Evening diners,
Went to the MRR club, ran a train, not much going on, I'll stop by again a little later.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
Tinplate ToddlerSeattle, Portland OR and San Diego already have quite extensive systems in place.
Way back in the early 60's......
The Portland trolly line's were "Bought up" by Rose City Transportation ( They ran the bus line's ) They PROMPTLY set about "Scrapping" the entire trolly system. They pulled up all the rail's ( ecept in a very few places, like the hill at 26th street and Morrison av, ) and eventually screwed thing's up to the point that Multnoma County stepped in and the bus system became Tri-Met sometime in the 70's.
By the late 80's ( 1986 I believe ) they decided to start their "Light Rail " project. They tricked the Voter's into giving them money and charged the taxpayer's into footing the bill to replace All the rail's they had pulled up ( and made money on the scrap ) Then changed a lot of the bus line's to cross the track's at "Stratigic" place's, thus Forcing you to transfer from a bus to the train to get where you were going.
They "tried" this again in 1995 -96 when they wanted voter's to pay for the Airport extention, but it got voted down.
Turn's out.... The Portland International airport had been charging an extra $1 per ticket for several year's , just for the purpose of bringing the Light - Rail to the Airport. So they built it anyway.
I dont mind Light-Rail, I use to ride it ALL the time.... I just dont like the Government "Shinanigin's" that went on to create it.
Sorry ..... I went on a Rant there ..... I'll go back into my cave now...
Rust...... It's a good thing !
Eveing Diners
Flo, The gang and I will have a and give Steven and Rick what they like.
Dead Work Front. I would not be surprised if this company closed Wednesday!
PRR Coach Wars! I finally found out how to get the roofs off! Turns out to be pretty simple, and here I thought they had been CA glued on. But the other iteans I have bought from this Estate sale have had the body glued on so I assumed and yes I know what it stands for.
I see the problem with the dropping coupler pocket. Have a idea in my head to fix it and will give it a try next day off.
Gary I now see why when running the coach on DCC would melt the roofs! Why Bachmann used 16 volt light bulbs is beyoned me? I plan to replace them with LED's.
Later, Ken
I hate Rust
Good Morning!
Another day to explore Vienna!
"Im Prater blüh´n wieder die Bäume"
How about a leisurely stroll in the Prater, Vienna´s famous park?
The area that makes up the modern Prater was first mentioned in 1162, when Emperor Friedrich I gave the land to a noble family called de Prato. The word "Prater" was first used in 1403, originally referring to a small island in the Danube north of Freudenau, but was gradually extended to mean the neighbouring areas as well. The land changed hands frequently until it was bought by Emperor Maximilian II in 1560 to be a hunting ground. To deal with the problem of poachers, Emperor Rudolf II forbade entry to the Prater. On April 7, 1766, Emperor Joseph II declared the Prater to be free for public enjoyment, and allowed the establishment of coffee-houses and cafés, which led to the beginnings of the Wurstelprater. Throughout this time, hunting continued to take place in the Prater, ending only in 1920.
In 1873, a World Exhibition was held in the Prater, for which a large area of land was set aside, centered on the Rotunda, which burnt down in 1937. This land now houses the Messegelände (exhibition centre).
On the grounds of modern-day Kaiserwiese, an attraction called "Venice in Vienna” was established in 1895 by Gabor Steiner. The area included an artificial lagoon to simulate the canals of Venice, Italy.
In 2004, major renovations to the Wurstelprater began, and a new underground railway line was finished and brought into service on May 11, 2008, which includes three stops along the Prater (see Vienna U-Bahn). The railway station Praterstern has been in operation for a long time and is only a few dozen metres away from an entrance to the park.
The Hauptallee (main avenue) is the main artery, lined with horse chestnut trees, closed to motorists and known to sports enthusiasts from the annual Vienna Marathon. The Wiener Prater is home to the Liliputbahn, a narrow gauge railway. Another unusual object to be found in the Wiener Prater is the Republik Kugelmugel (Republic of Kugelmugel), a spherical micronation. The Wiener Prater also houses a planetarium and the Prater Museum.
Those who do not like to walk can ride a Fiaker, a typical Viennese horse-drawn carriage or ride the 15" narriw gauge train.
Lunch will be had in the Wurstelprater, an amusement park with lots of daring attractions, but also good food! Those not suffering from vertigo may enjoy a ride on the huge ferris wheel, one of Vienna´s landmarks.
After lunch, we will be heading back downtown, stopping over to visit the crazy "Hundertwasserhaus".
Topping the day off, we take a stroll over the Naschmarkt, Vienna´s daily market.
Following this mouthwatering experience, how about finding a nice little place for supper? Today´s recommendation? Why, of course - it has to be Wiener Schnitzel!
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
NWP SWPHere's what I've been working on since Sunday. http://imgur.com/a/Ej1roNH
Steven, how are you going to drain that for the winter? Is that what the valve and the 'T' is for?
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Well on occasions that we have a freeze I will open up the faucet and cut off the valve so that the pipe doesn't crack.
I have been reading about micronations for the past hour or so, it's a pretty interesting concept, perhaps I'll found one of the aterritorial type, and some people said I'd never be president
The Republica Pacifica, the land without land, has a nice sound to it.
Tinplate Toddler Jokingly, people say, that Austria´s greatest achievement in history is...
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Good morning diners!
It is now 12:00 PM Pacifica Watch Time!
I am trying to increase my world presence as an individual through my new blog on Tumblr. and Twitter.
I've added links to both on my signature.(edit: how in the world do I make links in my signature and bio?)
I'll be back later.
NWP SWP I am trying to increase my world presence as an individual through my new blog on Tumblr. and Twitter. I've added links to both on my signature.(edit: how in the world do I make links in my signature and bio?)
Please don't. This is not the right venue for self-promotion. You especially do not need to link to your Forum user profile; anyone who wants to see that can simply click on your name.
Please cut down your signature. It's longer than most of your posts now.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
Got it, sorry.
Good Afternoon,
A very pleasant sunny day here. I sure hope it rains soon as we had the driest April in 30 years.
Johnboy, I sure hope your eye surgery went well. We had one of our westies at the U of S vet clinic to get lens replacement surgery some years ago. I hope yours went as well as that one did. It was very expensive though as in $16/min. Yes, you read that correctly. At least you won't have the bill.
Nothing new on the RR front, except that I did sell some N scale stuff.
Today we were at the birding and breakfast at the local sanctuary. We saw 56 species in about an hour and a half. There is a small lake there so the water fowl total was quite good. The turnout was good as far as the number of birders with about 40 in attendance.
Ulrich, nice to see you back. I have never been to Austria so your traveloge is very informative.
Dave, sounds like you had a nice trip to Long Point. I have never driven in the park but I have been to Port Rowan several times. I had an account there back in the early '70s when I was a sales rep for Sunoco. The marina had a gas pump but they didn't do much volume so I only visited occasionally. I was there last in 2010 as the credit manager for Tru Value Hardware in Canada as there was a store there in the process of closing.
Well time for dinner,
CN Charlie
$16/min is a bargain, unless it was really slow surgery. In my experience they charge as much for pets and for humans.
My cataract, from preop clearance to facility fee to surgeon and anesthesia bill was $5,200, medicare "approved" $1,500 and my out of pocket was $1,700. The implanted lens was not covered at all and included in the 1700.
The winner of this weekend's Taladegha race just got busted by Nascar for substance abuse. Knowing you will be drug tested, sooner or later, and using banned drugs is a special kind of stupid.
Train front, not much, I did stumble on a Youtube live webcam of an Italian hump yard. The link is on my other computer and the only information was the name of the site, which translated to lots of trains here.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Frustrating day today.
.
Kitchen Update: The countertop was installed about five weeks ago, then I took off for several weeks of back-to-back travel. This is the first week I have been home since then. I planned to install the backsplash this week.
However, there is a porblem with the countertop. The opening for the stove was not wide enough, and it widened to a correct width near the wall. Overall, the opening varied by more than 3/8".
I made this Go/No-Go gauge for the stove opening so I could verify the opening width was in between 30" and 30 1/8" from front to back.
When to crew came out to fix it today they had never seen a lip/ledge gauge before... WHAT? Using calipers and lip gauges was one of the skills I had to learn first when beginning layout work (not model railroad layouts, sheet metal work).
They managed to get the stove opening fixed, but now the opening by the refrigerator is not square.
I cannot install the backsplash until the countertop is finalized. I cannot start the bathroom until the kitchen is done. I cannot start the new master bedroom until the bathroom is done, and I cannot build my train room until the master bedroom is done.
Aaaaarrrrrgh!
I am so aggravated right now.
This is sloppy.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Flo, the gang and I will have a please and give Steven and Rick what they like.
Brent I never seen a Blow Up Pool of that sizes! How deep and long is it?
It is offical, I suck rail spikes! Yep, I have not sold a darn thing in 5 days I have worked! Cannot say I have not had any customers, guessing around 12. I normally close about half of them?
PRR Coach Wars I tried my fix on the sagging coupler pocket and I think it is going to work!
It is now 10:30 PM Pacifica Watch Time.
You know I had an idea, I'm freelancing a railroad a non existent railroad, why not make a non existent country for said railroad? The Republica Pacifica, occupying the western US, Canada, Mexico and eastern Australia, imagine the possibilities!
Anyways, my brothers birthday is tomorrow he will be 14, annoying as ever that's little brothers!
NWP SWP why not make a non existent country for said railroad? The Republica Pacifica, occupying the western US, Canada, Mexico and eastern Australia,
I tried this with the "dream house" layout. The entrance from Eastern Saging was a long bridge that connected my mythical land to Oregon.
It was a bad idea.
A better idea is to model no specific area and let the viewer decide where it is.
Plausible nonsense is more rewarding than complete nonsense.
True, but i still could have flags for said fictional country, right?
Good evening Diners,
Brunhilda, I'll have an Earl Grey tea with cream and honey, please.
Kevin: sounds like the c-top installers didn't make the template correctly, but who knows. I was amused by your project sequence. That sounds like an imposed order. I'm thinking if you had your way, the train room would've been first, but who am I to say.
Steven: there used to be two well known modelers who had mythical railroads. One of course, was John Allen who had the famous Gorre & Daphetid (pronounced "Gorey and Defeated") completely mythical yet very plausible. The other was Whit Towers who had the Alturas & Lone Pine, which though mythical, Alturas and Lone Pine are both real towns in Nor Cal. Both were what I'd call successful and often published model railroads. Quite a few modelers freelanced back in the 50's and early 60's. It seemed a little easier with steam. A mythical country? Sure you can do that, but why? I suppose you could create a whole "middle earth" or something like that, but can anyone else relate to it. If that doesn't matter, then go for it.
Hello to everyone, and I hope everyone is OK, safe, and warm.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Perhaps it is going a bit too far off the road of plausibility, I was just kinda thinking out loud.
Steven:
I'm disappointed that you still haven't cut down your signature as Mr. Otte requested. I find his request to be most reasonable given that my eyes glaze over after the first couple of sentences in your signature, and I have tried to read it several times.
NWP SWPWell on occasions that we have a freeze I will open up the faucet and cut off the valve so that the pipe doesn't crack.
You have to get the water out of the pipes, or replace the whole thing every spring. Your choice.
I cut out the links, but far as the signature as it is now it's been the same for months now, but if you guys think it needs cutting down OK then.
We haven't had problems with freezes, well except this year when it got down to the 20s AND we were out of town, but other than that pipe freezes are rare in my neck of the woods, the bigger issue is when the water company sends you a letter that they don't know what was in the water in the month of July because they forgot to test it, or you live under a set of consecutive boil advisories for 2 weeks. Both have happened!
It is now 12:00 AM Pacifica Watch Time.
hon30critterI find his request to be most reasonable given that my eyes glaze over after the first couple of sentences in your signature, and I have tried to read it several times.
Sorry, but I don't quite know what "Hookem Longhorns" means, exactly. Something about roping steer at a rodeo, I presume?
FWIW
Regards, Ed
SeeYou190I am so aggravated right now. . This is sloppy.
You have my sympathies Kevin!
We are just about to undertake a rather expensive kitchen renovation with a company that I have never dealt with before. The salesperson has been very professional but who knows if that will carry over to the actual work.
Home renovations are really risky! I know! I sold home improvements for Sears Canada. When I first started the quality of work was mostly excellent. Before I quit out of frustration in 2013, the odds of getting bad workmanship were one in three. I refused to lie to my customers anymore by telling them that SEARS did great work.
Just like the gentleman who has sold us the kitchen renovations, I was as thorough as I could possibly be. That didn't stop the lousey installations at all. Everybody please cross your fingers and toes to help us get good work! Thank you.
Cheers!!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_%27em_Horns
UT Austin, Longhorns, Hook'em, Texas.
That article will help clear it up.
Good Morning, Folks!
What a beautiful day! Still a little bit chilly this early in the morning, but it´ll be warming up soon. The ideal day for a trip into the country side!
How about climbing the stairway to heaven? But before we do that, let´s enjoy a hearty breakfast at our hotel, the Hotel Sacher!
Following that, a short streetcar ride will take us to the Westbahnhof station, where we board a Railjet to St. Pölten. Railjet is just a fancy name for a fast passenger train! Due to it´s topography, Austria does not have any of the real highspeed lines, like the TGV in France, the ICE in Germany or the AVE in Spain. The Railjet, however is fast enough - after all, Austria is not really a big country.
The trip to St. Pölten takes only a little over 20 minutes, so join me in riding the cab!
In St. Pölten, there will be a bus waiting to take us to Stift Melk, a Benedictine abbey built between 1702 and 1746.
Back to St. Pölten, where we climb the stairway to heaven - which is the name of a modern narrow gauge train on 2´6" tracks, that takes us to Mariazell.
The town of Mariazell is a small city in Austria, in Styria, well known for winter sports, 143 kilometres (89 miles) N. of Graz. It is picturesquely situated in the valley of the Salza, amid the north Styrian Alps.
It is a site of pilgrimage for Catholics from Austria and neighboring countries. The object of veneration is an image of the Virgin Mary reputed to work miracles, carved in lime-tree wood. This was brought to the place in 1157, and is now enshrined in a chapel adorned with objects of silver and other costly materials. The large church of which the chapel forms part was erected in 1644 as an expansion of a smaller church built by Louis I, King of Hungary, after a victory over the Turks in 1363.
Enjoy your day!
NWP SWPThat article will help clear it up.
I see, its a local thing.
NWP SWPWe haven't had problems with freezes, well except this year when it got down to the 20s
OK, I forgot how far south you are. Occasional cold nights aren't a problem. It's when the ground freezes hard that things will go wrong, so that obviously doesn't apply in your case.
We here in Canada experience all the joys of frost damage. If you forget to shut off the water feed to your outside spigots you can expect them to be destroyed by mid winter. That guarantees a flood, often in your own basement. Many of the municipal roads get noticably rougher in the early spring when the ground starts to thaw. The major highways are built to withstand the heaving, but that doesn't prevent the potholes. The road maintenance workers are pretty good at filling the potholes in short order but you always have to have your eyes open. On a busy highway things can go from smooth to bone jarring in just a couple of days. I'm sure that everyone in the northern USA knows all about it.
up831Kevin: I was amused by your project sequence. That sounds like an imposed order. I'm thinking if you had your way, the train room would've been first.
Not only first, but at least twice as big! I would have moved the kitchen and taken three more feet from the living room to have a 32 by 15 layout space!
up831Steven: there used to be two well known modelers who had mythical railroads. One of course, was John Allen who had the famous Gorre & Daphetid (pronounced "Gorey and Defeated") completely mythical yet very plausible. The other was Whit Towers who had the Alturas & Lone Pine, which though mythical, Alturas and Lone Pine are both real towns
Other great mythical railroads by well known modelers:
Allen McLelland: Virginian and Ohio
Tony Koester: The Allegheny Midland (My all time favorite)
Lorell Joiner: Great Southern
Frank Ellison: The Delta Lines
Linn Wescott: Sunshine Railway and Navigation Company
There must be a few more.
Mine too