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

[ModelTrainLover]

hey guys! rain for the rest of the week. Steam engines, and the heaviest rolling stock you can think of is going to come down this week, and I have a new project that I have finished here is a hint Double tunnle vision

cya later

 

[NeO6874]

I dunno about the EPA dealing with the batteries (until disposal... they're Lead-Acid), but it might have to do with the size - the newer "desk" systems are considerable smaller than the ones of 3 years ago.  True they have a higher VA rating, but with smaller bateries, this probably comes down to more drain/recharge cycles...

[SilverSpike]

Dick, now that is very interesting about the amount of voltage flux, I have always wondered why light bulbs blow out that way when they were perfectly fine the last time I turned them off. I intend to do the exact same for my DCC unit too.

Dan, not sure if the EPA has anything to do with the cells having less of a life cycle, it might be manufacturers using cheaper materials. I really don't know, but I know what you mean about replacing them sooner than later.

[grayfox1119]

Ne06864 & RYAN: I have used APC since first using them in industry many years ago. They are on our PC's here at home also. I just upgraded the CFO's PC from a 500 watt to a 750 watt, they gave me a nice trade in, $81 for the upgrade, of which I would have had to spend part of that anyways to replace the model 500's spent battery.
Several times over the years when power has gone off-line, the APC unit kept the PC's and equipment running for up to 20 minutes, plenty of time to complete work on PC and shutdown properly. Power outages are very bad for electronics, as is low voltage, power spikes, etc, which the APC units handle very nicely. I have an old RCA power monitor RMS meter sitting on the shelf above my PC, it is NOT on the APC purposely, just so I can monitor the incoming line fluctuations.
Let me tell you, the line bounces all over the place at times, but the APC unit keeps the equipment side rock steady. In fact, twice since we have lived here ( 40 years) I have had to actually call the Power Co. to report that the line voltage was over 125V. They came out to check it and sure enough they said, a tap was wrong on a newly replaced xformer on the pole in the street a few houses away.
That is one of the big reasons why so many light bulbs blow out in cold weather. If the line voltage is running high, and you happen to turn ON the light just at the peak of the sine wave, the resistance of a very cold filament is extremely low, and POW, the light bulb flashes in a blaze of glory.

I intend to have an APC unit protect my layout DCC equipment as well.

Later,

[dansapo]

I have to head now ( short trip) ....the APC battery backup for my CFO's PC died ( battery died of old age) so we have to send it back for upgrade and replacement. See you guys for lunch,

best battery backups... ever.

I've yet to see any go bad - the IS dept here has them in all of our telco closets for the wireless APs and some of the backbone switches (not to mention the servers, till the generators kick in).  The oldest ones are probably about 8 years or so (though theres this one old one in the headend thatt like 15...it's just sitting there, as the batteries are long-dead, but noone wants to take it out b/c its so heavy)

Yep, they are much the industry standard. I have had to swap out the APC battery cells on occasion for a few stand alone and rack mounted units, and it is usually just a 5 minute job of unplugging and pulling out the dead cells and putting in and plugging in the new ones. The only headache involved is timing when you can power down a switch or server that is juiced by the battery backup unit.

The batteries that are put in ups's are the same type that we put in security systems.Most of the back up battreies last 3-4 years max. The mfg's have done something to the formulation of the batteries becuase I used to get alot more useage before a total failure.
Darn EPA.

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I've spend the whole weekend in Milwaukee at Trainfest 2006. Had a so so time. The vendors where only doing about 20%off, some about 45% but this was on a limited supply of items. Picked up a few deals.

  I was noticing the new items at the manufacters stands where few and far between this year.

Athearn had the test shells of their new F45/FP45 looked nice. The MP1500A/C that they where going to do,is now postponed ind.

Kato - Nothing new, again.

Last year Accurail said they where coming out with a new 70ton gon it was going to be here by the summer of '06, now its the summer of '07????

Atlas the only real new thing in HO was a RS32, the rest of the new things was mostly just new paint jobs on the older stuff. They did have their test shot 0-6-0 in O scale wow!! nice.

The one thing I did notice cost I try not to whine about prices but man its getting bad. Will just means only 1 engine ayear instead of 4?

   see ya all.

[SilverSpike]

I have to head now ( short trip) ....the APC battery backup for my CFO's PC died ( battery died of old age) so we have to send it back for upgrade and replacement. See you guys for lunch,

best battery backups... ever.

I've yet to see any go bad - the IS dept here has them in all of our telco closets for the wireless APs and some of the backbone switches (not to mention the servers, till the generators kick in).  The oldest ones are probably about 8 years or so (though theres this one old one in the headend thatt like 15...it's just sitting there, as the batteries are long-dead, but noone wants to take it out b/c its so heavy)

Yep, they are much the industry standard. I have had to swap out the APC battery cells on occasion for a few stand alone and rack mounted units, and it is usually just a 5 minute job of unplugging and pulling out the dead cells and putting in and plugging in the new ones. The only headache involved is timing when you can power down a switch or server that is juiced by the battery backup unit.

[NeO6874]

I have to head now ( short trip) ....the APC battery backup for my CFO's PC died ( battery died of old age) so we have to send it back for upgrade and replacement. See you guys for lunch,

best battery backups... ever.

I've yet to see any go bad - the IS dept here has them in all of our telco closets for the wireless APs and some of the backbone switches (not to mention the servers, till the generators kick in).  The oldest ones are probably about 8 years or so (though theres this one old one in the headend thatt like 15...it's just sitting there, as the batteries are long-dead, but noone wants to take it out b/c its so heavy)

[pcarrell]

PC, what brand of electric can opener was it that caused the fire in your house last year? We have a Cuisinart brand electric can opener, just wondering if it would be one to have the same issue.

It was a 2 year old Sunbeam.

A 2 year old Sunbeam is not that old, I wonder if there was a recall on that unit?

Don't know.  I went with it because it was a brand that I thought I could trust, but oh well.

[grayfox1119]

Good morning everyone, slept 9 hours last night, this damn vertigo thing is weird, I only had something like this once before, now it seems like the whole east coast from Nova Scotia to Florida has something like it going on.
Still feel light headed this morning, so we will keep up the regimin to get it licked.

The rains keep coming, three days now, but the Low is finally near the Cape Cod canal and moving towards Fergie and Nova Scotia. We have received over 3" in the last three days total.
Clearing is due today for a day then another Low moves in. A very active storm pattern in the northern half of the country. But, November is historically, the cloudiest and stormiest month in New England. Temp = 51F, DP = 51F , wind s are calm, RH is 99%.

NEAL: WOW, DC3, those planes were work horses in WWII, they have such a glide angle with those big fat wings that you could loose power and set them down in a cow pasture. A great plane from the past.

GMTracing: You get away with it for a while, like your son did, but when the room tilts to 30 degrees, your ALL DONE!!! Even lying down I had to lie on one side because I felt I was moving with the room if I stayed on my back.

I have to head now ( short trip) ....the APC battery backup for my CFO's PC died ( battery died of old age) so we have to send it back for upgrade and replacement.

See you guys for lunch,

[Paul W. Beverung]

It's break time here so I'll have a cup of coffee. The water is off for us on the hill. The plumbers are replacing an 8 inch water main. If you want things really screwed up call a plumber. I have to drive to the other side of the park to us the restroom or get a cup of coffee.

I didn't try the puter at home last night. we got in from our supper at Golden Corral and went to bed. It was nice of Golden Corral to give the vets a free meal. They do this every year here. I had as much steak as I could handle and a piece of blue berry pie for desert. The pie was sugar free so no foul.

Not much going on here today. Most of the gang from the carpenter shop are off building a play ground for a youth house of some sort. Just me and one other leadman and some temps. Very quite. After break it's down to the cave to track down a faulty neutral in a lighting circut. It wouldn't be to bad except all the J boxes are very hard to get to.

Well you all take care and I'll see you later.

[Attaboy]

Morning everyone, long time no see.  Sitting here at work twiddling my thumbs because a computer in Baltimore is on the fritz.  SSA offices all over the country are affected.  At least it gave me some time to catch up on my reading here.

to the new folks I've noticed.  For Brian (Super Chief), don't worry what people say about your enlistment.  Take it from someone who enlisted in 1972 during Vietnam.  It really raised a lot of questions then.  Just know you are doing the right thing, some things are worth fighting for.

There was an obit in the paper here a while back for someone named Fergie.  It listed the cause of his demise as "Diseasel".  Must have been another Fergie.  Welcome back!

Hope everyone is feeling better now, or at least on the mend.  Seems to have been a lot of health problems while I was away.

I'm going home tonight and replace the last couple ceiling tiles in my train room, build in some shelves, and the train room will be almost completely finished. Just some joint compound and paint under the benchwork will be left.  At least I'll be able to get it reorganized and work on the layout again.  And I just happen to have some extruded foam left over from replacing the wall along the foundation.  Don't know how that happened.

See you all later.

[SilverSpike]

PC, what brand of electric can opener was it that caused the fire in your house last year? We have a Cuisinart brand electric can opener, just wondering if it would be one to have the same issue.

It was a 2 year old Sunbeam.

A 2 year old Sunbeam is not that old, I wonder if there was a recall on that unit?

[NeO6874]

'morning everyone

 

I'll have a shortstack and eggs with an OJ to drink. 

Nothing much happening today, a lot of class.... can't wait til next week.  Only have class on monday and tuesday - then I'm off for Thanksgiving (mmmm...... Turkey)

Cleveland, Ohio
Currently: 40°F Cloudy
Wind: Southwest at 7 MPH
Humidity: 76%
Dewpoint: 33°F
Barometer: 29.96 inches and steady
Wind Chill: 35°F
Last updated: 9:00 am EST November 14, 2006

[pcarrell]

PC, what brand of electric can opener was it that caused the fire in your house last year? We have a Cuisinart brand electric can opener, just wondering if it would be one to have the same issue.

It was a 2 year old Sunbeam.

[pcarrell]

Mornin' everyone!

Man, what a sickly lookin' crew!  Weather changes got everyone all messed up!  Prayers for all of you!  For the vertigo crowd, some words of wisdom from Dean Martin......You're OK if you can lie on the floor without holding on!

Hey Neal, that's pretty cool.  Suppose maybe they're converting it to a vertical takeoff configuration?

And Jeff, hows about hookin' a buddy up with some of that breakfast?

And Fergie, sounds like you've got your hands full with a new project or two.  Congrats on the new additions to the roster!

[SilverSpike]

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Good morning all!

How about some of that breakfast special I keep seeing posted on the specials board every morning Chloe! And a tall glass of Ed’s special reserve OJ too!

PC, what brand of electric can opener was it that caused the fire in your house last year? We have a Cuisinart brand electric can opener, just wondering if it would be one to have the same issue.

 

Paul, thanks for the clarification on the Cliffs! And Happy Birthday! Golden Coral does have a great buffet, all you can eat steak, and dessert spread is nice too!

Inch, best of luck and prayers for Mom and Becky in rehab right now. And about those leaves, they sure can be overwhelming fast. I have enough to keep me busy for the next few weeks. Hope the circus train stays in the daylight for your camera taking opportunities.

Jeff, now that is one big Thanksgiving group, and plenty of kudos to your sister for doing all that cooking for 60+ people. Tell her she could get a cooks job in any restaurant if she needed to make extra money.

Prayers to all in need, ailing, and in poor health.

Cheers,

Ryan

[Anonymous]

Morning all, hope ereryone is having a better day today than they did yesterday. Raining here this morning. They say we have two days of this weather before it clears out.

PC: thought you might like this:

I found this behind a commercial building in Petal, MS. the other day. Don't know how they got it there. Don't know how they plan to get it out.

JOKE FOR TODAY

One of the great mysteries is how that idoit who married your daughter can be the father of the smartest grandchildren in the world.

Well now on to busness:

to all those that are new to the CS, and back to those that have been away for a while.

Prayers to all those with ailements today,and hope everyone is on the road to recovery.

Special Prayers for Sallie and Fergie's father, and Becky, and Mikes CFO, and Lisa's Hubby. All I can say for the Vertigo epidemic in the CS is just hang on. Hopefully your life will straighten out.

Well got to run.........Neal

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Yes, two in a row would be great, but I can already tell that it's not going to be a good day, so I'll probably be home early today.

[GMTRacing]

Good Morning All,

   Coffee and one of Bills donuts please Zoe. Raining again but not too cold, we'll see what the swirling upper level winds blow our way today.

   Inch - the States carnival came through here in June but did thir movements at night since they go at grade through the center of town and the 100 car train tied up the crossings for over half an hour. No way to get a good clear shot between night and close quarters but it was neat to see it going past.

   Jefferey - your sister sounds awesome. It must please her enormously to do all that but I'll bet if some one shoved her aside for the cleanup she'd get over it. Hope your day goes well - two in a row would be great.

   Dick - Hang in there (or at least lean in there). My eldest took three days to get over the worst of it, but he refused to even leave work early until the second day and that didn't help.

   Fergie - the new rolling stock sounds cool. I know you've been busy, but pics when you can please.

   Hope the rest of you are doing ok. Glad to hear that Lisas' hubby is ok. Hope the mole is nothing. I had the same two years ago but had to have it removed and it went and didn't come back so far.

   Jerry - Hope the CFO is better today and I hope you get your cars from e-bay.

   Time to pick up tools - we are now reassembling the Lotus7 having done all the fabricating work but there is still lots to do and I  really   must    be    going  cause I'm late, I'm late, I'm late. ,J.R.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning and top 'o' the day to all of ye. I'll have the cheese and mushroom omelet today.

Leesville, LA  71446      11/14/2006

Wind Chill:  59°F
Humidity:  94%
Dew Point:  57°F

So Far Today
High:  61°F
Low:  59°F
Rain:  N/A"
Rain Rate:  N/A"/h
Gust:  6mph S
 
High: 75 °F
Low: 58 °F

Now: High: 75    Through 6 AM...widely scattered showers will move east 30 mph across southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana and south-central Louisiana. The showers will occur generally along and south of a line from Village Mills Texas to Oberlin to Ville Platte to New Roads Louisiana. Isolated showers will occur over interior southeast Texas and central Louisiana north of that line. Over the coastal waters...isolated showers will occur from Intracoastal City Louisiana to High Island Texas out 60 nautical miles.

Today: High: 75    Mostly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 70s. South winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.

Tonight: Low: 58    Mostly cloudy and breezy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Lows in the upper 50s. South winds 15 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.

[inch53]

morning, coffee Zoe,
Cloudy and a chance of a shower today here, just a normal day anymore

Ringling Brothers/ Barnum/ Baily circus train came through last evening and stop on the siding out back, just after I posted.   We got 3 phone calls telling us it was there and I could see the cars lights. Course just my luck, kinda to dark at 9 pm for any photos !@#$%$%^.  First time it's came through here this year, that I know of.

Same o same round here today. Hope ya'll has a gooden
inch

[LSWrr]

Good Morning,


Spent 10 hours yesterday building the CMR 135’ HO scale turntable, if anybody is interested ask and I’ll email you some pictures. The kit was missing the handrails so I emailed CMR last night; 30 minutes latter I had an answer and the promise they would put a new set of handrails in the mail today. My girlfriend has volunteered to start building the icehouse this weekend.

Oh well, back to work this morning, hoping for an early freeze in Massena NY to slow the freighter traffic down.

Lee

[wetidlerjr]

Good morning ! from Indiana.

11-14-06

[Anonymous]

Good morning



Happy MRRing 

[grayfox1119]

Thanks guys for the well wishes, still feel like the room is at 10 degrees now, not as bad as Fergie's list at 30 degrees. I will hit the shower again and take a real hot one, as hot as I can stand it....a doctor told me that this really gets the immune system energized...it does seem to work with me at least.

JEFF: I can't imagine having that feeling on a continuous basis. When I rolled out of bed last night, I was trying to walk straight, but was always walling into the wall. Then when I laid down the room was moving around...man..that is so nausiating, you feel like heaving.
Jeff, I really feel for you buddy.

Your sister is a peach, does she have a husband? If not, what the h.. is wrong with the guys down there?

Later,

[jeffrey-wimberly]

You want to see a madhouse at Thanksgiving? Try this. Every Thanksgiving for the past 10 years my older sister has been making the Thanksgiving meal for our family, her in-laws, friends and the Sundown fire dept. The guest list usually numbers 60+ and the house is packed. The men usually move a beer party out onto the front lawn and the women sit in the 28 x 40 living room and gossip. The kids all go off to do what kids do best, play. My sister meanwhile has 2 ovens going, a 20+ pound turkey in one, other delights in the other one and another 20+ pound turkey being deep fried on the back porch. She does all this herself and refuses any offers of assistance. At the end of the day, she's beat, but still refuses offers of assistance as she cleans up.

BTW, her husband is the fire chief of Sundown fire dept, she is the office clerk and I am the safety officer. Among the guests who attend are the asst chief and his family, the treasurer and her family, all the members of the board which includes those listed above as well as many of their family members, the officer cadre and the drivers, operators and firefighters of the dept with their families. Sometimes guests drop in from other fire depts as well as a few police officers. They are all welcome and they know it. Needless to say, my brother-in-law is the most popular fire chief we've ever had.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I had a good day at work today, high energy all day long. However I seldom have two good days in a row, so tomorrow will probably be a real pisser. I started feeling bad on the way home so that doesn't bode well. I'll probably end up coming home early.

[inch53]

Evening all, barley pop Cloe please,

Mom had her other stints done today, getting along fine. Looked and sounded a whole lot better than the last round. Should get to go home tomorrow.

We stop in and seen Becky while we were there. Looks good and is feeling better now considering what she been through. Still trying to catch up with the world from the last month. She's in rehab now, with luck she'll be home in 2-3 weeks. Oh, Beck said she wanted to loss some weight anyway, just not that way. She's lost bout 30#, and spong bathes ain't what they use to be, more than ready for a bath tub.

Jerry,,,  Hope Sally gets ta feeing better. Went over to Effingham with Mother yesterday and stop at wally world. Got you 2 of those N scale graffitie car. I'll try n get in this week. We're going to Paris Thu., so I was told, will try up there for the others.

GMT,,, I thought both teams looked good at the start, then da Bears started playing like last week. The come back surprised me. The Gaints did look good at the start don't know what happened. Sorry bout the loss, but

Ryan,, glad you liked the pics and if you get caught up with leaves down yur ways, there be plenty here. I'm so far behind now, I don't much care.

Dick,, Sorry to hear bout the vertigo spell, not fun. The wife has them now n then, I just tell her she was born with being dizzie.
I can't take the flu shots either, cause they work, I get it. Got the shot 22, DEC. last year spent Christmas in bed.

Fergie,,, congrads on the new engines.

Best get moving bout time fur bed, hope ya'll has a gooden
inch

[Fergmiester]

Well if you must know I got the President's Choice a.k.a. Mehano with minor Canadian mods 2-10-2. I'm thinking I may turn one into a 2-10-4 which would loosely resemble a CV 700 class.

Fergie