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

[FJ and G]

Nice cool day in Virginia. Visiting folks in upstate NY over the weekend so will be off-line from Saturday to Wednesday.

I heard on the evening news last night that dark chocolate is supposed to be so good for you that people who eat about 3 ounces a day have 1/3 fewer heart problems. I'm going out to get several pounds worth to nibble on; along with a bottles of red wine; which are supposed to have similar benefits.

Then, I think I'll do Atkins diet and eat a bunch of thick steaks and about 3 pounds worth of ribs ought to have healthful benefits.

With all of this wholesome food, I will soon be a picture of perfect health.

Dave Vergun

[lander31]

Hi All;
It is another hot day in North FL. Coming to work this morning it smelled like smoke. It is so dry the forest fires are starting up. So far the fire fighters are keeping them under control.
Got to go out and work on the layout some. I will try and post some pic on this weekend if I can
Take Care
Terry

[spankybird]

Hey Terry,

My bother lives NE of Orlando. Talked to him the other night, and he said they have been in the 95 to 98 deg every day for a month without any rain.

Soon you will also be having sink hole. Be careful were you walk.


tom

[ChiefEagles]

This post Dr. John can not read [snicker]:
Subject: Alabama [sounds a little like Ohio too]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How do you know when you're staying in an Alabama hotel?
When you call the front desk and say, "I gotta leak in my sink," and the clerk replies, "Go ahead."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How can you tell if an Alabama redneck is married?
There's dried tobacco juice on both sides of his pickup truck.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An Alabama State trooper pulls over a pickup on the highway and says to the driver, "Got any I.D.?" and the driver replies "Bout wut?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A new law was recently passed in Alabama. When a couple gets divorced, they are STILL brother and sister.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A guy walked into a bar in Alabama and orders a mudslide.
The bartender looks at the man and says, "You ain't from 'round here are ya?"
"No", replies the man, "I'm from Michigan".
The bartender looks at him and says, "Well, what do ya do in Michigan?"
"I'm a taxidermist", said the man.
The bartender, looking very bewildered now, asks, "What in the world is a
tax-e-derm-ist?
"The man says, "I mount dead animals".
The bartender stands back and hollers to the whole bar...."It's okay boys, he's one of us!

[Roger Bielen]

Hi Chief,

Are you sure you don't live in Georgia, dems the kinda jokes ya'll hear from a Georgian about an Alabamian, or even more probable round Athens (UGA) bout Georgia Tech..

I'm neutral, I'm a GD yankee transplant. I came south and stayed.

[Jim Duda]

I think I'll invite Chiefie to TexASS and turn all these little Texas girlies loose on him...he won't last a week...!

jd

[Dr. John]

I resemble those remarks. [:D]

[ChiefEagles]

Morning gang. Send rain. Getting dry again. Cut the drying grass yesterday so it would not be ragged. [actually wanted to ride the Deere]. Someone said it was Thursday. I thought it was Saturday. Now lets see, yesterday was Saturday too. OH WELL, retired means everyday is Saturday except Sunday. [;)] Think I'll go back to bed and snooze. God bless you all.

[Roger Bielen]

Mornin' all,

Chief, I felt the same way for the first several months after being forced into early retirement then not getting out into the world wore thin. Found a part time job, 20 to 30 hrs/wk, at Target for something to do and a bit extra cash, for trains of course. With the physical work at Target I'm probably in the best shape I've been in since getting out of school.

[spankybird]

Good Morning all,

Looks like more rain in NE Ohio. It must be all the HOT air from the south mixing with the cool lake breeze. Maybe if the guy in the south would inhale more, we could send the rain south.

Spent last night working on the new printer. It didn’t want to print normal text. We called the tech center, ended up talking to a young lady in India. It was 8:00pm EST for me and 6:00AM for her. Well, they think it’s a back ink cartage. They are sending a new one, but I will stop and buy one tonight, that way I can spend all night tonite on it.

Have a great day.

tom

[lander31]

Hi All;
Got some rain last night. Still need a lot more. We can still smell smoke and there was ash on the truck. It looks like the fires are west of here and they are under control.
Trying to put the finishing touches on the 681 I have been restoring. Need to make the decals for the numbers. It takes longer to make the decals on the computer than printing them out. The numbers I made for the 2055 turned out nice hope I can get the 681 numbers to da as well.
Take Care
Terry

[Buckeye Riveter]

Did you miss me, Chief? I've been busier than a one armed paper hanger. My garden railroad layout is done and the train did not fall off the track. Over memorial day, rode the Potomac Eagle tour train and saw five eagles and two nests. Attended the memorial services at Baltimore National Cemetary where my father is buried.

It rained again last night in Roger's Corners, Ohio.

[ChiefEagles]

Wow, a Buckeye sighting. That is rarer than the eagles he saw. [:)] Glad you are back. Show us some prictures of the garden RR and the trip too.

[Jim Duda]

Yes Indeed! Take some closeups of the trackbed and how they plug together. I'm curious as to how well the track fits into/onto them!

jd

[FJ and G]

Morning all,

A nice cool day in Virginia. lower 80s is cool here. I'm staying home this week and will go to NY to see my folks on 17-20 June instead.

I'm going to make some more switches. This time, a crossover. I'll try to get a picture of the turnout I made last weekend up on this forum possibly by tomorrow and give a full explanation of how it was made.
---------------

Have you ever had an unexplainable event happen to you? Creepy or supernatural?

Well, I know that UFOs are popular with model railroaders with the Phantom Set and all, but have you ever seen a real one. I haven't! Ha.

The only exciting thing that ever happened was back in 1970 when this WWI vet pulled a pair of metal rods out of the trunk of his car and showed me how to find water with it. I absolutely did not believe him when the metal bars started going back and forth (they rotate in a metal sleeve and curve around so you can hold them). I thought he was making them wave.

So then he gave them to me and a walked for a few yards and then unexplainably, they started to violently move back and forth.

He gave me the set and I showed my friends. It worked for them too and we actually did experiments, locating underwater pipes and then doing a blind test with the steel rods. It worked every time.

I never could explain it.

dav

[Dr. John]

Good morning,
We've had three days of good rain in the land of Dixie. It's raining as I write this. The clouds and rain have kept the temperature in the upper 70s - very cool for these parts in June.

Tomorrow's my day off. I will start laying cork roadbed on the layout. If I get that done, I'll put the track back in place and add some 3 R rubber ties under the rails. I am undecided about ballast at this point - that will wait 'til wiring is done at least.

Good day to you all!

[ChiefEagles]

Well lets see???? I have weedeated, edged, watered Pam's flowers and shrubs, moved big granite rocks to edge her rose garden, run soaker hoses on garden and roses, sprayed roses, sprayed garden, sprayed grapevines and sprayed fruit trees and sprayed Roundup. OH, forgot, I blew off the concrete pad, walkways and driveway [lots of concrete]. Think it is break time. [:D]

[lander31]

Well It is raining here hope it last a long time. Been working on the decals for the 681 I have been restoring. Got all of the decals on.The engine runs great. It might be old but sure works good.

Take care all.
Terry

[Dr. John]

Very nice restoration job! Do you have a tender for it?

[lander31]

Dr. John;
Thanks
I have a 2046 tender. I am looking for the 2671 tender.
I enjoy taking the trains apart and do a complete restoration on them. I have been making my own decals, and redoing the wiring in them and working on the motors. (I am trying to learn on how to rewind the armatures).I have one more 681 and a 671 I am in doing a complete restoration on them also. I am thinking of painting one one them a little different then what Lionel painted them.
Terry

[ChiefEagles]

Great job lander31. How much do you charge for decals? I'm going to need some Norfolk Southerns in the near future. I got one of those turbines but doesn't look that good. Guess what????? They are calling for rain bigtime here for tomorrow and maybe Saturday. Then might get more Monday and Tuesday. [:D]

[Anonymous]

HI ALL,
I've been browsing the forum and sounds like there is a lot of southern guys. I'm from the Pacific Northwest (Spokane, Wa) where it is still in the 60's & low 70's with nite in the 40's. I recently moved to new home about 7 mi from where I use to live. I am interested in replacing the old O Gauge layout and using the TMCC system from Lionel this time around. They have a video tape about the system called "How To Video" for $14.99, only I can't find a place that has it.
Any ideas where to try?

[ChiefEagles]

LionelAl, http://www.lionel.com/Store/Findex.cfm item number 6-14187. You might want to look at MTH's DCS too. Glad to have you on board. Friendly bunch here. I think the notifier on CTT is not working all the time. Not getting all the notifications of psots on this item. [?]

[Anonymous]

Chief,
Thanks for the information, will also check out the MTH DCS system. Never hurst to look them over. Might have something the other lacks.
Thanks again

[ChiefEagles]

Both are great. I am installing DCS [already bought it] and adding the TMCC module to it. Then I can run both with DCS. When I left the hobby in the mid 80's, the ability to operate trains by remote was just getting into HO. Now we can have all the fun.

[Anonymous]

I have several conventional Lionel F3's including the ATSF BLU/YEL ABA 6-18117 set that I wish were TMCC like the Lionel SF F3 AA 6-24529 set. Do you know if there is someone that can convert them to TMCC. The F3 ABA in BLU/YEL are hard to find, these have never been out of the box yet. Waiting for the new Layout.

[ChiefEagles]

Morning gang. Suppose to be raining. No rain yet but cloudy. Suppose to be heavy rains today. Think I'll go back to bed and snooze. Did all that work yesterday . Think I'll rest today. We've got new buddy named LionelAl. Think he is a "left banker". Glad to have you and hang around. I think one of these will do it for you too. I'm going to do some of mine later.
I got this form another person:
Digital Dynamics and TA Studios both sell TMCC upgrades for $79, Railsounds is around $80. Digital Dynamics has their installation manuals on-line

If you want to use electronic horns vs. Railsounds the TA Studios "UCUB" is $99 but will activate most electronic horns & whistles.

http://www.digitdynam.com/
http://www.tastudios.com/tascmdupgrades.htm
LionelAl, hope this helps.

God bless all.

[spankybird]

Good Morning All,

It’s a cool 57 deg this morning with Blue Clear Skys. High is going to 70+. I see the Chief is doing the rain dance. The weatherwoman said we will have more rain on Saturday.

Well the new printer is willing the war. [banghead] I was told it needed a new ink cartage, they will be sending one out, but I also stopped and pick one up. That didn’t work. [banghead] Replaced the USB cable, that didn’t work, [banghead]un-installed software and re-installed software, that didn’t work. [banghead] Now they want to replace the other ink cartage. [V] OH Well, we will see.

Have a great day all, and happy birthday Chief.[bday]



tom

[lander31]

Chief;
If you can provided the art work to me I can scan it in and print it out on 8.5x11 or 8.5x14 decal paper. I like to fill up a entire sht. I do it this way for the local hobby shop (This way I trade decals for train stuff). The hobby shop pays me 10.00 per sht. If it is half full a third or a full sht. Contact me off line and we can talk it over.
Cool morning here we are getting some rain. All well back to the trains.
Taker Care All;
Terry

[FJ and G]

Nice day in DC.

Chief: tell us how you like DCS & try out some of the neat features like recordings