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

[Roger Bielen]

Speaking of doorbells. We have an attached garage with a personnel door and doorbell on the outside of the house. At the door from the garage into the living quarters is the button for the garage door closer. I wish I had a new engine for everytime that the garagedoor was open that someone walked into the garage and pushed the button for the door opener and closed themselves in the garage. Usually get a new UPS driver every time.

[cnw1995]

Speaking of bells, nose-belled equipped UP 2997 (I believe ex C&NW) was parked at the head of a long rail train in the hometown sidings early this morning, as I went to work. I would've liked to seen this one pulled into this siding as the switch turn is pretty sharp. Just as I expect guests this weekend, the layout gremlins are out in full force - all matter of strange electrical doings, stalls, falling-down scenery and the like. Will try to tackle it before Sunday.

[wrmcclellan]

ZWBob - glad to hear all went well with the surgery. Get well soon!

Preparing here for the NC invasion. Got the heat and humidity turned way up so Chief will feel at home!

Dave - good luck and be careful out there buddy!

Doug - one of those rail trains pulled up outside my office at a former employer when they converted the MKT tracks to DART light rail. Pretty interesting train, I forget the number of cars each rail was snaked through, but it was long. Amazing how all that steel bends like spaghetti when going around curves, etc.

So Roger, how did you know they were trapped in the garage? Did you here the howling! LOL

Have a great day all!
Roy

[spankybird]

You guys have to read this to believe it. This guy hits a train that was stop and of course it's the trians fualt.

http://www.wftv.com/news/4726593/detail.html

[IronHoarse]

Good Morning,

Dave- A date every night this week? Wow, sounds like you the man. Good luck.

It is going to be another warm one today and for the foreseeable future, I guess. I am starting to wish for winter to come once again. lol. There is a good chance that the UPS truck will be stopping at my house tonight with my train and other goodies. O Boy! Christmas time again!

[wrmcclellan]

Well no sign of the Chief yet. Texas Immigration may have stopped him and required him to go to San Antonio first for a required tour of the Alamo before they let him into the state. [:D]

Tom - as always, amazing...

[Roger Bielen]

Roy - the dog usually lets me know or they quickly figure out what's happening.

Heard that today as St. Swithers (sp?) day, if it rains today it is supposed to rain for the next 40 days straight. So far no rain today but looks awful threatening on and off.

The rippel, or is it ripple, effect on the layout lake is so so in my opinion, too late to turn back. Guess I'll continue down stream.

[IronHoarse]

Good Afternoon,
Just a quick note...As I thought the UPS man brought my new Lionel NS Black Diamond set this afternoon. I haven't unpacked the whole set yet but I have unpacked and run the SD80 engine. I love that cruise control, think I may be addicted. Well enough for now I need to go to the train room and play. I have some switches and block power sections to wire too. Pictures will follow later.

[Buckeye Riveter]

I just heard that the Glorius State of Texas has been elevated to the highest alert level in the history of mankind. Smart people, those Texans.

[FJ and G]

Thanks for the "good lucks". Man, I'd rather be happily married than doing the dating scene. Those of you who know all those mating rituals you have to do know what I mean.

ZW bob, glad the surgery went well. Hope everyone's health is good. I'll raise my corona beer to health and toy trains forever.

[csxt30]

Hi everyone,glad it's the end of the week! Sounds like ZWBob is doing fine. That's good news! Boy oh Boy, They'll probably be calling out the Texas National Gaurd , next !! I'll keep watching the news on this !! That guy that hit the train probably thinks he's gonna win the RR lotto !! Well, I'm keeping busy boxing up & tearing down an HO layout. This is where a close friend of mine passed away 16 yrs. ago, & no one has even been down there for as long. His wife is selling the house, & the Realestate people want her to get all that out. She admits it should have been done yrs. ago. I'm gatting exhausted there all the time. Hope everyone has a nice weekend. Dave: have a nice trip !! Thanks, John

[Anonymous]

Hi Gang,
Stopping in for a quick cup. I will post some pics of the new Allegheny in action Sunday. Also will post an aeriel view of the ranch here. Mrs PE paid for my first flying lesson yesterday and I may be hooked. The last time I was up in a small plane was several years ago, and I jumped out. With a parachute of course. Anyways it was a blast.

Buckeye , I love your digs. You may want to enclose the limo garage before winter so no OHIO drifts up and leaves you stranded. I'll bet the guys at the hobby shop love you when you drive up in that rig...........Tim

[IronHoarse]

Good morning,
Very muggy here this morning. Yuck!
Here is a picture of the new Black Diamond set and my sidings. Now that I have had a chance to play with the train I can say that I am very pleased with it's appearance and performance. This is my first experience with the Odyssey cruise control. It is amazing how slow this engine will run. It is going to be hard to do with out cruise control again. Well got to go get breakfast and then play trains. [:D]

[image] http://www.moranweather.com/trains/diamondw.jpg [/image]


[image] http://www.moranweather.com/trains/diamond sidingsw.jpg [/image]

[spankybird]

Good Morning All from NE Ohio

where the temp is 73 and going to 86 with mostly overcast skies.

We got lucky last night with some welcome rain, but it doesn’t even look like it.

ZW Bob – glad to hear that all went well.

PE Tim – sounds like you are happy with your new engine. I love mine.

Dave – don’t over do it. Remember to rest and play with trains.

Buckeye – two big bags of wind in Taxes this weekend. Chief and Emily. Which one can do more damage [?]



Pick of the Day


Rounding the corner into the Weekend

All be safe
tom

[spankybird]

IronHoarse - be careful, Cheif is going to want your engine. It looks great.

tom

[Anonymous]

Hey Guys!

Our family just got a scanner!!! Now I can scan film pictures and post them on here!

Heres a preview of what im doing on Sunday!

The early days (I was 4)

[FJ and G]

Jerry,

Pretty neat!

Where is that? The ties look spaced pretty far apart. Also like how the rail is weathered. :-)

[Anonymous]

Dave, those were taken at the kettle moraine scenic rr, now its closed though!

I do not know why they spaced the ties that far.

I also did not ask them how they weathered the rails.[:D]

[Buckeye Riveter]

Sorry, no digs today towards our famous member traveling in the Glorious State of Texas. I am too busy studying for the Ohio Surveying Exam for Monday. (I am already registered as a surveyor in Indiana, but must take a two hours exam on the laws of Ohio to be licensed. They call this process "comity" registration and it is different than reciprocity that we normally use for engineering.

Ohio’s Public Land Surveys are the most complex in the nation. This state was the experiment for the rest of the nation to the west and is surveyed 19 different ways with some townships and ranges at 5 mile square instead of 6 mile square. Indiana is simple, it is surveyed on way from the 2nd Principal Meridian, except Switzerland County. .

[superwarp1]

Look what I got to do last week in Strasburg, Pa



Regards,

Gary

[Dr. John]

Great pics everyone!

Just a quick, "hello" this AM. This has been "honey-do" week at the Johnston household. Got a lot of shelves put up, pictures on the walls, and yard work done this week. Looking forward to going back to w**k Monday so I can recover!

[wrmcclellan]

Man we had a real "frog floater" storm here last night! Over 2 inches of rain at our house. Back porch/patio floaded for a while as the rain was so hard it could not run off.

I am headed over to Ft Worth to see if our posse can track down the Chief. I will report back later.

Nice pics all and Iron H, your layout is really starting to fill out!

Have a great weekend all!
Roy

[cnw1995]

Beautiful hot day today, spent the morning watering all the plants with my 3 yr. old helper - somehow we all got wet! Great engine, Iron Hoarse, nice to have a new toy. Wish we had some rain. Corn is only about 2 ft. high - just about gone for the whole upper part of the state. Love that picture of the day!

[jonadel]

Good Morning from the sauna of Iowa,

Man oh man, it's just crazy outside. I'm ringing wet and that's from 45 minutes on the rider, just ridiculous.

Doug, we have heard reports of the corn crop in parts of Illinois, very sad indeed. We have had rains at the right times but it is now becoming dangerously dry and most of the corn has tasseled, now we have to have rain.

Surprisingly I have spent more time this summer in the train room and have really enjoyed myself. Working with my son the woodworker on shelves for the walls. We will start next week and just do an assembly line production and chunk them out in a day. He lives about 2 hours from here and I'm very much looking forward to that time, we need to have it cool off a bit as his shop is in his garage. Here's a prototype of what we are thinking. These are floating shelves with no visible support but will hold the heavy weight of anything I can put on them.

The first shot shows the basic conctruction, actual length will be about 42"


The second shot shows the shelf height, not sure now as to whether I'll use track or not, what do you think?


Everyone stay cool and safe.

Jon

[IronHoarse]

Good Afternoon,
Tom , Chief may watt my engine, but that ain't going to happen.

It is really hot here today. 93° and we do not have AC. The sweat is pouring off me and I am almost naked. Come on winter! lol. Well I got my wiring all done. I managed to hide the switch wires. I am using the CW80 transformer that came with the Black Diamond to power my sidings, so I had to wire them with block sections. Now I can kill the power to any cars or engines that are parked on the sidings.

[FJ and G]

Ironhorse,

Way to go. I too value being able to kill the power. That's how I mix my command control w/conventionals.

Jon,

Great to hear about you and your son sharing in the hobby. Thats also some fine craftsmanship. W/me, it's measure once cut twice :-)

[cnw1995]

Wow, Jon. Those look excellent. I have had an adventurous afternoon in the basement - with my 3 yr. old helper. I'm teaching him to use the remote control on the battery powered K line set. He sits inside the circle and places cars or other little toys atop the cars and engine as goes by... My favorite 4-6-2 pulling the Santa Fe passenger train just stopped dead today and I tried everything to figure out what was wrong. Turned out it picked up a horrid small slip of paper somehow that enmeshed itself in the gears. You'd been proud of my taking it all apart to pull out the paper with two surgical scapels - the only things I had that would slip inbetween the gears. Still can't figure out how to sound the whistle on the Railsounds tender. Pressing the sound button on the Lionel train set transformer just sounds the bell. Oh well. It's nice and cool down there.

Anybody's children read the Harry Potter books? My daughter is recovering from a mid-night part at Barnes & Noble. Other son is off camping with a friend. I can't find anyone to go to a White Sox v. Detroit game with me Monday night - I got the tickets to take one of the children. I'm going to call our pastor and see if he wants them or someone on the church staff can use them. I wish you joy of the rest of your weekend.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cnw1995

Still can't figure out how to sound the whistle on the Railsounds tender. Pressing the sound button on the Lionel train set transformer just sounds the bell. Oh well. It's nice and cool down there.

.

Doug,Did you try switching the leads at all? You probably have the polarity switched, so that it activates the bell, instead of the whistle.

[Roger Bielen]

Great photos all.

Jon - I've had success with just running two grooves along the shelve at the width of the wheel flanges. Allows the shelves to be closer if space is a problem.

Doug - Kids aren't the only Harry Potter fans, my copy was the first out of the box at Target, helps that I work in receiving at the store. Just started reading it, haven't seen any mention of the Hogsworth Express yet. (Just had to mention a train on the CTT forum)

Cut grass early this afternoon, looked like it would rain any moment but it held off. Right now the suns out and its hot and humid. The evening storms are out near Atlanta and to the north west of the city.

Have a good evening all.

[Roger Bielen]

Couldn't resist, had to come back and pur cup number 7000. Congrats. all.