The Year Commences

The first full week of the twelfth year of the 21st century is rolling out the carpet.  Take a few steps, feels no different then the previous steps.  Ouch, yes it does, the toes are creaking and old age is creeping.  Such is the second decade of another millennium, the ticks march forth, marking off time.

Hope your beginning is as enjoyable as mine has been.  A blizzard roared about spitting out a few flakes and the north pole showed up.  The temp has been below zero past few days, –25C.  Huddled around the heater has the carcass been, cold it has not wanted to face, so I obliged and mostly stayed indoors past few days.  Today was sunny and in 40’s.  Took a ride about after church this morning looking at things.  The snow creates a purity on the land and drifts are sculpted over the landscape.

 

Nice warm office building to work in, sell a few cars, make a widget or two, maybe paint a picture or stare out the window, day dream a bit, what is in the future, what do I want, where to go and maybe seek out the other side of the road..

Let the moment be a fleeting fancy of times past.  Fondness bringing forth smiles, a tender moment, hugs of comfort and happiness.

            Have a Great week beginning the year.

 

                                          _________________________-

 

This is part of the Garden Railway Society layout at the Colorado Railroad Museum.  It is G-scale and is designed to be built outdoors.  In the museum complex they have a space about 200 feet by 200 feet to build their model railroad empire in.

 

On the far east edge is this loop of tracks.  It was a barren circle to run live steam engines on.  Since construction they have added scenery and buildings plus detail work.  Below the train is a wooden box with a water jug on it.  This is the kit for feeding the little steam engine.  The water is probably distilled, so no scale build up and the alcohol, for fuel, is dyed so it doesn’t get mixed up with the water.  These little engines work like a regular steam motor.  The water boils making steam and pushes the piston and down the tracks goes the little puffer.  There are small levers in the engine to control the fuel  mix and the water flow plus the steam to the pistons.  A few have put radio control on them to adjust the feed to control the speed of the engines.

 

For Christmas some of the miniature trees were decorated with miniature lights.  There are books on landscaping the railroad with miniature plants and slow growing trees.  Everything is built on a scale in proportion to the real thing.  When they first started that was barren dirt and some rails were laid.  A small stream flows through the museum and the garden people used it as part of the layout.  The bridges are going over a trickle of water from a nearby spring off the mesa.  Building have been built, people are working and there is landscaping.  When it snows they bring out the rotary plow and plow off the tracks.

 

There are trains that are powered by electricity through the rails and they circle around the miniature villages.  through the summer the club operates trains here and for special events.  Members take turns operating trains and working on the layout.

 

Wouldn’t it be cool to have something like this in your backyard.