Scattered Thoughts . . .

I had a few relatively "good" days so I tackled a small art project over the past two days.  I decided to shoot some photos of my HO scale Dreyfuss Hudson steam locomotive which then, as usual, morphed into a larger project.   This distinctive steam locomotive was perhaps the most famous locomotive of the New York Central Railroad, specifically, of 20th Century Limited passenger service fame.  This was considered the fastest passenger train service between New York City and Chicago back in the 1940s.  The route ran up the Hudson River then traveled westward along the Great Lakes.  Today, this route is named the Lake Shore Limited, a route Sheila and I have traveled quite a few times.  Unfortunately, the Lake Shore Limited is not nearly as glamorous as the 20th Century Limited once was but it is nice to retrace this historic route nevertheless.  The Lake Shore Limited can be referred to as many things but glamorous is definitely not one of them. I...

After we met Adam at the airport yesterday, we came back to our house with the grandkids in tow. Once Liza arrived from work, I grilled dinner for all of us but there were a few hours to kill before dinner though so Lukey, Adam and I pulled out Lukey's new train layout (from this past Christmas) to play with some trains. This was a rare occasion so I allowed Lukey to run some of my newer locomotives which Adam had not seen yet... the ones with locomotive sounds, smoke, operating lights, and crew sounds. This also entails allowing Lukey to use a much more complicated controller with far too many little buttons to erroneously press but he did well and learned quickly. He'll probably forget how to use it before we use it again but he did well and didn't destroy either of my locomotives.  Lukey accidentally found that one of the buttons on this big controller activates a crash sound sequence... the locomotive makes these horrendous crashing sounds as it comes to a sudden st...