Elliot´s Trackside Diner May 2011 - Welcome Aboard, Everybody!

We got some rain this morning, just a shower, followed by some drizzle. Got the laundry done. Drizzle stopped so I went to get the mowing done. Tie rod on the tractor broke. Murphy is alive and well.

Ulrich  .... The photo is not posting, but I bet it is not in Hamburg or Detroit.

Ken ... I'm a little confused still about the bank I think the principle is the same thing as what you owe.

Wayne ... Welcome!

Vincent .... I am sorry about the situation you described. Of course you are a friend and fellow Diner, and we will stay with you through thick and thin. I agree with others who say such incidents should be reported. However, I can understand, too, that it be hard on you to go through any sort of legal process. I certainly hope you have close family members and local friends who you can confide in as well as get advice. A good church pastor may be helpful too. We'll be praying about this. Meanwhile, I'll ask Vinnie to go to Florida and explain to a certain person (or persons) how they must always be respectful of others. Also, Vincent you deserve praise for handling this in a mature adult manner.

Thanks for comments on my photos in Weekend Photo Fun.

I arrived in MI OK after a stopover in Cincinnati area to see grandkids there.

In talking to my AL family I am hearing awful accounts about the killer tornados. They know people who lost family members and there houses. Included are friends who had college students at U of AL who died because of the storm. I am very grateful my family is OK.

JimRC: It's grounded using really thick copper braided wire connected, ultimately, the water main outside of our house...

mmmmm...

I started this roughly an hour ago and got distracted with a bunch of gotta dos....

AAAHH well...better be finishing this off then...we are having the old cloudbanks rolling right back over us for another day or two or three of rain....yay

....and I also ran some trains today!!

Chloe, I'll have a rib dinner with all the trimmings and a large tub of RBF please...I'll be at the corner booth for a bit

If anyone think that I am going to rewrite things again they are a seriously mistaken fellow!!

Garry: We will be praying for those who lost loved ones in those storms there...

Now why did it post two img resizing things there?

 OK, where the heck am I?

 Flo, I take a beer pleases.

 Close But No Cigar!  Today was OK, but a little weak for a Saturday with $3000.00. Month finished up at $48,000.00, $2000.00 short of what I needed to get the $1,000.00 bounces. What really hurts this month is about $10,000.00 of what I wrote (that's $700.00 in commissions) will not go out till May and June. Need Tod peddling Hot Dog's in front of the store today.

Gary I think there whole goal is to keep me confused when it comes to the House thing.

Ulrich Sure starting to look like something. My self, when I cut foam I use a sharp pocket knife and a bread knife. So get contours I want or need I use a sanding block with between 80 and 120 grit paper. No fumes, but does make a mess.

Jim, thanks for the pulling for me. But at last I did not get it done. 

Chris Guess I as well need to give away some of my stuff and see if I can get in the magazine as well! 

Train Front Back to running some sound engines. I have my Santa Fee Warbonnet E-7 with QSI pulling a passenger train. Sometimes I love sound, but there is something about the engines gliding by in silences as well.

                Ken

Guten Abend!

Mein Freund sind wir in Deutschland? 

Flo, just a decaf for me...  Have my blood work done next Friday and I don't want to throw things off after being so good over Easter and all....

Found out why the 4-8-2 was derailing in the tunnel...  When I regauged the rails in there a few weeks ago I managed to make a kink in the curve worse.  Since the 4-8-2 Mountain is my longest non-articulated loco, she doesn't like the tight radii at the spot and simply jumps the track...  Hopefully I have redone it so she will no longer derail in there.  I am not going to run it again in there until I also put some safety railings up in case it (or anything else) decides to tumble into the abyss (aka: the floor.....).  I built THAT area way back when I knew everything......

All the outdoor stuff and crawling under the layout tonight has my back crying in pain...  I think tomorrow i should take it easy...

Hope you all have a good night!

73

Evening All,

Would it be Australia?

Went to the club tonight and had the usual good time. Today  I ordered the DPDT switches that I need for my control panel. I painted the panel gold (3 coats) and drilled the holes for the switches. I will try to go out tomorrow for pin striping.

Chris- Congrats on being published.

Jim- That is a good looking building.

Ulrich- That isgoing to be awesome when it is done. 

Teen Steam- I look forward to seeing pictures of your jeep.

sfcouple- That looks like it will be a interesting layout. Don't forget to post pictures.

Everyone have a good evening.

Can't see the last clue...I'm guessing Houston?

Our recent snow fall has all melted, we can now see our lawn, wife wants to take a trip to Yellowstone so the lawn mowing can wait another day.

Wayne 

Well that month went by fast! I didn;t realize it was that time already,

Thank you Ulrich, though you beat me to it.

UGH! Well, in going to bed tonight, MOH discovered in the fly netting that we have as a bed decoration and now have bed bugs. tore apart teh bed and found 7 visible to kill. MOH works with a girl whose aparment building was infested and wonders if brought home that way. The last time we went anywhere and stayed overnight was last July and we did take our own pillows as extras, but I think they would have shown up before now if we brought them home withthe luggage and our pillows. We have a secure mattress cover, so they ont he outside of it, but still get to us. we were wondering why we would periodically get pimple like thingys that wouldn't heal. Now we they were bites.

I will call the exterminator friend of mine and see what he can do, if anything. Of course that menast he whole house could be infested with them if they spread out.

TTYLATER

Upon further review (and googling): Mecklenburg, Germany???? Bush was nearby during a G8 summit (whatever that is) and may have ridden a narrow gauge train called the Molli????

Hey, I'm trying....new here and don't know if you guys/gals visit international destinations?

Wayne 

Nothing for me right now Flo, just bumping the diner back up above the one from April which i have locked twice.......

(Grin)!

73

sfcouple

Upon further review (and googling): Mecklenburg, Germany???? Bush was nearby during a G8 summit (whatever that is) and may have ridden a narrow gauge train called the Molli????

Hey, I'm trying....new here and don't know if you guys/gals visit international destinations?

Wayne 

With all those storms and bucket loads of rain you had recently in the US, I thought it´d be nice to move the Diner to friendlier weather.

Wayne - you´ve got it! We are in Bad Doberan, a charming little town close to the Baltic Sea coast and the staring point of "Molli". Molli connects Bad Doberan with the seaside resort of Kuehlungsborn, is exclusively steam powered and runs more trains a day than most US commuter lines.

Hope you folks did not mind traveling that far last night!

Edit: The place is about a two hour´s drive away from my doorstep, but I have never made it to there. With the price of gas exceeding the 4 ) mark now for a gallon, there is no way I could afford to spend the $ 45 to go there.

Germany eh ?? Who would have thought it ???????????\

However lets make the most of it.   

FREE BOAT RIDES in Kuehlungsborn,  Isn't that what you said Ulrich ?

Anyway, thanks for the move Ulrich..

For those of you who showed concern for my health.

Blood Presure and pulse were fine,  Blood sugars fine.

Waiting for test results to come back for ECG and the rest of the blood.  Should hear on Tuesday.

Actually I feel not too bad but am quite tired most of the time.

Off to get horizontal for a few hours.   Back to work tomorrow.

Johnboy out........................ZZZZZZzzzzzzzssssssss. 

Good Morning Gang,

Zoe, strong coffee, please. I did not catch much sleep last night. Moving the Diner all across the Big Pond was some task

Johnboy - I hope everything works out fine for you. I know what you mean by feeling tired, I myself feel pretty much worn out these days.

Jeff - I saw your picture in WPF - just great!

Ray - spot the looney? Every time I look into a mirror

Just a few more impressions on the location the Diner is this month:

... and a video link.

22 daily trains!

Have a good one!

Sir Madog

I myself feel pretty much worn out these days.

Ditto to that!

Sir Madog

Jeff - I saw your picture in WPF - just great!

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

Good Morning

Everything is all ready to pop out here any day now...leaves are budding out, the magnolias are starting to look like they are ready to do the same...and my asparagus is starting to come up...

I'm getting ready to go into work to get some reports done up as well as my own stuff...gonna see how THAT goes...

After w**k I am hoping..hope being the operative word here that there will be some traintime allowed tonight...

Flo, I'll just have a coffee for now please..yes, some of that old railroad coffee oughta do it..thanks..I'll be a the RC for a bit..

Morning all

Migraine today for 2nd day.

Obviously new med not working.

Was to go to open house today with realtor. but had to cancel.

Later.

If I feel better I have a LOT of laundry to do in HOT water and HOT dryer to KILL some bed bugs that may have infested clothes and other beding {quilts hung over the quilt rack at  the foot of the bed}.

later.

Good Morning!! (plops down in the booth. With a look of disappointment) Just coffee please. Thanks.

I was reeeeally stoked about the cleanup this year. I decided to toss a bunch of stuff. But when I got a chance yesterday, I could not come up with much at all. I envisioned this heaping truck load and a couple trips. Two fans and that old 2 cycle snow blower and an old 2 X 4 X6 inch. There is still today, but what? I admit I have been trowing things away in the regular trash, I quess I threw away more than I thought.

Garage sale went well. Until the end when they looked around and said “what are we gonna do with this stuff left over?” I had the brilliant idea that the answer is 2 blocks away at the village/township garage. (That’s where the dumpsters and piles are for the cleanup day) Then someone mentioned a place in Springfield called Inner City Missions. A Faith based program supported mainly by Churches but no one Church in particular. They give the stuff away to the needy. One step better than Goodwill AND you have to be needy to get it. Perfect right? Wrong. I happened to be there when they decided this. Guess who had the truck? One load yesterday and I have to take the few pieces of furniture today. Not to mention the small amount of suff Brenda bought and the few expensive items a couple of folks donated but put a price on. ( one guy brought a Canon digital SLR wih an extra lense and a bag and some other camera stuff. He said take no less than $200. If it doesn't sell, he wanted it back.  I undrstand that. Someone else did the same with a couple antique fishing reels only he said $10 a piece)  I'm still not through moving this stuff. Brenda says this is the last time, but she said that the last two times.  I knew I should have stayed home and mowed, but I suppoese that would have caused other problems, if you catch my drift. Oh well.

Ray- I liken the Village Garage sale to a vast outdoor Walmart. I like it, there are some treasures to be found if you can attend, unlike me, but as you said, it’s the mindless walkers and drivers that are the problems. Like pushing the carts in the store, they drive and stop in the middle of the road with a cell phone to their ear and stare into garages, driveways, yards, even the backs of others pickups taking inventory, I guess to call in a strike on the sale or let it be. Meanwhile traffic is trying to get through and the walkers think the road is like the striped zone at the Walmart. Just dart out and don’t even look.  Cars or not.

The last few years the Village has put up no parking signs on Main street. Oh you should have heard the fallout on that one. They didn’t care that the road is as Ray described and with the one way bottle neck it caused, you could not get through. PLUS it is the only way the Fire or Rescue can get to the other side of town. With the road lined up and cars jaming the aisle, there was no way a rescue truck or ambulance could have gotten down the road and no way for the cars to get out of the way. Like convoy trapped in a canyon. This year they signed only one side of the road. Worked pretty good, but this year only a couple people on Main street had sales.

Saaaaay! Has everyone seen Robby’s car in the magazine?! Congrats Robby! Looked real.

Chris! I shall look for yours. Congrats to you too!

Jim- Very nice looking record shop!! Very nice!

Looks like it's about time for an update shot of the .......Whatever I call it Railroad.

TSF- I started to play Spot the Looney, but soon I realized it was like being in the middle of the ocean and saying “see if you can spot some water”

Wayne- Freelance/ Freestyle eh. You’re singing my song. Glad to see you’ve planned for expansion too. If given the room, it inevitably will happen. Often sooner than planned too.

Well, gotta mow and like I said take some stuff into Springfield. Hopefully like Barry, I’ll get to shift into choo choo mode today

Bad Doberman?! Strange name. Kinda scary. Pretty though.

Ya’ll have a Great Day!!!

Morning. got a fresh pair of contact lenses and hopped a plane to get here. 

My dad and I have to clean out the shop today because there is black overspray and flake EVERYWHERE So hopefully I'll get some pictures today. 

See everyone's here. I may see how far we are from Lohmar Germany

Good morning.  Hello. My name is Thayne, I live in Sandy Utah (usa) I have been following all of your posts for along time. I really enjoy this site and i feel like i know a few of you. (if that makes sense?)  I am fairly new to model railroading, I am into HO scale. I joined the NMRA, I am also a member of a great new club that just started up here a few months ago, I saw the msg's that Galaxy posted about bed bugs and I just had to tell a quick story, My daughter and her roommate had a bed bug infestation. They had a Orkin come out and spray several times, Finally the bug guy decided that they needed to get rid of the sofa, So the two gals hauled it out side while they figured out how to get rid of it.  Anyway here's the good part, Some one comes along and steals the sofa, Ha Ha, I hope they enjoy the new sofa! I laugh everytime i think about it.  Good luck galaxy, Sleep tight don't let the bed bugs bite!

teen steam fan

See everyone's here. I may see how far we are from Lohmar Germany

TSF - that´s about 380 miles. Incidentally, Lohmar is not far from the place where I grew up.

Thayne - to the Diner! Great story! There is a good thing to even a bad thing! Why do I feel so itchy right now?

The Diner is open for anybody to join in in our chat about the daily things, some of them are related to model railroading, and some are not. Here you´ll find a great bunch of folks of all walks of life. Good to see new people joining.

It´s a slow Sunday, sunny, but with a cold wind. I got some sort of hay fever, I could sleep all the time.

Chloe, strong coffee, please.

CUL!

Good morning. It's 76° and cloudy. The high will be 86 (yeah, right) and it will be mostly cloudy with a 20% chance of showers this morning and a 20% chance of thunderstorms this afternoon.

Today I'll go down and look at the tractor to determine what parts I'll need to fix it. Hopefully just the right tie rod end. If the weather permits I'll use the little Yardman rider mower to mow the yard.

As I sit here listening to the neighbors mower bog as it churns through his "field", let me tell you how my life has changed in the last hour.

At 10:29 and 30 seconds AM CDT, Brenda asked me what my plans for the day were. I sid Mow,take the furniture in town then play with my trains. At 10:29 and 45 seconds she said....."oh".  At 10:30 I made the mistake of saying "why?". From 10:30 and 15 seconds until approximately 10:40 she outlined what she "thought I would do". I sat in silence digesting the list and have decided it is in my best interest to comply. Life in the fast lane gentlemen. Life in the fast lane.

Welcome Thayne. Do you plan on a layout of your own or just the club? No problem either way, just curious. People join clubs for many reasons. No room for one themselves, much larger layout than one could have, probably that one could have access to a much larger layout than could be accomplished for a fraction of the cost. Clubs are good, though my approach to MRRing doesn't necessarily click with a clubs. Not that I'm selfish, just that what I envision is probably on the outside of even what freelancing would allow.  

  Time to submit to the master.

Afternoon folks!

Back from church....  Had reception of new members this morning.  So, cake and punch right after the service with a chanced to shake hands with all the new folks.

Chloe, I'll have a chicken salad sandwich and some potato chips along with a decaf for lunch.

Ulrich....  At least I had the right country!

Todd, your a good husband to know when it is best to just nod your head and say, "Yes dear!"  Then get to the tasks given.....

Galaxy, good luck getting rids of the bugs....  The ones out there have become immune to most pesticides (probably from biting people who have absorbed the pesticides from the food they eat....)  Yes get an exterminator over and follow his directions to a tee.  You may find yourself getting rid of a lot of bedding, clothes, and other stuff where they can hide.

Jeffrey, nice photo of the engine house and of course the billboard....

I'm going to get to w*rk a repair job on the layout, and then I have to pack up a very large pot of soup to take over to my son's house for supper tonight.

Later!

73

howmus

Jeffrey, nice photo of the engine house and of course the billboard....

Got the yard mowed. Also got the bed linen washed. I think I'll rest for the rest of the day.

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooood afternoon, BARRY-sized cheeseburger platter with a bucket of Coke please 'n thankya.

So (not a needle pulling thread...), Germany 'eh? Cool.....always wanted to visit the ancestorial ancesteriorial, heck....the place where my descendents came from!

Thanks for the kind words about THAT elevator. I was just happy Tony found it good enough to use on his layout in the first place. I think THAT Cody dude from MR was looking more at the overall scene rather than the structure...but it sure is swell having very indirectly made it into the pages of a MR publication. Tony said the photo shoot took 3 hours and MR bought his text and 75 photos. Having never made it to any of his operating sessions or round robin w**k sessions, the article was my first in-depth look at his empire.

Hold THAT thought...Mr. Rerun is telling me he needs to go decorate the yard...

Well, THAT was an adventure...between barking at the neighbor and rolling in dirt/grass clippings at the edge of the yard, its a wonder he found time to empty himself!

I 'spose, having delivered content to Boring Proofreader Dude and having finished the mowing for this week...I just might take advantage of the rest of the afternoon by doing something RR related. I could get a bit more prep w**k done in my office for the future staging yard, or I could go slap some paint on parts of the benchwork still needing it, or I could really torture myself and take another stab at finalizing a trackplan.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. The good thing: none of them can possibly be a "wrong choice;" especially since the Wife is happily w**king in the former downstairs bedroom which she is converting into her art studio. An occupied wife means a free man!

Chris

Afternoon folks!

Ow, ow, ow....!!!  Ouch!  Oh nothing Flo, just been crawling around under the layout on my hands and knees for the last hour and a half.....  I think I'll have a nice hot cocoa to tide me over to supper, and since it's chilly outside the cocoa would be nice....

Man my knees hurt...  I manage to find every rough spot in the old concrete floor down there every time I have to crawl around under the layout.  But........   I think I may have finally corrected the problem in the tunnel.  This, of course is the reason you always leave yourself some kind of access to the track in a tunnel... I wish I had left access for a bigger person than what I was 25 years ago when it became a tunnel.  I added an extra board along side the track as protection in case of a bad derailment in there, and ran the train again.  Derailed again.  Sooooooooooo  (please note this is G in the key of C), I crawled under there standing on my knees to be able to watch the loco go through and with radio throttle in hand brought the train through it.  Derail!  Back it up, put it on track, and run it through again.  Derail!  After following the above sequence about 10 times I finally notice that in a short section that is both a curve and a grade change, the old code 100 track is not supported well on one side and when the loco goes over it, it leans just enough to let the front truck climb the rail.  I remembered fiddling with it way back when I was putting it in and saying to myself, "Self, this is good enough.  I'll probably never have any problem with it even though it was p!$$ poor workmanship.  Nobody will ever see it and it should be fine....."  Yeah, Right!

I spent an hour measuring, cutting, and gluing in some wood bits and pieces under the side of the rail which wasn't supported.  It still looks like.......  But now, finally the loco can navigate the area without derailing.  Or at least, did make it through the couple of times I ran it.  On to other things now!

Need to figure out how to get the soup safely out to my son's house for dinner.  And find some Advil....

Later!

73

Well, the headache has eased some.

Had to cancel with RE agent to visit open house, but it is one of three in a row for sale and the highest priced remodled. She is really nosing around aobut the cheapest taht may take an offer in our league. supposedly reno has been started, but depends on what they did and did not do as to how it can pan out for us. A gutted house is not in our plans and the finished house is only $18k more than the one that reno has supposedly started on.

So I am washing stuff in HOT water to put in PREHEATED DRyer to Kill off bugs. I think we just started withthe infestation. MOH has a coworker whose whole rental building took the landlord to court over bed bug infestation he wouldn't do anything about. MOH thinks brought home from work.

3 months ago we put an entirely new hypo-allergenic mattress cover on the mattress as the cat had clawed a rip in the old one {"kneading the bed" with claws out} and we KNOW we had NONE then. SO it's recent and wouldn't have caught it if MOH didn't have that mosquito netting over the bed for decoration {I hated it...would get my hands caught in it at night}. and saw the bugs climbing up inside it.

Train nut friend coming over tonight to see us and bring maps to go over route to get to Florida to help hie 94 y/o G-ma out who is being taken advantage of by a man his mother {g-mas daughter} put as executer of her will and who really absconded with all the money train nut's mother had that was supposed to go to G-ma and to kids naturally. Wasn't a lot, but he scammed g-ma  and kidsout of it . He wants to know how we get to FL driving when we go for best routing. Pretty simple really and they have new fly-overs for Baltimore and DC now completed so should be easier than when we went last.

Train nut bought one of those "car bra"s for the front end to keep bugs off. I told him NOT to put it on unless he plans to repaint the car as the bras wear the paint away due to friction and heat up and bubble paint in hot sun. Taht is why they were all the rage and fashion years ago, then quickly went out of style. SO I told him to ship it back and get his money back.

Well, obviously I am feeling better as I have written a book or at least a novella.

TTYALLL8R