Jeffrey's Trackside Diner, March 2017... Celebrating 1,000th edition of MR in Wisconsin; ... Everybody is welcome !

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Welcome to Jeffrey´s Trackside Diner , this month located in Milwaukee, WI to celebrate MR’s 1,000 edition. We will visit all of Wisconsin. It will be fun for everyone.

This Diner is open to all forum members! For those joining “the regulars” for the first time - Jeffrey´s Trackside Diner 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. Please remember the Forum is owned by Kalmbach, and they set the rules. Please review the rules in Steven’s post at the top of the General Forum. (MR Forum Policies)

The place is managed by Vinnie - under the watchful eye of Steven Otte, who represents the owner. Waiting staff are Flo, the twins Chloe and Zoe, Janie and Brunhilda - friendly, no nonsense folks!

So come on in, enjoy the delicious virtual food and share your day with us!

The RIP Track

The RIP track is the place for us to pay our respect to our friends and forum members who are no longer with us.

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Party Down, Chow Hounds. ! ! !

[dinner][pi][C=:-)][B][8]

Bratwurst; WI Cheddar cheese, pizza, beer, and Root Beer Floats (RBF’s) are being served at the Rivit Counter !

Bear and Ken … Where are you ?

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Hang on a little while, Gary!

The Jet Lag is kicking in!

15,540 km (9656.1 miles)
Distance from Belgrave to Milwaukee…

Some of us will need a little travel time. The [B] will be worth it!

Thanks for setting up the Diner, Chloe and Zoe are waiting to welcome us! They looked SO young back then, when they were the Hiawatha Twins…

Regards, Ed

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[:-^]

Good Evening Crew,

Just a short stop before hitting the sack.

Brunhilda, nice to see you this evening, when you are free I’ll have an RBF and some cinnamon toast with PB, Thanks.

Well, still a tad early, but welcome everyone to March 2017. BEWARE OF THE IDES OF MARCH…

Congratulations once again the the Kalmbach staff on the Issue #1000. Mine arrived today I only had time for a glance but will dig into it tomorrow. Can hardly wait. It looks like a great issue.

Thanks Garry for moving the Diner, you did a great job. I thought Wisconsin Terry might have done that, he must be busy and not checking in as often.

Hope Ulrich, Petra and Galaxy are all in good health and getting things on a better path.

Very close now to finishing uup the main bathroom that I have been so poky at. That means getting closer to spending more time with the LM&E before it will be time to start the mowing and battling the weeds.

“Cody” our new adopted dog (last summer) is doing really well. He has had six Chemo treatments and has two left to go. He is much more content and less frustrated. We called off alot of his training as he was so concerned with himself and frustrated with the way he felt, he couldn’t concentrate very well. We’ll get back to that seriously when spring comes. Not that he isn’t well behaved and loves everybody and thinks they should all love him as much. He is a Great Dog.

Well back to work in the morning for me until Saturday, 4 shifts. Don’t like that in my old age, but I am covering for another guard who is ill. They believe he has Norwalk. Then a second Guard who’s MIL passed away and the funeral is on Sat. They will pay me back when they can work for me when I want time off.

The toast was done just right Brunhilda, Thanks.

Will check back in later. Have a great end to the week and w

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Hmmmm, Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the beginning of March?!? (Stands there shivering). Oh well, it’s for a good cause. I hope things will be as temperate as they have been in southern Ontario the last couple of weeks.[swg][(-D][(-D]

Thanks for starting the thread Garry!

Dave

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Gidday Chloe, I see Garry’s put on some eats for us, but I’ll forgo the Root Beer please, it’s a taste I don’t seem to able to acquire.
However, I’ll drop in a batch of Pink Iced Finger buns which I didn’t have time to whip up for last month’s Down Under visit.

Hmm having looked at the current Milwaukee weather, “feels like 26F with rain”, I think I’ll stay here, it’s 2344 and still 64F though it is raining. The last couple of days. with highs of 77F we’ve been getting convection clouds building in the afternoon, and the occasional thunder storm, with rain at night. Almost too humid for me.

Thanks for moving us though, Garry.

Congratulations to the staff at MR on the 1000th edition. I suppos

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Whew lets not have stroms like that again, lots of wind damage here, took to the basement at 5 am due to tornado sirens, had the proverbial “freight train” sounds pass close to the house. lots of power out and trees down here in Paducah, some buildings damaged but my house is fine.

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Well Hello all !

Took off the day to stay home with my daughter. She has strep throat and MOH had to go into work.

Garry - Thank you so much for moving the train to Milwaukee. Bit chilly here !

Ken - LOL Hope you made it to the rest room ! I sent a few photos of the slab pour this morning. When it stops raining here I will take and send a current photo with some wood actually installed.

Mr. B - Did you build a train station on your layout ?

Steve - What is “Tardis” ?

Ed - Boy the twins were cute even back then !!

Johnboy - What is "Great WP " ?

JaBear - The " Pink ice finger buns look delicious. Do you have a recipe ? What do they taste like ?

Galaxy, Ulrich, Howmus, Lion - Hey guys we miss you all how about popping in !

Henry - In one of the other post I saw that you invited others into the forum - [tup] I was much impressed with that. Keep up the good work !

DER - I replied tp your email.

History Qoute of the day :

I do not wonder at your disgust at the wickedness and folly of mankind. I have so much of the same feeling; that I am sure, there an be no condition in Life more unhappy, than to be engaged in the management of public affairs, with honest intentions, but hard as the lot is, it must be borne at least till things have got into a tolerable way

Francis Lightfoot Lee: to Richard Henry Lee 15 Dec 1778

You are all my witnesses, that this is the first time of my introducing any political subject into the pulpit. At this season, however, it is not only lawful but necessary, and I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion without any hesitation, that the cause in which America is now in arms, is the cause of justice, of liberty, and of human nature.

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Good Morning,

Very nice in Milwaukee, thanks Garry for moving the Diner! Feels just like home, at least weather-wise. Are we parked on a Beer Line siding? Do we have some of Milwaukee’s finest on tap? Hope so. Mind you I think I’d rather have coffee at this time of the morning.

Work continues on the N scale ground cover. I have about a third of the layout done. Now that really isn’t much considering it is a door layout but I am doing it carefully. N scale requires a lot more precision than HO.

On the HO I’m running the Light Mountain with a train of express reefers. That engine sure runs nice with the new decoder and the wipers replaced. I wonder why Bachmann doesn’t do a re-run on that loco as it looks great and hasn’t been produced for 10 years or so.

I see Yoga is on the agenda for today at the Reh-Fit. I don’t mind it at all. There’s only 8 guys in my class so it isn’t hard to get to know them a little.

We signed up for the Birding and Breakfast that starts April 19th at Fort Whyte Conservation. You have to sign early as it tends to fill up quickly. Looking forward to it. I hope my heel is healed by then.

See you soon,

CN Charlie

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Though our 1,000th issue came out this month, maybe we should have waited for the April cover date before moving the Diner here. This morning’s cold drizzle has changed to wet snow. We’re supposed to get 1"-3" of accumulation before it’s over. Oh, well. Huddle up and grab a hot chocolate and a dunker, everyone.

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Afternoon Diners,

I’m have some donuts and hot chocolate, thanks Steven.

I thought of something two days ago but I thought I could wait until March. It was a idea. Maybe in the two to three years we could go travel to national train show or something and meet in a group gathering.

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Mentioning the favorite MR issues, there are quite a few others that I keep in my “handy” pile but these are my two favorites: November 1993, because of the Paint Shop article discussing the Northern Pacific F unit schemes and December 1969, because of breakdown on ACI labels (Very much needed for modeling the early to mid-70s as I do.).

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MLC … A lot of trees are down here. We lost power for 3 1/2 hours.

Steven … Thanks for the donuts. I suppose we will be posting pictures of Milwaukee as well as the rest of WI from all times of the year. So we can ignore today’s weather. … Maybe the April fools joke is the cover date is a month early. I wonder why magazines do that. My copy is not here yet.

Ed … The MILW E6 has a remarkable nose job. LOL

FRRY … Intersting about certain issues of MR are important to you. Speaking of ACI labels. I recall the Grand Trunk Western was very much in favor of them, and they had scanners strategically located across the railroad. Of course, the big problem was the labels got dirty.

Angel … It would be nice to all get together. I have met a few of the Diners in person.

I still have very many old issues of MR. It would not be possible for me to read them all however. I used to have some my Dad had in the 1940’s, but I sold them on eBay to get additional cash for the layout. All the photos were black and white.

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So Mardi Gras is behind us, and we’re settled into Milwaukee – cold and rain/snow did you say Steve? Sounds very like here now that the Colorado low which passed over you recently is on our doorstep! The edge of it could have freezing rain – but we haven’t seen that yet. That Hot Chocolate looks the way a good seafood chowder should – good bits sitting up! [dinner]
Train Front – I’ve improved the mock-up bridge for the N3n line and carved out a channel for the river it crosses. I thought I’d spring the first arch from the scenery form – but I’m not sure if the prototype engineers would have left so little room for their arch forms on that side. Perhaps they would have preferred to build the whole , or a partial column to support that end of the arch. When I get the kit I can fuss about that some more! Here’s the mock-up painted to resemble the stone which the Tourist Attraction castle is made from.

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We send some staff members (usually Neil, Cody, and the MRVP crew) to the NMRA National Convention every year. But if you want to meet everybody, there’s always Trainfest, held every year in West Allis, Wis. And while you’re in town, you can tour Kalmbach’s offices and visit Wm. K. Walthers’ showroom.

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Hello Railfans!

Had to make sure I got in here this month. Such a landmark for MR I have to offer congrats and praise… SALUTE! Im looking very much forward to the next 1000. Keep up the excellent work MR!

Lets see, a memorable issue… hmmmm. Pretty tough question actually. Considering that MR is just a wealth of info. If we consider Walthers catalog the bible of pieces, parts, and products, MR would certainly be the holy grail of what to do with said stuff. I honestly cant see the hobby being anything close to what it is without MR.

Look at what weve gotten… great layout visits (my fav part), instructional articles for novice and experienced alike. Weve had unknowns to published authors, even legends in our hobby have contributed. Product reviews, announcements, related company adverts, heck we even had LHS listings so anyone and his uncle could always find a place to get what they wanted.

Come on folks, we have the Greatest Hobby IN THE WORLD(!) brought to our front door step. Sure other hobbys may do this but its a pale comparison to what MR offers.

My point being is I guess my favorite issue would be any that had Model Railroader printed across the top. The only downside i see is they dont come in the manilla envelopes.

Its safe to say that without MR, well, lets try not to think of that. From Alleghenys to Zyphers, MR is #1 with me. And Im thankful they exist.

For this month, what i would like to see, and I think it would be appropo, is to have the staff of MR come in to the Diner and give us some posts on the future outlook for MR. Id like to hear from the folks at MR (no offense Steve, but more staff than just you, we know your not the only one) on whats in the planbook.

Assuredly im looking forward to the diner this month as I know Im going to see some good pictures (beside the food). Last celebration of MR I got to see was when

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Good Afternoon Diners,

Flo, I’ll have an extra large coffee with lots of cream, please.

Congratulations to Kalmbach for the 1000th issue of MR.

How Many magazines of any kind can claim that kind of longitivity?

Probably my most memorable issue of MR was the first one I ever bought. I spent 50 whole cents for the September 1961 issue and it had a feature article of John Allen’s Gorre & Dapheted. But then again, there have been so many “memorable issues.” It’s hard to limit it to just one or a few.

Starting with October 1961, there was the 5 issue series of articles by Bob Darwin on super detailing brass “Big Boys” back when such things were more affordable. Years later, there was the article by Bob Zenk, which made plastic diesels rival brass in detail. There’s all the structure articles, layout “how tos,” the track plans, locomotive drawings, and hey, even the diesel color charts. It has all been good!

I’m sure I’m in a very small minority, but I actually loved Model Trains magazine. Being a young lad at the time, it probably was more in my level of Comprehension.

Where would our modeling skills and the scope of our layouts be without MR?

I think it would be kind of neat to all assemble at the convention. Maybe gather at Kalmbach, take a tour, and eat them out of house and home! I’ve never been to the national convention, and I’m not sure if my schedule would even permit, but that’s a ways away and it sounds like fun.

Hello to everyone, and I hope everyone is OK, safe, and warm.

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Pepperoni pizza, please.

***Ed, those Hiawatha Twins put a smile on my face. Reminds me, I put in a pre-order a year or two ago for a Fox Valley Hiawatha loco and some cars to match. Double checked a couple months back and that particular dealer said I was still covered. Sure wish they would get them manufactured already.

Cheers! Rob

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On to one of my favorite issues, It was the issue that featured an article on Building the Lido theatre. I am and always have been a movie theatre nut. ( I even managed in a few for a while.) The fact that the author made a blinking marquee was great. ( I can still see the cover, it had a steam loco and “kitty litter scenery”, I have a copy in my stash somewhere.

Another issue was the one with the article " Its snowing again in Winter Park. As a child those winter scenes impressed me.

I am sure i can think of more but It will let others comment for now.

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Hello all,

Yes, I’m still alive, though sometimes I wonder.

Saw the neurosurgeon. Hmm. He is now looking at surgery on my lumbar spine as hte injextions I get aren’t workign so well anymore,and this winters wet dreary constant drizzling snow has really caused me added pain. Morphine, codeine, injections, PT doesn’t work anymore. I have an MRI for my back on the 10th to see what he can do. I see him agian on the 15 for my neck to determine if the other herniated disc should come out. Then I see him agianfor MRI lumbar results to see what he can do. I ahve a pelvice tilt, hte rihgt side is higher than hte left. A chiropractor {who gave me no relief so I stopped going to him} years ago took Xrays standing up and said my left leg was shorter and gave me heel lifts to compenste. I wore that for a year, but it became so uncomfy I gave up. NOw i’m trying it agian, but I don realize after 53 years of being out of whack its going to be uncomfy to be IN whack. The CRP Dr refused to give me my injexction the other day as he wants to wait for the neurosurgeons decision. GRRRRRRR. That means what relief the injextions do give for teh short period they do give it, has to wait. I am NOT happy. ANd in tremendous amounts fo pain. Even if we do do surgery, it will be 3 months before it happens.

HOPE ULRICH and Petra are OK.

Well, I feel like an impostor here as I’m not even "arm chair modeling rihgt now. LOL

Well, it si spring ups and downs, 60-70F one day, 20-30 the next.

Hoep all is ok wiht you all.

-g