ELLIOT'S TRACKSIDE DINER - AUGUST, 2011

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning

Got up a little later today....it is now a little cloudy and a nice NW breeze is blowing through the house..windows are open and the AC is off...first time since late June  

Flo...I'll hae a coffee and a breakfast wrap please...I'll be at the RC for a bit.

 

[blownout cylinder]

mmmmm...got top again...have at it guys!!!

[howmus]

Mornin' (Wednesday if you haven't heard...) everyone!

Zoe, I'll have the #2 specila, over easy on the eggs, bacon, homefries, and a double order of sour dough toast to go along with a potor two of dark roast coffee served in my R&GV RR mug!!!

First half of the night I couldn't sleep last night.  Something I et was disagreeing with me...  Indigestion was driving me nuts.  Sit up and burp...  lay back down, toss and turn foe a while and then start the sequence again...  must be the hot peppers I am raising in the garden...  Once i did get to sleep i managed to cut off the blood circulation to one of my legs and woke up with a start and a leg cramp!  About 3:30 I finally fell asleep and stayed asleep for a few hours.  Oddly enough I feel pretty good this morning.

Todd, good to hear your MIL is doing better.  I am sure there will be heads rolling somewhere due to the mix up in medications.  I once read there are thousands of deaths caused each year due to just THAT.  Glad a sharp nurse was on duty!!!

I shall be cleaning house all day and well into the evening I guess.  Place needs a good going over....  I'm hoping my son will be able to stop over and help me move the new desk into its final place today.  It is a "L" shaped contraption and they tell you specifically to have at least 2 people to move it.  Tried to nudge it into place last night and decided it would be much better to follow the directions.....   It is also quite heavy.  I would love to have the whole thing finshed by Friday noon for when my sister and the student show up.  Doubt THAT is going to happen.

Ulrich, I somehow missed the link to your article...  Can you post it again?  Oh, and BTW 6mp photos, you may be able to email.  I know that Roadrunner allows me to send and receive photos 4 times the data size of that with no problems.  I would be glad to have you send them my way and I can put them on a CD for you as well as Ken (if he can't receive files that size).

Have a great day out there!

73

[B&O1952]

Good Morning everyone!

It feels like Autumn here today. My favorite season, and a great time to paint! And the best season to model:

Once my youngest son goes back to school, I'll have more time to get paintings done for the holiday season. It gives me a chance to start new projects for the layout as well. I'm going to attempt to create some city buildings like George Sellios has done with the large billboard images painted right on the brick. Those are always impressive.

Garry, it's easy to lose track of time as we get older. My biggest problem is remembering doctor's appointments.

Curt, I like the short tender on the I1sa as well. I bought that one from a guy on Ebay custom weathered with the banshee whistle sound.

Lee, Belated Happy Birthday to the USCG from a USAF alum.

Ray, thanks for all of the great pics of the RR's in the finger lakes region. There's a lot of RR history there.

Todd, I hope everything goes better for your MIL.

Ulrich, very nice article.

Jeff, great job on the B unit. You're very resourceful with your kitbashing skills.

Well, if I keep going, it'll be lunch time!

everyone have a great day!

-Stan

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Wednesday, eh... Thanks Galaxy...

 

cudaken

 Gas Prices Did the Fed's release some of there reservoirs? Gas dropped over night from $3.69 to $3.39 Tuesday.  Hoping to get to MO today, gas there should be around $3.19.

 See you all later today.

            Ken

Ken ... June is when oil was released from the reserve. Yesterday oil and gasoline dropped sharply after the Federal Reserve Board  said the economic recovery is “considerably slower” than anticipated.

Cheers everybody. 

 

[twhite]

Morning all from SunnyCal.  Been in the low to mid-nineties the past several days, not really that hot for this time of year, when the temp can sometimes go to about 105 or so.  Actually, it's been a very mild summer here in the Valley (and I know you people in the Midwest DON'T want to hear that!!).   Probably a left-over from our VERY wet, cold winter, last year.  According to long-range forecasts, we might be in for a repeat  next winter, too.  Actually, there's still snow on the high peaks around Donner Pass--was up there this weekend.  Very weird, but extremely photogenic, LOL!

Well, I went and did it--remember I was complaining about my heavy locomotives and my 'spongy' rail-yard?  Well I went and tore it out.  ALL of it.  Right down to the pink foam base.  Used a putty knife to get all the WS roadbed up--it actually came up very well.  So today, I start re-laying the track directly onto the foam.  Okay, it'll probably be noisier than all Heck, but at least I won't have wobbly articulateds and lousy track connections.  And oddly enough, I was able to save ALL of the turnouts and about 98% of the track.  So hopefully, the New and Improved Deer Creek yard will be up and operating in a week or so.  Maybe sooner.   I gave the pink foam a latex earth-color coat so it doesn't look like a strawberry Sundae out there. 

Well, school starts in a week and a half and it dawned on me that I haven't done much piano playing this summer at all--which is pretty silly of me, since I spent Big Bucks this Spring to get my grand piano tuned.  I guess I'd better get hopping on that between now and the 22nd.  So it's back to it.  I'm growing out my beard for the first time in a decade--right now I look something like a Deranged Santa Claus.   Had to, though--I lost so much weight in my face from illness last year that I was starting to look absolutely Cadaverous.  Don't want to scare the kiddies, LOL!

Speaking of illness, has the Great Turkey Recall affected anyone outside of California?   We had a bunch of Salmonella cases from turkey out here--looks like there's yet ANOTHER Meat I Can't Eat.   If it keeps up like this, I'll have to become a Vegan in another month.  Dang!    And speaking of California, our Health-Nannies out here have somehow come up with the idea that tap-water can be dangerous to your health if you're pregnant.  So don't drink tap-water.  Or don't get pregnant, one or the other.  And no, I have no IDEA where these people come up with all of this stuff!   At least a Federal Judge out here has knocked San Francisco's circumcision ban off the ballot, saying that the government cannot regulate personal health issues.  Well, DUH! 

Oh Garry--the garbage just got picked up, so it's officially WEDNESDAY, LOL!   At least I think so.

Well, time to feed the Furries (Uff-Dah just bit my ankle), then hustle out to the garage and spend the day re-laying track and re-wiring turnouts.  Oh, joy, oh rapture!

Best to all, prayers to those in need.

Tom  

 

 

 

[yougottawanta]

Hey guys

You are not going to belief this. Down the road from my site I discovered a resturaunt and guess what ist name is VINNIES ! And about a mile down the street forn Vinnies is another joint and guess what the name of THAT place is Flo's ! How about THAT ! W**k front big day yesterday, investors and big cheeses from the office came out walked the site, waiting to hear if it was positive???

Train front nothing happening except that I have been reading at night thru MRR and a book MOH got me. Atleast until "bad kitty " comes along and sits on my reading material until I pet her.

Gotta go. Talk to you all later

[Cox 47]

Afternoon All...took me almost 15 minutes to get in here...kept going to my Yahoo mail?..Its sunny cooler and a northwesterly breeze and a very pleasant 76...I'll have a Windy City dawg drag it thru the garden and a diet coke please...Thank You..not much stirring on Pearl street...You all have a good one...Jerry

[AmanaMedic]

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood Afternoon,

Having a slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow week at w**k, as we are in-between high school sports seasons. It would pick-up fast if people would return my phone calls trying to line-up interviews with 'em!

ULRICH: Where have I been? Well (toads floating and relaxing in it), lurking...actually. You see, something just felt...I don't know...different around here after the last big "food fight." Then we seemed to be getting more moderator visitations (before you hired-on). The place just seemed...different. So, I figured I'd just hang back, look in the windows for awhile and see how things go.

Seems to be back to what passes for "normal" around here!

 

Anybody have any idea what "gray" would look best for a BN grain hopper? This beast will have black markings, done in the early 1990s re-paint with the smaller logo. I've been to three rail car photo sites, can't find the dang thing. I'd ask VINCENT...but don't know where he's gone to. I think he was our resident "BN expert." For my era, this would be a fairly recent paint job, so I kinda need to get the color "right."

Have a good day peoples!

Chris

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good afternoon. It's 95° and mostly cloudy. The high will 105° (feel like 110°) and it will be partly cloudy.

My father called early this morning while I was preparing for my trip to DeRidder for my doctors appointment. He has a busted pipe under his house and wanted me to get his grandson (my infamous nephew) to come over and dig it out. I had to refuse as I didn't have time. I had five minutes to get on the road. The appointment went well. It was for a test fitting of my new unloader brace. It was closer than last time but still pinches behind and at the inner side of the knee. Not fun. They have to do more work on it. Next fitting should be about a week and a half from today. Other than that there's not much going on.

[Seamonster]

cudaken

 Morning Folks!

 Flo, bowel of Frosted Flakes and Coffee please.

 Not a lot plain today, send out some resumes and mat be take the Big Boy apart again and see if I can find what I did wrong.

 Todd Glad the nurse checked the blood sugar levels.

 Gas Prices Did the Fed's release some of there reservoirs? Gas dropped over night from $3.69 to $3.39 Tuesday.  Hoping to get to MO today, gas there should be around $3.19.

 See you all later today.

            Ken

I'm sorry, I can't resist this.  I filled the tank this morning.  I converted the price to U.S. gallons.  It worked out to $4.50 per gallon.

 

[blownout cylinder]

Good Afternoon

Bob...worked out to $4.59 here...then I'm sure Ulrich has us all beat....

We had the windows wide open and the AC off today...and it was wonderful...except for all the hd things that showed up

....and....I actually got some mrr time in today..I had to replace a couple of jinxed tortoises at the Williston yard after we had a derailment occur...split the switch

Chloe, I'll have a coffee and a rib eye dinner please...I'll be at the corner booth where ...BBBlllllloooooooooaaaaarrrrtt!!.... someone left a whoopie cushion UNDER the bench seat cushion

[cudaken]

 Afternoon Folks

 Flo, Beer please.

 Gas Prices Looks like I missed my chances at lower prices. Just went out to pick up some med's and it has jumped up to $3.57 from $3.39 last night. I don't know what makes me madder, the high price or the seesawing of the prices!

 In one of my moods, don't care about anything and have not done anything today.

 See you all later.

                                Ken 

[teen steam fan]

Evening guys. 

Gas- Whoo Hoo, hopefully it will drop below the $3.50 mark and STAY there. Hard enough keeping gas in my Jeep's tank when I can say no to taking my sisters to dance (1/8 of a tank round trip) Last time I filled up was half a tank and it was 40 bucks for me. 

 

Well (No fish in there) I got back from taking my one sister to Farm and Fleet, getting her a bunch of fishing gear and going to a small stocked pond in a park fishing. Didn't catch a thing. it stinks. 

Fried fish dinner please, thank you

I'll be in the bunk car

 

[wetidlerjr]

 cudaken

 

 Morning Folks!

 Flo, bowel of Frosted Flakes and Coffee please....

 

Wouldn't you rather have a bowl ?

[Trainman Sam]

Well well well!  I finally found the new place... Got stuck behind a bunch of freights and the Dispatcher didn't tell me where y'all went to in the interim!

On vacation from the 1:1 this week!  Enjoying the mountain air in western Virginia!

Glad to see almost all the same ol' familiar faces!  And some new ones as well!

 

Hope all are doing well.  Talk to you tomorrow!

[Trainman Sam]

Looks like I got tops!   Eat 'n drink up!!!

Chloe, I'll be back later, but here's my card to cover the crews appetites!

Oh, and I'll take a LRBF to go please?  Thank you!

[BamaCSX83]

I'm going to agree with Bill on this one, a  bowl of frosted flakes and coffee sounds better, MUCH better.

Evening everyone, just stopping in for my nightly check through things.  W**k today was an absolute pain in the donkey today!  It was truck day which is normally all right, but NOT today....seemed as if I was the only one that wanted to get it done, which meant that I did it all more or less by my lonesome...not fun..

 Been able to get nowhere with my  MRR stuff as of late, would like to try tonight if able, but more than likely I'm going to be hitting the hay here soon.  

I think this weekend after getting the lawn cut (all of the lawn, not just going to half do it like last time), I'm going to pull out my SD40-2 and see if I can do a weathering job on it, dunno how that will come out, but I'm going to give it a shot.  I will be sure to post pictures of the weathering as it goes to get an opinion, which I enjoy getting.  I might not get the SD40-2 out, I might get out a railcar or two and weather them first, then see if I can work on the SD.

Well (deep, cold, and dark) I think I'm heading to check the rest of the forum out, then off to bed, goodngiht all!

[Curt Webb]

Evening All,

Still at w**k. Hasn't been too bad today. We had some rain earlier today so it never got super hot, that is supposed to happen tomorrow and Friday. I picked up 12 hours of OT Sunday. Tomorrow I'm going to "rust" my layout track. I have been thinking about the mounting of my dwarf signals and  I think I have a plan that will work, you know what they say..third time is the charm. If it works I will post a picture of it.

Everyone take care.

[teen steam fan]

Hey Trainman, welcome back. I forgot which railway your working for. Been thinking of joining the railway myself after highschool 

[Paul W. Beverung]

Evening Gang. We still are having 100F+ here. It was 108F when I went out to feed at 8pm.

I got some more done in the basement today. With any luck I'll have the layout clear in a week or so.

This heat has really taken it out of Mary Ann and myself. She is in bed and I'm headed that way. I can't even get my fingers to type right.

Anyway, you all have a good night.

[howmus]

Evenin' folks!

Flo, just a decaf for me.

I have spent the day cleaning and getting odds and ends done THAT had to be done.  Put together a file cabinet for the new furniture set.  Much easier and took less than an hour.  I was going to start moving the computer and other equipment to the new desk tonight, but ended up not being able to find a 30' ethernet cable I thought I had....  Must have given it to somebody, possibly my son for his computer set up at his house.  Not a problem, it was for a temporary hopok up anyway.  Most of the shelves and cabinets from the old set up are empty now.  Only have one small cabinet left to clean.  You know stuff can get really dirty and dusty over a decade of not being used....  A lot of paper that has been just sitting on the shelf (left over papers from some print runs I did years ago..) is headed to the recycling plant.  I have some sore muscles at the moment and still have 3 days of stuff to do tomorrow.....

Also decided it would be best not to start playing with the Cable Router and the ethernet hub until after an NMRA Region conference call/business meeting tomorrow night.  As soon as THAT is done, I will start unplugging, moving wiring, battery backup, computer, speakers, power conditioner, and the last printer to its new home.  I did do some accurate measuring of where to pot a new hole to bring the cable, and some other wiring from the basement closer to where it will be needed.  Hopefully I will be able to make all connections with the wiring I already have.  If you don't hear from my tomorrow night........  it didn't w*rk!

Hope you all have a great evening!

73

[wetidlerjr]

 

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

 

[Anonymous]

Good Morning!

It is Thursday, August 11th, 2011!

Garry  - just 1 day to go for the WPF!

The last couple of days have been somewhat exhaustive for Petra and me, but now there is a little bit of good news. Petra´s aunt and uncle will move into the apartment which we had found for my parents. They will have a much better life there - their son is much closer to them, and we are also near by. No news about my parents though - my mother is losing a little more orientation day by day - sigh!

The water feature on my module came out nicely, but i needed three attempts to get it the way. It is now upstairs in the attic for the paint to dry. I also poured the water on my bridge module, but it disappeared by magic. Not really magic, but the ground cover just soaked it up. I gave it another layoer this morning - see what happens with that.

Janie, just a cup of coffee for me - Petra is getting ready to prepare lunch!

Have a good day!

[galaxy]

GOOD MORNING!!!

RISE AND SHINE!!!

It is THURSDAY AUGUST 11,2011

I may not be the first, but we have company overnighting in the computer room who gets up later than I {we} do.

Have a great Day!

[Curt Webb]

Morning All,

Sitting here drinking my morning coffee. I slept in until 0730 today. Getting ready to go upstairs to paint my rails then probably a trip to Lowe's.

Hope everybody has a good day.

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning..

After updating all systems we are good to go now. Now we are sunny and cool..would you believe it. Today will be sunny with cloudy periods and a high of 73F ...tonight it is supposed to go to 59F...windows are open wide today

Today is get some stuff done for w**k and attempt to get some groceries that we missed yesterday...then..if'n I'm lucky some mrr time tonight...

SAM!!!!  Long time no see!!

Flo, I'll just have a coffee please...I'll be at the RC for a bit.

 

[cudaken]

 Morning Folks

 Flo, lets try a Bowl Of Frosted Flakes this time and a cup of Coffee. Bill hardly types a word here at the dinner and he has to point out a spelling mistake.

 Train Front Last night I got the urge to run a long freight train. Used a Erie Built A B pair and pulled 60 cars. So today's plan is to break it back down using my switcher. Sometimes I enjoy switching.

 See you all later.

            Ken

[TMarsh]

Gotta admit Ken, it was funny.

Good Morning!! Coffee and a waffle topped with peanut butter and grape jelly please. Thank you. What? No seriously. You should try it if you haven’t.

I KNEW IT!!! California has started the first step to banning their own regulated water!(dances around victorious) I have said it for years and now, like the effects of too many bean burritos, my prediction is coming true. I keep telling them, First Cal will ban drinking water (check. Well, half check), then comes the eradication of food with meat and a taste other than Cilantro. Then they will make breathing air other than out of a contained system against the law because you will be unable to determine if it is your air you are breathing or dipping into someone elses share. Then appearing in public will be deemed offensive to some, so to be fair, no one will be allowed in public. Then they will ban people because they harm the environment and the land, effectively banning themselves and no one will be allowed in California. Except the legislature, who will be perpetually in session and therefore exempt from the majority of the laws, because they will not be able to decide how to raise revenue due to the fact the only people left to tax will be themselves. HAH! I knew it. Just call me Kreskin.

Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Looks like around mid 80’s for the rest of this and next week. Again sorry Paul.

Perfect weather for the ILL-inoyz STATE Fairrrr! Come one, come all. Enjoy the sites, the sounds, that…, somewhat unique smell. The excitement, the FUN! Yes nothing like guzzling down gallons of the highest priced flavored sugar water you can find for miles. Chow down on tons of Corny Dogs, Turkey legs, pizza and yes, even candy bars, deep fried and shoved on a stick for your walking convenience. Taste ethnic foods from around the world, local cuisine that makes you think maaaaybe I should move. Always new and exciting things to try. This year…deep fried ICE CREAM! On a stick. And this space age invention that you just have to see. Biiiig changes this year. This year makes the return of….the tractors! (farm equipment. Not the band) And now for the biggest news. Those local folk who have cussed the parade for the last who knows how many years will be pleased. They have confined the entrants to floats and entertainment (marching bands etc). No more 5 hours (NOT an exaggeration) of watching anybody with a bicycle, roller-skates or a sign enter the parade. I wonder if the State politicians will be allowed to stroll down the street with their bevy of supporters in tow. Last year the supporters were sweating their way along but there were very few actual politicians they were supporting there. Probably heard that egg sales went through the roof the day of and before the parade. All the fun starts tonight at 6 with the Twilight Parade, then runs for the next 10 days. You may have time to make it.

Think I’ll stay home today and do some chores around here that need tending to bad before w**k tonight. Yup, think so. 

Ya’ll have a Great Day!!!

[Cox 47]

Good Morning All...and it is a good morning here sunny and 65 after dropping into mid 50's last nite..we still need rain and posta get some this week-end...I'll have coffee and a sweet roll please...Thank you..

I found this old photo of the Illinois central at Palestine Illinois..I am guessing it to be early 1900's..It shows the shop crew..This line is now part of the Indiana railroad that drags coal to the power plant at Newton Illinois..

You all have a good one...Jerry