RE:Coffee Pot #5 May 2012 6 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.

[Blueberryhill RR]

Good Morning from Blueberryhill RR....

It is a cool 50 degrees. Sunny. Going up to 80 today with sunshine.

Today is a busy day. I have a bunch of chores to do and some paperwork. I will be busy until lunchtime. Then, I will relax and perhaps take a nap.

Buckeye & LAZ..... TGIF

Dining car is here with Cheerios for breakfast.

Y'all have a great Friday.

Chuck 

[ChiefEagles]

Morning.  Had a nice shower yesterday evening.  Now back into the box to finish painting [trimming out floor and ceiling] and "boxing in" wall exhaust.  Flooring Monday!!!  Once that is done.  Bench work!!!!!!!!!!

Off to lake house to mow and mow and mow this afternoon.  Work on 8 slip dock [I have one slip] Saturday.  

Blown, prayers.

Buckeye is right about those kits and TMCC.  Makes some great upgrades.  [OH NO!!! I am agreeing with Buckeye.]

Short rows LAZ.

Later 

[laz 57]

Hi GUYZ,

  47 here and cool.  Getting to 74.  11 more to go!!!

TANKs GUYZ for all the CONGAs. 

SPMAN, WIFE and I backpacked in KINGs CANYON on honeymoon.  We hiked a 80 mile trek there.  Was some on the most beautiful scenery we've ever seen.  Got into some great fishing up there in the high country(above 9000 ft) for cutthroat trout.  Not very big about 7-8 inches but lots in the lakes there.  We started and ended our trek at the WHITNEY PORTAL.  I'd love to get  back out there again.  We also did a 45 miler backpack trip in YELLOWSTONE a few dayz before the Kings.  Around Lake Shosonne.  BIG Cutthroats there over 5 lbs.  But the skeeters ate us alive.  This was back in '96 and we were introduced to the wolves out there.  Full moon and the wolves howling about 100 yards away from our tent, quite the nite!

BUCKEYE, gee I never thought about all the time I'll have to goof off.  Man thats cool!

CHUCK and BUCKEYE, TGIF!!!!!

CHIEF, RED SOLO CUP, I LIFT U UP LETS HAVE A PARTY!!!!

Stay frosty,

laz57

[cnw1995]

Aloha and TGIF. Sunny and warmish. I get to go to Wrigley Field to cheer the Sox today!  Hopefully will not run afoul of NATO delegates arriving. Local tiny airport is full of black helos.
Brutus, agree with you about the banks. There's always a surprise fee or missing form.
SJ, praying for you
Roy and Dennis:   

[blownout cylinder]

 

Good Morning

Posta be be sunny and a high near 75F today..right now..plain ol' dull and 57F

 

Have the consultation to get to later this morning then it will be off to the LHS to see about a couple of tree kits...need something fiddly to work on..as I'm all fiddly now

Thanks for the prayers guys!!

Also......for those who are in need...

Brutus:  Good to see your father doing better!

 

[rtraincollector]

Morning all not a lot going on here. Just got up. Time for some breakfast. not a lot planned for today may move some furniture around here in the den to see how things are going to work as I think little by little its getting close to time to start doing bench work. Hmmm this is going to be interesting.

Anyway time to go take pills and make breakfast. Talk to you all later.

[Buckeye Riveter]

wrmcclellan

Chief and Don - I am not sure a layout running through various china cabinets counts as a "layout" and "benchwork".

Roy....The sturdiest part of the Chief's layout is where the double slip switch is perched on top of the pink toilet tank, standard scenery for a Roseyville Model Train Layout designed by a California F&N.

Laz....After you retire, I assume that your time wasting will be expontially increased by a factor of ten. Will you be able to still post:  TGIF ?

With my time off this week, I have been running the trains.  For all of those TMCC bashers, after almost 11 years of running a Lionel 5412 NYC Hudson with TMCC and RS, it still runs perfect. The new ERR units run even better, but I have only been beating on them for five or less years.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 61° and partly cloudy with patchy fog. The high will be 92° with patchy clouds.

Nothing planned for today except to run some trains and watch some movies. Last night my father actually managed to get some information together from the internet. A great accomplishment for him. Problem was he couldn't figure out how to print it. So he calls me and tells me I have to hotfoot it over there and show him how to do this simple task. I told him what has to happen is he has to listen to what I tell him and do it exactly the way i tell him to to. So I go through the simple step by step process with him making sure he does everything right. After a couple of minutes I hear the printer start. It prints four pages and stops. He says that's everything. Now how does he shut everything down? So he gets a quick lesson over the phone how to exit the browser and shut the computer down. Now he's learned a new thing. He's gonna be impossible to live with. Glad I don't live there.

[RockIsland52]

AF53

RIJack - Did you hide our bats??? Someone took our bats!! Your Sox are in a hot streak. Just beta the Rays for us.

Ray

Ray..........hows that for service????  Sox topped the Rays tonight.

Jack

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Brutus: Glad your father is doing better.

 

 

Time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

[Brutus]

Howdy guys - just a little twinge and I have been stretching, Jack.  Dad is doing a lot better, but the drugs are making him hallucinate a little, which was fun.  I visited with him for about an hour today.  Ultrasound today did not show stone they found on the CT scan, so they think it broke up, which would explain the flow of bile etc. He has inflammation in the pancrease, so they have to clean him out before they can do the gall bladder surgery - he'll be in a week, it sounds like.  His spirits are good and we had some good talk time.

Bank has more paperwork for us and apparently the loan will cost us about $900 more than we thought, but they have to get their pound of flesh I suppose.  I hate banks.  One banker says yeah all our stuff is in the file and we get email from another saying they are missing a lot of stuff we know we sent in.  It's like a different world.  If they screw around any more, we will take our money elsewhere - lots of banks would like to serve us, I'll bet.

SJ - nice talk.  Sure praying for you brother.  Good chat with RT and Charlie too.  Great nab on those switches RT!

Chief - can you put a high level ($$$) filter on that while you are working to save it from the dust and stuff?

8NT - try running that set with a CW80 and see if there are sounds?  The Hogwarts whistle works with that CW80, but not with a lionel brick with tpc configuration?

Prayers for us all and our loved ones.  TARDIS is ready and SJ said Loop-D-Loops are required, so hold onto your seats, it's gonna be a bumpy ride Mike!

 

[rtraincollector]

He said it ran when it was put up about 10 years ago lol So I will want to at least see it also if I can as we all know condition is everything

[AF53]

Good Evening All!

Nice and cooool tonight, windows are open.

HudsonJohn - See ya Fri night and I will help you clean up some of your house!

RT - As Jim said, numbers. I would also ask when it ran last. Will you have the chance to examine it before you estimate it's $?

RIJack - Did you hide our bats??? Someone took our bats!! Your Sox are in a hot streak. Just beta the Rays for us.

Good night,

Ray

[dwiemer]

Good evening everyone.  It has been a tough few days.  Got called back last night at 10pm, then had to go in for a scheduled case at 04:30.  got home around 6 tonight and hoping I stay home.  Tomorrow, after finishing up at the hospital, I will be going to the church to film a high school graduation.  Should be a full day of it.

Brutus, been lifting you and the family up in prayer.  Also SJ and Blown Cylinder, will pray for good news soon. 

Doug, glad you are able to stay away from the city.  Looks like Benzilla has been having a blast with the trains.  Kinda jealous myself.

Jack, It is tough for some folks to break out on their own.  They may be wanting to do so, but for some reason, they don't give it the effort it needs.  Sometimes, folks are forced to do what they have wanted to do, but never had the courage to make the jump.  Regarding the photos, I have some very fast lenses, but still, it can be limiting.  Some of the newer bodies have increadible low light performance at high ISO.   I was able to get some great capture at 1600 and f2.8, but above that, it can get some noise.  One thing to do with your camera is experiment with how it performs under all different circumstances.  You should have an idea of what to look for and how to handle anything you may encounter.  I am still learning.

Well, it is about bed time.  My wife tells me that Phillip Phillips is one of the final two contestents on American Idol.  She got this from her email contacts.  We do not have network television, so we have never seen the show.  Phillip is from our town and they had a big parade for him this weekend.  Hope he gets it, if for no other reason than I hear that he and his family are very nice people, and humble spirits.

One last note, the police chief of the city I used to work for was convicted of fraud and misconduct.  It is a big deal and the things they got him on carry a minimum of 15 years in prison.  He has been a thorn in the side of the fire department for some time.  The PD officers are mostly great folks, but this chief and his cronies were corrupt.

Have a blessed night.
Dennis

[wrmcclellan]

Evening all.

SJ - my friend.

Doug M - have you been able to get Ben's arms back at his sides?

Stourbridge - I am enjoying the photos.

Chief and Don - I am not sure a layout running through various china cabinets counts as a "layout" and "benchwork".

Grilled out again but it got pretty warm today - 89 I think.

Have a great evening all!

[submmbob]

Hello all

Back on the hill for another week. Should be an interesting week. We have a group installing a new receiver which is pretty involved. Not a whole lot for us to do though, except offer advice and find tools occasionally.

The car is running fairly well. Looked into a brake squeak. Need to have one of the drums turned again. They left a ridge next to the web that the shoe is grabbing instead of the whole surface.

BOC - prayers that your consultation goes well

SJ - hang in there w/ your doctor's appointments

Laz - just a bit more to go...

Dropped some friends off at the train station last Saturday to catch the Sunset Limited east. Nice work they have done on the station. Checked out the old CTC control desk they have on display in the waiting room. Very cool. Then got to see the train come into the station. Love the sound of the P42's. Sends shivers up my spine when they come in to an idle and hiss and snort Saw that they have a new schedule for the train starting this month.

Bob

[rtraincollector]

sir james I

67 now.

Not happy right now 2 of the 3 skin biopsies were cancer. Not the worst kind but she does not want to do the one above my chin. Says it's large and I need a specialist. She will do the other one. Of course this means more doctor visits back and forth. I know it's the right thing to do but I am sooo freaking tired of going to doctors. Laz is looking forward to retirement and I am happy for him, but I'd rather be 35 and working...S.J.

 Wow SJ prayer to you buddy hope all comes out fine. Not a lot going on here tonight. Did an okay job on bidding last night I won 5 gargraves switches with motors for $52 and with shipping it came out to $66 so about $13 and some change each. 3 right and 2 left I think or might be the other way around either way its a good deal for some switches.

Yeah we all know sj once we get old enough to retire we wish we were young enough again to where we had to work ( look at chief he retired and he went right back to work

Well looks like were done for a while anyway with the storms

waiting for the tardis crew to get here.

[rtraincollector]

yeah thats why I asked for numbers probe

[Anonymous]

RT,

         I need more info, but that set is probably headed by some Reading 4-4-2 Atlantic.

SJ,

          

[sir james I]

67 now.

Not happy right now 2 of the 3 skin biopsies were cancer. Not the worst kind but she does not want to do the one above my chin. Says it's large and I need a specialist. She will do the other one. Of course this means more doctor visits back and forth. I know it's the right thing to do but I am sooo freaking tired of going to doctors. Laz is looking forward to retirement and I am happy for him, but I'd rather be 35 and working...S.J.

[rtraincollector]

Evening all in between thunder storms. Charging laptop. was down to 10% lol so its should be about charged its been an hour now will go check in a couple as more storms are suppose to be coming this way. Pay$&!+ did me again went to pay on a auction ask's pay-pal or pay later I click pay-pal goes to next screen asks again I click pay-pal goes to next screen says confirm you payment using pay-pal I click confirm get email says you buy it now account has been charged I called them and told them to remove the buy it now pay later account off my account. had to quick send a payment as I was close to max on it and this payment would put me over limit. okay time to step down for a couple of minutes.

On another front had a fellow employee ask me to make an offer on a American flyer set told him I needed some info condition numbers ectect. he says he thinks it has some if not all of the cardboard trestles for the figure 8 layout it makes. and he has the boxes for the boxcar, caboose, engine and tender. may need some help hello AF53, probe, stebbycentral and a few others of you.

[ChiefEagles]

Afternoon.  Off to political club meeting.  Dinner and meeting.  Wifey going with me [that's new].

Not a lot of Box work done.  Hauled a load to the dumpster site so floor is now uncluttered.  Did somemore trim but stopped when skies got darker.  Mowed grass for widow neighbor, Grady and myself.  T'storm hit while A/C guy was finishing up the Box A/C drain thing.  Heatpump must have come on while Grady was doing ceiling as full of white dust.  Also the guys that work for him did not change the wall mount.  You do not mount them level.   You mount them slightly toward drain.  We fixed that and all OK.

Hope to do floor tomorrow as have to go to lake house tomorrow afternoon and mow and mow.  Then Saturday is the 8 slip dock work day.  

Later. 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good afternoon. It's 83° and sunny. The high is due to be 89°.

Had a bad night and didn't get to sleep until the wee hours so slept late. Today I performed preventive maintenance on the Frankenstein trio of F units. That's a somewhat difficult job as all three are permanently coupled and electrically connected to each other. Put any one of them on the track and the other two get power also because they're all connected with jumpers. Getting to the gears in the bottom of the trucks isn't much of a problem as I made sure all the trucks had the Athearn style pop off plates when I built the locos. A small drop of ATF on each axle gear and a drop on the main gear then snap the plate back on. Do that six times and that gets it done for the entire trio. Lubing the worm can be a little more tricky as none of the locos are what they appear to be from the outside. The appear for the most part to be Athearn's but when you get inside you quickly realize you aren't in Kansas anymore. An example is that the third unit has a Proto/Stewart style chassis and Athearn type worm clips. How do you get those clips off? It's tricky but it can be done. The lead unit has a Stewart chassis with Proto trucks. In this case the high sides and ends were cut off the chassis. The lack of weight was made up for by adding a modified Athearn super weight. That simplifies the task of getting the worm clips off enormously. Getting them back on is the trick as the Stewart frame wasn't made with Athearn style trucks in mind and the Proto trucks are simply better made Athearn type trucks. I got them to fit the frame by performing very extensive surgery on said frame, something I won't do again. That was too much work. The middle unit is a real Pandora's box containing parts from seven types of locos made by at least four manufacturers. The ones I remember are Athearn, Proto, Kato and Varney. The Varney part is the metal body shell. It's a tight friction fit on the frame and will make you cuss in several languages while getting it off and back on. It's needed because of the heavy weight. The frame is an Athearn clone made by some other company and the parts inside is a real melange, some of which weren't made to work with the parts they're connected to. The drive shafts will have you scratching your head as you try to wrap your brain around how they're made. Scrap parts, super glue, a Dremel and some ingenuity can go a long ways.

[SPMan]

Good morning all,

Blownout, prayers for a good outcome on your consultation with oncologist.  I missed the original post on this but I know it is serious business.  Best wishes and prayers

Laz, the big day is getting close.  You are fortunate to live where you can hunt and fish after retiring.  I tried fishing a little after mine but there are too few places near the city here.  There is a trout stream up in a canyon above us which was good years ago but it has since been overun by undesirable types who have destroyed the look of the place with trash etc.

Jack you are right on the mark with your description of shopping with the wife.  We do the split up thing.

Chief, sounds like your help likes to tilt the jug a little too much when you need him.  That might have been me when I was young but happily, I am a teetotaler for the past 41 years.  With my plumbing, drinking would kill me now.  Good luck on the layout design by Don and you.

Back on the bland diet again following doctor visit yesterday and waiting for colonoscopy next week.  Hope to be well enough to attend recital by the High School orchestra tonight.  My grandson plays the violin.

later,

Ray

[cheapclassics]

Good afternoon all,

IIABSDISEI.  Got to scrimmage with "my" soccer kids.  Got a goal and an assist and missed another by thhhiiissss much.  Came home, took 2 Advil, got a shower, stayed on the PC just a little bit, and went to bed.  Slept very well.  TBIL and I can drive tonight.  Sarah's team back on top of the charts but tapped the wall as well.  AJ's team is back of the pack.  I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[Hudson#685]

Lunchtime:

Brutus, Congrats to Hannah

Kev, Congrats to your daughter and best of luck.

Doug M, Happy belated Birthday

Blownout: Prayers and hope for the best.

Brent: Thanks for the Christina update.

RI Jack, the story with Maximus your wife and the rain made me laugh.

Laz, Getting close.

Thoughts and Prayers for all in Need.

John

[sir james I]

RI Jack you are so right. I go, I find, I pay and go home.

It's 58 with bright sun. Spent the morning at the prostate Dr's office. They had to send me to the hospital lab as I wouldn't give up my blood for them...Lab guy got it on the first try. So that's been my morning..S.J.

[Stourbridge Lion]

Sadly news from the FIRE line is that the winds from last night and into today have spread the fire, now at 5,090 acres and growing.  One firefighter is listed is injured..

[RockIsland52]

Good Mornin' Ya'll From Crystal Clear Cape Ann Taxachusetts,

FINALLY, some sun!!!!  Thank you SJ and Chuck for passing it on!!! 

Daughter called last night and asked if we could babysit the grandchildren Saturday night; but we said we couldn't because we are headed to Scarborough ME for a couple of days to visit friends.  Daughter falls dead silent, then seems stunned that Grammy and Grampy actually have a life and friends!!!! .

Today is going to be busy.....have to chop down the grass and trim.  Normally this would not be a big deal except the rain the past 10 days has kept me from my appointed rounds and the grass has gone berserk with the nitrogen-enriched rain. 

Blownout.......positive thoughts and for your upcoming consult.  We are all in your corner.

Brutus.......  for your Dad as he sits in the hospital waiting for his stone procedure.  I can't believe it when you say he let it go too long.   Re the hammy, I'd gently stretch it daily for the next few weeks, no sense in pulling it again.  I first pulled mine over 40 years ago in school and, after a brief respite in PT and sitting on the sidelines,  "played" through it for the rest of the season.  They are slow healers and are prone to reinjury even when you are feeling OK.

SJ........re going with your wife when she is shopping for clothes, bad idea, even if you are trying to be helpful and supportive.   When my wife asks me if I will go with her, I only go if she is OK with (A) splitting up and letting me go my own way or (B) agreeing with me taking Maximus with us to do some obedience work around the entrance doors to some of the stores at the Mall while she shops.  After some work with the pup, I may take a snooze in the car while listening to a ball game or something.  I detest the way women shop.......they have to look at everything in the store, get sidetracked from the very reason they went in there in the first place, then move on to the next store starting the whole futile process all over again.  When you get home you find yourself hauling bags of stuff, none of which contain the very thing the wife went out for in the first place. 

KEV........you may be incommunicado for the next few days as you road trip Northward.  But I wanted to ask you why your auto insurance costs were so high when you owned the Shelby GT350?   Seriously, mine were not in the horrendous category when I moved off my Dad's policy and went out on my own.  My driving record was spotless for 6 years leading up to my (used) Corvette purchase, made sure of it while I scrimped and saved because I knew the insurance companies were lying in wait.

JimmyT......I hear ya when you talk about what happens when you own a hot car.  Seems you can't avoid the ones that want to see what you have going on there under the hood.  But it was worse for us older guys back in the mid to late 1960s and early 1970s when there were so many muscle cars on the road.  Stoplight racing was arguably more prevalent back then.  My attitude was like yours.  I had nothing to prove, whether the car next to me was a large block or a piece of junk.  One day I will relate to you a weak moment out on the tollway running against a 1973 Detomaso Pantera with the midship-mounted 351 Cleveland (Ford) engine and a ZF 5 speed transmission.  Back in the day, only the exotics had 5- speeds.

LAZ......time to don the DEPENDS!!!!!!!!  T-MINUS 12 DAYS AND COUNTING UNTIL RETIREMENT!!!I 

Brent.....I have to agree with you about driving cars (BMW, the ultimate driving machine) that are more than 4 wheels and transportation.  My wife and I enjoy the fun factor and the joy of driving.  We could have picked the SRX with the base V6 but opted for the optional 4.6L Northstar V8 (320hp, 315lb./ft torque).  So many folks ask us why we would pass up the fuel economy and lower octane requirement of the 3.6L V6.  "Because the V6 is a comparative slug, and the Northstar is so much more fun to drive!"  They don't get it.  We just choose to give up this for that.      

DougM.........WOW!!!!  Tom Swift books!!!  I read them all when I was your son's age.  Re clothes, I am like you.  I really really need to at least purge my wardrobe of the pre Y2K era. My wardrobe is essentially a dichotomy of dress business and homeless person.  If it were not for my wife and daughter buying me clothes, I'd have people handing me $$$ out on the street and feeling sorry for me.   A few weeks back I did throw out my "favorite" pajamas my Doberman Isabelle (RIP) chewed holes in 5 years ago.

8N and Roy.......for sure there have been some horrific and tragic consequences of speed in NASCAR, Indy, F1, and prototype racing.  But you have to agree that automobile racing has reached ho-hum status when the cars cannot be differentiated, are arguably incapable of passing one another, and all we are fed is BANILLA.  Competitive advantage through technology and innovation is supressed.

8N.......  on the air show Saturday.  Lucky you!!! 

Don........how on earth are you going to help the Chief replicate his "trains run through the wall" set up he has in his current RR layout.  Maybe an indoor/outdoor transition through a punched out hole in the BOX into Pam's garden and back.

Later, gang!!!

Jack

[Stourbridge Lion]

Good Morning CTTFans!

It's 63F and Sunny heading into high 70's and then the bottom should drop out and storms are heading in.

The latest major FIRE is nearly 1,000 acres and growing but so far is still staying away from the homes in the area but evacuation warnings are going out to get folks prepared.  Hopefully these new storms don't whip up the flames or start more but only time will tell...

Updated my blog again today with Day #4 of our 5 day mini vacation.  Lot's of RR stuff on this day including this Frisco Water Tank