Daily Archives: September 5, 2010
Fall is in the Air . . .
Fall is here, at least in northern Indiana. Yesterday’s high was 63 and then down to 50 last night. Today it made it up to about 68 with a low tonight of 58.
Of course, if it’s too cool for you here, you could try Yuma. It was 114 on Friday, and 109 yesterday.
But it’s a dry heat. Of course, so is an oven.
About 11 this morning Jan and I headed over to Bob Evans for breakfast. As usual on a Sunday morning, there was a wait, but only about 5 minutes. Bob Evans has moved into their Fall menu so they’ve got their flavored cappuccino’s again. Really good.
After breakfast we drove over to the National New York Central Railroad Museum here in Elkhart.
They have a dining car set up and all ready to go for the restaurant they hope to open soon.
And here’s a display of signal lanterns ranging from the 1860’s to the present.
Maybe the most amazing thing they have there is this 8 foot long toothpick model of a Pennsylvania K-4 Pacific locomotive.
It has over 420,000 toothpicks, 40 pounds of glue, and took 7 years to build. The brakes, wheels, tie rods, and windows actually move.
The builder, Terry Woodling, has built several other toothpick models, including a DC-3 with a 5 foot wingspan, a Huey helicopter, a touring motorcycle, and a Learjet with an 8 foot fuselage.
They also have a model railroad layout that’s under construction.
Outside in the freight yard they have a number of old engines and railcars. The oldest locomotive is this L3A 4-8-2 Mohawk built in 1940, one of 25 in the series.
It ran until 1957 when the New York Central completed its transformation from steam to diesel.
They also had one the first diesels on the NYC, an EMD E8. Built in 1953, it’s 70 feet long and weighs over 330,000 pounds.
This wooden boxcar probably dates from the 1920 – 1930’s, but according to the reporting marks, it was rebuilt in 1965, probably as a maintenance car, and then retired in 1975.
This tank car is somewhat newer, being built in 1952, rebuilt in 1977. and then retired in 1985. It’s really in good shape.
This caboose was built in 1963, and was in use until the 1980’s when most cabooses were retired from service due to their function being handled by more modern technology.
Across the tracks from the museum is the Elkhart train station. Built in 1900, it replaced one built in the 1880’s. It’s still in use today as a regular stop on the daily train from New York to Chicago and back.
A lot of the museum is still under construction and we look forward to visiting again next year to see how things are coming.
Leaving the museum and heading home, we stopped off at Ace Hardware to pick up some new bolts for my cargo bay doors, and then stopping at Martin’s for some cat food.
About 5:30 Jan and I drove over to Cracker Barrel for supper and then back to the rig for the night.
We’ve only got two more days here in Elkhart before we leave on Wednesday.
More tomorrow…
Quote of the Day:
You don’t have be brilliant. Just not being stupid is enough.
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