Morning folks! And hey there Mike, looks like we made it in before the donuts too!
Finally got our Christmas tree at one of the local tree farms down the road. Then we went to the Wake Forest Christmas Parade yesterday, and it was a fun family event. Then we went Christmas shopping in the afternoon, came home and put up the tree and decorated it up all nice and such. Now I have to decide what train to put under the tree! Some of my HO stuff, the old G Christmas train, or my old Mark's 3-rail stuff! Hummmm...
Glad to see so many of you taking an interest in the roundhouse project and also on my window pane options. So far the 64 pane option leads the way! Thanks to all of you who put in a vote for your window pane selection.
Philip - The straight tracks image is from my blog post about the prototype I wrote some months ago entitled "In search of the prototype - a basis for modeling".
Ed - Thanks for another OJ update!
Hope everyone in the mid-west and north makes it through the ice and snow weather.
Health and well being to all!
Cheers,
Ryan
Ryan BoudreauxThe Piedmont Division Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger eraCajun Chef Ryan
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/4309
Evening Folks-just coffee tonight, thanks.
Except for hitting the store for essentials earlier, been just puttering around the house between the train workbench, finishing laundry, taking Logan for a quick walk,& working on some of my music library organization on my computer. I was working on one of my projects earlier, an ABOX. I've been applying decals with a good bit of frustration. The ABOX sets I got from Microscale in the past year or so seem to be defective, for brand new out of the envelope, properly stored for a short time, & even clearcoated, tend to disintegrate upon application. who knows. But I won't let them get the best of me-I will prevail in the end!
I've also been working on painting one of those 86' auto parts boxcars-sheez, those things are big. I've never had any, since previous layouts & their curve radius (read that 4x8) said, "Um, you're not running that on here." Only an Athearn BB, but it matched the proto I'm doing-the Walthers one didn't.
Anyways, just checking in. Paul, is that the Mike that does the blowdown on the high bridge? I saw pics of it in a book at work-I'd imagine that'd be cool to see in person!
Lee-Foxhat-hmm, why not? sounds good to me. Where do you plan to "locate" it? Easy to mispronounce those names sometimes. Luckily I have a dad who taught me early on how to say them right (the ones around Ohio) The ones up towards New England can throw me occasionally. Quick story-on another thread the book "Blue Highways" was mentioned. while in Montana, the author was asked if he could name a county that wasn't either an Indian name or named after a man. The author couldn't, & the asker provided at least 5 in Montana. I thought about it for awhile myself, & then it hit me-duhh! we have 2 right here-Summit & Portage! (just some trivial knowledge that accumulates in my brain ) Luckily so FAR the ice has held off-just some rain here.
Ed-hopefully I'll have a boxcar full of juicy mandarins! (also with those that sent cars south) I've always loved that variety-granted, the ones I've indulged in were canned, but still good-love to have some fresh off the tree!
Well I best head out & head to bed-have a great overnight & day tomorrow, & to quote an old radio sports reporter on the radio around here from years back-"See you NEXT time..which will BE...the BEST time." (The late Hymie Williams)
Good Evening All,
Just a glass of red wine and a chunk of cheese please, it's been a long day. Had our first snow of the season last night complete with traffic jams, plow trucks in telephone poles, power outages, etc. All that over one inch of snow which was all gone by noon today.
Did manage to spend the evening in the basement ...king on my city block of DPM buildings. Here is a progress pic. These are HO and after the travails with the npossible scale buildings, these felt more like 1:1.
well my order is up and I thinkl I'll wander off and spend some time catching up posts here and in the big room. I'll try to stop by tomorrow whilst doing chores. CUL, J.R.
testing testing and now for something comepletely different:
the obligatory halfdome shot from Yosemite.
Good Evening Coffee Clubbers,
Glad to hear that mandarin oranges (and mandarin OJ) are so popular here. Drink up folks, someone has to consume this stuff. Believe me I do my part.
Another nice day in Paradise, even if it was a bit warm for December 8th. A/C has been operating all week, and looks like it will continue for the foreseeable future.
We put up our artificial tree this afternoon, and got the lights on. To be continued tomorrow. I was sweating the whole time as we didn't have the a/c turned on downstairs. Tough to really get in the mood with the palm trees swaying.
We went back out to the grove around mid-day today, and cut another load of fruit. Didn't even make a dent in the trees that we were cutting from. We can only bring back around 400lbs of fruit per trip due to space limitations. But even at that we can barely consume all we cut.
Paul: Mary Ann and I worked on fences again. Lets face it, it never ends.
Off to Mexico City tomorrow night, but only for a couple of days.
Hasta mañana,
Ed
Paul, are you orginaly from the great lakes region?
I was throwing out names for the town on my layout with my girlfriend today. I tried to invent some unusual names using local Indian names for the various rivers and creeks. I really mispronounced one and my GF looked me dead in the eys and said: Wear the fox hat, so maybe I'll name my town Foxhat, ohio.
THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM EST SUNDAY.
A MIX OF FREEZING RAIN AND SLEET WILL DEVELOP QUICKLY TONIGHT AND LINGER THROUGH THE MORNING HOURS ON SUNDAY. TEMPERATURES TONIGHT THROUGH TOMORROW MORNING WILL BE AT OR SLIGHTLY BELOW FREEZING...MEANING THAT THERE WILL BE SEVERAL HOURS IN WHICH ICE WILL ACCUMULATE. A GLAZE OF ICE ON UNTREATED SURFACES WILL BE LIKELY BY EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. TEMPERATURES WILL REBOUND ABOVE FREEZING BY MID DAY TOMORROW AND PRECIPITATION WILL TRANSITION TO RAIN AFTER NOON. IF TRAVEL IS PLANNED LATE TONIGHT...BE PREPARED FOR WINTRY TRAVEL CONDITIONS.
BM1 Lee Soule USCG (ret) L.S.&W Railroad Serving the Lower Great Lakes
Evening Gang: Mary Ann and I worked on fences again. Lets face it, it never ends. We did take a break and went to Aledo to the pizza shop for lunch with John and his wife. She's getting along fine and the baby is doing well. She's due in March so we're all waiting.
I'm watching PBS tonight. It's the show on the steam tourest lines. It is very good. Right now it's the Boone and Secinic railways Chinese Mike.
I got to the basement and worked on the plans for the Clark Garden layout again. I got part of the floor plan done again when the gremlins hit again. Out came the electric eraser and back to the beginning. Maybe the third time will be the charm. I also had the Walthers catalogue there so looked up the cars for a CN&W passenger train. I'm going to do a fictional train to the upper peninsula of Michigan. I'll call it The Northland 400, maybe. I have to research the CN&W more to decide. This came about because the Milw Rd Erie Builts were sold out, so I got a CN&W one. I'll get another one for an AA set.
Well I guess I'll head out and concentrate on the show.
Good Night All
Wow, I just went to www.pricewatch.com to see how much Win2000 cost. $129.00 WinXP Pro is "only $74.98", I thought Win2000 would be dirt cheap by now.
Jeffery, if you install Windows XP on your computer make sure everything is backed up. XP will format your hard drive automaticly. It dosen't upgrade like Win95, Win98 and Win2000 did.
Lee
Sunny and 36F outside.
in a Union Pacific mug, please & thanks.
Nothing worth reporting, I'll just sit in a corner booth and enjoy the coffee.
Have a great day, all. Rob
Some of you may be interested in my 22-car mail and express train I just posted on a thread I started: "You've got Mail; Tis the Season for Extra mail and Express Tarins".
I'll have another mandarin OJ. Have fun!
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
HO is Santa's favorite scale.
I got two polar express video uploaded, more on the way
http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h181/Trainboy13/?action=view¤t=MVI_0854.flv
http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h181/Trainboy13/?action=view¤t=MVI_0856.flv
Colby ... You asked about passenger trains. Mine have lots of head end cars at this tine of the year to handle all of those Christmas presents. HO HO (I think that HO is Santa's favorite guage for model trains).
Jeff ... Great photos and good to hear from you. Good luck solving computer issues.
Any manderin OJ left? Must be. Ed sent enough to the diner to drown an elephant. Good stuff. Thanks Ed.
Jeff- you could always get a new comp. It's just a thought.
psssssssst! hey why don't we try to pitch in and get jeff a new comp for christmass.
Ok. Morning guys.
Seeing how the holidays are comming up and the "Polar Express' is playing on the telly. For those of you who's railroads still have passenger service or have a busness train available. What is your version of the polar express? any kind of passenger equipment can be used. Dome cars, 1800's passenger cars, whatever is available. Steam Locomotive is recomemded but if you don't have one then use a diesel for a post steam era "Polar Express"
btw steam double headers are accepted.
I have 6 versions once I get them uploaded.
and I'm paying dig in people
Sorry Jeff, I didn't mean to steal your thunder. I just didn't know when you'd be back in.
Heartland Division CB and Q wrote: PC ... I was quite impressed with the photo of your son. My bet is you're very proud.
PC ... I was quite impressed with the photo of your son. My bet is you're very proud.
Good bet!
Thanks much for telling us about Jeff. He's a resourceful, persistant guy, and I will not be surprised if "indefinate" won't be too long.
As you can see, he's already stopping by! My bet is, he'ss have some cheapo computer hopped up on XP in no time just for internet access.
Is Mrs. PC doing okay now?
I'm still around. I just won't be on very much. I found out what the problem is. SuddenLink (the highspeed internet provider in this area) dropped all Windows98 support. As a result any user still using it can't get on unless they upgrade to a higher OS, such as W2000 or XP. That's out of the question for me as my mainboard won't recognize those OS's and getting a new main board won't be easy. Being on a fixed income I can't just run out and drop $500 on a board, memory and possibly a display adapter. I'll be on when I can. I can get some time on a friends computer and I can stop by the library once in a while. Now, on to other things. I know there are some out there who actually like my photos. Here are some of my favorites.
This one is my favorite. I keep it on my desktop.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Hello and good morning, diners.
I'm looking over the menu Bill posted. hmmmm. I'll try Avacodo, Bacon, and Egg Breakfast Stuffy. ...and I'll have one of Ed's Mandarin OJ's please.
JR ... good to see photo of WP 913. I had heard they passed that loco to another museum. I was wrong. I'll have to complain to my sources.
Rob ... Is your wife improving today? Sounds like a really nasty sickness.
WOW! That Mandarin OJ is terific!
PC ... I was quite impressed with the photo of your son. My bet is you're very proud. Thanks much for telling us about Jeff. He's a resourceful, persistant guy, and I will not be surprised if "indefinate" won't be too long. Is Mrs. PC doing okay now?
Fergie ...... It's good hearing from you even if your posts cause me to have seasickness.
I'll have another Mandarin OJ, please.
Ryan ......I really like the progress reports on the roundhouse project.
Mitch..... I smiled when you talked of your keyboard. You said the cheap one would not "hack" and I thoungt of the computereese meaning of the word. Glad the computer is up.
Jerry .... You said Sallie was picked up. Is she back to Effingham? Is she OK? Those ebay purchases sound good. Do you think you'll get back to Springfield? I ask because there's a hobby shop there that has tons of juk model trains selling for almost nothing. I picked up a lot of stuff for about $30.00 last summer.
Sounds like there's less rain in the Pacific NW if roads are opening as Sue said. That flooding was on national news. Hope it keeps getting better. Meanwhile, we have plenty of rain here. Sue, did you sen it here?
Jim CG .... Sounds like the non-model railroad stuff keeps you busy. Any mrr time available this weekend?
Enough for now. Work to do. I'll have four Mandarin OJ's to go, please.
Bye.
eeyore9900 wrote: Fergie-hope you make it home without any further weather problems. That was a cool link you sent earlier as to current ship positions. Since I'm a classic country music nut, where you're at puts me in mind of the Hank Snow song "Squid Jiggin' Ground."
Fergie-hope you make it home without any further weather problems. That was a cool link you sent earlier as to current ship positions. Since I'm a classic country music nut, where you're at puts me in mind of the Hank Snow song "Squid Jiggin' Ground."
Mitch: What an I say~ Rule No. 1 on the High North Atlantic in Winter: Add 10 to 20 kts onto the forecast and you may get it right!!!
Called for Sly 30 and we're getting 40 go figure (See Rule 1)
Jim: I may have to have word with you!
Ed: that is a shame seeing all that fruit going to waste. Can it be made into wine?
If so I'll send my Fleet of tankers down and don't worry about the weather!
Got 2 Go
Fergie
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=5959
If one could roll back the hands of time... They would be waiting for the next train into the future. A. H. Francey 1921-2007
Morning, Janie - just a glass of OJ and a to-go cup of coffee, please. Thanks!
Sorry to hear about Jeff's computer problems. As others have said, PC or anyone else who get news - keep us posted so if we can, we'll help.
PC, good shot of your son - he looks like he's concentrating hard on his shot.
Rob, as the others have said, better keep your CFO's fluids intake going there. Just remind her how much she doesn't want another trip and IV... Sounds like that is motivating her to drink more liquids so far.
Ryan, great progress on the roundhouse and turntable! I must be contrary non-prototypical, as I liked the 16-pane window better. But what the heck...
Johnboy, what would you consider a 'warm spell' up there around this time of year? Definitely want to make sure the heater's always in good shape and the fuel tank filled.
Paul, the mocassins might work - I think the main thing is being able to walk fast in whatever the shoes are. Of course, your doctor might think otherwise - could you call his office and ask about the mocassins?
'bout time for me to make the laundry run, so I'll be heading out. for those ailing, recuperating, or even thinking they're about to come down with something.
Blessings,
Jim in Cape Girardeau
Good morning all,
It's a chilly 35F this morning.
That's bad news about Jeffery; I wish him luck in getting things fixed. If he needs parts or something please pass on to him I have a few spare computer parts floating around he is more than welcome to if it will help expedite him getting back online.
Last night I finished installing the roof, windows, and doors on the kit-bashed dairy I'm building. Dorothy hand painted the stacks with a calligraphy pen.
Ryan, I assume you'll be lighting the inside of your round house, will you be adding any welding lights? I still have to install the control panel for my roundhouse I built last year; I'm planning on buying a rotary switch from Radio Shack to control power to the individual tracks.
Good Morning from Tipton IN !
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
Your Attention Please!
I was going to let Jeff make his own announcement, but it appears that he'll be unable to do so.
Our own Jeffrey Wimberly has had terminal problems with his computers and internet connection. I spoke with him yesterday and he said that he doesn't see the picture changing anytime soon. He believes at this point that he will be off of the internet indefinately. He said he still may log in from friends computers from time to time, but for the most part he will not be here much anymore.
It's is truely a sad thing. I'll miss his daily weather report as well as all of the other valued input he has given to this site and many others over the years.
Hope to see you on the net soon Buddy!
Evening folks-
Hmm-Ed's coffee & Fran's pie sound good-set me up!
Sounds like comp problems are catching as the viruses & colds around here these days. First Jeff, then Ed, & then I caught my share earlier this evening. I was away from the keyboard for awhile at the workbench, & when I sat back down here, my screen had froze up, & the mouse in a way. I rebooted, & the error screen showed up saying "keyboard not detected" & the mouse refusing to work. After unplugging & plugging the keyboard & rebooting several times, still the same. So I got out the original keyboard to the comp (retired it because it's big & clumsy, about the size of an aircraft carrier deck) plugged it in, rebooted & things were fine again. I guess the cheapo lightweight keyboard I picked up in the summer just couldn't hack it. Oh well.
Got to doing some laundry, & a little trainwork, but was starting to lose my groove so called it a night & took Logan for a walk, then came back here before hitting the sack.
Ryan-although the majority have spoken, I'll go with the "64er" too.
Rob-hope your wife is feeling a little better-like I said-make sure she gets her fluids. I was at my parents' earlier & mentioned this, & she replied, "Oh yes!-without a doubt get the fluids!" I know you said she's a nurse & nurses make the worst patients, but a MOM said to get her fluids-& you always have to listen to a MOM! (sometimes they make the best doctors )
Talked to my friend in Alice Springs Australia last night online before bed also-she was under the weather also (it's everywhere) fighting a summer cold. She mentioned that it was over 110 degrees there earlier this week, but had cooled down some (probably 90 or so ) keeping in mind, this is the equivalent of early June down there, & Alice Springs is in the desert.
Dawn's working the graveyard shift tonite, so it's just me & the dawgs-better call it a nite!
Hi gang,
Just stepped in to say goodnight. We went down the street from the diner tonight and had a big feed of Chinese Food, for supper. Well maybe just a shorrt OJ. Chloe, We have to help keep our Mexican Buddy Ed in business.
Ryan , that is super nice work you are doing there and my vote goes for the 64 pane windows as well, much more accurate for those old buildings.
Didn't get near as much done on the RR. as I had hoped for today. But I did get the railings on a GP-40-2 that I have slowly been working at. Now they need some paint. A little more work on the tunnel liner and that is going to work out OK.
Well I think I'll hit the hay as I have been called in work earlier than normal tomorrow. Maybe I'll geta chance to check in from work. We'll see how that goes.
They are forcasting -30s again for tonight & tomorrow, so if we had an orange crop we could use them for baseballs.
By the way, BLUEHILLS CPR, just where abouts are you located in the Province. I would guess in the Moose Jaw area or south of there. Am I right ???
Sleep well all.
Prayers and blessings to all in need.
Johnboy out........
James:1 Verse:5
The "Wobbly" is over the pit.
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
Rob,
I'll swap you some of your 70F weather for some of my 27F weather. Fair swap if I ever heard of one.
Mandrin oranges, my favorite! Ed feel free to drop some off at my house, I'll leave the light on for you.
Well, the coffee (from the mountains of Veracruz, of course) is good and strong and hot. Fran's pie for tonight, banana cream, is smooth and delicious. If I don't loose either the lights or the ISP connection it should be a fine evening.
Missed checking in for a day or so due to continuing computer problems. Sort of resolved right now, at least I'm back on line, even if things still aren't as I had joped. So if I miss responding to anything someone has asked, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
We did get out to the orange grove on Wednesday afternoon. I'll guarantee that the mandarin oranges are about at their peak right now. Full and juicy and very sweet. Normally these are eating oranges and people don't usually ‘waste' them by juicing them. But since we have a glut, the Coffee Shop is getting pure mandarin orange juice in those shipments headed north. Enjoy. And yes, for those of you who asked, you can ship empty cars down here and we'll fill them up and point ‘em north (more or less). By the way, the FCVN turns these cars over to someone else a few miles up the tracks here. We aren't responsible if some less than totally up-and-up people commandeer cars for their own personal use and they don't reach their assigned destination......
Fergie: ...I think I may try to divert Ed's "Weather Shipment" this way!
In real life there are no buyers around our way for oranges this season, so I expect that at least 2/3 of the mandarin crop will just get wasted. I think we can probably consume about 1/3 of it within the family and neighbors. We'll see when the next variety ripens if there's a market or not. It's not the money, but it really pains me to see us just trash good fruit.
Paul - take care of yourself. Good luck with the stress test.
Rob - Hope the wife recovers from the pneumonia.
JR - nice shots from the museum. Glad the vacation trip went well.
I'm going to post this while the posting is still good.
Hasta mañana
Ryan, the middle one is the way to go!
BTW, I was just cruising Google Images and I searched on "straight tracks" and there at the bottom of page one is a very familiar website!
You might recognize the pic it shows........