Elliotts Trackside Diner II

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good morning ....

Heavy rains and mid-30's temps. Yuk. Mud. Yuk. Work on layout today. Cheers.

Rob ... Our neighbors have some dwarf horses along with their regular ones. I'm not sure why they do.

Paul ... I'll be back to PM after this post.

Philip ... Continued thoughts and prayers for Mrs. PC.

Mark ... I like the concrete plant idea along with the idea of moving related carloads of cargo.

JimCG .... Did you once say your local ice cream place has a frozen dessert called "concrete"?  Sounds like they may have competetion from Washington state.

Ed ... 17 days 'til 2008! What happend to 2007 already? Get some model railroading done in paradise!

Happy Model Railroading.

 

[pcarrell]

8"-12"........thats what the weather man is saying now.  Yesterday it was 1"-3" by sundown and 6"-10" total, but we already have an inch now, and we had nothing yesterday.

MORNING ALL!

Looking out the window this morning I see this!

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Picture124.jpg

Looks like a fun day!

Still taking care of the wife.  She's resting more comfortably now.  Thanks all for the thoughts and prayers.

Gonna see if I can get some schoolwork done.

Prayers for all you sickies out there!  OK, and everyone else too!

So whats up with you all?

 

[pcarrell]

Oh, I almost forgot!

I went out last night to play with the shutter speeds on the camera.  Thought I'd share a couple.

Cars........

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Picture119.jpg

And trains!

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Picture109.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Picture114.jpg

So what do you guys think?  I thought they came out decent.

[Cox 47]

Good Morning .....Snowy Icey Here this morning..Looks like we got a couple of inches with sleet or freezing rain now posta turn back to snow later.....Glad we don't have to get out!....I'll have just what cape Jim had with coffee please...Thank You....I got another junk box deal from Ebay 9 more cars..I think I can get at least 5 or 6 going again...Gonna have to start looking for trucks and couplers....My son came in for a little bit last night and brought me a new Meat grinder...Kids all want me to make My famous[least they think its famous] ham salad for Christmas..I havn't made any for a long time because I had lost my grinder...I use 5 pounds of Bologna,2 pounds of Velveta cheese, Mayo and 2 jars of sweet pickles....

PC....Thanks for the photos...Our weather guesser in Terre Haute says you might se 6 inches plus over your way....Hope your Wife is doing better today...

Paul.....Sounds like one thing after another down your way...Things gotta get better...

Well Sallie and I plan to take it easy maybe watch some movies on TV....You all have a good day....Jerry

[Hoople]

Morning all.

I'll have the hashbrowns and some toast, with milk of course, Chloe.

Lee: My model layout is in colorado, anywhere from 70-150 miles west of Denver. Anything from 1930-1960 is modeled.

Garry, Rob: Yeah, I hope they'll get a chance to run her back up here again. I have the perfect view up at a balcony at the Pacific Fast Mail building. Yes the brass company. They let us park there, and we can stand behind barriers 4' from the tracks... Good fun.

Crud, who was the last person... I'll edit this once I find out. Ed, it was Ed, so Ed: That does seem to make sense. I guess I just got things a bit backwards. Only thing was I was hoping to ship it out in bags loaded in boxcars from the ready mix plant. It'd give more cargo, and gives a purpose for the 3rd track...

Now I guess I need to know how covered hoppers are unloaded... Are they dumped? Man, I'm going to have plenty of dumping bins...

I'll go back to listenin' to kiss for now.

Mark

 

[Cederstrand]

and keep it coming, please & thanks!

***Garry, do they have Miniature horses or actual Dwarfs? Difference is miniatures can be tiny but are quite healthy (if their owners take care of them). Most dwarf horses are put down soon after birth or within the first couple months of life because of serious defects both structural and internal. When Tinytoons was born she was in pitiful shape, but we wanted to give her a chance. Now it is over 3 years later and she continues to do OK. For a time she was "shoe free", then I needed to return to support shoes for her rear hooves. I'll have to measure her next time I go down to the barn and let you know just how small she is. I could probably curl her with one arm.

Hope everyone is doing well. It's raining here. Rob

[Paul W. Beverung]

Afternoon Gang: We just got back in from feeding. I put out 4 bales for the cattle and one for the heifers in the corral. When I opened the gate to the hay lot the cows saw it and came running. I left them in untill I got the hay out and then we got them out. I picked up a flot assembly for the commode. I called my son to see if he could come by and give me a hand. I haven't heard from him yet so I'll give him a bit more and then do it myself.

I'll check back in later.

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Rob... Using mrr terms, the horses are selectively compressed. Miniature is what hey really are. They are not qualified for Budweiser wagon duty.

Looks like the toast thread slipped to page two.  

[jeffrey-wimberly]

We had tornado weather this morning but I didn't see any close to us here. I have to change out the main board in my parent's computer (the one I'm using now) because the CMOS chip on the old one is dying a slow death. Most of the time it starts up but about one time out of five it'll drop the CMOS settings and it all has to be programmed back in again. That can get aggrevating.

[concretelackey]

Morning all.

I'll have the hashbrowns and some toast, with milk of course, Chloe.

Lee: My model layout is in colorado, anywhere from 70-150 miles west of Denver. Anything from 1930-1960 is modeled.

Garry, Rob: Yeah, I hope they'll get a chance to run her back up here again. I have the perfect view up at a balcony at the Pacific Fast Mail building. Yes the brass company. They let us park there, and we can stand behind barriers 4' from the tracks... Good fun.

Crud, who was the last person... I'll edit this once I find out. Ed, it was Ed, so Ed: That does seem to make sense. I guess I just got things a bit backwards. Only thing was I was hoping to ship it out in bags loaded in boxcars from the ready mix plant. It'd give more cargo, and gives a purpose for the 3rd track...

Now I guess I need to know how covered hoppers are unloaded... Are they dumped? Man, I'm going to have plenty of dumping bins...

I'll go back to listenin' to kiss for now.

Mark

 

You still have the option of shipping pre-mixed bagged concrete (has all the ingrediants except water) that can be marketed under the ready-mix plant's name. However, to remain somewhat realistic you will a 3-2-1 ratio of materials. 3 parts (loads) stone, 2 parts (loads) sand, and 1 part (load) of cement incoming for approx every 6 loads outgoing. The other option if layout area allows is to build a small precast concrete products production plant that the ready mix plant would supply the concrete for, and the precast plant would have outgoing precast products.

All the covered hopers that I know of have either bottom dump gates or use a blower system to literally blow the cement from the car to the storage area.

[pcarrell]

Well, the snow's been falling, but it's taking a break right now to start up with some freezing rain / sleet mix.  Took these shots just a few minutes ago as it was changing over.

Not too many trains running today due to the weather.  It's not real bad, but I think they're afraid of plowing down a car stuck on the tracks maybe.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Picture125.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Picture127.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Picture126.jpg

[JimRCGMO]

Just a quick post before Sat. night church, a go cup please, Janie. Thanks! 

Heartland Division CB&Q:

JimCG .... Did you once say your local ice cream place has a frozen dessert called "concrete"?  Sounds like they may have competetion from Washington state.

Garry, I guess on sheer size of it, Washington state would 'top' that...

PC, I guess you should've taken in the lawn furniture a bit earlier, huh? Gee, if they're upping your forecast, maybe ours will be enough for a snowman out front! Hooray!! (Of course, when you're not a kid, you don't get off w**k like kids do for school... ) Glad to hear your wife is resting okey-dokey. I'm sure that eases your mind a little bit. Good to see you're having fun with that camera, too. Really like the train one; the second street shot could be a little shorter time and (IMHO) be better contrast. But it's still good.

Blessings,

Jim in Cape Girardeau 

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Philip ....

You caught an antique in one photo. The Conrail caboose in the CSX night picture appears to be an old NYC small-bay-window caboose.

Thanks for posting the pictures.

[Cederstrand]

refill, please & thanks.

***Philip, cool photos...burrr!

OK, who are the fighter pilots here that buzzed (circled actually) our farm today low & fast? Could easily make out the four helmets, but too far away to see through the visors.LOL Was very cool actually. As usual, I am mighty glad they are on our side. Usually we get several low flying choppers or those common prop transport planes here, not fighters. Didn't spook any of the critters, although a couple stopped chewing for a few seconds.

Has rained here a good bit. Even used some overflow to make the ducks & geese a huge puddle to play in, which they are making the most of. Wind advisory tomorrow so hopefully the power will stay on.

Rob

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Got the main board install on my parents computer done without incident. The only part I didn't like was having to re-activate Windows XP. What a pain in the caboose!

[Paul W. Beverung]

Evening Gang: I didn't get much done this afternoon. I put off the commode until tomorrow. I heard from my friend with cancer. He sounded a little bit better. He's in the hospital so I'm going to go see him tomorrow. I got all the outside fausets covered and drained the hose to the dog pen. I did get down to the basement and did some more work on the Glark Garden HO plan. I had planned on useing #10 turnouts for the staging tracks but I don't think that I'll have enough room. I'll try for #8s and see how that works. 

Well I'm going to cut out and take a look at this info on the Part D drug plans that we've got.

Doh Here I'm on top again. Have at it guys.

Good Night All

[pcarrell]

Jim, my wife was saying the same thing about the furniture.  I went and brought it in a few minutes after I took that pic.

Gerry, there are several around here that still see limited use.  There are two up in Anderson Yard whee I took that pic.  There's another down in Hawthorn Yard in Indianapolis.  You see them in use once in a while, but normally they're yard queens.  I nabbed this pic a couple of weeks ago: http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Picture015-2.jpg

[Hoople]

Evening.

Still pretty cold out. The kittens are all bunched up in a bean bag to sleep.

Ken/Concrete Lacky: That sounds like an idea, although 6 car shipments won't happen... My tracks can't handle that much! I only have a 4x8' layout to work with.  

See ya all later.

Mark

[LSWrr]

Evening all,

I'll be gone for a few days, heading to South Carolina for a radiation detection class.

We had a small Christmas get together at work on Friday, one of the supervisors from CN was there or should I say "CN Worldwide" since that will be their new name.

When I get back I will take some time to photograph some of the cement plants around here.  St Mary's cement is the heaviest in rail trade locally.   Covered hoppers are loaded in the top and pumped out the bottom.  The bulk cement is transferred from the ships by vacuum; the buildings house a pellum <sp> chamber.   Basically the main building is a giant Hoover.  We have on modern facility that loads the rail cars by computer.  The operator tells the computer the stats of the rail car and the computer moves the fill nozzle along the car.   The bulk cement plants up here do not handle anything except cement.   The "stone yards" handle the gravel.

There is a huge rail served stone quarry about an hour from here just south of I-80/90.

Lee

[concretelackey]

Hoople, not saying you need a 6 car consist, just that roughly for every 6 cars going in (not including a boxcar of empty bags once in a while) there will be 6 leaving. Lets say on monday morning you have 4 cars of stone come in, monday pm you have 3 sand unload, and tuesday am there is 4 cars of cement waiting for the morning shift. In between you can pull out a boxcar or 2 of bagged cement (also called bag-crete or sak-crete, both of which are actual brands).

As LSW stated, some hoppers unload thru suction (think dust collector) while some have air line attachments to pressureize the hopper forcing the cement dust out thru the intake hose. Then there are a few bottom dump hoppers which require special facilitys to prevent rain and moisture from contaminating the cement.

remember, this is your railroad. It ain't your fault if the customer can't supply enough real estate for you to spot 6-8 cars for each function.

If you want I can try and dig up some links on feasible precast plant ideas....

[concretelackey]

Also, there are cement transfer terminals (ship to land based transportation) and cement producing mills. The production mills require raw materials incoming to produce the cement, this can generate some fairly heavy rail traffic on its own.

[Flashwave]

hey. I'll have a glass of Milk and I'll be off.

 

MRR:

1:1 scale: we were on our way to a brownsburg Swim meet an came to the ral crossing at 267 and 36. The west end of the Big 4 Yards. a CSX Intermodal comes crawling out, with a par of dash 9 stykle engines. (I don't know my deseils nowadyas. 1 may have been an AC4400. Dunno. Anyway) But then on the other track, as half the intermodal crossed tghe road, an NS/CSX Grain unit comes flying out like there was no yard around.  All this in the snow, and ME without a camera. Rats.

HO: Another room design is done, feel free to take bets on how long this one sticks around.

 

Questions: if 2 peices of 22" curve is put in with a stretch of straight on either side, would there still be jamming for wider radius need cars? or would it not be tight enough to cause issuse? (there is room to make a wider radius. I was jsut lazy and didn't want to measure a 30 inch radius for a small turn)

[JimRCGMO]

Evening, Janie - a cup of eggnog and a hot fudge sundae, please.

 

Thanks! 

Jeff - did you get my email I sent? (Think it was an email; either that or a PM) E me back if so. 

I'll be gone for a few days, heading to South Carolina for a radiation detection class.

Lee -  Gee, that takes a few days? I'd think it'd be really short. "If you glow in the dark, you've been around radiation too long!" (Just kidding, in case HLSecurity is browsing through... ) Thanks for more info on the cement plants - have they (besides automating the whole process more) changed much from the 1950's, or do you know about that period? Best wishes on the training, anyway.

Oh, goodie! It's snowing!! (No ice to speak of, too!)

Hope the rest of you can avoid the icey stuff (and that your snow falls where it's not so hard to clear away - or have the neighbor kid get it for you). Speaking of which, anyone heard from sNoah in a while? Maybe he got a girlfriend and has been busy with that and job...

 

Blessings and prayers for warmth and healing,

Jim in Cape Girardeau 

[wetidlerjr]

Good Morning from Tipton IN ! 

[pcarrell]

Well, we've got about 6" of the white stuff now and it's comming down hard still.  About halfway through there's about a 1/4" of ice where we had some sleet and freezing rain last night.  Don't think we'll go anywhere for a while today.

Morning everyone!

Yeah, central Indiana is the place not to be today!  It's not undrivable, but if you don't have to go anywhere, why bother?  Yup, a great day to stay home! http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/12-16-070.jpg

Got a small turkey yesterday so I thought I'd cook that up.  It's all thawed out and ready to go.  That and some red potatoes, stuffing, corn, and whatever else I can whip up ought to keep us pretty happy for the day.  I've got some schoolwork I've been putting off, so I guess I'll get at that too.

Plows came by last night, not that you can tell now.  It's blowing pretty good out there.

Heard a train come by about an hour ago.  None been by since.  They're usually about every 15-20 minutes.  Don't know why they stopped though.  6" of snow is nothing to a train!

Oh well, I'm outta here!

Got some chocolate coffee calling my name!

 

[JimRCGMO]

Good Morning, and a frosty white one it is, Diners! I'll have a blueberry bagel,

glass of orange juice (Ed's finest),

cup of coffee,

(hmm...or should I get the big coffee pot out this morning?)

nah, that'll be enough for my breakfast. Thanks!

Well, from your description, PC, sounds like the snowier weather north of us probably got Inch, Jerry, Lee, and maybe even Garry & RT (though yesterday evening, they had a flood watch for mid-to-eastern Kentucky on our weatherguesser's map). If Garry's in that area they were talking about, they'd been getting rain for several days over the past week or so. Hope everyone stays safe and warm and dry today.

I haven't heard many cars go by outside this morning, but that might not be highly unusual, given that it's Sunday morning and earlier than anyone going to church would be on the roads yet. I will need to take the broom and clear off my car when it gets closer to time to leave for church. Maybe I'll see if there's enough to make a snowman when I get back...

For now, need to go finish getting ready. See everyone else around lunch!

 

Blessings and safe driving (if you have to),

Jim in Cape Girardeau 

 

[concretelackey]

While all you peoples were ordering your food I was MAKING (kitbashing if you will) bacon and eggs on our wood/coal combo stove. Lost power about 3 AM this morning due to "heavy Ice" on the power lines. Finally came back on about 10 AM which I beleive to be a world record for this area! Anyway, been up since 3 babysitting the wood stove to keep the family comfortable and now that they are awake I'll be off for a nap soon.

When I awake I'll take a hot chocolate with whipped cream on top and a fried sticky bun.

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

ob was talking about military aircraft. We see mostly blackhawks training the 101st Airborn from Ft Campbell.  

Everybody else posts the weather. Here's ours.  Heavy rains have passed. Water levels are very high. I'm not golfing today. Forecast:

Today's Weather for:

Fort Campbell, KY  42223      12/16/2007   Temp Wind 11 mph 31.6°F Click here to see more observations Switch to Celsius Wind Chill: 23°F Humidity: 72% Dew Point: 23°F   So Far Today High: 36°F Low: 31°F Rain: 0.00" Rain Rate: 0.00"/h Gusts: 31mph WNW   Your Local Forecast   Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday High: 36 °F Low: 26 °F More High: 46 °F Low: 30 °F More High: 51 °F Low: 35 °F More High: 49 °F Low: 43 °F More High: 52 °F Low: 37 °F More

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Jeff - did you get my email I sent? (Think it was an email; either that or a PM) E me back if so. 

Jim: I haven't recieved any email or PM from you. Try sending it again.

 

Good morning.

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA  71446-6114      12/16/2007

Wind Chill:  35°F
Humidity:  49%
Dew Point:  24°F

So Far Today
High:  42°F
Low:  32°F
Rain:  0.00"
Rain Rate:  0.00"/h
Gust:  25mph NW

Today    High: 52    Sunny...cooler. Highs in the lower 50s. North winds 10 to 15 mph.   
 
Tonight    Low: 28    Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 20s. Light and variable winds.


 

[inch53]

Thought I'd stop in for a cup n kinda catch up some and let ya know whats going on round here. We got bout 4" snow n freezing rain on the ground, but the roads don't seem to bad. Mothers been busy with Christmas candy,

 

That's just the part I dropped off here, there's plenty done and more to come. There'll be plenty of cookies too.

 

Other than chores n such, I'm still working on some toys and the layout when I get the chance.

We're still keeping all you on sick call in our thoughts.

Happy birthday to all I've missed and welcome to any newbe's that's slipped in.

Here's the weather round here, UPDATED

SUNDAY

DECEMBER 16, 2007

10:54 A.M. EASTERN

The winter storm is over & some nice sunshine will brighten this very cold day.  I will have a weather segment today during halftime of the Colts game to review this storm & detail the 7-day forecast between 5:15 & 5:45 p.m. Eastern.

CHAD EVANS, STORM TEAM 10 METEOROLOGIST

TODAY:

Sun & Clouds.  Blustery & Cold.  High 27.  Northwest Wind 15 mph.  Gusts to 25 mph.

TONIGHT:

Mostly Clear & COLD!  Low Near 10.  Northwest Wind 5 mph.

TOMORROW:

Sunshine with Some Clouds.  High 30.  West-Southwest Wind 8 mph.

 

Well I best gets round, got thing that need doing