Greetings all,
Cooled right down today...great for working outside. Coinsided well as we shuffled around a number of lifeless cars at the museum so we could load up our Panther. Relatively fresh gas in the tank means it won't take much to get her going tomorrow.
Banks: I initially joined this forum back around 2005 ( can't recall my handle back then ) when the toy train bug bit. There's always been an on and off affair with model railroading...HO, N, AF etc., but the '05 restart produced a ceiling layout in the den ( Plate Rail ). I never got further with it than an operating, unscenicked dual mainline set up. I have future plans on expanding it and replacing the Atlas track with tubular for a more PW flavor. I began converting my attic back in '07 into living space for a second layout. That project lay dormant until 2015 when I restarted in earnest. The room itself is relatively finished now and the layout has been up and running for about a year. I lean more towards scale on this one.
I'm 63, married to a wonderful woman for 35 years and have one son. He recently moved into a group home for special needs folks, so we've been empty nesters for only a year. We're located about 20 miles north of Toronto. I've worked with my father for over 30 years in the antique car business. Basically, I'm a glorified lot person...if it stays still long enough, I detail it to within an inch of it's life.
Roy: adapting the motorized MTH pan mechanisms to operate under ERR command control is probably a bigger challenge than I can handle, but I'm up for giving it a try. Looking at bypassing the PS2 electronic board in favor of some relays and limit switches. I think this is my 5th ERR upgrade and definitely my most ambitious.
Gonna go stretch out for a spell. The old back is reminding me I ain't 20 any more.
'Night all.
Bruce
Good evening all,
Busy day at work. Sunny but cool day for walk. Worked some more on set up for Halloween exhibit Saturday. Hopefully will be better than last year. I hope everyone has a good day.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
It has been real hot here for the last couple of days. Temp on the field for the first Dodger game was 103. It's a little cooler today. The game tonight was a cliff hanger but the Dodgers lost in the 11th inning. First 9 innings was a pitcher duel. There is a retirement dinner for railroaders this Friday but I don't think I can make it unless one of my boys take me. I'm really not too excited about going anyway.
Ray
SPMan
Ray and the WC boys are cooking and we had first killing frost last night.
Bright sun and cold. Hope it dries up enough to do leaves this afternoon.
Plate Rail,,, Old cars and toy trains, don't get better than that!
Best get going.
Joined 1-21-2011 TCA 13-68614
Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL.
cnw1995 Aloha. Brrrrrrrr here too - low 40s. But thank goodness for sun. Didn't know snow was so close. Got my free flu shot via my former employer this morning. Happy anniversary Kev! Brent's post reminds me of my closest call was sliding sideways down a hill on I80 in the wilds of Pennsylvania in a '77 Chevy Nova during a blizzard. Hit a snowbank at the bottom of the curve.
Aloha. Brrrrrrrr here too - low 40s. But thank goodness for sun. Didn't know snow was so close. Got my free flu shot via my former employer this morning. Happy anniversary Kev! Brent's post reminds me of my closest call was sliding sideways down a hill on I80 in the wilds of Pennsylvania in a '77 Chevy Nova during a blizzard. Hit a snowbank at the bottom of the curve.
https://brentsandsusanspicutures.shutterfly.com/
FIRST FROST this morning. Sun but started the day at 35.
Years ago, way back when. We used I80 on trips to Jersey. Drop down to Philly and across the river. Honest and for truely I80 had outhouses at the rest stops. Not porta potties, outhouses. We didn't mind but todays society would howl.
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
sir james I Years ago, way back when. We used I80 on trips to Jersey. Drop down to Philly and across the river. Honest and for truely I80 had outhouses at the rest stops. Not porta potties, outhouses. We didn't mind but todays society would howl. S.J.
S.J. Your telling your age again lol
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
Morning all!
50's this am and to hit 85/87 today and then a big breezy cold front comes through with highs tomorrow mid-50's! Might have to dig my long pants out?
Ahhh - love the I-80 stories. In addition to snow (I got behind a line of plows coming out of NYC) was in Wyoming with winds so hard it was a struggle to keep the van on the road and the trucks were doing 90 - death race...unable to keep up...tried to avoid getting run over...surprisingly, once I thought about it, I have traveled much of I-80 and in every state it runs through in my life...NJ, PA, OH, IN, IL, IO, NE, WY, UT, NV, and CA..not all at once though...will never, ever, drive the desolated portions in the west again...stayed in a motor lodge one time in the 80's where trucks were idling all night in the parking lot and the only telephone was on a pole in the parking lot!
Ray - that was a great MLB game last night...nail biter...both teams went through their entire pitching rosters...a lot of HRs hit (some series records set)...I am happy the Astros came out on top...On to H-town for games 3-4-5!
Dennis - good deal on the wind turbine repair!
Regards, Roy
Yep - I-80 & I-40 are semi truck "conveyor" belts...and all suffer from trucks on governors and jamming traffic for 5-10 miles cuz they can't pass and refuse to back off when they can't...
And then you have 95 and 81 going N & S. The 4 worst roads in the U.S. 85 isn't any better either.
I use to hate traveling 40 to get out of TN. I had to travel it the whole state as I was in Memphis going east. 40 thru the Mountains ( TN/NC ) was really bad with construction all the time.
Just relaxing today. Need to get more crap out of this room so I can get the cabinet out of here. ( basically its a set of kitchen type cabinets ( 3' long each with a 6' counter top on them. ) But I still have crap on them I need to do something with first.
I need to do all this so I can put down a new floor in here. I will still have to move my desk around to do the floor but 1 piece of furniture is better than 4 or 5 pieces. I still have a couple of other pieces which I will probably just slide into the bedroom as I should be able to do this floor in one day seeing it is only like 8' x 14' with about 3' x 8' of it a closet but will do it at same time so it matches. Will have to bring shop vac ( a small one ) and chop saw in to do it. To many trains to pack back up and no way to actually cover them so then I will have to redust them all. But that might not be as bad as I'm thinking as then I will have a 5' X 8' train table to set them on, and that may be the time to bring them all down one side at a time to cut groves in the shelves so I don't have to have track on them.It also will give me a little more room on the shelves as some are very tight. ( forgot to caculate track height when building the shelves)
I have plenty to do here it's just figuring the best way to do it. I have four 17" passenger cars I need to paint the bottom and three sets of trucks black as they are now a olive green ( who know what MTH was thinking of when they did these. ) There PRR in tuscan red.
I have people to glue into four B&O 18" passenger cars.
Once floor is done I can start building a small 5' x 8' foot layout also.
Well that's about all going on here today. Talk to you all later.
Can't remeber if I said it or not, Kevin hope you and the Mrs had a good day.
Guten abend,
What was supposed to be relaxing Thursday evening turned into Dad's taxi service. The older two kids decided they wanted to watch a play at the high school. The workday was fine and uneventful. I did well on my annual fitness assessment; however, I am disappointed with how much faster I am than kids 20 years younger than me. I think they eat too much takeout food while playing video games in their rooms. At 42, I should not two minutes faster than someone who is 22. It was sad to read that Girardi will not be coaching the Yankees next year. I believe he was a very good coach and I liked him as a player as well.
Good night,
Joe
Hi All,
It was a frosty one this morning! No white stuff yet though and still holding out on the furnace. (I think we explained what a furnace was to the Southerners in a post last winter!! ) I guess I should dig out the snow brush and scraper.
Kev- Happy belated Anniversary! God willing, I hope to hit that number with wife #2!!
Bruce - Nice to have a fellow Canuck here!
RT- Are you not able to hang a couple of those plastic painters drop cloths in front of the shelves you are not working on? Should help with the dust.
Joe - I'm 47 and feel the same as you. It's kind of funny after I've finished playing hockey or baseball and to see the looks on the 20 something kids faces when they find out my age. You nailed it - too much of Call of Duty and Taco Bell!
Have a good one.
Rob
Rob I was thinking something like that except the top row won't be able to be covered unless I can hang them from the ceiling itself
Busier day than expected at work, but turned out well. Trip home took forever as the FFA convention was in town and the "blue jackets" were everywhere walking. Nice bunch of kids, but there sure is a bunch of them. Weather was nice for a walk. I hope everyone has a good day.
TGIF! !!!!!!!!
PT after work today .
Prayers for those in need
Banks, Proud member of the OTTS TCA 12-67310
88 - It's named SAVAGE Mountain for a reason...(ref 68 w/of Cumberland)
During the last several weeks the owner succumbed to Pancreatic Cancer and the heirs opted to close the company. Another firm bought the assets and hired most of the men. Could go to the new company but I’ve decided to retire instead of starting over in something that became less fun each year.
Finally gonna build the layout I’ve been planning and buying stuff for. Going for a postwar under the tree look. My last day will probably be the end of November.
Gonna add this to my biography.
fifedog 88 - It's named SAVAGE Mountain for a reason...(ref 68 w/of Cumberland)
SJ and Canucks, yuz guz left the refrigerator doors open - 50 this am and headed down before up to maybe 54 today. It was pretty breezy out this am in short pants and t-shirt. I'm holding on as long as possible - but the wife wants a fire in that brick hole thing in our living room tonight? SJ - what do you call that again?
For the new guys, I turned the big 6-5 this year and got my first Lionel train in 1957, a 250 Pennsy loco and set. In 1959 I received the SF Alco A-A, 2412 blue stripe SF Vista Dome, and matching 2416 Observation. I still have all my childhood trains, track, transformer (SW, the xfr from the 250 set fried early on), accessories, and Plasticville buildings, etc. Started back into the hobby around 1986/87 when I dragged the stuff out of my parents attic in Houston and brought it back to Dallas. I had dabbled in HO until college but never in a big way. I got degrees in electrical engineering at Texas A&M, specializing in digital, radio and microwave systems, and then went to work in Dallas for Rockwell-Collins. Recently retired as a senior technologist from the radio division of Airbus. Been married for 31 years and have two adult children that live in the area. Am trying to reduce/specialize in the NYC for scale stuff and I am all over the map with pre-war, PW, and modern traditional size stuff. I have done contract projects for a local layout builder since about 2002, focused on simplified electrical/control systems for large display layouts for corporate/museum customers (No control systems, docents at museums dealing with guests have no time to mess with current remote control systems Where the trains will regularly just stop/loose programming several times a day, requiring a power down and restart). Most recently doing custom machining/rebuilding/maintenance to keep modern era standard ga reproduction locos running for a couple of months during holiday display seasons (something they were never designed to do in the first place). Run a standard ga train for days on end and it will destroy itself quickly.
Forgot to mention I took machine shop electives in college so I formally learned how to set up/run, operate, large engine lathes, shapers, milling machines, heat processes, etc, cutting all kinds of metal. I was a gear head and was always working on cars/hot rodding. '70 Plymouth Satellite/383, '68 Corvette. The Corvette and friends with Corvettes got me into fiberglass body work and repainting. Autocrossed and drag raced. I rebuilt a couple of engines as a result of the racing, but lost interest in that when the parts costs went through the roof.
Children faciltated the obvious direction into school support, scouts, princesses, band, and coaching sports for many years, so the trains as a home activity were a great hobby vs the cars (plus the insurance rider I carried for racing - typ your regular insurance does not cover that - got really expensive). Built an 8 X 12 layout at dining table height in the bonus room so the kids could easily access it. They played with it extensively until they hit junior high years. The layout went into storage and the room became their game/TV/hangout room.
My friends at the layout builder and I expanded my old layout by 8 feet (8x20) and set it up a couple of times a year for layout festivals.
Roy........why not copy that to biography in your profile?
robmcc,
Aloha. Grey and cold today. Had to come into the office - which I rarely do on a Friday - for a meeting that I was volunteered for - I don't mind really.
It is nice to hear the Interstate horror stories and be reminded of each others' stories too. I've been on the forum since 2003 after rejoining the model train hobby as a young dad. I am 54, married almost 30 years, with 3 kids, the youngest now 15. I had an HO figure-8 atop a pingpong table in a spare bedroom as a youngster, and after growing out of that in my teens, I built a folding 3x5 table in N gauge for our first little house - moving into our gauge when I wanted something easier to play with kids. I've been fortunate to benefit from the expertise in CTT and on this forum over the years and really blessed with a gigantic raised crawlspace in the current basement-with-house that has been perfect for a permanent layout. Over the years, I've explored circus trains, interurbans and trolleys and Thomas the Tank Engine layout themes. For the past few years, the layout has been based on an ancient British TV show called Ivor the Engine (look him up on YouTube).
Happy anniversary Kev!
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
Today's weather was pleasant by the end of the day. We had some rain in the morning but it cleared up by noon and the high was in the upper 50s. I had a productive day in the office and then had dinner out with the wife after we transported the princess to ballet class. We are relaxing at home now.
Rob - I fear it will only get worse. From what I can observe from my time living in Germany, the Europeans are more active but I wonder if that will last.
Ok SJ, close the refrigerator door already. It's sleeting here.
And just when I discovered a screw in my '09 Tahoe left rear tire. So here I am trying to remove the tire so I can plug it and I have ice pellets bouncing off me and the truck. Got it plugged and it is holding so may have rescued the tire. Hole was 1/4 over from the outside tread and it was a simple straight through hold.
They quit selling plug kits at the local auto parts stores and last time I stopped at a tire store they said they will no longer plug or put a tube in a tire if a plug won't work. But HF still sells them.
Banks - good suggestion!
Look again Roy, that's not sleet, it's salt from the Gulf.
SJ - it was frozen salt!
BTW - there is a Dr Who convention here this weekend...come on down!
Busy day this morning at work, quiet this afternoon. All day rain kept me indoors at noon. Temps dropping as well. Glad grandkids' tourney was last weekend and not this one. Show at museum tomorrow. Lots of soccer and F-1 on Sunday on regular TV. The mancave will be occupied. I hope everyone has a good day.
Evening all!
Great biographys. There are times when I wish cars didn't exist...but trains...every day with trains is a great day.
On that note, the Panther is alive, and took very little to get it going. That is saying a lot for a Jaguar V12....never what you'd call dependable.
My ramblin' days included 4 return trips from CA via I-40 back in the '70's. Doing so without incident in an old car ( generally 20 years old ) was a rare occasion indeed. I chose to make such a trip in late November of 1974, using my newly purchased '56 Chrysler Imperial to towbar home a '41 Ford. Better judgement was not one of my strong suits. The trip up the Cajon Pass blew out the front and rear transmission seals but I limped it all the way to Kingman. Spent 2 days there and drove around in the '41 while the '56 got fixed. Bought myself a Stetson to tuck my long locks up into....my wheels drew too much attention back in those none too tolerant days. Back on the road ( some of it still Route 66 ), I made it too Springfield MO when the ice storm hit. It followed me through to Columbus OH and turned into the worst snow storm I've ever encounted. On the route between Columbus and Cleveland it dumped 24" in places and took me 11 hours to traverse. Too tired to continue on, got a room just south of Cleveland and was totally snowed in by morning. Had I made it the 10 miles up to I-90 the rest of the trip would have been trouble free...there was no snow by the lake. A very memorable trip but for all the wrong reasons.
Here's the beginning of a happier journey on the same route one month prior. Only blew a rad hose with this beast.
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