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

[Roger Bielen]

Had a roll of film developed today, employees 50% off on the 15th of the month, and had the photos put on disc so I could contribute an occasional train shot. My contribution this evening is the westbound Zephyr leaving Elm Springs while an eastbound freight passed by led by a GP-7.

[Roger Bielen]

Let's try again to see if I got a larger picture.

[Dr. John]

Nice photo, Roger! I love night shots.

Dave, hope you're doing okay after the scare at the Pentagon.

Chief, hang in there and get to feeling better!

My wife and I closed on the new house about an hour ago! Now I have a bigger house and a much smaller checkbook!

[ChiefEagles]

Dr. John, glad you got the house. Dr. can't get temp down with Tylenol so she gave me additional meds. I will be a junkie before long. Just got to ride it out. Have not even felt like playing trains since I've been home. Now that is bad. Jimbo, tried Miss Edna and line was busy. OOPS, got her and your "stuff" will ship UPS. [:D] Later

[Jim Duda]

QUOTE: Jimbo, tried Miss Edna and line was busy. OOPS, got her and your "stuff" will ship UPS - Chief

Man, I can't wait for the li'l choo choo to arrive so I can post a picture of it smokin' up a storm on the li'l table!!! I hope it doesn't come with a "ghost"...too damm scary!!!

[Buckeye Riveter]

Nothing on this posting is making much sense since Dr. John returned and the Chief got sick with the exception of the great photos. Why am I not surprised? We have anthrax at the pentagon, ghosts in the basement, campouts with and without bugs, and warm weather avoiding Ohio. The strangest part is that Jim is the only one writing about trains.

[dougdagrump]

With the return of Dr. John everyone will have to behave themselves....[:D]

[ChiefEagles]

I'll say something about trains. Bet they had a hard time getting through in New Mexico. 3 feet of SHOWHIO!!!!!!! or would that be NEW SNOWXICO. On the post about ghosts, I asked if Aunt Lessie played with my trains???? [;)] Buckeye, I will say one thing, I am GREEN with envy over your walleye. [^]

[Anonymous]

Morning Gang,three great days in a row .40+for the rest of the week,nice roofing weather .Cant wait to bust out the clubs[:D] Have a great day all

[laz 57]

MORNING GIZ<
28 degrees here this morn. Suppose to be the same as yesterday.
SCRATCH the golf clubs might be out next THURSDAY for me. Every Thursday or excuse me FRIDAY EVE me and my brother play 9 holes after 4pm. Lots o fun.
Hit em straight and keep your head down.
CHIEF hope your feeling better. Did ya have a shot o rock and rye ity does cure them colds.
Have agreat one and lets be safe out there.
laz57

[spankybird]

Good Morning all,

NE Ohio has a Blue Clear Sky with temp at 25 deg and going into the low 40’s. Laz are you sure about spring coming[?]

Chief – better get well soon, Buckeye and I don’t want to get on your case when you can’t defend yourself.

Looking forward to a Big Train Show this weekend.

Pick of the Day


all be safe
tom

[FJ and G]

John, Roy,

Doin OK

Roger, Tom, nice pictures

Buckeye,

I'll mention something about trains; my usual diatribe:

Today, there are approximately 150,000 miles of railroad in the US, a drop by about half since WWII.

Yesterday, I was very much surprised to discover a second common carrier that is 150,000 miles long.

I'm speaking about petroleum pipelines, 95% of which are common carriers (yes, there is no such thing as Texaco or Exxon gas, it's all mixed up in the pipeline! Only additives in the truck are added at the last minute and they all are pretty much equally effective, according to last night's history channel special on gas).

A map of the pipelines reveals a vast network of pipes blanketing the country and often paralleling railroads. It supposedly is much more efficient and safer than rail or truck transport, which begs the question: with so many miles of pipeline, why is there still a thriving chemical transport on rail lines, esp on the Gulf Coast?

My best guess is that petroleum is a very tiny percentage of what tank cars transport.

The program I watched forcasted that alternative fuels would eventually, far down the road, replace petroleum as America's fuel. Hydrogen power topped the list and the only reason it is not dominate is because the infrastructure to support it is not yet in place, nor will be for a long time. Oil rules and despite prices climbing past $3 a gallon, Americans are using more, not less. That despite, many people's predictions that $3 would cause people to flock to trains. Ain't happened.

[jonadel]

David brings up a good point about folks flocking to the rails, hasn't happened and I doubt in my life time that it will. America is still too rural in most areas to support rail, at least in the midwest I see it that way. Sure, Chicago has the El and now MPLS has light rail but for the rest of us it just isn't going to happen. We live about 22 miles from downtown Des Moines on a small acreage and we love it, very quiet, no neighbors and lots of trees; .7 miles south of us is new 4 lane; .6 miles south of us is a black topped bike trail that leads to over 100 miles of paved bike trails....... you guessed it, abandoned rail lines that parralel new highways. While we love the bike trails history tells me that's how people used to travel before cars became the rule, I think our forefathers may have had it right to begin with. I guess I may be in the minority according to national studies, I do drive less because of gas prices.

Jon

[cnw1995]

Just to provide another local perspective on rail transit. There's lots of demand here to expand Metra in all sorts of directions - but no money and a large case of NIMBY. Chicago's CTA is facing gigantic cutbacks - really a game of chicken with the budget-meisters - I can't believe how incredibly expensive it is to run the CTA. They want more suburban money and less to go to Metra - you can imagine that battle - and regular people don't really care. There's no money for local high speed rail a la Mineta's plan for post-Amtrak. Chicago's outer suburbs are just burgeoning - with barely the infrastructure to provide gas, electric and water - let along roads. It really is a dilemma; everyone wants their own little piece of paradise: a house and a yard. No one wants to live in density enough to make public transit worth it - and the suburban bus schedule and routes are a joke.

In our town, a Super-Walmart, 2 auto dealerships and 750 town homes just approved after midnight last night or rather this morning to be shoe-horned into a piece of open land next to a two lane intersection. And newcomers are surprised at the traffic - thinking they're moving 50 miles out of Chicago into the 'country.' Residential development is now far past us - out past the IL Railway Museum in Union, almost to Rockford - about 80 miles away from Chicago. So all this feeds the ubiquity of the auto. I think nothing less than some external crisis of immense proportions is going to change this - or some sort of (shudder, shudder) govt. regs - like massively upping the M.P.G. average for manufacturers.

[Anonymous]

Good morning all. Still working on a lot of old projects. Spent last night mucking around in an 8526 Lionel 0-4-0 switcher bearing NYC colors. Didn't fix her, but found out a lot about how Lionel engineers (mechanical, not train) brains work. Engine picks up AC from the track, sends it back to the tender where it is rectified into DC and sent back to the engine to run the motor. The problem is that there is no DC output on the reverse step of the e-unit, so I have forward and three neutrals. My guess is that the power rectifier for the reverse cycle is fried, since the locomotive runs in reverse just fine with external DC. That seems reasonable, the train set is stamped 1/85 and the power transistors look capable of dissipating about five watts each. Since there are two of them wired in parallel in a common base output circuit, I had a whole amp to run the train. The interesting thing is why the reverse fried first. I suppose that maximum power is dissipated on start-up, and pulling is just slightly easier than pushing because of train stretch. I bet one of you real engineers can enlighten me.

I haven't driven in three days. I may not until gas goes back down. Fortunately, most of what I do is amenable to tele-commuting. The trains here are good--for where they go. Unfortunately, the county has been planning to extend the line down within walking distance for twenty years, but some pork project always seems to intervene.

[TurboOne]

Good morning all,

[#welcome][#welcome] Sturgeon-Phish enjoy a cup, have fun. Yes we do talk trains once in a while.

Chief, hope you are feeling better, miss your Southern humor. Jim is having to carry all the Souths hope, and Duda that is a lot.

We got down to 40 last night, but suppossed to be in the upper 60s today. More rain this weekend. Seems as if half the city is sliding down a hill. Just had a condo complex get evacuated, cracks in the road, and possibly the whole first row of condo's sliding down. Now more rain. Just what they need.

Doug, how was traffic school ? Thought there was so many cars in Chicago, you couldn't speed. [:)] San Diego is getting like that. Used to be able to drive 85, now 65.

David, glad you are OK, watch out for the white powder. Prayers for all in the pentagon, to be safe. My wife's uncle works there also.

Buckeye, pass the beer.

Laz, pass the sander.

Roger, awesome night pic.

Tom, great pic. Have fun at the show.

Take care all

Tim

[ChiefEagles]

Morning gang. If you get sick, get your Dr to prescribe Tamiflu. Never had heard of it but it seems to be working. Now that I feel a little better, guess I need to start on those Ohio Yanks. Think they are planning a small gathering. If so, my spy [Spankybird, he is a southern bird [;)]] will call me and tell me what was said. Now to pick on my left bankers. Can you all ever decide on who can marry who [or is it whoom??]. [;)] Cold rain here but the Ohio guys lost this one. Were calling for snow but then it warmed and did not happen. Will be in the 60's next week. About time. Someone shoot that Yankee groundhog. [tdn][swg] Later and God bless all.

[ChiefEagles]

OH, on rail travel. It is not dependable. I would use the rail system if I knew I could get to my shows on time and in a decent time frame. All I hear is 2 and 3 hour delays on the tracks while the raillines are working on the tracks. We would have to go back to MAKING the rail owners give priority to the passenger service. That they are not going to do. Lady at Town Hall just took trip to Harrisburg [Lazland] and took whole family. Loved the train ride but got delayed for 2 hours due to track maintenance. Then when they arrived, no rental car.

[cnw1995]

Traffic school was taught by a cop who had tons of stories to tell - it was quasi-entertaining. I felt sorry for some of the people who came from Rock Island and other towns so far west they are almost in Iowa. I loved the chance to see the town of Aurora - which looks frozen in the 1930s. The BNSF ran lots of stack trains right through downtown on an elevated track that looks like something out of Lionel. Chief, re rail dependability - it is an issue - my kids have taken Amtrak east and west - they were six hours late into NYC and ten hours late into LA. That's why some local politicos want Metra to run the post-Amtrak 'local' system - because it runs (mostly) like a clock and essentially subcontracts out to the local roads - for example, I write a check for my ticket to the UP...the conductors are UP...etc.

[FJ and G]

OK guys, just returned from radio shack and found some interesting items.

R/C cars at about 1:35? Not really suitable for layout because too large and obtrusive antennas sticking out back; but they sure are tending more and more to miniature.

Also, picked up a pair of nippers. Need these for clipping small wires up close. Also purchased a tube of Solder Weld. I'm going to weld some iron or steel with it this week and report back the results of its strength and other characteristics in a special post.

[cnw1995]

I'm curious about this Solder Weld and look forward to your post - I've seen it at the Shack as well as it certainly proports to be very useful. My son has one of those mini-R/C cars he's actually used to cruise down the plastic highways on the layout - the antenna was noticeable but it worked -

[Anonymous]

Radio Shack red handled nippers--good for everything from flush cutting wire to trimming toenails.

[FJ and G]

Doug M,

Glad those R/Cs are working for you and your son! I'll definitely write up a report of the Solder Weld. I posed the same question on OGR and MR forums and nobody seems to know much about it; just a bunch of wild guesses. It's time to experiment!

Doug J.

The only thing I'm unsure of is what type of metal they can cut; soft or hard? I have tiny nails I'm using as spikes but am hesitant to cut those, where I feel more comfortable cutting brass, copper and tin.

[spankybird]

have any of you check out all the threads on the Garden Forum on O gaugge outside and live steam O guage [?]

[Anonymous]

I have cut stainless steel (.041) safety wire with them. Sometimes you do it with impunity, sometimes you notch the leading edge. Thus far I have not figured out why it works when it works, and why it doesn't work when it doesn't. Stainless should be about the same hardness. Maybe nipper quality control enters into it.

[FJ and G]

Doug J

Great to know. This little fellow will be put to use ASAP!

So far, the best cutter I have is a pair of lineman's pliers--the heavy duty type electricians use (I bought special plastic things to put on them--you boil in water and then slip them on; and use that for higher voltage stuff). Have other pliers that the edge quickly dulls. Those lineman's are really special to me. I use them to spike ties except where clearances are tight around turnouts. Then use needle nose, but takes more muscle power.

[TurboOne]

Hey guys, just a quick hello. Hope all is going well. Anyone know of SoCal train shows coming in the next 2 months.

It is now 75 so far today.

Tim

[ChiefEagles]

Dave, interested in that Solder Weld. Be sure to give us a report. Ran the trains for a while. Don't think Aunt Lessie ran them. Did find an end of a black plastic cable tie across the tracks. Did not leave it there when I was last upstairs. [?][?][;)]

[Dr. John]

Hey, Chief! Glad you are feeling well enough to run your trains. Is the fever gone yet?

[1688torpedo]

Hello Turbo Tim ! Looks like you left bankers might have to set up your own shows or move out here to the east so you can come to our shows and train shops. Chief glad to see you're feeling better. Doug I don't know about using Radio Shack clippers to trim toenails, It sounds like torture. Almost like Uncle Fester putting his head in a large C clamp to cure his Headaches [banghead] . Hopefully you do not have a bed of nails to lay on in order to cure Backaches[;)][:)] Have a nice day everyone.................Keith