Mark 8:15

And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.

Marklin 3 rail HO/OO turnout...

...a junk box freebie, a pair were given to me because they were missing parts. Eager to get them working again, I'd give them an occasional stern look or two for the next 5 years.


Overcome with a mechanical epiphany two nights ago, I immediately assaulted a variety of wires and springs in my parts bins. After flaying the entrails of several paperclips closing in on a working cure, I came up with this...


Once installed, it looked like this...


Don't ask for measurements...if you want one, I'll bend it out for you and you can play from there.

"It's a boy..."

She was sixteen when she found out she was pregnant by a man 5 years older than her.

Now, barely 17, she lay in a maternity ward, as labor--a breach birth trying to come out shoulder first--went into its sixty fifth hour.

The doctor, an old family friend and a devout man, was at a loss for what to do. The strain of labor was killing the mother and the techniques and technology of the day left few options. He spent the remainder of the night in the hospital chapel, on his knees in prayer, begging God for an answer his own skills could not provide.

At 8:00 a.m. the next morning, he arose from that altar, at peace with God but resolved to having to kill the baby to save the young mother's life. He simply believed there was no other recourse as he walked down the hall and stepped into the room. By then though, the baby, a boy, had straightened out and was quickly delivered at around 8:30 a.m., one month premature and with obvious signs of a brain hemorrhage showing up in his left eye.

In critical condition for some time, he spent his first month in an incubator, a fairly new medical instrument then. The learning curve included the possibility of the baby being blinded by too much oxygen in the machine. After leaving the hospital and for the next few months, the boy was nursed back to health by a doting grandmother while her daughter-in-law recovered from the trauma of labor.

The young mother went on to have 4 more children, one boy, three girls--including the boy's Irish twin sister born 11 months after that first traumatic labor--, before the mother was called home by the Lord 2 years ago.

That boy was me, 52 years ago, on February 20, 1960...

Matthew 10:24-31

The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.

What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Oh, that we may have grace every one of us to flee to Christ! There is our only safety. Simple faith in Jesus is the basis for the character which will evidence at last that you are chosen of God. A simple belief in the merit of the Lord Jesus, wrought in us by the Holy Ghost, is the rocky foundation upon which shall be built up, by the same divine hands, the character which shall evidence that the kingdom was prepared for us from before the foundations of the world. God work in us such a character, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Great Assize," delivered August 25, 1872.

Fleischmann HO scale 4 wheel "bobber" caboose...

...or..."How to replace missing smoke jacks, using Kadee coupler casting sprues, without using words."

Alco Models HO scale Union Pacific ALCO C-855...

...well...the drive train anyway, part of a recent box load of ancient HO history...


Included were these two Lindsay "Teaspoon of Power" drives, the L-140 HO gauge 4 wheel power unit with flywheel and the L-142 single end motor. The little boogers are rated for 1.5 amps, enough to fry three of anything offered today. The L-140 has an ingenious design that allows it to extend its wheelbase .170" to fit a variety of models. The gear box simply slides along the long end where the flywheel is, then locks in place with a set screw. The flywheel can also be flipped to make for more room as needed.

Lindsay Products...

...just a sniff of the box load of model railroading history that landed in my lap this week...

IHC HO scale Fairbanks Morse C-Liner...

The best improvement one can make to low end motive power is to increase power pickup, thus sending pure, unobstructed juice to the already handicapped motors they come with. Fortunately, IHC made it easy to do...they simply were too chintzy to put an extra set of wipers and wire in. They did however, put in all the necessary details to add a set yourself...

Note the bracket holding the stock wiper...


...is present on the sides with no wipers...


...making it simply a matter of fabricating another pair, mounting them like the stock ones, and wiring them in...


...just make sure to clean the excess flux of the soldered joints...


...and that your wiring is properly oriented.



The results are fantastic, it crawls through plastic turnout frogs without stalling and has much better low speed control. Because it now has eight wheel pickup, it is also not as easily affected by dirty track.

Matthew 6:24-34

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

February 1960 Model Railroader magazine cover....

...my birth month and year...apparently remembered as one of their worst covers ever.

...sigh...

Malichi 3:8-18

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.

Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

Hasbro Optimus Prime Voyager class "Dark of the Moon"...

...yes, like my son, I think Transformers are very cool, "Ironhide" being my favorite. However, my son bought that one, driving my decision to retaliate by buying his favorite. He comes in a Walmart exclusive bonus pack with "Comettor", a fellow Autobot that is very cool looking as well.

The engineering that goes into these things fascinates me, it takes well over a half hour to convert Optimus back to truck mode and over 20 minutes to put him back to robot mode.




I'm in full support of any goodly common ground that a father and son can share.

Alexander Scale Models HO scale Industrial Brownhoist...

...a.k.a. "Little Hook".

Year in and year out, I saw this in a little ad in the pages of Model Railroader magazine and always wanted to assemble one myself...


...November 1960 ad...

What better way to celebrate another mile marker in my mortality, my first pair of bifocals, than with an intricate, board-by-board kit like this...


...sigh...