Elliotts Trackside Diner II

[Fergmiester]

Good afternoon All

Just a quick look in and get a cuppa

Lee: Foxhat works very nicely. What about Erieton, Erietown, Erieston? Played in a hockey tournament in Erie once, that's where I bought my Rivarossi Big Boy. Worked all summer to save up for that puppy

Anyway internet is in out today so I must run

Fergie 

[LSWrr]

Well I guess some things just go around; My Grandma was put in the hospital overnight with the flu and she was dehydrated.  Doctors thought it best if she stayed in a nursing home for a week or until she regained her strength.   My GF was complaining of abdominal pain.  Doctors sent her in for x-rays and an ultra sound to check for kidney stones.

After various comments about Foxhat, I'm going to go with Fox Creek for the fictional town on my layout. I found a new TV show called FOXHAT so......

I asked my ISP (AT&T) about the WIN98 issue and they don't support systems running anything less than WIN2000 or WINXP.  You can run WIN98, but they won't help you out if it doesn't work.

The Freezing rain stops just 50 miles west of me and currently I'm getting .25" of rain overnight with a low around 30F.

 

Lee

[Paul W. Beverung]

Morning Gang: It's about 50f and overcast. There is a slight wind that makes it feel really cold. It's also wet with drizzle. I'm doing this on Word because there are a couple of questions to answer and I can't remember them so will be able to check back into the dinner.

Lee: I was born in Milwaukee and lived in Shorewood on the north of there until I went into the Army. Our house was about a mile west of the lake. For 3 years after the war we lived about 100 yards from the CN&W mainline going north out of Milwaukee. I guess that had a lasting effect on me. I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother and GF. I hope they feel better soon.

Mitch: Yes that is the mike blowing down on the bridge.

Since the weather is really not the fence building kind I think I'll head for the basement and try and do another drawing of the floor plan.  

Well I guess I'll see about that drawing. I'm not looking forward to tomorrow and that stress test.

See you all later.

[LSWrr]

Paul: You might like this Iron Ore Railroad web site:

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/OreRail/

Lee

[sunsetbeachry]

HI ALL;

            Well the big blow is over 120mph+ for about 18 hrs. Surivied in trailer with propane and battery power for lights and tv but only one channel tv from portland and they didn't cover much of our news here on the coast. Lots of trees down. We didn't lose many, just about 40 or so. We knew that a big storm was comming so we stockpiled food and goodies. Kathy had a large air tank and 10 "E" tanks so we were OK. Power was off from sunday untill sat nite about 6:30. But we stayed in trailer untill this morning and all our services are back on. We went thru 6 "7.5" lb tanks of propane and all three batteries are drained now on recharger.

        Kathy and I are fine. Neighbors are also doing good noboby lost any parts of homes,kid next door[son] lost metal shed. It blew up and spred itself all over yard. I told him to get one like my train room but....... 

Kathy did her bead stringing most of time and I built a SP&S passenger car kit from Timberline one of the three that I got on our trip to Portland. Also picked up last 6 months of mags that Charlie saved for me [Charlie is Whistle Stop Trains in Portland.  wsor.com] plus 100 ft of code 83 weathered rail and 50 ft of code 55 weathered rail for sidings. Ordered Mantua 2-6-6-2T for the logging road.

Will try to see you'all more often.

Prayers and Thanks to all. Mass on Friday for all.

                                   Chuck and Kathy
 

[TheK4Kid]

Hi Chuck!
Glad to meet you!
Ed here-aka TheK4Kid.I'm in northeast Indiana, not much wind  here, maybe 2 or 3 mph breeze, but freezing drizzle after big ice storm here.I have a built in backup 10KW generator but haven't needed it so far.Glad you and Kathy are okay!
120 mph--whewieeee!!! We don't see that here unless one of them squirrely twisters  comes by! Across the midwest , lots of ice, lots of roads closed, most stores closed today, nobody could get to work safely.You guys had the big wind, southern Cal is getting hit with big rain, what's this global warming stuff??? LOL!
My big Pin Oak tree in my front  yard has most of it's two lower layers of branches touching the ground, but nothing broke yet!
Pin Oaks don't shed all their leaves usually until spring, so picked up a lot of heavy ice on the branches.It's about ten years old,,and about 35 feet high so far.
Anybody got a pair of ice skares I can borrow??? LOL!

Best wishes to you and Kathy, and Merrrrrryyyyyyyyyyy Christmas!!!!!

Ed 

[Hoople]

Afternoon.

Nice and cold here. Snowed earlier this morning. All of it is gone now though.

Last night I picked up a new freight car, a Roundhouse 36' wood reefer, in California Fruit Express scheme. Runs pretty well.

To TheK4Kid. Come sit down and have something to drink.

Too bad to hear about Jeff's computer issues... Currently I'm using a Windows 2000. It's close to death and not very good at all, Otherwise we might send it to him.

See y'all later.

[TheK4Kid]

Howdy Hoople!

 Thanks for the welcome, haven't been to the Diner in awhile.Hope Jeff gets his computer problem resolved. I'm running on a newer ( 1 year old) Dell E521 with a 2.4 gig chip in it running on Windows XP with a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 video card, so it does quite well! with  Syncmaster 225RW monitor ( 22 inch wide screen).
Then a friend of min who helped design a special Windows program called Windows98 Lite Professional ( can separate windows from IE ) tweaked it for me, so it's performing at the equivalent of about 4 gig.
Basically took all the junk MS puts in I'll never need.
Helps to have buddies like him!

 

TheK4Kid 

 

 

[Cederstrand]

in a UNION PACIFIC mug, please & thanks. So tired, it isn't going to keep me up tonight.

***Lee, Fox Creek is even better. You will of course have a fox along a creek bank nearby, yes?

***Chuck & Kathy, sounds like you had a fun time of it. Those are some serious winds, especially for a trailer.

T-shirt weather here again. Even the IG's do not need there light at night right now. Rained on us returning home after wife's re-check. So far, so good...but they are a little concerned about pain in her side (appendix). Will no in a day or two. (Oh yea, dropped in on her folks...what an adventure that was)

Good night all.  Rob

[JimRCGMO]

Good Evening, Janie - hopefully, I won't start another new page with this... I'll have a cup of hot cocoa, please.

Thanks!

Sheesh - K4Kid, you may be right about all the people out due to ice. Doesn't look like a lot of our regulars have been in today (or not since breakfast at all). The northern part of our TV station's area (toward Farmington, Ste. Genevieve MO and some of Southern Illinois that's south of Jerry and Inch) is under an ice storm advisory tonight. We've so far been warm enough that we just get the chilly rain that Paul described. Probably got only to 40 or 41 this afternoon, but at least it's only expected to be dropping to the mid-30's (F) tonight. Good night for a couple of dogs (if I had any). [brrr!!] Since my place is all-electric, if the power went out I'd be bundling up with about everything on in bed.

MRR club's Christmas dinner and trains-running was pretty good. Good food, all the ones who wanted to run trains got a chance, an enjoyable time (except for trying to get adjusted to the DCC throttle I was given, which had momentum on it, so it'd take forever to get started, and then I couldn't slow it down quick enough - so I kept banging cars I was trying to couple to, or spot at industries). I tried out my Shay (Roundhouse, 2-truck) on a test track, but something slipped off the external gearing on the side. I'll need to get out the magnifying glass and try to figure if it's something easily fixed or if I'll have to have another club member can fix it, and maybe put in a decoder at the same time.

Got the Christmas tree, lights, decorations and all up this afternoon after I got back, with Christmas music on. I'm a happy camper now. Might get some eggnog (already have the cinnamon) tomorrow at the store. Still have my shopping to finish, though...

What's everyone else been up to today? I see Paul was heading to work on the garden layout plans, Mark's scored a new reefer (is that one of the orange-colored ones?), and Chuck and Kathy have been getting their work done with or without power(!). How about the rest of you?

Lee, I almost forgot - I like Fox Creek better (I'd second the suggestion about having a fox by a creek somewhere, as a little hidden joke...).

I'll be sipping on my hot cocoa (with a cinnamon stick) and skimming through my new RMC issue. Oh yeah, need to enter the rest of my freight cars into the database for my MRRing inventory, too.

Prayers for healing, heat and power that doesn't go out on you, and winds that don't take the trees or the house down.

 

Blessings,

Jim in Cape Girardeau 

[GMTRacing]

Good Evening All,

    Cold and ugly most of the day and the freezing rain came in around 7pm here. Spent most of the day onchores and helping my oldest son replace the clutch in his SVT Focus. Of course since everything is special on that car and parts are spotty on availability he ended up changing out the entire clutch and flywheel assembly and that took the better part of two days.

   Glad to see PC's and Rob's CFO's are doing better as is mine. Well enough that she ran a lacrosse clinic for grade school kids today. Chuck and Cathy seem to have had quite an adventure as well - glad they're ok.

   I'm in the trainroom now waiting on paint to dry on the other corner building that ends the block I'm doing. To answer Jerrys' questions, the frames were hand painted, the windows are regular clear acetate sheet (as used on X-rays) and the curtains were downloaded from a CD bought a couple of years ago with senics, signs, billboards, rugs and curtains on it. Printed on normal printer paper and cut out with scissors. I use the Testors clear parts cement to hold the windows in so I don't have to be too careful, and the curtains are held on with white Elmers glue. Nothing too exotic.

   Ran trains some earlier but I'm nearly to the point where I'm going to have to fit the switch motors and wiring which I've been putting off. I really have a tough time getting all the throws centered and working right. At least this time I have mostly Peco under table switches to set up.  Here's another shot from Yosemite for you

Well, time to get back to it and I'll check in later or tomorrow depending on the weather. CUL<J.R.

 

[Paul W. Beverung]

Evening Gang:

Welcome to K4kid. I did see you in here once before so consider this a late welcome and a welcome back.

Not much got done today. I had to put out a bale of hay for the heifers. When I turned on the heater in the new tractor the windows all fogged up. I never did get them clear because the tractor never got up to proper engine temp. I have to ask the dealer about that. I guess I'll let it warm up longer. When Mary Ann checked the propane tank and it was on empty. Tomorrow we'll have to get it filled. One of us will have to be here so the man can check the pilot lights they have to do that when the tank is showing empty.

Chuck and Kathy: Glade to hear that you guys are OK. Take care now.

Well I'm going to head for bed.

Good Night All

[der5997]

Good Evening Diners: That toast and blackberry jam sounds good CapeJim, I'll have some too please Zoe. I'm really starting this at page 35, so lots will be "old news"....As I was telling Dick, I've been too busy to do more than look in the window recently.

Thanks for the kind remarks about the access long hatch.  It takes careful handling, being a bit unwieldy.  In fact taking it out for that photo caused my fish oil plant office building to hit the floor!  Fortunately, the damage was easily repaired, but I shall have to watch it in future.

Some progress is being made on the container dock pilings. Fergie I was able to shade the tide mark darker, thanks for the suggestion.  I found some more paint I thought I was out of, so after adding the extra (about 12½% to the approx half of the original quantity of paint, so about 25% thicker) it was quite OK for spraying the darker shades.  I used a thinner tip too, which gave better control.  Today I added the seaweed, and installed the pilings, and just now I've poured the plaster to represent the sea / harbour.  It crept up a bit on the pilings in places, so that's a repair paint job.  Anyway, here's the pilings before the plaster.  That trough is what the plaster fills now. No leaks gang, and for that I'm thankful! 

Here's a closer look at the seaweed.   The hanging weed is just the cardboard fibres dry-brushed with the weed paint.  I had to cut down a brush to get into the grooves, and use far wetter paint than traditional dry-brushing usually calls for to do the grooves.  Don't know why that would be.

This train is outside the house of the local hardware store owner in the harbour.  It lacks a caboose that should have been made with it.  Well, maybe next year!

Rob:

Sounds like your Rosie is the kind that would rather lay out in the cold than use a heat lamp. If the hay is plenty and dry, she may not need the lamp!?! At her age though, it would be nice if she would accept it during the coldest spells. Have no answer for you.

...Yes she is, and will sit at the far end of her run in the pouring rain!  Part of what I've been busy at is removing the heat lamp and installing a heating pad (sandwiched between a ply backing and a sheet metal top.  It's on 9" standoffs so she can get the benefit without having to go to the very back of the house.  It's on a dusk to dawn timer, and at the lowest setting draws only 20 Watts. Even at that, the place feels warm when its been on a while. This she has accepted, so we are all pleased!

I'm not happy with wife's sister.

...you sound like Billy Hardcastle in "Last of the Summer Wine"! ...but I agree, it was a thoughtless thing for her to do. [2cent] Glad your wife is on the mend.

MexicoEd: Just keep those cars of Mandarin OJ coming!  The Chinese whole fruit sell here for about $4.90 a box.  Who knows when they were picked.

Lee:

I LOVED the video clip; I'll be singing falesnavatoss all the way to work.

...That's Dick to thank for that really.  On that theme though, I was in the local drug store picking up a prescription when I saw a flyer on the counter.  It said Christmas, rather than "Holidays", so I said to the pharmacist that I would like to get a message up the chain of command saying how much I appreciated that.  In response she said "Oh, now that you mention it, this flyer has a coupon, and usually they don't cover prescriptions, but this one does.  So, I'll take the $10 off this prescription for you!"

So, sometimes virtue is rewarded in the here and now!

Well i waited aroud for you guys to show up, I cooked three 8 pound turkeys with a lemon-garlic injection. 

...Fried you said, sorry but that's off my list.  Smelled interesting from outside the Diner though.

You can run WIN98, but they won't help you out if it doesn't work.

...nor will our ISP help if it's anything to do with Norton!

Garry: The light box in the "trick tunnel" took a bit of work to get bright enough. Now it's OK, but photographs turn out too "incandescent light red" for my liking.

Johnboy:  Those passenger trucks on the flat car give me an idea if I can't get Micro-trains 3 axel trucks for an Atlas depressed centre flat (it's got Rapidos, and I'd rather have the knuckle type couplers). I've a spare set of passenger trucks I could use. Thanks for the info.

Ryan:

Der - Thanks for the lead on the surface mount LED's, I'll be checking that out real soon.

...if you have you'll maybe see that the quote from the Diner is one of the leads in the Google search!  Anyway, I couldn't find the site I was thinking about when I searched.  However, I'm glad this came up because in the search I discovered this...http://www.n-scale-model-railroad.alain-pelletier.com/ledkit-model-railroad-signal.php .  That's technology I've been waiting for, and I will now be able to do my block signals more or less to scale...Yeah! The price looks steep, but wires are already attached, there's a wiring diagram, and 4 in a pack, so not too bad really.

Fergie:

"There are always alternatives, Captain" - Spock.

[egmurphy]

Good Evening Coffee Clubbers,

Just a quick check in this evening as we're packing to head off to Mexico City for a couple of days.  We take the midnight bus, and when we wake up tomorrow we'll be there.  The weather there (at about 7,00 feet) should be a bit cooler than what we're having down here on the coast.

Chuck - that must have been one big storm.  Glad you two were well prepared to ride it out.  A week without power? 

It was a lazy day here (as usual for me) and I mainly watched NFL games on tv.  Fortunately the Giants won.

We should be back home and on line by Wednesday.  Hold the fort and keep up the consumption of orange juice!

Regards

Ed

[GMTRacing]

Hello again,

     Der that dock is coming along nicely. The curtains were from a CD I bought and not a down load. Up til then I just used magic marker or crayon on plain paperthe printout is much better.

    Have a good trip Ed. You are quite the traveler these days but with all the work you've been doing loading tankers for us you deserve the break.

    Paul - are you sure your thermostat is working? If it is you may need to start blanking off part of the radiator opening. A warm motor is a happy motor.

Time to get some shut-eye. catch y'all later.  J.R.

[pcarrell]

Hey guys....don't worry!  I've got this one!

ORDER UP!!!!!

Just some pics from this weekend I thought I'd share.

Have fun, shoot trains!  (With a camera fool!) 

 

JR, I meant to ask you how your other half was doing.  Glad she's doing well!

PC:

Once this leg heals she's right back on the operating table to get the other one done.

...is the physio time included in the "heals" bit? The two people I know well who have had knees done had extensive physio to get their flexibility ensured.

Yeah, it's included.  They need her to be able to put all of her weight on it before they can do the other one because when they do it she won't be able to put any weight on the second one for 6 weeks again.  I wish I could go through this for her!

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

OK, PC, order up I will. Egg Nog, please.

DER  WINS  the prize for the most colorful colourful post of the week. Cheers Der. Great work on the layout, too. Pilings in particular.

JimCg .... Glad the club gathering went well, but too bad about the Shay needing repairs now.

K4 ... glad you're here.

Paul.... Because your roots are Milwaukee, I should have mentioned that when I was young I made several trips there by train from Chicago. I really enjoyed a front seat ride in North Shore Electroliner which I did a few times.  I've was on CNW, too with their bi-level intercity train to the North. Also, I rode Milwaukee Road through Milwaukee on the way to/from the Wisc. Dells. The Super Domes and the Skytop lounges were classics. Good to see Walthers is making the models. Also, Paul, does your friend still have an interest in the C&S narrow guage 2-6-0's. I have some blue prints for making a 7 1/4" or 1/ 1/2" live steam from a company in Claifornia that my Dad bought many years ago.

I've been working on my layout, too.  I added a little more to the mainline. Then I ran a 4-8-2 to test because it will find leveling of grade screw-ups quicker than diesels. After minor adjustments to the track, it runs fine. Next, I'll try my 4-8-4, it's even more picky about track conditions.

Happy Model Railroading!

 

 

 

[TheK4Kid]

Good Evening Diners: That toast and blackberry jam sounds good CapeJim, I'll have some too please Zoe. I'm really starting this at page 35, so lots will be "old news"....As I was telling Dick, I've been too busy to do more than look in the window recently.

Thanks for the kind remarks about the access long hatch.  It takes careful handling, being a bit unwieldy.  In fact taking it out for that photo caused my fish oil plant office building to hit the floor!  Fortunately, the damage was easily repaired, but I shall have to watch it in future.

Some progress is being made on the container dock pilings. Fergie I was able to shade the tide mark darker, thanks for the suggestion.  I found some more paint I thought I was out of, so after adding the extra (about 12½% to the approx half of the original quantity of paint, so about 25% thicker) it was quite OK for spraying the darker shades.  I used a thinner tip too, which gave better control.  Today I added the seaweed, and installed the pilings, and just now I've poured the plaster to represent the sea / harbour.  It crept up a bit on the pilings in places, so that's a repair paint job.  Anyway, here's the pilings before the plaster.  That trough is what the plaster fills now. No leaks gang, and for that I'm thankful! 

Here's a closer look at the seaweed.   The hanging weed is just the cardboard fibres dry-brushed with the weed paint.  I had to cut down a brush to get into the grooves, and use far wetter paint than traditional dry-brushing usually calls for to do the grooves.  Don't know why that would be.

This train is outside the house of the local hardware store owner in the harbour.  It lacks a caboose that should have been made with it.  Well, maybe next year!

Rob:

Sounds like your Rosie is the kind that would rather lay out in the cold than use a heat lamp. If the hay is plenty and dry, she may not need the lamp!?! At her age though, it would be nice if she would accept it during the coldest spells. Have no answer for you.

...Yes she is, and will sit at the far end of her run in the pouring rain!  Part of what I've been busy at is removing the heat lamp and installing a heating pad (sandwiched between a ply backing and a sheet metal top.  It's on 9" standoffs so she can get the benefit without having to go to the very back of the house.  It's on a dusk to dawn timer, and at the lowest setting draws only 20 Watts. Even at that, the place feels warm when its been on a while. This she has accepted, so we are all pleased!

I'm not happy with wife's sister.

...you sound like Billy Hardcastle in "Last of the Summer Wine"! ...but I agree, it was a thoughtless thing for her to do. [2cent] Glad your wife is on the mend.

MexicoEd: Just keep those cars of Mandarin OJ coming!  The Chinese whole fruit sell here for about $4.90 a box.  Who knows when they were picked.

Lee:

I LOVED the video clip; I'll be singing falesnavatoss all the way to work.

...That's Dick to thank for that really.  On that theme though, I was in the local drug store picking up a prescription when I saw a flyer on the counter.  It said Christmas, rather than "Holidays", so I said to the pharmacist that I would like to get a message up the chain of command saying how much I appreciated that.  In response she said "Oh, now that you mention it, this flyer has a coupon, and usually they don't cover prescriptions, but this one does.  So, I'll take the $10 off this prescription for you!"

So, sometimes virtue is rewarded in the here and now!

Well i waited aroud for you guys to show up, I cooked three 8 pound turkeys with a lemon-garlic injection. 

...Fried you said, sorry but that's off my list.  Smelled interesting from outside the Diner though.

You can run WIN98, but they won't help you out if it doesn't work.

...nor will our ISP help if it's anything to do with Norton!

Garry: The light box in the "trick tunnel" took a bit of work to get bright enough. Now it's OK, but photographs turn out too "incandescent light red" for my liking.

Johnboy:  Those passenger trucks on the flat car give me an idea if I can't get Micro-trains 3 axel trucks for an Atlas depressed centre flat (it's got Rapidos, and I'd rather have the knuckle type couplers). I've a spare set of passenger trucks I could use. Thanks for the info.

Ryan:

Der - Thanks for the lead on the surface mount LED's, I'll be checking that out real soon.

...if you have you'll maybe see that the quote from the Diner is one of the leads in the Google search!  Anyway, I couldn't find the site I was thinking about when I searched.  However, I'm glad this came up because in the search I discovered this...http://www.n-scale-model-railroad.alain-pelletier.com/ledkit-model-railroad-signal.php .  That's technology I've been waiting for, and I will now be able to do my block signals more or less to scale...Yeah! The price looks steep, but wires are already attached, there's a