Elliot's Trackside Diner, Mark XVII

[Packer]

PC, Rather speak english than have to learn several forms of other languages. Spanish is tricky, and don't get me started on Japanese since there are 3 types.

I know the latter as a result of my airbrush being of Japanese origin. I took it and it's documents/instructions/etc. to a friend who could read japanese to see if I could get an address and part number to order some extra jars. Turns out she could read one type of japanese, not the other two. So no new paint jars for me. I'm still looking for paint jars that'll work.

[pcarrell]

Crazy English

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.

2. The farm was used to produce produce.

3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4. We must polish the Polish furniture.

5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10. I did not object to the object.

11. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

12. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

13. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

14. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

15. They were too close to the door to close it.

16. The buck does funny things when the does are present.

17. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

18. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

19. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

20. After a number of injections my jaw got number.

21. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

[blownout cylinder]

TMarsh

Jeff- Sounds like a guy who's house was hit and lost his garage. His wife was talking about the house getting fixed and he said "forget about the house, you got two rooms you can still live in, what about my garage!"

Todd, Jeff: I came across a few places where the insulation (TYLEK) was left explosed to the elements--as in--put the stuff up --forget you have to have money to buy new siding--ooopps. Another prototype for housing is----

or these lovely ones

There you go----

[JimRCGMO]

Evening, Diners. I'd written most of my post, had mentioned something for most everybody, and then (I thought) went to open another tab to check on the weather radar outside here. However, I found it wasn't in a new tab or even window... lost the entire thing, and couldn't find it in the browser's history.

Very briefly:

Robby - another great job on the CCR boxcar. I need to brush up on my miniature golf game, it's been too long ago.

Rob - better start making sure all of your track is down, before she gets ideas. (And best not take her along to the LHS, since the new Walthers catalogs are out...)

Ray - you have a cutie of a granddaughter there. And I made it only to Ordeal (was in Air Explorers then, and not long after, started college and never got back to Scouts. Still likely have my OA sash ("...around here somewhere..."), couple BSA handbooks and maybe 2-3 merit badge booklets.

Good railfanning photos from Inch, Barry (and I think I've missed one or two others).

PC - better take care of yourself (now that the van's fixed). Scary!

Ulrich, speedy and good recovery is being prayed for ya.

Garry, got your emails on Diane. Happy Anniversary to you and Shelley, and how's she doing lately?

Vincent (I think it was you), belated

CN Charlie - I was trying to ensure that we were all clear as to which Robby/Robbie/Robin was getting the procedure done...

Flip, hope you don't have to wake up that early (nor that you wind up doing so) for your job or otherwise.

Todd - as for Jeff's snake... ROTFLMAO! 

Sorry for everyone else who I *know* I've missed. Wouldn't have had so much catching up to do, but my long-time friend Marj (from Northern Illinois - Joliet area) was down in this area yesterday, and it threw my Sat. off a bit, since I was trying to get my laundry done, meet Marj and have her follow me back to park her car in our building's lot, show her the layout and messy apt., go to the LHS owner/MRR club member and get the NMRA gauge and new Walthers catalog (and Marj got shown both his outdoor G scale MRR and his finished (mostly) HO layout inside), have lunch, and get her on her way back home for the 8+ hour drive she had. Then I got my haircut (badly needed!), got groceries, had dinner out, and finished preparing materials for our Sunday Singles group's first lesson for the new study for this morning. (Oh yeah, and tried writing to one possible match on eHarmony, since they're having free communication weekend this weekend. At least this one gal isn't a full foot shorter than me. (Yeah, there are some situations where 'size' does matter...) Whew!

Will be learning the finer points of that NMRA gauge, and adding tabs to my Walthers catalog tonight. Tomorrow I'll be on-call, so can't count on much/any MRR'ing time.

I'll grab a go cup of hot cocoa and a couple of those chocolate chip cookies that Ray baked, please, Janie. Thanks!

 

Blessings and prayers,

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[TMarsh]

Barry- (snort) My dirt roads look worse than my paved ones. An oil road should be, I'd think a bit easier than an asphalt road. You don't have to be as neat.

Jeff- Sounds like a guy who's house was hit and lost his garage. His wife was talking about the house getting fixed and he said "forget about the house, you got two rooms you can still live in, what about my garage!"

EDIT: I remember a blacktop highway in Louisiana that was just repaved recently (when I was there of course) so thats the prototye for the road that goes between the Pizz/Bait/Gas and the Post Office/General Store/Bar

To Toddland (of which I'm king) I go

[jeffrey-wimberly]

blownout cylinder

Another thing--I found along some of Audreys pix a barn that was fallen in on one side yet had a 'brand new' extension on the other---what gives with this?---it is a great modelling scenario all its own!!

Sounds like some of the houses down here in redneck country. A perfectly intact garage with fallen in house attached on the west side. Do the owners tear the old house down and rebuild? No, they build a new house on the EAST side of the garage.

[blownout cylinder]

Todd: My layouts two big towns, Williston and Exceda, are the only ones that have any kind of asphalt on them--and that is only the main drags--(-too 'poor' to do the rest!). The other places are only dirt/gravel roads. As for Erics layout--they are contemplating an 'oil' road---how to model that should be interesting--- I'm really thinking about a row of farms now---my N scale tractors that I've had kicking around need a place to hide--

[TMarsh]

Barry- I've decided this afternoon to cheat on the road colors in Gold Creek. There will be an asphalt crew that is in town re sealing the roads. Done. Well not really done but you see where I'm going. If I can't get it good enough I'll just repaint parts again with the asphalt black and say they re did that part or parts. Actually if you want to be truly prototypical in a small town many of them look like a real bad modeling job anyway . Sounds like Canadian farmers are like U.S. farmers. Barn is old, they add new extension and hope the old barn falls down. Insurance you know.

[Packer]

Todd, yup, it's a Cici's. The place is almost always packed, but it was relatively quiet when we went in there, but it started to get busy after a bit. I actually had 6 plates of pizza, in addition to one plate of dessert. I haven't been that full in a long time.

[Trainman Sam]

Good Evening everyone...  I had to take a train, bus and a cab just to find the newest Diner!!!  Glad to see all the same old faces here!!!  Thank heaven for the Labor Day weekend!  Finally got a couple days off from NJTransit Locomotive Engineer Training Program...  I hope all are doing well? 

Update of myself for you:

Sept 3: Started NJT On the Job Train Handling

August 3: Started First day of 1B, the second of the two classroom phases

     What is covered in 1B:     Troubleshooting Airbrake systems and electrical systems on both Locomotives and Cars

August 8th: Got married to the woman of my dreams!

Still going strong in the class, we started with 19 and are down to 8...  Hopefully we all make it through...

Got my Division assignment!!!  Newark Division!  I got lucky and got the division I wanted!

God Bless and stay safe!  I'll be checking in again in a couple hours!

Can I have a coffee to go please Flo?  Thanks

[TMarsh]

Whew! Dr Pepper please.

It took 3 coats of Kilz but most of the room is white. I didn't do below the layout and the triming up has yet to be done. I also didn't worry about getting right down to the layout because the backdrop will cover that inch or two. I've got one wall to do yet and that will wait because I'll have to move the modeling bench and some stuff. The room does appear brighter. I'll paint the top part blue to hopefully match the backdrop sky I hope.

Also did some work to the passenger platform. Works out to be a bit short at 83 feet by the MR standards, but that's all the room I have and hey, the platform (if you want to call it that) isn't that long in Lincoln as I recall. Maybe I'm wrong, it's been two years since I got on a train there but I think not.

Rob- Do you think it'd help if you'd pee around the perimeter of your layout space?

Packer- Must have been Cici's? Springfield had one of those for a few years. Closed now, they never seemed to have a lot of business when ever I was there.

[blownout cylinder]

Good Evening

It has been a somewhat quiet day for us here. Audrey has been learning how to use her camera and as such we got a bunch of her pix on to her own 'pooter. Gardens seems to be her bag although she found a lot of barn clutter as well--

Todd: I gave up trying to get road colours right for my layout. What with crushed ballast and the colouring there and the photos i fell over from a friend of ours parents from out west I've found that seems to be real right coour for those roads-----well, OK, no bright orange roads but really---. The issue I have is all the oil/fluid spots where the cars park on the side of the roads---and those patches---sheeesh---we have several roads north of us that have seam patches that look like someone took a black highlighter marker and just ran the marker along. The strips are nice and square and run for a long time or they are short dot things. We have country roads with no shoulders to speak of, or shoulders that are really WWWWIIIIIIIIIDDDDEEE---have great big ditches or nothing--so Another thing--I found along some of Audreys pix a barn that was fallen in on one side yet had a 'brand new' extension on the other---what gives with this?---it is a great modelling scenario all its own!!

Chloe, I'll have a large coffee and a Lemon Merigue Pie please----I'll be at the RC

[Packer]

Garry, My B'day is the 27th of August. I had a blast, had a party with some friends, than ate at a pizza buffet (all you can eat pizza for under 5 bucks!!!!) for dinner. Hope you find the right words to say on Wendsday.

Not much doing today, work was a killer. Tommorow I'm gonna scrape the peeling paint off the house and apply primer. I definetly liked brick better since it's a lot easier to maintain. Regarding the SD45 I posted earlier, I'm think I should hit the trucks and fueltank with grimy black, then dry-brush a little bit rust on the trucks.

[Cederstrand]

Coffee refill, please. Seems rather quiet in here.

My wife has so many more ideas than will ever fit on her layout, it's beyond pondering. I might need to start on my own before hers grows any more and takes over the entire room.

Time for evening critter rounds here.

Rob

[Robby P.]

 Just a quick stop.  Been kinda busy today around the house.  I didn't get to finish up the CCR boxcar.  Might take the wife to a putt-putt course later.  I am the master at them .

 Before:

 

 After:

 

 

[TMarsh]

Hello all, Nothing for me, Brenda's busy in the kitchen. Well maybe a shot of coffee. Now, I don't want to get anybody too excited but, after church we went to Wal-Mart where I purchased a gallon of Kilz to cover the red walls of the train room. Yep it's true. I might do some today unless I get sidetracked. Yesterday I was working on the overhead grain bin and some roads. I hate roads I can't get the coloring right. Oh well ain't supposed to be easy or it wouldn't be fun. Also did a bit of landscaping on a building and the space between. Why anyone would build a store and put the delivery door facing a building is beyond me, but they did. It's probably a tight squeeze on delivery days. Anyway as I was setting the station and using the old NMRA gage only to find out that is the distance I was using anyway I recalled this month MR was doing passenger stations. How convenient. I'm adding to the platform as space allows and have some good ideas on detailing. Parking is an issue but I've decided not to worry about it. I figure a few spots to suggest parking and some across the street should be fine. besides no one has complained yet.

Barry- No complaints about Whites. By buddy has one a 2-155. I loved that one it was the one I drove. Good tractor, long wheelbase so it rode smooth and pulled like it had a lot more horses than it did. Real good gearing with some of the best spacing I've run across and a rear end built like a bulldozer. Good tractor. (I'm not being recorded am I? Wouldn't want my family of John Deere worshippers to hear me say that)

Garry- Will be thinking of you Wednesday and a prayer for you to find the right words.

Best get a move on before a post Wally World nap hits.

Have a Great Day!!

[Cederstrand]

Coffee in a large UNION PACIFIC mug, please & thanks. 

***Ray, hope your knees recover soon. What an adorable child.

***Barry, more real neat photos I see. Thanks for sharing them.

Hope y'all are doing well.

Rob

[jeffrey-wimberly]

 Good morning.

It's 77 and sunny. The high will be in the high 80's and there's a chance of rain.

Got my sister's grass cut yesterday well ahead of an approaching storm front. The rain busted loose in town around 7 pm. The storm split and went to the east and west of our location out here west of town. We didn't get a drop! No progress to report on the Bachmann all-door boxcar, maybe today I'll have a chance to work on it. Had some fun with a container of chlorine this morning. It's a different brand from what we usually get and had a different locking system for the lid. Boy, when they said tamper resistant they weren't kidding! It took me and my father working together to get the darn thing open. It had a tamper evident tab that to be removed (easy enough) then you had to locate an arrow on the side of the container and press down on a dot on the top of the lid that was supposed to be in line with the arrow. Guess what? Did exactly as the instructions said and the thing was still as secure as Fort Knox! After messing with it for a few minutes I noticed another tab on the side that hadn't been mentioned in the opening instructions. I pried this out with a screwdriver then gave the lid a sharp twist. It resisted but did come off. I made sure NOT to turn it until it clicked when I closed it.

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA  71446-6114      9/6/2009

Heat Index:  81°F
Humidity:  82%
Dew Point:  71°F

So Far Today
High:  77°F
Low:  71°F
Rain:  0.00"
Rain Rate:  0.00"/h
Gust:  3mph ESE

Today  High: 90    Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms in the morning...then partly cloudy with a 40 percent chance in the afternoon. Highs around 90. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight  Low: 68    Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Lows in the upper 60s. East winds 5 to 10 mph.

[howmus]

Mornin' everyone!

Zoe just some Bran cereal with blueberries and my usual cup of dark roast coffee.  I'll go sit at the Rivet Counter for a bit.

Going to be a busy day here today.  The weather looks good.  Currently 63°F under sunny skies with a high around 76°F.  An old college friend and his wife should be dropping by this afternoon to get a tour of the Seneca Lake, Ontario, & Western Model Railroad.  Hopefully to see me again as well after close to 30 years I think.  I think the last time I saw ken was when I took a "Study" day from the school I was teaching in to visit his Music Classroom for a day.  he was using a very new curriculum based entirely on composition.  The method has been modified and is now standard in almost all music books.  He now lives outside of Chicago. 

Still need to finish up some cleaning before they arrive!

TMarsh

I think I see a lot of Grandpa in those eyes.

 

Some else mentioned that she has very expressive eyes.....  I can tell you that she certainly is "the Apple" of her grandpa's eyes.  She is getting very independent (but has to be watched constantly) and is fearless.......  She is at the age where she loves to roughhouse which takes its toll on her old grandpa.  She is also learning when to be very gentle like when she wants to pet my cats.  They still are a bit wary of her.  Manet was on my bed yesterday and Olivia had found him, climbed up on the bed and was making her way over to him when I caught up with her.  Manet had that look like "one more inch closer and I'm out of here"!  As soon as he saw me, he relaxed as if to say, "OK daddy's here to protect me".  He actually let her pet him for quite a while.

Barry, the White tractor is the later incarnation of the old Oliver tractors.  White trucks bought Oliver back in the 1950s I think and changed the name of the tractor.  I used to like the Massey Ferguson tractors.  The last one I drove was when I was working for a Muck farmer in Oakfield, NY one summer.  I was cultivating cabbage I think with it. 

OK, off to get some things done!

Later!

73

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good morning.

Vincent. What is the date of your B'day? ...I hope it was a great one for you!

Thanks for the Anniversary geetings, everybody. Also, thanks for kind remarks and emails pertaining to our friend (Diane) who passed away yesterday morning. The cancer started in her bladder. In spite of surgeries and other treatments it got worse. It was painful. Her husband, Wayne, asked me to speak at the funeral which will be this Wednesday.

Ray, it looks like you are having a wondeful time with family. It's good to see the cute little granddaughter.

Barry .... I like the photos. The branch line track looks like something to model, too. There are old farm tractors around here, too. Yesterday was a tractor pull contest near here.

Right now I am using our Sony Vaio and it works fine. I got rid of Vista a few months ago and replaced it with XP which speeded it up a lot. The two Dells continue to be a problem The desktop has been a good one but now has the virus, and it needs more work. The new little thingee is not working, and I may have to talk with more "Bombay Bobs and Bombay Bettys".

Maybe, I'll have model railroad time late today. 

Prayers continue for Ulrich.

 

[Packers#1]

 Lee and Todd, thanks!

Todd, the camera cut the video off at 3 minutes. Kind of annoying, but least I was pretty much finished.

[blownout cylinder]

Good morning

We are seeing a mix of sun/cloud with the high at 25C. And a little more humid.

Todd: When we went out yesterday we went to a place called Teeswater ON. On the way there we found about 4 farms that had an extensive collection of old tractors/implements all out in front of very decrepit old barns. All the good stuff was tucked in new-ish drivesheds. JD seemed to be not as common as all that up that way when compared to around here but I did notice that there were quite a few of those Massey Ferguson and --dare I say this ---WHITE tractors... As for the broke down tractors---I came across an old feed supply store---long abandoned that had at least 3 tractors sitting around---I asked someone whether anyone knew who owned them and the fellow looked at me and said "no one"---apparently these poor things sat there for years-----  They sure looked it anyways---

Chloe, I'll have a coffee and a toasted bagel please----I'll be at the RC

 

[TMarsh]

Evenin, Sat down to watch the movie on Sci Fi or Scy Fy I guess it is now. ( don't like that or understand why) promptly fell asleep. Missed the whole thing. I don't even remember the opening credits.

Got to spend most the day working on the railroad and hopefully the same tomorrow. Is gently raining off and on so no outside stuff.

Ray- I thought sometimes your posts made more sense than other times!! Maybe you should let her post more often. I think I see a lot of Grandpa in those eyes.

Barry- That broke down tractor would look great behind the Pizza/Bait/Gas/Repair shop. Have saved a picture for when I run across an appropriate tractor. Love the elevator picks. Especially the one where it shows the old elevator and the way it has expanded into the huge modern one it is today. Around here we mostly have Hagie's above the crop sprayers with of course the mandatory John Deere or two floating around. The Ag Center does use TerraGators for spreading and spraying. (before and after crop of course. Farmers might get a bit upset) 

Vincent- A belated

Sawyer- Nice video but it ended before I was ready. Looking forward to more.

Well time to hit the sack.

[blownout cylinder]

Hensell ON has a rediculous number of elevators for its size but there we were---

Old drier to new bigger driers

And then seeing them one after the other

The elevators are owned / operated by Parrish and Heimbecker, Thompson, and Hensell Farmers Co-op and BTW----

a Rogator---just for Todd

[Packer]

Lee, Seems the only thing around here that sells is CSX, NS, Southern, UP, BNSF, and ATSF. Strange on everything except the CSX, none of them are really local roads. BN was after it bought the SLSF.

Wonder if the shop in P'cola that has the BN GP20 has lowered the price on it. It's been sitting on the shelf for almost 3 years now at full MSRP..... Strange that they all have a bunch of GN engines that don't sell but they keep the prices up for a long time.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Packer

Jeff, did you get a picture of said snake? I know a few reptile fanatics; maybe one of them can Identify it.

No picture. I didn't have a camera with me at the time.

 

Got the sister's grass cut today and it poured down rain tonight. We had quite a voilent string of thunderstorms go storms. My sister and I were with my niece and husband at a Mexican restaurant. We were out on a covered patio watching the storm and none of us could have cared less. It's just normal weather for this area.  

[LSWrr]

Evening all, Sawyer nice video.

Vincent, negative on the BN GP7 locomotives, I think he sold me these two Seacoast units because they just didn’t sell.  There is a “thing” up here about “foreign” motive power and it just doesn’t sell very well.   The top sellers up here are: NKP, Conrail, CN, CSX, W&LE, NW, NS, NYC, PRR, C&O, B&O, SOO, ALGOMA, and DT&I.  

 

[Packer]

Jeff, did you get a picture of said snake? I know a few reptile fanatics; maybe one of them can Identify it.

Lee, he wouldn't happen to have any BN units in there?

Todd, the MIL comment is hilarious.

I got some books in the mail, and purchased some new engines.

The books are a 1972 Burlington Northern Annual, and "the Modovi Line."The latter was a CStPM&O line that ran from Mondovi to Fairchild Wisconson that some of my relavtives worked (and some helped build) for. So I do have some relation to the CN&W.

The engines I got are a P2K Gp9 1941, and a BN Bicentennial Atlas U30C that had a decoder installed. The plan with the U30C is to fit the Soundtraxx for a 2nd gen EMD I have into it and, and take the decoder from it and put it into my Bicentennial SD40-2. Then MU the both of them together; the sound will be in the U30C but it's for the dash 2 since I don't want to mess with trying to figure out what resistors to use for athearn's bulbs.

I just realized I forgot to come into the diner on my B-day. Was busy hanging out with friends.

[blownout cylinder]

Ulrich: We'll keep praying for your recovery from the surgery----Take care--

Ray: 'Spring' sometimes will sit on the 'pooter keyboard--so far this computer has not gone on the fritz-- She is a happy one isn't she?---

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

We went everywhere again today--found some of this -----

to this

I'm still fiddling with them all----

[pcarrell]

Ray, cute kid!  What expressive eyes!