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

[Anonymous]

Good Morning All:

Ivan is now ashore and we are breathing easier.

Dave9999:
The weather channel is reporting that Pennsacola got only 75 MPH winds so I hope that you and yours did well. Hopefully your house didn't sustain to much damage.

Fla/Phil:
I enjoyed your e-mails very much but we don't kick butt that much, we just think what a nut. The butt kicking does make for a better joke.
Jeanne is comming right at you. You'd better find another virgin for another sacrifice.

Ed:
Since you sre familiar with the area try Groves.
Hispanics have a fondness for mayonnise, as you know. Two holds in the Titantic were filled with mayonnise as she was going to Mexico after stopping in New York city. You know what happened to the Titantic and the Mexicans were very upset about the lost of all the mayonnise. They now have a celebration about the loss of the mayonnaise and it's called sinka de mayo (Cinco de mayo).
I thought you were going to tell us about the post card opener at 10. Stupid me thought it was going to be 10 PM last night (too late for me to be up - usually), is it going to be 10 AM today or 10th day of next month since that's the 10 month.
If that thing on top is a level I'd say that it is a superelevated guage.

John:
What it getting you is the carbahydrites (SP) in the bread and wheat products. the carbs are processed to sugar and stored by the body. Pasta does the same thing. When I can no longer stand the craving for lazagna I make some, sit down and eat a small amount, and then go cut the grass with a push mower, break out the chain saw and cut wood, or do anything that is physical. Don't even think about sex as that's not long enough. The physical labor uses up the carbs. We'll talk about it when I get to meet you. How long have you been diabetic? I've been fighting it for 2 1/2 years. I haven't figured out why, but every once in a while, I can eat some regular ice cream (very little) and not have any reaction. As the song goes [:-^] "...I don't know why, I just do.."

Krump:
Other then the new shay put out by Bachmann - why would you want to go into On30. The best thing about that loco is it runs on HO track.

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

[egmurphy]

Bingo! We have a winner.

Yeah, I did mean 10:00 pm, but since there were so few guesses by then I thought I'd just leave it until this morning.

It's a level (like a carpenter's bubble level) for measuring the amount of superelevation in a curve. You lay the flat part on the lower rail, then put the notched end on the high (elevated) rail. Depending on which notch gives you a centered bubble you can read the amount of superelevation.

Saw it in a railroad museum down here.

Later.

Ed

[tomwatkins]

Good Mornin' Everbody,
It's a gray day in the mountains today. Been watching the newsfrom the Gulf Coast. It doesn't look good from P'Cola and eastern Alabama. The just said that one of the I-10 bridges over Pensacola Bay is under water. Sounds like lots of wind damage and flooding. I hope everybody in the path got out and is OK. It looks like it's tracking a bit more to the west than they were originally predicting, and moving a bit faster so far. Atlanta is supposed to have 3-8" of rain and 25-35 mph winds later today. We're a good 100 miles NE of Atlanta so we'll see what happens. Most everything outside has already been moved or secured. There are just a few thingsleft to take care of and I'll get them done this morning.

Paul, wecome to the coffee shop. The coffee and tea are always on, and always good. So is the conversation.I've only seen live steam a time or two. It's very impressive. Tell us more about what you run.

Noah, that was a great post the other day. I really enjoyed it. Have you decided on your next scratchbuilding project?

Phil, where in Va. are you going camping? My brother lives in Charlottesville, and I used to travel in Southwest Virginia for business quite a bit. It's beautiful country. Congrats on the big 50.

Ed, the layout is looking good. Getting the mainline in is a major milestone. Did you have a "Golden spike ceremony" or just run trains a lot. Happy Mexican Independance Day. If your temperatures are running in the mid 90's now, how cool does it get in the winter? We're having mid day temps in the low 70's now so I think fall is right around the corner for us.

Fergie, Re command, I guess that's proof that everything is relative. There's almost always somebody else who is really in charge (especially at home - it's easier that way) . Your rules about where you are on the ship and relative water levels sure make sense to me. The deeper down in the vessel, the less water is acceptable.

It's starting to rain pretty steadily now, so I think I'll get the last few things done. Have a great and safe day everybody.

Tom

[egmurphy]

Hello all,

Bob - yeah I know where Groves is. Actually lived there for a few months back in 1969 while working on a project over in the old Gulf refinery in port Arthur. There's an old apartment complex right behind the old shopping center (Jefferson Plaza?). They're both old and run down now, but in '69 they were both new.

Tom - stay dry - but you should be pretty well away from the main track. I've seen it down around 40, maybe the high 30's at times. As you get up into the mountains they get to where they see freezing temperatures, but not down here on the coast. At least not that I've seen.

I’ll be ‘off the air’ for a couple of days as we are taking a trip up to Puebla, which is about 5-6 hours drive southwest of us, and about 2 hours east of Mexico City. It’s a family trip, we’re taking junior and two nieces. But we are going to stop in at the National Railroad Museum while we’re there in Puebla! I had one chance to go there in January, and only had time to see part of it. I’m not sure how much time I’ll have this time either, as I don’t know how long the kids will last there. I have a sneaking suspicion they’re more interested in going to the drive-through wild animal game park. Anyway, I’m also going to try to stop in at a train shop in Puebla. Supposedly they have several there (real civilization). I don’t really need anything, but you know how it is when you haven’t been inside a hobby shop in months. I just want to look… …honest… …well, maybe a few small items.

I may try to log in at an internet café while we away, but I don’t expect to have enough free time to actually post.

Just to give you some idea, here are a few shots I took at the museum in January:

First is a Baldwin Mogul built in 1901.



Here’s a Baldwin built Niagara (4-8-4) from 1946. It’s from the last batch of steam ordered by the NdeM:



Here’s a boxcab electric, built by GE in 1925 (+/-) for use on the newly electrified section between Mexico City and Veracruz.



And here are two shots of ex-ATSF, ex-D&H, PA’s #17 and #19. I had no idea when I shot these that they were so well known. I’ve already posted these shots in response to two threads about them, one here on the Trains forum, and one over at TrainBoard.



Lot’s more to see. I can’t wait.

Later,

Ed

[der5997]

Good morning all.
quote]Originally posted by fec153

John- sounds like a piece of ballast/dirt or a bug under the points.

[cwclark]

don't come in here much but wanted ya'll to know that the MRC Tech 4 260 power back...you know the one with momentum and braking..is on sale at internet trains.com..i pick up two of them and they were only $56.xx a piece..they usually sell for $75.XX....comm' on UPS!!!....I can hardly wait!!!....Chuck[:D]

[CShaveRR]

Anybody seen my sister, the kitty?

[cjcrescent]

Tom et all, concerning Ivan. The storm came ashore at Gulf Shores at approx 2:30AM, as a strong Cat 3 to Cat 4 storm with sustained winds of 130-150MPH, after a slight jog to the right which spared Mobile from being in the northeast quadrant of the storm, (the worst part). Preliminary reports indicate that the communities on eastern side of Mobile Bay are extensively damaged. Reports also indicate that major parts of Pensacola, including all 4 hospitals, are severly damaged. I have family in both Mobile and P'cola and have heard that all are safe. There are so far 12 deaths associated with the storm in FL and LA. None reported in AL, MS.
Ivan has picked up speed and will be in B'ham poss as a Cat1 storm shortly after noon. For us it ain't over yet.

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by egmurphy

Bingo! We have a winner.

Yeah, I did mean 10:00 pm, but since there were so few guesses by then I thought I'd just leave it until this morning.

It's a level (like a carpenter's bubble level) for measuring the amount of superelevation in a curve. You lay the flat part on the lower rail, then put the notched end on the high (elevated) rail. Depending on which notch gives you a centered bubble you can read the amount of superelevation.

Saw it in a railroad museum down here.

Later.

Ed

Dang, That's what I get for not paying attention. I knew that answer too.

[egmurphy]

Okay, just one last parting shot before we head out for the weekend.

(northern)Phil said:

QUOTE: Ed- Your layout is coming along great- Once you started it moved fast. Good work, keep it up. I only hope that mine also gets moving along, but I guess I will have to get motivated to have that happen.

And TeffyBob added:

QUOTE: Ed and I are having a contest to see who can complete the railroad first and I've got him now because when the first circle is done the train running gets in the way of work. His layout is on a hollow core door ….

I think we’ve seen the last of the great construction spurts. It was fun, and I expect the layout to continue to be fun, but things will definitely go slower from this point on.

I had a great advantage in this stage. I did the benchwork last fall (got to laugh at that, ‘did the benchwork’. Hah!, I bought a hollow core wood door at Lowe’s – zap – benchwork done). [:D] Also, I had figured out the basic layout design, put down the ¾ “ foam, including cutting and raising the elevated sections, and also glued down maybe 1/3 of the cork roadbed last fall.

In the +/- 9 months between packing up the layout for the move and finally setting it up temporarily on the table a couple of weeks ago I had spent countless hours running over it in my mind. I even devised my train schedule, mentally made up locals, ran them and switched the industries. This helped a lot because I did make some minor changes to the trackplan when I resumed work on it.

The tracklaying over the last couple of weeks probably shouldn’t have taken even this long, but a lot of what I was doing was for the first time. Anyway, it is about completed, only the last spurs to glue down. I expect the block wiring to take a day or two. I mean, it’s all of 9 block feeders plus the common ground. [:)] Only 4 real operational blocks (north half of the mainline, south half of the mainline, the yard lead, and the yard itself), plus 3 tiny ‘blocks’ in the engine yard to isolate engines. There are also two ‘blocks’ on short spurs that are intended to be interchange tracks. Right now they are just short deadended spurs, but the idea is to have a rough fiddle or staging yard that will connect to these spurs in the future, so I wired them up with that in mind.

But, as Teffy said, now that I can actually run trains, that might interfere with the actual work on the layout. From here I need to make some cardboard mockups of the industries, play with them a bit, and decide what I want to finally construct for buildings. Just running trains will also help as I expect to need to do some fine tuning of the track before it’s ready for prime time. I also need to do some rough mockups of terrain. I have a general idea in my head of what it needs to look like, but I haven’t actually figured out the ups and downs of the different ridges and view blocks. Since I’m going for a rolling terrain look, it’s not as easy as simply putting a sheer cliff up when I need to separate something.

But hey, I figure I’m in no ru***o finish. I’d just have to start another one if I did!

Okay, off to Puebla and the National Railroad Museum. Catch you guys later.

Hasta Luego,

Ed

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR

Anybody seen my sister, the kitty?

I think she's back in "the house".[swg]

[Paul W. Beverung]

Hi All;
Thanks for the warm welcome. I had to sit down with a paper and pencil to note all the replies that I need to make. I'll try and get answeres to all the Live Steam questions.
Congrats on your first command. I know how you must have felt when you pulled out for the first time. Even though you have done it many times, it's always special when you'er the one in charge. I pulled my first flight as an aircraft commander in a Huey along time ago. I can say it was a real thrill. I put the ship photo site in my favorits file. I'll check it out later. I really need to get to work on our corral. We had a cow go over the fence last week and I need to get the damage repaired. 48 inches long. Hum. It could be worse. I'm trying to figure out how to get a 11ft long ore dock onto my H.O. anybody got a shoe horn?

Phil; Happy Birthday and many more. Wish I was looking at my 50 in November, but it will be my 62. The bright spot is I can re-tire at full benefits then.

Teffy; What happened to your dads live steamer? I'm not worried about the invite,come on.

I've got type 2 diabetes myself. Got it under control with drugs and watching what I eat. I do slip once in a while, but not often. It is livable.

jhhtrainsplanes; You got to go see live steam. It's a real hoot. Track laying is fun, just takes bigger tools. like a tractor with a loader, chain saw, drill driver, shovels, pick axe, and sun blocker. Ballast is bought by the ton.

My wife just came in. We need to go down to the UP and see what's up. If they take out my crossing we can't get to our hay fields.

I'LL BE BACK, PAUL

[Big_Boy_4005]

Hi Paul, Live Steam doesn't come up much around here, but I have had some exposure. Very cool, but very expensive. We have a great club near here that runs 1" and 1-1/2" on an 11 acre parcel. The 1" line is just over a mile long, and has to be one of the best for that size train anywhere. A gorgeous ride as it wraps itself around a wooded hill 3 times on it's way to the top. I gave it up when I realized that I didn't have what it was going to take to really get involved.

By the way, you and I joined the same day. One of us has WAAAAAAY too much time on his hands.[swg]

[Fergmiester]

Paul: Nice to meet your aquaintance. Pulling away from the wharf was the easy part doing a couple of weather buoys 200 nm offshore was interesting. The putting her alongside that's when I tensed up! Well I guess there a first for everyone. No dents no scrapes just a bit of sweat (and a whole lot of prayers), One thing about docking though... Eventually one will come to a stop.

Well I'll have to wait another year for the Captain to go on leave again. Then again I got the results back from Marine Safety today, 6th on the list,which means a possible job offer ashore. I'll have to do some soul searching on that one.

As always Regards

Fergie

[Paul W. Beverung]

Well I'm back. It wasn't the railroad, but the man that bails our hay. He started raking and the other guy showed up with the bailer. I did get some work done on the corral. Got the damage cleared away and figured out how I'm going to repair it.

Yes live steam can be expensive. It depends on how much you buy and how much you create your self. My steam engine cost about $1000. A very talanted friend of mine built two at the same time. I provided the money and he did most of the building. A little over $2000 for the both. Another fellow built his out of scrap that he dug up. Used 10lb bar bell weights for the drivers. Great locomotive and runs very well. It's like any other hobby. You can find ways to cut expensies.

Has anyone found a way to use spell checker on this sight? I really, really, really need it.

If I can figure out how to put photos on here I'll put some on of the live steam.

Krump;
I lost an old friend back at the same time you lost yours. It hurts. He also died of lung cancer. Just hang onto the memories.

Tom;
My 7.5 track is about 1400 long. It runs through some wooded hills and has several bridges. One of the bridges is a combination curved wood trestle and steel deck truss bridge. It's about 70 feet long total. The depot is 12x24 and still under construction. I still need to put in a way to unload visiting equipment and a turn table and engine house. Right now my equipment is under tarps or at my friends track down the road. He has inside storage.

Well I talk too much, so I'll sign off and go work on the corral. Paul

[Noah Hofrichter]

Tom, Currently all things are on hold because of school. My next jobs though are too scratchbuild two new buildings for my new spurs. That'll hopefully be done slowly over the school year, and alot will be done during christmas and spring break. Then after that, next summer, I think I'm going to do the former milwaukee road flanger that the WSOR once owned. There was an article about it in the Feb(?) 2001 issue of MR, including plans, so I'll do that first before taking on the WSOR burro crane, which I'll have to draw my own plans for.

Ed, Have a good trip this weekend!!

Tommarrow I go canoeing with my class. We're going the local river, which is good sized, called the Baraboo river. It will be six hours worth of canoeing, only stopping once to eat lunch. I think we're going down about 9 miles worth of river or so. Should be really neat, as I've never canoed before, but always wanted too. Better get going on to the other stuff, need to do a little more work on the yard yet tonight.

Noah

[Big_Boy_4005]

Yes Paul, but that $1000 figure doesn't quite tell the whole story. Your friend had all the tools to do the job, and the experience to use them. That makes all the difference. You are a lucky guy to have such friends.[8D]

Your engine is probably worth well over $5000. [swg]

Oh, and you aren't the one who talks too much.[;)]

[Fergmiester]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Paul W. Beverung

Well I'm back. It wasn't the railroad, but the man that bails our hay. He started raking and the other guy showed up with the bailer. I did get some work done on the corral. Got the damage cleared away and figured out how I'm going to repair it.

Yes live steam can be expensive. It depends on how much you buy and how much you create your self. My steam engine cost about $1000. A very talanted friend of mine built two at the same time. I provided the money and he did most of the building. A little over $2000 for the both. Another fellow built his out of scrap that he dug up. Used 10lb bar bell weights for the drivers. Great locomotive and runs very well. It's like any other hobby. You can find ways to cut expensies.

Has anyone found a way to use spell checker on this sight? I really, really, really need it.

If I can figure out how to put photos on here I'll put some on of the live steam.

Krump;
I lost an old friend back at the same time you lost yours. It hurts. He also died of lung cancer. Just hang onto the memories.

Tom;
My 7.5 track is about 1400 long. It runs through some wooded hills and has several bridges. One of the bridges is a combination curved wood trestle and steel deck truss bridge. It's about 70 feet long total. The depot is 12x24 and still under construction. I still need to put in a way to unload visiting equipment and a turn table and engine house. Right now my equipment is under tarps or at my friends track down the road. He has inside storage.

Well I talk too much, so I'll sign off and go work on the corral. Paul

Hey Paul

Did you say 7.5? That's one I'm not familiar with but I sail with a guy who is building a CP Royal Hudson in 1/8th Scale. What he's done so far is quite impressive. Maybe I can get pictures and send them to you.

As for spell checker. We've asked for it but no go. If your that concerned I would suggest you "cut" and check it on "Word" then paste back on Forums.

Regards

Fergie

[Big_Boy_4005]

Fergie, 7.5 is the track gauge. 1-1/2" or 1/8 is the scale. Monster trains you can ride.[swg]

[Anonymous]

Noah:
You Wisconsin and Minnesota people have waaaayy too much fun.[;)]

Ed:
I never knew the NdeM had decent looking steamers....

CSHaveRR, Elliot:
"In the house" being Mookie's back to Trains Magazine forums only? BTW, which thread did she post on?

[Fergmiester]

Teffy: I ordered a wack of stuff today, four Atlas undecorated Hart 70t Ballast cars and one MDC 40' Offset Side Ballast Car from ModelTrainStuff.com and six Accurail data only 40' boxcars from my LHS.

Elliot: thanks for the clarification. Nova Scotia actually has a club in a big field, somewhre near Truro. They ride 1/8 scale trains on the weekend. I've been invited but haven't found the time.

Regards

Fergie

[Fergmiester]

Speaking of which My LHS told me that Aristo Craft is releasing a G scale 2-8-2 steamer. That's right! real steam cost $2000 Cdn. OK Kids, Start saving that coal you're getting for Christmas![;)]

[der5997]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Paul W. Beverung
If I can figure out how to put photos on here I'll put some on of the live steam.

Hi Paul: As I understand it, the photos have to be hosted on a website, and downloaded to the forum from there. www.railimages.com is one several of us use. They live by advertisers and donors. Otherwise, it's free. You register with them, and upload your photos into an album. Then, to download to the forum, you type img inside square brackets (can't show you that or the program goes looking for the picture!!!!)
Then you type the address of the picture in your album. The format is www.railimages/albums/yourusername/xyz.jpg where xyz is the photo's identifier in the album. You need the .jpg
Then you close with the end image code /img again in square brackets.
As I said, first you need to get registered with railimages.com.
Mind you, any webhosting (I think that's what it's called, as I said to TEFFY today, a little knowledge is the only kind I've got[:D] ) site will do, or you may already have space on your account with your ISP.
Hope this works out.
Regards,

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by der5997

Big_Girl_4005:

QUOTE: Well John, the Packers are like a fungus amongus, no matter how much you think they are down and out they find a fresh supply of nutrients and and all of a sudden you are overrun. Gotta hit 'em early and hard!!!!

Yes, I see that , 10 point spread over Carolina with 26 less net yards[}:)] So now the line reads GBP 1 0 0 1.000 24 14 We are watching. Their doom is sealed[:p]
As an illustration of this, who is the World Cup of Hockey holder as of today? Canada.
Who didn't follow the thing at all, or watch any of the games? der5997 and Mrs. der[8D]

Many thanks for your thoughtfulness in passing along the extremely lowfat banana cream pie. As Fergie can attest, overweight is not part of my diabetes challenge. The sugar thing is, however, and a bed time snack of just a very little cereal, with sugar free blueberry yogurt and sugar free ice cream last night gave me a ridiculous reading at 2:00 a.m. Should have stuck to my usual regime, but fancied a change. What I really can't figure out is why wheat products eg bread, rolls, etc. shoot up my blood sugar, but other cereals such as oats, don't. (as a rule) Sorry for the rant [soapbox] folks, got carried away[:I]

The white flours are worse than the brown flours. So is the white rice vs brown rice. When my mom was first diabetic the emphasis was sugar, now it is known that carbs need to be watched just as close. My mom was kinda screwed diabetic and heart troubles (also an Hiatal(sp?) Hernia so there goes roughage)so everything was bad for her-bummer. I know that being diabetic has nothing to do with weight. Actually skinny might be worse--less body mass to absorb stuff -who knows?

[Big_Boy_4005]

Christopher, you got the joke about in the house. Furthermore, I have every reason to believe that Cshaverr is her brother. Mookie is actually the cat, the person is Jen. The topic in question is Vsmith's posting of the rendering of that fantasy locomotive. But then she took a few whacks at Jim's topic the "day the earth stood still". After over 3500 posts she wandered out of the Trains forum. The truth was she didn't have to, because Vic had posted a version over on trains, but Jim's link brought her here to the land of blue.[swg]

Fergie, you're welcome. Find the time to go and take a ride, it's a blast!!!

[Paul W. Beverung]

Hi Gang;
I should have been clearer on that track gauge. In the northeast and east Canada they use 7.25 inch gauge. That gauge came from England and Europe. West of the Allaganies and south of the Mason-Dixon line We use 7.5 inch gauge. I haven't figured out why, it just is. I model in scales of 1.625 inch per foot for standard gauge and 4inch to the foot for 2 foot narrow gauge. There are others modeling in 2.5 inch for the 3 footers.

Fergie; Take the time to go and see that live steam. Take a ride. You don't have to jump in and spend alot of time and money. I garrantee that someone will have you running there loco in no time. We're a very freindly bunch.

der5997;
Thanks for the info. Unfortunatly it still sounds like Greek to me. You have to remember That I'm an overage old former Army Helocopter pilot. One too many hard landings and long sessions at the Officers Club. I will try.

My doctor always gets on me about my weight. He said that if I got my weight down it would help. I have and it has.

To all those in Florida and the gulf coast my prayers are with you. I have a friend East of Mobile. He has spent the last several years building a great R.V. resort with a full size 2ft. gauge and a 7.5 inch railroads. Check out his web site. Search for Wales West.

Well bed time. God Bless

[Anonymous]

Mornin All [:D]

Well from the comments I have read here and in the Mookie Visits MR Forum, it seems like everyone has taken it well and enjoyed it. Good. [:)]


I have not been in the trains.magazine forum yet this morning but will head there in a minute or so. Both forums have some really good people and I do enjoy both. Actually I read and post in most every forum here but one. Since I don't have a clue in it I don't read or post there.

Paul [8D]

Looking forward to the live steam pics. Years ago I had a catalog for ordering items and locos. Seems like it was from Colorado, but I very well could have that wrong.

It is hot and very dry here. I wish we could have some of the rain from Ivan and the folks who are getting it could have a little less. That would be a better deal for all involved.

Well I am off to check out the "other" forum. [;)]

[Fergmiester]

Well its Friday I still haven't shaken this cold/flue that I've had since Monday and I've been given orders to rest and take it easy! Though it was hinted that I could sit and draw up a Honey-do list. Believe it or not I don't have issues with this as much as the Cammander-in-Chief for the simple reason when I'm working on the homefront I'm spending tbe bucks.

Anyway I'll be heading down to basement to do some track ripping and reconfiguring. With Teffy coming I have some work that has to be done in order for the trains to run. Not to worry Teffy your not putting me out of my way. I refer t it as friendly motivation.

Anyway as always

Regards

Fergie

[Anonymous]

Good Morning All:

Did you notice in Ed's pictures that their was no fence around the locos. I like the idea of getting that close with out any restraints, you can see where that darn pipe goes. I've got several pipes on my models that just are here, and I don't know where they go.

[4:-)] Fergie:
While you were out to sea I was chastinsing Ed about wanting to lay track only once, I glue it down with a solution of 50/50 white glue and water with glasses of water (used as wieghts) on the track to keep it down on the cork until dry. I run for several days (read weeks) and if it is ok then I spike it down. Even after spiking it still comes up easy with a putty knife. I'm going down for a test Sat morning and as soon as I get back I'll give you a call. I'm thinking between 10 and 11 AM TEXAS time which is Central Daylight or Gods time.

John:
I know you think I heard what you said but I'm not sure that what I heard was exactly what you said as it had to cross a border and that what you said was clear as muddy water. I'm seriously considering bringing my camera with me so you can up-load and then down-load with the jpeg and the img and the ice that goes with the cream - be right back. (Excellent idea here) I've got to go check the fridge for some Blue Bell or Ben And Jerry's for you yankees[:D]. [:(]Mrs. "T" is taking care of me - she ate all of the ice cream last night. I haven't have any ice cream in six months[V].

Paul:
It's nice to hear that someone else has to make a list to keep up with the responses. I think that dad's live steamer was in 1/2" scale, as best I remember the track was about 6", He told me, one time, that when he started it that guage was very popular and it fell from favor when the bigger scale started. I thing that the bigger scale was 3/4". Please be aware that dad died 13 years ago and my memory isn't that good. He had all of the running gear and frame done. We could hook an air hose to the steam chest and it would run. I told mom that I wanted it but I couldn't bring myself to go in the garage after he died as he and I had many talks out there and she gave it to the man that she hired to clean out the garage. It was better then six months before I could make myself bring his tools to my house. I just open the first tool box last month and I could still smell the aroma from his garage. Then I had to sit and cry.

Tom:
How are you and Bill doing with all of the rain? The winds should have died down quite a bit after going that far inland.

Well I've got to get Mrs. "T" up so we can go to work.

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

[Fergmiester]

The track is "ripped" and now I'll be cutting into the foam board. There's 20 turnouts to be linked. This should be fun..... eh what!

The good thing was the yard was just spiked in place so no ballast was wasted.

As Always
Fergie