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

[fec153]

Tom- it's not only the snowbirds. Whole bunch of [censored] stupid drivers. Pass on double yellow lines with blind curves. Gets a bit harrowing at 0 dark hundred on narrow 2 lane roads. And tomorrow I'm off again.
Flip

[Anonymous]

Well, I've always promised that someday I'd post images of some of my modern CB&Q paint schemes, and here they are. Thank Noah for the links.[:)]




They look a lot better if you click on them.

[tomwatkins]

Good evening Everybody,
It's been a busy weekend in the mountains. We went to Gainesville Friday afternoon, and had a good time. Picked up Shawna Sat. AM and went Christmas shopping. We are Almost Done. Not quite, but very close. My son Trav came up today to spend a few days. This week will be busy. It will also be very good.

JP, the advice about the counselor is really good. I think it does take two to make it work, and it is possible to wait too long to start. But it can really help.

Luct, the Royal Hudson is beautiful, and that is a great photo. Four grand for a brass model is a little too rich for me. I bet it's beautiful though.

Der, "Gunga Din" is one of my favorites. I really like a lot of Kipling's work. It was a different time, and a vastly different world, but his poetry and stories are still very good. I'd have to admit that my favorite is "Tommy".

Fergie, that was very well and beautifully put. Thank you.

FEC, are we having fun with the snowbirds? When I lived in New Port Richey, we called them the Anti Destination League. Their motto was "Nobody gets anywhere on time".

I'd better go for now. Supper's about ready.
Have a great evening, everybody,
Tom

[egmurphy]

QUOTE: Jim: Teffy, thanks for the tip on the brass stuff - now, any suggestions on where can I sell it off for a few nickels to go toward my decent track? (Yeah, yeah, eBay - and where else?)

Don't know if you have a decent size hobby shop within driving distance, but some of them are willing to take stuff on consignment and sell it for a % of the price. Probably takes longer but it's a kind of no stress way to sell it.

Regards

Ed

[Anonymous]

Just got this funny on email. enjoy

A woman accompanied her husband to the doctor's office.
After his checkup, the doctor called the wife into his office alone. He said, "Your husband is suffering from a very severe stress disorder. If you don't follow my instructions carefully, your husband will surely die.
"Each morning, fix him a healthy breakfast. Be pleasant at all times. For lunch make him a nutritious meal. For dinner prepare an especially nice meal for him.
"Don't burden him with chores. Don't discuss your problems with him; it will only make his stress worse. Do not nag him. Most importantly, make love to him regularly.
"If you can do this for the next 10 months to a year, I think your husband will regain his health completely."
On the way home, the husband asked his wife, "What did the doctor say?"
"He said you're going to die," she replied.

[PennsyHoosier]

JP,

There is lots of good advice here. I suppose that's why u hang around with this crowd. At the same time, I appreciate just how tough things are for you. Take care and keep in touch.

[Noah Hofrichter]

Chris, Nope, not yet. I had him hold the shipment untill the 2005 WSOR callenders come in, which should have been sometime last week. I hope to get them sometime this week.

Well, I ahven't got any MR stuff done yet, I had to go take a shift counting people comming into the craft fair at my School. It was alot of fun. two hours of making tally marks for the number of people! But, I got a free barbecue sandwich, and a pop so it was good. I should get off here though, I need to get some work done on the pike.

Noah

[Anonymous]

JP, lots of good advice here. Please consider all of it and listen to your heart.

I have an appreciation of how you must feel, been there...

[JimRCGMO]

QUOTE: Originally posted by egmurphy

QUOTE: JP: Things w/ the CFO have gotten somewhat better since our major fallout just before Thanksgiving, but it's not GREAT. It will take some time for it to get there, if it ever does.

When things get to that state, if you really want to try to save it, it might be time to consider counseling. bwtfdik about saving marriages with two divorces behind me?

QUOTE: JP: I may just tell them to not try for a seat in February, and keep my allocated seat for April, and go w/ a female co-worker from my office.... good time to be had then....for sure...

Or maybe you don't need to waste that money on counseling and just start looking for a good lawyer...[:D].

JP, if you both want to make it work, my (personal and professional) recommendation would be to go find the best counselor in your area that your budget/HMO insurance will cover. (I work as an emergency therapist in a local counseling agency) I hear from our 'regular' counselors (the ones people with insurance see, not those who take Metamucil) about people who have waited until all the damage has been done before coming in (and then there's not as much that can be done to retrieve the marriage).

Of course, it does take both wanting to do whatever is needed. In my case, my wife had this thing against counseling (plus both of us were a tad too stubborn for the marriage's good).

But if you both want to make it work, go find a good counselor (sooner, not later).

My (non-professional) [2c],

Jim in Cape Girardeau
(and before anyone asks, no I do *not* do online counseling...)

[Anonymous]

Greetings from warmsunny California, where it is cold and raining!

First thing I did this morning was to scrape ballast from my bathroom sink, where it was glued after I washed it off the track. Guess I didn't rinse it enough. Crushed all the clumps out and now it's good as new!

[JimRCGMO]

Hi and good afternoon to all,

Teffy, it sounds like you made some progress (more than me, that's for sure).[:)]

Today after church, I went by the storage unit and dug around for some more MR boxes. Found two and brought them home. Hot dawg! Just about lik early Christmas presents - found some more buildings, a bunch of Floquil paints (which may or may not be usable, of course), several sheets of various styrene scratchbuilding stuff (Evergreen, brick/stone/siding/plain), some detail stuff (electric meter/headers, sawmill tools, a belt-driven saw kit for a sawmill, some clear plastic blocks for making phone booths, etc.), a Campbell feed mill kit, and some Atlas and ConCor/AHM kits. The Campbell kit will be more challenging (wood, white metal windows, etc.). Also found two sets of the SceneMaster bridge and trestles. Judging by the selection of the kits and the Atlas stuff, I *must* have that Jerome & SWn book in a box somewhere - all those kits and bridge stuff are just like the stuff it uses for the J&SW. Oh yeah, I did find that Pola enginehouse, too.[:)] Guess my next objective might be to get a friend to help me move the 4X8 plywood sheet here.

Teffy, thanks for the tip on the brass stuff - now, any suggestions on where can I sell it off for a few nickels to go toward my decent track? (Yeah, yeah, eBay - and where else?)

Weather locally today makes the coffee here much appreciated. It has turned cool and dampish - that weather that seeps the heat out of you, even though it's not freezing or anything. I'd rather see it snow, since that would at least draw some of the moisture out of the air. You northern guys want to send some of yours down here? [;)]

Hope everyone get some fun time (maybe even building/re-building time) with your MR stuff today.

Blessings,

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[JimRCGMO]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jhhtrainsplanes

Conflict of Witnesses

...<snip>...

Solution: The passenger's story contains no contradiction. When the second explosion occurred. The passenger's ears were under water (backstroke). Sound travels through water almost 5 times faster than through air. When the man heard the explosion under water, he quickly raised his head to see what had happened. He then heard the same explosion a second time - the sound now brought through the medium of air.

~Source Unknown~

Actually, wouldn't it have been after hearing the *first* explosion that he pulled his head out of the water? [:)]

Jim in Cape Girardeau
(and formerly an English major and taker of a math/logic class or two - yeah, yeah, nitpicking... [;)]

[JimRCGMO]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005

Actually, we use an elevator to reach the first level of Hell. [swg] Dang, busted on a typo.[;)]

No problem, BigBoy - my goof-ups are usually much harder to explain away and way more embarassing for me... [:-^]

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[Anonymous]

Hi All [:)]

Fergie and all [:D]

I just posted a second pic in my thread about bridges. Fergie made a comment about how the bridge operated and now the second photo shows the bridge in the raised position and clearly shows the counterweights blocking the trains path. Now we can compare the two and learn more about their operation. I think it is interesting and would make a neat challenge for a model railroad in any scale. [:D]

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=2&TOPIC_ID=21744

[der5997]

QUOTE:

QUOTE: der: ..and Rudyard Kipling, before them, "You're a better man than I am Gunga Din" from a totally politically incorrect poem by the same name.

I used to be able to recite the whole thing. It’s only politically incorrect if you subscribe to revisionist history. It’s probably close to the way it actually was back then. I also liked the movie, even if it didn’t have any train scenes in it. Btw, Kipling is one of my favorites. If you want one of his that is probably considered way incorrect today, try “The Ladies”.

Actually, Ed, I think it was politically incorrect in its original time and cultural setting - a real eye opener for those who could not imagine that some-one other that British, and particularly a native of India, could have any worth or value.
Now, it's politically incorrect because of its cultural time and setting. Our sensibilities have been changed so much by two world wars, and the events of the last 1/2 of the 20th. Century. Kipling's choice of words that grated on the minds of his readers, grates on ours for the oposite reasons. From The Ladies:
"But the things you will learn from the Yellow an' Brown,
They'll 'elp you a lot with the White!"
"They" would have hated the suggestion that you could learn anything from "a person of colour"; and we find the use of the colour as a label of personhood offensive!
Too wierd.

.....and now for Fergie and Luc:
"Now this is the Law of the Jungle -- as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back --"
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

JP:

QUOTE:

QUOTE: JP: Things w/ the CFO have gotten somewhat better since our major fallout just before Thanksgiving, but it's not GREAT. It will take some time for it to get there, if it ever does.

When things get to that state, if you really want to try to save it, it might be time to consider counseling.

If you are both willing to give it a go, that's probaly a good idea. It's more difficult if only one wants the relationship to heal.

Had my MR friend and neighbour and his wife over for dinner (not lunch, that question in the Gross Out the World Quiz threw me because I didn't know the Scots had fallen from the "Dinner Standard"[:D]) last night. We got some trains rolling, which was fun. Found out that the coupler height on the Con-Cor VIA coaches is lower than that of any of my locos. So now I have to figure out a fix for that as they uncouple at just about any transition of grade. They are Talgo mounts, so fiddling with bolster height isn't going to work.
Also, for some reason the couplers on my new Kato SD40 are not held in favour by those on my track cleaner. Are Kato N scale couplers notorious for compatability problems?
Which is to say that the aforementioned fun was not 100% unsullied![V]

QUOTE: John:I haven't seen any recient pictures of what's going on out on Sober Island. How is Rosie-the-dog? I bet she doesn't want to go outside when you don't have to.

Oh! The most recent are a few pages back, since when nothing new as regards construction.
Rosie-the-dog is an outside dog, not housetrained at all. The last time we had her "indoors"(the back porch) was in the coldest part of last winter for one night. As I came downstairs the next morning I could smell something fishy. She had thrown up bits of a dead seal she found on the beach the evening before, when she had gotten loose. [xx(] (The broken lead being why she was indoors, more than the cold) Forunately the worst of the doggiebarf had frozen, and so was fairly easy to deal with. RTD suffered no ill effects, as usual.
TTFN

[Anonymous]

-JP yes i do live in san antonio. there are several excellent hobby shops here but imo the best is Dibble's Hobbies. Nice people, good selection and they employ a great expert on DCC and everything else trains. The weather is really nice this time of year. i hope you have fun

[egmurphy]

QUOTE: JP: Things w/ the CFO have gotten somewhat better since our major fallout just before Thanksgiving, but it's not GREAT. It will take some time for it to get there, if it ever does.

When things get to that state, if you really want to try to save it, it might be time to consider counseling. bwtfdik about saving marriages with two divorces behind me?

QUOTE: JP: I may just tell them to not try for a seat in February, and keep my allocated seat for April, and go w/ a female co-worker from my office.... good time to be had then....for sure...

Or maybe you don't need to waste that money on counseling and just start looking for a good lawyer...[:D].


Regards

Ed

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JPowell

QUOTE: Originally posted by PennsyHoosier


BTW, thanks to all of you for this wonderful forum. It really is great place. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this thread.
Even if my hands are shaking because there's no decaf... [:D]

I have to agree w/ Pennsy....Thanks to all for a great place to chat and share thoughts, wisdom, humor and all.

[#ditto]

[Anonymous]

Good morning Ed,

QUOTE: Originally posted by egmurphy

I was thinking it was odd that both Luc and Fergie moved from the big cities (Montreal and TO) to the Maritimes.

I moved here in 1967 courtesy of the Royal Canadian Navy. At that time, this then little city, was very much opposite of what I was used too in Montreal. I'll admit, it was a bit of a cultural shock. But I've now settled here and consider Dartmouth my home.

The navy also sent me on exchange with the Royal Navy in the UK for 5 yrs, 3 of which were in London. Now if stive on kaos, that's the place to go.

[JPowell]

Final word came as I was leaving yesterday... 'Sorry, Charlie! Try again!'
Bummer it was when I found that out. Now, I have to wait till February. I may just tell them to not try for a seat in February, and keep my allocated seat for April, and go w/ a female co-worker from my office.... good time to be had then....for sure :-))))

[JPowell]

QUOTE: Originally posted by PennsyHoosier


BTW, thanks to all of you for this wonderful forum. It really is great place. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this thread.
Even if my hands are shaking because there's no decaf... [:D]

I have to agree w/ Pennsy....Thanks to all for a great place to chat and share thoughts, wisdom, humor and all. Things w/ the CFO have gotten somewhat better since our major fallout just before Thanksgiving, but it's not GREAT. It will take some time for it to get there, if it ever does.

[egmurphy]

Slow down Teffy, I think you're already way ahead of me. Sit back and smell the roses steam smoke.


btw, the rail museum in Squamish, British Colombia, where Luc's Royal Hudson is on display, is a very nice museum. We were there a couple of years ago. They have a nice selection of engines and cars. There's a BC Rail (or at least I think it was BC Rail at that time) line that runs nearby along the coast where there are some places to take dramatic photos. The area is absolutely stunning, with high mountains surrounding what I think is Howe Sound. Great place to vacation, camp, and hike.


Eastcoast - I haven't even seen an chocolate eclaire since I lived back east. They were real popular when I was young.


I was thinking it was odd that both Luc and Fergie moved from the big cities (Montreal and TO) to the Maritimes. Usually one thinks of people going in the other direction looking for opportunities. We still have a bit of migration going on in our family of relatives leaving Nfld looking for a chance to get ahead. But these days they tend to head for Alberta. I've got cousins and nieces in Calgary and Red Deer. In my father's generation they tended to come south to the States. When I worked up in Ft McMurray, Alberta, they were saying that at that time about 25-30% of the population there came from Nfld. They used to sell T shirts that said: "Ft McMurray, Economic Center of Nfld".

Regards

Ed

[Anonymous]

I received the following item in an email today and immediately thought of Captain F. [4:-)]

I also figured a few of our other "brains" in the shop would appreciate it for its knowledge. [:)]


Conflict of Witnesses


A marine insurance company wanted to test the credibility of a shipwrecked passenger whose report went as follows:
"When the liner began sinking, I only thought of saving my life. I jumped into the sea, mastering all my strength, and swam in the direction of a small island several miles away by alternating backstroke with breaststroke.

About three-quarters of an hour later, I heard a terrific explosion, a sure sign that the liner's boiler had exploded.

The thing that I could not understand was that, several seconds later, I heard a second explosion."

This observation was not corroborated by the crew which, being in a lifeboat near the sinking liner heard only one detonation.

Can you tell whether the description of the passenger contained a contradiction?

If you think there is no contradiction, how do you explain the strange observation with regard to a second explosion?




Now think about it for a minute and see if you can come up with your own answer. [8D]





Solution: The passenger's story contains no contradiction. When the second explosion occurred. The passenger's ears were under water (backstroke). Sound travels through water almost 5 times faster than through air. When the man heard the explosion under water, he quickly raised his head to see what had happened. He then heard the same explosion a second time - the sound now brought through the medium of air.

~Source Unknown~

[Anonymous]

Happy Sunday all,

Thank you so much the comments. You can see more photos of this elegant Iron Lady here http://www.wcra.org/

[eastcoast]

I'd like a tall latte and a Eclaire , Please.
Nice pic on the wall. Show more.

[fec153]

luc- that is a beautiful picture. Clear and sharp on my screen. Thanks for showing it.
Flip.

[Anonymous]

Good MOrning All:

Yesterday was a good day - I got six sections of track and three switches laid. Ed, I'm on a tear and am going to catch you. I've got stuff all over the layout and decided to turn it on and listen to the steamers, it took me 40 minutes to find the short and pick up the tri square. I pulled a Fergie yesterday and re-wired one of the staging yards, yes, this time I used a terminal block to make trouble shooting easier. I have the left side of the upper loop in and ready to go but the 3:00 AM solution required a 28/32 curved turnout on the right and Papa Ben's doesn't have one so that means going to the mail order houses.

I'm just about ready to paint the turntable as I've done just about all the damage to it I can.

Jim:
GET RID OF THE BRASS TRACK I can't emphasize that enough. It's nothing but a pain in the neck and also a pain a little lower. Nickel/silver is so much better. If you like doing track maintence then brass is the way to go. It'll make you very happy and give you job security. I'm using Walthers and Atlas code 83 and am tickled to death with them. I use Walthers switches and Atlas track.

John:
I haven't seen any recient pictures of what's going on out on Sober Island. How is Rosie-the-dog? I bet she doesn't want to go outside when you don't have to.

Ed:
I'm hoping to get the second level done this week but it depends on the mail order of the switch.

Robert:
I sent you an e-mail with my phone numbers. If you call the office phone it is almost always forwarded to my cell phone.

Well I'd better get ready for church

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

[Anonymous]

I'm glad to hear this pic work ok, Lawrence.
You may wi***his website on the restoration project for the Royal Hudson.

http://www.wcra.org/

[PennsyHoosier]

Fergie -- Isn't Mike Wolk the "Mike" of Mike's Train House and perhaps one of the chief sources of the tension in the world of model railroading litigation at present? I think that's the one.

Ed -- you are right. The custom of giving gifts on Epiphany (Jan. 6) represents the arrival of the Magi who were seeking the Christ child. For many that is called "Old Christmas." And I might add, that the season of Christmas runs from Dec. 25 to Jan. 6. Those are the 12 Days of Christmas--not the 12 days leading up to Dec. 25.

Best,
Lawrence

[PennsyHoosier]

Good morning friends,

It is another stunningly beautiful day in northern Indiana--two in a row! (That doesn't happen much in these part during this time of year.)

Had a great Sat. with the airbrush, painting and weathering some kits.

luct -- the pic is GREAT and works wonderfully with my browser. Glad to see that engine represented here. It is a beauty!

Robert -- what fun! I got the one about the English wrong. I answered that they thought Americans were hopeless slobs.