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

[Anonymous]

Good Afternoon Everyone!

Nothing much has been happening lately. School has been going very well and will be over soon. My final exams are in mid/late April.

Anyway, I thought I'd stop in to mention that this weekend is the Moose Jaw model train show and I will be exhibiting at it for the first time. Moose Jaw is about a 45 drive from Regina. The train show is held in their museum, which is transportation-themed and features a CPR 4-6-2, plus other railway equipment and a simply outstanding classic car collection. I'll be having the same display I had at the Regina train show. This afternoon I will be heading down there to set it up. I'm really looking forward to it!

[dwiemer]

Hey Trolley Lovers,
This weekend on the RFD network, they have a episode of Trains and Locomotives on Trolleys and traction engines of the south. Just thought You would be interested. I believe the first showing is 9am est.
Dennis

[Anonymous]

Dr. says I have "RAIL POX"

[GregM]

Off from work today. It was my New Years Day holiday. Since the company was open on Jan 2nd everyone had to schedule a ' floating holiday' before the end of March. So after taking care of some medical necessities first thing this morning, Karen and I spent some time hobby shopping.

Ended up at a Hobby Lobby store in Boardman (near Youngstown) where we found some scratch building supplies at pretty good prices. Bought a box of 1000 craft sticks for 99 cents. A package of 125 "Slim Sticks" (these should make a real nice fence) was $1.99. Two packages of 1/4" by 12" dowels came home too. Found two packages of artist paint brushes for $1.19 each on a clearance isle. Now that I have all this stuff. will need to actually build something. lol

[ChiefEagles]

Greenhosue done!!! Wiring of greenhouse, rewiring shed and shop done. [:D] 240 to all. Now I can do my work here. Tired. Cooking my dinner as wife is out of town. Later

[pbjwilson]

Chief - You're workin to hard. Go play with your trains and take it easy.

Great day in Chicago. Had alittle flurry in the middle of the day but the sun came out later and it was real nice. Been rakin leaves for a couple hours. The yard gets bigger every year.
And it's FRIDAY. Got the kids some movies to watch for the weekend. Lots of baseball practice this weekend. Will run the trains tonight, especially my new Virginian Rectifier-cool engine. Have a good one.

[csxt30]

Good Evenong Everyone !! Not a bad day here today, sunshine & a tad warmer !
Glad it's Friday !
Greg M : I didn't know we had a Hobby Lobby in Boardman ! Thanks !
I think the Chief is working tooooooooooo much too !! Sure sounds like it !
Well, getting layout cleaned up some more, a couple of the Grandkids are coming in another week ! Just for 2 days though, but the trains will get a workout ! Plus I'm trying to figure out what they can make in the way of scenery, maybe make some trees & do a little plastering on the mountain & painting.
Hope everyone has a nice weekend !
Thanks,

[1688torpedo]

CSXJohn- Isn't a Evenong a song one sings in the evening?[;)][:)] Or is it a after effect of eating Grits in the evening?[;)] Laz- If a Grits Bomb exploded near the Bear, You'll need to call the Humane Society[;)] The Bear was a valuable ally in the War on the Al-Gritzera Network from Roseyville[;)][:P][:)] Chief- you do need to play more with your Trains instead of dropping Grits Bombs from the air or shooting Beavers[;)][:P][:o)] Have a good evening all

[ChiefEagles]

Been asleep in the reclineer. Goood night.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Live from Roger’s Corners,
It’s Saturday Morning

It is getting closer to that time of the year that we will start to hear the heat reports from Roy from Texas. [:D]

TEXAS - WHAT A STATE!
May 30th - Now this is a state that knows how to live! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. Mountains and deserts blended together. What a place! Watched the sunset from a park lying on a blanket. It was beautiful. I've finally found my home I love it here.

June 14th - Really heating up. Got to 100 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this. I'm turning into a real sun worshipper.

June 30th - Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th - The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least it's a dry heat. Getting used to it is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th - Fell asleep by the pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body.) Missed two days of work, what a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though: got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th - I missed Tabby (our cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got out to the hot car for lunch, Tabby had swollen up to the size of a shopping bag and exploded all over $2,000 worth of leather upholstery. I told the kids she ran away. The car now smells like Kibbles and Bits. No more pets in this heat!

July 25th - Dry heat, my a#@. Hot is hot!! The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th - Been sleeping outside by the pool for three nights now. $1,100 in house payments and we can't even go inside. Why did I ever come here?

Aug 4th - 115 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to about 90.

Aug 8th - If another wise***cracks,"Hot enough for you today?", I'm going to tear his #$@#%^ throat out. By the time I get to work the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like roasted @#^%$ Garfield!!

Aug 10th - The weather report might as well be a recording: Hot and Sunny. It's been too hot to #$&^$ for two @&%^# months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Doesn't it ever rain in this barren $#%&* desert?? Water rationing has been in effect all summer, so $1,700 worth of cactus just dried up and blew into the @#&^f pool. Even a cactus can't live in this heat.

Aug 14th - Welcome to Hell!!! Temperature got to 123 today. Forgot to crack the window and blew the #$^%@ windshield out of the Lincoln. The installer came to fix it and said, "Hot enough for you today?" My wife had to spend the $1,100 house payment to bail me out of jail.

Aug 30th - Worst day of the *** summer. I'm not leaving the house. The #$%^& monsoon rains finally came and all they did is to make it muggier than #&^%l. The Lincoln is now floating somewhere in Mexico with it's new $500 windshield. That does it, we're moving to New York City for some peace and quiet.

Off to a meeting today. See web page below with my signature. Next week I’ll be in West Lafayette, Indiana and Milburn, New Jersey. In early April I will be in Nashville, TN.

All the parts are in place to connect Phase I of the layout to Phase II. Looking forward to the expanded track plan.

See you later and everyone have a good day. [:D]

[spankybird]

Good Morning All from NE Ohio

where the temp is 31 and going up to 42 with overcast skies. We had a light dusting of snow over night.

Train Show today at Parma UAW Hall, I will not be going to this one.

The Next OTTS meeting will be at the museum on April 7, 2006.

Tom S. – sounds like you all had a great time.

Keith – those were the days and they are long gone. Some Sears stores have some MTH sets at Christmas time, but I have never found them around here.


Pick of the Day


All be safe
Tom

[csxt30]

Good Morning Everyone ! Another great Saturday Morning Live from Buckeye !! [:D] Poor Roy, lives in the wrong part of the state ! Roy : move to where Jim Duda lives, that's where all the girls mow the grass in mini skirts & not as hot !![:D][:D]
Yep, a little bit of snow here too. Hope to get more trees made today. I think I'll bring some to the next OTTS meeting & see if we will be able to use these on the new or old layout ! I only need a few for my layout, plus my wife wants some !
Well, off the whole weekend here !
All have a nice day !
Thanks,

[tmcc man]

Good morning everyone,
Today is my mom's birthday, so I will be hanging around the house. It is also going to rain here, not ideal weather for my run or my ride. We were hoping to be able to eat on the pato, but that does not look like it will happen.

For a retired man, the Chief sure works tooooo much.
Chief my punishment idea would be exactly like the others, make them build the bench work.

[zwbob]

Good Morning Everyone, It's been a long time since I posted on the coffee pot. Been busy with the layout. Going to lay the plaster cloth on the tunnel I've been adding on to and a hillside a long side the dam I put and the end of a lake/pond today,since we spent all last saturday at the dealership. We got rid of our '93 T-Bird and bought a 2006 chevy equinox suv. So far we like it but it ain't no T-Bird.

Tom-the layout at the museum is looking good. I won't be going to the show in Parma either. To bad about that caboose in Painsville.

Time to head out to the local greazy spoon for some breakfast.

Have a good weekend

Bob

[ChiefEagles]

Morning all. SNOW!!!! [tee hee ha ha snicker] We are getting close to our last frost date.

Roy, the Buckeye report. Natural gas just took all my October, November, December, January, February, March and April paychecks. No money to buy gas for the snow blower so I suffered a heat attack from shoveling snow. Had to buy two car batteries as the cold pulled them down real bad. We could not do any landscaping as the ground froze too deep. Hope we have a couple of months without frost so I can plant a few tomato plants to help with the grocery bill [we have to save up for heating bill for the winter]. Think I will move to Roseyville NC where there is a even balance of seasons.

Off to Miss Edna's to do train talk. God bless all.

[thor]

Morning all. I got another one of those Pullmor engined plastic shelled locos for $20, there went my gondolas but I couldnt pass up prices like that and they both have E-reversers which I like. One of the shells has heat damage on the right so I'll butcher that one and leave the the blue one as is. The cleaning and tuning will pass this gray Saturday nicely. Went to the Shack and got a bunch of small washers to shim out the gears with and some small LED's for extra lighting.

Anyway, I have a question for you guys. I could search the info out but its not as good as getting a real opinion from people who know.

The wife is talking about our vacation plans and I want to go see some American locos in steam, where, in your opinions is the best place to visit to see as much as possible in one shot?

Cheers, Mike.

[Blueberryhill RR]

[code]Good Morning from Blueberryhill[/code]It is 31 degrees out and the SUN is trying to come out. Going up to 39 degrees and Sunny today. THAT'S GOOD
Buckeye..... That was a good story about Texas. The North is burning down and the South
is flooded. And it all is nice and humid.
Well, ... Chief is about to start his benchwork. He will take pictures.
Have a few things to do today. 300 mile race from Bristol , if it stops snowing.
Well, y'all have a great day.
Chuck

[csxt30]

Mike : I think one of the biggest collections of steam may be In Pa. They have the East Broad Top RR. Plus there is Steamtown and In that Lancaster area or near York somewhere there is a lot of steam trains to ride. We'll see if Laz sees this post, as he lives near all those places & can elaborate. Plus, don't forget Cass Scenic RR. You should be able to get some info on these places by searching Pa's. web-site, I think !
Oh, here is the one place I couldn't remember the name of, but found it !
http://www.strasburgrailroad.com/
Thanks, John

[dwiemer]

Mike, John is right. The place to go for lots of steam action is Steamtown in PA. Of course this requires a treck to hostile yankee territory, but they do have lots of action. Also, there are several nice areas around that should appeal to your wife. New Hope, PA is a quaint shopping area and several others. If you were to time it around the fall, the colors are great.
Dennis

[mitchelr]

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxt30

Mike : I think one of the biggest collections of steam may be In Pa. They have the East Broad Top RR. Plus there is Steamtown and In that Lancaster area or near York somewhere there is a lot of steam trains to ride. We'll see if Laz sees this post, as he lives near all those places & can elaborate. Plus, don't forget Cass Scenic RR. You should be able to get some info on these places by searching Pa's. web-site, I think !
Oh, here is the one place I couldn't remember the name of, but found it !
http://www.strasburgrailroad.com/
Thanks, John

Good morning to all.

Mike - John is correct - Pennsylvania is a great place to see steam. Steamtown USA is in Scranton, PA. Check it out at http://www.nps.gov/stea/home.htm. I spent most of a morning there and really wanted to stay longer. I have also been to the East Broad Top RR in Orbisonia, PA http://www.febt.org/ or http://www.ebtrr.com/. EBT is a very cool narrow guage steam railroad that is really a step back into history. Strasburg, PA is home to the Strasburg Railroad http://www.strasburgrailroad.com/ , The Pennsylvania Railroad Museum http://www.rrmuseumpa.org/, the ChooChoo Barn http://www.padutch.com/z/choochoobarn.htm and the National Toy Train Museum (Train Collectors Association) http://www.nttmuseum.org/. Hope you can get a chance to visit these great places.

Mitch [:D]

[mitchelr]

Good Morning to all. Been away for a few days to WV on a recruiting trip. Trying to find high quality teachers. The Mrs. is going out with a friend today so I hope to get the new shelves hung in the train room. I may post some photos tomorrow if I get a chance.

Have a great day.

Mitch[:D]

[dwiemer]

Hey Chief, Kim liked the new additions to the trains[:D], so, no dog house for me. I even told her about the other trains that are due to arrive in the next few weeks and still no problem. Of course, we are going to Vegas for that meeting soon and she might want to spend lots on things other than trains. Oh well

Speaking of Vegas, I know they have a couple of stores there, does anyone know of any train related items or other must sees there? I look forward to any suggestions.
Dennis

[cnw1995]

Morning guys, just back from breakfast at the dinner - hit two more hardware stores looking for furnance filters for trees - they have the pleated type and the spun-glass type and the wire-me***ype. Sigh. I may ask Jim to mail me one. Wife's back is bothering her so I will be cleaning the hourse and watching over her today so she can rest.

Dennis, two not very great train stores in Vegas - off the beaten track and not worth it in my opinion. The monorail is kinda OK, if pricey. Not much else 'train-y' - lots of other distractions though!

Re looking for steamers for vacation, don't forget the tourist railroad insert in an upcoming Trains magazine. IL Railway Museum isn't running steam this season.

Too bad don't get the RFD channel! Would've liked to see the trolleys.

[csxt30]

Dennis : I think they have a Roller Coaster up on top of one of their skyscrapers !
Maybe if you ride it, you can tell us about it !! [:D][:D]
Thanks,

[thor]

Thanks a lot chaps! I had heard of Steam Town but I wanted to make sure it was okay. I've been suckered into long rides for not very much before by websites that made nothing much sound like something worth seeing!

The only place I've been to so far is Boothbay, Maine (or NH?) a narrow gauge museum railroad with a great car collection.

I'd rather find something in steam than static, a narrow gauge ride is better than a silent giant. Actually Boothbay is a great little railroad, very friendly and photogenic.

[mitchelr]

QUOTE: Originally posted by thor

Thanks a lot chaps! I had heard of Steam Town but I wanted to make sure it was okay. I've been suckered into long rides for not very much before by websites that made nothing much sound like something worth seeing!

I'd rather find something in steam than static, a narrow gauge ride is better than a silent giant. Actually Boothbay is a great little railroad, very friendly and photogenic.

Steamtown definitely has live steam[:D][:D][:D][:D]

Mitch

[mitchelr]

TMCC Man - Colin - They need your help over in the thread about the Providence and Worchester RR trying to identify some diesels. I guessed they were GP 30's but I am not an expert like you are[;)][;)][;)][;)].

Mitch

[Anonymous]

Snow up here this morning.
March is going out like a lion.
Just dropped by to say Hi to all in the POT.
have a great day and a safe day as well.

Nstrackman.

[jefelectric]

Mike, The other poster have pretty well covered the steam in PA. I will add that to keep your wife occupied, between Lancaster and Strasburg on Rt 30 is one of the biggest collections of outlet malls I have seen anywhere. Should give you a couple of days to check out the trains. Yes the Strasburg runs steam daily. Don't miss the PA Railroad museum, no live steam but a lot of great RR stuff. Between Lancaster and Harrisburg is the Middletown & Humelstown RR. They did run some steam but had trouble with water treatment and did not run it last year. I have heard it might be running again in 2006. Also great train shops in the area. There is one at the Strasburg RR, One next to the Cho-cho barn, Cool Trains in Salunga & Barry's train shop in Elizabethtown. York has several train shop also.

[jefelectric]

Good afternoon all,

52 here and probably wont get any higher as it is cloudy with only an occasional glimpse of the Sun.

At least it is spring time in the greenhouse. Geraniums, Passion Flowers & Fuchsia blooming on last years plants. Portulaca & tomato blossoms on this years plants.

Got some train work to attend to. The new 031 Realtrax switch I recently installed is causing derailments. I think the pivot point screw is loose. I have to take it up and open it up to check it out.

Buckeye, Right now I could use a little of that heat from Texas.

All have a good one.