Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
Good Morning Gang,
it is nice and sunny outside and I am just home from a little walk. I could use some coffee, Zoe, and something to sink my teeth into. A burger? Fine with me - please be so kind.
I was hoping the mail woman would deliver my outstanding order of track, but no, it was not in today´s mail. Now that I have more spare time I´d like to do some wo*k on my mini modules.
Ron - I bet there is plenty of wo*k available in Alaska, but who would hire a German bankrupt ex manager without proper immigration papers and no cash to do a "buy-in"? The times when you could just board a ship and move over the Big Pond are long gone. I still regret that i went back to Germany when my time as an exchange student ended in 1974.
Today´s news gave a warning about a higher than normal level of radiation, coming from Japan. Or was it from our own nuke plant, fifty miles away from my place? Sounds more likely.
Have a safe day!
Good Morning Folks!
Cup of coffee please.
Have a great day all!
Good Morning,
Galaxy, my vehicle is scheduled to be inspected this year (every odd year). On a diesel they check for computer codes and that’s it.
Todd, I have some T & P and TP&W rolling stock on the layout, and I have the TP&W sign on the wall. Good luck on the auction sounds like it went in the wrong box, maybe at the LHS…
Curt, do you have a pair of the Xercon (sp) cutters? You can pull small nails with them very nicely. Act like you’re cutting the head off the nail and then push the handles down it will pry the nail out enough to grab it with a pair of pliers. I highly recommend a pair of bent needle nose pliers for track laying, you can gently pry nails out and the handle is bent allowing you to see around your hand. Don’t stick to actual distances too much; a whistle post placed ¼ mile from a crossing; if I did that in 1/87th both my neighbors’ basements would have a stick with a W on it.
Ulrich:
State Jobs: http://www.governmentjobs.com/
Federal Jobs: http://www.usajobs.gov/
It doesn’t hurt to look the postings over. I know Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio hires seasonal help every year, one year they hired a couple hundred people from Sweden or Denmark due to a lack of manpower in the State. They have an international job hire page as well: http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/jobs/index.cfm
Garry glad to hear you’ll have some normalcy for a while. I’m pretty lucky that my family is self-sufficient most of the time.
Jeff, those billboards look right at home on your layout.
BM1 Lee Soule USCG (ret) L.S.&W Railroad Serving the Lower Great Lakes
Good Morning All,
36F with snow on the way this morning. Got the Kenworth parked back up in place so we can hopefully get it emptied before the white stuff flies.
Museum last night w..king on the iNvisible layout again. Did figure out a neat trick with the passenger cars. We have a ton of the ConCor and Lima cars all with the old style couplers which disconnect with great frequency when starting up which we do once per circuit at the station (Dallee electronic timing circuit with auto stop). I'd gotten some of the new fixed coupler ConCor trucks but they were just a bit too short to allow the cars to go through a turn without fouling each other. Whilst ruminating on this, I looked at the Bettendorf freight trucks I'd also acquired and determined that if I cut the running gear off I could body mount the pivot and coupler left over if I flipped the coupler over so the truck became a drop coupler instead of a riser type. Converted three cars to test and they seem to be doing fine. I'll check again tonight before I claim complete success. Only drawback I see is the cars are running a bit too far apart to be prototypical.
Ulrich - Sorry to hear the business venture went bust. It often happens that one or more of the partners are unable to summon the fortitude required to see it all through especially in these times of ultra tight credit. On the plus side, "ya still got it" when it comes to business smarts and planning ability and someone else will recognize that, hopefully sooner.
Welcome to the new faces at the diner! I'm J.R., I model the New Haven through the end (1968) in HO and help out at the Danbury Railway Museum in my spare time between vintage car races which is what we do to put bread on the table.
Speaking of bread and tables, i need to get to it. Sebring went well with two class wins in both the enduro and sprint races. CUL, J.R.
Good morning. It's 66° and mostly cloudy. The high will be 81° and mostly cloudy with a 10% chance of rain.Today I'll be starting the process of putting turf down on the east side of the layout. That's the area where the Shell station is located. Hopefully nothing comes up to interrupt the work.
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!! Dark Roast coffee and I’ll just help myself to the donuts thank you. Mostly sunny, with a high near 64. Tonight: A chance of rain showers before 1am, then a chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 28. Now doesn’t that just bite. But we did miss the rain and storms predicted for last night
Good Morning!! Dark Roast coffee and I’ll just help myself to the donuts thank you.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 64. Tonight: A chance of rain showers before 1am, then a chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 28. Now doesn’t that just bite. But we did miss the rain and storms predicted for last night
Well I have about 13 hours to decide if I want to up my bid. So far it’s still at $51and I’m tempted to raise another $10. That would make a total of $70 and I’m thinking it would be worth that. I’m thinking it will go for plenty more at the last so I would still lose, but what sorta makes me not want to bid is if my next bid is still lower than this guys max, and no one does bid anymore, then all I’ve accomplished is to drive the cost up to him. Sound weird? I know, it’s the way I am. But, if my limit is $60, what if his is only $55? and no one else bids…. Zoe, more coffee please.
Jim- The hole is still there, just bigger. He will likely not ever get the top fixed as it is kinda like The Lone Rangers Mask, or Superman’s cape or Dolly Parton's… . His trademark so to speak. It’s almost to the sound hole now. I suppose it does affect the sound, but mainly it’s heard through the pickup to the amplifier, and to me I can’t tell if it sounds any different over the years or not. Though I’m sure it has.
Curt- My main problem is compression. Or should I say the lack of. Some of the best model railroads I’ve seen have prototypically unrealistic shortened distances, not enough parking in businesses and the old “no one in real life would have put that there”’s. I’m doing much better after my bouts in the past with taking my ruler and measuring off things like, the width of parking spaces and multiplying by what would be the correct amount of cars only to find the parking lot just looks huuuuuuge! This happens with many things so don’t be afraid to shorten or make something smaller to make it more pleasing to the eye. Except track separation. I would still stick with the 2 ½ inches centered. In a yard or a smaller slow moving area you may get away with closer. Getting an NMRA gage is a great investment by the way.
Welp, I’ve yammered on long enough. Gotta do a few things here at the desk before venturing out to start my day. I have GOT to get in and clean up some on that train room before I lose the layout.
Maybe I’ll go to the Huddle House for lunch. (almost identical to a Waffle House )
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.
Morning all!
Oh, Happy day! {except for the 5-12" of snow we are expecting today}
The kia passed inspection with no issues. I had them put on new wiper blades an do an oil change as well. with a $20 coupon off, was $65, $21 of which was NYstate inspection.
Found out yesterday we can now go shopping for a model railroading space with a house overhead!!! We can go house shopping! WOn't tell you all the details and secrets, but Oh, Happy, Joy, Joy!!!
Will be GREAT to get out of this trailer!
We couldn't be happier!
Oh, hAppy!, Oh Joy! OH the extacy! Oh the rapture!
Have a GREAT DAY everyone!!!
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Zoe, coffee and a handful of chocolate chip cookies, please!
Good Afternoon,
Spend a few hours searching jobs at the links Lee provided. In fact, there are a number of position where I´d say I ´d be able to fill them, but only US citizen need to apply
J.R. - no doubt I have quite a few skills and also a lot of business experience, but, as it seems, they are not marketable assets anymore.
Galaxy - congratulations. I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything will work out fine!
Mornin' everyone!
Zoe, I'll start with coffee, dark roast coffee in a FGLK mug. Then you can bring me a #2 special, over easy on the eggs, bacon, home fries, and a double order of sour dough toast. Oh, and bring the jar of starwberry preserves.
Well (full of water), my sister arrived back home last night safe and sound, with lots of stories to tell. She was a bit squirrely, (but then she always is) as she had been up for 21 hours straight on the way home. I think she is close to the end of her travels (at least with the group she has gone with for many years) as the couple who run them are now around 80 years old, the wife is battling cancer (had to have chemo 3 times on the trip) and the husband can't walk any more. He was a big man and has lost close to 100 lbs in the last year. Most of the trip he just sat on the bus while the rest of them hiked around with his wife. He had to be brought on the planes on a stretcher taking several people to accomplish. Sad as they have been running these trips for 25 years or so.
Oh, yeh, Barry, no sn*w last night. very dark outside, but bare and dry roads... I got home a little after 1AM...... Today is calling for between 3 and 7" of the heavy white stuff!
Galaxy! Great news on the potential to get a layout space with a home over it. Wish you good luck!
Filled up the Yaris yesterday before heading to the airport.... been using some Hypermiling techniques... 42.25 mpg. Not too shabby!
Hope you all have a great day!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Coffee in a UNION PACIFIC mug, please.
Bad insomnia last night so I'm dog. Guess I overdid it yesterday.
Rob
Welcome to the club, Rob. I have not had a good night´s sleep for the last 24 months and I am pretty worn out by now. I usually go to bed at 10.30 pm, only to wake up by 1.00 am again. Can´t find any sleep until 4.00 am, wake up at 6.00 am again. I manage to make it somehow until mid-day, but then I am close to collapsing. No end in sight on this.
Cederstrand Bad insomnia last night so I'm dog. Guess I overdid it yesterday.
Hey everyone, Flo Coffee please and a slice of that peanutbutter pie.
Went to the Dr,s today going to have to get another cat scan and see if anything has changed, I am paying the price for mowing the lawn yesterday, thank science for pain pills. There is a Norfolk Southern line that runs to the small community that I live in, it services a small paper mill here and a cement plant, and at one time a Coke bottling plant that is now just a distributer. Anyways I never noticed how steep a grade that this line has to pull before, I guess that with working on my track plans I am starting to notice more details on the real stuff.
Ken; Trigger???? Your right those big steamers are a thing of beauty. My "field/lawn" is probably less than a 1/4 acre, should have taken about 45 minutes to mow but with all the surgeries, chemo and radiation that they have given me in the last two years I think 4 hours was pretty good.
Galaxy; I delivered one of the first loads of KIA,s to the south east back when there was only two models, The Sephia and the Sportage they are very good little cars and have come a long way in quality over the years. Congradulations on looking for a roof over the layout, Oh and a place to hang your hat of course.
Ulrich; With the qualifications you listed sounds like you could be CEO material. Hey dont give up I dont know what it takes to get visa into this country but it has to be easier from Germany than from a lot of other countries. The economy is still pretty bad here but some parts of the country are better than others and you said Alaska, that is one part of the country that is doing better than the rest. You could allways do it the American way get another student visa come here to re-train get a bunch of student loans and just keep changing your major. By the time my wife makes up her mind on what she wants to be when she grows up, she will be at retirement age. All kidding aside I wish the best for you, and Petra.
Rob; It is good to hear that you got that horse out of the barn, I guess my fence fixes have worked, the wifes horse has not escaped anymore. Be carefull with the "over doing it", that has been one of my problems with my health ordeals. So take it easy a little, you have earned it.
So I guess I should try and get something accomplished around here today, Good Thoughts and Prayers to those in need, TAYAL.
Ron
I refuse to grow up!!!
Ron, sorry I got the name wrong. I think our yards are about the same sizes. Takes me about a hour to cut the front and rear, luckily a lot of the back is taken up by the in ground pool. With it not being opened for 5 years it more like a frog farm.
Far as another steam engine, I am trying to talk my self out of one. Steam as a whole is a pain in the cabooses. Just to many things that can go wrong with them and they are real picky about track work. Plus I know where there some PK1000 GP 15 at $50.00 each. I could use some shorter 8 wheel diesels that are not F units. Plus Proto's are darn near bullet proof.
Went to the doctors today for a check up. I was stuned by my blood pressure and weight! Weight was 280 down from 360 and blood pressure was 127 over 72! I was at 170 over 110 few years back.
Ulrich I have said this before and I meant it, if you make over to the states you and Petra have a places to stay till you get on your feet. Plus I am 85% sure I could get a job with the company I am working for. We are expanding and you accent could work in your favor. PM me if you want to talk about it just for the heck of it.
Well I am done for the day and will see you all Thursday.
Ken
I hate Rust
HiEveryone,
Hope everyone is doing well tonight. I get off w**k in less than a hour. Today the temp got up to 86 or 88. At least the humidity has not started up yet. Give it another month. Today was a much better day than the other day.
I was thinking about my layout today (always seem to be) and I decided to pull up one turnout and move it closer to the main as it is on a slight incline that is shorter than the turnout, so the single side entry track sits just slightly above the road bed. I figure to fix it correctly now rather than letting it be good enough and cause problems later. It is the turnout behind the cabin car that has the white line going under it.
Does this site have the ability to run video's? If so I would love to see your guys/gals layouts.
Well I am going to take off for now, and will try to check in later at home.
Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
http://s1082.photobucket.com/albums/j372/curtwbb/
It´s closing in on 2 am and I am up again. Well, I got one more hour of sleep this time
Chloe, chamomile tea, please. I actually hate this stuff, but maybe I can go back to sleep after having it.
Ken, Ron - as a German, I don´t need a visa to enter into the US, but I do need a green card to be able to work. Without that, I´d be what is termed as an "illegal alien" and the local sheriff would probably show up in no time at all. The waiting list for green cards(it is actually a lottery) is more than a mile long- Chances to cash in the jackpot in a Vegas hotel are better. So moving to the US will remain a dream- I am not being pessimistic about it, just realistic.
Ken - yes, my last paid post was CEO of a ship yard
Have a good night.
Well I made it back.
Flo may I have a nice slice of peach pie with a coffee?
Ken - Congratulations on your weight loss and reducing your BP. You must feel like you have energy to burn after losing that much.
I totally agree with your assessment about steam locomotives. They can be cantankerous pains in the butt at times. Modeling the PRR in the 40's you pretty much have to have steam. I have 6 of them. When they run good they give me a sense of well being (does that make sense?) I say they are like crack. When they have issues you feel like pulling your hair out. It is a definite love/hate relationship.
Ulrich - I hope you can get a decent nights rest. I know how lousy I feel when I am chronically tired.
Hope everyone has a great night.
Evenin' folks!
Oh! Curts back! (waves) (Whispers to Flo) Where did he go? I'll have a cup of decaf.... Oooooo! Peach Pie? Gotta have a slice of THAT.
I'll go sit in the back booth to get warm. Currently 27°F outside. We have had 5" of fluffy white stuff with a prediction of 2 to 4" more overnight. I have no place to go so it can snow all it wants tonight.... I do worry about my son driving home from w*rk at Midnight on snow covered roads though. Snowplow is outside the window diong its best to fill in driveways with what little we have..........
I have started to make a couple of ladders for the Engine House. Should be an easy one (as soon as I figure out how to perfectly drill .015" holes in the scale 2x4s for the ladder rungs...... Can't find my old glue stick, so I may have to venture out tomorrow and buy more (have to get allergy shots anyway). I have also been trying to create a "Patina" look on some of the drive shafts and other metal in the workshop areas. Think I have it down, photos later.
A large sweet tea, please.
***Ken, congrats on the health improvements. Did you make lifestyle and diet changes over recent years to accomplish that?
Long day preparing for a storm that never manifested. Needed to do that work anyway. Just resting this evening.
A friend of the wife's from work loaned us a large stack of DVD's & Blurays we haven't seen, including "Unstoppable". Guess I'll crank up the subwoofer for that one.
(Had a double feature movie night. Tis' now 3:00am and we just finished watching the above mentioned movie. Except for the silly hollywood helicopter(s) flying, it was an enjoyable flick. I didn't know the story and figured it was about a crash so was surprised a little with the end.)
Well I got some good news this morning; my home interest rate is going down to just over 2% and I only have 275 more payments. I refinanced to a 3 year ARM when I thought I was going to transfer at the end of the 3 years. Now I want to get something different in a nicer neighborhood. Things aren’t bad, but I see the writing on the wall…
I only got about 4.5 hours of sleep myself, hopefully I can make it through the day…
Cup of coffee please!
The cold weather has moved back in for a few days, hope everyone has a great day!
Morning...
CCOLD out there again..only 12F out there right now going to a high of 24F...back to winter..we actually ended up with 10" of the stuff again here..and the snowplows came out and threw snow on to our driveway 4X yesterday...it was not fun...
Today I am going to get some groceries ready for the on-call weekend..tomorrow is going to be my RR time...
Yesterday we ended up with a power outage due to all kinds of heavy snow snapping wires...loads of fun here...
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/
30F and about an inch of snow on the ground - mostly melted already. Did nothing last night after I got home except for entering the vegetative trance state after finishing the paper. Still scrambling in the shop but I hope the light at the end of the tunnel isn't an oncoming freight.
Jeff and Lee - love the billboards. The new roads are looking very good also and I'm happy to see the park survived the earthquake that skewed the buildings in the backround.
Rob - don't let the missus see the mobile landing pad on Barrys' last post. She'll need one of those for sure!!
Ulrich - At some point your talents will be needed. As far as illegal immigration, we're so swamped with people from our south right now you'd never be bothered but I don't advocate you doing that. Hope your model RR supplies show up soon so you can divert some attention from your situation.
Ray - easy peasy! Just put a fixture in your Bridgeport and mill the holes as needed . Oh I see the vise won't clamp properly on your shop mill. Sorry - you're on your own mate.
Time to get back into the shop and try and be productive. Catch y'all later. J.R.
Good Morning!! Coffee and the Tax payers breakfast buffet please. Thanks. Say is that Peach Pie? Ooo!
Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 42. Currently 31and it doesn’t look like we will get out of the 40’s at least through the middle of next week.
Yesterday, amongst forty-leven calls and can you helps and everything else, was taxation without representation day. Why do I call it that? Well, I was being taxed, and at no time did I see a representative there to answer why certain things are the way they are. If it wasn’t for the dog reminding me that without taxes the country would have no money to do any of the things we need, let alone want, (though I still don’t care about the (ahem) habits of the South American Swamp Rat) so I suppose I should be happy. Oddly enough I do now get a tax credit for working. Yup, finally, a tax credit for working. Lee, you should get one too.
Galaxy- That sounds great! I hope all works out for you to get a layout room and …..whatever else comes with it. Bathroom would be nice.
Ken- Wow, things have really turned in your favor as far as the health and job goes. Now if Bank of A-whatever-you-wanna-call-it will just drag along until you get caught up, you’ll be sittin well to work on the new layout.
Curt- Kudo’s on the “ fix it correctly now rather than letting it be good enough and cause problems later” way of thinking. Too many times I’ve used the good enough for now idea and it’s come back to haunt me. Now if I just would learn to take my own advice.
Jeff- Park’s lookin good. Though it looks like the corner building has developed a sink hole.
I’m ignoring Ray’s comment on making ladder rungs.
Oh yah. Gotta add the cellphone to the Nat’l do not call list. Got a call from someone wanting to lower my credit card interest. I was NOT a happy camper.
Needless to say nothing happened in Toddland (of which I’m king) yesterday. Hopefully today I will get to piddle-a-liddle in there before w**k at 5. I really do need to clean up a bit, no, a LOT down there. Best nip it before it gets outta hand. I can also do some scenery work now that I’ve laid down the earth paint. AND I need to figure how to get the inside tunnel wall attached when there is nothing to attach it too. Actually, all I have to do is build a support with cardboard for the thing to set on. That rock wall don’t weigh near what you’d think it would.
Good morning. It's 60° and partly cloudy. The high will be 80° and it will remain partly cloudy.I got most of the turf on the east side put down yesterday. One strip at the front of the layout remains to be done. It measures three feet eight inches wide by two feet deep and has two tracks running through it. There's just one little problem with it. There's an eight inch long four inch wide hole under one of the tracks that must be filled in. Great fun that will be. I have to get the filling agent in the hole but keep it off the track at the same time.
Good mooring St Louis!
Flo, just a bowl of corn flakes and a dew please.
Todd, Rob and Curt, Far as the weight loss, that has been spread out over the last few years. Last big loss accrued when I got the great mattress. Lost about 25 pounds after that because I was getting better sleep. (yes poor sleep will cause weight gain)
Far as feeling better, not really. I feel tired most of the time, last March I had to change some med's do to losing my health insurances and I started feeling tire all the time. I was going to bring that up at the visit till I got my Blood Pressure readings. If it's not broken, don't fix it.
Lot of running to be done today, I will drop by later.
Hi Everyone,
Flo, I would love to have a cup of coffee.
Not much new this way. It is supposed to get up to 88 today with the possibility of 90 this weekend. I am at w**k again today but get off at 11 PM.
I looked at my layout last night and did some measuring for the change in position of the one turnout. After considering several different possibilities I think that I will have to move two turnouts tomorrow. This will cause the least amount of rework to get that section the way it needs to be. I will post before and after pictures after I am done. My son is going to the LHS for me to pick up a couple packs of rerailers and some more cork road bed in case I need it.
Talk at you later.