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

[CP5415]

Good Day Eh!

Greetings from the Great White North!!!

Thanks for the Birthday Greetings Ed! Molson & the rest of the family are slowly becoming adjusted to each other.

Noah, Great paint job!

Joe, Congrats on the 300th!

Robert, Great Logo, How'd you design it? I need to come up with something for my home road.

Jim, Happy B-lated B-day!!!! I was lucky as my Mom never allowed my B-day to be mixed in with Christmas.

That's all for now

I need to find time to re-arrange my train room as I'm having company over on the 26th
& he's bringing his new Porch! Opps, I mean Veranda.

Gordon

[tomwatkins]

Good Mornin' Everybody,
It's Sunday morning in the mountains, and the snow just started about 1/2 an hour ago. It's really coming down. The flakes are very big and fluffy, and it's very beautiful. The temperature is supposed to drop all day long and we'll be well down in the single digits tonight. Louise and Shawna have gone to Murphy this morning, making one last Walmart run before Christmas. Shawna wanted to get one more thing for her boyfriend, and she wanted her Mom's help picking it out. I'll be glad when they get home.

I think I'll work on the light mountain today. That way I can also watch the snow. It's too pretty to miss. I've just about got the locomotive chassis done. I need to put one more coat of slightly grayed out black on the parts that are supposed to be black rather than green. I'm using a 75% engine black - 25% grimy black mix and brush painting it. Then all I'll have to do is mask off the square areas on the sides of the cylinders that were actually green and spray them when I spray the loco shell and tender.

Paul, I haven't found the article yet, but I'm still looking. Sometimes my filing system works well and sometimes not so well. It's there somewhere.

Noah, I'm very familiar with the trouble out of adjustment whatch-a-macallits and whoseits can cause. You also have to watch out for the thingamabobs. Did I mention that it's really snowing here now?

Pennsyhoosier, that is really cool that your children are starting to airbrush. Ya'll have fun with it.

Chris, yes indeed, 8000 horsepower, and good for one run only. With that kind of power to cubic inch ratio they couldn't be good for more. Think about the skill and organization that it takes to pull one down and rebuild it between runs in the limited time available.

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

[Noah Hofrichter]

Jim, Oh boy would I like to give mysel-I mean-the crew a bonus, but it's not in the finacial report. We'll still trying just to get the line running again!

I finally got a picture of Half of my WSOR model consist up on railimages, so here goes:





My two SD40-2's lead a string of WSOR centerflows, with a Transfer caboose on the rear for a back up move they must perform. Now I just need to get my layout better lit, or a module built, so I can do this on there!

But anyway, missing from this picture of my WSOR fleet is my GP38, 3808, my MR boxcar, my WSOR blue boxcar, and my WSOR RBL.

Well, I'm in here early this morning, as I've got things to do this afternoon(namely working on that building). I thought I better stop in now, or I may not get the chance to today. Well, I guess I'll keep moving, I'll see you all later.

Noah

[Anonymous]

Good Morning All:

Yesterday I got THREE wires cut and placed but not soldered before the teack testing (read train running) got in the way. I ran some locos that haven't been out of the box in ten years. I messed up several neoprene couplers on the steam locos. Now I've got some more maintence to do.

About the December and January birthdays, I always tell newley weds not to have kids with a birthday in those two months because of the "I got you one big present instead of two little ones". Birthday presents mean a lot to an 8 to 12 year old and they don't understand about one gift. To this day my birthday is not a big day that I look forward to and if Stephanie didn't tell me "happy birthday" I wouldn't remember it. To me it's just another day. I didn't even think about it on the forum as I get up before Stephanie and wasn't awere that it was my birthday.

Robert:
We are going to close the office between Christmas and New Years, if you would like to come down, we will be home the whole week. Just give us a call. I'll e-mail my phone number to you. You can have some tea or coffee but no sweets as the doctor won't let me have them.

I don't want to be the only one to make a negative commet but, my feelings have always been that the name of the road should always be spelled out on the loco and caboose. I thought the ones with the name printed out were better then the one with the initials.

Jim:
One idea that I got from Sassi's book was using a storefront on a lower level to hide the track on the upper level and that's what I'm doing with my upper loop. Another idea was to have a building with two fronts - one on each side to do two different things. I'm using a variation of this idea on my layout, when you stand on the outside you see mountians, when you stand on the inside you will see a retaining wall. I have an around the wall layout with a 2 1/2' receiving area on the door side.

Ed:
As far as I'm concerned that guy can go to H***. If he doesn't like, the forum there are many places he can go. A lot of these members are young and ask "stupid" questions but I"m sure that you and I ask the same questions at one time or another and someone was nice enought to answer them like they were a new idea.

If you will notice, every once and a while we'll get two or three different ideas going at the same time and if you look at the names the younger guys will be in one and the old farts will be in the other, usually their is a little bit of crossover depending on the topic. But we always come back together.

I've invited "Rexhea" to join the "coffee shop" but he told me he couldn't keep up with what was being said. I explained that we had several ideas running at the same time and they were just loosley bound together.

Well it's time to get ready for church

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

[egmurphy]

Morning folks,

Just a quick one before I run downstairs for some good hot coffee and my weekly ration of bacon and eggs.

Did I get it wrong or is today LUPO's birthday? It's already mid-afternoon along the Zuider Zee, so I hope you're having a good one, Lupo.

[bday]


Later, gotta run for some coffee,

Ed

[Anonymous]

Christopher: Dang, thats a lot of ponies under the hood. Wonder how many gallons to the mile those things get?

Teffy: I agree with you and Ed, high speed errors happen on here, and yes there are people who ask stupid questions, a lot of times I find I am one of them, but like you said, that's what this is here for isn't it?

Lupo: [bday], or at least I hope it's today!!

Well, we had our 59th annual Christmas pageant up town last night, not many towns can still claim to have the Senior class go to the tree in the middle of Main Street and do a nativity play. It is really pretty amazing, nearly everyone in town has something to do with it. The same group of farmers has been setting up and taking down for the last 15 years or so, and I just kind of got absorbed into the group. Great weather for it, it was about 50 degrees last night. This pic is the tree in the middle of mainstreet, and yes, that is the only stoplight in town (it used to blink, but not anymore).

I've got my streets drawn out on the layout now, just got to lay them out now. Got some styrene that needs to be cut, but I've been too busy to get it done.

Well, got to go,
Greg

[Anonymous]

Afternoon, all. Not much happening here. The weatherman says we may get something that falls from the sky, and is white. What could he be talking about?[;)]

Teffy: I got your e-mail. I'll have to see, but, I may not be able to come see you until next year. I am going to come see you, sometime. I'll call and let you know. And I agree, Bob. The name should be spelled out on the loco, and caboose. They are just experiments for schemes I'm working on.

CP5415: I designed the logo with paper & pencil. It took me about ten minutes to design. Then, I went and drew it in paint. Need help? Please feel free to e-mail me. I will be glad to help you with your logo.

T.W.100: Sounds kind of like my town. It once had one traffic light. Now there are 3. Originally, 4, one has been taken down because of road construction. Nice photo.

Paul: I sent you an e-mail. Hope you got it. I didn't include a picture. The e-mail explains why.

Noah: Very nice pictures.

Lupo: [bday] I hope today is the day.

Guess that's all for now.

Robert

[Anonymous]

Good Afternoon/morning/evening

It's raining again, temp in the high 40 range and somewhat typical for this area at this time of year. The probality of a white Christmas is 40%. OK with me... [:)]

Started to paint the table frame, High gloss black, why? CFO's request....

I've been playing with the toy camera, not too sure on the quality of pictures. I need to experiment some more.

Ed - Teffy and Greg - as you all mentioned, I think that most of us have one of those keyboard, well you kown!!!![;)]

Lupo - [bday] hope you have a great day.

Noah - nice pics.

Greg - That is a really nice tree. I bet the the play was a success. One stop? Isn't that too many? [(-D][(-D][(-D]
Just teasing....

Time the forced walk [:(][:(][V][sigh]

[lupo]

THANKS GUYS! fr the [bday] [bday] [bday]

t'was a very good one, with a surprise I never expected,
as It is a custom overhere to celebrate ones 50th birtday by special events ( I got 50 today ) like singing telegrams, serenades , exotic dancers and any other mischief one can come up with, the family and friends got me kind of worried when it was announced tha everyone HAD to be present at 13.00 hours sharp. That got me worried, what was going to happen: cellular phones went of misterious conversation in a corner of the room, and I got ordered to put on my shoes: WOW I thought, whatever they throw at me, when it is outside in this wheater ( sunny, but around freezing ) it will luckily keep on its clothing.
at 13.00 sharp I was summoned downstairs, was not allowed to look outside first, so, out I went. looking for funny dressed guys or gals silly noises, but nothing whatsoever;

parked outside my house was a bright flashing red Ferrari 308 GTS, WOW they rented me a real Ferrari for the afternoon, and man it was awsome, sure It has no flanged wheels, but I really liked it ! That ride was one of the best things a man can do, keeping his pants on ! I drove it for 3 hours, along the highways in our part of the netherlands, seriously breaking the law, reaching speeds of 140 Mph, and only came across 1 leo, but he could not get near us as he was travelling a secondary road along the highway.
I know this post aint nothing to do with trains,
but at least for today I am a petrolhead:

[fec153]

Lupo- MAN -OH-MAN. Sure nice to have good friends. Glad you had a safe trip. Many
more happy years to you.
Best wishes,
Flip

[CP5415]

Sweet Lupo!!!!!!!

I love Ferrari's!!!!!!!!!

I had the opporunity to drive a Modena in May!!!!!
Only got it up to 100mph.

Gordon

[Anonymous]

Hello All [:)]

I am here but don't know for how long. My computer has been giving me fits and many days would not let me on the internet or even past an error message screen. I have been getting messages like this: "A device file that is specified in the SYSTEM.INI file is damaged." Other messages have told me that other files were missing or corrupted, and I have even gotten this message," SMART Failure Predicted on Hard Disk 0." I have done several reformat and recovers but even then could not get online. Late last night I decided to try one more reformat and recover and somehow managed to get on. I have left the computer up and not shut it down. I have a feeling when it goes off that I won't be able to get back on again. [:(] [V] [:(!]

Lupo [:)]

HAPPY
BELATED
BIRTHDAY [:D] [bday]

Ron [:)]

Congrats on the 3rd start. I had been missing seeing your post. Glad to have you back. [;)]

Robert [:)]

Congrats on the nice Christmas present. I only have one question, "When do we all get to go for a ride?" [;)]

On your loco, many railroads painted the handrails a different color so they would stand out for safety. That does add a little "color" to it and makes it eye appealing also.

Greg [:)]

Your town actually has a stoplight? Where I grew up we didn't even have that. [B)] It certainly is "refreshing" to see the whole town come together and do something like that play.

Now about those cattle . . . they may be used to diesels but you just run a steam engine up those tracks and watch them cows run. [:D] When I was a car host on several different steam engine trips the cattle and horses would "run for the hills" when a steam engine passed. [;)] [:D]

WH [:D]

I think you mentioned something about a "lazy turn." This should give you and some of the other cockpit jockies a laugh. When I was taking flying lessons (in a Cessena 150) when the CFI told me to start doing turns a 10 degree turn was the most I was willing to make. [:D] [;)] [:D] OK, up off the floor and stop laughing now. After a time or two I did work up to 45 degrees but looking back now I realized the CFI was probally dying laughing inside. You guys probally are too. [;)] After several flights you realize you are not just going to fall out of the air, but it does take a little time to get use to it all. And stalls, oh boy, [:0] [B)] [;)] better than 6 Flags over Texas. [;)] [:D] And we just thought the roller coaster was bad news, try a stall at 2000 feet. [:p] (Don't eat lunch before your first stall though. [:p] [;)] )

And speaking of flying I noticed that Dan has began posting here again. I did send him an email hoping he would help us get Fergie a WWII destroyer but he has been focused on paint. [;)]

And in one of my flying magazines I noticed an article about the Concord being "barged" up the river to the Intrepid Sea-Air Space Museum. They took away a destroyer (WWII no less) to make room for the Concord. So their is one "floating" (pun intended) around somewhere. [:p] [;)]

And on that same type of news . . . North Little Rock has acquired a submarine [:0] that is sometimes open to the public to go down into. Normally there is a $5 charge to see inside it but they do have special days where it is free. So far I have not been able to make it. But since it is near the Bearing Cross Railroad Bridge will make a stop by it one of these days. Here is a link to some info if anyone is interested.

http://www.northlr.org/maritime-museum/

North Little Rock is also trying to save a WWII ship that survived the December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack. That ship is the U S S Hoga.

Well I once again wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year. I work Monday night then Tuesday morning will be taking off to head to Missouri for a family Christmas holiday. Last year I was able to get a few photos of trains while at the farm. This last Thanksgiving the weather did not cooperate so I hope December's weather will do so and I can snap some shots. [;)] I will be back sometime after next Sunday or Monday depending on the weather and other events. Everyone take care and stay safe and warm. [:)]

[egmurphy]

Just for kicks, I finally uploaded a photo of me onto "My Profile" page. So if any of you are interested, just click on my name at the start of any post and you can see me in all my bearded glory. The photo was taken this summer as I enjoyed the ride on the Cumbres & Toltec.

Regards

Ed

[Anonymous]

Noah [8D]

I just received an email and a downloadable photo from Ed in Houston. He works for a belt/port railroad down there.

That lucky duck just got a pic of WSOR 503149. He has even posted about it in the "Where Is It" hread although I have not read his post there yet.

Some people have all the luck. [;)]

[egmurphy]

Evening Coffee Clubbers,

Hope everyone enjoyed their Sunday afternoon. I suspect some enjoyed it more than others, eh Lupo!!! Wow, what a birthday present.

QUOTE: Gordon: Molson & the rest of the family are slowly becoming adjusted to each other.

Yeah, it takes a bit, but it’s usually a lot of fun at this stage.

QUOTE: Tom: …the snow just started about 1/2 an hour ago. It's really coming down. The flakes are very big and fluffy, and it's very beautiful…

”I’m dreaming of a White Christmas, just like the ones I used to know…..” (strains of der Bingle in the background [{(-_-)}] …….crooning my favorite all time Christmas carol). Sniff…..no White Christmas for me…..sniff……. [:(]


Nice looking locos and cars, Noah. Do you have any type of photo editing program with that camera? A little judicious cropping would make the photos even better. Like maybe..

QUOTE: Teffy: I don't want to be the only one to make a negative commet but, my feelings have always been that the name of the road should always be spelled out on the loco and caboose.

But Bob, I don’t have room on my Normal sized locos to put "Ferrocarril de Veracruz Norte" on the sides…….. [:D]

My point about the guy who was complaining about the forum wasn’t just that he was complaining (heck, anyone’s allowed to do that, even if I don’t think it’s justified) but that he was complaining about the spelling errors and made one in his own post.

QUOTE: I explained that we had several ideas running at the same time and they were just loosley bound together.

I’ll say. Maybe next time Elliot wants to edit the name of the Coffee shop thread he ought to consider “The Coffee shop – A Stream of Consciousness” (or unconsciousness, as the case may be).

QUOTE: Greg: …there are people who ask stupid questions….. but like you said, that's what this is here for isn't it?

No such thing as a “stupid” question. And yep, that’s what the forum is here for. The club here at the Coffee Shop is just a side benefit of Kalmbach providing the forum.

That’s really great about the Christmas pageant. I’m happy to learn that there are still places in the heartland that haven’t succumbed to political correctness. Maybe there’s hope for the country yet.


Hasta luego,

Ed

[egmurphy]

I’m back already. You guys are too prolific.


Robert, I may call upon you to help me with a logo too. My efforts in “Paint” look like something a kindergarten kid made. Of course, it would be good if I came up with a concept first.


Jim, when I got my private pilot’s license almost all my training was in a 150 too. I absolutely hated stalls, especially ‘power on’ stalls. It’s a funny coincidence that you posted about that today. After reading of Lupo’s great 50th, I was thinking back to whether I’d ever had a really memorable birthday. And I recalled that I was taking lessons for my private pilot’s license when I turned 30. That afternoon I went out with my instructor and we practiced spins. With a 150 you not only had to force it into a spin, but you had to hold the flaps and rudder crossed to keep in spinning. The standard recovery was to just take your hands and feet of the controls and let it right itself. The instructor was quite a bit younger than I, and he was amazed that a guy turing 30 would want to go out and do spins!

QUOTE: North Little Rock has acquired a submarine…

And here I thought you were landlocked (just kidding).


Later

Ed

[fec153]

Why now? Couldn't you Canuks and other Northerners have sent some of your cold weather down during the summer? We do not need this freezing temperature in Fla.
You could have sent some antifreeze with it. [100 proof vodka or single malt scotch-
got the idea?][:D][:D].
Flip

[fec153]

Seriously- I have 2 sets of passenger cars. Both are 72 footers. They look bad on my 22" radii. Does anyone make 60' pass. cars?
Flip

[fec153]

Darn it-forgot, H.O.
Forgetful Flip

[egmurphy]

QUOTE: Phil: Does anyone make 60' pass. cars?

You can, with your trusty razor saw. It's harder to make 72 footers out of 60 footers.

btw, congrats on making the first post on page 200 of the Coffee Shop!!!



Regards

Ed

[Anonymous]

Good Evening All:

Flip:
OK Streamliner makes shorty passenger cars and they look darn good. They are aluminum extruded bodies. They make them in 80'and 60' lengths. They have had ads in MR and are in Hankamer NY, I think. The guys father owned Hankamer machine works and started the car line because no one had aluminum bodies. Tomorrow, during the day, I'll see if I can find some of their kits. At one time I owned one of eveyone of the shorties (60').

Have a blessed day and remember SANTA FE ALL THE WAY
Bob

[Anonymous]

Just thought I'd pop in and say goodnight.

egmurphy: When you're ready, e-mail me.[tup] I'm not a professional, I just take my time. Circles are the hardest.

fec: also, congrats for the post on the 200th page.

'til, later

Robert

[Paul W. Beverung]

fec; I've been woundering who would open page 200. Congrats. So you opened it and than you tried to fill it? Really. ( kidding ) I think that Walters has some heavy weight cars in the 60 ft length.

I once laid a Huey over on it's side about 80 dagres. Went down at 3000 ft/ min, pulled out with the skids in the grass doing 90kts. Fun!

They are saying that we may get snow and/or freezing rain Wednesday. Noah close the gate and keep that stuff up there. Well if it does I've got some vacation coming and can take a day to wait it out if it does. To be honest I like the snow. It's a nice change to the 100s we get in the summer.

To everyone on the birthday list. Many Happy Returns.

Paul

the Duluth, Superior, & Southeastern

" The Superior Route "

[der5997]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Noah Hofrichter
Well, I ahve really, really good news. I found the problem with my SD40-2 that wasn't running well, got here fixed, and cleaned, and now she runs better than the one that was running good at first!

Congratulations![tup] Care to share what was wrong, and how you fixed it (apart from the cleaning)
BTW, If you've been asked this and answered it already, I'm working in Page 198, and haven't got caught up.[:I]

QUOTE: I just went to rail images, and my browser can't find my site. That explains why I can't see Robert's pictures either. Ed or Der, do you guys know anything? They wouldn't be in the process of that switch of servers, would they?

Something like that. A much greater bandwidth with another outfit I think. They need a couple more advertisers and a few more of us to subscribe. Even a small amount will help, they say.

QUOTE: By Tom: Trainwreck100, MicroScale has lots of letter and number sheets available in many different fonts. The white lettering is very opaque, and covers very well. I've used a lot of these letters and numbers and really like them.

[#ditto] I like lettering with tranfers much better than the dry transfers, especially once I discovered and understood the way to use Solvaset with the transfers. (let it do its thing, and don't try to fiddle with the transfer once the S. has been applied.) I did make a burnishing tool for dry transfer letters, more to see if I could than from necessity. It's a "Pocket" hobby knife with a ground down hair grip instead of the blade. It can detach on letter at a time with ease in Horribly Oversized. I haven't tried it in Normal.

BTW, here's a couple of A&W RR shots showing white letters and stripes on dark grounds. These are MicroTrains transfers, and colour tranfser sheet material for the stripes and heralds. (Not that you can see the heralds, but they are 2 layer ovals, with the A&W as a third layer in the centre.)

QUOTE: Gee whiz, how many of you are /or have birthdays this month? Lupo's is tomorrow. Thats 3 . { if 1/2 yr counts, I'm 4th}.to all, and to all happy RR ing.Flip

Guilty as charged, the 30th, and a year before Bob put in an appearance[(-D] Thanks,Flip, and thanks too for the emails.

Noah (again)

QUOTE: My two SD40-2's lead a string of WSOR centerflows, with a Transfer caboose on the rear for a back up move they must perform.

Isn't that THE transfer caboose? Your paint looks great for the locos, too.

Bob:

QUOTE: About the December and January birthdays, I always tell newley weds not to have kids with a birthday in those two months because of the "I got you one big present instead of two little ones". Birthday presents mean a lot to an 8 to 12 year old and they don't understand about one gift.

Ouch! Too painful!!! For me it was "This will do for your Christmas and Birthday" Some memories take a time to die!

Greg:

QUOTE: This pic is the tree in the middle of mainstreet, and yes, that is the only stoplight in town (it used to blink, but not anymore).

Sounds a bit like Sheet Harbour. It took us 2 years to get theburned out bulb in a cross walk changed. The street is also a Provincial Highway, and Sheet Harbour is part of the Halifax Regional Municipality, but in the rural, rather than the Metro bit (where Fergie and Luc live). So, this bad bulb thing was batted between the HRM and the Province's Department of Highways. We even asked our Federal representitive to try to break the log jam. No good, since Highways are a Provincial matter...etc... [banghead][banghead][banghead]

QUOTE: Seriously- I have 2 sets of passenger cars. Both are 72 footers. They look bad on my 22" radii. Does anyone make 60' pass. cars?Flip

Athern did, I think. Compare the passenger cars in the train by the grain elevators above, with the 60' grain cars below them. I think those are Athern, but I can't be sure now. My memory is Horribly Overstreached! [:D]

There, that's got caught up to page 200. This thing just doesn't want to quit.
The ash in the lower yard is slowly drying. In the end I used dilute white glue on the whole thing. And, yes Ed, a turkey baster on the larger areas. [C=:-)] Trouble is, i haven't done any of this for some time, and not in Normal. So, I forgot just how much the dilute glue flows. As a result, I've had to do a quick re-habilitate of all the turnouts in the yard. Only time will tell if Iv'e been successful with that. Next time, I'll do the ballast in the vicinity of the turnouts with full strength white glue painted on, and the ballast drifted onto that. When that's dry it should act as a barrier to any advancing flood of dilute glue used for the main part.

[bday] belated to lupo, (pic of the F didn't open, but why increase jealousy anyway [(-D]) ; and Happy Birthday to the rest of December crowd.
Must get to bed.[zzz]
God Bless, and Goodnight.

[Anonymous]

Evening Y'all

Ed: What'd you think of the C&T? Great ride isn't it? I'd like to go to the other end up at Durango, but haven't done it yet.

Lupo: Sounds like fun!!!

Der: Thanks for the pics and the info., I am working on finding a suitable loco, then I'll get to work on painting.

Flip: Thanks for your post, I've been looking for something shorter than an 85' too. 60 would fit almost perfect.

Got some more shimming and adjusting done on the track, it gets closer to being able to run a steamer on it every time I work on it. It's getting late, and I probably better go.

Good Night,
Greg

[JimRCGMO]

QUOTE: Originally posted by egmurphy


...<snip>...
Larry - nice that you are getting both the kids involved. Especially that they're getting some good experience in air brushing at an early age.

...<snip>...
I was reading through comments on the thread/poll regarding how people thought the forum was. One guy complained about the "grammer and spelling mistakes". I had to bite my virtual tongue to keep from responding. I tend to just overlook that kind of error, and thought it was the height of foolishness on his part to complain while making a spelling error! I finally decided there was nothing to be gained by pointing out his own error to him.

Heck, Ed, we can always blame our spelling errors on a bad keyboard, right? Or was that because my keyboard caught a virus??[:O][;)]

Oh, and Larry, don't let the kids know about the child labor laws just yet, either![:D]

Noah, you did one amazing camouflage job on your layout! I couldn't even tell where the tracks left off and the ballast begins... [(-D][:-,] Okay, actually the engines look really nice (probably almost as good as they run now)!

Gordon, my Mom didn't either - I think it was my brother after I had moved out that threatened to combine the presents. But I could be wrong.[:)] Hey, your guest coming over reminded me of a joke (you've probably heard it)... Oh, and thanks for the belated birthday present - we got a bit of Arctic breeze this morning. [:-^]

Flip, we only saw a few flakes today so far (no, the white kind, that fall from the sky!). But it sure was a cold breeze blowing. I guess the CP hoppers must have a leak in some of their cars, and most of the snow fell out on the way here. Y'think? Probably was in the low 20's (maybe high teens) (Fahrenheit, for those who think metrically). [;)]

Hey, Chris (borrowing from a letter in MRR), you could work on some structures or do weathering on rolling stock or structures, if your layout isn't gonna be available for running just now. (Just a suggestion - you might *hate* working on structures for all I know).

Okay, Teffy, tell us what you *really* think about the guy griping about poor "grammer" and spelling. [;)] But I will agree with you, if the guy's gonna watch that closely, he has too much time on his hands that (IMHO) could better be spent working on _his_ layout. [2c]

Good idea about the two-faced (I mean, two-sided) structures, Teffy! I'll take a look and see if I have somewhere I can use it.[tup]

Hey, Lupo - Sounds like [bday] you had a great one! I'm sending a hopper full of confetti your way! I figure you can use it for some interesting scenery paste mix, right?[;)] A Ferrari drive sure beats the black balloons they give most people for their 40th (I managed to slide by mine without anyone knowing - must be my boyish good looks, huh...) [}:)][8D][;)] Hope they don't use those camera/radar setups some areas here in the US have (where they send you a photo of you speeding, along with your fine to pay by mail). But then again, it was a rental, so it'd be hard to trace it down to you! [:D]

Jim, you reminded me with your story of the first time I flew into the KC (Kansas City) airport - It sure seemed as if the pilot stood the airliner on its wing when he made the final turn for the landing approach. But I'm sure it wasn't you, though![:)][;)]

Hmm, I'm having these images of a bunch of cars crossing the North Little Rock bridge at rush hour, looking over and seeing a periscope looking back at them. Heh, heh, heh. [4:-)][}:)] Never would've guessed NLR would get a submarine... I'll have to tell my daughter and son-in-law so they can razz some friends of theirs who live down that way.[:)]

Paul, have to tell you, you better not try doing loops in Hueys - it's not good for your health![;)]

I'll agree with Der and Ed, it's not a quick thing to catch up, with as many (and as long) as they are. I usually end up opening another window for my post and read through as I go, and tonight I think Ed and Der were ahead of me with their posts, with me still trying to catch up. [:)]

I never did figure out how they figure the star(s) here. Nothing I found explains it. Plus, sometimes I post and my count doesn't change at all, other times it does. Glad I don't have to understand it all and how it works... [:)]

Well, evening news (and weather) is on, and I want to see if we made it to 25 degrees today or not. It's felt a bit cooler in my apartment, I know that. Gonna get the blanket out (again) tonight, after I have a cup of mocha to warm my toes before I head off to bed.[zzz]

A peaceful rest for everyone tonight, and thanks for getting the coffee pot ready earlier, Ed. Good batch!

Jim in (now colder) Cape Girardeau

[PennsyHoosier]

QUOTE: Originally posted by egmurphy

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"

Ed, I checked out your picture. It looks like you're on the way to fulfilling the quote in your signature. [:D] Actually, it's a very nice touch. If I could ever find my digital camera, I would put one up of myself. But that might scare everyone off and shut down the forum. [:0]

[PennsyHoosier]

COLTS WIN!!!!!

Wow, what a game!

Lawrence, the happy Hoosier

[philnrunt]

You guys are typing fools now let me tell ya! Or maybe "prolific" is a kinder way of saying it. Catching up on 5 or 6 pages takes quite awhile.
Robert- i really like the modern look of the scheme, looks like a good design to me.
Flip- I took as big a helping of the cold weather coming your way as I could, it's 3 right now. I'm sure Lawrence also carved as big a piece as he could stand. But we knew that you folks get tired of all of that 70 and 80 degree C-mas weather, so we left enough of it to go around! Hang in there Ed, it might even make it down your way. What do you do if it gets cold? Eat extra Habeneros?
Went to the LHS (Veaches)in Richmond the other day, ended up getting 2 Athearn RTR tanks, wanted Atlas but they don't carry the rolling stock. I asked the manager about it and we ended up looking at his catalogs and he said he would consider picking up some and see how it goes. Someone in retail sales that actually listens to the customer is a rare event, they will get more of my money.
TW100- about 5 pages back you said the fleeing perp was lucky the dog got him, not the deputy. In my experience, you MIGHT be able to reason with a deputy, but the K9 is rather single minded in his pursuit, and there's no making him see it your way. When we bring in a dog, the officers are warned and generally clear the area to let the pup focus on his job.
Lupo- I would add my paltry b-day wish, but it sounds like your friends are taking plenty good care of you!
Happy Holidays to all, and don't forget our troops that are going in harm's way. They are the true heros of this world, and they don't make 40 million a year!

[pedromorgan]

good morning evvryone

i did my first few resin castings over the weekend. they turned out really well. much better than expected. there are a few air bubbles but they are in plaves that could be filled withought too much problem. i rather stupidly did the trailer guards standard coach first (they are only used on intercitys and even there there is only one of them so) i have cast 6 and that should be a lifetime supply. next i will do a open forst as this bodyshell is shared with the open second and an EMU which i want to kit bash. then i will do a sleeper (have you seen the prices lima Mk3 sleepers are going for on ebay £50+) i have 3 of them but at that price i dont want to go chopping them with a razor saw!

i am still to cast the roofs, underframes and bogies which are shared with all these coaches.

peter