engine levels

[edblysard]

Kev,
We have four cats, (and seven boa constrictors, four rabbits,(snake snacks) one rat snake, god knows how many mice, (snake snacks too) and a dog. Three of the cats are outside pets, and the male, Spokane, sneaks in when he can, and raids the mouse farm. So he gets swatted, and put back outside. For revenge, he takes a big ole dump on the hood of my jeep. Wont touch the wifes durango, just craps on the jeep. Go figure! If you can ever understand what motivates a cat to do some of the stuff they do, you will be a rich man.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Anonymous]

Ed,
here's the story from A to Z
i went downstairs abit (2 weeks ago) to play a DVD or acrually it was an MP3 CD, and i saw this liquid in and around the DVD playter, which i thought to be odd, seeing as there were no flash floods in my basement, all the sump pumps are working.. I at first thought maybe it had liquified one of my CD's... LOL.. liquified my CD hahahah... the next day i went downstairs to check the damge done, and where this liquid was on the DVD player, and it was green and coroded !ALREADY! and there was this overwhelming stentch of Cat pee... so i fired up the dvd player.. nothing.. pressed the on button.. nothing.. said a few words which this forum won't allow me to put up.. smashed it really hard.. and LOOKIE! lights the hole shebang, reading cd great.. pressed the off button.. nothing... smashed it agfain.. it went off... smashed it again.. it went on.. again... off.... again... on ... you get wherte that's going. the whole time the cat was hiding under the bed.. i threatened i'd make Cat chops out of it.. but i really wouldn't do that.. even though i am Canadian.. i dislike BBQ cat.

the funniest part of the story.. i have a good friend.. As fog horn leg horn (Bugs bunny Cartoons) would say "nice boy, little weird though" He's a nice guy, but sorta is abit... dumb... so.. He comes over with this DVD he wants to play.. so i tell him, go downstairs and put it on.. so he goes downstairs.. and i can hear him trying to get this thing going.. i yell from the top of the stairs "you have to hit it!" .. and there he is.. taping this thing.. barely even touching it... tap..tap..tap.. then he starts reading it love poems and beggin it to work.. so i race down there and tell him it's a machine not his Girlfriend.. so i showed him the art of "smashing-sppliances-in-the-nicest-and-most-humaine-way-possible" fashion.

first thing he asked was
"Dude, like did your DVD player puke, man?" yes he really talks like that.

I think that day the cat was feeling too good.. it was sick on the carpet before it peed on my DVD player.. so maybe it was somehting it ate?

Cheers,
Kev.

[edblysard]

I might do a cap and rotor, if the car has them, and plugs, but beyond that, I leave it to the guys with the computers.
Stay Frosty
Ed

[Soo2610]

Sure was a whole lot easier than what is out there today!

[edblysard]

Hi Len,
And the real beauty of the whole thing is one person can pick up the engine, set it on a work bench, and just about rebuild it with simple hand tools in a hour or two. The split crankcase design make the whole job a breeze. My sister's bug has been pretty tough, but we had to change all four cylinders a few years ago, so we did the whole thing, bearings, main and rods, push rods, new rings, you get the idea. Still took less than a afternoon.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Soo2610]

How many of its nine lives did the cat use up in that little episode?

[Soo2610]

Thanks for a good laugh! Reminds me of the time we changed the engine on an old Beetle. Started at 7:30 in the morning and took it out for a test drive at 10:00 AM. Easier than working on the washing machine.

[edblysard]

Ok Kev,
I'll bite,
What did you do to make your cat whiz in the DVD player? Play Cats and Dogs once too often?
Laughingly awaiting a reply,
Ed

[wabash1]

It goes to show that you dont need to be old to know. and even a engineer can learn something from a conductor trainee. or even here how to hook up you vcr/dvd player. kev you have a cat with good aim. i love cats but that one would be hurt if it was mine. but with all that money you going to make railroading you can buy a new one. and a diaper on the cat.

[Mookie]

Kev: I haven't laughed so hard in days! This one is a keeper!

Jen

[edblysard]

Inheireted it, along with all the scott motor manuels from 1948 thru 1970, when Scott gave in to Haynes. And beleive it or not, the old VW, with the 1600cc motor is a pretty easy car to work on. It was designed to be repaired by its owner. You know how VW says to remove the motor?. After you put a floor jack under the crankshaft/engine block housing, and unbolt the tranny, and undo all the other junk, they suggest you lower the floor jack, then you and a friend pick up the car and roll it forward off the engine. You know what? It works. My sister still has her 68 beetle, her youngest son drives it at Texas A&M. I still tune it up for them, and every once in a while, I refer to the dummy book, it has a lot of good info and tricks. Now, I wouldnt touch a new Jetta with a ten foot pole. And the "New" bug is just a Jetta in disguise. You just about need a degree in engineering and electronics to tune up anything newer that a 95 model anything. Progress, huh. But I got the book that tells you how to grind the end of you valve stems on a 49 Ford flathead. And still working on the 51 Willis Overland 4 wheel Drive All Steel Station Wagon. (their name for it) It looks like a 49 Ford Woody Wagon mated to a WWII jeep. So ugly it looks good.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Soo2610]

If you used to be in the car repair business what in the H--- are you doing with how to keep your vw alive and well for dummies? From what I've seen of these things they aren't repairable by dummies.

[Anonymous]

The cat peed in CD slot of my DVD player, so its on a hit/work basis.. hit it around, it starts to work. to turn it off.. hit it again. how the cat whized in it, i'm not to sure. except for the hitting and the green corosion, the DVD player works fine.

Cheers, kev

[edblysard]

Panasonic, I kept coming up one plug too many. Seems the TV we have is only cable ready, but the VCR has the jack plugs in the back just like the DVD player instructions showed, So I figured you should be able to run the DVD to that, and use the aux output to the TV. Still nothing. My across the street neighbors son was over this afternoon, I was welding a bracket on his bike. He walked in the living room, saw all the crap hanging behind the TV, asked if I knew what I was doing. Smart aleck 12 year old. Told him no, and neither did he. Went back out to the shop, finished the bracket. Walked back in to get a cup of coffee, kids sitting on the couch watching the DVD player. Asked him what he did, said I had hooked it up right, just need a RCA jack splitter? to get both audio feeds working. He then scrolled thru the VCR channels till it got to one that reads , AV REAR, and ta-da, DVD player was working all the time, I had no idea what AV Front or AV rear on the VCR meant, never used it. Want to watch TV instead of DVD, just go to channel 3, and you get TV(cable), scroll back to AV Rear, you get DVD. Simple, but I would have never had a clue, it took a 12 year old to show me.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Anonymous]

This is quiet stunning and it is a true story. Today a little boy from grade 7 rode up front with me today. he was doing a school project... He only had one question for me.. why did i want start working on the railroad?

I thought i'd share my answer with you all.

My earliest expierience with a train... was when i was six years old.. they still had the EMD F series back then.. I was waiting for the schedualed train to go by at 6:24, stop at the Hudson station (the way the train stops is that he stops the trian just enough to go by the crossing so no traffic will go by) .. and then proceed...I decided i was going to move back as soon as the warning lights started chiming, well 6:23 came around, the train approached. I could see its horn blaring and as it rounded the curve... it came suddnely, and the warning lights never went off.. as the train was slowing down to let people off, the engineer had his head out the window., and i yelled up to him "the railway lights aren't working!" he looked at me like i was a darn fool, and basically shurged his shoulders and told me that he didn't give a ***.

The next day there was an accidnet at that railroad corssing, the warning lights still weren't working. no one was seriously injured.

Thats when i decided when i grew up,i was going to make a difference.

Less then a week ago, the train was stopping at the vendome station, where a crossing is located right beside the station, there was a little boy standing beside the tracks, he yelled up to me "weren't the railroad lights supposed to go off?" all i saw was me standing there.. i yelled to the boy "i'll have it fixed right away.. i'm going to place a call and everyhting will be alright." i took down the CPR police number, they had the police there within 2 minutes and they had the lights working within 45 minutes.

that is a true story.

Thats what motivated me to work the railroad, to make a difference.
cheers, kev

P.s. If anyone is going to buy a Dvd player, i would highly reccomend the following companys:
GE
RCA
Thomson.
2. Do not buy a DVD player for less then 100 bucks, because you will get what you paid for.. i bought a Mico for 97$ and it wouldn't.. get this... Read DVD's.. Seeing as.. it was it's intended use.. it went back. (it wouldn't wash my laundry either!)

3. make sure your DVD player has an "MP3 Decoder" what is that? it allows you to read MP3 files placedDirectly onto a cd.. that means instead of ~65 minutes of music on 1 cd, you can fit ~ 200 Mp3 songs, which is roughly 12 hours of music. RCA makes the best MP3 decoders available. remeber it is build in the dvd player, and shouldn't cost extra.
that's jsut some DVD help.
Kev

[Mookie]

OH NO! Something else I have to learn (DVD) to run my engine!

Jen

[wabash1]

Ed you have me right i love a challenge or how ever it is spelled, But i also can show tact. But thesse guys are right and from time to time railroaders will still just kid about things said just out of the blue even when things have been dropped, and new stuff are brought up. like ed wants to know how to get his dvd working. I was wondering if that is the one on the engine he wants working?

[Mookie]

Kev: I appreciate your even trying to help, but like me, you will have to learn to be gracious and learn with your eyes and your ears. You are young and will learn this with age and a few battle scars along the way - but I hope you will continue to read and post on this forum. These gentlemen may be a little crusty sometimes, but they have a wealth of knowledge and we all will benefit from it. And a little conflict makes for some really great reading. It would be very boring if everyone posted technical terms all the time. If you have a difference of opinion, please post it. But if you are not sure of your expertise, then read or ask. They are not shy about explaining things to all of us.

Jen

[Mookie]

You got it, Toyota! :)

[edblysard]

See Kev,
I told you. They are not really that bad.
And when you get the rr for dummies, tell me where you bought it. I already have Microsoft for Dummies, Cooking for Dummies, and How to keep your Volkswagon alive and well for Dummies, I might as well make it a full set.
And if you find one on how to make my frigging DVD player work, let me know.
Stay Frosty,
Ed
ps. you cant run with the big dogs if you stay on the porch.

[Anonymous]

Hey, Kev. I'm no RR guru. The old heads that I work with put me to shame every day w/o trying. They are good and I learn every day. I got a boner for you after the "absolute signal," thing. No hard feelings, and I promise I will put my sword away.
Ken

[edblysard]

Kev,
It wasnt so much what you said, as the manner in which you said it. And the "throw you a absolute" was kinda funny. Remember, the guy you were messing with has
A: been railroading since before you were born,
B: worked around railroaders a long time, and therefore dosnt take any lip from anybody.
C: Has been railroading since before you were born, and has forgotten more than most of us will learn.
D: You run a train, and drive a car.(although the Brits call them engine drivers, instead of engineers, there is a language diffrence)
E: Think before you answer.
G: I have only been railroading for 7 years, and I learn something new every day. Some things I never knew exsisted I learned about here on the forum.
J: You might try to be less challenging in your replies, guys like j just love a challenge, and I can have fun with them too!
K: If j, me and a few other didnt want you to learn, we would have ignored you. We add the humor to take the sting out of being shown wrong, you took it personal, shot back, and got stomped on, hard. Thats how it works on the railroad also. We dont take too much personally out there, it wastes time. Besides, tomorrow is another day.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Anonymous]

Ahhh, Yes, Humor. The Old Engineer was showing his ability to be amusing to a new trainee. I get it now. I should have figured it out sooner. That formula could not work today. Most of the railroad companies have removed the telephone poles from there main line.
TIM A

[wabash1]

it was not that you didnt know the answer it was that you thought you was going to set us straight and proceded to dog us. and we did what was best, we showed you was wrong, and proceded to make a fool out of you. jokingly not mean, but since you showed the common sense to admit you was wrong . i acept your statement and forgive you. and there will be things you will answer that none of us could. and just join in on conversations, and you could bring more light to something we may not exsplain totaly. Oh and we dont drive trains we run them as driving you haft to steer. and it seems you know there is no steering wheel.

[Anonymous]

Ok to put all your minds at Ease.. i am going to buy the railroading for dummies book. So, supper hogger has this to say. I would tell you how to drive a train, and i'm sure "Drive" isn't the right word, a better one would be much more suttable. Right now i feel i am under heavy scrutany, so to give you more stuff to mock and laugh at would simply be stupid on my part.. hence my "shutting mouth" policy.. I will no longer answer any questions due to the fact my knowledge on this subject seems to be inadequate. So, i will let the pros (the rest of you) respond to everyhting. I am relitively new to the job and am in a learning process... but all of you who have been doing this for years should respond and not me. I am sorry if i mislead anyone, Especually Jenny i've been told the answer i gave you was incorrect, so it must be. I apologise to anyone who i have angered or upset in any way, shape or form.
Kev

[Anonymous]

How do you drive a train? Duhhh, with the steering wheel, "speed" lever, and the Alpine CD player blastin.......Gee Wabash, how long have you been "drivin'" trains?

[wabash1]

hey slofr8

sorry if it sounded like i was bashing your statement, it was not ment to be. the ole head engineers here where I work all use the amps gage for referance. in training new guys we all let them read the amp gage to baby a train along. after they get 4-5 months in depending on the student we do all but cover the thing up. we make them feel what the train is doing. i know of 2 engineers that never got away from using the amp gage for train handling and it shows either you get hit from the slack or take forever to get it all strecth out, not smooth. now i know one other guy who uses it along with seat of the pants and he does real good. i did not want it to sound like i was bashing you just giving another way of doing the same job.

Now i have another question maybe super hogger can tell me this. or maybe it might be to much for him being i got him restricted by the drug test statement. this might be a absolute for him. but tell me how do you DRIVE a train?

[Anonymous]

Wow, sure has been a lot of activity since I was here last!
j. wrote : "i only have one thing against his statement. now its not to say he is wrong couse i know engineers who do this and it works for him. I dont watch my amps to see them drop before i get another notch."
j.makes a good point. Rereading my hastily written post (typing one finger style with a 2 and 4 year old on each leg) I can see why he would say that. The fact is, 99.9% of the time we have enough power for the train we are hauling and "seat of the pants" is the way we (I) run. Taking a notch when you need it is something learned from experience and when done right is akin to watching the gauge with your ears.
We have a hard grade here and tonnage is figured for the power hitting the bottom at 35 mph. Once and a while we would have to stop and do work at a yard at the bottom of this hill. Now instead of trying to give the yo-yos in the office a lesson in physics over the radio at 3:am we would sometimes try it anyway. Sometimes traction was the deciding factor (rain, ice, snow, leaves..) but given the same basic situation I started to see a pattern in who was making it easier than others. As a brakeman and/or conductor I could see different engineers and their methods. Not much difference really just that some were more patient then others. Some even nursing the independant brake to discourage wheel slip. Only one or two pullaparts but some hoggers would just give it to 'er till the wheels would slip.
I started putting the questions to the engineer who, in my, and others, opinion, was doing the best job. He said it was mostly "seat of the pants" but in an effort to simplify it for me, he showed me what the ampmeter was doing and that it is not a bad idea to refer to it when in a situation like this.
I now pass this info on to younger hoggers (if they want it) and on a rare occasion I do it myself. Just a matter of using all the resources available to me.
My previous posts were intended to simplify an explanation for rail fans (Jenny) that would not be needed for experienced railroaders (someone's name intentionally left out. He seems to be getting enough bruises here without me). For them, "Seat of the pants" seems hard to grasp without out a well thought out post like j's. I just wanted to show that j. and I are on the same page.
Sorry for the long post, Slofr8.

[Mookie]

I am laughing so hard I have tears in my eyes!

My co-workers will know I have been on the Trains Forum again!

Jen