Good Morning Gang. A pleasant 74° and partly cloudy to start the day here. Only made 101° yesterday, today's forecast is only 103°. Seems as if these longer nights are cooling things off somewhat. A line of showers stretches from Albuquerque NM to Wichita KS and is headed this way; doubt that they make it, but forecast is still for thundershowers Monday. One thing about the recent heat, since our house is a pier and beam, the water pipes under the house can be exposed to the air temperatures. Instead of waiting for hot water, it came out of the tap at over 100°. We do have to wait for cold water now until enough water runs out for the underground supply to reach the tap! Usually about 10-12 seconds. Actually got some more minor chores done outside yesterday, before it got too hot; today is grocery/beer trek day so that will occupy much of my morning. Also received notification yesterday that some of our remodeling stuff is ready for pickup so that is part of this mornings trip.
We went out to eat last night at our favorite Italian restaurant, the place we took Sherrel and Kate on their cross-country adventure. Midway through our meal, they moved tables together and sat a group of four adults and nine kids, all between 4 and 13 years old (my guesstimation) right next to us. We shuddered, but they were all so very well behaved that I commended the two couples on my way out. Then on my way out the door, a lady who looked vaguely familiar stopped me and said "Oh! You're the person that we see out walking every morning". After describing her vehicle, I was able to place where I had seen her many times. Technically she lives next door about 1.75 miles north of us, closest house in that direction.
I would post a rail photo, but with our temperatures, folks are wearing less clothing and I might get reported.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I mostly ran trains. Moved maybe six trains from one end of the layout to the other, and did switching with two other locals for over a dozen industries. Had one derailment due to a dead cricket under a boxcar. Today, I get to move them all back as I filled the staging yard! I picked out another industry from the stash shelf to start to assemble while I do other scenery work on the layout. Spent some time looking at it and deciding on the color scheme. More on that later. Made note of what remains to be done in the small town business district before calling it complete (it's never really complete). I need to add stripes to a parking lot and add a few more vehicles there and in the streets. I also want to come up with some street name signs, a detail that I don't often see on other layouts; I have none on mine yet either.
Jesse - It's good to have some basket case locos to learn on. I had to learn on new ones when I first started. Still have some of them in the "destroyed" box under the layout. Have a great day at the museum.
Chet - I have over 500 vehicles already on the layout but my towns are not nearly congested enough. At one time a past member of this forum, Larry, the old fart, left RR modeling for an extended time and sold everything. I got 260 from him sight unseen. Most of them are usable; there were some 1:100 ones that I use in background scenes and 46-"custom" vans from Malibu or someone else like that. I have been removing the decals and repainting most of them and lettering them for various businesses. I need more pick up trucks and less convertibles. I know that they are out there, I just haven't opened my wallet yet.
Very nice feature on switching in Churchill, A nice addition to your video. I don't intentionally build any "switching puzzles" or problems into my layout, but there are places that do require some thought ahead of time.
Karl - That would be great to see pictures of Howard's layout taken from a "non-commercial" viewpoint.
Sherrel - I can't beat your one day at 118°, but our recent eleven day string including five in a row above 109° certainly has been warm.
Time to cut it off and return to viewing rail pics. Everybody have a great day.
Interesting rail shot and great layout shots.
