Elliots Trackside Diner IV, Under New Management!

[Fergmiester]

Tom, Buddy I would have put the lawn chair out in the middle of the yard just for you!

Frankly ( Ya I know no frank in the CS) I left Toronto because it was getting too warm in the 70's. Now it's migrated to the east coast

Yes Dick I do like the cold! As for the Arctic situation... Told ya so! Hudson is in for a 2 week self maintenance period right now. I'll be joining her in the Arctic in 28 days.

Later All

Fergie 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I was just playing around with a possible scene and got this.

[LSWrr]

Well Jeff I tried to send it south, but it went east.  It rained here when I had to walk down to the moorings and it stopped as soon as I got back inside today.

BTW Jeff, nice shot.  Soon I'll have tricked out sections of my layout to share.

Well I decaled 2 gondolas for the LS&W tonight.  Picture is pre-clear coat and weathering.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2337492710029441264CimfeO?vhost=good-times

Hope you all have a good night,

Lee

[Packers#1]

Looks good Jeff. BTW, you and tom shoulda been here this morning, it rained a little.

[pcarrell]

Packers, check out the Rails Of The World website for your locobash answer......sorta.

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

good evening.

I just made a round trip to Louisville (3 hours one way from here). Reason is we met family members who drove from Cincinnati. In turn, Shelley is riding with them to Cincinatti. She'll babysit granddaughters because our daughter in law must be present when the intruder has a court appearance. Our son goes along to support D-I-L. Meanwhile, it's busy here and I'll take care of lots of stuff.

Complicated enough? I just now received a phone call about Shelley's brother in Texas. He has a severe heart condition and has been on the transplant waiting list. A suitable doner heart has been located. His transplant surgery is Friday.

Good night everyone.

[wetidlerjr]

Good Morning from Tipton IN !

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning.

It's 78 and cloudy. The high is supposed to be in the mid 90's and there's a fair chance of rain.

Yesterday we actually got some rain. Not much, somewhat over half an inch but it's more than we had. Today I have a 10 am appointment to keep with the foot doc. Other than that my schedule is open.

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA  71446-6114      7/31/2008

Heat Index:  83°F
Humidity:  85%
Dew Point:  73°F

So Far Today
High:  78°F
Low:  78°F
Rain:  0.00"
Rain Rate:  0.00"/h
Gust:  5mph NNE

Today  High: 95    Partly sunny with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 90s. Southwest winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.

Tonight  Low: 75    Decreasing clouds. A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Lows in the mid 70s. Light and variable winds.

[GMTRacing]

Good Morning All,

    Mid sixties and foggy this morning. We had a bit of rain last night but no thunder as the detector (our dog) didn't bolt for the closet and whine until let in. Should hit the mid eighties with humidity again today and the possibility of afternoon showers. Finishing up the two cars to go to Monterey today and delivering to the truck that will take them tomorrow. It's still crazy busy here but the crash damage is caught up and we're just waiting on one problem motor to return from the builder. No progress on the house but we meet with the head adjustor and the contractor tomorrow so let's see.

    Did get to stop into my favorite hobby shop on a side trip and ordered an EP-4 New Haven electric and an HH600 diesel switcher also in New Haven colors. At this rate I may have to build at least one level of the layout with catenary ! Also picked up a couple of NH gondolas to play with. I'm going to try to get permission to turn the electricity back on in the basement of the house so I can at least keep the layout up during the reconstruction.

Tom - doesn't look like you're getting any rain soon. From a purely selfish point of view, has the drought stopped the historic steam railroads running? I'll have a few days in Ca coming up where I can go to Roaring Camp or such and wondered if they are running at all with the high risk of forest fires? Sounds like the fire in Yosemite is right by the Sugar Pine Historic setup as well and the remnants of the Yosemite Valley are all exposed at El Portal. Guess all we can do is pray for rain.

Hope the rest of you are doing well. I stop by from time to time but it really has been nuts here in the shop the last few months so I rarely get to spend much time hangin' in the booth. Guess that's not a bad problem to have in this economy.  CUL, J.R.

 

 

[LSWrr]

Good morning,

Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 85. West wind between 7 and 10 mph. Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 64. North wind between 6 and 11 mph. Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 84. North wind between 3 and 7 mph.  Friday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 65. West wind around 6 mph becoming south. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Lee

[SilverSpike]

Well, I guess nobody eats chicken anymore...oh well!

Don't feel left out folks, we could use any amount of rain here in NC too, we are still under a severe drought in the Piedmont area even with about 1" rainfall each of the past 3-4 weeks. The Charlotte area is under extreme conditions.

They do have rain in the forecast though....<<fingers crossed>>

Did you all know that Rice-A-Roni was developed from an Armenian woman in the 1940s who combined rice and pasta to make a pilaf? Interesting story.... 

There it is Chloe......belly up for the BBQ specials on today's lunch..... oink....oink!!!!

[pcarrell]

Morning all!

Had a beautiful sunset last night around here!  Wanna see?

Just a short while before that I noticed some comotion down by the tracks, so I jumped on the scooter to see what was up.  Seems a train was having to drop it's cars on the main and then pick up the reminants of the work train that have been sitting around for a week or so.  Those old gons have really seen better days.  About that same time, the local came through, but my pics of it came out blurry, so nothing worth showing there.  Here's the first train picking up the gons though.

They're still in the process of doing their upgrades to the track as you can see.  They've got stuff everywhere!

Oh well, thats about it for now.

I'll be back around for lunch Ryan, so warm up that credit card!

Catch ya later!

[jeffrey-wimberly]

It appears I had somewhat of a close call yesterday. During the thunderstorm there was a lightning strike close by. At the time I didn't realize how close. I just know that almost everything in the trailer jumped. Looking around in the yard this morning I found a bunch of tree bark laying in a ten foot long line near a pine tree that's about twenty feet from my trailer. Looking up the tree I could see where the lightning bolt had hit it and how far the bolt came down the tree before it jumped to the sheet steel on my roof. From there it was directed right to the ground.

[Cox 47]

Good Morning....Its sunny and hot here..75 now with high in mid 90's..Heat index posta be over 100 next week or so....I'll have a couple of eggs over easy,slice of Garry's Ky ham,Biscuits and some sliced tomatoes and coffee please...Thank You...I cleaned track and ran trains yesterday and cut out some more stuff for back drop...

Wow PC you could put that photo of the sunset in a contest..That is one of the best I have ever seen...With your permission I will use it for my screen saver!

Ryan don't give up on the chicken I'll place my order for one for supper please..I'll bet that makes some fine eating...I am gaining weight just reading about the good things you cook up!

Jeff sounds like a close call with the lightning..I guess with your training with the fire department I don't have to tell you that was a close call...I liked the ICG 50 foot double door box in your photo..Nice graffitti ...did you do that free hand?

You all have a good one ...Jerry

[Flashwave]

It appears I had somewhat of a close call yesterday. During the thunderstorm there was a lightning strike close by. At the time I didn't realize how close. I just know that almost everything in the trailer jumped. Looking around in the yard this morning I found a bunch of tree bark laying in a ten foot long line near a pine tree that's about twenty feet from my trailer. Looking up the tree I could see where the lightning bolt had hit it and how far the bolt came down the tree before it jumped to the sheet steel on my roof. From there it was directed right to the ground.

Ouch. Glad your all right.

I'm feeling behind today, so I'll take a glass of the OJ for now.

[pcarrell]

Wow PC you could put that photo of the sunset in a contest..That is one of the best I have ever seen...With your permission I will use it for my screen saver!

I don't know that it's that good, but I thought it was nice.  I actually have three shots that I took as I panned across the sky.  I was thinking of making a panarama view out of them.  Anyways, check your Email.  If you hit my Email with your address I'll get you the full size shot for your desktop. (2816 x 2112)  I also edited out the houses in one version of the pic: http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Sunset7-30-08Edited.jpg

[pcarrell]

OK Ryan.....it's lunchtime, and as promised, I'm back!

What kind of BBQ have you got cooking there?

[inch53]

Just a quickie stop [trying to feed 7 kids lunch], I've been busy n nothing to really say, but I couldn't resist posting a joke of the day

A member of the United States Senate, known for his hot temper and acid tongue, exploded one day in mid-session and began to shout, "Half of this Senate is made up of cowards and corrupt politicians!"

All the other Senators demanded that the angry member withdraw his statement, or be removed from the remainder of the session.

After a long pause, the angry member acquiesced. "OK," he said, "I withdraw what I said. Half of this Senate is NOT made up of cowards and corrupt politicians!"

[Train 284]

I think I will just take a pepsi for now.

I have been working on getting my new layout started. I have the final trackplan set, I just need to start on the benchwork. My hours got messed up at work so I only work 2 days this week, tomorrow and Saturday. Although kionda nice to have a few days off.

 Besides on Sunday I will be on the Yreka Western bright and early to fire up the 19 which I am really excited for. So far this summer we have been using our SW8, so a living breathing machine will be a nice change. ;)

 Hopefully I will have some pix for you guys by Monday.

[LSWrr]

Jeff, Good thing you were properly grounded.  I've been hit 4 times while underway on small Coast Guard boats, right before it hit all my hair stood on end (when I had hair) and I'll tell you what you look around to see if any of your body parts are laying on the deck because it's that loud.

 

Lee

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Jeff sounds like a close call with the lightning..I guess with your training with the fire department I don't have to tell you that was a close call...I liked the ICG 50 foot double door box in your photo..Nice graffitti ...did you do that free hand?

I found that online. I had to scale it down. It's still a little big for HO. I printed it on onion skin paper back when I could still get it. I can't find anyplace around here that sells it anymore, not even the local office supply store. That's why I went to airmail paper for my decals. Now I'm having trouble finding that. I'm going to give tracing paper a try in the next couple of weeks. It's even thinner than airmail paper. Plain paper is 20 lb, airmail paper is 5 lb. I think tracing paper is 2 or 3 lb.

Lee: No need to tell me how load a lightning strike is. I've been in my trailer when it was struck directly and had to put things back on the shelves afterwards. I consider it a wonder that I can hear as good as I do.

[Packers#1]

It appears I had somewhat of a close call yesterday. During the thunderstorm there was a lightning strike close by. At the time I didn't realize how close. I just know that almost everything in the trailer jumped. Looking around in the yard this morning I found a bunch of tree bark laying in a ten foot long line near a pine tree that's about twenty feet from my trailer. Looking up the tree I could see where the lightning bolt had hit it and how far the bolt came down the tree before it jumped to the sheet steel on my roof. From there it was directed right to the ground.

Holy crap, good thing you're all right.

[grayfox1119]

Good afternoon, 3H weather here, just check out my weather data at the site at the bottom of my reply ( Weatherlink). We ahd more rain early this morning, unscheduled, so at 3am I was running around the house closing 5 skylights as it poured. Not as bad a situation as FERGIE however.

FERGIE: I knew it!!! Back to the Arctic you go on the Hudson. That is ONE LARGE CHUNK OF ICE!! So you only have 28 days to get all your garden work done, haul in the produce for winter, and more importantly, go to 30" radii for the Sante Fe.

MIKE: The Senator is only telling the truth, I guess the truth really DOES hurt doesn't it? What a bunch of phonies.

PC: That is one nice photo of sunset. I would enlarge that and hang it on the wall in a picture frame. On the CSX photo, that siding looks like it goes into dead end, yet the rails look used.

JEFF: You were lucky you weren't touching any metal skin of the trailer INSIDE when the lightening struck. Also, do you have your electrical equipment like PC and power supply for trains protected by suppression equipment? I use UPS equipment by APC, and that saved some serious damage back in 2004 when we had a GROUND strike near the house. A TV and cordless phone was taken out as well as Modem and Router that were not on the UPS, but the PC's all were OK as the Battery back-up UPS did it's job.

 Many people do not realize that bolts of lightening can have millions of volts of electricity, tremendous Joules of energy, and they can raise the voltage potential above 0 Volts quite high for a distance of 300 feet from the actually strike point. That means that equipment that is supposed to be at Ground potential is suddenly increased hundreds to thousands of volts above 0V ground potential.

Later guys,

[Flashwave]

 Many people do not realize that bolts of lightening can have millions of volts of electricity, tremendous Joules of energy, and they can raise the voltage potential above 0 Volts quite high for a distance of 300 feet from the actually strike point. That means that equipment that is supposed to be at Ground potential is suddenly increased hundreds to thousands of volts above 0V ground potential.

Later guys,

Most people, namely me, have no idea what you just said.  Would you mind translating please?

[jeffrey-wimberly]

JEFF: You were lucky you weren't touching any metal skin of the trailer INSIDE when the lightening struck. Also, do you have your electrical equipment like PC and power supply for trains protected by suppression equipment? I use UPS equipment by APC, and that saved some serious damage back in 2004 when we had a GROUND strike near the house. A TV and cordless phone was taken out as well as Modem and Router that were not on the UPS, but the PC's all were OK as the Battery back-up UPS did it's job.

Everything in here is on surge protectors with unlimited joule ratings plus the main breaker box has a whole house surge protector wired into it. All the outlets and light sockets are grounded to the metal skin of the trailer which is grounded both to the service pole and directly to ground through a couple of copper grounding rods. It's been described as being wired like a Faraday shield. The lightnings high voltage charge is cancelled out as it's channeled to ground. The effect inside is something to see. All exposed metal surfaces light up a bright blue. I think it's called St. Elmo's fire and is in itself mostly harmless. At least I've never seen a fire started by it.

 Many people do not realize that bolts of lightening can have millions of volts of electricity, tremendous Joules of energy, and they can raise the voltage potential above 0 Volts quite high for a distance of 300 feet from the actually strike point. That means that equipment that is supposed to be at Ground potential is suddenly increased hundreds to thousands of volts above 0V ground potential.

Later guys,

Most people, namely me, have no idea what you just said.  Would you mind translating please?

In other words, whatever it hits is usually crispy fried unless it's very well grounded.

 

[LSWrr]

Jeff, I'm using tracing paper (vellum paper) right now and it works well on everything except wood sided cars.  I found onion paper at Michael's (a craft store).  The vellum paper at Office Max was $10/pad.  Then I found the same stuff at the drug store for $2/pad.

Greyfox, correct me if I'm wrong, but the volts won't kill you, but the AMPS will, correct? 

My in-laws had the same thing happen when their double wide was hit by lightening.  The lightning hit the side of the trailer, went through the walls to the breaker box (peeling the metal siding back as it went) and burned up everything not connected to a surge protector (wide screen TV to the can opener). Jeff is pretty lucky not to have had any problems.

Lee

[pcarrell]

PC: .......On the CSX photo, that siding looks like it goes into dead end, yet the rails look used.

The front part of that siding gets used pretty regular as there is a local business there.  http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07-5.jpg  The back end is hardly ever used, and thats why it made a good storage track for those gons.

[twhite]

Good Morning All,

   Tom - doesn't look like you're getting any rain soon. From a purely selfish point of view, has the drought stopped the historic steam railroads running? I'll have a few days in Ca coming up where I can go to Roaring Camp or such and wondered if they are running at all with the high risk of forest fires? Sounds like the fire in Yosemite is right by the Sugar Pine Historic setup as well and the remnants of the Yosemite Valley are all exposed at El Portal. Guess all we can do is pray for rain.

 

GMT: 

The fires dont' seem to have affected the Roaring Camp--those locos burn oil and have very good spark arrestors on them.  At least I haven't heard of any bans on the railroad from that area. 

As to the Sugar Pine Ry near Yosemite--I don't want to cause any panic, because I don't know for sure, but one of the news photos shows an area of burned track and heat-warped rails on the Telegraph fire, and I know that the Sugar Pine tourist line is the only railroad in that vicinity.   So I don't know if the fire went through that area or not.  I've been trying to find out, but without much success.   I'll keep trying. 

The fire in the Feather River Canyon is right along the UP mainline, but so far no news of interrupted freight traffic.  At least UP can utilize the quicker (steeper) Donner Pass route for everything but their double-stack trains if the Canyon is closed to rail traffic.  Actually, UP has been promising to upgrade several of the tunnels on the Donner Pass line for years and push ALL of their traffic over that route, but out here in Northern Cal we're kind of used to the fact that UP talks a lot but doesn't do much about it. 

But I'll keep trying for news on the Sugar Pine.

Tom

[markpierce]

Mentioned earlier: A member of the United States Senate, known for his hot temper and acid tongue, exploded one day in mid-session and began to shout, "Half of this Senate is made up of cowards and corrupt politicians!"  All the other Senators demanded that the angry member withdraw his statement, or be removed from the remainder of the session. After a long pause, the angry member acquiesced. "OK," he said, "I withdraw what I said. Half of this Senate is NOT made up of cowards and corrupt politicians!"

I like the imaginary Senator's sense of humor.  In that line of work, you'd best have a good one.

Mark

[Cederstrand]

in a SOUTHERN mug, please & thank you!

***PC, excellent pics.

***Jeffrey, as long as you and your trains are OK, that's what matters most.

Been real busy lately. MIL is in the hospital and will be taken off those incidious morphine type drugs. And this time she will also get an MRI, clostrophobic or not. FIL is staying here with us durning this time. Daughters are pursuing gaurdianship now. My BP is through the roof again, probably as much from insomnia as it is from the chaos. Need to learn to relax and let go more.

Sent in our subscription to MRR mag, so perhaps that will help. Perhaps it's about time for another train fix as well! 

Main foundation was poured the other day and looks good. Seems we're in a short rain cycle, so I don't expect them to return right away.

Hope everyone is doing well these days. Not sure when/if I'll get caught up on posts.

Rob