Jeremy - similar things have been predicted before, but (fortunately) never happened. Believe me, DCC will be around for many more moons.
DCC is a world-wide standardized product. Bernhard Lenz, the inventor, had the luck to involve the NMRA at a fairly early stage and was able to help define the DCC standards.
Any other technology will have to get the NEM and NMRA approval as a standard technology, before it may have the chance to grow beyond a proprietary system for a handful of users - I have my doubts that this will happen.
As I see it, there is hardly any benefit or extra value in BlueRail train control, if you stay with track power.
Not much going on in here today - I forget - it´s Independence Day weekend!
A rather boring day is slowly coming to an end. I was not up to really anything meaningful today. I had plans to finish the wiring on my Z scale layout to have it ready for sale, but I just did not feel like doing it. So it will have to wait.
I spend a few hours on finishing touches on my favorite Marklin tinplate dream layout, just for the fun of it.
It now has all the buildings correct and matching existing Faller kits (from the 1960s) and the Marklin working crane, so the 3D view is a quite correct rendering of what the layout could look like.
I really like this one a lot!
When I grow up and get rich, I will build it!
CU tomorrow!
Haven't been in here in a while. Oddly enough, it was wondering how Jeff was doing that led me back; RIP brother, you are missed in this house and heart...
Good to be here! Again!
Streamlined steam, oh, what a dream!!
Afternoon All,
Sir Madog When I grow up and get rich, I will build it!
We all have dreams like that!
I wrote about a week or two ago about not continuing 27x50 inch layout. I decided to change my mind and try to build it. The scenery and track plan hasn't been developed to 100% and either is the small town.
More work needs to be done, to make it succeed.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
Since the last hour that I posted, I downloaded the free Atlas scram program. During the last hour, I got tired playing with it. It was getting frustrating... Laying track deleting a lot of track, ....
At the end of my experience paper and pencil are a lot easier, but I will keep the program when I might have a finished product.
Howdy ... Good to see each of you.
I just returned from being out of town for a week. Hopefully, the Canadians had a great Canada Day. ... Happy 4th of July, everybody !
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Evening Dinners
Flo, please.
For a slow day it was a pain in the caboose at the end. Had a couple come in 1/2 hour before closing. They had a 10 year old mattres they bought from us 10 years ago that was still under warranty to a point. But they brought no proof of the defect and they wanted the same mattress. Problem is it is no longer made!
Got out of the store 15 minutes late and things went to heck after that. Caught every stop light all most. Stopped and bought gas and the station was having problems with there register. Took 5 minutes to pay my bill. Went to the store to buy a few things for tonight's BBQ. Yep there register's crashed as well? It should have taken me 35 minutes turned in to a hour to get home.
JEREMY CENTANNIBluerail
Jeremy I will bite, what is Bluerail? Far as it killing DCC, I am with Ulrich. I sure many folks thought DCC would do away with DC trains. While I finally went DCC I was a hold out for sometime. Sometimes I wish I had stayed DC.
Garry good to see you in the dinner.
Anyone here has a fish pond? If you do, lets talk. There is no way I will keep the pool cover free of water. I like frog's and like fish, so why not make a fish pond in the pool cover this year? Zoning says using Mosquitoes Dunks is not suffecent and the water has to be kept moving. Any thought's?
Later Ken
I hate Rust
cudaken Anyone here has a fish pond? If you do, lets talk. There is no way I will keep the pool cover free of water. I like frog's and like fish, so why not make a fish pond in the pool cover this year? Zoning says using Mosquitoes Dunks is not suffecent and the water has to be kept moving. Any thought's?
Get one of those HUGE balls. About 6' in diameter. You pur that in the pool and then put the cover on.
No more duck pond.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Evenin' folks!
Janie, I would like a hot fudge sundae and a cup of decaf for the moment please.
Garry, good to see you back in the diner! Who's the new guy with his nose stuck in his i-thingie??? Jeremy? His is only one "r" and the other one has 2 I guess..... Jeremy, I checked out your post over in the electrionics forum.... You didn't get anyone mad over there. You would have to do lot more to get them mad.... But then Vinnie would be in to, ah, "keep the peace", you might not like the way he keeps the peace either.... My only comment is that you need to remember that it is easy to tell the "gender" of a skunk! What is difficult is explaining to people why you would want to know?
Personally I wouldn't want the Blue track, rail, or whatever it's called, simply because then I would have to go through all the trouble and expense of getting smartypants i-phony or somethin'...... I do have a dumb phone turned off in my pocket so it doesn't interupt me every time I am doing something. But I only have that for if I need to call 911. Personally can't see any reason to run a train with one. Besides I think that would fall under Rule E-4 in the Employee Timetable of the NORAC Rules 10th. edition: Rule E. Prohibitied Behaviors 4. Unauthorized use of electronic devices. At least it would be out at the museum. LOL
I spent an hour and a half driving to Auburn, NY and back to buy some much needed supplies for the aquariums in the living room. They advertise on their website they are open Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I get there and there is a sign on the door saying closed with a paper saying they will only be open on Saturday and Sunday for the time being and that they are closed this weekend too. This is the second time I have driven all the way to find them closed.... Not Happy! Got my grocery shopping done this afternoon when I got back, and now have 50¢ off per gallon for the PiP but will have to use it in the next two weeks before they start the program over. Guess I will have to go driving somewhere where the ICE will have to start and burn some fossilized Dinosaur dung....... Hmmm.........
We haven't had any good quotes recently... Here are some for one of the new guys!
"What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives traveling twice as fast as stagecoaches" - The Quarterly Review, March, 1825.
"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share." - Steve Ballmer, USA Today, April 30, 2007
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home." - Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), in a talk given to a 1977 World Future Society meeting in Boston.
Have a great 4th! I (used to) always celebrate the 4th. by buying a fifth on the third........
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
So for a break and with the help of Google street view I visited Miles City, Montana. I must say the use of City seems a little ostentatious, though the use of, what looks like, a very nice honey coloured brick on some of the official and commercial buildings and at least two substantial churches did give an air of permanency. I had a look at the depot and though the street view was 3 years old, it didn’t look in to bad a shape; at least it didn’t appear that the spray can vandals had been up to no good. After cruising the Main and N7th Street, (I had to keep reminding myself from driving on the wrong side of the road), I had a look down Valley Drive E and spotted a long consist of hoppers but couldn’t get any closer. Although Montana is Spanish for mountain, my overall impression was Flat, though to be fair Montana appears to be a very wide state. The Big Sky Country nickname certainly does hold merit though and I did like the tree lined streets. All in all, a good place for the Diner to visit.
As to the "City" reference, we are one of the larger towns (approx 9,000 people) in Montana, especially in Eastern Montana (small for world standards though). The honey color brick is what is called "Hebron Brick" from a historic brickworks in Hebron, ND (still in business last I knew. Lion might know better than I do). There are many of the buildings on Main Street that are on the National Register of Historic Places, including the church at the corner of Main and Montana and built from the afore mentioned brick. They put in an elevator about 5-10 years ago or so on the side of the building and were able to have the bricks matched to what was existing! (Presbyterian in case anyone is wondering.) There are also other areas that many of the buildings in them are also listed.
As to the depot, the main reason why there is not evidence of spray can vandals is that the building has a pigeon poo problem (but them of course so does Miles City in general). So much so that a few years ago the EPA was asked about a brownfield assessment, which normally takes 6 months to agree to, in about 1 month. (Reason: No previous exposure standards for pigeon poo.) Just as an aside: Where the BNSF crosses Main Street also has a pigeon problem as well. (On the map, it is around where the rear engine is.)
The hoppers you're referring to along Valley Drive look like a maintanance train siting on the siding. Probably tie cars if I had to guess. If one were to follow Valley Drive out of town, the area that looks like a big yard is the former Milwaukee yards now used by Transco.
While the area may look flat, there are areas in our county where, without the radio repeaters that are setup around the county, our Sheriff couldn't talk to Miles City. Additionally, there are areas on the ranch where I grew up that one can go from a full cell signal to no signal in 50 feet! Depending on one's definition of flat, there are quite the hills around Hysham to our west. (During major winter storms, that area sometimes closes due to snowpack and ice.) True mountains don't happen until between Billings and Livingston and points west. As to size, Montana is the 4th largest state in the US, behind Alaska, Texas and California. (And the single largest Congressional district in the country.)
Happy 4th of July to all our American friends!!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Happy 4th of July!
Good morning!
Well, it ain´t a good morning! My true und trusted Panasonic DMC LX-1 I bought 10 years ago died, struck down by a bad case of built-in obsolescence. I started out with the camera switching itself on - just by magic. Only removing the battery kept it off. Since this morning, the lens does not retract any longer and taking a pictures is not possible.
The dang thing is as dead as a dodo.
No more pics from me, I am afraid - I just can´t afford to buy a new one.
Sad, but true.
Happy 4th July America...
Sooo...its ski masks and large knives with a night of bloody violence? Or have I got the wrong 4th of July?
Hope yall have a great day...
G'day Galz...your both lookings fine as usual...
I'm going to have the Lasagne for dinner...bit of cheeze on that as well thanks...
Cudaken... I have to say it mate...but my heart sinks everytime I hear the "can you come have a quick look at this" at the end of my day...One knows its never gonna be a quick look...
V8vega... I have no idea how to work those tablet thingies properly...but thanks to my wife winning one on a radio quiz the 5 year old son has become an expert...so he is the man to talk on the subject
FRRYKiD... thanks for the info update...I am quite partial to a bit of railway history...
Sir Madog... Thats unfortunate mate about the camera...hope you come across somethig to fill its place.
Cheers...
Chris from down under...
We're all here because we're not all there...
A cup of coffee to start the day on a good note. The weather in Northern Virginia should be rain all day puting a damper on bar-b-que's and fireworks alike, but we will make the best of it. Took care of all the gardening yesterday after my weeks abscence. I finally got to use my new self-propelled lawn mower (the push mower still worked, just got tired and winded pushing it). The new mower runs great and its built like a tank; the engine even has an oil filter which I have not seen on a small engine in a long time.
Ulrich - sorry to hear about the camera. Is it possible to put a different battery (same type just a different one) in the camera, sometimes it is the battery that is the culprit.
YGW - are you still out there; long time no hear.
Will try to stop by later.
All the best.
Joe F
Chessie reinhardUlrich - sorry to hear about the camera. Is it possible to put a different battery (same type just a different one) in the camera, sometimes it is the battery that is the culprit.
That´s what I thought, so I replaced the battery, but no luck. I tried everything, including reseeting the dang thing.
It remains as dead as the dodo. RIP
Good morning !
Who needs fireworks with all of the thunder and lightning we had last evening and are expected again this afternoon and evening ?
One of our cats likes to look out the window and watch the storm. Another hides under a bed. The third one pays no attention to the storm.
Just being the purest. Everyone has a fourth of July. Today, the folks in the U.S. are celebrating Independence Day, so Happy Independene Day.
My goal for today is to spend a little a little time on the railroad today. I have some track that needs to be glued down, and a tiny piece of benchwork to build. The biggest challenge will be to uncover the table saw to cut the plywood.
I was able to get out for a ride. It was a great ride. We are having a respite from the humidity so, even though it was 85F, it was still a pleasant morning to be outside.
Richard
Mornin' and a Happy 4th. of July, Independence Day, Fireworks Day, call the Fire Dept. because you shouldn't have set off fireworks Day, Siren day, and lastly big celebration parade day, here in the Finger Lakes Region.....
Hope I covered all the bases with that.... Zoe, you still had to w*rk on a holiday???? Oh, well yes, I'm glad to see you. I'll have a short stack of blueberry pancakes with real NYS Maple Syrup, a couple sausage links, and a large pot of Seneca Lake Blend Dark Raost, Organic, Fair Traded Coffee to start the day. Thank you Ma'am!
The 4th. of July Arbors Neighborhood Pee-raid just went by (they marched, drove, and waved flags going up High St. just 3 houses down from where I live. I was able to have a great view from my kitchen table of the whole thing. This is the first year the association has done this and I was surprised by how many participants they had. The parade ended at the little tiny park at the end of High Street. I still have to take my morning shower and get clothes on (sitting here in my bathrobe at the moment). I'm still in recovery mode from all the w*rk out at Boy Scout Camp last week I guess.
So...... Where has Lion been hiding??? Him hasn't been in for coffee in several days. Him has posted out in the main forum, but not been in to see friends here. No Wildabeest on the menu???? Afraid of Fireworks??? Him see trophy hunter???
'tis good to see some new faces though.
Some quotes for today....
"Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see." - Mark Twain
"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please." - Mark Twain
"That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced." - Scientific American, January 2, 1909.
Have a great and safe day!
MonkeyBucket I'm going to have the Lasagne for dinner...bit of cheeze on that as well thanks...
That's a little bit ironic. I'd actually been thinking about that for lunch as well.
MonkeyBucket FRRYKiD... thanks for the info update...I am quite partial to a bit of railway history...
Not a problem. I figured that some first hand information would help everyone to put some dimension to a flat map image.
Lasagne - one of my favorite dishes! Come to think of, both Petra and I like the Italian kitchen very much - it´s a fresh, well tasting kitchen without the need to be sophisticated.
I have w*rked on yet another design, always searching something which could come into my range of literally non-existent funds. The designs I have so far, are quite OK, but either too simple, or too big and expensive. I have tried to combine both approaches into one design, which looks like this:
The TT is gone and so is the still expensive roundhouse. As I may eventually run electrics only, I don´t need a TT anway. This design sports also a few switches less, so it comes closer to what may become possible - one fine day, when I grow up and get rich.
OK, I need to incorporate a couple of structures, i.e a factory and "the landscape". Will do that tomorrow - time to relax with a hopefull good old movie on Youtube!
Afternoon Diners,
4th of July is basically cooking hamburgers and hot dogs outside on the grill, watching fireworks. Well that's just a fantasy.
Have a safe and happy independence day.
Happy Fourth to all, have a safe one.
herrinchoker
cudaken, get some silver shiners put them in the liner water, they eat mosquito larve, breed like rabbits, and can be sold for bait in the fall and winter months.
Happy 4th of July!!!!
Anybody doing anything fun?
howmusSo...... Where has Lion been hiding??? Him hasn't been in for coffee in several days. Him has posted out in the main forum, but not been in to see friends here. No Wildabeest on the menu???? Afraid of Fireworks??? Him see trophy hunter???
Here is LION. LION is here every day, but him not always post here.
LION has be fussing over drawbars of him. Some were too short, or rather they had too much slack in the push mode, and with motors in the middle of the consist something is always in the push mode. The drawbars provided by Walthers/Life-Like kinda assume that youor power car will be inn the lead on your consist, not realizing that subway trains run in both directions. The buff forces allowed contact between the anti-climbers and these forced the cars to derail and for the LION to ROAR.
Him building new drawbars out of strips of copper with precision distance and holes. Works Great.
NOW LION is fretting over a short circuit somewhere on the +12v dc system. Cant run switches without the 12vdc circuit. LION has the 12-24-12 system down and is trouble shooting the issue. But is to HOT to work up there in the afternoons. The Abbot has given me permission to use the mornings up there when I can get away from other duties.
This past week, other duties were king of the road, starting with one monk who had a brain tumor. It was non-threatening, non-cancerous, and so now he is home recovering. And I had another monk who needed cateract surgery, and so I had to sit around Bismarck all day while the doctors worked on his ocularorium. (LION wnet ot zoo to visit Ramu). I let my patients pick the restaurant... this dude wanterd Mexican. LIONS do not like Mexican. Chinese is good, but gets old, Spaghetti is great, the new steakhouse in town is great, but Abbots do not hold with eating in resturants. Him thinks I should pack some leftover wildbeest from the kitchen, which would be ok if these primates knew how to prepare wildebessts in the first place. they try to COOK the poor things. : (
Oh whale... tomorrow I shall work on the trains in the AM, and on the computers in the afternoon.
PS... we had a picknic, it rained, I was thinking Hot Dogs or Hamburgers, the cook was thinking pulled beef (over cooked as usual).
Oh well... Supper will be more sismple, and the LION *did* get RARE WILDEBESST on saturday night. Ate two steaks, him did, and would have eaten a third they were soo good, him fears for the leftovers,,, Those will be cooked to utter distruction.
Such is the Life of a LION in the realm of Buzzards.
Flo, please and a Barry Plater.
Other than being the 4th of July nothing speical today. Nancy did now show up at the store. Reason I am banging my head is I went in a half hour earliy to get the things done she likes.
BroadwayLionGet one of those HUGE balls. About 6' in diameter. You pur that in the pool and then put the cover on.
Brother Lion I thought of that years ago. Problem is keeping the cover so tight that the water would run off and not pool on the edges. Plus, with the cover sticking above the pool and tight, the wind would rip it apart.
Herion Choker Well I never thought of growing bait in the cover. But the frog's would eat the Mosquito Larva as well. Main thing is the water has to stay moving so the mosquito larva does not live.
Ulrich Sorry to hear about the camera. I am fighting the same battle with my Cannon 720. It has to be 15 years old now. If you have some contact cleaner you might try sparying it down. What do you have to lose, it dead anyway! By the way, was Clause able to fix the Z-Scale Steam Engine?
YGW Hope you are having a good 3 day weekend. Hope all is well with you family!
Guess my layout needs a power plant! With the coming 50 B&O coal cars I will have around 96 coal cars! Boy I need a B&O EM 1.
Later, Ken
Hey all
Recovering from to much w**k and weekend. I spent the entire last week mowing and picking up the house for the "future in laws" visit to our home. They are good people. Fist generation Americans from Italy. We played this game they brought "Bocci" (sp?) pretty fun. Ate way to much. Sunday I was exhausted. Did not attend sinday night svc. Slept throught it. Spent today eating and sleeping and watching you tube videos of great Nascar races and accidents. No train stuff this weekend.
Lion - LOL "REALM OF BUZZARDS !
Reinhard - I am still around just been way to busy. What mower did you buy ?
Jeremy Cent - What is "Blue Rail" ?
Dave - WOW that is nuts ! Three pair ?
Ken - Why is there a PBR sideways on the engine ? Is that a hose running in and out of it ? What was the difference between the Plymouth superbird and the Daytona Dodge ? What was a 440 super commando ?
Moneybucket - Classic supply and demand problem. I assume there is still a lot of ore in the ground ?
V8 - I will be sending you a PM
Hello to all the rest - FRRYkid,ATSF guy,Flip,JK10,Howmus,Dave,Rastafarr,Alvie
OOroo
YGW
I would like to thank yougottawanta for the friendship request and say hi to everyone. My daughter and I have been around here for about 4yrs. lurking in the back and learning from some of the best help around. Been busy scratch building a Howe truss bridge under "Which trestle" and posted few photos there. Hope everyone had nice 4th, rained out fireworks here in Westminster, MD.
Ken Amos Jr
Shanny10
B&O, C&O, PRR
Just lovin trains
Ulrich:
Too bad about the camera. That takes away a lot of the fun.
Any thoughts about buying a used one? eBay seems to have lots of bargains, although shipping might be a deal killer for you. Just make sure the listing says that the camera actually works. Lots of them don't specify that. No use starting a collection of dodo cameras!
Regards
yougottawantaDave - WOW that is nuts ! Three pair ?
The doctor recommended getting two separate pairs, one for reading and the other for distance. She is already annoyed by having to carry another pair. Then she had to replace her sun glasses because one of the lenses was starting to chip. That means she has to carry three pairs!!!
Life isn't getting any cheaper or simpler! The bank balance had actually started to creep up. The glasses blew that nicely.