Elliot´s Trackside Diner - January 2012 Edition

[Cederstrand]

Coffee in a UNION PACIFIC mug, please.

Have a good day all.

Rob

[Curt Webb]

Morning All and Happy New Year,

Today I have to help do some cooking with MOH and clean house before the family comes  over tonight for the last get together of this holiday season. I'd like to do some trouble shooting on my PL  signals but I don't see that happening today but I am off tomorrow and I don't think anything is planned.

MOH and I have to be at the hospital Tuesday at 0630 with a projected surgery time of 0830. It is supposed to take about 2 hours if there are no complications, then a overnight stay. MOH has been told to expect to be dizzy after that for 1-2 weeks. I sure hope this improves her quality of life. I took vacation this week to be at home to help her.

Everyone take care.

[gear-jammer]

Good morning, Chloe.  Looks like you an Flo helped Ulrich with the move.  I will have my usual coffee in a NP mug, please.

JR,  We will put the kitchen back together today, and start thinking about the entry and hall.

Jim,  Larry & I went out for mexican food with some friends last night.  It was soft.  When you do your wisdom teeth you probably shouldn't cheat.

Sue

[jeffrey-wimberly]

TA462

Jeff, you sure about that van not having a computer?   The reason I ask is I just had one in the garage and I had to replace the ECM (computer) on it.  It was a buddy of mines work van.   Same as yours, a 81 B250.  Its got 600 000KMS on it and its built like a tank.  Tuff van for sure.  

I'm sure. It has an old style distributor with points and capacitor. There's a coil firing module on the firewall but it apparently does nothing. I disconnected it while the engine was running and nothing happened. I reconnected it and just try to keep a straight face while the 'experts' test it to see if it works. No, no co,puter required to keep it running. Somebody, sometime made it completely old school.

[TMarsh]

Good Morning!! And HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Coffee and a plate of black eyed peas please with scrambled eggs, hash browns and some salsa to give the peas some, well, palatability.

What’s that in the corner? A new water cooler? How’s it work? Hm. I think it’s broke.

Mostly sunny, with a high near 40. Breezy, with a west northwest wind between 25 and 29 mph, with gusts as high as 44 mph. Not a bad 1^st of January cept for the wind, but I’ll be inside so….

Well, we made it til midnightr last night. After actually. We finally left about 1230. Got up this morning a bit late, about 0700 and proceeded to do…nothing. Found this show called Ice Loves Coco. Reality show with Ice T and his um…buxom wife. Actually not bad. Not what I thought they would be like. At least on TV anyway. Just now decided I’d best stop in before I start in on the floor in the dining room. It’s square and I had the opportunity to empty that room so it should go pretty quick.

J.R.- I pretty much use Poly Scale paints. I like the water clean up anymore. Saves a mess later. For colors they don’t have, regular Testors or Model Master depending on what I need.

Checked the E-mail and the guitar has been shipped already. I didn’t expect it to leave til the third. That’s what the site said when I ordered it. “Ready to ship January 3^rd”. Notice how know one complains when something ships early. I’ve ordered several things from Musicians Friend and have had great luck with them. In fact that’s where I got my D-28. We don’t have a good Music store in Springfield so most anything I get comes from MF. Not an advertisement and I have no affiliation with them.

Hahaha Jeffrey ? Have a “normal” vehicle? Surely you jest. Remember the little Buick? He couldn’t just walk into an auto parts store and get what he wanted for that either without a big runaround. Problem with the new computer systems in the stores is they don’t deal with mods very well. Try and get a set of points for a ’81 Dodge 318. Of course you’ll have to inform them if it has an automatic transmission for some reason. Actually I don’t recall that well but I don’t think the ’81’s had an ECM as we know it now. It was like just an ignition control box. We used to call them “brains boxes”. Can’t remember when they began using the beginnings of what we now think of as ECM’s. Maybe someone older than me would know. .....Ask J.R..

Gotta GO!

Ya’ll have a Great Day!!!

[galaxy]

Curt Webb

MOH and I have to be at the hospital Tuesday at 0630 with a projected surgery time of 0830. It is supposed to take about 2 hours if there are no complications, then a overnight stay. MOH has been told to expect to be dizzy after that for 1-2 weeks. I sure hope this improves her quality of life. I took vacation this week to be at home to help her.

There will be an extra Prayer Candle Tuesday morning for you and your OH. And we will say a special prayer for you both.

 

SPeaking of vehicle and computers, I had to junk my 88 caravan because the SMEC module died.{some kind of simple computer controller} and they could not find a replacement .  It was on its way out anyway. The 98 Gr Caravan was giving us trouble stalling out and finally after gobs of money spent replacing this sensor and that sensor and this and that other thing, we were told by FIrestone it had to go to a dealer because its computer was failing according to their service computer, and would cost about another $1500-$1800 to do. The Dealer, in a  matter of 10 minutes, opened up a somehting or other and found a loose wire, zip-strapped in in place and resoldered it and said we would never again have trouble with it! Cost? $59.00. Firestone said "well, they have access to things we don't".  ANd it's never stalled out since. Hmmm.

Cars are like horses used to be, can't live with them, can't live without them {especially if you don't live on a bus line},

well, its 45* and sunny here in Upstate NY, but don't get to used to it, there's an artic blast moving in! I think there will be more sn*w up Ray's way than down here. But we are nto immune.

Have to call Roto Router to clean out the kitchen drian pipe again. If we have the bitter could they say is coming, we will have to drip the faucets and we can't do that if it's going to fill up the sink and overflow. I hope Monday is not a holiday to them and regualr rates apply.

Well, with the bad weather on the way, the pressure is changing, giving me a headache. Some people can tell weather changes by their knees, elbows, bones. Me, I can tell by the migraines I get.

TTYL8R. Maybe.

 

[howmus]

Mornin'...................

Huh?  Oh, what time is it?  11:50....???  AM...  Well,  Ah....  You know coming in here this morning I thought the terrain looked familiar...  Kinda like this, but without the sn*w...

[edit] Galaxy?  Snow?  what's THAT?  All we got up here is green and brown lawns.......  Right now the sun is shining and 48°F outside, "Not a snowball in sight!"

BTW, why are there 8 Guernsey cows being milked by young ladies outside the diner?  Oh  Yeah, still Christmas, isn't it  I guess I will have a bowl of "old phart" cereal and my dark roast coffee to see if I can wake yup today.  What, oh fresh Golden Guernsey Milk for the cereal....  Oh yes!  The best!

The party at my son's house was fun last night.  Very low key, just family and a couple of their friends there.  I started with a glass of Finger Lakes Meade when I first got there and had about 2 fingers worth of sparkling bubbly at midnight,  They sure had Dick Clark made up to look almost alive......  They used enough make up on him to do an entire matinee of the Rockets I think!  #1 Granddaughter asked to stay up and see the new year in.  They let her stay up and she was very excited and being a good little lady, but about 2 minutes before they dropped the big thingie in Crimes Square, she zonked off to dreamland.  Her Mom saw her and woke up just a minute after, but she was NOT happy to miss it!!!

We had, way too much food!  They played Wii part of the evening, then us guys got a game of Euchre going.  Played one game before the stroke of midnight, and then a couple more afterward.  I partnered with my son....  We won every game!  Last game I went out on a loner....  We already had 9 points, but I just couldn't resist.  It was the best hand all night!

Got home around 1:30AM and to bed by 2.....  Didn't bother to take the blood sugar last night.... I didn't want to know.  This morning it was 81!

So we are in upstate NY this month...  I guess I'll have to plan some rail trips for you folks along with Galaxy.  For the moment, I am going to disappear to the layout for a bit.

Oh!  Happy Moo Year!  (THAT is due to the cows outside......)

Later!

73

[jeffrey-wimberly]

TMarsh

 

Hahaha Jeffrey ? Have a “normal” vehicle? Surely you jest. Remember the little Buick? He couldn’t just walk into an auto parts store and get what he wanted for that either without a big runaround. Problem with the new computer systems in the stores is they don’t deal with mods very well. Try and get a set of points for a ’81 Dodge 318. Of course you’ll have to inform them if it has an automatic transmission for some reason. Actually I don’t recall that well but I don’t think the ’81’s had an ECM as we know it now. It was like just an ignition control box. We used to call them “brains boxes”. Can’t remember when they began using the beginnings of what we now think of as ECM’s. Maybe someone older than me would know. .....Ask J.R..

[CNCharlie]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I sincerely hope it is a better one for many in the Diner.

Well we did in the end make it past midnight, 1:15 a.m. to be precise due to a movie on TV. We slept in rather late but finally woke up to a howling NW wind which means it is a lot colder. The windchill is -20C.

When I see Todd is busy laying floors and Sue is remodelling an entire house I start to feel a little like a lazy slug. Most I did yesterday was install a speaker in my GP9 so it now has sound. I had to use a 100 ohm speaker as I couldn't get a 32 ohm one in the size I need. Why Digitrax used such an oddball is beyond me but at least it now works. Not great sound but the decoder was only $40 which to me is about right for a $50 loco. I ran my 2 diesels a lot yesterday. Hopefully I'm not taking this transition thing too far. Better get another steamer just to balance out. A regressive move I know but it's my RR, etc, etc.

Nothing planned for today either but I might see about starting a painting project I need to do. I feel better already.

CN Charlie

[galaxy]

howmus

[edit] Galaxy?  Snow?  what's THAT?  All we got up here is green and brown lawns.......  Right now the sun is shining and 48°F outside, "Not a snowball in sight!"

So we are in upstate NY this month...  I guess I'll have to plan some rail trips for you folks along with Galaxy.  For the moment, I am going to disappear to the layout for a bit.

Ray..we don't have any here either..it is now 49* and holding over the   green green grass of home   BUT The weather guessers say it is on its way!!! Oswego and North COuntry getting hammered and Buffalo and western getting pumeled {with lake effects naturally} and heading your way sooner or later.. We down here are later. Maybe we even luck out..maybe you wil too!!!

Yes, some trips around to museums, including yours, will be the call of the days. There isn't much in the way of trains running at tehm- for those that run them in the summer. Kinda the worng month to be here...and with the SKi Centers NOT getting any Snow and NOT being able to make any and keep it long due to the unseasonably warmer weather, there won't be any skiing for those that do.

[Seamonster]

Curt Webb

MOH and I have to be at the hospital Tuesday at 0630 with a projected surgery time of 0830. It is supposed to take about 2 hours if there are no complications, then a overnight stay. MOH has been told to expect to be dizzy after that for 1-2 weeks. I sure hope this improves her quality of life. I took vacation this week to be at home to help her.

Everyone take care.

I hope your wife's surgery goes well.  And that it will have the desired effect.  Take good care of her.

 

[tcwright973]

Curt...  I hope your wife's surgery goes well and that she has a speedy recovery.

Tom

[B&O1952]

Happy New Year everyone!

Now that the Museum is closed for the season, I might have a chance to drop in more often. We had a very successful season once again, and The Railroad Retirement Board came through for me as well. So, now I can take it easy and just w**k on my paintings and model RR. We got a B&O EM1 and a few cars for Christmas, and the loco runs great. It does have some clearance issues with the opposing main line on some curves, but we're used to it. We've been running some sort of articulated loco for about 3 decades now. We just have to give the big Yellowstone the chance to operate with no opposing traffic. Some day we might be able to widen out the last of the bad curves, but it will be a major project. Up here on the Buffalo division of the B&O, they attempted to run B&O EL5 2-8-8-0 Mallets north of Punxsutawney, but found that one curve in Bradford was too sharp and caused a fouling of the other main track, so, the locos were used on the Indiana branch out of Punxsy instead. I guess there is a prototype for everything! Here's a pic of the EM1 on the high iron:

Curt, good luck with your Wifes surgery.

-Stan

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Curt: I hope your wife has a better quality of life.

[Cederstrand]

Coffee refill, please.

***Curt, fingers and toes all crossed here for your wife. And take care of yourself, too. That has got to be very challenging for all concerned.

Has been mostly cold, windy and drizzly here today. Sun finally came out so I'm heading outside for a short walk. Might see if the Koi are hungry.

 Rob 

[galaxy]

Well, Ken according to AOL Real Estate News, Your "Bank of Stupid" B of A held up another Ken's mortgage closing in FL. A month passed. Another Month was passing and they were heading for three months of closing delay...He started a Social media blitz with his "song and dance" urging people to tell B OF A to move it along and close his loan. He was being charged $50 a day by the seller for NOT closing on time. He said "what's the hold up when a buyer has cash, preapproval and two cats".

B of A did finally close his loan and paid him the $50/day over charges.

To watch his video try clicking here:

http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/12/28/ken-williams-music-video-spurs-bank-of-america-to-close-loan/?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl12%7Csec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D124000

Boy, B of A is falling flat on it's face a LOT. Amkes you wonder why people even deal with them!

Gee, and I thought Wells Fargo was bad with the deal I got on financing the furnace at nearly 30% and them delaying billing into my "6 months interest free if paid off" time period by almost 2 months!.

TSK TSK banks.

Well it's now up to a balmy 53* here in Upstate NY. {Note: RAy's temp may vary} ANd it's the first of January! Wear your shorts and Maybe we should turn on the A/C for you  folks here in the diner? The LION would be so proud if we did ! We finally took out the A/C in the BR window 2 weeks ago, we figured it was safet o do so then...now I am wondering if it was...lol

well later.

 

[Train Master]

TA462

Jeff, you sure about that van not having a computer?   The reason I ask is I just had one in the garage and I had to replace the ECM (computer) on it. 

It is as he says. I have seen it and have shown it to friends of mine. If you doubt go and have a look.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

TA462

 

I would bet someone swapped the motor before you got it.   That distributor isn't for a 1981 Dodge, I don't know why anyone would want to backdate their ignition to points thats why I'm thinking the motor was swapped out.   Hey, as long as it runs.

The engine is original to the vehicle. It was a somewhat common practice in the 80's to switch out the distributor with an older one and disconnect the electronic system. This was especially prevalent on Ford vehicles of the time as it was believed it increased the horse power slightly. My nephew did the same with his 92 F150. If an EMP takes out the computers he'll at least have a vehicle that runs. It was done to a lessor degree on Chrysler and GM vehicles. The practice is virtually unheard of today as many of the newer engines don't even have something recognizable as a distributor. My Century had the ECM with the coils on top.

[galaxy]

TA462

.  Now days you can download info after crashes measuring G forces, speed and even if you had the brakes on.   Todays computers are incredible in what they can do.  

MOH always hits the horn so the "black box" will register that {we hope} when someone backs out without looking, or pulls out and may cause an accident with us. That way, hopefully with the brakes on too, it will show the other party was at fault, and MOH did what could be done to prevent an accident. I have this strategy too, but I do it because I don't want my vehicle hit by some idoit not paying attention who will then say something like "I didn't see you". Well, didn't You HEAR my horn? { I think I need Jeffrey's Blasting Horn!!! I'd like to see someone say they didn't HEAR his HORN!!!}

[BroadwayLion]

24° F and Sunny outside. I do not know how many people went outside today to cook steaks on the grill, leastwise not up here in North Dakota. But our cook was outside with the gas grill cooking steaks. Well, she always complains that it is too warm in the kitchen. Ah... But they were *good* steaks, nice and rare, just the way the LION likes them.

She also said that her cows were spooked and hiding in a far pasture. The neighbors cows broke out and who knows where they went. People have been catching glimpses of a LION in that area, and when the cook drove into work this morning, the LION crossed the street right in front of her car. So yes, there *are* Mountain LIONS in our neighborhood. But she did not bring it home for me to put in our courtyard.

ROAR

[jeffrey-wimberly]

TA462

 

jeffrey-wimberly:

 

 

 My nephew did the same with his 92 F150. If an EMP takes out the computers he'll at least have a vehicle that runs. It was done to a lessor degree on Chrysler and GM vehicles. The practice is virtually unheard of today as many of the newer engines don't even have something recognizable as a distributor. My Century had the ECM with the coils on top.

 

 

 

Did he swap out the fuel injection and add a carb too?   Even the fuel pump was run by a computer so he would have had to swap it out too.    Seems like a lot of work swapping out parts just to get older technology. 

All that on his pretty much shot as the guy who had it before didn't take care of anything. He changed out the whole top of the engine and used the intake, carb, etc from an older 302. It was cheaper for him to do it that way so that's what he did. I set up a low pressure electric fuel pump on a toggle switch for him to use. The power for the pump comes straight off the battery, no electronics in between, just a safety fuse. It gets him to work and back. Incidentally he's a mechanic too.

[GMTRacing]

Good Afternoon All,

   All this about what was where on an 81 and all is fruitless. My opinion is Jeffs' van had the electronic distributor pulled when it went belly up one too many times. Many of us did the same especially on some imports. In particular we had a Mercedes with the CD ignition that repeatedly stopped dead on the road. We finally deep sixed the CD box and put a new condensor and point set in - end of troubles. Oh and the emissions are as good or better though you do need regular maintainence. Oddly the Mopar ignition box was considered a better unit than most and we used them for a long time on the race cars (Datsun). The first ECU i remember was a Bosch system on VW fast and squarebacks in the early 70's. They were lousy and had multiple failures. Bosch then installed the system on the VW/Porsche 914 which was equally lousy with multiple component failures, fuel leaks and on the very first units a propensity to stop dead when driven near airport radar facilities. (Fortunately the police radar operated on different frequencies so the cars didn't simply stop on arrival at a radar trap). Oh, and if the oil cap was left loose or had the sealing o-ring break the car wouldn't start, Also the connections weren't enironmentally sealed too well so heavy rain or high water would stop the cars as well. One long rainy weekend saw 914's lined up around the block the dealership was on and when I opened up, the a cop showed up to threaten me with littering if we didn't remove said cars posthaste. Ah yes the good old days indeed!

   Lee - thanks for the tip on the paint mixer. I have one of the shakers but it won't touch the stuff. I did experiment with a stick and hand mixing with promising results so the paddle whould be good!  If I didn't have so many Floquil jars I'd change over to acrylics right now as the lack of fumes and nice flow out is impressive. I had lousy luck with the first generation Tamiya acrylics peeling off after setting up.

   Earned my keep today changing out the kitchen sink and faucet. CFO bought the new sink but it just missed fitting the rough opening (and did I mention we have stone counter tops?). Went to the shop and death wheeled off half the retaining clips on all 4 sides so it fit. I'm now waiting for the silicone sealant to set up so I can determine if it will stay put without reinventing the holdown clips. I just couldn't let Todd and Sue have all the fun, no?

    Lee - glad the operation went well and our prayers for Curt and his wife Tuesday. Glad TC's wife is released to home and pregressing nicely. Hope Galaxy and Jeff are feeling better and YGW's wife gets a miracle. Ulrich - they can't keep a good man down forever - hang in there. For the rest of you not at 100% I   hope the new year brings you better health and better times.   CUL, J.R.

 

[Cederstrand]

One last coffee refill, please.

***Jeffrey, check your messages. Thanks!

Well, the cahinsaw started right up, as did the weedeater. Just wanted to circulate some fuel stabilizer through them. Then tried to start the van, (still waiting on a rim for it, which UPS should deliver tomorrow) and it refused to start. Cleaned the bat terminals, a little better but still no start. ARGH!!! Tomorrow I'll see if there are enough extension cords to reach that far, but I doubt it. If need be, once the wheel is back on I can tow it up close to the house.

Trying to get up enough energy to hit the train room, but just to bloody tired again this evening. Think I'll lay down awhile.

Rob

[jeffrey-wimberly]

TA462

If I was him I would connect the fuel pump to a key on source.  If he ever forgot to shut the pump off or the switch got hit by accident then it would just keep pumping fuel into the motor if it was connected straight to the battery.  Up here in Ontario it would fail emission testing, do you guys have any testing in your State?

He has put it on the key switch since then. That was a couple of years ago. I had done the same thing with my Century and drove it like that for almost six years. If I forgot to turn the switch off the fuel simply went back to the tank through the return line until the battery ran down. There are emission tests in some parts of the state but not here. Even a vehicle with straight pipes right off the manifolds passes. Even mine goes through with no problem. Mine has the two pipes coming from the manifolds, they merge, go through a homemade cherry bomb, single pipe goes back to the drive axle, splits and comes out on both sides of the gas tank in twin echo tips. All they test for here is the basics. Head lights, tail lights, tires, wipers, horn, turn signals, flashers, brake lights, backup lights. They put in their ear plugs before having me do the horn bit. It's an old police air horn and can be heard a long, long ways off. Cops don't care that I have it as long as I don't use the siren part. No danger in that as I cut the wire to the siren circuits.

[Curt Webb]

Evening All,

Had a nice family dinner. Sitting here watching some TV before bed. It's supposed to get pretty cold this week, the coldest yet for winter here. Thanks for everyone's kind words and prayers for MOH. Tomorrow I am going to do some more trouble shooting with my PL signals. I would really like to solve the problem on my own, but if I can't fix it tomorrow I will have to ask for help at the club. 

Rob- Good luck with the van.

Everyone take care.

[cudaken]

 Evening Folks!

 Flo, thank you dear for the beer!

 TA you seem to know a lot about cars and there computers. I bought a older 1994 Town Car and it is high miles, around 194,000 miles. One of the things that does not work is the horn. Horn fuse run's other things that do work, so something else must be wrong. Odd things is sometimes when I drive it, there is 2 quick and very soft blast of what I think is the horn? At first I thought someone bust just be honking there horn near by. But it has happened way to many time now. Check engine has never came on. Any idea's?

  See you all later, Ken   

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good evening. I went to my parents place for New Years dinner today. Black-eye peas and ham, cabbage, cornbread, field peas. I got up tired this morning due to all the racket last night. My nephew and some of his friends were up the road celebrating with a neighbor I choose to have very little to do with. I just don't like the guy. Anyways, they had a lot of loud music going, very big, very expensive fireworks going off and rattling my shelves and windows. That carried on til about midnight. Afterward my nephew arrived back home with some friends in tow. More loud music. Screaming and yelling. Lots of revving up of cars and trucks with very loud pipes. At 2:30 am I went out and put a stop to it. If I had to go out there again the police were being invited to attend. I already have the reputation of my bite being much worse than my bark. The party broke up pretty quickly and all as quiet. After dinner today my mother wanted to go to town to take a New Years dinner to a friend of hers then go to Stage for a few minutes. My mother, Stage and a few minutes are three things that don't go together. She and Stage go together fine but the few minutes part is impossible. The minimum is half an hour. This time it was forty-eight minutes and $181. By this time she could barely walk out to the car right at the curb and wanted to go go to Wal-Mart. I flatly vetoed that. We went to Wal-Mart any but just so I could get a Mountain Dew from one of the vending machines outside. Their prices are really ridiculous. A twenty ounce bottle of Mountain Dew now costs $2. The next stop was home.

[GMTRacing]

Ken - unlike everything else, the horn usually w..ks by grounding. You should have a horn relay that powers the horn. When the relay circuit is closed to ground it should honk. If the horn function is normal at the relay, the wire to the horn button or the horn button itself is at fault. If you can get the horn button (or buttons) off and ground the wire the horn should honk. If it doesn't, then the wire is frayed somewhere between the relay and the button. Most likely if the horn honks intermittently all by itself it is frayed or fractured where it flexes or on the slip ring on the steering wheel that allows the horn contact to turn with the wheel. If I were Jeff, and the source of the problem isn't obvious, I'd disable the wire to ground from the relay and run a new wire to a new horn button that I'd put on the dash board. Just like a fancy English car then. FYI - we'd call that fix a bodge.   J.R.

[BroadwayLion]

No, the solution is even easier. Disconnect the horn and instal some Nathan Chimes.

 

ROAR

[ns3010]

Evening all!

Hope you all have had a great New Year so far, and THAT it has started off well.

Spent the day with family this afternoon, and now I'm finally home.

I tested out the new P2K GP38-2 before and tried to install a decoder. Let's just say THAT it went "less than stellar." For the full story (read: rant), see here: http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/200951.aspx

Other than THAT, not much else is going on tonight. Tomorrow should be a pretty quiet day as well, just some homew**k/scholarship applications before I have a game.

Tom, glad to hear that your wife is doing better!

Dennis, sorry to hear about the water heater troubles, but glad to hear that it's seemingly resolved!

Curt, prayers for you and YOH on the surgery and that it helps!

Well (dripping in the rain), THAT's it for now. See ya later!

-Joe

NS local H65 diverges onto the WASS at CP PHILLIPSBURG.