Last call for coffee guys !! The last train from Bismark, SD did not arrive, -25F, the switches froze and the Propane heater quit, so it never left the yard !! Man, that is COLD!!
And get this!! Snowing in Atlanta Georgia right now, and snow is also forecasted for Florida as far south as Central Florida...DO YOU HEAR THAT FOSSIL PHIL ??? HEAD SOUTH PHIL, THE KEYS MAN, THE KEYS, QUICKLY !!!
Evenin' floks!
Just popped in for a quick cup of decafe before bed. Did manage to get a lot done today. Even spent about an hour in the layout room adding decals to one of the Flat Cars.
Tomorrow I have to get everything ready for the NMRA Meet on Saturday. I hope to get the decals on the last of the Flat Cars and finish the dullcoat on them. I will pick one that I feel came out the best to enter in the model contest on Saturday. If I have time I will do a bit of weathering on the model with some powders to finish it off.
Hope you all stay warm and safe!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Finished critter rounds and spent a little time running trains. Funny thing is, after sitting for so long, the steam locos that ran the best without any warm-up were several of the old vintage ones. The exception being the Kato GS-4 Daylight which is absolutely flawless. The vintage might not run as slowly, but they at least run when you ask them to and last forever. I now have several newer locos with virtually no track time that look spectacular and run like garbage. Thinking of having a minor sell-off. Wonder if the newer HO steam locos run any better? I am tempted to sell of a number of N locos just to have 1 MTH steamer, assuming they are as good as the ads make them out to be?
Good Night Y'all.
Rob ps: foudn myself thinking of switching to HO....guess that second guessing my choices will never end.
Good Evening Diners!
Well I didn't really think any of you would take me up on my cold air offer but apparently most of you really were keen for it. Sorry about the snow bit but I only deal in air. Amazingly we only have about 4" in our back yard and that is the total accumulation since the beginning of December. Not really a good situation as snow provides insulation for plants so I expect we will lose a few this winter. If it were summer it would be a drought.
Bama, I was flipping channels a while ago and your game was on TV up here. I saw that your team was winning in I think the 3rd quarter. Couldn't watch longer as Pippa doesn't care for football and wanted to watch a western instead. She likes a good shoot 'em up. Must be the hunter in her.
Been busy at work this week which is a change. It was our year-end Dec.31 so I have to set up our Bad Debt Reserve amount and identify potential problem accounts where we might have a write-off. For 2009 our write-offs were really quite low. I remember back in 1997 we wrote off over a million.
Well it is getting late so I had best see about heading for bed.
CN Charlie
CNCharliePippa doesn't care for football and wanted to watch a western instead. She likes a good shoot 'em up. Must be the hunter in her.
Really? Rerun has become fascinated with football. We're thinking it may be due in part to the much larger TV (community college surplus) he gets to watch it on now.
GLAD Pippa is doing much better, Rerun sends his best wishes her way...
Good night everybody...
Chris
The Cedar cRapids Industrial Branch: Proudly Shipping Yesterday's CrunchBerries Tomorrow!
Good Morning,
Flo, just a coffee to go, need to be headin´ to the re-education GULAG in a few moments. Today, we get first-aid training, now that´s a good one.
Garry - a politician with his hands in his own pocket? I have yet to see one!
Jim - sorry, I ain´t no dang wet back, no sir, yes sir . Talking of Deutsche Bahn I could write a book (which I actually did, as I majored in transportation science, way back then...). You are right - desaster has struck not only once. The first really bad incident took a toll of over 100 people being killed...
Must be going - see you all later!
Good morning all,
got 6" of snow last night and the plows haven't touched I-90 yet. Glad i have a F-250 4x4 otherwise I wouldn't have made it to work.
BM1 Lee Soule USCG (ret) L.S.&W Railroad Serving the Lower Great Lakes
Mornin' all!
Chilly, chilly, chilly! And the bottom drops out this weekend! I heard someone talking about sub-zero temps this weekend! Thats MIGHTY NIPPY!
So, normally band practice is Tuesday evenings, but last Tuesday the wife and I were at a meeting. She's having bariatric surgery soon and the support group meeting was that night. Anyways, so I called up one of my bandmates last night and we're going to hook up tonight so he can show me the songs for Saturday nights service. Should be fun.......24 hours to learn 4 songs I've never played, and play them on stage in front of a hundred or more people.......no problem! Guess I'll be spending most of Saturday practicing, huh? And then I teach childrens church that evening, and I teach a cosmogony class Sunday. Busy weekend!
So whats up with you all?
Oh, and Rob......The newer N scale steamers are light years ahead of the old ones in performance! The Kato Mikado is still hard to beat, but some of the new Bachmann Spectrums are right along side it in performance. Also, the Athearn steamers are pretty stellar in performance.Lifelike is very good, though tricky to install decoders in, and Model Power makes a decent product that with some electrical pickup upgrades makes a real fine runner.
Good Morning All,
A coffee and some blueberry pancakes please Zoe. No need to rush around this morning as we're not going out past the shop in this snow. We're to get 1 to 2 " or 4 to 6" depending on who you listen to but it's coming down in a fairly serious manner just now. Driving in with the 2wd Excursion and the worlds second worst passenger (next to UnoWho) went alright since the schools are on delay and the saumuri mommies aren't out there yet yelling at the kids, texting and attempting to steer all at once.
New digs are nice tied up over here by the sanding island - lots of action to see out the window. Been busy with the house so not keeping up with posts again - hope y'all are doin ok.
Rob - I ditto Lees' response on the newer power. I loved my BLI I-5 and blueline M1A before I put them away. They just run like clocks good slow response and very smooth. I have also a couple of Bachman Spectrum steam locomotives that run well but not anywhere near the BLI stuff. I haven't gotten any MTH as they seem to have gone off in the wilderness somewhere with their programming and operation even though they have some nice features. I also consistently hear that they are not good slow speed runners requiring lots of throttle to smooth out. Perhaps someone here can enlighten us further. Except for the I-5 that I ordered the day it was announced, I get most of my expensive stuff from FDT or Trainworld. For N gage we've gotten mostly Proto N diesels. The only steamer we got was a Bachman which ran well but came apart after a month or so of the steady running the equipment gets at the museum. I haven't gotten a Kato to try but hear they're really good.
Well, my orders's up so I'll just kick back here a while at the RC and chow down. CUL, J.R.
So Phil - good morning ! Hows the layout coming? Any thoughts on the N & W suggestion?
GMTRacingSo Phil - good morning ! Hows the layout coming? Any thoughts on the N & W suggestion?
Well, I got the jigsaw puzzle that is the staging yard put together. It's in place, but still needs wired up. The feeds are in, so I just need to break out the soldering gun and get to it. As far as the N&W deal, I'm pretty set on my mic coast Maine location. N&W and C&O (Gotta love those big coal drags through the mountains!) would probably be geat second choices for me though.
PC - Good lad, carry on! J.R.
JR,
For the same price as a 2-8-4 MTH I can buy a 2-8-8-4 Life-Like that has just as much sound, detail, and power that I would want from a locomotive. You are right the BLI is better than the Bachmann, however I'm not impressed with the new ATLAS locomotives. We had a (new) Atlas GP-38 running that could only pull 10 cars on a flat layout at low speed, sad that my (new) Bachmann 2-10-4 hauling 35 hoppers (with a proper caboose) out performed that locomotive.
Good morning. It's 21 and cloudy. The high today will be 36 and partly cloudy.Attended a fire dept meeting last night. Standard stuff, Bunker gear inspection. I got more exercise there in two hours than I usually get here in a week. Nothing special on the schedule for today. I'll have to jack up the right front of the car today so I can put the low pressure power steering line back together. I went of the edge of the road last night and as that particular line line extends below the frame it got pulled apart. It's just a simple matter of putting the steel and rubber lines back together and reclamping them.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Good Morning. Couldn't get signed in this morning. Didn't get any more snow to speak of thankfully. Just some blowing and drifting. Other than that things are normal here. Still cold and the dog's eatin boogers out of the trash basket. Shredded Kleenex' all over the floor. Weird dog.
Jim- No, no separation needed. I don't follow football, or any sport for that matter, I just pick a team and play along.
PC- Good to see you've been workin' on the RR
Maybe I'll head down to the train room before my day starts. Well, it's already started but before I do anything. Well, I'm already doing something, I mean before I have to do.... Oh forget it.
Have a Great Day!!!
Todd
Central Illinoyz
In order to keep my position as Master and Supreme Ruler of the House, I don't argue with my wife.
I'm a small town boy. A product of two people from even smaller towns. I don’t talk on topic….. I just talk.
Trainman SamRating: 3.0 Windows Experience Index Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2180 @ 2.00GHz 2.00GHz Memory (RAM): 2.00GB
Rating: 3.0 Windows Experience Index
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2180 @ 2.00GHz 2.00GHz
Memory (RAM): 2.00GB
Good snowy morning. It wasn't to bad getting to work, but a mess on the way home. A ciuple of trucks got stuck right below the warehouse this morning. Took them 30 minutes to get up the hill. Its just a mess, and maybe more coming. PLUS..................The townships around here are running out of rock salt. Some towns have run out.
Well not much planned for me today. Maybe clean up some, and thats about it.
Jim......That is the book I checked out. They have a lot of ideas, and I will have to try a few.
Hope everybody has a good morning.
"Rust, whats not to love?"
Morning--
Had a few things to do this morning before I could get on here--those gotta dos gotta be done--there was enough snow out there to use the ding snowblower again---oh joy---BUT!! It is SUNNY out here!!
Got some things to do in the home office ---
Chloe, I'll have a coffee and some toast with jam please----i'll be at the corner booth
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Morning ya'll.
I had an intresting taste of dorm-cooking for my breakfast. I made a pair of peanut butter, chocalate chip, marshmallow creme, and vanilla frosting sandwhiches. It was good, but my gut hurt for a little bit after eating it.
BTW, here's some "in progress" shots of my car:
Never did put pics up of the new car I got after I wrecked my 1997 Mustang. These are all "after" and "in progress" shotts.
Rob, I'll also ditto Lee's response to newer power. Except for the Life-like part. If it doesn't have either Proto 1000 or Proto 2000 on the box, it's probably junk. P2K locos can be had for $30 or less fairly easily.
Dick, It was suposed to snow yesterday, but it just rained since it went into the 50s by the time it started coming down. I may get another chance soon, it's supposed to be in the 20s for a few days and there may be more precipitation.
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
Good Afternoon, Folks!
I am just back from another day in the GULAG - in time before the predicted snow storm hits us. Janie, I´ll just have a mug of hot cocoa and a slice of Petra´s New Year Special Apple Pie, which I brought along.
The First Aid training was excellent - well prepared, with a lot of valuable information and exercises on what to do, when you arrive at a scene of an accident. There will be another day of this in a week or so, the a test, which may earn us a certificate. This is not meant to substitute the paramedic´s work, just telling us what to do before the professionals arrive. I hope I will never have to make use of that knowledge.
Guys - I am tired, will go for a short snooze...
CUL
Vincent.......Thats a good looking stang. I've had several. Um........A 98, and 02, and a 86. Of course all V8s!!!!
I raced sometimes on a 1/8th track. My best time was 9.17. That was just having a cold air induction. It depends on how your lights go. I had a neighbor that had a Camaro and it ran 6.18. AND it was street legal. He told me when the 3rd yellow light lites up, hit the gas!! By then it will be green. Also if you don't run slicks, stay away from the water box!! Also put a bag of ice on your air intake (before you race, and take it off when you get ready to race). It will cause the intake to become cold, and more HP. Not much but some. If you think about it, try to go when you have about 1/4 of gas. Less weight.
I use to "quick shift" my car, but its not to good on the clutch. It takes the time out of having to shift. I don't know if you have a 5spd.
Check the website out of the dragstrip. shadysidedragway.com.
Rob, I've hand an 88, a 97, and finally this 90. The best that's been gotten with that 4-banger was an 11.39. It's a 5-speed, and I've tried speed shifting, but the clutch is worn so it tends to be hard to speed shift into the 3rd. I've been doing the ice and third-light thing for a while. 6.18 is pretty quick.
I do have a '93 cobra motor that I'm, working on and will be put into my mustang when I finish college.
6.18 was on NOS. Engine alone was 6.80. Now something fast was the Outlaws. They would run as low as 4.60!!!! Those were neat to see. Some people say a quarter mile is better, but seeing a car go that fast in a short distance is better to me.
Good afternoon gets, cloudy light snow off and on, mostly off, less than an inch. Planning to get to train room this afternoon, all the chores are done, plenty of firewood brought in, so "if" there are no interruptions, I should be on schedule.
VINCENT: The weather channel says that they may have snow as far south as Orland on Saturday night, the cold front hasnt even come through yet.
LEE: You are correct, no one really sees the dirty side of the cars. So that begs the question, why torture ourselves trying to mount those really small lines and parts when no one but us ever knows they are there? I see the Chicago River is frozen over.
JIM: I dont know where that power plant was except that it was in St. Louis. Now, as for the stainless steel dogs bowl, I doubt if John tried to lick the ice himself !! LOL But then again, after a few hot totties on a cold night in Canada, who knows what a young man will do!!
ROB: Did I hear you say you were switching to HO????????????????????
DUKE: Are you unfrozen yet? Duke? DUKE!! Wake up Duke!!!
ED: How are those oranges ????
WHERE IS FERGIE ????????????????????????????
JEFF: The 2010 Census is underway soon and they need more people, $10 and hour, you can use this to fix the car and also a few other needs I am sure. I just signed up, they still needed more people in my area, so I decided to give it a try, 40 hours, $10 an hour, up to 10 weeks of work.
J.R.: Are you headed to West Springfield show this year ?
WA1VEI "73"
Afternoon all...It cloudy and windy here with blowing snow..temp is 11 with wind chill w-a-y down there...I'll have a bowl of chili with cheese and a diet coke please..Caregiver and a neigbor moved thing around and set up a second train table for me but it just wouldn't fit and allow us to get around in power chairs..too much junk and not 'nuff room...working on a Walther's Ice house...Battery went bad in my van..gonna cost 83.00 for a new Interstate I didn't think that sounded to bad...You all have a good one...Jerry
Good just now afternoon all. Just a hot ham and cheese with cheesy bacon fries and a RBF. I'm just stopping in for a few minutes before I head off to run some errands before w**k. BTW, ROLL TIDE!!!!!!! 37-21, University of Alabama Crimson Tide wins over the University of Texas Longhorns. National Championship #13 for us!!!!!
Ok, I'm better now. My SD40-2 came in last night, looks like a good engine, gotta get my track from up at my parent's house to actually see how she runs. Only downside to getting the locomotive, I've now got to get paints up to repaint the locomotive, or at least re # it to something other than 8217 (currently in the YN3 paint scheme, and set up for remote control). Shouldnt' be too hard considering all facts, although I guess repainting and #'ing her wouldn't be hard. At least its already got DCC onboard.
Well, not much else going on, I guess I'd better get a move on.
Later all y'all, at least until I'm able to get back.
Hi again,
just woke up from my snooze (Petra says, I was snoring) - in time to go to bed .
Flo, as Vinnie! Vinnie? is not looking at the moment - may I have something stronger than the usual brew? Moonshine? Sounds good to me!
Packer and Lee have a discussion going I can´t really follow. I do hope you two talk about prime movers
John - on that pic of this lovely puppy - Petra is in my back to find out its name. Soooooooo cute - could that be the end of my MRR dreams, as we head the doggie way? Hope not, but, then - who can resist "sooooooooooooo cute"?
Have to go now - my ´puter needs a rest!
Mornin', er, uh, I mean afternoon folks!
Already did a days w**k before I had breakfast this morning. The lady that is the secretary for the MLK (retired teacher/administrator of sweathog type kids....) showed up while I was trying to make coffee this morning. My coffee maker decided to quit working and was doing the drip thing one drip every 20 seconds or so. I had transferred the grounds to one of my camping percolators and had just got it done when the doorbell rang. I hurried and put on some clothes (I was in my bathrobe) and answered the door. The lady has just bought herself a new Mac laptop which she loves but is having trouble sending attachments that anyone (including us other mac folks) can open and read. Turns out she had the box that stops the "append file extention" in "save as" checked so the .doc, etc. was not on the file. Not only couldn't the windoz users open them, her email is through Yahoo and that was making it into a zip file but it unzipped to have only a preview of a pdf file in it........ Weird. Anyway a couple settings changes and she is now back in business. She is not very computer literate to begin with and using a new system was frustrating her. She is also using iWorks, so the file has to be saved as a Word file (with the .doc) or none of us could get it to work.
So, zoe I'll have a RBF to tide me over to supper, please and thank you.
Now have have to get going on all the stuff I need to get done for the Meet tomorrow.
Later!
grayfox1119JEFF: The 2010 Census is underway soon and they need more people, $10 and hour, you can use this to fix the car and also a few other needs I am sure. I just signed up, they still needed more people in my area, so I decided to give it a try, 40 hours, $10 an hour, up to 10 weeks of work.
PackerI made a pair of peanut butter, chocalate chip, marshmallow creme, and vanilla frosting sandwhiches. It was good, but my gut hurt for a little bit after eating it.
My gut is hurting a bit just thinking about THAT!!
Uh Chloe? I was gonna order-up some lunch...think I'll just take a tall 7-Up please 'n thank-you...make it Bubble Up if you've got it....
ULRICH: Glad they finally gave you some "news you can use!" As a former paramedic, I can assure you, the more Basic Life Support (BLS) stuff THAT is going on/done before the medics get there, the better-off the patient will be!! Even someting as simple as holding an accident victim's head still (protecting the neck/spine) can make a world of difference. Hopefully they told you to ensure YOUR safety FIRST!, and to avoid contact with whatever may be leaking out of the victim. "If it's wet, sticky, and not yours...don't touch it!"
The census is hiring? Hmmmmm. I doubt I'd have a chance, I'm not affiliated with ACORN... THAT and I wouldn't do too good, I'd only have the people answer the constitutionally mandated question: "how many people live here?" The rest of the questionarre would be pitched. When the form arrives here, or the person knocks on my door..THATs all they'll get from me. Nothing more.
JEFF: Annual bunker gear inspection? Pardon my ignorance, but what do you guys look for? I'm guessing the obvious: holes, tears, burn damage; maybe someone who needs to clean their gear... even though I've been on depts. where the "dirty gear" showed who was doing the w**k.
THAT was in a weird mood today. Our daily newspaper refugee was there, and she launched into a sermon on "big changes" coming this year, and the likely need to hire a reporter to take her reporting duties so she can play office manager. She then offers the position (presuming his acceptance) to the guy. I would've made the same decision, he's got the experience and desire to be a reporter. I'm a photographer who has to write, self-taught, etc. BUT, what frosts my flakes is... it's like I wasn't even there. No nod or acknowledgement of my contributions, nothing. I was wondering why I was even there. She then proceeded to dole out assignments, most to Other Guy. OK, fine, I got some photo shoots coming up...but its like I'm suddenly relegated to some lower category. Strange. Oh, and now I'm giving her too much sports stuff. I then got myself on the sheeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiite list for not going to the newspaper convention next month. I merely said none of the conference topics jumped out at me. There is one on Photoshop stuff, but I could save them money by just asking my wife if/when I would ever need the "advanced" tricks... I thought I was doing them a favor, and got my butt in a jam. I'm in good company though, or ad gal has NEVER gone...much to THAT's annual dismay and disdain. Our graphic designer (8 years on-staff) hasn't either. I told THAT that the writers' workshop they sent me to did me some good, I appreciated them sending me to it; and THAT I was more than open to continuing education opportunities...I just didn't see any at this particular venue.
I guess, the former supervisor in me woulda handled things differently overall today.
Oh, and suddenly we have a high school kid doing a photography internship, even though THAT says the girl "hasn't got a clue" about photography... and we're getting both a sports intern AND a college photo intern. My hours just vaporized. *POOF* I guess I'll get to guide the high school kid from time to time, but the sports intern will likely take my basketball and wrestling coverage (a significant contributor to the recent paychecks), and the photo intern will take...quite a bit of the rest of the stuff.
Chloe? Can I have some Tums or Pepto to go with the Bubble Up please??? I'm feeling a bit...unsettled.
Uh ULRICH? Are there any openings in THAT gulag you're sentenced to???
Back to RR stuff... Since I don't have to be anywhere this weekend, I'm finally going to do a little more w**k on the monster roundhouse, maybe even start-in on a boxcar I grabbed off of "theBAy" as a "decoy" package. To foil Loving Wife, I sometimes grab an el-cheapo freight car so THAT an additional package or two will arrive at the house, and then quickly disappearing. Drives her nuts. Oh, and JIM? More than once, she has sat right next to an unwrapped box containing her gift... heh heh heh.
Oh well.
Uh, anybody want/need a tallented photographer???? 2010 may bring some changes...not sure. It was a totally different feel in the office today...not sure what to think about it all other than I'm gonna keep on busting my tail to get THAT the best content I can.
I think I'm also going to do some looking around. "Always have a 'Plan B'" is what my paramedic mentor/instructor always taught. Time to heed THAT, I think.
Have a good rest of the day, I'll be hanging at the RC, cogitating.