Mixed arts

The mental gymnast has left the building.

Perhaps, it seems more likely that it was never in the building per se. There really is no exercise that would fix my mental ailments, that would probably drive most people mad. As disturbed as my Mind is, there seems to be a couple remote places archived in the back somewhere that can provide serenity or at least a perceived peace that makes it my reality.

If I just wrote about model trains or my layout it would become a sterile boring blog.... By nature, I think model trains are a bit sterile, as an engineered  based hobby. All of which I am not. I am messy, life is messy. No amount of sterility can fix it.

A professional poker player with a passion for trains. That's as messy as it gets. My sniping of the unsuspected constantly with a desire to win more than lose a constant driver. Details, even the smallest, a constant companion that compels me. What are the parallels that combine the two in a wonderful orchestrated mess? Poker hands that fail in the end, second best hands, always a threat to the end game. Bad reads, failed attempts in large draws and river game changers. It all makes sense, life is exactly the same. It is never fair, never easy, and always a surprise finish in the end. 

How does it all fit? Is it all just a choice? Is it a narcissistic, endulgent, self promotion of nothing that really matters, perhaps? I might not be able to even tell you what "it" is, but what " it"isn't in the end game. 

This I know, it is what it is, and coherent random stringing of words to make sentences is only a small piece of the puzzle... 

Model trains and the Shasta line are an accumulation of all the above at the end of a run or session. A recouped mental status played out with failures and minor successes. That is what the blog represents, that is the Fab of the fanatic, and where I leave this particular post...

Carry on.

N scale Shasta Line mills

In 1958-McCloud Lumber mill retrieves logs under contract with the Railway under the same name from the nearby reservoir. Housing continues to grow in Southern California cities and keeps the northern mills busy. Meanwhile, western pacific passenger service to Chicago is in full swing from the California Bay Area and the Great Northern continues to pursue Southern passage into Ca through the Western Pacific connection. The McCloud mill, familiar with pinching pennies, is pleased with their lease of a reliable Track Crain courtesy of the big eastern PRR railway.

You made it!

Well it is about time... 

Perhaps this is your first visit to the blog. 

No worry, there are a lot of passers by type people, and that's ok. With over 10,000 views and climbing, I am ok with that. You can have one distinct advantage over the casual viewer. How you say?... Just subscribe.  You see before I even had a subscription available for email or just to follow updates, I did not have that option, therefore high number of views with low subscriber rate.

But before you do that, check to see if it is even worth your time. Don't do it because I give away cool things indiscriminately and at random every month. (Yeah!) do it because this blog hits all the senses as to why not subscribe. I know not everyone can hang on every word, video or sound byte that comes out of my head. But, I do guarantee that you will either learn something, embrace another or just flat out get your dander up... ( I actually love people who respectively disagree) it makes my day!

So no matter why or how you do it, just Nike up and pull the trigger. Who knows, maybe you will be a winner of some cool train related product on my dime!

Monday Dribble happens early

Monday already ?

So this year, I resurrected a couple blogs I had started a couple years back....One is dedicated to model railroading and how it relates to my real twisted up life and the other is more or less about my poker journey as a profession through the eyes of one of our pet dogs....(yeah I know, but my daughters thinks it's great)I also promised myself that I would keep them separated even though they are intertwined in reasoning, skills and end of day results...

But,if there is any amount of twisted, bent up curiosity, in how all that makes any sense, by all means look them up. I am pretty sure they are  existentially viral once the right blogger person/s internet guru gets a hold of them...,or so I am told..

In another unrelated business I found that blogging is tied to google and google drives the spots and placements of anything relevant,,,super complex searches that take anything that captures public attention to levels of euphoric untold riches... Riches that finance model trains ???and, and, and,,,?

So, like I said earlier..., " I won't mix that religion with those politics" ... 

Model train on everyone.

PS.. This is what happens when you wake up pre coffee hours on a Monday in Oregon...!

Tribute to those who inspired

John Allen(RIP) argumentatively the master Jedi of all train layouts, was my inspiration to become more ( much more)within the hobby.

He is most likely responsible for many of the innovations and progression within the hobby that we take for granted. He had long since passed before I even had my first train set, I remember gazing at that old 1981 model railroader that featured his layout on the cover. I still have that original December copy I purchased with money I made mowing lawns for $1.75

I still have that now clear tape bound battered magazine. It came exactly a year after my Silver Streak tyco set that was given to me the prior Christmas 1980.

Fortunately, I was able to purchase a pristine copy of that old magazine a year ago or so.

Now interestingly, I was 12 years old when I started playing with trains, but I had a fascination with my Grandfathers N scale layout he had set up in a room at his mobile trailer.

He passed away about 4 years ago and I received a box full of all that N scale from the 80's Atlas and a couple minitrix items.

Now outfitted with mtl couplers these inherited items pay tribute to him on the Shasta line.....

More nostalgia, thoughts and controversy will be forthcoming on the ModelTrainFanatics blog... 

But for now, and to those who don't know, here is the legendary John Allen.

http://www.doug56.net/GD/