Of course Mom and Dad headed out as soon as the Yule Log burned out and Greg and Becky made it out Friday, I tried something new and drug the trailer to the Ranch in the morning so I could make a quicker getaway on Friday myself. Dad had the GE 47 tonner and Greg brought out the Plymouth which hasn't been to JT in a few seasons. I brought out the 4-4-0 with it's new trim. Saturday Jeff and Kevin Tolan rolled in with a Suburban full of rolling stock and the Pacific Electric box cab. John Griffin has been using the Edwards Freight Motor for maintenance and hauling fill up to the turntable sight, a lot has been ran up the hill in the last month. Saturday we had four trains running for a bit, never any pressure to do anything but enjoy the weekend. Saturday Night was the Carne Burn, Jerry McPheeters furnished the Carne Asada for a local Market and we all gorged on that for the evening. Sunday the Tolan's rolled up shop and went back to town, two days was enough.
Monday rolled around and a trip into town yielded a phone number of our roofer that did the station. We needed to do something about the engine house before it got to far away from us. The Maywalds rolled into town for a few days of fun at the tracks with their new RV. Doug and Bailey can handle the trailer floor but Mom and the girls like it a little fluffier. RGS 20 was in the trailer as well as their MP1500. Monday afternoon we set up a picture in the Van Wingen Yard as we had six locomotives to fill the tracks down there. Monday afternoon Matt rolled in from Chula Vista by way of Nacimiento.
Tuesday Lonnie from Elite Roofing rolled in and we talked roofing for a bit and agreed to get the roof finished on the engine house. We had to finish the front trim yet and peel the old tar paper and nails off and out of the way for them as they would be back Friday. Lonnie wasn't out of sight down the road and a crew was on the roof stripping the roof. It took a little longer to get the materials for the front trim but we had it all done except for paint in a little over two hours. Still plenty of time to run a train or two before sunset. The hourly train rides on New Years Eve started at 7:00 and lasted till 12:00 I made a few. New Years Day was just a nice a day as all the rest, in fact the whole week had been beautiful. Warm enough for a t-shirt during the day and not frightfully cold at night either. The breeze that tormented the Southland was not evident where we were.
Thursday it was just Matt and the folks as most of us had jobs. The paint was applied on the front of the engine house and Friday morning the roofers came. The job was impressive and done quickly. Saturday was another beautiful day as I rolled in Friday night again for one last day or two of the week. We did a lot of little projects throughout the week and enjoyed ourselves in the process. We got in a little surveying on the high line to get a feel for where we have to be on the hill. It is going to be an engineering feat as they say. With the Mid Winter Meet coming up real soon we hope to see you out there. See you then.
Here is a link to the pictures. I have found it best to right click and open a new tab for the link. I never profess to know these computers, I just find ways to work around their quirks. https://picasaweb.google.com/Ratsgarage/NewYearsWeekends2014AtJoshuaTree?authuser=0&feat=directlink
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