I just want say thank you Erik for posting such digestible Labor History stories.

Who is an old guy still playing with trains? Me. It’s me. RGS20 in Durango is an amazing this to experience.

Played with trains a lot this week. It was a lot warmer in the South Park earlier this week. Made a wedge for a valve rod (notice the BLW standard practice behind it), worked on the main rods (not pictured) and found more crap. This had a galvanised pipe attached to it. Should be SCH160!

Just a guy playing with trains (yesterday). The picture of me pointing to the boiler shows why mechanical standards are really important. On the boiler—The two studs on the bottom: 1912. Never leaked. The holes on top? Someone put in straight bolts. They leaked, chewed up the threads.

Just me playing with trains again! This crosshead took nearly a year to get installed. Careful measuring, shimming, reaming tapered holes, making tapered bolts, and then after all that it goes together in about 10 minutes. Very satisfying.

Best part about being an adult? Probably playing with trains. Today we mounted the left main rod to measure some things to manufacturer thevtaoered bolts for the crosshead guides). Pretty great seeing all the rods on one side!

Who still plays with trains? I do! Today started out with the South Park Zephyr doing its thing, but it got to be a manageable temperature in the roundhouse, eventually. Among other things, we finally cut a hole in the oil bunker for human access. And then I welded the access riser on.

6th picture. That tracks. She is ferociously good and getting under our feet in the kitchen. 😂

I can’t stop cackling at this. Or how absolutely true it is!

Who still plays with trains? Yep. I do! Finished making a bracket for the firing g valve handle. Fly cut a surface on the angle steel, bored out a hole for the shaft, and generally made it WAAAAY fancier than it needs to be. But I like it. Nobody will ever see it, but it’s cool.

Another pretty fun day for me. At work, with a layover in Anchorage, so I ran up to Wasilla and put in a day of work on 557. Today I used the mill to make a throttle lock (so it can be locked closed when she it at rest), and the lathe to make a pin to hold it in place on the throttle.

Who still plays with trains? Me. I do.

Breaking: Middle aged man still plays with trains! Got interviewed for a short film, saw a rainbow, and finished mounting the throttle body into the steam dome.

Who was playing with trains today? Hint: it’s me! Fabricated a new throttle valve bracket (attaches to studs inside the steam dome). This weekend we should mount the throttle valve assembly. Old, gross, booger welded junk that came out of this locomotive also pictured for comparison.

Playing with trains yet again today! New addition to Como: Board member Tom Lawson’s Plymouth critter has arrived! It’s so cute! But it will make moving rolling stock around much, much easier!

No cheating. Post the last picture you took of your pet.

Played with trains a lot this weekend! Boreas Pass Railroad Day was yesterday in Como. So on Friday we pulled the locomotive out of the roundhouse, and yesterday I spent all day talking to people about the locomotive and the rebuild process, even out on my South Park Rail shirt to talk to folks.

In tease a band: Six Iron Pandemonium.

The most interesting part to me is that even the brown shirts don’t want you using AI to pledge allegiance to them. 🤔

You might assume that the drones will be kept away from major airlines or from medevac helicopters. And to you I would simply ask "by whom?"

Today was another one spent playing with trains! Big stuff, all that running gear work we did turned out to be right. My cruiser pulled her in and out of the roundhouse really easily (5 years ago we needed the winch, and it was working hard), which is good because in two weeks there’s a party.

Trains again today! How’s that for a cutie little Porter Mogul? I’m told there’s a Brooks Mogul a few hours north of here that should be a pretty solid match for the South Park Brooks Moguls. I really need to work my schedule to get there though. They do railroad museums right here!

@lucasbrowneyes.bsky.social just wanted to thank you for being a part of making art like Duster. Seriously what a fun, funny, and beautiful story. I’ll cross my fingers HBO picks up as many seasons as the team wants to make.

Playing with trains today! Weather is nice, and hopefully the mud ring studs play nice too! 😂. They were torched off who knows how long ago, so I’m hoping to extract them cleanly so we can put them back into service.

Did I play with trains today? Kind of. I played with a machine that we use to play with trains. (Finished adding a DRO to the Bridgeport, and fabricated a custom work holder to bore some holes on the main rods soon)

@thewaroncars.bsky.social have you seen @smquezada.bsky.social interview on the Respect the Connect show? No? You don’t watch Albuquerque based chats? You should see this, at about the 30 minute mark…. youtu.be/vPa99ormTOg?.... (Talking about bus infrastructure and growing a city)

Still playing with trains! Today we hung the left side connecting rods for likely the final time. Shims all installed, tapered holes reamed, tapered bolts manufactured, and all installed! On to the main rods!

I’m so sorry. We really are a monstrous country at this point. I sure hope we can save it.

Nederland, CO. Easily 10-1 support for us, to the very small number of grumpy, unhappy looking dudes that gave us the finger of meekly said “Go Trump.”

45 years old. Playing with trains! Getting the right side connecting rod installed was a big, months long job. Machining, teaming tapered holes, making tapered bolts, etc. and it went together in 15 minutes no sweat.

Just informational picketing with a whole bunch of people dressed just like me. What else we gonna do on a Tuesday? #1u #union

Do wild Orchids in CO count? We found these along with Morels on our property today.

Still playing with trains! Boiler work is much more fun when it’s empty inside.

Nice global economy you got there. Shame if something happened to it

I want to see Something Lovely from you. Share a photo from your camera roll that makes you smile, that gives you hope, or that you just think is lovely. The canyonlands are always amazing. Sunrise in the Needles district today (camped at Devil’s Kitchen).

Pretty true. I’ve got a bit over 6,000 hours flying in and out of Denver alone. And I have NEVER had ATC radio failure that I knew about. I am sure I have, but I’ll also bet that they had a backup ready so quick I didn’t know. 6 minutes is an eternity. At 240 knots that’s 24 miles!

4 year old me would hardly believe that I get to play with trains all the time as an adult. Fabricating some brackets, moving a knee mill, reaming tapered holes, and aligning crosshead guides (again). Great day!

One last day this week playing with trains! New boiler course is fitted, rods have had their tapered holes reamed. Very good 4 days of train work! Bonus picture of an oblong hole in a main rod. Not supposed to be like that. Going to fix it.

Yet another day of playing with trains for me! (I have a pretty awesome life, when you think about it).

A little different “playing with trains” picture today. After a day of reaming, reaming and more reaming of tapered bolt holes (1/16” per foot for my machinist friends) I took a picture as the sun got low outside the roundhouse. The South Park is ALWAYS beautiful.

Still playing with trains. With a bunch of friends of mine. First day this year it was warm enough to open the roundhouse doors!

You know, everything (gesturing at the US right now) is bad and getting worse, but at least I still play with trains!

Hey #uglydogs: Cleaning out a house and found a secret. A MUSHERS SECRET. Was my neighbor secretly trying to be a musher with his German Shepard? There were also dog booties. So maybe??!?

This level of barbarism was unimaginable 18 months ago. They pulled them out of an ambulance and murdered them one by one, burying them in a shallow grave

What’s the most unexpected place you’ve seen an anti-Trump/Elon/Cruelty/Grift protest? Me? Saguache, CO. About an hour ago. You love to see it.

@catbiteband.bsky.social so I wake up. And what do I see? “Tired of Talk” on the YouTubery. So sick. And getting Stump on it? So good. Can’t wait for it to download onto my phone in May. #hep

I love reading this so much.

It was a 3 train week for me! Worked on two, just looked at the one in Guangzhou.

Playing with trains. While on an overnight. Pretty sure I’m the only pilot I know who sometimes brings a set of shop clothes with me to work on this guy when my schedule allows.

Still playing with trains! Inside the boiler measuring this old patch for further repairs.