BR60103

I decied to retire when they were changing the technology faster than I could learn it. We have a cell phone. Dayle got one when she retired and was driving about on her own a lot more. I think she's on her third and this does all sorts of things that we don't understand. I get to carry it when I go out alone. We tend not to have it on unless we need it. We use internet banking. Dayle is very much into it after a reluctant start but we mostly use our home machine. We have another one that we take on holidays. There was a thunderstorm and tornado warning yesterday. We watched it on TV but it disappeared quickly. Turned out that someone at the weather network had pushed a wrong button. Cell phone users received a warning.

It was reported that some Americans are getting upset about an (old) environmental emissions report that the Daily Mail found that recommended a reduction in meat consumption. They are compaining that they'll be restricted to 4 lbs of beef a year and vegetarian beer. Not mentioned by the agitators that the report is several administrations old and never adopted.

SWMBO aka she who holds the chequebook agreed to winter tires this year. She says she felt so much safer as there was no slipping or spinning. We'll get them changed back when the COVID allows. Our neighbour found a fellow who comes around and changes them in your driveway, but Someone doesn't want dirty tires cluttering up our garage. We've never had them on the motorhome.

I remember a reference in the NMRA magazine to the "Tustin Table Thumper". Someone who had his own method of persuading locos to start.

Douglas: you may have said before, but what track are you using? All Lionel or mixed with something else?

My wife protested at the length, but sat transfixed all the way through. But I now have to explain what barrage balloons did...

We had snow yesterday -- Hudson's Bay met Colorado low. The Magnolia blooms look very brown today. Income tax due at end of month -- no extension this year. I took a chance and found the program at the drug store -- not quarantined as "non-essential".

You may want to distinguish between the layout being complete and finished. Complete may be "trains running through representative scenery"; finished may be "every possible detail and refinement incorporated". (try not to confuse finished with done for.)

I haven't rated most of the posts on heating as the systems don't sound like anything I've used. Our furnace and water heater are separate. The Canadian Fairmont hotels mentioned used to be Canadian Pacific. The Toronto Royal York was missing most of the conveniences (lunch rooms) last time we went into it; I haven't had to stay in a Toronto hotel in over half a century. We watched HRH's funeral. I found that the commentators insisted on talking through most of the band numbers (though not the service music) and "informative" banners were on the part of the screen where people were. Grammar: My observationis that the part of speech disappearing is the participle. As in "fry pan" and "box set".

One of the oldest records in my collection (that was mine and not my father's) is a 78 of the Broadway Limited (b/w the General). Starts with the station announcement. I used to be able to recite the announcement.

We've had lockdown extended by 2 weeks and they're going to enforce it, somehow. Starts Monday. I'm doing a second Metcalfe stationmaster's house. I took the first one as a Christmas present cash in. Now I'm doing the original version with no pre-cuts. (I just finished the cottages).

Something I read recently implied that Peco are releasing a redesigned LocoLift that is shorter, linkable, and variable gauge. It may be worth grabbing a few of the old ones while they last.

I was supposed to take the car in for service and changing out the snow tires on Thursday. Since I made the appointment we've had a lockdown/CB imposed. Phone call from dealer today -- can't use waiting room. I would have sat outside but there's rain forecast. SWMBO says I can't take taxi home and we don't have extra vehicle. They understood when I cancelled. Chrisf: We store our motorhome on a big farm lot. We need our car to get home afterwards. Our neighbour's wife doesn't drive (apparently) so he has to tow the car to storage and drive it home. don't know how it would work for us if we didn't have 2 drivers as we can't & won't tow.

My father's first name was William. He very early on decided not to risk being called Willy, so used MacKenzie and was Mac to anyone who knew him. (MacKenzie was his mother's maiden name.) I think the use of the second name may happen where the same first name crops up repeatedly in a school class. My mother said that there were quite a few Marys in hers. The late Canadian singer John Allen Cameron had a brother named John Donald (and maybe others). The name was elided to JnAllen and JnDonald. It may have been regional.

We are going into a lockdown just after midnight -- only to go out for essential errands. Even Walmart is being restricted to grocery purchases. I neglected to hit the bookstore today and I finished the book I bought last week. They say you can tell the Canadians in Florida -- they're in the swimming pool in February.

We toured the GM (EMD) works in London, Ont when they were building locos for EWS. To be tested with North American loads or be hauled (I forget which) they took off the buffers and mounted (in the same boltholes) a \_/ shaped beam with a knuckle coupling at the bottom. So even in the same scale, N.A. couplers come out below the bufferbeam. Pictures were forbidden on the tour.

The ABCs don't have pictures of all the types. There was also the Observer's Book of Locomotives. These were kept current, so one edition wouldn't have all the locomotives, but would have all for the time of publication.

Billiam: I often wire my frogs using the rail beyond the frog if I haven't put a plastic rail joiner on it. Cheaper than replacing the whole point with my soldering skills. We were up near your place today as someone thought the swans might be out, but they were still penned up.

We (whole province of Ontario) go into some sort of lockdown at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday. None of the news reports seem to cover exactly what that means -- at least in the time I'm still awake. We went panic buying today -- 2 railway magazines and 2 books. I'm never sure about the dates on packages -- sell by, use by, packaged on? I think there should be 3 dates: Best before Adequate until Fatal after. (repeated from another post) The first year of my permanent job, the department actuary had his bank manager phone when his bonus went into his account. He then handed in his notice. Any sooner and the bonus would have been cancelled. The last place I worked seemed to have an approach to expecting ladies that they didn't think they would go through with it -- never looked for temporary replacements.

The X2f was developed by an NMRS engineering committee. X was eXperimental; second type; variation f. It was offered to the world with no licencing fees and was supposed to be a one-piece molding with integral spring. Variations followed and I read that none of the manufactured units matched the specs (I never checked). The farthest out were those on the Airfix kits. Because it was sprung sideways, it was blamed for pushing wheels into the sides of the rails and causing sharp flanges to pick at the rail joints. This was extra bad with truck-mounted couplers. NMRA also designed a "universal" mounting box that could be assembled 3 ways (IIRC) to take Mantua, Kadee (#4) and possibly the X2f. Mantua was like a reversed tension-lock but the hook was very far inside the loop.

We had our jabs this morning. A very efficient operation. We should be able to have our follow-ups in four months.

Our water supply is measured in cubic metres. I did a little math and figured that a cubic meter of water weighs a metric ton (1000 kg). Our water softener measures in gallons.

The top of the NEM pocket should be the same height as the top of a tension lock. I'm not sure how this came about. If the tension lock has a crank in the shaft, the pocket is at non-standard height. Some pockets require a shim (piece of very thin plastic) under or over the tail of the coupler. If the pocket is the wrong height, other NEM couplers will also be wrong. I have a few vehicles where the original tension lock sags a bit.

I finally traced an electrical fault. I've had part of the layout pulled apart (the magazine shelves underneath) because there was a dead spot in one of the station approaches. I'm using switch machines (point motors?) called the Bullfrog by Fasttracks which are a manual undertable item like a Bluepoint. I've been tracing and testing all sorts of things, replaced one unit and nothing helped. Today I played with the unit at the other end of the double slip and found that it wasn't activating the microswitches. So one of the screws on it was tightened and it now works. Hardest bit was that the screwdriver had to go through the unit at the other end of the DSS. The other awful bit was putting a wire up from below into the hole in a Peco tiebar when the thing is almost an arm's length away.

My Minories terminal is called St. Mary Ax (pronounced Simmery Ax), located just across from number 70. We've been having some interesting drives this week. We were in a park in Preston Cambridge on Wednesday and a train went by. 4 CP units and a long string of Auto racks (including KCS and Mexican units). It ran around us and she became interested in where it had gone. So we've been following the old Grand River Railway, or at least the part that still has rails. The line runs right beside the cemetary where her parents are, and there is a yard for the Toyota plant there. There is a problem following it in a car because the roads go over the hills while the tracks go around them. GRR was part of Canadian Pacific Electric Lines until the wires came down in the 60s.