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

[Jumijo]

Chief,
Thanks for your concern regarding the flooding conditions up here. I'll keep you posted via e-mail.

Doug,
North East Trains is fine from what I read on the OGR forum.

Jim

[FJ and G]

Roger,

Alexandria?

I'm in great suspense

[laz 57]

HI GIZ,
52 and drizzle.
Hope to go fish and cut grass tonite.

All have a good one.
laz57

[cheapclassics]

Good morning all,

It is foggy and cool with temps heading to the 70s today in SE Indiana. They finally announced who is looking to buy all the land in our area. Honda may build a plant here if everything works out. The good news is that they would definitely use the rail service that goes thru town, and keep the line open. I was busy with odds and ends last night and really did not get much accomplished. I play soccer tonight, and I got my roster and schedule for the summer league. "Lost" is on as well. I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[Jumijo]

I'm looking forward to the July issue of CTT. A big part of which is the detailing Plasticville structures articles. I have detailed all of the same structures for our layout that will be featured in the July issue - the Cape Cod house, the hobo shacks, and the telephone ploes. I sand the poles before painting to give them more texture. I plastered some old circus ads on the hobo shacks, which on our layout, have been turned into kid's clubhouses. The Cape Cod house was painted and is used as a railway office. Plasticville structures have a surprising amount of detail molded in. A little paint and some dry brushing as a finish really makes them lose the toy-like look.

Jim

[Blueberryhill RR]

[code]Good Morning from Blueberryhill [/code]It's 53 degrees now and cloudy.Suppose to go
up to 69 degrees and maybe a few showers. Sunshine would be better.
Today is a rather gloomy day. Will have to run trains today to brighten it up.
Wonder what town that railroad station of Buckeye's is in ??? Buffalo ??
Anyway, someone will know.
Jim Fortner..Thanks for the Pep talk. Will do.
Well, I am going to get started on a few things, so I will check back later.
Y'all have a great day......
Chuck

[spankybird]

Good Morning All from NE Ohio

where the temp is 50 and going up to 65 with overcast skies but NO rain as of now.

We the layout is done and delivered. All the trees that Karen bought and some that I made were planted last night so it was ready for her son’s birthday (today) when he got up this morning.








All be safe
Tom

[dwiemer]

Good Morning all. Hope things are going well. My bride told me to get busy with the layout plans and get the track down. I guess I will just have to do as she says. Anyway, been busy and hope to get some final touches on the layout plans, then goes the big order for Fastrack. Have a good one,
dennis

[cnw1995]

Beautiful work, Tom. Sunny and warmer Here in Chicago today. Poor Buckeye, he is a tad outside Buffalo, NY looking up at the Buffalo Central Station of the NY Central -

[ChiefEagles]

Morning all. Sunny. Mowed EVERYONE'S grass and trimed their yards yesterday. Then had Roseyville Town Board meeting. Had to "jack up" arragant developer. [;)] Don't understnad folks coming to us asking for something, we tell him how we want it and he says no. Fine, we will not approve your request. Wife home sick with a cold. Suppose to go to Savannah tomorrow. She told her "crew" she would be well by tomorrow. One lady is now baulking and does not want to go. Messy women. They really screw things up as they never go when they say they are going places. I've scheduled brakes and etc on wife's car [she never lets it sit still long enough for me to work on it] for tomorrow as it was to be home until Sat evening. Getting close to waning clips. Guess I'll give you Yanks a rain break. [;)] Have a good one. God bless all.

[jefelectric]

Good morning all,

It is cool and sunny here. Hope it warms up a little as I still have some spring planting of annuals to do.

Tom, I hope the lucky guys Mom is going to take a few pictures for you to post of his reaction to the new layout. If I had gotten something like that as a kid, I probably would have been unable to speak for a month.

Chuck, Sounds like you are on the mend, be patient, time will heal.

Buckeye, Is it in the US?

Laz, I'm guessing that you got your activities in the order of preference, fish & cut grass! [:D]

Jim, Yes the plasticville items can be made to look pretty good. Only problem is some of them are way off in size. The water tower is closer to HO than O scale. I just finisihed redoing a barn with more subdued colors. I then overspray with dull coat. I have a coaling tower stil in the box that I want to put together . That is closer to scale, but not so massive as to overpower the layout as true scale tends to do.

Barn in very small area!


On the subject of structures, the MR, News and Products has 3 very nice laser cut wood buildings listed for O gauge. The bad news is the cost at over $100 each!

http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/006/649sqjay.asp

All have a good day.

[laz 57]

JELECTRIC,
Yes a guy has to have priorities.
laz57

[Anonymous]

After a two weeks of sunny weather here in Northern Nevada, we finally had a shot of ran last night, and a cancelled T-Ball game on my sons sixth birthday. Back to the sun this morning. Hope everyone is well. Greg

[FJ and G]

Doug,

I hope you are not buffaloing us[:D]

[Anonymous]

I like the Farm scene John!
Greg

[jefelectric]

Hello,

Greg, I guess I'm not the world's best photographer. The barn roof is perfectly flat, no shine, when you look at it with the eye. In the picture it looks shiny. Must be the way the light hits it for the camera to pick it up.

Just got the Classic Toy Trains Newsletter with the preview of the July issue. Includes a neat video of Perry Richmond's layout.

http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/006/655wmgza.asp

I think this link will work.

Tom, It also has a 4-4-0 on the cover![:D][:D][:D]

It hasn't warmed up much here. Sun in more than out. Cool and damp. The planting is going to have to wait for better weather, the plants would like it but my bod wouldn't. Too many aches and pains now.

Having dinner with my wife's Dad for his 83rd BD this evening.

All have a good afternoon.

[Jumijo]

John,

Great job on that barn! I bought some new, darker red for our barn, the same kit as yours, but the kids like the bright red . . . see below. You really did an outstanding job on that. The scale disparity of Plasticville structures doesn't bother me a bit. We have the water tower. It looks ok to me. But put it near the K-Line one we have and it looks way small.

The coal tower is a nice kit, and with some paint, really is worth having.

Jim

[FJ and G]

Chief,

The developers do pretty much as they please in the county I live in.[:(]

[FJ and G]

Today we visit Qumran, our last stop along the western shores of the Dead Sea in Israel. The photos are my daughters as mine got accidentally erased.

The first 2 photos you see are extremely important to Jews and Christians (as well as Moslems) b/c this is the cave where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1946 by a Bedouin boy, who went to find a lost goat, but instead found a cave in which clay pots were hidden. In these pots, a treasure of ancient Bible manuscripts was discovered.

There are numerous caves in the area but in the second photo you can see the cave where the manuscripts were found. It is in the center of the photo and down and to the right just a tad where you can see 2 openings to the cave. That is the closest we were allowed to get to the cave as more secrets might be hidden in there and the area is guarded.

In the same location where the photos of the Dead Sea Scrolls cave were taken (photo #3), are the remains of an ancient settlement where a mysterious sect used to live, starting from the 2nd century BC, and until the year of 68 AD, when the place was taken by the Romans, and destroyed.

The people of this sect lived a communal life. The men and womenb of this sect lived separately so naturally the sect died off. When each of these folk died, they were buried standing up so as to get a jump start to Heaven during the resurrection. They are the only known people who chose to be buried in this manner.

The leaders of this settlement were Priests from the family of the Zadokites, descendants of the high priest Zadok, who served during the days of King David and King Solomon.

The fourth photo shows a camel jockey at the tourist parking lot to the Dead Sea Scrolls cave who wants money to get their photo taken with his camel. I think he’s upset b/c I took a photo without paying.

Lastly is me and the family on location.












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 (a quicker way to bring them up is to go to the advanced search engine and type in “caesarea” which will bring all or nearly all up quickly):

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

Jordan 797

Beth-Shan 804

Jordan Valley 807

West-Central Dead Sea area 823

Ein Gedi Part I 824

Ein Gedi Part II 844

Dead Sea 847

Near Masada (just south) 851

Masada 853

[Brutus]

Hey guys - check out Sears.com. There is a 10 percent off everything sale tonight:

"Excludes Automotive, Tires and Electronics. Take an extra 10% off regular, sale and clearance prices in the Appliances, Clothing, Fitness & Recreation, Gifts, For the Home, Jewelry & Watches, Kids, Lawn & Garden, Tools and Toys & Games categories from 9pm on 5/17/06 thru 6am on 5/18/06 only. Savings off regular, sale and clearance prices apply to merchandise only. May not be used to reduce a layaway or credit balance. Not valid on Special Purchases, Lands' End® merchandise, Great Price Items, LEVI’S® jeans, Introductory Offers, Celestial Star™ diamonds, fine jewelry clearance, outlet store purchases, catalog orders, fragrances, J. A. Henckels, Dyson DC14, Bose, iPod, Weber, Maytag Neptune, automotive services, Sears licensed businesses, installed home improvements and repair service, and protection agreements. Don't worry; your discount will appear on your Order Confirmation Page."

[tmcc man]

Hey guys,
Just got in from cutting the lawn, thank God that I did it now because it just started to get really dark out. We have gotten a lot of rain so far, I don't think that we need anymore.

[csxt30]

Hi Everyone !! Finally some sun today !
Tom: Great job on the little guys layout, sorry for not being able to help.
Dave : Nice pictures again & a nice family picture too !!
Well, maybe able to cut the grass now, I hope !
Oh, if anyone else has any Lionmaster engines, check in on that post a new fellow has asking for info on them !!
Thanks,

[dougdagrump]

Boy, talk about a surprise. I log on to the net and my home page has this headline: FBI Searches Michigan Land for Clues in Jimmy Hoffa Disappearance . My first thought was, don't tell me Geraldo found something in Capone's safe.

[1688torpedo]

Hello All! Dave-Super photo's of the Holy Land! Maybe that fellow was disappointed that his Camel ran out of Cigarette's for the "Holy Smoke's Show" put on by the local Kiwanas Club for the amusement of tourists & local's alike![;)][:P][:)][:D][^][:o)][8D] Maybe his Camel is too old to walk a mile for a smoke anymore! [;)][:o)] Chuck & Jim F- Keep getting better. Sounds like Buckeye is having some Buffalo Wings with refreshments as well. That is the Old New York Central Terminal in Buffalo alright. You can see it from I-90 as you're approaching Town. Take Care all.

[ChiefEagles]

Interesting day. Wife home sick so took advantage of car being still. Did front brake job and got it safety inspected [due this month]. Then planted tomato plants and sprayed the whole place, garden, grape vines and fruit trees. Just had a long chat with Jim A. Glad he has not got water damage. Poor folks around him are under water. That is not fun. Now to rest and eat micro-wave popcorn.

[jonadel]

Twas a long day but a good one. Lots of sunshine and finally some temps that felt good, now if we could lose the wind.

We had Whoppi Goldberg tonight for our final Smart Talk series for women, I was only able to hear a few minutes but it seemed that all in attendance enjoyed her. Had over 2700 in the house tonight with more wanting any spare tickets.

I love this time of year in Iowa, everything is such a dark green and you can just see the corn peeking out of the ground in incredibly straight rows. Opening fishing season was last weekend in Minnesota, someone said it was snowing in northern MN on Sat., it was the Chiefs fault [:)]
Jon

[mitchelr]

Good morning from Gettysburg. Currently it's 52 with highs to be about 70 with a chance of rain and thunderstorms. IF it stays dry enough, I need to get some grass cut soon. Backyard is getting so tall the dog is having a hard time squatting to do her business. I'd hate to lose the dog in the tall grass[:D].

Hope to get to run some trains tonight. Need to call the train shop to see if my 1688 is back from having new wheels put on it.

Have a great day.

Mitch[swg]

[laz 57]

HI GIZ,
MITCH got the weather report here.
GOLF tonite against brother?
Maybe t storms?

HAPPY FRIDAY EVE.
laz57

[Buckeye Riveter]

I'm back in Buckeyeland today after spending a rather long and hard road trip to Buffalo, NY for a big meeting about a project we have with the NS Railroad. (The check is in the mail for those who guessed right. ) There are five bridges in Southern Ohio that need some work in order to run the double stacks. More then likely the knee braces at the top of the trusses do not provide enough clearance. Starting June 1st, you need a special ID to be on railroad property for security clearances, so they are starting the process for me.

BTW, Buffalonians, you need to pick up the trash in the streets. You are starting to look like a third world country. Too many empty buildings downtown.

I'm seeing more and more CSX Engines painted the dark B&O blue with the yellow roof over the cab. When will we see a model of this paint job?

I leave for fishing on Saturday. Still haven't decided how many pairs of long johns I need to take. Low temperatures in the 30's are forecasted. Gas in Canada is at $4.00 per gallon American. I do believe that their tourist business is going to take a major blow with the exchange rate at only 1.1.

Laz, no golf tonight. You are going to get pounded by the storms that were in Ohio.

See you down the tracks, [:D]

[Jumijo]

I brought my paint and brushes to work today so I could paint my coal facility's office (the largest of the 3 Plasticville hobo shacks). Only one problem. I forgot to bring the darned building!

If my head was bolted on, I'd forget that too.

Chief,

Thanks for calling to check on me and my family. You're a true buddy.

Heard this one this morning:
What do you get when you mix Holy water with castor oil?
A religious movement.

Jim