June 2022 Coffee Pot - Grads Dads and Brides - Plenty of Coffee Sweet Southern Iced Tea and Sticky bun or two

[fifedog]

Thanks to all for the kind words. I appreciate everyone here. 

Best start a new Coffee Pot.

[lion88roar]

Sorry to hear of Mac's passing. Prayers for you and his family Fife.

Been a crazy week again (nothing like last Wednesday/Thursday, but it is darn close). Can't wait for Sunday (I may get some sleep Saturday night). Will try to post this weekend.

[pennytrains]

Fife: Sorry to hear about Mac.  Peace be with you!

[Leverettrailfan]

Very sad to hear about Mac, fife. Words can only do so much... I'm sorry for your loss, try to be easy on yourself and those who knew him well.

I'm back home again from vacation, the cats missed my family quite a bit and were very happy to see us again. I already miss how pleasant it was staying by the beach, back at home the humidity is much more oppressive. There's a lot of tidying up I need to get to, and I need to get back in touch with folks I was out of contact with during my vacation trip.

Take care all, and stay safe.
-Ellie

[Flintlock76]

Sincere condolances on the loss of your friend Fife.  It's hard, I know. 

[smokey1]

Fife sorry for the loss of your friend.  

[anjdevil2]

Sorry for your loss, Fife.

Prayers and condolences to you and Mac's family. 

[fifedog]

Mornin' guys and gals. Sunny and 67 along the Patterson Creek cut-off. Dealing with the loss of Mac, who quietly slipped away yesterday. He mattered to many, and I was blessed to be among his closest friends.

[fifedog]

'Tis nice to see some old friends checking in. 

Thanks for the continued .

smokey1 -  wishes to Mrs, and  on the anniversary.

[KRM]

Another nice day, oven gets turned on tomorrow.

Brent, Happy anniversay.

RT, 38, Wifey and I will be hitting 40 latter this year and 36 of the bliss.

Buckeye, I would be at 47 if I counted all three wives.

Rich, good to see you getting a better new normal.

Prayers for Mac.

[anjdevil2]

Good afternoon

Nice weekend we had, left work Saturday headed to Lansdale, PA for the All Mopar show.  It was hot, but we caught up with a few friends and it was great.  We had the pop up tent and it was in good use.  I was surprised at winning a Top 10 for the road runner.  Shopping and TGIF after we got home.

Rained all morning and partly into the afternoon yesterday, I spend most of the day with my Princess.  I ran off to change into my Class A uniform to present the validictorian of the latest Firefighter I class her check for $100.  Chik-Fil-A after with my wife.

Thanks, Ellie!!

Kev - great that you are getting around more.

Fife - Prayers to you and your friend Mac 

Smokey - Happy Birthday to the Mrs.!!

LionRoar- Happy Anniversary!!  Every vacation has it's memories, lol...Congas to the little Princess!!

Just starting to discuss our next trip in July to the All Chrysler Nationals in Carlisle, PA.  Looks like we're taking the Hemi Magnum.  It needs tires and a few other things, nothing insurmountable for our trip in 3 weeks.

Weather is cool and dry right now, so all the windows are open.

Back soonest

[TheWaysideRailroader]

Afternoon, everyone. 
Not much going on here train wise, just having a nice quiet day in. 

[kblester]

By the way, the little guy on my lap, reading about Fife's layout in CTT, turned 16 last Saturday. Time flys while having fun.

[kblester]

Today is also the 47th Wedding

smokey1

88 Happy anniversary. 

Today is MRS's birthday and tomorrow will be our 38th anniversary.

No real news here. Hope all have a good day.

 

Anniversary of Mr. & Mrs. Buckeye. Wishing all many many more.

[smokey1]

88 Happy anniversary. 

Today is MRS's birthday and tomorrow will be our 38th anniversary.

No real news here. Hope all have a good day.

[fifedog]

Mornin' guys and gals. Pretty outside. Still in a holding pattern...

88 - Happy Anniversary to the Q and you. I hate driving home from FL. Fifepup is relocating to SC (again), so 8 hours is more do-able.

[8ntruck]

Just catching up on the Pot.  York Steak House - home of the "delicious sauted sirloin tips".  Brings back some memories.

I stopped by Spikes Rail Head in Lowell, In on my way north last Friday.  Lucked out, as he was open.  Wandered around the shop for a bit, but nothing whispered 'buy me'.

[lion88roar]

Evenin' Fellas

Been a while again. I know.

Fife - prayers for Mac. Been seeing/hearing a lot about the C again. Sad. Very Sad. Tell princess nurse we aren't old.

We were in Turks & Caicos from 6/15 - 6/22. Our flight from TCI to Ft Lauderdale was uneventful... till we landed. The SW threw one of our large luggage on the belt upside down and the TSA lock got jammed in the conveyor belt causing the belt to rip the lock and one of the zippers off and broke the other zipper. Then 5 hours later they informed us our flight had been cancelled due to weather and the next flight they had for us was at 10:35pm on Thursday. Well that wouldn't work as TheQ and I both had to work Friday... so we visited AVIS and a nice young man was able to locate us a Buick Enclave to drive home. 16 hour drive turned into 18.5 to BWI to get my SUV and another 1.5 hours to retrieve the SUV, turn in the rental, and drive home. By the time we got home everyone was beat and after a quick dinner (no one remembers what we had Thursday... lol) we were all in bed and asleep by 7:30. Didn't fully recover till Sunday. Definitely not as easy as the drives home with Christina and Matthew after their adoptions.

While we were on vacation TheQ and I celebrated our 16th anniversary. I surprised her with a saphire ring. She needs to send it in for resizing, but not sure when she will as she leaves for South Africa on the 10th and then leaves for Minnesota a week after she gets back from SA.

Christina joined local swim team and she had her first meet this past Saturday. She took 2nd in her heat for the free style and 1st for her heat in the back stroke. Pretty good for her first meet ever! She continues to improve every practice, so we'll see how she does at the meet this weekend.

Matthew is just being Matthew for now. He wanted to join the swim team, but we didn't think he was swimming well enough last year... well while on vacation we learned how wrong we were. He actually went snorkeling with me and had a blast! He also enjoyed our trip to iguana island where he was in his elements with the reptiles (and yes he asked if he could bring one home).

That is about all for me for now.

[fifedog]

Thanks Kev.

[KRM]

Been around but nothing going on train wise. Weather has been great the last few days. Low humidity and 70s. We had the grand-pup Nala for 6 days up to yesterday. The cat is now back to king George. I have been slow slow slow getting better but at least not going backwards. I have to just look for the good. We did have .6" of much needed rain and the corn jumped a foot the same day. We could use 1" or 2" more. Grass was burnt brown and is now green but I am holding back on cutting it for a few more days to try to let it recover some.

Sorry about your friend Mac, Fife, good your there for him and his wife! How old is he?

Best go.

 

[fifedog]

Mornin' guys and gals. Good soaking  and 70 along the Patterson Creek cut-off. Spent the weekend back east, as my best friend/best man Mac has the big C. Came on quick, trying to help his wife best I can, and be strong. 

[TheWaysideRailroader]

Evening everyone,

I haven't had time to do much lately, my father had a total hip replacement recently and I along with my mother have been making sure he's alright 

[Leverettrailfan]

Oh whew, sorry to make anyone nervous. I may see about lowering how much batting I use, I tried a few different levels before I "cracked the code" with getting smoke, maybe I need to go back an play around with that more. I don't think I used all of it.

I suspect I'm going to be very active here again, especially once I get back home part way through the coming week. As if I wasn't already a regular  Eager to share pictures of my new 'loot' as well as try to learn more about a couple things I have questions on.

-Ellie

[Flintlock76]

Leverettrailfan

I wonder why zinc pest is still so prevalent?

I suspect they're not being as careful with the smelting process as they should be, but that's the problem, HOW do you maintain quality control when the stuff's being made on the other side of the world?

In fact, I was watching a Henning's Trains video about a month ago and they tried demonstrating a new Lionel engine that turned out to be defective right out of the box.  Very embarassing for the boys, but they were glad they found it before a customer did.

Glad you made good use of the smoke unit rebuild kit Ellie, even if you had to modify it a bit.  One thing I learned with the rebuild kits (by trial and error) is don't overstuff the pot with the new batting material, leave a little open space between the heating element and the batting, it seems to work better that way. 

Good to have you back!  I was getting worried!

[Leverettrailfan]

Well, it's been a while since I posted- I've been busy, and right now I'm enjoying a vacation trip with the family. But seeing as I bought some trains, it reminded me I should check in.

Congrats to Anjdevil & Jenni on the marraige! 
I wonder why zinc pest is still so prevalent? I can only assume that quality control issues extend to the materials used, not just the assembly process. The less time they spend making sure stuff is well made, the bigger the profit margin 

Wayne's kind donation of a pellet smoker kit for my 681 got put to use in the week before we left, I couldn't get it to work at first but the solution was give it more time in neutral to heat up the smoke chamber, and shorten the nichrome wire by a couple turns.

At the moment, I've enjoyed taking many relaxing walks along the beach, mostly hunting for sea glass. Planning another walk this evening. I've been spending more time away from my computer (by choice) than I have in possibly over a year, it's been nice. 
I'll maybe keep the detail of 'what did I buy' to another post, but the short version is I visited two palces- a train store I always stop in at least once for the great deals you can get on stuff, and an antique store I'd visited last year that had been willing to part with an awful lot of O gauge trains for dirt cheap. In the latter case, they'd managed to sell off almost everything, and gone the opposite direction- what few things remained were marked well above market value, even at the 50% off sale they were having... apparently they're closing down. I managed to walk away with a couple of the cheaper items after some intense negotiating, but that was it.
As for the former, a very different story. I ended up with a number of things I wasn't expecting to find, but you'd have a hard time finding a better price anywhere else. I found some Gilbert HO rolling stock, including a nearly complete pikemaster set scattered throughout the store. I think everything was there except the locomotive, but the set box didn't come with me as it was in such disgusting condition it shoulda been thrown out ages ago. Also wound up with more Marx ho track than I know what to do with (I only wanted some, but was told to just 'take the whole box', what was I to do?).
In my opinion, the best finds were an LW that's missing the green pilot light cover (Ever since I learned about em, I had to have one, they look way cool!!), another Marx HO Rock Island F3 A-B in ok shape, and a 3356 Horse Car complete with the corral, horses (in their original box), and No. 90 Control Switch. The only thing it's missing as far as I'm concerned is the instruction manual and box! Not in flawless condition, but certainly not too bad. The LW was only $5, I think I paid $10 for the Marx track which had the F3 in it, and the 3356 kit n kaboodle was a steal at $25. 

Tomorrow should be fun, some family are going to join us for the day and I should have a little cousin to entertain briefly with my trains.

-Ellie

[Flintlock76]

Too bad you can't make Henning's 'Devil, but say "Hi!" to Harry for us if you see him!  

Good to know Stuckey's is still around, thanks!  

[anjdevil2]

Hey - quick stop by

Stucky's is still in business - https://stuckeys.com/

LOVED Roy Rogers - last one close by was at the Molly Pitcher Service area on the NJTP near me (Exit 8).  Double R Bar burger was the BEST

Heading out to Lansdale Chrysler show tomorrow after work, hope to meet up with Harry Henning III with his Challenger.  Alas, will not be able to make the train store, they will close at 5. 

 

Weather will be nice in the upper 80s, will pack the car up later.  No rain until Monday.

Not much going on train wise, everything has ground to a halt due to weddings and such.  Nothing is catching my interest, either.  Maybe soon, lol. 

Off to work.....

[Flintlock76]

pennytrains

The nearest Stuckey's is about 30 or 40 miles away so I haven't been to one of those in ages either.  Too bad there aren't any Roy Rogers

Man, Stuckey's used to be a standard on I-95 from central Virginia all the way down to Florida.  And not just for the pecan products, if there was a gift shop attached a Stuckey's was a good place to get fireworks at a reasonable price.  Forget "South Of The Border,"  always overpriced!   All gone now, the only thing left of Stuckey's are the ruins.  It looks like they just emptied the places out, locked the doors, and let nature take its course with the building and grounds.

Back in the Jurassic Age when Lady Firestorm and I were dating the "Gold Standard" for Roy Rogers was a place in Midland Park NJ.  All the Roy's were great but this one was superb!  All the Roy's in NJ were popular and were always doing business but then one day they were GONE!  What the hell?  People were NOT happy!   

The closest Roy Rogers to us is in La Plata MD, about 70 miles away. Too far to drive just for fun, but we usually stop there for an early dinner on the way home from up north.  Wow, do we miss Roys!  There was one 20 miles north of us but it closed 30 years ago.  

Paul McGann!  That's the guy!

[pennytrains]

Flintlock76

 

 

pennytrains

Newest Dr Who episode I've ever seen starred Sylvester McCoy!     Well, not counting the Fox movie.

 

 

Yikes!  That's 35 years ago!  

The most recent revivals with David Tennant and Matt Smith were pretty good!  The Peter Capaldi ones were strange and got stranger as time went on.  The last Doctor we didn't bother with. Well, actually Lady F watched one or two but lost interest quickly.  Still strange. 

We watched the Fox TV movie though.  I don't remember who played the Doctor but I DO remember Eric Roberts as The Master.  He did a good job with the role too, funny like Roger Delgado and scary like Anthony Ainley, a nice combination.

 

https://m.imdb.com/list/ls000417274/

Paul McGann.

There's a 14th doctor now (not counting Peter Cushing or Richard Hurndall).