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

[JimRCGMO]

QUOTE: Originally posted by siberianmo

Hi Y'all - Just stopped in to ask a question:

What are your thoughts regarding high speed internet (cable vs phone company - sorry, no satellites)?

Now that it appears I'm hooked on these discussion groups - the amount of time spent waiting and waiting and waiting is getting to me! Argggggggggggggh

I'll catch up on any prior comments in my morning visit ........

See ya and thanx!

Siberianmo - [#offtopic] Have been there a couple of times, so I'll give you the info on SBC (which possibly may be your DSL choice, or someone leasing lines through SBC, which isn't any advantage, IMHO):

DSL on a practical basis is likely to be faster, since cable HiSpeed is shared among any other cable HS users in your neck of the woods. In other words, as I understand it, if you get cable HS and are hooked up, and so are a few in your area, your speed will be a bit slower than if you're the only one in your neighborhood using cable HS.

On the other hand, don't expect wondrous support on DSL (unless you count online FAQ pages as good support) - SBC's tech support has been outsourced to India, and unfortunately not always to tech support persons with a good command of English. No offense meant to any (East) Indians here - it's more that SBC's subcontractor out there has apparetnly not given them training for anything more than the average "DSL for Dummies" level. You might find one of the Dummies books of as much help. My [2c]. Also, be aware that your rate is only for one year (after which SBC may try to up your price.

Another warning - when you come up on your one year renewal, decide early if you want to stick with them (it's addictive to have that quicker connection), and check to find out about their best offer (online, plus listen for any radio/TV/newspaper ads about specials and try to get them to give you an equal offer). If you let your service drop, you will *NOT* be able to get back your old email address. I went through multiple levels of tech support supervisors at SBC but finally found that once that old email address is gone, it's gone. Your chance of getting it back (if you let it run out and don't sign up for your best renewal offer) is zilch, nada, zero, zip, none![:0]

(Any questions on SBC, email me and I'll try to answer them, Siberianmo)

We now return you to your original MRR/Coffee Shop programming...[:)]

Blessings (yeah, even on SBC),

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[JimRCGMO]

Good afternoon, Zoe, Ed, and Hi Noah - Bye Noah!
I’d like a cold glass of milk and some of those brownies I see in the back of the cake case there. Did you bring those in, Ed? Hey, I’ll have one. And Zoe, could you put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on that too, please? Thanks!

Tom (with the trained Godzilla cats) - I’m definitely no expert on steam, but I never thought of a Challenger as a ‘lightweight’[?] [}:)]

Maybe we don’t really live longer because of the doctors’ stuff they tell us to do - it just seems like it... [(-D] Oh, there was another word I recall that was pretty close in meaning to keester//kiester - something like wierbuschtaben, I think. Don’t know all those German markings/special vowels, etc. too well.

Georgia Tom, hope you and CFO got to Hendersonville okay today (and back). Will be keeping Shawna in my prayers. Good to hear that things went well the last time (same doc?), since that should improve the likelihood of another succesful surgery this time around.

Okay Fergie, you got me on the good Dr. Tubie! [swg] Do you still have the directions on trestle-building you mentioned a (long) while back (no, not Dr. Tubiefaur’s!)? If so, could you send me a copy of them - are they in text or graphics format? If the directions are graphics, any graphics format should work - JPG, GIF, TIF, PSD, PNG, etc.). I have a graphics conversion program that has rarely found an image file it won’t open - or convert to one I can open.

E, I think the reporting marks are part of how the RRs track a car across their lines. You know, those bunches of numbers (or ‘barcodes’ on newer cars) in the corner of the side or frame... [;)][}:)] But near as I know, you have the main parts right on how shipments get across the country (we’ll let the experts correct any inaccuracies here[:)]). Partly depends on how much you want to ‘freelance’ (is that a model RRing word for ‘cheat’? [;)]) or diverge from prototypical practices. Also, have you checked the NMRA or other sites for info (look under operations, probably)? I may look today and see what I can find about it.

Hey Krump, good to see you back in the Shop - you might just read all 1003 pages of posts while you’re sitting there in that chair. I hope you picked the comfy padded one.[;)] Thanks for the update on your family - sounds like your kids are an active bunch. Also hope your CFO begins feeling better. Will keep her in my prayers. There’s not some side effect of MRRing on CFO’s that we haven’t figured out yet, is there? Sure seems like a lot of the wives of CShop members have been having more than their share of troubles medically. Jack’s wife too? We need a good dose of spring to come around.

Jack, your talking about cork was reminding me - last time I was at the shed, I saw (and remembered) that I have a fairly large roll of cork there. I think it’s less than 1/8th inch thick, but I bet I could cut a lot of (no-cost) roadbed from that roll. Especially since my first couple of modules I’ll be building will be industrial areas (which could almost use sheets and carve some low ditches in between the tracks. Knew those wood chisels I have left from my art major days would come in handy some day! Just didn’t think in terms of model RRing at the time... [;)]

Matt, sorry to hear about the delays on your mail orders getting there. Keep at your essay - I know it would always feel SOOOoooooo good when I’d get one of those things done![tup]

Ah the news is on - let me go watch (and get depressed)...[}:)] Or maybe I'll have dinner, since I've had my dessert here! [:)]

Blessings,

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[JPowell]

Well all - Just a quick note to say Hi - Time to go have a few 'drinks' and relax after a day in class. Things going good. Weather is beautiful compared to Upstate NY, although, it did rain most of the weekend. Only have 3 more days left down here till I'm back in the ' frozen tundra ' folks call NY. Will be able to get back to my normal routine of stopping in atleast once a day as well.
Take care and I'll talk w/ everyone next week
JP

[krump]

Jim - thanks for the thoughts and well wishes.
medically speaking --- I think it's the modeling glue ???

other prayer matters:
- my sister-in-law has been in the hospital for the past 3 weeks with 2 collapsed lungs - has genetic pin-holes in both lungs we've now learned. Very serious, with slow mend
- a friend (age 39) suffered a near-fatal stroke approximately 3 weeks ago also. My mom tells me that there isn't much hope for a significant recovery. He's in a wheelchair now, hardly knows the people around him and is in rehabilitative hospital in Vancouver. Very sad for his wife and young family. (he was a healthy, strong farming man one month ago) The Lord moves in mysterious ways...

thanks again,

cheers

[grayfox1119]

Good evening gents.....1st time in the Coffee Shop today......we have a rip roaring snowstorm ONCE AGAIN...the temp at 6am was 52F, now it is 14F, 6 inches of snow on the ground, winds at 40mph, the house is creaking, I'm creaking, the tree limbs are crashing against the roof, Rosie the cat ran and hid under the sofa. This has been one wild winter here in New England!! Is this really March? It sure feels like January.

Tim: We will be sure to pray for your son's successful operation......these are routine operations, so don't worry.

Tom: Did did you get over the passes in the mountains Ok?

Ed: just so you feel better Ed with your 80F, 14F now, wind chills at -15, heavy blowing snow, winds gusting to over 40mph, several parts of town now without power as two transformers caught fire on top of poles. ( three limbs shorting out 13.8KV lines).

Siber: I have Cable, have had it since 1999, never a problem. Speed is 3Mb, yes, thats 3 megabyte. I love it.

CaTom: Problems with cats attacking the caboose? I think the Conductor is putting Catnip in the Caboose!![:o)]

Matt: 1000 words to go??!! Make sure you use "word count" in Microsoft WORD so the instructor doesn't take points off for being a word or two short.

Didn't quite fini***he outlet wiring today...had to shovel snoah once again, killed a few hours. Tomorrow definetly done.

I had better get off the system now, the power line monitor is starting to jump around, we could loose power next, battery backup only lasts about 15 minutes.....

There goes a flash....I'm outa here

[fec153]

Welcome to the newbies[#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][:)].
I'm to think to tired so i am off to sleep.
goodnite all.
flip

[egmurphy]

Good Evening Coffee Clubbers,

The day started out really warm and muggy. I was convinced that today would be the day I broke down and turned on the a/c. Then a front came in this afternoon, things cooled off considerably (we’re talking relatively cool here, guys), and now it’s coming down as a steady soaking rain. Good. We need the rain and it cools things off. [^]

Sorry to hear the northeast is taking it on the chin again. Keep the faith. This too shall pass. Stay warm, ***. [:)]

We usually eat very lightly in the evening, with the mid day meal down here traditionally being the main meal of the day. This evening I had a treat as the wife put out a plate full of stone crab claws. [dinner] We don’t usually see them down here (we do get a different crab claw that’s a bit smaller and thinner shell) but our local fish guy (who comes down our street twice a week) had some yesterday and Fran snapped up a kilo. Yum. Now just enjoying the coffee as I type out this post.

Boy I was happy that someone else bit on a Fergie sinker yesterday. I needed a break. [:D]

Speaking of sinkers (pitches, that is) I saw a cute column written about “Field of Dreams”, the field they used in that Kevin Costner flick about the guy who cuts down part of his cornfield in Iowa to build a baseball field. Some of you may remember the film, I really liked it. Anyway, here’s a link to the story. The people who own the farm have maintained the field to this day, and apparently it gets a lot of visitors.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/DESTINATIONS/03/07/field.of.dreams.ap/index.html

Okay, we now return you to your normally scheduled programming (i.e. sports-free).


Good looking train there, Siberianmo. When I clicked and enlarged the box photo it was just like being there in your dining train room. Btw, I loved that flick too.

QUOTE: My sincere apologies for the repetitive posts of my Polar Express pictures. I accept full responsibility - feel bad - and hope that I can be restored to my place in the corner, back against the wall - of course!

Don’t think twice about it. With only 169 posts in a year since you registered on the site, even the CIPP (Correctness In Posting police) can’t accuse you of trying to pad your post count. [;)]

QUOTE: TrolleyRob: Revan***ilbassa…

????? Okay, what nasty stuff got the forum censor software’s knickers in a knot this time? Methinks it has a bit of a problem in figuring out what’s really being said. “Artificial Intelligence” indeed. [%-)]

QUOTE: (northern)Phil: Is there an old school or armory you could buy and start fixing up for us? Don't worry about the cash, the checks are in the mail! Along with your April MR!!!

I’ll start looking around and see what I can find. Btw, the ‘burro express’ arrived today so I received my March MR (and RMC, Trains, and N Scale Railroading). So I’m doing the happy dance this evening. [insert Happy Dance smilie] I’ll check in the returning FCVN tank car for April’s issue. [swg]

QUOTE: … I'd gladly get Ajo a ring, but she needs to look into getting me a couple of the new Kato SD38-2s, ….. So does anyone else think those are the sweetest things Kato has brought out in awhile?

Actually, I prefer the Kato Mikado in N scale, but to each his own. [;)]

QUOTE: e_bone: ...my pop worked for the M&StL back in the 50's in Marshalltown Iowa. I'm thinking about trying to model "of that time".. is that a common way for modelers to go about their business?

Very common. Some people pick a specific day, some a year, some a small span of years. I’m roughly thinking of 1945-1960 for my layout. Gives me more latitude in the equipment I can reasonably run.

QUOTE: If I saw a train leaving that yard would every single engine and rolling stock be lettered with the M&StL logos? Or would it have had some other road stock included? Who owned the yards... the city of Marshalltown or the railroad?

jmho, but I’d expect that all locomotives and cabooses, and most passenger cars would be home road equipment. I’d guess that around 50% of the freight cars could be from other roads. Obviously the home road equipment would be the largest number, with nearby or connecting roads with a good number of cars. More distant roads less. But you could expect to have have cars from anywhere on your pike.

The railroad owned the yard and all facilities, normally including all buildings, terminals, etc.

QUOTE: Did B&O know where all of their stock was? Seems like quite a chore to keep tabs on all those cars going all over the map.

I’m pretty sure they had armies of clerks doing this. Even when a foreign road car was used on some other line to haul freight (instead of simply sending it back empty) the home road got a percentage of the freight bill, and all roads that the car traveled over also got a cut. Best forum to ask this type of question on is the Trains Magazine forum. Lots of real railroaders over there.



Eight bags of sculptamold?? [:0] Must be some canyon, Tom.

QUOTE: ftwNSengineer: I got into model railroading at a very young age also…..Now Im in my 40s, Im still here and will be for life.Like many other people on this forum.

There are 12 Step Programs for model railroaders, but most of us just learn to live with our addiction. [^]

QUOTE: Siberianmo: I'm beginning to think about destroying redoing a room in our house for an O-gauge layout! Good Gawd! Does this ever end?

Usually no, thank God. [(-D] See previous answer to ftwNSengineer………

QUOTE: What are your thoughts regarding high speed internet (cable vs phone company - sorry, no satellites)?

I don’t have the option for cable. But I recently got DSL over the phone line and it’s a world of difference from the old dialup connection. I’d imagine that cable broadband could be even better but I’m glad I’ve at least got this.

QUOTE: TurboTim: He is going in for surgury Wed. morning 6:30am pst. He is having an adnoidectomy and tubes put in his ears. Seems as if he is deaf in one ear, but it is caused by fluids. Tubes are suppossed ot fix that.

All the best with the operation. Can’t speak to the
Adenoidectomy, but I had tubes put in my ears when I was in my 30’s. Allergies had closed up my eustacean(sp?) tubes and one ear filled up with liquid. Doctor did it in his office, nothing to it. No pain at all, I’m not sure that the eardrum even has nerves. But just a big bang when he punctured the eardrum to insert the tubes. Solved the problem. The tubes fell out on their own within two years and the drums closed back up. No residual signs that I ever had anything done.

QUOTE: e_bone: in the movie "After the Thin Man" (1936) Nick and Nora travel across the country, New York to San Francisco on a gorgeous steam powered train that appeared to have domed stainless steel cars.. Any idea how I can find out information about what train that was?

You might try posting on the following discussion board, which is just for this particular flick. Doesn’t seem too active, but someone there may be an aficionado.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027260/board/threads/

Another good place to ask this question would be on the Classic Trains (not the Classic Toy Trains) forum. Not a lot of activity, but dedicated to this type of question. Be sure to report back when you find out.



Hey Krump, good to see you back again. Sorry to hear about the wife. That sounds very serious. But looks like the kids are doing well. Moving to a barn to have enough room for trains, good plan.

Sorry about your S-I-L and your friend also. You’re right, you never know when he’s going to decide it’s time.



Jack D, your wife too??? I’m telling you guys, either model railroading is keeping us healthy (relatively speaking) or being married to a model railroader is hazardous to a woman’s health.

QUOTE: Will start laying track today and maybe can run trains by the weekend.

That’s a big milestone. Good luck on getting there. [tup]

QUOTE: (CG)Jim: …I have a fairly large roll of cork there. I think it’s less than 1/8th inch thick, but I bet I could cut a lot of (no-cost) roadbed from that roll. Especially since my first couple of modules I’ll be building will be industrial areas…

You sure could. That’s a common practice.



Wow, another epic post. I knew I should have made time to post this morning. Keep well and I’ll see you (figuratively speaking, of course) tomorrow.

Hasta mañana,

Ed

[siberianmo]

QUOTE: What are your thoughts regarding high speed internet (cable vs phone company - sorry, no satellites)?

Now that it appears I'm hooked on these discussion groups - the amount of time spent waiting and waiting and waiting is getting to me! Argggggggggggggh

Stopped in once again - just can't get out of this neighborhood - to see what's up.

Ask and ye shall receive, or something like that. Wow - lots of info regarding hjgh speed internet (cable vs telco), etc.

My thanx to:
bjdukert - fergmiester - JimRCGMo - and - grayfox1119.

All decisions in life are ours to make, but it sure helps to have some "input" regarding the subject matter!

Jim - I'll take you up on your offer of e-mail advice ....... if SBC is my choice.

Fergie - thanx for the e-mail; my response has been sent.

I'll stick around a bit .......

[Attaboy]

Good evening, morning, whatever.

Siberianmo, I don't have any experience with DSL but I did have cable service at my last residence and loved it. Didn't notice any significant loss of speed with increased use of other subscribers. That was through Comcast. Currently don't have access to DSL or cable broadband here, too far out in the country. The local cable operator claims they are upgrading the system an will have it available by late summer or fall. I can't wait, feel like I'm back in the dark ages with dialup now.

Here's wishing all the folks with health problems a speedy and complete recovery. Being under the weather is never fun.

Later

[siberianmo]

Railroading_Brit

QUOTE: Siberianmo, have been admiring the Polar Express set - very nice! I have a small collection of reproduction Hornby O-scale (these were made for a Hachette partwork magazine sold in France, I managed to find someone over here selling a few copies - guessing Hachette are not allowed to sell it over here (copyright?) though it would fly off the shelves - issues were priced at the equivelent of around $16 and included either a loco or car, and sometimes track sections), so the coarse scale side of the hobby definitely appeals. Were I not into LGB, I would definitely be looking at buying Lionel. I'll post some photos of the "repro" tinplate O I have if anyone's interested?

I appreciate your comments. I too have LGB - but ONLY at Christmas. Two sets, one passenger and one freight - double track around the tree, running in opposite directions. About as intricate as this gets is I've illuminated the coaches (carriages - 2 and a diner, along with a postal/baggage car) and the caboose (cupola and side lanterns too). Love that scale and the virtual indestructable nature of those LGB trains. Great stuff.

I'm into HO and if you'd like to see my Can-Am layout - click on "siberianmo" and follow the url for my photos ......
====================================================
egmurphy

QUOTE: Good looking train there, Siberianmo. When I clicked and enlarged the box photo it was just like being there in your dining train room. Btw, I loved that flick too.

That flick will be a Christmas standard - in spite of the virtual shut out by the Academy Rewards Awards. Yeah, I know it got a nomination for some obscure element of the film, but ..........

siberianmo

QUOTE: I'm beginning to think about destroying redoing a room in our house for an O-gauge layout! Good Gawd! Does this ever end?

egmurphy: Usually no, thank God. See previous answer to ftwNSengineer………

siberianmo: What are your thoughts regarding high speed internet (cable vs phone company - sorry, no satellites)?

egmurphy I don’t have the option for cable. But I recently got DSL over the phone line and it’s a world of difference from the old dialup connection. I’d imagine that cable broadband could be even better but I’m glad I’ve at least got this.

Thanx, Ed - your epistles are well worth the effort!

[Fergmiester]

Tom: got the e-mail and I see we share the same haunting grounds. Love the Arctic and I'm scheduled for two trips up there this summer. Who knows, I might even make it to Thule.

Krump: Sorry to hear about your family woes. It's not very pleasent when we have to ride these storms out. Been there and I can empathize all too well. Hang tight as all storms come to an end.



Later Gents
Fergie

[Paul W. Beverung]

Hi All; Mary Ann and I got talked into helping our son John on one of his classes projects today. Spent most of the day getting together a bunch of stuff I've had stored in the old hay barn. Seems his class has taken on the task of converting the old VFW hall to a temporary home for homeless kids aged 12 to 18. They got the mess cleaned up and need about $20,000 to complete the project. To raise mony they are having a carnival saturday. $5 a head and lots of games and stuff. We're supplying a bunch of stuff for a maze and some otherstuff. I wi***hat we had more notice. This is one project that I think has real merrit and I'm very pleased with the efforts of the kids.

Now to bed. I know that it's early but I'm pooped, and I have to get up early and go to work. Ed, ***; I know that is a situation that is forgien to you re-tired types but never the less.

Paul

The Duluth, Superior, & Southeastern

" The Superior Route "

[der5997]

Good evening all: 5 pages to read through, so I doubt if I’ll say much [:D]
I’ll take my coffee to a quiet corner…..

Missed the earthquake ***, but the house may shake tonight in this wind!

Matt: Chorley, hmmm…I worked in Preston for a while, way back. It never fails to amaze me how one can be in town one minute, and in wide open country the next in Lancashire, Yorkshire too.

TrevorG [#welcome] As you’ve been looking in for a while, you probably know that inquiring minds are interested in your mrr plans, scale, etc.

***:

QUOTE: by Fergie: ***: I don't sleep! I build!!

does he ever! This trestle is very fine work, and you should see the rock made from kraft paper by the time Fergie’s through finishing it.[wow][tup][bow]

TrolleyRob:

QUOTE: Did they set up well or was it a pain getting them out of the tinfoil?

That was the real surprise to me. I poured on the dull side of the foil, and the plaster just came away cleanly. (a little relativity there[(-D]) The only place it got hung up was in a double-back fold in the foil, but the plaster was soft enough that I was able to get the foil all pulled away. It’s all set up solidly. Having seen Fergie’s paper rock faces, I’m going to try a bit lass tightly crunche dup foil, to get larger flat areas in the casting.

WesternTom:…searching,…..searching,….If all else fails, I’ll do a screen capture from my video, and post a still from that.

Siberianmo: Congratulations on your new arrival (cigars all round???[:D]) Still waiting for the transformer to build my power supply for the NCE dcc unit. It was to have come Monday, but now Thursday it may get to the electronics store[V]

Steve:

QUOTE: there is BIG money being spent on exploration at present as i think the big companies are getting worried, Shell have only 10 yrs supply left at current production levels, so they have to find new oilfields.

I’ve read where by June 2006 the whole world supply situation will be on the down curve that the US domestic fields have been on for 20 years. We just have to stop burning the stuff, and go to alternate fuels and systems.

Well, that’s all for tonight, I’ll try for some more tomorrow.
Goodnight all, and God Bless.

[red p]

Ill take another jack and coke.You know im really not as think as you all drunk I am

[Fergmiester]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ftwNSengineer

Ill take another jack and coke.You know im really not as think as you all drunk I am

Mind if I pull up a chair? Thank You! Muchly!!


John: Thanks for the Kudos. I took care of the bad spot today and the ballast is setting nicely as I came up with a nice blend for the area. 6 parts mixed grey, 2 parts light brown and 1 part black, looks very nice. The fishing hole is well under way and I should be "trout'n" this time next week once the water "dries".

Night All

Fergie

[revandy]

Hi chloe, Decaf latte, skip the eats, I'm dog tired. The winds howling the snow is falling, the temps have dropped like a rock, we already have 7" on the ground and they are predicting another 2-4 before this blows out. The only good that has come out of this is that I was able to demolish quite a bit of the layout, in the three hours I worked. Or is that play? Before I his nighty-nite, I like to share this joke with you.

An octogenarian, who was an avid golfer, moved to a new town and joined the local Country Club. He went to the Club for the first time to play, but was told that there wasn't anybody he could play with because they were already out on the course. He repeated several times that he really wanted to play today. Finally, the assistant Pro said he would play with him and asked him how many strokes he wanted for a bet. The 80-year-old said, "I really don't need any strokes as I have been playing quite well. The only real problem I have, is getting out of sand traps." And he did play well. Coming to the par four 18th, they were all even.
The Pro had a nice drive and was able to get on the green and two-putt for a par. The old man had a nice drive, but his approach shot landed in a sand trap next to the green.
Playing from the bunker he hit a high ball, which landed on the green and rolled into the cup. Birdie, match and all the money!
The Pro walked over to the sand trap where his opponent was still standing in the trap. He said: "Nice shot, but I thought you said you have a problem getting out of sand traps?"
Replied the octogenarian, "I do, would you please give me a hand?"

Nighty-nite,

[revandy]

OOps it looks like i started a new page, well Chloe, I hear that the custom here is I pay,
so whoever walks in, the treats on me, and wi***hem well, oh, and tell them all, They are all in my prayers this evening.

[grayfox1119]

Just stopped in to say goodnight, hitting the sack early tonight, as we have 8" of new snow to clear tomorrow morning,and it will be coooolllld. It is already down to 11F!!

Fergie, Luc, John, you are in for a wild one.....the barometer is reading 28.97!!!!! The winds are gusting now to 47mph....this is the worse storm we have had all winter, not the most snow, but the most vicious. The winds over the ocean are over 70. And we have another one coming Friday night ????? Good Lord what a winter.

Krump: Sorry to hear about your wife, sure hope that everyone gets on track 1 real soon!!! Prayers will be there buddy !!

Good night gents...

[trolleyboy]

Good evening clubbers. Stay warm east coasters we've got it cold the -teens but no [stuffcrap falling from the sky. Ebone sorry web site should have read www.morningsunbooks.com sorry if I led you to a newspape[:0][B)]r.Thanks cape Jim for righting my ship. Krump and Tim thoughts and prayers to your families.CatTom I've never used the sculptamold it's hard to get here is it really that much better than the hydrocal?I've always used hydrocal but I;'m willing to try newer "fandangled" stuff Ed not sure why I giot bleeped I was just trying to spell Kielbassa I guess the forum system has something against sasauge.[:p][}:)][:D]We'' I'm off to play on the forum[^]I'll try to make it back before the streetlights go on. Rob[:D]

[siberianmo]

Just stopped by for a nite-cap, of sorts. Any Southern Comfort left? Good - just two fingers over ice will do ........

Again, thanx to egmurphy and attaboy for your comments on DSL (high speed internet) - cable vs telco. There WILL be a decision made in the AM! This dial-up has come to the end of the line. Yuck - double yuck.

Fergie: I made it to Thule on one occasion, however the year is a bit hazy - might have been 1957 or 58. All I can recall is the club at the U.S. Air Force Base. What an oasis for a bunch of sailors who had been out to sea for a month! No rum rations for U.S. sailors! Those "zoomies" probably never were the same after we shoved off.

der5997 - John: Just let me know what brand you smoke and the cigars will accompany me (along with a bag of Tim's finest) when we get together this May. Yes - the train is a beauty! Got some of the preliminaries out of the way today. Need a trip to the hardware store for a couple of items, then the shelf railroad construction will begin.

Talk to you all in the morning...........

[philnrunt]

Hi all- Hope all are well, but from the way it sounds, we have alot of folk under the weather.
Ed- That April MR is in there! Taped it to the wall after my crew steamed it out. How about next load to this area you send one tank of smoothie. Your choice of flavors.
A Kato Mike, eh? You're just an old romantic, aren't you? Do you have any Kato Steamers? I'd bet that they are some sweet runners. I remember seeing my first Kato N scale run, it was an SD45 iirc, and I was amazed by how smooth it was. I ended up with 3 Atlas N scales, 2 RS3's and an RS11, and I think they are Kato built. I know they were great runners. But the smoothest engine I have, and it still runs as well as ever, is a Con Cor U36C! It used to creep about at about 3-4 SMPH, and that was in the 70's! I also have a CG30 (a Santa Fe only cowl passenger version of the U30C) and it runs great. I get them out every once in awhile just to watch N scale. I still have a huge soft spot in my heart for N. Enough of that. I have SD38-2s on my mind !
Tom- Hope all went well on your trip, and Shawna is alright. I've been trying to find info on the Copper mining you told us about, do you know of a site I could access?
Grayfox 1119- See you're in here, looks like we have it to ourselves for now. Treats and drinks on me. We'll set by the bay window looking over the yard, unless you want the booth by the mainline. Maybe we'll see some of those Fast Forwards with VCR motors in them! I hear they really haul the freight! And all of the engineers say controlling them with the remote is alot easier than all those levers and gauges.

[Grubby]

Evening all, large coke plenty of ice thanks.....

How did the op go Tim? was thinking of you all day...Hopefully all is well with the gromets...my middle daugther had the op to fix the glue ear.... and 9 years later all is good, so good she plays clarinet like a dream....

A little disaster today.... sent a work mate out to buy some ply for my benches (the ply supplier is near his house and a long way from mine)... gave him the money and the instructions....and he came back with MDF....with melamine on one side [:(]... ahh well, not a total waste...I can use some of it for bench work by covering it with some thin ply. The big issue is that it cleaned out the budget for this week's bench work... and I wont be laying track for another week [:(]

A lesson learnt... if you want it done right, do it yourself regardless of the inconvenience.

Off for now....GN all

[Fergmiester]

QUOTE: Originally posted by grayfox1119


Fergie, Luc, John, you are in for a wild one.....the barometer is reading 28.97!!!!! The winds are gusting now to 47mph....this is the worse storm we have had all winter, not the most snow, but the most vicious. The winds over the ocean are over 70. And we have another one coming Friday night ????? Good Lord what a winter.

Now he tells us!

The wind! She did howl. According to Lisa the winds peaked at 110 kph (approx. 68mph) and awoke several times through out the night as the wind battered the place. I expected to awake to a rolling and pitching deck!

Good thing we only got 2.5" of rain! sNoah foiled again.[:D] And the good thing is most of our snow has been washed away!

Tom: Too bad there's no LHS in Thule as I'm sure to clean it out. As for Bar Stool stories I have one or two to tell but nothing one could make a movie about.

So what to do today? The ballast is dry so the inner curve is ready to be tried. I think I'll work on the upper loop and fishing hole. Might even put a road into the Marina. We'll have to wait and see. More pis to come!

NZRMac has put a bee in my bonnet now that he is looking for plans for a Coal Pier. MR had plans of one about a year ago. What a great project for my next cycle on! Though that MR kitbashing contest looks interesting.

Later Gents
Fergie

[Anonymous]

Siberianmo: Just got DSL last Ocotober or November, it just came available here then, but it is great, makes me wonder how we lived with dial-up, but then I guess we made it without a computer for a long time. Our service comes through our telephone cooperative, as we have no cable companies out here, or big companies like SBC. The co-op does well though, I woudl rather have them than the big guys. we run about 400 kbps now, up from about 19.6 kbps on dial-up, so it is quite a difference.

Greg

[JimRCGMO]

Good morning, Coffee Club patrons! Okay, Zoe, I think we'd better (so to speak) cut off ftwNS's water (and Jack). Does he have a designated driver, BTW?[}:)] And I'll have one of those Ed-OJ smoothies (no Jack, please - I'm at work at the moment and they frown on that...[;)])

Ed wrote:

QUOTE:

There are 12 Step Programs for model railroaders, but most of us just learn to live with our addiction.

Having worked for a couple of years in a treatment center, I'd say MRR's would have trouble with the first step: "We admitted that we were powerless, that our lives had become unmanageable."
Us? Have a problem (except that we can't buy all the ...stuff that we would like to, right now)?[swg] Or... "Model railroading problem? We ain't got no steenking problem!"

Paul, it's good to hear about kids doing stuff to help others out. Don't catch much about that on the evening news (which just may mean they don't cover it, rather than it's not happening out there). Kudos to your son and the other kids for good hearts (and we ain't talking medical stuff here).[tup]

Sorry to hear about our NEastern brethren getting socked by the storm. Good thing it wasn't that sNoah stuff, at least, and as Fergie pointed out, the old sNoah got washed/blown away (so that much is good). Fergie, John, or another of our NS people do you set out the sea anchors for your house if you know that a heavy storm is coming in?[}:)]

So Fergie, how big would scale trout be for that river/trout ladder? And have you thought about how to have one in air, jumping to the next step? Guess you could put it on a column of clear thin plastic rod, perhaps... [;)]

Now that I've put a bug in Fergie's mind, let's sit back and watch him figure out how to do it - you know he'll be trying to find a way, right?[}:)][:)]

Well, better take my smoothie with me for now, Zoe. Tell RevAndy thanks, and that was another good golf tale.[:)]

Blessings,

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[egmurphy]

Good Morning Coffee Clubbers,

Back to trying the strategy of posting more than once a day. Commenting on 3 pages of new posts is a lot for one evening.

Rained softly all night, cool and damp out right now. I love it. [^]

QUOTE: Paul: Now to bed. I know that it's early but I'm pooped, and I have to get up early and go to work. Ed, ***; I know that is a situation that is foreign to you re-tired types but never the less.

We still go to bed pretty early because I get up at 05:30 to get ready to take Junior and our niece to school (no local school bus system). And I’ve only been retired 15 months, so I haven’t totally forgotten the feeling (although I’m working on it).

QUOTE: TrolleyRob: Ed not sure why I got bleeped I was just trying to spell Kielbassa I guess the forum system has something against sausage.

No, it probably just doesn’t like “Poles”!!! [(-D]

QUOTE: (northern)Phil: A Kato Mike, eh? You're just an old romantic, aren't you? Do you have any Kato Steamers? I'd bet that they are some sweet runners.

The Mikado is the only North American prototype steam loco that Kato has produced in N scale. Yeah I have it, and it does run very smoothly. Unfortunately it can’t pull much without traction tires, and I haven’t tried retrofitting them yet. I do have a N scale Kato Mogul, JNR prototype, that I bought during a visit to Tokyo back in 1985.



Okay, I feel better having gotten that out of the way. Now I’ll just have the middle of the day post onslaught to deal with.

Hasta luego,

Ed

[steveblackledge]

Hello everyone,
Just re-wired my BLI NW2 to cure it's wrong direction problem, it looked easy on the pictures from BLI and it was, once i figured out how to split the tiny little multiplugs on the PCB, changed the pollarity of four wires and thats that, done.

TOM, did you find the gondola, was it the cat burgalar[:O][:)]

TIM, how is the little one doing after the operation, trust all's OK

DERR5997, took the bottom pic just 10 mins or so from Preston

[grayfox1119]

Good morning gents......full sunlight this morning, but the wind is still blowing at 25mph and gusting to 45. The 8" of snow that we got last night is blowing all over the place making white-out conditions at times. It is only 11F for a temp right now, but the strong March sun is actually melting the snow off the dark surfaces!!
We were awakened many times during the night as wind guts topped 50mph. It was MUCH worse on the coast 50 miles east of us, it hit over 75mph at Eastport. Hurricane force!!
All six NE states have power outages due to the high winds and heavy snow. We lucked out, no power loss, but my daughter who lives just two miles north of us lost power at 10pm and didn't get it back until 5am this morning.

Fergie: I'll bet you are happy to be off the high seas for this one!!! I see from the radar that you guys in NS received copious amounts of rain. To the west of you, Caribou, Maine and Fort Kent are getting buried!!!!!

Ed: I retired in September 2000, and I know what you mean about still getting up early. I too had to drive the grandkids to the bus stop for the next three years until our sons moved to their new homes. This past October was the 1st time that I could stay in the sack until 7. As I close the Coffee shop many nights here on the east coast (midnight), I need my 7.

Grubby: Too bad about the plywood, but I'm sure you will make good use of what you have, MRR folks are a hearty bunch.

Phil: I missed you at the Coffee shop last night. I should have stayed there with you and watched the mainline, as the winds were so bad here last night that I didn't get much sleep anyway.

Rob: We are doing our best to stay warm, the Pellet stove is cranking out all the heat it can. It's a powerful little stove.

Ok, enough coffee, time to fini***he last two outlets in the train room. THEN...it is time to start the BENCHWORK.......YEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

I need to decide whether or not to use 2x3's for legs to support the plywood tops, or to use 1x4's . What do you guys think who have gone this route?

[twhite]

Hello out there--
My human is out in the garage working on his (our) layout right now, and since I have opposable duclaws, I'm taking this opportunity to set a few things straight. By the way, I'm Spooky (my human often refers to me as the "Princess", whatever that is) and I did NOT steal that gondola. I only steal those little cars with windows and the funny bump on top (I think my human calls them "Cabeese.) I re-iterate, the gondola was not ME! The culprit was that new kid in the house that barks. The yellow one with the big tail. I think my human calls him Wiley (I have several names for him, but I'm afraid that your forum monitor would *** them out, besides, it isn't ladylike to curse, is it?). Evidently this little barker named Wiley has witnessed me from time to time, and not being terribly original, decided to copy me. Not only did he copy me, he had the unmitigated gall to hide the gondola under the grand piano, which is MY territory, thank you! And besides, I don't know why my human got so upset--after all, the gondola was lettered for SACRAMENTO NORTHERN, not Rio Grande. Anyway, I just wanted to clear things up for the rest of you. Oh, hear him coming in, time to jump up on my cat-castle and purr. He seems to appreciate that. He's very easily amused.
Spooky.
PS: Nice to meet you all.
[#wstupid]

[JimRCGMO]

QUOTE: Originally posted by twhite(or was that Spooky?)

Hello out there--
My human is out in the garage working on his (our) layout right now, and since I have opposable duclaws, I'm taking this opportunity to set a few things straight. By the way, I'm Spooky (my human often refers to me as the "Princess", whatever that is) and I did NOT steal that gondola. I only steal those little cars with windows and the funny bump on top (I think my human calls them "Cabeese.) I re-iterate, the gondola was not ME! The culprit was that new kid in the house that barks. The yellow one with the big tail. I think my human calls him Wiley (I have several names for him, but I'm afraid that your forum monitor would *** them out, besides, it isn't ladylike to curse, is it?). Evidently this little barker named Wiley has witnessed me from time to time, and not being terribly original, decided to copy me. Not only did he copy me, he had the unmitigated gall to hide the gondola under the grand piano, which is MY territory, thank you! And besides, I don't know why my human got so upset--after all, the gondola was lettered for SACRAMENTO NORTHERN, not Rio Grande. Anyway, I just wanted to clear things up for the rest of you. Oh, hear him coming in, time to jump up on my cat-castle and purr. He seems to appreciate that. He's very easily amused.
Spooky.
PS: Nice to meet you all.
[#wstupid]

ROTFLM***O![(-D] [#welcome] to the forum, Spooky! Not a lot of other cats (that we know of) here, but you might enjoy that booth by the window. You could catch some sun there, or it ought to be warm over by the stove, too.[;)]

Blessings on your furry little paws,

Jim in Cape Girardeau