Good Morning All. Mostly cloudy and 75°. My weather rock is wet, but nothing in the rain gauge. Radar shows a shower passed here about 0430. They're all over the place, just light right now. Ended up with 1.8" yesterday, no run off or puddles, all of it soaked in. Grass and leaves all look clean. High temperature yesterday only reached 80°. Too bad it was too wet to do any outdoor chores!
I'll take some corned beef hash and two sunny side up eggs this morning Flo. Extra large OJ to wash it all down.
Thanks for all of the likes and comments regarding the photos yesterday;
Sherrel, Patrick, Johnny, Guy, Jerome, James, Phil, David, Curt, Chet, Tom, Garry.
Picked it up a notch out in the train shed yesterday. Started and completed (except weathering) that Accurail covered hopper kit.
As I have posted before, this Accurail kit is several steps above traditional "shake the box" kits that they have done before. Still have plastic wheels and couplers, but the price is right. They also offer a decal kit, ordered separately, for those of us that want a fleet of these cars. It has twelve additional numbers in addition to the four that are sold. If you cut them further, you can get 24 total if wanted. This is my 14th car that I have done, two more to go. ATSF actually purchased 1000 in this particular order.
Here it is with the new number and is now awaiting the "builders photo" for my computer inventory.
In keeping with the current "switching theme", another local freight is standing by in the South Yard, headed up by a pair of CF7's, just for
Sherrel!
They're headed to Vernon to drop off three empty covered hoppers at the grain elevator and pick up three full ones. Also in tow are two boxcars (RBL's) filled with beer and soft drinks for the beverage distributor in the nearby industrial park.
To be continued, stay tuned.
Guy - Nice pictures of the silica operation. And thanks for the paper mill/saw mill shot.
Chet -
Any ideas yet on how you're going to connect the top with the bottom?
I have a plan drawn up, but I might never get to it. It involves adding a 5' x 8' "helix room" on part of the front porch of the train shed. I have turnouts already installed on the layout to access it and I am currently just using them to service background industries. Several things have to be considered, none of which are going to be easy. Access is the main concern. Air conditioning/heating is another concern. Building the room and burrowing through the wall won't be too difficult, although as I add years to my life those things are less appealing, however I do have a much younger contractor friend that I could pay to do that part. Since I mostly do switching and no industry is dependent on any other one, (coal mines/power plants etc), leaving it as it is poses no real problems. Everything begins and ends in staging/sorting yards. I rarely move anything from one level to the other unless I'm just rotating stuff.
Hughie - Condolences on your family and friends' passing due to Covid. I understand that it is quite severe in the Houston area. It is getting worse in our county way up north of you, After going six months without a death and less than 100 cases, in the last two weeks the total cases have shot up to 182 with 3 deaths. People here got overconfident and many still refuse to wear masks. Even though Walmart and Home Depot (among others), have signs on the doors requiring masks inside, they are not enforcing it. $$$
By the way, the curbside service at HD really has worked well for me.
Bunker - Looking forward to your work on the GP9.
Karl - Are those Atlas or Peco switches in your second photo in post #807? Also, how is the mint doing in the planters?
Garry - That's great news regarding the eye surgery. Hope that the other one is also successful. I don't remember, was it cataract surgery? I ask because I have been advised to get it done in one eye for now.
National Chicken Wing Day, and also National Lasagna Day are both celebrated today. Why not do both?
Everybody have a great day.