Diamonds are for Never Just amusing myself on my evening off. The Mantua Pacific is as old as I am, weighs almost a kilo, I'd reckon, and works as good as the day it was made. Love this old stuff. The Blue Box SW 1500 has a Northwest Gear set up, and I love it's slow speed characteristics coupled with the flywheels. I have this belief that manufacturers are only recently getting the hint that Model Railheads like our stuff slow, not slot car fast. Slots are great, but trains are trains, and generally plodding. "Armodilloville" started out as sort of a joke, but the joke is on me now, as it kept getting more elaborate. A lot of Tyco sold for a buck, and it accumulated quickly under my thin budget, working 60 to 70 hours a week, raising a family of five. Friends and family would make little contributions from a a car to a building to a figure and a lot of stuff here is what was gifted to me as people added in their own artistic touches and humor. Running trains in a circle can get a wee bit tedious, even on a layout the size of a house, as was the case at the local model train club, and so when I last revised Armodilloville (the name itself a gift from a talented Graphic Designer pal) I recollected an early book of model train layouts designed to be laid out on carpet, so we're talking post WWII stuff when the notion of putting stuff on plywood was a fairly advanced notion, and the new, comparatively tiny "Half O" gauge was in its infancy. One of the track plans featured a simple pair of ovals, but they overlapped using diamonds. This little trick, from the great Lyn Wescott, I think, elevates trains from chasing their tails to actually having to do something to keep coordinated and keep moving. It is a little bit like spinning plates. A lot of folks would shrink at the idea of risking train collisions, and I don't so do I, but this old Tyco stuff is pretty rugged, so the occasional bump causes no harm, and it keeps me on my toes. Here is "Diamonds are for Never," with apologies to Ian Fleming:
I always enjoy your shows. Especially todays. Just as the music started I heard the lady in the apartment across the hall coming out. So to help her wonder "what the heck is he up to now" I turned up the volume. I enjoyed both.
Fun video! You gotta love Three Dog Night. I saw them twice in concert; most recently about seven years ago in a small city amphitheater here in SoCal. They were slightly before my time, but they were big when I was in elementary school. It wasn't until many years later that I learned to appreciate what a talented band they were.
Glad you liked it, I like to bump forgotten, or overlooked, talent. I've also done Canadian folk, 16th century Italian folk, Modern Russian and American folk, trying to edge them into the rest of the world. There are brilliant artists, like Tuba Skinny, that I have not done yet, that never get one minute of radio time. Reminds me of the Dyer Straits song, "In the Gallery." https://video.search.yahoo.com/sear...0ae9d9dd86ea3c8e73e368af5d68f2a0&action=click
I remember two concert the most. One some where on the east coast. I think it was called Woodstock. The other was when I took a young lady, that didn't know country, to a county fair for The Man in Black. Nothing to do with trains. Just two wheels and companionship.
New Day, New Armodilloville Having chopped Armodilloville from 4 x 12, to 4 x 8, it is now down to 4x4. This new arrangement allows me to focus on my first love, British OO, while allowing me to cut loose with the comic blend of many gifts and styles. Among other things, it is much easier to shoot video and it still allows for interesting operating sessions as the one spur lazily crosses the main allowing for breaking up and setting out trains. This is the inaugural run:
