Morning Folks
Flo, corn flakes and a glass of OJ.
Feeling somewhat better today, and did seem to sleep better last night. No chills or fever but did get sick to my stomach a few times. On a scale of 1 to 100 I feel like a 78.
Todd Thanks for the answer. Guess the reason I asked if the $125.00 sounds right is because I never replaced one. On all of the other repairs I have had Bob due for me, I have done something similar so I understood the time required.
Better get ready for work, see you all later.
Ken
I hate Rust
Ken: Have you found a good box yet?
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 All!Not much to report from the land of Buckeyes on a snowy Friday morn other then Spring is 52 days off..I can't wait to go trackside again.Modeling wise yesterday I added the radio antenna and sunshades to my new Geep..I now need to add a high mount bell on the long hood..OC GP7 1501 is a Ex-Youngstown & Austintown/P&LE 1501..The Internet is a great research tool.Hard to believe not so long ago it would have taken me days to gather that information..I shall have a cup and look over da forum.Have a good'un!
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
LSWrr Jeff, I might have MOW markings at the house in black on clear.
We have been to the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad twice. What terrific rides they were. The last one was especially interesting as the car in front of the one we were riding in derailed and went to ground. I won't bother telling you whose batteries decided to die at that moment and who now makes his wife carry extra batteries in her purse. Everyone had to move forward to continue the ride back to Bryson City. As the power car had to be left behind, the return trip was in the dark. I must say riding through the forest at night with no lights was a special treat and most enjoyable. We are hoping to return someday before I get to old to drive all that way.
The wife's eye surgery went well. Total time from when we walked in the door of the Surgery Center until we walked out was 2 hours. Talk about a well organized outfit. She had a post-op visit with one of the doctors this morning and everything is fine. She says things seem a little brighter now in that eye, but we will have to wait for a few more days to see if she will have a little better vision. Thanks for all the good wishes.
Everyone have a good day.
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA
Mornin' everyone!
Zoe just a cup of dark roast to go.....
I am just about out the door to go to the home of one of the NMERA members to help him wire and install a couple tortoise machines this afternoon. It should go smooth except for the fact they are both in places hard to get at. It is a very well done layout that has been recently converted to DCC (He loves it BTW) and hopefully we will have some time to run a few trains....
The Great Smokey Mountain RR sounds like a "must visit".......! Tom, glad your wife is recovering well from the eye surgery!
Later!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Tom........Glad to hear your wife did good.
Ray.......Have fun on the switches!!!! Nothing like working in a hard to get to place!!
Here's a few pictures I got outside. Why use fake snow when you have the real thing!!
"Rust, whats not to love?"
It was a tough year, but I made it !!!
But not everyone is as lucky as I am...... The economy is so bad that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail. I ordered a burger at McDonald's, and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?" CEO's are now playing miniature golf. If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you have to call them and ask if they mean you or them . Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM. McDonald's is selling the 1 /4 'ouncer'. Parents in Beverly Hills and Malibu are firing their nannies and learning their children's names. A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico . Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting. Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore. The Mafia is laying off judges. BP Oil laid off 25 Congressmen. Congress says they are looking into the Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great!! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $ 1 .5 Trillion disappear! And, finally... I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, our shrinking 401k Plans and our bleak future, that I called the Suicide Life line and was connected to a call center in Pakistan . When I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/4309
Extra strong coffee in a SUNNY SOUTHERN mug, please.
***Robby, great looking car pics, but the snow could use some work.
***Tom, glad the wife's surgery went smoothly.
***Der, the silos arrived and in great shape. Thank you so very much. Wife really likes them. Guess I'll need to buckle down and make the chicken house to go with them. I expect to hit the PO Tuesday. I'm helping wife with her folks through the weekend, unless they become too challenging and wife returns them to the assisted living facility.
Going to celebrate wife's birthday, today. It's close enough and I'm anxious to give her the new (HO) cleaning car so "we" can give it a try.
Gotta run...have a good day y'all.
Rob
Good Evening,
It´s bee a long day for me. My partners and I spent the entire day looking for a suitable office to rent. After going through a number of more or less drab and dingy places we found one that meets our needs and is also in an acceptable shape. The owner is even willing to cash out a few bucks to improve it! We´ll nail that one down on Monday! There is another tick mark on the long list...
Zoe, I am freezing, so I need a hearty meal. How about a sirloin steak, medium please, baked potato & sour cream, a salad with blue cheese dressing and a ?
Ron - a big from the other side of the Big Pond.
Flip - that´s a good one!
Tom - glad to hear that your wife´s eye surgery went well. My father had a similar thing done a few years back, and it improved his vision dramatically!
Robby - if it were not for the trip pin, you could not tell that this is a model! Great shot of a great car! And I just love the Beetle! (don´t let Chris´s wife see it!)
Jeff - I am glad you´re feeling better!
The bug has not yet left me - I am still a bit of a miserable sod. Gotta get one of those John´s Whisky Macs and retire to the sofa, neatly tucked up in a warm blanket ...
CU tomorrow!
Good afternoon all. Just stopping in for a quick RBF and see how things are going.
Robby , that hopper looks amazing in the snow, great job.
Lee, thanks for the PM, and I plan on looking for the parts you mentioned.
inch LOL, that was great, I needed that!
Well all, just an update on things, woke up this morning ot find small clumps of hair on the floor. When I got into the living room I found Heather (the 4 year old) and a pair of scissors laying next to her.....you guessed it, she butchered her hair! And we can't take her to get it straightened out for a week because she's got the flu! Great huh?
I'm off from w*rk today, so the day will be filled with taking a certain 4 year old outside to play her little heart out, and grilling some chicken in a bit, gotta get the chicken unthawed then onto the grill it'll go. I'll be sure to bring the left overs by for you chow hounds to have.
Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood Afternoon, Barry-sized bacon cheesburger please 'n thank-ya with a bucket of Coca-Cola...
INCH: Good to see you again! And, BRAVO! on the random thoughts on the passing scene (with a hat-tip to Thomas Sowell).
ROBBY P: Nice shot of the hopper! And, despite ULRICH's fears, yes, the Wife will see the BUG tonight. You may well hear the "Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!" from far away in the distance.
TODD: Sounds like the house and dog survived the "hen gathering." I about did serious internal injury from laughing at your clucking predicament, I'll have you know!
Well, I've got a dilemma. A Christmas present in-Accu-rate Rail hopper has *surprise surprise surprise* proven to be a FOOBIE!!! Now, I "could" leave it as-is and use it as a standard grain hopper leased by Cargill (ACFX reporting marks). OR, I "could" carve off the grain hatch on the roof, replace it with small (Athearn) hatches, add strip styrene braces to the ends, fabricate a control box, and obtain Pressurade parts from Atlas...and have a less-Foobified Foobie... a 3-bay Pressurade car (should be 4-bay). I did it last year to one in Pennick and Ford markings, turned out well.
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
A good, SAFE rest of the day to us all...
Chris
The Cedar cRapids Industrial Branch: Proudly Shipping Yesterday's CrunchBerries Tomorrow!
Thanks for the comments!! I guess I could have gotten rid of the trip-pin. I normally do when I add the cut-levers and air hoses.
Chris........Yeah that's the one car I would love to have again. I did get another bettle but it just wasn't the same . The engine was so loud (thanks to the cam), the neighbor said she would call the police. I had people argue with me saying I had a 302 in the car. I asked..."don't you see its a VW motor" .
Robby: Love the Beetle!! I used something like that in my Beetle at one time...racing cam..my neighbours did not like me one bit...gee, I wonder why.......btw...I like the hopper ( and the winter pix)!!
Chris: I'd be almost thinking of doing the conversion myself..sounds like a good idea...although if it only a 3 bay.......I'm a little worried about what certain...erm...rivet nazi's might think...
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/
Jeff, shoot me an email or PM with letter height. I have a few extras at the house in different sizes.
Robby nice winter shots!
Bamba, most LHS carry them on the shelf, they are Digitrax in a bag with a white motor mount and clips on the decoder leads. Can’t miss them, but if you need the stock number I can hook you up when I get home tonight.
BM1 Lee Soule USCG (ret) L.S.&W Railroad Serving the Lower Great Lakes
blownout cylinder.I'm a little worried about what certain...erm...rivet nazi's might think...
I've got a few suggestions for them rivet nazi's...a warm place they can go, and some "self-......cation" exercises they may attempt while enroute to THAT warm place.! I don't worry too much about them, at the same time, I try to maintain the ability to sit at the RC by virtue of striving to have my stuff "look right," even if not exactly exact. If anything, based on the car number and photo research, the rivet nazi's would likely have more and bigger fits based on the car being a basic ACF CenterFlo. At least doing the Pressuraide conversion, even if minus one bay...brings it closer to "compliance," as it were.
Smeg.
I think I just got talked into doing the conversion... Here's how the Pennick and Ford conversion turned out last year:
***EDIT*** GEESH! First I get talked-into undertaking a conversion project...then I get stuck with the late lunch crowd/early dinner crowd's tab!
Here are couple of pics I thought I'd share.
The first is of a car I photographed in UP Riverdale yard about a week or so a go. A pristine Milwaukee Road covered hopper! Untagged and unchanged except for the reporting marks!
The next image is of my plan for my Trenton Cutoff layout. I photoshopped it a little to make it look like an old time blue print - I'm funny that way.
-George
"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."
Hello and good to see everybody.
I just returned from Nashville. Doctor appointments went very well I'm pleased to say.
I'll read your recent posts more carefully later.
Here is one of four pictures of my scrap yard I just psoted in WPF (Weekend Photo Fun)
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
LSWrr Jeff, shoot me an email or PM with letter height. I have a few extras at the house in different sizes.
Evening all. Zoe, I'll have a hot ham and cheese on wheat with some cheese fries and a RBF to wash it down. Today was BEAutiful! High was in the lower to mid 60s and the winds were just right. Great day to spend outside with the girls, which is precisely what I did. Speaking of my daughters, they're both currently out like little lights (think I wore them out), and Amy's off having a girls night with a friend, so I'm here able to relax in the peace and quiet of the house. Hope that everyone else's day has gone well.
Garry I like the picture of the scrap yard and glad that things went well at the Dr's appointments.
Lee Thanks for telling me, I'll be keeping my eyes open for the kit, for a set of hand rails, for the front drive assembly, and for some LED's to do away with the standard light and get something better on it. Of course, I'll also be looking for a decoder for the locomotive, but I'll have to see what kind of funds I am going to have available (should have plenty as I'm taking some of the tax refund to the show). Guess I'll let y'all know how that went after it comes and goes in a couple weeks.
Well, I see my food is here, so I'm going to sit at the RC and enjoy it.
BTW, Chris, I like the semi-corrected foobie, looks good!
Hello ...
Rob .... HAPPY BIRTHDAY to your better half.
Regarding the Great Smokey Mountain Rairoad:
Here are photos of our trip in the GSMR 1 1/2 years ago.
Here is the huge Lionel layout and collection at GSMR
It is a worthe while trip.
Bama ... Thanks for your kind remarks on the scrap yard and the appointments. This morning I saw the doctor who takes care of the implanted device. Now, Barry has a similar device.
George ... The MILW rides again on that hopper.
Bary and Chris ... Rivit ***? Yikes!
Tom ... Gald to know your wife's surgery was OK.
Inch ... Good to see you. Thanks for the humor.
Ulrich ... If that's the same "bug" we have here, it takes weeks to go away. We had it over Christmas holidays, and it still lingers.
Robby ... I like the hopper. It is "weathered" in the snow.
Large slice of decadent chocolate cake, please.
***Garry, excellent layout pics. Put one of them on the puter desktop.
Wife loved her MRRing presents. If not needed, perhaps I'll make it down to the train room sometime tomorrow. Inlaws are a lot of work these days.
Have a good night y'all.
Cheers! Rob
Good evening all: The coconut shrimp curry with jasmine rice please, and a JR Regular to follow, thanks.
Lee:
She likes re-arranging the cows in the small pasture and moving the vehicles around on the layout when I'm at work.
Tom: congratulations on the 47th. Anniversary.; an inspiration to us all! LOL Kris and I discussed Valentine's Day (heads up Gentlemen, that's in just over 3 weeks time! ) We decided that, given the current economy, we'd just have dinner at the new Italian/Pizza restaurant in the Harbour and rent a movie (Despicable Me probably - haven't seen that yet)...that's unless some "must see" movie comes out between then and now....Card and chocolate is a "given" Glad you enjoyed The King's Speech...as an ex-Brit born very early in Hitler's war, I was left with a tremendous feeling of gratitude for the Australian speech therapist who brought King George VI to a point where he could make those public speeches - they were greatly instrumental in Great Britain surviving the Nazi onslaught. (An historical reminder, if necessary, Europe had been at war for over two years before Pearl Harbour was attacked.) Great to hear things went well with your wife's eye op.
Garry: I'm embarrassed, as a dweller in the GWN to say that you have more snow - from the look of the photo - than we have here on our island .
(by Bama) Garry I like the picture of the scrap yard and glad that things went well at the Dr's appointments.
Ulrich: Ah! Chicken Run! Thanks for posting that link, it brought back a raft of memories. That whole series is a riot - and very clever at many levels, not just the brilliant claymation....we really enjoyed them. Well worth tracking down.
Janie, a mug of hot chocolate please, and add some Laphroaig to it, dear. Now John will complain about wasting this marvelous Whisky in a hot chocolate, but believe me, it´s got a grand taste to it!
Ron: Welcome to the Diner, make yourself at home! Virtually anything you wish for is on the menu. Would you care to tell us about your mrr / railfan (GSMR, or broader interests?) If you want to check out Chef Ryan's layout, go to http://piedmontdivision.rymocs.com/ Not your average Chef in any sense!
The engine is a Swiss built 4-6-0 and is equiped with europian style hook and buffer system so they have also purchased the coaches to go with the engine.
Jeff: Glad the traction helped. (Of course, TrolleyRob [now there's a long-time MIA!] would recommend it for everyone )
It gets the track really clean, gets rid of gouges in the tops of the rails and reduces future track maintenance (cleaning) to a minimum. The old track that has been in place since around 2004 was GLEAMed in the summer of 2006 and hasn't required more than an occasional wipe with a dry cloth since.
Mike: Great to see you made it back here (just in time for another relocation LOL) Thanks for the jokes - they're on their way to the email file! In thanks, I offer this
A farmer named Bill was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in Scotland when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust.. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the farmer, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?" Bill looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, why not?" The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany . Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-colour, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turns to the farmer and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves." "That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Bill. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the young man stuffs it into the boot of his car. Then Bill says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?" The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?" "You're a Member of Parliament for the British Government", says Bill. "Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?" "No guessing required." answered the farmer. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of pounds worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep... Now give me back my dog.
The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the farmer, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"
Bill looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, why not?"
The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.
The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany .
Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.
Finally, he prints out a full-colour, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turns to the farmer and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."
"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Bill.
He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the young man stuffs it into the boot of his car.
Then Bill says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"
The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"
"You're a Member of Parliament for the British Government", says Bill.
"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"
"No guessing required." answered the farmer. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of pounds worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep...
Now give me back my dog.
Rob:
***Der, the silos arrived and in great shape. Thank you so very much. Wife really likes them. Guess I'll need to buckle down and make the chicken house to go with them.
Bama: look on the bright side, in a week's time her hair will be just that bit longer for the hairdresser to work with! Why is it kids do that SO often?
Chris:
Now, I "could" leave it as-is and use it as a standard grain hopper leased by Cargill (ACFX reporting marks). OR, I "could" carve off the grain hatch on the roof, replace it with small (Athearn) hatches,
Robby: great looking hopper - again, very subtle.
Once more, "time to climb the wooden hill" -so Goodnight All, and God Bless. Prayers for all in need of Healing, Comfort, Prosperity and Peace. h
"There are always alternatives, Captain" - Spock.
I have an Athearn F7 that had a bad front truck so I was going to change it out. Problem! I don't have an Athearn truck that will fit the frame. It was then that I remembered I had a Proto 2000 FA A unit in the closet. I pulled the front truck out of it and checked it out. It would fit the frame with only a minor modification. The loco works now even if it does look a bit strange being that the front truck is very definitely an AAR type and the rear truck is a Blomberg type. I tried using the other truck from the FA bit it strikes the rear flywheel. Tried changing the side frames but they're just different enough to not fit. I could get them to fit with some modification but I don't feel like doing that tonight.
Good Evening or Morning depending on your time zone,
We had another dump of snow today but at least it was mild recognizing that a high of -5C is only mild in a relative sense. We are looking forward to -24C by Sunday but it will be sunny. More snow is what we don't need as they are now saying we could get some serious flooding in the spring.
We were out for dinner at our friends' house tonight and had a nice dinner and time. Luckily they don't live far from us so the drive wasn't a problem.
Garry, nice junk yard and shot of it along with those GN units.
Ulrich, I sent you a PM. Glad to hear there is some progress on your TV project.
Just a short note again as Robby is ringing the bell by the back door, so out I go again.
Goodnight all,
CN Charlie
Good Morning Gang
Did not catch much sleep last night. I don´t know whether it was the bug still clinging on to me or my usual set of worries which kept me from getting the sleep I need.
Chloe, coffee, please, and bacon and eggs, buttered toast and a glass of Ed´s OJ, thank you.
The night´s been pretty cold at temps around - 12 ° C, but no snow. A week ago, we already had + 12 ° C, so it is quite a drop. Winter is here to stay!
Nothing yet planned for this weekend, I will be just waiting for something to happen.
CUL
Edit: I just found a page with some videos showing the kind of modular set-up I´ll be going for -enjoy!
Videos
Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
Good Morning!
My I'm up all bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning! We had a fellow show up at our door earlier this morning with a car problem...his car done blew up and was on fire in front of our home!! ...he did not have a cell phone so guess what he had to do?! Anyways..we got the fire guys down ..and the police showed up as well...more for traffic management...such as that is at the early hour...we actually found a crowd believe it or not!!
So, today I am starting my 72 hour on call thing..looks like I might get no calls today though as everyone is all showing up and appears to have things under control...tomorrow though..
Ulrich: I do think modular is the way to go ... I've been kicking the idea around myself what with the space thing that I have going on now...
Flo, I'll have a coffee and a bran muffin please...I'll be at the RC for a bit
Good snowy morning. Snow is in the forecast but just a few inches. A MAJOR snow storm is suppose to come up "northeast" later next week. The jet stream is going from Seattle all the way down to the Mexico boarder and then back toward West Virgina. That's just never good!!
Thanks again for the comments on the hopper. I like the snow scene but you can only take those a few months of the year. Don't really know what the plan is today. I guess just wait and see.
Ray.....I like those shots. I rode the train in both directions, but I like the dam/river rafting one more. Years ago I rafted down the one river, and it was pretty fun.
Good morning.
Snow did not last long here. It has been above freezing last couple of days.
Barry ... Excitement at your place! Good the driver was not hurt.
Ulrich ... Barry mentioned modular layout construction. I would agree. My layout is sectional instead of modular. If I had to move the layout, it could be done. Construction is somewhat like tables end-to-end. Moving would require cutting track, wires,and scenery. So, it is not portable as is teh case with modular layouts.