Elliott's Trackside Diner VII: Best View Of The Rails In Town!

[jeffrey-wimberly]

gear-jammer

I couldn't get back in last evening.   The expiration thing was happening again.  Does anyone know what that is all about?

You're not alone. I couldn't get back in and some others couldn't either. I believe they were having some server issues.

[gear-jammer]

Good morning. Coffee.  Coffee. Coffee.

I couldn't get back in last evening.   The expiration thing was happening again.  Does anyone know what that is all about?

Today, Larry's folks are coming up to cut wood.  We are expected to have light sprinkles of rain off and on all day.

Will I ever get layout time again?

Garry,  Thanks for sharing your GN photo.   It makes me want to do some photos again.

Sue

[howmus]

Mornin' everyone!

Flo I'll have some dark roast coffee in a FGLK Mug if you please, and what Jeffrey is having this morning looks good so bring me a plate of that as well.

I too was locked out with the time out/ server is not responding thing last night.  I don't think it makes any difference at all what browser you are using.  Most likely something going on with their servers.  If it was browser related it would happen consistently I would think.  It also is affecting many of us at the same time and then seems to go away, again making me think it is a server problem.

Didn't do any hobby related stuff last night except to finally locate my book on Trackside Details to read up on my next project.   

Good to see business is still good here with the new place!  I have to get set up for a recording session today so I best get going.  Oh, whoever was looking for a Bass, I have one you can borrow.  Haven't used it in 6 - 8 months.  

[ewl01]

Biscuits and gravy, mmmmm Wish I click on the pic and have it appear on the table. I'll settle for the virtual platter right now. Since this IS a diner..... I just got done braising the chuck steak for tonights dinner. Into the slow cooker with potatoes, onions, carrots, bay leaves, salt, cracked pepper, white pepper, and,a touch of garlic powder. 8 hours from now... mmmmm! Be sure to stop by and ask for the special! Weather at the shore... snowing for the second time in 3 hours. Our 'BIG' storm is suppose to net us 1-3". The folks live 75 miles north in New Jersey and have had more snow this year than we had in the last two. Going to attempt to install some more lighting units in my Walthers heavyweights. Ha,Ha,Ha.... I think brain surgery is easier than installing these lights! Eric

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

I'll stop quickly for coffee to go. We are leaving for Nashville. Obviously, you chow hounds are not starving here.

Happy Model Railroading.

[blownout cylinder]

I'm going to see whether my camera is going to let me do some macro mode photos today---I think some might get a kick out of what I found on the battered loco that I am weathering---- So far things are doing well on this Chrome--- I'll have what Jeff's having please---with a jug of coffee!

[jeffrey-wimberly]

 What d'ya know? Sawyer's got the page! I'll have the biscuits and gravy.

 

Lee: I'm interested in those gas pumps. What can you tell me about them?

[Packers#1]

 Morning ya'll, basketball game at 11. Maybe today we'll win one (we're 0-2 so far). I'll be back later.

EDIT: looks like I got top honors.

[Robby P.]

Well our snow sucked!!!!! We have a dusting right now. Up near Erie, they are getting slammed. I was also getting "timed out" all night. I wasn't to happy, so I tried the "Chrome" by Google. Its fast. Helps me out. Well I guess I will work on the layout some, and start weathering the engine. Everybody stay warm, and I will be in for lunch.

[ewl01]

Ryan my friend, let me buy you breakfast, Or lunch... You have given me hope. I have about 2 ft less width but roughy about the same in wall height.  Once upon a time the attic was a finished room, long before I owned it. 

(this page is running off my screen!)  Due to severe damage the entire attic was stripped out and the roof rebuilt. Judging by nail holes, and remaining rafters I should have about a usable space

of 24'x12'.   The stairway comes up 6 ft from the end of hte floor so one would come up 'inside' the layout.  I'm a roundy-round runner, a 'railfanner' I guess you call them.

Your plan has some interesting elements, as I am not much of layout designer I was wondering if I might be able to use some of your design elements.  With full credit of course.

Thanks a bunch, Eric

[jguess733]

Mornin all. I'll have a stack of pancakes with butter pecan syrup, couple of sausage links, two eggs over easy, some grits and a pot of black coffee please.

Well I spent my night at work, browsing trainweb.org looking at passenger cars. Here's the link http://trainweb.org/passengercars/ I've been trying to figure out what color I want to paint my passenger cars. Pullman green is just not flashy enough for me. I found a pic of a Durango and Silverton car that I really liked. It's red with a silver roof. http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=82387 so I think I'm gonna paint my cars like that. 

Oh yeah, before I forget, just how exactly do I go about making a link clickable?

[blownout cylinder]

I'm trying out a new internet browser---as some people I know told me that there might be issues between the server and IE7---may be the case---we'll see whether this does the trick-----BTW the browser is Chrome.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

blownout cylinder

I spent last night wondering about the timeout messenges that I kept getting---I had no problems elsewhere but here again----GGRRRRRRR

You weren't the only one. At least 2 of my forum members were having problems with the MR site timing out on them. I was also having trouble with it and eventually got so disgusted that I just shut everything down for the night.

[blownout cylinder]

Hello and a good morning to you all---Our cloudy days continue with a high of -5C and low tonight of -8C. we are supposed to get about 5cm of snow this afternoon with another 5cm tonight----

I spent last night wondering about the timeout messenges that I kept getting---I had no problems elsewhere but here again----GGRRRRRRR

Anyhooooo have a great day everyone!!

[fec153]

O.K.!! Page is back to normal. Thanks to the "Phamtom".

Flip

 

[C&O Fan]

LSWrr

Good morning all!

Terry welcome back, what happened I see your post counter is re-set?

Very snowed in today with 6” inches due to fall between now and noon.

nice looking fence Rob.

Lee

 

Not sure about the post count but my son installed a new hard drive !

Wow new place and 3 pages already .

You guys sure talk alot !

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

 Good morning.

It's 70 and quite cloudy out here by the lake. The high is supposed to drop to the high 60's and falling throughout the afternoon to the mid 50's. There's a small chance of rain.

Spent part of yesterday rebuilding the old Midtown Consolidators building. It literally fell to pieces when it was removed from the layout to make way for the Shell station. I also put in some preliminary work on a potential location for the building. There's a deep hole and steep embankment there right now. I'm going to fill it in (landfill comes to mind for some reason) and work out the buildings location from there. That should keep me busy for a few days at least. I also have to make the assorted odds and ends for the interior of the Shell station. Most will likely be printed backgrounds as my scratchbuilding days are long behind me. That requires a certain amount of manual dexterity that I don't have anymore thanks to health reasons.

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA  71446-6114      1/10/2009

Heat Index:  70°F
Humidity:  90%
Dew Point:  67°F

So Far Today
High:  70°F
Low:  69°F
Rain:  0.00"
Rain Rate:  0.00"/h
Gust:  17mph SSW

Today  Low: 55    High: 68    Cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers. Highs in the upper 60s. Temperature falling into the mid 50s in the afternoon. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph.

Tonight  Low: 38    Cloudy until late night then becoming partly cloudy. Much colder. Lows in the upper 30s. North winds 10 to 15 mph.

[LSWrr]

Good morning all!

Terry welcome back, what happened I see your post counter is re-set?

Very snowed in today with 6” inches due to fall between now and noon.

nice looking fence Rob.

Lee

 

[fec153]

What happened to the pages??? Oh, its football time.

WIDE RIGHT!!!!                                  

Phil   aka-Flip

 

[fec153]

I cannot keep up with you folks. I'm 13 pages behind 

Question re Peco turnouts- The switch to activate it, like Atlas or only from underneath???

Der- in 2005.when visited Teffy, he gave me one of those signs. I don't remember who posted pictures of my mess with the picture in it.

Flip

 

[Cederstrand]

Tall glass of cool lemon water, please & thanks.

With the wife's help, finished cutting & nailing up the boards for her fence today. Now just need to trim the tops & add caps:

 

Made very little progress on my deck, but did hit the local building supply store for some additional bolts and stuff. Mostly farm work today.

For the cat people here, allow me to introduce our one & only "indoor" cat, Millie:

 I think all those camera pre-flashes had her wondering.

Good Night all. Rob

 

[SilverSpike]

ewl01

The ribs are great.

Ryan, I have a question about your layout.  I looked at your plans, what is the basic size of your layout?  Also, your attic, do you have knee walls?  I have a very steep pitch roof so the usable interior width isn't that great.

Eric

Howdy Eric!

The room size for my layout is 19 1/2 X 14. The roof is pitched for a portion of the ceiling, but the walls on the pitched sides (north and south walls) go up about 4 feet 8 inches before they start the pitch. Make sense.

Here is a photo that might give you an idea of how the room is built, this was before any stick of wood started the benchwork This is the north side wall:

 

[unca roggie]

ooooooh, what a handsome GN wagon!  I bet its going to be hard to get into the headspace of dirtying it up...I've yet to let anything but the usual dustcoating on the top, happen to my black widow GP9, below (in fact, I've yet to even install the junk that came in the box...I think they supplied grab irons/windows/etc.) 

Back on the last diner location, someone slipped me a nice compliment (too hard to go back there to see who it was, sorry) by asking if the depot in "the picture" is the real thing or the model...problem is, I posted 3 different depot pix (one of my F&A cardboard thing from Suydam, and two of the prototype Palm Springs SP station, which sadly is nothing more than a still-cleared area of the desert.) 

I'm not going to try to model that station, just prop up a diorama so that the background of any photos taken, is the same scrubby, mountainous desert scene as one would have been staring at, from the platform, back in 1952. 

It will include some 1/87 palm trees, which I view as the biggest modelling challenge I'll have taken on, to date. 

By the way, can I solicit some advice, here?  I'm thinking that if I want to buy any old Athearn KIT items, I'd better do so NOW, as they seem to be disappearing. (Used to be most hobby shops had a WALL full of 'em)  I've ordered from some online outfit in San Diego, in the past, and also Walthers (who no longer seems to offer them)...any other good places to try? {It scares me to try eBay and the like, as it seems the chance of getting ALL the parts in the box, is slim}

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Wow........ You chow hounds wasted no time filling up a couple of pages in the new diner.

Has anybody hear how Jerry is doing in recent days? I hope he is improving.

Also, who has heard from Ed. His OJ is running low.

I'll dispatch a reefer full of country hams to feed y'all at breakfast.

We'll be off to Nashville in teh morning.

Below is a photo I posted in WPF.

[CNCharlie]

Nice move PC and right beside the mainline too.

I think we should start putting Root Beer on tap and get a larger freezer for the ice cream. An awful lot of RBF's go out of here and Jim hasn't even been in yet. In fact we should have a name in Jim's honour for RBF's, perhaps some of you out there have a better imagination than I to name Jim's bevy of choice.

Der, that caboose is exactly what I'm looking for so I'll send you a PM and thanks for thinking of me.

I've decided to take a different approach to the weather. From now on I think I'll go back to Farenheit as it is far nicer sounding than Celsius. After all the high for tomorrow is supposed to be -15C which is +5F. Too many negative numbers with Celsius which could contrbute to winter depression. Ok, who said I'm delusional? 

I recall Jim that you asked when we had our coldest December and that happened in 1876. I'm surprised they were even recording the temps then as Manitoba had only been a province for 6 years at that time. Heck, there wasn't even a railroad here then.

Hope I can find my way home in the dark from the new location but then again I'm used to been kept in the dark. Say I just thought of one advantage of a snowy landsape-- when there is a moon it is in fact quite bright outside at night at least it was last night when I had to go out a 2 a.m. with Pippa. If I don't go with her she'll stay out for a half hour and I then I just lose too much sleep.

CN Charlie

[TMarsh]

Heeeeyyy! No gum under the tables. Well see y'uns later gotta go to the Casey's and get a pack. G'night

Todd

[fec153]

Philip- GREAT job.  Deb is going to make a Pecan Pie just for you.

Flip

 

[ewl01]

The ribs are great.

Ryan, I have a question about your layout.  I looked at your plans, what is the basic size of your layout?  Also, your attic, do you have knee walls?  I have a very steep pitch roof so the usable interior width isn't that great.

Eric

[jeffrey-wimberly]

twhite

I was out working on the layout today, installing more Busses underneath the tracks, and I started thinking:  You may not know this, but when I originally started the Yuba River Sub some 8 years ago, I laid most of the mainline with Bachmann EZ track--the wide-radius kind.  And it ran very nicely.  Then I started thinking about all of those track-joints and re-figured the whole thing.  Except for Yuba Summit and the Buttes, where I really NEEDED exact curves to keep my trains from taking a 6' drop to the garage floor, I re-laid it all with Atlas and Sinohara flex-track.  Now I don't know whether or not it's just the age of the layout (and I think most of you know it's a relatively large one), or what,  but I'm starting to have current-drop problems all over the place, EXCEPT the section over Yuba Summit that I laid with the EZ track.  All the rail-joints are soldered, and I'm running busses all over the place, and I'm suddenly at a standstill.  I don't know whether to tear out all the wiring and start over again (UGH! ) or tear out all the flex-track and re-lay it with the EZ track (and yes, I've still got all of it).  It's really a conundrum for me.  Or, it may be the fact that it's in an uninsulated garage and we've had a really COLD winter (for California) here, this year and there's been a lot of rail contraction.  I don't know, I'm really at a kind of crossroads.  . 

And people tell me I'm a fool for using EZ-Track (this from people who never used it). Sounds like you have some bad connections somewhere. I've had this happen on some flex-track layouts in the past and usually had to replace the feeders going to those sections. On my current layout I went with all ns EZ-Track (starting in 2004) and haven't had much in the way of current drop problems with the exception of a broken solder joint which was easily repaired. Identify the section(s) giving you trouble. Start at the track and work back to the control panel checking any and all connections as you go. If you use suitcase connectors check them really closely. Many of the problems I had in the past were due to suitcase connectors and that's why I no longer use them. If it's not soldered or screwed together I don't trust it.

[TMarsh]

Whew! Talk about confused! Went to the other diner and tried to follow the link, got shutdown with an IE error. Panic set in BUT luckily the signs were up and I found it. Guess I’ll have some of those ribs too. Some beans with brown sugar and molasses and some tater salad, you know how I like it.

If you need someone to run back and get that homemade ice cream I’ll get it. No don’t trouble yourself, I’ll get it. Really I will. I’ll get it.

Saaaay! Love the new place! PC- you did great! Let me buy your dinner, whatever you want. I’ve told the girls your money is no good even if you grab the TOP.

If you heard me play you’d know where I was alright! You’d probably go the other way!

Well just stop in to say howdy and off to do some things to keep my wife and dog happy. Might make it in later if not,…Ya’ll know yer in my prayers

Todd