Model Railroading Blog Post #17
ETE_BayArea_Newsletter_September_2017, Brian Hitchcock Playing cards for switch lists My first presentation at EuroWest 2017 was about a small layout that doesn’t take much time or space. To make a small layout more interesting, you want to do as much switching as possible, and to do this, you want to have some form of list of […]
Märklin Magazin — A Brief History
Click here to view my presentation Märklin Magazin — A Brief History
I don’t have time or space for a layout…or do I?
Click here to view my presentation on a small layout I don’t have time or space for a layout…or do I?
Model Railroading Blog Post #16
For details on this blog, please click here! ETE_BayArea_Newsletter_August_2017, Brian Hitchcock Märklin Magazin car 1986 EuroWest 2017 was wonderful and I enjoyed presenting both days. I think people assume you can’t create and give a presentation unless you are an expert in some area. I disagree. From my experience, the magic of doing a presentation […]
Model Railroading Blog Post #15
For details on this blog, please click here! ETE_BayArea_Newsletter_August_2017, Brian Hitchcock I really like my Brawa PEZ cars shown in Photos 1-3 and I was wondering if the PEZ company ever had real box cars for shipping their products. I looked online and found the PEZ website us.pez.com. Under the history tab I learned that […]
Model Railroading — Blog Post #14
For details on this blog, please click here! ETE_Express_Apr_2017, Brian Hitchcock I have always thought of the class 103 locomotive as the locomotive that powered the TEE trains. I still remember this locomotive from the cover of the 1966/67 catalog (Photo 1). The feature of this loco that I always remembered was the single row […]
Model Railroading — Blog Post #13
For details on this blog, please click here! ETE_BayArea_Newsletter_May_2017, Brian Hitchcock European Railway Notes ETE member Dave Cowl sent me more photos from his travels in Switzerland, along the BLS line between Interlaken and Zweisimmen. Interlaken is between the lakes Thunersee and Brienzersee. Zweisimmen is about an hour west of Interlaken on the way to […]
Model Railroading — Blog Post #12
For details on this blog, please click here! ETE BayArea Newsletter May 2017 European Railway Notes I received several photos from ETE member Dave Cowl showing the new Gotthard Base Tunnel emergency trains. The photos were taken in the stations of Erstfeld and Bellinzona in Switzerland. The tunnel’s north end is in the city of […]
Volunteering — Blog Post #17
August 05, 2017 The first Saturday of the month came around again, as it always does, and it was time to head out to the east end of the line to continue our push toward Pleasanton. We put down and joined four more panels of 132lb (head free) rail as we progress toward the Happy […]
Volunteering — Blog Post #16
For details on this blog, please click here! May 06, 2017 It was the first Saturday of the month, so it must have been time to add to the railway again. We continued building track, but this time, we didn’t have any more 136lb rail track panels. We had to build the track from pieces. […]
Volunteering — Blog Post #15
For details on this blog, please click here! April 01 and 15, 2017 Track Building continued as we placed six more panels. These were the last panels of the 136 pound rail (136-lbs per yard) that we have. Next time we will have to ‘stick build’ the track, laying ties, tie plates, rails and then […]
Volunteering — Blog Post #14
For details on this blog, please click here! March 04, 2017 It was time, once again, to add more track panels to the east end of the railway. We started to prepare the MOW train to leave Brightside yard and I noticed two very new and very shiny MOW push cars. Why do we work […]
Volunteering — Blog Post #13
For details on this blog, please click here! February 04, 2017 – by Brian Hitchcock Last month we got the sections of panel track ready to be added to the line east of Verona crossing, and this month, it was time to place as many of those panels as we could. With the Burro crane […]
Volunteering — Blog Post #12
For details on this blog, please click here! January 14, 2017 It’s a new year and that means it’s time to return to building track east of Verona. With the panels that have already been placed east of the Verona crossing the track extends east about a quarter mile from the UP overcrossing. Last month’s […]
Volunteering — Blog Post #11
For details on this blog, please click here! TOL Niles Parking November December 2016 I worked the Niles parking lot four times during the 2016 TOL season. This was my second season of parking lot duty so I was more familiar with what needed to be done. Our job is to help our guests get […]
Volunteering — Blog Post #10
For details on this blog, please click here! Dec 20, 2015 I wanted to help with TOL so I decided to volunteer for the Niles parking lot. I arrived early to meet with the other volunteers and find out how I could help. The Niles parking lot is long and narrow, broken up into several […]
Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #61
For details on this blog, please click here! –Sessions: 52 of 53 Monday, July 26, 2010 11:00am Blood Donation, Apheresis, Number 320, 40 Gallons I had life insurance and at least once a year the insurance company would send me an offer to increase the amount of my coverage. The form to apply for more […]
Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #60
For details on this blog, please click here! –Sessions: 51 of 53 Monday, July 12, 2010 11:00am Blood Donation, Apheresis, Number 319 I told Elsie about my son coming home from college for the summer. He had been living in the dorms. He liked to get omelets in the dining commons. Before he went to […]
Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #59
For details on this blog, please click here! –Sessions: 49 of 53 Monday, May 17, 2010 11:00am Blood Donation, Apheresis, Number 315 I discussed with Elsie my symptoms during the previous week. Elsie asked what had been happening during the week. The company where I was working had been acquired and I was transitioning to […]
Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #58
For details on this blog, please click here! –Sessions: 47 of 53 Monday, April 19, 2010 11:00am Blood Donation, Apheresis, Number 311 I told Elsie about my reply to Pop, thanking him for the clarity of his refusal to help me pay the accumulated debts, Crackle’s email describing how she suspected she had been played […]
Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #57
For details on this blog, please click here! I knew what I wanted to do, and I put in the time and money to make it happen. I didn’t do any of this expecting my siblings to help. Therefore, I wasn’t mad when none of them helped with the expenses. I did however make sure […]
Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #56
For details on this blog, please click here! –Sessions: 46 of 53 Monday, April 5, 2010 11:00am I told Elsie about Snap trying to get the refunds from the nursing home and the collections agency for himself. I felt I had been cheated. She told me that what Snap did wasn’t about me, he didn’t […]
Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #55
For details on this blog, please click here! –Sessions: 45 of 53 Monday, March 22, 2010 11:00am I reviewed Pop’s latest email. Elsie spoke clearly and to the point. Pop brought up many irrelevant topics in his email to justify his lack of involvement. If he really didn’t feel guilt over his lack of involvement […]
Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #54
For details on this blog, please click here! –Sessions: 44 of 53 Monday, March 8, 2010 11:00am I reviewed Pop’s latest emails with Elsie. She wasn’t amused. She said Pop could just send a check for one-quarter of the overall expenses if he wanted to help, no need for all the story. We discussed what […]
My Writing Process — Blog Post #3
For details on this blog, please click here! I wanted to be able to look at the PDF files of my notes at the same time I was writing in Notes on my iPad. My PC had dual monitors, so if I was using my PC I could open the PDF docs on one monitor […]
My Writing Process — Blog Post #2
For details on this blog, please click here! At the same time I was working on the project to bring together my recliner, workstation and dual monitor swing arms, I wanted to be able to write a lot. After many delays, I really wanted to start writing my book. During this same time, I got […]
My Writing Process — Blog Post #1
For details on this blog, please click here! When I was deciding what to blog about I found a book on Amazon, “Blogging for Writers” by Robin Houghton. Among a list of specific topics for blog posts, I was surprised to find ‘My Writing Process’. I wouldn’t have thought this would be of interest to […]
Self Publishing — Blog Post #3
For details on this blog, please click here! While I was looking for a WordPress theme, for the second time, I kept checking to make sure Yahoo had turned off my website. I wanted to be sure that when someone searched for my site, they would get sent to my new site, not the old […]
Self Publishing — Blog Post #2
For details on this blog, please click here! I found all of this overwhelming. My GoDaddy package included ‘DNS Management’, but I didn’t know if I needed that or not. Yes, I know what DNS means, but I don’t know when or if my website would need it. I have a lot of experience with […]
Self Publishing — Blog Post #1
For details on this blog, please click here! When my manuscript contained all the material I wanted to include, I started looking into the options for publishing. I had looked online a few times but I had been focused on writing to this point. With 125,000 words in place I had to decide what to […]
Traditional Publishing — Blog Post #3
For details on this blog, please click here! After a week or so, my manuscript returned in another FedEx envelope. As soon as I picked it up, I could tell something was different. I could feel a lump inside the envelope. I was sure this lump was not present when I sent my manuscript to […]
Traditional Publishing — Blog Post #2
For details on this blog, please click here! It wasn’t long before I heard from the publisher. The person that had run the meeting at Sybase was an Acquisitions Editor and he emailed me. He told me that my sample chapter was good and now, he wanted six hundred pages more. I was excited, but […]
Traditional Publishing — Blog Post #1
For details on this blog, please click here! Authors have more options to get published than they used to. In the past, an author had to convince a publisher to take their work and physically print it. This made the publishers the gatekeepers controlling what was published. While that is no longer the case, and […]
Ongoing Recovery — Blog Post #3
For details on this blog, please click here! I continue to cleanup things around the house. This is relevant in that a lot of what needs to be dealt with either belonged to the boys or reminds me of them in some way. I get sad about it sometimes, but I keep identifying what I […]
Ongoing Recovery — Blog Post #2
For details on this blog, please click here! As I volunteered more often at the railway, and as I saw what was needed, I did offer to help with things that interested me. I was told that they needed someone to make presentations at the membership meetings and I offered to do so. I got […]
Ongoing Recovery — Blog Post #1
For details on this blog, please click here! It is August of 2014, it has been four years since my last therapy session. Of all the symptoms that I had when I first went to therapy, only one continues. My throat still feels sore from time to time, usually when I’m stressed and anxious. There […]
Book Review #2 — WordPress To Go – How To Build A WordPress Website On Your Own Domain, From Scratch, Even If You Are A Complete Beginner
I had never worked with WordPress before, so when I was told I had to setup a website of my own for blogging and posting my writing projects, I knew I needed help to get started. There are many books available, but I chose this one because it said it was specifically for the complete […]
Book Review #1 — Publishing 101: A First-Time Author’s Guide to Getting Published
Reading this book forced me to review why I was writing and why I wanted to publish. I now have a much more focused plan and I know why I’m pursuing all of this. I found Ms. Friedman while I was working on my manuscript and searching for advice about copyright issues. The article I […]
Replacing a Roof — Blog Post #2
Visible Roof Damage Before we even had the roof examined to get an estimate for the repair work needed, we could see a number of problems. Both photos below were taken after the wind storm but before any repair work had started. In Photo 1, in the ovals I’ve drawn on the photo, you can […]
Replacing a Roof — Blog Post #1
When I suddenly needed roof repair, I went online, and the information I wanted most was how much does a new roof cost and how long will it take. Everyone’s roof is different, and each roofing project will have different requirements and costs, but, in general, a new roof is about $15,000 and takes about […]