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

[Anonymous]

last one in first one out.
back in the pot again. Hello all who is listening.

[mitchelr]

Good morning to all. Currently 33 headed to about 55. Went to a really nice retirement party last night for my cousin's husband. Great food and good company saw lots of relatives that I don't usually see.

Ran some trains yesterday and worked on the layout. Stained the wood trim around the edge of the platform. Painted the lift bridge that carries track across the door way. Started to figure out roads. Thought I had some lights I could use on the circle/roundabout, but they are too grungy and the wires are too brittle. Will have to look for some newer ones or rewire what I've got.

Have a great day.

Mitch

[thor]

Good morning gents, I hope everyone missed the tornados and anything else flying around. Also that those with sickness become healed, theres a lot of folks need prayers. Last but not least thanks to all who passed kind and encouraging remarks. I'm still trying to figure out some way of making personal asides without typing in the same thing so it fills the forum a dozen times! ...but you gotta say thanks when its due.

Anyway, yesterday I started on a freelance model of an engine shed. I immediately got a lesson in selective compression! Big enough for loco and tender it would have been 18" long and way too big for the space available, so I halved that and decided to do up the cuteness angle so no one would notice it had shrunk!

I got Asherah to help me paint a sheet of typing paper reddish, knowing it would come out all variegated and a few other colors too, then I cut it into strips and from them I cut bricks and spent a happy eight hours building a brick wall the prototype way!

It was pouring with rain and She Who Must Be Obeyed didnt want to be disturbed.

I made bass wood window frames and glazed it with ripple plastic cut from a binder pocket and glazing bars of electrical tape. Inserted into the wood frame and epoxied its flat, rigid and looks real(ish). It'll take me another week to do the rest, half a long wall is all I got done but it'll give me something to do in the odd moments. I also used pieces of colored foam in a few places to look like raised bricks, cast shadows and emphasize the 3D.

I'm going to leave the other long wall open with pole supports and make some little action figures looking like they're working on the loco. That way it can be just a 'little house' for Asherah and perhaps later evolve into a working model.

I've got some great ideas to modify an old disposable gas lighter to create showers of sparks from angle grinders, and so on.

Have a good day!

[spankybird]

Good Morning All from NE Ohio

where the temp is 34 and going up to 52 with mostly Blue Clear Skies

Train Show this Sunday, April 9, Medina Fairgrounds. IT’s today, and we going to it !


OTTS Meeting this Friday. Anyone wishing to join us can e-mail me for directions. Note date change

Nstrackman – are you driving or on the rails thru Ohio. If driving, and going thru the Cleveland area, you should stop for a visit.

Dave – thanks, see what extra ties and cat littler for ballast can do.


Pick of the Day


All be safe
Tom

[mickey4479]

Morning all. I have been able to devote only a little bit of time to the forum lately. Too many spring chores, church, and a little fishing. I hope this not too impersonal, but happy birthday to all and their family members who had or are having them soon. Prayers for all who have health problems. My allergy attack ended up being a cold, minor stuff compared to some of your trials.
Dave, on your comment a couple of days ago about big corps wasting a lot of time in meetings, I heard this one. "A committee is an organization that keep minutes but wastes hours."

Steve: I am going to send the golf ball message on to family and other friends. Thanks.
[:)][:)]

[Roger Bielen]

Just spent the last 3 1/2 hours cutting grass. At least I finished as another piece broke off the lawn tractor. I guess its time to get a new one This one is a 13 years old MTD and parts are getting difficult to get and its not worth the $'s. If I had a welding rig, and knew how to weld, I might be able to hold it together for another cutting or two. On second thought, make that a machine shop.

I'm glad the trains don't wear the way other equipment does. Now if I could only get an assembly/parts drawing for a K-Line diesel. Guess I'll stop at Memory Station this coming week and see if he has access to any K-Line info. and parts from Lionel yet. He was at a show this weekend and his helper doesn't know the repair end.

[thor]

Update on the model making efforts, this is a LONG post!


A WORK IN PROGRESS
Faced with the desire to own a couple of buildings to enhance my 3 rail O gauge tabletop layout, much though I'd like to buy them funds don't permit, I decided to scratchbuild. What I wanted was the 'tinplate' effect, bright colors, simple but obvious 'details' and an overall robust construction able to withstand small children.

Wood was the obvious choice for the material to make it from but without the right tools (razor saw, dremel or pin drill etc.) its almost impossible to get a crisp enough finish, so I went with foam cored 1/4" display board with a white card surface on both sides. Its easy to draw on and easy to cut and strong enough if the building is properly constructed and given a good finish.

I just found a small flypress and some tool steel tapered blanks to fit same so I'm hoping to grind some tools to punch tabs and slots in the future and maybe graduate to real tinplate but meanwhile...

I've been saving various household refuse with this building session in mind. I have coffee cans, paper towel tubes, soda bottles to become, respectively, a wagon, oil tanks and silos and a station canopy. I also save paper clips, toothpicks, chopsticks and candy wrappers (the brown crinkly paper ones like little cupcake wrappers) for Victorian fancy ironwork, fencing, utility poles and heavy lumber and corrugated iron circular roofs like on silos.

My basic tools are drawing equipment, box cutter, scissors, pliers, soldering iron, epoxy and hi-tack whiite glue. I draw out things like patterns for fancy ironwork and bend the paper clips with pliers, place the various bent shapes onto the pattern and drop epoxy or rarely, solder it together. My blueprints are usually isometric sketches and a couple of notations as to approx. size and the rest is done by eye.

Why?

Well because 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' and the best models, from my point of view are those which reflect the details I recall rather than, perhaps, exact renditions. Often an exact rendition includes stuff you had subconsciously edited out because it detracts from the overall aesthetics. For example, how many modelled scenes from the 50's or 60's really include the rats nest of utility wiring and television antennas?

Elsewhere, someone made the observation that all a toy train has to do is roughly resemble the major points of whatever it represents, your imagination does the rest. This is SO true! I went searching on the Web for pictures of some of the toy trains of my youth and was aghast at how crude they were in contrast to the rich detail I recalled!

Recently, however, I have had the privilege of extensive play sessions with a 3 year old who makes it her job to help me see it from her point of view, she chatters on non-stop about whats going on in her imaginary world based on the train layout and holds conversations with her 'friends' and its been an eye opener for me, quite literally.

It also helps to quite literally see it from a childs eye view. That Lionel Scout becomes a very impressive machine when your viewpoint is at floor (or tabletop) level.

So back to the model making...

I decided to bring the above observations to my aid in making the model look more 'realistic' and follow the 'tinplate' ethos, if there is one. That is, to simplify but make the kept 'details' stand out by exaggerating them. From an artists vocabulary that means using foreshortening, false perspective, represented shadow and highlights. An example of the latter is those short four wheeled LMS 'carriages' that Hornby used to make in O gauge. The glass windows were printed with a very bright silver and some grey and black hash marks and most of the detail was outlined in black. The effect was good because it created the illusion by controlling what drew your eye. Just as the semi-relief stampings that represented the running gear did a good enough job not to detract from the illusion even though taken out of context they are pretty minimal.

So for my first model, an engine shed, I decided to use a combination of textures to create the illusion. I wanted it to look 'cute' so I made it about a foot long with three large windows per side and an arched front opening. The bottom course is stonework consisting of limestone corners and piers, with rubble and ashlar fill. Think typical English country church. Flints between columns of stone or brick.

The second course, from window sill to top of window opening, is East Anglian antique brickwork, and the upper layer to the roofline will be corrugated iron clad timber framework. The roof will be covered in Welsh slates with a shuttered wooden steam and smoke vent enclosure occupying the middle third of the roof ridge.

The Railway Company, a small rural branch, had an old ruined chapel on their property, so they made it good by adding the bricks and windows and saved money and weight by finishing off the building with a lumber frame and trusses which were later clad with corrugated iron when the sparks from loco chimneys had caused the rotten old shiplap to catch fire. I'm explaining all this to my young friend as she watches me at work on the drawing table. "Can I help, Mike, please? Please...?"

The engine shed will have the original Victorian cast iron guttering and downpipes (because paper straws are getting impossible to obtain nowadays and its easier to fold up card than to spray paint plastic drinking straw). I'm going to have one side open with lumber columns and braces to look like its under modification but really to give a big access space for 'gerfingerpoken' and I'm going to build an operating model that can be put in place when wanted, with a gang of mechanics at work on my oldest loco which really looks like it could use it.

I have a few ideas about adding action and effects. I want to try a 'forge' and 'welding' by using the same mechanism piped to both via light conducting fibers and a smoke unit. My idea is to build a small lightbox with a revolving disk with yellow/red colored gells and a quartz iodine 12 volt bulb to generate sufficient power to give the welding torch a bright look. The forge will have a further revolving disc (small slo mo motor maybe a quartz electric clock using the minute hand drive) with a rippled orange finish. This is to further disperse the bright source and add another color to give the forge coke the right rippling glow.

I also want some sparks here and there. You can find longer flints than usual in disposable Bic lighters, also they are sold to fit welding torch igniters. A motor driven knurled wheel or a small disc or cylinder of hard, coarse abrasive will work. I have a bunch of tiny electric motors with a lot of poke for their size, they have a vibrating weight on the shaft, I dont know what they were from but they are the size of a pencil eraser and amazingly torqey. I'll use them to drive the flint/sparkers so I can hide them easily. I'll also put a light sensing resistor in the circuit so the sparkers wont run unless the room lightings off. These same motors will do nicely for a few operating features as well like O gauge figures apparently walking about by putting them on a swash plate and making it move via the motor under the plate.

I want a power hacksaw too and on overhead lineshaft driving the machines, powered by a small donkey engine so its all happening, lots of stuff to see with hopefully a certain 'random' factor by relying on indirect vibration rather than cranks and levers. Smoke, sparks, noise, lights, movement and maybe a couple of 555 timers and a bimetallic strip controlling the main input and the outputs to further increase the illusion by switching the timing of events. I'll make the shed such that this piece slides in and out easily and just plugs in as it will be too delicate to leave unattended.

Next building will be a Victorian greenhouse style platform canopy supported on ornate columns with gas lighting. The plan is to buy some paper 'lace' doilies and carefully cut them up to provide the floral looking ironwork which will be overlaid with super glued fine brass wire to give the necessary 3D effect. I'll use the same technique to do the glass' glazing bars atop the canopy which is a clear soda bottle cut to give a large rectangle. Its shape will be held by a foamcore open centre rectangle and two end pieces of foamcore dressed up to look like stamped or cast iron or steel panelling. That way the fancy stuff doesnt have to take any loads. I hope I can jig up this or at least make some detailed drawings so it can be repeated for an eventual terminus with completely enclosed platforms, looking like London's old Crystal Palace.

Large yellow LED's dipped in epoxy to create globes can be wired to a flicker circuit and their anode/cathode wires bent to form the curly brackets connecting to the input wiring run up the center of the 'cast iron' fluted columns. I'd like 3 per column and again, attention paid to the seperate electrical feeds so that each lamp doesnt behave in exactly the same way. I've been playing around with beads fitted with tiny scraps of thin fabric running on fine fishing line in the hope of eventually getting 'pigeons' fluttering about from roof to platform but thats an experiment in progress.

As a kid, I was wild about the marionette TV show 'Thunderbirds' and have always been a huge Ray Harryhausen fan. When I did my HO layout all those years ago with my best friend Alex who was an E.E. in training, he worried about the reality side of things being an avid train spotter and my end was scenery and special effects. Between us we ran a pretty decent railroad and every once in a while everything worked as planned! One of the big attractions of O was Lionels famous operating cars and accessories. I figure whilst I'm plotting how to afford one, I can invent my own.

[Buckeye Riveter]

And to think the Chief only sends snow our way up north. [:D]

I'm back in beautiful Buckeyeland, where with sunny blue skies. Had a great flight ouf of Nashville. A judge that I know sat in the seat across the isle and we talked all the way home about all the "characters" we know and love in Ohio. Needless to say, we know some real characters.

Chuck, I'm delighted with your news. That's great. It is a load off of your mind.

[tschmidt]

Good day all!

Chuck, great news. We are all happy for you.

Buckeye, We were out the other night with many of the same folks you met at Kathy's birthday. We were upstairs at the SeeZuhr House and had a great time. I hope you can join us again sometime there.

It's a beautiful day here. We got home from church a little while ago and I think I'll go out and clean up the wife's car. It's a nice relaxing thing to do.

A lot of folks around here are invading the south over the next few weeks. I hope all you guys down there take good care of them.

Enjoy the day everyone.
TomS

[lionel2986]

spanky-thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, your pictures look great.

[Dr. John]

Good afternoon!

Beautiful, sunny day in Prattville, AL today. I went for a walk this afternoon just to enjoy the weather. Absolutely perfect!

Getting ready to teach a class at church this afternoon, then enjoy our choir and orchestra present the Easter musical, "The Day He Wore My Crown." An oldie but a goodie!

[cnw1995]

It was a nice sunny but cool day here in the Chicago exurbs - supposed to be in the 60s-70s this week. After setting up and working the church services, I spent 4 hours at the baseball fields with the two boys to give my wife another break - her back is still hurting her. After a melt-down (no nap) and his bath, the youngest is abed and I have a few moments to say hello before going to get the other kids at their church. I did get to run my New Orleans trolley yesterday (see Sun Photo Fun) and rue my attempts at making trees.

[Anonymous]

Doug, hope your wife's back gets better but, what happened to her back for it to be bothering her like that?

Chris

[tmcc man]

Well ,even though I am not going to school tomorrow, I am going to sleep because I am really tired. So Goooood nigt everyone.

[wrmcclellan]

Evening all!

Just recovering from a long day yesterday. Spent most of the day napping on the sofa and watching NASCAR.

Robotics tournament went from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm. My teams did well and all had a great time. Basically I was standing/walking around the entire time.

When I got home we headed to the Texas Rangers vs Detriot Tigers game for Scout Night. Got to do a parade around the field and see the dugouts. Unfortunately the Rangers never showed up for the game (7-0). Detroit scored 4 runs in their first at-bat! We got home about 10 pm. Great day but pretty tiring. Had to stand for over an hour waiting for the Scout parade to start. Then escalators to the upper/upper deck where the Scout cheap seats were broke down and had to walk the ramps all the way up - ugh. At least they were fixed for the trip down.

Regards,
Roy

[John Bakeer]

0900 here in sunny Stockport 4 deg C.
The other day I found a long forgotten article on Camels and Camel Backs including Mother Hubbards. I've got an HO model of a Camel by Mantua. I don't have space for a layout, but do any of you guys run these interesting machines?
John B.

[mitchelr]

QUOTE: Originally posted by wrmcclellan

Evening all!

Just recovering from a long day yesterday. Spent most of the day napping on the sofa and watching NASCAR.

Roy - your day yesterday sounds just like mine except I did run some trains after the Mrs. served dinner.

I dug out some trains that had not been run in a good while. I ran some K-Line Alco A-A's decorated in Western Maryland black fireball theme and an MTH EMD BL2 decorated in the same way. I had forgotten what a smooth runner the MTH was. [:D] The K-Line is a cheapie set that doesn't even have a horn.[:(] I even got out some Western Maryland rolling stock that hadn't seen the light of day in a few years.

Never did get around to working on the roads on the layout (or doing the yard work[;)]). Oh well. Maybe this week.

LAZ and TomS- Are you off all week? Our kids only have two days. Wednesay is a conference day then we are off Thursday thru Monday. Been a long winter with no snow days. Looking forward to a little break.

Have a great day.

Mitch[:D]

[Blueberryhill RR]

[code]Good Morning from Blueberryhill [/code]Well, I found the right place.Yesterday, I posted
my good morning on the Sunday Photo Fun. Gettin' old.
Today started out cloudy and 32 degrees. It's suppose to go up to 67 and SUNNY.
Make my day.
Today is the day that we make this nasty stuff go away. I pray to God that all goes
good and I feel better.You guys have been the greatest for support. Thank you..
We are leaving about 10:30am and traveling about 3 hours with one stop.
" Proceedure ", as they call it, is a 3 pm.
Well, gotta go. I will talk to ya later.
Y'all have a great day.
Chuck

[Jumijo]

Chuck,

I'm glad to hear your health concerns have been eased. Get better soon!

Doug,

You're off to a fine start with those trees! Making 3 different sized ovals from the filter material will give the trees a more defined cone shape.

I spent some time working on scenery this weekend. Lots of trees to fill in all that flat table. So far, so good. The area directly in front of our station has been puzzling me for some time now. No longer. On the drive in today, I figured it out. A stone platform with a garden built in. A flag pole or two, and a Jumijo RR sign finish it off. It's going to look great.

Jim

[FJ and G]

As we leave the Golan Heights and upper Galilee area from our last stop in Israel, we descend the mountains past some horseback riders, down once again to the Sea of Galilee. This particular photos was taken at the southern tip of Galilee, where the Jordan exits and continues on its journey south.

The rest of the photos were taken a few miles south of the Jordan’s exit from Galilee. In these views, land on both sides of the river belongs to Israel; just a small stretch of the river b/c just south of here, Jordan occupies the eastern bank of its namesake river and Israel’s West Bank graces the West Bank (thus the name).

We stopped to have some baptisms done. The group shot are a bunch of Italian tourists who did their traditional sprinkling on the head of the water. Much to their surprise and astonishment, some from our group (including my 19-year-old daughter Sharon, shown here), did the full immersion into the frigid December waters of the Jordan (the look of surprise on her face isn’t a divine revelation; rather it’s shock from the cold water. The preacher is a member of our tour group and happens to be a Baptist minister from Florida. He nearly froze to death there. He hopes to do future baptisms in the comfort of a temperature-controlled church pool. #9786;

Well, looking forward to our many, many more stops!



















There are dozens of more stops will be making. If you’ve not been following this series, here are the Coffee Post pages to find the previous ones:

Tel Aviv 622

Caesarea 624

Armegeddon 645

Nazareth 661

Galilee 673

Mount of Beatitudes 675

Capernaeum 677

Dan Part I 688

Dan Part II 792

Hermon 794

[laz 57]

HI GIZ,
29 and nice here to get to 64.
Ran 10.25 miles yesterday slow but still felt good.

MITCH we have today and tomorrow after that we have 35 days left for this year.

CHUCK hope all goes well for you.

PHIL WINS THE MASTERS way to go PHIL!!!
laz57

[tschmidt]

Good morning all,

It's a beautiful day here today. Temps should get into the 50's and maybe hit 60.

Mitch - We have school through Thursday then we have the week off after Easter. Some schools up here have all this week and next week off. The bad news is that we go well into June before the year is done.

Have a great day all.

TomS

[cheapclassics]

Good morning all,

It is sunny and heading to the 60s today in SE Indiana. It was nice enough Sunday for me to run the standard gauge upstairs in the attic. I ran the 318 for about two hours, switching freight cars every once in a while. It was very nice and very relaxing. I took the blades off the lawn mowers Saturday to get them sharpened, and drained the oil. I have to get new spark plugs and air filters for them as well. I may get the yard mowed this week yet. My wife and I went to see some local talent who are now doing some professional singing. Some of it was opera-type music, and some was more familiar, but there was a good crowd. I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[johnandjulie13]

Good Morning All:

I am glad to see that everyone is in good spirits today. It is supposed to get in the upper 60's in the Chicagoland area today. It looks like spring is finally here.

Following Thor's creative solution for setting up a layout, I will be trying my own solution. We had a picture delivered a couple of weeks ago that came in a crate that is about 5' x 7'. It will make a nice tabletop for a small layout. Our two 1/2 year old is just over three feet tall, so I am going to try to make a table about 30'' off the ground. Now I just need to find some material for the legs...

I will post some pictures if/when I get the thing built.

Regards,

John

[spankybird]

Good Morning All from NE Ohio

where the temp is 37 and going up to 60 with Blue Clear Skies


OTTS Meeting this Friday, April 14, at the Museum. Anyone wishing to join us can e-mail me for directions, or see www.wrmrrm.shutterfly.com Note date change

We had a great time at the train show yesterday, 6 OTTS members were there, at least that I saw. Also zwBob was there. I pick up some new ladies for our layout and an extra C & O coal tender to convert another engine to this line.

Dave – great pics.

Roy – last night we watched the NHRA, some great races and upsets.


Pick of the Day


All be safe
Tom

[cnw1995]

Good morning from a sunny Chicago - as John noted, it is supposed to be warm today. My allergies are really bothering me - must really be spring. I'm so glad to come to the concrete canyons of downtown. Chris, she really doesn't know what happened to cause her back to be injured. We suppose it was lugging something heavy that the boys were supposed to lug. She's hurt her back before in other places - just never taken this long to get better. Hope everyone has a good day.

[Brutus]

Man - I'm worn out. They put our new roof on this weekend. They told me right off the bat they'd have to come back Sunday too. They were here about 9 to 10 hours Sat and I guess about 6 hours Sunday - BANG BANG BANG! My poor dog is still traumatized! Their trailer broke my driveway and the vets are bent. The gutters are all ripped up, but they are being replaced as well anyway. Also tore up the deck a bit.

What takes mildew off of metal flashing outside that is painted white? I guess I could make a solution of bleach. ANything that comes ready in a can or sprayer?

Sorry - no train talk this morning- I'm kinda fixated on this problem.

Of course, now my wife has seen the actual color of the shingles on the roof, she wants a different color siding than what she ordered before! I already called and they are stopping the earlier order and bringing color book back today for her to look over.

[ChiefEagles]

Morning all. Back in town. Got things to do. May be in MN all next week. Wife stayed home today so will be working in yard as soon as expense acount is emailed.
Dr. John, Congrats on son.
Chuck, Good luck and praying for you.
Colin, get well.
Buckeye, we worked hard to scare you back Nawth.
Jim A, noticed yu forgot my slip of the tongue the other night. [;)]
Roger B, what route you going to be traking Nawth?

Later and God bless.

OH NO!! Forgot the most important thing!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPANKYBIRD!!!!!!!

[A little bird told me from another forum]

[tschmidt]

Spankybird- Happy Birthday! [bday][bday][bday]

Hope you have a great day!!!

TomS

[laz 57]

[bday][bday][bday][bday] SPANKYBIRD,
Hope you got something that is flanged and has wheels?
Enjoy your day.
How old 39?
laz57