The Coffee Shop (a place to chat) Est. 2004

[Anonymous]

Morning everyone,
I've just spent the last week with the Florida Live Steamers. Talk about awesome! The live steam locos are something else to watch. Porters, Shays, 4-8-4's, the diesel rigs, and you get to actually ride on them. What a way to spend a week.
I ended up joining, buying a little diesel switcher, a flat car, and a caboose. Now I can railroad inside and out, fair weather or foul.
If you get a chance to go to one of the meets for live steam, don't miss it.

[lupo]

Morning Yall !
[#welcome] to all new visitors, it getting nicely crowded lately !

Its another nice sunny day in Holland,[:D] allthough we saw some white thingies float through the air this morning [:p],
Just not enough to call for (s)Noah ! or to buy the contraption John mailed me earlier !
( thanks BTW [tup] ) I guess the snow is always whiter at the other side of the pond !

QUOTE: Originally posted by tomwatkins


I didn't mention it last time, but while we were at the train store on Friday, I picked up one of the new Woodland Scenics car sets. I got the '40 Ford coupe and the '51 Chevy 2 door hardtop. There are beautiful. The shapes appear to be very accurate and the finish is extremely well done. Shiny, but not high gloss.

[8D] Did you see all those new sets? are they all that nice ?

[Anonymous]

I'm an old dude who can't drink coffee any more (it tends to run the battery down on my implanted defibrillator/pacemaker. When I was in the navy, our ship's doctor had to personally inspect every coffeemess on board. He said it was to check for mold growing on the grounds or on the surface of old coffee. The spores can become airborne. If breathed, they can grow in your lungs and kill you; there's no cure. How's that for a downer?

[fec153]

Morning Old foamer. [#welcome] to the club. There is tea,sodas or many other drinks available. Man, take away my coffee and you can just tie me to the tracks. Cannot function without my joe.
Flip

[grayfox1119]

Good afternoon gents, and a big welcome to Capt_turk (Charles) and foamer13[#welcome][#welcome]!! Charlie, I see that you are a Ham operator, I am KA1VEI, but not very active sad to say. Started as a boy of 15 with a Hallicrafter SX99 but then the Army, Family, a very busy Technical career took care of all my spare time. I am trying to get back up to speed, been studying the Tech and General license manual, but Model RR has me very busy right now along with Lorraine's " Honey Do" list. I would like to talk to the person who said "retirement would be too boring"...I have a few comments for him or her.

Today we have a clear dark blue sky, temp is 27.7F. You might say, the "calm before the storm".

ED: you know all them showers and rain that are on the southern jet over you the past few days? Well they are about to join with Tom's rain in the mountains, and come right up the Atlantic coast, and phase with the Alberta Clipper coming in from Canada to give us a rip roaring Nor'easter here in New England......then off to Nova Scotia to bury our friends Luc, Der John and Fergie. I think Trolley and Northern are too far west to feel the effects of this big one!!

Lupo: I was at the Big E train Show in Springfield, Mass a few weeks ago, and I saw the Woodland Scenics display of all their cars, trucks, farm equipment etc. it IS very nice, well worth the investment I feel.

Matt: do you feel the Concorde would be still flying if they did not have the blown tire accident in France? I heard that they were going to retire the fleet anyways because of age of the equipment. Maybe they were concerned about metal fatique, like the Reindeer aircraft in Canada back in the 70's I believe. Jimmy Stewart actually made a movie about that aircraft.

Noah: Thanks for the big OJ Noah!!!! BTW, how is the lube job coming along?

Tom: I agree with you on the Woodland Scenics cars, I saw them at the Train show, they were really nice. It is too soon for me to spend the $$ on those yet, I am still building the train room, buying track and turnouts, etc., so I will have to enjoy what you guys show in pics online.

I hear the lunch bell ringing...see you guys later, bye Zoe..[dinner]

[Anonymous]

Evening all and welcome to the new people!

***, I think BA and Air France were looking to retire the Concorde anyway. Only a very small number were built and spares were getting hard to find - problem being that there had been no new production of parts since the aircraft were built and the stocks were running low. Considering how little money it made for operators (despite the "halo effect" whereby running something special adds a little to your other services) there was little chance of expensive special orders for spares being placed. I'm not sure how much of a problem fatigue would have been - I recall reading that the repeated heating of the plane by air friction at Mach 2 (it got very warm, to the extent that they had to make use of different alloys throughout the airframe to avoid melting - it expanded by about 1ft overall when cruising!) may have actually extended the fatigue life somehow, not too well up on the science involved there though.

Well, the LGB rebuild may have to be put on hold for a while - the ebay parts lot has gone up to what I'd guess I'd pay for the parts new from LGB (via LHS), so will source them that way instead. I've stripped the loco and recovered all reusable parts anyway, so will have to ask next time I'm in - LGB website advises European customers to contact their nearest dealer for parts and has no email address. Fleischmann parts are a lot easier to get hold of - have repaired one loco and have parts on order for another.

Bye for now

[JimRCGMO]

Good Morning, Zoe - I’ll have a Pepper or Pibb today. Not up to coffee at this point...

QUOTE: Originally posted by trolleyboy

Good afternoon clubbers.I see John's in I poped in for lunch[dinner] so at least Zoe and I will have some company.I'm glad that we have no further need of the bomb shelters on the forum thanks to Bergie[^].Mind you if Fergie brings in some of his chile again we may want to keep our shelter open[}:)][:p][:0][xx(]

Rob, I hear they’re considering explosion-proof exhaust fans for the shelter... [swg][(-D]

Glad we have Sheriff Bergie around to shoo***he desperadoes out of the town (er, Shop).

The reason I’ve missed coming in here was that last Thursday I finished up my tax return with TurboTax and filed it. So far, so good (refund coming, direct deposit. [:)]... However, they had a link in TTax for a customer service survey, which I clicked on (mistake!) [:(] Locked up my system *completely* - the things that 99 percent of the time get me out (force quit, restart the Finder, etc.) didn’t budge things a bit. After I got out and rebooted the computer, it at first started acting flaky (sllllowwww, couldn’t hardly do two things at the same time,...). Then later in the day, the primary hard drive partition disappeared off the desktop. [:((] So I cannot get back to confirm my tax returns (did get my email using an older OS on another drive I still have) and cannot use the programs or data I’ve been using for the past half year or more. I will probably end up having to send the external drive (and maybe computer as well) off to have a data recovery service get what they can off the drive before I wipe it clean and re-install everything.

QUOTE: By the way, we’re only about 37 days away from the opening of the 2005 season. Dare I hope for a repeat…

Sure Ed, you go ahead - be as delusional as you want. [;)] (tee hee)...

***, I think it’s too late to skin ol’ Phil the groundhog/mole/gopher - ‘fraid we’re stuck with whatever we have for another few weeks. But [#welcome] back!

Hey Duke, looks like you learn quickly (and/or our resident ‘teachers’ do a pretty good job explaining things to us. [;)]). Glad you have it figured out - that does make things more manageable, I know. Especially when my browser decides to die on me and I have to switch to another and re-find my place in here. [;)]

Grubby said:

QUOTE: These are likely to be stupid questions I start with though, so be prepared to dazzle me with your knowledge of US geography :P.

[#welcome] As one who has asked some questions about U.S. geography (as related to trains), I’ll tell you that Ed posted some helpful links a couple or three pages back, and (if I get my one hard drive back running again soon) I’ll check through my history of pages I looked through. FWIW (for what it’s worth), I was checking out the Southwest area of the U.S. (aka the Four Corners area - where Arizona/Utah/Colorado/New Mexico meet).

Duke, I’m not familiar with that quote on Klingons (fill me in?) [:)]

Got to go for now. Will be back later and finish wading through the rest of the posts.

Blessings on your weekend (what’s left of it),

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[der5997]

Goodafternoon, and it’s taken a whole slice of it to get through all the posts since last night. Not the best of evenings, las t evening. Kris took a group of ladies for a LNO. While picking one up, backed the van into this lady’s husband's car. So, we are now looking at a replacement wing mirror, door repaint for him, and a taillight lens for us. I guess mrr expenses will be low on the list for a while[sigh][banghead] Cold winds all night and all day today. Flurries, but nothing to write home about (Oh, hang about a bit, I am home[(-D])
We are waiting for the Nor’easter which *** will likely get first.
Grubby:

QUOTE: Built the bench work last night... 3 x 8'x4' benches in a u-shape... should give me plenty of work to do....

Quick work! What are you using for legs? Any leveling devices?
BoRockhard:[#welcome] If Westside is “of the continent”, then you’ve got a few neighbours in the shop.
Brian:

QUOTE: the turn table will probably be moved and it will have many more spurs off of it and possibly a round house to go with it

What would happen if you were to bring the turntable lead off as a continuation of the left hand yard ladder? That way you could use the shortest yard track as a yard track rather than the turntable lead. Strikes me it couldn’t be used for car classification if it’s also being required for turntable access.[?] [oops], I see Ed’s ahead of me again. Oh well maybe this is confirmation? I also think he’s right on the money with his other 2 suggestions.[:D]
Attaboy[#welcome], Hot Chocolate with or without marshmallows?[:D] The DLE sounds fun. My HO/HOn31/2 came about because I picked up a HO-HOn31/2 crossing in a sale someplace, and just had to use it[(-D]

QUOTE: It should be - two car garage train room

It’s alright, our Universal Translators automatically caught your drift[:D]
Duke:

QUOTE: You sure do need an access to get into that spot, and right out front,

Thanks, I haven’t figured out all the details of how the edges of the hatches will be disguised. I go on the principle that if I can imagine what I want it to look like and do, then it will eventually be possible to build. So far, this has worked out. The joins right now look like fault lines, sort of.[swg]

QUOTE: one of my questions ever since Star Trek the Motion Picture came out with the change was what happened

An early explanation had to do with improvements in Star Fleet intelligence and recording technology, but no-one really bought that, I think. This solution is far more elegant.[:D]
Ed:

QUOTE: I also think I’m going to get one of those MRC Sound Station gadgets. Yeah, I know it’s not as good as DCC and sound in BLI locos. But for my tiny little N scale layout it will be better than nothing.

You may want to check out the N-scale Under Table Sound thread currently running in the Yahoo Groups ndcc list. www.groupsyahoo.com I think is the general portal, and navigate to N Scale and ndcc.

QUOTE: My connection now is DSL over the same bad phone line, but it’s a different world.

How do they do that? We keep being told that we have to have massive infrastructure upgrades to get hispeed.[V]
About US geography, I don’t know if you missed TrolleyRob’s throwaway line a few pages back when we were talking about Algonquin Park in Ontario. The park is bigger than Texas. Now there’s a geographical tidbit!

QUOTE: Der, the layout’s coming right along. I see the talus pile is still in the same place though. One other question, is that the tunnel that has the light box, or am I confused as usual?

Nope, the light box one is on the upper level. It’s an east portal though, so you are (dare I say it?) OTRT[tup]
Mitchell:

QUOTE: #1 adsl modem carked it
#2 school

Good to hear from you again. Bummer on the modem, and keep up the good work at school, as we are inclined to say to Noah now and then by way of encouragement.[(-D]
***:

QUOTE: Der John: your layout is really starting to take shape, I can't wait to see how the mountains look when finished with landscaping.

One step closer to that, as I bought a gallon of white glue on Thursday, so the sawdust box can now start getting emptied! That’s really the next big thing, apart from a bit more foam work on the upper level. I’m sort of interested to see how it will turn out too[:D]
WesternTom

QUOTE: Other than that, it's late, too late for coffee, so I'm drinking apple juice. Gave up Tuborg for Lent. Dang, Lent came early this year--didn't we just have Christmas?

Did you ever notice that Lent is 40 days? But, if you count it out on the calendar from Ash Wednesday to Easter, it’s over by six days. Those are the Sundays, commemorating the resurrection, and inappropriate for fasting. So, enjoy your Toborg today![:D] And yes, Easter is early this year, that’s what you get for having a moveable feast. Why it isn’t just linked directly to Passover, I never did figure.

QUOTE: Dang, I've got an 18-pound furry Groupie on my hands!

That’s some respectable feline![bow]

TrolleyRob: We could rant a fair bit about the Arrow. But I don’t want to upset the forum police[:D]
jay_c[#welcome]back!

QUOTE: BTW, anybody know why the boxes are coming out twice as wide as my screen,

Is that all the boxes, or just one or two? We’ve noticed that sometimes a long url posted in a message will throw that particular box out. Other than that, IHAC.[#61514;] Thanks for your thoughtfulness on the anti-virus thing.
Matt:

QUOTE: apparently the technique for taking off in the prototype was to stop at the start of the runway, put the brakes on, open the throttles wide and bring the afterburners up, then take the brakes off when you had full thrust.

Are you familiar with the Vickers facility built inside the old Brooklands race circuit at Weybridge, Surrey? Not a long runway for the maiden flight of the VC10. I remember lying at the top of the embankment, with shrubs growing up out of the concrete track, to watch that when I should have been studying Food Technology, many moons ago. That was an awesome takeoff, but no Concorde![^]
capt_turk[#welcome] Is there an ST connection lurking in your name? Glad you liked the live steam. Deep pockets needed for that I wouldn’t wonder.
We seem to be getting more and more new folks. May have to hire more staff. Elliot, how’s our budget?[:D]
Lupo:

QUOTE: the contraption John mailed me earlier !

that’s pics of a Nash Rambler made into a snowmobile. Email me if you would like a copy. Sorry yours didn’t come through Flip.[V]
foamer13[#welcome] Thanks for the uplifting infobite! Who knew? Enquiring minds will want to know if you have a layout (not mandatory) and if so, what scale? Clues from your posting history would suggest Normal [yeah]
***:

QUOTE: Maybe they were concerned about metal fatique,

…and the DH Comet, wasn’t it? Another elegant aircraft, but hell to get at the inboard pair of engines so I understand.
CapeJim:

QUOTE: Glad you have it figured out - that does make things more manageable, I know. Especially when my browser decides to die on me and I have to switch to another and re-find my place in here.

..or inadvertently close out the webpage, as I did not five minutes ago[:O]
Tea has come and gone, fire is re-stocked with wood, and it’s getting on to dog feeding time. Glad to say the hatch cut out yesterday fits back in with no problem. I’ve arranged a sort of catch thing at the top inside to hold it in place as the space doesn’t allow for the support pillars I gave the other hatches.
Better get along, TTFN

[fec153]

Hey ***- diddy dum dum diddy dah dit dah
Camp Gordon- '54-55 Signal School 6 months
Flip

[TrainFreak409]

Hey hey everybody!

We have a birthday coming up, can anyone guess who might be getting older this Wednesday?

...

...

For all of those who said TrainFreak409, Scott, Scott Bowman, Mr. Bowman, or however you want to say it, you were absolutely right! This Wednesday, March 2, 2005, at 11:47 p.m., I will be officially 16! And what does that mean, you ask? Well, it means pretty much nothing. One of the number in my age will change, and that's it. Nothing new going on, I'm not getting a car or anything big and special like that.

Well, at least I don't think so...I do have some suspicion to something I might be getting. It's not anything huge, but it is based off something that was. I have concluded that, there is a slight chance (VERY SLIGHT) that my parents will give me an MTH Premier UNION PACIFIC #80 COAL TURBINE! Here is my reasoning. I was at work yesterday, the turbine was on the shelf, like it had been for the past two weeks. Everyone passed it up, looking for something smaller, and with ProtoSound 2. So, a customer comes in, wanting to know about some HO and N related material. I go over into the other room to help. I was in there for about half an hour, and when I came back, THE TURBINE WAS GONE! When I got a moment to, I asked Tom where the turbine went, but he didn't know. So he checked in the back, and it was boxed up. So I asked Mr. Purkey who bought the turbine. Mr. Purkey somewhat hesitated, looked to a friend, then to Tom, and said, "Tom bought it!" Mr. Purkey does't act like that, so maybe, maybe, maybe, I might see a big purple box on my birthday. That would be so cool!

And this has to be the largest post I have ever posted on this (site to post posts to other members' posts in a big posting of posts posted by train loving posters we call a) forum.

~[8]~ TrainFreak409 ~[8]~

[bjdukert]

Afternoon to all,and Zoe how about a hot tea (unsweetend) please

Flip

QUOTE: Duke- sent it hours ago. Check your "E" s.

I didn’t see anything,please try again and if that doesn’t work we’ll try something. [^]

Daniel & Attaboy-I have a friend that lives in Sunbury.I will be out that way near the end of June.

ED

QUOTE: There’s a better picture of me (if I do say so) in my profile.

And a real closeup at that. [:D]

Paul

QUOTE: Hum. Chrome guard for the tractor’s exhaust stack. That sounds flashy.

Just think of all the compliments(comments) you would get. [8D][:-^]

Foamer13

QUOTE: I'm an old dude

That’s ok,there are a few of us in here,and BTW[#welcome]

***-Since you aren’t too far from NJ,have you heard of Northlandz?? I was at a small train show today with a friend that is in the hobby and he saw someone he worked with,and he told us about it. I went onto their site and it is everything he said it is.If anyone is interested it is (nortlandz.com) [wow][tup]

JimCG

QUOTE: Duke, I’m not familiar with that quote on Klingons (fill me in?)

The Klingon’s in the orignal series looked completely different than they do now,and it wasn’t until Star Trek the Motion Picture came out that they look as they do now.The last ST Enterprise kind of explained it,so I hope this helps you out. [:)]John has an explanation as well that I never caught.OH,and I’m not really a quick learner,it’s that we have some patient people in here to help some of us out,A LOT!! [bow]

John

QUOTE: The joins right now look like fault lines, sort of.

Why not,they are all over when you look at any rock formation. [tup]

That’s it,I’m out of here

Talk to you later

Duke

[steveblackledge]

Good afternoon / evening all / goodnight here, just made a quick web site with my pictures of the BN Yarrow Valley Sub division in my garage, have a look and let me know what you think, it's not finished and is a bit bare on the tree front but i am going to try AGGROJONES tecnique for conifers, they look very realistic, i am off to bed now,
remember "Modelling is fun" i am not a rivit counter,
if it looks good to me it will do[:)][zzz][:D]

[Paul W. Beverung]

Afternoon everyone; Well I’m in early today. I installed the gasket in the exhaust on the tractor and was going to work on the dogs shed. After about 10 minutes my shoulders hurt so much that I came inside. Old age should be for the young. They’re in better shape to handle it.

Scott; I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. That would be a great present. Also a very happy birthday. Oh to be 16 again.

Capt Turk; Did you get my E-mail of awhile back? Just wondering. I got hooked on live steam about 33 years ago. It is a real blast. I still get a kick out of actually using the railroad to do the work that needs to be done. Hauling ballast, grading with a tractor, having to engineer the track to the terrain, what fun. Oh my poor back. What loco and rolling stock did you get?

Matt; What LGB loco are you trying to find parts for? I’ve got a few parts lying around.

That’s it for now.

Paul

The Duluth, Superior, & Southeastern

“ The Superior Route “

[egmurphy]

Good Afternoon Coffee Clubbers

Lazy Sunday down here in Paradise, probably even lazier than Tom’s. [:D] Weather continued overcast and cool (relatively speaking) which was fine with me. [^] Slept in late, the usual high cholesterol Sunday morning breakfast (bran flakes the rest of the week), and just general lazing around the house. I love it.

QUOTE: Paul: Has anyone seen Teffy? Do we have to send out the hounds again?

I wonder. I even emailed him and no response so far.


Welcome back Jay_C. Long time no see!



[#welcome] Welcome aboard, Capt_Turk. Live steam should be a real blast to deal with. Looks like you’re just a couple of hours up the road from FEC153.



[#welcome] And a Coffee Shop welcome for Foamer13 too! Watch the coffee here, though, we try to keep Zoe from washing out the pot. [:p] A quick rinse is okay, but I hate to see her using soap, destroys that good patina on the inside of the pot.

QUOTE: grayfox: Old Native American word from Chief Thunderthud, remember him Ed? Then there was Princess SummerFallWinterSpring too. By the way, nice pic of you on the thread wiring your layout with door at 90 degrees...

Yup, sure do. And Buffalo Bob and the Peanut Gallery too!

Say Kids, What time is it?
It’s Howdy Doody time!

If anyone is interested, here’s the Official Howdy Doody website:
http://www.howdydoodytime.com/


By the way, I call that picture of me “Wiring for old guys”. Sure is a lot easier than crawling under a layout.

QUOTE: Attaboy: The name is from three actual towns in PA. I just thought it sounded like a good name for a narrow gauge line.

Having grown up in the northeast, I had little doubt about that, and yes, it does sound right for a narrow gauge line. Or at least it would sound right if I could pronounce it. [;)]

QUOTE: Tom: I picked up one of the new Woodland Scenics car sets. I got the '40 Ford coupe and the '51 Chevy 2 door hardtop. … It's going to be sitting in front of the gas pumps at the gas station at Topton. The Branchline station is almost perfect for that. It should make an interesting little scene.

I look forward to the day when I’ll be able to add some detailed stuff like that to my layout. Currently we’re still dealing with the big picture. [sigh]

QUOTE: (CG)Jim: Locked up my system *completely* - the things that 99 percent of the time get me out (force quit, restart the Finder, etc.) didn’t budge things a bit. After I got out and rebooted the computer, it at first started acting flaky (sllllowwww, couldn’t hardly do two things at the same time,...). Then later in the day, the primary hard drive partition disappeared off the desktop… I will probably end up having to send the external drive (and maybe computer as well) off to have a data recovery service get what they can off the drive before I wipe it clean and re-install everything.

Ouch. [:0] Every time I hear about stuff like that it makes me cringe. I’m just waiting for it to happen here.

QUOTE: Sure Ed, you go ahead - be as delusional as you want.

Thanks, they’re still tied for 1st place right now, so there’s still hope. [(-D]


Der, sorry about Kris’s mishap with the car. Fortunately it wasn’t serious or an injury.

QUOTE: Did you ever notice that Lent is 40 days? But, if you count it out on the calendar from Ash Wednesday to Easter, it’s over by six days. Those are the Sundays, commemorating the resurrection, and inappropriate for fasting.

Is that the reason? I never knew that and wondered why I could never get the 40 days to work out right. Amazing the stuff you find out here.

QUOTE: We seem to be getting more and more new folks. May have to hire more staff.

You’re right about that. If all the new visitors wind up being regulars it’ll be a real job keeping up with the conversations. But it’s nice to see that some of them have been lurkers and decided to “come in from the cold” after seeing how things go here. Does speak well for the group. Okay, “Attaboys” for all, ….. on Attaboy, of course. [swg]



Scott, that would be a great present if it winds up being true. What’s the latest on the rumor of the move? Are your folks talking about a new house in the same area or a long distance relocation? I was wondering if it would affect your job at Purdy’s.

16 was a big day for me too, because it was when I could trade my learner’s permit in for a real driver’s license!!! [tup]


Steve B – what’s the website address?? You ought to consider adding it to your profile in the signature block, so it shows automatically on all your posts.


That’s about it for the afternoon. We’ll see how busy it gets this evening. I may drop back in then.

Hasta luego,

Ed

[der5997]

Just popped in as K. is watching a program that doesn’t interest me that much.
Was tempted to try and fix a banana Foster using Splenda™ today, but didn’t have t’hurge. I’m not sure if the sauce made that way would caramelize properly.[?]
TrolleyRob, forgot to say how interesting I found those thoughts about the design team on the Arrow going off to put their expertise to good use after the scrapping of that project. BTW, is it known whether the test models fired off into lake Ontario have been recovered?
Duke:

QUOTE: John has an explanation as well that I never caught.

Well, it’s not mine exactly, just something I picked up from somewhere a few years ago. Sounds like a disease put that way, but it’s really only trekkiebabble.
[:D]

QUOTE: Why not, they are all over when you look at any rock formation.

That’s an encouraging thought Duke, thanks.[tup]
Steve: Your layout is looking really good. I’m sure Bob (Teffy) will appreciate the SF power[:D] Starting Gemma off on the right track too. Weren’t the original colliery tracks wood? Thanks for the tour.[tup]

QUOTE: but i am going to try AGGROJONES tecnique for conifers, they look very realistic

I missed that, where is it?
Better get along, maybe I’ll get back later, maybe not.

[SilverSpike]

Good Evening Everyone!

Looks like this round is on me! Grab a cup of your favorite brew, and hoist up one for good times in the Coffee Club!!!!!

Another weekend about to close and looking forward to watching the Academy Awards in a few hours, even though I haven’t seen many new movies this year, it is still my favorite of all the awards shows on TV these days!

Spent most of the weekend working with the Cub Scouts, we had a den meeting at the house yesterday and preparing for the annual Blue and Gold banquet. Celebrating 75 years of Scouting in America! Yea!!!!

Helped my younger son with a social studies project he has due next week, Samuel F. B. Morse is his famous American topic! I learned a lot, and remember him but this is interesting stuff. This guy went to Yale at age 14 in 1805 and studied chemistry and electronics, and then left Yale to pursue an art career in Europe. On a boat trip back to New York he overheard a conversation about electromagnets and came up with the telegraph idea. Then it was another 3 years before he had a working model of the telegraph. In 1843 Congress had granted him $30,000, and then in 1844 after stringing lines and poles he demonstrated the first long distance telegraph message sent from the Capital Building in Washington to Baltimore, Maryland. His first message was “What Hath God Wrought!” By 1865 the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable was completed connecting North America to Europe. Interesting huh!

QUOTE: der5997
That’s why I stay in here, where folks are polite and friendly.

John,
I agree with you! Keeping your nose clean is easy when you stay in the Coffee Shop huh!
Also, great work on the hatch hole, thanks for sharing your techniques on access for electronics and such.

QUOTE: egmurphy
Not to steal Tim’s thunder, but it’s a great tasting dessert, and the specialty of Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans.

Ed,
Yep, there isn’t anything like that stuff! Warm Foster Sauce on top of vanilla ice cream is to die for! The Audubon Zoo here in New Orleans has an annual fundraiser called “Zoo To Do” in May and Brennan’s has a huge Banana’s Foster station set up where you can have all the ice cream and Foster sauce you can eat. There is so much other great food there from other restaurants too; that I try to keep my self to one or two portions each.

QUOTE: grayfox1119
Lots of winter fun, and I got an empty wallet at my favorite not so local HS.

***,
Sounds like you had a great time! [#welcome] back!
I am the same on the insulated or non-insulated frog, still undecided!




[#welcome] to all the new guys! Belly up and grab a cup, of whatever, they seem to have it all here! (Virtually of course!) Enjoy one on me!

Another [#welcome] to daniel1967 and Attaboy and foamer13! Have a cup on me!

QUOTE: fec153
I drive a van for the county trnsporting those that qualify, to drs,hospitals,work court,shopping and where ever they need to go. From moms with babies to a 97 year old navy vet.

Flip,
You do get to meet all sorts of people with that job, and I bet you hear a lot of stories too.
Thanks for the emails and jokes, that Bubba one was great, I had to forward that one to my family.
Say hello to Deb, hope all is well!

QUOTE: tomwatkins
It's been a really good couple of days in the mountains. The weather has been absolutely beautiful, clear skies and very warm. Not at all like February usually is.

…it's not good to spend the refund until you get it, and you can't get until the returns are done and filed…

Tom,
Boy, I miss the mountains in your area. Wish I was there to enjoy that crisp, clean, fresh mountain air!!! I have been known to count my chickens before the eggs hatch. I still need to buckle down get those taxes done, and soon!


Happy Birthday TrainFreak409 [bday]


Well, the Oscars are going to start soon, dinner time then some TV time snuggling up to my lady!

Evening all!

Ryan

[fec153]

Ryan- I also haul mentally challenged and deaf people as well as the blind. My first run is picking up 2 challenged and a deaf mute. Makes for a very different ride for 2 hours.
My best trip is picking up 4 blind elderly folks who all live miles apart. Get them together in the van and it makes my day. Yet I am losing the 86 yr,old do to illness. He is a WW2 vet and a heck of a nice man. Have lost a few that I got to know. And only in their 40's.
All things considered, I'd rather be running my trains.
Ya'll have a goodnight. Just about time to hit the shower and get the alarm set for 4:30.
Flip

[Mikeygaw]

ok mishmash (sp?) of comments

re: Star Trek... good that they came up with an in-show explination, much more interesting that the truth that they finally got the budget to do some decent make up

and Worf's and O'Brian's assignments can be confusing as the TNG movies and DS9 filming at the same time... atleast in First Contact they tie it in (Worf being transported off of the USS Defiant)... not sure about Insurrection, it's been a while since i've seen it and don't have it handy to watch again... and as for Nemesis, if they follow the continuity in time passage and movie production that was used in the original movies, he wasn't written in correctly, as he was an Ambassador by the time the movie was made. Generations was fine, as he was not assigned to Deep Space Nine until after the destruction of the Enterprise-D

re the Concordes... i recall reading (can't remember where) that the original intention was for high speed flight between the US and Europe... for reasons it don't recall, the US portion never panned out, and the Concorde's already in production/use were put to work, and never really lived up to their potential... Mach speed travel been England, France, and wherever else, wasn't really necessary, thus no reason to make new ones.

and happy birthday Scott, mine is about 7 months away, when i turn the wonderful age of 21

[grayfox1119]

Good evening gents, 23F bone chilling degrees here in central Mass at 8pm, and getting ready for the big snowstorm that is ready to pounce upon us.

Jim: I wi***hose folks in PA would let that critter stay in his hole, I don't need to know if he saw his shadow, I can go outside and look for my OWN shadow!!. Then I tell the wife that I need to go to the LHS because I saw MY shadow, and we will get another 5 feet of snow if I don't go right away.

Der John: Speaking of Lent, my grandkids asked me today " why does Easter fall on different dates each year". Luckily, I remembered what the good sister's taught me many moons ago. Easter is the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon of Spring.
Sorry to hear about the accident John, but at least no one was hurt.

Fergie Update: I just heard from Fergie, his ship is in heavy gales, but the ice pack is taming the waves luckily, but it is below freezing and things are icing up on the ship. Lets keep Fergie in our prayers for a safe return to port from the stormy North Atlantic.

Scott: Well Happy Birthday Scott!!! I wish I was 16 again.[bday]. Did you ever notice Scott that young people are always wishing they were older, and old people like me wi***hey were younger? I have a strong feeling that your assumptions about the Turbine is CORRECT !!!

Duke: I have not heard of Northlandz Jim, I did check out the website however, very nice.

Ed: We got our 1st TV just about the time that HD show came on the air. But my greatest thrill was when I got to see the Lone Ranger on TV after years of listening on the radio...or was that my crystal set...hmmmmmmm, maybe.

Ryan: Yes, I spent 3 hours in the HS, had a great time. The owner is a gentleman in his late 70's that came here from Switzerland. He has a museum building next to the HS that is about 200 feet by 75 feet, and he has a complete setup behind a glass enclosure, of every gauge train in the world. He must have about 12 displays or more, complete with mountains, logging, towns, etc. His displays also include European equipment in their landscape, ie Swiss Alps. Yes, Trolley's also Rob!!
If anyone gets a chance to come to New England, please try to get to New Hampshire to see this place. It is located in Intervale, which is about 3 miles north of North Conway, NH on routes 302 & 16. He even has a live steam diesel with cars for kids to ride in around the pine forest area adjacent to the Museaum and the HS.
BTW Ryan, if you get any info on insulated vs non-insulated, please share with me as I am still very much up in the air on this. I have been hearing good things about PECO's new code 83 turnouts, which are supposed to be made for DCC operation also. I am trying to get info from users on this.

Flip: keep listening tonight for a dah dah dah dit dit dit dah dah dah from Fergie if he drops his soldering iron. [(-D][(-D][(-D]

Time to leave the coffee shop, a pleasant evening to all,

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys. Believe it or not I am new to this internet thing and Chat room thing. My wife and I just got a computer for X-mas. So if i type something wrong or it seems like I do not understand something please have patience.

Anyway, this coffe room thing seems tlike a cool place to chat..

[Noah Hofrichter]

***, They’re coming very good. For the most part it’s helping at least a little. I have about 4 engines to go lube and clean yet.

Rookie Rail, Welcome to the coffee shop. You’ll like it here, it’s a good place to meet other members.

Well, I made a major accomplishment today, with my Father’s help. I got my board that I like to call a Control panel put up, and with some time I can rewire the layout so it’s not a jumbled mess under there. I also have to move my power pack over to the new spot. I’ll post pictures once all that is set up, presuming I can get some photos. Guess I better get going again though, Bed calls soon.

Noah

[JimRCGMO]

Good Evening, Chloe - I’d like a hot cocoa, please. Looks like a crowd in here tonight - Hi DerJohn, Tom, Noah! I’ll be over with you once I get my cocoa.

Steve (Attaboy) - love your quote! [:)] And the key question around here (well, some days...): What scale do you model in, pahdner?[C):-)] - Horribly Oversized, ‘Normal’, or another ? There are a variety of scales represented in here, and we all tend to razz the scales other than our own (just for fun, natch) from time to time. But the reality is we all learn from each other too (even to learn the difference between pink and fuscia [;)] ) And your mis-type is understandable - we all get excited when we’re dreaming/scheming about our layouts and how we want to build/modify/complete them. [tup]

Ed, maybe Tim and the rest of our California guys can ship some of their excess rain down for the farmers in your area. They could use it much better than those Cal. slopes, for sure.

A belated [#welcome] to our newcomers - Attaboy, Gnnpry, Daniel1967, foamer 13, capt_turk,
RookieRail and anyone else who’s been lurking or recently came in while I was wading through
all the posts.[#welcome]

Paul, do the words ‘flashy’ and farmer go together, or is that an oxymoron[;)]? My ex-father-in-law farmed, and he was very low-keyed. Can’t picture chrome on his tractor or equipment (unless it was at the very first when he brought it home from the dealer, maybe).[;)]

Brian, the others’ suggestions sound good, so my only possible suggestion might be that you could add some height variation (maybe even a loop over another part of the mainline), and do what you can to put some mild curves in the mainline. Just my preferences, but I think avoiding straight, parallel tracks is a good thing.[:)]

The pages have been pretty quirky for me too - some posts are wide and I have to scroll, but others are only about one inch wide on my screen (lots of scrolling down to see the whole post - or even paragraphs!). Anybody know what’s going on with the pages? The thin posts don’t make sense to me. [?] When I first posted this, it was in those thin lines, so I tried putting line breaks in, but that didn't seem to help.

Attaboy, another reason to check in more often is - not as many to read through at a time! Miss for
a few days and you’ll spend a whole afternoon/evening going through what you missed![:)]

Mitchell, good to know you’re still around (though quite busy, apparently, with school) - I gather that your modem has been replaced/fixed, right? [tup]

So Scott, [bday] birthday boy - will you at least get to have a chance at the family car once you hit the big 16? As I recall, my first vehicle I got to drive was the family Chevy Brookwood wagon (read, *blue boat*... [;)]) If you have younger brothers/sisters, you may get to drive them to school stuff (or pick them up after school) maybe. Trade-offs, trade-offs.[:)] And as Ed asked
- what’s the news on your possible move?

Steve, very good excellent work on the Geep in the mud - I’d be interested in how you did that (put the shell in the gulley and then pour the ‘mud’, or what?). Reminded me of a wetlands version
of the gulley on the Jerome & Southwestern (but it only had a boxcar).

Okay, for our Trekkies (and sort-of ones like me) here in the Coffee Shop, anyone notice that the music at the first commercial break on the Oscar show tonight was the Star Trek theme (TNG going out, and - if my ears didn’t deceive me - DS9 coming back from break). [;)] We return you now to your regularly scheduled Coffee Shop program...

***, that sounds like a pretty good trick to get you to the LHS! At first, I thought your reference to HD was to Home Depot. [oops] [;)]

Well, time to go finish up some things and see what else is happening on the Oscars. You all take care!

Blessings,

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[tomwatkins]

Good Evenin' Everybody,
Today did turn out to be a good day. I got a lot done on the taxes. They're not finished yet, but I've got a good start on them. Since we live in Ga. and Louise works for a NC company, we have to do 2 state returns plus an additional dummy federal return showing her income seperately. North Carolina makes it a lot of fun, but it will get done.Like a lot of other things, it could be ever so much worse.

I did get some more foam carved this afternoon. The road leading to the bridge is taking shape. It will be a 2 lane blacktop on one side of the bridge and 1 lane gravel on the other side, leading off into the countryside. I picked up one of the Rix wood overpasses on Friday. It should do nicely with a few modifications.

Tomorrow will be a workday on the club layout. There are still quite a few odds and ends to do, but it's shaping up nicely. It will be a lot of fun.

Capt_Turk, Foamer13, and RookieRail, welcome to the coffee shop. Have a cup and enjoy. It's a nice place to hang out.

Matt, I'm enjoying your comments on the Concorde. The delta wing is a very capable configuration. The F-106, also a delta, was a superb aircraft, and extremely manuverable.

Lupo, all the Woodland Scenics cars I saw looked really good. The '49 Ford police car and the '50 or '51 Mercury looked especially nice.

Paul, I agree with you about getting older. It's definitely not for sissies. But as we all know, it could be ever so much worse.

Der, sorry to hear about the accident. I'm very glad, though, that no one was hurt.

Ed, it will be a while before I build that scene. But it's something that I knew I wanted to incorporate into the layout. Since the station and the '40 are just right, I went ahead and got them.

Ryan, the mountains are wonderful. We're very blessed to be able to live in such a beautiful place and one that we love so much. If you see that you're going to be back in the area, let me know.

Scott, happy almost your birthday. I hope it turns out to be a great one. The MTH Turbine would be a really cool present.

I'd better go for now.
Have a great evening, everybody,
Tom

[der5997]

A quick ginger wine before bed, and I think I’ll have a small bowl of mixed nuts to go with that, Chloe.
Ryan:

QUOTE: techniques on access for electronics and such.

There’s more at the railimages site in my signature. Hope you find it useful.

QUOTE: I am the same on the insulated or non-insulated frog, still undecided!

As I said to Ed earlier, the Yahoogroups ndcc list has a thread on this too!
Mickey:

QUOTE: when i turn the wonderful age of 21

Cherish it old son, the years have a way of picking up speed! But, I’ve still got 5 out of 12 sherry copitas my brother gave me for my 21st in 61[:D] Thanks for the inside track on ST, BTW.[tup]
***:

QUOTE: Easter is the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon of Spring.

Makes perfect sense put like that, since there must, of necessity be a Sunday involved. It just seems to wander away from Passover quite a bit, and that’s a lunar festival, a full moon. (Proof, incidentally that the “darkness over the land” could not possibly have been from a solar eclipse.)

QUOTE: Sorry to hear about the accident John, but at least no one was hurt.

Indeed! There was some concern for thefamily cat, but it had cleared off in the excitement, and was found later in it’s house in the shed[:D]
Rookie Rail:[#welcome]

QUOTE: Hi Guys. Believe it or not I am new to this internet thing and Chat room thing.

May I congratulate you for your choice of place to visit![:D] Please don’t worry about typing the wrong thing. We aren’t picky about that in here. Some of us copy and paste into Word so we get spell check and neat insert things like é when we want them, but that’s just our preference. Then we copy the whole thing into the Reply to Topic or Quick reply windows. About the only “netiquette” thing almost everyone agrees on is that USING CAPITALS ALL THE TIME is rude (because it’s harder to read) The smilies are to be found by clicking on the “Show Smilies” line in blue at the left of the Quick Reply window. Above that is a Show Forum Codes line that brings up a menu showing you what to put before and after words or letters to make them bold, or coloured or larger and so on.
Do you have a layout? If so, what scale? And, By The Way (BTW), you are about the 6th new person to drop in to the Coffee Shop today[yeah]

That’s about all for today unless I find a whole bunch of new posts when I put this up,
(which I did, so, Noah, Congrats on the control panel thing, and CapeJim, your forced line breaks made the message about half as wide as normal on my screen) so I’ll say Goodnight, and God Bless

[Paul W. Beverung]

One day our neighbor Joe Bob Golden and his son in law Sam were out raking and bailing hay. Now Joe Bob had an old Ford 803 that he was using to do the raking with and Sam had a new Allis Chalmers complete with an air conditioned cab. The tempeture was a balmy 99F and sunny. And I do mean sunny. Sam pulls up to where Joe Bob is setting and opens the door to the cab on his new air conditioned tractor and asks Joe Bob to go over to the gate and get him his jacket that he left there. He says " It's getting a might chilly in here. "

Paul

The Beverung Ranch
Parker and Palo Pinto Co.
Texas

Eat More Beef, It's Sooo Good

[Attaboy]

Hi, all. Just a quick check before bed.

Duke, Sunbury is just a short drive (about 45 minute) up Rts 11-15 from me.

Cape Jim, you must have missed my earlier post. I'm planning an HO/HOn3 layout. I'm going to work on a small HO in the basement for now just for the experience. I fiinished the joint compound today so plan on painting tomorrow. With the weather system everyone here has been watching coming through tonight I may end up with a short work day(dare I hope, no work) and more time for painting. Last forecast I heard was for up to eight inches before it quits tomorrow. Supposed to start around midnight.. I also know what you mean about a lot of posts to read. Started checking in here several months ago and missed a lot.

I do have one question though. I think it was Phil that said he was going to "pop the question" to Amyjo recently. What was the answer? I'm on pins and needles.[?]

[JimRCGMO]

QUOTE: Originally posted by der5997


That’s about all for today unless I find a whole bunch of new posts when I put this up,
(which I did, so, Noah, Congrats on the control panel thing, and CapeJim, your forced line breaks made the message about half as wide as normal on my screen) so I’ll say Goodnight, and God Bless

Thanks for the info, John - I found that how they appeared to me on the browser I'm using (for now) didn't change when I put the line breaks in. Will have to go fiddle with my browser (or another one) until I can actually see things correctly. Dang that hard drive getting sick on me![:(!][V][xx(]

Blessings, and I'm out of here for tonight,

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tomwatkins

Good Evenin' Everybody,
Today did turn out to be a good day. I got a lot done on the taxes. They're not finished yet, but I've got a good start on them. Since we live in Ga. and Louise works for a NC company, we have to do 2 state returns plus an additional dummy federal return showing her income seperately. North Carolina makes it a lot of fun, but it will get done.Like a lot of other things, it could be ever so much worse.

When I worked in Illinois I was always glad that Wisconsin has recriprocity agreements with the surrounding states. I filed taxes in Wisconsin, did the Fed, and that was it. None of this "pay a porttion here, pay a portion there" business.

[egmurphy]

QUOTE: Attaboy: I do have one question though. I think it was Phil that said he was going to "pop the question" to Amyjo recently. What was the answer?

You have the couple right, but the proposed date for the proposal was farther out in the Spring. They just got back from their trip down to Savannah, so assuming all went well I guess we'll hear more from him in a few days.


Regards

Ed

[twhite]

Hello everyone--just spent the day in the garage with the MR, opening up that pesky hidden return loop that has been giving me such fits. Neighbors thought I'd lost it again, of course, with all the sawing, hammering and--ahem!--rather colorful language. Started to rain just as I finished, so closed the garage door and came in to realize that I've missed the Academy Awards again. Oh well, only film I saw this year was SIDEWAYS---a REAL crack-up, by the way! Have to read the paper tomorrow morning to find out who got what, I guess.
Scott--hope that 16th birthday present is a Turbine for you.
John--yeah, I was figuring out Lent the other day, or trying to. You're right. It's really never just 40 days, is it? Played Vespers last night, we had the first of the Lenten Scrutinies, and the choir director decided to take the responses slow, Slow--SLOW! Thought I'd need a sleeping bag before it was over! My head kept bobbing up and down over the keyboard, LOL! Funny thing, I'm sort of getting HOOKED on apple juice!
BTW, someone was asking about Aggro's article on furnace-filter pines--just hook onto his profile, and you can get it up. I've started trying them, and they really WORK! I'm planning on using a forest of them around my now-non-hidden return loop. Well, time to feed Spooky her nightly tuna (Chicken of the Sea, are you ready for that? Spoiled Maine-Coon? No, but at 18 pounds, you feed her what she WANTS!).
Later,
Tom