Elliot´s Trackside Diner - February 2012

[wetidlerjr]

 

[galaxy]

GOOD MORNING!!!

Today is Sunday, February 5th, 2012!!!

Start your morning off with a relaxing look at the Sunday paper!!!

February -- month of Februa

Middle English Februarius
Latin Februarius "of Februa"
Latin Februa(s) "Februa" + -arius "ary (pertaining to)"
Latin Februarius mensis "month of Februa"
Latin dies februatus "day of purification"

Februarius had 28 days, until circa 450 BC when it had 23 or 24 days on some of every second year, until Julius when it had 29 days on every fourth year and 28 days otherwise.

Februa is the Roman festival of purification, held on February fifteenth. It is possibly of Sabine origin.

[Anonymous]

Good Morning!

It´s been the coldest night this season, temperature dropped to - 18° C, that´s 0 F. The lowest temperature was recorded in southern Germany at - 29°C, that´s -20 F. Prayers for the poor souls who do not have a home.

Chloe, coffee in my JNR mug, and some buttered toast & jam, please.

Terry - , what a good looking layout. It deserves a few

Yes, that´s a train!

Have a good day!

[wetidlerjr]

 

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

 

 

 

IT'S SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

FROM

INDIANAPOLIS INDIANA!

 

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good Evening!

Good to see everybody. Looks like February is off to a good start in the diner with lots of good pictures and plenty of model railroad activity.

Barry ... Progress Rail (Caterpillar) has a facility in Mayfield, KY not far from here where they are rebuilding locomotives. Much of the work is to upgrade form Amtrak F40's for suburban train service. It's a low budget operation, and unions are not welcome there.

Our visit with our daughter and her husband in AZ was very nice. It was sunny and mid 70 F each day.

Travel was on Frontier Airlines, our first and most likely las experience with that airline. Seats on the planes were not at all comfortable. We flew from Phoenix to Nashville yesterday changing planes in Denver. Denver was having lots of snow causing flights to be late or cancelled. We were 2 hours late arriving in Nashville. We staye with Nashville family until this afternoon.

Here are pictures from the Arizona Railway Museum in Chandler, AZ.

First .... A CB&Q E8 ! .... It's not in original condition and it has no lettering, but it is a Burlington E8. I rode behind many Burlington E8's in my younger years.

Second .... A Santa Fe Super Chief "Pleasure Dome". My Dad took our family to Los Angeles from Chicago in the late 1950's on the Super Chief. I recall riding in a dome car just like this one. Possibly this is the same car. This car is not in original condition either.

Third ..... A UP RR buiness car lettered "Central Pacific".

Here is a link to AZ Ry Museum home page .....

http://www.azrymuseum.org/

 

 

[howmus]

Evenin' folks!

Janie just a cup of decaf to relax me right now.

Been a busy here in these parts.  Spent much the evening out at my Son's house.  Birthday party for an uncle.  Had a nice spaghetti and meatball dinner followed by cake and ice cream and wonderful company  (especially two little granddaughter who i love dearly!).  My son didn't get home until late as he had to work today.

Guess I will go take a nap by the stove......

73

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Time for me to call it a night. It's been a busy day starting with a busy morning. I added sheets of lead to to thirteen freight cars with them held in each car with brass screws. I spent an average of four and a half minutes on each car with a gap between cars only long enough to cut a piece of lead sheet, get a couple of screws and pop open the next car. Ten boxcars/reefers, one thrall car, two covered hoppers. I had an audience of one so I did the absolute best I could in as little time as possible.

See y'all tomorrow.

[Cederstrand]

Chamomile tea, please.

***Barry, "Eegah" (I have that movie!)

Have a good night all.

 Rob

[Curt Webb]

Evening All,

Went to the club but came home early because it was packed. Since I can run at home I don't have the patience for it any more. Don't get me wrong, they are great guys but I don't enjoy sitting at signal after signal.

I repainted the mountain this morning and put the same ground cover as the rest on it so it looks cohesive to my eye now. I came home and ran a passenger train for about 30 minutes before I got frustrated. One car kept derailing coming out of the tunnel (no issues 2 weeks ago) and one of the signals needs readjusted. Ah the joys of the hobby. I will mess with it next week.

Future projects: 1-Build another coaling tower for extension. 2- Build frame work for extension. 3. Build coal loads for 42 coal cars.

Everybody have a good night. 

[blownout cylinder]

I seem to recall having some loose bags flapping around from them as well. There was a company up here that also did that sort of thing with coal but I can't remember who actually made it up here...

-------------------------------------------------------------

Good Evening

Well, it is starting to break..after I doused it with habanero and naga jolokia peppers in my special chile...

Terry:  Nice layout you got going there!!

Chris:  I think I have a few pics of the Rock Island gondolas as well that showed up here...being used for woodchips...

So, I'll just have a coffee and a piece of Strawberry Rhubarb Pie please..I'll be at the RC for a bit

[jeffrey-wimberly]

saronaterry

The coal came in a smallish plastic factory sealed bag in some stuff I got off evilbay some time age. No idea the maker, no writing at all. If I had to guess I'd say Life-like. It looks like the same packaging on some of their other scenery stuff.

Judging by your description I'd say either Bachmann or Life-Like. I had a couple of Bachmann kits many years ago that had small unmarked bags of coal.

 

saronaterry

LOL!! Wow, that IS impressive!

If you're referring to David's post, he woke me up this morning. I had to teach him something he can use when he starts on his layout, whenever that is, and I had to show him that it needn't take a long time if you know what you're doing.

[saronaterry]

LOL!! Wow, that IS impressive!

Jeremy B. , got your PM but my computer won't let me reply, so I'll do it here. The coal came in a smallish plastic factory sealed bag in some stuff I got off evilbay some time age. No idea the maker, no writing at all. If I had to guess I'd say Life-like. It looks like the same packaging on some of their other scenery stuff.

Terry in NW Wisconsin

[AmanaMedic]

Goooooooooooooooooood Evening (bows to the most honorable ladies behind the counter, bows to the most honorable Diner patrons).

TERRY: Please pass my "thanks" to your son also! Here's a loaded hopper I found in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The hopper itself pre-dates all THAT by several years...

Thanks to loads like this, I was able to obtain some real coal which I was able to crush easily enough with a hammer. 

GABE USMC: Thank you for your service also!

Just passin' through, so I'll grab a very large coffee to-go for the trip back...

Chris

[Train Master]

saronaterry

There's a train show this month in Rice Lake so I'll pick one up there. Tryin' to keep up with Jeff!!!

Keep up with Jeff? I gave up trying to do that a long time ago. He works really fast! I watched him this morning put the lead in those cars. They are held in with screws! So he had to predrill every hole. I will not even try to match that.

[saronaterry]

Nice pic, Der. So the loading should have 1 long end to end kinda humped over look, not 2 seperate humps. I'll have to add a little more to the center of my load! I should give credit to Curt and KudaKen for the load inspiration. Thanks ,guys.

Thanks for the comment, Gabe. I'll add those two to my reading list.

Got the new staging track in and wired up. Now what should I do? Didn't think it'd go that well or fast! I'm short one CI 202s ground throw, though. There's a train show this month in Rice Lake so I'll pick one up there. Tryin' to keep up with Jeff!!!

Guess a guy COULD fire up the layout, huh?

 

Terry in NW Wisconsin

[der5997]

Terry:  Thanks -Just thought the Grey-to-Brown transitions might encourage you to not have to over-paint what you've done

Many Diner locations ago Tipton Bill posted a yard full of coal gondolas. I copied it and re-posted in the context of a discussion about running out of coffee, IIRC   - looks like you have some choices!

[saronaterry]

Thanks for the kind remarks, guys. You're makin' me blush! Believe it or not, only a few people that know anything about trains(1:1 or MRR) have seen it. Makes a guy feel pretty good to have his peers make such nice remarks.I'm sure you know what I'm trying to say. Thanks.

Der, those rocks look great, espescially the sed. rock. Wonderful job!

While this was drying.......

 

 

I tried my hand at a coal load. If any of you have a protoype pic of what it's supposed to look like , please post?The era is 1972. Glue's still wet!

Thanks again and BBL!

Terry in NW Wisconsin

 

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

der5997

Jeff:

 

Keeping up the musical theme, [music note icon] I see trees of green, box cars of blue....[mni] that's a great sight, quite the train! From the sound of it you are surprised how much weight you had to add. Did they feel unusually light? Ws the "factory fitted" weight just a small piece of sheet steel?

Small just does describe the factory weight. It's so small it's inset in the floor of the car. The factory weight of the car was about 2.4 ounces. I brought them up to an average weight of 4.1 ounces, the lightest being 3.9 and the heaviest 4.3.

[blownout cylinder]

Progress Rail Services -- the division of Caterpillar that opened a locomotive plant on Muncie's southwest side in 2011 -- announced Friday it was closing its Electro-Motive Diesel locomotive plant in London, Ontario. Workers at that plant have been locked out since Jan. 1 in a dispute with Caterpillar over wages.....this from...http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20120204/NEWS01/202040337/Caterpillar-closes-locomotive-plant-Canada-jobs-could-move-Muncie-s-Progress-Rail?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage%20DontMiss

According to Modelcar the plant had been open and PR was in there for about a year now...seems they were just looking for a reason to close the London plant down. Another poster on this thread...http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/202389.aspx?PageIndex=2 is saying that production will be between Muncie, La Grange Ill, and Mexico....

Oh well, more unemployed people coming right up for London ON...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Avterdood...

I ab stardig to ged bore ov by voice bag...slowly....the siduses are geddig a liddle glearer as well...sniff sniff...HONK!!!...hobefully I will be bedder toborrow...

Well, because of my cold coming on like it did I had to get someone to cover my shift..but if I am better tomorrow I'll be going back to work at work. But it does look like I'll have to take time off of Floor Wars, London ON division part 2  .......thad bay give me some tibe to rud by choo choos....

Chloe? I'll have a coffee and a large bowl of fries please...I'lll be back at the corner booth for a bit

[gabeusmc]

hello everybody. Laura just a diet coke for me. thanks.

Got to operate the layout this afternoon. The weather is preety warm, so there was no real need to bundle up to operate out in the Garage.

Terry- I know that this is a respond to an old post, but i like to give your son a hearty slap on the back for his good job at the firing range. I read alot about the SF (or Green Berets) in such books as "From OSS to Green Beret" by Col. Aaron Bank the Founder of the SF, and "Horse Soldiers" which was about the take down of the taliban with the northern alliance. Both are very interesting, and I highly reccomend them to you if you would like to have abetter understanding of what great things your son is doing.

 see ya'll

 

[der5997]

Diners! Sunshine here, but a bit chill - at least the wind died down some, so yesterday's wind chill has gone like Galaxy's taxes.

Well (no worries about running dry so far since last Spring), my part of the house chores yesterday- vacuuming everywhere - took just 70 minutes, including the bits that don't get done every time.  So no real inconvenience; added to which, since we hadn't been out to eat for a while, we had Dinner Out at a favourite Pizza and Pasta place. We'd not tried the Greek - it was awesome!

Thanks for the kind words re the village scene, it's getting to be very much as I thought about 7 or 8 years ago! - I'm hesitant about adding Boyz to the 'hood - I've a ton of figures, but am not sure who fits where yet - or how to adapt them to be doing what I think they might be up to.

Curt:

I did not tape the rails before I started so I spent a enjoyable hour scrubbing track with Q-tips and alcohol. I doubt that I make that mistake  again.

...I made this from used rail and a scrap handle from something or other some years ago. It takes off paint and crud very quickly and effectively. However, you might want to use a hard plastic if your alcohol/Q Tip technique is to avoid possible scratching up of the rail head. Of course, if you are going to use the Gleam method for polishing your track after the scenery is all done (my choice), the rail tool and risked scratching is not as an important consideration as the 13 feet to clean!

I think I am going to repaint my mountain. The Grey color looks funny next to the brown that I just finished.

...we've got both brown and grey, and a drive around can take you through both - which is why I modeled some transitions when I was painting my rocks some years ago... http://i3

Plus some sedimentary

News yesterday that Barry (Hope the cold clears for you soon) may know more about:

By The Canadian Press

TORONTO - American-based heavy equipment maker Caterpillar is closing its locomotive plant in London, Ont., after failing to win a labour agreement with the factory's 450 workers.

Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT - News) subsidiary Progress Rail Services says the cost structure at the plant was unsustainable.

The company had asked employees to take a 50 per cent pay cut to help keep Electro-Motive going, but locked them out Jan. 1 when the Canadian Auto Workers union members rejected the proposal.

Just two days ago, Premier Dalton McGuinty criticized Caterpillar, although not by name, during a speech in London, saying the company was not living up to Ontarians expectations.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper had used Electro-Motive as a backdrop in 2008 to promote big tax breaks for industrial capital investments, but the federal government declined to get involved in the labour dispute.

The union has called Caterpillar greedy and immoral after the company reaped record high sales and a profit of nearly US$5 billion last year and chief executive Doug Oberhelman received a $10.5-million annual paycheque.

 

Mike:  Glad you're still around! Didn't realize you were up to your armpits in little people!

Jeff:

( By Rob ) I'm often impressed with how much you get done. You put some of us entirely to shame.

...as in totally blown away! I don't know how you do it ...and run a Forum of your own "in your spare time"! Liked the Niagara Starch hopper BTW, put me in mind of a song by Flanders and Swan from the 60s called "Sounding Brass" which has the line "...all my laundry's flown to Cairo, where they don't use so much starch!" LOL for the text see http://www.nyanko.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/fas/anotherhat_brass.html sorry I haven't found the sound track yet ( at least not for free!).  If you bother to read it and wonder about the colour TV reference,  remember that when it was written, all TV in England was black and white.

Keeping up the musical theme, [music note icon] I see trees of green, box cars of blue....[mni] that's a great sight, quite the train! From the sound of it you are surprised how much weight you had to add. Did they feel unusually light? Ws the "factory fitted" weight just a small piece of sheet steel?

Tipton Bill: ...last quarter of 1941....their world was about to get a whole lot busier for the next little while!

Taxes - saw this on a sign at a tire store last time we were in town:

It used to be Death and Taxes, now there's Shipping and Handling!

....can't get to our taxes yet as we're still waiting for various slips and receipts - who knows when? Not a big panic, as ours aren't due until the end of April - and this is a leap year too!  Since we are into dates and times, just a reminder Gentlemen that there are now 10 days to VALENTINE'S DAY :

Terry: You make keeping the 10^th Commandment just a bit difficult! Nice to have the space, but it's what you've done with it that really turns the screws.

Well, looks like it's time to get potatoes peeled - Kris is making fish pie, sort of like Shepherd's pie because the top is mashed potato and cheese, not pastry. Should it be Fisher's pie?

TTFN:

 

 

[galaxy]

Well.

Whew!

It is over.

The pain has subsided.

The weeping and gnashing of teeth are gone.

The agony has passed.

The Taxes are DONE!!!!!

Yippee!!!!

now THAT is off our minds and out of our hair!

We can rest on our laurels and wait for the money to roll in and watch it go right back out!!!

 

[Cederstrand]

Coffee refill, please.

***Terry, your layout is so small. Have you ever considered expanding it a little? Kidding aside, that is  impressive. Wow! How do you keep track of your trains?

 Rob

[Curt Webb]

Terry- You sir are a lucky man to have that much room. You have done a excellent job with your modeling.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

saronaterry

Even better idea, Jeff! Free, I assume?

I wish! I buy the vents at Lowe's for around $20 each. The base is 9"x9" and the vent pipe is 10" tall by 2" inside diameter. I can get a lot of weights out of that.

I like those layout photos. Certainly makes what I have look bad.

[saronaterry]

Even better idea, Jeff! Free, I assume?

Curt, maybe this will help. The layout's in the 30' x 42' basement ( I got the WHOLE thing!! ). There's 3 pennisulas creating 4 "bays ". This is the 42'(minus 10' where the staging/furnace room is , directly ahead,angled wall) north wall. on the left are the 3 blobs.

 

Bay 1:

Bay 2, back to Spooner yard, looking south:

 

Bay 3:

 

 

Bay 4, Same spot I shot First pic:

The end there is where the main enters  along the south 42' wall to staging in the furnace room. Just one big circle. It reappears behind me in the 1st pic and enters the yard.

Sorry for the crappy pics,and the mess!

Terry in NW Wisconsin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

saronaterry

Jeff  Nice string of cars, too! I use lead tire wieghts I got from a buddy to add wieght .Gotta mush them down with a hammer.

I use pieces of sheet lead that I cut from roof vents. They're all lead construction so I can use every bit.

[Stourbridge Lion]

Good Morning Modelers!

Finally got shoveled out this morning.  It's still slightly snowing and the yardstick shows 19" here at home.  A few of our foothill cities are reporting in at 4ft!  Should see some melting over the next few days but they say another storm should arrive on Tuesday...

Hamburger and a Diet please and a serious side of fries too...

[Curt Webb]

Ulrich- That sounds like the USPS.

Terry- In previous photos there appears to be a narrow place in the room where both sides of the wall jut out a little almost like a room  separator. Where is that in relation to your last photo?

[howmus]

Ohayōgozaimasu! 

Zoe, Dark roast coffee (I heard you got some...) and raisin bran muffin with real butter if you can find some over here...  please and thank you ma'am.

Partly cloudy and 36°F here in the Finger Lakes this morning.  Right now the sun is busy peeking through.

Found out, last night that they are having a Birthday Party for his wife's uncle tonight, so I will have to go get a suitable (funny) card today and make up some baked winter squash for the occasion.

Terry, thanks!  Work on it will come to a halt until the floor gets painted, but I can continue laying (replacing) track in the other room and along the wall to the right of the photos while I wait.  I also have to get started on some buildings soon as I have been promising an MMR (who does the evaluating) I will get more done for the structures certificate.

The "Post Message" screen is acting a bit weird this morning.  Not double spacing.....  I'll see what happens when I post.

Later!

73

Dictionary

1. noun
   利益

   為

   グー
2. adjective
   良い

   善

   うまい

   善い

   好い

   佳

   良性

   宜しい

   ろく

   善し

   安楽な

   佳良

   主務
3. adverb
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