Been a while

Wow... I forgot I had this blog...

Things have changed a lot since my last post....a long time ago.

We no longer have an antique store, it is now a "paint your own pottery" store. Which is going fantastic!

Ryan is almost 20 months old, and is the smartest baby I know.

I still work for WDW as a Railroad Engineer and Conductor, going down in a few weeks to play choo choos as we say.

All in all, its been a very busy several months. I will try to keep this updated as well.
Check out my stores blog, Remember This Paint Studio and feel free to pass it along to your friends.

Guess I'll talk to everyone later.

Songs of feelings. Pt 2

I love the song, unfortinatly its messing with my head and my heart. Listening to this song and living in the situation I am has given me lots of time to think but there is nothing I can do about any of it.

Watch "Glee Cast - Pretending (Glee Cast Version)" on YouTube

Songs of feelings...pt1

I love this song. Its always in my head now.

Watch "Glee Cast - I Feel Pretty / Unpretty (Glee Cast Version)" on YouTube

The great locomotive chase...

*points if you know where the title came from*

So. Joey has always had a dream of either owning his own railroad or a theme park. Well tonight he is one step closer to one of those dreams...maybe both.

October 2010 Joey is introduced to a man with some money and several miles of shortline railroad in North East Georgia. He and his friend Jason start on the task of trying to save Central of Georgia locomotive 509 built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philidelphia Pennsylvania (same people that but the ones Walt Disney World uses) that was built in the early 1900s. Joey and Jason and the man with the money go down and meet with the Mayor of Macon, Ga and get the approval to go forth with writing up a lease to go infront of the City Councel for the Hartwell Railroad to lease the 509 for 30yrs at $1 a year.

November and December go by and no word from Macon...it was the holidays and all. February comes and Joey starts getting phone calls from the city attorney. They have a lease that is suppost to go to the Mayor for approval before it goes infront of the City Councel. The Mayor approved it but someone kept pulling it off the docit. They go round and round fixing "loose ends" and "misworded" items. All during this Joey is still calling other citys and museums that have steam locos that are not in use anymore. He would get so far, then someone would decide they wanted a million for one, or someone else would say "no" because they decotate it pretty for Christmas (no joke!) Some cities were unaware that they even had a locomotive sitting in a city park.

Well, when hope was just about gone for the Macon loco, they were getting desperate and about to order one from China. China was making steam locos up until the late 80s, and they were in use until the Bejing Olympics. They stopped using them because they didn't want to look like they were behind the times.  April came and they were asked to go down for the commetties meeting in Macon to see if they even wanted it to go in front of the City Council. It was approved across the board! It was on to the next step just 2 weeks later it would go infront of the City Council!

May 6th. Joey and his friend Jason (who works at Steam Town in Pennsylvania and will be the cheif machanic on this loco) went to Macon for the Council meeting. They were #10. Joey didn't even really have to get up an speak, the locomotive was theirs! The 1906 Central of Georgia locomotive 509 is being leased by the Hartwell Railroad for 30 years at $1 per year. Yes, $1 a year! A full size loco for $30!

Joey went down on his 31st birthday to sign the lease. He said it was the best birthday present, he always wanted a steam locomotive for his birthday.

Now begins the long process of the rebuild. No details on it yet, Joey is making all of the phone calls to find a place to rebuild it. Joey was also named the President and General Manager of The Grand Georgia Railway. Hopefully this will mean better thingsd for us, one can only hope. I will keep you updated on all that goes on. Join our Facebook page Central of Georgia locomotive 509 to keep up with the progress.

Peace Love and Mickey Mouse

Old engine might get new role as an excursion train || OnlineAthens.com

I think this is the last one... this is in the Athens, GA paper, the locomotive will actually run there, they just dont know it yet

Old engine might get new role as an excursion train OnlineAthens.com

Steam train may be restored for Ga. excursions

On a Savannah news site!

All this press could be good....and very bad...

Steam train may be restored for Ga. excursions

Steam train may be restored for excursions

Marietta newspaper!!!

Steam train may be restored for excursions: "MACON — An old steam locomotive that has been on display in Macon’s Central City Park may be put back to work.
The Hartwell Railroad Co. of Bowersville wants to put the old steam engine back in se..."