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

[fec153]

Good morning all. Not a work day but I still awoke at 5. Darn internal body clock won't let me sleep. 3rd cuppa hot joe is right along side. Went outside and looked up at God's creation. Black velvet backdrop for the stars. Feel so small in relation to the vastness and so blessed to be able to view it.
Wish everyone a pleasant, peaceful day.
Flip

[lupo]

Morning all [:D],
not much going on in the Low countries lately, I am into reading mode a lot !

Flip, your internal clock just woke you up to make the 3000 post on the coffeeshop,
CONGRATULATIONS!

maybe Elliot could change the title, (lousy food, but great conversation) into (great conversation, over 3000 served )

Have a nice sunday !
cheers ! [:)] ,
LUPO

[Big_Boy_4005]

Dang Lupo, I slept in , and you and Flip scooped me. I was hoping to take 3000. On the other hand, who's counting? I seem to recall that counting is where we got into trouble the last time.[swg]

[Fergmiester]

Elliot: Sssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Everything is always quiet and non eventful when you're not around, But then again that means boredom. Where ya been Big Guy? We missed ya.

Lupo:[#ditto] Hopefully you don't live close to that Fireworks factory that blew up last week? BTW we missed you too.

Phil: Yes it is a wonderous sight, something seldom seen these days but when one does it is truly inspirational.

Well another non eventful day ahead of me. Cut grass, tear apart dryer, clean bathrooms, make wine, get Lisa ice pack, look for sanity, etc.,etc.,etc.........

I will hopefully find a way to get some train time in!

[Big_Boy_4005]

Fergie, you know I suffer from "Mr Ed Syndrome". As in, a horse is a horse.... Mr Ed will never speak unless he has something to say. [swg]

I've been a little down to say the least since the election. Some people here are happy about the results. I am deeply disturbed by the outcome, and expect higher heating bills and gasoline prices. That translates into lower train funding.[:(]

The one train related bright spot this week was, that I attended my first operating session in over 20 years. I surprised myself at how quickly I picked things up on a completely foreign layout. It was a lot of fun.[:)]

[dave9999]

Morning everyone,
Brrrrrrrr.... it feels like Fall around here (now that it's almost Winter). We slept with windows open last night
and it feels great.

I have been on an adventure with Bellsouth.... Last week I came home from work to find my home phone,
internet, and cell phones all not working. I called Bellsouth from my brother's house. They asked me
"are you moving". I resonded "no, why do you ask?" Well apparently someone gave them my address for
new service. So without so much as a phone call, they shut me off.... you see I have home service, cell
phone service and DSL all through Bellsouth.

Well yesterday I fired up the computer only to find my DSL dead again. So I get on the phone again and call
Bellsouth. Well someone forgot to pass along the problem to whoever handles this sort of thing and I was
disconnected AGAIN. I don't know if any of you have ever had to deal with the phone company, but it is a long
wait just to talk to someone. And when I do get someone on the line, all they can do is apologize and say
the department you need is closed for the weekend.

This time I got lucky. The person I talked with was helpful and informed a supervisor of the problem. And they got my DSL back up this morning. Dave

[Big_Boy_4005]

Dave, your's is the second story of phone misery I've heard in 48 hours. I got an email from Robmik (Mike) Friday aftrenoon. He was testing his internet service after his ex wife had him cut off. US or Canada, phone companies suck.

Come to think of it Mike sent me a funny email last month, about an Englishman who had a gripe with his ISP, another telephone company. Perhaps this is a worldwide problem.

[tomwatkins]

Good Mornin' Everybody,
It is a truly beautiful morning in the mountains this morning. The weather has finally cooled off in the last few days. We've been in the high 20's or low 30's for the last few nights, which is about right for this time of the year. The days have been bright and sunny. It's a glorious time of the year.

Sorry I haven't been around the past few days. Things have been a little busy and we've been a bit preoccupied. Shawna got back to school on Wednesday. Two of her professors have been very gracious and helpful about her making up the work she missed. One seems to be coming around. One told her flatly she needs to drop the class because making up the work isn't possible. If she drops the class she goes below the requisite number of hours to live in the dorm. She has a meeting Monday morning with the dean of academic affairs to see what can be done about that. She want's to handle all this on her own, which is fine. The reaction force, Mom and I, are sitting on ready and can be there in an hour and a quarter if she needs us. We will see what happens.

I did manage to fini***he Branchline coaches. I wound up modifying the coupler mounts a little to improve the side motion and using Kadee .010 washers between the trucks and undeframe to make them swivel a little easier. I also replaced the wheelsets with Reboxx sets. The new Pullman sleepers have a different and better wheelset than what's included with the coaches. The coupled distance between cars is much larger than scale and I'm going to try to reduce that a bit. I can't pull it all the way dowm to where it should be because my 24" radius curves won't allow it, but some improvement should be possible. I had them running yesterday behind a Spectrum light mountain and they look good. I was running the mountain on analog ( address 00)
and it pulls extremely well. I had the three coaches and ten 40' cars hooked up to it and it went up the grades like they weren't even there. So no worries about it pulling a decent sized passenger train for my layout.

Chris, congrats on acquiring a camera and 50mm lens. That should do well for train photos. What brand is it? How are you coming on the new "Q". Keep us posted. It's a cool concept.

Ed, I enjoyed the piece about the elephant and donkey symbols. It reinforces the point about how effective good political or editorial cartoons can be.The best of them become part of shared memory and culture. I'm glad, as are we all, that the election is over and was decided by the voters rather than by the Court or the House of Representatives. I'm very glad that all the lawyers despatched by both sides wound up with very little to do. The country didn't need any of that.

Der, I hope you had a good visit with your daughter and grandkids, even if it was shorter than you anticipated. I get to tell myself that "Modelrailroading is fun" on a regular basis. The mosr recent time was yesterday when I found that the coaches didn't have quite enough free coupler and truck swing to consistently make it through my 24" curves on grades. They look better with the wheels on the rails, so it was back to the workbench for a little tuning. "Modelrailroading IS fun" just sometimes a litle challenging.

Fec, no offense taken here about the comments about beer. Wonderful stuff, especially on a hot afternoon after the work is done and it's time to relax. A Corona slushie on the porch is about as good as it gets.

Teffy, you are so right about "So many projects, so little time". There is probably a sequence of projects that would be most effecient and effective, but I tend to work on what strikes my fancy at the time. Turning the light mountain into a reasonably accurate Southern Ts-1 in green and gold is high on the list right now. So are a number of other projects, so we'll see.

Fergie, I hope Lisa's back and your sinuses are starting to improve. Both of you being down at the same time is no fun at all. Both problems can truly make you feel miserable. A 12 mile ride in a gale, huh. That's hard core. It's like not letting the summer heat and humidity in Florida stopping us from doing things when I lived there. The weather just is, and you accept it, deal with it and go on. I'm not familiar with Max Models at all. What brand is the heavy mike? If it's a BLI that's a good price for one, and they are super locomotives.

Better go for now and get the day started. The coffee is especially good this morning and it's time for a bit more before we get the day going.
Have a great day everybody,
Tom

[fec153]

Fergie- I'm up at 5 each work day and am on the road before dawn. Watching the sun come up and the colors of the new day appear, that is wonderous. I just give thanks each day for the blessing of sight and the strength to be helping others.
As to making the 3000th, never gave a thought to numbers. Wish I were lucky with the lotto. Didn't even have one.
Flip

[lupo]

Morning all,
I am sorry that I mentioned anthing involving post counts [:0] or numbers [:I],
I was not quite aware of the risks involved nowadays [B)],

my intention was not to cause any trouble [:(] that could be seen as a reason to close the coffeeshop [xx(],

I guess I'd better join BigBoy Elliot and his "Mr ED [D)] Syndrome "

[der5997]

Tom:

QUOTE: The coupled distance between cars is much larger than scale and I'm going to try to reduce that a bit.

Kind of a stupid question, but you do have diaphrams? I found on the Athabasca and Western that they made all the difference in the world as far as appearance goes. I forget the brand, but they made up from a kit, were fiddly to do, but worked and looked great.

QUOTE: They look better with the wheels on the rails

Odd how often this is the case![:D] And yet all that bottom detail is molded on car after car never to be seen in ordinary operation. Do the manufacturers know our layouts better than we care to ?
Elliot:

QUOTE: and expect higher heating bills and gasoline prices.

as I understand it, the "Twin Deficits" that make up part of the $54 TRILLION total indebtedness of the USA are the major drivers of the decline in the US$. It's that decline that's showing up at the pump. Here in Canada we see the decline as a rise in the value of our $, and a consequent drop in gas prices over the last little while. Yes, crude isn't at $55 just now, but that drop takes a while to work through the refineries. Anyway, from what I'm reading, expect $60 crude before too long. I guess what I'm saying as an outsider is that the deficit thing is now largely non-partisan, being bigger than those differences. Strictly none of my business in a way, but it's something that affects us all.

Flip:

QUOTE: Went outside and looked up at God's creation. Black velvet backdrop for the stars. Feel so small in relation to the vastness and so blessed to be able to view it. Wish everyone a pleasant, peaceful day.

Yes indeed, thankful not only for sight, but also for the ability to appreciate beauty and to feel gratitude! Never could figure out the survival benefits of those last two, on a strictly animalbehaviourist model.

Tom: Your glorious day in the mountains has spread all the way up here! After the gales and rain that Fergie was riding in, it's a welcome change! The wind was working with the tide, pushing the sea into our cove. Then about an hour before high tide, the wind veered from South East to South West, and blew the sea out again. We could actually watch the lagoon drop even though the tide was still coming in! Today, calm and sunny. should be able to fini***he well house insulation pannels.
Real coffee downstairs, so I'll go for that.
May drop back later.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Hey Lupo, here's a real oldie but goodie, a real blast from the past. A little something to brighten your day.[;)][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=-1&TOPIC_ID=11158&REPLY_ID=93249#93249

[Anonymous]

Good Morning All:

It got so cold (56 degrees) last night that I had to get up and close the windows. Do John, Fergie, and Lupo remember what open windows are?

I now have a railimges account but when I went to the link in my e-mail announcement it just gives me "blank page". I'm going to play with it a little later and see what I can do. I've got some pictures that I'm not happy with the content but I just want to see if I can post them.

I'm now through with the TT bridge and almost through with the pit, yesterday was a good day - mrring almost all day.

I was thinking (?) yesterday and was wondering if we should take a vote about censering Fergie from using any tool that makes things hotter then 100 degrees F. He might need protection from himself. (tonge in cheek)

John:
I'm ready for step 2. I went to "NEW ALBUMS" and found mine but I couldn't see how to upload a picture. As one of the guys said "I'm a tecno - twit".

Let me get ready for church and I'll come back later and see what you guys have said

Ya'll have a blessed day and remember SANTA FE ALL THE WAY
Bob

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by der5997


Elliot:

QUOTE: and expect higher heating bills and gasoline prices.

as I understand it, the "Twin Deficits" that make up part of the $54 TRILLION total indebtedness of the USA are the major drivers of the decline in the US$. It's that decline that's showing up at the pump. Here in Canada we see the decline as a rise in the value of our $, and a consequent drop in gas prices over the last little while. Yes, crude isn't at $55 just now, but that drop takes a while to work through the refineries. Anyway, from what I'm reading, expect $60 crude before too long. I guess what I'm saying as an outsider is that the deficit thing is now largely non-partisan, being bigger than those differences. Strictly none of my business in a way, but it's something that affects us all.

No John, I don't see any of this having anything to do with the value of the dollar. I don't want to discuss this here, because it is way too hot and political. I had a long response typed, but didn't have the heart to post it.

If you would like to hear what I have to say about this, you can email me, and we can discuss it .

[lupo]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TEFFY

Good Morning All:

It got so cold (56 degrees) last night that I had to get up and close the windows. Do John, Fergie, and Lupo remember what open windows are?

Ya'll have a blessed day and remember SANTA FE ALL THE WAY
Bob

Yep, I do remember open windows, that was something from months ago [|(],
LOL I'd better trade my Nederland for the one near you [(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]

[egmurphy]

Morning Coffee Clubbers,

November 7th is the "Day of the Railroader" down here in Mexico. Not 'model railroader', but I'll do a couple of celebratory laps anyway.

QUOTE: Teffy: I'm ready for step 2. I went to "NEW ALBUMS" and found mine but I couldn't see how to upload a picture.

Assuming you're logged in, in the upper right, on the bar, you should see a box marked "admin options", click on the down arrow next to it and you get a drop down menu. One of your options should be "upload photos".

QUOTE: Elliot: I don't want to discuss this here, because it is way too hot and political. I had a long response typed, but didn't have the heart to post it.

Probably the right decision. I can tell just from minor comments on posts over the past few months that we have posters from all over the political spectrum here. We've got things going pretty good in our little group. Let's not introduce something that might drive a wedge in it. There are plenty of political forums out there.


Regards

Ed

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005

Hey Lupo, here's a real oldie but goodie, a real blast from the past. A little something to brighten your day.[;)][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=-1&TOPIC_ID=11158&REPLY_ID=93249#93249

Awwww yes, and people wonder why that topic was "axed."

Beautiful day here, it is in the low 70s. One of those days where I hate to have the floor furnance lit as it makes it uncomfortable here in the house but outside it is nice.

This afternoon I am going to try to take some pics of the new River Rail streetcars. I am not sure if they will make Photo Of The Day but if one or two is decent I will submit them to Bergie and we will see if they become P O T D.

Don't tell Ed, but I am looking for a N scale table top layout for my new Christmas "around the tree" layout. This can also double as an amusement park ride, within the HO layout, when not at Christmas time. My Christmas tree was one that a lady made for me out of coat hangers and garland. Therefore it is fairly small and an n scale train should work nicely with it. [;)]

Funny to be talking about Christmas when I can look out the door and watch the wasps flying around. [:(] But they won't be here much longer. Hopefully they will take the mosquitoes with them when they go, good riddens too. [;)]

After reading some more of the Spiritual Authority book by Watchman Nee, I am going to try to be a much better "boy". [;)] Sit down and shut up will be much on my mind. Hopefully if I don't say as much I won't be sticking my size 11 in my mouth as much. Trust me, if you start reading that book you will understand more of what I mean.

Bye now.

[egmurphy]

QUOTE: Elliot: I've been a little down to say the least since the .......

.......Vikings got drubbed by the Giants last week! That was what you really meant, right? Could be a tough Monday Night Football this week too. Will Moss be able to play?

QUOTE: Elliot: ... here's a real oldie but goodie, a real blast from the past. A little something to brighten your day...

Wow! Was that the old 'DOS' thread? Way before my time. No wonder it got locked. I also hang out on a financial site. They have one separate forum off by itself titled "Gimme My Stars" where posters do just that kind of posting.


Later,

Ed

[Fergmiester]

Well look what I found on the Internet!



Bob has photos. We want more please!!

Tom: I hope your daughter is able to succeed, as these situations are sometimes unavoidable. For a university to toss someone from a dorm due to unforeseen circumstances is ludicrous. The latest buzzword is "Duty to Accommodate". I've tossed it around a few times and you can see the look of fear creeping over a Bureaucrats face.
Lisa's back is improving but I fear she is out for the count for another week. I've seen enough of these at work to know it means an automatic 10-day sick leave claim.

As far as being hard core, well I wouldn't go that far, when I was in the office I use to ride back and forth everyday except when it was a blizzard or when the wind chill hit -30. Needless to say there were times it was minus 18C and man it was cold, good thing I had battery powered socks and studded tires! Oh and that extra layer of puppy fat. OK Bob several layers!

Phil: that is one thing about not working the Graveyard watch anymore. Some of the sunrises were breathtaking and some of the nights, well lets just say, I haven't seen a special effect that can come close to it! How many people can claim they have read by the light of the Northern Lights or have gazed upon them to the south?

Anyway I gotta go
Fergie

[lupo]

Hi Fergie,
About the Exploding fireworks factory last week: that was in Denmark, some 250 miles north of were I live,
Last explosion I witnessed was 30 years ago when at the local scrapyard a worker scrapping the shell of a WW 1 seamine discovered that these things had explosives hidden between 2 layers in the bottom.
even 50 years after WW1 ended nobody was aware of that
Lots of local communities that used these "empty" mines as flower pots in public parks had the scare of their life. ( and offcourse their flowerpots taken away )
The bang was spectacular, it made a 20 ft deep crater, ruined lots of windows and chunks of scrap metal were found a mile away, but luckily nobody was injured, the worker involved got a few seconds notice: when the thing started hissing he just had time enough to run for shelter behind a concrete wall.
.
I am catching up at the forum , sitting at the puter today as I am kind of
"shopping at a trainshow in the Atlanta area":
Bill Mathewson phoned his wife who send me an e-mail that Bill found something I was looking for, so I mailed her my answer, so she can phone Bill on his mobile!

Now isn't that Golbal Communication [8D]

[egmurphy]

I know I mentioned this before, but I thought I'd expand on the topic a bit.

Here in Mexico, November 7th is "El Dia del Ferrocarrilero", which roughly translates as National Railroader Workers Day. While the day honors all railroaders in general (the railroads played an important part in the develpment of Mexico) the date was chosen to commemorate a specific event.

On November 7th, 1907, a couple of cars loaded with dynamite in a mine supply train in Nacozari, Sonora, caught fire. The young engineer, Jesus Garcia Corona, pulled the train away from the warehouse/station area and ran it out of town. The cars exploded before he had a chance to jump for it. A few other bystanders were killed, but the damage was much less than would have occured if the explosion had occured near the station.

So the Dia del Ferrocarrilero not only honors rail workers down here, but also recalls the "Hero of Nacozari".


Fast forward to now. The railroad system in Mexico is a far cry from the network that existed even 30-40 years ago. It had been going downhill and having more and more sections of track abandoned or ripped up each year. The railroad system was divided up and privatized several years ago. While there have been great cries of anguish from the railroad workers union, and there have been some pretty good cutbacks in employment and service cuts to marginally profitable areas, there has been a great increase in investment in motive power, rolling stock, and infrastructure since privatization. And tonnage carried on the rails, both as gross tonnage and as a percent of total freight carried nationwide, has increased over the past couple of years. So things are actually looking up.


Regards

Ed

[der5997]

Bob: OK, here we go. Bring up the main page. At the right hand side of the white bar that has485 top-level albums (807 total), 25821 images on 20 pages there is a red Log in button. click on it and log in. Then go to page 20, and get to your album. (The exact order in which you do all this isn't important, what is important is that unless you are logged in, you won't be able to do anything with your album, and you won't even be shown the magic button that lets you do stuff. How crafty is that?)

Now you are logged in, your album will show on the right hand side at the top a window that says Admin Options and a little down arrow. Click on the arrow, and a menu drops down. The first is add photos. Click on that.

A square window will open (mine does it on the left top of the screen. It will default to 5 spaces for putting in the details of photos. (Don't bother about the mega thing below it) Change the number to as many photos as you are doing this time by the up or down arrows. The box disappears, and reappears altered to the number of photos you chose.

Each photo has a place to put the file path (don't worry its put in automatically by the computer once you have browsed through to the photo you want.) So, browse away until you've found the photo in your files. Click , and the path will be written in that line for you. Next, type some text or other in the Caption. This will appear in the album withhe photo. So, say what you want about it. Click upload, and away you go.
Another window will open showing the progress, and yet another showiing if there is resizing going on. Eventually, your pic will be in your album , and you can view it there!

Once you have one or two in the album that you want on the forum, let us know, and we'll walk you through the download bit. Got to get to dinner. We'll talk about windows other than Mr. Gate's kind later [:D]

[Anonymous]

Good Afternoon All:

As Fergie let the cat out of the bag I've got one picture in railimages. I tried to up-load some more but when I press the upload button this computer just sits and looks at me.

The one picture that I have up is a United PFM ATSF 2-8-2 with my decals on it.

I'm going to try and up load some more later as we've got company comming in about 40 min.

Ya'll have a blessed day and remember SANTA FE ALL THE WAY
Bob

[Fergmiester]

Well I've tried for the last 20 minutes to get into Railimages but with no success. The site will start to load and then stall. So I would have to say Bob this maybe a site specific problem. BTW this is an afterthought and hopefully you weren't upset with me for posting your photo. I thought about it afterwords and thought to myself that maybe I should have let you do the honours. Sorry! It's been one of those dull and laclustre days as I've done five minutes of painting on the RR and the rest has been housework with the occassional glance at the Forum. Tomorrow will not be any better as I will be taking Dad to the Doctor, going to the Scout shop for son #2, a brief sojourn to the LHS. I really can't buy any more as Christmas is coming, though Lisa did ask me if she should call Bob for ideas! I don't know if she was serious, torquing me or if the pain killers are taking hold. I'll just have to wait and see.

Ed: your story on Mexican Rail kinda sounds like the Canadian experience of 20 years ago where marginal lines were torn up and scrapped. Only to be turned into rails to trails. Then again they're still doing it today. Go figure!

Time to clean up
Fergie

[der5997]

Bob: Here's what you need to do to get the photo posted here.

You need to know the address of the photo.
It is http://www.railimages.com/albums/bobstephens/
But you need to find the 3 letters after bobstephens/ that identify the exact photo you want. Do this by going to your album, going to any photo you want to download, and RIGHT clicking on it. This produces a drop down menu. Go to the bottom, Properties, and click that. A new window opens (it won't take lupo's 3 months, but can be slow [:D]) that shows the address in blue. You are looking for the last 6 letters xyz.jpg It's the xyz that will be the specific set of letters you want for the exact photo you want to post. In your case, the one you have up is aaa. (The next will be probably be aab, and so on)
Now, you need the forum code to get your aaa.jpg onto the forum.
To do that, type img inside the square brackets [ ] Then http://www.railimages.com/albums/bobstephens/
then add the specific for the photo, in this case aaa.jpg You always need that .jpg after the 3 letters. Now, close out with code for ending an image post /img inside square brackets[ ] You can preview the result before you send by hitting thte Preview Reply button to the right of the Submit Reply.
If your photo comes in the preview window, you've done everything right. go ahead, submit, and take a [bow]
Jim's just emailed, want to see what he has to say. 'Bye for now, awaiting developments[(-D]

[Anonymous]

Well AggroJones just sent me an e-mail telling me of Sunset Brass's new CB&Q O-5 Northern for $600. If only I could get it....[sigh]

[Noah Hofrichter]

Big Boy, Did you ever figure out the whole song? I can recite the whoooooole thing for you, I've got that and the Adams family, and many others memorized. Ask me one, I probably knwo it if it's been on TV land. And I can hum the *** Van *** show theme too. Ba Da Da, Ba Da da, Ba da da da da da da, da da da da da da da da da da, whoop boom!

Thankfully I can say I never made a post on the DOS topic, and I'm proud to say so too. None of my stars were earned that way......(but I've made nonsense posts other times too so I'm still not perfect.) It is a fun topic to go read though.......

Chris, It's called the, I-don't-have-enought-money-but-I-really-wish-I-could-get-this-blues. I get them all time. Infact it's a rather regular occurence, it happens when ever I look at a website or a catalog.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cjm89

Well AggroJones just sent me an e-mail telling me of Sunset Brass's new CB&Q O-5 Northern for $600. If only I could get it....[sigh]

Gee, I feel left out. [:(] Aggro Jones has never emailed me. [;)]

And I am still waiting for my first email from Antonio. He really seems to know what to say at just the right time. Notice how he took that one topic that was kind of nonsense and turned it into something that actually made sense.



Noah [;)]

Just wait till you get older. Those "blues" become an every week deal. [:(]

Man it is 8 o'clock already. I better make ####### for bed. [;)]

Bye Now. [:)]

[Fergmiester]

QUOTE: Originally posted by der5997

Fergie: You've maybe time to delete your post of Bob's photo, so he can indeed have the honours.

Talked to Bob after I talked with you and Bob was quite happy to see his pride posted. As you said it can take upto a dog's age to upload on Railimages.

Regards
Fergie

[der5997]

Elliot:

QUOTE: No John, I don't see any of this having anything to do with the value of the dollar. I don't want to discuss this here, because it is way too hot and political. I had a long response typed, but didn't have the heart to post it.

If you would like to hear what I have to say about this, you can email me, and we can discuss it .

As i said to jhhJim, my forum email window doesn't open wide enough for me to send a message that way. How about sending me a post to which I can reply?