Elliot´s Trackside Diner April 2011

[yougottawanta]

BRAKIE

Good Morning All

Not much to report from the land of Buckeyes on this rainy Wednesday morning other then NS sounds busy but,with this rain I'll miss the action.I went railfanning yesterday evening and saw 4 trains in 2 hours..If this stupid rain ever quits I'll start taking my morning walks with my "rest" in my normal resting area..I was looking over my N Scale engines this morning and notice I have as many  NS units as I do CSX...This means I need to make Slate Creek generic enough to cover C&HV,CSX and  NS..I also can add N&W and Southern units along with my NS units and model the NS in the early merger years...This was done unintentionally but,I like it..

I shall have a cup and look over da forum.

Have a good'un!

Brakie ! I new I liked you for a reason! adding N&W !

Curt , watched the clip. Boy the coyotes day look likes my past year ! Poor Coyote, I thought he had him there for a minute!

Ken - did you see my question about taking out my DC and hooking the DCC to my existing layout ? Mopar. I used to have a 68 Dodge Charger when I was first married. My first wife sold it ! She forged my name on the title. , still ticked off ! She sold it for 1k ! Then 10 years later she tells me she doesnt know who she is and needs to go find herself . If I knew that was coming I would have ended it when she sold my car.

Johnboy - what did the sawbones say ? Good news I hope.

Todd - Permits for hot dogs ? Why thats just unAmerican!

Rob - here 's a good luck wish for you all that the Tornados go around Y'all.

Galaxy - hows your other half holding up in the house search ?

Ulrich - Sorry , for the pain and hurt involved in the paperwork ...I think the Scottish Pipes will be nice. The lady at our office whos family memeber commited suicide is having to deal with all of the mess involved with the death. She came into my office yesterday and just started crying her heart out. Boy did I feel bad for her. I gave her as much comfort and just listened and let her get it out of her system. My prayers are with you and your friends and family. Can I treat you to a and some ?

Overcast but no rain, temp in the 70s & 80s here.Nice little breeze blowing. Been very busy here. Working , oops sorry (didnt mean to say a bad word here) w-----king too many hours, what recession ! We are hiring two more crews , buying equipment and hanging on for dear life. Your tax dollars hard at work here as we put in the infrastructure for roads. Shools etc. Now that the residential market is rebounding we are starting our first subdivision, in a year, next month. At home busy getting the home in order for the youngest birthday party this Saturday MOH half continues to improve. Today she is out shopping for supplies for this week end. Life is slowly getting better after this past year. Even ran some trains this weekend for the first time since we dicovered MOH brain tumor. What a blessing.Hey it looks like the sun might be peeking through.

 

 

[BRAKIE]

Good Morning All

Not much to report from the land of Buckeyes on this rainy Wednesday morning other then NS sounds busy but,with this rain I'll miss the action.I went railfanning yesterday evening and saw 4 trains in 2 hours..If this stupid rain ever quits I'll start taking my morning walks with my "rest" in my normal resting area..I was looking over my N Scale engines this morning and notice I have as many  NS units as I do CSX...This means I need to make Slate Creek generic enough to cover C&HV,CSX and  NS..I also can add N&W and Southern units along with my NS units and model the NS in the early merger years...This was done unintentionally but,I like it..

I shall have a cup and look over da forum.

Have a good'un!

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 78° and cloudy. The high will be 84° and there's a 50% chance of thunderstorms.

We had some lightning and thunder early this morning but I didn't hear any rain hitting the roof. Had plans yesterday to paint a gondola primer gray. Outside of course. Murphy had other ideas. I shook the can just as I should but when I pressed the spray valve down nothing happened. OK, clogged valve. I could just change it out with one from another can. I get the other valve but when I pull the clogged one off paint comes bubbling out of the can. The way these cans are designed this is supposed to be virtually impossible. I push the valve back in and paint spews from the can. Fortunately I had it pointed away from me. So I just calmly toss it into the trash can. Instantly the can stops spewing. Expecting it to resume it's attack at any moment I approach it cautiously. I change out the valve without incident and give it a test spray. It works fine. I set the gondola body in place and press the valve and get a nice spray, for about half a second. I press the valve a few more times but get nothing. I pull the valve off the can and try it on the can I took it from initially. I get a nice spray of green paint. I put the valve back on the can of gray paint and try a test spray. It works. I resume spraying the model and almost instantly the flow of paint stops again. By this time I've had it with this can. I pull the valve off and toss the can in the trash and put the valve back on the can of green paint. I get a new can of gray primer out of my van and finish spraying the model without incident. It was then that I heard a sound coming from the trash can. The can I tossed away was again spewing it's contents out. This time I left it alone and let it die in peace.

[Anonymous]

I knew that I forgot to give an answer! Instruments I play? I am afraid, none. When I was 10 years old I was fascinated by the sound of a saxophone and was eager to learn it. My father then went into a shop selling those beasts - when he found out how much they cost, it was the end of my musical career - much to my today´s regret.

Ray - still no clue to what my father has ordered. But I do hope it´ll generate scale revenue on my line - I desperately need some N scale $$$.

Have a good one, folks.

[howmus]

Mornin' everyone!

Zoe, I'll have a breakfast muffin with sausage and cheese and svereal cups of dark roast coffee to start the day...

Wet here in Finger Lakes.  Got 3/4" of rain yesterday and 3/4" of rain the day before that......  Train room has water coming in so i will be sopping up with old towels today.  Most of the problem is the clogged downspout on THAT side of the house which i intend to clean out today as well.  Been a rainy April here.  Normal rainfall is just under 3" and we will have had a bit over 5" before the end of the week. 

Ulrich, you are a fine gentleman to be helping out people as you do!  They and we are lucky to have you around.  Sounds like you will be making revenue runs soon.

Curt, a cellist.  Great!  I agree that talent and training in the arts does directly relate to the ability in many things.  There are a lot of musicians who are also model railroaders.  We all know about Rod Stewart by this time, but a few others are Claude Bolling, Billy Butterfield, Johnny Cash, Roger Daltry, Elton John, Tommy Hunter, Gil Melle, Vaughn Monroe, Lionel Ritchie, Fran Sinatra, Niel Young, and Mel Torme. 

Hope all of you stay safe wherever you are today.

73

[LSWrr]

Good Morning,

Ulrich, I don’t envy your current duties.

 

Curt, I’m originally from Toledo and wanted to model the Ohio North Coast.  I’m a big fan of the NYC and PRR and the other railroads that operated in the area (too many to list) and couldn’t decide on a particular road to model so I went free lance and incorporated what I liked about each RR into mine.

 

Oh last night I finally learned how to MU locomotives on my DCC.  I hate the Digitrax manuals; I think a rocket scientist wrote them.  I wish they would have pretended someone without an electrical engineering degree might read them.

 

Thunderstorms, large hail, high winds, and dangerous lightning (as opposed to the safe variety I’m assuming) for the rest of the day here. 

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning..

Had to shut down compooter because we had big t'underin'boomer come through dumping 1.5" or so hail here..and a couple of monsoonal things as well...

Apparently this is going to be an all day sort of affair as well....

....oh goody I'm hearing rumblings again...

[Curt Webb]

Morning All,

Flo I would love a cup of coffee please.

Supposed to be hot, hot, hot today with no rain forecast. Tomorrow there is a 40% chance then cool down to 88-90 for the weekend. I love the weather forcast here for the next 4-5 months-Hot and Humid with a possibility of rain. I am in the wrong job!!

Back in my younger days I played the Cello. I actually got pretty good at it. I reached a point where to go to the next level I needed to get serious about it but as a teenager I did not care and gave it up. Probably one of my bad choices. I really think the talent we have in the arts relates directly to the ability to model a realistic RR.

I think last night I just hit the wrong button posting pictures. 

Lee- Thanks for the downloads.They are great. I have a lot of reading to do. I really like the art work and your copy of the billboards is much clearer than mine. I will gladly take whatever you are willing to send to me. Like you I prefer a cleaned up layout when taking pictures. Thanks again.

John Boy- Good luck with your MD today.

Best wishes to all that are in the path of the storms today.

I will try to check in later today.

[Cederstrand]

May as well start with a coffee in a STORMY SOUTHERN mug, please.

Under a Tornado Watch and Severe Thunderstorm Warning here and this is just the Hors d'oeuvre. There will be tornadoes here tonight. Wish us luck!

Hope my fellow Diners in the way of this system dodge Mother Natures wrath.

Cheers! Rob

[TMarsh]

Good Morning!! Coffee and a waffle with two fried over easy eggs please. Yes, real maple syrup and real butter thank you.

Periods of showers, mainly before 1pm. High near 59.

Don’t know what I’ll do today but I’m a hope'n it’ll involve the layout. If it rains it should. If it don’t, it might. MIL’s surprise B-day outing at the Chinese buffet in Springfield is this evening at…...I don’t remember. Not sure I knew, but more than likely it is after 6. That will rule out there for lunch I suppose. Funny, I can eat lunch at the Chinese buffet or Ryan’s, or Golden Corral if I’m on that end of Springfield, for just about a dollar more than most fast food places anymore (not counting tip). Shoot check out the just the burger prices at lunchtime for even the big chain restaurants like Lonestar or Chili’s. Fastfood may be fast but unless it’s Taco Bell...., it ain’t cheap. Ooo...chunchy burrito. There's an idea.

I do have to go into town today for a permit application so the Foundation can sell hot dogs at the big garage sale this weekend. Or rather Saturday morning from 0800 till 1400. Brenda has been hinting at me doing that for her by saying how she has to get into town sometime to get it and how difficult it it is to get there during the day. Also, somehow I get the impression I volunteered to cook the hotdogs.

You know, sometimes I wonder if my memory is really as bad as it seems, or is it she just plays off it and tells me what happened even though it may not have actually happened exactly as relayed.

Ya’ll have a Great Day!!!

[Anonymous]

Would not mind getting some of your over here! April has proven to be way too dry, farmers already fear for their crop.

My dad just informed that he has ordered some rolling stock for me, but did not tell me what it is going to be ...

I am still busy writing those dreadful letters, informing about Alison´s death.

[galaxy]

Good morning

Boy oh boy id we get some and more than we deserved. It  for about 4 hours. Haven't heard yet if it spawned any tornados yet, but major rain so bad it came ruming in aorund the permenant window a/c in the LR! It was being driven in around the a/c. we hadn't yet re-taped the minor cracks around the a/c with new tape this year. The power bounced once but stayed on.

My bacj is killing me form chores yesterday.

We see a hopefull house on thursday if the other RE agent gets back to ours.

Well, I'd better go...TTYALLL8R

[LSWrr]

Good Morning,

Todd, The coffee stays hot for about 4 hours and stays warm for about 8 hours.

 

Curt, I hope I didn’t overload your email last night with PRR files.  I think I have a few more, but I’ll let your inbox cool off a little.  You want some track plans for the Toledo and Ohio Central that ran from Toledo to Columbus?  I’m glad you like my mess ™ in my photo albums.  I haven’t posted any pictures of the new addition to the layout since I have tools and materials everywhere on the bench work.

 

I got a great deal on the bay last night; new RH paddle mirror for my F250, powered, $62.  I haven’t found one until last night for under $123.00.  I’m also bidding on a Life Like Forrest Lumber Company.  Friend and I are building his 7yo grandson a layout for Christmas.  Trying to collect a few of the old animated accessory buildings from the 70’s and 80’s to give the 4x8 layout some action.

 

So far this month we have gotten 6.78” of rain fall, breaking every record back to 1952. Weather guesser predicts 2-3” of rain today between 0800 and 2000 tonight.  We shall see what happens.  I see I have several low spots in the back yard I need to fill in this summer and I’m thinking about installing a swale to the back yard to carry the rain water from the neighbor’s garage to the street.

[Anonymous]

Lunchtime!

Chloe, I´ll go for a steak & salad, and a RBF to go with it, please.

I am not up to speed. I feel really exhausted. The last few week were a little too much, but there is no end in sight for the moment. I am helping Alison´s mother to settle those awkward legal and administrative matters connected to a death and I must say I am getting very emotional about it. Reducing a life to a piece of paper is ... (expletive, deleted) and I really feel sorry for those left behind and having to cope with the red tape.

Alison´s funeral will be next Wednesday. Her BF and I have arranged for Scottish pipes & drums to escort her to the final resting place. 4 soldiers from Soltau Barracks, a nearby British garrison, will join the ceremony. It´ll be heartbraking ...

I am now going to have a rest - not much energy left.

[wetidlerjr]

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

[Cederstrand]

Glass of water & a melatonin, please.

***Johnboy, enjoyed that video. Are those re-mastered videos from old cartoons? Looked cleaner than what I watched as a child on black & white TV.

Well, going to hit the hay.

Rob

[last mountain & eastern hogger]

For all you guys who are still up in the Diner and for those others who just can't sleep ( and we know you are out there ) here is something with which to get a few laughs and get your mind off your problems..

Talk about problems...     Gues who??????????  good old Wiley Coyote

Coyote Falls http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=6Q5Qa9YdeyY&vq=medium

Johnboy out.......................................and off to bed.   

[TMarsh]

I was wondering where that pair of pliers went.

Forums are zipping right along tonight I see. Just skimmed the days posts so I'l read agin tomorrow.

Lee- Yup, Bunn man myself. I personally can wait the 3 or so minutes for a pot o coffee, apparently Brenda could not. Or at least wanted the option of having it ready when she got up. Seeing as how I usually get up a half hour before her, I failed to see her reasoning, but as you know, I never will so why ask further.  We have a Bunn from my previous life before her and I suppose it will be brought out of retirement. Again. She's not too pleased. "It looks old." It was popular way back the I said. Say, on that carafe model you have, does it keep the coffee hot for a good length of time. I thought about one of those but sometimes the coffee does sit for a  while. Couple hours or so at times.

Music? I played the trumpet in High school band floated between first and second chair. Very funny Ray, yes Williamsville had more than two people in the band. I also have played the guitar for.......um, that sounds bad. Let's say since I was 14. Good at it? Well, I must admit.......no. Good at making noises for the dog? yes.

PFTIN

[cudaken]

 Evening Fellow Dinners.

 Boy I am discussed today! My Boss Ben show up at my store today driving a 1996 Dodge Viper! Well I was evenness being a Mopar Guy. I was so close to having a new 1994 Viper, I had $15,000.00 for a down payment, had the loan and car was due in 2 weeks to the dealership! Then the term Corporate Downsizing had meaning to me. Was let go after 15 years so they could hire someone making half of what I was.

Reason I am discussed? I say to Ben while looking at the Viper "so you are a MOPAR guy as well"? He had a blank look on his faces and asked "what does that mean"?  Here he has a Viper and does not know the term MOPAR, give me a break. He got it for one reason, well he is single, you take it from there!  

 Well good luck to him, and he may needed it. Car only has 22,000 mile on it, but they are hard miles from what I can tell. Car will not go into 3rd, the T56 has an aluminum 3rd 4th fork in it, so I am guessing that is bent. He thinks it need adjusting, I don't think so. When he left I heard it running, sure sounded like some bad lifters and maybe a burnt valve.

 I was all so shocked on what he paid for it, $22,000.00. While I have not kept up on what Vipers sale for, that sounded pretty cheap. I would have bought it. But, unlike Ben, I could fix it my self. Where Ben tool box is 2 screw drivers and a pair of pliers. 

 See you Wednesday.

       Ken

[LSWrr]

Rob, I’m glad you liked the junk mail.  I would recommend sitting down with several colors of paint and a fine brush and do some detail painting and some dry brushing.

 

Curt, I think I have several PRR clipart type pictures in my collection along with some scanned copies of PRR forms and manuals.  If you’re interested shoot me an email to: [e-mail] and I’ll send you what I have. 

[Curt Webb]

Let me try this one more time. 

[Curt Webb]

Evening All,

Flo could I get a piece of Apple/Rasin pie with iceing and a cup of coffee please.

Not much going here. No rain today. I w**k again tomorrow and the heat index is supposed to be 100. First time this year. Probably the first of at least 90-100 days. You have to love FL in the summer. I will say I prefer the heat to the cold and snow for almost half a year. 

Blownout-  Love the picture.I guess some things never change.

I found a couple of PRR war billbords

] 

Everyone have a good evening.

[blownout cylinder]

Trainobsessed:  I played guitar and keyboards off and on for bands since I was about 14yr old...spent most of my musical career in and around the TO area and Woodstock ON...right now I am putting a band together with a friends son and a couple of former band members....

We had a wonderful day filled with barrels of rain and even a small bout of hail this afternoon..now it is all nice and sunny out here...

I'm going to crawl into the basement to work out some bugs in another yard...  

 

[Cederstrand]

Tacos, please. Time to test my gut.

My wife is going to trash her layout, or more accurately "junk it". Thank you so much, Lee! Wow, that was much more than we could have hoped for. "Excellent" Wife is most pleased.

Driving home from the PO I caught a glimps of a train with 2 big CSX locos and 1 small UTAH loco. I couldn't tell if it was a small road engine or a large switcher being moved(?). I would guess it was a little roady. Drove a ways and took a road only to find it went over the tracks and the train was already passing below. Back on the highway shooting ahead I pulled off in a perfect spot, but the train never arrived. Apparently it had stopped to drop off some cars on a siding I couldn't get to. Dang, sure wanted to know what that little UTAH engine was. Oh well.

Completely tuckered out here.

Rob

[last mountain & eastern hogger]

JEFF,   we were wondering how you kept that girlish figure...........

ROB,   Hope you have that poison in check and are feeling better.  Don't let all those chores wear you down.

Johnboy out..................................Full medical tomorrow.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Just finished off a very tasty home-made beef brisket with rice. Delicious. Wish I could afford to eat like that more often.

[howmus]

Afternoon floks!

Flo, just a decaf for me....  Still calming down after the storm that just came through here!

I went to Canandaigua earlier and arrived at my sister's house just as a Thunderboomer was starting up.  Quickly fed and watered the cats, and made my way back out to the car in the driving rain.  Headed for home and soon started to drive out of the storm.  Lightning was doing ground strikes every few seconds to the North and the South of the route I was taking. Flash on one side of me and then on the other for the whole ride. I hoped to beat it home, but just as I turned onto the road going South to my street, it hit with full fury.....  Ran to the house (parked as close as I could) as I figured it would give a bit more safety than the car.....  Lightning all over the place and we got close to a half inch of rain in about 10 minutes.  The side street became a river.......  Just checked the Weather.com sight and they had a severe storm warning posted, strong winds (up to 70 mph) (yep, we got THAT), possible nickle sized hail (nope not here), and some rotation in several areas of the cell that could produce a tornado... (Thank God we didn't see any of those here!).  There were some problems as there have been emergency vehicles out all over the place just before I got home.  Right now the sun is shining.....

I am amazed that the power is still on and the internet works at the moment here.....

OK, gotta go finish an HO scale ladder...

Later!

73

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 73° and mostly cloudy. The high will be 86° and there's a 30% chance of thunderstorms.

Woke up about 1 am by a line of thunderstorms going through. We got some rain but I don't know how much as I haven't checked the gauge yet. Took some time this morning to apply a couple of graffiti decals to a 50' boxcar. It's currently lettered for the Santa Fe but will be patched for the L&A soon enough. Nothing special planned for today. I may sort out some trees as I haven't done that yet.

[Cederstrand]

Coffee in a UNION PACIFIC mug, please.

***Obsessed: I had perfect pitch and played a french horn for 6 years or so when a you Robth and nobody ever knew I couldn't read music. However, I chose to persue a visual artist career intead: http://www.cederstrand.com/ It was one of my brothers who played every woodwind instrument there was. He was the real genius of our family and also spoke a dozen languages.

***Barry, that's a neat old pic. Put it on our screen.

Light headed but feeling better this morning. Much farm chores to chip away at today.

Have a great day y'all.

[howmus]

Mornin" everyone!

Zoe, I'll have the breakfast bagel w/ cheese this morning along with a cup of dark roast coffee in a R&GV RR Mug.

I have already spent much of the morning in a meeting to discuss the MLK Scholarship candidates with the Guidance councilors at the High School.  We have (as usual) some great, hard working, kids to choose from.  Many are already making a real difference here in this community. 

Mr. Obsessed, Musicians?  Actually quite a few right here in the diner.  I was a school music teacher for 32 years. 19 spent at the Middle School level here in town.  Taught everything from Kindergarten to some college level courses over my career. I was a professional musician for 48 years of my life.  Graduated from The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY (U of R) back in 1968, education major with my primary instrument being voice.  In addition I play and taught classic guitar for many years.  I was (back when) a competent (if not great) keyboard player, clarinet, saxophone, trombone, recorder, and electric bass player.  Had to study most all major instruments at Eastman to get the Music Supervision degree they offered.  I ended up owning a very small live sound and recording company for about 15 years (which finished off what little hearing I had left) and worked mostly with Schools and Churches and a few local bands to produce recordings and provide sound/DJ services.  My business card now reads - Musical Genius, Retired!

Have to run to Canandaigua to feed the cats again today...  Sister is coming home tomorrow afternoon.  Guess who gets to drive to Rochester and pick her up???  I don't mind really, I would rather get her myself and know she is safely back home.

Hopefully I will have time to finish the ladder today.  BTW it will be for use by the "little people" on the layout, not me...

Catch you all later!

73