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

[Buckeye Riveter]

Until you have seen the Northern Lights from the Canadian wilderness, you haven't seen nothing. [:0] You think the whole sky is on fire and most of the earth.

[dougdagrump]

One of these days I hope to make it to Alaska to see them.[^][^][^][8D]

[ChiefEagles]

Just like a Buckeye. Brag Brag Brag. Just because we would like to go there and have not yet, he rubs it in. [;)] No fever, IT'S ON GO. See if you guys can keep the coffee HOT while I'm gone.

[Anonymous]

Foggy and cold all day and night. the wife woke me up last night at 11:45 to see the northern lights...I think I threw a shoe at her.
Daan, I have been following your project on the other thread. While I am no electronic genius I have found this thread very interesting. Did I read somewhere about using resistors to slow down ( not stop) a train, at for instance a station and then speed back up as it passed the station.Could this be done by powering each section of track..approaching and leaving the station with different resistors?If so what size and type . This is something I would like to do on the new layout addition this winter...Tim

[dougdagrump]

Did anyone catch "Monster Garage" the other nite. They took a new Dodge Magnum and turned it into a Hemi-Powered track inspection car, seemed to work pretty good until they derailed. [(-D]
We look forward to your safe return Chief. [bow]

[ChiefEagles]

Get going this AM. Thought Tom would have had you all up. On the way to hospital. Still staying close to bathroom. That will be their problem as I will be asleep. [;)] Talk to you all next week. God bless you all.

[spankybird]

Good Morning all,

NE Ohio has another cool Blue Clear Sky Morning, temp at 37 with a southern breeze and warm winds to take us up to the mid 50 to low 60’s today.

Chief, best of luck today, we know you will do fine.

Full steam Ahead


all be safe
tom

[FJ and G]

doug,

Missed that episode. Sounds like loads of fun; will try to catch it on the rerun.

[cnw1995]

We'll be thinking and praying for your surgery today, Chief. No northern lights in our parts last night. I've found I've got myself a cold this morning...I've been taking a few diffrerent trains into work this week - and leaving one of my newer Model Railroader magazines each day for my fellow commuters to pick up and read - maybe it'll spark some interest in the hobby - finding an MR at the library did so for me. I'm thinking of putting a post-it note on the inside with my email address but that may be too deliberate.

[spankybird]

GREAT NEWS – Chief is doing great

[:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D] [:D]
Mrs. Chief called and said he is doing fine. As of now and for the next few days he will be in ICU, then he will get to chase the nurses around a few more day in his room.

Chief ended up having SIX by- passes.

We will keep you up dated.

tom

[dougdagrump]

[bday][bday] .........USMC .........[bday][bday]


Great news, thanks for the update Tom and Mrs. Chief. [8D]

[daan]

Thanks to keep us updated Tom, whish Chief the best, he is missed on the forum..
6 bypasses.. that's no small operation.

In Holland it's cold, not really frosty yet, but sunshine and no wind.. Hope to keep this weather for a time..
Stay safe all.
For the curious ones; The Police in The Hague captured 2 men last night with help of the army because a grenade was thrown when they went into the building at first. The house is being searched with a robot for explosives..
I hope the dust will settle down again after this and that we can stay piecefull and tolerant towards everyone. Of course the extremists, moslim or not moslim, should be locked up, but since 99% of the moslim and 99% of the christians are not willing to kill, the other 2 percent of the people should not destroy the goodwill living in this country..
I hope God and Allah will keep an eye open to keep life safe for all of us.

[spankybird]

Good Morning all,

Yes it was good to hear from Mrs. Chief last night. She sounded very tired, it was a long day for her and the Chief. I will call her late tonight to see how he is doing. Chief will be in ICU for 3 days and another 3 day in a regular room. Then if things look good, he will be on his way home. At some time, he still has to have the Gall Bladder removed.

We thinking of you Chief, time to have a cool one.


tom

[daan]

@Tom. Why couldn't it be removed as well, I mean; they had it in their reach. Anyway, thanx for the update..

[jonadel]

Good to hear that Chief is on the mend, hope he has a laptop so he can check up on us! We may need to change this topic's header to "The decaff pot of coffee is always on". I gave up real coffee (and I miss the flavor) per Drs. orders and I feel about 18 times better.

Jon

[spankybird]

Daan,

I kind of felt the same way, if he was already out, why not do both. The Doctors told him, they are in two different body cavities, therefore two operation.

Maybe Chief has a special nurse he wants to see. Don’t tell Mrs. Chief.

tom

[cnw1995]

Thanks for the updates, Tom. Daan, that adventure made our newspapers here in Chicago - sounds tough - I feel sorry for the family of the filmmaker who was slain. Happy birthday to our USMC veterans. Here's a question for anyone - I saw one of those Hornsby 'live steam' engines in HO scale the other day - it looks very clever. Has there ever been a live steam engine in our scale? If they can jam one in an HO unit, one would think it would work in O.

[Anonymous]

Good news!! I'll keep the Chief in my prayers!!!

[spankybird]

Good Morning All,

NE Ohio has a cool 38 deg morning with a high of only 45 today. I was not able to make contact with Chief’s wife last night, so I will try later today.

We have been working on our Christmas Village the last couple of nights. Here is a snick preview of our favorite train station.





all be safe
tom

[cnw1995]

Tom, That station looks great - especially the lower angle shot... Anybody got a real mail address for the Chief - email me at [e-mail] instead of posting it here if you do... I want to send him some things to cheer him whilst he's recovering. I met a man at church last night who's a real Lionel whiz and has a huge layout. He gave me some wiring tips I can't wait to try.

[jonadel]

Progress was made this week in the Hobo Camp and we think it's looking pretty good, lots of fun as always.

This is an overview of the small Hobo Camp


Here's a ground level shot


More shots in my album at:

jands.logicalgeek.com

Have a great weekend.
Jon

[Buckeye Riveter]

Here are some great photos of the northen lights as we saw them a couple of days ago. [:)]


Note the railroad bridge. So it is not [#offtopic]
You can see more at:
http://www.extremeinstability.com/04-11-8.htm

I know the Chief would be jealous if he were allowed north in the winter to see this spectacular display. [;)]

[dougdagrump]

Great shot Buckeye ! [8D]

[daan]

@CNW1995; that film maker was not a holy man, if you know what I mean. He was constantly trowing mud adressed to the moslim part of our population. That is not rectifying his death however, that's not the option civilized people have in mind.

But, back to trains; nice photo buckeye! and the hobo camp looks very nice. I guess a lot of children would want that for real as a playground!
The live steam Hornby model has a few big minors. It can't be used with a normal transformer on normal layouts. It can't be combinated with other engines or even with interior lights in the cars and the speed is not easily regulated.
Those machines are quite common in Europe, and are made in life steam in h0 as big as a "glaskasten" (very tiny 0-4-0 engine from germany). They all have the same problems and disadvantages. Besides that; it leaves a lot of humidity in the train room, ruining scenery and oxidizing the track.
Live steam is something for outside, with decent engines which are well kept in speed and keep the heat inside the boiler. A steam engine needs size to perform well.

In Europe steam was the way to drive your engines before WW2. Maerklin, Bing and all other big manufacturers made live steamers in all sizes in 0, from a simple oscilating machine in 0-4-0 to giant real scale Br01's with working valvegear, working water pump and real working instruments in the cab.... I've seen those in a museum and they are awesome!

[spankybird]

Good Morning all,

We have a Blue Clear Sky Morning in NE Ohio at 33 deg and a high of 50 today. A good day to fini***he outside Christmas Lights.

I will be call Chief’s wife later and post on his Get Well Card thread his update. This should be his last day in ICU then 3 more days in a regular room then home.

We have been working on our Christmas village. The tree is up with it’s lights. The wife and I still have to put the ordainments on it. And I have to do the detail to the village.
Here is another one of my favorite pieces.

Buckeye – I love the northern lights. Can you e-mail me that pic?

Jon – The Hobo village looks great.



All be safe.

tom

[cnw1995]

Thanks for the insights, Daan. I was wondering about the effect of condensation from the 'steam' - I am fortunate to have a dry basement where the layout is located. But it would be fun to watch - I know far to the south of me there are some live-steamers - I've even seen some defunct track in a cornfield near Lake Geneva, WI. Wow, Buckeye what a great photo - you are a wizard of the digital camera. The Northern Lights I saw last Sun were greener. A cold but clear day here in Chicago's far suburbs. I still have my cold and am trying not to mope around like Eeyore. Have a good day everyone.

[Anonymous]

Good morning everyone!

Went to Yorkton yesterday and looked for one of those Lionel popcorn tins at Wal-Mart, but, unfortunately, found none. Hopefully they'll get them in later. I did, however, find some great buildings at a Liquidation World store. They're large ceramic models of a 50's diner and bowling alley that are just about the right size for O gauge toy trains. The best part about them is that they've got fiber-optic lighting. They have large flashing signs on them and are covered in little lights that blink and change colours. At night with the lights out they really look awesome! The best part of all was the price. They were marked at $26 each and were 50% off. So I paid about US$20 for the pair. I'm going to include them in my Christmas tree layout.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Thanks for the compliments about the northern lights photos, but I did not take them. Check out the web site I referenced.

I wished I had taken them. I have seen them look like this, but of course no camera in hand.

[cnw1995]

Just finished up wiring some crossing flashers (waiting for my daughter to come home from babysitting) I followed the directions from the Riddle book - and realized the flashers were still flashing even when I disconnected the track - uh oh, maybe these things run on DC

[daan]

Hi guys, it's a cold day today, but we have a watery sunshine. I've to get some hay today for the horsies.. Bought a double erie alco from K-line on ebay, new in a never opened box for 89.95. I've seen them new on discount sites for $125. I'm curious how it looks. My other K-line engines (S2, mp-15) look nice too, and specially the mp-15 is a great machine. They all have the same simple motortrucks and even if I don't have anything original to repair it, I can even get the motors from a local dump store for $2 dollars each. Although the drivetrain gears are plastic and the motors are cheap can's they drive very well and pull like an elephant. I guess the Alco's also have those motortrucks built in. With these prices it is worth to send them from the US to Europe, since a normal h0 engine would cost me about the same here. these things give me the oppurtunity to get a nice collection to roar across my layout.
The GP7's which are incredibly cheap from K-line I also saw on ebay for 37 dollars new. But I don't know about the quality??

Anyway, have a nice sunday and enjoy!