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

[dwiemer]

Morning all,
Jim, sure would like to see the photos. I am planning on a backdrop.
Hoping to get some train time in this weekend, but had to purchase a wooden swing/play set for the crumb snatchers and have to level the area of the yard to put it in. I am sure it will require all the back breaking work I can put forth this weekend. Anyway, have a good day everyone.
Dennis

[laz 57]

HI GIZ,
49 and just got a passing shower.
To get to 64.

Well GIZ, was going to golf and about 330 got a big storm that rained about 45 minutes and got the course drenched.
So we bagged it for this week.
Maybe next week?

MARTY great pic of the UP.
Love the ephalant ears on that baby.

All have a good one.
TGIF.
laz57

[Buckeye Riveter]

Marty, those are great pics of the UP. And another thing, you have a great web page, too.

Five o'clock AM tomorrow, I will be hitching the boat to the truck and off we go into the wild blue yonder to Wawa, Ontario. Of course before I go I hope to mow the lawn if it ever stops raining.

For those who are newer to the coffee pot, and have never heard of the famous fishing trip to the north you can check it out on the Official Curley & Doc’s Algoma Fishing Corps’ Web Page. We have some mighty fine sponsors including Bull Shooters Bar and Grill, a place where many of you would feel right at home. [;)] (The photo album has a picture or two of trains.)

http://www.geocities.com/algomafishcorps/

See ya down the tracks, [:D]

[cheapclassics]

Good morning all,

It is sunny but cool in SE Indiana with temps headed to the 60s today. I went to the local library for a program by a WW II vet who was on Iwo Jima. It was an amazing story he told, it was astonishing the loss of life for such a small piece of real estate. Those kids sacrificed a lot back then, and there are very few of them left.
It has been raining and storming a lot around here. I think it will be dry enough to mow tonight. I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[Blueberryhill RR]

[code]Good Morning from Blueberryhill [/code]It's a gloomy 50 degrees. Looks like rain. Only
going up to 59 today. Sunshine doesn't look promising.
We really need to get some sunshine here. Everything is growing like crazy. Got to cut
grass and trim flower beds.
Jim.....Show us the pictures. Love to see pictures of scenery.
Buckeye... Is this fishing camp you are going to, anyway near the Algoma Central RR,
near Soo St. Marie ?? I went on that Railway about 20 years ago. Great area.
Well, I'm going for now. Got to eat a bowl of Cheerios.
Y'all have a great day.
Chuck

[FJ and G]

Hey Chuck,

I do a lot of outdoor activities and to me, I enjoy this gloomy weather. Better than 90-100degree heat!

[Jumijo]

More rain here, I'm afraid. The weekend is supposed to be drier.

I read a spoiler thread detailing the last 2 episodes of the Sopranos. All I can say is, WOW!

Jim

[Buckeye Riveter]

Chuck,
The Totomenai Lodge is just east 1/2 mile from the Algoma Central Railroad Tracks. The town (if you want to call it that) of Hawk Jct. is about two miles north of the lodge. When you rode the train north from the Soo, I would assume you stoped at the park and then returned to the Soo. Totomenai Lodge is sill another two hours ride by train north of the park.

North of Hawk Jct. via the train are several lodges. Tatnall Camp is about two hours north of Hawk Jct. and it is very remote.

[JeffPo]

Good morning from sunny central North Carolina! Temps are suppose to be in the mid-seventies today, so I'm riding themotorcycle. Had a couple of thunderstorms come through last night, but nothing too bad. Lights only flickered off a couple of times.

Heading to Wilmington, NC this weekend for my kid's soccer tournaments. If I have time (which I doubt), I'm going to try and swing by the railroad museum down by the waterfront.

[JeffPo]

jaabat, the back coupler on my Lionel dockside switcher is kind of hard to close. I fired off an email to Lionel and had a new one in my mailbox within a few days. Haven't installed it yet, but I sure am impressed with Lionel service so far.

[spankybird]

Good Morning All from NE Ohio

where the temp is 45 and going up to 57 with overcast skies and what else, rain. The sun did break thru for awhile yesterday.

Yesterday we had a meeting at the museum with a local interurban historical society which wishes to join the museum and add their displays their.

MartE – Great pics ! !

Jaabat and other- Thanks. From the time Karen walked into the museum and we were done was 6 weeks. 1st week was providing a track plan and quote, 2nd week was ordering all the track and building, etc, 3rd week started construction (April 15) and finished and delivered on May 16.



Pick of the Day


All be safe
Tom

[1688torpedo]

Hello All! Marty E- Nice Photo's of the Union Pacific's Flagship Engine! Buckeye- Have a good time in Canada. Hope you catch many Fish. Jim A- If it keeps on raining out east you may have to build a Ark for you & your family.[;)] Hope the rain starts to diminish so that the Rivers & Lakes recede in your part of the country. Take Care all.

[Brutus]

Rainy this morning, but should be clear the rest of the day. Kids were mad cause I made them take the garbage to the curb this morning - I'm really avoiding anything that could open up my incision again - so far it is staying closed this time! Burned when he put that junk on there, but if it finally heals over it was all worth it. My boss wanted to know why I had an incision (hole) on the left side, along the middle and lower area holes from the laparascopic surgery, since the appendix is on the right side. Heck if I know! I guess they use one hole to put in the viewer, one for the instruments, and one for other stuff?

Anyway, some more great pics guys and I plan to take some pics of my lego layout with the completed water tower and sanding "tower" facility for the Sunday pics this week. I always intend to do it, but this time I'm gonna get on the ball.

Worked a deal with my wife. SHe wanted some cropping supplies, which, with the other stuff the kids and I got (okay, I) got her for Mother's day, should be about equal to that Cascade Range set.

TTFN

[cnw1995]

I'm still 'plugging away' with the layout. Since I was using two Lionel Trainset transformers that didn't have wire posts - just two wires coming out of the back, I couldn't figure out which the U post was. So I tried this with the R transformer which has the advantage of allowing one to operate two trains from the same transformer - and has the posts on it - I am trying to get two two trolleys to work 'separately' one on each of two loops that are connected with a 90 degree crossing. I'm not sure I did it right again -- now when I move either throttle, both trolleys move together. I took a peek at the bottom of the crossing track. I think I can't do what I'd like with it since I can see the connections between the four pinned parts of the track. Still puzzling about this.

[Brutus]

So, Doug - the layout on your website is all gone right? I love the Zeppelin btw - was that a model kit?

[1688torpedo]

Doug M- I was wondering if you're using Insulating Track pins in Between the Two Trolley Loops? Seems to me this might help you out & you can use a slide switch to power the Insulated section when need be & eliminate the possibility of shorts. This may be the problem instead of transformers that are out of phase? Take Care & good luck.

[Jumijo]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 1688torpedo

Hello All! Marty E- Nice Photo's of the Union Pacific's Flagship Engine! Buckeye- Have a good time in Canada. Hope you catch many Fish. Jim A- If it keeps on raining out east you may have to build a Ark for you & your family.[;)] Hope the rain starts to diminish so that the Rivers & Lakes recede in your part of the country. Take Care all.

Buckeye has to go all the way to Canada to catch fish. Here, people are catching huge fish right in the streets as they swim by - NO JOKE. It was on the news last night. Just toss a line out your window and catch your supper. Unbelievable, huh?

Jim

[FJ and G]

For those of you who have a dog or other pet and mulch your trees and shrubbery, here's a warning I got from A Beagle World forum that may save the life of your pet:

Yesterday one of our dog agility friends experienced a tragedy and wanted me to pass a special message along to all of my dog loving friends and family. Please tell the other dog owners you know.

Over the weekend the doting owner of two young lab mixes purchased Cocoa Mulch from Target to use in their garden. They loved the way it smelled and it was advertised to keep cats away from their garden. Their dog Calypso, decided that the mulch smelled good enough to eat and devoured a large helping. She vomited a few times which was typical when she eats something new but wasn't acting lethargic in any way.

The next day, Mom woke up and took Calypso out for her morning walk. Half way through the walk, she had a seizure and died instantly.

Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the label, upon further investigation on the company's website, this product is HIGHLY toxic to dogs.

Cocoa Mulch is manufactured by Hershey's, and they claim that "It is true that studies have shown that 50% of the dogs that eat Cocoa Mulch can suffer physical harm to a variety of degrees (depending on each individual dog). However, 98% of all dogs won't eat it."

True information about the mulch can be found here - http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoa.htm This site gives the following information:

Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Home Depot, Foreman's Garden Supply and other Garden supply stores, contains a lethal ingredient called "Theobromine".

It is lethal to dogs and cats. It smells like chocolate and it really attracts dogs. They will ingest this stuff and die. Several deaths already occurred in the last 2-3 weeks. Just a word o f caution, check what you are using in your gardens and be aware of what your gardeners are using in your gardens.

Theobromine is the ingredient that is used to make all chocolate, especially dark or baker's chocolate, which is toxic to dogs.

Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic quantities of theobromine, a xanthine compound similar in effects to caffeine and theophylline. A dog that ingested a lethal quantity of garden mulch made from cacao bean shells developed severe convulsions and died 17 hours later. Analysis of the stomach contents and the ingested cacao bean shells revealed the presence of lethal amounts of theobromine.

Please email the manufacturer at
[e-mail] and request that accurate information about this product be posted on the packaging to avoid further tragedy.

[MartyE]

Dave

Give my sympathies to your friends. We were always told as kids and I have heeded since that chocolate is poison for dogs. I agree that a warning is in order. Consider an email sent.

[ChiefEagles]

Morning all. Jeff and I got rain last night!!!! Garden is happy. Dave, chocolate is bad for dogs [some that is]. The Peek can only have a tiny amount or he will have seizures. Burg the lab can eat it fine. Burg can be asleep in the back of the house and I can sneek some dark Hershey's chocolate nuggets out of the drawer in the kitchen and he is right behind me. He can smell it that far away.

Jim F, thanks for the grits song. That is pretty good. Just in case you missed it ont he other thread.
We are a band of brothers
and native to this soil
we'll defend our o gauge trains
with treasure, blood and toil
and when our jokes are threatened
or when our grits are gone
We'll all join the bonny grits gag
and special order our CTT grits car!

On Buckeye and fishing: Buckeye pretends to fish. Someone with him catches a big fish and he asks if he can hold it. He gets somone else to take a picture of him holding the other guy's fish. So, do not beleive any pictures he posts. Have a great time Buckeye. I'm jealous.

Jim A, hope the water has gone down a lot around your town.

Grass to mow and then some work upstairs. Have a great one and God bless.

[FJ and G]

Chief,

I know that BB has eaten chocolate on the sly b/c during Halloween it is dark out when I get home and walk the dog and inevitably, kids in my neighborhood throw chocolate at each other and it is all over the place. I try to pull her away but occasionally she sneaks a very small morsal. But I wouldn't want to find out just how much she can inject. No way.

[Blueberryhill RR]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Buckeye Riveter

Chuck,
The Totomenai Lodge is just east 1/2 mile from the Algoma Central Railroad Tracks. The town (if you want to call it that) of Hawk Jct. is about two miles north of the lodge. When you rode the train north from the Soo, I would assume you stoped at the park and then returned to the Soo. Totomenai Lodge is sill another two hours ride by train north of the park.

North of Hawk Jct. via the train are several lodges. Tatnall Camp is about two hours north of Hawk Jct. and it is very remote.

Yep, I remember it now. We turned around in Agawa Canyon and returned. I remember that
you could ride further North to the Lodge. That was a nice experience.

[cnw1995]

Jim, that layout is gone, but the Zeppelin - a kit-bashed old plastic Hindenburg kit from Revell- lives on - I just rehung it yesterday. Rudy the wonder dauschund can devour chocolate - his having done so (and lived) many times inadvertently in the household full of young'uns. My sympathies to your friends, David. That is tragic. Wow, I never would've thought to see chocolate mulch. I had a dog code unexpectedly during a vet visit right in front of the kids when they were pretty young - mucho trauma.
Keith, so I would insulate 'half' of the 90 degree crossing and not the other half? Too bad the crossing is so far out of reach right now. I may just re-work everything so the crossings are on the same powered loop instead... :(

[Brutus]

Thanks for the info David. I think Chewy eats a lot of pieces of fudge poptarts the kids drop in the livingroom. I know she ate an entire bag of milk chocolate coins once - there was foil everywhere! The vet said that cooking chocolate is deadly, but milk chocolate should be okay, just to let her rest her system (no food) until 24 hours. She's still going strong, but she keeps trying to get chocolate -- this was how we found out she could get up on the kitchen counters, btw.

Neat kit, Doug!

Chief, glad you liked that song (or my words to this traditional song of the South).

[1688torpedo]

Doug- Try the insulating pins at the 90 degree crossing & see if that helps out. It seems like both loops need to be insultated in order to work properly. Hope this helps. May Bob (Lionelsoni) has a solution for you. Take care.

[dougdagrump]

The Gitmo boys staged an uprising.... Wonder if maybe they'd want to go water skiing for a bit of free time.[}:)]

[1688torpedo]

Jim F.- I like your Grits song. You should form a group called "The Super Silver String Submarine Band" to perform it & release it on the CTT Label.[;)][:P][:)][:o)] Other songs on the label Can include "What would BB do if she met Scooby Do?" or "The run down Corvair that smoked up the Air" [;)][:P] Maybe Ray Steven's can help out & be the main singer of the group.[:o)][;)] Take Care all.

[Brutus]

[:D]

Sounds great !

[ChiefEagles]

Saw the late weather on 11PM news and then back of eyelids. [;)] Off to bed. Sleep tight all [Yanks with one eye open because WE are around [;)]]. Goooood night.

[Anonymous]

Well, just thought i'd check in before heading out to the airport this morning....hope everyone has a nice weekend. I will try to stop by here while i'm in Houston. [:)]