Steam & Excursion > Covid stopped the fun this winter (PM 1225 2-8-4)

1. US Ashley MI 2019-11-30 12:01 6101 PM 1225. I've had this one as wallpaper since I took it last year, and I offer this as promise of things to come true next year. I'll be missing the Polar Express this year.

John.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/20 12:03 by jkh2cpu.

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Covid has pretty well trashed everything.  Gotta stay strong and keep the faith.

Covid-19 is a living organism...
It is a virus, it spreads easily.

We know how to limit its spread.
Too many choose to dare the virus
to “take them out”— with the predictable results.

Stopping the spread is really simple... but, too many dolts refuse
to understand how and fail to participate in a responsible manner.

The virus looks for new hosts everywhere... especially when the ‘carriers’ get in, nice & close, and spit on each other....

Businesses, serving people are
great party places for the virus...
However, we have it within our power to alter how we respond...

We either all respond in a defensive, responsible way...
Or , the virus uses the obstinate folks to propagate itself.

It’s not hard to figure out what works and what promotes the spread...

Facing the truth is not a matter of politics, it’s a matter honesty ....

There are thousands of members of the Flat Earth Society... but the sun rises and sets because we stand
on a sphere, we call the big blue marble. And we haven’t fallen off yet... and the oceans haven’t fallen
Off the edge and into space..

I and my family live in Fairfax, Va.
we are in the age group that’s particularly vulnerable. We use our heads, and avoid creating or being st situations that will propagate the spread, and we wear masks in public... I also wear safety eyewear,
that wraps around the side...

We are preparing for the end of this
outbreak.... but, having been around since 1940, this ain't the first virus we’ve lived thru, & it sure won’t be the last we’ll live through.

There’s Covid’s close-cousins waiting for the next mutations...

Wake-up, America, use your head for something besides a breeding chamber for Covid.

It doesn’t take a genius, to figure it out, it takes ALL folks—- between our two great oceans—- to be CARING...

If we ALL did the same things to stop the spread, we’d get this thing whipped in under 4 weeks..

But, too many can’t seem to get that figured out...

Duh!

I’m looking forward to 2021 with great hope —- to get to visit and support the revival with FEBT RR,
Portland’s Turntable Project,
Sweet times at Sugar Creek,
Etc...

And the completion of so many
Loco projects ... all are a stone’s throw away from completion.

We haven’t been this excited and anticipating in a LONG time..

Be sure to support your passions, give generously of your time and money,

We’re counting on you.. to do the Smart Thing.

This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for Todd and his family for creating and caring for TrainOrders... it’s a wonderful resource and has the very best of contributors and supporters.... how did we ever get here, before T.O. came into being?
Thank you, Todd

( love the updates on the hand car projects).

W.

Posted from iPhone

Well said, Wes!

LJGross Wrote:
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> Well said, Wes!

Amen! Thank you, Wes.

I like the 1225 with its number boards on , just saying !

Thank you for clearly stating what should be obvious.  I hope we can have a mass "cominng to our scenses" style awakening in this nation, so that we can be a unified force against this incidious microbe, while in the process remember our commonality through our mutual vulnerability.  The lessons are right there for those who open their eyes.

I live in Utah and the virus is running wild. Lasy month a cousin died from it and last week My uncle. Today we learnd our grandson has been exposed. Its like its coming at us and there just is nothing to stop it.

Grand Canyon is running Polar Express. Social Distancing, Mask, lots on sanitizing with success. You can run trains if you really want to and not use covid 19 as a reason to not work hard to support the hobby and maybe a career. Hats off to GCRY.  The Center for Disfunctioal Control doesn’t have to run your life. Let common sense rule

Thank you Wes.  As a Cincinnati Health Department employee, the pucker factor is starting to rise.  I currently have two colleagues in the hospital on ventilators with this ghastly virus.  We have 19 others out on quarantine, 11 with positive tests.  And it's only late November.  Please please please!!!!  Distance, mask up properly, wash hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, use hand sanitizer frequently, and use good sense.  Let's whip this thing so we can look back in a year or so with pride that we all did the right thing and protected each other.  That will make the return to normal all that much more special and we'll hopefully share it with the friends and family we have in the past.

this entry was superseded & updated by the post that follows ..

W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/20 19:59 by wcamp1472.

Thank you K8DTI. !!!

Our prayers are with you, as you bravely wage into the fight!  again.
What you have contributed is way more impactful than my humble opinions..
You are living with the FACTS, and with the unending hard work at keeping people 
alive, and encouraging their every small victory, as they struggle to recover. 
That is extreme dedication; we are grateful for that.

And with your truth, I am humbled, but, I'm also deeply appreciative of your 
support.  I am sure that there are thousands of medical colleagues, across America,
of yours that, right now, are up to their necks in endless months of fighting back against this virus.

Thank you so much for your valuable work.  
Also, thank you for your participation on T.O., we're  all 
glad that you read, comment and enjoy the T.O. "community feeling".

Please know that, by the thousands, TrainOrders folks have you in their thoughts and prayers.

Thank you.

Wes Camp



 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/20 20:01 by wcamp1472.

Thanks Wes.  I really appreciate it.  I'll be there for everyone who needs care until this is over or I have fallen.  -  Erik

Hopes and prayers to all frontline health care workers. You have been fighting this dreadful disease for almost a year. You are beyond exhausted physically. The mental toll has been greater, especially to see your colleagues fall ill to this virus. I wish more people used their heads for something other than a way to keep their ears apart. It's not that hard to be safe. There are the rights of others to consider rather than your own rights and ideas. To those who say wearing a mask infringes there rights, does a speed limit on a city street infringe on your right to try to drive like you are on a NASCAR track?

Enough of my rant. Be safe, don't be stupid. From what I have read,we are about halfway through this. I hope that is a long guess.

Wes thanks for your comments.


Sam

Amen to your thoughts. 
Lost my Mom to Covid early on May, a week later my Uncle. 
I'm happy to say I rode the Strasburg multiple times this summer and later the Reading & Northern as well. 
Every trip I took, every whistle that echoed through the valley or the gorge, I cried for my loved ones, and for my country.

Very well stated Wes....I applaud all those that are working to keep us functioning, ALL of them.   For us it will not be a family get togehter Thanksgiving but a safe one.   Arlen

We choose our ‘state of mind’.
Happy, sad, angry, mad, cheerful.

You are responsible for choosing your current ‘state’ —-

The easiest way to improve your state of mind is to change your posture!

When you change your posture,
your brain gets the message that things are changing...

Choose a positive outlook to every life-Event that presents itself...
Positive or Negative....

You’ve gotten through this before, you will handle the current challenge with intelligence, passion and concern.

Be a person who is pleasant to be with.... keep your negative thoughts
in balance.

Feel pity for folks who choose to stay ( stuck) in their negative state of mind. For their own reasons they ‘enjoy’ being in that stuck-state...

For contrast, Imagine Jack Holst’s state of mind every time he crawled under the 4449 when at Oaks Park.
Lo, those many years ago..

That! Is good “state-management”.
It’s very possible that had he NOT done that simple mission, none of what we have in Portland, today, would be here...

With his oil can, he managed his state—- he could get through the rest of his day... now that his mission was completed for that day.

Today, choose to see life’s events
as a person who is alive, and here
to participate...

Become a person who is pleasant to be with and to be around.

Your State of Mind is always yours
to manage, to choose and to inspire..
Be well.

If you’re reading this “message board”, be grateful for your fellow friends, neighbors and survivors.
We are all alive at this moment.

Appreciate every person you encounter... They are handling their own challenges, by themselves,
or with the guidance of friends and
spiritual beliefs..

It’s their choice.

I choose to visit the “Steam board” often—- to see the pics that others knew we would enjoy... They reached out to capture a moment in time... and chose to preserve it and share it.
That’s a minor miracle.

Smoke or no smoke, they caught
steamers in all their ‘states’:
Thundering, idling, hot or cold.

For that, I’m extremely and eternally
grateful..

W.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/20 06:50 by wcamp1472.

I remember a time, not too long ago, when we used to talk about trains on Trainorders. <sigh>

Here's hoping we can get back to that time soon, when all the holier-than-thou virtue-signalers out there can give it a rest - that is until the next crisis comes along...

BTW, great shot of 1225!!

rbenko -  I agree with you 100%!  My railroad interests are an escape from the current insanity out there on all sides!

Ron

Wolfman Wrote:
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> I like the 1225 with its number boards on , just
> saying !

I like it in the photo because it's dirty.....not all shiny ex-works, but a working engine