The pot of coffee is always on [even after 2 years have passed]. Come on in. Sweet ice tea too.

[ChiefEagles]

Morning gang. The old man slept good. Now for breakfast of red hots sausages and orange juice. Going to be a hot one and still no rain. Stay inside and work on trains. All have a great day and God bless all.

Hey Mark, got your email through Trains.com. When I replied to your email address it returned.

[spankybird]

Hey Chief,

I am waiting for you to deli ever my breakfast. It sound good. Then you can take some of our rain back with you.

We had some more this morning. The county next to us had a twister last night. They say that we will be having strong T-storms today.

Take care,

tom

[Buckeye Riveter]

Try diging in our shale. Hydraulic backhoes break teeth trying to dig a water line. Of course, we don't have any water in the basement only radon gas.

[spankybird]

We have been VERY lucky, with all the rain, we also have a very dry basement.

tom

[lander31]

Hi everyone;
Another Hot day up in the mid 90's. If we don't get some rain soon we will have deal with forest fires again. It has been so hot I have not got much done on the layout. Been looking at the Williams catalog and thinking about ordering some of the new engines.

Take Care All;
Terry

[FJ and G]

Send some rain my way. We've been getting hit or miss T storms every day now and they keep missing my area; so out comes the garden hose again; with water bills climbing.
---------------------
A hot selling model train is Lionel’s Acela. Well, last night on the travel channel, they discussed the real Acela train and then trains in Europe.

I had to laugh when they talked about speeds of Acela whopping 150 mph. Bullet trains were going that fast in Japan back in 1964. The EuroStar was nice, London to Paris in 3 hours, and people are leaving the airports for rail in droves.

Already in Shanghai, monorails go 287 mph.
What would it take in the US? Investment in dedicated ROW with gentle curves and no at grade crossing?

Will this ever happen?

Nope.

On the bright side, you can see the scenery better from the window, when the train is running slow. Also, gives us modelers an excuse to run our trains slow.

The show just before it on the travel channel was about intermodal transport. Also an excellent show (kudos to Travel channel which also featured Northlanz, discussed in some detail on this forum).

Again, I was impressed with European intermodal. Lets compare Rotterdam Harbor with NY Harbor. First off, NY Harbor is way too shallow for the larger container vessels. Dredging is taking place but that will take years. Rotterdam Harbor can handle the largest ships in the world (as can many other ports around the world).

Secondly, Rotterdam harbor had remotely guided trucks, moving the containers all around the port; nothing like it even close in the US. As for NY, the area is absolutely congested with trucks. I was there. I did a lengthy article on it for Sea Power magazine a couple years ago. Rail out of NY harbor area is appaling.

Not that I want to move to Europe, mind you. Just that I think that the United States has neglected rail for much much too long. Why can't we get our rail up to speed like we can our IT Revolution. Surely, the transportation infrastructure is just as important as the communications infrastructure!

Dave Vergun

[spankybird]

Hi Dave,
Boy I sorry I missed that show. Maybe it will be a repeat over the weekend.

My understanding as to why the US does not have higher rail speed is all the road crossings and to tight of curves.

tom

[FJ and G]

Tom,

Correct on both counts. They always repeat. That's how I saw Northlanz after missing the first showing.

[ChiefEagles]

Dave, can not believe you did not get stormed on over the weekend. Big storms rolled through Hampton/Newport News/Norfolk. About two AM with lightning and winds and pour down. Nothing down my way.

[ChiefEagles]

We need rain but look:

This year's garden
and what it is producing.

[FJ and G]

Chief,

Transporting all of those veggies surely must justify to the wife construction of a revenue producing G railway, perhaps with some branch lines for future "industries"

dav

[dougdagrump]

I caught part of the show when they were talking about the rails that are used for the "EuroStar". They said that they are, after welding the joints, one continous rail. During periods of hot weather how do they compensate for thermal expansion, it kind of boggles my mind what would happen in our dessert southwest when the temp exceeds 120*. [D)]

[ChiefEagles]

GOT RAIN!!! Only a light shower but it was wet. All the big stuff went north and east of us. Some got 3/4 to and inch. Some got winds and etc. We did not so I think we were lucky. More rain please. Sleep tight folks. God bless.

[Anonymous]

This forum certainly seems friendly enough, and I believe I recognize a few folks from that "other" forum![:D]

[ChiefEagles]

SOU722, stick around and enjoy. Morning gang. Off to town this AM to go to the Crazy Fire [Mongolian stir fry]. That means lots of food. Hope all have a great day. We got a little wet last night but all the big stuff went north and east of us. All have a great day and God bless all.

[spankybird]

Good Morning all,

NE Ohio has Blue Clear Skies today. I even saw a UFO in the eastern sky. It was round, bright orange and very shiny, Oh maybe it was the SUN. Its been so long that I have seen it in the morning, forgot what it look like.

BWT, Dough, last year they did have problems with the welded rails in Europe. They normally do not have the worm summers that we have. They usually only have highs of 75 deg. Last year they had record heat in the high 80 and 90. The rails did in fact buckle from the heat.

All have a great day.

tom

[lander31]

Morning all;
Still no rain and it going to 97 or higher today.
A friend is coming over and helping out with the wiring on the layout this afternoon that will be alot of fun the hot garage. My next project will be to AC the garage.
I have decided to take the plunge and order some Williams engines from Ma&PA. I have been reading everthing I can find out about Williams, it seems just about everyone is happy with there Williams stuff.
Take Care All
Terry

[Roger Bielen]

We could use some rain here in the Athens, GA area, so far this year it's become one of the worst draughts on record. At least out toward Atlanta and the NW they've been getting the occasional thunder storm.

The one good point is my lawn has gone dormant, haven't had to cut grass is a couple of weeks. So instead of yard work I'll spend my day off today setting up a pool for the grandaughters and when the temp. gets too hot, go run trains.

[FJ and G]

Sou722; what's your other forum name?

Welcome!

Chief; after performing a rain dance, we finally got a show last night. Not a real soaker like out west where cars and people are floating away and double twisters picking up houses, but sort of a mild drenching, enough so didn't have to pull out the garden hose.

Spankybird,

Reg. the Acela & rails; they went on and on and on about the hi-tech nature of the trains, which twist and turn without making the passengers nauseous going around the bends. Then, they discussed the still-used 19th century low tech method for providing traction on the wet slippery rails to keep the Acela accelerating like a race horse.

Sand.


Dave Vergun

[ChiefEagles]

lander31, Marty at Ma&PA's si great to work with. He did me right. I really like my Williams. They perform great. Even got some info on converting them to TMCC. Guy has given me a figure of $55.

[Anonymous]

We tryin to beat the "Never ending story" post?

[Anonymous]

SOU722 is "Multi-Guage Art"

[^]

[ChiefEagles]

What a day. Went to Dr. and got xray. Do not have pneumonia anymore [I knew that anyway]. Went to eat with former workers and Silverado alternator quit on me. Well, a computer will not work on low voltage. Left truck. Buddy Dwight and I go back at 7 PM and replace alternator. He is following me home. I stop for gas and he does not. I get home and he is not here. I call his cellphone and I hear all grades of mumbling. I call again. "Frank, I'm shocky and I have run into someone." I tell him to get them to feed him or give him a sweet drink and I go that way [another town, he is in]. Sure enough, he had not eaten and went into insulin shock. EMS and I got there at the same time. All were OK but his ragidy truck was bashed up. It was hauled off by the number 1 AH in our town who knows me and would not take a check but wanted cash from Dwight. The other vehicle had a broken tail light. Now I need to eat and it is after 11PM. God will look after you. It will all work out for the good.

[spankybird]

Sorry to hear that you had such a rough night. Maybe todays light will bring a better day.

Things are cool in NE Ohio today. 58 deg and only having a high of 65 today. Once again had T-storms last night and the county next to us had a twister again.

All have a save day and Frank try fishing today

tom

[Buckeye Riveter]

Chief - That was not fun. I agree with Spanky, go fishing today.

This weekend I will be traveling to the National Cemetary near Baltimore, Maryland where my grandfather, grandmother and father are buried to attend the Memorial Day ceremonies. I ask all of you this weekend to remember our veterans and the sacrifies they made for us.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, remember the veterans!

We have a Veterans day ceremoney enery year and it seems like I'm the only student there that even cares. Most kids just talk and giggle during it. I even heard some people saying, "Look at those old geezers, they look like fools!"

So sad! So sad! [:(][:(]

[FJ and G]

Chief; hope things improve. BTW, I got a nice SF U-Boat from Marty. He's one of the greats in the hobby IMO.

A couple notes: A lady at the alexandria train station rescued a circada trapped inside the lobby. A group gathered around the circada (they only emerge once every 17 years so people make a big fuss over them). The lady gingerly lifted the circada on her finger and removed it outside to mother nature. She received a round of applause for rescuing the critter. If my beagle were there, she too would have rescued the yummy bug.

-----------

It's rare to find stuff on TV about trains, but the Travel channel seems to shine better than most.

In the past week, I've watched great shows including:

--Intermodal (1 hour)
--A nice segment on Northlandz
and trains seen in various travel segments.

Tonight they're doing Rt 66; not exactly about trains but if you like the Santa Fe, Rt 66 ties in prominently with the railroad and is frequently modeled.

Kudos to the travel channel.

What we REALLY need, gang is a train channel.

Heck, there's a wing channel and planes are not nearly as exciting as trains.

There's cool show on OCC choppers; lots of fun watching bikes getting put together BUT what about a show about scratchbuilding trains----after all, isn't trains supposed to be THE world's greatest hobby????

And, monster garage; same thing; great show; but give me trains as well.

What would really be cool would be a show about putting together a steam engine from the Roanoke Graveyard and th en running it; that would be just peachy with me.

Dave Vergun

[ChiefEagles]

Morning all. Slept late. Well, we need rain [same old story]. Go turn on the soaker hoses for a short time. Where is DUDA and DR. JOHN?? All have a good day and God bless all.

[Jim Duda]

Doooodaaah is buying a 5 gallon bucket of sunscreen, a 55 gal. barrel of lawnmower oil, garden shears, pork for BarBQ, and some fertilizer trucked in from N.C. It's gonna be a loooong, sunny, neighbors-mowing-grass, Memorial Day weekend. A guy has to get ready for all this madness...

Let's remember those who have allowed us to have these kinds of great weekends!

[FJ and G]

I'll be back on Tuesday with a bunch of new posts; as I'm attending a model train open house and will try to work on some train projects and give everyone a break from my hot wind.

It rained last night again. Wi***his would go on all summer.

If conditions are dry again this year, I'm going to remove my entire lawn and replace it with a zen rock garden. I'm sure the home owners association would be pleased with this development.

The rocks will make nice projectiles to hurl at the HOA as they ride around in their golfcart policemobile.