***Lee, cool pics. So, did you touch one? Love that tribute loco, very cool. Interesting that in the last pic of those towers/silos, there is prominent horizontal banding. What exactly causes that?
Trouble averted: Was in the dungeon clearing off the table when I did a double take at the tender with the vintage Berkshire. Sure enough, I packed up the wrong one to send back. Lucky I saw it because I wasn't planning on going down there tonight and would have shipped the wrong one in the morning.
Observation: Although the new Berkshire model has a ton more detail than the vintage version, this is not true of the tenders. The vintage has open steps/ladders, nicer tender covers, and better looking riveting.(IMO)
Going to work a bit longer here. Have a good night all. Rob
Evening Gang: I just came in from the meet. There wasn't alot going on tonight. I guess we're all getting old. It used to be that we'ed be running untill 3am. There are a bunch of locomotives, both steam and diesel here and and alot of really great cars. This will go down as one of the biggest meets ever at Terry's track. One of the high lights was a tripple headed narrow gauge train with about 150 feet of cars. I got some good video of that. Once again I got made the offical video and still photographer. That means that I get to do all the picture taking for Terry and no running. Of course I'll get to do some running when they leave me out at some remote site. I'll be running after the last train home.
Lee have you heard about the tug Dorthy Ann losing one of it's Z drives? Now they found out she hit a rudder on the bottom of the harbor at Marquite. Now I want to know who could have lost a 16 ton rudder and nobody knew it.
Well I guess I'll hit the sack.
Good Night All
Close up of hot metal cars
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2765095140029441264JRsjpD?vhost=rides
It's interesting that even empty these cars are still shooting flames and sparks from the top of the cars. The steel plants locomotive fleet of 21 switchers is interesting. Mostly SW1500 and SW1550's, the oldest locomotive was purchased in 1950 and the newest locomotive was purchased in 1973. The military locomotive lists the names of the family members of the steel plants employees that are or have served in the military; a gold star denotes a service member KIA. There are other pictures near the 8th page of this album showing a rail served grain mill that has been on operation since pre-civil war and one of the local cement plants served by ship-rail-truck. I picked the best day to visit the grain mill, the day the workers were cleaning out the bottom of the silos! I swear it smelled like I was standing in 4' of poop!
Jerry nice looking turntable (mental note: do not eat apple pie at Jerry's house, lol)
Have a good night all!
Lee
BM1 Lee Soule USCG (ret) L.S.&W Railroad Serving the Lower Great Lakes
CNCharlie wrote:Say Jeff, do you really use as much Tobasco as I get the impression you do? It isn't a commodity that gets used much in our house.
Say Jeff, do you really use as much Tobasco as I get the impression you do? It isn't a commodity that gets used much in our house.
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
Good Evening Diners!
Well Jim, we didn't get all the snow that was forecast but we did get rain, freezing rain, sleet, and of course some snow. That wouldn't be bad but the high temperature today was a balmy 35F. Mind you it is going all the way to 40 tomorrow so we do have something to look forward to.
Dick, you're right about the eyesight thing especially that people who are nearsighted rarely lose their close vision as they get older. I used to have 25/20 vision but although the distance part hasn't deteriorated much, I have to use glasses for all reading or close work. I need two pair when running trains, a 1.25x so I can see most of the layout OK and 2x if I want to see something close up. I may resort to strings but my wife has threatened me if I do, so I'll have to be quiet about it. For those not familiar, 25/20 means being able to see at 25 feet what normal vision is at 20 feet or the second bottom line on the eye chart.
Besides they can do marvellous things these days with laser surgery. A woman who works with me had glasses like the bottom of a coke bottle but now she doesn't need glasses at all.
Well, back down to run some trains. I have the Spectrum Consolidation hitched up to a freight right now and I like watching it run and also have to say the sound is great too. My wife actually says she enjoys hearing it, well at least when she is upstairs.
Say Jeff, do you really use as much Tobasco as I get the impression you do? It isn't a commodity that gets used much in our house. I think we still have the bottle we bought when one of our dogs was a pup. He liked to chew on the speaker wires and none of the commercial pet deterents worked, so I thought, ah ha, I'll bet Tobasco will work. Not. He just ran up, licked it all off and then went to the other wire, licked that off and commenced chewing.
See you soon,
CN Charlie
grayfox1119 wrote: So use the glasses when you have to, like driving, of seeing the blackboard at school, etc. otherwise, take them off and make your eyes work, look off at long distance objects, then focus in short at something close, like the couplers on your box cars. Repeat this process every day to exercise the muscles in your eyes. This will strengthen your eyes.
So use the glasses when you have to, like driving, of seeing the blackboard at school, etc. otherwise, take them off and make your eyes work, look off at long distance objects, then focus in short at something close, like the couplers on your box cars. Repeat this process every day to exercise the muscles in your eyes. This will strengthen your eyes.
***Dick, my bad eye "improved" for the first time since I started wearing glasses. At age 45, perhaps there is something to what you say. I was pleased with the reversal. Now if any of the rest of my abused, wrecked and ruined body parts would start reversing, that would really be neat.
Off to do evening critter rounds. Rob
Alex
Colby, I bacame nearsighted in the 7th grade. Back then, they dodn't know half as much as they do today about vision problems, just as any of the OF's in this Diner that are over 50. One word of advice, from what we now know, your eyes have muscles that need to be exercised like any other part of your body. If you get used to wearing those glasses all the time, your eyes get worse over time, and your prescription will get stronger and stronger as you age up to around age 40 to 50, then they sometimes reverse like mine have.
hey Guys.
Well I got some thing for you all. I'm starting to be come near sighted. It's not really bad it's just that this far away become blurry but I still make out the over all shape of them, and some I have glasses. (My first pair.) The good things is that my eyes are not as bad as my brothers.
evening gang
just a large tea to go please
little angels are out again tonight. all maintainance is done for today at least .boss wants to know if the building has a lightning conductor so up on the roof tomorrow morning.
ill try and get back in later
Gav
Cederstrand wrote: Hashbrowns, scrambled eggs and a coffee, please & thank you. WALTHERS N & HO Turntables: $170 - $250.Jerry's PPS Turntable: Priceless!Now Jerry, if you could turn them out quick enough, the Diner could supply you with plenty of "parts". Awe heck, just toss it all in a box and sell it as a kit!
Hashbrowns, scrambled eggs and a coffee, please & thank you.
WALTHERS N & HO Turntables: $170 - $250.
Jerry's PPS Turntable: Priceless!
Now Jerry, if you could turn them out quick enough, the Diner could supply you with plenty of "parts". Awe heck, just toss it all in a box and sell it as a kit!
That's right Rob, and with all the burnt in and baked on "weathering" from the Diner pies and pastries you can't go wrong!
Ryan BoudreauxThe Piedmont Division Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger eraCajun Chef Ryan
It's raining here. HURRAY! Rob
Cox 47 wrote: The pit is a Round baking pan from Wally world....Bridge is a block of wood with atlas Bridge parts glued to it...
The pit is a Round baking pan from Wally world....Bridge is a block of wood with atlas Bridge parts glued to it...
PC and Jim are gonna miss all those pies and desserts we used to make from that pie pan Jerry!
Cederstrand wrote:***So Jeffrey, was it a Hit or an accident?
***So Jeffrey, was it a Hit or an accident?
Afternoon all.....Its sunny and warm here posta rain latter...I'll have a pork burger and a diet coke please...Thank you...didn't have a good nite last nite and spent most of AM in chair napping...got a call in to DR. but He hasn't called back..I got a M/T coupler conversion for my BL 2 now I gotta get it on....
Flashwave....Sorry to hear about your loss..You are in my thoughts and prayers....
Mike...I hadn't heard about Casey Tool and machine...Thats gonna hit alot of folks in Casey hard...
Here is a couple of photos of the turntable I have been working on off and on for a couple of years...The pit is a Round baking pan from Wally world....Bridge is a block of wood with atlas Bridge parts glued to it...Its on a 1/4 inch pin like we used to use at the Radio station male and female to do the wiring and turning....Don't know what I'll do with it if i ever get it done just don't have room for turntable and round house...
You all have a good one...Jerry
***Lee, that's cool. Looking forward to seeing the pics later.
The vendor has been very nice about the sick Berkshire. I'll ship it back tomorrow for a refund. The fact that I received a bad one has me wondering if this is common? Are there QC issues with these models? Too bad there is no LHS (Internet dealer does not count) who is set up to test locos prior to purchase. Would be worth paying extra just to know what one is getting. It is the only disadvantage to living out in the sticks.
Rob
Afternoon all,
Rob, that's not even cool. You know these vendors need to understand opening a package like that is Christmas morning to us!
Dick, you could hide my 0-6-0 in the ties and apply power to it, trust me it will look exactly like a small fire.
Worked at the steel plant all morning, I issued them a written warning in lieu of a civil penalty. They seemed very happy with my enforcement action and invited me to take as many pictures as I wanted. So I wandered around the locomotive shops for a while and hung out near the rails between the BOF and the blast furnace long enough to take pictures of the hot metal cars going by. Yes I have a bit of a tan now since the cars are just over 2200F and I was only 5 feet away from them. I did get to chat with one of the supervisors and learned a lot about how the plant worked and the purpose behind most of the buildings. I'll share pictures tonight.
inch53 wrote:A thought for the day; Not matter what the news media says, we are not in a recession, it's just a slight economic slow down.
A thought for the day; Not matter what the news media says, we are not in a recession, it's just a slight economic slow down.
Been keeping up with a plane crash near here.
This has been in the local news the past couple of days. A plane crashed into Toledo Bend Reservoir in Sabine County Tuesday afternoon. No survivors had been found by 9:30 p.m., more than five hours after the crash was reported, Sabine County Sheriff's Office said. A dispatcher with the Sheriff's Office said the plane went down into the lake close to Indian Mounds Recreation Area. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig said air traffic put out a notice that the Cirrus SR22 aircraft was overdue just before 4 p.m. Tuesday. At about 4 p.m., a local department got a 911 call from a witness saying that a plane went down in the lake. Herwig says that the plane was en route from Tupelo, Miss., to David Wayne Hooks Airport in Spring, Texas, near Houston.The Sheriff's Office said it could not confirm how many people were on board. He said the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating. Herwig said the plane is owned by McAir LLC of West Memphis, Ark. Toledo Bend is on the Texas-Louisiana border. No Louisiana law enforcement agencies were working with the search and rescue.Texas Department of Public Safety officials say search teams have discovered human body parts among the wreckage of a fixed wing single engine 2006 CIRRUS SR22 that crashed Tuesday afternoon in East Texas. The remains have been taken to Starr Funeral Home in Hemphill. Fifty-four-year-old Daniel McIntire of Humble, Texas, George McFadden of New York and 34-year-old Heather Hardin of Pecan Island Louisiana all died in the crash. The three are business partners working for Crescent Directional Drilling out of Houston. The companies chief operating officer, Michael Torres, said that McIntire, who was piloting the plane, was the chief financial officer for the company and McFadden was the companies principal owner but was not involved in the day to day operations. A Texas Department of Public Safety operator said witnesses a plane sputtering, but it was obscured by clouds. The plane then broke through the clouds and hit the lake nose first. A dispatcher with the Sabine County Sheriff's Office says the plane went down close to the Indian Mounds Recreation Area. The Sabine County Sheriff's Office spent most of Tuesday evening sorting through the wreckage of the plane that crashed in the Toledo Bend Reservoir, finally calling off the search due to darkness and thunderstorms in the area. The search resumed at sunrise Wednesday morning. A spokesperson with the regional FAA office says air traffic controllers sent out a bulletin that the plane was missing about 3:55 Tuesday afternoon. Shortly after, they received a 9-1-1 telephone call saying a plane had crashed into the Toledo Bend Reservoir. Multiple agencies were involved in the recovery effort, as search and rescue reportedly set up headquarters in the Indian Mounds community, East of Hemphill off of FM 3382. The plane, reportedly an SR22, is listed as belonging to MCAIR LLC of West Memphis, Arkansas. It was traveling from Tupelo, Mississippi on its way to David Wayne Hooks Airport in the Houston area. An NTSB official said the plane traveled in a straight arrow direction for an hour and a half with contact with an FAA tower before taking a nose dive into the water. They say thay is very unusual and something they will be looking into as they continue to investigate.Investigators also say the plane was equipped with a parachute that was never deployed.
The new Berkshire arrived. Other than a broken front coupler and the fact it will only run in reverse, I might have commented on it's great looks. I won't mention who I bought it from until I know how they are going to handle the refund. I'm very disappointed! Rob
Morning, coffee n a short stack please ZOE
Partly cloudy skies will be around for the first part of the day today before scattered rain and thunderstorms move in this afternoon and evening. Temperatures will stay warm topping out in the upper 70's near 80° before turning much cooler for the weekend. Rain and thunderstorms will exit the Wabash Valley tonight as temperatures fall into the upper 40's. Saturday looks to be partly cloudy and pleasant with temperatures topping out near 60°. The coolest air within a few weeks moves in Saturday night as temperatures drop in the upper 30's. Sunday stays cool with scattered rain moving back in and daytime highs staying in the upper 50's.
For you folks needin rain, I'd send ya some if I could. Farm work finally started around here on the rollin and sandy ground, but some of the flat lands are still a little heavy yet.
FLASHWAVE,
Sure sorry to hear of your loss. We'll keep ya'll in our thoughts.
Thanks all for the best wishes on Mother's job. Things are looking better for her now, she cornered the plant manager, and he told she was one of them they were planning on keeping, because of everything she could do. Right now she's the service center manager [dealing with rich folk on their yachts, wanting something free], asst. human resource, bookkeeper - payroll [or nobody gets paid], asst. comptroller. She also does a lot their paper work for overseas and military shipments. That's just at the south plant, she worked at the north plant for 8 years and there's not much she can't do there either.
JERRY
Mother said as far as she knew Russ is still at the Tellacom, and there's only been one let go at Marine so far, and he was a temp.
DICK,
I'm not the only one whose notice the lack of bees. I'm beginning to wonder if that sudden hive disappearance, that's been in the news hasn't hit round here in some places.
DUKE'
No, Deb wasn't home, but I still heard about when she got here. I was also reminded "THAT I WAS NOT TO CATCH ANY WHEN THE KIDS ARE HERE"!!! Guess a 5-year-old grandson tried the catch one yesterday and when his mommy ask why. He said, "grandpa does it ".
So, I'm in trouble again, oh well. Guess I'll have to teach him how to do it right next time.
As far snakes, I've always caught them. We use to turn'em loss in the barn, corncribs and out buildings growing up. We even turned them lose in the crawl space under the house. Mom didn't mind as long as they stay out of the inside. Bout the only place we didn't want them was the chicken house.
Now Deb's a completely different story as far as snakes. I can't keep any round here.
Heard some more bad news from Casey. Seems Casey Tool an Die has been sold and moving overseas. I think they had bout 80+ working there, making metal parts for light fixtures.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/4309
Worst case of insomnia in a while. Not a total loss though, as I did manage to buy the FIL a used #9 golf club this morning on the-bay. I can lock the horses into the front pasture and take he and my wife to the back pasture to "practice".
Having the wife's blessing to expand my door-layout actually doesn't help, as I have no place for it to expand to. What was going to be my train room remains packed with the parents stuff. Oh well.
Going to go lay back down for awhile.
Good morning, 60F here today under clear skies once again, this has been a great spell of fantastic weather, but very dry. Class V fire danger today, the highest there is. The guys are tired after fighting fires all day yesterday and last night.
HAS ANYONE HEARD FROM OUR NOVA SCOTIANS ?????? Just because someone (un-named) ate all Fergie's butterscotch cream pie is no reason to shun the Diner.
JimRCGMO wrote: Supposed to have a cold front move through this afternoon/evening with some wind and rain. Likely the one heading east to water down all of Dick's dry spots around him (and others).Jim in Cape Girardeau
Supposed to have a cold front move through this afternoon/evening with some wind and rain. Likely the one heading east to water down all of Dick's dry spots around him (and others).
Jim in Cape Girardeau
The only problem is Jim, the atmosphere is so dry here that as the moisture laden clouds move east into NY state, they all dry up before they even hit the Berkshires. You can watch the clouds on satellite view and see them evaporate. Now they say we won't get the rain expected on Sunday, it will take until Tuesday to saturate the air enough to get rain instead of Virga.
In the meantime, firefighters 20 miles north of us fought fires all along the former B&M tracks. A pile to RR ties caught fire along with all the brush.
JEFF: That gave me an idea for your layout, how could you model a pile of ties along the tracks on fire with firefighters? The equipment and personnel is easy, but how to show fake flames would be the interesting part with some fake smoke. A small backdrop "might" work.
Time to get get the ears lowered, see you guys later,
Good Morning, Zoe. Just a go cup for now, heading for the office soon. Had an uneventful on-call last night (only one informational phone call).
Garry, sorry to hear about your friend, and will be keeping your heart and your surgery in my
Rob, I'd Paul's suggestion of the HD run (or else, at least, check around your place for a couple of large sheets of wood that would be suitable). You want to plant the idea that 'of course, since you like the idea of expanding our layouts...' and stake claim for the train territory expansion. Track and other such can follow as the funds permit.
Best get myself going. I'll check back later. Oh, Jeff, forgot to congratulate you on your ace-ing your course (naturally!).
Blessings,
Good morning all,
Flash, sorry to hear about Grandma,
Garry, I wish you well on your surgery and sorry to hear about your friend at Church.
Good Morning from Tipton IN !
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
Garry
sorry to hear about your friend and yourself good luck to the pair of you my thoughts are with you both
see you all tonight
Hello everybody ...
Yeah, where are those Nova Scotians?
Rob, you picked one of my favorites: garlic mashed potatoes.
I finally have the paint and weathering looking okay to me on my Highlands station.
Ryan ... My son has been working for U of I in Champaign, Il, but his new job there is at Duke U. It's computer stuff.
Shelley and I are not happy because a good friend learned she had cancer yesterday. She and her husband are church friends of ours. SHe will have major surgery in a few days. Also, I'll mention my heart acted up again a couple of days ago, and also I'm having surgery at end of next week.
Good night all.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Holy cow, I just tried to use my CC and it bounced...ohh oh, I see why, TOP....steak dinners tonight...ohh well , that's how it goes, sometimes your the windshield, sometimes your the bug. Eat up ladies and gents....speaking of ladies, where has Sue been lately??
The weather has been so nice up in Nova Scotia that we haven't seen hide nor hair of Luc, John or Fergie....where are you guys !!!!????
Ohh oh, there goes the scanner, fire call , another brush fire....this ones is only a mile away......it is going to be real tough around here until Sunday.
Later guys,