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

[trainfan1221]

To NJMike,
Can't help but notice your little quote about NJTransit. Is it some personal experience or just a joke? I'm don't mean this in a nasty way, but from one Jerseyan to another and since transit is my local railroad I have to admit I'm curious. At least you have a lot of railroad history out your way, if no actual railroads. Come east and hang out at the River line, we do get a train occasionally, and I do mean occasionally!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 4884bigboy

P.S. You guys like the 844 in my sig[?][:)]

[tup][tup]Yep--definitely two thumbs up, IMHO.[:D]

[Anonymous]

hi i'll have a black with two sugars

[egmurphy]

Evening folks,

Two stupid problems have me posting this late in the day. First the power went off (not that unusual around here, unfortunately) at about 04:00 this morning and didn’t come back on until around noon. I don’t mind telling you it was getting a bit warm around here before it came back. DW and I even went to the market for a while just to get into some a/c.

Then I came back and forgot my hard-learned rule of writing my posts outside the forum software. For anything long I usually write them in Word, then paste into the quick reply window. Too much in a hurry, writing directly in the quick reply window, and then I suppose I hit some extraneous key because whoosh, it was gone. Kind of p’d me off and I logged off before doing something stupid with my keyboard.

Anyway, let’s see if I can remember the comments I wanted to make. First, it was a real coincidence that Jonathon talked about Gatorade, as I had a tall glass at my side as I read the post. It’s one of several key weapons in my continuous fight against dehydration down here, along with Cuba Libres, cerveza, and iced coffee, of course! When that stuff first came out I couldn’t stand the taste. But they’ve really improved it over time and we go through a lot of it these days.

Yeah great train icon. I’ve always wondered where you guys get those great little train drawings, whether still or animated. Is there a way to get one and customize it for a fictitious railroad?

Phil – thanks for the tip about on line access through libraries.

Bill and Tom – yeah, I’ve heard real good things about your area from other sources. I’d love to take a drive up through that area some day.

I’m really looking forward to the trip. The last narrow gauge train I rode was the old Roaring Camp and Big Trees RR, but that was back in 1983, 21 years ago. I haven’t even been in southern Colorado in about 20 years. I remember driving through there and being awed by the scenery. Stopped very briefly in Durango, didn’t ride the train, but kind of made a mental note to come back some day. Glad I’ve lived long enough to do it. I plan on taking a lot of photos, my only problem is uploading them to RailImages through my slow connection. I still haven’t uploaded the ones of the rail trip we made down in southern Mexico back in April.

Jim – I haven’t even visited the Classic Trains forum yet, but might do so now after your suggestion. I get all 3 magazines (MR, T, CT), it just didn’t occur to me to wander over there.

Speaking of speed of connections, let me ask you guys something. I’m not trying to establish how fast your connection is, I’m sure I come out last in that, but I’m curious about the relative speeds that the different model railroading forums load on your computers. The only 3 that I usually frequent are Atlas (well I was a frequent visitor there), here, and RailWire. On my machine Railwire loads very fast. Atlas was okay, slower than railwire, but still acceptable. This forum, on my machine, is painfully slow, kinda like watching paint dry. It’s common to take 1 ½ - 2 minutes or more to load one thread. I have had occasions where I have clicked on a thread here, and while waiting for it to load, opened another browser window, went to Railwire, logged in, went to N scale forum, opened and read at least one thread, and returned to here before the thread here had completed opening. How do you guys find the relative speeds of the different forums?

Anyway, enough for now. Hopefully we won’t lose power tonight.

Hasta mañana

Ed

[philnrunt]

Ed- I wasn't on Atlas long enough to really compare speeds. This one does seem to take a bit of time, but I have nothing else to compare it to. I think I will try that Railwire site you mentioned.
Also, this does bring up a question I've wanted to ask- How many of you visit alot of the other forums here? I went into the Garden Rys once or twice, and the other day into the Trains site, but I hav'nt made it a habit of checking them out regularly.I'm lucky to remember what posts to check back on here.
This is my first experience with forums of any kind, I need to check into 4-wheeling and camping, from what I understand there are forums for about anything.
I guess until you try different things, your first (car, girl, forum) is the best. I feel at home here, even with all of the hellraising over UP and Horizon.
And Ed, you have got me hooked on iced joe, I had a big frosty mug today. That stuff is mighty tasty!

[Anonymous]

I'm realy tired. I think I'll get a coffee just so I make it to bed.

Anyone still in school?

[krump]

Haitian dark roast anyone? - thick enough to melt the spoon, and keep you awake for a week ( I love it, here's a pound for the forum)[C):-)][^]
no fancy coffee shops here in the country, therefore the grocery store specials are standard fair.
for a treat - I'll go to Timmy's (Horton's place) and have an XL old-fashioned-mocha, no whipcream
it's after 10 pm, do you know where my coffee mug is?

speaking of coffee... we need a poll re coffee holders - what do you prefer ??? ...

1) coffee mug ?
2) tea cup? (with or without saucer)
3) travel mug - big or small?
4) paper cup?
5) plastic picnic cup?
6) plastic disposable cup - for the ice-capps?
7) tin cup ?
8) other...

cheers,

[Anonymous]

A nice large regular "cup" for me. I have a super large cup that I got from "Promise Keepers" and 2 Campbell Soup cups that were in a "kit" as a Christmas present. The soup cups are about 2 time the size of a coffee cup and the Promise Keepers cups is probally 3 to 4 times the size of a regular coffee cup. I have started using them for my nightly soup when I get home. I perfer coffee out of a regular coffee cup, no fancy "ladies" teacups for me <grrrr, more power, ha ha ha (Said Jim doing his best accent of Tim the Tool Man)> Now where was I? Oh, yeah, just plain ol regular coffee and coffee cups for me.

I had a nice surprise when I open my email tonight/this morning. One of the forum members had sent me a pic. I won't say who or where but it is always nice to receive pictures from forums members.

One of these days, when my sister finds it, I will post my old high school pic. Believe it or not it IS in color. [;)] Even tho I have been accussed of being older than dirt I really am not. [:p] I like it, it is one of the few pics I actually like of myself. Of course maybe it is the fact that I have "hair" in that pic. I have hair now, but some of it seems to be taking a vacation. I wish I could go with it. [}:)] [;)]

Well my Cream of Mushroom Soup is getting cold so off I go. [8D]

[philnrunt]

krump-I recently switched from a large travel mug to a regular mug, due to the fact I was drinking too much joe. Now that the boys (Ed, Jim and a few others)got me to try iced coffee at home, I'm gulping it down, so I figured I'd better cut back. Working midnights makes you crazy enough, I need to keep the caffeine under control.
I only started drinking coffee on a regular basis about 4 years ago, before that I only had it mixed with hot chocolate when I was camping. On those cool damp Virginia mountain mornings, it really hit the spot.
Now, I fix a pot for work, then finish off the leftovers when i wake up, with ice.
I've got Juan Valdez' donkey on my back!

[tomwatkins]

Good Mornin' Everybody,
It's a gray rainy morning in the mountains, and it's supposed to rain off and on all day.

Jonathon, I should have said so earlier, but I really like your icon. It's very cool.

Noah, sorry to hear about the damage to your layout. That's not any fun at all. Hope you get it fixed ok, or use the setback as a stepping stone to something even better.

Coffee cups - I usually use one that I got from my Mom. It's large and and says " I'm Retired - I can take my coffe break whenever I feel like it". I like it, the sentiment suits me and it was Mom's.

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee - Somebody mentioned this earlier. When Louise and I got married 7 years ago ( 2nd marriage for each of us) we went to Jamiaca on our honeymoon.. We had a wonderful time. It's a beautiful island. The people were great. The food and the coffee were superb. One of the things we did was to take a tour up into the Blue Mountains which stopped at several of the coffee plantations. Blue mountain coffee was, I think, $8.00 a pound up there. We brought back 8 pounds of it. If we had it to do again we'd leave our clothes and fill the suitcases with coffee. We still drink it. There's an importer in Miami which sells it mailorder at the best price I've found. It's still expensive but it's wonderful coffee. We save it for those lazy weekend mornings when neither of us has to go running out the door and we can kick back a little and really enjoy the coffee, the morning and being together. It is kind of an extravagance, but it's one we really enjoy.

Got to go now. I'm on my way to Murphy, NC to talk with the mayor. His grandfather was stationmaster for the L & N. Hoopefully I'll learn enough to begin building models of both the L & N and the Southern depots.

Talk to you all later,

Tom

[Anonymous]

trainfan1221, it is personal. One time I was on one of their trains the doors were closing on all the passengers and the NJT crew wasnt doing anything. Then the other thing is when they had the derailment in Secacus around 3 years ago. They could of prevented that just by knowing how to check for a hot spot.

[Anonymous]

Mooooooooooorning--

Let's see...I'll have a Chocolate donut with custard filling, please. Oh, and let's double the size of that coffee. Better yet, just give me the giant carafe sitting there. [|)] I'm feeling more lethargic than usual. (Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip....siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip...ahh!) Now I'm perkin' up![:P]

I'm officially an old man according to (supposedly) reliable sources. Had my 42nd Birthday Sunday (6/13) and thankful for another year of life. We can't assume we'll be blessed to see tomorrow let alone another year, so I always express my gratitude to the Big Guy Upstairs. [angel]

Recently I questioned whether to purchase a new FEF Northern or a T1. After serious consideration (drum roll, please)...I've decided to follow my heart and buy my beloved T1! I can always buy an FEF. Not a bad gift for an 'old man' to enjoy watching it run on the layout.[:D]

Thanks, 4884BigBoy, for the encouragement to follow my heart. Me thinks I won't be disappointed.

Hi ya, Lupo! How's the Veranda Turbine?

Well, gotta go. More java's in order.

[Anonymous]

Hurrray for Chief! Your T1 is gonna rock! You won't be dissapointed, I know it. Not that the FEF-3 isn't cool, but hey, the T1 has sound! Now you just need to buy the Sidekick DC so you can control the whistle and the bell. Happy rails my friend![:)]

[Anonymous]

It is Tuesday. [:(]

It is raining. [V]

I am VERY tired. [:(!]

Strike 3, I think I should call in sick tonight and stay in bed. [}:)] [;)]

I wish I could but I have "something" going on at work that could land me a position where I would become a paperpusher and get off the planes. So I really need to be there. If my proposal is accepted by my boss's boss then it will happen. I have made it past my boss and he was very pleased at what I proposed to him. Not only would it get me off the planes but I might even get to transfer to day shift. I will lose the 60 cents an hour shift differential but I am going to ask for a raise to offset the lost of the shift differential. If they buy it all I will be a happy camper and can lead a much more normal life. This is something I have been praying for and God has given me favor so far with my new boss. My next meeting with my boss is Thursday. Wish me luck and add a prayer for me about it. [;)]

[lupo]

Hello Guys !
how is everything today ? I saw Bergie held a cleanup, deleted one stupid topic about comparing someone from UP with Saddam H.
Posted some advice, a letter from the commisionner, about the topics on this forum and how to behave and people getting scared away . . . so :basicly good stuff,
BUT:
in his cleaning frenzy at 11,31`.37 he locked the never ending story![xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(]
[xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(]
But a lot of the UP bashing and screaming is still there, so I get the message.

BTW: someone has to inform emeraldisle about this sad event . . . . . . . . .

[dave9999]

Lupo,
I must have missed the Saddam/UP thead. Oh well, there are plenty of "interesting" topics to read.
I'm sure they will continue to pop up from time to time. It can get pretty crazy sometimes. Fortunately
I have enough pain pills to get through them.
Dave

[lupo]

[bday] Chief !
if you think you are old at 42 what about me and some other more "experienced" people out here? [:P]


Nice locomotive you got for your [bday] !
do you run it on dc or dcc? i think it has a similar sound-chip in it like my Veranda
and you are right, there allways be FEF's around ! ( I may bnot be allowed to say this but: UP will be around FOREVER!!!)
I really love my new locomotive, though I have some problems running it on DCC, but I think that is caused by the outdated firmware ( I have LENZ 100 system, firmware 2.1)
it only uses a 2 digit loc adress and has limited extra functions
I think I'll have to send it in for updating.
The sounds in the system are good, and there are a lot different of them in there, at one point when I was fiddling with DC It even started talking to me !
I found out I accidently entered programming mode, and there is a voice telling you wich option you can change!
yes I know I can read that in the manual somewhere, but hey I am running trains not a library !
more to follow??? Or will the shop get closed as well?

btw: JIM! keep my fingers crossed for your carreer opportunities!
but there might be some people missing your midnight visits to the forum!

[philnrunt]

Tom- I was the one that had the Jablum Coffee. It is sublime, just had a mug of it iced. The last time I saw it around here it was about 18$ a half pound. I'm glad that I got to try it for free, as there is no way to but it on my pay!
Jim- Absolutely anytime you are dealing with the boss and work, you have my support. Good Luck and I'll keep you in my thoughts.
lupo- It absolutely amazed me how quickly and badly the UP thing went haywire. I guess I don't get as wrapped up in stuff as other people, but this really isn't something to spend energy on. I don't have enough of it to get real problems solved, and worrying about this kind of thing astounds me. As I said before, be glad for the Atlantic.
Just finished my first mug of iced Jablum, might just have another. Plenty tasty and oh so smooth!
Take care folks.

[egmurphy]

Trust me Dave, you didn't miss anything with that thread. It was worthless. By the way, sorry to hear about your accident. Glad it wasn't more serious but sounds like you'll be laid up for a while.

Hey, if Lupo is right in that "in his cleaning frenzy at 11,31`.37 he locked the never ending story", then this is our chance. We only need a few thousand posts to catch them while they're locked out. [:D]

4884BigBoy - where did you get that train icon?

My coffee vessel of choice depends on the circumstances. A travel mug in the car, a regular coffee mug here, a tall glass in the evening for the iced coffee. Do they still make paper cups? We don't even own any teacup style cups. I avoid styrofoam cups whenever possible, but I'll gladly use them if it's the only way to get the coffee.[:)]

Sorry about the damage to your layout Noah, but if it's only 10 hours of work to repair it, then it's not too bad. Of course, if one were looking for an excuse to rebuild, then.....[;)]

Good suggestion on trying the Classic Trains forum. Lots of interesting threads over there. Just what I need, another forum to read.

And the magic number is down to 12

Hasta luego,

Ed

[philnrunt]

To Ed in Mexico- I started to post this directly to you, but then I remembered the few thousand posts needed here!
The other day you mentioned that you were quite a ways from the nearest trackage, and that you rarely got to see trains- do you own any train videos?
I have tracks all around me, but I like mining roads and foreign roads (like down your way) so a few years back, I purchased a Pentrex video (Canadian Ore Lines 1&2) and fell in love with them. Since then, I have tried to collect a few here and there, and now I have about 45 tapes! Cuba Steam, Street Running,etc- all just great to sit and watch when you want to see trains but don't have the time or $ to go.
I'm thinkin' you probably already know all of this stuff, but if not, give 'em a try!

[Noah Hofrichter]

Philnrunt, I'm a regular over in the trains forum too. They've got a coffwe shop over there to, Jim's the proprietor. He's the only one I can think of besides me that comes to both shops.

Jim, you have my strongest support in your quest. It would be nice to see you around here in the afternoon.

I noticed there were 28 people in the general disscussion fourm a few minutes ago, that's the most I've seen in a while.

Why exactly did Bergie close the NES anyway? I was dismayed when I saw it. He hasn't closed the one on the Trains side yet anyway, I just posted in it. I started that one after the one on this side, I liked the idea. I just hope he doesn't close the Shop for some reason down the road.

I'm leaving the layout alone untill the weekend, when I can be more rested and my Dad and I can figure out how to get it put back together. Not a whole lot to do any more. Just made a visit to My local hobby shop for some more scratchbuilding supplies, as well as to place an order from walthers through him. I hope I get the order soon as there detail parts for my caboose.

Noah [zzz]

P.S. only 1400 post till 2000. This is 600!

[egmurphy]

Phil

This may sound funny, but yes I do have several Pentrex tapes of Mexican Railroads. I bought almost all of them on Ebay just before coming down here. The funny part is that we have a DVD player but not a tape player. So I haven't seen any of them yet! I keep thinking I'll just borrow one from my sister in law, but just haven't gotten around to it. It's on my mind now, but by tomorrow I'll have forgotten all about it again. Thanks for the reminder!

Okay fellas, stop shaking your heads and laughing. Up off the floor guys. It's not as stupid as it sounds (well, okay it's almost that stupid.) I prefer to think of it as squirreling away some railroad stuff for a day when I really need something new...........

Honey, please bring me a Cuba Libre.................and see if you can get your sister on the phone. What's that, you can't make the call because I'm occupying the line with my computer????? Oh,....yeah,...guess I am.

Hey, gotta run,

Hasta Luego,

Ed

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lupo

Hello Guys !
how is everything today ? I saw Bergie held a cleanup, deleted one stupid topic about comparing someone from UP with Saddam H.
Posted some advice, a letter from the commisionner, about the topics on this forum and how to behave and people getting scared away . . . so :basicly good stuff,
BUT:
in his cleaning frenzy at 11,31`.37 he locked the never ending story![xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(]
[xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(]
But a lot of the UP bashing and screaming is still there, so I get the message.

BTW: someone has to inform emeraldisle about this sad event . . . . . . . . .

You know...this is what I find most irritating about the forum. Someone (in this case, Emeraldisle) shares a fun topic, it catches on...and inevitably you have to listen to grumblers bemoaning the fact that once again there's worthless gibberi***aking up space. I mean, c'mon. It was a pleasant escape from the realities of daily living...something I personally find necessary. It's not like anyone was forced to read it. For the love of God....[banghead]

AND: if you stopped to count the number of UP related topics where much rancor was expressed, the NES was a breath of fresh air in comparison.

Life's a [censored] at times.[:(!]

[egmurphy]

Have you guys tried contacting Bergie to see if he locked it on purpose or by mistake? It certainly didn't seem like it fit into the categories of posts he was trying to eliminate (at least from the few times I actually looked at it).

Ed

[Noah Hofrichter]

Good Idea, I'l give him an e-mail in a minute.

Noah

[Noah Hofrichter]

Just got the e-mail, and here's what he said:

QUOTE:
I'm not against casual conversations in our forums. In fact, I understand
that relationships have been built here and that off-topic discussions are
going to happen. I was never a big fan of that one because it seemed like it
was just an attempt to beat one of our other site's NES posting record.

It' not that I'm trying to keep everything on-topic, I think it had run it
course.

Take care,
Erik

I can completely agree with that, although it is sad to see it go. Every body raise there glasses (or mugs); Here's to you old buddy! (gulp)

Noah

[egmurphy]

I suppose it was worthwhile asking to get the clarification. I take Bergie's reply to mean that The Coffee Shop isn't targeted for locking in the near future. Hope I'm right.

I'm not only far from any train watching or LHS's, I'm also far from any model railroaders (that I know of). So the forums kind of serve as a 'virtual club' for me, as well as being a good source of information and ideas. I know most of you are far less dependent on the forums for railroad fellowship (although you can't always tell it from the number of posts some of you guys put up) than I am.

There actually is some model railroading in Mexico, just not a lot. And, like most other things down here, it's concentrated in the major cities. Not much out here in the provinces. I did find out that they actually have an annual railroad convention!!![:D][wow][yeah] Unlike NOB, there isn't one for each region, each scale, narrow gauge, collectors, GATS, etc. There's one convention (at least there has been for the past 7 years, this will be #8). It's a combined model railroading and railfan convention. It's going to be held in August in a city about 7 hours drive away. Yes, I've already registered.

Later

Ed

[Fergmiester]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lupo

[bday] Chief !
if you think you are old at 42 what about me and some other more "experienced" people out here? [:P]

Aren't we Kind!

Well I went for a train ride today (see pictures on Webshots) This was part of my eldest son's school trip to the Nova Scotia Agriculure College. Ohhhh gardening and train ride (and a promotion) in one day,

Hoorah, Boyaaaaah and oh baby!!!!!

Anyway life is good, the coffee is warm and the celebratory wine is starting to flow.

Ed Have a Cuba Libra for me Bud!

Lupo Loved the poll dancer!! sorry I didn't get back to you sooner!!!!![:D]

Take Care Gents

Regards
Fergie

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by egmurphy
4884BigBoy - where did you get that train icon?

I suppose you could say, that's my secret.[;)][:p]

[philnrunt]

I can't imagine a reason that Bergie would want to lock up the Coffee Shop, have you ever seen 156,000 caffeine fiends go without joe? Mainstream history dos'nt mention this, but I'm pretty sure thats how the Crimean War started!
We seem to have a pretty even handed group of people here, and we police it as well as can be expected.
Ed- OK, let them laugh. But i bet they all have kits, cars and engines squirreled away for that rainy day. Fall thru a roof, and suddenly you are a genius for planning ahead.
But you probably should'nt fall thru a roof just for that reason.
And tell me just what makes up a Cuba Libre. Might just be another vice I need to adopt!