Elliott's Trackside Diner XXIII: Moving on...

[JimRCGMO]

Good Afternoon Evening, Janie - I'll have the supercheeseburger with all the fixin's (well, hold the jalapeno and other peppers), some cheesey fries, a RBF, and please bring me the ketchup bottle (like my fries and burger juicy!), too. Thanks!

[Edit]: Well, looks like I have the evening tab, even though I missed yesterday's. Start my tab, please, Janie.

Gee, you Diners all have been busy while I was out! Nothing like having a dozen pages to catch up on (and doing that, before the switcher starts moving us again...).

Cederstrand

With my wife having Hashimotos Thyroiditis, she started the on the first part of the MP treatment 36 hours ago. Same thing I will start next week after getting cleared by the cardio doc. Hers is a TH1 disease, just like sarc, lupus, and so many others.

Rob, is it unusual for you and your wife both to have TH1 diseases? I'd almost wonder about the water or something in your area, if that were my situation. Good to hear the medication's helping you some (both of you?). On your missing 3rd stage rocket, you never know - you could be on the do not fly list for that. I recall having one of those CO2 & water rockets when I was a kid, and it went about 5 neighbor's yards down the block one time.

Ray, sorry to hear about your BIL, and I'm adding him to my list. Good to hear about your son's family closing on (both) the house(s), especially with the housing market as it has been for a while.

Hey, Danny, I think I have that 'Intro to Model Railroading' book, too (but then again, I likely have accumulated 3/4ths of Kalmbach's current catalog of books, plus some that are out of print now...). Me, a bookworm? I'm not sure on that protolancing vs. freelancing distinction - I want my RR to look kinda believable, but I don't let prototypicality get in the way of what I want... Your telephone bill thing sounds so much like telephone companies!

Phillip (PC) - great to hear your wife's doing well (and now at home)!

Sunny Calif. Tom :

twhite

And you thought that all we did around here was get buff, surf and work on our tans, right? 

Well, okay, so you only do that 95 percent of the time... How good are you 1:1 ark-building skills, by the way? I figure Uff-Dah and Spooky will just tread water (or surf...), as much as they like the stormy weather! By the way, how did the priest deal with the 'tinkling in the holy water' problem? Inquiring minds, and all that, y'know.

Now, Chris, you'll get me in trouble in here, if I've had the effect of getting you going with those brainstorms! But then again, I've heard there's a fine line between creativity and insanity (and having w**ked in both fields myself, what does that tell you...?).

DerJohn, your local Radio Shack dealer (if you have one) would be proud of your decoder-tester. Now, the decoder companies who want you to buy their versions with all the bells and whistles, that's another matter... Good to hear you got in some MRR'ing time! As for charging Canadians (or collecting, either one), I'd guess they would have problems getting the payment through Customs!

Jerry, I like your icing platform - good job on that (especially for not having all the parts to build it with)!

Keith - I'm sure someone else will have answered your question by now, but on the icing platforms, somebody in here (Lee, maybe?..) posted drawings of the building and platform for icing. Maybe they'll see this and post the link for you again.

Ulrich, how much more 'time' do you have to 'serve' at the gulag? And for your attending the lady's funeral. Some people out there don't have anyone to say "Hi!" to except maybe those passing by. What yummy things has Petra been fixing lately? (as my mouth prepares to drool...) And great to hear you got some time for "playing with trains"! Hey, on the DIY voucher, you should be able to explain to Petra that, "well, y'see, since we have most all the things fixed up here in the flat, this voucher would go to waste, just sitting there, so we might as well put it into the model railroad, and since it wouldn't cost us the money that it otherwise would,..." Maybe that'll get her okay on it!

I gather from some of the gaps in the posts that something happened in here while I was gone, but I'm guessing nothing to be concerned about. Ah, I can guess who it was on that, though. Good ol' moderators clean things up pretty well.

Oh, Danny - the saying in here is: "Don't feed the trolls.." (Usually, they get bored if you don't respond)

Congratulations on passing your exam(s), Sam! And shame on you, fooling with us like that. Tch, tch, tch (wagging my finger at you..)

Todd, if your mother's BP is too low, why couldn't the doctor just tell her to put salt on everything? I always hear various doctors saying how we should cut back on our salt to keep our blood pressure down. Go figure! Careful there with the waxing eloquent about that teacher, or Chloe or Zoe may be...uh, talking with you (via frying pan). Ah, I see that they did notice your comments! As for the woman in St. Louis, I planned on waiting until we meet face-to-face to tell her (or have I already, and that's why I haven't heard from her since Friday? (Hope you're wrong about that short fuse thing!)

Barry, hope your whatever-that-is goes away before you need to buy stock in a tissue company.

Ah, I see that Bill T. was by, and he brought a breakfast menu, too! Way to go, Bill!

Steve - back, it has been quite a while! Have enjoyed seeing your pics of the steamers, by the way.

Garry, sorry, but I didn't see your post about the trip to Chuck's Depot until about 6:30 p.m. Sunday (still playing catch-up on the posts here). Hope you guys found what you needed there (and then some, knowing Chuck's place).

Flip - yep, Florida is Reptile Heaven, all right (and Small Dog Hell...) ! You reminded me of that photo I got in an email not long ago with the 15 foot Eastern Diamondback Rattler that they found near Jacksonville. (dead, in the photo, anyway).

Robby, when I posted yesterday, I totally missed your 'Big Split' photo (well, I saw it, but you know...). If that pic wasn't PhotoShopped, some engineer had a lot of explaining to do, I'm sure! As for the building - "I like what you've done with the place!"

I think I'm finally caught up (until you yahoos pile it on later tonight and tomorrow a.m. with another dozen pages - between this edition and the next one after the switcher arrives). (Just kiddin' ya, had other things interfering with my Diner time this weekend)

Not lots done today related to MRR'ing, unless you count getting some boxes moved out from in front of the shelving in the bedroom where I have most of my MR back issues - that took some doing, and I still have one bigger box to figure where I'm gonna put it. Catching up took some time, too.

Will check back in the a.m. and see where we've moved to this time. 

 

Blessings,

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[jeffrey-wimberly]

 Just a cherry-lime fitness water for me.

Not much going on here today. I got a little work done on the layout this afternoon but for the most part I've had my feet up. I've been to some other forums today and offered some advice, picked up some new ideas and left some positive comments along the way. Other than that there's not much happening.

[TMarsh]

Trainman Sam

I apologize, I didn't mean to give the impression that I thought it was a criticizm. 

Oh, no, no, no. No apology needed, I didn't take it that way. Sorry about that, I made it sound wrong. I was agreeing with you on the fence and picked the wrong words on the reasoning behind my comment about the top rail. 

 

[blownout cylinder]

JimRCGMO

Cederstrand

With my wife having Hashimotos Thyroiditis, she started the on the first part of the MP treatment 36 hours ago. Same thing I will start next week after getting cleared by the cardio doc. Hers is a TH1 disease, just like sarc, lupus, and so many others.

Rob, is it unusual for you and your wife both to have TH1 diseases? I'd almost wonder about the water or something in your area, if that were my situation. Good to hear the medication's helping you some (both of you?). On your missing 3rd stage rocket, you never know - you could be on the do not fly list for that. I recall having one of those CO2 & water rockets when I was a kid, and it went about 5 neighbor's yards down the block one time.

I'm agreeing with JimRC on the TH1's. I did hear of some studies done up around the Sarnia area a few years ago that mentioned something along that line.  As for any 3 stage rocket--any that we ever set off as kids usually ended up somewhere over the rainbow

I got done at a rediculous time of the evening so I'll be having what Jim is having as well as a NYC style Strawberry Cheesecake please-----and a large RBF as well please----I'm going to a corner booth to stretch a bit----no not THAT way!!! SHEEESH!!!

[TMarsh]

(groooooaaaan) I think I ate too much. NO! I was not brave enough to try the mincemeat. My Shoo Fly pie came out fine though it is not what I expected a Shoo Fly pie to be. More of a cake in a pie shell is what it was. Tasty if you like molasses. Would go great with a tall glass of milk.

There was a reason National pie day was not mentioned yesterday as the pile of lumber out back seems to be a little small for the amount of pie-a-paults. One is accounted for at PC's. The other...?????

Chris- Yup, don't know about the ole VW itself, but I sure do think the manufacturers have built in ways of selling replacement parts in the future.

Jim- I heard the difference between creativity and insanity is if you get paid you're creative. And yes, she is on a "all the salt you want" diet. She chuckles as she reaches for the salt shaker, "80 years old and all my friends still alive can't have salt and here I am told to eat more". I don't understand this aversion people supposedly have over model railroads. Some watch sports, some fish, some build model railroads. I don't get it. Everyone I've told it to either think they are great or really don't care what I do. I take that back there was one person that thought it was a kids thing and I'm too old for that. Later, he was talking about Pro Wrestling. Nothing wrong with that, I've been known to enjoy it myself. But MRR childish and ... well, really. Come on.

Well, the switchers here so I best wrap it up. I'd drive her over there but not sure how to lock the old place up. So I'll wait for someone else. What's that? A whistle? (looks out the door) Hey! It's a 0-6-0! Cooooool! Where's number 1 granddaughter!

[howmus]

TMarsh

Well, the switchers here so I best wrap it up. I'd drive her over there but not sure how to lock the old place up. So I'll wait for someone else. What's that? A whistle? (looks out the door) Hey! It's a 0-6-0! Cooooool! Where's number 1 granddaughter!

 

Right Here watching the move!

I actually got to spend some quality time in the Train Room today.  Did THAT by ignoring a bunch of other things that needed to get done...........

See you in the new location soon!

73

[tbdanny]

G'day all,

First weekend of on-call over.  Saturday was quiet as anticipated.  Sunday was a different story.  First page at 5:50 AM, last page at 10:30 PM.  4 pages, and one was a Major Incident.  Well, I managed to get a stockyard scratchbuilt and a couple of building kits.  Public holiday tomorrow (Australia Day - Jan 26th), so I anticipate a quiet one again.  Probably going to be shoehorning DCC into an N scale Shay while playing Monopoly on the Wii.  Alisa's feeling a lot better as well - no more of that nasty cough she had last week.

Ulrich, sorry to hear about what happened to you.  What type of business is it that you're rebuilding?  I wish there was something I could give you a hand with.  Actually, you're in HO scale, aren't you?  I've got some old HO scale American stuff I no longer use - mostly equipped with X2Fs, but just taking up space - I'd be happy to send some to you, if you're interested?

Sam, good luck with the deadheading, and the new sleeping cycle.

Chris, I agree with you on the topic of Maths - binary conversions are all I really need.  Even having covered Octal and Hex, briefly, in addition to Binary during my studies, I still can't figure out those Digitrax lighting effect charts...

GMT, thanks for the info about the Shays.  It was exactly what I needed, given that California and New Mexico have virtually the same climate.  And it'll provide extra ventilation for the decoder, too.

Steve, pleasure to meet you.  I'm fairly new around here as well. I'm basically a 23-year-old Australian, N scaler, interested AT&SF in New Mexico in 1954.

Flip, just noticed you're in Florida.  There's been something I've been wondering - do they still have 'gator farms there, or was that deemed too dangerous?

Ray, that was a sweet story about your granddaughter.  One of the things that always gets me at club open houses and exhibitions is the wonder on the kids' faces.  From what I read, it sounds like she's got her own trains at your place, and you don't let her run yours?

Robby, the 'big split' picture.  Looks like it was fairly recent, too.  Does anyone know how that one happened?  That factory scene looks like it's coming along nicely, too.  I especially like the weathering job on the factory.

Jim, good luck with the harddrive formatting - that stuff's not fun.  Hope the eHarmony thing goes well for you, too.  I'm 6'-ish, Alisa's 5'-ish, but it's never been an issue.  It's also a comfortable height for putting my arm around her when we're walking along .  Also, when I paid that bill at one of the phone company's store fronts, the chap who processed it agreed that it was Monty Pythonesque.

Todd & Keith - scrambled eggs with Salsa?  I'll have to try that - get rid of that leftover Enchilada sauce in the fridge.

Keith, if you're worried about crossed wires, there is a simple way to check.  If it's a track block in question, you'll need to hook one of the voltimeter's clips to the rail on one side of the insulating joint, and the other clip to the same rail on the other side of the insulator.  If you get a reading of 0 volts, then it's correct - any other reading means there's a voltage differential.

Chloe, long black in a big mug, and a triple cheeseburger - with Jarlesburg, if possible?

I'd better pull up a chair for the move...

[GMTRacing]

Well the reply button still works so I'll just sneak inn the back and see what happens. Chores done another side of the basement framed and the Jets went down in flames. Just checking in on my way to get some z's   I'll check back in tomorrow from the shop.   CUL, J.R.

[TMarsh]

Danny- Enchilada sauce and salsa are two different things. BUT..... If you're game, so am I. I just happen to have some too.

Oh and Ray-

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Hello ...

We just returned from Chuck's Depot about 2 hours drive from here in southern tip of Illinois. I brought my FT ABBA with me and operated the set pulling a 30 car freight train around Chuck's layout. It is really an impressive layout, and it fills a 65' x 35" basement with a maze of tracks looping all over. The FT's operated flawlessly, and I'm pleased. I picked up several miscellaneous items for my layout in Chuck's store. Chuck uses NCE wireless DCC.

Jim CG will attest that Chuck has quite an extensive inventory. He has just about everything for HO and for N. Fellow MRR'ers Gus and Dan went with me, and they picked up a lot of goodies, too.  

The drive is still remarkable because there are entire forests ruined by last year's widespread ice storm. You can still see broken trees all of the way from here to Marion, IL. Some of you may recall my posts last year. We were stranded in our home on our hill for nine days with no electric power, no land phone, no cell phone, and no water. The ice was so heavy it broke everything outside including the big towers for major electric transmission lines. Western KY was litterly crushed last year.

 

[tbdanny]

Todd, that's right, they are too.  .  They just look the same.

I can just imagine the look on Alisa's face when I try it...

[twhite]

Evening all from Soggy(again!)Cal: 

Okay, it was supposed to be SUNNY here this morning.  I was supposed to take my poor little orphan 2-8-8-2 out to the garage and strip her.  Yah, SURE!   

Anyway, Monday's storm came in a day early.  Well, not a storm, exactly, but just overcast and raining.  More snow in the mountains, level's down to about 3,000 feet today.  I wonder if UP's called out the rotaries, yet?   I mean, the ones that they inherited from SP (he said with a snicker).  So, we're supposed to get lots of WET until Tuesday, then supposed to clear up for a day or two until the next Express tears in from the Pacific.  Spooky and Uff-Dah are beside themselves, of course.  "Look Daddy, more RAIN!"   Weird cats.  Right now, Uff-Dah is sitting in the window by the computer, his little face just GLUED to the glass.  I think his tongue is hanging out. 

Had a nice day.  A good friend of mine, a really terrific Jazz singer and teacher, was having a kind of informal 'get-together' with her students over a the Sacramento Inn.  Not exactly a 'recital', but just kind of a really sweet 'jam-session' with the quartet she works with.  I went over for a couple of hours to listen to them before I went to play the Jubilee Mass.  Most of her students are in their 'thirties and 'forties, and seriously interested in good Jazz.  I heard some pretty terrific stuff, lots of Jimmy Van Heusen, Hoagy Carmichael, Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart and some really witty Cole Porter.  For some of the students, it was their first time working with a Jazz quartet.  But it was 'informal', so any 'glitches' were worked out right there and it was a pretty terrific time.   

From there, down to the church to play Sr. Margie's 25th Jubilee Mass.  Place was packed, we had a choir of about 40, and the whole thing went off just spectacurlaly.   It wasn't an actual "Mass"  (no Eucharist), but it was a really GREAT experience.  I don't mind saying that I played REALLY well, and the choir was right with me all the way.  We sounded GREAT!   Okay, I just blew my own horn.  But, hey, I'm allowed, sometimes, right?   Margie was overwhelmed by the music--that's what we wanted--and just hung onto me for about a half-hour after.  Hey, I wanted that, too.  She's the one that got me into the Church in the first place, she's been my 'little sister' and Mentor and great friend, and I figured that I owed it to her.  I love that wonderful lady to death! 

Frankly, I didn't realize how EXHAUSTED I was until I got home and the adrenalin started draining.  But I wouldn't trade it for the world. 

So, that's about it from SoggyCal today.  My poor little 2-8-8-2 is going to have to wait a few more days for her Conversion.  But I did make her happy, I took her out onto the layout and ran her around for a little while.  She runs really SWEET!   Can't wait until she gets her new Look. 

Best to all, prayers to those in need.

Tom  

 

 

[Anonymous]

 Good Morning Folks,

another day in my GULAG - 9 more to go! We are supposed to do some kind of "on the job" training, following our time in the GULAG. As if we have not worked before! Seems as if there is no bottom to worse!

Zoe, I´ll stay with my "bucket" of cafe au lait, croissants, butter and jam, please. 

It looks,as if the switcher is getting ready to do the move to the new track - I hope I have enough time to enjoy my breakfast.

It is still dang cold. This is the longest time span of sub-zero weather we had in over two decades. The weather guessers predict a slight improvement for the weekend, but also lotsa sn*w to come.

SHIIIVERR!

TBDanny - I had just started a small cruise shipping line, with three yacht-like cruise ships, when the credit crunch hit my business. I was able to fold up the company and settle all debts, but lost about $ 2 million in the process - my savings for the "rainy days". 

Thanks for offering to send me some of your HO equipment. You will find out, that the shipping cost are prohibitive. I once had to pay $ 80 for having a loco shipped from the US to Germany - crazy!

The times are rough, but I won´t give in or up!

Jim - Petra is 5´4" and I am 6´5" - has never been an issue. Her brother and her late father are of the same "size", so she is used of having tall men hangin´ around ...

Tom - congrats on you 2-8-8-2 - I am eager to see some pictures after the conversion!

Have a safe day!

[LSWrr]

Good morning all,

  

Rivarossi 4-8-8-4. Need a boiler cover and those pipes that go from the boiler to the front pilot truck.


Ulrich, thanks for looking into it for me.


It was 49F this morning and pouring rain, now get this; the high tomorrow 29F, by Friday the high will be 21F.  And snow here and there through the week.  I just got rid of all my snow piled in the yard.

[Anonymous]

 Lee - here is a link to a company in UK, that may be able to supply you with the parts you need for your loco.

You should also contact Hornby and ask them, who will be able to deliver spare parts in the US. They have a bad record in answering, but maybe you are more lucky than I was.

Good luck!

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning from Cain'tSeeADangThingVille---

-----Wherein we see fog, drizzle,fog, more drizzle, and lotsa fog----

Supposed to get cold and back to those little tiny snowflurries which will just barely cover the ice patches. Oh---and fog.

Going to have a few HD things today and a few minutes to spare to do some MR things---heeheehee

Lee:  We STILL have 22" of it here in our backyard But we sure have a lot of puddles and lakes---turning to ice later on----with fog

Chloe, I'll have a big ol' pile o' pancakes with Maple Syrup and coffee please---I'll be at the RC for a bit-----oh, did I mention we have fog here?

[Anonymous]

 ALL ABOARD!

We have reached page 50 - the switcher is coupled to the diner and here we go!

[TMarsh]

THIS DINER IS CLOSED.

THANK YOU FOR THE GOOD TIMES
SEE YOU HERE