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

[philnrunt]

Just typed out a long serious reply on Antonio's boycott post, read it over, felt better and deleted it. Hate to be too serious about such a fun topic.
All that C stuff has me cold, even tho it's hot at 30C. I guess. Need to get a conversion chart to keep near the 'puter.
JimZ, in Z scale, how big is a DD? And I tried that teenager thing, turned out they knew more than me about everything so I told them to get into government work.They said they already knew that.
Had Iced Coffee for lunch, and it was well worth it. Have coff-cubes freezing now, and will be cooling off with another one soon.Thanks for the heads up, guys.

[Anonymous]

lupo - you're mostly correct in your assessment of how fortunate we are as North Americans to have so vast a geography to travel freely within it's boundaries and having the added benefit of all speaking the same language. Things are a changin' however as Spanish is quickly becoming not just a second language for some, but the only language spoken by many in the Southwest and in pockets of the Southeast. That will certainly change back over time. And we must not forget our friends 'south of the border, where English is a rarity amongst the common folk. And the regional accent differences within the United States still amazes me, as one travels about metro-NYCity and throughout New England, and especially on the south side of the Mason Dixon line, for how you sound when you speak, is still sometimes met with less than a friendly response.

Most everytime I watch a F1 GP race on TV I am cognizant of just how widely spoken English is spoken around the world, for whether the driver is from Germany, France, Brazil, Japan, or Spain, they respond to the press in English. It's the folks from Scotland who's version of Engli***hat I have a hard time comprehending !

[Noah Hofrichter]

JimZ (you earned yourself a new nickname) Glad your here in the coffee shop with us, And congrats on your new child, hope he/she takes your same interest.

The WSOR ran an inspection train up here these past couple of days, so I'm happy. The stayed overnight in another town down the line Monday night, and then stayed here last night. They've been being "friendly" with the customers on the line, having dinner with many of them. I got some good pictures for the contest the WSOR is holding for there calender. You get 500 bucks for the cover, 250 for the inside cover, and $100 for each month. This tarain is big though, I have a feeling the President of the company is on it. I was on my best picture taking behavure for taking pictures of it. I know the engineer, or at least I have fot the past two months, so he let me climb up in the engine quick and get some pictures of the interior. I had a good day altogether. I thought they had left, but the engineer, who is all I can pick up, just said on the scanner "oops" and a few minutes later "did it over heat or what" so that's not a good sign. Might go see if I can convince my mom to take me down to find out what's going on, so I got to go.

Noah

[lupo]

well I am back from work ( that means I just walked up the stairs ) finished for today, temperature is now about 70 or about: 22 C going to hang out on the porch to watch the sunset !

Hey Bill, [(-D][(-D] with the topic wide as a streched limo, your post fitted in my screen complete! I could read it without scrolling![:P]
Allthough some might consider these stories off topic, I really like meeting the man behind the hobby!

[oops] Jim kept his word, as I was typing he resized the picture ! ( 12.00 )

I think it is cool reading your stories how a lot of you Americans ( and Canadians?) moving around your country from east to west and north and south and everywhere in between. must be the advantage of speaking all the same language ( exept of some part of canada and louisiana??? ) That imho one off the reasons why the european community will never work out the same way like the US: when I travel 100 miles east people speak german, if I travel 100 miles south people speak french, when I travel 100 miles west people speak english, if you look any further people speak languages some would consider a speaking disability, try to unite that, someone living in the north can only speak to someone from the south by sign language or an interpretor.

[Anonymous]

Jim M [8D]

I have seen a DD40. We have one on pernament display here in North Little Rock, Arkansas. It is in front of the Union Pacific Jenks Shops. It is number 6938. When ever the 3985 or 844 come to town they "park" behing the Jenks Shops. The steam locos will be "sandwiched" between the Jenks Shops and the UP 4 th Street Offices. The local "operator" once referred to as the Locust Street Tower Operator is now located in the 4th Street Offices. The Bearing Cross Bridge, the railroad bridge linking Little Rock to North Little Rock, is within walking distance of the 4th Street Offices. This is where I recently took pics of the 3985 (which I thought were pretty good, right Lupo and Noah, but appearantely Bergie doesn't think so as the 18 pics I send him have NOT made "Photo Of The Day"--not even one of them [:(] [V] [:(!] )

Everyone have a good day. [8D]

[Anonymous]

Congrats Ron to you and your spouse on your new baby.

It's a funny thing in a way, but it made me feel kinda okay when I heard that you have a new child, when I think about what may have become of my nephew. As one life leaves this world, another one emerges as a baby all innocent and full of curiosity, with boundless opportunities for discovery and adventure the rest of their life. I am very happy for you. My daughter is expecting her third child - a daughter - next month. My 19 year old son is moving back to the nest later this year, and although the empty nest has been peaceful, its been too quiet. Working at home has its advantages and disadvantages, and often I find myself having long conversations with my three cats !

For years, I worked in the corporate semiconductor world out in 'Silly Con Valley", as Jim Manley accurately describes it, then sold real estate for ten years both in California and in North Carolina, where I also sold 'high-end' cars to pay the bills, before starting my own business building custom Craftsman style furniture (Stickley, Greene & Greene, Frank Lloyd Wright, Roycraft and other similar styles) and a product line of period mantle clocks. I'll never get wealthy doing this, but I've found something that will forever challenge me and as long as I can work, I will. The stairs to the basement are the only barrier to getting to work, and no more fighting traffic, airport hassles, and eating expensive and unhealthy meals with heavy breathing people you don't really care to dine with. . . The time I used to spend commuting and 'doing lunch' is now my hobby time, and it has enabled me to dive back into model railroading once again after a ten year absence from the hobby. That my model railroad room-to-be is on the other side of a 2x4 wall from my shop has its advantages !

Sometimes it's fun to reflect on where one lived in terms of the railroading unique to those places. I spent my formative years as a Northeaster - NYC, upstate NY, Jersey, and Connecticut: I have fond memories of the New Haven, NYC, Erie Lackawana, Jersey Central, PRR, the NYC Subway System, and even the PATH trains in NYC/NJ. In upstate NY I lived close to both the NYC four track main and near the old NY,O,&W RR line. My family has a burial plot w/ many generations residing there in Oneida Castle, NY not far from a fascinating multi level railroad station, the subject of a construction article in MR some years back. In high school we used to cross country ski along the old NY Central right of way in the Adirondacks, later reopened from Utica, NY to Lake Placid for the Winter Olympics.

I remember riding NH RDCs on vacation to Conn. in the summer, escaping the heat and the noise (incl that of the IRT elevated just a couple of hundred feet from my parents' apartment ) in Queens. Or riding the Long Island and the PRR to visit relatives, or poking around in PRR's Sunnyside Yard in Long Island City with my Dad. I discovered lamb chops riding the NYC to a Columbia Univ. high school press convention in 1962, and that was the highlight of that week (for my Mom refused to cook lamb, but made us eat liver -ugh). When I used to work for United Technologies (Norden Division), and was bored to death tracking down parts for F111s, I used to sit in front of the window and watch worn out GG1s and Turbo Trains wizz by between New Haven and NYC.

I have photos of the Sierra RR and the Felton & Big Trees RR in our breakfast room, a painting of the DRG&W narrow gauge in the hall, and a 'Rail Fair' poster from the California Rail Museum in Sacramento - all places I have spent time with my kids, when they were kids. Backpacking the route of the South Pacific Coast (SP), with my German Shephard, through the Santa Cruz Mtns between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz reminds me of the first and only time I got poison oak. Or the time I walked through the WP tunnels east of Newark, Ca to capture one of my all time favorite b&w pictures of an engine emerging from the dark void I had just been in (and it taught me a lesson - it scared the crap out of me !) (My wife later told me that she and her girlfriends used to walk through the Chatsworth tunnels on the Espee north of LA when she was in highschool.)

There was the business trip back east from California when my girl friend tagged along, and we spent the weekend in New England. We visited the now defunct Edaville 2 foot narrow gauge (ex Maine Two-footer equipment) around the 'Ocean Spray' cranberry bogs outside of Plymouth. I had been modeling HOn30 at the time and it was quite a thrill to see how 'big' the little trains were. The tourist line was shut down for the day when we arrived, and she persisted until she wrangled a cab ride for us (because it was my birthday). They agreed to just run the little Forney sans cars a couple of laps around the place, the only cavaet being that we had to sign a waiver and declare in writing that we were married ! Don't ask me why, I haven't a clue. But damnit, one thing led to another, a bottle of Jose Quervo (very hard to locate in New England back then), a nice dinner, and I proposed to her later that night ! We paid a visit to the Skunk tourist line in northern California on our honeymoon, and several years later we were touring the backroads from DC to New England and stopped by the Strasburg RR and the PRR museum in Pennsylvania, only to once again arrive at closing time. So I parked the rental beside the fence in front of the museum to snoop around the premises. She elected to remain in the car because she was six months pregnant with my son. My promise to return in fifteen minutes evolved into an hour, and she was madder than hell when I returned to the car, because I had apparantly parked over a very ripe and fairly recently dead cat. And it was warm outside and I had the car keys with me.

And that my new home is located within the sounds of the Georgia Northeastern RR (ex L&N) short line is still more evidence of how train people may define their lives by the trains that run nearby, Or, at least I do. Hopefully I haven't bored you to tears with my rant, but I guess I just wanted to share some of what trains mean to me.
BILL

[Fergmiester]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lupo
C. ( I noticed you use the Celsius scale in canada? ) hard to adjust to weather like that in a day. the average temperature in our workspace is about 26 - 28'C
as I type this we have lunchbreak, so now back to the sauna!
see yall!

Try navigating in Canadian waters! though we maybe be metric (since 72') we measure distance in nautical miles, depths are either in feet, fathoms or metres depending on age and source ie Admiralty, US or Canadian, Surveying is in Metric so on and so forth.

You mention your workspace is between 26 and 28 Yikes!! that horrible, That's why I like the northern cruises in the summer, like I said before If the temperature was between 23 and 25 C ( 72 to 78 F) I wouldn't complain a bit. I fear this temperature will be the demise of my tulips[:(] Once I get the bark mulch up the bank I'll take pictures.

[lupo]

GOOD MORNING 'n AFTERNOON ALL!
JimZ, I watched the memorial festivities in normandy last sunday,It always impresses me very much to see those veterans after all these years, and realising what they did for us europeans, fighting an enemy so far from home, you sure can be proud of your dad! I wish him well!
We dutch have special memorial days on 4 & 5 may, on 4 may we remember those that given their life in war, with local memorial services and a national celebration in Amsterdam and 2 minutes of silence all over the country. On May 5 we celebrate the end of WW2 and the german capitulation.

btw about work: I work beneath my home, not in the basement or in a mine, I live in a 2 story building, downstairs = work, upstairs = home!

Daddy, can you explain the difference between an accident and a disaster?
Well son, if a limousine with lawyers drives into a river we call that an accident,
if it turns out that they all can swim we call that a disaster !

Hi Fergus,I'll be looking forward to new nature pictures in your webalbum,they are awesome, I saw some pictures of horses ( or ponies) are those wild or semi wild ? In holland horses like those are used as "gardeners" in wildlife refuges, to keep open spaces for birds nesting and keeping them from filling up with high grasses.

the weather was kind off weird lately, for the last to months temperatures are 3-4'C below average, and yesterday all at once summer broke out, temperatures reaching 30 C. ( I noticed you use the Celsius scale in canada? ) hard to adjust to weather like that in a day. the average temperature in our workspace is about 26 - 28'C
as I type this we have lunchbreak, so now back to the sauna!
see yall!

[Fergmiester]

Good Moning Gents

I see we're hauling a long consist this morning. Ron Congrats on the new addition,
Hopefully he or she will be saying Choo Choo in no time.

We will be seeing our first heat wave of the season today as it is suppose to go up to 27C[8D][:O]

Hey Lupo hows the weather on your side of the pond?
I'll be posting more pics today on Webshots in my Land and Sea album.
They are the shots I took out at Sable Is two weeks ago if anyone is interested.

Anyway time to get the kids off to school and then into the garden to do some planting

Have a good one!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jhhtrainsplanes

How did we get all s t r e t c h e d out again?

Hi Jim,

I've temporarily set the photo in my sig to be full-siZed, juZt for fun and to show off a loco most people have never seen. I'll reset the photo to the normal siZe by Wed Noon Pacific Time, if that'Z OK.

There were 47 DDA40X Centennials designed and built by EMD exclusively for the UP starting in 1969, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the driving of the Golden Spike, when the UP and the Central Pacific Railroads were joined at Promontory Summit, Utah. They were designed specifically, and generally only used, for high-speed UP freight trains going over the summits between Laramie, Wyoming, and Roseville, CA. They are over 98 feet long at the chassis and have unique direct electric-drive four-axle trucks to provide superior traction on hills. 6936 is the only loco of this series still operational, and it and the matching coaches are maintained for special trains for company meetings, events, and customer perk rides, a few times a year. I am working on scratch-building all 47 units in Z scale.

I hope this was of some hysterical, if not historical, interest to someone. [:)]

ThankZ for your patienZe, and All Z BeZt,
The Other Jim (assuming there isn't more than one Other Jim here!)

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lupo

[#welcome] Jimmanley !
you asked how to post pictures, well you do it like this:



well that's a mighty fine locomotive in a lovely color scheme!
[oops] phil !

you used the wrong command, instead of the <img src= you should use another command:
[ img] http://www.railpictures.net/images/u/UP6936A.jpg.71342 [ /img]
and remove the spaces between [ and img], you can find explanation about this and other commands in the * Show Forum Code next to the quick reply box !
have fun !

Ron, congrats on the birth of your new family member ( son or daughter? )

Hi Lupo,

ThankZ very much for the help with getting the image to show up in my siggy. I hadn't realized what the Forum Code link had hiding behind it, and it didn't occur to me that they didn't use the INTERNATIONAL HTML STANDARD THAT EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD USES! As you can see, I've now figured out how to use the codes to control the text attributes, and keep trains.com from making my beloved Centennial Z scale-sized on the page. Don't worry, I'll only leave it this big until everyone has had a chance to see the fine detail of this model (note the Floquil UP Armor Yellow on the body and Shiny Silver on the trucks! [:D]

Of note, this photo was taken in Alviso, within a mile or so of my office. From the second floor of our building, I get to see EMDs in UP, SP and DRG&W 3 - 4 loco consists pulling upwards of 160 cars, plus the Amtrak trains running between Oakland and LA, and the Altamont Commuter Express (ACE) running between San Jose and Stockton all day long on the very mainline in this image.

I'm thinking of naming my layout the TiVo and AlviZo line of the Onion Specific RR. Whaddya think?

Bill, if your family still hasn't gotten any satisfaction from the local Maui police, kick it up to Hawaii 5-0 (the State Police) Internal Affairs (IA) and tell them your next stop is with the Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) of the Honolulu FBI office and the Justice Department. One of the things they do is investigate faulty investigations by local and state police. There is a lot of drug stuff going on in Hawaii, especially off Oahu, and it's not unusual for tourists who go off the beaten path to accidently wind up in the middle of someone's secret pot or poppy farm, and they're never heard from again (many are even mined or otherwise booby-trapped). You don't even need to be involved in drugs at all to get killed there. The Feds are much more attuned to investigating disappearances precisely because the locals and state don't want to scare off tourists.

Congratulations on the new crew member, Ron! Is it a ticket salesperson, brakeman, conductor, repairman, stoker, or engineer? [;)]

Phil, no need for magnifiers when working on Z - just get a teenager to do the hard stuff, like most people do with computers! I am blessed that I still have 20/20 vision at 49, but yeah, an Optivisor definitely helps when you're trying to change out Marklin couplers for MTL (can you spell "sproing"?).

Hasta la pasta, Ed! Buenos dias, mi amigo nuevo! ¿No necessita para trabaja, usted? ¿Allí le retiran en México?


What do you call 1,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? A good start!

What's the difference between a lawyer lying in the road and a snake lying in the road? There are braking skid marks before the snake!

What do you call a blonde female lawyer's career? A double boob job!

I got a million of 'em. Really! I'll put one in every message from now on! Will that get me five gold stars really fast? Oops! No discussion of stars or Onion Specifc lawsuits here, right? How about something less controversial, like religion and politics??? [:D]


We may have something in common, Lupo. My mother's maiden name is Van Saun, and I have been told that we are direct descendants of the founders of the McCormick Spice Company. My parents grew up in Flushing, NY, where there were a lot of Dutch families going all the way back to the founding of New York City, when it was called New Amsterdam (I wonder how many United Stateseans know that?). It's also the site of the old 1965-66 World's Fair and now the Arthur Ashe Memorial Stadium, where the U.S. Open tennis championships are played. On my father's side, he parachuted into Normandy on D-Day 60 years ago, and again at Remagen, Bastogne, and the Bulge. When they liberated the Netherlands, he found a woman about to give birth in a bombed-out cellar, so he helped deliver the baby. When he and my Mom went back for the 25th anniversary of D-Day in 1969, a young woman in her mid-20s sought out my Dad, and hugged him like she would never let go when she found him. She was the baby girl he had helped deliver 25 years earlier, and her mother had told her to find him to thank him. They both cried their eyes out, and my parents were invited to be the honored guests of a party they held in honor of the returning vets. Of the 600 guys in his battalion, only 25 survived the war, and one of the reasons he survived is that he was taken POW by the *** at the Bulge, when Patton's tanks ran out of gas within a mile of reinforcing the 101st. He was shot through both thighs by a 13 mm machine gun round fired by a Panzer tank crew, but miraculously it didn't hit any bones, nerves or major arteries. When he and his squad were taken to the Nazi command post (which they had been reconnoitering to attack later that night - he was a demolitions expert), he and the other wounded men were separated from the unwounded, and sent over to the medical tent for treatment. Allied artillery rounds began coming in, and wound up hitting the middle of the command post, where the unwounded Americans were being processed to be sent to POW camp, killing all of them. So, he survived because he was wounded. He was in an escape attempt and was recaptured, and by the time they were repatriated a few months later, he had lost 60 pounds, because they boiled the potatoes for the ***, then boiled the peelings and gave them to the ***, and they got to drink the water the peelings had been boiled in, along with one of those little European loaves of bread, sliced each day by one of 30 guys who split it up. He said you wouldn't believe how accurate they got at slicing, since the slicer got the last piece, which was always the smallest. He recuperated in time to rejoin the 101st when they captured Berchtesgarten, Hitler's retreat in the Alps. He lived through almost everything described in the book and HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" by Stephen Ambrose, and has been back for the 35th, 40th, 45th, 50th (where he parachuted with about 70 other crazy old men!) and now the 60th anniversary, which may be his last, since he's now 82 years old. Anyway, he's over there, and has stayed for a month or so in the past, but has borderline diabetes, and the last couple of trips, he has had to return home a couple of weeks early. He goes to honor all of the guys who didn't make it, and he's now the only survivor in his battalion who made it through the war, who is still alive. Even when he is at home, every evening at sunset, he raises a small toast to his fallen comrades. We're very proud of him, needless to say. One of the reasons I am working on my pilot certifications is so I can fly to visit him as often as possible.

OK, I'll step down from the soap box now, and hopefully it's still safe for the next speaker to stand on, now that my big ol' carcass is no longer making it sag so much! [soapbox]

A fresh pot is brewin' for you LEast Coasters, courtesy of us Best Coasters, so it will be nice 'n hot, and brewed just right by the time you crawl out of the sack. Have a good drive home from work, Lupo, if you don't work from home.

All Z BeZt,
Jim

[Anonymous]

How did we get all s t r e t c h e d out again?


Congrats Ron [:)] Nice to see ya back.

Morning all. I am having a cup of Tomato soup before bedtime. It is now about 315 so I might actually be going to bed soon.

[lupo]

[#welcome] Jimmanley !
you asked how to post pictures, well you do it like this:



well that's a mighty fine locomotive in a lovely color scheme!
[oops] phil !

you used the wrong command, instead of the <img src= you should use another command:
[ img] http://www.railpictures.net/images/u/UP6936A.jpg.71342 [ /img]
and remove the spaces between [ and img], you can find explanation about this and other commands in the * Show Forum Code next to the quick reply box !
have fun !

Ron, congrats on the birth of your new family member ( son or daughter? )

[philnrunt]

Good lord, Jim, I'm a midnight desk officer at a tiny police dept, lucky to be able to type much less figure out 'puter things-didn't mean to get all technical on you there-and it sounds like you have some might fine credentials so it makes me feel pretty good to know you can't get these things to work any better than I can!
Now, the next time you are at work, cobble together some 2000X magnifiers and I'll switch over to Z.
Seriously, welcome to the group, you will like it here as long as you don't mention a single word,one iota, even a breath pro or con, about the Union Pacific Railroad. If you choose to not accept this advice, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
Oh, and some bad things that I'm not too clear on might happen to someone in your family, or a pet, or something in your refrigerator, like I say, I'm not too clear on that.
Good luck, Jim.This tape will self destruct.

[Anonymous]

GreetingZ everyone - yep, get out your cameraZ, folks, it'Z a real, live Z scaler!

I'm here at the general invitation of the exalted Big Boy hisseff, who happened to make a comment about Z scale in another thread, that resulted in quite a little (pun fully intended) educational update from uZ guyZ 'n galZ in the Yahoo! Z_Scale group ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/z_scale )

I would have posted here a lot earlier, but I felt it necessary to wade through all _28_ pages of discussion here so far, just so I could get to know all of you a little better. So, let me introduce myself to you, now that I've aged a few years while catching up. It all started long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away - oh, sorry, wrong bio ... let's see, railroad bio, railroad bio ... oh, here it is! I started in model railroading at the age of 12 with my deceased uncle's 1940s era Lionel O-27 trains, which covered about three 4 x 8 sheets of particle board (so, it barely had a loop _and_ a siding! [:)] We moved a lot when I was a kid, and my Dad finally took pity on me having to start over again on my layout every time we moved, so he and I built an HO layout that was much easier to make a little more operationally useable and realistic. When I went off to the Naval Academy (where they frowned on officers [4:-)][4:-)][4:-)] playing with kids' toys - at least anything smaller than a life-size frigate! [oX)] the trains were all given away by my parents to younger kids when they moved to their eventual place of retirement (oh NO! Those Lionels are probably worth billions by now! [sigh]

Once I had stopped drifting all over the planet every few months aboard ships, and settled into a house with more than one room (shore duty in Japan - Land of the Rising Sun and Yen, Kato, and Akihabara - the Heaven of electronics equipment/parts stores/shops in the heart of Tokyo! [bow], I started over with N scale, since it was easier to move around the world with me. The good thing about military orders is that, if you don't like where you are, just wait, and sooner or later, you will get moved somewhere else. Of course, it also means that when you land somewhere great, like Hawaii, you wind up moving all-too-soon [:(] I still have all of the N scale stuff I collected over the years, but it's been in and out of storage as I've had to deploy aboard ships and move to shore duty stations. I finally retired and was able to land a job in Silly Con Valley with the shiny Masters degree in Computer Science I had earned in the mid 80s at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey (from where I had first visited Silly Con Valley and sworn that I would eventually live, someday - and my dream has come true! [:P] I worked for a DoD contractor initially (because the early 90s recession was in full swing, and no one else was hiring, much less hiring ex-career government employees - everyone thinks we're like postal workers, but we military guys hit everything we aim weapons at! [C):-)] I've worked for several startup companies since then, and now do work for TiVo, the digital video recorder design and services company, when I 'm not a volunteer docent (expert guide) at the Computer History Museum, or pursuing pilot certification. I'm currently waiting to take the private pilot oral exam and check ride with the FAA examiner, which should occur before the end of June [angel]. Then, it will be on to instrument, commercial, multi-engine, instructor and instrument instructor training and certification, as I use up my veterans educational benefits before they expire later this year. One of these days, I need to get up off my butt, get busy, and do something to keep myself busy, for a change!

Since I got here to Silly Con Valley late in the game, I wound up living in a tiny abode on an even tinier postage stamp of a property, but it may be worth billions and billions (of rupees, or pesos, I guess [2c] someday. So, even an N scale layout occupies more room than I have, and I decided to try out Z scale, and have never regretted it. Since I'm an engineer and scientist in Silly Con Valley, I really enjoy the challenge of building and/or operating highly miniaturized locos, rolling stock, structures, scenery and everything else that makes up a layout. I am in the process of building a modular layout that is made up of dozens of 12" x 20" frame and panel miniModuleZ that fit into airline rollaboard bags and/or luggage, and fully detailed interchangeable track, structure and scenery subModuleZ that I can mix and match for North American or European modeling, on any terrain, for any road. I will be showing the layout off publicly for the first time at the NMRA National Train Show in Seattle, July 9 - 11, in booth 800 along with the Northwest Pacific Z Scalers modular group.

I mostly like to model the Western roads because of their long trains, sweeping and varied scenery, and operational complexity. However, I grew up in New Joisey (oh, yeah, the rest of you pronounce it "Jersey", but listen to how Tony Soprano sez it, capisce? [dinner], so, I grew up around the Jersey Central commuter trains, and lived a block from an Erie Lackawanna freight mainline (where we made eleven cent pieces by setting a dime on a penny on a rail, and waited for a train to forge them together). I also got to camp out next to Erie Lackawanna mainlines running along the Delaware River on Boy Scout canoe trips, being woken at 3 AM by the rumble of four-loco consists with 150+ cars, barreling along at 70 mph, less than 100 yards away (it brings a whole new meaning to "feeling the Earth move under your feet" [:D] So, I also have a soft spot for long PRR coal drags, and those cute little Chessie kitty logos on hoppers and boxcars running up and down the East Coast and out to the Midwest.

OK, enough about Me, Me, Me (you may find my posts long, but I learned long ago that if you can't be informative, at least be entertaining!). My first question is how the heck do you post photos inside messages and a profile in this forum? I tried the HTML code for the standard link to a photo, which you can see in my siggy, but no joy. What is the secret handshake, oh great ones of knowledge here in Model Railroading Virtuocity?

ThankZ, and All Z BeZt,
Jim

[philnrunt]

Ron and Ed- You are so right about the posts, some take off with a life of their own and others just languish and die. My post about a RR on Mars was NOT expected to get more than a few laughs and responses, but it received some great replys.
On the other hand, my post about hidden scenes only the builder knows about received-exactly 1. I thought there were quite a few of those out there, but maybe they are secret and will remain so.
But ya can't feel bad, it surprises me they respond to some of my rambling's at all!
I just enjoy the fellowship with people from all over the world, I'm amused at how seriously some take it-and how funny the same folks can be on another topic.
Overall, this is a great bunch of people, and I still feel pretty amazed at how quickly they make you welcome.

[egmurphy]

Ron - Glad things are getting back to normal for you. I've also had a couple of periods where I also thought it strange that I didn't get responses when I expected them. But after watching the dynamics of the board over the past few weeks I've decided it's not intentional, but more the result of the variance in traffic here. There are some days when there are few messages and everything stays on one page. Easy to keep track of what is going on. There are some days when for whatever reason the message count goes way up and we occupy two (or more?) pages. If you're unlucky enough to have posted the last (or next to the last) message on a page, your message can quickly find itself a couple of pages back. I'm not sure that everyone takes the time to find the spot where they left off and read all the messages since (I do, but I'm sure there must be some who don't). Or it can be easy to lose track of whether someone else has already responded or not. Anyway, that may not be the reason but I felt less unloved after I develped the theory so I'll stick with it. Was that reasoning sufficiently convoluted to confuse you??[%-)]

Yeah, marble or tile floors help a lot keeping things cool. They help even more when you give up on trying to acclimatize yourself and just turn the a/c back on, which is what I did this afternoon!!

Krump - I know what you mean about the tulip festival in La Conner. We had the opportunity to visit two of the past three years (I was up in the area on business a lot) and it was very enjoyable. The area is great. Doesn't quite come up to the standards of the tulip display over at Keukenhoff Gardens in Lupo's backyard, but a lot of fun anyway.

Still no word from Telmex on when (if ever) my new internet connection should be available. As I say, you get used to waiting for things down here.

Well it's cocktail time, so I'll sign off for today. DW made some stuffed jalapeno peppers that are calling me. Iced coffee later!

Hasta manana

Ed

[n2mopac]

Now that I'm getting time to catch up on this thread I have to say thanks to everyone who responded to my post last week about feeling ignored. Hope I didn't offend. I just felt like I had several posts go completely without response. I see now that there is more interest here than I realized. I am back home now and getting things back into their norman routine, so I'll be back on here in the mornings as usual now. I look forward to getting back into the groove (there is now way to truly "catch up" on a missed week here). Thanks again everyone. [8D][8D][8D]
Ron

[n2mopac]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lupo

Ron, Your posts are read !
[*^_^*]

your post about the new modelrailroader born to your family puzzled me at first , but after reading your topic about the signal lights this what I understand: The addition to your family is coming tomorrow, on thursday ! Cool!
must be hectic indeed the last days! specially when you have a date in advance.
and it's also good to have proper medical care around!
I have only one son, and he came 2 weeks early, so no chance for us to get nervous in advance! We had our share of that during his birth, starting off at 11 pm at home the "natural way" than to a local hospital, after some complications shifting to another hospital in an ambulance with screaming sirens in the middle of the coldest night in a decade, to end up with my son born with a cesarian the next day at 11 am. I'll never forget that!

I wish you and your family all the best in the upcoming period!

btw does "Radio Shack" or "Tandy" ( or is Tandy history ) have the electronics to make that flashing effect ? In Europe we have mailorder companies specialized in all kind of electronic gadgets[:o)][:o)][;)]

Thanks Lupo. This response is a little late, I know. But with the new baby arrving last Thursday things have been a little CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [banghead] [banghead] [banghead]
Anyway, I'm back now and should be around more regularly than in the past few weeks.

My previous post was just in frustration over the fact that this supposedly "open" thread seems to become a private conversation between three or four people and other people's posts tend to get ignored. Thanks for your response Lupo. Its good to know that someone out there is interested.

Ron

[philnrunt]

Krump- glad you got a laugh, hope it didn't turn into a coughing fit. The old "Youth is wasted on the young" thing is soooo true. But it's hard telling what trouble all of us oldsters would be getting into if we felt like we were 18 again.
Bill- Tell your brother to keep on the Maui PD, if he can get 1 officer personally involved, it will pay off. It is so easy to become jaded in police work, sometimes it takes a desparate family member to remind you that you are dealing with real people. Good luck, and I hope it turns out for the best.
Ed- She also mentioned the "marble" floors, and said it was a big help in keeping the room cool.
And today we are experimenting with iced joe for the 1st time. We'll see just what mischief this will lead to!
Stay cool, folks.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lupo

SuperChiefFan: Cool you will get the FEF so you are going for a [censored] ?,
Beware if you do not want the greyhound scheme, the other two schemes were mixed up in advertising, creating a lot of confusion here on the forum and with suppliers, I checked the walthers website and they corrected it at last ( Jonathon and I both sent them mails past pointing that out months ago) but there could be others who did not.
But there is good news: there is a very large list of spareparts for these locomotives on the watlhers site, so part of the Rivarossi bankrupcy problem about how to get spares is solved I think!
you'll have a great locomotive with that 4-8-4 !
enjoy!

[:D]Will keep you and Jonathon posted on when I order and receive it.

[egmurphy]

Gee Lupo,

"...because we need high temperatures to cure the printing ink we use installing AC is no option...."

Makes it sound like a H[censored]L of a place to work! [}:)][:O][:)]

Trust me, I'm sweating right along with you guys. I've got the a/c off, the windows open and the fan going. I'm trying hard to slowly acclimatize myself to life down here. As I say, I'm trying to learn to say "The weather is balmy" instead of saying "It's too hot and humid to bear".

Ed

[lupo]

Another lawyer joke:

A barber gave a haircut to a priest one day. The priest tried to
pay for the haircut but the barber refused saying, "You do
God's work." The next morning the barber found a dozen bibles
at the door to his shop.A policeman came to the barber for a
haircut, and again the barber refused payment saying, "You
protect the public." The next morning the barber found a dozen
doughnuts at the door to his shop. A lawyer came to the barber
for a haircut, and again the barber refused payment saying,
"You serve the justice system."
The next morning the barber found a dozen lawyers waiting for a haircut.

[lupo]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bill mathewson


lupo - did you get your Veranda sorted out? Are you as thrilled with it now, as you were waiting for it to be delivered?

I really like the veranda it weighs a ton, runs like a hot knife through butter
and the fact that Lionel did not make the pay off to UP made me feel quite a [}:)]"rebel [}:)] ! [(-D][(-D] lets make a BOLD statement:
as of today I will only buy my UP models from manufacturers not paying royalties to UP ! [:p][:p]
I decided not use the pliers to twist the coupler yet, because some of the trouble may be caused by the "test track" I use, it's my son's code 100 4 x 8 lay-out where he assisted in nailing the track, using a bit too big hammer, as he could not fit in his other favorite tool: a stapler. I guess trackwork is [:(] but hey, we laid it together!
So I let the Veranda run without the tender, because the tender coupler was the one causing uncoupling trouble at switches
The sound is really nice, better than I expected. but I think an experiment with a wireless subwoofer unit is still worth trying, as I miss a bit of the low end of the audio spectrum.
and I did not even take it apart allready, I guess I am very carefull with it, as it is my most expensive locomotive ever.
I only let it run on DC, going to try DCC this weekend, so that all sounds available can be heard.( there are a lot of different sound embedded! )
the powerpack I use has a old mechanical reversing switch wich makes programming in DC allmost impossible ( you need to throw that switch a number of times quickly to enter DC programming mode )
on of the nice things when running it on DC is that you can power up the engine, you hear the pony diesel start, air let off than it just stands idling, basic lights turned on, sounding hiss an puffs, only when you trottle up it starts running slowly and you hear the engine rev up! a quick release of the trottle to idling voltage even makes the brakes squeel

COOL![8D]

weather is "awfull" today, sunny no clouds, after under average temperatures for the last 2 months ( 60's ) summer broke out today and temperatures changed to low 90's overnight, causing the inside temperature at work to sore to the same heights, I must readjust and get used to that again!
[V] because we need high temperatures to cure the printing ink we use installing AC is no option. [V]

[Anonymous]

H E L P

I am hiding today in the Trains.magazine's Depot Diner and Coffee Shop's storeroom. After posting the daily joke in the Humor thread ALL the forum ladies are "out to get me" [}:)] [:p] [;)]

I won't post it here so you have to go there to read it, but it should make you laugh. [;)] [:D] [:D]

[Anonymous]

Now about those iced tea ice cubes . . . . . . . yes, I actually HAVE done that.

Lupo, funny UP lawyer joke. [:D]

Krump, I love the f-14 story and go back and reread it every now and then just to laugh all over. It should become a classic. [:D] The days of the f-14 are numbered. It has been a real winner but it is getting old. I am not sure how many are still in service but it will be a sad day when they retire the last one. They have served this country well.

[Anonymous]

Bill M [:)]

Mornin to you.

I am so sorry to hear that there isn't any good news or closure to your nephew's story. Not knowning and waiting is as bad or worse than just about anything else. Waiting just keeps the family in pain and turmoil, hoping and praying that things might turn out ok. You and your family will remain in my thoughts and prayers.

[Anonymous]

And there's the one about why they use rats for lab experiments. . .
It's because there actually are some assignments that even UP lawyers will not do.


or, (and I suspect everyone has heard this, but incase you've been living in a cave) -
How do you know when a UP attorney is lying to the model railroad community?
It's when their lips move. . .

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

lupo - did you get your Veranda sorted out? Are you as thrilled with it now, as you were waiting for it to be delivered?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Krump - thanks for asking re: my nephew. His Dad has been searching all over Maui, including several outlying islands, and hasn't turned up anything - not a trace, in two weeks. Family is doing okay under the circumstances.The most frustrating thing is that the Maui Police Dept. has been disinterested at best, and not at all focused in any kind of investigation, and wanted to close the matter after less than three days following his disappearance. We've had to advocate aggressively to get the Maui News to print a follow up story a couple days after his disappearance, for in the first report, they didn't post his picture or even mention his name, even though we informed them that the next of kin were all notified. It seems that they are more concerned about promoting tourism, and such a story is not condusive to Maui's image. Network TV stations in Honolulu that reach Maui by cable and satellite, haven't run the story, nor will they reply at all to family member's emails.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Need more coffee or sleep, although I think that caffein will rule today. I'm on the way out to my local big orange box store for drywall, plywood, and related stuff. I'm going to get the shop and trainroom framed, drywalled, wired and painted this month. It's overcast today, not too warm and humid, and a good day to work up a sweat.
Enjoy your day everybody. BILL

[Fergmiester]

Well said Lupo

Something akin to why lawyers never have to worry about Shark attacks when they go swimming

Proffessional Courtesy!

[lupo]

Morning all!
If you look at the topics and posts "the coffee shop" is in noisy neighbour hood nowadays, all we miss is now grafitty on the walls
Bill M. asked for lawyer jokes in some of the topics about UP,
but I thought those topics are way too serious so I post it here:

Four surgeons were taking a coffee break and were discussing their work.The
first said, "I think accountants are the easiest to operate on. You open
them up and everything inside is numbered." The second said, "I think
librarians are the easiest to operate on. You open them up and everything
inside is in alphabetical order." The third said, "I like to operate on
electricians. You open them up and everything inside is color-coded." The
fourth one said, "I like to operate on UP lawyers. They're heartless spineless,
gutless, and their heads and their *** are interchangeable."