Jeffrey's Trackside Diner, May 2018

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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It´s past midnight in my neck of the woods, so welcome to Jeffrey’s Trackside Diner!

It’s the place for you to go to relax and talk about most anything except religion, politics, immigration, or any other hot button topic that gets people angry and upset. Please see forum rules if you have any questions.

The staff here is very friendly and able to serve. There’s Zoe, Chloe, Flo, Janie, and Brunhilda. They’ll serve up plenty of virtual food with a smile and a friendly “Servus!” Each month, the Diner will be parked in a different location at places all over the world

This month, the Diner is located in - Austria. I know we have been there already, but “Spring has finally sprung” and there is no finer place to be in the month of May than Vienna, the capital of Austria. It´ll be a month filled with awsome architecture, music and excellent food. We will indulge in the charm of the bygone Austro-Hungarian Empire, as we follow the footsteps of Emperor Franz-Joseph, who was said to have a secret love for trains! Staying in the famous Hotel Sacher, we will take trips (by train, of course) to various places of interest throughout Austria. We will enjoy a boat cruise on Lake St. Wolfgang, wine and dine in the famous “White Horse Inn”, go up a mountain with a rack railway, ride narrow tracks, climb up the “stairway to Heaven”, visit Mozart´s birthplace and, and, and and …

Let´s start the day with an preview on what is waiting for us to discover in this beautiful city!

Today´s song is - not what you may have expected, but this:

Enjoy!

Each month, we also pay our respect to friends no longer with us.

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Good to see You were able to make it back, Ulrich.

I also hope things are working out better for You and Petra…

Maybe now I’ll start being in the diner more…instead of just sitting in the corner…watching.

Great country Austria…been there a number of times. As You may recall My second wife was born there and is still a citizen of that country, as well as Her two sisters. That is the only way they can keep the land they own there, from their Parents…

All The Best, My Friend![:D]

Frank

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Austria, very nice.

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The setting for my third favorite musical.

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I just found out that if you reverse the trucks on an Athearn Blue Box diesel it will run backward. Oops.

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-Kevin

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Austria? As in Austria-Hungary?

Ahol az apámat anyák családja származik, a Huzkas.

That’s Hungarian for.

That’s where my dads mothers family is from, the Huzkas.

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Ah a new diner,

I will have the Austrian special.

Here is what was on the bench this week.

1938 Zenith

I have been listening to baseball from all over tonight. Tomorrow the owners can come and get it. It amazes me that something made in 1938 still works ( with a bit of renewal of some parts.)

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[8][8] THE HILLS ARE ALIVE[8][8][(-D]

I remember all the nice hills in that part of the world.[:-^]

I have an old radio in my train room.

My Dad was working for the Post Office in Winnipeg during the early part of WWII and my Mom and him wanted a radio to follow the news. He went to Eatons Dept store and of course, buying anything like that was near impossible because of the War effort. The salesman took his name and one day called him at work and said they got three in. Dad told the boss he had to leave and why, the boss said GO!

It still works well to this day. Tubes and wooden knobs are just the coolest things. In the sixties I had an old turntable plugged into it in my room.

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[:O] ooo, ahh, wow that’s quite a piece of history there!

Just finished watching “The Crossing” it’s about as Sci-fi as I’ll watch.

Just was surfing the interwebs and found this, https://revologycars.com, who wouldn’t want a BRAND NEW 1969 Ford Mustang, albeit a 2018 vintage with the design of a '69.

Forgot to mention the best part of today, I went to the library in Zachary today, stopped by the free to take magazine basket, seems a railfan in the area dumped three dozen or so issues of Trains magazine in the basket, upon seeing them I swiftly rummaged through the basket and walked out with all the issues in hand.[swg][:-^]

Here’s another song about Vienna.

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That is absolutely beautiful! I have early memories of my family sitting around a huge radio in the dining room. I was enthralled with it, partially no doubt because I was rightly forbidden to touch it.

Right now I am being torn between keeping or getting rid of the predecessor to the tube radios and the old phonographs. We have a pump organ that has been in the family since it was built in 1881. Pump organs were the go to family entertainment centers of the late 1800s. It works perfectly and it is a beautiful piece of workmanship, but it has taken up too much space for too long. Nobody else in the family wants it and we want to update the livingroom where it has sat for 30 years. I could turn it into a stereo stand but I’m afraid that I would feel too guilty for dismembering the thing. So, we are looking for a buyer. Unfortunately, nobody else wants them either so it isn’t worth more than a couple hundred dollars.[:(] It may cost more to move the thing than it will sell for.

Ho hum![^o)]

Dave

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Good Morning, Ladies and Gents!

Petra came home early yesterday - it was just too stormy to dance with the devil on Brocken Mountain summit. It is still stormy outside - rather unpleasant!

So, we arrived at Vienna´s Schwechat airport today! Going to downtown Vienna has become quite easy these days, as we just have to climb aboard a train, which whisks us to the new Vienna CAT (City Airport Terminal) in no time at all. When I worked in Vienna, taking a taxi or a bus was the only way to go.

It´s only a short distance to our Hotel, the Hotel Sacher.

The rooms still maintain that typical Austro-Hungarian character of the days of Emperor Franz-Josef.

Shall we meet in half an hour for a tour of the city by streetcar?

For a first impression of what is ahead of us, let´s take the famous “Ring” line.

And some bonus footage of the 150th anniversary of Vienna streetcars.

Lunch will be at a “Heurigen” in Gumpoldskirchen, then we had back into town to get a rest - for tonight “Letz Waltz”

Enjoy!

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Not exactly diner food, but this is the home of my favorite chocolate treat - The Sacher Torte!

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Ahh streetcars, we stupidly got rid of all of ours in the US and now are tyring to put some back. I wish we still had them in the town I live in, They would have come within a block of me.

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Good morning … I’ll have coffee and a scrumptious goody, please.

Yestday was lon and busy. Finally went to bed at 1:00 am this morning.

Ulrich … Auatria will be an intersting location. … Home of Roco trains.

MLC… I agree it would be nice to still have streetcars… Ditto for the great trains in the USA in the 1950’s. …

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The dinner has a whole different flavor this time around, and I’m liking it!

Wife and I used to make a long weekend around an Andre concert, but then he stopped coming to Milwaukee, but wait, I hear that he is coming back, I’ll have to listen for details.

Another Vienna favorite of mine is Mozart. And although Beethoven was born in Germany, he did spend much of his time in Vienna. His Symphony #6, the Pastoral Symphony, to me, is the gold standard.

I’m not ALL about “outlaw country” music [:-,], I do have another side.

Mike.

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Symphony #6 is my favourite, too. Jokingly, people say, that Austria´s greatest achievemnet in history is, that the world believes Beethoven was Austrian and Hitler German [:-^]

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AFAIK, Seattle, Portland OR and San Diego already have quite extensive systems in place. A number of European cities, which scrapped their streetcars in the 1950´s and 1960s, are re-establishing them now. The strangest vehicle is to be found in Venice, Italy - a kind of monorail guided mix of a streetcar and a bus - connecting the City of the lagoons with the industrial town of Mestre on the mainland.

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Yes they do, Detroit has added a new system, Houston added light rail. New Orleans has some of their original lines. Memphis put in “new” lines using old cars downtown.

That Monorail Bus thingy is interesting.

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Boston still runs streetcars and has a pretty big “layout” for them and heavy-rail subways. It is atrociously managed and frequently breaks down, and terribly overpriced. I refer to it as “quaint.”

San Francisco has an extensive streetcar system as well. When other cities were getting rid of their systems, San Francisco was actively buying up the used cars. They have been beautifully restored and now serve not only as an active public transit system but also a living museum to the days of trolleys.

I’ve only been to Austria once, many years ago. What I remember was the beer. Every small town had bars where all I needed was a glass of the local draft beer to be in heaven. That was almost 50 years ago, and the USA is just now getting to the point where a “local draft” is something worth seeking out.

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Good morning all.

Brunhilda - I will take a nice Apple pastry with a glass of milk please. Thanks.

Sorry I was missing for a bit, I had to go find my passport for the trip!

Pittsburgh trip - Made it back, but boy was the drive interesting! Had a semi hauling styrofoam sheets lose part of his load on the interstate, and it flew into our car! Bounced off of the hood, windshield, and drivers side mirror, giving lots of paint scrapes and scuffs.

Ulrich - Nice Location, and some interesting tidbits already. Much appreciated.

Weather - Warm and sunny, I like this.

W*^k - Off today, but go back tomorrow. Yesterday I ended up about 15 minutes late, as on another interstate on my way in, a car about 10-12 car lengths ahead of me lost control and slammed the guard railing. (The wire cabling kind, tearing the car apart in the process.) I stopped to see if he was ok, and got pinned in by a PSP (Pennsylvania State Police) vehicle while I was there. (Unintentionally, they were stopping near enough to the crash to block access to the wreck, and still be visable to all other traffic. Unfortunately, that meant they were at an angle right next to my front passenger side.) My boss was happy that I did the right thing in making sure the accident victim was ok.

Trains - Making some progress on the painting of the industry building parts, hopefully will have some pics to share soon.

Hoping all are well, and all enjoy the day!

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That has changed both in Austria and Germany, but I am afraid not to the better. The number of small independent breweries has steadily gone down, most of them having been amalgamated into large groups, which are run by number crunchers and not brewmasters. The difference is in the label these days and not in the taste! Actually, those small micro breweries in the US have earned a reputation to turn out some of the best beers in the world!

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Morning diners,

Happy Birthday Amtrak! 47 years in service.

Vienna, Austria is a beautiful place and city. The arts, music, etc. I believe it might have changed since the 30s with that old Zenith radio. But I could be wrong.