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

[Anonymous]

Hello I've been gone lately as school has just started. 18 credits hours. Which includes 14 books for 6 classes. I'm still doing the math, well atleast on the bill cause it's humongous. Still not as much as I paid for mrr this year. Today in Spanish2 my teacher asked us to to ask another classmates name and get their phone number. (in spanish of course) a perfect opurtunity to meet some of the cuter members of the course.

As Jim spilled earlier my birthday was today. Yesterday I had some extra time I ran to my lhs to check on my b-day present. Two 6 packs of walthers bethgons. Anyways while in there the owner kept asking about my work schedule for my winter job as an usher for my colleges basketball team. i figured he wanted to go see a game for free. Then after a while he said he was asking because he was consider hiring me. it came as a shock, as he and his freind are the only workers that have ever worked there. i was truly honored he would even consider it. Since i'm only a year into the hobby and it shows that he trusts me. it's a win win for him.He gets an extra day off and he knows any money he pays me will go right back in his pockets when I buy stuff at his store. He's only considering it so I'm trying to not get my hopes up but I'm still truly honored.
Andrew

[Big_Boy_4005]

...Two 6 packs of walthers bethgons...

Andrew, I've never heard of that brand of beer. Oh wait, that's not the beer that made Milwaukee fameous, that's the TRAINS that made Milwaukee fameous. [swg] [bday]

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by der5997

TEFFY and Big_Boy: On the blood sugar thing and nuts, have you tried roast soy beans? Fats aren't a problem in my blood sugar control, so peanuts( shelled, don't have time to shell the wretched things![C=:-)]) are a regular part of my diet. However, I use the roast soy beans as an alternative. (Unsalted in both cases BTW) I'll have some on hand if you're interested Bob.
Forum time may be GMT-6hours, but it's bedtime here. Good night folks, and God Bless.

Thanks John, but for me fat is a problem. Eat too much, and I'm messed up for days. My solution is simple, just don't buy the stuff. That way I never get started.[:(]

[lupo]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 4884bigboy

Hey Lupo, haven't seen you on MSN for a while, where have you been[?]

hi Jonathon, main reason: due to time difference , 7-8 hours adhead of you, and I usually spend time here around my breakfast time, wich is your middle of the night, and I do not keep MSN logged on anymore on the computers I use, for safety reasons. I'll remember to log on once in a while in future! [:)]

[Anonymous]

Happy

Birthday

Andrew [:D]

[bday] [bday] [bday]

[tomwatkins]

Good Mornin' Everybody,
It's another beautiful day here in the mountains. It's supposed to rain a bit later today, but the morning is glorious. The coffee is excellent this morning. The project for the day is to finish up the storage system in Shawna's closet. We're using the Mill's Pride brand from Home Depot and I'm pleased with it. It goes together well. I haven't had to reengineer any of it yet and it looks good. Tomorrow I'm going to take the day off and work on the railroad. The next thing to do is to get the fascia boards finished and get the loconet cables run out to the penninsula. Friday I'm going to go down to Duluth to one of my local hobby shops. It's only about 2 hrs. away, which is as local as it gets around here. I need to pick up some paint to mix my depot colors for the Southern and L&N depots. I've got good formulas for the Southern, but I'm going to have to experiment on the L&N colors.

Ed, I really enjoyed the pics of the countrside where you live. It's very beautiful. Let us know how taping the dry transfers works for you. Good luck on it. As I recall the Clint Eastwood "Spaghetti westerns" were filmed in Spain. The newly found oil reserves are extremely good news, both for Mexico and for us here in the US. Our need for oil isn't going to go away any time soon and anything that can reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil is a big plus.

Teffy, I really enjoyed talking with you last evening. Actually, there is no "Old Harris". Young Harris is a man's name. He was a Methodist circuit rider preacher up here in the 1880's. He was instrumental in founding the college here ( It opened in 1888) and they named the town for him.

Lupo, that's a nice roster. Don't worry about the mobs. We don't allow them in the coffee shop. It's very nice, peaceful and civilized in here. That's how it needs to stay.

Andrew, Happy Birthday! I hope you had a great one. Eighteen hours is a bunch. Shawna, our daughter, is taking seventeen this term, plus work study time and time working on set construction for the theater dept. That many hours doesn't leave much time for anything else. I don't even want to talk about the cost of books.

It's time, once again, to get the day started. I hope everybody has a great day. See you all later,
Tom

[der5997]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005

QUOTE: Originally posted by der5997

TEFFY and Big_Boy: On the blood sugar thing and nuts, have you tried roast soy beans? Fats aren't a problem in my blood sugar control, so peanuts( shelled, don't have time to shell the wretched things![C=:-)]) are a regular part of my diet. However, I use the roast soy beans as an alternative. (Unsalted in both cases BTW) I'll have some on hand if you're interested Bob.
Forum time may be GMT-6hours, but it's bedtime here. Good night folks, and God Bless.

Thanks John, but for me fat is a problem. Eat too much, and I'm messed up for days. My solution is simple, just don't buy the stuff. That way I never get started.[:(]

Sounds like me and DCC[:D] Until last week that is. We'll see what happens when thte project budget runs out.[:(]

[Anonymous]

Good Morning All:

Today is a good day and I'm feeling good since we had a get together last night. Every Tuesday we gather at Steve Barkley's and play trains. My job was to clean track and the best way to do that is to get one of the 'ticks, since they have the most pick-up wheels, and drag several track cleaning cars around - gives me a chance to start operating first. Steve is throughly convinced that he is helping us live longer because he is reducing our stress level and introducing laughter in to our lives. We really have a good time. Ya'll may have heard of Steve as he is now a published author. He wrote an article for MR that was about the "high tech signals", it was in the same issue as the "mexican hat canyon" article by Malcom Farlow.

LUPO:
I was showing Mrs T the differance in the color of the trucks last night and that was when I noticed the difference in the red on the locos. I've owned these locos at least a year and never noticed the difference before. The red on the Intermountain is a darker red the the one on the Genesis. I guess maybe I am not the one to talk to about color, but I do know somethings. I would know more, but my halfthimers kicks in every once in a while. Just out of curoiusity what is your language, isn't english your second one? As Ed pointed out with all of those steam locos do you worry "Let's see, does this black engine with white letters match the black with white letters on the rest of my roster?" Several weeks ago some one started a post about the bright axels on the BLI 4-8-4 and how he was upset about the axel not being painted. What ticked me off was he didn't even own one, I've got two of them and it doesn't bother me. When I've got a loco with nine to fourteen cars behind it I'm in hog heaven and I can't see the axel ends.

John:
We'd like to meet your brother from "across the pond", how's that for an English expression. The last time I met someone from the UK, they kept referring to me as "the guy from the colonies". We planned a tour to England, Scotland, and Whales, had 17 ladies signed up and then along came "desert shield" and in two days everyone took their money back. We never planed another trans-atlantic tour. The nuts sound good to me, I need something to munch on that doesn't go to my waist. I'm starting to sound femine, too much housework I guess.

ED:
Why do you think that track should only be laid once? I've laid the same piece of track up to six times because it didn't suit me. I use Elmer's white glue mixed 50/50 with water to hold the track down since Atlas code 83 doesn't have spike holes, in about a week or two I go back and drill holes and put the spikes in. Sometimes I have to use glasses of water to make sure that it lays smooth on the cork. If I want to move it all I have to do is slide a putty knife under it and it comes right up. Look at Noah's last couple of post. In my yard that I laid in the last couple of weeks the track spacing goes from 2 1/4 to 2 7/16 but you can't see it because the cars get your attention. I didn't want to shorten the radius on the leads so wherever the 30" rad went, thats where the stub was laid. I did find out that kadees uncouple on a 30" rad just like it was a straight track and will also work as delayed uncoupling. This is my first layout with this big of a radius and it sure is nice, I'm used to 18" and thinking 24" is large.

Tom:
I enjoyed talking to you last night and look forward to seeing your layout as you've got about the same size train troom as I do. I always enjoy other peoples layouts as they solve problems different then me and a lot of times I didn't even think about that as a solution. Over the years I've been able to gleen a lot of information like this.

Big_Girl:
Mrs. T's sister called last night and they are comming over for the weekend so that puts the new recipe on hold. I don't try anything new with company in the house - it's too expensive to pay for all of their eat out dinners when supper is a feasco (SP).

Boy, I sure am wordy today.

Let me get off and go to work.

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

[lupo]

well Bob, even with those black steamers the manufacturers can create some confusions as well:
when the new Rivarossi FEF's came out this winter Walthers or Rivarossi mixed up the colorscheme black-dark gaphite #840
and black-lightgraphite #844 in their advertising
took us forum members about a week to figure it out, and the dudes at walthers some more months before they got it right on their webseite ( they advertised the other way around 840 light and 844 dark graphite. )
I solved the problem by ordering both, but Jonathon (Bigboy4884) waited for my pics I sent him before he ordered his FEFin the paintscheme he wanted.

take care &
stay safe

LUPO

btw:[}:)] I noticed the UP lynch-mob again on the first page this morning, who called them in? [:p][:p]

[egmurphy]

Well there you go. If you're going for designer colors in steam locomotives like graphite, daylight red, southern green, quiche or what-have-you, you're just asking for trouble.

Now if you just stay with basic black, your engine wardrobe is a lot simpler to coordinate. [:D]

Ed

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Big_Girl:
Mrs. T's sister called last night and they are comming over for the weekend so that puts the new recipe on hold. I don't try anything new with company in the house - it's too expensive to pay for all of their eat out dinners when supper is a feasco (SP).

I don't like trying out stuff for the first time for other people either. I like to give it a dry run so to speak so I can tweak the spices and get the actual process down. Don't want any surprises when the company get there.[swg]

[Noah Hofrichter]

Chris, I know what you mean about the set backs of the hobby. I just bought five switches to update my layout and add more industries and it's already cost me $51.25 for them alone!! It can be rediculious somtimes, but it's usually worth it.

Andrew, Happy belated birthday!!

Still sitting on the afore mention switches to come. I start school tommarrow, and (here we go again) I'm actually kind of glad. I get affully lonely twards the end of the summer here, as I don't see many of my classmate over summer. But startign tommarrow I have the offical right to complain again! Unfortunately I wish I had thought of changing my layout about a month earlier, so I wouldn"t have to squeeze(sp?) in relaying track.

Noah

[Big_Boy_4005]

By the way Lupo, thanks for having "ME" in your roundhouse. Well at least a model of the train I named myself after.[swg]

[lupo]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005

By the way Lupo, thanks for having "ME" in your roundhouse. Well at least a model of the train I named myself after.[swg]

and you are DCC as well! [:p]

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lupo

QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005

By the way Lupo, thanks for having "ME" in your roundhouse. Well at least a model of the train I named myself after.[swg]

and you are DCC as well! [:p]

In the immortal words of Elvis, "Thank you, thank you very much". Long live the King.[swg]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lupo

well Bob, even with those black steamers the manufacturers can create some confusions as well:
when the new Rivarossi FEF's came out this winter Walthers or Rivarossi mixed up the colorscheme black-dark gaphite #840
and black-lightgraphite #844 in their advertising
took us forum members about a week to figure it out, and the dudes at walthers some more months before they got it right on their webseite ( they advertised the other way around 840 light and 844 dark graphite. )
I solved the problem by ordering both, but Jonathon (Bigboy4884) waited for my pics I sent him before he ordered his FEFin the paintscheme he wanted.

take care &
stay safe

LUPO

btw:[}:)] I noticed the UP lynch-mob again on the first page this morning, who called them in? [:p][:p]

Boy, don't I remember that[;)] I called internet trains, internet hobbies, and walthers. None of them could figure it out either. But yes, then Lupo sent me his pic and I ended up getting 844[:D]

[philnrunt]

lupo- it seems that the mob runs in cycles, everyone gets so sick and tired of it, then they get bored and back they come. I havn't seen the post you mentioned, but I'm sure it will take up more space and time than it's worth. Talk about beating a dead (iron) horse!
Yesterday we qualified at the firing range (Expert, still don't know how that happens!) and today the chief was cleaning his .22 backup while talking to the mayor, and fired a round thru the wall! I told the chief that now would be a perfect time to demand a raise! It took a 3 hour long series of tests to determine that a piece of paper towel caused it. How bizarre.
Ed- it's good to hear someone else mention that they have an airbru***hat they rarely if ever use. I have had one for many years and used it for painting some jet models when I first got it, but then decided it was just too much effort to use on my N scale equip. After I switched to HO (no snide remarks here, remember I have a friend thats quick on the trigger) I just never got it back out. Probably should someday, but .....
Noah- I will pick up a few cans of that paint, it would be great for any industrial locos or equip.
Reading "A Pirate Looks At 50" by J Buffet,(19 more days till the half century mark!), and it makes me want to sell everything and go to St Barts, but I bet building a RR there would be quite the undertaking, what with being drunk and living on the beach in a cardboard box. Guess I'd have to check into Z.
And Polar Lights makes some pretty good repros. I have the Seaview and the Jupiter 1 and both are quality. Now if they only will come out with the MoonBus.
Hang in there guys
AND HAPPY B-DAY ANDREW!!!!! Hope you have a blast!

[fec153]

Evening all. Got home 35 minutes ago and started putting everything from the porch
back into the garage. They say Charley was just practice. Frances is a Bad MOTHER.
Well Andrew was big enough to last two lifetimes. Thanks again for all the prayers
for Charley. Going to need all of those and more.
egmurphey- I enjoy your sense of humor.Thanks for the laughs.
Dinner time.[at last] Keep 'em rolling. Have FUN. Goodnight, Phil

[fec153]

Whoops- eg sorry I misspelled Murphy. Think I'll use an old nickname so philnrunt
and I won't cause any confusion. From now on I'm Flip. Comes from my days as a
bowler. Goodnight.
Flip

[Anonymous]

ED:

Yep, that's the one I was thinking about, I think the only Clint Eastwood westerns I haven't seen the entire thing of are "For A Few Dollars More", and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". I keep trying to find those on TV but neither American Movie Classics or Turner Classic Movies shows them, so far. I also enjoy some of the better John Wayne Westerns, Henry Fonda had good war movies but all of his westerns I've seen are a little goofy... BTW, what does "spaghetti western" mean? And an airbrush gives you a lot more control than a rattle can, since you have a different brand plus only a single action I can't tell you how easy that one would be to clean, but I think a single-action would be easier to clean than my double-action.

NOAH:

Yeah, I know what you mean, although I usually buy only high-end cars and locomotives so if you and I were given the same amount of money to build a layout on it would take me a little longer than you, also I'm going to use DCC so the control system would be a little more for me (Or are you using DCC too?)

Still having trouble posting photos on rail images site. Me and Paul Cassar (owner of the site) can't figure out what the problem is. Hopefully one of my relatives who actually knows something about computers will be able to fix that and a few other things...

[der5997]

TEFFY: You wrote "We'd like to meet your brother from "across the pond", how's that for an English expression. The last time I met someone from the UK, they kept referring to me as "the guy from the colonies"."
It would be quite the experience, but he is a little different. For instance, I'm pretty sure his only reference for "Guy" would be "Guy Fawkes" the foiling of whose attempt to blow up King James 1st and Parliament is celebrated by bonfires and the burning of said Guy in effigy on November 5th. each year in the UK. "Guy" for person is probably not in his vocabulary. At any rate, I've not heard him use it.[alien][(-D]

Replaced one of my block occupancy lights with a white LED today. Works much better. Now I can get on with roughing in the foam hatch that will cover the gizmos in the tunnel. It's a design-as-you-go thing. I find many things sort of design themselves if you have an idea of what ought to happen, or the result you want, and just go ahead and build it. Anyone else found that, or do you all plan it out ahead of time?
(I think I know Bob's answer, seeing as how his track is semi-permament until it's the way he wants it.)

Major burst of activity on the path through the bu***o where we have the canoe. About 25 yards pretty much finished with cutting grades, filling with rock, and topping with wood chips. Want to be able to drive the mower with a trailer down there, so it's got to be more or less even. Yard work sure cuts into train time though.[V]

Bed time again, and off to Truro tomorrow to work on our daughter's place. Chance to see &/or hear trains however, as CN, VIA, and Cape Breton and Central Nova all run there.
'night all, God Bless.

[Anonymous]

HI All [:)]

I am still around. I am still trying to study. Work is about as screwed up as a soup sandwich these days. I wonder where companies hire "management" these days. It seems like the management they hire all try to tell you how to do a job they have never done themselves and don't have a clue how to do it but they "know it all". We have been working 8 and 10 hour shifts, seven days a week. Now all of a sudden they say no more overtime as they have used up all the overtime budget for the rest of the year. I think the number one requirement for management must be a full lobotomy.

Well I hope everyone else is having a good day and week.

As far as I know Mikey Gaw is the next birthday boy. (Lucky him) [;)]

New Jersey Mike has one coming up in about a month. And I think Henry (trains.magazine forum) has one sometime in the very near future.

Well everyone take care.

[Anonymous]

Good Morning All:

I couldn't get running this morning and overslept by almost an hour. I'm lucky that Mrs T is going to hold the shop down and I get to do some more house cleaning next door. I was up on the roof yesterday cutting limbs and one of them got behind me and almost took me off the roof. Boy did I get fussed at.

I went over to the atlas forum last night and was not all that impressed. I didn't see but one or two posts that cought my attention. Maybe I just expected to much.

John:
If you'd just get a bigger scale we'd have a lot more in common - we used to white water canoe every summer. One year we put over 4,000 mile on our canoes while doing guided trips. We went from the Rio Grande to the Nandahalia in Ga and to the Mulberry in Ar. We primarly did the Guadelope in west Texas because we could do it in a weekend. When the kids got old enough Mrs T took the older one with her and I took the younger one. I can remember thinking that the best thing in the world is a dry sleeping bag after a day of shooting rapids.
About the track laying I must admit that the main line is well planed, sketched, and laid out in sections to be sure that it will fit, but the yard is done on the plywood as it grows. Since I use open grid the mainline has to be close so I can cut the plywood. I'm just not going to spend two years making a model of the layout so I can spend a year building it.

Tom:
I'm glad that you are working on fascia boards as I'm open for sugestions (SP) on mine I've got two control panels already thought out but I'm needing some ideas on the others. I figure that between you, Fergie, John and maybe Peter I'll come home with the right idea. Like I said before this trip is not to tell you how I did something but to see how YOU did something. I think in a pryer post you said something about sounding a Genesis Warbonnet, do you have the new Walthers ABBA? I"m going to buy the money order today and get mine in the mail. I've already told them that want them and the money order was coming. I may have to wait to decoder these as I don't have anymore decoders right now and with this trip I wont be able to buy any for a couple of months.

cjm89:
Spaghetti western used to mean a cowboy movie made in Spain but I think now it means any cowboy film made outside the USA. When *** Eastwood made those it was because he couldn't find work in Hollywood and it suprised everyone as to the way they took off.

Flip:
I've really been worried about a hurricane this year as we are still getting our feet under us after this stroke. Every hurricane that I can remember comming in here always came in, in either late Aug or early Sept. I hope that all goes well, at least you wont feel the brunt of this storm, at least that's what our newspaper is telling us. It looks like it's going to bru***he central part of the state on the east side and go back out to sea. You know that the papers always make it worse then it is. I've seen the damage and then read about it in the paper and I didn't know that they were talking about where I was until I saw my picture.

Ed:
What is wrong with designer colors? I bought an overland RF&P 4-8-4 because it was so pretty and I wanted to run it on this layout. I knew I was going to have 28" and 30" radius curves. After I bought it, got it sounded and got the first circle down I found out that it needs a 36" rad, so now it's in the box or on the shelf (for LUPO that means mantle). But LUPO - I'm not going to repaint it. I'm probably going to sell it but I've got to wait because I've got almost $1100.00 in this puppy.

LUPO:
Would you send me your address? I've got a slogan I want to send you.


Let me get off to work or better yet get Mrs. T off to work so I can come back home and fall off the roof. I'm too old to work hard with this heat and it's only getting up to the mid ninetys.

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

[egmurphy]

Morning all,

You were right Bob, took the putty knife to the sections of roadbed that needed to be revised and I was amazed just how easy it pried up. Yeah, I’ve had a block (got a ton of them) against redoing stuff. That’ll be a good one to break.

And took the big step of actually gluing down the first piece of track yesterday. Hey, if the last spike is the “Golden Spike”, what’s the first one? If I’m going to make any further progress today I need to practice soldering, as I need to make up a batch of rail joiners with wire leads.

QUOTE: the chief was cleaning his .22 backup while talking to the mayor, and fired a round thru the wall! ....It took a 3 hour long series of tests to determine that a piece of paper towel caused it.

I would have guessed that a root cause would be failure to ensure that the gun was unloaded before cleaning. [:O] Glad you weren't in the line of fire.

Flip – glad you enjoyed the humor. Where in the Sunshine State are you located? I’m now watching the approaching storm on the national weather service site and it looks big. Hope you and all the others down there get satisfactorily battened down and stay safe. By the way, I’ll go with Flip if you’ll call me ‘Ed’ instead of eg.

Chris – you’ve got to find “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”, it’s an absolutely great flick. Here are a couple of paragraphs giving the essential definition of Spaghetti Western. Try this link for some interesting info on the films. Just reading the intro page (which these two paragraphs were cut from) would be interesting:

http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue06/infocus/spaghetti.htm

“Between 1960 and 1975, European film production companies made nearly 600 Westerns. Critics either blasted or ignored these films, and because most of them were financed by Italian companies, they called them Spaghetti Westerns. Fans of the genre embraced the term which is now lovingly used to label any Western made and financed by Continental filmmakers.

(snip)

Then, an obscure director named Sergio Leone was given $200,000 and a load of leftover film stock and told to make a Western. With a script based on Akira Kurosawa's samurai epic Yojimbo, an American TV actor named Clint Eastwood, a music composer named Ennio Morricone, and a cameraman named Massimo Dallamano, Leone made what was essentially supposed to be a throw-away film; Per un Pugno di Dollari -- A Fistful of Dollars. This violent, cynical and visually stunning film introduced The Man With No Name, the anti-heroic gunslinger for whom money is the only motivation and the villains are merely obstacles to be removed. Many later films followed this formula of the lone gunman in pursuit of money to the exclusion of all else. Leone's unique style, artistic camera angles, extension of time and raw, explosive violence presented a skewed view of the West, making his film different from any Western that had come before. Critics panned it for its brutal depiction of an unromantic West, but audiences loved it, and the Spaghetti Western took off like a bullet from a Colt .45.”

Not to carry this on too long, but read this about TG, TB, & TU:

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) with Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach was the last of Leone's Dollars Trilogy. Long, funny and brutal, this Civil War epic is the quintessential Spaghetti Western. From cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli's exquisite use of widescreen to Ennio Morricone's now-classic score, this film remains the most famous of all Spaghetti Westerns. In fact, Ennio Morricone's theme is so recognizable, it has been used numerous times to underscore showdowns of one kind or another on many TV shows, with those scenes mimicking Leone's visual style.

If Sergio Leone defined the style of the Spaghetti Western, Morricone invented its music. His hoofbeat rythmns, whistling themes, and the use of the human voice as an instrument became the standard for the scores to follow. Morricone's simple, haunting tunes did more than merely fill the gaps between passages of dialogue. They became an audible presence -- punctuating action, accelerating a chase scene, or driving a showdown to its conclusion.

Playing nearly as important a role as the actors was the terrain. The vast majority of Spaghetti Westerns were filmed on location in Spain, usually near the Mediterranean coastal town of Almeria. This area of the country resembles the American Southwest, which is why most of the films take place along the Mexican border (that, and all the Spanish extras).

Okay, enough. Maybe tomorrow we’ll delve into the use of trains in spaghetti westerns. [:D]

Jim, I know what you mean about the shortcomings of management these days. There does seem to be a lot of that going around. I suspect that one minor contributing factor is the same ‘instant gratification’ thing that plagues a lot of society. A lot (but not all) of people aren’t willing to climb the ladder gradually, learning the ropes as they go. They want to be the boss now.

How do you keep track of all the birthday’s?

Okay, got to get off the forum and on to real model railroading.

Hasta luego,

Ed

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by egmurphy

Morning all,

You were right Bob, took the putty knife to the sections of roadbed that needed to be revised and I was amazed just how easy it pried up. Yeah, I’ve had a block (got a ton of them) against redoing stuff. That’ll be a good one to break.

And took the big step of actually gluing down the first piece of track yesterday. Hey, if the last spike is the “Golden Spike”, what’s the first one? If I’m going to make any further progress today I need to practice soldering, as I need to make up a batch of rail joiners with wire leads.

ED:
Not to be redundent, as it might have already been posted, I solder my feed wires to every other piece of track. I may have a switch soldered to two lengths of flex track and that is considered one piece. I found that is was to hard to drill the hole and get the track lined up and the wire through the hole when the feed is attached to the bottom of the rail joiner, it is much easier to lay the track, drill the hole, and then solder the wire. Of course, I'm using code 83 rail and I can see what I'm doing because I own an optiviser (two in fact). I solder all of the connections on curves and usually have a gap every two sections of track on the straight. After the track is where I want it and the trains have run over it for at least a week usually two, I fire up the soldering iron and go around the new track. The curves are soldered as they are laid so they don't kink. (I don't want a KINKY railroad). I haven't had any trouble with expansion on any of my layouts and some have had a temp diff as much as 80 degrees. MR did a piece about bullitproofing (PHIL - are you listening[:D]) rail and I am a firm believer in that. The only time I have derailments is when the club comes down for a get-together. Of course that's when the tortoises decide not to switch and the throttles don't respond. Normal visitation jitters. I can attach 40 cars to several locos and pu***hem backwards and not have a derailment. I need several locos because I've got a 2.25% to 2.5% grade. My normal train length is 9 to 14 cars.

Let me get back to work
Ya'll have a blessed day and remember SANTA FE ALL THE WAY
Bob

[Noah Hofrichter]

Chris, I'm not currently on DCC, as my current layout isn't worth it yet, but my next big layout will be. Oh and I'm kind of a greedy fellow, so I don't let go of my money easily, which is why I buy economically. E bay has been a great resource. I can pick up twenty five dollar good looking Athearn BB locomtives, and re-paint them for the WSOR for about five dollars including decals (two engines out of one can of paint-$1.25 worth of paint-and three dollar decals).

Jim, Glad your still around. Been hoping you'd drop in again.

Good news! I came home from school today (details later) and my new switches were sitting in front of the 'puter! Now either tommarrow or Saturday I can finnish laying track and tack it down. then balasting, and finally running trains again!!!! Now for the school details. All went very well today. I'm very happy as I made it in to the elite group of Algebra. Only four of us. It's neat because I'll get credits for high school assuming I can stay in Algebra, and that's one less class to schedual in high school. So I had a really good day.

Noah

[Anonymous]

Noah:

I hold onto my money as much as I can too, but I still like the "nice stuff". I guess it's what German (read: fancy, high qaulity stuff like BMW and LGB come from Germany) blood I have in me that does it.[8D][;)]

Ed:

OK then, but who was who Clint called "the old man" in the Fistful of Dollars and TG, TB, and TU movies? He was "the bad" in TG, TB, and TU, I know that much. Hopefully AMC will have it on sometime SOON!!!

[der5997]

TEFFY: You wrote:
"If you'd just get a bigger scale we'd have a lot more in common - we used to white water canoe every summer. One year we put over 4,000 mile on our canoes while doing guided trips."
Scale is everything, I guess[;)]
I doubt if our canoe, bought at the end of the season in 1976 from a canoe rental business in Tobermory, Ontario, has done a thousand miles in it's entire career[:D]
However, it's been in several of the Great lakes, many lesser ones,and both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. White water we avoid, as we are putterers and moochers, liking to glide up noiselessly on wild life, that sort of thing. Earlier this summer we saw a skate (flat fish) in the sand under the canoe on our way down between Sober Island and Deadman's Island. On our way back we watched an Osprey (Sea Eagle) dive into the waterahead of us, and come up with something. It then flew right over us about 40 feet up, with it's catch, the skate! We knew about where we had seen the fish, and when we got there, we could see the scuff marks in the sand from which it had been snatched. [wow]

On Facia, I may have some more up by late Sept. I found a piece of panelling that came with our first shed. I had put it away for facia, about 5 years ago, and completely forgotten about it. I discovered it just last week while looking for something else. I've moved it to the garage (where the table saw is now) so that I can rip it into strips of possible facia. The facia I have installed is white hardboard (Masonite?) from a sheet that I've been slowly using for years. Not much left now, so that's why the panelling caught my eye. You'll see how I attach it, and what I get to hide behind it[:p]

Today's agenda didn't get completed as there was too much to do, and the paint didn't dry in time to get it all finished. Ah well, there's always next week, God Willing.


That sort of brings up the subject of Frances, and to let those in her path know that we are praying for your safety.

Goodnight all, and God Bless.

[egmurphy]

Lee van Cleef was 'The Bad', Eli Wallach was 'The Ugly'.

Bob - thanks for the suggestion, but I did okay with the first feeder connectors. Drilled the holes on the centerline of the rails, about a quarter inch beyond the end of each rail. I was able to fi***he wire lead down the hole and out the bottom and had enough slack to maneuver the track connector onto the end of the rail.

I'm trying soldering the leads to the connectors this time. If I have problems I'll solder to the track next time. The only rail I plan on soldering is where I use flex track in a curve and need to join two sections to complete the curve. But I'll be soldering before fastening the track down. At least that's the plan.

And I think the 'optivisor' is s.o.p. for people our age. [8D] A few years back I wouldn't have considered one. Now I'm more concerned with seeing what I'm doing.

Congrats on the Advanced Placement Algebra, Noah. Nice work.

Hasta luego,

Ed

[fec153]

Ed- I live in Eustis. It's about 31 miles north of Orlando on 441. It's south of Ocala
by about 39 miles. Tavares is the county seat, Mt. Dora is a quaint (read expensive)
antique and tourist hotbed. These 3 towns comprise the golden triangle.
Renninger's antique mall and flea market are 3 miles on 441. Beautiful country.
Big problem is a multible amount of new housing coming in. Roads not up to the
increase of cars. Schools under duress for enough space for students.Water short.
Money talks. People squawk,but to no avail.
Well, it's my bedtime. 5 a.m. comes early. Goodnight.
Flip