Good Morning All. Right now it's cloudy and 60°, after a warm rain starting about 7:00 pm and fell all night long, more possibly on the way. I have 2.25" in the rain gauge from overnight, with 1.1" falling in a 15 minute period between 3:45 and 4:00 am. I got up for a bathroom break and wasn't able to fall asleep at 3:30 so I checked the gauge just before it hit. It will get a little warmer today and then a vicious cold front after sundown will blow the clouds away and drop the temperature tonight to near freezing.
Despite having to relocate yesterday's family Christmas get-together at the last minute, it went very well. Big crowd of 44, but not our family's record setter. Too much food as usual, although some appetizers disappeared really quickly; sausage/cheese balls, shrimp cocktail, pigs-in-a-blanket and wieners wrapped in bacon. There was three charcuterie plates and too much fruit salad, both leftover! Lots of other appetizers, slider sandwiches and desserts. My wife even filled a couple of to-go plates to take over to my other daughter's family, who couldn't make it. Meanwhile, my granddaughter seems to be getting better, the fever broke yesterday morning and she ate some food.
Tomorrow is my immediate family's now traditional Christmas brunch of Taylor Ham, waffles and Prosecco. That will be followed later in the evening with my son-in-law's prime rib roast dinner, cooked usually to perfection of slightly rare medium-rare. It will be accompanied with my wife's Yorkshire Pudding, daughter's green beans and creamed corn, and who knows what else. Seems like mac & cheese has worked its way into the mix recently. I did see the 8.5 lb roast in their fridge yesterday. Today is a rest in between day.
As expected, I did not see the inside of the train shed yesterday; I may get an hour or so today.
Here again from the archives is a mixed freight traveling southbound today. It is headed by a pair of ScaleTrains SD40-2's. This is the last southbound of the day, passing northbound trains on every passing siding along the way. ATSF did what they referred to as fleeting. That is they sent out 3-4 NB trains in succession from a yard and parked them on passing sidings along the way, while 3-4 SB trains from a yard further north traveled past them in the opposite direction while they waited. Once the last one passed the one parked furthest north, those parked trains started moving north one at a time. Then they would do it all over again. If I timed it right in a single train-watching session, I used to see 6 trains (3 NB & 3 SB) in 75 minutes or so, traveling between the Alliance Yard and the Gainesville Yard.
So here it is. Entering Charlottesville.
Passing the first intermodal.
Rounding the corner into Vernon. Doesn't appear that the second train made it this far.
There's that Drive-In Theatre again.
Meeting the next train, a mixed freight.
Rounding the corner entering Maultown.
Passing the third in line through Maultown.
Red splotch on the right is the roof of the local Dairy Queen.
Chris -
Mike is right about the Athearn well cars being very light. I only run well cars with containers in them and I glue 14 American pennies in each one. That's about 35g or 1 1/4 oz in every container.
Louis - I have always disliked those plastic bags that retail establishments use. They're flimsy and many end up entangled in barbed-wire fences along the roads here in the country. In the city, I see them everywhere in public areas also. I guess that their only real use is picking up doggie waste in urban areas, not something that we fret over in the country.
Today of course, is the fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve. For
Louis and any other Motörhead fans, it would have been Lemmy Kilmister's 78th birthday today. Sadly, substances and poor health got in his way.
Merry Christmas Eve to all out there, and have a safe and happy holiday week.