The Atlas FP7 has successfully been fitted with a Bachmann light board type decoder. This is the first Atlas I've run across that had a frame grounded motor. Isolating it wasn't hard. I put a strip of electrical tape in the motor well and left out a screw that anchored the motor to the frame. I put some tape around the bottom edge of the motor and made it a friction fit. After that everything was smooth sailing. The way this thing can creep is something else. It's also well speed matched with the 70's era Atlas FP7 it'll be working with. I don't know how old this one is but the five pole skewed motor says it's much newer than the other one.This is the chassis of the newer one:And this is the chassis of the older one:Now I have a Model Power GP9 to work on.
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
Hello ..
Evidently, I should have been here for breakfast because to have cinnamon rolls (one of my favorite foods). Chloe said they did not last long, and then she muttered something about chow hounds like Ulrich, Barry, and Ray.....
Ulrich ... I'm happy your module got that recognition. That's a lot of Japanese buildings. Perhaps one could be a Japanese steak house.
Rob ... I'm glad you Dad is improving.
Paul ... Good to learn you got some rain.
Jeff ... Sorry to hear about the painful gullstones.
Galaxy is telling about the floods in his town, and it sounds very bad. It got us talking about floods elsewhere including Australia and Germany.
I've posted the picture below before, It was part of the Nashville 2010 flood. We're downstream from Nashville and had severe flooding here. A replica of Elvis' guitar floated from a Nashville museum, but I never found it on our shore. This year, the flooding was worse as we had 25" of rain locally in April.
The location of the photo was in Lebanon, TN near where some of Shelley's family lives.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Afternoon/evening guys and SUe...
Went by Home Depot today on way home from Dermatologist. Many Piles and piles of debris piled as high as the store roof!! Going through main street in parts of JC that flooded was kinda hard watching stuff cleared out of house and seeing damage done to houses along the way. SOme of the oldest crappiest looking houses seemed to survive while the better ones looked kinda damaged. Still don't know if it is going to reopen or just a rumor not....Lowes [2 of them} are making a killing now...
ULRICH...amazingly enough they say there were NO FATALITIES in this flood!!!
Jeffrey-I had my gall bladder out years ago, of course it took them 5 years to decide it should come out as I never had stones...always "it's badly mis-shapen, distended and probably full of "sludge", but otherwise..." Doesn't sound too healthy either does it? SOme of the Dr.s, family and friends thought I was a "hypochondriac" as it would act up when things went well for me actually, but it was then that I would eat better and it would act up...Until my father's gave him grief..as he put it "' I can't get any relief from the pain...'" and had to wait 2 weeks for surgery... then he understood how I felt all those years I was in agony...and a friend who was in nursing school...when he foudn out they took it out...well he siad he owed me a HUGE apology as he did a report interviewing people before and after their gallbladder surgery and knew "'you were in a ton of pain and agony...'".
later
-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.
Columbian coffee in a SOUTHERN mug, please.
***Jeffrey, I like the track layout in that pic. I see you snuck in plenty of motive power into the shot, too.
Parked the wife's little flatbed truck in front of "Kathryn's Feed & Seed", along with the little forklift which is now loading round bales for delivery to a local farm.
Spoke to my dad last night. He is being released from the rehab place today. Hope he does OK.
Will let the pickup truck sit until next week. No reason to pull the starter until we're ready to take it in, especially with rain coming. And with our neighbor now delivering hay to us, we don't really need it right now.
Would you believe the Kudzu is dying? Heck, I did fertilize it with an old lawn mower, so it should have responded to the challenge. Guess I'll go nab another bunch to toss into the canyon.
Have a good day all.
Rob
Afternoon Gang:
Gary, we did get 5/8 of an inch but need much more. I would like it to wait untill I get the pond cleaned out though.
I'm just sitting here with my buddy that actually knows a little about puters. We have gotten a bunch of things fixed so the thing is working faster and better. Of course the Kalmbach web site is still having problems.
Well I need to go.
Take care All.
Good morning. It's 64° and cloudy. The high is due to be 87° and there's a 60% chance of thunderstorms all day.Well yesterday was a wasted day. When I wasn't working on the computer I was in bed trying to be as comfortable as possible and wishing the pain from the gall stones would subside. It finally did and I hope I don't have to go through that again anytime soon. Fortunately I didn't have to reformat the computer, just reinstall Windows over what was already there. No plans for today. Since my new locos aren't here yet there won't be any decoder installations. I've decided to wait and see if the Model Power GP9 is DCC Ready. If it needs to be converted through a hard wire installation and isolating the motor I may go ahead and put an 8-pin plug on the DZ125 and drop it into the Atlas H24-66. I'll have to hard wire the Atlas FP7, that's a given. The motor there is already isolated so that simplifies things a bit and the headlight gets it's power directly from the pickups so there's no light board, hence no resistors to play with. I also have a few projects on the back burner until I can get some decoder wire. I have two GP7's that will permanently mu'd together electronically and electrically. The pickups of both units will be joined together so they can pick up power like one large loco so the power can be shared by both. This increases the pickup area and makes it virtually impossible for one loco to lose power while the other is still running. As long as one is picking up power they will both be running. I'll also be doing this with an A/B set of F9's and an A/B/B lashup consisting of two F3's (A/B) and an F7B. An F7B dummy will be coupled on behind but will just be along for the ride.
Ulrich: That all happened at once!! They showed up at my door just when I was in the midst of cleaning the closets out!!
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/
Mornin' everyone!
Ooooooooo! Fresh Baked Cinnamon Rolls.... Zoe, I'll have a couple of those and my dark roast coffee to start off the day. (THAT ought to get my sugar level up where I can see it....)
Today will be do all the things I didn't get done yesterday because I was out playing with the trains at the Museum! Lawn is way past "should be mowed" stage and the weather may co-operate so i can get at least half of it done. Need to make some modifications to the utility trailer so I can better tie down the Log Splitter for the trip to the museum. Also have to see if I can find a new "O" ring for the oil dip stick and stop it spewing motor oil all over the place! Garden needs some w*rk as well, house needs cleaning, washing to do................
"Last night in my dreams I was stationed forever on a far little rock in the midst of the sea,"My one chance of life was a ceaseless endeavor to sweep off the waves as they swept over me......She lay down her broom, her apron she folded, she laid down and died, and was buried in......... dirt!" -from the Irish Washerwoman song by the famous composer, Traditional!
I also plan to spend some time on hobby related STUFF too!
I see the coffee and rolls have arrived, so I will catch up to all of you later.
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Thanks, Sue, for the cinnamon roll and the coffee - just what I need now to keep me going after a boring day in the STALAG.
Good Afternoon Folks,
Checked my emails and there it was, the notification that my waterfall module has made first place in this year´s summer project party. It received 75% of all the votes. That made me really proud of my achievement. Never before have I won anything - except Petra, who is the biggest win I could ever take home (hope she is not reading this, now that she knows how to run this dang PC).
The prize is a set of 12 Japanese style buildings, which I can make good use of. Had I known that a little earlier I would not have ordered the houses, which have not yet arrived. In any case, I´ll have a few more modules left to build before the layout is finished. I don´t think that much will happen this year, though, I have pretty much depleted all my available funds for lumber, glue and all the bric a´brac you need for constructing a layout.
Galaxy - I´ll bet that Dunkin´ Donuts now hands out their soggy donuts for free . I hope you´ll return to "normality" soon. The last big flood we had in our neck of woofs was in 1962, costing 315 lives.
Authorities have learned their lesson since.
John - for the time being, I have dumped the idea of employing a highway overpass as a kind of view block and to add some drama to the module. I might revisit the issue at a later date though, but I´d rather spend th little $$ I have on building more modules instead of investing $ 60 into the Rix products highway overpass.
Ken - actually, there is a slight bend in the mast, but it the other way around. I might replace those flimsy looking catenary mast that came with the station building kit with more rrugged once I already have.
James - I have seen some awful pictures of those flash floods on youtube, clearing a parking lot of its cars within minutes
Barry - now did I get something wrong when you talk about relations from Germany and clearing out junk
J.R. - I am not sure whether I´ll be stringing wire. I might use E-Z line for that, if I find a source in Germany. I have seen working N scale catenary on German prototype layouts, but the cost is forbidding.
Well, you all have a good one!
Good morning, Chloe. I slept past my alarm this morning, so just a quick coffee before I take off.
Looks like everyone had a busy weekend. We went to my office picnic on Saturday in Portland at Oaks Park. We rode the rides most of the day. My favorite was the 360 degree roller coaster. Larry's was the Screaming Eagle. I don't remember staggering as much after the ride when I was a kid. Oh well.
The clinic Friday evening was on resin casting. It was good information.
Later, Sue
EDIT: I buy. Coffee & Cinnamon rolls for everyone, Chloe.
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Morning Folks
Diet Dew Flo, and thank you.
Got a few things to do today. Most pressing thing is to get the VCR hooked up for Sue. So as you can see not a lot to do.
Today is the second day in a row that we are getting rain. If he grass does not come around this time it dead.
Ulrich Thanks for clearing up the bent station house post. I did not think you would leave a bent post like that!
Jeffery Glad you got the computer reformatted. Something I should do, this one just has way to much junk on it.
Galaxy I grew up along the banks of White River in Carmel Ind so I know about flooding. Our house was 20 feet above the river. While I lived at home, river never made it into the house. But, got into the basement many times. When the river went down, I would find dead fish in the basement. Guess who got to clean them out?
Talk at you all later.
Ken
I hate Rust
Good Morning!! Happy Monday, September 19, 2011. Cards are in the mail, so be expecting them.
Coffee and the fruit platter please. Thanks.
Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 74. Local guesser says rain and T-storms. Any bets on who’s right?
Didn’t do much yesterday, I’m feelin a bit guilty. Been doing a lot of that here lately. I did go into town with Brenda to Sam’s Club so she could pick up more snacks for the farmers. She does that during harvest. Gives them something to munch on.
DerJohn- Below 70 inside is a bit chilly for me. If I’m up and doing something, no it’s fine, but when I’m sitting in my chair of an evening (hope to get to do that this winter), it’s a bit chilly and I like to be comfortable in my home when I relax. Not bundled up to stay warm, so we usually keep the winter temp to about 72. Sock weather. We tried the lowering the temp a few, several now I guess, years ago to see about saving a few bucks on the heating and compared to year before usage. Taking all things in consideration, temps, fuel prices etc, I could see no real difference in the cost of heating our home. I know that I was not that accurate in comparing temps and prices corresponding to usage, so I could be off a bit either way, but the savings was really nothing. IN OUR CASE. Others, of course, may be different. Whatever it was, we decided it was not worth it and better to nix the blankets and sweaters to watch Tv and raise the temp a bit.
The way I figure it, and this is my uneducated guess as I haven’t researched it, but if my thermostat works on a 2 degree cycle, the furnace would run as long raising the temp from 67 to 69 degrees (or whatever it’s breaks are), as it would from 71 to 73. I don’t see how that could save any money. May be why I saw no savings. Again, this is my experience in MY situation.
Galaxy- We do not live on a river nor in a flood zone, but the State of Illinois, with the blessing of Uncle Sam allowed me to spend over a month on the Sny levy district along the Mississippi back in ’93. I am quite familiar with what water can do and I was there when the unfortunate folks in the town of Hull lost their homes. Many have returned and because it was a small town they did not have the large scale losses like in the larger towns around you. It is still sad none the less when you see a persons eyes who has just lost their home and everything they own except what would fit in a car or truck bed. Actually, I didn’t have to stay as long as I did…, but I did.
Inquisitive…...yes, inquisitive is good. I like that.
Wow. That is odd Barry. I just posted out of curiousity because it did show the little lock and said it was locked. But, it took my post. What’s weirder is after I posted, the little lock went away. Looks like a job for….ULRICH!! Oh well, at least I can say I was in the Original Coffee Shop Thread. YES!
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.
mmmmm..interesting...someone just dragged the original coffeehouse thread up from wherever and posted on it...I thought it was locked?
Good morning.
44*. This is what now, the fourth or fifth morning of blowing the new furnace to "take the chill of the trailer"??? Glad we had it put in...glad it was BEFORE the flood as the heating/ac guys will be BUSY the next few months getting new ones into houses that flooded, but were easy to clean up. Pretty soon MOH will wnat to tape the plastic over the windows...I feel suffocated until temps drop down to where it is cold continuously outside. I like to open the windows let some cool air in when it gets to hot in here. By endof Nov. we will take out the A/c in master br. and cover/insulate inside teh A/c in LR.
MOH gets chilled easily and is a skinny minnie. I have a few pounds to be lost, LOL. I say put on yuor robe, but *sigh* my words often fall on deaf ears.
I call the Health Dept. to find out if boil water advisory over. MCD's down the road and the nearby Dunkin donuts were NOT open yesterday AM as I drove by. Dunkind DOnuts has had its...like 3rd or 4th flood now..I don't know if they reopen or not, they were hauling damaged stuff out. McD's....well they may have escaped flood as the attached Sunoco gasstation/convenience store was open, but McD's may nto yet have been certified to reopen. All restaurants have to be re-certified to reopen. McDs an Sunoco on Higher ground than Dunkin...who shoulda built ground up before building buiding!!!
Well, will go now...supposed to be near 70, if not low 70s today...will be nice change from chill we've had.
Stop over to my thread "Layout time: now that Labor Day is over & kids back in school..." to tell us when/if you get more time in the train room and what you will work on next! Tell us about it in my new thread! It only has one reply now...lets add more to it!
Talk at you all later...
Good Morning...
We are supposed to get up to 66F under the dull rainy skies today....right now we are at 51F...
I'm going to get some more w**k done at w**k later on today..then it is orff to get some evening classes done...
Ray: Sign...sign...everywhere a sign...no, Flo, I'll zipper my lips...no for me....
Flo, I'll have a coffee and a breakfast bagel for now please...no...not the 25lb one...the regular sized on ...sheeesh...oh no..nothing nothing.......I'll be at the RC for now.....
GOOD MORNING!!!
Today is Monday, September 19th, 2011!!!
Garry: The Flash flooding was to the west of Brisbane, small towns of a few hundred people such as Grantham, Murphys Creek, Gatton, Laidley etc. Grantham was the worst hit, about 100 residents I think from memory 18 people died there, including many entire families of 2-3 generations. The Flash Flooding is a major cause of what Flooded Brisbane, including the 650mm of rain we had over the catchment area in 24 hours.
Our dam (Wivenhoe) normally holds 1,495,000 megalitres of water but can hold a total of 2,900,000 megalitres effectively doubling it's capacity during flood, during the 2011 event the dam got to 194% full and was approximately 0.5m from topping the emergency relief gates which are just plugs in the dam wall which are designed to blow if the dam is at danger of over topping which would have meant our flood would have been atleast 2-3m or more higher if this happened. It only got to 4.5m in the city reaches but was around 20m high 50km west of the CBD.
Anyway enough about that!
James, Brisbane Australia
Modelling AT&SF in the 90s
Good evening ....
Ulrich .... I really like your station module. Keep up the great work.
James in "Oz" .... I recall seeing videos of flash floods down under several months ago. Was that your town?
Galaxy .... Keep us posted on the drying out and cleaning up in your town.
Paul ... Any rain there yet? Hope so. There are many of us who would gladly share some rain.
Der John ... Don't "bug me" with those hornets.
On the layout .... I have 24 feet of my streetcar track laid now, and that is about half of the track for it. . Today, was my "first run" on the streetcar line. Next, I will lay track across four bridges to get the streetcar line to the downtown area of my city under construction.
Morning Folks,
Got a little bit of layout work done yesterday. Went to the LHS and picked up a bag of buff coloured ballast to do some gravel carparks for my grain elevator. Just need to get a few houses and businesses and some of that BLMA chain fence to fence off the grain elevator etc from the crazy 'public'.
I bought a piece of board 600 wide to cut in half for the staging extension I may start next week... "Maybe."
Hey Galaxy I know how you're feeling about flooding etc. With my town here recently being severely flooded back in January it's not a nice thing to go through. Whilst my home wasn't affected, Many people I know where, and due to the flooding where I work was inaccessible for about 4 days. On these days off thousands of people went into affected areas and helped clean up. 9 months on there is hardly a trace of the damage in Brisbane itself. It's a different story west of Brisbane where they have decided to move the entire town of Grantham to the top of the hill about 3 miles northwest of the original town.
Will check in again tonight,
TTFN
Good Evening All,
Der - thanks for the tip. The farthest back towards Halifax we've gotten was to Kejimkujek (or some close set of similar vowels) where we went hiking. Oddly enough I don't have any particular desire to visit hobby shops when I have so much track and turnout stuff to do and pieces on hand to do it. Keji is a park wrapped around some lakes scooped out by glaciers during the last ice age. It's just gorgeous unspoiled woods and some rudimentary trails with a variety of distances so we can pick and chose easy segments (better for us city folk who don't hike much on a regular basis).
Todd - I'm not much for IM's unless it's for info we don't want posted like addresses and such. You're not nosey, just inquisitive.
Galaxy - we were in fact stranded at Watkins Glen after the rains came. We were resigned to heading north on Rt 14 to 79 around Bingo when we got a call from one of our guys that 17 had just reopened so we took a chance. A friend had left the night before and was turned back on 17. We must have been some of the first few trucks through the reopened road. As I had posted, we saw a lot of areas still under water especially just east of you but it wasn't near the level of the highway anymore. We saw where some of the high water marks were the same height as the truck cabs. We're just glad you and yours are ok after all the mess.
Time to plan what we'll do tomorrow with contingincies if it rains. CUL, J.R.
Evenin' folks!
Janie just a decaf, I had supper earlier...
Spent all day at the museum. Had excellent ridership today including a den of Webelo Scouts. I rode the Erie Caboose all day except for a half hour lunch brake at which time I worked with the conductor's Grandson on his RR Merit badge. Great young man! He had all the needed information and documentation done and in a notebook he brought with him. Took about 25 minutes to go through a certify each item, signed his blue card, and gave him the Buy Scout Handshake! His Grandfather is a Master Model Railroader so the kid has been around trains his whole life. Easy MB for him.
I'll be doing at least 2 more Sundays on the train and 2 as a museum Docent. I enjoy both jobs. Probably won't get out the last couple of weekends we will be open this year. Not sure yet.
Galaxy, sure sounds like there is going to be some major clean up and a lot of loss down your way.......
Der (John), that looks to be a really nasty hornets nest! glad you got it with no harm to you or your wife!
Barry, yes it IS THAT time off year when the lawns appear to be growing signs doesn't it? We got 'em around here too......
Hope you all have a great night!
JohnDer: Yikes!! That would be a no-go for sure!! Those hives can get pretty big!!
Galaxy: mmmm..that situation that you have does not bode well for that region..at least real estate wise for the next little while....but I am sure someone will attempt to take it on anyhow. And, well, yeah, development along riverbanks has always been done at one point or another through our history...anyone remember Venice, Italy?
Good Evening
I have not been on much since we had relatives come from Germany to see us..and to deposit another cousin at the University..a few days late..but they got here ...
Today has been a gorgeous day...70F and sunny..until now..when it will dull right back up for another rainy kinda day tomorrow...
Today..I spent doing some basic housecleaning and straightening out some closets..so we have more space in them than junk...at least until more junk arrives for our closet stuffing pleasure
Oh...we are also in the midst of election fever here as well...oh frabjious joy...even more junk mail showing up at our doorstep....
Oh well...no Chloe...no 'ing from me tonight....
I'll have a beefsteak sammich with a bucket of fries and gravy as well as a coffee please..I'll be at the RC for a bit....no...nothing about elections will be said..I'll behave...yes ma'am, no ma'am....
Evening Fellow Railroaders!
Flo, beer please.
Well for not doing anything important today was a pretty good day!
Train Front Finally sat down and did some speed matching done. Got the BB F7 A and B plying well with each other. They where a bite of a chore, thanks to the helpful folks in the DCC section I am slowly learning the in and outs of CV's. I all so found my PK1000 Eire's speed match was off, that is now fixed. I all so added a consist, my Santa Fe Dash 9 to my UP Dash 9.
I was all ready to check out the amps the PA BB pulls and hard wire a decoder if amp's where low enough when The Wife Reminded me I had to BBQ.
Rob Did you by chances change the battery? Hate to see you have it towed if it is just the battery.
Well time to pull the food off, I might drop by later.
Good afternoon folks:
Ray:
"A defunct research satellite is falling from space back to earth. It is expected to reenter the atmosphere late Sep or early Oct. NASA predicts it will land somewhere between Canada and South America. And you thought our hurricane landfall forecasts needed work! The debris is expected to have a footprint of 500 miles, but the risk to safety/property is very small."
JR:
Went hiking on more rail trails. The CFO is looking at ones near Fergie and mentioned she'd found a place called Georges' Trains and maybe we could go there... Love this woman.
Todd:
(IIRC - it's back a bit) turned the furnace on as it got down to 67 degrees
Ulrich: Love the station, where was the highway bridge solution going to be; or am I totally on a different module?
Must get this out while it might be of some use to JR. Wasp nest was taken out successfully, and with zero resistance, last evening in a combined op (Kris and I both with spray cans. The critters didn't swarm out when I took the door cover off (4 screw toggles, and lift up and out - but we had covered the hand hole they were using as their major flight path with duct tape)
This morning no activity in thisand the "angry end" was impressive - well to me anyway
Cheers, John.
"There are always alternatives, Captain" - Spock.
GMTRacing Sounds like Galaxy is in for a long haul back to normality. After cruising through the remnants on the way home from Watkins Glen, I'm not surprised. There really was a lot of damage to the area. It looked like the HD he mentions had a high water mark half way up the wall and they were using a Bobcat to move mud out when we passed by. At some point government just has to step up and say "no you can't get permits to build in flood plains". I can sympathize to an extent, but people rebuilding multiple times in the same place and expecting a different result is just nuts.
Sounds like Galaxy is in for a long haul back to normality. After cruising through the remnants on the way home from Watkins Glen, I'm not surprised. There really was a lot of damage to the area. It looked like the HD he mentions had a high water mark half way up the wall and they were using a Bobcat to move mud out when we passed by. At some point government just has to step up and say "no you can't get permits to build in flood plains". I can sympathize to an extent, but people rebuilding multiple times in the same place and expecting a different result is just nuts.
I will premis this with: I didn't know I was gonna write a book-post!!!
Yes, Home Depot {we call it "Home DEE-pot"{with a FRENCH accent} , NOT "Home DEE POE"} was built as I said on the flood plains area. The dikes that "protect it" havent protected anything built there in all the years of my life in teh area when it floods here. But then again, we have never had flooding like 2006 and 2011!!!
ALSO, GMT, You couldn't have gotten down Rt 17/ new I86 for a few days as the road was flooded over {both directions} to get from Watkins Glen home.
It IS a huge mess around here. Problem is that MOST of the area is built on the BANKS of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers and their confluence. The banks equate to a LOT of lower lying areas. The fact that there are a LOT of dikes {visible from SRT 17/ new I86} around here should ring alarm bells too. The problem is the dikes have "loose ends" that allow water to seep AROUND THem, as well as be breached OVER or THROUGH them.
Something like 60% of the city of Binghamton and 75-80% of the Village of Owego had flood waters. Flood walls in Bingo didn't hold the waters back. Owego had none to start with, but had homes that have ben there on Front street since the mid 1800's that had never flooded before!
The Town of Conklin NY {where the CP rail yard is, and an old foundation to a once thriving working Steam Loco Roundhouse}, at the south east corner of Binghamton, had FEMA come in, buy up some properties to forever become "green space", AKA parks and rec areas in 2007 afrter the 2006 flood... Now, at Conklin, the flood stage is at like 10 feet or some rediculously low number. During the 2006 flood, the Town of Conklin SUpervisor, Debbie Preston was out there on boats checking out people, helping emergency crews with evacs and such. SHe was a part-time Town Supervisor, but they temporarily approved a tax hike to make her full time as she dealt with the crisis in 2006 and 2007. Ms. Preston lost HER house again this time in Conklin and WAS going to run for Broome COunty Executive. Because of her well publicized records in dealing with the flood aftermath, I'd say she stands a good change of winning. COnklin is quickly being "wiped off the map".
I had said wednesday before the flood that iff'n y'all didn't hear from me for awhile, It was due to flooding and/or no power for days on end. At the time, the flood stage in Vestal was at {remembering} 18 feet, and the river was currently at 24 feet {already flooding} and was expected to crest at 34 feet! ALmost DOUBLE the flood stage!
Other areas around here also had sewage system backups causing flooding in areas that didn't flood in 2006. Human waste was also flooded out raw into the SUsquehanna and more was just pumped out raw to help avoid the sewage backups that occured. That is because the Binghamton- Johnson City Joint Sewage Treatment Plant can't handle such a thing and is itself nestled along the river directly. It also recently had a blowout on one of the treatment containment wall systems damaging the plant. While the authorities argued over who's fault it was and looked to place blame and who was gonna pay for what, Rome fell, so to speak. The Susquehanna River Basin Authority and the Chessapeake Bay Authority {where the Susquehanna ultimately ends up} don't like it very much naturally that raw human sewage got pumped into the river, but it happens when flooding occurs here..
Binghamton University is directly across from the B-JC JSTP, and allows for a LOT of extra waste being inthe system, when really BU should have it's own treatment or pre-treatment plant of it's own for all its dormitories and restrooms. They recently built a whole new lot of student housing apartments to house growing student population. Areas of the downtown regions of the City of Binghamton were ALSO recently being remodled or built to house students. One new under construction building was flooded well, as well as a major remodel. Like many cities, Binghamton's downtown is trying to be "revitalized" and "saved", and they thought a new student center {flooded as well I think as classes were moved to main campus} and more student housing was the answer. Bingo is becoming a College city and fast.
AS I understand it, they DID a decade ago start to separate the raw sewage from the roadside rain water systems which require a lot less treatment, to help alleviate the problems. But the plant cannot still take on more than it can reasonably process. And to build on or build a new additional plant takes a LOT of $$$$$$$$$$$ that no one has.
The village of Owego had it's own problems with its waste water systems and I think the sewage and water useage bills doubled on residents there. Flooding there reached over the banks by quite a large margin.
The area is generally stable, but these "100 year" and these "500 year" floods are now coming every 5 years!!!
We can sympathize And DID sympathize with those along the Mighty Mississippi when they flooded this spring, as we DO know what major flooding can do.
Upper Mid-State NY got a lot of flooding and damage from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene, WE got it from Tropical Storm Lee, close on Irene's heals.There were two other major bullets we dodged. There were two more MAJOR storm cells {large ones at that} that went to the east-north of us and SPARED us further flooding, or else WE may have had higher waters where I am.
When we WERE looking at houses recently, we abandoned any hope for a house protected bythe dikes, or in the flooded areas of '06. Good thing: 1} we fell out of the housing market and 2} we DIDN'T buy one in those areas!!! We also ignored the "picturesque views of the Susquehanna" houses that were on the banks of the river.There are a LOT of houses we will not even consider when we DO go back to house hunting with a purpose!!!
The real estate market here will PLUNGE I think. People will not be able to sell houses that flooded this time around at high rates, nor will people buy them. The market is now stalled though I had to laugh when a "cute little 2 Br 1 ba bungalo" in Vestal Twin orchards went on the market at $62K, reduced to $59 k, then to 55K, then to $49k, then relisted for $52,500 Popped back up on the overnight new/changed lisiting POST FLOOD...and it was ON TV as a Flooded by sewage/water house!!! It didn't sell the first time and we passed on it because it had a about 1910's tiny kitchen and had asbestos siding on it. ANd Old Vestal Road is a busy thoroughfare to try to back out on.
Oh, well. I should be happy wiht our 'high and dry" trailer, though we really would like to get out of the park!
Talk at you later.
EDIT: I got top honors for sharing all this with you all. But after a new furnace, new roof and a generator to pay for, not to mention the new dehumidifier and cordless phone replacements, I can ONLY AFFORD TO BUY YOU COFFEE...with my AARP discount!!
A Double Breve Latte, please.
Exhausted today and a bit dizzy, so making this a day of rest.
***Todd, I did catch/read those posts. If you lived closer, I'd put you to work on at several vehicles (Polaris Ranger, Pickup & the tractor).
Have a good day all. Rob
Good afternoon. It's 63° and cloudy. For the high it will be 71° and mostly cloudy.So far today has been no bed of roses. I had a bad night due to gall stones. Got only a few hours of sleep. This morning my virus protection program detected a threat and took out the file it was in. My Windows XP didn't like that and promptly crashed. I tried repairing it but there was to be no raising of the dead on this Sunday. I had to reinstall Windows. Of course that knocked out many programs that I need including Firefox (main browser) and Opera (backup browser). Internet Explorer was there of course but it's a last resort. I reinstalled Firefox from a CD and spent the rest of the morning making those little changes and tweaks to make everything function as it did (or nearly so) before the crash. Now that I'm done with all that my mind is about wiped. I think I'll use the rest of this day of rest to get some rest.
J.R.- Oh no problemo. Only reason I even brought it up at all was in case Rob didn't read it because it was addressed to me. Some people don't. I, myself, am nosey so if you don't want me to read it....P.M. them
Afternoon all.
Just a brief stop in while I'm taking a break from homew**k.
Yesterday was the last day of w**k for me. We shut the restaurant down for the season, so I'm officially "on vacation" until may. My boss is trying to sell the place we we'll see what happens with THAT. He was showing it to this guy yesterday and he seemed really interested in it. He would keep it exactly the same, but he would add breakfast. We'll just have to see what happens unilt next year.
Well, better get back to the homew**k. I'm trying to get it mostly done before we head back up north in an hour.
Hopefully I'll be able to stop back in tonight.
Till next time, peace out,
-Joe
My Model Railroad: Tri State RailMy Photos on Flickr: FlickrMy Videos on Youtube: YoutubeMy Photos on RRPA: RR Picture Archives
Ken - it´s just the wide angle setting of the lens that makes the post look as if it is bent.
I am happy to have those trees on the module "built by Ken"!