Howdy .... I'm back from Nashville.
Ricky ... If I understand correctly, your have a promotion at work.... Congratulations.
Ulrich .... Those are very interesting photos of crocodile locomotives. ..
I supposes these NYC electrics are somewhat similar to crocodiles.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Heartland Division CB&QI supposes these NYC electrics are somewhat similar to crocodiles.
You're in my territory there, Garry. Those P2b-s are the former Cleveland Union Terminal electrics. They have a somewhat conventional traction motor drive not unlike today's diesel-electric.
The crocs are probably closer to the Pennsy DD1 which was a motor-jackshaft drive. Pennsy had an L5 electric which was of similar construction and actually looked more like a crocodile on the exterior.
Here's a peek under the hood. Boy would I like to be in that motor compartment at, say, 60 MPH!
Here's what an L5 looks like:
http://brasstrains.com/classic/Product/Detail/054913/HO-Custom-Brass-NJCB-EL-302-PRR-Pennsylvania-1-B-B-1-L-5-Jackshaft-Electric-3930
Fun Stuff!
Ed
Evening Dinners
Flo, Ed and I will have a please
Boy work was peacfull, only one customer in 9 hours? Should have taken a SD 7 to work and fixed it. But, today I had to play the car shuffle, pick up the dying car, drop it off at the exhaust shop. I will drop off the loud car at the exhaust shop Friday morning and hope there is another 20 miles left in the dying car so I can go to work and come home.
Stopped by K-10 Model Trains tonight (open till 10:00 PM on Thursday. I was amazed by how much I spent to get 9 more B&O coal cars on the rails! $42.00 for couplers and Proto 2000 wheels? When I started the hobby if I spent $42.00 I was walking out with a new engine, and that was just 11 years ago?
Ed Man I getting more impressed by the BLI F7A every time I run it! I swear it is sounding louder (good thing speakers must be breaking in) every time I run it. I will read the manual you linked me to. I am 95% sure there is nothing wrong with the B unit. I was going to do a decoder reset till I saw there was no CV 6.
YGW Sure glad your dad is getting better! I have gotton I think I have 15 of the coal cars on the main line now and love them.
Ulrich I like the Crocodile, does it have sound, or is that just the motor hum? My self, I am more of a Alligator person my self.
Time to fiddle with coal cars, Ken
I hate Rust
Ed:
Neat picture of the DD1 entrails! The sheer size of real locomotives and their parts always amazes me.
Ulrich:
I like your new addition! I always thought that the nickname "Crocodile" was very evocative. I'm glad to hear that it has that sound.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Lunchtime!
Flo, I am not really hungry. It´s too hot to be hungry, but a scoop (or two, three) of ice cream would be nice, thank you.
It´s too hot for anything but taking a nap, which I will be doing in a moment.
hon30critterI'm glad to hear that it has that sound.
Dave - the loco is DCC friendly with a plug&play socket for a sound decoder and a space for a speaker. ESU offers the prototype sound, but with the rather present hum of the drive, I don´t think it´s worth going down this route. Nevertheless, I enjoy watching this little reptile snaking along on my layout!
Heading for the sofa - CUL!
Flo a glass of orange juice.
A neighbor lent me one of those portable AC units with the hose to the window. it cooled the bedroom down. Thank goodness. it is 78 degrees at 7 am and 90%+ humidity.
On my way to the dermatologist to look for skin cancers. I had a real crook a couple years ago, she kept bringing me back every 3 months for a biopsy. When she refused to biopsy two at once, I found a new doc.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Good Morning one and all!
It was a rather interesting here in the land of the Buckeyes yesterday.
Since it was to hot yesterday to railfan outside I worked on various modeling projects and finished reading a Western novel under the A/C and last night after it cooled down I did some night time railfaning from my back yard into the wee hours of the morning.A cop did spotlight me and asked me if I lived here-all the lights in the house was turned off after he was satisfied I wasn't a boogie man or one of the homeless persons-we have three here in Bucyrus-all druggies.
I suspect the old hag that lives across the street from me called the cops again.She calls them regularly about "suspicious persons".
I'm not sure what I'll get into today..I might even make some tuna casserole.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
BRAKIE "suspicious persons".
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
"suspicious persons". To an outsider that description would cover most model railroaders...
And all to sadly that includes railfans. Every time I go railfaning at the T&OC station you can bet the farm a cop will drive by-99% waves and radios "Its one of our local train watchers". The other 1 % just drives by and radios "Just a train spotter".
Not so long ago you could sit there for hours and not see a cop but,today everybody wants to be a wannabe crime fighter and calls it in.
Pretty bad when the cops know you by sight because you're "one of the local train watchers".
He, rather tongue-in–cheek, is keen for us all to turn to Marklin and even pointed out that there is a 1965 Marklin Crocodile on the local version of eBay for the equivalent of 1038 Euros.
JaBear - that price is only slightly over the top. Here, a 1965 Marklin Croc in mint condition and original box fetches about €500 - 600. Considering that the Croc was Marklin´s second best selling loco and that there must be hundreds of thousands still around, that´s an astonishing value.
Larry - in my student days, I was a member of an MR club which had its home in the attic of the Cologne - Deutz train station. It was the night before we had our annual public day, a couple of my friends and I were giving the layout a run down to see that everything was according to spec for the upcoming event. Of course, it was in the small hours of the day, when we finished the job and started to make our way home. Right outside of the station building (which was closed at that time of the day) we got arrested by a couple of railroad cops. They took us to the police station where we were greeted with a big grin - the cop on duty was a fellow club member.
Good morning, everybody.
Ed: ... Those are interesting photos of the DD1 especially the one with the shell off. Where is the decoder ? ....
It was the motor/gear sounds that I was referring to. I think you said it didn't have a decoder in a previous post but you did like the mechanical noises the locomotive was emitting.
I hope you get a break from the heat soon. When we came back from the beautiful weather in British Columbia (18 - 20 degrees C) to +40 C in Toronto it was quite a shock! It made us want to get back on a plane and go back to BC.
Take care,
hon30critterIt was the motor/gear sounds that I was referring to
I wasn´t too sure about having mentioned the loco is DC only. Bemo locos don´t have a reputation of being noisy - at least not in the past. My other loco has a growling sound coming from the motor beig fed with PWM DC, while the gears are silent. My new loco has a slight hum, but noisy gears. I did not notice it at first, but Bemo took the plunge and now have metal gears installed, which do a little bit of "singing". Better slightly noisy metal gears than those easily wearing out plastic things!
Speaking of electric locomotive, you will not find any that are larger than these two GN electrics.
Thanks, Cats!
I saw the tab locations on the underside. Maybe it calls for one of those toothpick shim methods to unlatch the window glass. MTH cars are easy to slide the floor out of. Walthers—well, an entirely different animal.
Thanks again for the head's up. Maybe I'll take a stab at opening one later tonight.
Regards, Ed
Heartland Division CB&Qyou will not find any that are larger than these two GN electrics.
How about the Swiss Federal Railway class Ae 8/14? It was about 12 ft. longer than the GN W-1 and had a little more than double the power. Or Malmbana´s IORE loco in Sweden, made for pulling the heavy ore trains from the mine in Kiruna to the Norwegian port of Narvik. The IORE loco is 150 ft. long and has roughly three times the power.
Anyhow, all of them are really impressive monsters, though if there were a beauty contest among them, my vote would go to the GN W-1!
Evening all. Flo, could I get my normal order of breaded mushrooms with blue cheese dressing with some iced tea with a bit of lemon? Thank you.
Hobby Front: I might be getting my Athearn Gondola tomorrow. Depends on the Post Office. It was shipped via SmartPost. I checked the tracking and it got to the post office this afternoon. (If so, it will go out to the layout on Sunday.)
The main plan is get the raw screen on the river extension covered. Requirements: 1 blender, old newspaper, water, fork and/or spoon (depends on desired finish), colander and bowl, additional larger container. Water in blender, place newspaper in blender, grind newspaper, repeat steps until blender full, mixture to colander, drain excess water to bowl (reuse water), put mixture in other container, repeat until other container full. Use cutlery to place mixture on screen. Let dry.
How much I actually get done on Sunday depends on the opinion of my back. The last few days it has been a pain. It hurts in a place that makes moving hard. (When it hits, I almost wonder if it's slightly psychosomatic due to my dislike for w*rk lately. It doesn't hurt as bad when I'm not at w*rk: at home, on lunch, etc.)
gmpullmanThanks again for the head's up. Maybe I'll take a stab at opening one later tonight.
Good Morning, Folks—
Don't bother with the menu, Flo, I'm just passin' through.
Cats Think Well Of Me mentioned opening the newest Broadway Limited PRR P70 coaches so I thought I'd take a stab at it and post my results...
and the verdict is— BLI did their homework on this aspect of the design!
You can see little pockets where you can insert a flat tool (skewer?) but with a little prodding I managed to get the floor out without using any tools, just my digits.
And one more view of the window glazing and catches.
Just slight outward pressure on the car sides at the bottom and a gentle pull while rocking at the end steps and the floor begins to move free, then work the other end the same way gently pulling down on the steps and up at the carbody ant you're home free.
There's about two feet of excess floor height so any figures will have to get the axe, or the #11 (They'll look like the Elbonians in the Dilbert strip)
Now I really have to figure out a way to get some axial free play in the snap-in, unadjustable bolster pin truck pivots and I'll be hitting a home run!
Maybe there is too much downward pressure from the bronze contact strips in the floor that does not allow for enough free play in the trucks? (first photo just above the truck leaf spring)
We shall see
I hope everyone is doing well and I'll stop by later when I can pull up a chair and chat a spell.
Have a rewarding and safe weekend, everyone!
[Edit:] Looks like I made "top-'O-the-page"! Everything's on my tab. There goes my train budget for the week.
Good Morning All.
Not much to report from the land of Buckeyes other then I shifted eras on my ISL from 77/78 to 95/96 so I can use my Ohio Central GP7-its a P2K that I picked up for $55.00..It was a bigger job then I thought since I had to place all 50 of my higher detail cars in a "interchange" ratio of 8 cars and not all 8 cars will be used for a given "work" day.You see some days there's only outbound cars or 1 or 2 inbound cars.
The thought has cross my mind to re-letter my Bachmann GE 70 tonner for Lake Side Terminal RR. or LST for short. LST would be located in one of the cities located on the shores of beautiful Lake Erie-perhaps Toledo or Loraine. It main function would be to service Lake View Industrial complex and maybe a two miles long and would interchange with CR.Era 1994/95.
That remains a thought on the back burner on slow cook..
Have a good 'un!
Morning diners,
Murray (my brother's dog) got his teeth cleaned. He will be a little unmobile in 24 hours. Since Murray got drugged my sister's dog Charles is bothering him everywhere he goes. We managed to keep them apart.
Train News: I got a letter back from my hobby store saying we couldn't fill all the numbers you wanted, so it's been cancelled. So I went to other store to get the same BN covered hoppers and spent extra $20.
Best wishes for your dad YGW
I prefer the older crocodiles they look better Ulrich
No one suggested that the PRR GG1 looks like a streamlined crocodile.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
Afternoon, Folks!
It is hot!
Zoe, make that 3 for me , please - 1 to coold down my feet, 1 to pour over my head and 1 to cool me inside!
Not much doing today, it is just too hot!
angelob6660No one suggested that the PRR GG1 looks like a streamlined crocodile.
Well, the signature element of a Croc is that long, low slung snout & tail, which the GG1 does not have, so it can´t go for a crocodile.
To be fair, there are only two locos officially known as Crocs - the Swiss Federal Railway one being the SG version and the Rhaetian Railway Baby Croc. All others are just pretending to be Crocs.
It is disappointing to me to see how quickly performance on the bike drops during an extended break the older I get. Due to migraines and inclement weather I have not ridden for a week. My average speed for the same effort, as measured by average heart rate, dropped a full mile-per-hour. What's more, the same effort was a NP (near puke) effort whereas lasat week it was aggressive, but acceptable. It could take as much as two weeks to regain what was lost in a week.
W*rk has been all consuming as of late. The good news is I am enjoying what I am doing, but it doesn't leave time for much else. It may slow down a little by the middle of next week.
Richard
Howdy ..
Ed ... That BLI design looks like a good one. In particular, I liek seeing they molded the roof and sides togethr. Some other passenger car models have a gap showing between the roof and the sides.
Richard .... NP means Northern Pacific in my book.
Ulrich ... I would like to see photos of those big electircs. Are they on an articulated frame ?
Brakie ... I recall several trips to Cedar Point on Lake Erie many years ago.
I posted my latest project just now in WPF. I changed a highway bridge in Downtown Heartland.
Heartland Division CB&Q Richard .... NP means Northern Pacific in my book.
Mine as well. But then, of course, having family that worked for the NP would tend to influence that. (My maternal grandfather was an MOW person.) My first non-trainset engine was an Athearn F7 in NP paint. As a matter of fact, I still have that same engine to this day. (The drive unit for my passenger F7, the 1412. The shell has been replaced a few times and I think the gears have been changed but the rest of the major components are the same-circa 25 years old.)
On a totally different subject, while I was typing the first part of this post, I got a knock on my door. It was the postal carrier with my new Athearn gondola. (Rather large box, but not the first time I have been surprised by the box size.) The only thing I had to do with it was tighten the truck screws a little bit. Considering that everyone has a little different desire for how tight trucks are, I can't fault the screw tightness. The car even had the appropriate ACI label. (Not very common in my experience. I have many sheets of ACI labels for that very reason.)
Good Afternoon,
A cloudy day up here in the GWN but supposed to be mid '80s tomorrow and sunny. Likely summer's last gasp. I saw a few yellow leaves on the old elm tree in our yard. It gets its leaves early but loses them early too. Hope we can keep it going as many in our neighbourhood have succumed to Dutch Elm disease. In fact there are 5 nearby that the city has tagged for removal. We get our injected with a chemical that does help resist the disease but it isn't 100%.
It has been a busy week here. We went down the Thief River Falls to visit our good friends there. We went out to dinner to celebrate an anniversary and 2 birthdays. We always order the ribs and this time they really were outstanding. I also picked up a few orders from Kleins that I had sent there. I now have 2 more express reefers. I like express reefers and find they make a nice train on my little layout with a Pacific or Light Mountain. These are BLI's version and they are very well detailed and very free rolling, far better than the Walthers versions I have. Kleins had them on sale for $35 a pair which I think was a very good price. I also picked up a couple of True Line Trains boxcars, one ONR and one CN express.
Last night we went out for dinner to celebrate my wife's birthday. Had a great dinner at our favourite restaurant beside the river. It was expensive but worth it for very high quality food, especially the beef. I had Beef Wellington and it melted in the mouth.
Talking of food, it is soon time for our supper. Just a frozen pizza tonight and a movie. Our dog, Robbie, goes nuts over pizza. We can't even say the word out loud.
CN Charlie
gmpullman gmpullman Thanks again for the head's up. Maybe I'll take a stab at opening one later tonight. Good Morning, Folks— Don't bother with the menu, Flo, I'm just passin' through. Cats Think Well Of Me mentioned opening the newest Broadway Limited PRR P70 coaches so I thought I'd take a stab at it and post my results... and the verdict is— BLI did their homework on this aspect of the design! You can see little pockets where you can insert a flat tool (skewer?) but with a little prodding I managed to get the floor out without using any tools, just my digits. And one more view of the window glazing and catches. Just slight outward pressure on the car sides at the bottom and a gentle pull while rocking at the end steps and the floor begins to move free, then work the other end the same way gently pulling down on the steps and up at the carbody ant you're home free. There's about two feet of excess floor height so any figures will have to get the axe, or the #11 (They'll look like the Elbonians in the Dilbert strip) Now I really have to figure out a way to get some axial free play in the snap-in, unadjustable bolster pin truck pivots and I'll be hitting a home run! Maybe there is too much downward pressure from the bronze contact strips in the floor that does not allow for enough free play in the trucks? (first photo just above the truck leaf spring) We shall see I hope everyone is doing well and I'll stop by later when I can pull up a chair and chat a spell. Have a rewarding and safe weekend, everyone! [Edit:] Looks like I made "top-'O-the-page"! Everything's on my tab. There goes my train budget for the week.
gmpullman Thanks again for the head's up. Maybe I'll take a stab at opening one later tonight.
Ed, Thank you for the posts on opening the P70s up. I'm going to try adding figures soon. There is more room for figures inside compared to other passenger cars I've had, though it always requires some amputation of figures to get them to fit properly. I have several seated Preiser figures ready for a train to board. Maybe tomorrow, or late this evening after work, I'll try adding figures. I'm also curious to see how much work it'd be to put the Glatzl dummy couplers from Sergent in place of the Kadees. I won't switch them much, so dummy couplers would probably do fine for them.
I ran a 13-car milk train, a 24-car mail train, and a 9-car passenger train on the club layout last night. The latter two were pulled by K4s. The milk train had a BS12 for power. A lot of fun, though a lot of work to keep three trains going.
Alvie
Flo, Ed and I will take a beer please.
Work Front Started out as a sort of rotten day. Lot of "I need to bring back my other half" customers. We call them One Leggers, there reason not to buy is there wife or husband need to try the mattress.
Nancy got me PO'ed today! (owners wife) We had a customer order a $2400.00 Cal King mattress because they thought they had a Cal King. They where wrong, it was a nomal king. Mattress is still in the buyers house and I have to asume they are slepping on it while they are waitting for the correct sizes king!
Today I had a couple that did have a Cal King and need a new mattress. They could not find any mattress they both liked! Plus they did not want to waite 2 to 4 weeks for a speical order. I knew about the Cal King coming back, so I had them try a queen like it. They liked it did not love it but could live with it. I did call the main store to find out if we had it back yet, Nancy answred the phone! (she is the person that sold them the wrong sizes) So she knew I had someone in the store that was looking for a Cal King.
I was honest and told them the truth about where the mattress was, in a customers house. Well they need to think about it, and I understood.
Half hour later Nancy called back to she if they bought there mistake! Told her no, they needed to think about it.
Flo please.
Nancy said "You Blew It!" To many details, you should have just said WE HAVE IT COMING, NOT FROM WHERE!
I swear that woman would tickel your Ball Bearing's so she could reach around your back and pick your pocket!
Day did finish up well! Last coustomer of the day spent $2400.00! So I am . Going to ask Nancy if I blew that one to!
Train Front Trains strated being real mean to me again today. I swear I was up and down to the layout 15 times before things started working right!
B&O F7 Front One of the things I wanted to was change the voulume of the F7-A withe decoder pro. While I was getting the F7A I thought what the heck I try resetting the decoder of the F7B on the main line!
Used OP mode with the SEB, changed CV 8 To 8, hit the button and the B unit just sat there when I tried to move it! So I thought what the heck, and tried F-6 with my DT400 and I will be dammed! It started moving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
B&O F7 A and B are now dragging coal and I am tickled! Need to play with the voulme some but they live! I may call BLI and ask about the type of decoder that are in these engines. Checked the CV's in both the units and no cv 6?
Later, Ken
cudaken B&O F7 A and B are now dragging coal and I am tickled! Need to play with the voulme some but they live! I may call BLI and ask about the type of decoder that are in these engines. Checked the CV's in both the units and no cv 6?
Ken
First... Thanks for the much appreciated brewski!
Second. That's great news about the F7s. You have me scratching my noodle, though.
Here's my JMRI screenshot for the 233 (I use the same settings for the A and B units)
I know you have been VERY busy. It has been my experience when working with decoder programming you have to have your "mind right" (quote from Cool Hand Luke). I mentioned doing a HARD reset a few days ago in the DCC thread. You have to remove track power and reapply track power for it to take effect. I know some QSI decoders don't use the v=mid setting but for some reason (I checked all my other QSI decoders) they do show a 50 written in CV6?
I wonder if you did that? The Hard reset using the reed switch?
I also gave the text from the silly QSI "sleep" modes in that post.
Are you confusing F6 on the throttle with CV6 in the decoder programming?
The silly sleep mode has the user tapping F6 twice to "wake up" the locomotive. Maybe that's what finally got it to wake up? (also mentioned in the DCC post)
NOW my head is hurting.
Anyway, it sure sounds like you are making some progress and at least you're hauling the coal!
I sure hope tomorrow goes better for you, my friend...
Because nobody else is here yet. I get to eat all of the donuts ! ... Yum ! ...