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

[csxt30]

OOOPS !! Well, back to the old drawing board , as they say !!

Thanks, John

[ChiefEagles]

BTW: I thinkt he Conrail caboose you show in your picture is one that went with NS and not CSX.   Just thought you should know.  Hey, the email notices have suddenly stopped.

[csxt30]

BTW: I thinkt he Conrail caboose you show in your picture is one that went with NS and not CSX.   Just thought you should know.  Hey, the email notices have suddenly stopped.

Wow, now we don't even have any cabooses !! LOL !! 

I only get the emails now from The Coffee Pot, not any other topics. I kind of like it this way !!

Thanks, John

 

[luther_stanton]

Good Evening all!

 

Don - 20 x 14 sounds like it will make a nice area.  I have a 9 x 10 guest room and it is a bit cramped.

 

Otherwise, it has been a quite hectic week at work and way too hot to boot.  We had a few 100+ days.  I only worked a half day today and spent the afternoon cleaning up some track issues I have had with some dead spots.

 

I finally got to put my new Lionmaster NYC J3 Hudson on the track and power it up.  It has a great look and has an excellent sound system.  This is also my first venture with the Odyssey speed control.  It seems to work very well – it crawls along very smoothly and keeps a nice constant speed up and down a small 2.5 degree hill I have built into the layout.

 

I have some work outside on the “to-do” list this weekend – we put a new front door in; the door and trim needs to be primed and painted.  I have also been rebuilding part of the front deck where the treated lumber has seen better days.

 

I am also looking forward to continuing to move forward with the train room projects.  I ordered some scale deer, palm trees and fencing back on the 3^rd of July from a west coast place I have never dealt with.  They have not been very communicative and after two calls, it seems the deer were back ordered and held up the order.  They are finally en-route so I will soon be able to complete the scenery in one corner of the layout.  I need to finish up some orange trees and get everything screwed down.  I hope to also find time to get the water tower in place – that new Hudson is thirsty!

 

Luther

[luther_stanton]

I see there is a lot of good natrured bantering back and forth between John and Chief on NS vs CSX .  I would like to weigh in if y’all don’t mind.  I am actually a fan of both – heck they both run on rails.  I live a few miles from the NS main line between Macon and Atlanta, Georgia.  There are a good number of trains per day and a few spots for good pictures on passing sidings, etc.  I have not been picture taking a lot lately, but have spent a fair amount of time out there over the last year.

 

I have also trekked out to Manchester, GA on a few occasions – there is a small CSX yard there at the old AB & C / ACL division point.  My wife took me to Folkston, GA one year on a b’day trip as well.  That is when all the train photography started.

 

I do have to say, I think the CSX folks are a lot friendlier.  But, maybe it is just because the NS trains are moving so much faster.

 

Trains magazine had an excerpt for the book “The Men Who Loved Trains” by Rush Loving.  I picked up a copy and found it was an excellent book.  It details the decline of PRR and NYC into the creation of PC, Conrail and the eventual split between NS and CSX.  All in all it is a very good read.

 

[Blueberryhill RR]

BTW: I thinkt he Conrail caboose you show in your picture is one that went with NS and not CSX.   Just thought you should know.  Hey, the email notices have suddenly stopped.

Wow, now we don't even have any cabooses !! LOL !! 

I only get the emails now from The Coffee Pot, not any other topics. I kind of like it this way !!

Thanks, John

 

John, Don't let that bag of Grits wind get to you. You guys have

cabooses. If you believe all you hear from the south, you'll be as nuts as they are. ( except Dr. John ). Just remember....WE  WON !!!

[csxt30]

BTW: I thinkt he Conrail caboose you show in your picture is one that went with NS and not CSX.   Just thought you should know.  Hey, the email notices have suddenly stopped.

Wow, now we don't even have any cabooses !! LOL !! 

I only get the emails now from The Coffee Pot, not any other topics. I kind of like it this way !!

Thanks, John

 

John, Don't let that bag of Grits wind get to you. You guys have

cabooses. If you believe all you hear from the south, you'll be as nuts as they are. ( except Dr. John ). Just remember....WE  WON !!!

Hi Chuck !! Yeah, I know what you mean !! Just wanted to show a little respect, being he's probably way older than me & being retired & all !! Heck, I must be way younger, cause I'm still working !!

Here's more proof we have cabooses !! This one sits down in our shop track !!  Ready to go, too !!

We're keeping them up here, just in case they get any ideas down there !!  

Thanks, John

[1688torpedo]

Hello All!     Chief- It sure was nice to talk to you last night,enjoyed it. You sure are very busy. Take it easy in this Heatwave now. Jim F- Glad you & your family survived the storm damage in Missouri.  Don- Glad that you'll be able to build a layout after all. Bet the 1688 is happy also. Speaking of Cabooses. There is a Town in Conneticut( Middletown, I believe) that has a Caboose with a O Gauge Train layout in it. That is a unique idea indeed. Hope all stay cool & Take Care.

[dougdagrump]

So, anyway, LAZ, Doug, Chief, GilFinn, etc, what is happening?

Today is Friday and we are happy.

Chuck

Chuck, Remember for us "Retirees" everyday is FRIDAY !!!!!!!!!!

Spent the morning at the museum but Mr. Graceful has a couple of broken toes, so I came home after the others had their lunch. Didn't even unpack my trains, another member had a long tank train and a small coal train, so we spent the morning running in opposite directions with me stopping on passing sidings. Only a couple of Close Calls when you mite have entered a Cab-1 Dead Zone.   

[Buckeye Riveter]

I'm home from playing golf in 90 degree heat.  I drank three big Gatorades.  The air conditioning feels really good tonight.

 

[Blueberryhill RR]

So, anyway, LAZ, Doug, Chief, GilFinn, etc, what is happening?

Today is Friday and we are happy.

Chuck

Chuck, Remember for us "Retirees" everyday is FRIDAY !!!!!!!!!! 

Yes, Doug, I remember, and it's GREAT !!!!!

[tschmidt]

Evening guys,

I wanted to let you know that I started a topic on how to see some of the new stuff in the soon to be released Lionel catalog. Hope you see something you like.
TomS

[cheapclassics]

Good evening all,

It is cloudy with temps in the 70s, but the humidity is still high.  We are waiting for the cool front to pass.  Took my my wife and Lucas for a little drive in Southern Indiana today.  We drove to Bedford on Indiana 58 from just south of Columbus, and then up to Bloomington to see our "due any minute" daughter.  There were only two other cars on 58 the entire trip and we got to see some pretty country.  Our daughter was surprised to see us as well.  We also took Lucas to Barnes and Noble, where he loves to go.  It was a very relaxing day and it made us forget for a while what is ahead of us.

I thank you all again for all your support.  You have been a pillar of strength for me and my family.  God bless you all.

I hope everyone had a good day today and a better one tomorrow.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

 

 

 

[csxt30]

Good to see you check in, Mike, & glad to see your family had a nice day ! I must have missed it if you mentioned a little one on the way, & sounds like it can be soon ! Keep us posted !

Thanks, John  

[ChiefEagles]

Hey luther_stanton, keep on visiting us.  Now John, NS still uses cabooses.  Some of the mines are in hollows and trains have to be backed in [a video says one is 35 miles].  A video of NS shows one backing through an intersection and the caboose has this shrill whistle on it.  Guy on the back [guessing it is brakeman] is watching and has radio in hand.  I am sure he is the "eyes" for the engineer.  Just watched the Passion of Christ on cable.  Now back to reading CTT.  Later.

[csxt30]

Yes, they call that protecting the shove, up here anyway !! That should be the conductor back there on the caboose, & he blows that whistle when coming to a road crossing, with a little button on the whistle, then he has another valve tied into the trainline that he can dump all the air, or rather put the train in emergency to stop in case a car doesn't stop !  Anything can happen at a road crossing !!

Thanks, John   

[kblester]

Mitch,

   My wife and I are taking our daughter on her "Pick a College Tour" next week. Mapquest indicates a stopover is in order near Gettysburg, on the way to Maryland for our last stop. I think it may be too hot on the field, and plan to spend a good part of a day in town.Do you know of any "must see" places, or suggestions on things to avoid? I thought there was a train store in town, but I have not found any recent ads for it. Trains Unlimited is over your way, isn't it?

Perhaps I can get a picture of the North Carolina State monument for Chief Eagles. Some brave men came across that field.

Thanks, Ken 

[ChiefEagles]

Mitch,

   My wife and I are taking our daughter on her "Pick a College Tour" next week. Mapquest indicates a stopover is in order near Gettysburg, on the way to Maryland for our last stop. I think it may be to hot on the field, and plan to spend a good part of a day in town.Do you know of any "must see" places, or suggestions on things to avoid? I thought there was a train store in town, but I have not found any recent ads for it. Trains Unlimited is over your way, isn't it?

Perhaps I can get a picture of the North Carolina State monument for Chief Eagles. Some brave men came across that field.

Thanks, Ken 

Thanks Ken.  I've got video and pictures of that and the plaques.  Another will be great.  First to charge and last to fall back.  Wife likes to visit the town.  Her and a friend were up town early one morning just at daylight.  They were looking in store windows.  They saw the reflection of a man dressed in 1800' clothes standing behind them.  They turned around and there was no one there.  

Need to visit North Carolina State University.  Now stay away from that other place [UNC] unless it is the last resort. 

 

Had some rain this AM.  Got up at 4:30 with the boys and it was dry.  Just got up and it is wet.  Going to get a porkchop biscuit from Hardees and then go to Miss Edna's with a big bag of tomatoes and cucumbers.  Visit with the train guys.  Never made Lowes yesterday PM so I am sure the wife will want to go there.  Hope to get upstairs and do some final measuring [for going through the walls] to work on the RR Tracks.

John, thanks for the info on the cabooses and backing.  I had to guess the details from watching the video.  Good to hear it from the one who knows [even if he is a Yankee ]

Later

[Blueberryhill RR]

Good Morning from Blueberryhill.........

It is a lot cooler today. 62 degrees right now. Going up to 74. Looks like rain will be here soon. Inside day.

I have a few projects to finish up in the house. Grass is all cut, so I don't have to worry about that. May spend a few hours working on the layout this afternoon. I wish I had a Hobby shop to go to, as Chief does. I need a few little things and have to drive a long ways to get them.

Time for breakfast. Talk more later.

Y'all have a great day.

Chuck

 

[luther_stanton]

Now John, NS still uses cabooses.  Some of the mines are in hollows and trains have to be backed in [a video says one is 35 miles].  A video of NS shows one backing through an intersection and the caboose has this shrill whistle on it.  Guy on the back [guessing it is brakeman] is watching and has radio in hand.  I am sure he is the "eyes" for the engineer.  

I also saw something on the NS Pocahontas Division where some of the coal trains (I suspect this is old N & W territory) still use cabooses because of the backing / switching moves.

 

[csxt30]

Good Morning Everyone !! Raining here, should quit pretty soon.

Chuck : have a good trip to the hobby shop, Chief too !! 

Luther : yes, most of the RRs still use cabooses if they have places to shove back at least if it's a long way, & that's mostly so the conductor doesn't have to hang onto a car while riding back. They also get are paid a penalty claim each time they ride a car back. So the RR saves money in paying crews by using cabooses. 

Well, I found an old air inflation tool the other day at work, & thought it looks good enough to use on a water tower if someone was building one. Here's a picture of  it !

   

All have a nice day !!

Thanks, John

[Buckeye Riveter]

Ken,

When in Gettysburg, one of the very best things you can do is reserve a historian from the National Park Service to ride in your car with you and give you a great tour of the battlefield.  Depending on the ages of the children in the vehicle, they will do the tour to hold their interest.

My daughter did the tour with us and became a history major in college and then went on to get her masters in education, so you never know.

 

 

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this . .  

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?  Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?    We call UP our friends.  And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.  We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.  At other times the little word has real special meaning.  People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.  To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.  
 
And this UP is confusing:  A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.  We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!  To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.  In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.  If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.  It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.  When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.

When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so.......... Time to  shut UP.....!

Oh...one more thing:
 
What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?     U-P  

---

[laz 57]

HI GIZ,

  After that last entry BUCKEYE its enough to make a guy UPCHUCK?

Anyway good one BUCKEYE.

All is wet here today just got a good thunderstorm.

Got a wedding to attend today.

BUCKEYE, how did you hit em yesterday?  At 90 degrees thats no fun playing in that?

JELECTRIC, got a email from TED at COOLTRAINS, thanks for mentioning me .  He put me on his list for train specials.  I've been to his shop a few times and like what he has there.  He was the only guy that I could find that had a Horlacher beer car.

All have a good one.

laz57

[csxt30]

Good one Buckeye !!  Hope everything's on  " The UP & UP " !!

Thanks, John

[cnw1995]

And here I thought Buckeye was talking about the Union Pacific... Went to a nice all-one-can-eat fish fry last eve with the bride. Actually crashed a friend's date to do so. I noticed their car as I drove past, and decided to stop into the bar/restaurant to say hello. Five hours later... ;)
It's a beautiful sunny cool day in northeastern Illinois - one of the men in my morning small group bought in a Marx set of his dad's to show us today - I can't believe how good the shape it was in. I wrote down some numbers to try to figure out more about it for him. I'll post them later. Not sure the direction the Sox are going lately...

[mitchelr]

Mitch,

   My wife and I are taking our daughter on her "Pick a College Tour" next week. Mapquest indicates a stopover is in order near Gettysburg, on the way to Maryland for our last stop. I think it may be to hot on the field, and plan to spend a good part of a day in town.Do you know of any "must see" places, or suggestions on things to avoid? I thought there was a train store in town, but I have not found any recent ads for it. Trains Unlimited is over your way, isn't it?

Perhaps I can get a picture of the North Carolina State monument for Chief Eagles. Some brave men came across that field.

Thanks, Ken 

Ken,

There are two train shops in town.  One is Carver's Toy trains (and clock repair). His place is on Route 30 on the right hand side as you are heading out Chanbersburg Street from the center of town toward the first days battle area and the infamous railroad cut.  His shop is pretty easy to spot as there is a big powder blue locomotive in front.  He has tons of stuff, not always the cheapest, but he has a great selection of vintage Lionel, Flyer, Ives, etc.  The other is Tommy Gilbert's Model Railroad Shop which is on Water Street.  The easiest way to find Gilbert's is to turn off of York Street onto 4th Street at La Bella Italia (great place for some food too), cross the railroad tracks and then make a left onto Water Street.  Gilbert's is just on the right.  He has a full-size Locomotive in front of his building. Gilbert's has mostly HO and some N and O, along with lots of materials for scenery.   Both places are open basically from 9 -5.  Toy Trains Unlimited is in Hanover PA about 8 miles away.  Ron is a nice guy.  He is open less frequently.  The shop is on York Street ( Rt 116 East ) in Hanover PA.

Depending on where you are going in Maryland there are a couple more nice toy train/hobby shops in Blue Ridge Summit, PA; Thurmont, MD; Sykesville, MD; and Frederick, MD.

Hope this is helpful.  I almost forgot the newly restored train station on Carlisle Street and the Lincoln Train museum (tourist trap - the show is hokey, not sure if it is worth the price of admission) but they had some neat displays of model trains the last time I was there.   E-mail me if you want more details.

Mitch

[Buckeye Riveter]

BUCKEYE, how did you hit em yesterday?  At 90 degrees thats no fun playing in that?

laz57

Laz, it's the 18th hole and our team needs a 25 foot putt just to par.  Old Buckeye with salty sweat dripping in his eyes, says something stupid, like, "Here let me put it in."  My putter came back slowly and then accelerated through the ball.  The ball rolled straight with nary a wiggle and dropped into the hole to save par. 

Boy was I glad we were done and only three over par.   I only lost 8 golf balls to the water and woods.  I even had one roll down a hill and out of bounds.  It was hot!!!!

[jefelectric]

Good Afternoon,  It actually was morning when I started reading the posts, but it took a while.  Haven't had much time to log on the last couple of days.

Buckeye, Looks like you were ready to get UP and at em this morning.

Ken, Your trip reminds me of the College hunt for our middle daughter.  Took her all over the Eastern US and she ended up choosing a school 20 miles from home.

Chief, You spend so much time traveling to Lowes, you may as well get a part time job there. 

John, We have a very short line RR near here, the Middletown & Hummelstown.  It is a mostly tourist line but does handle some freight for local industries.  Anyway to the point, it runs a caboose which is handled much as you mentioned in your post.  One of the roads that they cross is a 4 lane limited access highway.  That is a little scarry, some of the drivers can't believe they have to stop on a 4 lane.

Mike C.,  Glad to here you are about to be grandparents, Is this the first?  We are expecting our 8th grandchild in October.

Laz, I was at Ted's shop on Thursday to pick up a new power brick and he asked if I knew anyone that might like to be on the list.  Glad you didn't mind that I mentioned you.  Ted is a good guy and if you don't want the emails he will take you off.  By the way he is now an authorized MTH dealer.

Mitch, Is the Teddy Bear shop still open in Gettysburg?  I know they had some financial problems but don't know if they are still open.  If they are that might be an interesting stop.  Don't know if I ever mentioned it or not but Jean and I spent our honeymoon in GB.

I hope to post a few pics this Sunday.

Yes, I had to make notes to remember all this.

Have a good weekend all.

[Roger Bielen]

Finally had a bit of rain last night, thunder storm blew through in the wee hours.  A little cloudy this afternoon but hot enough for the Grandddaughters to use the pool.

Today is the little one's fifth birthday.  Its off to Chucky-Cheese later for fun and games but to a real pizzeria for supper.

Have a good day all.

[mitchelr]

Mitch, Is the Teddy Bear shop still open in Gettysburg?  I know they had some financial problems but don't know if they are still open.  If they are that might be an interesting stop.  Don't know if I ever mentioned it or not but Jean and I spent our honeymoon in GB.

John/jefelectric -  As far as I know Boyd's Bear Country is still open.  That sure is one huge barn that houses their store.  I think I've only been there twice. 

Mitch