ELLIOT'S TRACKSIDE DINER, JULY 2013!

[howmus]

kbkchooch

Cool loco Ray,, but a steamer?? Looks like an Alco dieasel to me. 

Opps...  I meant "Honorary" Steamer...) 

73

[last mountain & eastern hogger]

kbkchooch

howmus

Hi Gang,

Just finished a great supper, Beef Stroganoff with roasted parsnips and garden fresh green beans.   MMMmmm good.

Haven't accomplished much today since Church this morning.  The three degenerative disks in my neck have been nagging me and I have developed some kind of a hard swelling under my right ear and down my neck.  The Sawbones took all the tests and they were all OK, so now it is off to have an Ultrasound next Friday.  This worries me a tad as I have had two different regimes of antibiotics that haven't touched it..

so I spent the afternoon napping, then got the wife's computer back on line, then supper and here I am.

Boy, RAY, that is a very productive little garden you have there.  Your property is looking good.

PAUL, so glad you get to spend time with your kids.  How is your Son doing ? You always mention that you will be skyping with him but thats all we hear.

Young GARY, you seem to be having a hard time making up your mind as how you want your layout to go.What is the latest configuration for it ?

Heartland GARRY,  always love seeing your work posted.  The amazing thing to me is that I can pick out your work without seeing your name.  Also with Dr. Wayne's and Grampy's.. I would only hope someday mine would would reach that point.  Don't hold your breath <<<<<<<<<

JEFF,  If I don't get in again for awhile, I certainly hope and pray all goes well with the foot issue, I'm sure you will be much better off after some rehab time.   Best wishes ol' Buddy.

Anyone see anything of Sue or JR. lately ?  Hope all is well with her and Larry.

JERRY, You are definately raising the stock prices on the Illinois Southern.  Layout is looking good.  Hope you as well are felling better.

ROB., Did you get the drywall repaired and ready for the new layout ?? sure hope so...

ChoochooWillie, Please start sending a little warmer weather down this way.  The Boys in Winnipeg,   CN Charlie, Blind Bruce and Seamonster,and us here in the Gap would sure appreciate it.

Sure glad to see some of the MIA guys coming back in.  I know life gets busy at times, but remember you are always missed in the Diner.

Think I will head down to the LM&E and do a little more to get ready for some landscaping the north mountainous side.  It seems I have been working on it for years.  Need to get this last part done and start on a new section to refresh myself.

Ya all have a great evening,  Prayers and blessings to all.

Johnboy out..............................

Looks like a Lot-O-Lard for one little Alco to pull.................Lol

[soilwork]

              Good evening everyone, I will have a Sea Dog Blueberry ale please! Not much going on here. Been dating, trying to find some one is a full time job  After a few days of rain it cleared up and was nice out today. Going to get out early in the morning and go run for a few miles. Sometime in the afternoon, I'm going to pull the shell of my New Athearn  SD70 SP Heritage unit to see why the running lights are not working. The person who assembled it  must of had a case of the Mondays! Athearn quality control strikes again!!  Have a good night everyone!!!!

John

[tcwright973]

Ray - It's the semi-dry that we like from Prejean's Winery. We have been getting it there for about 13 years now. I have no idea what I'm going to do when I can't make the drive anymore. Hopefully, that will be a few more years down the road though. It's a funny thing, we were not wine drinkers until my nephew got married in Rochester. For something to do one day, we drove down to Seneca Lake on 14 and stopped at each winery for a taste. By lunch, I was getting a buzz. But I did like a lot of the wines from most of the wineries on the western shore. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a wine snob, I only know what I like. And those wines appeal to me. I don't like the wines on the eastern side of the lake as much, and I don't like any of the Pennsylvania wines. They just aren't as smooth. We do get a couple of bottles from Torrey Ridge, Glenora and some others. But it's the Reisling that makes me happy.

[Anonymous]

(stumbles into the Diner - his eyes half-closed)

Good Morning.

Flo, coffee in an IV bag, please.

Yesterday was the hottest day in decades in Germany. Top temperature reached the 102F mark, even here in the great white north we reached 95F, which means a bedroom temperature of close to 80F - too hot % humid to get a good rest.

The last couple of days have been really busy ones. Good news is that the guy who challenged our list of candidates failed completely and we can now officially run for Bundestag. Campaign time has also officially started and i already held my first campaign speech last Saturday. It was a tremendous success. Feels good to hear the applause from nearly 500 folks! Never thought I could do it, but I am pleased to learn "Yes, I can"...

Today will also be quite busy. I have a dentist´s appointment early in the morning, followed by a run to get the fire truck registered and insured. I also need to talk to the guy doing the lettering and painting of the truck. It´ll have to be ready by the coming weekend, so I have to speed him up a little.

I still miss time to do some MRRing - I wish I had some sort of a layout I could just run a couple of trains on for relaxation. Well, time will come for that.

The roll call I sent out showed, that we are missing more than half of our buddies in here - hope to see them back soon!

Have a good one!

[last mountain & eastern hogger]

DENNIS, in my last post I had fully intended to say I was sorry to hear about the quick depreciation on the little Pontiac, but so glad you piloted through that scene without getting hurt.  

There will always be other cars and toys, but (your) body parts are hard to come by.

Johnboy out........................and off to ZZZZzzzzland.

[galaxy]

morning coffee in the diner..

GOOD MONDAY MORNING!!!

Today is Monday, July 29th, 2013!!!

I will light the prayer candles at 9 AM for htose in need..

MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!!

now, Don't go 'barking up the wrong tree':

Meaning:

Making a mistake or a false assumption in something you are trying to achieve

Origin:

The short version:

Settlers hunted raccoons, possums and squirrels. Most hunting dogs would chase them up a tree and then bark until their masters came and shot the animals. Sometimes, the animal managed to sneak across to another tree w/o the dog seeing. So, the dog would continue to bark up a tree that didn't have any prey.  Soon, the phrase became known in social circles to mean anyone who is wrong about something and/or is being mislead

A deeper look:

The allusion is to hunting dogs barking at the bottom of trees where they mistakenly think their quarry is hiding.

The earliest known printed citation is in James Kirke Paulding's Westward Ho!, 1832:

"Here he made a note in his book, and I begun to smoke him for one of those fellows that drive a sort of a trade of making books about old Kentuck and the western country: so I thought I'd set him barking up the wrong tree a little, and I told him some stories that were enough to set the Mississippi a-fire; but he put them all down in his book."

The phrase must have caught on in the USA quickly after Hall's book. It appeared in several American newspapers throughout the 1830s; for example, this piece from the Gettysburg newspaper The Adams Sentinel, March 1834:

"Gineral you are barkin' up the wrong tree this time, for I jest see that rackoon jump to the next tree, and afore this he is a mile off in the woods.

 

[MisterBeasley]

Monday again.  Kind of cloudy with rain expected, high about 80.  At least the nights are cool and I haven't had the AC on in almost a week.

The mortar work on the brick buildings was a success.  I repainted them with a satin finish in a slightly redder brick color.  My problem was using a primer for the brick.  Primer is supposed to allow paint to adhere everywhere, so it was sticking to the brick faces where it wasn't wanted.

Ulrich, I'm glad you've gotten over that stumbling block, but I'd imagine there will be many more.  Keep up the good work, though.  We're behind you, covering your rear like a caboose.

 

Me again??  Oh well, enjoy yourselves.  The calories don't count today.

[TMarsh]

Good Morning!!!

Coffee and a breakfast burrito please. Thanks

Mostly sunny, with a high near 78.

Made some pretty good progress yesterday and still managed to take Brenda to the Chinese buffet. Not “mine”, but “hers”. She likes that one too so we split weeks now I guess.  It’s not bad, but she admits International Buffet’s food tastes better. They do have a few different things so I see why once in a while, but she usually gets the stuff both places have so….?. I think it’s because of the waitresses.

First, bookwo*k for the Church, then back up 21 steps to the apartment. Today I need to take my table saw with me for a few things. Hopefully after today, I’ll just have some odds and ends by Wednesday then….I’m done.

CG JIM!!!!!! Time to check in buddy.

Wish there was a way we could tell the difference between someone just gets busy or directed away for a while disappeared, and somethings wrong disappeared. I’m getting real concerned about Lee. This is not like him. Last time remember Tom (bridge Tom) disappeared for a while suddenly and turned out he had…food poisoning or something that caused him aaaaalllll sorts of problems.

Ya’ll have a good day, ya hear!!!!

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning

Here we be kinda dull and showery..showers are in our forecast today as well as our high of...66.. 

We did our lawn cutting ...again ...yesterday so today it will be just doing the mall and diner thing and then off to the music store to get my bass redone....sigh.  

Have a good day!!

Todd:   I think we be needing an MIA list just to keep up on what is going on here...Lee seemed to be having health issues as well...I'll email him again. CGJim seems busy with work, maybe? At least I hope...

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 75° and already feels like 83°. The humidity is 98%. The high will be 95° but will feel like 104°.
Morning/afternoon Evening

No plans for today except to stay inside where it's cool.

[galaxy]

well

Still have this nagging headache. Been a week now, every day. Meds for migraines not working..think stress headache over the insurances thingies. That is over with and thought out, so shouldn't be bothering me now. But the weather has always palyed havoc with my headaches, so I think that is helping the pain.

Went to the Bank and the Credit Union. Only reasons we keep the bank accounts, you ask? TOTALLY FREE checking! MAJOR BANK. No requirements. Free to write as many checks, free to have teller do transactions, no min. balance, Free to have. CAN"T hardly find THAT any more without some kind of attachement requirements to get the free checking. Also it's a bit closer than the CU, so good to keep for easy close access. Today they were paving at our usally branch, so went ot the branch down the street from the CU branch,so easy to do.

Wen to the Post Office to mail rent so ti gets there on time.

WEll, will rest the rest of the day. MAYBE headache will go away FINALLY.

Should do dishes and laundry, maybe later.

[Anonymous]

Hi Folks,

just a quick update on the fire truck - I got it registered as an old timer - meaning reduced rates in tax and insurance - yahoo!

I also received the drawings for the lettering and decalling - looks good to me!

Here is a sneak preview:

How´s your German these days?

[howmus]

Mornin' everyone!

Zoe, I'll have a bowl of the Vanilla Almond Granola with some blueberries and a cup of Seneca Lake Roast coffee please!

At the moment the big yellow thing is out from behind a cloud....  Probably won't last long.  Currently 68°F with a high of 73°F later.

Dennis, FLLS runs Gauge 1, 4 3/4" Gauge (1" = 1'), and 7 1/4" Gauge.  The photo in question is  4 3/4" gauge.  Their track for that one is almost perfectly level so they can pull a high ratio of "Goods" to the weight of the loco.....  http://www.fingerlakeslivesteamers.org/  I think when I wrote the post, my mind was thinking this loco but also talking about the one I posted.

Oh, thanks for the kind comments on my homestead folks!

I have a bunch of items to do today, so I think I better get myself moving...

Later!

73

[pascaff*]

  Morning All,

   Currently it is 63 with an expected high of 92 under sunny skies.

   After a nice weekend off, it is back to w**k today. Started to paint the walls on the Hardwood Furniture kit, maybe will get a chance to start putting in the windows this evening. Also was able to do some scenery w**k yesterday, and clean up some w**k area. I do not have a dedicated w**k bench for modeling, so I use the island in the kitchen and the big table in the breakfast nook area.

  I need to go to Wal-Mart for a few things, should do it this morning rather than after w**k, so I best get going.

  Prayers to all in need.

    Paul

[wetidlerjr]

Greetings!

Nothing new here but cool weather and no rain. It's been in the 50s in the early morning for the last two days. 

Time for a nap! 

Temperature in TIPTON IN

[Anonymous]

MIA´s I´ve been thinking of:

1. Sue
2. CapeJim
3. PATom
4. Bama
5. Chris
6. Keith
7. Sawyer
8. Lee
9. Flip
10. OzJim
11. CalifTom

Am I missing some?

Wherever you are, whatever you do, here´s a for you!

[Anonymous]

Ever wanted to have a passenger station on a mainline, but thought you don´t have the space for one?

Then try Riomaggiore Statione FS in Italy! It must be the smallest station possible to model on a layout. It is situated on the main line from Genoa to La Spezia, sees quite a lot of traffic each day, but is only two coach-lengths long(between two tunnel portals).

You cold actually build a scale model of it on a 4 by 8!

[kbkchooch]

Sir Madog

Hi Folks,

just a quick update on the fire truck - I got it registered as an old timer - meaning reduced rates in tax and insurance - yahoo!

I also received the drawings for the lettering and decalling - looks good to me!

Here is a sneak preview:

How´s your German these days?

OK, my 30 year old High School German test.....

Of course, the "Alternative for Germany" label was easy

Above that something about Elections.......probably loosely translated to "Elect me!" 

Below the banner, on the rear door, (hard to read at this dpi) does it say "To get us out of this crazy European debt trap"? 

I'm sure my old High School German teacher, Gunter Sonntag, is tossing in his grave right about now!

[alexstan]

Morning, evening all.

About to place a big Amtrak order.

Not feeling very good, very down again...

[Anonymous]

kbkchooch

Below the banner, on the rear door, (hard to read at this dpi) does it say "To get us out of this crazy European debt trap"? 

Quite close, Karl, quite close indeed!

It reads "We save you all from Euro-delusion and debt trap...

Current reading says 9.5%, which would be a landslide result here!

[soilwork]

                 Good afternoon everyone!! I will have chili burger cooked med well with a pint of Magic Hat Elder Betty please!! Not much going on here right now. Been having issues with the charging port on my phone, so I'm looking into having it repaired or maybe buying one of those charging mats. I pulled the shell of of my Athearn Genesis SP heritage unit and the bulbs for the running lights are burnt out, brand new right out of the box. Not to happy about that!! 

                Galaxy: Your headaches can be caused by a number of things. My aunt had problems with real severe headaches to the point that she would have to spend all day in bed. After seeing a couple of specialist , she found out that her headaches were being caused by to much MSG in here diet.

                Jefff: It looks like your layout had some severe wind, I see some downed trees. I hope the damage wasn't to severe!

[blownout cylinder]

Good Evening

It were kinda cool today here..it got to, would you believe, 60? Where'd summer go?  

We did manage to get some gardening work done around here..yes, including more firewood. Loads of laundry done as well...geeesh. 

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Hey there everyone.

The trench was approved today and the line was filled with sand and started to fill it with dirt just so if it rains, it won't get the sand protecting the line.

Finished up the Hawker Typhoon also. Has the D-Day stripes on it and it looks sharp with them. Will be working on the B-25J from here on out and hope to get a start on a Zero kit that I have before classes start at PennTech.

Downloaded a game yesterday as well called "World of Warplanes". It's a multiplayer game that focuses on aerial combat with planes ranging from the 1920's to the Korean War. It's an open beta version that I have, so it hasn't been fully released yet. This gives me the option to get some premium aircraft that won't be available after the game is fully released.

Lot happened lately, simply haven't had time to check.

[Packer]

Evening guys

Well I'm in a bit of a sour mood now. A now-former friend of mine wanted to hang out. Well I wait for an hour where she wants to meet. I get tired and leave. Then I find her with some of her other friends down the road. I pull up and ask what's going on. They just flip me the bird. So I'm done with her for good.

Jake, sounds like a game I'd like to play. I'm more used to jet fighter simulations and games on my Xbox 360 though.

Soilwork, that's northing new. I have an athearn RTR SW15 that has about 10-15 hours of run time. One bulb burned out. I've been salvaging bulbs from a busted-up RTR SD40-2 and GP35. I have like 2 left. Supposedly minitronics makes something that's the same size and voltage, but lasts longer... I'm thinking of going LED if I can find Lucite rod.

MIA list, Anyone heard from SP&S/BN Gary? I've seen him a few times on the Xbox, but never played with him (we don't play any of the same games. They really should port some train driving stuff to the 360. lol. I've seen Sawyer on another forum and facebook. He's the only dinner I've actually meet though.

[howmus]

Evenin' folks!

Janie, a nice cup of hot chocolate would be just the thing right now....

Hot chocolate?  Hey it's chilly here in the Finger Lakes!  Currently 63°F and it done got aaaallllllllll the way up to a sweltering 71°F mid afternoon, it did.  At least the air conditioner wasn't on for the day.....  Oh!  I am typing this on my old laptop...  Well, it was one of those days round here.

About the time I hit send on this mornings post the screen on the iMac went all weird....  It was flashing around in circles with only a white screen.  Really weird looking.  Nothing I did gave me any control of it so I pushed the on/off button and did a hard shutdown in desperation.  This got my blood pressure sky high I think and I was now panicking as I was just about ready to start finalizing the InDesign page for printing the name tags for the 50th. class reunion in a few weeks.  I felt the top of the iMac and it was very hot.  I let it cool for a few minutes and tried to power it back up.  It took its time but finally did start and I resumed using it.  Walked away for a minute, came back and the screen had done some completely different stuff and had frozen.  Powered down again.  Tried to start it again and got the blue screen of death!  That is not good on a Mac!  Powered down once again and decided to try cleaning the bottom air vents as the top of the computer had once again gotten very hot.

In the meantime I got out the Laptop and fired it up to find the phone # for the Jessi Group where I bought the iMac.  After all that the IMac had cooled down so I decided to give it one more chance.  Powered up and ran just fine!  Ran the Disk utility and as usual there was a hundred or so problems that showed up with the monitor on the utility diagnostic.  Ran that again and the same items came up again after just being repaired.  Decided to go have lunch and calm down before I called Jessi Group to see what they say.

After lunch the IMac was still running OK, but I figured I best call.  The lady who owns the place along with her husband says, "You have a bad Video Card most likely, bring it in!"  So....  Guess how I spent the afternoon.  Took it in for repair.  Should know tomorrow what they find.  Of course the warranty ran out 2 months ago....

I hope it will get repaired and back to me by the end of the week!  Even though I have the information I need to do the work I need to get done, neither the laptop nor the Mac Mini downstairs have the version of indesign I need to open and print the nametags.

Barry, thanks for sending the gloom my way today as well...   Sun was well hidden behind a thick wall of clouds that resulted in a small amount of liquid sunshine this afternoon and evening.

On top of all THAT, I got an email first thing this morning letting me know that an old Scouting friend of mine lost his battle with cancer and passed away yesterday morning...

Hope you all have had a better day than I have had.

73

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Howdy .... Just back from the trip. Spoiled the grandkids and did not have time for anything at all pertaining to mrr'ing. I did not have time to try to meet with people along the way as I wanted to do. We were in Wisconsin Dells and the kids enjpyed all of the tourist stuff. Riding the Wisonsin Ducks was neat. They liked the water parks while I hated the water parks.  Tee shirt shops and fun houses were excessively enriched by our visit. Brought home some good cheese and some great fudge!

Sir Madog

MIA´s I´ve been thinking of:

1. Sue
2. CapeJim
3. PATom
4. Bama
5. Chris
6. Keith
7. Sawyer
8. Lee
9. Flip
10. OzJim
11. CalifTom

Am I missing some?

Wherever you are, whatever you do, here´s a for you!

Ulrich ... That's a good start on the MIA List. .... Let's edit it. Scracth off PA Tom who is not MIA. I enjoy his railfan posts and his comments. .Chris has been here from time to time, but THAT editor keeps him busy. ... Bama was here last week finally. (Bama, I encourage you to visit the DIner more often. ... Flip has been here several times, and I like his comments. ... Cape Jim (Jim CG) emailed me he has a full schedule but said he will post soon. ..... ..... Another MIA is Bob Seamonster.

Everybody: Who wants to edit Ulrioch's list?

Ulrich ... I like the fire truck, and best wishes with the election. When is election day? What is German word for landslide election victory?

Bama ... I was happy when I saw you visited last week.

Karl .... I'd like to see a picture of the Trainmaster when you complete it. Southern Pennsylvania? ... Hmmm .... Reporting marks of SP are taken. How about SOPA for reporting marks?

Vuncent ......  The "experts" don't like your Rapido coupler installation. ...  Oh well .

Ray ... I like the large scale steam and diesel photos. My Dad and Grandfather did live steam. With live steam, the locomotive becomes almost the entire hobby.

JohnBoy ... Thanks for the very nice comment aboput my layout photos. I'm sure you can do very well with your layout, too, as long as you remember it is all fun.

Barry ..... If you can reach Lee, please let him know all the diners care about him and we miss his posts.

Also, Sue suddenly stopped posting. I hope she and Larry are okay.

It was good to see the Diner was busy. I wish I could acknowledge every post, but there is too much other stuff to do.

Everybody: .... BE HAPPY!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Other than having lunch at my fathers place nothing happened today. We had pinto beans, green beans, corn and cornbread. There was plenty of sausage, bacon and onion mixed in with the beans. I did play a round of Starfleet1. I came through it by the skin of my teeth.

It's still 87 here. Looking for a high of 98 tomorrow. Well, time to call it a night.

[BamaCSX83]

Hey y'all.  Just stopping in for a RBF and company!  Had to w**k today, and it was a run-of-the-mill Monday, several oil changes, a set of tires (admittedly a darn-near $1200 set of tires), and the like.  Got off at 6 and skeedaddled home.  Got to help Amy get some stuff out of our garden, figured out I've got a couple trees that are going to need to come down to give better sunlight to my two gardens, but I'll get them this fall probably.  Had hobo burgers tonight (hamburger patties with sliced potatoes and onions wrapped in aluminum foil and thrown in the oven for about an hour), and a few ears of corn on the cob from the garden. 

I'm glad to see all y'all on a more regular basis, even if it is may only once or twice a week.  I was beginning to feel "withdrawals" from the place. 

Ulrich: I LOVE the firetruck and wish you the absolute best in your aspirations!  If I could cast my vote, it'd be for you without a doubt.

Garry: Thank you for the email message to me, I really did appreciate it that y'all were thinking of me.

Jeff: I will continue to offer up my thoughts and prayers to you over your foot issues, but I am faithful that things will go well for you.

Welp, y'all, I'm going to keep catching up around here and maybe do a little goofing off before bed (as the girls are at my mom and dad's for the week and the monster, I mean, Michael, is currently fighting sleep, and losing).

Later taters!

[Burlington Northern #24]

Packer

Evening guys

Well I'm in a bit of a sour mood now. A now-former friend of mine wanted to hang out. Well I wait for an hour where she wants to meet. I get tired and leave. Then I find her with some of her other friends down the road. I pull up and ask what's going on. They just flip me the bird. So I'm done with her for good.

Jake, sounds like a game I'd like to play. I'm more used to jet fighter simulations and games on my Xbox 360 though.

Soilwork, that's northing new. I have an athearn RTR SW15 that has about 10-15 hours of run time. One bulb burned out. I've been salvaging bulbs from a busted-up RTR SD40-2 and GP35. I have like 2 left. Supposedly minitronics makes something that's the same size and voltage, but lasts longer... I'm thinking of going LED if I can find Lucite rod.

MIA list, Anyone heard from SP&S/BN Gary? I've seen him a few times on the Xbox, but never played with him (we don't play any of the same games. They really should port some train driving stuff to the 360. lol. I've seen Sawyer on another forum and facebook. He's the only dinner I've actually meet though.

out and about, I haven't come into the diner for a while. 

this is an old update but an update nonetheless, I think my layout's changed like 3-4 times now. went from SP&S to BN to NP back to SP&S.