Big John Memorial Excursion

I've got a Woodland Scenics cemetery kit on a shelf waiting to be installed. When I do, I'm going to see if I can put Big John's name on a tombstone. Or even better, a monument :-).

Gerard, that's a nice remembrance of Big John. It's hard to believe that three years have passed since Big John left. I always enjoyed his posts and witty replies.

Peter King's Big John Memorial Page with pictures of the RDC is still on the web at:

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire

Go to

for a photo of the prototype...

Actually, his stone was not in place when I visited, but his relatives were all marked with the flat stones you see in the lower left. It's a beautiful spot, and you can still hear the sound of the Southern passin' by...

Jeff Sc. Memories, Ga.

Don't bother to reply via email...I've been JoeJobbed.

It is indeed hard to believe it has been 3 years since Big John passed away. In the ensuing timespan, I have moved away from modeling due to time constraints and family issued (and bad experince with a club, but that's another story). I still read selected posts here but rarely comment except for an occasional quip.

But I must say that another reason that I am not as involved with this newsgroup is that John is not here anymore. You guys are great, but it just isn't the same as it was. Kind of like when they changed Darrens on Bewitched or All in the Family after Edith died.

Funny thing. I rode the Coast Starlight with my Sweety two weeks ago, on a trip from LA to Eugene. Wbut when we saw them from the train, Sweety confessed to never having seen goats in a farm setting before. I'd seen them before, many times, including on Grandma's farm years ago. Mostly I thought of Big John.

Regards,

DAve

Jump The Shark: Chronicling the Moments of When TV Shows go Downhill

urge to search the archives for Bigh John's posts from 1998-1999. I found bunch and it was nice to remember that very nice man.

Thanks to the modern technology the entire world can keep viewing John's humorous posts !

Speaking of lost RMR souls - I also miss John Sheridan (fortunately he is still alive and well).

Peteski

Gerald, thanks for sharing the story of the excursion!

For those interested in riding the Big John Memorial RDC, New Haven 32 will be used for the Father's Day Specials at the Danbuy Railway Museum. Fathers ride free, when accompanied by any paid admission! I will be acting as car host for the trips.

For more information and directions, visit the DRM web site:

Peter King in NY

Yep, Sheridan's still around. In fact, he now owns his own model making company, Yankee Modelworks

The company was known as Blue Water Navy, and, as you can guess, makes and sells ship models in resin. John still does work for Microscale, as well. And now, he's running for a director's position in our model RR club (scary thought, eh?). From what he told me, he hangs out on the e-mail lists more than anywhere else these days.

Paul A. Cutler III

************** Weather Or No Go New Haven **************

"Pac Man" <

Probably because this once vibrant and useful newsgroup was taken over by the political and mudslinging group about a year ago.

And yes, you know who you are.

-- Cheers Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

It is amazing how much influence on how many people one "ordinary" man can have. We're scsttered all over the world and yet we raised enough money for seats on that RDC renovation and we still reference Big John on posts here and on our websites.

Maybe I'll live long enough that his reincarnation will show up :-).

Personally, I think it all started going downhill here after 9/11/01. That's when people started talking politics, etc., on r.m.r, and the rest of us let them get away with it. I do remember some people telling the "mudslingers" to take it elsewhere, but they were shouted down by the horde. Used to be that if someone brought up off-topic stuff, the community would ignore them. Now, it's just a mess after most of the regulars were run off by the off-topic nonsense. I mean, where the heck is TOM, Andy Harmon, and the rest? Probably gone to the e-mail lists where the signal to noise ratio is kept to reasonable limits. Sigh.

Paul A. Cutler III

************* Weather Or No Go New Haven *************

It started before 9/11/01. Started late 1998. Before that you had people going off topic but the humor was the off topic. If someone needed an answer to a question the person got the answer and then the humor started. r.m.r. use to be a fun place to come and visit and talk about whatever subject going on that day. Threads would have good information and humor in them. Now if is more Political stuff and no one wins those discussions. The people that left back in 1998 are on a mailing list and are having fun with the list. Some do come here now and then to see if there are any questions that they can answer.

r.m.r can be fun again if the people using it will stop egging the political bs people on. Just ignore their messages and if you want place the people in a kill file and you never have to read their postings. I believe that some newsreader programs you can place the persons name in a kill file so that if someone replies to them and the name is in the body it is killed also.

Donald Here, but lurking mostly:-)

Good rundown, Donald, on the state of RMR. I too long for "the olden days" where trains were the usual topic and miss Big John as well. ...Bill

Add me to the list of people who checked out some time ago. I do believe my departure was do to the void of gentle wit in the group coached by Big John himself. I check in once a month and I see others timed it about the same this month. This other issue I am reading about Politics and Model railroading. That sounds as bad as Clinton going to work for Athearn and Bush working for Broadway LImited. Promise to keep it clean, and unbias. Scott :-)

Arnold 299 ( snipped-for-privacy@aol.com) wrote: : Add me to the list of people who checked out some time ago. I do believe my : departure was do to the void of gentle wit in the group coached by Big John : himself. I check in once a month and I see others timed it about the same this : month. : This other issue I am reading about Politics and Model railroading. That sounds : as bad as Clinton going to work for Athearn and Bush working for Broadway : LImited. : Promise to keep it clean, and unbias. : Scott :-)

Me too. Fred Dabney is another you don't see here, among other. Many have left for the Yahoo mail lists or Andy Harman's Diesel and Haggis lists. Big John, Rod Bosall, and many others(and me) were charter members of the Haggis list. A mixture of humor and railroading, just like Big J liked it. I'm glad he got to participate before leaving us. John and I had a number of intersting phone conversations; he was from a part of Tennesse that produced my step dad. the similarities of the two were striking, but most of all their sense of humor and lust for life.

I miss them both.

Steve Sillato

Anyone got the addresses for those groups?

Go to groups.yahoo.com and search.

I too was thinking about Big John last week when this thread was started. And I too don't find as much of interest on this forum as I did a few years ago but in some part attributed that to having learned so much from the group already that much of the stuff isn't new anymore. I still monitor and participate on occasion and got really good answers to a recent question about model storage and transport.

In regard to some of what has been said as part of this thread and more specifically the above-quoted question, I was thinking the other day that maybe we ought to start a Yahoo group titled RMR for those who remember the old days. But then again, it just wouldn't be the same without Big John and others who have gone on to other things. Speaking of which, anybody had any recent updates on Mike Usoff?

They are not yahoo groups.

Diesel list subscription: send mail to snipped-for-privacy@gp30.com, subscribe in the subject field.

At the present time Haggis is "invitation only". Sort of. Send me an email if you are really interested. At my real email address, not the fake [retired] one I have to use to post to usenet these days. Hint: it's my first name, same domain as the diesel list.

Andy