This month we are going to try something new. Instead of choosing a particular place or theme, we are going to throw things wide open so you can post anything related to trains, real or modeled, that suits your fancy! This should be a very interesting month!
By the way, I have taken the liberty of moving the Diner a bit early because we will be entertaining friends this evening. Hope you don’t mind.
So, what interesting items do you have to show us?
Hmmmm… Almost THAT time I think! Wishing all a great New Year (when it gets to where you live)! I’ll be heading over to my son’s house soon to see 2023 arrive.
New Year’s Eve. A doubleheader in hockey with Canada playing Sweden in the World Juniors and then the Canucks vs the Flames. Could life get any better? I guess a little of the Captain finishes things off nicely.
Last month I was very busy with the finishing off my irrigation project. This was something I started last year when they were predicting we would have a “100 year drought”, then we had one of the wettest Summers on record.
It took three full weeks of back-breaking manual labor to complete the installation, but it is finally in, and it works.
-All Photographs by Kevin Parson
Digging trenches takes forever! I foolishly thought I could get the trenches dug in a day, it took weeks. Even digging a shallow trench is very hard work.
All the main piping for the 8 sprinkler zones is 1-1/2" schedule 40. There is over 600 feet of 1-1/2" pipe in my yard now. Pipe size only drops to 1" and 3/4" if there are three or fewer sprinkler heads on a branch.
I hit a lot more buried rocks than I was anticipating.
Some of the trenches contain as many as five pipes all bunched together as the runs go towards their zones.
Most of the sprinkler heads are fed with a 3/4" run coming off of the 1-1/2" mains.
All of the sprinkler heads are installed on some sort of a fully articulating swing arm. These make adjusting the height and angle of the sprinkler head a very easy operation. This was well worth the time and expense.
I found the remains of the fort/castle that the kids used to play on. Getting these old six by six timbers and concrete out of the ground was a real bear.
This rock was about twice the size of a bowling ball. No fun here.
Another year gone by… so quickly! Thanks for the great setup for 2023, Dave [bow]
A photo worth further study. A classic B&O P-3 Pacific on a special passenger extra to bring harvest help to Batavia, New York from Richwood, west Virginia in September of 1942.
The first thing that catches your eye, of course is that washing machine pulley coming out of the trailing wheel journal box. Most logically an arrangement for a speed indicating device (not a Loco-Valve-Pilot). Then the soot-covered light bulbjust under the cab floor. There’s always been speculation about the use of “ground lights” especially on steam locos. This one seems to have lost its protective outer globe.
Where I live in Florida is barely above sea level, and is naturally a swamp.
Everything has to be filled before you can build. All the rocks and debris are from that fill that was trucked in. My house is filled higher than almost all the other houses on the street. When I bought it, it was the highest.
Fill is very important because of the flooding possibilities. My house should stay high and dry.
Thanks for opening January’s Free-For-All Diner Dave.
Was awake just before 5:00 this morning, but nobody else is after last night’s New Year’s festivities[:-^]
Nice to get reception up here as they put in a new cell tower a few years back. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don’t.
My share is the McGiffert self-propelling log loader from the backyard of the Duluth Depot Museum.
Looks like something from Dr Seuss man.
Interesting and efficient machine as empty logging cars could pass underneath to be loaded.
Love the Cheese Train Bear. Too bad we won’t be up here on a Friday. Every week in the early afternoon, the freshly made cheese curds come from the creamery to the Phlox service station.
They sell out quickly if you don’t get there in time. They are so fresh they’re still warm and squeak in your teeth when you chew them[dinner]
Happy New Year gentlemen[swg]
I believe the number of soffits I’ve constructed in my life is exactly eighty seven.
You don’t need to do this. There are places you can go to hire carpenters already trained, experienced, and ready to work.
My wife just woke up and wanted to know why the Rose Parade wasn’t on. Even the parade gets the weekend off.
Maybe by the end of this year I will have my layout’s bridge finished.
It’s 51 weeks to Christmas, 2023, and so I’m giving my fellow diners plenty of time. I would really like someone to get me either the speeder or the caboose in this photo for Christmas. I’d be happy with either one.
My deceased brother-in-law’s house in Cape Coral had all the non native grass and bushes and trees removed and replaced with native plants. Never had to water and it stayed green all year long.
