Monster Hospital, Please Erase Me

Man, I bet these hand soap scents smell fantastic. I can't wait to smell 'Healthcare Personnel'!

No. 

I'm Working On The Railroad, I Dig Away The Time

Man, I forgot about this. The following pictures are of a Lionel train layout that I built in my room in high school. I set this up a couple years at Christmas, and it was kind of an engineering feat as it was only about 4' by 6', but got a decent run in by having much of the track run under my bed at the time. 

Looking back, I managed to cram a decent amount into this little layout. The town, some operating accessories, two separate loops of track and two sidings; I think I did alright.

The unfortunate part is that these are the only pictures of it I managed to save. Somewhere there's some video and supposedly some pictures my grandfather took but I have no idea where to find that. 

Speaking of which, my grandfather was actually pretty impressed by how I designed the thing. It was built with extensions on either side that folded up on hinges to make it easy to put away. 

There's also no going back and setting it up, either. My room is no more; my mom converted it to a craft workshop sometime after I moved into my grandparents' place. And I've been setting up the big layout my grandfather and I used to when I was a kid. I think I featured that in at least one post here on the blorg. 

I Saw The Lizard On The Red Brick Wall

I haven't been to a concert in a while. 

The Gotobeds

That's fixed now. The last two shows I've seen have been Black Mountain and Graveyard at Mr. Smalls; and (yeah, this is a thing) 'Mac Sabbath', a McDonald's-themed Black Sabbath cover band. Both were last year - the only shows I went to all last year. But as soon as I found out GBV was gonna return to Pittsburgh this April, I had to go. 

Guided By Voices

Better yet, I managed to talk a friend into going with me for the first time. When I saw the 'original' lineup at Mr. Smalls on the tour for Cool Planet, nobody was free; and when they came to Spirit in Lawrenceville a few years later, I didn't really press anyone on coming because it didn't seem enough people were interested. The hurdle this time was that the show was scheduled on my sister's birthday. That was awkward, but me and the folks made it work. 

And I am so glad it did work out, because the show was a blast. Better yet, the opening act was a Pittsburgh punk rock band that I'd been wanting to see called The Gotobeds. They were pretty damn wild, and the lead guitarist managed to trip, fall, and snap the headstock off his guitar. But they still sounded good. I'm less familiar with their second and third albums, but everything I've heard off them I've liked. 

Switchman Sleepin', Train 102 Is On The Wrong Track, Headed For You

So back in the fall of 2019 me and the guys went out to Altoona and actually went to Horseshoe Curve. Usually we drive past, don't worry about going up to the park itself; but this time we decided to take a whole day and just sit there and watch. We didn't have the weather on our side, but as for train traffic - we had an epic day.

This post is pretty epic as a result, so to see the whole thing, click here.

Little Toy Trains, Little Toy Tracks

Merry Christmas, yinz guys.

The House Is A-Rockin', Don't Bother Knockin'

As seen at the new employer. 

The stick figure's quizzical expression makes this one special.

The Daughter Of The Sheriff, The Daughter Of The Judge

Sunday before last, I went up to the TCA toy train show at the Shriners' Center over in Cheswick. Somehow I managed to miss the last one as well as the last Greenbergs' show of the year. But I made it and did find a few things worth picking up.

I usually don't pick up K-Line cars, unless they're something I've not seen produced by anyone else or they fit well with the rest of the collection.

On the way home, I made a detour to Brackenridge to see if anything was in the area, and I got a surprise, actually - the NS local was working the mill! Talking to some friends later on, I was informed that this was rare in the extreme, but I have photographic evidence (put the evidence in the car), so...

After the power latched onto their cut of cars, they sat for a couple of minutes. Not having brought my scanner, I figured I'd have a look further upriver, past the Tomsons' Scrap Steel & Iron Division. Occasionally, and if it hasn't yet been scrapped, you can spot an ex-B&LE Coil Coach gondola in the ATI yard, and I haven't managed a good photo of it yet. My hunt for it was interrupted by, of all things, a train blowing for a grade crossing - further upriver! Yes, there was a westbound on the way!

Hightailing it back past the scrapyard and the mill, I parked in a vacant lot just down from the mill, a spot I'd watched trains from countless times before. Under most circumstances, the Conemaugh Line - the NS route that comes up the Allegheny River from the North Shore - is a one-way street, used for eastbound through trains only. The rare westbounds are either the valley local train, or empty coal trains coming back from the power plant at Shelocta, PA. But today's train, strangely, was a loaded coal train. I'm not certain where it was coming from - my understanding is that the trains which originated at the Rosebud mine reached by the now-defunct Kiski Junction Railroad have quit running, and I don't know if Buffalo & Pittsburgh (connecting with NS at Freeport) hands off any coal to NS at the siding between Freeport and Brackenridge these days. 

A GEVO and two Dash-9s were the power for this train. The Dash-9s sounded incredibly chuggy, like the road diesel equivalent of lake pipes or a cherry bomb on the exhaust. It's hard to believe that they're approaching 30 years old!

And I've never before seen three Conrail hoppers together in a generally solid train of Top Gons and newer bathtub gons. There were one or two others in this train, solo. 

Not long after the coal train disappeared around the bend, the local turned his headlights up and his conductor began throwing the switches to the mainline - now it was the local's turn! I had no idea how far down the line he was headed - not far, as we'll see. A trip into the city would have been welcome, though. 

Today's local was powered by two SD40Es and a GP38-3. Both SD40Es were rebuilt from Conrail SD50s, indicated by the older Flexicoil trucks which Conrail preferred on their EMD products - up until EMD was unable to provide any alternative to the HTC trucks that came standard for every other road. Conrail also made the same substitution on their earlier SD40-2s.

The combined total of 8,000 HP seemed overkill for a train of just seven gondolas, which I don't believe were loaded. They didn't have coils, that's for sure. Sometimes ATI ships out coils by rail, and some actually go up the Kiski River to the Vandergrift Mill for additional processing. 

Even though I jumped in the car immediately after the last pic and took off, the local still kept well ahead of me, since I had to contend with the back streets and stop signs of Brackenridge and Tarentum and he didn't. But I caught up with him at the entrance to the West Tarentum yard, waiting for the conductor to line the switches off the main. The train pulled in and tied her down, all done for the day. I was sure of that because there was a crew van waiting in the yard when they pulled in. All in all, it was an interesting episode. 

But I'll have to write up the trip me and the guys took to Horseshoe Curve a month-ish ago, because that was even more interesting!

Oh No, William & Mary Won't Do

As seen on the Penn State campus earlier this year - on the day of the Nittany Lions' first home game, as a matter of fact. 

Wait... as in NCIS Donald Bellisario? 

Apparently, yes. He was a 1961 journalism grad from PSU; and in 2017 he bestowed a $30 million endowment on the university, which prompted them to rename the College of Communications after him, all according to Wikipedia. 

I did always think it clever that his TV production company was named 'Belisarius Prductions' - his last name in Latin transliteration - also the name of a highly successful Eastern Roman general of the 6th century. Bellisario was (something else I didn't know) an enlistee to the Marine Corps in the late 50's. This seems to have influenced his character creation process as a lot of his main characters are Navy and Marine vets.

I also didn't know that he was from Cokeburg, PA, a tiny town in Washington County southwest of Pittsburgh. Cokeburg's Wikipedia page explains that the town was used to film the series finale of another Bellisario creation - Quantum Leap. 

Now I actually want to see that last episode. 

My Mazerati Does 185, I Lost My License And Now I Don't Drive

I hope everyone had a good Christmas holiday! This was one of my better ones. I got a Ferrari LaFerrari and a McLaren P1.

That's a bit misleading. They're built out of Legos. But still! They're neat little models, for minifig-scale supercars. Lego has a new theme called Speed Champions (which the Ferrari and McLaren belong to) that's actually pretty nice. All the cars are real, and very good likenesses for the size and using preexisting Lego pieces. I learned about it by stopping into a Toys 'R Us with my sister's friends one day; they had the Ford Mustang GT, and I liked the look of it enough to say hell with it and pick it up. I've built the LaFerrari already and it was a pretty clever build.

But while building it, I noticed something interesting on the back of the second (yes, there's enough steps involded that the LaFerrari needs two booklets) manual. Look at the lineup of the three cars - middle row, right side.

Ha ha! All the engine blocks are the same size! Get it? GET IT!?

They are, from left to right, the Lego versions of the Porsche 918, the McLaren P1, and the Ferrari LaFerrari. Hmmm... Where have I seen such a lineup before?

Oh. Right. 

Yes, Clarkson, May, and Hammond were working on an epic shootout between these three incredible cars on the Top Gear track, but as Ferrari and McLaren were coming around to the idea, Clarkson was booted and May and Hammond elected to follow. As they have a new show of their own on Amazon TV called The Grand Tour, I'm told they managed to organize the competition in their first episode. Still haven't seen it, or have any idea which car won. Even so... 

Flying Machines In Pieces On The Ground

Maybe I'm just being mean, but there's something I find endlessly amusing about this warning label I saw at work.

Right in the face!

Just as good is this one from my friend Mike. It's out of a power plant he did some contractor work at. At which he did some contractor work. 

Sproing, motherfucker!

She Spread Her Wings, And Then She Was Gone

Various times and places. 

I've no idea what possessed me to assemble this collection. 

Some Girls They Like Fried Green Tomatoes

Really? Fifteen years ago Kings' food was good. Not great, but good. Five years ago, it was kind of mediocre. These days it roils my stomach, and it all has the same aftertaste, which tastes like failure. I have no idea why my grandfather likes the place so much.

But this?

This is a new low. Is Kings' marketing department just whatever second-grade class is nearest? Is this an April Fools' prank that got lost in the shuffle until now? Why, oh why, does the placard say "Money Back Guaranteed" at the bottom? What a terrible restaurant. 

Running Blue, Going So Fast, What'll I Do?

I had a stroke of luck on Sunday. While my grandfather and I were at breakfast that morning, I checked the Heritage Units website to see if anything interesting was in the area. It turned out that we'd missed the Interstate unit while we were eating; but the site also revealed that the Conrail unit was on its way west at the point of an intermodal train!

Before anything else, I happened to catch this intermodal train eastbound.

The trailing units were of note; a shiny, freshly rebuilt SD60E and an uncommon standard-cab C44-9. The standard-cab Dash-9s will likely be getting rare soon, as Norfolk Southern will use them as the basis for DC-to-AC rebuilds, including new wide cabs. I also made a couple new friends - Phil (pictured) and Victoria. They live downtown. I'm a bit jealous.

Then a couple of autorack trains came by.

Strangely, my best shot of this one was a going-away shot.

I actually ended up waiting about an hour and a half for the Conrail unit to arrive, and here she is! I'd seen her previously with NKP 765 and the Pennsy unit on that horseshoe curve excursion a few years back, but seeing her on the road and on the point was a perfect catch.

I don't know why, but seeing the Heritage units start to get a little weathered, a little dusty makes seeing them more interesting. And after all, NS didn't buy them just for show - they're stock locomotives just like their more drab cousins and NS is gonna work them just as hard! 

Platform Ticket, Restless Diesels, Goodbye Windows

I received something in my Christmas stocking this past holiday that threw me for a bit of a loop. It's this train pull-back toy.

The reason I did a double-take when I saw it was its uncanny - and as we will see, surprisingly accurate - resemblance to an EMD SDP35. For a cheap kids' toy, it's a most irregular choice of subject. I say this chiefly because the SDP35 was not widely produced; intended to replace older passenger locomotives and still run as a freight unit if necessary, it only sold 35 units during 1964 and '65. Meanwhile, the standard SD35 sold 360 units in a similar timeframe. (The successive SDP40 and SDP45 models only sold 20 and 18 each, respectively; the 34 'SDP45s' sold to Erie Lackawanna were without steam generators, in order to equip a larger fuel tank than the standard SD45.) Union Pacific ordered ten; finding them inadequate for passenger train service, they used them for freight until their retirement and kept their fleet of EMD E8 passenger locomotives in use until all passenger services were assumed by Amtrak in 1971.

George Elwood

I mention UP's locomotives because this toy is painted reminiscent of UP's color scheme. While logos, lettering and numbering are all a work of fiction, the gray top portion and yellow body are correct, even to the red stripe that separates them (it should, however, be a single stripe, not the paired one on the toy). And 'Power Pacific'? They got it three-quarters right, actually! I count 'Power' for partial credit since Union Pacific was once the buyer of many imposingly massive and powerful locomotives, both steam and diesel.

But better yet is how closely this toy actually matches the real SDP35. Starting with the wheels, it has the early Flexicoil 'C' trucks, and heavy braking option (with one cylinder for each axle on each side - correct for the UP units); while the nose and cab aren't perfect, they are identifiably EMD designs; the traction motor blower duct and hood bulge, as well as the bulge in the steam generator compartment at rear are all present on the fireman's side; and the air intakes, dynamic brake blister at the top center of the hood, radiator shutters and vents for the steam generator at the top rear are all correct as well. The only real glaring error I can see is the radiator fans. The prototype had two larger fans with one smaller fan between them; this has three large fans like the SD40 was built with. The two dynamic brake fans are correct.

Of course, only a complete nerd like me would even notice, but I do find it very interesting that such an obscure prototype was picked for such a relatively unimportant-seeming kid's toy. I know I've seen more than a few based on EMD's much more widely produced F-unit locomotives, which makes more sense - with over 7000 of all F-unit models built, they were a much more common sight on the American railroad scene well into the 1980's. The SDP35 is all but extinct by comparison.