The Hobo Camp Fire Is going well #X.. Stop In!!!

[ngauger]

Lotsa snow and temps in the teens and single digits coming in the next 5 or 6 days

[tompm]

Good evening folks

The Delaware Valley is in a full snow panic. Milk and bread have disappeared from the stores. Toilet paper was still available. I guess people still have some leftover from the Covid shutdown panic buying. The last official guess I saw said 8 to 12 inches. Along with the snow we getting low temperatures in the teens for the next few days.

Because of the impending storm work has been crazy. The contractor was trying to get as much work done as physically possible. On the good side I got some overtime. On the downside I am tired from the long hours.

Saturday we will be fitting a weekend’s worth of errands. We need to run to two pharmacies to pick up meds. We have to do this since our regular mom and pop pharmacy can’t get one of my meds so I have to go to a chain pharmacy. My wife needs to pick up some jewelry she had to get repaired. The shop is in Delaware so we will grab gas while we are down there. Delaware gas prices are significantly lower than Pennsylvania.

Sunday will be watching the snow pile up and doing things around the house. Probably clean out those kitchen drawers that have been collecting everything for the past few years. May do a load or two of laundry.

I will continue building rolling stock kits. I hope to get some time running trains. I need to figure out what project on the layout I want to tackle next. I have some streets to build and scenery to put down. I could finally start the building kit I have been thinking of doing for some time now.

I hope everybody has a good evening.

[TMo]

Hunkering down in northeastern Maryland. Snowblower's ready.

Took a third load of stuff from my son's apartment to his new house today, which was better than the original schedule.... for Sunday....

Listening to a Penn State hockey game tonight - next weeks games will be played outdoors in Beaver Stadium, which will probably have quite a bit of leftover snow present.

Should have some time to rework the damaged scenery and redo ballasting of my recently superelevated track in Mud Run Curve over the weekend as long as we continue to have power. Otherwise, I have plenty of reading material to keep me out of trouble when I'm not out moving snow.

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

A much more pleasant -5 this morning in the remote reaches of northern Iowa. It may get above 0 as our allotted high is +4. A warming rend has been scheduled with a peak of +20 on Tuesday followed by another cool down.

As I was coming back from the basketball game Thursday evening I saw 2 fire trucks, 2 ambulances, and 2 police cars head south out of town with a great deal of haste. When I checked the police logs yesterday there was no mention of any kind of service call. Hmmm.

This morning there may or may not be a basketball game for one of the great-grandsons. It's about a half hour south of me. Otherwise the usual Saturday chore list will apply.

Prayers for all those in the path of the storm.

All stay safe.

Tom

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

- 9 going to plus 9.  Just gonna be a cold week.

Went to a basketball game for my 7 year old great-grandson yesterday.  Hilarious.  Nothing else planned for the weekend.  A friend in another forum sent me this forecast.

   

All stay safe.

Tom

[sir james]

Sunday 1/25/26
Hello Blue
Just checking in. Temps have been 6 or less for several days. It's 11 now with an all-day snow in the forecast. Church was cancelled. That's very unusual. Haven't started the car for several days (-6 yesterday morning) probably will today. No train news haven't ventured from home.
S.J.

[TMo]

Snow continues. First session with the snowblower on my 300-ft hilly driveway is complete for the 7 or 8 inches we had this morning. By the time we finished the parking pad on the top of the hill, I could have taken another pass over the whole driveway. Icy snow - a lot like what you get out of a machine on one of the ski areas. Supposed to quit here around 9 PM.

Running locomotive consists as a check on Mud Run Curve maintenance this morning with the TOFC train to follow soon. I had a couple of iffy hopper cars that had problems with the superelevation, but for the most part, I'm pleased with overall performance.

We ended up going up to Philly yesterday afternoon for a rescheduled women's basketball game (originally for today) to watch my wife's alma mater lose by a point to Temple after dominating play for 3 quarters. Team's gotta finish. My wife, who happens to be UNCC's all-time leading rebounder and second leading scorer (former center) was disappointed with the effort (or lack thereof) in the paint. Temple's last shot attempt (by a small guard in the paint) ended up shooting the last two free throws to win the game with 3 seconds left. Stopped at the only Bertucci's open in the area on the way home and at least had a good meal prior to getting back home prior to the start of the snowfall.

Post is closed for tomorrow, so I'll have at least one extra day to devote to the scenic redo in Mud Run Curve.

[ngauger]

still sleeting here

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

5 going to the mid teens later. Maybe some snow by the weekend.

Interesting day yesterday. My daughter stopped by to make some curtains for me and of course that's when the sewing machine died. We spent a couple of hours trying to figure it out, even to the point of calling my sister-in-law. Sounds like the machine may have to go to a repair shop. In the meantime my daughter will be bringing her machine on Thursday to continue the project.

Not really much else going on. I have made it to the gym both days so far this week and today is looking good for another sweat session.

Gas was $2.49 when I was out yesterday.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ngauger]

13 here, going to 20
We're all tired of the cold and the snow

[TMo]

Shovel out continued at work today shoveling off our platform scale and tilt table, but because most of my employees were in, made relatively quick work of both despite the frigid temps (we waited for double digits on the thermometer) and mostly icepack on top of each with a thinner portion of snow. Much better than yesterday which was strictly volunteer duty shoveling out exterior doorways to plowed areas of parking lots.

Despite the efforts of county crews, schools are now closed for the entire week. I remember a time back in my youth that my school district would have been off for a day and we'd be right back to school despite slick or covered sidewalks, but I fear the risk of lawsuits scares administrators these days. We'll be below freezing through next Monday. With the type of "snow" we got, the piles in and around parking lots are quite impressive, and they'll be around for quite a while.

Fine tuning ballast on Mud Run Curve is on my agenda this evening.

[Charlie B]

Hi everyone

     I have been lax on reports here because I have just been too lazy to update. 

      We got a total of 15 inches of snow Sunday night into Monday all day. I plowed the first 6 inches first thing Monday morning but it was snowing so bad I could not keep up with it and the 9 inches that was left was just  too much for the tractor I I did not have the strength to use the snowblower on the whole mess.  I have a total of 500 feet of drive and alley I have to clear in addition to a 3 car parking area.  Tuesday morning my son borrowed a truck and plow from work and hit the worst stuff so I was able to finish with the snow blower. I went out today with the lawn tractor and plowed the light dusting we got so maybe some sun will help even though it is the well below freezing range for the next 10 days or so.  We have lots of supplies and a back up generator so if we need it we are OK. 

     My youngest son gave me a brass PRR Q2 that he got for a song. I took it apart Tuesday night and got it running. There are some cosmetic repairs to make too. I installed a front couple last night and reattached the air pumps,  I don't think this will get DCC. I remember how hard it was to do the last one. 

     I did get out to get gas yesterday. It was 2.69.  

      Healthwise my wife and I are doing pretty well.

Have a good week end 
Charlie

[TMo]

Ah snow, sorry to hear about the 500-ft driveway, Charlie. Shoveled for the 5th consecutive day, today being portions of the back patio so we don't fall on our a$$ sliding down the hump that used to be our patio steps to get the trash cans or get to the grill. Not so much shoveling as hacking away into large blocks suitable for building an igloo.

The past two days at work (aside from the shoveling) has been all about the potential for another furlough and our command's desire to work through it (with some reduced staffing) this go around. Just saw the Senate struck some sort of deal (hopefully with the House buying in) to avert a shutdown, so all of our furlough talk is moot - which makes me happy. We'll be able to get back to some sort of normalcy for the rest of the fiscal year.

Still quite cold with not much melt in sight.

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

7 going to maybe the mid teens.

Odd thing with the temperature this morning. I have an indoor/outdoor thermometer display in my bedroom. When I looked at it the display showed 7 degrees with 77 per cent humidity at 7:07. With all those 7s I may get lucky today. Yeah, pretty sure that's not gonna happen.

Not much on the agenda for today. My daughter is planning to come over this morning to hopefully finish the curtains. We had problems with the sewing machine the other day. She's bringing hers with today and will be taking my to get it repaired along with hers.

All stay safe.

Tom

[sir james]

Friday 1/30/26
Hello Blue.
Nothing new from me. It has been so cold that we have stayed in. minus 1 this morning, 10 now. I started the car a couple days ago will probably do it again tomorrow. 
S.J.