Evenin’ Chloe, I'll have a hot chocolate tonight, please. That’ll be dessert enough for me, thanks. Dan, on the Henry Ford Museum, I think the DIY Forum/TV show previously had a/some shows about how they built their display, and I recall that they did an excellent job on it. Saw it on one of Flip's RR tapes. pcarrell wrote:Have you been reading my thread?...PC, I think I’ve experienced about 60-75 percent of the Murphy's Laws or corollaries listed in your thread (personally) , and probably the others are just lying in wait for me to get to that point in the progress...If it were me, Jerry, I’d email the seller on the third item (if I wanted it) and ask if they need it back (like for the actual buyer), and if not, I might offer them a price. I’ve had one seller mess up their records, and send me a second kit like the one I bought, so in that case I let them know, and asked them if they would sell it for the same price as the other one I’d bought. (They did, in my case) And in the case of the kit, it was one that I could use for splitting into smaller buildings and/or kitbashing, so it worked fine for me. RT, at the moment, I’m awaiting several eBay purchases, but most of them I’m figuring are slow in coming due to the Christmas (mail) slowdown. Priority Mail is slowing down lately - and from a couple of friends who drive (respectively) for FedEx and UPS, they’re starting to slow down, too. If it gets too far past when I thought the item should arrive, I’ll email the seller and ask if they have a tracking number (or when they sent the item out). Then maybe I can see which snail the item is riding on...
pcarrell wrote:Have you been reading my thread?...
Time for me to head for home. Want to see about some Christmas lights and decorations on that tree.
Blessings,Jim in Cape Girardeau
Jim - which display would that be? the roundhouse, the decent collection of steam locos in the museum, or the circle of track around greenfield village? I like going through the roundhouse, especially when one of the tour guide types knows what they're talking about...
If you've been there, right after you get to the top of the "observation" area, there's a green(ish) machine that (i think) is what is/was used to make the shoed for the steam locos. It was donated by my uncle's shortline's backshop... it was taking up space, but they (well, he - from what I gather he's one of the higher-ups...) didn't want to throw it away
anyway, it's quite a place to go to - especially during their "special" weeks.weekends. they'll have old-fashioned baseball games, or car shows, or a train show once in a while... and then there's the skits that they put on throughout the day...
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
Good Evening CS Patrons!
A couple of actual mrr related things happened unexpectedly today. First, in a conversation with a chap about museum related matters, he divulged that the saw mill which burned down in 1947 had it’s own short line that brought logs from Ruth Falls on the East River to the mill. I mean short, it can’t be more than a couple of miles! Still that’s the first I’ve ever heard of a railroad in this neck of the woods. He says he can take me to see the old embankments. I must research this road in the Nova Scotia Archives. The second thing was that on my way home from that meeting, I dropped into the library to pick up a book that Kris had ordered. I asked about the December MR I had ordered as well. Ta Da! It had come in this morning’s library mail.
So I am a happy camper.
LisaP. Great to see you drop by again. Any baking to spare?
Dick: Thanks for raising the font level. Much easier this way
all the way from Moncton New Brunswick ( close to where Der John lives )
CapeJim:
but don't go flirting too much with our twin virtual servers (especially Chloe - she packs a wallop! Just ask Flip or Der John when they're in " style='width:11.25pt;height:11.25pt'> )
BTW, about your question to Fergie on sourcing white LEDs, I get mine from an electronics store, but doubtless at a greater cost than Fergie scored.
Fergie: Glad to hear your dad is still on the mend, even if it’s slower than you would like. That Norwalk virus is having quite the run this year…we didn’t seem to hear about it very much up to now.
The white LEDs sound much more like “Scale illumination” too. They’ve been a long time coming, but what a great addition to the hobby!
MDDave:
If they get the chips small enough and cheap enough then skys the limit!
Well, I see by the clock on the task bar that it’s time once more to call it a day.
So all, and God Bless. Prayers for all in need of healing, comfort and peace.
"There are always alternatives, Captain" - Spock.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Afternoon/morning guys and girls... Just a quick check in from me...
I don't have time to read all the posts i've missed, so I hope all is well. As for me, i'm sick as a dog, Possibly the flu, which i've never had, and never been vaccinated for.
Cheers,
OZ
James, Brisbane Australia
Modelling AT&SF in the 90s
Today's Weather for: Leesville, LA 71446 12/13/2006 Wind Chill: 46°FHumidity: 85%Dew Point: 42°F So Far TodayHigh: 46°FLow: 46°FRain: 0.01"Rain Rate: N/A"/hGust: 0mph NNE High: 74 °FLow: 44 °F
Today High: 75 Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 70s. Light and variable winds. Tonight Low: 42 Mostly clear. Lows in the lower 40s. Light and variable winds
I hope today is a goodday for me. I'd really like to get some work done.
Good morning ! from Indiana.
12-13-06
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
Mornin folks. Gotta storm that I think you Great Plains folk are throwing at us rolling over the Appalachians right now. Looks to dump on us a fair amount! Zoe, and Chloe hope you brought your e-Umbrella! Or do these guys ever let you go home? Either way, feeling frisky so bring me a fat pill, I mean, er, doughnut please.
Yep, David - and I'm sure there's some teenage hacker out there that will wonder what he/she's controlling (as your locomotives go out of control and crash into the train ahead of them...). Besides, you may have the NSA listening in on your train's traffic and misread it as an Al Qaida message!
Claymore 1977 oh you were one of those type that liked to sink a perfectly good boat just to see if you could raise it again a few months later. And your basic electric for model railroaders 101 doesn't quite work with me you see I'm ac not dc.
Dave Loman
My site: The Rusty Spike
"It's a penny for your thoughts, but you have to put your 2 cents in.... hey, someone's making a penny!"
Good morning and top 'o' the day to all of ye.
I don't know if I'm going to work today or not. I'm feeling like my nerves are on fire. My whole body feels like it's burning and just touching something hurts. Anyone ever have something like that?
Good Morning all,
Euclid High temp today: 49F and rain, Wahoo!
Jeff, I hope your feeling better, I don't think I've had anything like that other than sunburn. Maybe it's a good day just to relax and reflect on things.
Lee
BM1 Lee Soule USCG (ret) L.S.&W Railroad Serving the Lower Great Lakes
jeffrey-wimberly wrote: Good morning and top 'o' the day to all of ye.I don't know if I'm going to work today or not. I'm feeling like my nerves are on fire. My whole body feels like it's burning and just touching something hurts. Anyone ever have something like that?
You do some heavy lifting or activity in excess of normal recently?
Geez, that might do it. Depending on how comfortable you are with you masculinity, take a warm bath. If that's too fruity, just have a friend straight leg jimmy kick you in the back :)
Either way, first round of e-coffee is on me.
Good Morning All,
I'll have a regular and a hard roll please Zoe. Model night at the museum had me nailing the last of the yard and turntable approach tracks down. Next week will be the roundhouse and adjacent trackage, then painting and ballast. Might actually be getting somewhere with the display.
Jeff - sounds like you have confirmation that you did overdo it at work the other day. I always find the late nights/extra hours catch up to me here a couple of days after I stop and the adrenalin wears off. Rest should fix most of it.
Der - sounds like you may have stumbled on a good reason to add a little branch line onto your empire. Shouldn't be oo hard to find a place for a short line a couple of scale miles long.
Hope the rest of you are doing well. Time to pick up tools for me. CUL,J.R.
How about a toaster strudel and some hot steaming coffee, Chloe!
Only 12 days until Christmas!
Neal, another box came in the mail yesterday. Wow! You really outdid yourself there! I did not expect a second box. Thank you again for your unselfish expression of wonderful car and truck model kits!
Dick, 22 hours of driving time beats our 17 hour drive from New Orleans to Sevierville, TN, that's what it took us on our evacuation from Katrina last year. Normally that trip only takes about 12 hours, but we had to take out of the way routes due to the lack of gasoline from Jackson, MS to Atlanta, GA.
Philip, glad to hear they are all feeling better now! Your Murphy's Law thread reminds me of a quote I saw somewhere on this forum, it is "Murphy was an optimist", that might make for a truly bad day at the office, err....layout I mean. I can attest to just about all of the "laws".
Jim, thanks for the cake description. I was thinking that those were nuts in the icing. It almost looked like my mothers Chocolate Marshmallow Hash Cake. Chocolate and walnuts go together very well.
Dan, "Taste of History" restaurant, eh! Does that mean the food is old and dusty? LOL Sounds like a great museum.
Der John, good news on your research findings about the short line to the saw mill. It is fun too learning about the past and prototype operations for your modeling research.
Ryan BoudreauxThe Piedmont Division Modeling The Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western & Norfolk Southern in HO during the merger eraCajun Chef Ryan
claymore1977 wrote:Yep, David - and I'm sure there's some teenage hacker out there that will wonder what he/she's controlling (as your locomotives go out of control and crash into the train ahead of them...). Besides, you may have the NSA listening in on your train's traffic and misread it as an Al Qaida message!LOL yeah, the thought crossed my mind, but there are 100's of ways to secure a site to prevent that, the #1 being: Keep it as an intranet, no outside connection (directly). I surely hope Homeland Security can understand that a digital waybill is not code for the next attack. :)
so get RFID tags and hook the receivers up to 802.11 transmitters. There's no really good way to put the transmitter into HO rolling stock and have any guarentee that they will have reliable power (well, short of batteries - and those are a drag). If you can do the RFID right, you can get the receivers set so they can only "see" one of the tags if its 1/8" or closer... AND the chips generally don't need an "internal" source of electricity - ie you place/swipe it near teh RFID reader and it gets just enough power from that (magnetic coils or something) to throw out it's signal. MC and other creditcard sized things already use this kind of RFID chip, so we know they're being manufactured...
Then you only have to worry about convincing wireless transmitter A to connect to the AP. and no matter what you do, people can break into it (ah, the joys of wardriving... not that I do it...much)
Yeah, I have had quite a few ideas/uses for RFID. I did a small write up on it here and you there are lots of simple to implement resources at http://www.phidgetsusa.com/.
I think the use of RFID and current sensors on blocks could pretty much automate Waybills and add a whole new level of Operations fun.
Oop, looks like I am buying again!
Hey guys! tomottow is my birthday!!wellm I've allready got my brithday present from my mom. a:
ATSF 0-6-0 w/smoke and headlight (Nuckle coupler. YES!)
ATSF 40' flat car (nuckle coupler)
16 pice Union artilary set w/ cannon
all of these are going to be used in a History project that is due on the 19th.
oh and guys listen to this!
file:///Users/student/Desktop/Railroad%20Sounds/trainweb.org:mdamtrak199:trainsounds:309.wav.webloc
file:///Users/student/Desktop/Railroad%20Sounds/trainweb.org:mdamtrak199:trainsounds:394jb.wav.webloc
file:///Users/student/Desktop/Railroad%20Sounds/trainweb.org:mdamtrak199:trainsounds:fl9jb.wav.webloc
claymore1977 wrote:Yeah, I have had quite a few ideas/uses for RFID. I did a small write up on it here and you there are lots of simple to implement resources at http://www.phidgetsusa.com/.I think the use of RFID and current sensors on blocks could pretty much automate Waybills and add a whole new level of Operations fun. Oop, looks like I am buying again!
I'm kind of suprised that you said Java was no good for what you need it to do... oh, wait, nevermind - I found it.. it can't do DB read/write? BAH!
I actually just finished a DB (MySQL) conrol class (read/write/connect/disconnect... though I never got the write part working quite right, though for my purposes it was unnecessary anyway) for VB... wow, it was a pain. I never want to have to go through that again...
The webcam on a flarcat is a nice idea, although you're going to need some form of a relay/rectifier to go from the DCC-signal to sine-wave DC @ 5V/2.5 amps (I'm looking at one specific camera - dunno if the rest of them are similar)... hey wait -> what about a decoder for large scales?
Looking @ digitrax - they have a large scale decoder that's 1.45” x 2.23”, and has a 5-amp rating (10 peak). might need a boxcar to hide this in, but you might even be able to fit the camera's guts in the boxcar too.
claymore1977 wrote: Yeah, I have had quite a few ideas/uses for RFID. I did a small write up on it here and you there are lots of simple to implement resources at http://www.phidgetsusa.com/.I think the use of RFID and current sensors on blocks could pretty much automate Waybills and add a whole new level of Operations fun. Oop, looks like I am buying again!
Dave, I read your posting on the DCC RFID and that is an ambitious project you got there! The whole computer operations of the entire layout and room lighting certainly all sounds plausible, it will be interesting following along with you to see how it progresses.
I have written some very basic VB scripts, but most of my coding experience is in HTML, DHTML, PHP, and JavaScript for web sites. I have a little C+ programming experience (12 weeks) from two classes I took way back in 1999, we wrote a small currency exchange program. And going way back to 1981 I took a FORTRAN WATFIV programming class at LSU.
Oh, and thanks for lunch today! Hey, Philip, what's on the buffet today?
Colby!
Happy Birthday Colby: I wish that I was that young and had a birthday. Now all I get is stuff for the ranch.
My foreman gave me a Co;d Heat soldering tool for Christmas. I just tried it in the shop and it did a pretty good job on a couple of wires. It won't do a heavy job like soldering leads to rail but for what it is designed it will work all right.
Dave L: You'd better be carefull about getting the top of the page. PC has been known to get jellous. All this techie talk that has been going on is really making me feel dumb. I'm good to rember righty tighty, lefty loosey.
It's almost time for break so I'll do just that. See you all later.
SilverSpike wrote:Oh, and thanks for lunch today! Hey, Philip, what's on the buffet today?
What are asking me for? Claymore is buying! It's his dime!
Oh, and Paul, I'm with you! All this stuff is way over my head!
SilverSpike wrote: claymore1977 wrote: Yeah, I have had quite a few ideas/uses for RFID. I did a small write up on it here and you there are lots of simple to implement resources at http://www.phidgetsusa.com/.I think the use of RFID and current sensors on blocks could pretty much automate Waybills and add a whole new level of Operations fun. Oop, looks like I am buying again! Dave, I read your posting on the DCC RFID and that is an ambitious project you got there! The whole computer operations of the entire layout and room lighting certainly all sounds plausible, it will be interesting following along with you to see how it progresses. I have written some very basic VB scripts, but most of my coding experience is in HTML, DHTML, PHP, and JavaScript for web sites. I have a little C+ programming experience (12 weeks) from two classes I took way back in 1999, we wrote a small currency exchange program. And going way back to 1981 I took a FORTRAN WATFIV programming class at LSU. Oh, and thanks for lunch today! Hey, Philip, what's on the buffet today? Colby!
how about we write this thing in COBOL?
pcarrell wrote: SilverSpike wrote:Oh, and thanks for lunch today! Hey, Philip, what's on the buffet today?What are asking me for? Claymore is buying! It's his dime!Oh, and Paul, I'm with you! All this stuff is way over my head!
Didn't want to leave you out of the regular duties.... and your buffets are sooo good.....
NeO6874 wrote: how about we write this thing in COBOL?
There you go! Then you could also create a cost and expense analysis for the model railroad company and determine if it is running in the red or the black! With operations reports available in "real time", or scale time....
i.e. Lumber loads delivered to ACME Lumber Co. and XYZ RR gets $5,000.00 for completing the shipment. RFID confirms delivery and fictional $$ gets posted to the account....
My room mate at LSU was an accounting major and they made them take COBOL programming classes.
Hello All,
The valley forcast for the day is cold......
The phantom is on the loose......
Back to the mainframe from which yea came! Back BACK I SAY you ancient beast! :-)
I'm actually working on the same thing. It's already written up in C++. I control lighting, switches, accesory decoders, and trains all from the same wireless remote.
Look for the PC interface for X10 lighting. The protocol/interface is pretty simple. http://www.smarthome.com/. (http://www.smarthome.com/2416d.html)
I wrote my own XPressnet driver code. But there are tons of computer programs out there that handle more and do more for free. I just like walking around my layout with a wireless joypad and computer switchboard up on the wall. (Plus I'm famous for reinventing the wheel.)
To everyone else, morning. I hope you're having a sunny day because it's 45 and wet here in MD/PA
BTW: Who has the coffee? I was up to 1am finishing my open transload building with lighting and weathering.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
Well all things being equal, I am thinking that MS Access is actually a decent build/test platform. Its a DB, a DB interface, can easily build forms and has a built in VBA editor that is rediculously powerful.
The phidgets come with a VBA API that I have played around with... super easy. Its just a matter of time and money to peice it all together. I am probably gonna build a small layout to act as a test platform.
The possiblities are pretty astounding and I could yack and brainstorm for hours about it :)
NE06874, whereabouts in MD/PA?
Perry, you live in AJ? I grew up in Florence, about 45 mins south of there!