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

[pcarrell]

Attaboy,

I'm sorry to hear of your water "issues". It really is amazing the damage that water can do. Sorry it ruined your weekend.

[Attaboy]

Evening everyone. Thanks for the well wishes and advise. Especially Grayfox, I hadn't even thought about treating the framing with anything. I got the biggest piece of carpet out today. Wet carpet is HEAVY!!! I still have a small room with carpet to remove. That room has the carpet on a wood floor over the concrete so hopefully the water will drain off better and not be so heavy. The areas without carpet are drying pretty good. Under normal circumstances the basement is pretty dry, it even has fairly low humidity usually, so things are going pretty good under the circumstances.

Hope everyone is doing well or getting better if they've had problems. I'm not going to try reading everything I missed while the ISP was down.

I noticed a new name or two in the CS, so [#welcome] to the new folks.

So here I sit with a a bowl of chocolate peanutbutter ice cream reading the forums at 11:00 PM. Guess that's what physical labor does to you, I'm tired but not the least bit sleepy. Maybe a couple games of solitaire on the computer, that usually puts me right to sleep. See you later.

[pcarrell]

Evening All!

Just a Moxie please Flo, thanks!

Check out what I found today!!!!! I saw this plane flying in the distance, and it was moving too slow to be a jet, and it had a big round rudder like a WW2 bomber, so I decided to investigate. It disappeared behind some trees in the distance, and I happened to know that there's an airport with a pretty big runway over that way. I made a beeline for it, and this is what I found!

click to enlarge




Cool huh?

I know that there aren't many B-17's in flying condition any more, and this one was just beautiful!

Parked on the runway near it was another aircraft also of the same vintage, but I haven't identified it yet. These were a bit before my time you know. Here's a pic or two of it;





I hung around til the sun went down......



but nobody showed up to give me the scoop. Oh well!

[egmurphy]

Quiet this evening. I must have scared everyone off with my reappearance.

Anyway, contrary to normal practice, I had a real spurt of model railroading energy yesterday and today (maybe brought on by the onset of the rains). Finally started ballasting. I'm actually surprised that it's coming out pretty much as I expected. And once you start to get the hang of it, it goes a bit faster than that first foot or two.

Also, once I started ballasting, I figured it's about my last chance if I wanted to paint the ties (forget the rails). So I got out a small paintbrush and spent a few hours today hunched over the track painting individual ties. Talk about tedious. Next layout I'm definitely painting this stuff either before laying track, or at least before starting ground cover. Fortunately, with my eyesight, the "3 foot rule" for me allows even more latitude than for most folks. So it's not like I'm painting the detail on a showpiece locomotive. But it does look better than the straight black of the regular track.

And I even started placing the first bits of clump foliage. Going to finally have a little more texture than just plain old ground foam ground cover.

Wow. All that activity at once. Be still my heart.


And to top off the day, the Boston Red Sox beat up on the Florida Marlins after the Marlins won yesterday and broke our 12 game winning streak. It's also interesting to note that after the Red Sox set the major league record of 17 games without an error (as of yesterday's game), they quickly broke that string with two errors in the first inning of tonight's game. One was by the shortstop, Alex Gonzales, and it's only his 2nd error of the season. Good glove.

Later

Ed

[JimRCGMO]

Thought of one more thing (since I won't get any worse bill now) - does it count for Happy Canada Day that I had Cheerios for breakfast this morning? (Honest - I'm not making it up!).

Gooday (and Blessings),

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[JimRCGMO]

QUOTE: Originally posted by egmurphy

Thought I'd just pop in while it was quiet, and wish a "Happy Canada Day" to all our buddies north of the Medicine Line.

Have a good one, eh!

Ed

[#ditto], Ed!

Ah well, I know how to time it, don't I? Okay PC , you get a reprieve for the whole day today. [dinner] Luckily, payday is coming up on Thursday (if I can get Chloe to let me ride until then... puhleeeze, Chloe?). [;)]

Blessings for all, north or south of the border(s),

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[fec153]

Yeah , Fergie , We know. Next you'll be saying you have an earring in your left ear and a queue down your back. Not to mention a parrot you use to have on your shoulder.
Aye me hearties, avast there you lubbers. move lively!

lol
Flip

[james saunders]

Hows it going gang?

Just a quick check in on this fine sunday morning to see what is happening...
It is a lovely day outside, so I might go to the driving range or something and whack some golf balls [}:)]

I'll check in tonight....

OzJim

[Fergmiester]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SilverSpike

We are busy getting ready for the trips, leaving tomorrow for the coast to Emerald Isle and the Tall Ships at Beaufort. I here some of them are actual priate ships too, [oX)]

Cheers,

Ryan

I've sailed on Square Riggers in my youth but never a Pirate ship, just an Irate crew... It's true!

Fergie

Fergie

[SilverSpike]

A quick HI and Hello to you all! [:D][:D]

And a big thanks to you all for the birthday treats for Ben! He loved the cake and all the party supplies too!

Sorry to hear about the basement attaboy and I hope the drying out process proceeds quickly.

We are busy getting ready for the trips, leaving tomorrow for the coast to Emerald Isle and the Tall Ships at Beaufort. I here some of them are actual priate ships too, [oX)]

Then on Monday off to Asheville and the Biltmore Estate, then Tuesday the old Southern engine yards in Spencer.

Help, I can't get out of the gift shop, help.... [:-,]

Yep, travel agent might be my side profession, huh! Aint got time for that, too much code 83 track laying in my future......

Have a great holiday and thanks again for all the birthday treats for Ben! BTW, he got an RC plane, some model rockets, a few video games and some $$ from the grand parents. He is spending his $$$ on a new electric guitar. I tried to get him to look at trains, but his head is all over the place right now. Oh well!

Cheers,

Ryan

[fec153]

Jerry and Sally- Yes, I am aware of the need for what we do. We / I have made friends with a number of those we transport. Sort of family with some. It hurts when we lose them.
I don't want to get maudlin on this .
Just know, you and the rest of the clubbers , make it a nicer day.
So thanks to all for being a friend. Thanks for the jokes [ good ones and bad ] and for all the
pictures .
Flip

[Cox 47]

Good afternoon....Hot and sticky here today last day of the Martinsville Fair Big Demo Derby tonite....Tootie and I just made a run on my power chair down to the little store and piked up some hamburger for 1.19 a pound to put in the freezer...Got the new model railroader in mail today gonna set down and check it out...Flip Sallie says to tell you that you guys are great she uses medical taxi service 3 times a week the drivers are all very helpfull but as you said dialysis patients have good days and bad days...Flip you are providing a service that is much needed...Jerry

[Paul W. Beverung]

Afternoon Gang: I just got through reading darthsanta fe's thread on his RSD-5. He did a bang up job on it for sure. It almost made me want to go out and get a metal kit and build it. I said almost. I remembered that I have several on hand that need to be built. They have been on hand for maybe 20 years now. Maybe when I get retired and have more time and can get the basement cleaned out. OK so maybe not or what ever.

It's almost time to head for the house. I'll say so long for now.

[fec153]

I have a short break between dialysis patrons. Jeez, they look beat going in and beaten coming out. Heck of a way to earn a living, driving these people. Some are upbeat and joke a bit others are just beatup.
Didn't have my camera when I saw what looks like a gp9 or 18. Hi-nose unit with WFC, and in faded ACL colors. Will try for pix tomorrow.
Gotta go. Back to dialysis and take someone home.

Flip

[egmurphy]

Thought I'd just pop in while it was quiet, and wish a "Happy Canada Day" to all our buddies north of the Medicine Line.

Have a good one, eh!



Ed

[inch53]

Mornin all, just coffee Janie, I’ll take it easy on Jim this morning, besides Mother fixing pancakes.
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood; kids made it in and I can’t believe how big they’ve gotten. I’m hoping the day isn’t to busy, I’d just like to sit relax an play with the kids.

Attaboy , sorry to hear bouts the pump taking a permanent vacation, sounds like a unpleasant weekend ahead. Like Grayfox said, I’d replace the dryer. You can use peroxide to kill any mold that shows up also.

JimCG , guess you could say there’s a theme; her favorite toys are trains, monkeys, and trucks, in that order.

Well I’m giving up on trying to caught up in here, nobody will leave me alone long enough, so thoughts n prayers for all in need, and maybe I can get back in later.
inch

[pcarrell]

Mornin' everyone!

Big day today!

Gotta go help my 80 year old neighbor figure out his computer (Hilbert is great, but these newfangled computers really get him cranked up!) then head out to Mom & Dad's to wish Dad a happy birthday!

With that said, I had best be off!

Prayers for all those in need (OK, so that's like, everyone!).

Later!

[wetidlerjr]

Good morning ! from Indiana. [:D]



07-01-2006

[:o)]

[Cox 47]

Good morning all...Coffee to go please just time for a fast stop...Grand daughter Tootie spending the week end.....Not much train time ..Slept in my recliner last nite so I am kinda stoved up this morning...If you havn't already check out the thread on the main page that takes you to Lex Luther's layout in the new Superman movie....Well you all have a Grand 4th of July...Jerry

[Paul W. Beverung]

Good morning everyone. I see that JimCG is buying today. I'll go easy. Girls, I'll have a couple of breakfast taquitos and coffee please.

Not much going on this morning. I'm getting ready to check the park out and hit security up for another cup of coffee.

Jim: I haven't forgotten you. I've got the ore car loads lined up and ready to go. I got a mailing package for them and will get them packed soon. It may be a good idea if you E-mailed me your address again as I can't remember what I did with your last E-mail. I hope that I saved it, but.

It's time that I headed out. Before I go I have to check the downtime reports for the last 2 days. I would prefere that there wern't any nasty surprises waiting for me.

See you all later.

[ngartshore350]

QUOTE: Originally posted by inch53


Mornin all, coffee and a couple of Bill T’s doughnuts Zoe,
Hope every ones doing well this morn, things Ok here. Work around the house yesterday and more of the same for today, but some progress is being made. Mowing and yard work tops of the list today.

[

Hey Inch,

Thanks for all the photos, really appreciate them! Keep them coming!

Regards,

Nigel

[pcarrell]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ez175th

Sorry about your loss P.C.

Thanks, I appreciate that.

[pcarrell]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JimRCGMO

PC sorry to hear about the additional loss of your cousin.

Thanks

QUOTE: As for your nice pic of the CSX, I’ve found that vertical photos don’t enlarge - only the horizontal ones do (as Ed also mentioned. Go figure! But that one looks nice large, too!

Oh good, the link worked I take it?

QUOTE: Nice pics of that arch, too. [yeah] That could be a good one for a longer span (or shorten it by half for a middlin’-sized gully).

That arch was built in 1910 and it currently has the CSX double track main out of the east side of Indianapolis going over it.

QUOTE: Oh, yeah - I think if I printed out the enlarged version of the bigger pic of the CSX, I could wallpaper one wall of my apartment! [:D]

That's a great camara! I got it for my wife (you don't tell and I won't tell [;)] ) a couple of years ago. It's a 5 megapixel Vivitar.

QUOTE: I didn’t check to see if I could tell what color the engineer’s eyes were, but I bet you could almost tell...[:-^][:-^][:-^]

If you can see the engineers eyes you have WAY better eyes then I do. He was standing right next to me when I took the shot! [:D]

[CSX_road_slug]

Good evening Club dwellers.

Just countin' the days until Thursday. I'm both dreading and looking forward to it, still need to do some content balancing - 75% of my 'dialogue' is about planning/construction, but 80% of the photos are of the finished product.

Attaboy - I feel your pain! My reason for missing the weekend show wasn't quite as catastrophic [multi-family vacation trip and I was outvoted], but still awfully disappointing. I'll be there a few hours on Thursday to do my clinic and that's it...oh well! Hope you get that flooding issue resolved pronto...[:O]

Cape-Jim, great to see ya! Hope you get another counseler or two in there to lighten your load. I'm putting megamiles on both of my vehicles, shunting the kids back-and-forth to their respective schools. Thanks for the comment about the clinic, I doubt it will ever appear in a Kalmbach magazine - first, my era is the nineties not the fifties; and (2) the current editorial staff look down their noses at steel mills (unless, of course, your name happens to be Dean Freytag). But I did get a new website with enought disk space to hold all the slides, image files and other space hogs, so I'll be able to put several versions of the presentation online a few days after the show.

Flip, a Happy belated Birthday to ya; and a hearty [#bday] to Ben! Ryan I'm totally envious, you're a father of a saint!

OMG it's late, I can barely keep my eyelids propped open. Time to mash down a few mattress springs. G'nite all! [zzz]

[Anonymous]

Thanks for thr coffee jim. Ryan hope you enjoyed thr spencer museum?Did you have a time getting Ryan ouy of the gift shop?
Sorry about your loss P.C. Those in the N.E. almost had a chance to add a lake to thier layout.
Would shrink wraped keep water from shorten the track out?
I go on thr needle monday The diabetes has to be broughy back under control.Well a good night to you all and may God bless.
pat[

[JimRCGMO]

Good Evening, Chloe, I’ll have a nice cold Frosty, please. [oops]... and it appears that I have beat PC to the punch! Okay guys, what'll it be? Chloe - let me know the total feed bill for the crew (especially when the morning breakfast bunch comes in!) when I get back in in the morning!

PC sorry to hear about the additional loss of your cousin. As for your nice pic of the CSX, I’ve found that vertical photos don’t enlarge - only the horizontal ones do (as Ed also mentioned. Go figure! But that one looks nice large, too! Nice pics of that arch, too. [yeah] That could be a good one for a longer span (or shorten it by half for a middlin’-sized gully). Oh, yeah - I think if I printed out the enlarged version of the bigger pic of the CSX, I could wallpaper one wall of my apartment! [:D] I didn’t check to see if I could tell what color the engineer’s eyes were, but I bet you could almost tell...[:-^][:-^][:-^]

[#welcome] Pat - have a cup on me (and we’ll go easy on ’s tab today. [:)] As the others said, you’ll find we ask lots of questions, but we’re also long on support and even the occasionally correct info, too! [swg]

About 93 or 94 (F) today - good day to be inside a place with A/C (and I’m not talkin’ types of electric service, either!). Maybe we could work out a trade with Chuck and Kathy or some of our northeastern friends for some cooler weather. The local weatherguessers are saying possibility of some popup showers (which often means just enough moisture to make it more humid, but not enough to cool things down...

***, sounds like you had a doubly nice trip, with the weather holding up, plus two LHS’s. I think I’ve seen the Maine Trains website - sounds familiar, for sure.

Ed - what’ve you been up to? And the important question - Where’s the OJ? [}:)][oops] (Did I just say that?...)

QUOTE: Originally posted by egmurphy

QUOTE: Jerry: Any progress on the layout?

Not much. That's probably why i haven't posted much lately. I'm too embarrassed about the lack of progress.

Hey, don’t let that stop you - it doesn’t stop me (but I hope to get back to work on my layout this weekend.

I’d also like to say the Cardinals have been doing okay, but I try not to lie, so I won’t say much of anything about their performance last several games. At least they beat Cleveland yesterday.

Inch tell Mama she did a great job on J-Bird’s cake! [tup] Do I detect a theme there, between her favorite present and the cake? [swg]

So, Ken - when can we expect to see your article in MR? Congrats on the presentation (I think - let me know how you feel about it after you’ve given it...)! Thanks for the link on the RR Gifs site; I bookmarked it.

Ryan, double kudos - on your layout progress (ah, the joys of wiring.... NOT!) and also on having a son with his head screwed on right! [tup] Tell him we are suitably impressed at his good sense and manners, please. And we hope he has a [bday] So, when were you going to tell us about your second job with the North Carolina Tourism Board? [;)]

TrolleyRob - or maybe I should say Flip - very nice photos of all those brass locos! But we may want to ask our northeastern CS’ers to wait until their wet spell is over, since the drool might just add to their problems. [:O] That is one heck of a bunch of brass!

And Flip a belated [bday]! Hope Deb did something special for your birthday, like a nice juicy ribeye or such (plus something for the layout). [yeah]

We had a bit of a surprise [:(] at work the Wednesday after Father’s Day. They were reorganizing and we had to let them know which of 2 positions we wanted to interview for, by the next day. [:O] For me, the outlying county positions weren’t feasible choices, as if I started putting many miles on my car (salvage title), I’d likely be facing some repair bills and no transportation in the meantime(!). Well, God was gracious, and I got the (one-person) crisis/walk-in services department position (that's compared to previously having 5-6 people covering outpatient therapy, crisis/walk-in and other tasks). They’re counting on one of my co-workers in the office to help cover so I can get lunches (or if I have to go do an assessment at a local jail or residential facility). I think they will find out pretty quickly that it cannot be covered properly by just one person... But, I do still have a job that won’t wear out my car immediately... You might say several [angel][angel][angel] for them to figure it out and get someone additional really soon!

I’m ready for some cooler weather (cooler than just the mid-80’s), or at least lower humidity. Still need to save up the money to get the car’s A/C recharged. The rain cooled things down for a couple or three hours, anyway.

Took the diner (pretty close to being finished) to the MRR club meeting last week, and didn’t get any major flak on how it looked. Hope to get it the rest of the way done this weeekend.

Oh, I won another RDC on eBay recently, and it’s now on its way to me. Me, an RDC junkie? Nah.....[:-^][:-^][:-^] I also found a (not so-)LHS that had the Walthers (background) apartment building kit. Need a place for all my RR’s and town’s workers to live, right?

Gumby - congrats on the Dremel for Dad’s Day!

Thanks for the info on TrainBuddy, Ryan! I’ve added the page to my bookmarks.

ArkJim/JHH, welcome back - glad to see they are letting you off some! I was beginning to think they had you chained to the place for a while there. [:O] What do they have you doing nowadays, by the by?

Trains, [#welcome] back, and good to hear your S.O. is into MRR’ing. Be a shame otherwise if she wasn’t... [;)]

And another [#welcome], NSlover! As the others will by now no doubt have asked - tell us about your layout, what scale you model, a little about yourself, where you are. The usual Homeland Security background check... [swg] (Tee hee, just kidding on that last) (And don’t let Fergie fool you - it’s if you start a new page (aka Top Of Page/TOP) that you get to buy the (virtual) drinks and munchies for the crew here. But heck, PC/Phillip Carrell will probably hit the TOP any second now, so not to worry. [}:)][swg]

Attaboy - sorry to hear about your bad (and worse) luck. That sucketh, big time! I would [#ditto] the suggestions about the bleach and being cautious with that dryer (plus using the dehumidifier). Fortunate that the train stuff was up out of the water.

Well, getting close to time to go to bed (had to go assess a guy about 6:30 this morning, so I had to get up earlier than that). I did get treated to dinner by my daughter and son-in-law tonight. [dinner]

Prayers for some drier weather for those of you (especially to the east and NE) with too much of the wet stuff., as well as those with other needs as well.

Blessings,

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[Paul W. Beverung]

I see *** and Ed at the table in the corner. Hay guys whats up?

It's late for me, I have to go to work tomorrow so it's early to bed. I'll see you all tomorrow.

Attaboy: The same thing happened a few years ago. Fortunatly the sump pump worked and we didn't loose awhole lot and no MRR stuff. In our case a pipe was leaking for a few days before we found out about it.

I'm gone.

[grayfox1119]

Good evening everyone !! First of all, Happy Birthday to Ryan's son Ben, [bday][bday][bday], can you guys all remember when you were 11???? Ben, I hope dad gets you a nice trian set just for you...but dad will play with it too if you let him!!

ATTABOY Man...that is tough news. I had that happen to me once but nowhere near as bad as what you just got hit with. I suspect that the washer will be OK because all the electronics and motor is high mounted. But the dryer may be in trouble if water gets to the coils. They may be Ok when dry, but BE CAREFUL, corrosion will begin and this could lead to a dryer .....>house fire down the road. Blacl mold is your greatest threat now. If you replace the lower sections of any drywall, you might want to spend the extra money and buy cement board. This will save you grief if this ever happens again. I would also get a spray bottle and fill it with clorox and spray the 2x4's if they are not PT. This will kill any bacteria, mold etc. Set the Dehumidifier on extra dry and get all the moisture out of the air also. Moist air will corrode electrical contacts in everything in the basement over time, and then you will have some very unwanted surprises.

Had a successful day today, I got the gear shift repaired on the old Wheel Horse tractor, it turned out only to be a set screw being loose, plus a totally deteriorated dust boot on the shaft allowing crap to fall into the xmission....very ugly mess in the oil.
And, we had a great day weatherwise today. It was supposed to be humid and cloudy, possible showers and TS's, but it was clear all day.....what a pleasant surprise.

ED & JP

The RED SOX won their 12th in a row,

and you should have seen the catch that COCO made. He leaped horizontally at full speed, and with his arms at full reach and his body flying through the air at 3' off the ground, snared a long drive near the track. Then, he led off with a textbook bunt down the 3rd base line, stole 2nd, was sacrificed to 3rd, and then scored on a long fly. This kid is something else!!!

Time to run, see you guys later,

[fec153]

attaboy- Sorry to read about your troubles. At least your main floors didn't suffer.
Good luck with your washer and dryer.

Thats it for me. Have to be up before 4 a.m. Goodnight.
Prayers for all.
Flip

[Attaboy]

Evening all, I have some bad news and some worse news. What do you want first?

The bad news? Okay, late Tuesday evening I heard an unfamiliar noise in the house. I followed the sound to the basement and my normally dry basement looked like a swimming pool. The noise was the 5-6 inches of water shorting out the buzzer on my clothes dryer. There's french drains around the house that drain into a sump pump in the basement. My sump pump decided that was a good time to quit. I started my vacation three days earlier than planned so I could pump out the water and check for damage. I had enough water out yesterday to pull the pump and check it out. It was so old I think it had barnacles growing on it. So I went to Lowes for a new sump pump. Just finished installing it today. All the water is out now but it looks like I have some carpet to pull up and discard to prevent mold and mildue growth. And maybe some drywall to repair. At least my train stuff was all off the floor and didn't get wet.

The worse news? I had to cancel my trip to the NMRA convention. I need the time and probably the money to clean out the basement. So far I know the furnace is okay, I'm not sure about the washer and dryer yet. That's really disappointing. I've been looking forward to the convention for months and now I can't go. [:(]

I went to the train station today to get a refund on my Amtrak tickets. While there I checked to see if there was anything interesting around. There was an Amtrack train sitting at the platform. It was being pulled by a GG1 still painted in Pennsy's Bruswick green and gold 5 stripe livery. Between the GG1 and Amtrak coaches was an old wood Pennsy caboose. Don't know what that was for but it was interesting to see. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me. This just hasn't been my week.

My ISP must have had water problems too, today is the first day I've been able to get online since Monday. It still seems slow even though it says I have a 50.6 bps connection. Can't wait till the cable broadband gets here in August.

I'm going to get some rest after a long day in the basement. Too bad it wasn't layout work. See you.