It's hard for me to believe that tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the States, the Fall has been moving by so fast. With many (not all) of us taking the the Friday after the big turkey day off, we may find ourselves at work on our model railroads. My modeling plans started yesterday when I was lucky enough to find this years MTH Railking 2012 Christmas Boxcar locally and for $10.00 cheaper than I have ever paid. A tradition since 1997, each year I pick up the latest Christmas car to run with a specific locomotive as well as former year cars. This year the Christmas train will be pulled by a what else? A B&M SW with a B&M caboose on the rear. Friday, everyone in my household is off from work and school, but I still plan to start the dreaded re-alignment on the B&M N layout. I need a few odds and ends so I'm planning on going to the not so local hobby shop about an hour away, take Angela and Jared with me, get lunch and make an afternoon of it. The hobby shop is in an old Illinois Central Depot and is right of route 66, so it will be a fun time for everyone. The year long search for an Atlas GP38-2 non DB has been frustrating and has held up my detail and painting. I may put this project on hold and start either a Rock Island or CB&Q project instead. The afore mentioned "O scale Christmas Train" needs to have its ROW planned out and laid. Good thing Angela is home this Friday as I will need to bargain for land to set up the simple oval and five cars. that is all I'm signing up for, although I might put a few hours of work Saturday on the club yard. With Jared home from school and Angela off from work, they will want to do some things together that doesn't involve trains, so I've planned some nature walks and biking and with weather being mild, some grilling too. So how about you? Does your wife, girlfriend, significant other plan to rise out of bed early on Black Friday? Try to stay home! Relax after a day of Thanksgiving, parades and football to do some modeling of the railroad kind. Track work, scenery, decals, paint? What do you have planned? Let us know how you plan to get a few things done this holiday weekend. We'll all get back together again on Monday the 26th and see how well we all did. Until then, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks go out to all of our Service men and women, past and present serving home and abroad. Freedom isn't free, lets be thankful for the sacrifice of our service folks. Be thankful for what we have, love the family we are with and pass the pecan pie! ​High Greens!
Today i'm going up to my not so local hobby shop to have them order some stuff for me and to see if they have anything in stock that I need to work on my T-Trak modules over the extended weekend. Tomorrow I have to make a dessert to take up to my Brothers for the Holiday, probably an apple pie. Friday I still have some yard work to do, remnents of hurricane Sandy. Saturday i'll try to work on my modules, then Sunday I may go to a train show in Greenwitch CT.
Jim, First, and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! I agree our vets and active service personnel need our support - my sister in law is in route back from Afghanistan to Ft. Carson as we "speak." and I'm thankful you invest time in keeping this little call to arms up and running. I have to work Friday (!) since I'm middle man on the office totem pole, and the top guys are all off . . . but it will be quiet, and I can listen to the pre-game for LSU and Arkansas on ESPN Radio. I have about . . . well a lot . . . of projects lined up for the weeknd, and we'll see which ones transpire. One of my local layout buddies has a Black Friday operating session planned so we can seek refuge as our family credit cards cool from their strenuous workouts . . . and I have some new track configurations that need testing.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I'm not planing on getting anything accomplished this weekend, either. Going to in-laws Thursday-Saturday. Not likely to get anything accomplished Sunday either.
As Resident Galley Slave, I've been tied up so far - grocery shopping yesterday and vegetable prep today. We've had an "Orphans Thanksgiving" tradition that started way back in college among those who were too far from home to make the trip to be with their families. Now, we are the families, and this is our traditional holiday. We've watched the kids grow from infants to college grads, as us young men and women have grayed and expanded around the middle. This year, daughter Annie came home from college yesterday, and now she's off with an ex-boyfriend to have dinner with his parents. My wife Penny is down in Florida with her Mom and Dad, so my sister and I will make the short trip to the next town to join the gang. I plan some serious train work Friday. Walthers came through with a PDF of the lost instruction sheet for the car float kit, sitting in my inbox an hour after I emailed them. Thanks, also, to Walthers for that. Saturday and Sunday is the Tour de Chooch, a free, self-guided layout tour of modelers who open their homes this weekend to anyone who wants to come and look at what's going on. There are a couple of published layouts on the tour this year, so I'll be doing some New Hampshire layouts instead of just sticking to Massachusetts like I usually do. May you all have a great holiday weekend!
