Happy New Year Modelers!
OK, maybe a few days late in that...
Santa was good to me and got a few RR items both historical and model related. Was a quiet X-Mas and New Year for us spending nearly all of it with just Lisa and my brothers dog we are taking care of right now. Didn't spend much time on the forums these past few days other then to just pop in and check if anything need moderated and then pop out again. It should be unseasonably warm for the next few days which mean we will likely get some snow over the weekend.
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
Mornin' everyone!
Zoe, I'll have the #2 Special, over easy on the eggs, bacon, home fries, and a double order of sourdough toast. Oh and keep the dark roast coffee coming as it will take several cups to warm me up today.
Ken, remind me not to do any business with the place you work! I do hope you can get a different job soon.... THAT is why I have one or two places I trust because of experience, and stick with them even if they might be more expensive.... Expensive is a relative term when they do business the way you describe!
Galaxy.... Just a dusting huh? Well THAT is all we got up here too. They are still saying 1 to 3 inches possible today, but I'm not holding my breath. I guess it all blew over to where Barry lives by the sound of him this morning.
Ulrich??? 140 mph??? How's your building holding up? (Bet THAT was a missprint....)
Currently 12°F outside with a gentle 14 mph breeze. Wind chill is -3°F at the moment. Main furnace hasn't kicked on this morning, but I think I best load the woodstove and join Barry in staying warm. I have a few odds and ends to do today, grocery shopping being one of them. But much of the day can be spent again ion the train rooms!!! YES!
Later!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Good morning...
I'm glad the diner has been so busy in recent days. I just reviewed the posts including going back a few days in the December Diner. All sorts of interesting reports were posted.
Curt ... Prayers and blessings to your wife who is having surgery this morning.
PA Tom ... I'm glad your wife continues to make progress recovering from her injury.
Ausie Jim .. Good to hear from "Down Under", and I hope your grandmother can continue doing well.
Rob .... That's an impressive fleet of UP locomotives. Are they hauling solent green? ... WOW! The tractor is impressive.
Mark (Hopple) ... Long time no see. Glad you checked in. Come back more often.
Stan ... I'm glad things are set with Railroad Retirement Board for you. I've been involved with them for a long time. Also, I'm still interest in the painting. Seems like I've been too busy lately to think about it.
JR ... I bet the N&W 2-6-6-4 is impressive!. Yes, the large engines require plenty of room on the curves. I keep 2 old Rivarossi Big Boys and use them to check clearances when installing new track with curves. Everything else clears if they do.
Ulrich ... Wow. Storms with 140 mph winds. That's hurrican force.
Ken ... What? You gave priority to customer's needs? Holy cow! .... (I bet the class in Kansas City omitted business ethics.)
Jeff .... I have an idea for you. Get a 1/87 Dodge Van for you layout and paint it like your 1/1 van. It would make a nice addition on your layout.
Regarding the comments on the arsonist who set fires in LA ........ The news media explained how he did that and how easy it was. I bet there will be "copy cat" arsonists now, thanks to the media.
Happy Model Railroading
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
cudaken Larry (new Services Manager) found out and I was told "You should have sold her brakes because we make more money"! Not because they where unsafe, because we make more money! Guess I am just silly, I but the customer need's first?
Larry (new Services Manager) found out and I was told "You should have sold her brakes because we make more money"! Not because they where unsafe, because we make more money! Guess I am just silly, I but the customer need's first?
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
Morning Folks
Flo. Diet Dew Please.
Work Front I guess what as brought this to a head was Sunday. I meet the new Services Manager. I had a customer that came in to have her tires mounted (we are installers for Tire Rack, on line site) and the install with the 5 year aliment plan came to $225.00. She all most backed out of the aliment because she was short of funds.
We rate condition of brakes as Green for Good, Yellow for caution and Red for 2MM of pad or less. Her pads where in the high range of Yellow, about 4 MM of pad left. Her P/S and Alt belt was badly cracked. I tried t get her to buy the belt and she made a appointment for the repair. All so told her and had it on her paper work to come back in 3000 miles for us to check her brakes again.
Go in today at 1:00 PM and close the store, I wonder if they are going to get me a key and alarm password?
See you later.
Ken
I hate Rust
Good Afternoon Gang!
Well, what a day! It started out with Petra not waking up at her usual time, thus I overslept! My sweetheart did not wake me until 10 am! Haven´t been in bed that long for ages!
Right now we are going through a bad storm, with gusts up to 140 mph. It´s blowing a lot of warm air into our region, so it is way too warm outside for the season. Unfortunately, the storm carries a lot of moisture with it, so it´s dripping down like mad. Why did I get up?
Janie, I am in for an afternoon snack, coffee & burger, please!
Prayers to all those in need!
Have a good day!
Good Morning,
Not much going on today, one of the train guys came over and took my trash out to the curb for me. I feel kind of helpless, but that should change by Monday.
BM1 Lee Soule USCG (ret) L.S.&W Railroad Serving the Lower Great Lakes
Coffee in a UNION PACIFIC mug, please.
Sunny here with a predicted high of 37F.
Healing thoughts to those in need.
Rob
Good Morning!! Coffee and a Raspberry sweet roll please. Thanks. Sunny, with a high near 31. As of now, it’s suppose to get to 40 tomorrow and the steadily higher up to 53 Friday, then inch back down. Hang on I see a roll-ee-coaster ride a comin!
Good Morning!! Coffee and a Raspberry sweet roll please. Thanks.
Sunny, with a high near 31. As of now, it’s suppose to get to 40 tomorrow and the steadily higher up to 53 Friday, then inch back down. Hang on I see a roll-ee-coaster ride a comin!
Speaking of car washes. Big news, a car wash has come to town. Yup we have the Williamsville Route 66 Car and Pet Wash ( or something like that). I’ll try to post pictures for those of you interested in modeling a car and pet wash. Just a little something we Williamsville-enites are a little bit proud of. Curious if you can turn the pressure down when washing Fido. Or do they have a special bucket he rides in through the automatic side. Did I mention it has an automatic side. Yah, uh-huh .
Joe- I agree with you too. DCC Ready means to me basically plug and play.
Went to change pages and lost connection. Stupid router. Does that occasionally. Have to unplug it for a few seconds, then plug back in. Why? I don’t know. Been doin if for about a year maybe.
Ken- Thaaaat’s what I thought. The unit originally in Jeffs van, what they are calling and Engine Control Module, is what they called an Electronic Spark Control or close to it back in the day of four speeds and disc brakes meant high performance. The one pictured is the kind that mounted to the Air cleaner. That was the old “Lean Burn” unit. If he has the original air cleaner, he will probably see where it was mounted. I doubt he does though, it left a pretty good sized hole and most replaced it. Shoot some dealers would even say when the original unit goes out, don’t try and replace it. Get the old units. Like I said, that one probably went out or gave the owner fits as they most often did. It was almost routinely replaced with the older, but much more reliable standard spark controller “Brain” like Jeff has pictured. This unit was and still is, regarded as very good and reliable. If of course all you really need is to control your spark. Then someone probably had an issue with that, (usually the ballast resistor. A cheap item commonly carried an extra in the glove box though I never needed it) and they either swapped that for aan old points distributor, or they swapped the whole engine. Who knows. Anyway, it was basically…just an electronic ignition they’re now calling an ECM.
Charlie- A loose timing chain was a very common misdiagnose of a lean burn unit problem. Don’t really blame the mechanic, it mimicked the syptoms and remember, they didn’t have the Computers to read the computers back then. That old 318 would almost literally last forever. The Lean burn, should have been burnt the day they made it. Ah the infancy of the ECM as we know them today.
Aussie Jim- My prayers for you and your family as well, of course, for your Grandmother.
Welp, best get crackin. Finished the Dining room yesterday, now I have to get Brenda’s car running again and then she’s decided she wants a new refridge-a-deezer, and then the floor in either the bedroom bathroom or the kitchen is next. Her choice NOT mine.
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.
Good morning, Chloe. I will have a coffee in a NP mug, please.
Back to work today, after eleven days off. I am ready. Larry & I did some operating yesterday. I couldn't get into the modeling part. I will be more motivated after the house painting is complete.
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Well, we only got a trace of snow last night. good thing becasue with both our backs in bad shape, shoveling this AM would have been a nightmare come true. Can't tell if more is onthe way as they say dso, but so far the weather guessers have ben wrong a lot.
It is, however, 11* out there..just a wee bit chilly willy nilly whne i took hte garbage to curbside.
THe PRayer candle is lit for those in need!
Going to go to the LHS...it is Closing down its store and going to a web-based business only. Their prices are higher than wholesaletrains.com {my other "LHS" 45 mins away} and the web prices don't look so hot either. They start today with 20% of everything in the store. I will go just to see what I don't need and can't afford at 20% off. I haven't been there in ages this past year. Ya nevah no.
Oh, they are now familyhobbyandcrafts.com if you care to look. I wish them well in their endeavor anyway.
Well,
The weather will be cold, the faucets are drippng andd antifreeze inthe drain.
Poor people in Miami...only 58* for a high today! poor babies..hope they have warmer clothes to put on! They say if you move to FL you should NOT throw out your winter coat. Ya nevah No.
Well, later guys.
-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.
Morning...
Flo, I'll just have a coffee please...
I just finished plowing the driveway out ...again..and will have to go out there later on...again
We got about 16" on the ground and we are getting another 4-6" before this all goes away...the high? All of 14F....
Oh well...by the weekend we should be looking at 48F and raining...
Today will be spent either outside battling the snow while driving to the mall for basic survival foodstuffs, or plowing...or spending it indoors attempting to work on the miserable lighting in the trainroom...
I'll just be by the woodburning stove in back...trying to stay warm...and not so
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/
Evening, all this talk of chilly weather makes me think of the heat that is about to hit us coming into this weekend to next week. We are looking at temps in the mid to high 90's (to make it easy for you with about 50% humidity so nice and dry. This is not as bad as when I lived in Townsville (North Queensland) which summer days would regularly be 95 degrees but 85-90% humidity so you were constantly sweaty and sticky - not nice.
Anyway I've been working on three Kits. They are now finished minus couplers and a dullcote.
Here is a pic.
In a return to normal Programming :The three finished VBO ballast wagons. Minus couplers which I'm getting tomorrow.
Thats all for me tonight, Early start tomorrow - visiting Grandmother who to be honest is probably on her last legs of life, Some of you may remember me mentioning her in the past. She beat *** cancer once about 5 years ago, but it returned far more agressive in early 2010, and since has spread to much of her body. She was initially given weeks to live, and she has amazed doctors with her fight, 99.9% of people with this form of cancer usually pass away within weeks of diagnosis. She has gone just over 2 years, but she knows there is only so much she can do to fight it.
Cheers.
James, Brisbane Australia
Modelling AT&SF in the 90s
Good morning. It's 29° and clear here. The high is due to be 55° and it will be mostly sunny.Below freezing outside but it's a nice 74° in the trailer where I am. I got started on the junkyard casting yesterday but haven't as much as touched a brush to it yet. I cut the hood off one of the cars and milled out the engine compartment to reveal a big empty hole. I'm looking at doing that with at least one more of the vehicles on the casting before I start painting it.After it warms up a bit outside I'll go to town and drop a package at the Post Office then go do the remainder of the grocery shopping. I could do the shopping now but the van doesn't have a heater and the Post Office isn't open yet. Not to mention I haven't had breakfast yet. Gotta get that taken care of or what little that's left of the vans upholstery could start looking tasty on the way home.
Good Morning All,
28F and snowing this morning. No accumulations forcast but it were acomin down at a purty good clip. The crew are still trickling back from Chrismas shut down so we'll see how it goes today. A break from wiring for me anyway as we're doing sheet metal panel fabrication.
Took another peek at my plate girder bridges this morning and still think they look much better as modded. Still need to figure out something for the one spot fouling on the incline.
Hope the rest of you dig out ok (not nice Ray sending all the s..w to Galaxy what with his bad back and all) and I'll catch y'all later. J.R.
GOOD MORNING!!!
Today is Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012!!!
Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
Good Early Morning.
I had to plow out our driveway 3 times today and do a bunch of other stuff as well..namely get survival basics...
Right now we have some 12" on the ground looking for about 6" more before daybreak....grumble growl snuffle snort......am I an old curmudgeon? Yes I am!!!
Well, Chloe, I'll just have a Chamomile Tea please..I'll sit here by Duke in the corner..its so snuggly here...I'm gonna....
Evenin' folks!
Janie, just a hot cup of decaf for me right now. I'll be in my seat by the stove for a while.
Galaxy, your close.... The forecast for here in Geneva is 2 to 4" tonight and 3 to 5" tomorrow. Storm total would be 5 to 9" of light fluffy stuff. But I am not worried. At the moment the wind here is blowing it right towards you folks in the Southern Tier..... Difference.... we know how to handle a bit of snow around here. When I lived in Waverly an inch or two of snow could close the Schools for a week.....
Got quite a bit done on the layout today. Pulled off a torti THAT won't be needed where it was placed originally as the turnout above is no longer there. One track will become the mainline out of the yard on the NYC side, and the other will be a siding for cars at Lisk. It will be used for one of the new turnouts. Installed about 5 foot of straight track on sidings as well.
Ken, hope you will find something quickly!
Guess I will go load the wood stove one more time before bed... The high tomorrow will be 15°F. Think the stove will be relit as soon as I get up in the morning!
Have a great night and prayers to all in need.
Good Evening,
Supposed to hit +3C tomorrow which is way above normal. So far this has been the mildest winter I can remember plus there is at most 2" of snow on the ground.
Well today I made the plunge and ordered a TLT Northern. It is from the last run so hopefully it will be better than the 2 that I had to return last summer. The price has come down a lot, I got some cash for Christmas and once they are gone, that's it. Glad I talked myself into it.
I sure can relate to an '81 Chrysler lean burn. I had that on an '81 Lebaron with a 318 that I drove from '83 to '88. Not exactly the type of car I drove up until then but my wife was used to the Mark iv her dad drove so it was my concession to a luxury car. I did have a lot of trouble with it though including a new timing chain which I thought was rather odd. The lean burn module never failed but it didn't run all that well and would ping on regular gas. Lucky there was a brand here at the time that used ethanol to get 90 octane out of regular.
Today was the third day that the car stayed in the garage which must be some sort of record for us.
Tomorrow it is back to the grind.
CN Charlie
Good Evening All,
Another one of those days. I got to the shop and our flag was draped to the ground. No good that, the clip that holds the flag had failed so no problem - I'll make a new one. 4 hours later and I'm done welding a new one out of aluminum and I'm ready to kill the person who didn't mark the cut offs properly. Try as I might, I just couldn't weld 6061 to 2024 aluminum. Once I figured it out and substituted another piece of 6061 for the offending item it all went well. It is now the worlds most expensive flag holder but what the hey, it's for an American flag!
All this horn button, dash substitutes, electronic or not ignition is close to home. Often we get a vintage car in and need to do lots of research to figure out exactly what should stay and what should go when we restore it. For many of the cars there are no manuals so you end up with multiple realities. Since our cars end up racing we never restore to completely original (seat belts weren't even mandated until the 1970's let alone fire systems and fuel cells) so we have some latitude anyway. We at least try to keep everything we do reversable should some museum really need one of the cars. So far as I know only two have ended up imprisoned that way - a IROC911 in Penskes' museum in Arizona and a Quasar in the Massachusetts Museum of Transportation. So far none of them are trying to communicate by honking at us (has Ken seen to many episodes of My Mother The Car ?).
Ken - Like I was saying the other day many repair places have gone to the dark side. I'm sorry your present place of employ is one of them. And no if you're to hold up your head at the end of the day you have no choice but to seek another situattion.
Curt - glad you figured out the signal problem that seemed to really be getting to you.
I learned something else today. I had gotten a Blueline 2-6-6-4 N&W that I got out to test on the track. It wouldn't clear either of the girder bridges on the elevated section and fouled coming off a curve too close to a turnout. Wow do the cabs swing out on those articulateds! I fixed the two girder bridges on the elevated sections by flipping the girders upside down from above to below the I beam framing. That also makes the clearance under the bridge look more prototypical (in the cities it's often 10'5" or so). Just need to fix the fouling in the inclined section by the turnout now, Oh, and the loco ran great.
Jeff, Rob and Lee - hope you all feel better soon. Ulrich good luck with the new not self imposed diet. I need to catch some shut eye so that's all the ramblings for now. Hopefully I can get back for coffee tomorrow before I get caught up in the day. Cheers, J.R.
Temp here is 40° and dropping. Time for me to drop into bed and get under my German comforter. See y'all tomorrow.
late to rise makes me later to bed.
Hope Ya'll got your heavy coats on.
Supposed to be -5* F with wind chill here tonight.
Looks like RAY is in the 4-8" PLUS zone for snow tonight.
We down here are betweeen 2-4" and 4-6". Hoping for just the 2-4". SHould be easy to shovel..light stuff it should be.
Iff'n you are on the east coast anywhere, it will be COLD the next few days....even JEFFREY says 25*F down in The heart of Weezey-anna {I know, I Know,stop singing galaxy}, and they say the bitter cold will extend to below Orlando/Tampa in FL too. Get ready FLoridians....
Of course north of our border has been sharing cold temps for awhile. We In Upstate, Downstate and Whole state of NY have been lucky this year {winter season}.
MOH's back went out at work, so both of us may be hobbling around trying to shovel so MOH can go to work in the AM. MOH took a muscle relaxer and went to bed. MUST Remind MOH to fill out Work incident report as Dept. manager was there when it happened. Just in case MOH needs treatment for it.
See ya'll in the AM! All bright shiny and happy!!!
EDIT: Have a late night snack or Breakfast on me!!!
Chamomile tea, please.
***Curt, glad you solved (or got help doing so) the light issue. And there was LIFE.
***Ken, good luck on your search. Hope you find something new quickly.
***Jeffrey, stay warm there. Had to turn on the heat here tonight to protect the pipes.
I took this pic tonight to send to my sister, since she mailed me a U.P. calender. May as well post it here. The 3 black steamers incluse a 2-8-0, Hudson and BigBoy. A much smaller U.P. roster than I once had. Do have a larger (I think) number of AT&SF/Santa Fe locos, a few Southern and quite a respectable number of undecorated steamers.
Not nearly as many U.P. or Santa Fe cars as I thought I had. If I sold every one of them, doubt it would cover the cost of a new Hiawatha set.
Have a good night all. Rob
Evening All,
Chuck from LRT sent me a Email reply and I had 2 wires connected to ground and they should of been connected to DC. This is after reading the instructions at least 10 times and referring to them during installation. Chuck at LRT has the patience of Job. So now the signals are lighted but I still need to do adjustments on the IR sensitivity in a couple of days after things quite down here.
Ken- I can sure sympathize with you.
Well early to bed tonight, have to get up at 5 AM. Everyone take care.
Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
http://s1082.photobucket.com/albums/j372/curtwbb/
Hay
Flo, give me a BEER!
Not a Happy Man right NOW! Spent 5 hours trying to fix my PCM Big Boy. I now can field strip it like my old M-16. I bet I took it apart today 5 times. Found servile things I thought was the problem, but to no avail. Keeps shorting out when it hits a turnout or a some slightly rough section of track. I don't know rather to send it to E-Bay, Broadway Limited or Darth Santa Fe.
Only bright spot of today? PCM Y6-b is picking up the slack. Pulling it;s train and the Big Boys, 60 cars with not a problem.
OH, found the key to success at work! Lie to customers about what they need to fix on there cars! Looking for a new job.
Low here tonight will be 25°. No clouds to speak of. Wind north 5 to 10 mph. I'll have the heater on low tonight to keep the chill off.
Hashbrown Casserole, please.
Another question: In N scale, can two locos with the DCC dual-mode decoders be run together in DC mode?
Silly me, waiting for UPS when they are off today. Should have gone to the store earlier. Oh well.
It is blustery here tonight. Hope no trees come down.
I'll be in a corner booth awhile.
Hi Guys
Brrrrrrr, its getting cool out here today -6c right now but feeling closer to -13c. In kind of a crappy mood I have a touch of a cold and a nice canker sore on my mouth ( had one on tongue last week ) so I must be worn out from Holidays as I only get them when I get run down and exhausted, Plus I am prone to getting them for some reason, oh well It will be gone in a few days.
TA462 You say it beeps when your driving? That leads me to believe its something like the contact in the steering wheel is broken. You hit a little bump and it makes contact and it beeps.