What a year its been

 I am finally about to get to my basement as we got a stair lift.  I haven't been able to get down there for a year due to medical issues.  My wife took pics last week of how my room looked currently and thus, almost a year ago.  Time came to a stop.

I never realized what a gift going downstairs and back is and when I left this room the last time, I never dreamed that I would not see it for a year.

I also shouldn't have left a mess and things stored high with narrow aisles.

I'll definitely need help moving things

My "grate" adventure

 So, one day about 6 years ago I came across a garage sale.  The stuff was in an old barn

My idea has always been like the block box that separated small pieces...a light diffuser with squares.  I found this flourrecent light diffuser in this barn filthy and no price tag.  

So I was able to clean off the grate later, but when I took it up to buy it the lady yelled at me when I offered 50 cents saying WE'RE HAVING A GARAGE SALE FOR THE  _______CHARITY ASSOCIATION AND THAT'S ALL YOU'RE OFFERING...

I had no way of knowing this as there wasn't any sign ot any marking

So I paid $4 and left, feeling Ashamed 

The grate worked perfect for pouring legos out and sorting the small pieces out!

Then one morning I went to my lego room and the sun reflected on it and the light from colored drawer cabinets made it a piece of art...

So it is functional for sorting and a piece of art!!

Joy, excitement, heart palpitations. Christmas present came!!!

 I am absolutely ecstatic...the second part of my lego pick a brick came. It was my Christmas present.  I'd been waiting and voila.  Here's pics of the most beautiful pics of legos ever!!!

1st part of my order that came weeks ago

The 2nd part of my order came Monday and appeared like this

So I combined the full order and it looked like this

I'm telling you, Heart palpitations!!! However the little lego paddles can put me back in rhythm!!

All these are going to help as my goal with these are to make the following 2 structures as made by 2 builders on the net

The 3 pics above were from Peter Reid.

I wish I could have gotten all the pieces in light gray, but the contrasting colors of gray will add contrasts.

My backup plan is below

In summary, this book says it best

Alright, it's past my bedtime!!!!

 

Lego Silver train cars 10022 and 10025

 Train cars 10022 and 10025

I have another post where I describe my fumbles of sets that I could have had, but either had second thoughts or no money to be spending on frivolous tungsten!  The major ones that got away are the lego train cars. When the Santa fe engine and then cars were released in the 2002ish era, I had just started collecting legos as an adult so the cost was appearing too high.  I didn't quite have the $$ at the time, not that I really ever did...

I love the color and style of the train cars from times past.  I like the shiny finish, the look of multiple cars together, and I always wanted to ride in the observation cars!!  I remember as a kid going to sears and looking at the leegos and then the electric trains.  The silver cars were neat because they were bigger and the length was double the regular HO scale cars, but unfortunately the price was double and the track layout we had needed longer curves for the cars to run on...

I found a poster of train cars that were in existence at one time that shows the realism and details in the lego sets

But I think the fascination with the cars was the little silhouettes of people riding in the cars...what was going on through the window

Even the Hallmark car has the people

This car is a great example ..what are those people talking above???

Here are the train cars from lego

Lego has even recreated the people but these are minifigs where kids can create their own stories for the people in the window, the people we can actually see. 

D

I kick myself everyday for not buying those silver cars!!!

(Not the metroliner except for the club car)

Here are some other types of models of the lego train cars I've stumbled upon (Lionel)

The realism lego bought to these cars is unreal and even rival, if not beat Lionel trains