Brian R. Hitchcock

Latest Updates

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Model Railroading

Model Railroading — Blog Post #14
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Model Railroading

Model Railroading — Blog Post #13
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Model Railroading

Model Railroading — Blog Post #12

Model Railroading

DB Class E03, DB Class 103, TEE locomotive, Marklin 3053, Marklin 3054

Model Railroading — Blog Post #14

Posted: June 18, 2017 at 4:00 am / Model Railroading

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 […]

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BLS, SBB, ROBEL Powered Track Car, Märklin 39548, Lötschberg Tunnel, Simplon Tunnel

Model Railroading — Blog Post #13

Posted: June 11, 2017 at 4:00 am / Model Railroading

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 […]

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Model Railroading — Blog Post #12

Posted: June 4, 2017 at 4:00 am / Model Railroading

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 […]

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Class 44, class 44 DVD, class 85, Eisenbahn Journal 2 2015, European Railway Notes

Model Railroading — Blog Post #11

Posted: May 14, 2017 at 4:00 am / Model Railroading

For details on this blog, please click here! ETE BayArea Newsletter April 2017 European Railway Notes Last time I described the region free DVD player I got to view my Channel Tunnel BluRay and the DVD of the class 44 from a magazine I ordered from Germany. This time I want to talk more about […]

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Eurostar DVD, Chunnel, Channel Tunnel, Region Free DVD Player

Model Railroading — Blog Post #10

Posted: May 7, 2017 at 4:00 am / Model Railroading

For details on this blog, please click here! ETE BayArea Newsletter March 2017 European Railway Notes I’ve been on the Eurostar traveling from London to Paris and back through the Channel Tunnel. As a passenger you see the countryside going by but you don’t get to see what the line looks like, the turnouts, the […]

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Model Railroading — Blog Post #9

Posted: April 30, 2017 at 4:00 am / Model Railroading

For details on this blog, please click here! ETE Express Newsletter January 2016 Multiple versions of the Marklin Info-Tage car 2014? I have been collecting the Marklin Info-Tage cars since the 2009 tank car. I like the cars since they are all related to locomotive servicing. For 2014, the Info-Tage car was a powdered freight […]

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European Railway Notes, Tunnels, Channel Tunnel, adit, construction railway

Model Railroading — Blog Post #8

Posted: March 26, 2017 at 2:52 pm / Model Railroading

For details on this blog, please click here! European Railway Notes Febuary 2017 Tunnels Part 2 So what do we do when we need to move things around while we are building a railway tunnel? We build another railway of course! It is, after all, all about railways! While the Channel Tunnel was being built, […]

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European Railway Notes, Tunnels, Channel Tunnel, channel tunnel geology

Model Railroading — Blog Post #7

Posted: March 19, 2017 at 2:41 pm / Model Railroading

For details on this blog, please click here! European Railway Notes January 2017 Tunnels Part 1 Tunnels for railways seem like a pretty straight forward concept. To connect two places with a railway, when those places have mountains in between them, you think about a tunnel. Ideally, you’d build this tunnel in a straight line […]

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Volunteering

Volunteering — Blog Post #16

Posted: May 28, 2017 at 4:00 am / Volunteering

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. […]

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Volunteering — Blog Post #15

Posted: May 21, 2017 at 4:00 am / Volunteering

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 […]

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Volunteering — Blog Post #14

Posted: April 23, 2017 at 4:00 am / Volunteering

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 […]

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Volunteering — Blog Post #13

Posted: April 16, 2017 at 4:00 am / Volunteering

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 […]

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Volunteering — Blog Post #12

Posted: April 9, 2017 at 4:01 am / Volunteering

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 […]

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Volunteering — Blog Post #11

Posted: April 8, 2017 at 4:47 pm / Volunteering

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 […]

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Volunteering — Blog Post #10

Posted: February 19, 2017 at 7:37 pm / Volunteering

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 […]

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Volunteering — Blog Post #9

Posted: February 11, 2017 at 6:57 pm / Volunteering

For details on this blog, please click here! Oct 24, 2015 With the Train of Lights coming soon, the need to have the right of way clear of any and all trees and brush was a time sensitive matter. We don’t want any of the lights on the outside of the TOL being pulled off […]

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Current Book Project

Adult Child of an Alcoholic, ACoA, Borderline Personality Disorder, BPD, Finding Peace, One Patient's Journey, Therapy For the Adult Child of an Alcoholic

Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #61

Posted: April 4, 2016 at 3:00 am / Current Book Project

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 […]

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Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #60

Posted: March 28, 2016 at 3:00 am / Current Book Project

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 […]

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Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #59

Posted: March 21, 2016 at 3:00 am / Current Book Project

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 […]

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Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #58

Posted: March 14, 2016 at 3:00 am / Current Book Project

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 […]

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Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #57

Posted: March 7, 2016 at 3:00 am / Current Book Project

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 […]

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Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #56

Posted: February 29, 2016 at 3:00 am / Current Book Project

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 […]

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Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #55

Posted: February 22, 2016 at 3:00 am / Current Book Project

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 […]

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Finding Peace — Manuscript Post #54

Posted: February 15, 2016 at 3:00 am / Current Book Project

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 […]

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My Writing Process

My Writing Process — Blog Post #3

Posted: July 19, 2015 at 2:57 pm / My Writing Process

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 […]

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My Writing Process — Blog Post #2

Posted: July 19, 2015 at 2:53 pm / My Writing Process

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 […]

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My Writing Process — Blog Post #1

Posted: May 25, 2015 at 6:50 pm / My Writing Process

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 […]

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Self Publishing

Self Publishing — Blog Post #3

Posted: July 22, 2015 at 4:00 am / Self Publishing

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 […]

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Self Publishing — Blog Post #2

Posted: July 21, 2015 at 4:00 am / Self Publishing

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 […]

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Self Publishing — Blog Post #1

Posted: July 20, 2015 at 4:00 am / Self Publishing

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 […]

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Traditional Publishing

Traditional Publishing — Blog Post #3

Posted: July 29, 2015 at 4:00 am / Traditional Publishing

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 […]

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Traditional Publishing — Blog Post #2

Posted: July 28, 2015 at 4:00 am / Traditional Publishing

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 […]

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Traditional Publishing — Blog Post #1

Posted: July 27, 2015 at 4:00 am / Traditional Publishing

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 […]

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Ongoing Recovery

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 want to keep, and what I don't, and actually getting rid of stuff. I don't need to keep everything from the past and I want to make room for new projects. For anything that I think the boys might want, I take photos and email them and they confirm they don't what whatever it is. This was the first Christmas that both of our boys were not at home. I knew it would be different and it was. I was fine until around lunch time, when, suddenly, I could hear both of them riding around the yard. Then I as sad. I comes in waves, the sadness. I will never hear that again. I'm not sure why that makes me sad, thinking about things that will never happen again, but it does. After Christmas we drove to visit our youngest at college. He was involved with the Rose Parade and he got tickets for us to attend. It was wonderful to see him working on the float, to see how independent he was. It is a milestone when your child drives you around Los Angeles. I wasn't concerned, he gave me no reason to, and when I could put aside the strangeness of it all, it was simple nice not to have to worry about how to get from here to there. I saw a lot more of the scenery than I usually do. I had been making notes pretty regularly since I left therapy, but I notice that it has been tailing off. My symptoms have been virtually gone. Some mornings my throat feels sensitive or sore, but very slightly and it goes away as soon as I'm focused on anything else. Missing the boys comes on suddenly, when I see photos of them for example, and I get sad, but it does fade through the day. With the boys gone, I have more time for projects. I've been spending time trying to understand how to setup my new website, which involves many very mundane technical issues. I can see why many people just get a free website with WordPress, but I wanted to see how it all works, and I'm getting that experience. I spend more time working on projects that I enjoy, that aren't needed by anyone else. I have made lots of progress on my model train layout, working out lots of details, building things, making mistakes, trying again, enjoying the process instead of worrying about the outcome. I sat outside for the first time in a long time. The daffodils in the garden always bloom around the time of our youngest's birthday. I get sad about them being gone, but the daffodils are beautiful, the colors so intense, my mind wanders and I feel better. The flowers move in the wind, I can hear the wind chimes, it's relaxing to watch and hear. I had a week where I was really anxious, but nothing bad had happened. I did have a lot of deadlines coming up, but they were all things I had volunteered for. Elsie called, she had read all of my manuscript over the holidays. She said what I wrote was touching, she was very encouraging. She didn't comment on what I wrote or how it was organized. I wanted her to read it to make sure I didn't write anything that would upset he, or anything that might mislead anyone that reads it. She asked how the publishing process was going and we discussed how I was working with an editor and setting up my own website. She was very supporting and I promised I would get my book published and get her a copy! I feel bad sometimes, that I haven't published my book by now. At the same time, I've started to see it differently. I have relaxed a lot about deadlines. I'm doing this project because I want to, and while I very much want to complete my book, I don't have to worry so much about when I get it done. No one is waiting, and none of my dependents will be hurt if I take longer than I planned to get this done. I don't know how many people will really care about what I have written, but, if what I wrote could help even one person, I would like that person to be able to find my book. I think about this often, and recently it dawned on me, that one person that could be helped by what I have written is me. Therapy has many duh! moments and this was one of them that came years after I was done with my sessions. I also think it helped, when my wife read my manuscript, she knew a lot more about what I had experienced and how therapy had helped me. Instead of worrying about what I hadn't accomplished, it was good to realize that I my book had already helped two people. I had already met my goal of helping people, I just needed to see it. It has also helped to work on my website. Having to stop working on my book to spend time on a website is delaying me, but it's good to write about the many things that interest me. I still want to publish my book, but it isn't the only writing project I have going on, and that's good. Making progress on multiple writing projects takes the pressure off completing any one of them. When I was told I had to create a website to promote my writing, I was disappointed. But I listened to the advice, and I found reasources, both online and in a book, that helped me realize it was a great outlet for writing about other things I am working on. It continues to work, as it did when I went to therapy, to seek advice from people that know more than I do, to take in that advice, even when it isn't what I want to hear, to let the emotions run their course and then try what I was advised to do and see what happens. Once again, good things are coming from seeking and applying advice from others.

Ongoing Recovery — Blog Post #3

Posted: August 5, 2015 at 4:00 am / Ongoing Recovery

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 […]

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Ongoing Recovery, Symptoms After Therapy

Ongoing Recovery — Blog Post #2

Posted: August 4, 2015 at 4:00 am / Ongoing Recovery

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 […]

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Ongoing Recovery — Blog Post #1

Posted: August 3, 2015 at 4:00 am / Ongoing Recovery

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 […]

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Book Reviews

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

Posted: January 9, 2016 at 4:00 am / Book Reviews

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 […]

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Book Review #1 — Publishing 101: A First-Time Author’s Guide to Getting Published

Posted: January 8, 2016 at 4:00 am / Book Reviews

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 […]

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Product/Service Reviews