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

[tomwatkins]

Good Mornin' Everybody,
It's a gray, rainy day in the mountains today and it's supposed to stay that way for a while. We have a front moving through the are with lots of rain today, and then there are the two storms heading toward Florida which could bring more later in the week, depending on how they track.

Sorry I haven't been around the last few days but things just got real busy. Welcome to all the new folks that have stopped by the coffee shop. The coffee's always on and It's always good. So is the tea. Hope you enjoy it and will stop by regularly.

Ah, Snow. We have all four seasons here in the mountains of North Georgia. We will usually get snow six or eight times a year. Usually it's just enough to be really pretty, but not enough to be a problem. It does get cold here. Frequently temps at night will drop into single digits, and I've seen it go negative a few times and that's really cold.

Chris and Teffy, I'm glad your Genesis 2-8-2's aren't giving you problems. Mine are all very early production and they may have made running changes in the engineering. I went so far as to contact Athearn quite a while ago and sent them back at their request. They modified the trailing trucks and rebalanced the flywheels. It didn't make any appreciable difference. Fairly steep grades and relatively tight curves seem to bring out the worst in them. Since mine is a mountain railroad, I've got both in combination ( 24" radius curves and 2 1/2% grades). Oh Well ! Anyway, I hope yours continue to operate well. I've decided to cut my losses and have two BLI Light Mikes on order.

YNCS's suggestion of practicing airbrushing on shirt cardboard to get familar with the brush is an excellent one. Poster board or lots of other things will work too. It just takes time and practice to learn how much to thin the various brands of paint, how much pressure to use and how much to open the tip. Practice, practice, practice. They are wonderful tools, and worth spending the time with to develop the skill necessary to use them well.

Lehigh Valley, your carvings are beautiful. What kind of wood did you use for that?

Well folks, it's time to get the day going. There are a few chores to get done and then it will be down to the railroad room for the fun stuff.

Have a great day everybody,
Tom

[Anonymous]

Hey Military buffs and History buffs, check this out. [:p]

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/dod/8505379.jpg


A W S O M E [:D] [:D] [:D]

[Anonymous]

Hi All

Another 10 hour day.

Bye All.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by YNCS

QUOTE: Originally posted by JPM335

argh[:(!][:(!] the driveshaft in my spectrum dash 8 broke last week, i emailed bachman customer service 4 days ago asking where to get a replacement. Still no response. If you know how i can get a new one please tell me, because bachman sure wont!

I had a similar experience with Bachman. I had to email them four times before I got a response to a problem. Once I did get someone to return email, I got a resolution to my problem, but it was hard getting anybody's attention at first.

i sent them another email today. I love my spectrum locos but this customer service is horrendous. They dont even have a selection of parts on thier website, its almost as if they enjoy making repairing thier products as hard as possible

why arent those driveshafts metal in the first place?[:(!]

[Hawks05]

you should have seen me when i got up to my room and finally go to "play" with my new stuff i got today. i lied earlier though, i got the Valley Growers building.

i finally got a turnout on my layout and i'm having a blast just with that. i can do so much more now finally. i'm hoping to get working on the building this weekend as i won't have time tomorrow really because i have to work then i might play poker in the night, friday i work and then i'm going to some concerts at night.

that turnout is so cool. you don't know how happy i am to finally have something other than just a loop. i bought 2 so i don't know where to put the other one yet. i might just add it onto the other one to make a little yard type deal or something. not sure yet. should be fun though.

good night everyone.

oh yeah, the drink for me is Hot Chocolate with whipped cream, great stuff.

[krump]

what is the coffee of the day ? something strong enuf to hold a spoon straight up I hope. Been a long workday (including 4 hrs of driving), so it's nice to be home.
- great woodwork, by the way

has anybody every heard of the Skunk train (California I believe) - I think it was featured in MRR mag sometime in 2003. It's an interest of mine as I also have a skunk collection, but I haven't seen any Skunk line rolling stock...

cheers

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cjm89

As soon as I learn how to use my airbrush....

When I first got an airbrush I practiced on shirt cardboard. It's quite cheap, the finished side holds paint in a similar way to styrene, and I could make meaningless mistakes as I learned out to use the brush.

BTW, you do have a spray booth, don't you?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JPM335

argh[:(!][:(!] the driveshaft in my spectrum dash 8 broke last week, i emailed bachman customer service 4 days ago asking where to get a replacement. Still no response. If you know how i can get a new one please tell me, because bachman sure wont!

I had a similar experience with Bachman. I had to email them four times before I got a response to a problem. Once I did get someone to return email, I got a resolution to my problem, but it was hard getting anybody's attention at first.

[Hawks05]

well made a birthday run to the LHS store. spent like $120+. well my mom spent about $40 and i spent the other $85+.

i picked up 3 kits, a SP boxcar, a MNS boxcar (Minneapolis, Northfield, & Southern), and a EL hopper. i also picked up a track side scenery book, 2 atlas turnouts (finally), and my first building that will add to the layout, the Sunrise Feed Mill. looks almost like the one that is still standing or did stand in town here.

then i got to go clothes shopping before school starts. that is always fun.

anyways it was a good day to be inside, it was raining most of the day and its only 50 degrees. and its the middle of AUGUST!!!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jhhtrainsplanes
Jonathon [:)]

CONGRATS on your Photo Of The Day. [:D]

Nice shot. Keep up the good work. [:)]

Thanks Jim. I'm really surprised they thought it was worth putting up.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Don't worry about the wide pages guys, they just happen sometimes. I created a topic about where do you live, and the map links are such long URL's and won't wrap that whole topic is doomed to be wide forever. Sorry Lupo. [swg] I didn't mean to have that happen.

[Anonymous]

Good Afternoon All:

Leakie Valley:

That is some nice woodworking! A+

Tomw:

I own a Genesis Mike and haven't had any trouble with it derailling, I hope it doesn't read this post and get any ideas.

CJM89:

If it doesn't turn out the way I want it I just got after the car with brake fluid or paint thinner. That way it's just what I want when I'm done. When I started I used $5.00 of thinner on a $6.00 car but that was the price of learning

Have a blessed day and remember SANTA FE ALL THE WAY

Bob

[Anonymous]

Noah,

I have an airbrush, but I haven't used it yet, what I weathered was a Red Caboose flat car. I dry-brushed a mix of antique white with black (didn't have any reefer gray around) on the deck to make that look like the grayed wood underneath the paint, then I gave the whole car a wash of black. As soon as I learn how to use my airbrush, I'll spray paint the underbody and trucks grimy black, then I'll airbru***he wheelsets and couplers rust color. As I said though, this was the absolutely first time I weathered anything, and except for the car coming out a little too dirty looking (since it's lettered for Illinois Terminal I could say that it was in steel mill service in Alton, IL or St. Louis), I'm satisfied with how it turned out. I have photos of it, only they're on a film camera, and the trucks aern't wethered in the pics, plus I don't have any wheelset, couplers or air hoses on the car yet. Sometime when I start building a layout and I have a good reason to use up a whole rool of film, I'll take photos of the entire car. (Plus whatever else I'll have done by then...)

P.S., I just brush-painted over the repack dates, but after I got done weathering you can't tell unless you know where I painted them out.

[Noah Hofrichter]

Jim (hawks) Happy Birthday!! I know it's a day late, but all the same.

Chris, I assume you used your air bru***o the weathering, right? The extent of my weathering is making black streaks on the side of a coal car and applying grafitti decals. I do want to learn how to do washes, chalks, ect, any technique that doesn't need an airbrush, as I don't have one. I'll probably start wheathering next summer.

I contain good news today. I learned that another Hobby Shop is opening very close to where the one that closed a few months ago was. There opening the 20 or 27th, and I can't wait. There going to give 20% NMRA membership discount so this gives me another reason to looking into joining the NMRA. If I buy enough stuff there, it may pay for my membership over time. I've got to go look at the membership options at the NMRA site now.

Noah

[Anonymous]

Between halftimers and being worn out I am not mentally running on all 8 for the last few weeks.

Jim [8D]

I knew about your birthday and was going to post a Happy Birthday BEFORE your birthday and halftimers took over. Sorry. [V]

But Happy Belated Birthday [;)] [bday]


Sorry it wasn't all you had hoped for. Hopefully next year will be better. [:)]


LV (the new Chris [;)] ) [:)]

Great job on the wood working. Good subject too, I love Steam. [:p]


Jonathon [:)]

CONGRATS on your Photo Of The Day. [:D]

Nice shot. Keep up the good work. [:)]


Well I think Jim sent me his rain, but that is ok because we needed it. After the 1st of July our rain has been very hard to come by. Funny thing is, I work at the airport and it has rained there many times since then, but not here at my house. The grass was dying, but I have not cut it in 3 or 4 weeks [:0] [B)] Now I "for sure" will have to cut it.

Happy modeling, rainfanning, and all that good stuff. [:D]

Have a great day.

[Anonymous]

Sorry about the last page sometimes i juts get over excited. i noticed it got wider but my computer sometimes won't shrink the margins on a webpage I'm looking at so I thought my computer was just being mean. I'll go back and change it so anyone else that stumbles on the page dooessn't have that problem.
Jim- It's great to see you back in the coffee shop and I hope you can hold up to the long work week.

Andrew

[Anonymous]

Lehigh Valley, that works with me.

Tom W., I tested the Genesis Mikado again, it hasn't derailed once except for one spot in my test track that has a bump in it. Sometime this month I'll start detailing it, I already have WABASH decals for it.

Well I weathered my first freight car today.[:D] It was perfect for me until I realized I forgot to paint over the re-pack dates on the car that were too late for my era, so I had to put a wash of black over the whole car again after I painted out the dates, now it looks a little too grimy for my liking.[:O][:P]

No modeling news other than that, the future train room is full of car kits and what-not else though!

[Anonymous]

argh[:(!][:(!] the driveshaft in my spectrum dash 8 broke last week, i emailed bachman customer service 4 days ago asking where to get a replacement. Still no response. If you know how i can get a new one please tell me, because bachman sure wont!

[Big_Boy_4005]

Sometimes elements in a post will cause the page to go wide when viewing it. On the last page I put in too many happy birthdays, then Lupo made it even wider with his response. Photos can cause that, or if there is a word that is longer than the line. There was a topic over on CTT called "E unit buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz", only the word buzz had so many z's it forced the topic page wide. I agree that it's annoying when this happens. Sorry about the last page guys.

Well it was actually Andrew's post that made the last page wide. Again too many happy birthdays.[swg]

[Anonymous]

Morning guys, here in New Jeresey, a Nice sunny day, I am also an amature woodworker, here are two pictures of a carving of mine;





You can click to enlarge those, if desired.

Regards,
Lehigh Valley Railroad.

[Anonymous]

GOOD MORNING ALL:

I live just south of Beaumont Texas, in the hot and humid part of the state. We share our land with 8 million mesquitoes, some of them so large that six of them could carry you to the beach.

Yesterday I got my 2-8-8-2 back from Proto and it sure is a honey of a loco. It is nice just to sit and watch it move, it has so much monkey motion with both sets of drivers.


Jim:
I was wondering why the margin on the last page was so wide, thanks for the explanetion (SP).

I'm running late today and have got to go

Have a blessed day and remember
Bob

[Anonymous]

I hope this post turns out ok, right now (for some reason [:(] ) it it very wide. Remember guys and gals if you use ten tons of smilies please leave some spaces between them. If they don't have spaces then the thread becomes stretched o u t. If you leave some spaces then the margins will auto-adjust. It really makes the pages hard to read when they get s t r e t c h e d out.


Well I have just worked 23 days in a row without a day off, and the last 2 days were 10 hour shifts. Needless to say I am tired and not a lot of study is getting done. [V]

In my field of work you take the overtime when you can get it. Some of you will remember last November, December, January, and February I was only getting to work 32 hour weeks. Things are really picking up in aircraft sales now but right after 9-11 the botton fell out. We are pretty busy and even have contractors helping until we catch up.


Hi All [:)]

Welcome Joe [:D]

See yall later. [;)]

z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z

[Anonymous]

it never snows here in south texas, even on the rare occasion it does, it melts beffore it hits the ground, sometimes we get ice though which is worse in my opinion. the city gets shut down because theres cars all over the place. anyway, im tired of talking about this...

--Joe

[Big_Boy_4005]

The secret to surviving winter is to have someone else shovel the snow!!![swg]

[Hawks05]

i wish i lived somewhere where they rarely got tornadoes. i hate thunderstorms. but i like summer because that means for the time being no school and means baseball. but i like winter because i enjoy driving sometimes in the snow. and it means bowling to.

[krump]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ConrailGP38-2

Hey Krump i dont know what i would do if there was no snow. Winter is my favorite season.
MAybe its because i grew up plowing bit i dont know

3 feet of the heavenly dandruff for a 3-4 month stretch ... not my first choice (where does Teffy live ?), BUT it's not a bad option either - my relatives get the white stuff for 6-8 months. we don't put up with that kinda weather, and we can choose when to visit them. I'm a 3 season individual, and if it weren't for work, I'd hibernate in the winter. Just not keen on watching every single step that I take for 4 months. we get a bit of rain, a lot of sun, have beautiful lakes. we have severe forest fire cautions, but on the otherhand we rarely need to worry about hurricanes or tornado alley - so it all evens out. (I have tried to convince my wife that we need a ATV Quad so that we can enjoy all seasons... perhaps next year)

I hear a train...

[Anonymous]

The Just call me "hey you in the bushes"[;)][:D]

You were here first, You can have the call of "Chris" I will take "Lehigh Valley"

Regards,
Lehigh Valley

[Hawks05]

its not that i can gamble. its that like it. haha. i've been playing poker for a year now so its not like i want to learn because i can.

i went over to my friends house to see the progress on his train room. WOW. he just got his helix today and then he'll be ready to put up stuff for his second level. its going to be really sweet. he just bought Union Station and he's going to have 6 tracks out of there for all his passenger trains. should be a lot of fun to operate once things start progressing more.

[der5997]

It's 20:49 Atlantic Time, Tuesday 10th August. Fergie, if you catch this today or tomorrow, the fiddle yard is done except for the wiring. (Saturday afternoon was taken up with a trip to New Glasgow, so that put things back a bit )
Pics of this progress at< www.railimages.com/gallery/JohnWood> . I think that's the link. The album's on page 4 anyway. Regards, John.

[Anonymous]

Uh-Oh, now there's two CHRIS's in the Shop, guess you'll guys will have to start saying my full name again![:D]

BTW welcome Lehigh Valley/Chris.[8D]