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

[Anonymous]

We got about 4"yesterday and another 6" expected today, really starting to accumulate. Temp hovering around 29. Had to put the plow on the truck yesterday , for my driveway (1/4Mi.) and the forest service road we live on. Going up later today to Schweitzer Mtn. to look at a job . Check out our local ski mountain @ Schweitzer.com. It really beautiful. Got in some driveway skiing Sunday with my neice who is visiting fro NJ. Thats yankee land to you Chief.Got to find my longhandles.................Later .........Tim

[wrmcclellan]

Hello all!

Nice weather in store for the rest of the week here. High 60's and low 70's and no rain for a while.

Tom - nice picture. I need to get back to some digital photos now that I have the camera back. But I agree with Buckeye - getting them onto the web (I have a Comcast homepage with my account) is tedious. I am impressed with how quickly you do it.

SP4449 - Good joke!

Chief - keep walking!

Regards,
Roy

[Jim Duda]

As far as getting your images displayed in the forum quickly, you could upload a bunch of 'em to your host, then cut and paste each of their URLs into a word document , or any convenient location in your computer as a "library" of sorts. Then simply paste 'em into your message post as you choose...

[wrmcclellan]

Hi Jim,

In my case, it is the posting onto my personal webpage part that is tedious. Comcast has a non-standard way of building web pages. One must use their web builder tool (even if you build your own page separately). This is further complicated by a change ComCast made to their member pages web builder last year that "orphaned" one's original pages with no Comcast support for recovering them. Thus I have to mess around a lot to make it work.

Regards,
Roy

[lionelsoni]

The shortest day is indeed Dec. 21 this year. Would you believe that the earth will be closest to the sun on Jan. 1?

[spankybird]

Posting Pic.

There are some things that I could do to improve on the posting time, but what the heck, it is posting fast enough now.

1. Camera settings. For doing the forum, you most probably don’t need higher than 1024 setting because the forum software won’t accept more than 640

I use 2048 at the best setting on my camera but do save it as ‘JPG’ format.
This still gives you a large file size, approximately 1.8mg to 2.2 mg.

2. Host for pics. I use two host, one is Shutterfly at www.shutterfly.com

Shutterfly works for both CTT and OGR forum. MTJ forum does not like it. One thing I like about them is you don’t have to resize your pics before uploading them. There software also does another compression of the file.

The other host I use is my MTH Web page. With this one, you must resize your pics first, then upload them. I usually resize mine to 640 or 650.

3. For anyone who may need help on posting pics, here is a link for instructions
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=20382

Hope this helps

tom

[Jim Duda]

Roy - just for the helluvit , go to www.villagephotos.com, sign up (choose the FREE level), and upload an image. Then post it here. Piece o' pie!

[spankybird]

Jimbo – I have to agree that VillagePhoto does work here on the CTT forum, OGR and MTJ as well. At times I do find it unstable and find the darn RED X in the box show up. Sometimes a refresh removes it.

VillagePhoto, just like my MTH web page, requires you to resize your pics to under 100KB.

Most of the time, it works well, I not sure if it loads on the forum as fast as Shutterfly. Maybe I will run a test later of the same pic from all three host.

tom

[jonadel]

Good afternoon everyone,

Still fighting the bug that won't let go and Friday will be 3 weeks. I'm now on my 3rd set of meds and I think they might have this one right, call the doc this afternoon to find out the lab reports to find out what the heck it is, two weeks ago it was severe bronchitus.

The day did start great though, the big brown truck stopped by with my new Santa Beep so I thought I'd post a quick pick. For $50.00 I don't know how you can go wrong. Pretty good detail to it and it should just be a fun piece for kids of all ages.

Jon

brand new right off the boat


pulling one of my very favorite k line cars

[Jim Duda]

Tombo and all - I have gotten into the habit of resizing ALL my digital images to 640X480 so they fit on most monitors. Dunno about you, but I hate those HUGE images that require you to scroll vertically and horizontally to see the entire image; besides, those of us on S-L-O-W dialups appreciate the smaller .jpg files. Photoshop allows you to choose the file size of the image so I keep mine at the "small setting". Besides, the limiting factor for viewing is the resolution of your monitor and they're only good for 70-80 pixels/inch anyway.

Bottom line: smaller is better...

[Buckeye Riveter]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Jim Duda
Bottom line: smaller is better...

After seeing that photo of you, Jim pushing that big snowblower, no truer words have been posted on the forum.[:D]

[Jim Duda]

"Smaller is better...!" that's what the neighbor ladies keep telling me... I think they're referring to the size of their lawn weeds or the snowdrifts down here...right?

[ChiefEagles]

Like your banner Buckeye. Duda is afraid for us to go visit. He might lose the ladies as they will want us to mow grass from then on. [;)]

[spankybird]

Gee Jimbo - I never thought I would live to see the day when a Taxen would say SMALLER is better [:D]

[Jim Duda]

That's because I'm from the midwest (Iowa)! But we do have the BIGGEST FISH, the BIGGEST SNOWBLOWERS, and the BIGGEST POPULATION of CUTE NEIGHBOR LADIES down here...!

ps I still have the SMALLEST train table of any of you guys!

Jim "Smaller is Better" Duda

[Buckeye Riveter]

Chief, glad you like the banner. Click on the banner and it gets bigger, unlike Jim "Smaller is Better" Duda.

I can't believe he wrote that, then again, yes I can.

[Anonymous]

Hi Gang , I just posted some pics of some Marklin accessories that were given to me on the forum. Take a look, cause I need help. I dont have a clue about Marklin. Come to think of it I dont have a clue about a lot of things. Who said ignorance is bliss, was it Adam?...................Tim

[spankybird]

Good Morning all,

NE Ohio is cool and dry this morning, temp at 42.

Jon – nice pics of the Christmas Beep.

Buckeye – I like your revised Banner

Maybe Big Boy will revise his banner to include his pic.

Two days until vaction

Pick of the Day – Rounding the corner to Vaction


all be safe
tom

[ChiefEagles]

Morning gang. I like the banner thing Buckeye [clicked on it]. Tom is surely "tapering". [means slowing down and getting ready to do nothing the last few hours he works before vacation]. [;)] Cloudy and warm. Need to get my walking done this AM or it will be wet [per weatherman]. Have a good one and God bless. OH, I have no problems going up steps so the trains will get run today. [:D]

[1688torpedo]

Hello Everyone ! Gotta appreciate Jim Duda's humor.Enjoy reading his Posts. I bet Jim used to do the Tidy Bowl Commercials 25 or 30 Years ago sans the Mustache & Beard.[4:-)][(-D] I hope Tom's Engines are old enough to smoke.He should have a backdrop of the City of Los Angeles against his one wall for the Layout. It sure would fit in[(-D] I've never seen so much smoke since my Grandfather owned a Corvair that had a tendancy to overheat and smoke at times.Grandfather should have been a beekeeper.He could have used the Corvair to smoke out the Bees,Hornets,and Wasps that build their nests in Peoples Houses.Even Rodney Dangerfield could not get as much smoke from a cigarette as my Grandfather got from the Corvair at times[(-D] I'm going to give Tom a call later this evening to see his Christmas & Basement Layouts as he is only a street block from me.Everyone take care and have a nice day[:)] Later......Keith

[ChiefEagles]

Watch out now. I use to rebuild and restore Corvairs. If maintained right, best cars built during their time. Tough. Nader screwed up the world. He condemed the unibody construction and now the majority of cars are unibody. With a Corvair, you could only run 18 to 19 lbs of air in the front tries with 32 in the back [weight in the back]. Some folks did not know better and aired the front tires too much and it would spin out on you. I had a 4 carbed one with 4 speed. It would squall tires in first three gears. [:D] Would fly when flat out. Could jack up back of car, take engine out in no time. Put fuel line in a gas can, hook up battery and run engine on engine stand [out of car, self contained].

[cnw1995]

Grey skies here but warm for northern Illinois - I hope to be able to take down the kid's trampoline today - at least the netting. Last time I tried, it snowed. Bought a Girard station for myself for my wife to give me for Christmas this morning! Can't wait to get it. Checked out the train sets at Hobby Lobby this morning - no real bargains - didn't see the C&NW set - which I would've bought in a second.

[wrmcclellan]

Morning folks!

Headed towards low 70's today and sunny. Where is winter? Grass stopped growing, but not the weeds so still have to mow. Yes this clearly implies that my yard will not be featured in H&G anytime soon,

Have a great day all!
Regards,
Roy

[Jim Duda]

Holy Crapola! Chiefie and I agree on something! Corvairs were FINE cars - tempermental to the faint of heart, but if you knew how to treat them they would serve you well...! Sorta like some train ladies and neighbors I know...(wink)

Dang! I wish mechanicBoy would have kept his Corvair - I'd race him...but he'd win! It would be cool to see more smoke from his rear tires than mine...and mine smoke a little...

[wrmcclellan]

So Jim,

From your previous comments made I have to assume that someone let you pay them $5 to let you have your picture taken in that Vette (65?). If it were yours there would have been at least one pretty lady in the passenger seat.

I had a '68 conv (350 hp 327) for many years until I totaled it.

Regards,
Roy

[Jim Duda]

Roy -
Dunno if I'd call her pretty, but she's been hangin' out with me for 34 years. The truth is, SpeedieChiefie would have dusted both of us with his Corvair...!

[wrmcclellan]

Jim,

Nice ride and partner. Were you ever in the NCCC (National Council of Corvette Clubs)?

Regards,
Roy

[daan]

Jim, that's a bit different then the 80cc honda motorbike!! Unlike Spankybird you can't put it on your layout though..
Really nice!!

[Jim Duda]

Yup...I was an NCCC member for a couple of years (circa '95) and was a member of the Longhorn Corvette Club here in Austin for a few years. Took it to a few shows and some Saturday night Show 'N Shines. Now Karen and I just putz around the backroads in it on nice days.

God help us if Frank ever comes to Austin...! He'll probably want to take it for a cruise around the UT campus...YIKES!

Daan - I'd love to find a '65 - '67 Sting Ray conv in the correct scale for the little table...I'd paint it to match mine.

[wrmcclellan]

Jim,

I was in the NCCC from 75 to about 88. You missed the years when we rented Texas World Speedway in Bryan for the Corvette-Porche autocross challenges. It was brutal. The Ps only won one class out of 14 or 15. The second year the P guys showed up with a factory racer (semi trailer - the whole bit) very confident and performed miserably on the TWS road course against the Vettes. It was so bad after two years that they did not want to do it again.

The best memory, my good buddy Mick singing "Bobby Magee" in the middle of the P garages at 1 in the morning..."...my friends all have Porches, I must make amends..."