Kinda like me and seatbelts. My parents were religious about us always wearing our seatbelts. We had all been in an accident in our station wagon with no seatbelts. I was in one of those child seats that just hooked over the seatback, and whacked my head against the dome light , leaving a nice little divot in my scalp that healed over fine. Mom was tossed into the windshield, but luckily needed only some stitches in her forehead. She was concerned about how it would scar, so she went to a plastic surgeon. While she was in the waiting room, she saw all kinds of patients with far more serious wounds than hers, and decided she was just fine, and walked out. I said "religious" as in Mom would not shift out of park until she heard the requisite number of "clicks" for all our seat-belts. And woe be unto us should we try to fake her out! So naturally, when I started driving myself, I was not in the mood to use mine when alone in the car. Then a friend was killed a week before our high school graduation, not wearing a seat belt. Two weeks later, my cousin was killed when thrown from his car when it rolled over. His date was wearing hers, and she walked away without a scratch. That's when I got "religious" about it. Sometimes mother nature has to smack me around to get my attention. Thank goodness she does!
Had a similar event in my youth. Believe it or not, mid-1950's we were heading home, and stumbled upon a steam excursion. My father, a former railroader, and life long fan, proceeded to pace it- right into the back end of an also pacing slower car. I went from the back seat over the front, forehead into the dash and a big welt. Dad had bruised ribs. My little brother hit the front seat and went to the floor, crying but unhurt. My mother hit the windshield. Even after "plastic surgery", for the rest of her life had that scar. And hated seeing trains near any road we were using.
When I got my license in 1969, wearing seat belts was still a rarity. I never even really thought about wearing one even though my '59 Chevy had lap belts as an option. It wasn't until the late seventies that most people buckled up when cars also had shoulder belts, originally separate from lap belts and later, integral. Lap belts, alone, really were not good because the upper part of your body could still fly forward and hit things and if the forces were severe enough, cause serious internal injuries. Doug
I turned 16 in 1966 and bought my first car. A 1955 Ford Fairlane. The first modification was to add seat belts. My father had a fit. A year and half later I had a head on collision. Her fault. With the seat belts I only had a bruise on my forehead. She needed an ambulance. I had been slowing down because there were railroad tracks after the intersection.
I have been pulled from cars that were totalled twice. If I had not been wearing my seatbelt both times, I would have died.
The main thing lap belts (alone) did was keep you in the car, and away from the windshield. Not sure a lap belt alone would have saved my friend, but it would have saved my cousin. Those two accidents were in spring of 1981. The accident we were all in was in 1966, in an early '60's Valiant station wagon. I was 3 years old. They had to special order the seatbelts for the rear seats in the 1966 Dodge Sportsman Van Dad bought to replace it. Dad would not take delivery until they were installed.
Seat belts aside.Oh the stories i could tell but that's for another time and place. Here's what I'm working toward restoring. Below you can see a mixed manifest heading out and around the curve. Note the flat cars These are the original Kadee N Scale offerings. Above: On the inside curve is a loaded coal train about to reach the summit and cross the Dry Gulch Creek bridges. Above: The tail end of a 30 car train working it's way up the face of the layout headed toward the summit. I must have edited it at some point in time. Hope you can see it More later.
Now them photo's should inspire you to get that track wired up. It is always such a great feeling of accomplishment when the trains finally roll!! Looking forward to seeing that. "Buckle up, Buttercup!! Time to roll!!"
One more picture of F7's crossing the Dry Gulch Arch Bridge. This is the head end of the train I showed you with the flat cars. You might be interested to know there's not truck mounted couplers in that consist of flat cars. They handle sweet in a reverse move. To the right is ATSF SD24's pulling a fully loaded coal train through the coal district. Aain, the same one in the picture above. Neat concept. As one said, "When it works"? It will again. Below: Is the top deck. For the moment it's still out in the shed. Waiting it's turn to be restored. Here you can see the work trains. They are getting their job assignments and preparing to head out. In the background on the main line is the Chippewa Chief, a test train. They will report back any track discrepancies. I have three work cranes. Two of them can be seen here. All with a little bit different livery. Most of the time these were used as wreck cranes or wreckers. Often called the "Big Hook" or "Hookers" by the crews.The time frame of this picture is. When I took out the Atlas Turntable. Did not like it the whole time I had it but until this picture I couldn't find anything better. Cornerstone came out with a turntable and it was Good Bye to the Atlas Turntable. A permanent good bye. A lot of Atlas stuff eventually was replaced with Peco or Kato track components. Time to say good bye to Atlas switches and other stuff on the layout. I need to mention. Those SD24's are Atlas. Occasionally they do something right. Got a busy day ahead of me. Enjoy the weekend. Later.
So the betting starts. Does Rick get his layout rebuilt/rewired and working before Mike Fifer gets his new train shed built and trains running ? https://www.trainboard.com/highball...-albuquerque-carnuel-tijeras-rr-build.146816/ Vegas odds have Mike Fifer out front by a slight margin at this time. Stay tuned... ** Opppssssssssssss Mike Fifer WINS !!! LOL !!!! .
Wellllll, that just burns my odds! I was going to put the bux down on our very own Big Bear transplant! Dang!
A vote of confidence. If I get going and have the resources I can move quickly to get this done. I'm slowed down by health issues. So, I'm not having the fun I'd like to have. I'll get'er done.
