No Plan This Year For NYC Walk

Somehow, I do have these questions:

1.  Suppose Covid was not here. The nation and the world have too many other human needs to spend this amount of time and energy on. (Do not eliminate, but do cut back.)

2.  The way this season is celebrated does not give any time or acknowledgement to other groups who give gifts to each other on, or the night before:

Dec. 6

Dec. 13

Jan. 6

There might be others.  If these are missed, please send a post.

3.  In some parts of the world, people are killed just trying to celebrate anything, including going to their center of belief.

4.  Are we now celebrating the trappings of the season, instead of the season itself?

I am writing this thinking of how Charles Dickens would respond to this, if he was alive today.

Thanks for the cool pictures!

Thanks for the pics , Skip.......no surprise about your annual walk.....lots of stuff to forward to in 2021.....

Peter

@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:

NYC Fan: Thanks for the memories!

Dominic: Believe me, you are not alone in your way of thinking.  Imigine if you will just the huge amount of $$$ that are wasted on politics and trying to set up privite trips through space alone there wouldn't be much poverty on our poor polluted planet today.

Even in The World's Greatest Hobby, $$$ is spent on things and stuff that a short time later are put up for sale because of the notion "I gotta get one of those too" only to find out it was a major mistake from the Get Go.

Hobbies are great as long as they don't start to drain ones pocketbook.  Many of us (myself included) are guilty as charged.  Example: I regret not putting a larger % of the $$$ I invested in trains and books over the years into a savings account so it could be distributed to my kids after they got married and needed every $ to get started with a family.

One topic caught my eye lately is regarding S scale.  A few members claim there is very little in S for anyone to consider modelling in this scale.  Really?  Though I was employed in Texas with the Santa Fe and have no plans to model it in S scale, however, if I did there's enough on the market to enjoy running both freight and passenger trains.  I don't need to try and build up the entire locomotive roster for goodness sakes.  If I run a freight with Geeps and a passenger train behind Warbonnet Diesels there are both EMD F units and Alco PAs for example.  In other words, I have a good start and what isn't available on the market there are excellent custom painters who in my opinion do a better job than the factory paint job...

...not to forget the narrow gauge guys either.  Check out PBL at www.p-b-l.com for a starter.  There are other Sn3 sources as well.

Buying trains w/o giving any thought about what will I do with them in a month or even a year later and may possible have to sell them at a loss with regrets that I purchased them like a kid in a candy shop with a doller that's burning a hole in his pocket.  A man needs to plan his work then work his plan and when he does he will end up with a nice collection of trains that he can enjoy for the rest of his life and possibly pass them on to his children or grandkids.

Gads, I've gabbed too much...again.  Sorry!

Joe

Yeah, well, you seem to do that on a regular basis.

Skip thanks for the virtual Christmas walk through downtown.  I'm sure you and the family will miss your nnual tradition but will find a way to share the time meaningfully with memories of he past.

Well. I live in Manhattan and know all too well how things are this year.

As some of you here know for many years I worked making store window displays. Once I even got a MTH Standard Gauge set into one. If you do want to do the walk the holiday windows are up. I know how weird things are. I have not ridden the subway since March. Usually I ride 3-7 times daily. I have been biking to work when I am needed in person.

There is one place in Manhattan that has put up its annual holiday train display. The New York Historical Society at 170 Central Park West. Across 77th St from the American Museum of Natural History. www.nyhistory.org When you get to the webpage click on "exhibitions' and then "current exhibitions" and you will find "Holiday Express: Toys and Trains from the Jerni Collection". This is the only train display I know of that is up and running this year in the city.

Thanks for the tip on the New-York Historical Society. I THINK the New York Botanical Garden holiday train show is on, but attendance is limited to people in these categories: Member, Patron, Corporate Member, or Bronx Community Partner. (Of course, it's not in Manhattan.)

https://www.nybg.org/event/holiday-train-show/

David

Thanks

Buzz

I enjoyed your pictures, Skip. Manhattan is still a magical place. Next year will be better. 

Skip:

Every year I look forward to the photos of your walking tour. The fact these photos are from past Christmases in no way diminishes the holiday spirit I feel when looking at them this year!

Thank you for posting these memories of past Christmas walking tours of New York!

Curt

SORRY, but enough philosophical ranting already! :-( The original poster shared a wonderful and beautiful virtual tour of the MAGIC of Christmas in Manhattan, and I for one am grateful! THANK YOU, Skip for the memories of the GOOD TIMES past! :-)

PS: I lived in Brooklyn and Queens from 1942-1962 and have many fond memories of Christmas in Manhattan! Nothing like it! :-)

Skip, we hope you Diane and your family have a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year. Miss you my friend and hope we are able to get together next year. STAY SAFE!

Gerry

Fantastic photography, Skip! That brightens my day

Very nicely done, my friend! One of these days, when this pandemic is just a bad memory, Wendy and I will take Amtrak to New York during the holidays to accompany you on another of those great Christmas walking tours. As you know, Wendy is a big NYC fan, but I tend to be more of a smaller town guy. Still, it would be great to get together with you at this time of the year, in particular, and I am hopeful that the opportunity will present itself in the future.

Thanks NYCFAN for the photos. Enjoyed them immensely. Your photography is superb some of the photos must have been difficult to take

Skip;

As a NY City ex-pat, I’ve been to/seen all of the marvelous sights you posted. Thank you for the wonderful trip down memory lane The only thing missing (which you probably never saw) is the lobby of the building I worked in for 34 years... you’ll have to imagine the Christmas music playing in the background (and to keep it train related, there is an elegant entrance to the downtown 28th Street Lex subway at the Park Ave. South end of the building)!!!

TRBB: You are also a CLASS guy! :-)

In the Houston and Galveston area, some major events have been cancelled.  Major ones, which would be like the Walk in NYC.

Actually, I am glad it happened.  I began to recognize how hard wired these events were in my mind.  Or I would feel guilty if I did not go.  Or felt I had a gun to my head.  Emotional triggers which are 180 degrees opposite of healthy living.  Emotional triggers ad companies and media play on.

Not going to these events did not kill be or send me to the nut house because of deep depression.  In fact it made me think maturely, and make better choices.

Maybe this is why Halloween is overtaking December as a popular celebration.  I am concerned about its roots, and how some celebrate this.  Bit one can take on a character, a persona, and run with it without stress..... (And there are train sets for it.)

Trinity River:  I do not think you have to apologize to anybody.  If one posts on these blogs, no matter what the thread, brings that one's being into it, including that one's philosophy.

NYC at Christmas is something to behold.  For those of us in other large cities who used to have this kind of fanfare, we look to NYC because it reminds us of what was in our own cities.  Beautiful pictures, Skip. 

Skip,

Sorry there is no gathering this year. Hope you and your family stay safe.

Tom

@Allan Miller posted:

Very nicely done, my friend! One of these days, when this pandemic is just a bad memory, Wendy and I will take Amtrak to New York during the holidays to accompany you on another of those great Christmas walking tours. As you know, Wendy is a big NYC fan, but I tend to be more of a smaller town guy. Still, it would be great to get together with you at this time of the year, in particular, and I am hopeful that the opportunity will present itself in the future.

Sounds like a plan! Let's look forward to that day. Merry Christmas!!!

@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:

NYC Fan: Have you ever walked the restored section of the NYC's West Side Freight Line?  Quite impressive and to think that it was once a very busy stretch of industrial railroad in the City.

Dominic: Thanks!  Re: Halloween.  You're so right!  It's scary, not in the sence of the celebration, but the way it is slowly replacing the true meaning of Christmas.  Also, the use of X as in Xmas is wrong itself.  When you X something, it means it's been eliminated, however this isn't the place to discuss it.

Have you rode the streetcars in Houston?

Actually, December's change is  more of a worry. Going from a belief of nature to a belief of a God-Man to the belief of the power of buying.  Halloween is more open in its change.  December is more hidden....!

When one studies the history of this stuff, some things are surprising.  And you can find it on the net.

Houston Light Rail, yes!

@Apples55 posted:

Skip;

As a NY City ex-pat, I’ve been to/seen all of the marvelous sights you posted. Thank you for the wonderful trip down memory lane The only thing missing (which you probably never saw) is the lobby of the building I worked in for 34 years... you’ll have to imagine the Christmas music playing in the background (and to keep it train related, there is an elegant entrance to the downtown 28th Street Lex subway at the Park Ave. South end of the building)!!!

Only 5 blocks north of the old Madison Hardware!

@Henryjint posted:

Only 5 blocks north of the old Madison Hardware!

I paid many a visit to Madison Mecca, both during college (just down the street at 23rd & Lexington), and during my early working years... sadly missed. For the last few years, I’ve been purchasing paintings from an artist (sadly retired) who did NYC Subway themed paintings. Last year I commissioned one to memorialize the first place I regularly bought trains...

The demolition of the late Penn Station was described by one newspaper as a "Monumental act of vandalism". In large thanks to the late Mrs. Kennedy and others, we still have GCT!

@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:

NYC Fan: Have you ever walked the restored section of the NYC's West Side Freight Line?  Quite impressive and to think that it was once a very busy stretch of industrial railroad in the City.

Dominic: Thanks!  Re: Halloween.  You're so right!  It's scary, not in the sence of the celebration, but the way it is slowly replacing the true meaning of Christmas.  Also, the use of X as in Xmas is wrong itself.  When you X something, it means it's been eliminated, however this isn't the place to discuss it.

Have you rode the streetcars in Houston?

Yes, I've walked the high line several times. A fun experience on a weekend in the summer. I especially like walking the stretch between 14th Street north to 30th Street ending at Hudson Yards and the Vessel.

When PBS did the Selfridges story on Masterpiece(?), there were some documentaries made.(*)

Selfridges is a UK chain, but the founder worked at Marshal-Fields in Chicago.  So he knew how to market a department store, bringing American systems across the pond.

In this pre-Net world, how do you draw people in, other than newspaper ads?

Store displays!  How you arrange the product to introduce drama.  Catch attention.  And instead of a theatre, you would pay for your ticket not while entering the store, but exiting by buying something.....

During the late year shopping season, these concepts were put on 'droids.  In some places, this has continued.  NYC.  Selfridges and Harold's in London?  Wards, Penny's, and Sears did the same in their stored at one time.  Downtown Foley's in Houston 1st floor window displays caused, believe it or not, traffic jams!

In a way, Lionel got its boost from this display marketing.  More people wanted the rail car the watches were displayed on, than the watches itself...  Later, store displays and catalogs.

In a way, these stores and areas have outdone P. T. Barnum, and did it with a class P. T. could never do....

(*) Masterpiece usually has an "!" behind it.  With this particular series, I question it.

I’ll simply say thanks for sharing your walk with me😯

Thanks for the memories! Took your tour some years ago when the Citicorp lay-out was up and enjoyed the walk (all but the crowds). My granddaughter has bin asking to go to NY at Christmas for a year or so and we have said because of the crowds she was too young (now15 end of this month) the new Foley Hall is about or has just opened and will be glad to see that too!

Will be waiting to see your review on Foley Hall.

Redball342