ELLIOT's Trackside Diner VI: The Full Meal Deal!

[Robby P.]

Thanks I will check it out.  I tried to get them as close as possible, but still had the gap.  As far as painting it, maybe I can use some spray paint.  Kinda spray it from a distance.  Oh, and of course it will have it used look

[blownout cylinder]

Kinda give it the patched look--I'm looking at one combine I have and suddenly it occured to me that those loops they used to hoist mailbags into the mailcars et al. could've gave quite a few gouges etc to the sides by those mail compartment doors--more weathering fun! heeheehee...

[jeffrey-wimberly]

blownout cylinder

Jim; Yes, they are those one-time-only roaster things, except that these were cookie sheets that were flat---they didn't have all that ripple/bump stuff embossed. It is a thicker form of aluminum foil.

Indeed it is. The aluminim foil used for modern throw away baking pans was taken out of the manufacturing process before the last two steps that are required to make regular aluminum foil were completed. The first of those two steps sqeezes the aluminum sheet down to half the thickness of that used to make the baking pans. When the second step is started the aluminum sheets are fed through two at a time to smash them down to the thickness required for aluminum foil. It's also the reason that every sheet of foil has a shiny side and a matte side. The shiny side was in contact with the rollers. The matte side resulted from the two sheets being pressed against each other. Just a fascinating little tidbit.

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Hello Diners.....

I'm wondering if anyone is here at all. Looks like a quiet night not just in the diner, but in the main forum, too. Where is everybody?

Tom..... I bet the 2-10-2 was a fun project. I would rather build a "close enough: model than get one already made to perfection. Fixing up basket cases is a fun part of the hobby, and I see little of that in the magazines.

This evening, Gus, Dan, and I took our respective wives to the bailt shop for dinner. Well, what can I say? We're in Rednecksville. Later, we worked on Gus's layout. One project was to allign the roundhouse with the turntable while getting al roundhouse track positioned correctly. That can be a fun chore.

I may have to sit in the corner booth by myself. ....Hmmmph.... is that Duke sleeping there?  ..Duke!..Wake up!

We're checking wether forecasts, but we may be off to Cincinnati and Detroit for Christmas week.

Cheers!  

 

 

 

[Flashwave]

JimRCGMO

Morgan, are those coaches heavyweights or the newer silver/aluminum ones? For your Christmas trees loads, you might be able to use thread or maybe even dental floss (dyed). Hope you have another good ‘raiding party’ at the other store. I'll be swinging by H-L today with their coupon and see what they might have for the MRR.

Well, the car styleses ore of the Stainless Steel Budd style, for the ITM train. The cars themselves all have the same body, but I have a chassis where the trucks attach to a flat peice of plastic with pegs on top (no idea what they snap into) and a molded underbody framework. the chassis fits under a lip inside the shell. Then I have another with the more traditional Athearn chassis with the high sides, but instead of running the screws through weights, they go through things that look like the foldingclasps in some portfolio/folders.

We came out with two more sets of trees from a different Jo-Ann, enough to do 5 cars. Then Dad found a bulk pack of multiple sized trees at K mart. So I see a pair of 50' flats with community-sized trees in our future.

As for tie-downs, we found a multi-colored embroidery thread almost approximating faded rope.

Tom: Love the kitty

Lee: try Proweld. made by Ambrose. I've been using it of my X-mas tie downs, melts the car, shove embroidaery thread in, let car "unmelt and sucjk thread in with the bonds.

[LSWrr]

Good morning,

My kids are heading down from Detroit today to meet in Toledo at my parents.  Dorothy and I will be leaving Cleveland around 1100 to meet them.

West Winds (sustained 37mph) gusting to 55mph, wind chill -17F.  Kids wanted to go to the lights before Christmas at the Toledo Zoo, not sure if we are going to do that considering the wind and air temp.

I picked up a new kit yesterday: Laser-Art #687 gas station www.branchline-trains.com looks like it will be a lot of fun and possible the last building I need for the layout until I start working on the port authority.

I also picked up lifelike HO-Boxcar load pallet boxes#433-1665 very impressive ever since Walthers took over Lifelike their quality has increased.

 

Lee

 

[wetidlerjr]

Good Morning from Tipton IN !

[jeffrey-wimberly]

 Good morning.

It's 48°, cloudy and quite windy here by the lake this morning. We have winds between 15 - 25 mph bringing on a wind chill of 37°. I don't expect to see any rise in the temp as todays high should be around 48°. It will be partly cloudy.

Well there wasn't much to yesterday. I watched one of my neighbors working on a sea wall and I helped my father move some cedar logs. Those things were pretty big. First time I'd seen cedar 2 feet across. Later I went to Lowe's and got some tools I needed and picked up some Sharpie's as well. I got two metallic and one each of red, blue, green and black, all with fine and ultra-fine tips.

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA  71446-6114      12/21/2008

Wind Chill:  37°F
Humidity:  69%
Dew Point:  34°F

So Far Today
High:  61°F
Low:  44°F
Rain:  0.00"
Rain Rate:  0.00"/h
Gust:  26mph NNE

Important Message
    
Lake wind advisory in effect until 6 PM cst this afternoon.

Today  High: 48    Partly cloudy. Breezy. Much cooler. Highs in the upper 40s. North winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 30 mph.

Tonight  Low: 28    Partly cloudy. Colder. Lows in the upper 20s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph.

[LSWrr]

Morgan – I’ve been real happy with the Microscale Krystal Klear.  Those passengers I glued to the passenger station; I can glob the glue on up past their ankles and the next day the glue is “gone” and the person is still standing.  It bonds in seconds but remains pliable for about 20 minutes.  You can also use it to make windshields and windows by dragging the glue across an opening and letting it set overnight you get a hard transparent glass.  Tie downs, cat tails, and gluing wires to telephone poles I like to use fingernail polish.  If I ever want to remove the tie downs I can use an eye dropper of polish remover and reset the tie downs later.  Cat tails I buy a cheap paint brush and cut the bristles off, then roll the bristle in finger nail polish until its built up enough to look like a cat tail.

Lee

 

[blownout cylinder]

Good morning peoples! We are expecting a high of -7C today and with winds coming from the west at 50-80kmh will give us a windchill of -27C with some snow and blowing snow. A good day for indoor sorts of activities.

Speaking of activities this one is going to actually see if what he suspects is going to work out---ie; is this mill going to fit in the area we proposed for it. If not I may have to do some fudging with the final model. eergh

[howmus]

Goooooooooood Morning Coffee Lovers!

It is another beautiful day in the Finger Lakes.  Weatherman says we will have 2" to 4" more "partly cloudy today with an additional 3" to 5" tonight and 3" to 5" more tomorrow.  Looks like we will have a White Christmas.... "Just like the ones I used to know............"  To add to the fun there will be high winds most of the time with gusts over 40 MPH to make sure the roads are impassable.  The city has already been through, filling up the ends of peoples driveways with the white stuff.  Unfortunately I have to be at Church this morning as I am Head Usher for the month.  This morning is the Sunday School Christmas Pageant so High School Kids will be the Ushers.  So I get to "herd cats" this morning.  (Actually they will probably do better than most of the adults who usher..)

I best get the good duds on and head over and see if I can get a parking spot.....

See you later!
 

[blownout cylinder]

Oh, now 'Spring', after fighting with one of his beanie birds, tossing it around like it was a football went over to his waterdish--which he hardly uses, rather  drink from a cup in the sink---and is now dipping the bird into the water like it was a teabag! Drowning his prey---

[Robby P.]

Man its cold and windy today!!

They are still calling for 1-3 inchs, but not till tonight.  They keep moving the day on which it is suppose to snow.  If it even snows at all.

Probably wont do much on the layout today.  Maybe later (if then), well at least till after the Steelers beat up the Titans .

Everybody have a good day, and I will keep poping in. 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

 43 here, 32 with the wind chill, wind nne at 18 with gusts to 30. Kinda on the cool side with the wind coming right off the lake.

[Packers#1]

 55 right now here. Man, we went to a GREAT new church today called Southwind! Best part is that it's a non-denominational church.

Well, today I'm going to keep working on soldering the feeders to the rails and wiring the bus (I'm running DC, but going to wire it DCC for when I go to using DCC).

[pcarrell]

How do all!

Got a busy day today, but I thought I'd do a hit & run on you, so..............BAM!

Later!

[TrainsRMe1]

Hey All,

  We are in the middle of a winter strom warning, well I know some of you will laugh the the amounts we have here of snow (from 3 in to 2 feet in some areas) but that's not the story, the East winds have picked up and that turns all of the snow onto ice in other words FREEZING RAIN!! SO WE ARE IN FOR A RIDE HERE FOLKS. Check out noaa.com type in Portland and you will see for yourselfs. Anyway there will be EXTRA time on the layout, barring we don't lose power I will talk to you guys soon.

        ----------Trainsrme1

[jeffrey-wimberly]

 Hard job of the day so far. I just plugged a tire for my nephew. A whole 5 minutes. On the layout front I changed the color of a Volkswagen Beetle using a blue Sharpie and changed a 69 Camero from silver/black to all silver with a metallic Sharpie. I then used the metallic Sharpie to touch up some places on my SDP40F's where the silver paint rubbed off when the logos were being removed.

[Flashwave]

pcarrell

How do all!

Got a busy day today, but I thought I'd do a hit & run on you, so..............BAM!

Later!

Just as long as yhour credit card falls out when you hit.[ :D]

[JimRCGMO]

Afternoon, Janie - I'll have a hot roast beef sandwich (yes, open face would be great, with some gravy), some beef stew, and a cup of coffee, please. Thanks for the 'Hit-and-buy', PC! (Hee, hee, hee...)

Robby, one thing I heard recommended, and am in process of using/trying out, for filling in those cracks in models is this:   Squadron Tools - Squadron White Putty (09065) - (65 g.) runs about $3.50 around here. If you need the address for your LHS to order, it's from:
   Squadron Products
   1115 Crowley Drive
   Carrollton, TX 75011-5010

It's sandable after it dries, and won't dissolve the plastic around it. This one is fairly close to white, so I'm guessing that any paint color that would cover white plastic would cover this just as well.

Thanks for the confirmation on the cookie sheets, BC - I may start checking out the kitchenware aisle in the stores for those cookie sheets. I'll need to dig through my scratchbuilding tub to see whether or not I need to get a sheet of corrugated plastic. And what have you been feeding Spring, anyway? Sounds like he's getting stranger by the day. Are you sure he didn't order in some catnip?

Lee - thanks for the almost-ready-for-publication article - polish that one up, and you could probably sell it to MR. I would've probably checked Evergreen if I hadn't found the V-groove in Plastruct's listings, but you just saved me the time. And are you psychic, or how did you know I was thinking of adding a ramp to that? I like Branchline's Majestic Theatre kit, but at almost $100 , I can't justify the cost (not even with our LHS's discount for club members). If I get enough photos and take some time to draw out views of one, I might maybe try to build one with styrene at some point.

Todd, I've just been at this church for about the past year or so. Last spring the choir (and I) was involved with the worship team for a CD/DVD production (which wound up getting picked up by Universal/Devotion Records, amazingly) and sang for Easter, and we sang this morning for 'Christmas' (they won't be having Christmas Eve or Day services - what?). But before last year, their previous music minister had two play productions (Easter and Christmas) each year, that - his words from this morning (while we were waiting to go in) - "kept everyone busy 10 months of the year", and involved about 60-70 rehearsals for each production (counting different sub-scenes and groups). A few years back, I had visited one Christmas production (invited by a friend who was going) there, and it looked like they had between 50 and 70 people just on the platform area at the front of the church, plus sets, lighting, the whole nine yards. If they were doing that much now, I might not be as active in choir, I think. But I enjoy singing, and have been in various choirs over the years at churches I attended. When I've been in highly active choirs (since you have to sing for both services), it seems like I'm living at the church. I do prefer some chilling out time (not literally, given our weather today..) on Sunday afternoons, too.

On the Plastruct glue, if that's the one I have (and I'm not sure, since I'm not at home), it's designed for you to hold/clamp the two pieces together for a little so the glue sort of dissolves/merges them into each other. I would compare it to the types of adhesives (epoxies or CA) where you have the 5-10 seconds bonding time ones, the 30 seconds ones, and some that take longer, but hold like you'd welded things together. I use different glues at times for different projects/shapes/surfaces when I'm gluing.

On our local weather front, we have a sunny 24 F (-4 C) now, which means we're already on the downhill slide, temperature-wise, to our low for the evening of 9 F (-13 C) tonight. What I said yesterday about the cold temp was wrong - that cold temp is going to be tonight, rather than last night (with the subzero windchill). It's a bit windy (20-21 mph, out of the WNW - and it doesn't feel like it's a California breeze, either) - windchill of 12 F. Last night I was hearing the wind blowing at a point or two (but I just ducked back under the covers and went back to ...

blownout cylinder

Kinda give it the patched look--I'm looking at one combine I have and suddenly it occured to me that those loops they used to hoist mailbags into the mailcars et al. could've gave quite a few gouges etc to the sides by those mail compartment doors--more weathering fun! heeheehee...

BC, I like your and Robby's approach to weathering (the more weathering, the merrier)

Morgan, thanks for that tip on the tie-downs. Good to hear you found more (and a good 'rope').

Hope the power holds up for our Great Northwest Diners. Definitely a stay-inside kind of day!

Ray, happy cat-herding this morning - did you survive them okay?

I'll go join Duke in the booth, after I put another log in the stove. 

[TMarsh]

Afternoon all, ouch, must have been standing in PC's way Anything hot please. Last Sunday of Advent and the Preacher didn’t pick on me so all is well. Everybody in need has been uplifted so look forward to a very merry Christmas.

Well had to bip into Springfield today. The wife suddenly , after a month of “oh I don’t care”, says “I know what I want for Christmas.” I still think I’ll keep her. WOW what a nightmare. And cold… my goodness it’s cold with the 9,000mph wind. The wind chill must be a zillion below zero. Oh well picked up a Caddie from Wal-mart for a buck and a Kenworth for 3. I’m glad you guys were talking about it before, I never thought to look at Wally World for that stuff.

Yup that’s the glue I got and I think I’ll stick with Testors. I’ll use that Weldene stuff for things like puttin’ people in their place or other less important items. Even after 24 hrs you can push the parts apart. So much for trying new stuff. I might try to sand the surfaces and clamp (some parts are just not clampable) like Jim says to see if that makes a difference. It might be the way I use it being used to Testors and all. Besides it's gotta work or they wouldn't sell it. Would they 

Stay warm Ya’ll. I think I’ll clean up the train room. The walls are closing in.

Todd

[pcarrell]

JimRCGMO

Thanks for the 'Hit-and-buy', PC! (Hee, hee, hee...)

Isn't that just like my luck?

[TMarsh]

Tom based on the picture of Spooky in WPF. I have no doubt the caption is 100% true. LOL.

I'm not a big cat fan, but your cats are beautiful. and listening to BC and his stories, I'd almost be willing to get a shot. (alergic you see) 

[Cederstrand]

in a SOUTHERN mug, please & thanks.

Picked up a few more buildings on the-bay for wifes layout. One in particular will make a perfect "Buckaroo's" (feed, tack, saddlery store), like the one our neighbor across the road has in town. We thought he should be represented.

A night ago it was in the 50's, tonight it will drop to 18 degrees. Time to break out something to wear over my T-shirt. Rians are gone, just breezy. Tomorrows high will be 38.

Rob

[howmus]

JimRCGMO

Ray, happy cat-herding this morning - did you survive them okay?

Went quite well actually.  All 6 of the High School kids assigned to be ushers are great kids who I enjoy being around anyway so that was a fun job.  The comedy of the morning was the little 3 year old who was one of the (around 15) sheep in pageant.  Her family was the ones who lit the last Advent Candle to start the service and she circled around and got into things all the time they were reading the script for the lighting.....  Reminded me of when my youngest (now 39) son was a sheep in a Christmas Pageant at that age.  He spent the entire time making faces at the light in front of him and waving to people in the congregation....  Much to the embarrassment of his parents.  There are so many kids in my church that the play had to have 5 wise men......  (Extra Myrrh, I think....)  The fun part for me was that I have to count the number of people at the service which is a lot of fun with all the kids moving all over the sanctuary for the pageant.....

Got most of the Christmas presents wrapped this afternoon.  Why is it I can start with a piece of wrapping paper the size of a volleyball court and wrap a deck of cards and still have portions of the present showing....???  My late wife could use a 12" by 12" sized piece of wrapping paper and perfectly wrap a 747 with it with no problems...  Must be a male thing I guess.  Why do we wrap presents anyway?  I think it is a ploy from the people who manufacture the stuff.  After all it's going to get ripped off the package in about 15 seconds anyway.

Later! 

[blownout cylinder]

G-G-G-Good e-e-ev'ning pppeople---Gads it's COLD out there! We are now getting winds of up to 80kmh and with the temperature as it sits at -15C just gave us windchills of up to -29C! I'm so glad there was no outside stuf to do.

'Spring' is about 9 years old. We got this fellow from a farmer that sort of has a 'rescue' operation--not that it is voluntary mind, he finds that some(AHEM) individuals leave them there, in bags thrown out of cars(twice), or in this fellows case, stuffed in a box,ducttaped shut and with cigerette burns on his little body. He is a very loving cat with a bunch of energy

I'm happy to report that the mill is not going to have to be edited into a little form--everything fits to a tee...

I'm off to do some cleaning of my room---I need space for the mill again...

[jeffrey-wimberly]

 Page 2? I won't hear of it! BUMP!

 

My niece got the carpeting put down in both bedrooms of her home today and the kitchen sink has been installed and all the plumbing connected so now they have water. Her place is really coming along nicely.

[Packers#1]

 If ya'll are looking at creating a switchlist, check this site out:

http://www.zianet.com/awebsite4u/pformin.html

Here's mine I created using this system (customized it a little bit though). All the lines from the Foreman/Engine No. line to the -Double A Service, To The T- line are 16 point font size, the lines just got cut off for some reason:

 

[Paul W. Beverung]

Evening Gang: I'm at the daughters tonight. Her husbands folks are here from England for the holidays. We ran trains yesterday at the big track. My steam locomotive ran fine and we had no problems until an axle on one of my narrow gauge gondolas broke. John was running the train when it broke and had to leave the car out at Grizzle Flats. The passengers had to walk back in. Fortunately it was a short walk. After John brought the train into the depot John and I took the locomotive and the other gondola out and picked up the broken car. The truck is in the shop and when it warms up a bit I'll fix it. The reason for the run was the youngest granddaughters first birthday. Time flies. It's about time to head for home. Good Night All

[sleeper33]

Hi gang

 hope evryone is ok and keeping well

 I doubt ill be in till the new year so Im taking this oppatunity to wish you all the best for the season and a Happy New Year

 my thoughts are with you