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

[1688torpedo]

Jim A- Forgot to tell you. Your 2055 & 2056 look nice. Hope they run well for you. Be careful not to use the Grit Pellets instead of  The Smoke Fluid. They'll clog & Choke your Smoke Generator & leave a white gritty residue all over your basement. The Chief is a sneaky one! Take Care.

[jonadel]

Doug--will do. Since this is my first trip to York I'm sure I'll be overwhelmed the first day so my plan is to have my "wish list" and work from that. A hobby shop owner in our state has been 32 times (sometimes twice in the same year) and he said he tries to go through the halls twice every day, that seems like a good idea. We'll see what happens.

Jon

[Blueberryhill RR]

Good Evening Everyone !! Just saw on the news, that in Cleveland, they want to extend The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic RR to downtown. About 8 more miles of track that CSX owns if they would free it up. That runs from Akron up to almost Cleveland now. They are booked up already for this winters Polar Express rides, & in fact, you had to get in on their lottery to get a ticket this year. They may have this in place by 2008.   

John :(Jeffelectric) CTT guys probably don't do all the stuff we do on here !! I don't think they post pictures like us & other things, but what do I know !! I am able to use copy & paste though. I was highlighting the URL & then clicking copy, but that was wrong, just put the mouse on the pic. in Shutterfly & hit copy, & paste it to the message box, I found !!

Ok, hope everyone has a nice evening & let's all keep our eyes peeled for K-line parts for Doug !!

Thanks, John 

John...The Dennison Depot is offering a Polar Express train in December, for one weekend only. We went last year and have tickets for this year. Let me know if you are interested.

Chuck

[Brutus]

John - you're right, itchy!!!    I'd rather pull wire!

Man, everybody is doing so much fun stuff - can't keep up with it all and can't remember to comment, but everybody - WOW!

[Roger Bielen]

I went over and looked at a layout in progress this afternoon to see if its something I wanted to get involved in as a contractor.  The benchwork is done and the track loosely set in place.  Since the benchwork was finished in April and he lost contact with the guy that was building it (he was out of work and may have found a permanent job) little was done.  He needs someone to do the wiring and help with scenery construction.

Since it doesn't look like it'll take too much of my time and he hasn't set any deadline I agreed to take the job.  I'll be picking up electrical components/materials this week and start installation Friday.  Told him I think we could have trains running with 2 to 3 days work,  over maybe 3 weeks (my days off are Fridays and Sundays).  Since he's fully retired I'm hoping that I can teach him as we go along and he'll become more self sufficient.

[Buckeye Riveter]

On the road all day.  First to Ironton, Ohio to pick up some new elevations at the Ironton Russell Bridge, then to Ashland to talk with an old friend about upcoming work in KY.  Tonight, I am east of Cincinnati and paid a visit to Davis Trains.   Looking for a cattle car for the Garden RR.  Didn't see anything I liked.

John and Chuck, if you look closely they have been improving the grade crossings north of Akron for about the last five years in hopes of running commuter trains from Akron to Cleveland.

Rainy night along the Ohio River. 

See ya down the tracks,

[MartyE]

Dad comes home tomorrow.  Got some reports from my sister that he is enjoying himself.

Hope everyone is having a great day.  Hey Cheif...4:30am eastern...Ouch!

[ChiefEagles]

Good morning all,

Stay tuned for another episode of the traveling adventures of the Chief.

Already started.  Tried to print boarding pass as I have E ticket.  Kept rejecting.  Had to call US Airways help desk.  After him working on it and two more attempts, it worked.    Said they had flight equipment change.  I do notice that I am flying America West Express from Vegas to Palm Springs.  Well, America West is now US Airways.  I also have a new comfrimation number when it printed out.  Did find out that as Silver Preferred, I can walk up to the gate and tell them to put me on standby for first class up grade.  If first class is not filled, I can get upgrade free.  Probably not this flight but lady told me to do it at all times.  "You will win some."   Marty, you should be Gold Preferred by now.  Long flight, 4 hrs and 47 minutes to Legas.  I checked up on upgrading the leg to Vegas.  Lady claimed she had to re-write ticket and it would be $1,600.  I'll check at gate.  I've got $100 voucher from their last major screw up. 

Been a busy day.  Had Mended Hearts meeting at Rex Hospital.  No time for trains.  Will tomorrow AM or PM before I fly.  Will help wife as I will clean house and etc before I leave.  Will not leave house until around 5 PM.  Got my Trains magazine [new issue] and new OGR to read [came today].

Went to a farm just in the edge of town that joins the property I lease [pond and woods].   Its a major FIRE ANT area.  Never seen so many in this area in one place.  Guy is not even trying to kill them.    All he does on the land is disk it and plant a few watermellons.  Disking it spreads them all over the place.

Popcorn time.

[MartyE]

Yeah Chief I'm up there on the status list although now it's called Chairman's Preferred.  It helps as they upgrade you seven days out if available.  I'm on track for my highest milage year ever with 3 mos left of West coast trips.  I just think it means I work too much.

[ChiefEagles]

Work too much!!!!!  Me too.   For a retired guy who retired to fish and build a layout to run trains.  Hey, maybe we will hit the same flight some time.   Goooood night. 

[MartyE]

We can compare airports, hotels, and work venues...  After all were so lucky we get to see all these places!  I head to Tucson on Wed and then onto LA on Sunday...back home Wed I hope.

[mitchelr]

Jim-- I also use the far superior Mac computer and use Shutterfly to store my photo's. The current forum software will not recognize Safari or IE to post pic's, that seems odd to me. I downloaded Firefox and have had luck using it to post pics but it becomes very tedious to toggle back and forth between two browsers just to post pics. I would best describe the new software as "peculiar", and that's the politically correct description. Jon

Jonadel - I just open Shutterfly in a new tab within Firefox and switch back and forth between tabs.

Mitch

[mitchelr]

Laz and John and you other PA guys-- We are making final plans for the York trip and I think we are going to stay in Hanover and drive in for the meet, it doesn't look that far. I know I asked this about month or more ago and it had to do with Antitum (sp) and somebody gave a wonderful reply with a link and of course being Mr. Short Term Memory I can't remember the details. Can someone help me out here? We plan on being in PA and York country at the beginning of the week and want to do as much as possible before the meet. Thanks for any advice you can share, I promise not to misplace this info again. Jon

jonadel - that was me - mitchelr.  You can search for posts by my username.  Hanover is about 30 minutes from York depending on the traffic (maybe less).  It is a straight shot from PA Route 30 Lincoln Highway over to York.  Ehrn  Route 30 bears off to the right  you'll stay straight and run right into Market Street.  The York Expo/Fairgrounds is a few miles further in on the left (I believe Market Street is Rte 462)  Where are you staying in Hanover?

Take care,

Mitch

[wrmcclellan]

Hi guys,

Hate all this York talk. I may not be able to attend this fall due to other commitments that override York. We shall see. I am still campaigning to go.

Beautiful weather here today and I was stuck indoors for endless meetings. This all day meeting thing lasts through Wed. Yuck!

Great to see all the posts of the CTT CP gang. Wish I had more time to respond to individual comments.

Have a great evening all!

Roy

 

[jonadel]

Thanks Mitch for the info. We'll be at the Hampton Inn and landed an excellent rate, it will be nice to be at one place for the week and explore the PA countryside. I doubt that we'll be able to take in everything but we will make the effort, I especially enjoy being in a totally new area........ and then there's this train meet to end the week!

Jon

[dbaker48]

WE FINALLY HAVE OUR TRAIN ROOM........

As many of you may recall we initiated the process to get a train room added to the house, so we can get the trains off the family room floor.  WE NOW HAVE THE ROOM!!!!

We started with adding a 420 sq ft room (20x22) over the garage.  After going through the entire design and permit process, (approved on July 10, 6 months later), the contractor raised the price $25k.  That would have put the room over $100k.  NOT FEASIBLE !!!!! 

So after 2 weeks of deliberation and brainstorming we came up with an alternative.  As it turns out the size of the room ends up being 280 sq ft (20x14) for less than 25% of the original room costs.  The revised plan also includes a new patio roof as well.  The "actual" space that would have been "train room" is less than 50 sq ft difference.  (The original plan had space allocated for relocating a bathroom to make room for stairs)

I Posted some pictures on a NEW thread so as not to bother with to much detail here.   Just so damed happy, finally have something to workwith.

[Jumijo]

Good morning, boys.

Today should be interesting. Most of my co-workers (and I use the term loosely) are going on a whale watch in Boston Harbor. I told them I couldn't make it as I have a doctor's appointment. That's not really a lie. I'm heading over to Dr. Tinker's to pick up some train parts! From there I'm heading up to Northeast Trains in Peabody (pronounced peebuddy up here). I sure hope that little devil doesn't appear on my shoulder telling me to spend spend spend!

My wife was home last night and we all had a great meal together. That's a rare event during the week, as she works 3-11pm. We had ziti and meat sauce, some salad, bread, and a glass of wine. Good stuff!

Later on, the kids and I ran the post war Hudsons for a while. The more the 2056 ran, the better it smoked. And I only put 1/2 a smoke pellet in her.

Chief, If we don't connect on the phone, have a safe flight to the west coast. Enjoy your visit with Doug. Then come home and relax. You're supposed to be retired!

Keith, thanks for the warning about the grits. I will have all the remaining pellets analyzed here at work for Southern weasel sabotage.

Have a great day, everyone.

Jim

[laz 57]

HI GIZ,

  66 and muggy here to get rain this morning then get cooler. 

Sorry about the no posting for a few days.  Computer at school a little goofy.  Busy with work here too.  The music department going to put on play of Fiddler on the Roof.  Guess who has to make the house for the musical?  Yours truly.  I'mm almost done with it just got to put the sheeting on and it will be good to go.  Also my principal pal broke my tractor, the main drive belt and I had to fix that and he lost and broke the deck hanger so had to fabricate another.  Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be a nice guy?

Oh well at least this weekend I go to PULASKI NY for some salmon fishing can't wait.

Hope to relax and catch some big ones then post some pics.

JONADEL, looking forward to YORK and meeting you.  Hope we get somemore GIZ and get another group pic.  Hope to stand near MITCH again.

Have a good one.

laz57

[laz 57]

Oh yea, forgot to tell YUZ GIZ of a show on the science channel called Riding the Rails with Marc Williams.  Pretty good they went over narrow gauge.

laz57

[Jumijo]

Oh yea, forgot to tell YUZ GIZ of a show on the science channel called Riding the Rails with Marc Williams.  Pretty good they went over narrow gauge.

laz57

Laz,
When is that show on? I just did a search on the Science Channel site and couldn't find it.

Jim

[cheapclassics]

Good morning all,

It is sunny but cool in SE Indiana with temps heading into the low 60s today.  This weekend my wife and I went by the construction site for the Honda plant.  The rails are already gone where the old line was and I assume they will start laying new rail soon.  There were at least 10 CAT earthmovers hauling dirt in one location that day as well.  The dust was rolling!!  My wife and I went to the Y last night, and I got us signed up for DSL and a long distance calling package as well.  It should save us some money in the long run.  The boys are on the road tonight and the girls are at home with a bonus JV game as well!  It should be a good night for soccer (of course, any night is a good night for soccer).  I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[Blueberryhill RR]

Good Morning from Blueberryhill....

It's a sunny 53 degrees, going up to only 70 today with sunshine.

I slept in a little this morning. I hate to get up when it's dark. Don't miss the alarm clock at 4 am.  Love retirement.

I have to take one of the " boys " to the groomer today. It's his turn for a bath and haircut. His brother went last week.  Nice lady down the road likes to groom them. They enjoy it.

I started to clean out the small room where the upper level track does a reverse loop yesterday. It's gonna take awhile. We have a lot of Christmas stuff, we don't use. Collectable junk.

Well, I am off to the Dining Car for breakfast. See ya later.

Y'all have a great day.

Chuck

[laz 57]

Oh yea, forgot to tell YUZ GIZ of a show on the science channel called Riding the Rails with Marc Williams.  Pretty good they went over narrow gauge.

laz57

Laz,
When is that show on? I just did a search on the Science Channel site and couldn't find it.

Jim

Saturday at 10 PM Science Discovery.

laz57

[Jumijo]

Thanks, Laz. I'll look for it.

Forum posting has slowed to an absolute trickle lately. Only a handful of posts since yesterday. I thought things would perk up once the summer was over.

Jim

[laz 57]

JIM,

   Just did a check too and it looks like its one of those shows that they put on every so often.  If I see the next one I'll post. I watched two so far, the narrow gauge one and the transcontinental one.

laz57

[cnw1995]

Morning from a sunny and cool Chicago. Jealous of all your Yorkites. Have fun! Drove to work this morning to pick up a computer - I'm glad I don't have to do this every day - took two hours to go 45 miles. After reading Marty's and the Chief's posts, I'm glad I don't have to fly for work.

Jim, good choice: trains over whales.

Roger, how big is the layout you're going to help build?

Don, great news about the new train room. 6 mo. for a permit - wow!

Keith, good advice. I think both daughter and bride were upset about their near-cataclysm and I was conveniently standing right there. I'm in no great rush to see her behind the wheel.

[laz 57]

HEY BUCKEYE and all  the other OTTS BOYS......

YUZ GIZ are favored to beat US GIZ in PA by 16.5 pts on SAT.

What ya think?

laz57

[ChiefEagles]

Morning all.  Tried to get a little extra sleep.  Phone rang at 8:15.  County/Town business.  Up at 4:30 AM as oldest boy needed to go out and was hawling at door.  Let both out.  Fed them their hot dog breakfast and went back to bed.  Wife got up at 6 AM and got ready for work.   Now I know why I travel.  Can sleep through the night without getting up. 

Got things to do this AM and PM until 5.  Then on to the airport.  Not use to flying out of RDU this late in the afternoon/evening.  Say it is suppose to rain some today.   Have a good one.  Later.

BTW: The Southern Weasel may have slipped grits in by another means.  Gotten any packages lately?

[1688torpedo]

Hello All!   Don- Congrats on the new train room. Can hardly wait to see how your layout looks. Laz- Looking forward to the York Photo session! Jim A- Look out if your UPS Man drops off a box with white powder on it. Could be a Grit's Bomb Have a nice day all.

[Roger Bielen]

Doug - its not too bad a size, its a 3' wide ledge aroung the perimeter of a 16' X 12' spare bedroom.  The only difficult part with the wiring is the bench work is only about 36" high with a mid-point storage shelve all the way around,  it'll be difficult squeezing in to install wire hangers and running the wires.

His family has a history with the Seaboard as it was in Athens, GA and he grew up next to the tracks.  He's done research and is trying to catch the essence of the line through Athens as it was pre-war.  So far he's done a good job of planning, now to try and help him make it real.