Evening all,
It was an eventfull day, did a few scheduled cases and finished with an emergency that pretty much made for a long day. No train time and I didn't even get a chance to do some good reading.
Lisa, congrats on the new additions! We have two, both mutts. One is shephard/collie, other is Rott/lab. Great dogs and they are a big part of our family.
Chief, good luck on your trip. From the messages I have been reading, it sounds like a bunch of good guys getting together.....but we know better, they are the enemy. Just kidding guys, hope y'all have a great time and I hope y'all have a healthy serving of GRITS!
ATSJer, Good luck with Hebrew, have you had Greek yet? Very complicated language, but also very descriptive....ie: Agape. It will really help with interpreting the good news.
Have a great night y'all,
Dennis
TCA#09-63805
Had a nice chat with the Chief this morning, all set for Saturday.
We had beautiful weather today, to be warmer the rest of the week, but may get some rain Friday or Saturday.
Finally finished the TMCC conversion of the DOCKSIDER, Works great, but the only sound is the horn. I know steamers are supposed to have whistles but the Docksiders sound like horns to me. It seem wierd running a TMCC engine witout sound, almost like a stealth engine as there is very little noise, especially at the slow speeds the TMCC allows.
Take care,
Well some sad news for those with "the knack".
John Backus, retired IBM employee and the inventor of the FORTRAN programming language, died last weekend at age 82.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/business/20backus.html?ex=1332043200&en=31f3231c1458c56d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa072198.htm
Regards, Roy
wrmcclellan wrote: Well some sad news for those with "the knack".John Backus, retired IBM employee and the inventor of the FORTRAN programming language, died last weekend at age 82.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/business/20backus.html?ex=1332043200&en=31f3231c1458c56d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rsshttp://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa072198.htm
Inventor of FORTAN???????? Oh, do I remember those punch cards! I remember programming the computer to handle matrix algebra problems. After we put the program in the que to be run on the computer, it sometimes took hours to get back the results. One mistake punching a card and you did it again.
Roy, do you remember the green CRT screens? Pen plotters? Sneaker networks? Boy, has it changed.....for the better.
Celebrating 18 years on the CTT Forum.
Buckeye Riveter......... OTTS Charter Member, a Roseyville Raider and a member of the CTT Forum since 2004..
Jelloway Creek, OH - ELV 1,100 - Home of the Baltimore, Ohio & Wabash RR
TCA 09-64284
God bless TCA 05-58541 Benefactor Member of the NRA, Member of the American Legion, Retired Boss Hog of Roseyville , KC&D Qualified
dwiemer wrote: ATSJer, Good luck with Hebrew, have you had Greek yet? Very complicated language, but also very descriptive....ie: Agape. It will really help with interpreting the good news.
The Hebrew language is beautiful and colorful and it is amazing how one word in Hebrew takes several Latin or Greek words to come close to the same meaning. A lot of the time when researching scripture, I'll read different translations to sense the flavor or intent of the writer. A Commertary is real handy too!
The sawmill's action is so neat. I love the simple efficient mechanical engineering. Really looking forward to getting it on the layout. I think the grandkids will love it. I know I do.
Last night shift, just found out I won't need to cover for my relief supervisor tomorrow night, get to sleep at night. Time for some popcorn, (I'm on break now)
Later
Jim
Buckeye Riveter wrote: Roy, do you remember the green CRT screens? Pen plotters? Sneaker networks? Boy, has it changed.....for the better.
Buckeye - for the better? Used to be when the data center was down we all went home and it was another guys problem to fix. Now we get to fix it ourselves
Do you remember or did you ever use the IBM punch card "verifier." You had to run your punch card deck through it if you had duplicated cards (you know - the ones the card reader ate) on the IBM "duplicator" as the "duplicator" did not annotate the new cards - ARGH!
Hey and who can forget those high speed "chain" printers. One mistake and if you printed one line per page hundreds of pages of "watermelon paper" (alternating green and white striped tractor paper) ran out onto the floor. Always loved the look from the data center guy when he handed me a few reams of paper with one line per page. Those were the days!
My first interaction with a computer was in 1978 and the program was on a paper ribbon with holes on a large reel like you woud have movie file on. As the program ran it fed off the reel into a basket where we would collect the ribbon and spool it up again. The processors needed for our operation in the early 80's filled a 12 x 16 room, same operation today runs off 4 Dell desk top PCs.
0930GMT in a slightly warmer and damp Stockport.
Going for a blood test in an hours time. Nursey could not get any last week, have to take a hot bath and drink lots of H2O yuk!! Rather have Robbies. Bad news here is 'the chancellor has just put a penny a pint on the cost of living' SWINE!! He's a whisky man, left that alone.
Smileys done a bunk AGAIN!!!
John Baker
Good morning from New England!
Got a lot done on the Chief's tunnel portal last night. Also, I finally got my train videos put on a DVD and will be uploading them today if all goes well. First up will be the Polar Express with it's revamped smoke unit.
Spring-like weather predicted for here today. Train show this weekend and a semi-formal dinner dance with the wife Saturday night!
Have a nice day, everyone. You too, Lisa!
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
Here is our Polar Express Berkshire pulling a set of NYC streamliners. I replaced the original smoke unit material with fiberglass insulation, and the results were better than expected.
PE Smoking
Morning all. Rebel raid into Yankeeland. Sneak attack during meal with the Yankee leaders. Getting ready to go to airport. Jim, great video. Good smoke.
Have a good day and God bless.
Good morning all,
It is warm and rainy in SE Indiana with temps in the 60s today. It was so nice yesterday my wife had the windows open when I got home. I went to the YMCA for weights last night and for some reason it was not very busy:-) We watched "Lost" and found out how Locke got in the wheelchair. I ran the trains on the upstairs layout for the first time this season (an unheated attic). It was a good day. Time for the dining car to head to "Points East". I don't want Chuck and the rest of the Ohiozo gang to be hungry. I hope everyone has a good day.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
Good Morning from Blueberryhill....
It is a nice 60 degrees. Cloudy skies. Going up to 68 today, with a chance of rain. Yesterday turned out beautiful. 80 degrees.
Today, I am going to take it easy. I got my running around done yesterday. Very busy day. I am planning on working on the layout, later. I spent a lot of time outside yesterday, and never got to the train room.
I hope you PA guys have a nice lunch with the NC guy, today.
Well, I guess it's time to board the Dining car. No previous stops at " points west ", yet. Breakfast is served.
Y'all have a great Thursday.
Chuck
Mornin' boys. Mrs. fifedog and 3 out of 4 kids have a nasty cold...am keeping my distance.
Bakeer - penny a pint? Sounds like you boys should revolt and toss some beer into the Thames, kinda like that tea party we had a few years back.
I'm reading a lot of worry and trepidation in a lot of posts, concerning Chief's visit. We're having him to lunch; not for lunch...
B'eye - chocolate cream or banana...?
Mornin all.
Fife - thanks for the well wishes. I didn't see your post till this morning.All went well with the MRI yesterday. It is comfirmed, I do have a brain, wife says we have to wait for the test results to see if it is a functioning brain... gotta love women!Wife and I stopped at Ashley Furniture last night, looked them up since Doug said they were good, and we bought a new kitchen table, 4 chairs, and 2 matching bar chairs to go at the island.Gotta run to the audiologist and ear specialist...Brent
FORTRAN?? Wow, that was another life time....learned that on the Princeton University computer and a digital PDP series computer. Used to stay up all night with that punch card thing... Like to drive me nuts!!! Graduated to a IBM 3070 a few years after that. Though we still had LOTS of watermelons on the floor (a real gas at 3am!!)
Cloudy today, should be about 73. Rained last night, and forgot the 'cycle was out in the weather. Guess I have my work cut out for me later....been so busy with the work/house shopping thing, no trains until tomorrow.....I hope!
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
Morning, all!
I hear things are going well for the Rebel raiders who are are taking the fight back to the northern aggressors! Armed with Grits and sweet tea, our boys will see that the South shall rise again!
Speaking of the south, it's getting warm down here. Supposed to be up to 85 degrees on Saturday. Nice weather, but we need rain pretty badly.
In train news, I broke down and ordered a Railking set with a Pennsy 2-8-0 w/ PS 2 and three Madison cars. I was lured by the sound and smoke! Anyone have one of these and want to share their opinion?
Good Morning from the Bluegrass
It is 63 degrees, clear and breezy with a SW wind at 24 mph! I got home last night from the campus library just before midnight! I sat on the couch wanting to unwind, and I guess I unwound faster than anticipated, because my wife came out at about 5am and asked if I was coming to bed. ugh! Then I had to get up at 7 and take my son to school; my wife is working today until noon, and my son has T-ball this evening, plus my Hebrew mid-term is at 9:30am. Let's just say the next 24 hours will be interesting to say the least.
Oh, my brother and his family are coming over this weekend, and he's bringing his Lionel Union Pacific Steam Super Freight Set, it should be fun to run the sets together this weekend; pics will be made available.
Afternoon all
Balmy warm and overcast in Southern Ohio. Got to bed about 8:30 a.m. took a nap so I can function, but still get my sleep schedule turned around. Gotta love night shift
ATSJer, good luck on the tests. I'll keep you in my prayers. We have a formation weekend this weekend, then the last final. Already turned in Church History final and an audio tape project. Not looking forward the the final in The Gospel of John.
Jim, you vidio is great. The PE is a great Loco, it tempts me to stray from AF.
Going to work on the layout. Check back later
Remember these things well!
"Paper Tape" Anyone remember "Add Punches?" Also remember the IBM machine that converted the paper tape into punch cards.
"Punch Cards" First place I worked had a special conveyor to get the boxes of punch cards into the basement. Wasn't fun when real cold or hot.
IBM 360/20 with a Multifunction Card Machine. We called it something else. Can't say what , family forum and all. Compiling programs with the "card compiler."
Removable Disk Packs. First ones I worked with were an amazing 10 Megabyte capacity.
"Eight inch diskettes"
Another thing about removable disk packs. Anyone else every remove a 3640 pack from a drive that was still spinning? That was loads of fun - NOT.
First modems were either 300 or 600 baud. Remember when we graduated to 1200 baud, Man that was "cooking with gas!'"
Almost forgot to mention. Wasn't it fun when the cover would lift up on the 1403 printers because it had run out of paper. Had to remember to not set anything on the printer that might spill.
Ah! the good old days!
Funny thing is, tell someone about this stuff today and all they can think of is dinosaur. What I think about is that it was how I earned a paycheck and provided for my family.
My kids and I were watching Davey & Goliath last night. One of the episodes had Davey getting locked in a Reefer car. The trains were Lionel. The engine pulling the train was a 2035. Some of the cars were re-painted for the show. Davey's reefer was an orange New Haven re-lettered NB instead of NH.
The Lionels were set up on a 2 rail track but appeared to run due to stop motion animation.
Dr. John,
I have that Pennsy 2-8-0 set, it is a great set. Did you get the extra cars? If it is 2005 production, run it as much as you can while it is under warranty. Some of the 2-8-0s built in 2005 develop a short in the tender. MTH took care of the problem and it has ran great ever since. I don't want to worry you, just thought I'd give you some heads-up. I will try to take some pictures of the set on the layout later today.
Mike C.,
I watched Lost last night, and I was a bit confused (so what else is new). I thought that Locke was paralyzed when he was hit by a car in a store parking lot. Now, they showed his father pushing him out of that window. Guess we will have to wait until next Wednesday.
Dr. John wrote: Morning, all!I hear things are going well for the Rebel raiders who are are taking the fight back to the northern aggressors! Armed with Grits and sweet tea, our boys will see that the South shall rise again!Speaking of the south, it's getting warm down here. Supposed to be up to 85 degrees on Saturday. Nice weather, but we need rain pretty badly.In train news, I broke down and ordered a Railking set with a Pennsy 2-8-0 w/ PS 2 and three Madison cars. I was lured by the sound and smoke! Anyone have one of these and want to share their opinion?
Dr. John : I have that engine in a P&LE logo !! I got it new at a train show 2 or 3 years ago & it has performed flawlessly !! I took it to Spankybird's & he programmed it to a 4 chuff rate cause I only have TMCC & recently got A tpc-300, which now lets me open the knukle on the tender. The TPC will also give you very slow speed & some other features ! It smokes like you wouldn't believe !! It's timed to the wheels & at just a crawl it puffs a big blast of smoke 4 times in all, in 1 revolution of the drivers !! I have been very happy with this engine !! Oh, the bell is really nice but the whistle isn't bad ! Also, I mix Lionel & JTs megae steam smoke oil together for a nice Christmass pine smell !! urn the exhaust fan on when you get her goin " !!
Thanks, John
There are three extra cars. There is a combine, diner, and a coach. Here is a link to the current MTH catalogs, the cars are on the first page of the steam set section in the 2007 RTR catalog: http://www.railking1gauge.com/catalog/current2.asp
I will try to take pictures of the set today, and I'll post them here.
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