CLOSED////////The Coffee Pot is still on and over 3 years. Here we gather as friends with trains.

[1688torpedo]

 Don B-   If you stop in Ohio & visit Tom ,Buckeye, & Me. we'll go on a spending spree & buy a six pack of Pepsi to share with you. or maybe three cans of Coke at 60 cents each? Cheaper than Beer anyway. I'll let you know when your 1688E is finished. should not be too long now & I'm sure you'll be happy with it as Fred does a very thorough job with his restorations. I've got another of mine to give him for a restoration as well pretty soon. Take Care.

[dbaker48]

 Hello All!    Don B-  I hope you not trying to say that you pay the taxes for all of us on the Coffee Pot! Good information you posted though. Does Bruce get a Deduction for his Corvair's in Canada as they are his dependent's ?

 

Keith, 

I wish,  I'm down their drinking that $2 and $3 beer.   I thought the analogy was really good.  Weird stuff like that I find interesting.  

Another, my MIL is always coming up with these "They Say" opinions and facts that are totally unsupported.  As an example, making all the major news the past 24 hrs has been this story about how dangerous some roller coasters are at Magic Mountain Park.  This "consumer watchdog association", has stated over 18 people have blacked out, and on and on.  Story been published in two newspapers, and all the local nightly news.  As it turns out this group consists of 4 people, none of which have any kind of degree or any background in safety, engineering, or medical.  Two are hotel workers, one works at a gas station, and a housewife.  They put up a website, and released a press release regarding their concerns.  The principle was interviewed on a local radio talk show and he finally confessed he was trying to negotiate a settlement so as not to release the bad PR.  A big scam, nobody saw through it.  Just because you hear it on radio or television doesn't make it true. 

 

[Brutus]

Brent, if you pay them to move there, they will do it.  Unfortunately, both sides of the political class seem to think that they can buy votes for generations to come this way, even though most voters want to cut off illegal immigration.

[Anonymous]

Dennis,
Thanks for the recommendation!  I'm sure they won't go over well since he hasn't been out of Maryland in over 20 years!

Hey, if you are an illegal immigrant you can move to Maryland and get a driver's license... and if the State Legislature has its way illegals will be able to go to State Colleges at in-state tuition rates WITHOUT meeting the minimum residency requirements (all legal citizens must wait 2 years to qualify for in-state tuition).  But hey, they aren't asking for any special benefits!   Oh and the dems in office claim it will only cost the tax payers 1 million per year to do this!  Yeah, until the word gets out that East California is doing this then it will cost us loads more... I'm starting a petition to change the official name of Maryland to East California...

Brent

[Sturgeon-Phish]

A late good morning to all,

Buckeye, glad things are moving along and I hope everything comes out OK  .  My bride's carpel on both hands went well.  We ended up shopping for over three hours when she was dismissed.  She slept fine last night and helping her shower this morning was .  .  .  interesting  .

I'm working on the dirt road to the sawmill on the layout and should finish it up today.  I also need to get to church to set up for services tonight.  The next three nights will be busy.  The heating system boiler at our sister parish died monday, so got to figure some kind of heat for services Saturday night and Sunday morning.  No chance of the new system being in by the weekend.  

Got to run, take care and May God bless you all

Jim 

[ChiefEagles]

Morning.  Cooler and freeze warning [poor plants and trees].  Yanks are invading the South.  Only good thing is the Yanks are getting Snohio.

Lymes, had it so should not get it again.  Well, all the test said no but I had all the symptoms so most said I had it.  Not fun.  I actually ended up with all joints swollen I could not walk nor move arms and jaws hurt so bad I could not chew nor talk.  [me not talk!!!!]  Could not chew well for 3 days.  Took a week to get to walk enough to go back to work.  Ever since, tick bite really leaves a bad sore for weeks.

Buckeye, there is one on Choochoo Auctions.  Started to bid on it and convert it like you did.  Real tempting.  Cheap bid price too.

Been downloading Fishing Hot Spots into buddy's Garmin GPS.  Now it is ready to install on boat.

Trains calling me.  Later.

[dwiemer]

Good Morning Y'all!  I tried to post much earlier, but the system was down for a little while.  Anyway, Brent, tell your FIL to move to a state like Georgia, we passed a law that keeps the state from taxing retirement income.  This works for the state, but he woud still have to pay fedral taxes.

It is a beautiful day here and while I came to the hospital for rounds, the wife is home with the kids, heading to the park to enjoy the day.  Temp is about 60 or so and should make it to a pleasant mid 70's.

Before I forget, Congrats to our friends from across the Pond to getting your sailors/marines back from Iran.  The same idiot that held our hostages during the Carter administration is now the president of that country and held your folks.  Got an idea for what we should do, but I will try to get back to the trains....

Drove through the local NS yard yesterday, was suprised to see a few UP Geeps/SDs lashed up with some NS and a Southern engine.  Kind of makes for a good photo, of course I didn't have my camera at the time.

Anyway, have a great day,

Dennis

[Anonymous]

Buckeye,
Good luck and don't shoot the dog!

Brent

[1688torpedo]

 Hello All!    Don B-  I hope you're not trying to say that you pay the taxes for all of us on the Coffee Pot! Good information you posted though. Does Bruce get a Deduction for his Corvair's in Canada as they are his dependent's ? Buckeye- Hope your Kidney Stone situation improves soon. Chuck - Hope you're able to find a Dentist who will not charge big $$$$$$ to work on your Tooth. Chief - Be careful about that Deer Tick as they can cause Lime Disease which is a debilitating condition & nothing to joke about at all. My Cousin in Connecticut has a wife with it & she got it by working in her garden & got bit by a Deer Tick & now there is not much she can do now as far as physical activity is concerned & stays home most of the time now. Some days are better than others for her. it is a bad condition to have. Go see a Doctor to be sure. Take Care all.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Something moved and I felt it.

Good morning from beautiful Ohio where we have snow squalls on this great January, February, March, April Day.  We even had people sliding off the road this morning.

I have already drank a one-half gallon of lemonade this morning.  I am floating!

I found a non-powered Amtrak Genesis.  Now the big train can really strecth its legs when I get the track.   For pulling power, you just can't beat Williams.  My powered Genesis with TMCC can really get out and run. 

See ya down the tracks,

[Anonymous]

Good morning all!

  We're back to winter mode here in the Great White North.  Although it barely snowed an inch it's thrown the Toronto area driving public into kaos once again.  They've already closed a few major highways due to bad accidents.

Dennis and Chief:  If my fading memory serves me, the isuue with certain cheap powerbars with surge protectors is that they have open ground circuits.  They're meant to trip ( close the ground circuit ) during overload situations only and thusly they don't provide a constant ground, something TMCC needs.  I think this type of surge protector is similar to load fault outlets found in bathrooms which will trip power off if moisture causes an unwanted ground (eg. a hair dryer falling into a sink full of water ).  The better quality power bars, or at least the type we need for TMCC, have full time ground and their surge protector circuit works differently.  In conclusion, what we have here is not a safety issue.  It's just that the cheap brand surge protector doesn't provide the ground needed to make TMCC work correctly.  At least this is what I've been led to believe.  I could be wrong.

Dougdagrump and John:  If I make another smoking caboose purchase and want to run it, I'll certainly do as you suggested.  Unfortunately the horse is already out of the barn .  My N5c kinda looks like it had a collision or something fell on it.  Darn shame too as it's my best looking and most expensive caboose.  It'll be relegated to running with the warped side out of view from now on.

  I'm wondering if using a fan driven smoke unit would circulate enough air to keep the body from melting?  I think this would provide full time smoke without the chance of meltdown when it sits idle while powered up.  I can't be sure but I suspect it was during idle that the meltdown occured.   I should have at least propped the doors open for better air movement.

Bruce Webster

[Dr. John]

Good morning from Dixie! It's a brisk 48 degrees and breezy this a.m. Sun is shining, so it just feels good. May get to freezing by Easter morning, though.

Chuck, good luck with your tooth!

The old Presbyterian church up the street is tearing down their sanctuary because of structural issues. Beautiful old gothic building. Our church offered to buy their property, but they decided against relocating and will build a new sanctuary on the same site. Wonder how much a gothic style building costs to build these days? May walk up the street at lunchtime and watch the wrecking ball at work.

[Blueberryhill RR]

Good Morning from Blueberryhill....

It is a cold 30 degrees. Snow flurries predicted. Only going up to 38 today. What happened to Spring ??  Flowers, coming up, are covered.

Today, I plan on taking it easy. Last 2 days have been hectic. I have a few phone calls to make and then, I will spend some time running trains. I need some relaxing time. Yesterday, Dentist would not fix broken tooth, without running up about $ 4000.00 on the work. Wants to redo everything. Told him, all I wanted was a repair. What a business. So, I will keep looking.

Dining car is here and ready for breakfast.

Y'all have a great Thursday.

Chuck

[Anonymous]

Jim,
Having worked as a 1099 contractor a few years back I can confirm that your employer DOES pay about 1/2 your taxes... it just made me want to puke so I went back to working for someone else, but the memories are still there...

After figuring my wife's and my joint taxes this year, I decided to see what it would have been if we hadn't gotten married... yes, you guessed it, we would have gotten about 75% more back... just disgusting how single people say married people have it better on taxes... give me a break!  Then there is my FiL... retired, worked his *** off for most of his life, now lives off his retirement accounts and gets a little sumpin sumpin from Uncle Sammy for his 40+ years of working... and he owes Uncle Sammy $10,000! and the state reaches in his pocket and grabs an extra $3,000.  We told him he needs to buy a vacation home - his response, 'What for?  I haven't been on vacation in 70 years!'  We told him it was to reduce his tax burden so he wouldn't have to give as much to Uncle Sammy.  He said, 'OK, once you move in and are settled, then we can look at vacation properties.  Where do you like to go on vacation?'  LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wife told him Hawaii sounded pretty good... he said, 'Yeah, like I'm flying to Hawaii to buy a house.  Find something closer, like 1 hour from my house!'  Looks like he's buying some marsh land near the Chesapeake!  LOL!  No, really probably something around Catoctin...

Brent

[Jumijo]

Good morning from New England.

We got about 4 inches of snow over night. So glad spring is here... The car slid coming out of the garage and scraped against the door frame...

Chief, ever heard of Lyme Disease?

No 5 legged toads here either. Just a one-eyed worm that keeps hanging around.

Have a great day all!!!

Jim 

[ChiefEagles]

No five legged toads today.  Did find a deer tick stuck to my leg.

[dougdagrump]

  Unfortunately, the first victim of full time 18 volts has been discovered.  The K-Line caboose, mentioned earlier today stopped smoking.  Figuring it was simply out of fluid upon refilling it I noticed the plastic body near the chimney badly melted.  Not a pretty sight and of course the N5c no longer smokes.  Anybody have luck claiming warrantees on K-Line products these days?

Bruce Webster

Bruce, Join the crowd, a lot of us learned this the hard way.  I ruined one, have several others that I have never run.  Someone posted a fix for this a while back, but I don't remember the details.  A half wave rectifier in series might solve the problem.  A resister of the proper size would work but then you have the heat from the resistor to deal with.  Roy, any suggestions?

Try this : http://www.electricrr.com/MiniCommanderAcc.htm

[mitchelr]

Morning all,

The weather is turning for the bad here in WNY this morning.  Yesterday was great with highs about 75.  I went for a hike of about 5 miles on one of the trails around the area.  It was a beautiful day for it.   On my way to work this morning the temp dropped 5 degrees in about 5 minutes and it's getting very windy and rainy.  The forecast is for 3 to 5 inches of snow tonight.  That just isn't right. 

 Hey Mitch and Laz - I see where you guys are having kids this week.  Do you have kids in school next week?  If you do that is why you get done so much earlier than we do here.  Plus we don't start till after Labor Day.   I am taking some vacation time after today but it doesn'tlook like the weather is going to cooperate.

Have a good day all.

TomS 

 

KIDOs have off Thursday and Friday and we are  back at school on Monday, snow make up day.

laz57

TomS and LAZ - our student have an early dismissal tomorrow as it is the end of the quarter.  Then we are closed Friday and Monday.  We usually start back to school the week before Labor day and end sometime the first two weeks of June.  This year we used 5 snow days so we won't finish with students until June 14.  If we had no snow student would be finished June 7.  Teacher's contract ends June 15.

Mitch 

[Brutus]

JOhn, 5 leg toads and such were actually caused by some bacteria or other "bug" in nature, not due to mankind.  The Greenies had a field day with all these abnormal frogs and such for a while and then it turned out it was all natural, so you don't hear about it as much.  I read recently how most of the big names in the Global Warming camp are former commies and others of the same "let us run everything for you" types.  Don - loved that economics lesson.  I wish my parents and in-laws would figure this out.  Also wish I could complain about paying the $59!!!  One problem with your example is that you left out the earned income tax credit, so in fact the first two men would get money back, because they would get the amount of contribution from their employers - your employer actually pays taxes for you as I understand it, or rather as part of the cost of having an employee, which slot you fill.

Spent the entire day walking around outside with my son at his fieldtrip to a YMCA camp down in Potosi MO.  ABout 50 degrees with a 50 mile an hour wind, so I've got sunburn and windburn on my entire balding head and my feet hurt too!  He did great at archery though!  Maybe trains tomorrow - ttfn!

[Blueberryhill RR]

Jim F - Where to in NC?  Lisa

Charlotte NC

I saw on the news tonight that a little boy found a 5 legged Toad in North Carolina today !!

Thanks, John

 

I know an " old TOAD " that lives in NC.

[csxt30]

Jim F - Where to in NC?  Lisa

Charlotte NC

I saw on the news tonight that a little boy found a 5 legged Toad in North Carolina today !!

Thanks, John

 

[Brutus]

Jim F - Where to in NC?  Lisa

Charlotte NC

[ChiefEagles]

Guys, just remember, don't cut corners on the surge protector.  I think the cheap ones do cause problems.  I know Buckeye and I have been running them for years with great success.  Bruce, I ran 240 through a 4 prong twist plug to a breaker box under the benchwork.  Everything feed from it through surge protector.  I flip the breaker and everything is shut down.  Transformers stay as they are.  Flip the breaker one and everything comes alive.  Ran special ground back downstairs through outside and tied to driven power ground for house.  Over kill but works. 

[dwiemer]

Evening.  Wife and kids are dying Easter Eggs, while I spend some time here and checking out the auctions.  Almost time for bed.  Enjoyed watching I Love Toy Trains on OO gauge.  I think it might be something I should look into, getting a nice set to either put on the wall or run on a small side layout. 

I am hoping to get most of my honey do list taken care of so I can hit the tracks and get R done!  It is taking me so long to get the layout done, people are going to think I am following in Chief's footsteps Just kidding Chief!

Dennis

[c50truck]

Good evening everyone. Weather is moderate, typical spring in the Inland Northwest.

Dr John, Silver Queen corn. Been awhile since I planted that variety. A late season corn here, pushing labor day till it's ready. Great flavor, but the all white corn never caught on to the buying public here in the Spokane Valley.

Doug, I'm surrounded by developements. There growing faster than the corn on a hot August night. Getting offers weekly, but I turn them down. Not sure what I'd do without a tractor and a crop to tend to. I like trains, but....

Don Baker. Loved the economics lesson. I understood, so what does that make me?

 

 

[jefelectric]

  Unfortunately, the first victim of full time 18 volts has been discovered.  The K-Line caboose, mentioned earlier today stopped smoking.  Figuring it was simply out of fluid upon refilling it I noticed the plastic body near the chimney badly melted.  Not a pretty sight and of course the N5c no longer smokes.  Anybody have luck claiming warrantees on K-Line products these days?

Bruce Webster

Bruce, Join the crowd, a lot of us learned this the hard way.  I ruined one, have several others that I have never run.  Someone posted a fix for this a while back, but I don't remember the details.  A half wave rectifier in series might solve the problem.  A resister of the proper size would work but then you have the heat from the resistor to deal with.  Roy, any suggestions?

[Anonymous]

Evening folks!

  The flurries are starting this evening.  I suppose hoping that winter had ended was too good to be true.  Not great weather for hauling and roadtesting the old cars that need to be readied for auction next week. 

  Dennis and Chief,   When I go back and rewire the curcuit for transformer and TMCC power I'll definitely cannibalize a new power bar with surge protector for insurance.  This will also get me a few extra outlets for additional transformers in the future.  As far as trusting a surge protector..well.....I don't.  During electrical storms I unplug all my electronics...TV, computer, telephone and the power to my trains.  One fried modem and having to reset my wide screen ( all connected to supposed surge protectors ) was enough of a lesson for me!

  As far as my TMCC signals problems, the temporary ground attached to the TMCC wall wort solved them.  The layout is pretty simple and all on one level, Dennis.  I'll certainly keep the ground wire tricks in mind when the next layout (multi-level ) gets under way.  I was concerned about signal issues inside my bridge over Lazyboy canyon but none arose.  The metal construction doesn't seem to effect signal strength that I can tell.  Been hooking up the TPC and it now seems to be working on one loop.  I've got power full time to the other loop so there's gotta be something messed up.  I'm sure I'll find it soon.

Bruce Webster

[Frank53]

Thanks to such stalworths in the diplomatic realm like Nancy P. going to Syria, . . . Perhaps Asad will keep her over there?

Dennis

Had to count and make sure we are still on page 212 (4x53), since we are, let me say this about that:

I'm all for it!

[dwiemer]

Don, how true it is.  Thanks to such stalworths in the diplomatic realm like Nancy P. going to Syria, I am afraid we will be having such economics hitting us at an all time high.  Perhaps Asad will keep her over there?

Dennis

[dwiemer]

Chief and everyone else, thanks for all the information posted.  I was not sure about the information from the OGR regarding the surge protector.....wondered about it when I read it, just didn't make sense.  I do think the ground issue is true and important.

Did a early case this morning and then had to come home and watch the kids while my better half went to a Dr's Appointment.  Upon my arrival, I found that UPS has been here with the connectors for my fastrack.  I hope to get plenty of wiring done on the layout over the next two weeks.  Then comes the scenery.

Was a bit warm here today, in the mid 80s but supposed to get cooler this weekend.  I usually would have spread the Pre-M for weeds and did the weed and feed with the tractor, but this year has been so crazy weather wise.  I ended up getting a service to spray the weeds and fertilizer with some additive that kills fire ants.  Gets expensive when you go over a few acres.  I usually enjoy yard work, but am getting tired of it lately.

Chief, Dr. John, I too have to do some work on the tractor.  do the regular service and I will just get some new blades for the mower. 

Have a  great day,

Dennis