not a beer connoisseur. I know what I like, and it’s sometimes the cheapest I can find. Right now, I have a basement refrigerator full of Pabst Blue Ribbon. It was $17.00 for a 30-can pack! And it tastes as good today as it did when we were in college 50 years ago.
I had a fun morning. I drove the fifty miles to Deshler, NE, to attend Spring Creek Model Railroad’s train show.
We read a lot about train hobby stores closing or suffering due to Amazon and Ebay. Spring Creek shows that a model railroad train store can be successful. The owners work hard, attend a lot of train shows in the U.S., and are nice honest people. If they don’t have it at their store, they will work hard to find it for someone.
When I first started, I knew nothing about DCC or N scale. Even though there were other people in the store, the owner took two hours going through things for me, and made sure I had what I needed, without buying things I didn’t need.
I’m not sure how many model railroad stores could sponsor their own train show and have it succeed like this one today.
Today’s show was not on the scale of big city shows. But for a town of 800 people miles from Interstates and highways, the small show was packed with people. The parking lot had license plates from quite a few other states.
Everyone coming in got a nice free pin for Spring Creek’s anniversary:
The most impressive display was from this group:
They had a very large HO modular system running. Pretty neat.
One thing missing from a large show was there were very few small vendors selling used stuff. The vendors all had new things for sale. It’s nice to physically see the things to buy, but there weren’t any bargains.
I’m building an ethanol/chemical plant on my layout, so I was especially interested in this:
All-in-all, a very good day.
Time to take the dogs for an afternoon walk. I hope everyone has a good weekend.
Good sunny Sunday afternoon from Pictou, Nova Scotia, where next Saturday a replica of the ship Hector will be launched. Scale is 1:1, so it will make a splash! https:shiphectorcampaign.com I think will find it.
On the layout, I finally painted the plaster lake yesterday, shades of browny-grey to indicate varrying depths of water. Gloss PodPodge should finish it off, but I have yet to buy that…
Good afternoon, diners. I’ll have a PBR please.
Friday, the local TV stations and the National Weather Service all said we had 0% chance of precipitation.
My wife’s fingers and wrists hurt, and she said it was going to rain.
Naturally, like an idiot, I told her it wasn’t going to rain. None of the weather reports had even a tiny chance of rain.
Of course, it rained. It rained hard. I’m not sure, but there may be a way for me to make some money having her predict the weather for the TV people.
One of the great fallen flags, the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad:
Have a good Sunday evening (or Monday morning).
Good Morning Diners. Janie, coffee please.
Got an unfortunate text yesterday afternoon. My retiring boss who is in his early 60’s, thin, exercises vigorously with regularity, and eats fruits and veggies virtually all the time, had a heart attack. Sounds like he is doing well but still scary. If he had any doubts about if he was ready for retirement, this should eliminate those.
My oldest daughter waits tables and came home last night looking exhausted. On a Sunday night, after watching the throngs of tourists heading home during the day yesterday, she had her busiest night ever serving. Not sure where everybody came from, but she was worn out. Thankfully it was also a night where people were understanding. She comes home with too many stories about entitled people being absolute jerks to the staff for things that are well out of their control.
I did get to run some trains last night, but not for any reason I would have hoped for. It seems as though we had a mouse get into our basement and it died somewhere. Had to move trains out of the staging yard to check to see if it was lying in there, hidden by the trains. My wife and I spent a fair amount of time yesterday moving things around in the basement looking for it with no luck. We’ve had others apparently fall into a crawlspace under what was a back porch that is now part of the interior of the house. We’re thinking now that it’s in there. Time to do another army crawl around the house with mouse proofing supplies at the ready. 
Please share photos of the lake after the Mod Podge is applied. I’ve been dragging my feet on a stream on my layout that I think I made too shallow for resin but have been thinking that paint and Mod Podge might be just the ticket for it.
An abandoned New York Central S1. Trains had an article regarding a group trying to save this and a NYC T3a. Never heard if they were successful.
Cheers!
Good morning, diners. I’ll have bacon, eggs, and coffee, please.
Fallen Flags for the cat lovers here:
Have a good Monday, everyone.
As requested, a view of the ModPodge gloss to represent water.
I didn’t have to buy any, as my old stock reconstituted water just fine, and not bubbly either!
On reflection (no pun intended) I think browns rather than greys for the under water features…
That’s a good looking scene, der5997.
Rich
Good morning Diners. A cloudy day with showers.
Just a quick visit as I am off to the Hospice to collect some medical items for Dawn.
Oldest grandson visiting after school
Consett locomotive shed. Trains now long gone. Picture from Dawn’s family collection
Good Morning Diners. Janie, how big of a coffee can I get?
@der5997 Quick work! Appears the Mod Podge didn’t change the apparent coloration at all, such as darkening it. Good to know, thank you. I can’t pick out shine in the photo, but believe it’s there. Looks good! 
I appreciate you sharing that.
These were the trains I grew up seeing in my little hometown. The bright colors sure grabbed a kids eye! I can’t tell you how many coins I laid on the tracks ahead of these beauties. I was so disappointed when the first drab CSX painted units started showing up. What a letdown!
Even the car ferries carried the Chessie sleeping kitten symbol.
