dougdagrump Don & Ray, Is the pool ready, blue sky and 90*. Sorry, the devil made me do it. Jack, You guys wouldn't be "unwanted" but being unplanned some mite have to sleep outside in the shed. By the way, there was an awfully mean and ugly opossum out there last nite as well as the occaissional skunk. Kev, The layout is looking great.
Don & Ray, Is the pool ready, blue sky and 90*. Sorry, the devil made me do it.
Jack, You guys wouldn't be "unwanted" but being unplanned some mite have to sleep outside in the shed. By the way, there was an awfully mean and ugly opossum out there last nite as well as the occaissional skunk.
Kev, The layout is looking great.
Nice one. Now I wish we had not turned around. Opossums will leave if we were to stay in the shed.
Thanks Doug, I am happy with the layout as well and as RT would say " if they don't like it you can show them the door"
Kev.
Joined 1-21-2011 TCA 13-68614
Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL.
Good afternoon everyone. Doug, it sometimes reminds me of a Dr. who episode there too. Was a long case, but second went quickly. Joe, that is a good deal you have for a bundled package.
Jack, a couple of things. Check B&H photo's used section for a good used off camera flash. There are some low priced third party flashes, but they have a lot less power. Now about your plumbing, a closet wrench would have saved you a lot of time and frustration...they cost about ten dollars and are also called basin wrench. Also, regarding the flex pipe, they have a new type of feed pipe that shuts down if you ever have a pipe rupture and they are not expensive. They may be called "flood stop" or something along those lines. These would be well worth it if your heat ever shut off in cold temps and you were not home, a frozen pipe could be quite the headache.
Gotta run to violin practice.
God bless,
Dennis
TCA#09-63805
Remember the Veterans. Past, present and future.
www.sd3r.org
Proud New Member Of The NRA
Sunny and warm today 40 degrees only need a flannel to be okay outside. 47 tomorrow. I tend to agree with Northwoods about the weather it is after all winter. Not much going on just working on the Box Culverts fifedog has requested that I install on the layout to keep my INS. Think I got it. Jack I thought I was dreaming about that trip to DougDG’s till I saw your post. Must have been the beer. Sorry to hear of your plumbing fiasco.. It seems that it always,,,,,, is never easy. Going to tackle the RW issues next. Kev.
Sunny and warm today 40 degrees only need a flannel to be okay outside. 47 tomorrow. I tend to agree with Northwoods about the weather it is after all winter.
Not much going on just working on the Box Culverts fifedog has requested that I install on the layout to keep my INS. Think I got it.
Jack I thought I was dreaming about that trip to DougDG’s till I saw your post. Must have been the beer. Sorry to hear of your plumbing fiasco.. It seems that it always,,,,,, is never easy.
Going to tackle the RW issues next.
RockIsland52 Good Mornin' Y'all from Sunny and A Balmy 8 degrees Taxachusetts, LAZ......what dastardly villain sent us this frigid, single digit weather? With the wind chill it felt like -7 here this morning. The dog's excrement broke into pieces two hours ago when it hit the ground! These bone jarring temperatures didn't start with Stourbridge out in the Rockies. RaySP, DougDG, DonnyB, and V8 are too busy whining about their summerlike temps in CA., cleaning pool filters, mowing lawn, and how bad the smog is......so it ain't them. SubmmBob is too far to the South, unless the photons he collects can redirect the prevailing winds. That leaves Jon as the most likely suspect here. Jack.
Good Mornin' Y'all from Sunny and A Balmy 8 degrees Taxachusetts,
LAZ......what dastardly villain sent us this frigid, single digit weather? With the wind chill it felt like -7 here this morning. The dog's excrement broke into pieces two hours ago when it hit the ground! These bone jarring temperatures didn't start with Stourbridge out in the Rockies. RaySP, DougDG, DonnyB, and V8 are too busy whining about their summerlike temps in CA., cleaning pool filters, mowing lawn, and how bad the smog is......so it ain't them. SubmmBob is too far to the South, unless the photons he collects can redirect the prevailing winds. That leaves Jon as the most likely suspect here.
Jack.
I must be in a George Washington state of mind. I cannot tell a lie, all of the cold temperatures are coming from the upper midwest. We've had several nights of single digit temperatures and one local report had -16. Of course I could just blame it on the Canadians, they send it along with the geese migrating south , but I can't remember anyone on the pot who is from Canada that posts regularly.
It is January and and winter after all, what do you expect.
Northwoods Freezer
The Northwoods Flyer Collection
of
American Flyer Trains
"The Toy For the Boy"
Jack --
No cold air sent from the Heartlands, not me. However, we are sending to your neck of the woods several plane loads of Hot Air along with an army press corps. I am amazed at the number of press corps that follow the presidential wannabe's, although it appears that we did cull the herd a bit. I wonder if the press corps is that way in Roseyville?
It's going to a short's day tomorrow, record highs of 60's tomorrow
Jon
So many roads, so little time.
Good morning all,
Seems like a lot of old car talk today from Jeffrey et al. I guess I would be in good company since both of mine are aging. The 96 Honda Accord is doing just fine, thank you and just turned its first 100K recently. The 87 Buick is still running but needs some attention. The rubber boots on the front end need replacing I'm told but since I only drive it enough to keep the battery charged, I haven't got motivated to do that yet. Both cars need a paint job and some rubber gaskets around the windows on the Buick. I just put a car cover on it when it rains. I am from the school of "If it works, don't fix it".
Ray
SPMan
Hello all
A chilly 9 degrees here this AM
Laz. I may take my musket for a walk on Saturday if it warms up as predicted. Mrs will be glued to PCN's Farm Show coverage this week. (I'll join her for most of it)
Hope to take the grand kids to tour the Altoona Model Railroad Club layout this weekend. It is a combination of 2 rail O and HO approximately 20 x 50 feet.
Gotta run SS fund calls
Prayers for those in need.
Banks, Proud member of the OTTS TCA 12-67310
It's time for a plumbing fiasco story.
I admit it. Yesterday I made some snide, sarcastic comment about Brutus' plumbing escapades as I set out to do one simple thing.......change out a 20 year old kitchen faucet with a new one my wife wanted. How tough could that be, right?
There were only 7 steps in the installation instruction manual. Step one was "take out old faucet and thoroughly clean sink top of old debris." That one step took me three hours!!!!
What the instruction manual did not hint at was the fact that only an ambidextrous small skinny monkey, wearing one of those headlight helmets, with Gumby-flexible 4.5 foot long arms, hands the size of an eight year old's but with the strength of a gorilla, and with an Albert Einstein IQ to figure out what the instruction manual was allegedly instucting......these were all prerequisites. Yup, I was too fat and had none of the above referenced attributes for this job.
After a lot of trying this and trying that, I was finally able to get the old mounting nut loose and the old faucet out, swearing at every impasse that my plumber, who had installed the original, was going to get an earful when I next spoke to him, even if I had to pay him $90 per hour for the pleasure of doing so.
You see, the single, large brass fixture mounting nut was the primary stumbling block, tucked way up high in the back in the 5 inches, sandwhiched between the sink and the rear wall of the cabinet. There was no easy way to get any tools (and my hand) up in that tight space except for one of those plastic (supplied) mounting collar thingies. The nut was apparently superglued into position and would not budge.
I came within that much of disconnecting the garbage disposal conveniently located in the way, cutting off the PVC sewer pipe, and then uninstalling the entire sink........except that the vision of Brutus dropping molten solder on his tummy stopped me dead in my tracks. By this time, my rib cage on my entire right side felt like someone had been beating on it with a 2X4.
Then the coup de gras. The wifey walks in the door with the customary comment "Jack, this should take only about 30 minutes start-to-finish, max!" Yes, another one of those wifey observations about something on the to-do list they think is a snap. She was disappointed that her new faucet (I had to drive all the way to Salem NH and back to get) was still sitting uninstalled on her kitchen table.
"Don't flush the toilets." I warned. "I have the water to the house shut off." "Why on earth did you do that? How am I supposed to go potty or fix dinner?" My very curt response, biting my tongue all the way: "You aren't. Call and order Chinese or pizza." Followed by: "If you don't stop second-guessing me or bothering me with pepperoni versus suasage, preventing me from finishing the job so we can turn the water turned back on, you WILL NOT have water until tomorrow night after the plumber gets through.....provided I can get one on such short notice." Her fear of that possibility made her back right off and head for the phone.
As most of you guys know, those wonderful, convenient water shut- off valves under the kitchen sink become inoperable, frozen in the open position, after a decade or so......force them and you either snap a pipe/fitting or they start to leak profusely post installation, requiring major surgery (by a plumber) to rectify. That was the reason I had to shut off the water to the house for this installation.
To make a long story short, I got the job done after one more installation issue requiring a call to price Pfister customer service. When I got a rep, he was very polite, clear, and was trying hard to help me.
The fixture my wife "had to have" had a side-mounted, single water on-off/hot-cold handle which, when deployed, hit the backsplash before the hot position was fully opened. The handle, however, could be rotated 90 degrees to the front with some faucet disassembly; but the instruction manual had a warning insert: "Before attempting to rotate handle to alternate/optional position, call PF customer service for important instructions!!!!"
OK, so I call PF customer service. "Hello. You have reached Price Pfister customer service. Due to the extremely heavy volume of calls, your wait time is currently 15 minutes." "Please call back at another time of the day if that is more convenient for you."
It's 8:30PM on a Tuesday night and everyone in the continental U.S is installing their new PF faucets on this very day at this late hour?!?! Anyway, the customer service guy was very nice but gave me the wrong info., told me to use a certain size allen wrench to taket out a particular set screw when it needed a torx head driver. As extreme luck would have it, I had the right size.........because I had deliberately failed to return the SIL's massive socket and driver tool set I had borrowed about a year ago. So procrastination on my part paid dividends here.
Summary: I have one small, slow leak post installation. One of my older flex feeder hoses (hot) is now leaking at the connector to that balky water shut off, will replace with new later today.
My sincerest apologies go out to Brutus for making fun of you during your plumbing escapades. From now on I am going to take my own wiseguy advice and call my plumber. He may have better luck arguing with the wife about what is taking so long or how she just might have picked the wrong faucet.
Later, gang.
Jack
IF IT WON'T COME LOOSE BY TAPPING ON IT, DON'T TRY TO FORCE IT. USE A BIGGER HAMMER.
RockIsland52 JEFF........it takes a third set of eyes to properly assess the problem with your Dodge van. It isn't the mileage, age, or the MPG. It is the fact that every time your Mom sees the size and shape of the vehicle her brain starts to calculate just how much furniture and bricks you can fit in it. Tell me I am wrong on this?
JEFF........it takes a third set of eyes to properly assess the problem with your Dodge van. It isn't the mileage, age, or the MPG. It is the fact that every time your Mom sees the size and shape of the vehicle her brain starts to calculate just how much furniture and bricks you can fit in it. Tell me I am wrong on this?
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Pat.........if you let the cows roam a little they might eat those Foxfire "cookies" you are trying to get rid of.
Dennis..........I did just that with the camera, changed the ISO setting and then set the aperature opening to full wide so that I could increase the shutter speed and still take photos without the flash. I always prefer natural light versus a flash when I can get away with it. I'd drop the external flash hint with the wifey for my upcoming birthday but I have to maintain her focus on the PE train set I am sure to score.
JON.....Buckeye is pulling your leg. It very rarely snows after March in Snohio, so you should have no worries come May. Just make sure you bring a napsack large enough to abscond with some of his more choice train items and, in advance, Mapquest the UPS store closest to him in Rogers Corners to ship them out to us.
DougDG.........you mentioned you should stop talking about the CA. weather for fear you will get some "unwanted visitors." I had mounted a roof carrier and hitched up a U-Haul to the SRX, loaded some live lobsters on ice and some beer, swung by and picked up LAZ, Chuck, SJ, MikeC, DougM, KEV, Brutus, and Jon........and we were all tooling along Route 80 Westbound halfway to California to visit you when we heard your terrible weather forecast. Then we got hungry and thirsty, pulled over, fired up the grill, ate, drank, and turned around and went back home.
SJ.........from your report, your Doc seems to have been so busy chatting with visitors that he forgot to tell you to step on the scale. You dodged that bullet for another 3 months.
Buckeye.........that was some "Kodak Moment" picture of your grandson. You should blow that one up, frame it, and mount it on the wall in your train room.
Re vehicles we choose to drive. Every time I start pouring $ into mine and start commiserating about the brand and model I chose years earlier, I go to an automotive forum (pick your brand, model) and read up on the miseries the rest are experiencing with theirs. That makes me feel a whole lot better, like we are all in the same foxhole under a financial barrage of needed repairs.
ROY.......I had to laugh when I read about your needing a vacation from your vacation. About three years ago the wifey and our family drove 1,042 miles back from Illinois where were visiting my MIL and FIL. We were not home more that an hour or so and then had to drive up to Maine to pick up our (then) new puppy Maximus, then drive back home. Guess how much sleep we got that night. Then back to work. I was trashed for days.
JimmyT........most of us have to admit that thing about cars. We buy them and then hang on to them.....sometimes for decades, as is my case, with the intention of getting them road worthy and later respectable. Then life and responsibilities intervene. Right now my "project" has been sitting for 16 years, safe and snug under a car cover in the garage, awaiting for me to pour twice as much money into it as it is worth as is. So you are in good company here on the POT.
Good morning
25 degrees, already higher than yesterday. I haven't made it through CTT yet but working on it. OGR is waiting. 2 eggs and corn beef hash for breakfast, Have a good day.......S.J.
"IT's GOOD TO BE THE KING",by Mel Brooks
Charter Member- Tardis Train Crew (TTC) - Detroit3railers- Detroit Historical society Glancy Modular trains- Charter member BTTS
Mornin' Fellas and Happy Belated New Year!Not much going on around these parts. Didn't get into the trainroom as much as I had hoped over the holidays, but I did get the Hobo Campfire and it will fit nicely under the bridge. Planning to get down into the trainroom some this week to work on some more scenery and maybe start work on the town area (after I fix one corner where the track spacing is too close and the outer track is too close to the wall, and after I finish the transition track from the main level to second level)... Also want to get all of the power drops hooked up so I can see if I can run the entire layout from one ZW output...Hope everyone is healthy and doing well.
Call before leaving. Rescheduled test. Moved to new location and camera not working. Glad I had not left to drive to Raleigh.
God bless TCA 05-58541 Benefactor Member of the NRA, Member of the American Legion, Retired Boss Hog of Roseyville , KC&D Qualified
What a beauty! (I love tinplate)
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
Good Morning CTT Fans!
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
Aloha. Ah, a balmy 27 today. Sent the real cold stuff to points east. Kev, the original Beeps stalled on 027 switches. But they've allegedly worked out those issues. They also used to derail a following-car on 027 curves - I'm talking about the first-generation ones. But they cut the coupler pocket a bit wider so it could swing a bit more and that allegedly fixed it. Let me know what you think, Love that Marx engine you were running! Sir J, thank you for your Beep info. I wanted to get one for one of our pastors who wanted an around-the-tree set-up but can't afford a simple set. Rich, I like Dodges. Our Grand Caravan has seen 11 years and 145,000 miles. Nice basic transportation. Dennis, 'I have two hearts this morning' struck me funny. I thought of Doctor Who! May those ops go smoothly. Joe, that's a great price. I pay a lot more than that for 200 channels - mostly junk - and medium speed internet. We gave up our land line years ago.
Good morning. It's 41 and partly sunny. It's looking like the high will be 62 and it will still be partly sunny.Sometime today I'll be going down to my parents place and clear all the yogurt cups out of both of their refrigerators. When I was putting stuff away after dinner last night I noticed the dates on a lot of them had expired by a long ways and I think I heard some discussion from the cups near the back about kicking out the mayo, butter and some other things. Yeah, definitely time to move them out. And if I can get some time for myself today I may be able to start on painted that junkyard scene.
Konbanwa,
Today started off kind of slow for me. I wasn't feeling so well when I woke up this morning so I stayed in bed and went to work late. In over 17 years of service this was only the third time that happened. I feel better now but I believe I need more sleep. The MBA program I am in has a very demanding workload and since I work fulltime and have a family I do most of my schoolwork late at night. I'll figure something out.
For those who have been to Hobby Lobby recently: Have you seen any ceramic Christmas buildings there? I'm asking because my MIL bought me three buildings there that were on sale. She doesn't have the boxes or photos but said the buildings are made by Mayberry Street and are a school, a store, and an opera house. I searched online but I could not find anything about them. I'm wondering how close to O scale they are.
SJ - I'm glad all went well with your appointment even though you had to wait.
Chuck - Did you use a cleaning car or by hand to clean the track?
Jack - We are fortunate to have five trees in our yard.
As for the bills: we have a US company on base which provides our cable, internet, and phone services. We have a bundle that costs us $145 a month which isn't too bad. We get about 40 mainstream US channels and about 10 foreign (mostly Japanese) channels. Our bill is a little higher because we opted for the HD package and also a faster internet service. The phone number they give us is a US number and all long distance US calls are included in our monthly bill. Plus, for folks calling us it's no different than calling the US. We use our local mobile phones to call Japanese numbers. The Japanese are very much into mobile phones, but I'm not sure if they have replaced land lines in the homes.
Sayonara,
Joe
33 degrees this morning here in Orlando. No trains, this year, for my birthday but received a radio controlled speed boat. Can't wait to try it out. This weekend: NY Jints over Atlanta? Hope so!
Good Morning from Blueberryhill RR....
It is a cold 16 degrees. Going up to only 26 today.
Today is a busy day. I have a bunch of chores to do and a few projects to work on. Maybe a nap, later. Have friends in South Carolina, who want us to move near them.
Track cleaning is not a chore. Got most done already. It was bad.
Dining car is here with Cheerios for breakfast.
Y'all have a great and warm Wednesday.
Chuck
Morning. You Yanks take your cold air back. Off to the Dr's for a nuclear stress test [do them every three years]. Takes most of the day.
Shake and Bake is off to train to run the train and gets paid for it.
Pat, glad to see you back. Need help running this cold Yankee air back Nawth.
Have a good one.
ROY,
Nice planking pic from other forum. YOU ARE STRONG!!!!
laz57
Hi GUYZ,
A balmy 8 here in Millersburg tis morn.
PROBE, YUK what a big mess. No amount of BONDO can fix that.
BANKS yes going up to MOMs to hunt. Not many deer there, but at least we see MOM and watch the Annual FARM SHOW Festivities this weekenk on PCN.
Stay frosty,
M-m-mornin' boys. Six-t-t-teen degrees outside. Need my thermal whities today.
Buckeye - Drop on in.
Wimberly - Careful driving by schools in that thing...people tend to call it in...
Good morning guys. A chilly one today....I think Kevin in Alaska left the door open! Have two hearts this morning and then violin with the kids later. Regarding Dodge vehicles, I was never a big fan, but would have loved to have owned a power wagon at some point. Have some friends who swear by them. Many moons ago, I used to help my dad at his business of building emergency vehicles. We noticed if you had any Chrystler vehicle as a base, the body metal was very weak, you could easily punch a drill through the skin. I have driven some dodge vehicles over the last several years, and I think they have come a long way, but I will most likely continue to drive what I have.
Roy, did you have trouble with the snow and ice they had in Tennessee? I have been up there in similar conditions and it just shut everything down for a day. I hated driving in some of those mountain passes with iced roads.
Well, I had better get to work. Have a blessed day everyone.
Evening All,
Completely lost control of my day, plans where to redo our flag pole, then work in the train room, but didn't really happen. Ended up doing the year end physical inventory, making a bunch of phone calls, and ordering product. Did manage to do a little bit on the flag pole but that was about it.
Tomorrow work at Knotts till 1pm, then going to go to the club. Want to see the new round house, and take some pictures.
A couple of comments regarding the Beeps, I have two that I bought shortly after they came out. I then got the Electric Railroad TMCC upgrade boards with sound and installed them. They really work well on my layout including the switches. The smallest track I run them on is O31. The sound set I got included a "Beep" horn that sounds like a Volkswagen. I use them primarily for pullling a track cleaning car around the track. (Unfortunately the sound board isn't available any longer.) I'm working on trying to change out the couplers with electronic couplers, but its been a challenge to get them mounted.
We had ANOTHER post card day today, AND first day since New Years Eve it hasn't been foggy overnight. But that will all change soon I'm sure, cold spell coming.
Take Care and God Bless
Don
Almost good morning, guys...
Going into the TEENS tonight and windy. Just got back from a fire call and it is cold, fortunately, my turnouts are WARM!! Thankfully, it was a false alarm. Fife - I feel your pain on the fatal...
Kev & Jeff - Being a Mopar Man, I have to tell you I am the 2nd owner of a 1995 Dodge neon with now 344,000+ miles on it. I just replaced the radiator ( a $35 investment ) thermostat ( a $8 investment ) and I need front struts ( $100 for both ) and a schrader valve for the AC system. And at 30+ MPG, it was worth every cent I've put into it. Oh, BTW my 1976 Dodge Aspen is a 13 MPG beast but it is pretty fast and hauls more than groceries. Love them both. I had a '85 Dakota and only my wife and stepson could kill it at 150,000 miles. Love my Dodges....Jeff - LOVE your RamVan!!
Buckeye - I also love that picture...but not looking forward to grandchildren just yet.....
Probe - yeah, sometimes ya just gotta invest in 'em...I understand where you're going on that!
Princess's Mom called yesterday and is flying her down to FLA for 2 weeks. Parents heading to NC for a week then to Cancun for another....geez, no one home? I wonder what mischief I can get into...
OK, going to head up to bed....sooo...good night!
I am the monster in your head...And I thought you'd learn by now, It seems you haven't yet.I am the venom in your skin --- Breaking Benjamin
Cccccold in Saint Louis today! Hope everyone had a good commute! Those BEEPs sure look nice, you guys have to tell us how they run for you when they show up. BNSF is a good choice, Kev!
Jack - hope you don't burn a hole in your tummy like I did - could have been worse, could have dripped down closer to home (ahem)!!!
TARDIS is ready, so let's hit it!
RIP Chewy - best dog I ever had.
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