Elliot's Trackside Diner JUNE 2011

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Patrick ... Welcome. Feel free to tell us about yourself or your model railroad if you wish.

Simon .... I like your mine. Very good!

Galaxy ... Best wishes regarding MRI, etc.

Todd .... The Branchline kits are fun. They are time-cosnuming because they have tiny little parts to avoid breaking. Enjoy it.

Barry .... What were those pictures? 

Ulrich .... Sounds like a great wake up call

 

[blownout cylinder]

Simon: Do you have...or does anyone else have photos of the mine buildings around there? One older fellow up here-who has no internet/nor computer-is looking for any old photos of mines around your area..I have printer I can print them out for him....

Do you have any others of this one?

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good morning ..... 

I'll have cereal with fresh blueberries, please.

SFB .... You asked if I had pictures of my steel mill. Here you are. Mine is based on the Walthers kits, but I modified as appropriate. The coke oven is at a separate location. Other buildings are grouped together.

 

My layout has a Burlington Route theme, and the old CB&Q did haul iron ore from the Great Northern in MN to the steel mill in Granite City, IL. My steel mill employs Baldwin switchers which the company purchased second hand from GN and SP. They are Athearn models with DCC added. 

 

[simon1966]

So Todd, Williamville Illinois, what is that Exit 109 on I55?   I'm at exit 18, Cudaken is at exit 15 and I bet there are others on this forum scattered up and down the Interstate.   Interesting that you still have an active mine in your area.  Most of the Illinois coal mines are long since gone even though there is plenty of coal under the prairie

Here is what is left of White City Mine, nr Mount Olive (exit 44)

and my model of it

My wife's grandfather died as a result of an accident down this mine back in the 1930's 

[tailpipe62]

I don't care how slow the internet is, the L. S. & W goes right past my house, guess I"ll catch a ride!  There used to be a branch line to the Quarry's in S. Amherst.

 

Patrick

[TMarsh]

Life changing.... Well, other than the standard "quit smoking", I too have been contemplating riding my bike to w**k. Problem is, the bike is so old it may need replaced. I haven't kept it in the best condition. I also intend on completeing most of the projects I've started. This may not be life changing to some, but to me it will be life changing not having to listen to the "when are you's".

Jeff-  10-4 

[Curt Webb]

Morning All,

Just sitting here watching CNN. Same news different day. Have laundry going and after nephew goes to school I will vacuum. Then on to working on the layout

Ulrich- Happy Fathers Day. Looking forward to pictures.

Simeon- I have battled weight all my life and go in cycles of high and low. I really consider it a character flaw that I can't seem to keep it off.

Jeff- Nice work on the car.

I believe someone here models the late 1800's, so this picture is for them

Have a goood day.

[galaxy]

jeffrey-wimberly

simon1966:

The big old 50 approaches this September

 

50 eh? I'm not too far ahead of you. I'll hit 51 the 7th of next month. As for lifestyle changes I've lost 20 pounds and I've taken steps to get a proper brace for my right leg. With it I'll be able to get around a little easier.

Good for you jeffrey!!! I lost 10 lbs make my cardiologist happy . Of course lasix may have somehting to do with that...and the fact that I am more active wiht the warmer weather! I substitute a salad for snack...if i want one...

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Todd: Check your PM's.

[TMarsh]

Good Morning!! Coffee please. Might as well give me a stack of buttermilk flapjacks with real butter and real maple syrup thank you. Oh and get Chuck a cup of Dark Roast too, sounds like he needs it.

Showers and thunderstorms likely. Highs in the mid 80s. Raining now so that kinda puts a kinker in my plans because most all is outside. Don’t worry about me, I’ll survive. If need be I have a layout I can kill some time with.

Sittin up at the bar last night collecting my pay and having a very welome cold , I got an offer to be a security guard at the mine here in town. Come to think of it, odd place to go looking for a security guard. (Actually he was looking for me anyway and {poof}, there I was) They need a fill in for someone if they are sick or….sick I guess. They only need someone from 3 in the afternoon til 7 am and 24hrs on weekends. It is still unclear whether I will be able to shoot somebody. So far they keep saying no, but that may be just to keep the quality of applicants higher. Can’t have every Tom, Dick and Harry running up there just to get a shot in then quit after they get one. Or don't. Bunch of Rednecks around here yet even after we got the new fancy Subway.

They sunk a slope shaft North of town last year (actually one of the fields I used to farm) and they aren’t quite ready to use it so they need it guarded at night to keep partyers from going down the shaft and wandering around the mine bothering the miners bumming money. Personally, I think if you go down a mine shaft in a fenced in compound with no trespassing signs all over and a closed gate, if you get lost or ground up by a miner or electrocuted or even left down there if there is a cave in…., too bad. You shouldn’t have been there in the first place so maybe next time you’ll stay out of were you don’t belong. Assuming of course you have the opportunity to try again.

Won a Branchline Blueprint 50’ SD boxcar kit on the Bay for 8 bucks. 13 with shipping. Still not too bad. Should get it between the 4^th and the 6^th. He sent an email saying he shipped yesterday.

Best get doing something. Brenda has also added another project to the list. Apparently she isn’t fond of the tailgate to my truck leaning up against the tree in the front yard (I hate that tree.) where people can see it.   I said “they can see it on the back of my truck, what’s the difference?” Apparently there is a difference based on the look I got but I still don't know what it is because she didn't answer. Women. Got their own looney tune reasons for stuff and never explain it to us men so we can try and understand the whacked out way they think so's to make life easier. Then they complain cause we don't understand.  OH! And this, after she came blasting in the room last night and just as Gibbs was getting the confession out of the guy I knew did it all along, and was about to find out why, grabbed the remote and changed the channel to QVC and proclaims “I want this”. Ah Ulrich, the things I have to do to stay out of the hospital and get my morning smooch. I need to hide the spare remote.

Ooo! Flash! Thunder. Long and looooow. Best get signed off

Ya’ll have a Great Day!!!

[jeffrey-wimberly]

simon1966

The big old 50 approaches this September

50 eh? I'm not too far ahead of you. I'll hit 51 the 7th of next month. As for lifestyle changes I've lost 20 pounds and I've taken steps to get a proper brace for my right leg. With it I'll be able to get around a little easier.

[steamfreightboy]

Morning all,

I'll have the breakfast special and a cranberry juice please.

Finished putting the road in and painted the area around it the green paint undercoat. The road I painted a raw umber. Found the gray color I was looking for to paint the BOF. I made another blue flag by painting a kadee clone royal blue. They look good.

See you all later,

sfb

[simon1966]

You know the old saying "every journey begins with a step" well in my case the turn of a wheel.  This morning I got up and finally dusted off the bike and hit the road.  A nice cloudy 70 degrees, so not too hot to start out.   Its been a while coming and it is something I needed to do.   The big old 50 approaches this September and I have decided that I am going to weigh the same on my 50th as I did on my 30th.  This means shedding about 25 lbs over the summer.   Leading a somewhat sedentary life, sitting in front of a PC, in a car or on a plane, I have not made exercise a priority.  It will be interesting to see if the current level of dedication and enthusiasm persists.........

Anyone else planning lifestyle changes this year?

[cwclark]

Morn'in guys,

    So here i sit at my desk again watching this stupid plant computer. The water goes in, the water goes out all day for nine hours. UGH!...wish i were working on the trains today...chuckl 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 74° and partly cloudy. The high will be 103° and it will be partly cloudy. Personally I don't think it will break 100°.

I may be able to get some work done on the layout today. That of course depends on how many interruptions there are. My Star Trek Enterprise series collection was at Fort Worth Texas as of 5:53 this morning. It should be here in another day or two.

[LSWrr]

Good Morning,

I think the entire internet is slowing down,

Simon good observation, but from what I have read on the computer forums it’s at&t’s fault if you will. They had the iPhone market all to them self for a long time and the system is really feeling the pains of keeping up with all the internet phones, computers, and now tablets.  Their plan of acquiring t-mobile and adding the two systems internet capabilities together to fix the issues with the internet are sound, but I hear it’s stalled in government for fear of another monopoly.

The best way to find a forum on here seems to be Google…

[galaxy]

BOY! 2 PAGES IN A ROW!!! JEFFREY gets to buy!!!!! I'll have the T-Bone steak and scrabled eggs with side of sausage and buttermilk hotcakes!

Got an MRI and injections in my back today. Should be real fun! I will be really crippled for a week.

Was gonna have some friends over for an old fashioned BBQ on Sat, but I gueess we will cancel to next week.

Havea great day everyone!

TTYALLL8R

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Sir Madog

Jeff - "beam me up, there is no intelligent life down here (in Germany). There is still a fairly closed-knit community of trekkies here, but gosh, it is an aging one. On that picture you posted - must be France in 1941. did you spot the guy wearing a Wehrmacht helmet?

More like only a week to the end of German occupation. The scene was of an armament train coming into the yard at Vaires to change locomotives before continuing on to Germany. It wouldn't make it out of the yard. The scene is from the 1964 movie 'The Train'. The French had a rail yard they wanted to re-gauge but couldn't afford the cost and John Frankenheimer needed a scene of a rail yard being bombed so he sold them on the idea of blowing it up for them. The result was most impressive and realistic with a trainload of looted French art barely getting through.

[blownout cylinder]

Ulrich: Both are ship's engines...btw...nice to see you out of that dang place we all love!!!

Good Morning

We are going to be sunny and a high of 63F is forecast for us'uns today..

I have to buy some more groceries today and get ready for my tri-monthly bloodwork again...then I might get a chance to do some mrr stuff today..maybe..tomorrow...

[wetidlerjr]

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

[Anonymous]

Gooood Morning,

it feels so good to get woken up by Petra with a kiss than by that wooden nurse just switching on the lights. Did I say that I have developed a strong dislike for hospital staff? Maybe it´s because I spent to much time in hospitals.

Well, it is a sunny day, highs are expected to run up to 20°C, a temperature I feel quite comfortable with. It´s not only Ascension Day today, but also Father´s Day, so Petra surprised me with a little gift - a box of catenary poles for my layout! She is my girl!

After all that dreaded hospital food, I´ll go for a real breakfast today. Janie, I´ll have that holiday special breakfast, with hot cakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, buttered toast, jam, OJ and a gallon of coffee, please. Hold all that low calorie, low cholesterol stuff - I am going for the real thing today!

Barry - interesting piece of machinery! What is it - a ship´s Diesel engine? I can hardly wait to see John producing an N scale model of it!

dngnrr - a belated from the other end of the Big Pond! Like Todd already said, this place is the best part of the forum. I spend more time in this place than in any other part of the forum. Although I have never met any of the gang in person, they have become close friends of mine,. Their care and support have guided me through some bad days in the last two years and I do cherish their friendship. It is a little like in a marriage - "for richer or poorer, for better or worse". In fact, I am inclined to say that this place is the best of the Internet!

Jeff - "beam me up, there is no intelligent life down here (in Germany). There is still a fairly closed-knit community of trekkies here, but gosh, it is an aging one. On that picture you posted - must be France in 1941. did you spot the guy wearing a Wehrmacht helmet?

Johnboy - I am not sure whether they let me out early for good behavior or misbehavior. I guess the nurses were just tired of me mumbling and grumbling all day long. I think I am not really an easy patient 

Curt - the cake´s nothing special, just an ordinary almond butter cake. I like it very much, it has a certain moisture to it and a good taste of almonds. I am blessed with a wife who still loves to cook and bake, fast food is off limits in our household!

Ken - it must have been one of those days for you. I am sure there will be better days coming soon. I have ordered them for you!

TSF - I would not second your statement that German medical technology is ahead of the US, but the technology we have is available to all the people, although the cost for that is killing us. No further comment on this issue, I see Chloe picking up the soap box and Vinnie batting an eye at me.

Chris - that´ll be a perfect story for "a day in the life of Chris U." Frank Zappa would have made a song out of this.

NERM - good to see you back - you were on the MIA list for quite some time.

Well, that´s all from me this morning. I am going to do some serious MRRing today. Maybe I  have some pictures to post this evening!

Have a good day!

[blownout cylinder]

...of course, there is always this...

[blownout cylinder]

Ray: I'll see your V-12 and raise a 

So there.....

[TMarsh]

Ray- I guess you've discovered one of my shortcomings from my school days.. Sorry about that. Either I got my facts mixed up, or you did. I'm leaning towards I did

sfb and dngnrr

Interesting observation dngnrr, but you are correct. It does seem as if I've known these guys for a long, long time. Only met one of them, but I feel like I have met them all. This is probably the best place to be on the web.

Got some news on the job front for me. Will fill you in over coffee tomorrow but tonight I's tired. Found myself, after a fiasco that can only happen to me involving getting my tractor down to Mom's taking all day(but I did get the back yard mowed ), I stopped in to Franks Empire (remember the guy from the video if you watched, if you didn't...you won't) afterward and ended up helping break down two old tractor tires off an old "M" my buddy bought. Been a few years since I'd done that. Wouldn't bother me if it were a few more. Probably may have been done a bit earlier, but the stop at Frank's in the morning got me off to a late start.

Hey! 2 things done on the list. Only 27 more to go. I'm gettin' there.

PFTIN

[howmus]

Evenin' folks!

Janie, just a decaf for me right now.

Had a nice ice cream sundae at the Scout Roundtable/District Committee meeting.  Tonight we elected the District chair and voted on the membership of the District Committee.  Also voted on a recommendation for District Commissioner.  The guy who has been the District Commissioner for the last several years (and is stepping down from the position) came over to me at the end of the meeting and handed me a sealed envelope.  Upon opening it a found a patch and a nice thank you note for being willing to step up and become commissioner for the units I have been helping...  Nice to get something like that.

Barry, what is that tiny little motor?  Looks to be a little GM thing?  I'll see you your V8 and raise you a slightly larger GM V12 in a bigger vehicle:

No hobby stuff for me today...  Hoping maybe some time in the cellar for tomorrow.  We shall see......

Have a good night everyone!

73

 

[der5997]

Good evening all:

dngnrr: [welcome] Glad you dropped by - hope we see more of you. (He said having been out of the Diner for pretty much all of last month ) If I can add to your comments - I find that the tone in this Diner is just so much more relaxed than "out on the main line", so to speak.  There are no dumb questions, for a start; and by and large we are just too lazy / polite to jump down anyone's throat! in fact I hardly ever go anywhere else in Forumland - sort of a reverse of what has kept you from gracing this Hallowed Hall - I don't have time to go anywhere else!

Sfb:

Curt: Sorry, I don't know how to upload photos. Just imagine the best layout you have ever seen...

...Short course

• Photos have to be stored on the web first - Free web hosts are popular. Many of us use Photobucket www.photobucket.com
• Open an account - easy process to register.
• Upload the photos of "the best layout you have ever seen..."
• (Now I'm being Photobucket specific, but I expect other web hosts would be fairly similar) Scroll over the image you want to post
• A drop down menu shows the urls for different posting options.
• I click on "Direct Link" which is the regular url, and the image is automatically copied to my computer's clip board. (Or, if you don't trust automation, select and copy the url manually)
• To post the image, you have a couple of options. One is to show the photo in the body of your "Reply" In this case you click on the little film icon in the Reply task bar. A new field opens, inviting you to "Link to Media" Paste the url in the space provided, and click "Insert"

The second is to link the image so it opens in a New Window.

• Paste that url into your Reply, and select it.
• Click on the small linked chain icon second left of the film icon. It has magically come "live" as soon as you selected the pasted url. A field opens inviting you to "Insert/Edit Link
• Paste in the url (it's still on your clipboard, handily)in the Link url field
• Go down to the Target field - Choose Open in New Window
• Click "Update Link".or "Insert" whichever shows (Update seems to happen sometimes.
• If all has gone well, your photo is now part of your Reply, either as a photo that shows, or as a link that will open the photo in a separate window. This last feature is very handy if you are posting the address of another website, or a video that folks might prefer to see separately.

Rob:

Say, with all the free publicity I give U.P. by drinking out of a mug with their namesake on an almost daily basis here in the Diner, don't you think they should buy me an N scale U.P. locomotive...or at least send me a free U.P. mug?

...funny the way things work. I bought ( through the ndcc Yahoo group Yardsale thread ) a UP GP7 as a quite mechanism for my CN GP 7 shell - and that is good.  So now, if you'd be interested I have a noisy UP GP 7, which should fit your era nicely. Converse with me, why not?

Lone geep:

I don't think CP is in Nova Scotia

  I think you're right there as far a motive power / owned track is concerned - of course, freight cars get everywhere - even BCR Centrebeams at the lumberyard in Brookfield from time to time. Brookfield? Just a few miles south on the old Route 2 from where Galaxy is reluctant to say we are spotted this month. So, I'll take the initiative and welcome y'all to Truro, Nova Scotia. http://www.truronovascotia.ca/ where the weather  tomorrow should be partly cloudy with 30% chance of showers and 21˚C

Ulrich: Memory's going, can't remember if I said how glad I am you are back home earlier (Chris - note the conservation of language there LOL)

Better say goodnight and God Bless. Earlier start tomorrow. Prayers for all in need.

 

[blownout cylinder]

Good Evening Gents....and Ladies.......saved my becan there.....

We had a glorious day of sunshine and no humidity today..sure beat yesterdays 107F heat index..only got up to 75F today..tomorrow? Sunshine and a high of 64F...

Did a few things in the garden this afternoon and ...of course...am now a lobster...

Also got a few things done on the layout as well...which is a good thing..tomorrow? All day trainroom stuff..heeheehee..that is unless a certain list shows up...

Chloe, I'll have a coffee and a slice of Petra's cake please..I'll be at the RC ...

[jeffrey-wimberly]

last mountain & eastern hogger

Beam me up JEFF.   I Loved the early Star Trek and our Canadian Capt. Kirk.  "William Shatner"

I have ALL the early ones (The original series). They were the first ones I started collecting.

[Packer]

Evening guys

tried some MRRing tonight. Didn't go too well. I had a 3 pack of con-cor 1979 mustangs. I tried to repaint them, and that's when it went bad. Paint attacked one, another one broke, so I have one. Remind me to save the next group to cast them...

Ken, I though you could. Maybe I just linked them the last time.

Galaxy, Whoops. missed it.

[last mountain & eastern hogger]

Hi Gang,

Chloe just a double RBF for me while I watch the Hockey game.

Hardly been anytime in the game yet that hasn't been a Power PLAY.

go Canucks go.......................

Ken,  Glad to hear that it got there. and thanks for all you do.  Next month will be better for you, I know..

Ulrich, I'm really glad you got out early for good behavior, hope you enjoy the surprises.

Der John and Bama,  glad you guys checked in always glad to hear from you.

Beam me up JEFF.   I Loved the early Star Trek and our Canadian Capt. Kirk.  "William Shatner"

Gotta get back to the game.

Have a great night all.

Johnboy out............................................