Coffee Pot #4 APRIL 2013 TEN 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 Yanks.

[MichRR714]

wrmcclellan

I should note that Charlie was taking a nap in the car according to SJ!

I confess, It's true ! 

[cnw1995]

Roy's new Lionel display reminded me - Here's a free poster you can download too. Santa Fe.

http://www.freevintageposters.com/2013/04/every-inch-chief-santa-fe-vintage-train.html

[cnw1995]

Aloha from a sunny and cold Chicago. York sure sounded like it was a good time for everyone. I love hearing who met whom and what was purchased. Celebrated our anniversary a bit early yesterday by going to see South Pacific. Hadn't seen it in almost 25 years. A great show. Rolled over 150K with the van earlier this weekend too on the way to returning the college boy to college. Fortunately, he's over his bug. May the van keep going. 
Brent, thanks for the link. I'm always looking for track-cleaning cars / ideas. 
8ntruck, welcome to the Land of Lincoln, as it said on the license plates. Sorry it is cold. Promise it will be dry today for your trip northwest. 
RJ, what a coincidence. Today is our 24th anniversary as well. 

Here's something we all need in our backyards: http://www.neatorama.com/2013/04/21/Steampunk-Locomotive-Barbecue-Grill/ 

[lion88roar]

Mornin' Fellas

Hope to have the CTT pic from York posted either tonight or tomorrow. Had a nice trip to York - for the first time ever I did not go over my budget!

Had a nice talk with the fellas from Lionel. And and even nicer talk with Matthew from MNP Inc. He has, what I consider, the most promising track cleaning car on the market. I told TheQ about it and that I want one for Christmas this year. If anyone is interested check out http://www.mnpinc.com I have to say this is one product I can't wait to see in action on the layout.

I bought Christina and Matthew a gondola with 'DINOSAURS' painted in pastels across the side, included 3 'large' and 4 small dinos. This car was a major hit with Christina! Also bought 2 sets of cut stone wings... upon further review I needed 3! So I will be placing an order with SceneryExpress in a day or so. Also bought a blank caboose shell and some hobos for the 'life under the bridge scene'.

Had an incredibly good time at breakfast with Mr & Mrs Banks! Always a pleasure to talk with them. The remind me a lot of my aunts/uncles/and grand parents.

Great to see the 'gang' for the photo op... seems Carl forgot about us and took a trip to visit some vendors. Hope Kent had a safe trip home. HudsonJohn - thanks again for the ice cream, and that is one fine young man you are raising!

Had a wonderful time walking the grounds with Fife. At dinner I dawned on my who he reminds me of... Stokes on CSI: Las Vegas... I'm beginning to believe that twice a year is just not enough time. Had a great time at 'dinner' and thank you again for paying... that was totally unnecessary. I was very happy to have new tires for the trip home. Been a long time since I've driven in a driving rain like that! Saw two accidents on my way to York and 5 on the way home. People simply need to slow down when it is raining!

Spent Saturday painting the last wall in the sunroom, then watched the PSU Blue/White game with Christina... we then took a nap till TheQ returned home from her sorority luncheon. It was then off to dinner and icecream.

Yesterday I took Christina down to the basement to do some train garden work. I was able to fix a few spots, pics to come this Sunday. Christina found some 'new to her' toys that kept her occupied for 2+ hours. It was fun having her down there with me while I worked, and not have to worry about her getting into stuff that could hurt her, so maybe now TheQ will let us go down there more often... Got the rest of the trim work painted yesterday during Christina's nap and got the table put back that was in the basement since Christmas. Hope to get the floor mopped and the rest of the furniture and rugs put back tonight... then it will be cleaning the house for my parents' arrival on Friday.

As for the events of last week... I don't think we know, nor will we ever know, what really transpired. I'm thankful the kid was caught because there is no telling how miuch more devastation/terror he and his brother would have caused. As for how it went down... IMHO - text book operation by The FBI, Boston PD, and other local LE agencies. If you don't agree - I don't care... share your feelings with the family of Officer Collier and the 3 people who needlessly lost their lives a week ago today.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

KRM

Humm, twice in two days a post has just blown away in the middle of typing it. Well I am not starting over. I thought that was a IE thing but these two times have been with Chrome. Must be the CTT site  guardians kicking me off. 

Type up your post in Notepad or as a text document in the word processor document of your choice, save it in a temp file then simply copy and paste it into the reply box here. If if vanishes before you can post all you have to do is copy and paste again. When you're done with it just delete the temp file or save over it next time.

[KRM]

Humm, twice in two days a post has just blown away in the middle of typing it. Well I am not starting over. I thought that was a IE thing but these two times have been with Chrome. Must be the CTT site  guardians kicking me off. 

RJ, Congrats on  the 24th wedding anniversary today. 

[charliebrown]

It's a frosty one out there today. Currently 34 and going to low 60's.

Glad to hear everybody made it back safe from York. I'll have to work on going to that. Maybe even get the wife to go. She likes to sight see and sounds like there is enough there to keep her busy. Probably a few years off though.

Speaking of the wife. It is our 24th wedding anniversary today and I have nothing yet as far as a gift! Maybe I'll get her a new Williams engine and let her run it on my layout.  Of course this would be my last anniversary if I do that.

I have one section of platform almost finished. I think once I get this one done the rest will be much easier.

All for now from the thumb of Mi ... Have a great day

[cheapclassics]

Good morning all,

IIABSDISEI with temps reaching the 60s today.  Kev, I hear you on the lack of American drivers, but Ryan Hunter-Reay did win the championship last year and AJ himself will have an American driver, Connor Daly, at Indy and maybe some other races.  Jack, no financial investment, but a huge emotional one.  I first watched AJ in a sprint car race at Salem, Indiana in 1961 when I was 6 years old, and my family followed him ever since 1958.   He was THE driver in the 60s and 70s and even won some sports car races in the 80s during his "declining" years.  Even in the twilight of his career, he sat on the front row at Indy in 1991.  His team had a brief renaissance in the late 90s when the IRL started up, but has not been a factor for several years.  His son, Larry, deserves major credit for rebuilding the team and making it competitive again.  TBIL and I can drive with major barrel rolls tonight.  I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[Blueberryhill RR]

Good Morning from Blueberryhill RR....

It is a sunny 37 degrees. Going up to a sunny 65.

Today is a busy day. I have a few chores to do and a big paperwork project to start working on. Busy until lunch.  Then, a nice nap.

Dining car is here with Cheerios for breakfast.

Indians have won two games in a row.  White Sox tonite.

Y'all have a great Monday.

Chuck

[RockIsland52]

Good Mornin' Y'all From Sunny And Seasonal Taxachusetts,

More yard work scheduled for later today trying to get the lawn rolling. The canadian geese seem to be in hiding, must have given up using my yard as their private restaurant and water closet.  Maximus' harassment helps but I think the arrival of a white crane and a pair of white swans is the ticket......they are not tolerant of geese but leave the ducks alone.

8N.......read with interest your post on your trip up and back from Michigan.  Hope your Mom is doing well.  Re the Mississippi, Missouri, and the Illinois Rivers.......the weather guy on GMA said 41 rivers are at or over flood stage in the Midwest.  Prayers for those folks.  Those rains DougM talked about really covered a lot of geography and a lot of folks are getting wiped out.   

Wecome home, Yorkies!  I was glad SJ was able to keep some of you in line and bail out the rest.  The rest of us are anxious to see what you bought us.

Jake.......hope that is a "good" tired based on the school work you have been doing and the scholarship quest.

SJ.......did Granny eat up all of your banilla in your absence?

Jeffrey......my wife bought our eldest granddaughter a dollhouse a couple of years ago, assembled it with much difficulty, then outfitted it.  She decided that it will last the ravages of grandchildren by putting it on a table with rollers in our dining room and policing the playtime from a not so near distance.  Victoria and Gabriella play with it every Saturday, are required to maintain order.  Biggest problem is that a lot of the house contents are teeny tiny and wind up in the vacuum cleaner or Grampt the Giant steps on them in his bare feet..

Chief.....your weather comments and the delayed tomato plant plantings have me concerned about MY shipment this year.  

MikeC.......based on your very excited reaction to the Indy car race results in Long Beach yesterday, I think you must have had big money bet on AJ's team.

Bob.........I think the Daewoo is haunted.

Later, gang.  Coffee is calling me.

Jack

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Good morning.

Not doing that good this morning. Real tired right now. Little sick.

[submmbob]

Hello all

Got the Daewoo back together and need to chase down some wiring gremlins. One problem w/ working on this thing piecemeal like we did. It'll get there though.

Jake - congrats. Hope there's a scholarship coming your way!

Chief  - our best truck is a '98 Chevy. A tough life often driven  by idiots (been in 4WD many times on the highway) and is 200K and still going.

Glad to hear everyone had a good trip to York and is safely home.

Spent some time organizing the storage unit today. Now I can get to the tool locker and workbench w/o moving the bike, bench stool, compressor, etc.

The SF dockside should be here tomorrow.

Ran the Marx 999 tonight. First time w/ the State of Maine boxcar in tow. The house cat isn't too sure what to make of it

[ChiefEagles]

Good night all.

Wifey home from Church retreat.

Yankee cold tonight.  No frost but mighty cold.  Keeping tomato plants in greenhouse instead of planting in garden [way past planting time normally].

KEV, my 97 Chevy Silverado with Vortec 350 has 130,000 miles.  Had buddy pull intake as they usually have cracked intake gaskets and leak coolant.  It had a slight crack but no signs of internal leak to cylinders.  Found radiator pressure cap with cracked gasket.  He pressure tested and held pressure for over 24 hours.  Now I hope it runs for 130,000 more miles.  I did the interior [cloth seats and carpet] cleaning the other week at the lake house.  Looks almost like a new truck inside.  Exterior is in excellent shape too.  In the past, one waterpump, one set of rotors and one alternator.  So, Chevy's will last.  

CBS still whinning about the Senate voting down gun control.

Sleep tight.

[8ntruck]

Back from a quick trip to Michigan.  I made it to the middle of Illinois Thursday night, and woke up to snow flurries on Friday.  They continued through Saturday.  I wen t to a reunion Friday night of folks I worked with 35 years ago when I started my carrier and visited mom on Saturday.  Seems I spent more time traveling than visiting!

This trip takes me across the Missouri, the Mississippi, and  the Illinois rivers.  All of them were very high.  Most minor creeks and rivers were also over their banks into the adjoining fields too.

No train stuff though.

 

All for now.

[wrmcclellan]

Hi Guys!

Back safely from York! Had a great time with the 'Pot team! Breakfast Friday at Round the Clock Diner was great! Big turnout! Great that Ryan was able to stop in and go to work a bit late. Photo shoot followed by Ice Cream from New Joy-see (inc Banilla!) was a real treat and surprise! Thanks Doray, Hudson John, & John Jr! SJ was in great spirits and John (JEFelectric) and I got to spend some time with SJ when we were taking a break from walking around Sat. I should note that Charlie was taking a nap in the car according to SJ!

I bought just a couple of things: A Lionel repo dealer sign/clock with orange neon from Lou Palumbo (Orange Hall - Underground Railroad Shoppe & "Views from the Underground" column in CTT - BTW Lou is a great guy and the TCA Orange Hall Captain), a MPC acquarium car (only $40 and with box - gold lettering perfect!), some of the new Lionel telephone poles, a couple of Z-Stuff semaphore signals, and a near mint Marx plastic water tower w/box (to replace the one I received back in the 60's from my now deceased cousin and which got damaged in a house move).

to those in need.

Have to head out on a business trip tomorrow evening so will be back in touch next weekend.

Have a great evening all!

 

 

[AF53]

sir james I

If you have ever even thought about going to York you gotta do it. Meet the guys from the pot, the guys from Kalmbach, go to Strasburg and see the real RR, the Pennsy RR museum, the TCA toy train museum, the Choo-Choo barn layout, and the Manufacture's presentations. but most of all meet the guys, it's always like we've know each other for years. Then grab some banilla and crash for the night.

I second that!

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Looks like tonight will be nice. Mostly clear and 52.

I got some of the stuff on the layout put away. Not much but it's progress. A little while later the space was taken up by the electrical stuff from the doll house as I was inventorying my gains. Said house by the way is gone. My father took it to Wal-Mart and gave it away. He said he would have been happier if the electric stuff was in it and I told him the stuff is in better hands right where it is. I'll actually use it instead of give it to a kid to destroy or lose. It seems to me that very few take proper care of something that's given to them. Got a doctor appointment to go to tomorrow morning. General checkup and lab work. More needles. Oh joy!

Y'all reckon Slim there can pick up that thar wrench?


Well, time to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

[sir james I]

The temp is 42

I haven't opened my new engine yet so  can't give you a report on how it sounds. If you have ever even thought about going to York you gotta do it. Meet the guys from the pot, the guys from Kalmbach, go to Strasburg and see the real RR, the Pennsy RR museum, the TCA toy train museum, the Choo-Choo barn layout, and the Manufacture's presentations. but most of all meet the guys, it's always like we've know each other for years. Then grab some banilla and crash for the night...S.J.

[KRM]

Jake good to see you are doing good.

 MikeC, Good to see AJ's team do something after all of these years. Sorry to see the top 4 teams are NOT American teams, why I don't follow it anymore. To Un-American racing for me.  At least that is what I have understood Chief would think .  JMHO.  And I will quit NASCAR to when it is all Toyota.

Have a good night guys.

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Good evening. 

Did plenty of scholarship form and application filling out today. Hand is sore. Ah well. Also successfully added songs to my Nokia. Pain to figure it out, but after seeing how it automatically loaded up over 100 songs (most of them favorites of mine), I figured it was worth it. 

Getting late. School again tomorrow. Night everyone. 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

KRM

Jeffery, The wife and I drove 400 miles and paid BIG money for one of those with furniture for our Granddaughters. They are very cool but the one we got for them is now trash.  

Yeah, this one is trash too. It's homemade from top to bottom and unfortunately has been wet a few times so it has some water damage. I'm pretty sure it's next stop will be the burn pile in the back yard.

[rtraincollector]

Mike seems your just a tad excited there glad the car you wanted won. Haven't seen this much excitement out of you in a while glad it cheered you up. ( I might of missed it if you have)

Evening all haven't done anything train wise really did play with some track for a little as to see where it will lay and kinda looked at how long to cut a piece to fill between the curves at the one end of the table. once I get that end done it will go smoothly till the other end. The real fun will be seeing how long I can stretch the figure 8 into by using a few half curves so it doesn't go right to the center get it to slowly go to the center. I want to see if I can stretch it about 12' long if possible and have my sides about between the curves about 6' long will see after I get the 4 main lines done around the one end and down the table then get up there and play with the O gauge track.

Hope all had a good weekend Talk to you all later.

[cheapclassics]

Great afternoon all,

Sato wins!!!!!!  Car #14 WINS!!!!!!!!   Easy as ABC Supply!!!   What a day!!!!!   First win in 11 years!!!!!   Woo-hooooooooo!!!!!!!   I hope everyone has as a great a day!!!!!

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[KRM]

jeffrey-wimberly

I went down to my fathers place to look at how much the grass has grown since the last mowing. It's not high enough yet but it won't be long, probably before the end of the week. Something I noticed right was that my mothers old doll house had been unceremoniously set out on the front porch and the supplies to complete it just tossed out around it. Lately anything and everything set there makes one last stop before it disappears forever. The curb. Most likely the reason it's not there already is it's weight. It's made of plywood and cabinet board and is quite heavy. The electrics for it had never been installed and I wasn't going to let them go without a fight. We're talking a 12vac 40va wall wart, 100' of tape wire, eleven miniature light switches, eighteen miniature wall outlets, seven plugs, twelve sub-midget plugs with leads and lots of miniature electric wire. I thought there was a box of light bulbs but I couldn't find any. I also snatched a Wal-Mart bag full of classical cedar shingles. Don't know what I'll use them for but I'll find something.

Jeffery, The wife and I drove 400 miles and paid BIG money for one of those with furniture for our Granddaughters. They are very cool but the one we got for them is now trash.  

[cheapclassics]

Good afternoon all,

Sato is P1 for AJ's team at lap 31 at Long Beach!

Mike C. from Indiana

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I went down to my fathers place to look at how much the grass has grown since the last mowing. It's not high enough yet but it won't be long, probably before the end of the week. Something I noticed right was that my mothers old doll house had been unceremoniously set out on the front porch and the supplies to complete it just tossed out around it. Lately anything and everything set there makes one last stop before it disappears forever. The curb. Most likely the reason it's not there already is it's weight. It's made of plywood and cabinet board and is quite heavy. The electrics for it had never been installed and I wasn't going to let them go without a fight. We're talking a 12vac 40va wall wart, 100' of tape wire, eleven miniature light switches, eighteen miniature wall outlets, seven plugs, twelve sub-midget plugs with leads and lots of miniature electric wire. I thought there was a box of light bulbs but I couldn't find any. I also snatched a Wal-Mart bag full of classical cedar shingles. Don't know what I'll use them for but I'll find something.

[Zero Export]

ahhhhh here it is 2 pm est and I have managed to ABSOLUTELY nothing today.  I mean NOTHING!! 

ohh well.  

its sunny but cold

Ryan 

[SPMan]

Good morning all,

Jeffrey, sorry you were having all that trouble getting focused.  Glad you are feeling better now and best wishes on your doctor visit.

We had a brush fire here yesterday in a town not far West of us.  Sounds like a lot of fire fighting personnel were called into action and I believe they have a handle on it now.  I didn't see any smoke coming our way this morning.  It is so dry here now with the lack of rain this year.  I fear that we are in for a bad year for fires.

On a happier note, my next door neighbor with the Collies, lost one night before last.  The dog got out somehow and disappeared.  We searched the neighborhood but saw no sign of him.  Someone just a few blocks West of us found him and took him in for the night.  They put up a lost dog sign next morning and word got back to my neighbor who picked him up.  The dogs name is Dodger (from the musical Oliver),  Good name for him.

Hope the Yorkies had a good time.

later,

Ray

[AF53]

Good Sunday Morning All!

As we all share our times from this past few days at York, I can say that if I bought nothing I could say I had a great time, except for the snoring in our room. It was great meeting some for the first time as well as meeting others again. For those who have never gone, try to, you won't regret the trip. Make a week out of it as a vacation spot because there is a lot more to do there besides the train meet. 

I hope we can seat more than 16 next time for breakfast.

Ryan - You summed it up nice.

Well, being that I was gone for a few days I have a honey-do list, so I better get started.

[sir james I]

RI Jack, you are right. Granny saw me at the door and said"Oh man is it Saturday already"....S.J.