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

[ChiefEagles]

Morning all. I've got a 671. Bought it in 1980 [used and very good condition]. Funny watching it run. Those little drivers really go and the smoke unit goes click click click around the track. Tom always strats our day with a great photo [s]. Got red bugs from cleaning up the neighbor's side of my fence line. [B)] Making my legs itch. Going to do somemore work on engines today. May get that GP7/9 painted today. Got to run soaker hoses as getting dry [still no rain]. Old saying: "Must not be paying the preacher enough." [Dr. John will agree to that [;)]] All have a great day and God bless all.

[cnw1995]

Just so you know there's a prototype for everything you can possibly imagine on your layout: Metra pulled an electric car with a diesel (that normally works a coachyard) over the weekend while doing some track work. See pictures here: http://mikef.rrpicturearchives.net/archivethumbs.aspx?id=5404

Have a great day.

[laz 57]

HI GIZ,
Warm today at 82 not bad dut we need rain. Got to water all plants and flowers.
Have to take measurements to lumber yard to get replacement windows made.
Neat pics DOUG!
Stay cool.
laz57

[Roger Bielen]

Like your 671 Tom. I have my original 2020, O27 version of 671, since cc. 1948. I changed the smoke unit to a liquid unit a number of years ago and it'll smoke up a storm. When I got back into trains about 10 yrs. ago and into TMCC I installed a TAS unit into a salvaged tender for it, rather than empty the 2020W tender. Even without magnitraction or traction tires I is a pretty strong puller thanks to its weight.

[Anonymous]

Good Morning, Everyone!

I don't have a 671, but I have a 681. It's a great engine and I love it! I have it on my layout pulling a freight right now. I picked it up about 3 years ago from a guy who was getting rid of his extensive amount of postwar and MPC Lionel and just concentrating on modern stuff. I also got my gang car, 97 coal elevator and a Bing CP passenger car from him in the same purchase.

The weather's as crazy as ever here. The forcast yesterday said that today it would be 90 degrees outside and with the humidex it would feel like 108! Wouldn't you know it, I wake up this morning to find it raining like I've never seen before! It had stopped raining by 8:00, however and it's warm now. The forcast has changed to show that it won't be quite as warm as they initially predicted, though.

Thankfully, things in Edmonton and Drumheller turned out to be much better than expected and, while the rivers did rise, neither city flooded. Many of the evacuees from other parts of Alberta are being let back now and there isn't any more risks for flooding. However, just yesterday, a couple of tornados hit down in Alberta. You just never know what to expect!

[zwbob]

Hi Guys,

Since we're talking Turbines here's my 681 I bought at my first train show in the late 70's for about a hundred bucks. It doesn't see much track time now but I ran the heck out of it back then. It's still a great runner and smoker(for postwar with pills).

[daan]

Nope, no turbine for me (yet).. But I've got another picture for you. An sd28 thundering through the salt river canyon on my layout..[:D]

Plastering is finished and temperatures in the morning are low enough to enter the trainroom without changing into a salt river myself[:)]

I just missed a turbine in perfect condition on the german ebay [V] it was sold for 202 euro's, no rust, no scars, with whistle tender etc.. It really is a shame that I didn't put up a slightly higher maximum bid (was 200[}:)])

Have a nice day all!

[daan]

And another bounch of pictures:

It starts to look like a landscape (though wintertime doesn't match the temp's[:D])

[spankybird]

Good Morning from NE Ohio

where the temp is 62 with Blue Clear Sky’s and going to 80.

Daan – nice pics. I believe you are also going to bet Chief on your layout. Wait, you all ready have, you have a table up with track on it.[(-D]

Got to love all the pics of 671 and 681.[;)]

Mine also is without magnitraction. I was going to someday try putting masking tape on one set of drive wheels to see how it would work. The tender does have an air whistle in it. The smoke unit was replaced with a pellet one when I was about 10 years old. I have since replace it with a fluid smoke unit.

Here are a few pics I took of it last night.




all be safe
tom

[Jumijo]

Great photos, Daan. What are you using for ballast?

It's going to be sunny in the mid 70s today, and I just happen to have a half day of vacation planned. One must take advantage of the rare nice weather. Friday and the weekend will be hot and humid with temps in the mid 90s.

Keep those turbines running. Anyone out there have the Williams version?

Jim

[Jumijo]

Tom,

Your 671 is incredible! It looks new. You converted the pellet smoker to a fluid one? I have a 2025 with it's original pellet smoker that I use fluid in. It smokes like a champ. Am I doing something I shouldn't? I have some vintage pellets. Should I use those instead of fluid?

Jim

[spankybird]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jaabat

Tom,

Your 671 is incredible! It looks new. You converted the pellet smoker to a fluid one? I have a 2025 with it's original pellet smoker that I use fluid in. It smokes like a champ. Am I doing something I shouldn't? I have some vintage pellets. Should I use those instead of fluid?

Jim

The only thing you have to watch is you do not have a wick to feed the heating element. So you can't put too much fluid in it and it will burn off quickly. So you will have to add a couple of drop often.

My pellet smoke unit was burnd out, that is why I replaced it with a fluid one. It was first repaired from the bulb to a pellet on around 1958 or so.

tom

[ChiefEagles]

Morning gang. Jim, Tom is right on the smoke units. I have several Post Wars and I use fluid and did during the 70's/80's when I had the layout. Just a few drops at the time but don't let it run out. I'll make sure the hole is open in the bottom [under the bell shaped "puffer" piston]. I wonder if you can put the fiberglass under the element like we are doing the fan units and make it work better? HUMMM Another project. Got the GP7/9 painted black so it will be ready for decals now. Will do Tom's idea of auto pin striping on the frame sides to make the white dashes for NS. That is a lot better than trying to paint them. Well, sun is getting hot today. Rain came in the form of a sprinkle. Raleigh got washed by big Tstorm. Rained on all tha concrete but none on the farmland around here. Think the farmers are irrigating now. I soaked the garden yesterday PM and then Pam's flowers. Maybe we will get some tonight. All have a good one and God bless all.

[jonadel]

Good Morning,

Today is predicted to be the hottest one in two years, great. It is absolutely tropical right now--high temps/high humidity but still BETTER than wind chills[:)]

Time to go run the new Aero Train and will plan on picking up two more coaches today. What a strange little train but so far everyone just smiles when the see it, FUN.

Anyone here have experience with changing out passenger car light bulbs for LED's? I'm at the point I need to do this with my F3's and now this train.

Jon

[darsenau]

I started to change the lighting to LED's in my passenger dars, but was disappointed with the results and went back to regular lights. The white LEDs seem too blue and they are directional so the lighting is not even.

[Jumijo]

Chief,

I don't know about placing fiberglass under the post war elements. They are wound tightly around a ceramic disc, but if you have luck, I'd like to hear about it.

Recently I came across an interesting passage from the May 1993 issue of Classic Toy Trains regarding post war smoke units.

On page 67 of that issue, Arthur Zirul discussed the tricks he used to use to make Lionel trains perform as flawlessly as possible on live tv back in the 1950's. Here's what he had to say about smoke output from steamers;

"Regular Lionel smoke pellets didn't create enough smoke to be seen on the small screen. However, we found that ordinary asprin tablets did. The smoke poured from the stacks and cleared up headaches too".

Is this guy for real?! And is he Arthur Zirul the sci-fi writer.

All kidding about the headaches aside, has anyone ever heard or been witness to this practice of putting asprin tablets in a post-war smoke unit? Will putting one or a part of one in a post-war smoke unit really increase smoke output? And if so, will the use of asprin harm the smoke unit? I'm too chicken to try it.

Jim

[ChiefEagles]

What is the formula when converting? Someone give us the formula. Can ot hook them direct to track voltage. Thanks

[cnw1995]

Supposed to be a hot day today. Huge thunderheads about but no rain. Grass rapidly going dormant - while my neighbors frantically water. With our area pumping water out of very shallow acquifiers - and the population exploding, I just can't justify watering the lawn. Besides, when it goes dormant, I don't have to cut it as much. ;)

I can't believe how much plastic track came with the KLine battery powered set. It's a huge oval with wood and bolt detail on the ties. Just snaps together. And the Pennsy GP9 runs like a charm (fast). I'm going to try to rig the whole thing out as an elevated line today...

Tried swapping transformers last night and none gave me enough juice in the far corners of the layout - so I guess I'm going to be thinking about rewiring the correct way to run wire out to there too.

The most important thing to acknowledge about today is on this date ten years ago, the UP merged with the Chicago and North Western... :(

[FJ and G]

Great pix daan and Tom. Dan, that's some neat scenery.

When temps get around 90 or up, BB prefers chasing rabbits thru the swamps, as the yucky smelling water cools her off.

Well she chased a wiley rabbit around for about 2 hours. Occasionally, you could glimpse the rabbit and beagle together charging around.

Then I lost sight of her in the very tall cattails. Then something incredible happened.

What appeared to be yellow smoke grenades started exploding all over the swamp. I mean it looked spectacular, like some soldiers were laying down smoke for the helos or something.

If you are familiar with cattails, you will know that the heads of them get real dry this time of year. If you tap the head, the seeds literally explode in yellow smoke.

That's what was happening. BB was banging into the stems, sending up clouds of yellow smoke and you could literally track the progress of the chase thru the thick vegetation.

It was so spectacular I couldn't stop laughing.

[Roger Bielen]

Jim, I'd wonder about using asprin for the smoke unit. When heated the asprin may break back dowm to sal. acid which could be corrosive to the unit. If I remember correctly, sal. acid sublimes, goes to a vapor from the solid without melting, and re- solidifies as it cools. It could leave a coating all over the layout.

[dougdagrump]

Doug, Did you test the Pennsy to see if it had the Easter Egg in it's system?

[cnw1995]

It works! My son figured it out. I was just pressing the buttons wrong - not all together. It plays a whole series of Christmas songs. We've counted six so far. The range of the remote isn't very far too. It has a steam engine-like whistle, bell and clickety clack noise.

[cnw1995]

This apparently isn't posting my edits. It worked. My son figured it out. Nice Christmas songs - I think 4-6 different ones.

[rtraincollector]

My first 671 had a rough life although you wouldn't know it looking at it today( hmmm I need to get that the next time I go home 2 671 in a row would be alsome looking) any way heres what happened now back then I only knew as fast as it could go with out jumping the track.

When I was a kid I had a layout I was still building in the rec room next to the windows . Well my Lionel 671 (6-8-6 )was on a cannon ball run ( the only type I knew then slow wasn't in my vocabulary) when it hit the siding switch which I open by mistake while wiring it. It went right threw the window and fell 3 feet to the cement outside as my dad was walking up the sidewalk (Boy do I remember That day very well LOL. We all laugh about it now but boy did I catch it that day.

Still have some trains up at home but not sure what all as my 1 brother also took some stuff so not sure what he and his family has and whats still up at home.

RT

[dougdagrump]

Kinda slow around here lately, most folks must be busy with other fun things. [?]
Like yard renovations, exterior painting, exterior remodels, etc etc. You know the fun things that you normally can't do during the winter. [:D]

[ChiefEagles]

Been running trains tonight. Had 4 big Lionel diesels [2 SD80's, SD60 and Dash 9] running with sounds and the Dash 8 Dummy smoking with all of them [they all have modified smoke units]. Did not hear the phone ringing. Whole house smells like diesel smoke. Pam is gone to the beach for the rest of the week and weekend. That was 8 motors and lights and smoke on a dummy all running off of one side of a KW. Pretty much of a load. It ran them. Now for some microwave popcorn. [:D] OOPS, I have to wash dishes first. She ate [I had cooked when she got home] and ran. [:(] Later.

[daan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jaabat

Great photos, Daan. What are you using for ballast?
Jim

Jim, I used the cheapest stuff available. Small stones used for aquariums at 3 dollar@ 10kg's.[:D] It comes in different sizes and colors from white to black. This is a brouwnish color and to my opinion matches the real color's quite right.

Nice action of BB, those are moments you need to have a camcorder!!
Yesterday we have been shopping for new bycicles and we found some nice ones. My girlfriend got a cruiser, 7 gears and very comfortable saddle, and I choose a hybrid bike with 21 gears used to cover bigger distances. I'm planning to use it for travelling to work and back.

I also picked up a "tree building kit" made by Busch ([:D][:D]) it has some real trunks in it and a package of woodland scenics leaf to glue it in the trunks. They look awesome! It really will make a difference compared to the normal used "trees"on my layout.

Have a great day all!

[spankybird]

Good Morning All from NE Ohio

where the temp is 68 with Blue Clear Sky’s and heading to mid 90’s and a start of a heat wave.

This must mean that Chief is spending more time running trains (4 at a time) that building his layout.

Today is our last day of w - - k for a week of vacation next week. We will be off until after the 4th.

Doug – yep it gets a little slow during the summer, yard work and vacations and all.

Pick of the Day

an other shot of our 671

all be safe
tom

[Jumijo]

We're getting the same weather in New England today and this weekend that Tom is getting in Ohio. Good thing I mowed the lawn yesterday.

I don't a turbine yet (Williams or post war?), but I do own the same freight depot as pictured above.

Jim

[Roger Bielen]

'Mornin' all!

Things have slowed at work so the old "need to cut hours" budget saving bit came out. Until further notice I have 3 day weekends. More time to get things done around the house and play with the trains.

Last night I made a "wick" from a couple of strands of fiberglass matting, for FRP repairs, and looped it over the bare heating element in my Hudson, it increased the smoke output by about another 25% over the previous fixes. I'll have to see how it holds up in the long run.

Should be another day into the 90's here today. Already started the chores, made a dump run (no garbage pick up in county), got gas for the lawn tractor, sprayed some catapillar nests that I could reach in the pecans and the shrubs for white flies. Now I'm enjoying my second cup of coffee while I check out the forums then have a door jamb to paint and lawn to mow.

See ya'll later when the work is done.