Mornin' everyone!
Zoe, I'll have a breakfast bagel w/ cheese and a a cup of dark roast coffee in a FGLK Mug.
What's everyone all stirred up about here this morning Zoe? What? Oh...... taxes! I haven't even given a thought to THAT yet. Ain't gonna worry about it for at least another month. I am pretty sure I will owe some this year.
Nice sunny day outside here in the Finger Lakes Region. Currently 21°F here after an overnight low of -5°F. I see Barry beat me to the tune THAT always have in my head when discussing Winter Weather..... Ah, Barry? Those guys are taking the tempo a bit fast aren't they? We actually get above freezing for a bit by Sunday. Talking 35° for the high then.
Have a few odds and ends to keep me busy today. May even get brave and disturb some dust THAT has fallen as a protective coating on things... Time to get out the vacuum cleaner...??? Waiting on a package from Walthers Out of Stock early next week to do more on the project for the layout. Also have to get a short agenda written up for the NMRA Division Board meeting tomorrow.
Catch you all later!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Just a sweet tea for now.
Ugh!!! That's how I feel today. I went out and got Jessica a exercise machine, and finally finished putting it together. After I had to fix a few things. Seems like I don't know my left form my other left . Between that, and sneezing 1,000 times!!
Taxes, that time of the year. We haven't had to pay in a looooong time. We keep our dependents at zero, and I have a additional $7.00 taken out of the pay checks. I think Jessica has $10 taken out. Doesn't really matter. This year the whole check went to pay off a credit card. I'm glad its gone thou!!
Find something to eat, and battle this small cold!!
"Rust, whats not to love?"
All this excitement about taxes. Well I'm fortunate in one one way in that I don't have to pay any income tax.
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
Strong coffee in a SUNNY SOUTHERN mug, please.
Seems my pic didn't work. Here are links to the type of truck we're looking for in HO scale, to represent our friend and farrier on the wife's layout. Anyone know where we can find a similar truck in HO scale?...
http://hastingshoofnipperrebuilds.com/TRAILER.jpg
http://www.hawesfarrierservice.com/Guy_Pix/GuyPix_720/Guy_intoTruck.jpg
Gave my wife her valentines day gift early, because she'll be working that day next week.Already had it programmed, so she now has a U30B CSX with sound roaming her layout. Just need to get use to DCC so as not to have it collide with her steamer. Came close once already. The diesel has track cleaning & logging duty. Her steamer is dedicated to pulling a circus train.
Must compliment Miller Engineering who makes those animated signs for their good customer service. Replaced a discontinued sign that turned bad at cost.
Going to head down to the train room for a while. Need to install a fence around a swimming pool.
Cheers! Rob
Today I received two Stewart/Kato U25B's from a friend. One is in fine working order. The other was in ill health. It had a dead motor and a Proto 2000 motor I had laying around wasn't going to work in it. So after a little head scratching and a little measuring I got together the parts I would need. Now I almost have the dead U25B ready to go. You wouldn't recognize the drive line if you saw it. The body and frame are Stewart, the motor, shafts and worms are Athearn, the trucks are Proto 2000 AAR trucks from an old FA. I still have the wiring to handle and a Bachmann decoder will be going into it (also laying around). I couldn't believe how easily the Athearn motor mounts went into the frame. The mounts and the motor just dropped right in as if the frame had been made for them. The same with the trucks. I didn't have to change anything to mount the Proto 2000 trucks. Why change them? The Kato trucks proved to be incompatible with the Athearn worms. The trucks just popped right in. The only thing I had to change was one drive shaft. It was a bit short so I cut the end off it, pulled the coupling off the worm shaft and joined the two shafts with a flexible piece of heat shrink tubing with a drop of super glue gel in each end. A lit match did the trick for shrinking the tubing. When I finish the only outward appearance that something had been changed will be the trucks and if you're not looking close they'll sneak right past you.
I got the Stewart/Athearn/Proto 2000 kitbashed Conrail U25B done finally. It tested well on DC then went back to the shop for a decoder. It's been programmed and test run with no problems. Now I know I have another Bachmann decoder laying around here somewhere that can go in the P&LE Stewart/Kato U25B.
Well...Gooooood Evening...
I had a great ol' day of doing not much of anything but muck around with my layout..I actually got to run some trains today....
Chloe, I'll have a platter of wings and a please....I'll be at the corner booth for now...
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/
Evening all.
Haven't been in in a few days, so I have no clue what's going on around here. I'll take a few minutes to skim posts in order to grasp some concept of what I've missed. Then I'll be back to talk for a while.
My Model Railroad: Tri State RailMy Photos on Flickr: FlickrMy Videos on Youtube: YoutubeMy Photos on RRPA: RR Picture Archives
Hello Diners.
I'm pleased to report, Iwe have a new grand daughter in MI in excelent health as is her mother.
Not pleased the trip to Alabama is at least as rough as expected. I may be shuttling between KY and AL often. My 91 year mother in AL is having a hard time now.
It's good to see some of your work. Glad to see Jeff's Sundown Shops are productive as normal.
Best wishes, everybody and prayers to those needing it.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Evenin' folks!
Flo, just a cup of decaf for me tonight.....
Garry, congrats on the new Granddaughter! Glad everyone is doing well with it. Also my prayers for the situation with your Mother.
I actually managed to spend a bit of time in the layout room and got a couple things accomplished. Put a bit of plaster cloth down to cover the gap between the outer mainline and the inner tracks at the quarry. The outer track is the original and is on its own base. The inner track is part of the "Liftout" section I made for where the quarry is. It will become a permanent insert now so the space between the 2 is getting a bit of plaster cloth to keep the ballast from all running down to the floor below..... I also put some tools on the workbench in the Engine house workshop today.
More photos are in the WPF thread.
Tomorrow I have to drive to the Southern Tier of NY for a Board meeting of the NMRA Division. We have some major planning to do... then we may get to play with an MMR's layout for a while....
Hope you all have a restful and warm night!
Evening fellow diners.
Not much new from me, just got some more work done on the layout, prepping for scenery. Heres a top tip, never use oriented strand plywood alone for benchwork. I now have a thin skin of Spackle drying on the baseboard to fill in all the little dips. I know most of you guys use foam or plaster shell. I wanted mine to be simple. And I just don't trust foam. Aw well, this hobby is a learning curve right?
If you can read this... thank a teacher. If you are reading this in english... thank a veteran
When in doubt. grab a hammer.
If it moves and isn't supposed to, get a hammer
If it doesn't move and is supposed to, get a hammer
If it's broken, get a hammer
If it can't be fixed with a hammer... DUCK TAPE!
Hey again,
Well, I'm back a little later than I anticipated, but whatever. Here's what's been going on on my end the last few days...
Wednesday afternoon, we get one of those automated calls from my school saying that everything after school was canceled, but they were planning on having a normal day the next day (Thursday). Ok, I have no clue what that's about.Go on Facebook. Apparently someone had left a bomb threat in the boys locker room. For 9:15 Thursday morning. OK then...
Yesterday morning, get to school, and there are cops everywhere as expected.Then, when 9:14 rolls around, the suspense in the school was ridiculous (but with good reason...). The clock ticks for 9:15. Someone in the next room decides that it's funny to yell "BOOM!" And you hear the entire school start screaming (separate from the person who yelled boom, everyone was yelling anyway.9:16 rolls around, and we're all breathing a sigh of relief.Today, there was a huge Crimestoppers poster in the cafeteria, and there were cops handing out little cards with phone numbers to call with information.
Anways, moving on...
Today, I retook the online concussion test at school with the trainer. I'm still having headaches, and the nurse was able to get the baseline results from the hospital that sponsors the testing, so I took it again.A score of .2 is considered really bad. I got a .21, compared to a .32 on the baseline (IDK how the scoring works, because I did really well on the baseline, and I'm not a dumb kid by any stretch). And this is three weeks after the hit (which I don't remember).
Enough about me. Luckily everything seems to be pretty good with you guys.
Garry, congrats on the granddaughter!!!
I see that everyone is talking about taxes. This year, I got my first tax return form. The badge checking job I had in the summer was through the town, so it was all recorded. I didn't get anything taken out, with the exception of social security and unemployment. Still, the tax return form made zero sense to me... I'll just let my dad and his accountant deal with it...
Well, it's getting late. And I haven't felt good all day (concussion headaches, was up late finishing two papers last night, and just felt BAD when I woke up), so I had better head off to sleep.
Night!
Evening Fellow Dinners.
Flo, just a and a Frosted Monon Mug Please
Work Front While I had a decent day with $1936.00 in sales (I need $1428.57 is sales to beat my draw) I am a little depressed. Finally got a correct check for $500.00 and only cleared $430.02. I was getting $423.00 from unemployment. I am now spending $25.00 a week in gas so I have lost a little ground. But, I get out of the house and can possibly make commission so there is hope.
ILL taxes increase With the new tax rate by Illinois, they are now taking out more than the Fed's. That just does not seem right.
I am on track to make around $800.00 in commission this month and possibly more. Sweet spot of February is around the 20th. If I have another $6,500 weekend I might get to around $1000.00 in commission. Stupid Bank of America will get it all, but one day I will get to keep some.
howmus We also had an elderly man who, walking with a cane, climbed down from the caboose that brought him to the museum. He turned and looked at our Kodak #9 RS1. Then he began to tear up and cry. He walked over to her and patted her deck with tears coming down his cheeks. He was many years ago her mechanic. He thought she had been scrapped. He stood there just touching the old girl and staring for the longest time! I do like volunteering out there! 73
We also had an elderly man who, walking with a cane, climbed down from the caboose that brought him to the museum. He turned and looked at our Kodak #9 RS1. Then he began to tear up and cry. He walked over to her and patted her deck with tears coming down his cheeks. He was many years ago her mechanic. He thought she had been scrapped. He stood there just touching the old girl and staring for the longest time! I do like volunteering out there!
Great Story. Kind of reminds me of my 68 Road Runner. I got her when I was 17 from Mom and Dad.The Road Runner had been my Mom's car when I got it. After about 6 years the Road Runner was looking pretty sorry, been wrecked and rusting out badly. Fast forward 14 years, I was running a body shop chain and was living in IL. It was my 20th High School reunion and I drove the Road Runner back to Indiana for it.
Went to Mom's and Dad's for a visit, both got excited to see the Road Runner back to her former glory. Mom quickly asked if she could drive the Runner again! Hum, Ah Mom you better let me you take you for a ride first. When Mom was driving the car it had it's stock 383 Road Runner Engine, Stock 727 and 3.23 Sure Grip rear end. She is now packing a 63 426 Maxie Wedge, built 727 with 5000 stall converter and had 3.73 gears (for the drive, race trim was 4.38's in the rear end. Drove just a tad different than from when Mom had her. Yes, I did scare the poop out of Mom when I got the Road Runner sideways at 50 MPH. But Dad on the other hand had a GREAT BIG OLD GRIN on his faces!
See you all Saturday Night, I am hopping to be to busy to visit from work.
Wish Me Luck Again, Ken
I hate Rust
Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
A bowl of chili, please.
Worked just a little bit on wife's (HO) layout tonight. Then started moving track around on my own future (N) layout. Ended up with something I don't like at all. If it was DCC, all the challenges I face would go away. But, it's going to be a DC layout. I could never afford to add decoders to all my locos and some of them are too old to mess with anyway. Will let the layout sit awhile and try again another time.
Rob
Good Morning Folks,
I feel a little better today. Yesterday was pretty bad - aside from my migraine attack, the news from my partners really did me in. I will meet them on Monday to discuss how we can move forward (or if...).
Drowned my frustration in a shopping spree at our home depot, buying all the remaining lumber I need to finish the modules I will need to assemble some sort of layout. Gosh, it was a $ 10 purchase! Leaves me with a little money to buy Petra some for her tomorrow´s birthday (the "old" gal will be turning 53, but don´t let anybody know I told you!).
As lunchtime is coming up, I´ll have hot dogs % fries, Janie. Thank you.
You all have a good day!
Well..Good Morning.
I'm up at a ridiculous hour on a Saturday because we had a few hours of no water...again
This time a main broke right in front of mah house leaving us with no way to get my car out of the driveway...and, of course this happens right when I'm on my on-call.... ...as you can see I am one sour puss right now...
As it is I've had to phone into my replacement to let them know that they are on-call until I have something of a way out of mah driveway...
Oh, btw, we are supposed to get between 4-6" of new snow before it turns to slush/gunk on Sunday...
Flo, I'll have a coffee and a breakfast bagel please...I'll be at the corner booth for a bit
Good Morning!! Just coffee please. Gotta run. Thanks Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 38. West southwest wind between 9 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Big pancake and sausage breakfast for the Community Foundation this morning. I’ll be cookin the sausage. Trying to raise money for the 4th of July fireworks. Should be over by 11am then cleanup. I did get to lay a wee bit of track yesterday. Two three foot pieces actually. Don’t know what today has in store other than take the snowblower out of the back of the truck. I’ve been too lazy. Maybe grind through the snow and find the sidewalk. Ya’ll have a Great Day!!!
Good Morning!! Just coffee please. Gotta run. Thanks
Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 38. West southwest wind between 9 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.
Big pancake and sausage breakfast for the Community Foundation this morning. I’ll be cookin the sausage. Trying to raise money for the 4th of July fireworks. Should be over by 11am then cleanup.
I did get to lay a wee bit of track yesterday. Two three foot pieces actually. Don’t know what today has in store other than take the snowblower out of the back of the truck. I’ve been too lazy. Maybe grind through the snow and find the sidewalk.
Ya’ll 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.
Good Morning all,
Jeff, have you ever tried making your own ground foam? We make it at the club using a garage sale blender and foam pillows/mattress material that is still soft. We cut the foam into small cubes maybe 2” x 2” and run it through the blender until we get the correct coarseness. For the fine ground cover we take some from the blender and run it through a coffee grinder. Then we place the foam and fabric dye in a coffee can and roll the can. You have to mix the dye with some water. Then it’s laid out on a garbage bag until dry. A little experimenting with the dye and you can get some interesting hues.
For tall grass I buy the cheap paint brushes at the dollar store and cut the bristles off. The black brushes you can dry brush green once placed.
Garry, Congratulations!
Ken, I feel your pain. My city taxes have doubled and the services have been cut in half. Last night was the first time this winter they salted my street. We have 4-5” of ice out there and I have no idea how the elderly were getting around town. Dorothy and I have been driving in 4 wheel drive just to inch out to the next north south street.
I guess I’m not going to the Lodi train show we got some snow overnight and I do have things around the house I could be doing…
BM1 Lee Soule USCG (ret) L.S.&W Railroad Serving the Lower Great Lakes
Good morning.
Not much planned today. Later today get some things ready for the interview Monday. I'm also still fighting my cold .
Have a good day.
LSWrr Jeff, have you ever tried making your own ground foam? We make it at the club using a garage sale blender and foam pillows/mattress material that is still soft. We cut the foam into small cubes maybe 2” x 2” and run it through the blender until we get the correct coarseness. For the fine ground cover we take some from the blender and run it through a coffee grinder. Then we place the foam and fabric dye in a coffee can and roll the can. You have to mix the dye with some water. Then it’s laid out on a garbage bag until dry. A little experimenting with the dye and you can get some interesting hues.
Good morning. It's 26° and clear. The high will be 61° and sunny.Sometime today I'll be opening up the second Stewart U25B to install a Bachmann DCC decoder. It;s certainly not the best but it's what I have available and all I need is motor control. Other than that I'll be picking up the vehicles and small details that are still on the layout. I had intended to do that yesterday but I got sidetracked on changing out the motor and trucks on the first of two Stewart U25B's then fitting it with a decoder for motor control. I received some WS clump foliage and lichen in various colors yesterday but no fine ground foam. It's a good start for trees and bushes but not for grass, dirt or ballast.
Forgot to mention that I'll be stripping the two U25B shells.
Zoe I'll a short stack of Buttermilk Pancakes to tide me over to lunch time. Oh, a cup of dark roast coffee in a R&GV RR mug as well. Oh, the maple syrup.... Thank you Ma'am
I'm off to hammondsport this morning for Board meeting for the NMRA Division. Really a final planning meeting for our Spring Meet coming up in April. First time we have ever done it in Hammondsport so it should be of interest to the membership. We have a local historian coming in for the meet to talk about the Bath and Hammondsport RR, a tour of the Curtis Aviation Museum (they also have a small model RR there), and several other great events lined up. Now we have to get all the ducks in a row for it.......
I'll catch up with all of you tonight!
Good Morning All,
20F here this morning but it is supposed to get warmer over the weekend. I'll have a waffle with blueberries and whipped cream and a regular coffee please.
Had a tidy up in the train room last night moved all the storage boxes, cleaned the floor and put down a coat of paint. Might have messed up anyway as it was some older epoxy floor paint and it just wouldn't mix all the pigments evenly. We'll see what we have when I get home from the shop today. I have a bunch more magnaflux to do this morning and then back on the Amilcar to make the motor mounts and fit the remote water pump (they were originally thermosiphon motors with no pump).
I see Jeff is busy with more repaints and I love Rays' shop pics. I wonder though, if Ray is doing prototypcal scenes is his home bench as neat?.
Rob - you might look at Sylvan models for the truck and frame. You may need to scratch or bash the back bit from a roach coach (lunch wagon). The anvil in the hitch receiver part will need to be adapted from a pedestal anvil (try the S&S Ltd stuff). Could be a fun project.
Gotta scoot and get to w..k. CUL, J.R.
Good Morning Gang,,
Just came by for a few vitals. Chloe, please bring me a double Denver with Home fries and a HC to chase. At your pleasure.
Well yesterday and today are very mild compared to the last couple of weeks. It is/has been around freezing with little or no wind. Very pleasant and we are grateful, It was getting to be a real drag every morning waking up to anything from -27 to -38c. That is just not acceptable for Man or Beast.
Spent last evening going through and working on my rolling stock that had Bad Order Cards on them. Got most up and running. Changed out a few trucks and couples. Some got Bachman and some got Kadees. I am an equal opportunity employer.
Have a R_T_R Athearn F7 that was really growlly. So i checked the armature,cleaned out the gear boxes, stuffed it full of "Pearl Drops" and ran it for about 45 minutes. But it just does not seem to be any better. This is one that has no run time on it at all, just sounded really ugly right out of the box. It's running mate is just fine and it came in the same package.
So the question for the morning is............ How long do I keep running this unit with the Pearl Drops as lubricant if I don't see anything being gained after 45 mins. ?
So here is a heads up for you guys......... Do not forget that Monday is Valentines Day, if you want to stay on the good side of the Better Half.
This is a good week-end, I am having fri-sat-sun- mon off. Then I work tuesday, and then two more off then back to work fri-sat-sun next week-end. If the weather would have been more reasonable and stable I would have booked off on tuesday and had a week to go somewhere. But we will stick around and fine some fun close to home. Started last evening with going out for Chinese food to our favorite spot with one of our Sons and D-I-L. All came home with Happy Tummies. But the other three days are rather blank other than Church tomorrow and a lunch on Monday with a friend from out of town who will be here to get some stitches out,
Hope you all have a great wek-end as well.
Prayers and Blessings to all in need. See you in the Chapel car.
Johnboy out........................for now
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
John Boy, the tooth paste is not lube, it act as a polish to make the gears smooth and roll eaiser. You need to open the trucks up and clean out the tooth paste and lube.
Did you clean the gears before you added the tooth paste? If not, the pearl drops may not have done anything but maked the trucks smell minty fresh.
Ken
Hi again,
the sun has set, so it´s time for a.
Spend the afternoon to assemble all 4 corner modules, two of which are shown in the following pics:
Just a little more track and I can assemble my first layout in a long time - oh joy, oh rapture!
Of course, I need to properly ballast the track & weather it, add scenery and, and, and... In any case, it´s a little progress again!
Hope you all are doing fine!
EDIT: That 282 mm radius looks quite sharp to me, but it equals a 20 1/4" radius in HO scale. Well, I still have to get used to the looks and feel of N scale ...
Garry - congratulation on the new grandchild! Give her a big kiss from me!
Sir Madog Hi again, the sun has set, so it´s time for a. Spend the afternoon to assemble all 4 corner modules. Just a little more track and I can assemble my first layout in a long time - oh joy, oh rapture! Of course, I need to properly ballast the track & weather it, add scenery and, and, and... In any case, it´s a little progress again!
Spend the afternoon to assemble all 4 corner modules.
As for me, I have two loco shells soaking in alcohol. The paint on those Stewart U25B shells is some tough stuff. Maybe on the same order with what Bachmann uses. If that's the case they'll have to soak for twenty-four hours or more.
Howdy All...Its sunny and warmer here..maybe some of the ice will melt today...I'll have a bowl of chili and a Diet coke please..Thank You...Not much moving on the I&S today..One of the grand daughters spent the nite...
You all have a good one...Jerry
Time for lunch, meatloaf sammich and a diet Doc if you could please.
Ground foam-that's a nice tip. I'll have to remember that. I just ordered a bottle of the stuff from Walthers last week.
CudaKen- Nice story. One of these days I may try and find my Dad's 1980 Corvette he sold a few years ago. I know who he sold it to, so maybe in the future I can buy it back from him. Sometimes cars mean more to some people because of the stories that go with them.
Weather- Warming up around here. Snow's melting and I may take out the quad and do some thaw bogging. Open field, full tank of gas, good times.
Oh, some of you guys may get a kick out of this joke I read somewhere.
There was a fireman from the British Railways sitting in a bar. A sailor gets up from the back and karate chops him in the back of the neck, knocking him off his stool.
"Hey, what the *&%% was that for?" asked the fireman
"That was a Karate Chop from China." Sailor sat back down and the fireman brushed himself off and sat back on his stool 15 minutes later, the sailor came back and karate chopped him in the back of the neck again,
"What the *&%% was that for?"
"That was a Judo chop from Japan." The sailor sat back down and the fireman left. He came back 15 minutes later and hit the sailor upside the head, knocking him out. The fireman looked at the bartender.
"Tell him when he wakes up that that was a coal shovel from British Railways."