Weihnachtsmarkt Tübingen

The Christmas Market in Tübingen is only on one weekend in December. Throughout the old city are booths and stands manned by artists, local vendors, and members of local clubs and organizations. It was cold, though that didn't stop the youth from getting some Italian ice cream.

I preferred local specialties like Bratwurst, or Schupfnudeln with Sauerkraut.

Someone planted a Bratwurst on a fence.

I love the atmosphere here. It's nice to follow the narrow streets, discover more stands around the corner, and chat with locals.

Ingenious conversion of a former cigarette dispenser to sell flower seeds instead.

The crowds grew more and more dense as the afternoon went on, so eventually we called it a day and drove back home.

Mind made up

The skies settled for snow, but then ran out of supplies 10 minutes later. Nothing remained on the ground.

Sunday Morning

Neckarrems - Altes Rathaus

Jetlag woke me up early today, so I walked through town to the bakery at dawn. On the way back the skies can't quite decide whether they want to let it snow or rather settle for a light drizzle of rain.

DV 605 Anlagen: Gueterbefoerderungsvorschrift - Ortsdienst

Bei way of another ebay purchase I picked up a booklet containing the appendix for DV 605 "Guterbefoerderungsvorschrift I" which describes in intricate detail how freight is supposed to be handled on German trains by Deutsche Bundesbahn. The Appendix has all the forms to be used to identify and route the various types of freight in Germany in the early 1970s.

When I made car cards for the Welztalbahn, I relied on various Internet finds that were "close enough" for my purposes to make progress. This booklet has the forms as used during the exact time period the Welztalbahn is set in. There are various variations for Hauptzettel depending on purpose and destination. E.g. Express LCL shipments, express freight, and regular freight use distinctly different forms. International shipments have extra markings for customs handlings. There are forms for weighing cars. Forms and markers for perishables. To my surprise there's even a form for re-icing (DV 605 54) which seems oddly appropriate.

More detailed study will be needed to use this to its full potential. For now I'm just happy that I have it.

Update December 21st:
I wrote a post with various examples.

SFO - CDG - STR

The aircraft for AF83 arrived late from Paris. We took off with a delay of about an hour. Gloomy  weather hung over San Francisco, but I like how this shot of the Golden Gate Bridge came out (photo credit: Tatjana)

The flight itself was eventless. A few bumps here and there, 3 movies,  some work on the laptop, dinner and breakfast and we touched down in Paris.

When we left the plane we had 45 minutes to make our connection to Stuttgart. Amazingly enough, there were no lines anywhere, so we where at gate G22 in less than half an hour.

Even our luggage made it.

Arrival in Stuttgart. On to fighting with jet lag ...

And again ...

Joining the family for Christmas.

Someone is at the gate ...

The building Silicon Valley Lines is in increased security a while ago, primarily by installing an automated gate requiring a key code to get on the property, as well as at the door to the basement. That's great for security, but bad for random visitors to the layout, especially if they arrive after most club members showed up.

We tried to address this problem with signs, a door bell, or a portable phone at the gate. All these approaches share the common problem that someone needs to remember to put the sign out, or the phone, and visitors need to notice, too. I'm told that many people wanting to see the layout just kept on driving when they saw the gate was closed.
For a while I hung a sign with my personal cell phone number at the gate, and that worked reasonably well. However, I'm not at the club every week, so another solution was needed.

I acquired a Google Voice phone number for the club, and set it up so that it rings the Hangouts client on a spare Android phone. Now we just need to remember to turn the phone on when people are at the club. Not going to happen consistently. Ditto for launching a browser with a Hangouts client. Whatever we do needs to work with no manual intervention. This week I finally acquired an Obihai Obi200 VOIP adapter. It connects a regular analog phone to a Google Voice number, and so the layout phone rings when you call (408) 753 6196. Setup is very simple via the Obitalk web site. It appears the site uses some Google Voice API, since there is no way to configure the device in the regular Google Voice Web interface. There isn't even an indication that the Voice number rings on the Obi200.

This is currently set up with a stand-alone phone. The next step will be to connect the obi200 to the layout phone system, so that an incoming call will ring most phones in the layout room. In the meantime, when visiting SVL on a Friday evening and the gate is closed, give us a call. We'll come out and get you.

Possum

I was working at our dining table when I noticed something moving in the back yard. Indeed, it was an opossum. These guys look like a giant rat and are completely harmless. I expect that it will hang out here for a few weeks and then move on.

Awake

The Bearded Dragons are done with their 2 month hibernation and are both quite awake during the day. They still like to disappear into their cave as soon as it gets dark outside.

Pear Almond Tartlets

Still delicious dessert at the cafeteria today, but no flowers today.

Abgefahren! Die Extremeisenbahner.

This is an extremely well done German TV report about a FREMO meet in Kiel this year. Highly recommended if you understand a little bit German.
Even if not, you might appreciate the excellent modeling and well captured atmosphere of a modular model railroad meet.

Santa Cruz Delivery

Clear skies, windy, and cold evening at UCSC Rachel Carson College. The Pacific is in the distance. You can't see it in the photo, but it's there, right behind that horizontal line of faint lights.

First Sunday of Advent

It's that time of year. During Advent, family tradition is to sit down on Sunday afternoon with Christmas goodies, Tea (or Gluehwein), and Christmas-themed stories with a good shot of humor.

Potter!

A birthday present that got a little bit more involved than planned turned the clock below into the clock above.

Reminder to self: Working with a glue stick is sticky business and messier than you remember.

"Dispatch, this is train 276..."

Another first: I dispatched the Silicon Valley Lines Operations session tonight. And I didn't completely mess it up. At roll call the yards where taken care of, but our usual dispatcher was out sick. So I volunteered to do it, and I survived the evening. A quite different assignment than usual, but I had fun, and that's what it's all about.

Company in the dispatchers office: Mike, Griffy, Steve,  and John

SVL employs Direct Traffic Control (DTC), following the example of the Southern Pacific. FRS radios are used for communication between train crews and the dispatcher. The dispatcher gives verbal authorization to the train crews and marks the authorization on the dispatch panels shown in the first photo. When we deploy occupancy detection, the computer will clear the reservation as the train moves from block to block. For the moment train crews are expect to call in their location to dispatch as the pass major stations or junctions.

The city by the bay

Heading home

The return trip was event-free. Some rain in Oregon, some clouds at the view point north of Mount Shasta

Yummy burrito for lunch in Mount Shasta, CA.

We kept on driving south with the sun setting in the West.

The last driver swap at Starbucks in Williams was carefully observed by the driver in the car next to us.

We left Portland at 8:30 in the morning, and arrived home in San Jose shortly before 9pm where Tatjana was already waiting with spaghetti bolognese and apple cake. What a treat!

Blue = Freezing

Seen at the exit from a Fred Meyer store. Perfectly normal for our friends, a novelty for us.

Union Pacific on Steel Bridge

Coast Starlight on Steel Bridge

Chance encounter. Lots of fun when trains cross the bridge. ... And the engineers were waving at us.

East Bank Esplanade

The brand-new Tilikum Crossing Bridge is the first new bridge built across the Willamette River since 1973. It's a unique design with an unique purpose. Only light-rail, bicycles, and pedestrians can use the bridge.

Tilikum Crossing with the submarine moored at OMSI in the foreground

We walked along the East Bank Esplanade from Tilikum Crossing all the way over to the Steel Bridge.


A very enjoyable walk past several bridges. We were not the only ones who had that idea. The nicely built-out bike path was quite busy. Vera Katz, the former Portland mayor who initiated the East Bank Esplanade project, would approve.

The Union Pacific main line runs through town only a couple blocks East from the esplanade.

Union Pacific's Albina Yard is on the east side of the Willamette River, while Portland's Union Station and BNSF Lake Yard is on the west side. Since 1912 the Steel Bridge carries the main line across the river. It is the second oldest vertical lift bridge in the U.S., and the only double-deck lift bridge in the world with independent lift mechanisms for the two decks.

The proximity to the two yards, as well as Portland Union Station makes this a busy place to watch trains ... at least by U.S. standards.

I was here in 2015 for the NMRA convention, and that post has some shots of the extremely tight curves onto the bridge deck from the East. The approach into Union Station is just as tight.

I was quite fascinated by the construction of the rail connection between stationary rails on the approach, the rails on the lift deck, and deck construction.

A true dinosaur doing its duty day in, day out. While walking along the tracks crossing the river, we caught the south-bound Coast Starlight, and a north-bound UP freight crossing the bridge.

Happy Thanksgiving

Lots of fun cooking Thanksgiving dinner with our Oregon friends. The bird is ready, the table is ready, ...

... time to eat.

Fall Colors