Quick Fly By
Fife - I admired and loved your layout, need to stop by when its done....
LionRoar88 - Think MODULAR, seems the way to go and add or subtract modules as time and space allows and makes for easier moving. Just a thought.
I've been on Twitter discussing tactics and such with a few firefighters and 1 is a Chief in SoCal, told us he'd be missing for a few ....WEEKS...no explaination was necessary....
K - glad the little one was AOK.
Once the re-fi gets done, it will be full steam ahead on the attic and the layout. I will imagine the energy savings alone will eventually pay for itself.
Back to work, another 2 hours....
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
Good afternoon all,
We have been spared from the fires so far. The foothills above me have already burned a while back so no new brush to burn. I went to see the specialist who does the root canals yesterday. He thinks he can save my tooth but no guarantee of how long it will last. Only other alternative is to pull it. I would do that if it were not an anchor tooth for a partial. Total estimate $2400 counting a crown at the end. He is also going to put a post in the tooth to strengthen it. He will do the work next Tuesday. I am taking antibiotics until then to kill the infection around the tooth.
Ray
SPMan
Good evening all,
Very quiet day at work. Good weather to walk in at noon. Roy, sounds like you had an interesting career. I hope everyone has a good day.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
Mornin' boys. Sunny and 37 along the Patterson Creek cutoff. Made good progress in the train room yesterday. Hope to finish the benchwork for the "southern" loop today. But first, need to put the Christmas tree up.
Roy - Perhaps I should send this AF 303 to you, since you have all of that equipment on hand. Any interest on working on a 2-6-6-2...?
88 - You can always make a return loop with O-54, and plop it under the tree. Try lightweight materials, and nothing larger than a 2x3.
SPMan - Nothing tougher than tooth pain. Hang in there.
Mornin' FellasWell it appears the kids are 'devasted' that there won't be trains under the tree... so I'm now considering putting up a single loop... we'll see if time allows. I designed a new layout for under the tree a few years ago, thinking I may build that as my 'temporary' structure till we move, and then I can use that under the tree at the new house. It is 6.5 x 6.5 so I'm thinking 4 squares should make it easily portable.Fife - I was thinking 1x4 for the main base and 1x2 for the risers. The layout in the new house will be done pretty much the same as I had here. The 4x4 posts with mortises for the base really worked well.RT and Rich - yes modular. That is what I was shooting for with my existing layout, but as I built upward I forgot about the 'joints'... lolHope everyone is well.
https://brentsandsusanspicutures.shutterfly.com/
Hope Dennis, Don, Doug and ray are OK. CA firs are a disaster.
Damp and chilly 43 degrees.
Guess news forgot Pearl Harbor. No mention on CBS and NBC.
Not much on agenda today.
Enjoy.
God bless TCA 05-58541 Benefactor Member of the NRA, Member of the American Legion, Retired Boss Hog of Roseyville , KC&D Qualified
Aloha. 76 years ago today Chief! I hope everyone is safe from those scary fires -- I'll take today's 5 degrees (with the breeze) over that danger any day. . . Brent, I hope you are able to put something up temporarily for the tree and the kiddos. I like Fife's idea. Speaking of which, I need a more detailed update on the Fifedom's layout development.
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
A day of remembrance and reflection. Pearl Harbor.
Morning all!
39 right now and will not crack 45 today. Another front came through last night. Still predicting 60 by Sun.
Fife - drop both of them in the mail!
Brent - loop under the tree for the kids! Gotta do It!!!!!
Fife - regarding the 2-6-6-2 and how that might affect life at home.....
A few years back the Cabin Fever Auction guys had an antique 13" gauge operating RR steam crane in their Orange Hall booth on a trailer. I was really admiring the skill of the machinist who built it. It was for sale at $12,000 inc trailer. You may recall seeing it. I went by so many times the guy started pressing me to buy it, saying it needed a new home and someone with time and skills to restore it.....
I responded if I bought that I would have tons of time to work on it as my wife would leave me!
Regards, Roy
Hi All,
Just a quick drop in on my lunch break. Back down to "normal" temperatures. No more flip-flops!! :(
Brent/Bruce - Don't feel bad about the Christmas (can I still say Christmas??...) tree layout. I'm in the same boat. This may be the first year in a long time I haven't bothered to either. Can't seem to get into it this year.
Hope the gang in California is safe. I always wanted to be a firefighter, but life didn't take me down that road. These are days I wish I had gone through with it. I would be on the next flight to LAX to help out.
Have a good one.
Rob
Prayers for our left coast Friends. I doubt I'll have a train layout this year either. Under the tree isn't really a option as I'm hoping the tree survives Christmas as we have two kittens this year and there as wild as can be lol. We have a7' cat condo and they go up it in like a 1/2 a second. Zoom. So glad our ornements are plastic anyway. ( wal-Mart specials) bought them that way as we have always had cats. I think they would just bolw over any trains on the floor. Even something like my postwar 736. Not sure I want to get down on my hands and knees either to be honest.
Hope all are doing well
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
Joined 1-21-2011 TCA 13-68614
Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL.
Kevin about 25 years ago I had a G-Scale train set around our tree. I had a long hair red Tabby that like to lay on top of the boxcar and would even stay there if I ran it. As long as I went slow with it. It was a sight to see.
Evening all,
I feel better knowing I'm not the only Grinch this year
Machine work would have been a nice trade to enter back in the day. But like many of my failed starts at a career, it's probably best that I gravitated towards cars. Tried the carpentry schtick but my " measure with a micrometer, mark with a crayon, cut with a chainsaw " manner of working got me no where. Review the pics of my layout construction for proof of my skill.
Put in some time on the layout this afternoon. Finished relaying track and tweeking areas of uneveness so that the big iron traverses it smoothly. There was also time to lube a few engines, a job I have ignored for a while. With 2 of the larger rebuilds behind me I can now concentrate on catenary along with general maintanence. Looking forward to getting back at the scenery too.
Bruce
Good Evening,
Haven't seen or heard ANY mention of Pearl Harbor today, just a few flags at half mast, SAD.
Unfortunately, the fires are still raging. Most of you probably saw cars going down the freeway, and the flames coming down the mountainside towards it. That was on the 405 Freeway, through the Sepulveda Pass. Which is inside LA city limits a few miles north of LAX. The Getty museum is on the right side of the freeway from where the fires are burning. Now idea how this particular fire started but the film was don between 4:30 and 5:00am. A number of celebrities live in the are and were evacuated inlcuding Paris Hilton.
More fires have started today, to the east and also south of us. Literally we are surrounded by fires but they are a long ways away. I believe right now there are 7 or 8 fires going, from Fallbrook to the south, to Castaic (Magic Mountain area) to the north, and Carpenteria to the west. (Just south of Santa Barbara at the beach.) Hopefully, will see it start to improve come Monday or Tuesday.
We are SO fortunate where we live, winds only about 2o-25, not covered with smoke, and mostly blue skies.
Went to VA today for blood check, then back tomorrow for a "procedure" NOT looking forward too! They are trying to locate the cause for small amount of blood in urine. UGH!!!
Still doing wiring on the layout. At most significant locations putting a terminal strip with 12v, 5v, & 3.5v dc capability ON the table top. Terminal strip located inside buildings, etc.. Should make things very easy for putting in seasonal lighting effects, Miller Eng signs, LED's, etc.. Originally thought I would probably get away with one power supply as the source. But the lights have pulled the voltage down to 10.5v. So, I have added a 2nd one on the opposite side of the layout, resulting in the powere coming back up to 12v, yielding much brighter lights.
Hope everyone gets their Christmas layouts going, espically for the kids, guests, pets (incl cats), and neighbors.
Got to start thinking about Christmas shopping, maybe do more on-line this year.
Oh yeah, went to the movies last night, saw "Daddy's Home 2" and "Murder on the Orient Express", both of them were great! Thanks Mike if you wouldn't have commented on them probably wouldn't have made it.
Take care all and be safe!
Don
Quiet day at work. Very cold for walk today. Came home and did very little. Not much else going on. I hope everyone has a good day.
Morning team!
Clear crisp and 30 this morning. Some areas in teens and 20's. My pumpkins are frosty. 49 high today. Hard freeze last night, kills the bugs.
Snowed to the south of here all the way to the coast. Still snowing in Corpus Christie this morning. Texas A&M (College Station) got 4-6 inches. Nothing here.
Ear Doc appt this morning. Check up on the ringing/balance issue.
Dennis - you are correct. The work is satisfying when you see the finished product from manual machining and tolerances of 0.001 or less.
DonB - glad you are being spared the fire/smoke.
Prayers for the fire victims.
Aloha. Super-cold today. It sure is interesting to hear about these 'maker' career paths. It's something I'm talking about with my son - who is interested in the CNC training.
Doug nailled it, Cold and snow on the way. More for Doug than us.
As for weird career paths,
Here is a snapshot of some of the things I have done with the help of many other fine workers over the years if you care to see. Copied from an old Resume.
I have many years of job experience at the Aurora Caterpillar plant. In that time I have been involved in many different types of jobs. For the bulk of my union time I worked as an assembly line runner, repairman, test cell operator, in major teardown, and excavators operations engineering group known as Hex in the vehicle planning engineering & the Build to plan group). My job in Hex was to work as a liaison between groups to improve machine build and quality level. I worked with all aspects of engineering, New Product Introduction planning, Price list planning, manufacturing, purchasing, NACD commercial group, Material handling excavators and Forest Products Group, as the interface between these groups. I got to know the key contact people to resolve problems that arise on the shop floor and I worked directly with dealer personal and others to implement product requests. I fully understood what was needed to satisfy the customer’s needs. Some examples were the redesign of the lines groups down the boom and sticks of the FMs, using a common boom structure for the Forestry linkages and the redesign of the B-N-T forestry hydraulic system. This took the need of six part numbers down to one. During these two redesigns I coordinated work assignments between RFA, a contract design group, Finning’s dealer engineering personal and Hex technical. I worked with Customizing to get the 345 Custom Forestry Shovel Logger and 322 Swamp logger projects down the assembly line and to the customers.
In late March of 2003 I changed jobs and started working with the Aurora Logistics group on many projects.
· Project manager to clear out old material from PL04 storage.
· Project manager to clear and close H-ST-24 storage area.
· Project manager to design and build 6 sigma RFGen set test project on 345B.
· Project manager to move out 385 excavator and install variant product excavators on line 2750.
· Project manager to design and install inside storage for all Hex cylinders.
· Project manager to design and implement Hex cylinder repack area and process.
I was recognized for Valuable Contribution in the 2003 Career Innovator Awards and given a certificate on 2-11-04 by Gerald Palmer, Aurora WLED Vice President, a first for a Union worker at Aurora.
In February of 2004 I started working in Management for Caterpillar Logistics Services’ ML&T group as a Logistics Coach working at Yorkville IL. Over five years I worked on many Planning projects as ML&T, now MLS had taken over the day to day operations of Aurora’s third party suppliers, X-PAC, Yorkville, NTP, Montgomery, and CVG in DeKalb. Some Project Planning examples from 5,000 foot.
· Develop layout and set up area at X-PAC for FM cab NPI build saving $27,000 over installing this work at NTP.
· Reduce TAC inventory by over 50% within two months of start up. By transferring excess material too building B hub B-ST 62.
· Set up building D as new material hub D-ST 11 when supplies were too great to be stored at building B. Working off plan project. Transfer M&E from 62 to D.
· Quote and set up PMs for all Cat crane asset at the third party suppliers.
· Quote and have gen set tester upgraded at X-PAC
· Set up the sale and removal of all Cat assets from NTP west for consolidation into NTP north.
· Work with the planning group to set up all of NTP west operations into NTP north including quoting a new crane system and having one NTP west crane moved to NTP north.
· Set up kiting area in building D for NTP main valve hoses and purchase and install racking in the area.
In July of 2005 I was promoted into the Project Planning Group and in addition to the above duties I created and ran the building D General Activities Project. I also created the Knell Road NTP building D move project that was the guide for the major moves of 2006. Some of my duties included.
· Building assets management for all third party suppliers.
· Building maintenance management for all third party suppliers.
· Coordinate all Aurora LLP Capital purchases and tracking.
· Coordinate all Aurora LLP Expense purchases and tracking. / ProCard
· Building D exit Project Planning and implementation.
· Knell Road Facility Systems Project Planning and implementation.
· Xpac and CVG quality root cause identification and resolution.
In January of 2007 I was promoted to Senior Planning Analyst for the Aurora LLP and implemented Caterpillar Production System at the 3PSs that support Aurora. I had two direct reports working in our group.
In April of 2007 I was given the responsibility for the start up of the Aurora Logistic Center warehouse. To insure it would transition material from the Knell Rd warehouse and not interrupt production at the Aurora plant or the third parties supporting Aurora. The transition was successful.
Sept. 07 I was given responsibility to oversee the NTP management of the ALC 291,000 sq. ft. warehouse.
1-1-08 I worked with the transition teams at CVG DeKalb, CAO Joliet, and Caterpillar Logistics MLS to move the wheel loader cab assembly from CVG to CAO.
I have also traveled to and been involved in the CSCL CLS project in Suzhou China
In January of 2009 I took an early retirement package offered by Caterpillar.
I also have a working base knowledge of Microsoft Office Systems.
In the eighties I was laid off twice From Caterpillar, the first time I worked for RPC INC of Plainfield IL. / Hayward CA. We built one of a kind Electron Beam Processors, a type of print curing machine. I assembled the reaction chambers for the Electron Beam machines from blue prints at Plainfield then went to Hayward CA to assemble them to the beam.
.
During my second Caterpillar layoff I became the Plant Manager with full responsibility for the Will-Dupage Service Company Plainfield Plant.
Will-Dupage is a farm service bulk fuel and agricultural chemical provider. Did all maintenance on the plants equipment to prepare for the spring season. This included small engines, pumps, trucks, lawn equipment, fertilizer spreaders and mixers. This type of business is very customer driven and in the peak spring season required directing 25 or more employees in three different counties at the same time.
During the Caterpillar / UAW labor dispute I worked repairing farm machinery then worked for Speicher & Gaylord’s in Plainfield, an auto and truck salvage yard.
In August of 1996 I started a heavy-duty truck salvage business with Bill Speicher and Russ Bennett called Speicher’s Truck Parts and worked there and at Cat at the same time. Due to an injury on Aug. 26th of 1996 I found it necessary to sell my share of the business in November of 1997.
Good afternoon from sunny 32°F Southern Ohio,
I had to work an additional 8 hour shift to support a maintenance activity that needed to be done outside of regular work hours making for 57 hours this week. Being in management it is all straight time. I’d rather be at home working on the numerous items on the honey do list and at least today is an 8 hour shift and not the normal 12 hour shift.
With the exception of a few years working at a lumber yard out of high school, I’ve been working in the uranium enrichment industry since 1977 as an operator, training instructor, supervisor and facility manager roles.
After the holidays I am going to put the All Aboard Flyer layout up in the designated train room. By concept it is modular, 17” x 17” plastic panels that join together to make your layout. It will be totally different from a built from scratch layout with limitations as you would expect, but I will be able to run trains again!
Need to go check on the work.
May God bless
Jim
My sister sent me pics of the snow in Houston. It snows there about every 10 years. Interestingly that has not changed In the last 60 years. I do not remember the year but Galveston Bay has frozen over in the last 100 yrs and has developed ice on the bay twice in my lifetime. News said Corpus Christie got 6 Inches, but no pics.
Kev and Phish - interesting resumes! Thanks for posting! As DougM said, have varied and interesting backgrounds!
DougM - your son should explore the CNC field. It is incredibly interesting and requires all kinds of knowledge - math, materials, tooling, machine capabilities (stress), cooling (due to extreme speeds of moving a cutting bit/head through metal), machine setup, work holding/clamping... There is a high demand for those skills. Lots of good YouTube videos showing the machines in action. Then watch the videos of folks doing manual machining. What can take a manual machinist days to finish can be done on a multi-axis CNC in minutes - and the tolerances are repeatable with minimal to no errors!
Well the tree is up. And I'm now rethinking about putting a loop of track and a set of trains on it for looks anyway. Will not run the trains as I really don't have anywhere to plug a transformer in near it. Its artificial but I still need to spread the branches out and all. it's a 9' tree as we have 10' ceiling here and wife wanted the biggest we could get back about 2 Christmases ago.
Think I'll put my prewar 262 set. ( not an actual set but one I made up)
We have 10' ceilings in this house, the tree is 9'. the tree was up about 3 hours and found this is in the tree
They are about the 6' - 7' area of the tree
Morning All!,
Up and at it early today. I'm taking the Mrs. to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then out for, yet again, more Christmas shopping. I don't want even see her MasterCard statement.....
RT - That's funny and I know exactly your predicament. That's another reason I've leery on doing a Christmas layout this year.
Roy- The weather has some how got reversed! It always makes for funny news to us in the snow belt seeing how it's basically declared a State of Emergency for an inch of snow in the south. That's a regular daily commute for us!
Jim- Looking forward to seeing the layout. I only recently learned about the All Aboard AF modules and I'm quite intrigued by them. I don't collect Flyer, but if I ever find a few for a decent price, I might pick them up.
Great bios guys! We have some skilled talent here.
Continued prayers for the California gang.
Rob this may sound wierd to most but we do not care that they climb, it's in there nature to do that. Thats why we buy the nice looking but cheap plastic bulbs at Wal-Mart to decorate with as we know they will be hitting the floor. There so shiny and pretty to them.
Morning all.
I think I will put a loop around the tree even with my tree acrobats. I donot think they themselves will hurt anytrain I put there as long as I remove any tiny pieces ( ie logs, barrels etc. ) They would become timy pretty's to them.
Hope all have a good weekend
The big snow storm for here was a bust, nothing but a few flakes. I am fine with that.
Cloudy, gray, 30 and heading to 32.
Going to pizza lunch with the son and his family then heading to check in on Sandra's mother and brother. That should fill up the day.
First snow on the gound this morning, just a dusting but enough to screw up driving. 27 now with a high of 32 for today.
Monthly club meet tonight. Train Wreck Bob(Shaw)likes hosting the December meet. He has a very well done layout.
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
Morning folks!
Started out freezing this morning but headed to 59 today. Warm up for Sun/Mon now predicted for 70. Another front Mon/Tues takes us back to Dec norms...60/40.
RT - tree cat!
SJ - looking forward to a meet video!
Rob - Cracker Barrel Mall
Kev - a day without a snow plow is a good day?
Chilly [34] and rainy good morning. Buddy in AZ says 39 there. No snow here in Rville. Some west and north. Mountains says 15 inches. Watching DVR'd TV. Hope all have a good one.
Aloha. It's a bit warmer - 20s - with a dusting of snow on the ground - nothing big. It's funny how I get used to different temps - and 22 feels warm after a week of single digits. And it's funnier that our friends in GA and TX have more snow than we do! That sure is an interesting career path, Kev. Roy, looking at the CNC machines in operation on YouTube is a great idea.
Mmmmm, Cracker Barrel! I love poking around their little store.
Good day all !
Been a bit of an exciting(?) week if one wants to call it that. Spent most of Wednesday in the ER, all's as well as can be expected. No change on cancer, +/-.
Seems like we were close but just far enuff south and slightly east of the Lilac fire in S.D. County, about four miles north on I-15. CalFire did a whale of a job on this one, between federal, state, local, Navy and Marine air support the firefighters on the ground did one hell of a job. Some of the helos were even making water drops all night long.
DougM, You don't need to worry much about the brush fires, just watch out for Mrs. O'Leary's cow with her candle.
Scheduled to go out for dinner with friends tonight, hopefully my cancer meds will behave themselves and not create any problems.
Later all !
Remember the Veterans. Past, present and future.
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