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

[ChiefEagles]

Morning all. Getting much needed rain. Had over an inch last night and still misting. Think we had more during the night. [:)] Got big cookout here this PM so got to get going. Doug M, glad you feel better. God bless.

[jefelectric]

Good morning,

We finally got a nice rain here. 7/10" and still raining very nice and slow.

Bob, Sorry about the cat. One granddaughter and I share a cat who lives in my woodshop. She is about 10 years old and just wondered in one day and stayed. The chief must not have told you how to eat grits. You have to use a ton of butter and lots of salt and pepper, then they taste pretty good. Not all that healthy but taste good. [:)] [:)] [:)]

Doug, Glad to here you are feeling better. Sounds like a full day for you.

Mitch, It must be a thing with train sites. I have had the same problem with Olsen. Both MTH and Lionel are a real pain to negotiate. A lot of the other train sites are really bad. The best sites that I have found are AM Hobbies (it helps that Bob's son Todd is a good web designer), Davis Trains, Jim's Train Shop & Walthers. I have done Google searches for train parts and after Google finds a site that is supposed to have the part, have never been able to find it on the site. I usually end up buying my parts at train shows.

Going to install Windows XP home on a computer for one of the granddaughters today. Her brother moved up to a better one and this one is worth salvaging so will give it a try.

Have a surprise birthday party planned for my wife this evening. Hope it is a surprise, it has taken a lot of scheming.

Have a good day all.

[tschmidt]

MTR...
I took a look at that engine on the German E-Bay. I would like to hear more from someone who would know the history of it. It doesn't look like any Lionel engine I have ever seen. It also looks like it has a tether on the back. If so, it makes me question it even more.

TomS

[tschmidt]

I just read Roy's post on the German Lionel mentioned above. I should have read that first. He probably has the answer.

TomS

[Brutus]

Doug = glad you're getting over it!

Busy day today - I have to run over to Sikeston MO this afternoon, about 1.5 hours, with my buddy Dave. They have an outlet mall there. I'm going to see if they have any train stuff while we are out there. Went past an outlet mall TUesday and they had a sign on a building that said something like The Train Haus - this was out in Warrenton MO I think. I might head on out there next weekend and see what that's all about.

[ChiefEagles]

30 chicken halves and 10 breasts cooking on the big PIG cooker. A foot tub full of drinks on ice. Lots of boiled potatoes and cloe slaw. Who says Southerners don't know how to eat. Blue Grass picking after we eat. [:D]

[mitchelr]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ChiefEagles

30 chicken halves and 10 breasts cooking on the big PIG cooker. A foot tub full of drinks on ice. Lots of boiled potatoes and cloe slaw. Who says Southerners don't know how to eat. Blue Grass picking after we eat. [:D]

Chief - you gotta quit with all the food talk...you're makin' me hungry and my mouth is waterin' getting the keyboard wet[;)][;)][;)]

Mitch[swg]

[tschmidt]

Chief,

Make room, I'm comin' down. Sounds like one great time. You might like to visit our area in a few weeks. There's a large Bluegrass Festival with some of the biggest names in the business pickin' away.

TomS

[wrmcclellan]

Warm one here today.

Getting ready to leave for NYC tomorrow morning. Back on Thursday.

Thanks again Dennis for the suggestions. I printed out the mail to take with us.

Hope all have a great weekend and week next week.

Regards,
Roy

[More to restore]

Thanks Roy for your explanation. So, it could be a legitimate Lionel after all. Well, this proves again that life is full of surprised (and that I shouldn't prejudge too fast).

It was an excellent spring day over here. I enjoyed the sun and was too lazy to go and spray paint....

[csxt30]

Taking a little break from the Grandkids ! Whew, they will keep you busy, or rather just the 3 yr. old boy will !! Kind of forgot how active boys are at that age ! My 10 yr. old Grandaughter picked it up fast, running the trains & no mishaps. She wants to do more scenery !
Roy : hope you have a nice vacation !!
Well, have to work tomorrow, & hope everyone has a nice weekend !
Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Good afternoon, everyone!

Bob, So sorry to hear about your cat.

Doug, Good to see you're making a recovery!

Well, I just got back from my holiday this afternoon, so I thought I'd better stop in and tell you how it went. On the first day of the trip we passed through Moose Jaw. Along the highway there is an antique dealer and I thought it might be worth stopping in. The only train there was a boxed Marx 3/16" set with a 999, which was reasonably priced, but nothing I needed. However, under the track I noticed something that I was very interested in-a small tinplate tunnel by Bub of Germany from the 50's with a really nice mountain scene with a train on a bridge and cars on a highway lithographed on it. Since it didn't go with the set, I asked the guy who runs the place if he'd sell it seperately and I got it for only five bucks!

That evening, we spent the night in Maple Creek, where a good train collector friend of mine lives. I had a spare engine made by the Canadian company EEL which he wanted and was going to trade me a tinplate set for. That tinplate set turned out to be a Chad Valley (British) O gauge clockwork set. I have my doubts if the engine is original, but it looks good with the rest of the set, so I'm happy with it. What's interesting to note is that despite being a low-end clockwork set, the track isn't tubular, but sturdy T-rail track. This is how Chad Valley made their track. I'd like to get my hands on some more. My friend also had a prewar German set, which he sold to me. It's either Issmayer or Bub, I'm not sure. What's cool about this set is that the two passenger cars in it are connected by a vestibule. This is quite rare to find.

The next day, we got to Calgary. We have some relatives living there, so we spent a lot of time with them. It rained all that weekend, so things we had planned to to in Calgary were cancelled. I did, however, stop into Trains and Such (a fantastic train store), where I picked up a couple of HO pieces and a number of books and also an antique mall, where I got some Japanese tinplate rolling stock.

After the weekend, we headed to British Columbia, where we spent the next few days sightseeing and shopping.

In Osoyoos, B.C., we visited the Osoyoos Desert Model Railroad, a Marklin layout open to the public. This is the largest Marklin layout in North America and it is very impressive to say the least! Check out their website at www.osoyoosrailroad.com .

Another place we visited that you guys would be interested in was the Canadian Museum of Rail Travel in Cranbrook, B.C. They have an phenominal collection of luxury hevyweight passenger cars. Many are beautifully restored to their original granduer, but many also need a great deal of restoration. You can't help but marvel at at the work they've done on these cars, but it also makes one angry to see what kind of condition many wereleft to deteriorate to. It was amazing to hear how a car that was used on the train transporting the King and Queen across Canada on their Royal Tour of 1939 ended its life in MOW service, to name but one example. Their website, http://www.crowsnest.bc.ca/cmrt/ , is definitely worth checking out.

Anyway, I had a great time all in all. Catch you guys later!

[1688torpedo]

Hello All! Bob- Sorry about your Cat. Doug- Glad you're feeling better & up & about. CSXJohn- Your Grandkids are giving you more real life lessons to use on your Job.(Train Wrecks & Mishaps)[;)][:P][:D][:o)] Roy- Hope you have a nice time in New York City. Chief- hope you have a nice time today with your visitors & the Bluegrass. Sask- Sounds like you had a nice time on your vacation. That Tinplate Tunnel sounds like a good buy. The places you visited sound real nice & worth seeing as well. Have a nice evening all.[:)]

[dwiemer]

We sure do know how to eat. My waist gets bigger, and the local population keeps our operating suites busy.

Ended up taking the family to Wild Adventures Amusement Park. Kids had a great time, and we enjoyed watching them. Now to get to work on layout plans.
Dennis

[GregM]

Received a call yesterday from Just Trains, they were confirming ship to address for my Lionel Mohawk. Sooooo, I should have it by mid week. This will be my first steam engine with RS 5.0 and 4 chuffs per revolution. Been waiting a long time for this engine, hope the wait was worth it.

[jonadel]

Mitch--

IE is a joke for Mac's, they have totally dropped their Mac OS support. i've used Safari exclusively now for 5 years and it works flawlessly. Many Mac users have deleted IE from their hard drives and simply use Safari.

Jon

[dougdagrump]

Greg, You'll love the RS-5.
Spent the afternoon visiting one of our club members. He is in the process of building his layout. It is looking great and will be one heck of a project when completed. Take a gander at this: http://homepage.mac.com/mwait/Menu10.html .

[ChiefEagles]

Time for bed. Big party. Folks loved the chickens. They went back for seconds. Great music and fun. Plenty of cold soft drinks, bottled water, a little lite beer and even a sip of wine [what ever you want to drink]. No sweet ice tea. [:(] Now we will do hot dogs and hamburgers for the 4th of July except the crowd will be twice as large. My Blue Grass picker is coming back then and bringing some of his buddies. Off to bed. Good night.

[Brutus]

Chief - sounds like a great party! Sask - some terrific vacation!

No train store at the Sikeston mall, but the girls enjoyed the scrapbooking store. Picked up some Veggietale dvds to replace old worn out tapes the kids had. They had a country music outlet store, where we got a Roger Miller CD, Patsy Cline CD, Conway Twitty CD (She says those are hers) and I got two Johnny Cash CDs. The kids got some toys. We ate at Lammerts - good Southern Style Food. I had the chicken livers (about a pound) with corn and green beans and two giant mugs of sweet tea. They throw hot rolls at you if you hold up your hand, and also bring around huge bowls and plop big helpings on your plate of fried okra, fried potatoes and onions, macaroni and tomatoes, or black eyed peas - as much as you can eat. I couldn't finish all my food, it was too much! Dave ordered chicken and I swear he had an entire chicken on his plate - he couldn't finish either. The wives had beef liver and onions and fried porkchops that were a good inch and a half thick. BTW - if you finish your lunch and want more, they will give you another serving! I DOUBT that they ever had to do it, though! There's nothing else in town, I think, but Lammerts alone makes the trip worth it! Very good!

[ChiefEagles]

Morning all. Off to early Church and Sunday School. Wonder if they will know who I am as I am usually gone on weekends. [;)] Then back for some minor clean up from the party last night. Suppose to have showers this evening and tomorrow [hope so]. Have a good one and God bless all.

[mitchelr]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jonadel

Mitch--

IE is a joke for Mac's, they have totally dropped their Mac OS support. i've used Safari exclusively now for 5 years and it works flawlessly. Many Mac users have deleted IE from their hard drives and simply use Safari.

Jon

Jon - I agree except for Olsen's site. I did try IE and the site is more usable in IE.

Mitch[swg]

[spankybird]

Good Morning All from NE Ohio

where the temp is 58 and going up to 68 with overcast skies and rain showers in the area.


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

We had a great work day at the museum yesterday. I want to thank all those that showed up and helped. We not only got the foam cut for the tinplate road bed, but also worked on the bench work for the large layout.[tup]

GregM – good luck with the new engine.

Sask – sounds like you had a great time and also found some great train items.


Pick of the Day


All be safe
Tom

[Blueberryhill RR]

[code]Good Morning from Blueberryhill[/code]It is cloudy and 55 right now. Going up to 67 and maybe a
shower, later. Hope not.
Taking it easy today. Almost over did it yesterday. Moving stuff around. It is very easy to
try too much. Wife gets mad at me, for doing some things. She is right.
Jim Fortner...That Lammerts sounds like a great place to eat.
Chief..Speaking of eating , great party.
I think I will run the trains for awhile this afternoon. Maybe take some pictures to post
at a later date. NASCAR race from Dover, on today.
Talk more later.
Y'all have a great day.
Chuck

[laz 57]

HI GIZ,
61 and another nice day on tap.
To get to 70?

Got major brownie points with my principal yesterdat.
Helped cut up branches with chainsaw, and run through shreader, took about 3 hours.
Great weather, anout 65 here.
Ran an easy 5+ miles yesterday.

Going to try and fi***his evening?
Don't forget last SOPRANOs tonight on HBO.

ROY try and get to McSORELYs in NYC.
Have fun.

laz57

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jefelectric

Good morning all,

Great pictures Buckeye.

Dennis, I have the same ones you have. The grandkids love to shoot the carbine. Will shoot all the amo I can afford! [:D] I used to shoot the ' 03 in 30 calibre matches at a local club until they changed the matches to Sunday morning. Not to happy about that.

Chief, Did you use TAS for the conversion. I did a willams FA-1 some time ago and I was a little disapointed in the sound volume also. I drilled a series of holes in the bottom of the fuel tank for a speaker grill and thought that might be the problem but if your method didn't give better sound than it probably isn't my problem. With the volume all the way up I only get about half the volume as my Atlas units which also use TAS systems.

Hope everyone has a nice holiday.

Keep the those who gave their all in your hearts.

Sorry it took so long to check in. The last williams conversion I Did I used DD . You will notice a real BIG difference if you install a baffle over the speaker. I used a small plastic cup bottom or you could use a spray paint lid. I also siliconed it around the speaker to fully radiate the sound downward through the holes. Maybe I can post some pics later if anyone wants. Also make sure the volume on your cab 1 is all the way up.........Tim

[More to restore]

Sask, you definitely had a great holiday!
I visited the Museum of Rail Travel in Cranbrook in 1997 in unforegiving hot day. Several rail cars were finished by then and they were busy to work on a whole of cars that still needed fixing. The grandeur of the inside was different from the dull brown exterior. A good memory.
I drove through Osoyoos, but just saw fruit trees in the heath. If I knew, that there was a great layout, I would have stopped there. The best memory of that region was Ainsworth hot springs. Sitting in a natural hot tub and looking over a beautiful lake with only trees on the other shore.
Have fun with the tunnel and Chad train!

[dougdagrump]

Jim F. To hot here to be doing anything so I had the Travel Channel on. The story was the "Top Ten Places to Pig Out", guess who was #1. Lamberts !!!!!!!

[Blueberryhill RR]

[code]HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHIEF[/code]
[code]60 YEARS OLD[/code]
I could not resist telling the guys.........

May you have many more, Chief. You are a great guy.

[code]TooTs[/code]

[rtraincollector]

Came across this on Lionel.com thought it might be of intrest if you haven't seen yet

QUOTE: K-Line Announcement from Jerry Calabrese
04/25/2006
Dear Friends,

I must confess that I so enjoyed the speculation and armchair lawyering about the future of K-Line that I almost hate bringing it to an end. But, as one of my former mothers-in-law used to say, “Appoint a day and it will come.” After a lot of legal wrangling, the K-Line transaction has finally been concluded. As of last week, right before York, Lionel took control of all K-Line assets, including its inventory, intellectual property, tooling, and trademarks.

Lionel’s deal is with Sanda Kan, K-Line’s principal manufacturer and creditor, who, in turn, worked out its own deal with K-Line’s bankers before we could move forward. Under the terms of our arrangement, Lionel will control and run the K-Line brand, in all respects, and will have the exclusive right to buy it outright sometime in the near future.

Our first step was to take possession of the existing K-Line inventory and move it from its former headquarters in North Carolina. As of today, that’s just about done. Our next challenge is to sort through K-Line’s books and records to make sure that everyone who pre-paid for products receives them. This will take some time, as most of what’s owed to individuals and clubs is not in existing inventory and will have to be manufactured.

As I’ve said before, Lionel is committed to making good on unfulfilled orders. I anticipate that it will take us at least 60 days to sort out what is owed to whom. During that time, I cannot stress strongly enough how much we will need your patience and cooperation. As hard as it may be to control the urge to call us throughout this transition, I would really appreciate it if you will give us a couple of months to figure things out.

One bit of good news is that we’ve already managed to get most of the trains that had been stuck in K-Line’s repair department during its bankruptcy fixed and shipped back to their owners.

Once the smoke clears, we plan to re-launch K-Line later this year, in our second catalog. Because getting the deal done took so long, there will be only a limited line of new products in 2006. But we plan to make them very special. Next year, in 2007, we plan to make K-Line a larger part of the Lionel product line, positioning it with our own LionMaster offerings, in our ongoing effort to offer you even more quality mid-priced choices.

Finally, I’d just like to say thanks to all of the people who worked so long and hard to get this deal done.

Best Regards,


Jerry Calabrese

[csxt30]

[bday][bday][bday] CHIEF !! And many many more !! [:D][:D]