Golden Anniversary

In December, 1959, Lillian flew to El Paso where I was stationed at Ft. Bliss for our wedding. Her flight was mostly filled with women going to Juarez, Mexico, just across from El Paso, for their quickie divorces. Fortunately for me, Lillian didn't listen to their advice. After being married in the Ft. Bliss Chapel, we drove to Las Vegas for our honeymoon. The highlight was seeing Jo Stafford at the Stardust. At that time, the Strip only had one or two casinos, e.g., the Flamingo and Stardust; most of the action was on Fremont St, where we spent a lot of time in the Golden Nugget, getting free drinks and free pictures. Dining then was cheap as were the shows where we could see headliners just for the price of a drink.






















We've been back a number of times, but last December we returned to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. After 50 years, things were really different. We stayed at the Venetian

and dined at the best restaurants. We had a great dinner in the Eiffel Tower restaurant, enjoying the view of the water show at Bellagio, which were spectacular at night.











We celebrated our anniversary by dining within the Venetian and seeing the Phantom of The Opera. Excellent meal and a terrific performance.






The night before we had seen Crazy Girls, a topless show featuring five girls featuring reformatted boobs; plastic surgery at its worst. Here I'm standing by the famous bronze statutes of the Crazy Girls. The picture ext to it we are in a bar in an auto museum.















In the Bellagio they had nice Christmas decorations, including a G-scale model railroad. The Wynn was also nicely decorated as this picture of Lillian shows.



Meanwhile within the Venetian, there were many fine places to dine or drink.












The next night we saw Cher at Caesar's Palace; typical Cher with fantastic costumes and including nostalgia videos with Sunny and Chastity. Here we are dining in Caesar's palace just before seeing Cher.






















We took a ride to Fremont St and saw the Golden Nugget, but it had significantly changed from when we were there 50 years ago as the picture with Lill below standing on Fremont Street shows.














Fremont St is now a pedestrian only street with a cover over it; not the hub of activity of days gone by.




On our last night we saw a Las Vegas Jubilee, a girly review, at Bally's which was real nice. It featured lots of beautiful topless girls in extravagant costumes, one of whom has me in her clutches.





As we flew home, we got a great view of the Hoover Dam. When we were there on our honeymoon, we visited the dam and took many pictures which later became know as our dam pictures.

Garden Railroad Progressing Nicely

Been working hard on the railroad most of October under Millie's supervision.









I changed my layout from one to two main lines and made the outer one from a larger diameter radius track. This was necessitated when I purchased a new Aristocraft SD-45 CSX diesel engine at the Central Florida RR show early in Oct. When I got home, I found out that the curvature of my existing track was too tight for the new engine, so I got a wider radius curve track and decided to expand my set up to two main lines, so that the diesel runs on the outer loop while my Bachmann 4-6-0 steam engine runs on the inner loop. I had to clear out a lot of dirt and plants to make way for the change. Made a number of trips to get stone dust and small-size gravel for the bed and borrow on several occasions a wheel barrow. I also made a scalloped red brick wall around the garden area so that the rain does not wash the mulch onto the track.

Below are some pictures showing my progress.









The pictures below show the finished layout.

It features an Alaska RR on the inner loop, a reminder of our great trip to Alaska and a CSX RR on the outer loop.























Don't some of these scenes look real? I particularly like the one above where the CSX is turning the bend around the mountain with the water in the background.















I made a red brick wall around the garden part and added some SMALL plants. As can be seen in pictures of my old layout, Most of what was there was getting just too big and were transplanted. If you look closely, you can see some the the roses I planted climbing up the trellis.

To run the CSX diesel, I converted it to battery power. I got the necessary parts - QSI board, G2 receiver, batteries, and connectors - while at the Florida train show early Oct. I also had to buy an Aristocraft CSX box car to house the batteries. This was done so that the coupler on the battery car lines up with that on the engine. Below you can see the battery installation in the box car. To the left are the batteries, held in place by velcro. At the door enclosed in the black box are the necessary controls: fuse at top, on/off switch with red led on left, and the jack for charging on the right. This is the car just behind the CSX diesel locomotive.











Earlier in the year I had my Bachmann 2-6-0 steam locomotive converted to battery power. The battery pack and the necessary electronics are housed in the tender. The electronics comprise a receiver to recive the signals from the hand held controller, a QSI board that controls the sound and the engine speed, a speaker along with a switch, fuse and charging jack. The difference between this and the CSX setup is that in the CSX all the electronics are incorporated in the engine while the batteries are located in the trailing box car. This is a nice feature about Aristocraft engines.

Springfield, IL -Lincoln, train stations, and railroads

Our trip from Cheyenne to Springfield was interrupted by a broken windshield while traveling through Nebraska. As a result, we went to the Winnebago factory in Forrest City, IA where we had it replaced. This took about two extra days and 200 extra miles. So, we arrived in Springfield on Friday instead of Wednesday, after having gone a total of 4,827 miles. This turned out to be a lucky break for us, as they had a tornado near the campground on Wednesday. Below is a picture of some of the damage near the campground.

Lincoln's Springfield is s very nice city, it abounds with Lincoln sites, statues and signage. Below left is a scene within the Lincoln Museum in which we are joined by the Lincoln family before the White House. The museum, shown in the 2nd from left, is one of the finest presidential museums I've visited. It was completed in 2005 in anticipation of Lincoln's 200th anniversary. The picture on the right is in the state legislature, now a museum, where the characteristic hat designates Lincoln's seat.











The replica White House is a very interesting display that shows Lincoln's White House years. Within the Museum there is also a replica of the Kentucky cabin in which he was raised as a boy. Exhibits there depict his rise from boyhood to politician.


















In the picture above, right, I'm standing with Lincoln in front of the old Springfield RR station which is now a visitor's information center. Railroads are associated with Lincoln throughout his life. As a lawyer with knowledge of railroads, he represented the Rock Island Railroad Company in a suit by a steamboat company which was trying to recover damages from "Effie Afton" collision with a railroad bridge. This was a pivotal case in Lincoln's career and solidified his reputation as a great trial lawyer. Interestingly, this case also involved Jefferson Davis who was at that time Secretary of War. When Lincoln was first elected, he used a train to travel from Springfield, via several northern states, including NY to look up a young girl who in a letter to him suggested he'd look better with a beard, to Washington, DC. The station, pictured below, also served to receive his coffin when his body was returned to Springfield after his assassination in 1865.









While President, Lincoln supported the expansion of railroads to open the West and signed legislation enabling this. Springfield also has lots of Lincoln signage and hats with varied decorations. Below is a sampling.







In this one, we see Obama as a Lincoln wanabe. I don't know who was behind this one, but I certainly don't appreciate this depiction.






While in Springfield, we visited the Monticello Railroad Museum, which is located about 75 miles east. We toured the yards and took a short train ride. This museum, run by volunteers, is the best private RR museum that I've ever seen. The tracks and bed are in pristine shape, the facilities to repair and refurbish trains are absolutely marvelous. I recommend that anyone interested in trains visit this museum, it's a worth while trip, on par with Steamtown.

As shown below inside the locomotive shop, the museum is restoring ex-Southern Railway steam locomotive #401. This locomotive, built in 1907 has a 2-8-0 wheel arrangement with a total weight of 82 tons. The tender holds 7,200 gallons of water. The restoration is nearly complete, the major difference from the original is the use of cosmetic rivits and oil rather than coal. Currently, they are evaluating the use of biodiesel, soybeen/vegetable oil, or waste oil.












Below, I'm climbing into the cab of #1189, a 1953 F-7A GMD diesel that used to run on the Wabash line. This will be pulling our train for a short ride. In the other pictures, you can see us standing by some of the cars on display in their yard. Note the beautiful bed on which the cars rest.















Below is the restored Illinois Central station at the museum.










The museum has over 14 miles of track and currently leases some of it, along a parallel line to its operating line, to store rail cars at $2/day per car. Considering that 100 or more cars are stored there, that's over $200/day income. You can visit their site at: www.mrym.org


Well, this was our last stop on our trip out west. We started with the Grand National Rally at the Winnebago Factory, went on to Theodore Roosevelt National Park by Medora, ND, continued on to Glacier National Park and Cheyenne, and finished in Springfield. After Springfield, we traveled 892 miles home, arriving in Sun City at 6:30pm, August 25, 2009. We traveled a total distance of 5,718 miles from home in our motor home. I also put abut 1,500 miles on our Honda. After having driven a total of over 7,200 miles in 47 days, 153 miles each day, I was happy to be home for a rest.