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

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Partly cloudy and 20 outside my window this morning. The NWS is claiming the mid 40s this afternoon. Rain and snow (but not much) predicted for tonight into tomorrow morning.

Rested a lot yesterday. I did get the plumber called. He will be here sometime today to clean out the basement floor drain. Just in time. My niece and her family arrive late this evening. It will be good to see them. Haven't seen them for a while. They leave again in the morning (which will also be good). After that the necessity of house cleaning every month or two will subside as everyone goes home. House cleaning should be semi-annual at best.

Gas price was $2.99 at one station yesterday and across the street it was #3.39. It will be interesting to see who wins the battle of the signs. IN either event the consumer loses.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ezdays]

Good morning, looking at the weather forecasts, they're crazy, jumping between the mid to high 60's and the low 80's. Good chance of rain on Thursday says one forecast, kinda iffy says another. The only profession I know that can be so wrong yet always be right.... I remember living in Houston for a year, the forecast was always 20% chance of rain whether it was raining out or not....

Nice day to go target shooting until we had a couple of vehicles driving around with people looking to pick up brass. One truck stopped in the line of sight where we were shooting and two guys got out wondering around. A few weeks ago we had a lady walking around with a bucket, same reason. We clean up our brass as best we can, spread a tarp out to make it easier, even then, I only took what we collected once and I barely got enough to cover the cost of gas to drive to the salvage yard. It's on a par with collecting aluminum cans, is it worth the time??? Anyway, we had a good time and my repaired rifle finally worked like it should have, first time since I bought it a year ago.

No change in gas prices, $4.49 is the norm, today is the last day of Spring Training so the demand will ease off some and maybe prices will drop a bit.

Some pretty wicked weather in parts of the country, I hope everyone here is OK. Prayers for those affected, and those in that most recent school shooting yesterday. This is not the world we should be living in, we need to change and do it quickly....

[Charlie B]

Good Tuesday
       I got through the Monday. My son put brakes on my wifes KIA so we have peace in the family once again. 

       I got the ladder track built for the north end of the east yard and all connected. I will have to run a locomotive through it to be sure it is a smooth transition. It looks good but the test of cars and locomotives may prove otherwise. I will take a few photos today. 

        Our grass is growing. I will probably have to start the weekly mowing in a week. I won't mow the front half acre so the bees have a chance at the flowers that come up too. 

        It is chilly here but that will bring a warm up for the week end. 

        I just found out I can't send a photo direct in a PM so here are 2  for Jim.         

Cheers
Charlie

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

20 and breezy this morning and it looks like it will stay chilly with a high only in the mid to upper 30s. Possible strong storms on Friday.

Feeling like an idiot this morning. Seems my niece and family won't be here until next Tuesday. Oh, well. House is all ready for their visit. Not much else going on today.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ezdays]

Good morning folks, another nice day in paradise, we are back in the 80's, normal for us, but we have another storm coming in tomorrow, temps drop 15 or more degrees, won't get back to the 80's until this weekend. Flood warnings are still in affect. Watching the news yesterday and they were talking about the heavy snow melt we'll be getting. We are out of the drought now except for the Colorado River, but that'll be up too, lots of snow upstream.

Was going to go to Walmart yesterday afternoon and glad I didn't. The police had a confrontation about 1:00 and had half the parking lot cordoned off. They wound up shooting a guy that said he had a gun and reached over like he was going for it. You do not say and do these things without major consequences.

Spring Training is over. The Diamondbacks move from Scottsdale to downtown Phoenix, all the other teams in the Cactus League head home, most of them west of the Mississippi. Called for reservations at a restaurant yesterday, "no need, baseball is over, we'll have room now". There are 15 teams in the league, the Royals and the Rangers have their fields here in Surprise which accounts for the local restaurant overload.

I hope you all have a great day today, stay warm and stay safe...

[sir james]

Hello Blue
35/48 cloudy, some rain coming.
Our 64th anniversary today. It was an Easter Sunday way back in 1959. Got married after the morning service.
Took our Escape to the dealer for an oil change and recall fix. Got a call that the brake pads are within the replace markers. They wanted over 600 so now I gotta find a repair shop. No train news. Will be taking what's her name out for dinner today.
S.J.

[Charlie B]

Good morning. 
        We are still not far from the headlines. Anytime a railroad wheel leaves the rail East Palestine gets mentioned. Now the site that takes hazmat water has refused the hazmat water. They built 2 huge storage tanks for the water. There have been many other derailments way more serious than this one, I just can't figure how they were able to blow this one out of proportions. Outside of the railroad there was one fuel tank on the oil company property that was hit and sent burning fuel oil down the ditch beside the tracks (no mention of this in any reports). They finally had 2 people test positive for vinyl chloride. one lived 900 feet from the tracks and the other 3 miles away. With PVC such a common product I am amazed that more people don't test positive, we have been using it for water lines for over 50 years now. 

         We have a beautiful morning here but a storm front is to arrive late this afternoon.  We had major storm damage over the week end with 90000 folks without power so we don't really need another one.  My back up generator once again did not need to be run. 

        Worn is progressing on the north end yard track. I got the ladder and 3 feet of track laid on all 6 tracks. I have about 50 more feet of track to lay and then it will be time for the ballast. The 24 in wide aisles are tight but it will be fine when operating. 

Stay warm and safe
Charlie

[ezdays]

Good morning everyone, today should be damp and chilly. Back down to the mid-60's and the chances of rain depend on which forecast you're seeing, so let's just say there's anywhere from a poor chance to an excellent chance of rain sometime today. Also a decent chance of snow up in Flagstaff.

Gas in the Phoenix area is a dollar or more than in many other parts of Arizona, here in Surprise, Costco and Sam's are lowest at $4.35, most others still at $4.49.

Charlie, got a plan, when you finish laying track and ballasting, head over my way. Nowhere near what you have, but there's maybe about 20' of N scale track that I haven't touched in a couple of months that needs finishing up and ballasted. Trackwork always seems to be my stumbling block... And you're right, the media and others can make more of something bad in order to further their agendas.

I'm up very early this morning, need to be over to the hospital around 5:30 for a test scheduled for 7:00 that only takes about ten minutes. But gotta check in, pay them, get prepped, then wait. I'm not complaining, the earlier your medical appointments are, the more likely you are going to get in and out quickly. Had a 7:00 doctor appointment the other day and I actually on my way home at 7:12.

Take care everybody and have a great day.

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Partly cloudy and 33 at the moment headed for the mid to upper 50s. Possible strong storms for tomorrow but that possibility is slowly shifting eastward away from me.

Not much happened in the repair shops for the Backyard & Southern RR yesterday. With the nice weather there will be a bike ride this afternoon (finally). Some years the first bike ride occurs as early as the middle of February so spring is running a little late this year.

Gas price jumped the other day from $2.99 to $3.39. Eggs were $3.79 in the grocery store yesterday.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ezdays]

Good morning good people of Big Blue, got through my test yesterday, just not as scheduled. The team assigned to me had an emergency to deal with, and so we got a late start, then after the procedure, I had to lay flat and not move for two hours before I could go home. Got a list of things I can't do for a week, didn't feel like doing most of them anyway, and a few that I have no choice but to do regardless. Had a series of questions to answer too, the usual about travel and COVID, but one that stunned me was when she asked me, "have you been in contact with a homeless person recently?" (she apologized for having to ask). Well, I frequently drive by a bunch that are sleeping at the side of a bridge, does that count?

Anyway, I'm just going to take it easy for a few days, tomorrow is April Fools Day, I think I'll stay home all day, I hate practical jokes, there's always someone the butt of them and that doesn't set well with me. There's even a few TV shows like that and I wouldn't watch them if they paid me to.

So much grouching for today, I'll just get ready for breakfast, maybe spend some time on the display for my wooden engine. The shelf is built, now I need to build about 18" of wooden track just to jazz up the display.

Take care, stay safe and have some fun today....

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Today's weather is coming to you from the front porch of the administrative offices of the Backyard & Southern RR. It's currently a positively balmy 58 degrees headed for 70 later on. Unfortunately along with the milder temperature at this time of year strong storms may occur this afternoon.

Pretty quiet day yesterday. Had to quit swimming after about third of a mile. I apparently did something to my knee. Whatever it was wasn't serious as I was able to ride my bike for about 5 miles later on. I'm thinking about going out early today to ride as the wind is supposed to pick up the afternoon to 35+ mph.

All stay safe.

Tom

Almost forgot - Happy Birthday, Don

[ezdays]

Thank you Tom, I forgot that we list birthdays on our main page. Pat and I went out for our usual father-son birthday dinner last night. His was on Monday and we usually pick a day in between.

[tompm]

Good morning folks

It is 42 on its way to 60 with a chance of rain later today.

It has been a couple of crazy days at work. Wednesday was all about getting ready for yesterday’s concrete. Due to a shortage of ironworkers onsite the concrete contractor was running late with getting the wall section formed up. Once he did they found the front and back forms were not aligning the way they should. Yesterday morning the contractor got the forms fixed but had to push the pour back an hour. We thought the time would not be a problem since it was a small pour; only 44 yards or five trucks. The first few trucks arrived on time but for some reason it took twice as long as usual to unload them. Then the last truck carrying 4 yards was over an hour late arriving. The end result was I worked 11 hours both days. I am trying to catch up on the paperwork today.

Being tired from work not much got done around the house or layout. I am getting frustrated by the walls on the Morgan House building. I did not realize until I wanted to install the window frames how deep the windows sat. This not due to a casting issue. Looking at the finished product the windows are recessed similar to the way they are on our house. This means more painting. I looked at the walls I had finished, and I am liking them less and less. I am not sure about what I am going to do with them.

This weekend I have some new outdoor lighting to install. After years of frustration with solar powered lights we are going back to wired ones. We have Easter decorations to finish putting out. We need to get Easter candy to fill the baskets. We need to make that every other monthly trip to the wholesale warehouse club, along with the pharmacy, grocery store, and produce store. A trip to Delaware for gas may be done.

I want to continue working on the walls for the Morgan House kits. I need to glue down and paint the base for the Union Station. I have some cars to tune up and perhaps I may work on a DCC installation. I would like to run some trains while I am at it too.

Happy birthday, Don

I hope everybody has a good day.

[sir james]

Hello Blue 
We have lite rain with a hi of 58 for today. Storms expected this evening.
Tomorrow is April 1st. It was my sisters Birthday. Every year of her life was birthday torment.
It's so gloomy that this will be a stay at home day.
Club house is open tonight but I don't plan on going.
S.J.

[Charlie B]

Good evening. 
     It has been a rainy afternoon with lots of wind so I worked on the rail yards. The track is all laid except for 3 short sidings that will find some purpose related to a rail road. I even got the "rust" on the sides of all the rail.  

     If anyone is interested Norfolk Southern made this post on their facebook site:

      We’re not going anywhere. Every day since the derailment in East Palestine, Team NS has been working to make it right.

We are working 24/7 making progress cleaning the site safely and thoroughly, providing financial assistance to people and businesses in the area, and making commitments in the communities.

As of today, we’ve committed over $27.9 million in East Palestine and the surrounding communities, including:

COMMUNITY SUPPORT
$11.6 million helping more than 6,820 families through our Family Assistant Center

$745,000 to local schools, including a scholarship endowment fund

$8 million in fire equipment to fire departments in Ohio and Pennsylvania

PROGRESS
Crews are still in East Palestine removing water and soil from the derailment site and cleaning waterways that were impacted, and testing the air, water, and soil regularly. Testing will continue to make sure the area is safe.

We have removed 13,263 tons of contaminated soil from the incident area and 9.6 MM gallons of contaminants and contaminated liquid from the immediate site.

We’re in this for the long haul. You can view all of our site progress, testing updates and what we’re doing for the community at www.nsmakingitright.com.


         Cheers
         Charlie