Coffee Pot #4 April 2012 8 years [April 1 is Anniv.] and going strong and its for all to chat. Plenty of coffee and sweet ice tea for all. Come and join us and chat. GRITS for the Yankees.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Time for me to call it a night. It's been a busy day but I did get some time to work on a couple of locos. They're in the photo below. In the foreground is an old PEMCO 2-6-0 that still runs fairly well and quiet. It has a penchant for stalling on turnouts at slow speed. Motor and drive are in the tender and the drive wheels of the loco pick up power. I also cleaned up and ran the old Athearn SW1000 in the background. It too is on the quiet side, has a Blue Box drive and does fairly well at slow speed. Put the power to it and it takes off like a spooked deer!

Tomorrow my father is taking my mother to Alexandria for a doctors appointment. I should have the day to myself!

See y'all tomorrow.

[traindood]

Evenin' fellas and gals:     Rain, rain, don't go away for awhile, we need it!   Pourin' here just now.   Had a swell time in York. Great to meet some of my "pot" bretheren.  Didn't get much there but some new friendships.   Hey Chief; tried to order grits but waitress said "No Chief, no grits!  I thought  you might have been hidin' out in the back somewhere.    Anyway, fond memories of all the fellas and Mrs. Banks.    Hey Ray; too bad you whimped out on York, we now know who the good brother- in law is!                   later.

[AF53]

Traindood - I hope we can meet up in October.

Ray

[ChiefEagles]

lionroar88

Mornin' Fellas

I went back and read 5 days worth of posts and no one posted the CTT Forum Photo so here it goes:


Front Row (L to R): Laz, Carl Swanson, Fife, Mitch
Back Row (L to R): 88, Banks, Bob Keller, SJ, ???, Charlie, Traindood, ???, Brutus, Don

One big question?????  Why did you put the tallest and ugliest kneeling in the front?

Still raining.  late Snohio on the Yanks.

Sleep tight.

[Brutus]

Gnite Chief! 

Great pic, Brent - glad they put me in back so your lens didn't break, lol!

Man, I'm still tired from the trip I guess.  Got up early even though I didn't want to.  Mostly we goofed off today, but I did get my laundry done from the trip.  We went out to eat at Olive Garden for lunch/dinner and I'm still full.  Kids wanted to go shopping, so we took them to Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, and Vintage stock - they got a couple books and a music cd, so they were happy.

Getting late, but probably time for one loop-de-loop?  Let's go guys!

[Demay]

Konnichiwa,

It’s raining again today and it is still pretty chilly as well.  It should be sunny with a high of 79 tomorrow.  I’m hoping it’s enough to dry out the baseball fields in time for tomorrow evening’s practice.  The kids have already finished school for the day and we are relaxing inside.  We started a game of Monopoly last night on the Wii and will finish it this afternoon. 

It’s great to hear the stories from York and see the photos.  My question about the photo is why is Fife doing the cancan? 

RT – You’re welcome.  I know what you mean about having trains running.  Although our UTB RR is small it still fun to have the trains going.  I am half-tempted to set up an old HO set I found in our one closet when we were unpacking after our move here.  It’s mostly boxed up so I’m sure it runs.  I may build something small for it to run on outside on our back porch. 

Brent – I hope Christina is feeling better.

Sayonara,

Joe

[8ntruck]

Cloudy and 50's today.

Sprint car race Friday night was pretty good.  Tony Stewart showed up.  He finished 4th.  Steve Kinser had car trouble in the heat races, so he started in the back of the pack in the main.  Was fun watching him pick his way through the pack during the main.  Late models ran as the support class.  The guys we used to pit next to were running.  Enjoyed watching them run, too.

Got to the LHS Saturday and put a SD-40 in MKT livery on order.

My wife bought a mountain bike Saturday too.  Wanted to buy me one as well.  I opted to have my old touring bike resurrected instead.  I've put a lot of miles on that bike over the years.  Rode it across the Mackinaw bridge twice - the high point of the DALMAC tour.  Most of our riding will probably be done on the KATY trail.

All for now.

[wrmcclellan]

Evening all!

Great York pic. Last fall there were only about 5 of us. Sorry I missed out.

Typical project day today. Building a fence to cover up the new pool equipment. I need to dig holes for 3 posts. Go to Lowes and get materials. Start the first post hole - sprinkler feed pipe about 12 inches down. OK - shift a bit and I am able to sink the hole 2 1/2 feet. Second post hole - sprinkler feed pipe on other side of post hole - shift a little and should be ok. Well one shot and I hit the sprinkler pipe. seems ok so I keep going. Clean out the hole and yep - the sprinkler pipe is seeping water ( and it is not under pressure since it is off so this is not good. OK - take note and will fix later. Note this is Texas back gumbo/clay so each hit with the posthole digger and then you lift it to the wheeelbarrow and use a garden tool (weeder) to scrape the clay (none of it comes off without scrapping it) off the post hole digger inside and out (this is way tedious). Start the last hole - sprinkler feed pipe right in the middle. This is a 3/4 inch line and yep - in my sprinkler spare parts box no 3/4 repair stuff. Off to Lowes again to buy lots of elbows and extra pipe to route around both posts. OK back home working on repairs - have to dig further around each post so now there is not enough soil around the two posts unless I want to pour a lot of concrete and encase the sprinkler pipe (nope). So back to Lowes to procure some concrete form tube. Need 6 inch - nope - they have 8 inch - OK. Back home. Cut the 8 inch tube to just go down to the sprinkler pipe level and now I am set to backfill on the forms once I get the pipe fixed. The reroute takes 4 elbows for each post and more digging. In the middle of fixing the pipe (lots of fine cutting since I am only routing the pipe over about 4 inches) I notice I have knocked over the new can of PVC/ABS primer - so lost most of it. Luckily I had an old can that was about half full. Finally got the pipes repaired/rerouted, got the 8 inch forms in place and then backfilled around the forms. Looking good (finally!?). The wife and I had an event to go to this evening so had to stop and clean up. We are on watering restrictions so had to run the sprinklers tonight or have to wait until next Sunday. So I placed a bucket over each hole with a brick on top and kept my fingers crossed that my repairs were good and that the sprinklers would not blow out the post holes. Got home tonight and good news the holes only had a small amount of water in them. Tomorrow evening - set and align the posts - pour in the concrete mix and add water!

 

[laz 57]

Hi GUYZ,

  39 here but NO SNO HI O.  Thanks CHUCK for not shooting the SNOW CANNON here.  29 more dayz to go!!!

MY PENS are ready for the golf course.

CHIEF, That one lean mean fighten machine in the front kneeling down. 

Stay frosty,

laz57

[Blueberryhill RR]

Good Morning from Blueberryhill RR....

It is a cold and damp  39 degrees. No snow, but a little rain. Going up to 52 today.

Today is a busy day. I have a bunch of chores to do and a project to work on. Wife is grocery shopping. Maybe a nap after lunch.

Dining car is here with Cheerios for breakfast.

Y'all have a great  Monday.

Chuck

[dwiemer]

Good morning everyone!  Going in later as I am on call.  Fun reading all the post-York posts.  Glad everyone had a good time.  Regarding pricing, there are some who had very good pricing, but you had to do a Lot of looking and a fair amount of haggling.  I thought I made out pretty well with Just Trains and Gryzboski's as well as Barry's.  Chief made out well on a couple of engines from some dealer in Brown Hall.  

Roy, that sounded like one of my adventures.  When I was using a powered auger, I got into the leach field.  Then, when digging the beds to plant some shrubs, I found the phone line.  I have learned a lot from correcting my own problems.  The last one was having to replace the main feed off the well as the pipe had burst from freezing.

Time for me to get to some paperwork on the adoption thing.  We have all the documents logged in with China, but to be ahead of things, we are completing the next set of work while we wait.  We are getting a lesson in patience.  It can't come soon enough though.

God bless,

Dennis

[rtraincollector]

Gee Roy only 3 trips to Lowe's your lucky don't want to count the trips I made to Lowe's/HD when I replaced my water heater. ( actually could of gotten it done a couple of trips less but wanted it to be correct and look correct like a professional did it.) when I bought the house a wire was connected to the wire by wire nuts so it would reach to the hot water heater and when I put in the new I had to rerun the plumbing as it was just there not supported at all.

Morning all getting ready for DR appointment this afternoon.

[fifedog]

Mornin' boys.  Cold and damp here in the post-YORK Atlantic region.  Back to the grind tonight. 

Can't post pick-a-churs til middle princess returns from college.  Imagine that I'm showing you a MTH MA&PA Sw9 set, a Weaver B&O 50' boxcar, a LIONEL UP centerbeam car, a LIONEL GT reefer, and the aforementioned D&RGW bobbing-horse car (from a LIONEL set break-up).  Not a bad take for $300.

Can-can...? Don't you guys recognize the Heisman pose when you see it...?

[Demay]

Konbanwa,

Fife –   Maybe if you weren’t using Mitch and Carl for support I might buy it.  Plus, it does look like Carl is about to kick up his right leg as well.  I can’t wait to see photos of your haul.

The kids and I finished our Wii Monopoly game and I actually won – that’s a first.  We had a fun evening and I made chicken fajitas for dinner.  The princess had ballet class tonight and the older son wanted to watch Finding Nemo before bed.  I can watch that movie every day.  I just finished some schoolwork and I need to get some sleep.  We have a busy day scheduled for tomorrow.

Sayonara,

Joe

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 55° and sunny. Partly cloudy later and 79° for the high.

Not much going on today. My father is taking my mother to an appointment in Alexandria today and supposedly he'll be looking after her later also. Looks like I have the day to myself. No particular plans today. I may work on rebuilding a pair of 70's era Athearn three axle trucks for an ancient SD9. Gears are what it needs and the gears from a blue box SD40-2 look to be the ticket. Bottom plates are a perfect fit too.

[KRM]

ChiefEagles

KRM:

Hi guys,

Had to fix the neighbors Crappsman rider yesterday but I do it every year.   She just can’t get it into her head you need to winterize them in the fall. Oh well it is running now so at least I don’t have to cut her grass.

Why don't you take your lazy butt over each winter and winterize her mower for her.  What kind of sorry neighbor are you?

 Chief,

 OUCH!!!

Well I have kind of been thinking one of her sorry three grown son's or her x hubby would think to do that.

 

 

[DMUinCT]

Another great YORK show, always good fun and great conversation.

Fine ride home listening to the Red Sox beat up on the Yankees 9 to 0, ah 9 to 1, 9 to 8?, 9 to 12 ??, 9 to 15 !!   Well, " there's always next year".

[Stourbridge Lion]

Good Morning CTTFans!

It's 52F and Sunny and heading up to 82F (Yuk!) as we get it with a brief heat wave; summer is getting here way to fast again.

Spent the weekend spackling, sanding, and painting and slowing putting the house back together.  Still have more rooms to finish but sadly I'm glad Monday is here so I can go to work and get some rest.

Back to my day job...

[cnw1995]

Aloha and Happy Monday. Sunny and cool here. Roy, that sounds like all of my projects, except for your high competence - mine usually includes my installing something back-wards or upside down too. Spent yesterday doing a few things around the house that need to be done whilst I can still easily move around. Ran trains late - I 'm interested in the new Thomas Lionel featured at York - no transformer - just a wall-wart to the track and a simple R/C controller.

[KRM]

Cool but sunny and 46 degrees right now. We are so dry it scares me living in the wood. Not good.

I am glad I am not flying into Fargo today and am just home doing nothing.

Nice pictures of the Pot guys at York and I agree with Jeffery nice to see who is who. Sounds like you all scored well. 

Roy, it is good to know it is not only me that has bad luck doing yard projects.

Sounds like there were some good deals at York, I would like one of those bobbing horse head cars like Fife got too.    I think the granddaughter would like it.

I am looking for a Gantry crane for my switchyard if any of you know someone that has one they would want to sell.

I have been having some bad luck on Flea-bay and had to give my first ever negative feedback to a guy, He said a Miller High Life car was excellent and had no alterations when I got it there were permanent ink markings on the doors and ladders. I consider that an alteration. Some guys? 

RT, good luck at the doctors today, 

Dennis, Prayers for a speed up in the adoption process for you and your wife. It must be hard waiting.

DougDG I am glad you are seeing things clearly again.

DougM , your next.

Have a great day guys,

Kev.

 

 

[Stourbridge Lion]

And the camera is still functional LOL!!!

Glad to see the group got together and got this photograph done and posted.  It's nice to see the faces behind the posters like this. 

 

lionroar88

Mornin' Fellas

I went back and read 5 days worth of posts and no one posted the CTT Forum Photo so here it goes:


Front Row (L to R): Laz, Carl Swanson, Fife, Mitch
Back Row (L to R): 88, Banks, Bob Keller, SJ, ???, Charlie, Traindood, ???, Brutus, Don

Had an awesome time meeting everyone and just hanging out... Laz 1 hour!?!?! Yes it did seem like mere minutes. I got a bunch of scenery materials from Scenery Express, a C&O REA car, and a T-Shirt for Christina. Photos on SPF.

Kev - for the little one and MIL

Christina is doing better, for the Pot - Christina got an ear infection and was running a temp of 101 on Thursday (why I missed the festivities), she's been on meds for a few days and is back to being herself again.

[ChiefEagles]

DMUinCT

Another great YORK show, always good fun and great conversation.

Fine ride home listening to the Red Sox beat up on the Yankees 9 to 0, ah 9 to 1, 9 to 8?, 9 to 12 ??, 9 to 15 !!   Well, " there's always next year".

OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!

At Town Hall.  Had to run to Duke Raleigh for a chest CT.  New specialist wants to know why I have pneumonia every year.  More insurance and co-pays.   Think Dr's like Medicare.

Fifey, we know it is the "can can".

Kev, think you are a fine neighbor for even helping.  Some folks expect everything from their neighbor's.

Have a good one.       

[sir james I]

50 and sunny now. Just home from getting my tooth cleaned, don't have to go back for any old fillings. That's always good news. I just rested yesterday even though the drive home is not all that bad, a day of rest is good...S.J.

[cheapclassics]

Good morning all,

It is cloudy in SE Indiana and cool with temps in the low 50s.   Watched "Once Upon a Time" last night.  Not one of the better episodes, but still ok.  Back to regular work today.  Not too much going on,and I am ok with that.  I will try to read up on all the posts so I can get caught up.  TBIL and I can drive.  I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[KRM]

V8Vega

Drizzled this morning enough that with rain forcast Wed. I can leave off the sprinklers for a few days. Cold all week, mid 60's after nice warm weather last few days.

KRM I had four Husqvarna off road racing motorcyvles in the mid 60's to mid 70's. I was real active in desert Hare and Hound racing, had a lifetime worth of fun, Saw more of the desert than almost anybody ever will and love the desert. Husqvarna was the best made back then, the Japanese were just learning then.

Wrmcclellan I never took a typing class so I am not willing to type enough to describe things in detail like that.

eBay ruined train shows as far as price go's except that searching for a list of things quickly becomes work where train shows are fun.

 

 V8,

 I agree on all points.

 My triumph dealer back in the day also sold Husqvarna off road racing motorcyvles I road a few but never got one. No place around here that much fun to ride. Farmers would shoot you!

 

 I too,   never took a typing class so I am not willing to type enough to describe things in detail like that.

 

Flea-bay has taken the fun out of thehunt and forced prices down.

 Kev

 

 

[Hudson#685]

Lunchtime,

Still can not post on the home computer. My son and I did what we could yesterday. I need to get my son in law over to look at it.

My son and I really enjoyed York. I scored a pristine 646 Hudson for the right price from a nice gent from the Detroit area. I also grabed a new Williams NW2 from Trainworld for $90. My son aquired some Marx pieces and some nice diecast construction equipment to add to his collection.

It was great meeting everyone and I can not wait until October.

SJ: The Lemon Ice Cream is made and in the shock box hardening. hopefully I will have some tonight when I get home from school. I will let you know how the first batch came out. We will definitely get some to you.

LAZ: My son can not wait to tell his old shop teacher how many kids you have. they still keep in touch, besides my daughter teaches in the same school.

Fife: My son said that you were absolutely right on the advice you gave him. He is pursuing a degree in Homeland Security and Business.

Traindood: Working on getting Ray there.

Time to get back to work!

Thoughts and Prayers for all in need.

Have a Great Day,

John

[laz 57]

HUDSON685,

   JOHN, you got a pretty good son there.  As I told him, he's the type of student that a shop teacher loves to have around.  He can do so much with his knowledge and work ethic, that makes my job so much easier.  I had quite a few kids like him and everyone went on to be great people.  It was a pleasure meeting both of you.   Hope to see YUZ GUYZ down at YORK again.

laz57

[Ole Timer]

Glad to see all the guys made it back safe from york ... I will try to catch them tonight on chat ...

[SPMan]

Good morning all,

been enjoying looking at the group picture of the Pot members at York  Couldn't figure out what Fife was doing at first.  Thought his pants fell down or something until someone explained it was the can can.  I need to get the name of your tailor from some of the guys in the shot.  I think I would fit right in if I were there.  Good to see you all and glad you had a good time.  Sorry you didn't get any grits but just had to rough it without the Chief.

I'm still  proceeding with caution with food since my upset last week.  I'm beginning to think it might have been some form of food poisoning though not that severe.  We went out for wife's birthday dinner last night and I did OK with food but only ate very simple things with no surprises.  Her actual birthday is Wednesday the 25th.  We plan on doing something on that day too.  Yesterday was to accomodate our kids who would not be around on Wednesday.

Found some videos on the other forum about presentations at the Toy Train Museum in Strasburg, Pa. from the train vendors about new products.  MTH was not too exciting.  They mentioned something about farming out repairs to others in the future for out of warranty stuff in order to expedite turn around time.  WBB sounded interesting with an improved version of Tru Blast sounds.  Now they are going digital with more sounds of engine and real recordings of horns, bells, etc.  They showed an ACL GP30 in the late color (black and yellow) in their new products.  Might get that one if the price is right.  Their new engines have much better detail on hand rails and things than their older line.  Glad to see they are doing new things.  Lionel presentation had lots of stuff to look at as well.

Saw some reference on here that Fife was supposed to have given about the U.P. 844 flat wheel problem as to causes etc. but I could not find it on the Pot.  From what I have been able to piece together, it is my belief that the U.P. diesel behind the 844 must have had a delay feature for reducing the power to idle when the train goes into emergency brake application.  This feature was added on some engines to prevent run ins if the engine went into emergency braking.  Normally, when you plug a train (go into emergency), all the brakes on the train set up including the engine and something called a power control switch (PCS) reduces the engine power to idle.  Apparently, this did not happen with the diesel behind the #844 and so the steam engine with it's brakes already applied was pushed from behind and slid it's driving wheels causing the flat spots they have now.  Maybe this was what Fifey was thinking of?

Chief, you're still looking cool driving your rubber tired train.  You need to find a shot showing the entire engine and not just the cab.  I think you are making D.Baker jealous.

V8 Dennis, we are getting that drizzle/light rain that came through your neck of the woods right now.  Might help the grass a little.  Roy, I will have to reread your post about digging the holes.  Sounds like you are wetting the ground to be able to dig it.  Is that right?  I know I inherited a set of post hole diggers from my deceased neighbor and tried to dig with it.  The ground here is like concrete.  I would have to wet the ground too.  We have adobe soil.  Only good for making bricks, not growing anything except weeds.  They seem to grow anywhere.

Ran some trains yesterday with no mishaps.  Set up the record/playback feature on my Daylight train and just watched it run automatically.  Whistle blowing for every crossing gets kind of tiresome after a while though even if it is prototypically correct.  Real crossing or further apart.

Ray

 

[ChiefEagles]

sir james I

50 and sunny now. Just home from getting my tooth cleaned, don't have to go back for any old fillings. That's always good news. I just rested yesterday even though the drive home is not all that bad, a day of rest is good...S.J.

All I did was bold and underline.   Goes with his ONE hair he gets cut.