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

[Anonymous]

Been a while since I posted here.  I see all the gang is still here and a few new faces. It will take a while to get caught up with all the gossip.

 I ran the trains tonight for the first time in a few weeks.  Got about 1" of Snow yesterday, so thats my signal to get back into my winter hobby.

Will chech in more often now....Tim

[Brutus]

Adjusted the coupler on my docksider and now nothing derails - boy that was annoying!  Also, the hot glue is drying in the vats of gore and grue on that gondola I cleaned and repainted.  It turned out just okay - you can see where I sanded it to get the embossed letters off.  I think of it as weathering!   Never did figure out how to run wires to the lemax buildings - for some reason my wife won't let me cut holes in the old dinning room table (we replaced it, but she wants this one for the basement).  I explained that it was my layout table, but no good -   Oh well, it's okay for a temporary layout.  I took a couple pics to post, but didn't get on my desktop tonight.

John - what a great looking little baby!  What were the stats?  How many pounds, how many inches?

We finished watching the Addams Family tv show dvd set and it was really great - as good as I remembered from when I was a kid.  Funny to watch Gomez throwing the levers of the ZW back and forth to switch the trains (?) so they'd collide -- apparently they didn't have any idea how this stuff worked.

Hope Chief is having a good visit with his friend and enjoying some shrimp and steaks.  Chuck - how is your construction job going?  Added the cutouts in the wall yet?

Dougdagrump - I heard they arrested somebody in that arson fire that killed the firemen, I thnk it's the one near you?!  Hope they got the bad guys.

As for hunting, I think that hunters and fishermen are the greatest conservationists today.  I like venison alright.  I've had possum, squirrel, and mystery barbeque that I think had raccoon in it?!?!  Maybe they were joking, but I doubt it!  Don't eat squirrel brains - they are pure cholesterol.  I read about some old lady who was trying to kill her husband by putting them in his eggs each morning and doctoring his heart meds.

That's enough for tonight - I'm pretty tired out, so you all take it easy and talk at ya later.

[AKKevinT]

I am working late tonight and just read some the recent posting while taking a break. Seems like lot of things going on.

New Additions: Congratulations John & Jean on the arrival of your new granddaughter and family member! To to young Emma– Welcome Aboard my you have a happy and joyful childhood!

Hunting: Concerning the hunting in my neck of the woods it is looked at in basically two ways 1) sport hunting and 2) subsistence hunting. For my self I like to hunt, but there are no deer in the Alaskan interior so we have settle for either caribou or one of the larger ungulates, Bullwinkle J. Moose. Lean and tasty. I prefer moose but am happy with what ever gets put in to the freezer for the winter. As they say up here– 10,000 wolves can't be wrong! 

CTT: I just received my December CTT today mail comes slow to the end of the line. Anyone else yet to get their Dec. issue? It was slow but not rip or torn up so slower is mo better!

Bombs: Let us know what happens with the bomb threats– what a bum deal.

Regards from the Feezer!

Kevin T.

[John Bakeer]

Bomb threats?
Oh dear!
Your railroads are under a far greater threat, a crazy judiciary, $24 million damages awarded to 2 idiots that climbed on to the top of an electric train. What were they looking for ? The Christmas Fairy? The trouble is our lot are getting as daft. The next thing will be jay walkers claiming compensation from the poor devil that they run into. It is impossible to protect people from their own folly.
On a neighbouring forum a prat ran a truck over a closed grade crossing, luckily for him he only lost the trailor and not his life.
Congratulations to the new Grand Parents where and who ever you are, I have just become a Great Grand Dad for the third time.
Sure makes one feel that life has been kind.

[John Bakeer]

What is CTT?
Can someone enlighten me? Is it a railroad magazine?

[mitchelr]

What is CTT? Can someone enlighten me? Is it a railroad magazine?

CTT is Classic Toy Trains magazine, published by Kalmbach Publishing, the sponsors of this train forum. It is a great magazine devoted to mostly O and S gauge toy trains.

Mitch

[mitchelr]

Pigseye/Tim - nice to see you posting again. Weren't you thinking of selling your current house and building a new one? 

Morning to all - yesterday was gorgeous weather. Temps near 70 again today.

Addition/Renovation at school is going well  I know they are pushing to get under roof before the cold weather hits. 

I have not attempted to make repairs to the 2025.  I will take some pics and post  pre/post repair photos once I order the parts.  I also have a pair of Union Pacific 2033 AA F3's that are acting funny.  The start and stop.  Sounds like loose wires or dirt and crud in the motors.  I need to take them over to the train shop and get the repair guy to give them a thorough cleaning and repair.  His prices are reasonable and I can be a klutz (ie the 2025 hitting the concrete), so it may save me in the long run to pay for the repairs.

Well, I better get going to work.

Mitch

[Jumijo]

Good morning, everyone, and Happy Halloween!

Gonna be a warm day here today. Close to 70 and sunny. I'm outta here at noon to hook up with my dermatologist. She's a doll. I have my nice underwear on and everything! My yearly checkup for yucky stuff that starts with C.

Keith,
sounds like you got a very nice deal on that Hudson. That's the ol' peppah, boy!

Doug,
Some of those I'd eat, some I wouldn't. Dog - yes. Squid - no! Hairy crab? No comment!


All have a good day. What say we all travel down to Roseyville and toilet paper the Chief's house?

Happy Halloween!


Jim

[laz 57]

HI GIZ,

   OOOOOOO  SPOOKY SPOOKY, HALLOWEEN?

Nice here at40 to get to 70.  

Halloween Joke..... Why can't ghosts have children?

Oh your gonna love this.........

Answer......  cause they have HALLO    WEENERS.... WAH HAW!!!!

All have a good one.

laz57

[Blueberryhill RR]

Good Morning from Blueberryhill....

It is a partly cloudy 60 degrees outside. Going up to 70 again, but maybe cloudy later and a rain shower. That's ok. It's not snowing.

Today, I have to run a few errands and a few chores around the house. But, I will take it easy. Have a few muscle aches from cutting grass.

Jim Fortner....I have started marking out the new opening in the wall. I just missed a few studs. I will take a few pictures after I have cut the drywall and table.

Well, off to the Dining Car for breakfast.

Y'all have a great Tuesday.

Chuck

[Jumijo]

Thanks for the reminder, Chuck. I need to mow the grass this afternoon after my visit to Doctor Hotty. This should be the last time I cut grass this year.

Jim

[thor]

Hello John! This is CTT or rather its the electronic forum, sort of a Letters page, of Classic Toy Trains which, in my opinion, is by far the best of the O gauge magazines and by far the friendliest of the 3 forums I haunt.  Speaking of haunting, Happy Hallow'een everyone.

PS:- I stayed off posting on this thread for the longest time because I thought it was maybe a bit sort of private to a few old hands but I finally decided to dip a toe in. I like this forum a lot, its by far the most friendly and helpful and least abusive.

[cheapclassics]

Good morning all,

It is rainy and mild right now in SE Indiana, but the temps are supposed to drop into the 50s throughout the day.  Lucas and I picked up limbs out of the yard, and I went to the YMCA for weights.  I also ran the Santa Fe equipment for a while.  Lucas went to a school jazz band performance with his girl friend and some other friends as well.  He got a 96 on his first economics test that he took when he came back to school.  The significance is that this was the first test on new material.  Life may slowly be returning to normal around here.  My wife is getting a lot of work subbing at schools. 

Jefelectric, congrats on the new granddaughter.  Grandchildren are indeed one of life's pleasures.  Thor, please feel free to join the "coffeepot" as often as you like.  Some of us have been here longer than others and some (such as myself) not quite as long, but we all seem to get along, and it is a bright spot in my day.  Tmcc man, sorry to hear about your school situation.

I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[tmcc man]

Good morning everyone,

 I just woke up. Nice to sleep in when you don't have to go to school. I don't have much planned for today, except when tonight comes, then it will be fun. I will talk to you all later.

[cnw1995]

Good morning from a sunny and rapidly cooling Chicago where I'm going to sneak out early to take the youngest around trick-or-treating in the daylight. His older siblings are going about with friends instead of their 'ol dad. I love Halloween. I'm glad I have a 4 year old to take around for some more years. Everyone's welcome to this thread - just bring donuts!

[Brutus]

Still no December CTT at my house - guess the mailperson is adding to her collection.  Happy Halloween!  I missed the bomb threat post last night - I'm sure it was a couple kids figuring they'd get off school.  When the authorities catch them, they should get off school for the rest of the year and repeat next year.  Bomb threats were really big at schools in the very early 70's, I was told by a chemistry teacher in High School.  One day a cop came in and told him to evacuate the classroom.  He asked Brother Vic if there was anything in the room that could be a bomb.  Brother Vic took the unfiltered camel out of his mouth, looked around at the jars and vials and bottles, and told him that almost everything in that room could be a bomb, if you studied hard enough!  He was a great teacher and I was very sad to hear that he passed away a few years ago.

[wrmcclellan]

Hello all!

Welcome back Tim! Did you sell the house yet?

Welcome to Kevin and Thor! Kevin - my wife's family lives in Anchorage. We were up there in August 05 for a family reunion. Attempted some salmon fishing with no luck.

Jim - ahh the days of HS chemistry classes - classic. Our teacher once yelled at us to lower our voices and the entire class spontaneously started talking in the lowest bass voices we could muster. She loved it. And how about those days of freshman college chemistry - 700 people in a huge lecture hall - argh! I still have nightmares about it.

Have a great day all and eat some GRITS.

 

[dwiemer]

Morning all,  Nice to see Tim and Thor over here again.  I actually have the L-girder done and time to start laying track.  I hope to be doing so tonight.  My wife and kids are looking forward to helping and getting it done.  It may take a bit longer with all the "help", but if it really does develope into a family hobby, all the better.

Dennis

[dougdagrump]

Happy Halloween !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[John Bakeer]

Thanks for the info Thor,
Bit out of my league, but interesting any way.
Due to lack of space I'm hard put to do anything larger than N scale.
Weather here in Manchester is drizzle, wind backing to North and temperature falling from 14 and forecast to hit zero by 0500 GMT. last nights minimum was 12. (Celsius)
A sense of humour is an asset in this world today.
Trick or treat tonight, one of the bad things to come to us from your side of the pond.
'NIHIL DICE' old Yorkshire spayke.

[Dr. John]

GregM, I'm very pleased you like the engine! It has set on a shelf for three years, so I'm glad you are getting some enjoyment out of it. I'd love to see some pics of it in action if you get the time.

P.E. Tim, good to hear from you again! Hope things are going well for you in Idaho.

Thor, this is definitely an "open" forum. No cliques here. You are encouraged to paricipate on the Coffee Pot thread or any thread you like. Just dive in!

John B. I still have a good bit of N scale tucked away. As I approach 50, I have found that it is a bit too small for me to work with comfortably. I guess that's why I like O gauge. Don't rule out O-27 - it works very well in small spaces. You can actually get a tighter curve in O-27 than you can in HO. Agree absolutely that a sense of humor (pardon the American English spelling) makes life more liveable and a lot more fun!

[jonadel]

Congrat's to John & Jean, what a wonderful gift, nothing like it!

A very fast 24 hours for me, left here in the AM yesterday and headed for MPLS/St. Paul to hook with our youngest son who had secured two tickets for the Vikings/Patriot's game. That was my first NFL game and it was great---the New England Patriots are a fantastic team this year (again) and should go a long ways in post season play, very impressed with the quarter back. Sure glad the game was in the dome, when we left his house at 5:15 it was 60+ degrees, when we parked the car it was about 58, when we began tailgating outside the dome it was blowing hard out of the north and about 40!! Sure glad I left my nice warm coat in the back of the car..........(:

Left the cities early this AM and am now headed for the train room to see if everything still works.

John B., glad to see you made reservations for York, no way will you be disappointed. You will throughly enjoy the history opportunities in the area.

Jon

[Anonymous]

Thor if they abide me then anyone must be welcome. Good to hear from you

 

Gil Finn

[Buckeye Riveter]

Been a while since I posted here.  I see all the gang is still here and a few new faces. It will take a while to get caught up with all the gossip.

 I ran the trains tonight for the first time in a few weeks.  Got about 1" of Snow yesterday, so thats my signal to get back into my winter hobby.

Will chech in more often now....Tim

Great to see you back!

[jefelectric]

Good evening,

Thanks everyone for the nice comments on our recent family addition.

Jean is home and has relieved me of the babysitting duties for a while.  Tomorrow evening the girls and I will get our first look at the new baby sister, and I will hand them off to someone else to keep them till the weekend.  I'll need a couple of days of rest.

Jim Fortner, You missed the stats that I posted earlier, 6 lbs. & 5 oz., 18-1/4".  She is a tiny little thing but very alert and has a head of hair, which neither of her sisters had. 

Now that you are getting the haloween train finished, you can put it away and start on the Christmas train.   Nice article in the December CTT on making a Christmas train, hope you get yours soon.  Kevin got his in Alaska so your's shouldn't be far behind.

Jim (Jaabat) I thought your wife didn't allow you to use that Doctor anymore.

John Baker,  That episode with the trespassers on the Norflok Southern happened in my area.  One of the reasons that they got such a large award was that the lawyers sued in federal court, which placed the trial in Philadelphia.  If they had sued in a local court with the very conservative local, they probably would have gotten very little if anything.  This verdict really disgusts me.  These were not kids but 17 year old adults.  If they are old enough to drive a car and serve in the armed forces they should be old enough to make a responsible decision and incure the consequences.  Verdicts like this are the main reason that the railroads make their property so inaccessable to rail fans. 

Welcome back to all those who took the summer off.

[ChiefEagles]

Good evening,

Jim (Jaabat) I thought your wife didn't allow you to use that Doctor anymore.

No it is me, John.  My Dermatologist wants to go hunting, fishing and play trains with me.  Wife says I can't go there again.  Will next Tuesday and she called and left word I need to come in then as the bump she removed had "pre-cancer" cells and needs to be retreated.  Think she just wants to talk more about our activites.

Back home.  Shrimp and steaks were good.  Shot rifles at tragets.  I was getting good wtih .17HMR and .22 long rifles.  Got scopes tweeked and right. 

John, poor little Granddaughter with the name Emma.  She will really be a spoiled person.  I know, my Mother is Emma.   Congrats.

Tim M., glad to see you posting again.  How is everything in the high cold country?  

Man you can tell the New England Yank has been on here [nothing to do at work I guess].  Had to read several pages to catch up. 

Marty E, got the email that I am moved to the BIG SEAT for the Ft. Myers flight.

Things to do.  Later

[Anonymous]

Hello all!

Welcome back Tim! Did you sell the house yet?

Welcome to Kevin and Thor! Kevin - my wife's family lives in Anchorage. We were up there in August 05 for a family reunion. Attempted some salmon fishing with no luck.

 

 

 

 

Hi Roy, Did'nt sell this summer , so took it off the market. However I did buy some more property and got started on the new one. Basement, storage barn etc. Also bought a sailboat and did some sailing here on the lake this summer. Seems like I did not have any time off.. Anyways it was fun. Looking forward to some cool weather now..Take care......Tim

[dbaker48]

Wow, what a frustrating morning.
Go to drop some stuff off at son's school, which is across from a shopping center.  Police start coming from all directions!  Traffic is stopped, only lanes open are for left turns, the police their started directing everyone to make U turns away from the shopping center.  So here is 15 cars or so making U turns and just going around in circles, another dozen or so police cars are swarming in on area, two helicopters, more police cars.  Traffic is then stopped, (beats driving in circles), finally after a 20 minute wait traffic is released.  Now we have grid lock.  Get out of that finally.  As it turns out a murder, suicide committed at Insurance company.  Gunman killed a woman then waited for police and had a shoot out.  Good news is no drawn out legal issues.

Then go on to Home Depot to buy carpet for train room.  Carpet suppose to be 3.77 sq ft, installed with padding.  Clerk comes back with, we  only sell it by sq yd..    (Well  yeah.....).  cost per sq yd is 48.  Now this doesn't make sense to me.  So ask it to break that down to what the advertised sign says as 3.77 sq ft.  So I was reminded that it is only sold by the sq yard.    Ok, Ok, so what is the price of  per sq yard, again 48.  Ask her how many sq feet make up a sq yard, she answers I'm not sure I will get the manager.  Manager comes, yes your right sir, it is 3.77 sq ft or 34.00 sq yd.  Ok, great were ready to go then, but then they say its 4.50 a sq ft to install.    Now wait, the sign says 3.77 per sq foot installed, with padding.  Guess where this went, Sir we don't install per sq foot only sq yard.  (I'm feeling like I'm in an Abott and Costello routine.)  After considerable discussion finally get the price to 3.77 sq ft or 34 sq yd, installed with padding.  THEN, we need a $35 fee to send the guys out to measure the room so we can develop the actual quote.  and IF you place the order the $35 will be applied to the purchase.  Ok that's fine as long as the workorder has a unit cost identifed as we agreed, and it indicates the carpet I selected.  Sorry sir, the computer doesn't print that information on the order.  OK so if the price changes from the unit cost, do I get the $35 back?  Sorry sir we can't do that.    By the way installation would be scheduled AFTER Thanksgiving! So decided that this was not the day for ordering carpet.  THIS LITTLE EVENT ONLY TOOK AN HOUR AND HALF.

In the meantime, a person I talked to last week had called the wife and was on the way to the house to provide a quote and show samples.  He had the exact same carpet, with a heavier pad for the same price and will install it on Monday.

So I'm going home and having some wine, or JD whatever I can find.

[jefelectric]

No it is me, John.  My Dermatologist wants to go hunting, fishing and play trains with me.  Wife says I can't go there again.  Will next Tuesday and she called and left word I need to come in then as the bump she removed had "pre-cancer" cells and needs to be retreated.  Think she just wants to talk more about our activites.

Sorry about that Chief,  You two fight like brothers and I tend to get you confused. 

[jefelectric]

Don, I love your blow by blow stories.  I think you are on the right track.  Most times a small contractor can run rings around the big box stores.  The trick is to find a reliable one.