Weekend Photos - December 2025

[healey36]

Flickr down this AM? That's a bummer...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Flickr down this AM? That's a bummer...

https://downdetector.com/status/flickr/

Aol was in the crapper for a bit last week...

Best to get used to this being the norm in the future given the diversion of resources away from keeping things maintained toward support of AI infrastructure.

Gonna do the cemetery tour tomorrow...always a rockin' good time.

Sounds cheery....

[healey36]

WMSR #1309 pounds upgrade to Frostburg with their version of the Polar Express:



Photo courtesy of Dan Davis.

[healey36]

Gonna do the cemetery tour tomorrow...always a rockin' good time.

Sounds cheery....

If my brother joins me, we usually combine it with a pub-crawl of sorts. If just my wife and daughter, things are a bit less raucous.

[healey36]

Cleaning up the office/library today so we can get the putz set up. Threw on one of my Christmas gifts from last year, the ELP Works Vol. 1 & 2. Forgot how much I miss them and this guy in particular:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP33z3lGHyo&list=RDzP33z3lGHyo&start_radio=1

The big challenge in cleaning up is ever finding anything afterwards. It all seems logical when you stow it, but six months from now I'll be tearing the place apart, lol.

[HONDO74]

Emerson, Lake and Palmer

Greg Lake was, admittedly, a heavy smoker most of his life, and in his later years battled several serious health issues including COPD and pancreatic cancer. He passed away December 7, 2016.

Great song for CHRISTMAS. I Believe in Father Christmas

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Great song for CHRISTMAS. I Believe in Father Christmas

One of my favs - somewhere I had a live version of that song with Ian Anderson playing along on flute.

[healey36]

I was going to post this in the 2-rail "Paint shop" thread, but I figured you guys might run me outta here

Picked up this Flyer 1107 in blue from Vienna Station recently. There was a bit of corrosion on one end of the roof which I thought I might be able to buff off. Turned out the metal was really thin, to the point of being perforated along the lip. I polished off a bit of the paint and thought I might be able to repair it with a bit of Bondo and a sanding. The problem is these roofs snap onto the body like Tupperware, and a Bondo job seemed unlikely to hold up under that stress, so I gouged out the worst of the corrosion, then solder-blobbed it to fill the hole(s). A bit of filing and sanding got me back to something pretty good. Much as I hated to do it, I cleaned the paint off the rest of the roof and repainted the whole thing. Now, after a light polish, it's back to something semi-respectable:



The paint looks too light in the pic, but it's actually a close match to the original, and the solder job seems to be holding up (fingers crossed).

[webenda]

Picked up this Flyer 1107 in blue from Vienna Station recently

That Flyer car cleaned up well!!! You have a knack, Healey.

[webenda]

Union Pacific has some great video shorts on its homepage today.
https://www.up.com/
There was a single frame image from one of the UP Videos I referred to here (replaced by this text.)

I inquired of UP about such use of their pictures/video. "Can I take a copy of the photos or other images from your site for my own use?"

First response from UP, "No. All of the content on the site is copyrighted."

Edit 1: Removed image, one frame from a Union Pacific video that is/was posted on their website.

Edit 2: Added a response from UP regarding my use of any pictures or videos from their website.

[healey36]

Let's see those Christmas trees folks; here's our living room tree:





An assortment of Dept 56, Lemax, and Walmart ceramics, along with the Lionel 2018 (1956-1961) and the modern-era North Pole Central set of three coaches (combine, coach, and observation). Brick-paper skirting for The Old Man. Struggling a bit this year for motivation, so not too different from last year.

Christmas putz photos to follow.

[webenda]

Looks good.
The characters seen in the widows of Dancer are interesting.

[healey36]

Yup, never could be sure what they are, elves or friends of E. T.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Yup, never could be sure what they are, elves or friends of E. T.

Denizens of Whoville?

[webenda]

Sometimes I see something on eBay that catches my eye.
The color scheme of this BM boxcar did it (also the $20 price tag).

My photo does not do it justice. The paint is soooo flat.