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

[ChiefEagles]

Rain came [not as heavy as they had said]. Some got it rough and tornados too. thent hey said it was all over with. Guess what??? A big storm just missed us. Think those D%^* Yankees are getting wet. Must have washed out their computers. No posting here tonight. Doug [leftbanker], you home yet????

[spankybird]

Good Morning all,

Well the rain has stopped for now. Good thing, I was some of the aminals walking down the street, two by two holding hands.

It doesn’t look good for our folks in Florida. Ivan is coming at them.
http://www.wftv.com/weather/3707917/detail.html

Maybe they should all move north for the summer, here come the Chessie to pick them up
Pick of the Day


all be safe

tom

[ChiefEagles]

Thanks for the ride up nawth, Tom. Foggy here. Suppose to dry out dome now. Sending Ivan across that little narrow strip in Central America into the Pacific. [:D] All you Yanks blow hard. All that hot air up there should do it. [;)] Time for coffee and GRITS. Have a good day and God bless all.

[FJ and G]

Morning all.

Been somewhat busy learning new job. Will try & post more in future.

Going all day to dentist tomorrow. Getting a tooth implant w/screw. IOW, getting screwed.

[ChiefEagles]

David, have they trusted you with an email address yet???? [:D]

[Back2Trains]

Ivan is becoming a real nail-biter here. Just now getting power and other services restored in this area. It's a beautiful day here just like last week with no hint of what lurks out there. Been thinking about going up north for the summer, but don't like tornadoes either. Never was in one, but have come entirely too close.

My sympathies, FJ and G. Bad enough for me getting a cap without the getting screwed part.

Have a good day, all.

Jim

[ChiefEagles]

Hang in there Jim. We need to blow that Ivan away. Will pray a lot.

[spankybird]

Ivan is cat 5 with 160 mph winds and still growing. They have order all in the Key to leave. Didn't know that they got back yet.

It dosen't look good boys.

Think of the expance these people are having. Living in a motel, eating out, gas, and not working all this time.
tom

[Roger Bielen]

Heard from my sister in Boca Raton today, very difficult to find anything in the stores, especially with Ivan on the way. They just had power restored late last night. They're regretting moving that far south, ex-New Jerseyites.

After the rain here in Ga. the grass is growing fast but the fire ant mounds are growing faster.

[FJ and G]

No email yet. It's getting dark now and still busy working in the Pentagon, aka the puzzle palace. Guards walking around w/machineguns, cases with gas masks in the hallway, not the way i remember it from the 70s.

I should have email on Monday and will try & email my friends & switch my profile. tomorrow out w/more tooth trouble

God bless

[Anonymous]

[:D]Does anybody remember a little hurricane named Camille that hit Bay St Louis Miss in 1969? I was a teenager living in Mobile.. about 75 mi. to the east or "bad side" of the storm. That is something I will always remember. The couple hurricanes we had in the Houston area over the last 25 yrs do not even compare to Camille. On a happier note, we have plenty room here in N. Idaho for all you southerners. Just bring your longjohns for the -30 winter nights. But no tornadoes, hurricanes, or poisionous snakes. The griz eat them. If I were in Fla. right now I would take cover and pray. Best wishes to all yall who have been affected by these storms..............Tim

[Buckeye Riveter]

Tim, you forgot to tell them about the earthquakes, forrest fires and blizzards.

[spankybird]

Good Morning all,

We have a partly cloudy cool morning in NE Ohio, temp at 58 and going into the 70’s today.

It look’s like another tuff weekend for our friends in FL.

Pick of the Day


all be safe

tom

[ChiefEagles]

Buckeye, something every where you go. But no Yankees and we have got sweet tea. Well, the Yankee part is changing. Seems they all want to move down here. GEEZZZZZ [;)] Morning gang. Coffee, OJ and red hots [see how many know what red hots are]. Off to town for two county task force meetings [back to back]. Have a good one and God bless.

[cnw1995]

I successfully wrestled 3 foam boards into the basement yesterday - they don't exact fit around the remaining perimeter in the crawlspace but I'll cut a bit off. Today I hope to leave work a little early (ha!) to try to get to the hobby shop to get more track. Still deciding between single tracking - essentially extending this gigantic oval - or taking the plunge and double-tracking it all so I could run two parallel trains. Then I guess I have to get serious about wiring. Right now, my R transformer is connected to the whole thing through as single lock-on - do you suppose I should plan to run a wire parallel to the whole layout with lock-on connections every 10 feet or so - or is there a better way of doing this?

[cnw1995]

I found the answer to my own question on some of the estimable posts under another thread. Boy, I appreciate this forum. Next week, I'll try to run to Radio Shack to get a big 'ol loop of AWG 16 (?) wire and puzzle around with it. I'm still estimating the amount of 027 track to buy - yesterday I crawled around with a tape measure. Assuming it's running once around the perimeter of these 7 foam boards in an elongated oval - I figured everything totals roughly about 1509 inches - what is that? 126 feet? - a little less than double that if I successfully doubletrack it - oh yeah, plus the two existing sidings that are about another 32 feet. To expand it from the existing four to the new three boards, I think I'll need about 14 - 35 inch pieces, 11 or so 9 inch pieces and about 6 curves.

[Roger Bielen]

While waiting for an oil change at Wal-Mart this morning I came across some i/50 scale construction equipment in the toy dept. I bought an ERTL wheeled front end loader for $9.88, they also had a dozer and backhoe.

cnw1995: Go up to at least to 14 ga for a power bus, 12 ga is better. You'll probably get a better price on wire at Home Depot of Lowe's.

[Anonymous]

I'll start out by saying, Prayers out to all thase in harms way, due to Ivan. Hope you all come through unscathed. Then I would like to thank you all for helping me out. I've just started to go through the old pages, and you all are very helpful. Ibrowsed for a couple of days before I finally found trains.com...Go figure. I really have wanted some kind of release for some time. These babies falling into my lap have been a godsend. Cant wait til I got my dream layout set up in the basement, so I can come home and really play after work.

[ChiefEagles]

CNW, I would do every 6 feet [10 feet will be OK] as I do over kill. If you have two switches and a section in between, solder one in there too. If not, axles will have to bridge to get ground and train slows. I use #14 wire. I run them all back to the same terminal block [lable them there for future reference]. Takes more wire but is better. If you ever add DCS or TMCC, you find they operate better [especially DCS]. On the double main line, yes. Then put a couple of sets of opposing switches [one left and one right and then the reverse just a little up the track] between the two main lines and you can always reverse trains with no effort at all from any direction or track. On my old 60' long layout, I had two sets of doubles like that on the main lines. Good luck.

[spankybird]

Good Morning all,

It’s a Blue Clear Sky morning in NE Ohio with temps at 65 and going to 79 today.

Willoughby is having its Frontier Days. Part of it is a pet contest, so we will be taking Spanky up there. He has come in First Place (in the bird category) for the last 3 years.

Let’s remember 911


And lets remember in our prays all those in the way of Ivan


Pick of the Day
It maybe time to leave town


All be safe

tom

[ChiefEagles]

Frontier Days???? OH, that is all the time in Yankeeland. They are not as refined as us southerners. They still don't have sweet tea and grits. [:D] So much for cutting my Yankee buddies. Pretty day here. Got lots of chores to do and grass to cut before the rains come again from Ivan. Praying for those taht are in the path. Why can't that thing get out in the gulf and go in circles until it gets tired and gives up? Finishing up with the painting of a switcher. Now to get time to decal it. Have a good one andGod bless.

[cnw1995]

Thanks, Chief! This is very helpful. I did get off work early and went to the hobby store - I swear this guy changed his prices on seeing me coming so I just got 13 - 35" 027 tracks, some curves and 15 straights for $70. Funny, everything was lower when I priced it out with his wife. So I can't afford more track - just finishing the single track for now. He also sold me a roll of Atlas wire (20 gauge) - he swore would be better than what I wanted. I went off to the craft store to buy 3 rolls of that sandpaper-like 'grass' from Lifelike. Hope to put it all in this weekend. One of our local towns has a frontier days too. I always wonder - this hasn't been a frontier since the 1830s. An absolutely beautiful day here again. Chief, what is your switcher painted and decaled for?

[ChiefEagles]

Don't remember the original road name as painted it CN in the 80's. Now it will be NS. Also had the old double wound coil motor and no E unit [manual forward and reverse]. Had an old set of some type of trucks that had melted plastic that held pickups [not sure where it came from]. So I pulled the coil and magnets out of it and replaced them into the switcher truck frame. Installed E unit and it runs like a charm.

By-the-way, 20 gauge wire is too small. Double it.

[Anonymous]

Rainy and 50 degrees here. Had coffee and grits for breakfast. might have sweet tea at lunch. Doing some scenery today, cant wait to get my hands in the plaster.Later......Tim Oh yeah almost forgot, found my track cleaning car that I had forgot I had. I will post a picture of it tomorrow.

[ChiefEagles]

Tim, poli***hose tracks. [:D] Me, I have rag and denatured alcohol and crawl around the room.

[cnw1995]

Drat. So I should take it back and look for 40 gauge wire?

[ChiefEagles]

[:D][:D] No. The higher the number, the smaller the wire. 16 minimum but I like 14. 12 is very big to solder to the track. Wire sizes in this discussion from smallest to largest. 22, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, and on up to 0 and so on. You want to use stranded for train use. Solid is manily use for house wiring.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cnw1995

Drat. So I should take it back and look for 40 gauge wire?

Doug, You might want to get a copy of Greenbergs Wiring Your Lionel Layout Volume One by Peter Riddle. It is very helpful for all of us not only beginners. You can probably find it on ebay or Amazon for 8-10 dollars. Its very helpful if you plan on doing any relays...Tim

[spankybird]

Good Morning all,

IT is a Blue Clear Sky morning in NE Ohio at 62 deg and going to 80 deg. [8D] Just like yesterday.[:D] What a great day to be off from work.[:)][(-D]

Looks like the eastern Gulf coast has to be watching the Weather Channel today. [:(][banghead] Maybe some of you guy should come north for a few days.[:)]

Pick of the Day


All be safe

tom

[cnw1995]

Thanks, Chief, for the guidance on wire sizes. I feel dumb. Tim, I'll see if I can't get theRiddle book through the library. I think I won't be getting down in the basement today - the weather's too nice...