Elliotts Trackside Diner III

[CNCharlie]

Good Evening Diners!

I haven't been able to get into the Diner for the past few days as my wife took over the computer to put her cooking class  info into receipe form. She's at her last class now so I expect she won't be very happy later tonight. Apparently they are doing fois gras and rabbit tonight.

Well it is indeed time for rejoicing on the weather front as it finally went above freezing today! What a crazy climate we have here, freezing cold in the winter and then it is so hot in summer you need central air. I bet Johnboy has his shorts on as it is even warmer in Regina.

Jeff, like so many others I have to say that I have really enjoyed your videos--keep them coming!

PC, glad to hear your wife is coming along great after her surgery.

Dick, Now that you have so much experience remodelling bathrooms I know one that needs re-doing and it is only a short distance away in Winnnipeg, and the floor is already tiled! It would be a piece of cake for someone of your obvious ability.

Rob, my table is only 32" which is really too low even though I'm not what you'd call tall. I guess it depends on what is comfortable to reach and also to have good sightlines.

Not much done on the RR front, just completed a "Kate's Colonial Home " kit. I'm waiting for my CP caboose to arrive so there is something for the end of a train when pulled by my CP RS3. It just won't run when it sees a CN caboose. I did manage to get all of my roads and sidewalks done too. Really poor contractor though as I had to call the paving company back twice. Seems the guy they call the engineer (civil) doesn't know much about the turning radius for the large trucks at the warehouse.

Well, just time for a quick coffee as I must pick up the chef shortly.

CN Charlie

[saronaterry]

Alright, line up. It's on me tonight guys. I'll be in the dishpit.

[saronaterry]

Question: Table height? Is 38" tall enough or is there a standard I should use?  Thanks!

Rob

Evenin! Rob, My layout is 50" at the Spooner Yard to 56" at Haugen, but it's a walk-around . Depends if you want to sit or stand ,I guess! I would suggest the higher the better for veiwing. Looks more realistic.

Terry

[pcarrell]

PC: Speaking of strong coffee, you had better have one when classes finish tonight PC, with the lack of sleep last night, 9 hour work day, and then classes, topped off with 1 hour ride back home in the dark........that is a recipe for a disaster, please make sure you have a coffee before heading home !!!

Thanks, but you know what?  God had my back!  (Like there was ever any doubt!)  Seems the teacher was tierd too, so the class that was supposed to end at 10, ended at 8:30.  Nobody had a problem with that!  Not even me!

[Cederstrand]

Question: Table height? Is 38" tall enough or is there a standard I should use?  Thanks!

Rob

[jeffrey-wimberly]

JEFF: 2" of snow at  *port in Louisianna during this last big storm to hit the midwest and southern states. They said the town came to a standstill. We can send a few sanders down there via flatcar on CSX line that runs through our town if you need them...LOL

No need. It all melted and has run off already.

[grayfox1119]

Good evening railcrew.. I need  a strong coffee right now, and that Beef Stew looks good, I'll have that please Zoe.

The wallpaper is all off the wall,  the spary bottle of hot water worked real well, I had the paper off in about 2 hours.

RYAN: I am happy to hear the Ben is well and back to school, kids really bounce back much faster than we do for sure.

PC: Speaking of strong coffee, you had better have one when classes finish tonight PC, with the lack of sleep last night, 9 hour work day, and then classes, topped off with 1 hour ride back home in the dark........that is a recipe for a disaster, please make sure you have a coffee before heading home !!!

MIKE: Intellicast is good Mike, as is NOAA, either one will have latest radar and satellite images to do your own forecasting.

JIM: That d*** jar never seems to empty!!!!! Ask Fergie, he can share my feelings about the infamous HD jar, and we don't mean Home Depot either !!!!

JEFF: 2" of snow at  *port in Louisianna during this last big storm to hit the midwest and southern states. They said the town came to a standstill. We can send a few sanders down there via flatcar on CSX line that runs through our town if you need them...LOL

Later guys,

[Cederstrand]

refill, please & thanks.

Picked up the door for my train table ($22), along with 1x4s to make legs out of. Door is light weight and pefectly strait.  That's all I can buy until another original painting sells or I part with more vintage trains, as we need to keep buying hay.

Healing thoughts to those in need.

That's it from the Deep South. Rob

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Boxcars, Tons are still used out here in the fall to move grain.  Still several trains go by with boxcars being 90% of the mixed train freights. Paper mills, Ford/Chevy stamping plants, and some of the smaller MFG plants still have boxcars spotted on their sidings.  You being in Pittsburg you may not see many in coal & steel country, but wander over to Youngstown or Erie and see what's going on with boxcars.  I would visit live view and see what's moving on the rail roads.

I don't remember seeing much in the way of boxcars when I lived in Erie, but then again the paper mill had closed by then. 

There's still boxcars out the ying-yang here, hundreds of them. There in every train with the exception of the unit coal and gravel trains.

[Flashwave]

OOH! Hey I saw something there that gots me thinking. "Public Delivery" You might try a team track(?). A generic Warehouse for many buisness(es) in the area that don't have track. That would certainly draw a boxcar or 8. it might be owned by the Railroad, or co-owned by the served buisnesses. It might have its own workforce that would unload the railcars and pck it onto trucks whent the busnesses came by to pickup stock.

[SilverSpike]

Afternoon folks!

I have a lot of catchin' up to do so this will be a quick drop in for now!

Garry, nice post on the backdrops and backgrounds, I have replied with some of my latest attempts.

Ed welcome back and nice photo captures from the trip. I will go back and read more when I have some more time, maybe tomorrow!

PC thanks for putting up some food for the fellers to eat the past few days!

Dick thanks for asking, Ben went back to school today, and is feeling much better now. The kid rebounded really quick, and I am grateful for that, I just wish I had youthful resources and energy myself!

Nice to see all the great photos everyone!

Thoughts and prayers for all those sick and in healing!

TTFN,

Ryan

 

 

[NittanyLion]

Boxcars, Tons are still used out here in the fall to move grain.  Still several trains go by with boxcars being 90% of the mixed train freights. Paper mills, Ford/Chevy stamping plants, and some of the smaller MFG plants still have boxcars spotted on their sidings.  You being in Pittsburg you may not see many in coal & steel country, but wander over to Youngstown or Erie and see what's going on with boxcars.  I would visit live view and see what's moving on the rail roads.

I don't remember seeing much in the way of boxcars when I lived in Erie, but then again the paper mill had closed by then.  All I ever saw were endless parades of autoracks and GE testing things.  Erie would be a great layout for a super-rich guy with a huge collection of 25 of exactly the same thing. Locally I know theres a bakery that gets supplies shipped in by boxcar but its a once a month kind of thing.  The steel mill in town gets one or two boxcars a day in its daily train.  Always been very curious whats in that thing.

 One of those things I bump my nose up against is the "would they really do this?"  the 30" by 10' layout I'm designing is going to be developed in such a way that it can be incorporated into a larger layout in the future.  Its heavily based on a real town, but with a lot of tweaking.  One of those "big picture" plans is to have an auto plant.  Its not that much of a stretch; there was once an auto manufacturer in town.  They invented the Jeep there (on behalf of my town, I apologize for causing the SUV).  So I have a bit of a hard time envisioning someone cranking out brake shoes or something and then having them shipped two miles down the road. 

Too bad I'm so married to the modern era.  I mean, I grew up in a world where the wide cab was rising and the SD40-2 was 15 years old.  Although I remember when the local to the steel mill had a pair of SD9s on it (its an SD38 now) and the fall rush to get coal to Lake Erie before it froze would bring the F7s out of hiding.  But back in 1952, the site where I'm trying to figure out where to cram something that can use a boxcar was occupied by all this:

Now theres not a single foot of any of that trackage.  And most of those businesses don't occupy the site any more. 

[pcarrell]

PC, ....At this rate, she may be making you up a new HD list like Dick has had.

When did I ever insinuate that she couldn't do that?  Her mind still works great, as does her mouth.  I don't mean that in a mean way at all.....just saying, she still has the ability to come up with plenty of stuff for me to do and also possesses the ability to let me know about it!

[JimRCGMO]

Good afternoon, Zoe. Yep, you remembered me! It has been a while. I'll have a root beer float, please.Thanks.

 

Downright nice out today - getting into the low 50's and supposed to hit the 60's by Wednesday.

Sorry for my not getting in this past weekend, Diners. I've probably missed some things, so if you posted in the past several pages, you may need to PM or email me if you had a question.

I can't even claim I was working on the layout (only marginally - did some fiddling with the layout design program). Well, I did pick up Dave Frary's newer edition of his Scenery Techniques book (40% off at Hobby Lobby with the coupon). Spent more time figuring what could (and couldn't) get paid out of this paycheck. Too often it's too much pay period at the end of the paycheck, huh?

Inch, nice photo of the layout.You've been coming along there on things.

And Jerry, I like what I see of your downtown area (behind the junk dealer? - Quonset hut) in your pic.

I'll have to go check out Garry's topic after I post here. Sounds interesting to me.

PC, sounds like your wife is doing much better this time around. That's great! At this rate, she may be making you up a new HD list like Dick has had.

Dick, at the rate your HD list is going, you can apple for your apprenticeship with the local contractors' union, no doubt! That HD list of yours seems to be growing instead of shrinking....? 

Ed, those are interesting cabeese there - what are the tanks holding (as far as you know)?

Well, looks like a busy week this week for me (but not as full as PC's) - train club tonight, one meeting at church tomorrow night, choir dress rehearsal for Easter on Thursday (and I'm on-call that night), a singles progressive dinner Saturday night, and Palm Sunday after that. Whew!

Better get to my float now. Everybody take care of yourselves and hope your snow/ice melts as quickly as ours did yesterday.

 

Blessings on your week,

Jim in Cape Girardeau 

[inch53]

NITTY LION,, there are a lot of boxcars passing thru here everyday. There a kitchen cabinet maker in T-town, that gets lumber in and ships cabinets out. Some farm stores n fertilizer places get chemicals and bag fertilizers. One was a warehouse/distributor, and got bag pet and livestock feed and supplements, plus a lot of other farm stuffs. They also got into gardening and receive bagged mulch n that.

DICK, sometimes I can do a better job forecasting than the weather guesser by going here for maps n such.

http://www.intellicast.com/National/Radar/Current.aspx?location=USIL0974

Been getting some time working on my fiddle yard. Got most the track down, but working on the coal dump n small engine house. The roadbed on the right goes to off track staging, that's next

Hope ya'll has a gooden

[Cederstrand]

 in a SOUTHERN mug, please & thank you.

***Ed, those old steamers look like they could be fired right up and put into service. That is if they still had tracks leading somewhere. They are beauties.

***Philip, hope you survive the day and get caught up on sleep soon. Insomnia is no fun at all.

Off to do critter rounds. Have a great day all. Rob

 

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Hello again, everyone:  

Lee said: "Garry, your trip to Cincinnati would have been real short this past weekend.  I-77 & I-71 were closed and all the counties from Cincinnati to Lake Erie were at Snow Emergency Level 3.  Driving in to work this morning there were 8 cars still plowed over, one burned up car, one car upside down, and several abandoned cars littering the right lane.  On and off ramps for I-90 are not completely plowed or salted."  It was bad enough here with jsut 6" of  snow plus ice. Most of that has melted away now.

Ed gave me the green light to post my experiences with backdrops on the general forum. I did that, but I made changes and additions. If you wish to see my present work in progress, I have one photo of that in the story.

Ed ........ Are those beer kegs on the tops of the cabooses ???? Seriously, thanks for posting some very interesting photos.

Happy Model Railroading

 

[grayfox1119]

Good morning, yaaunnnnnnn!  I slept until 9 this morning, of course I didn't hit the sack last night until midnight, but I finished tiling the main bathroom floor. I have to wait 24 hours before I can grout both bathroom floors, then install/re-install the toilets. Just when I thought I was done, the Main bathroom wall has 15 year old paper and the CFO wants to tear off the paper and paint the walls. Ohh well, it is the last thing in either bathroom that hasn't been done, so I might as well get that done also while everything is open.

The weather is very nice here today, no wind, clear skies but a chilly 26F under a strong March sun. The week looks good, no big storms until the weekend, of course!!

J.R. : You are a wise man !!! How did you ever deduce that? Ohh, your a married man, of course...LOL Right ON J.R. BTW enjoy Florida and watch out for Gators.

ED: Very nice photo shots Ed, did you enter the steamer in the photo contest? BTW, oranges are getting scarce here, time for another box car load mon ami!! My daughter is in your country, at Cancun for a week. Bring the oranges over there Ok Ed?

MIKE: Normally, we get all those storms in March, and the midwest gets the rainy side, but this time the Jetstream shifted west and brought the storm inland instead of along the coast, which gave the entire midwest a touch of New England weather. You received a nice Nor'easter for a change. I loved the scene of the cars slidding all around on the interstate in Ohio, doing 360's while other cars tried their luck at " dodge em " cars.

Weather forcasting isn't all that hard Mike, all you need to do is go to satellite imagery on line, and look at the jet stream data, especially the NORTHERN jet stream, as this one seperates the cold air to the north from the warm moist air to the south. The greater the temperature differential, the worst the storms will be. And if there is a lot of moisture feeding up from the Gulf, then there will be severe storms will copious amounts of rain in quadrants 1 and 2, snow in the 3rd and 4th quadrants.

I guess I had better get back to projects, maybe next week I can make to LHS...

[pcarrell]

Jerry, what a busy weekend!  The pic in your avitar doesn't let you look old enough for that many Gkids!

PC...Glad to hear your Wife is doing so well...

She's pretty happy about it too! 

Can you catch a cat nap at work today?

I'm the head of the trouble department at the local phone company......no naps here!  The only way I can surf is because I do it while I'm on the phone fixing broken things.  It kills the time when you're on hold and can't get too involved in anything else.  For now, I'm a coffee junkie!

[LSWrr]

Good morning,

 

Garry, your trip to Cincinnati would have been real short this past weekend.  I-77 & I-71 were closed and all the counties from Cincinnati to Lake Erie were at Snow Emergency Level 3.  Driving in to work this morning there were 8 cars still plowed over, one burned up car, one car upside down, and several abandoned cars littering the right lane.  On and off ramps for I-90 are not completely plowed or salted.

 

ED, cool pictures!  Looks like it was a great outing.

 

NMRA Train Show Kirtland, OH 15-16 March

  

Cox 47 wrote:

Sallie got up this morning and with their help fixed Biscuits,Gravey and fried taters for all.

  My favorite, any left???

 

Adam, Sounds like you had a heck of a storm.

 

Boxcars, Tons are still used out here in the fall to move grain.  Still several trains go by with boxcars being 90% of the mixed train freights. Paper mills, Ford/Chevy stamping plants, and some of the smaller MFG plants still have boxcars spotted on their sidings.  You being in Pittsburg you may not see many in coal & steel country, but wander over to Youngstown or Erie and see what's going on with boxcars.  I would visit live view and see what's moving on the rail roads.

 

Railroadnut675, I would still ask her out.  You never know, maybe she is waiting to hear from you.  I don't know how old you are, but maybe take her to the Zoo or to the mall or whatever.  If you don't (and if you are like me) you'll be wondering about what would have happened if....  Then again if she says no then you move on.

 

I worked several hours this weekend on the layout and I promise to share some pictures.  I installed my sidewalks using rubber cement.  I learned rubber cement melts styrene plastic.  Not cool, since I may have to scrap the foam board and start over.  I have 51 feet of track laid, powered and about 4 turnouts installed.  As soon as I figure out what I'm doing with melted sidewalks I'll start the scenery on the Fox Creek area.  I need to make 12 more trees and pick up some ground cover this weekend.

 

With all the snow surrounding my house I may need to prepare for flooding.

 

Thoughts and prayers to those on the sick and injured list.

 

Lee

[Cox 47]

Good Morning All...Its sunny and 32 here this morning posta warm up..maybe spring is just around the corner...I'll have a ham sandwitch and coffee please...Thank You.. We had a great week end with 3 of the Grand kids here...Sallie was pretty tired but happy...

JR....No I havn't got into XM radio but my old Boss has it and says thier old country is great...I get my classic country from WSM on line...I am a big fan of Eddie Stubbs who does eveningsHe is very into classic country and has the WSM music library to work with..He goes "deep cataloge[sp]" and plays lots of stuff you can't hear any place else...Good luck with the Race cars in Florida...Think you'll have any time to hit the hobby shops?

PC...Glad to hear your Wife is doing so well...Can you catch a cat nap at work today? I used to put a 3 or 4 minute record on and catch a nap while it was playing..We had a high Scool kid working Sunday mornings years ago He had been out late on saturday nite came in to pull his shift on sunday morning he put a live Church service on the air then went into the next studio and laid down on the floor and caught a nap...he woke up 2 hours latter...Church sevices were over and and the congergation had all left...almost an hour of dead air!!.....

Ed...Thanks for photos...I am guessing those tanks on the caboose are for water?...Those strawberrys sure sound good!....

Jeff...Liked your video looks like some you have a lot of freight traffic on your railroad...nice road crossings too...

well hope I can get some train time in latter..my Brother-in-law sent my a game Rails Across America that I want to try... You all have a good one....Jerry

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good morning, everyone ...

I don't really want to go off making a whole thread over this, so I'm just going to borrow this one.  I've been trying to figure out an industry to put in one corner of my planned layout.  Nothing from my would-be prototype fits the space, as the building that it would have been is long torn down.  If that makes any sense.  Anyhow, I'd like to use boxcars to serve it (cart before the horse?) because I kinda like them.  I was recently viewing aerial imagery of a nearby yard (NS's massive Conway yard) and noted horde upon horde of boxcars there.  So somebody is still using them for something.  My question then is: what do they still use those things for?  I noticed the ones I was seeing were not big huge autoparts ones.  Or at least not all of them.  In short, what sort of industry would still be using boxcars in this day and age? 

The 86' auto parts cars ar for light density cargo such as sheet metal parts.  Heavy density auto parts are loaded in conventionally sized box cars.

[pcarrell]

Man!  I'm draggin' butt this morning!  I couldn't get to sleep last night.  I think I only got about two hours of sleep all night.  Good thing I just have a 9 hour workday and then nightschool until 10pm that is an hours drive from home tonight, huh?  I am gonna be one whipped pup when I get done with this day!

So how are you all?

Oh, I did get some layout time this weekend.  I tried some new lighting out.  I added some of those energy efficient fluorescent bulbs to my track lights.  They run a bunch cooler, but I don't care for the light quality much, and I can't dim them (I knew that going into it).  Think I'll switch back to the energy eaters.  They give off a nice quality of light.  I also got some more work done on my backdrop.  Looks like I'll be painting it soon (let's hope).  Then I can really get moving on scenery (finally!).

So anyways, looks like I'm still on for feeding you all.  I'll get the breakfast bar cranked up.

Ready?  Here's your breakfast bar!

Enjoy!

Nothing but the best for my friends, huh?   (Actually, you guys broke me last night!)

Later!

[wetidlerjr]

Good Morning from Tipton IN !

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning.

It's 51 degrees here under cloudy skies, expecting a high of 63 this afternoon under partly cloudy skies.

Today's Weather for:      
Sundown, LA  71446-6114      3/10/2008

Wind Chill:  52°F
Humidity:  80%
Dew Point:  46°F

So Far Today
High:  52°F
Low:  51°F
Rain:  0.00"
Rain Rate:  0.00"/h
Gust:  7mph NNE

Today    High: 68    Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of rain showers in the morning...then chance of rain showers and isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 60s. Northeast winds around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 50 percent.    
 
Tonight    Low: 48    Cloudy. Rain showers likely and scattered thunderstorms in the evening...then chance of rain showers after midnight. Lows in the upper 40s. Northeast winds around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 60 percent.

[pcarrell]

Lots of industries still use boxcars.  Anything shipped in a crate, an LCL load, anything in boxes or bags, all kinds of smaller finished products, food, anything on pallets, you name it!

[NittanyLion]

I don't really want to go off making a whole thread over this, so I'm just going to borrow this one.  I've been trying to figure out an industry to put in one corner of my planned layout.  Nothing from my would-be prototype fits the space, as the building that it would have been is long torn down.  If that makes any sense.  Anyhow, I'd like to use boxcars to serve it (cart before the horse?) because I kinda like them.  I was recently viewing aerial imagery of a nearby yard (NS's massive Conway yard) and noted horde upon horde of boxcars there.  So somebody is still using them for something.  My question then is: what do they still use those things for?  I noticed the ones I was seeing were not big huge autoparts ones.  Or at least not all of them.  In short, what sort of industry would still be using boxcars in this day and age? 

[New Haven I-5]

Evening Gang: I visited with Tony today for about 30 minutes. I'm going back Tuesday to take him for a bit of an outing in the garden area at the hospital. Of course the outing will depend on the weather. He's still hanging in there. Since I drove in I have again reminded myself why railroads are so great.

No MRRing today of course. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to work on the 7.5 gauge some. I still have to burn all the dead grass and weeds on the track.

Well I'm going to head for bed. This is really late for me.

Good night All

Paul, you have a Live Steam RR! Could you post pics of it?

[Paul W. Beverung]

Evening Gang: I visited with Tony today for about 30 minutes. I'm going back Tuesday to take him for a bit of an outing in the garden area at the hospital. Of course the outing will depend on the weather. He's still hanging in there. Since I drove in I have again reminded myself why railroads are so great.

No MRRing today of course. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to work on the 7.5 gauge some. I still have to burn all the dead grass and weeds on the track.

Well I'm going to head for bed. This is really late for me.

Good night All

[rtraincollector]

Cox 47 you asked the other day and I forgot to mention

I did run my n scale set the other day on the floor in the living room with bachmann easy track its fun to watch as it sounds like a bee buzzing around and the cats sure look one even went into the bedroom it apeared it was try ing to tell wife hey mommy, daddy is playing with a bumble bee in the living room! lol.

Don't plan to do anything as a layout in any gauge till I finally find oout what I'am doing and even if this job fails I have a few other apps in for even better positions but they don't come around till end of may early june as the earliest.