Elliott's Trackside Diner - April 2012

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 64° and partly cloudy. The high will be 82°.

Well after my weight lifting exercises yesterday (lifting the front of the tractor) my arms still ache a bit this morning. I have no particular plans for today. Right now I'm watching my Bachmann GP38-2 lead my Atlas SD27J around by the nose.

Had a somewhat interesting turnout issue this morning. The points wouldn't move over completely resulting in one derailment after another. A close inspection revealed a bit of ballast had gotten caught between the point rail and the stock rail. Removing the offending debris solved the problem. I guess I can count that as a resolved Friday the 13th issue. Should I attempt anything technical today or will that result in one disaster after another? I think I'll just run some trains and watch some TV today. That should be safe enough.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

hon30critter

That was an interesting and well written play by play of your tractor trials. It reminded me of whole lot of times when I could barely get a grip or a tool on the parts that needed to be removed, including the language! Often times I have said that I would like to meet the bxxxxxxx person who designed such devices in a dark alley some night! Oh well, if all else fails, get a bigger hammer!

I've always believed learning experiences should be shared and what better learning experiences are there than those that deal with hardship of some kind. It also allowed me to vent the frustration of the experience and therefore was no bad thing and I had fun writing it.

[wetidlerjr]

 

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

 

 

 

 

TIPTON

 

[galaxy]

GOOD MORNING!!!

Today Is Friday, April 13th, 2012!!!

Hide in bed all day as it is Friday The 13th!

13 little candles in the 13 little holders of the 13 little chandeliers in the 13 little rooms in the 13 little houses, and one will fall on your head today!!

 triskaidekaphobia  {Fear of Friday the thirteenth}

[hon30critter]

Jeffrey!

That was an interesting and well written play by play of your tractor trials. It reminded me of whole lot of times when I could barely get a grip or a tool on the parts that needed to be removed, including the language! Often times I have said that I would like to meet the bxxxxxxx person who designed such devices in a dark alley some night! Oh well, if all else fails, get a bigger hammer!

Regards

Dave

[cudaken]

 Evening Fellow Dinners!

 Flo, Beer Please.

 Boy I am tired tonight! Had some really weird dreams last night! I might share one Friday, after all it is the 13th.

 Work Front Vacation Is Over!  Far as I know, my days in the St Peter's shop is over.  While I did not have a great 3 days there dollar wise, it was sure nice not to have my Butt All Pucker Up all day if you know what I mean. (can I say that Ulrich") It is just a shame it is a 50 minute drive and 88 mile round trip. I sure cannot complain about my old Town Car MPG on the highway. With 195,000 miles on her the 4.6 liter I got 28.5 MPG. Not bad for a old boat.

 Rob Did I give you my Broken Toe? If I did, I am sorry and will take it back if you want me to, right Curt!

 Sue Glad you are enjoying my old pictures, but don't encourage me, I have a ton of them! Over all I guess running a Body Shop was the favorite time in my life so far. (sad thing at the time I had days I hated it) I have posted this picture before, it is the earliest picture I have with me and my 68 Road Runner together. 

 

 I was 17 at the time and my to be wife took the picture. It was in front of her apartment building.

 Time to go, see you all on Friday the 13th. What a day to do my Taxes on!

 Ken

[ns3010]

Evening all!

Not too much going on here. Still keeping busy. Not much else to report. Oh, other than this...

As of tonight, I am officially a Northeastern University Husky! The deposit is in, and it's finally a done deal. After months of having made my decision and waiting and waiting and waiting, it's finally done. I'm so happy!

Now that THAT's done, all there is to do is to finish out the school year, because there's not much else to do at this point. The deposit's paid and the housing application is in, and I'm not expecting to hear much else until the end of the month or next month. Luckily, school will be done soon enough. 31 days of school remain, and graduation is less than two months away.

Because of all this I'm buying tonight! Eat up!

I'll be hanging around for a bit if anyone wants to join me at the River Counter.

-Joe

A sign stands guard to deter potential trespassers, as Long Branch shuttle 4378 streaks across the Manasquan Inlet and over Brielle drawbridge at sunset on Good Friday.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Time for me to call it a night. Still sore from working working on the tractor this morning. I did my Hercules imitation and lifted the front end and pulled it onto a pair of concrete blocks. My father used a jack to lift the rear while I slid blocks under the rear wheels. Guess which end is heavier. Ain't the rear. No work on the layout today with the small exception of changing a coupler (broken McHenry shelf coupler) on a tank car. It was replaced with a Kadee shelf coupler. I did do a bit of running of the trains. The GP38-2 and SD27J mu'd pair got a good run and the H24-66 and U30EM645 mu'd pair got also got a good run. The GP7's, GP9's and SDP40F's sat idle.

See y'all tomorrow.

[last mountain & eastern hogger]

Cederstrand

Coffee refill, please.

***Johnboy, any idea what it should look like after a few days, or was yours hard cast back then? After a few days this toe is quite red presently and still annoying, but not bad enough to need any ibuprofen. Friend at the PO said just watch for red streaks and otherwise let it be.

Rob

Rob, the toe will definatley be red for awhile.  The streaks that you were told about really only come into play if there was a laceration where you could get some blood poisoning.  If that happens get assistance very quick,,,,,,,,,,,There are other issues at play here as well, especially if your  circulation is compromised somewhat.  If at all possible, to give the broken toe some support, try taping it to an adjacent toe, or to something like a piece of a Popsicle stick so as to keep it from flexing and it might heal quicker.  However this usually only works when you only have socks on. Darn difficult to get your foot into a shoe or boot with a stick taped to it.

Hope it heals quickly for you.

Johnboy out.................................

[Cederstrand]

Chamomile tea, please.

***Curt, nice weathering on those cars.

***Barry, loved the video.

[Just a historic reminder that today is the 150^th anniversary of the Great Locomotive Chase! It started on the morning of April 12^th, 1862 when a northbound train led by the General was stolen at Big Shanty in front of what is now the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw. The chase ended just north of Ringold, where the track made a wye to Rome or to Chattanooga. It was here that W&A station master Uriah Stephens became suspicious that the General had arrived at an unscheduled time and without its regular crew. Stephens refused to throw the switch at Kingston and delayed the departure of the General by 1 hour. This action allowed the pursuit to close the gap and end the chase further up the line.]

 Rob

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Curt Webb

Jeff- The tractor sounds like it was a pain in the butt to fix. Any idea when your Mom is going to be released?

My father and I were talking to her about that today. With the level of care she needs right now (much more than we can supply) her answer consisted of four words. Not any time soon. Right now she needs to be tended to morning, noon and night. He can't do that and I sure as heck can't.

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Rob .. I hope the toe gets better. 

Ray ... By now you probably know how you will make the sides of the stone building, but I had an idea anyhow. I have a belt sander. The surface of the most course sandpaper belt does look like random stones for an HO building, and it could be cut for that purpose. .....

Curt ... nice work on the freight cars. 

[blownout cylinder]

Good Evening...

Everything is all dull dull dull today..we actually found an errant cloudbank to sit on London...all around is sunny but here...

We had some people come over to get a few things sorted out for friends return home...hopefully he will be home by Monday afternoon...

Oh...found a video for the catlovers in here...c'est ennui...

watch?v=Q34z5dCmC4M&feature=youtu.be

[Curt Webb]

Evening All,

Just got done fixing and eating spaghetti for supper followed by a Decaf chaser. I finished weathering my freight cars today so that project is done. I see on the Walther's site shows the TT's are still on track for release this month. Fingers crossed.

Rob- Hope your toe is OK.

Jeff- The tractor sounds like it was a pain in the butt to fix. Any idea when your Mom is going to be released?

Here are a couple of photos of the cars I did over the last 2 days.

 

 

 

 

Hope everyone has a good night and prayers for those in need.

[Cederstrand]

Bowl of the house stew, please.

***Garry, both the sports car & the little beast are fine, just waiting for my toe to heal. With all this nice weather and flowers taking over the pastures (where there should be a grass crop), this little injury came at an especially bad time. No choice but to let it heal for at least 2 or more weeks. The farm will just have to wait.

The mini video cam is here. Didn't come with a micro-card so will need to buy one before shooting video. Looks like it "might" be small enough to fit on a (HO) flat car and still make it through the tunnel portals. It will be close, we shall see.

Rob

[howmus]

Evenin' folks!

Chloe, I'll have a cheeseburger and some fried Parsnips along with a trip to the salad bar for supper tonight.  Need a cup of decaf to go along with all THAT.

Heartland Division CB&Q

Ray .. I'm wondering if you are still planning to build the stone building. I bet it will be challenging. Also, Ray... I was talking with a guy from your area. He says they mine a lot of salt there. Is that a big commodity for rail shipping there? 

 

Garry, the construction of the Octagonal Blacksmiths Shop will begin early next week!  Just to much going on around here to get to it!  With the meet over, I can hopefully turn my attention to creating the mold for making the sides.  Yes, salt is mined here in the Finger Lakes Region.  There is a working mine just outside Watkins Glen operated by Cargill (originally the Watkins Salt Company I believe) and it is one of the things hauled by the FGLK.  Quite a few other mines in the area also, but not sure how salt is transported from them.  More here.  Glad the tree missed you!!!  Some firewood for next winter?

Little by little things are getting done for the Meet on Saturday.  Even got started on another turnout for the layout.  Have a half hour before I have to get to a Boy Scout Camp Properties Committee meeting tonight.

Galaxy, sounds like your FIL is just full of it!

Jeffrey, sounds like you had a "fun" day today.  Hope you can move tomorrow........

Later!

73

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Howdy ... 

Yesterday it was windy, and I went to the mailbox at the roadside. I heard a loud "CRACK!" overhead. Before I could look up, a huge tree branch landed right next to me. CRUNCH!  I'm glad it missed me.

So, Galaxy .... I did not have a problem as your FIL did when the big branch almost hit me! ...... Seriously, Galaxy, I hope your FIL is okay.

Jeff.... I thought of you while visiting the Cherokee memorial last week. Also, that sounds like a lot of work fixing the tractor.

Ray .. I'm wondering if you are still planning to build the stone building. I bet it will be challenging. Also, Ray... I was talking with a guy from your area. He says they mine a lot of salt there. Is that a big commodity for rail shipping there? 

Rob ... How's the "sports car"?

Curt ... Thanks for commenting about the grandkids. It was a bit hectic.

I received a call from a friend asking if we could pick him and his wife up because their car broke down. I said of course I would do that. Then they said they were in Paducah. The drive was longer than normal with the US 68 bridge closed.  

On the layout, I was operating my steam generator car made by Rapido Trains. I may post photos in WPF. 

Happy Model Railroading. 

 

 

 

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Well we got the tractor fixed. The problem turned out to be a broken tensioner pulley on the reduction drive at the rear axle. Easy enough to fix once you get at it, which is a bear. First remove the battery and battery box. De-tension the belt for the PTO and remove that belt from the triple stack pulley. (belts from the bottom to top are in order, Main drive from the engine through the clutch pulleys to a small pulley at the bottom of the rear stack pulley. Reduction drive from a large pulley in the middle of the stack to a gear box that drives the rear axle via a drive shaft and last but not least the belt for the PTO (which I've never used) that comes off a mid size pulley at the top of the stack and goes to the PTO gear box. Next the tensionor for the reduction drive belt must be removed. At this point it's most definitely a two man job! Man at the top (me) has to hold a 9/16 wrench on the bolt that holds what's left of the tensionor pulley. This is loads of fun because he can't see it. It's underneath the frame. The man at the bottom (my father)  has to use a ratchet with a 9/16 deep well socket on a one foot extension to reach the nut on the other end of the bolt the first guy is trying to find. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, the wrench up top has to be short because there's no room for a bigger one. So now the top guy has found the bolt head and can only hold the wrench by the end because that's all he can hold onto. Bottom guy tries with all his might to break the nut loose. No joy there. It's been there for fifteen plus years and has no intention of going anywhere! Well, there's just enough room underneath (did I fail to mention the tractor is up on concrete blocks, hole side up?) for a small air impact wrench. My father goes and gets it and finds he has a problem. The impact is half inch drive and his sockets are 3/8 drive. So the top guy (me) goes to the toolbox in his van and gets an old half inch drive 9/16 deep impact socket. Meanwhile the wrench on the top of the bolt falls and ends up on the ground. I have to go fishing for the bolt head again. By now I'm in a lovely mood. I get the wrench back in place, my father gets the impact in position and pulls the trigger. The impact took half the corners off the nut but it did break it loose. It also snatched the wrench out of my fingers, bounced it off part of the frame then the wrenched flew back and ricocheted off the stack pulley and flew upward almost parting my hair! At that point there were a few more words spoken that could have been added to Webster's dictionary as they were a combination of English, German, Russian and Cherokee! I was glad my father insists on safety goggles. Well, that had the broken part off. We went and got a new tensionor pulley. Thankfully this thing can use parts made for several different brands of tractors. We also got a new belt for the reduction drive as the old one was still original and was looking a bit worn. Now getting the new pulley should have been dead simply easy right? WRONG! Remember the place it attaches is hidden away under the frame. I put the bolt through the pulley and fished around a bit and heard the bolt fall through a hole. My father says 'wrong hole'. So I picked the pulley up so the bolt clears the hole then hit the same dang hole three more times! I finally got it through the right hole then fished around with the wrench til I found the bolt head again. My father put a NEW lock nut on the other end of the bolt using his ratchet then cinched it with the impact. Now I got the new reduction drive belt out of the package  and looped one ene up under the frame so it would catch the tensionor pulley then work it around the pulley on the stack then the large pulley for the drive shaft gear box. There, that was done. Getting the PTO belt back on was child's play compared to all that! So I put everything else up top back together then the two of us lifted the belly mower back into position and locked it back into place. My father lifted the rear with his jack and I pulled the rear blocks then rolled it back off the front blocks then pushed it back into the shed. It'll get tested possibly this weekend. It'll either work or it won't. After that my father and I ran a few errands in town then went to Catfish Junction  for lunch. And that has been my day.

[Cederstrand]

Coffee refill, please.

***Johnboy, any idea what it should look like after a few days, or was yours hard cast back then? After a few days this toe is quite red presently and still annoying, but not bad enough to need any ibuprofen. Friend at the PO said just watch for red streaks and otherwise let it be.

Rob

[last mountain & eastern hogger]

Good Noon Hour gang,

Chloe, when you feel like it, please rustle me up a Double Denver with extra Bacon and an order of Home Fries and an RBF to chase.  That should hold me for Brunch.  Thanks.

ROB,  You are the Guy with the broken toe,  hows that coming along ??  I broke the second toe in on my right foot back in the seventies by stubbing it on a raised stone hearth around a fireplace we had when we lived about 45 miles NE. from here on a lake property.  It seemed to heal OK and really didn't bother me much after a couple of weeks but now after all these years and ol' age is setting in, it is getting quite a twist to it and doesn't feel comfortable most of the time.  Not bad enough to have it re-broken and re-set (hard to do that with a toe). But it is annoying.

Sue , Jeff, Ray and Rob,   there is no gardening up here until after the 24th of May.  Too much chance of late frosts.

Tipton Bill,  Those are great old photos you are coming up with.  Love the old NPR. roundhouse and a couple of those stations.

Worked until 11:00 pm last night and have two days off before going in for the week-end, so I had better make the most of it.  I don't move that fast anymore, so I always think I can get more done that I can.

Have to go to Home Despot and get some material to finish of the new windows in the basement, so I'll be close to the train room.  Don't know whether that will be good or bad. 

Anyway, better get things started.

Prayers and healing thoughts to all in need.    That includes my good Buddy who had heart surgery for the second time yesterday.  This time they took him to Edmonton to do the deed.  I heard from his Son last night and all seems to have gone well, but they are keeping him there for a couple of days. He is only 52 years old.

Later Gators.

Johnboy out...............................................

 

 

[gabeusmc]

NittanyLion

I have no idea where it came from or where it was going but it was definitely naval artillery.  

Maybe it was going to blow somthing up...

On the Norfolk Southern

[Cederstrand]

Italian roast coffee in a  SANTA FE  mug, please.

***Galaxy, my dad has always been the opposite way. You cannot get him to see a doc unless he is on his death bead...literally.

***Sue, planted seeds for mini tomatoes in a hangling basket yesterday. Hope the old seeds will still germinate!?! Didn't bother with an outdoor garden this year, until all the peacocks are sold. Those winged monsters peck at everything, especially veggies. Potted veggie plants out on the screened porch are doing well so far.

Healing thoughts to those in need.

Cheers!  Rob

[galaxy]

Thank you for your concerns over both FIl and MIL.

FIL will be fine as soon as laxative works.... BOTH Me AND MOH are ready to kill him over this...once a month he gets badly constipated and can't go either way, so he goes to emergency room like last night. They only give him laxative and tell him to wait til it works and sends him home . He WON'T take metamucil or other fiber drink "cause the Doctor didn't order me to"...OH BIG TIME DUH!!!!  You DON"T need a Dr. to tell you!

FIl snet MOH off to the hospital to sit with MIL who will most like say "go home".

Have to take the Kia in later so it can be fixed and pass inspection.

FIL...ARRRGGHHHH!!!

[BroadwayLion]

blownout cylinder

Good Morning

Just a quick passthrough this morning

Fog getting burned off as we speak...sunny and a high near 52F today

Todd: Only managed to get half of layout cleaned..other half today...hopefully

 

Silly Clyinder... Fog does not burn!

[Stourbridge Lion]

Good Morning Modelers!

Well we got our first Funnel Cloud of the season just south of of the airport (DIA) yesterday along with a downpour overnight.  Hope to get the fertilizer down on Saturday but will see what Mother Nature has in-store for  us by then...

[howmus]

Mornin' everyone!

Zoe, I'll have the Eggs Benedict and a cup of dark roast coffee in a FGLK Mug.

Have some errands I have to run, so I'll only be staying a minute or two...

Have a great day!

73

[gear-jammer]

Good morning, Diners.  Chloe, I will have a large coffee, please.  I decided not to hurry anywhere this morning.  I am starting to think of the flowerbeds and getting ready for this year's tomatoes.

MrB,  Your photos make the trip look fun.

Ken,  I am enjoying your mopar tour.

Later,  Sue

[blownout cylinder]

Galaxy:   for your family there...and, yeah, I know about the fibre issue..I have it all the time anymore...

[Curt Webb]

I'm at the top so everyone eat and drink up, I gave Vinnie my CC.

Todd- I intended to say my first weathering job not second.

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning

Just a quick passthrough this morning

Fog getting burned off as we speak...sunny and a high near 52F today

Todd: Only managed to get half of layout cleaned..other half today...hopefully