Model Railroad Season Down South

[Trainman203]

It's not winter, it's summer down here for model railroading.  It's 97 outside right now with 95 percent  humidity.  It's "air you can wear."  No one wants to go outside.  The low temp at night is 83 or so. I'm sitting in my 72 degree model railroad room switching the Midland Yard.

Winter is our outdoor activity season. Avg. daytime temp is a sunny 55.  It never got below 32 last winter.  That's when we work on the house and the yard outside.

Summer ...... Model Railroad time.  I love it down here.

[on30gn15]

Sounds similar to weather when we lived in Macon, Georgia, in 1970s.

[Len]

I was stationed at Warner-Robins AFB back in the early 70's. I remember my surprise the first time some of us went up to Macon, and there were billboards, signed by the Mayor, on the main roads into the city that read, "Armed robbers will be shot." Apparently there had been some police officers killed responding to convenience store robberies, and the Mayor basically said, "Enough is enough.", and had the billboards put up. It didn't take long for the convenience store robberies to stop.

Len

[James in FL]

Yep, it's the time of year when I will run all of my lokies, even the ones seldom used, and do whatever repairs and/or maintenance and cleaning, needs to be done on them. Gives them all a bit of run time to stretch their legs after being in storage. The humidity saps my strength and desire to accomplish much of anything outside. I will wait until after 6pm to even start the lawn mower.

[Trainman203]

We have big thunderstorms almost every day.  Yesterday when I got home in the middle of one of those, I found Niagara Falls coming through the ceiling.  Fortunately it wasn't over the layout but it did ruin a bunch of historical society stuff.

I am going to need a new roof. No Bachmann or even any model railroading content at all...... Really........ Especially considering that the Long Green that the roof is going to cost will mean no new engines for a pretty good while.  . Laughing to keep from crying.

[Jhanecker2]

Don't  feel Bad  we have the same problems with  Midwest Summers .  We have heat wave warnings out  for the next couple of weeks and where there is heat there is always the possibility  of  thunder storms and tornadoes   . God never apologizes .  John2

[rogertra]

Don't  feel Bad  we have the same problems with  Midwest Summers .  We have heat wave warnings out  for the next couple of weeks and where there is heat there is always the possibility  of  thunder storms and tornadoes   . God never apologizes .  John2

Vancouver Island where thunderstorms are rare  Couple days ago we had two, that's two peals of thunder.  Panic sets in.   

Cheers


Roger T.

[Trainman203]

Haha.  Panic here sets in during the "winter" when the temp  gets below 32. It means pipes break all over town.

The real  panic time is starting now......  hurricane season.  Some little bunch of clouds forms in the Atlantic, everyone starts twitching with a death dance that may or may not culminate.

I have hurricane season rolling stock.......  All the bottom  end  cast on detail stuff that can take a hurried packing to get out of town. The high end stuff all got packed up, ready to go, during May.   I lost everything once, never again, the trains leave with me if we evacuate. In late October, the good stuff come out again.

[Trainman203]

This one isn't going to get us ..... But I'm always ready to run out.  That's why I keep cheep rolling stock on the layout in the summer and the good stuff packed up and ready to go.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at5+shtml/235907.shtml?5-daynl#contents

[James in FL]

The real  panic time is starting now......  hurricane season.  

Panic time huh?
You must be a transplant from up north.
Let me guess, you retired and moved to FL?

After you've been here awhile, you will learn to properly prepare for the hurricane season, rather than panic.
BTW, Hurricane season does not end until 11/30, you may want to wait to pull out the "good" stuff until after that date.
Hurricane preparedness information is available from many sources throughout the state.
I would suggest contacting your local TV station or chamber of commerce, or city hall.

What county are you in?
I'm in Pinellas.

We are overdue, it's been what? 10 years?

[Trainman203]

Haha.    I'm from Louisiana and lived on the Gulf Coast all my life. I've lived through hurricanes since the first one I remember in  1954.

I had a wind speed gauge on the house in  1964. You haven't lived until you feel your house shaking in 115 mph wind, which I read on the gauge, in the middle of the night.  No electricity for 3 weeks.

I was prepared every year, all the stuff, the plan, everything.  I was even prepared in 2005 but it didn't matter, lost everything , I mean everything,  in the flood that year. We left town just in time because the Big K took a last minute turn right at us.  All I had left after it was over was a guitar and a suitcase of clothes.  I lived in a FEMA trailer over a year.

I've bought my model railroad stuff and built the layout since then.  Life goes on.

All I do now is be ready to run.  And that means having the good stuff packed up.

[RAM]

2005 was a real bad one.  Spend a week in Miss. helping to clean up.  House.s that were still standing had 3 feet of water for miles.  About a mile of railroad track gone.

[Trainman203]

It was more like 25 or 30 miles of CSX gone, including the Bay St. Louis bridge.

[James in FL]

Well then you well know what the season is all about.
'05 was a bad year, we got crisscrossed by four hurricanes, and a tropical storm, or two, that year.
Plywood covered windows for almost entire season.
Big "K" was only a Cat 1 at the time it made landfall and reduced to a TS when it got here on this side. Gulf coast. She cut a line across Florida, from coast to coast, like a buzz saw.
She was growing so fast, landfall here was just a burp in her step.
The warm Gulf killed you guys.
IIRC when the eye got back over the Gulf, It was just a matter of very few hours until hurricane status was re-established (74mph).
By the time it got to you it was a 5 and still growing.

For us, Wilma was the worst of the four.
Dennis was no fun either.
Lost my anemometer, during Charlie in '04, never replaced it.
My fight or flight is a Cat 3 even though I am '53 ft. above sea level about 2 miles from the Gulf.
It does not matter my preparedness, if my roof lifts, nothing else matters.

[Trainman203]

James, the flood is really what got me.  If it hadn't flooded all that would  have happened would have been only lose  half my roof and the back half of the house and half my stuff instead of the whole house and all my stuff.