Blog House Cleaning, or, Getting Rid of Dead Wood..

Maybe I'm just in a funk, or just plane grouchy, but today I decided it's time to bid certain dormant blogs Adieu because I do not feel like promoting blogs whose authors have basically considered them not worth keeping up to date.  Yes, there is information still there that people can glean, but to me they are just taking up bandwidth now.  So, since Mr. Lincoln still hasn't proven he hasn't died and the Georgetown Branch has hit a dead end.. We bid them Adieu.  Maybe we'll revisit when they are updated more than once every ten months or more.

Now let me get off my curmudgeon soapbox and let you know about some of the new blogs I added to my blog roll to the right of this post.  Most I've been following for awhile, but I haven't remembered to add them to my recommended list on this blog, until now.  Just like my favorites from Bernie Kempinski -  US Military Railroad- Virginia 1863, Marty McGuirk- Central Vermont Railway, George Dutka- White River Division  Riley Triggs' two blogs- Port of New York Railroad and Model Railroad Design, and I almost forgot, my good friend Eric Hansmann's blog- Notes on Designing, Building and Operating Model Railroads. The new blogs I've added are updated often and are always an interesting read.  So in no particular order here they are:

Darel Leedy writes a great blog about his Sn3 C&S layout- C&Sn3  Darel is a true artist in S scale!  And I'm always a sucker for anything narrow gauge.  Cowboy Up Darel!

Another great S Scale blog is Trevor Marshall's Port Rowan in S scale  You may know Trevor's name from the many articles he's written for various model railroad magazines.  He's also the co-host of The Model Railway Show.

A.R. Pollard, who lives on the other side of the big pond in the U.K. has a very interesting blog on a variety of Model Railroading topics- No Two Alike  A.R. is an accomplished modeller and she models American prototypes.

Tom Patterson's blog on his Chesapeake, Wheeling and Erie Railroad showcases the beautiful freelanced railroad he is building.

The great thing all these blogs have in common are they are updated pretty frequently and are interesting to read.  Sometimes when I'm having a stressful day, seeing updates from some of my favorite blogs is just what the Dr. ordered to help me relax.  Plus, they help keep me motivated to get more done on my own layout, and to keep my blog updated.  And as time goes on, if more blogs on the blog roll start to fall dormant- 4 months or more between updates (take note Commodore, friends are not immune from my dormant blog wrath) I'll look for new ones to replace them.

Wow!  I feel better now!  I'm glad I got that off my chest. :p

Onward HO!

It's taken well over a week for me to get rested up after the ordeal of Hurricane Sandy.  We got our power back over a week ago and we spent most of last weekend cleaning up and catching up.  During Sandy, and afterward when we didn't have power or heat, I obviously couldn't get work done on the layout and understandably, it was the last thing I was worried about.

Once the winds and rain were gone and we were just dealing with the cold and power issues, I did try to do a little modeling to take my mind off everything.  I worked on three car kits ( I have a bunch that have been on the back burner since I've been pushing to get work on the layout done) and I finished two of them with the third almost done.

Our little generator allowed us to run a couple of lights and our mini fridge.  I needed more light to work on the cars so I used this LED hat brim light to be able to see what I was working on.

This ACL flat was the first of three cars I worked on during the power outage.  I also completed a MILW Ribside boxcar and 3/4 finished a Proto 2000 stock car kit.

I did however spend quite a bit of time in the basement this past week, and made a big push to finish laying roadbed and track on the remaining sections of the layout that needed it.  I'm happy to report that all sections of the layout currently up (the exception being the ramp to T.H. Knisley Coal and the York Station modules which will be worked on shortly) have roadbed and track installed.

Last section before the staging shelf on the top deck.

Just the T.H. Knisely Coal ramp remains needing track.  I'm waiting till I get the building built before install the track here.

This is the passing siding/run around track at the Red Lion Station scene.

I ran out of track again.  As has happened in the past, I thought I had figured out how much track I needed to complete the layout, and once again I was woefully wrong.  I now figure I need at least another 3 bundles of Micro Engineering flex track to finish the York Station modules and the staging shelves.  Yeah, 3 bundles should be enough...

Sandy's aftermath..

I thought I'd share some pictures of some of the damage Hurricane Sandy caused around our town.  

We were blocked in from both directions and the only way I was able to get out and check on my mother who lives 2.5 miles away was to ride my bicycle to her house.

The pole almost snapped.

This was a common scene around the harbor.  Lots of downed trees and power lines.

Boats from the Viking Marina were picked up and literally stuffed into NJ Transit's Morgan Draw Bridge.  I counted 3 and I've seen pictures that show a shipping container too.

The Viking Marina was destroyed.

The lot in the foreground was full of dry docked boats.  Not one boat was left in this lot.  They were washed back into the water and onto the opposite bank of the Cheesequake Creek.

Boats litter the banks of the Cheesequake Creek.  Scenes like this were seen up and down Rt. 35 at all the marinas along the bay.

The power has been back on for one week now and I've been busy catching up with work on the layout, so I will post a progress report very soon.

A Quick post storm update..

Hi everyone. I thought I'd give a quick update on how we fared with the storm. We survived and had minimal damage to our home. No flood, but we will still be without power for another 3-10 days which totally sucks. I'll have a more complete update once power and Internet is restored. 

Thanks for all the kind thoughts and prayers we received.  :)

Ted