Good (already too warm) Morning, Zoe, I'll have the #2 special, scrambled, with ham slice and an apple, and a Rio Grande mug to wash it all down with, please. Thanks!
Lee, I'll let you have my share of those jalapenos, if it's all right with you.. I got one of those LED flashlights (forget where now, but since we don't have a Harbor Freight near here, I know it wasn't there).
Jeff - OUCH! No wonder you had a headache (and hopefully, it is fading away today...)! I was just thinking one big paintball from your first report about it.
Sawyer, sounds like a very good summer job (for you and for your 'little brother'), and kudos on your straight A's this past school year! EXCELLENT test scores, too! How's your weather been there? Are you getting very high temps yet (yeah, I know the humidity is the killer down thataway..)? Bigger diorama, bigger diorama! (Need a bit more room for those boxcars to run, right?) Five foot modules? Make sure those'll fit into your vehicle for transport.
Barry - has Spring been taking lessons from BridgeTom's cats? As you said, kickback time.
Chris-of-the-Wide-BrownLand - Be glad those kids didn't have an abundance of Mountain Dew in them (high caffeine PLUS sugar = > the hyper of sugar only...). Nice photos from the KCS there, I'm sure Jeff will enjoy those. Your temps looked fairly good (except for that humidity level, perhaps). We're likely to reach 36 C (96 F) today, and our humidity is above 50 percent already...
Bill T. - that RR Bridge & Building gang doesn't look too happy there... Maybe they hadn't eaten breakfast yet?
Galaxy, glad to hear your new medication is helping lower how often your migraines come (and how bad they are if they do). for your OH's boss to change his/her mind about the vacation time so you can get some time in this summer.
Ulrich and Jeff, funny you guys should mention about your mothers (& soap...) - I think I was in fifth grade (or fourth) and was a foot taller than my mother then, and I made the big mistake one afternoon. Don't recall what got me upset, but I do recall saying the 'D' word/phrase to her. She grabbed me by the ear, hauled me into the bathroom, and literally washed my mouth out with the Ivory soap. Never did THAT again...!
Garry, the lake might be a good place to be today (unless you get some storms that way). 108 in the car? Sheesh! Good reason to stay home and under the A/C.
Darren, that has to be incredibly sad for those folks, and especially for the veteran father who'd returned home. May they get the rest of the fires wiped down and put out.
Ray - suuuure, you just learned those words from your middle school kids (not that they don't likely use such...). All together now... "No, never?... Hardly ever...!"
DerJohn - excellent photo of those steamers!
Went by the office this morning (turning in paperw**k from on-call Friday evening) and was supposed to see one client at 9 a.m. (didn't show, so that person will have to come back through walk-in until they keep appointments). Have another at 2:30 p.m. and an intake (hour long) at 4 p.m. And this is supposed to be my day off? Have talked with my supervisor about the schedulers putting appointments at one OR the other part of my 'day off'...
Didn't get the 2'X4' section started last night. Hopefully, tonight. I did get some ATSF plug-door reefer cars ordered on Saturday (Klein only had two of them, alas). They were on sale, so of course, this week they will likely get more in - Murphy's law of MRR ordering...
I'll be at the window booth, watching those KCS switchers do their stuff a while.
[Edit]: Looks like time to set out the breakfast buffet, Zoe. Here's my card...
Blessings and prayers,
Jim in Cape G.
Italian roast coffee in a UNION PACIFIC mug, please.
Healing thoughts to those need.
Cheers! Rob
JimRCGMO...Bill T. - that RR Bridge & Building gang doesn't look too happy there... Maybe they hadn't eaten breakfast yet?... ...Blessings and prayers, Jim in Cape G.
...Blessings and prayers,
That was my grandfather's gang. He is on the extreme left (second from the top) wearing a cap.
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
V8Vega Amtrak often has to wait for local commuter trains, sometimes freight trains.
Amtrak often has to wait for local commuter trains, sometimes freight trains.
Dennis - I just picture one of these
"flying" with a speed of 210mph at altitude = 0 getting pulled over to wait for a freight train, doing 50 mph - ROFLMAO!
No offense meant, but a passenger train waiting for a freight train to pass doesn´t make sense to me. Top varnish needs top priority!
Very warm out there, but not as warm as some of you!
Did my errands. FOrgot about a "return receipt requested" letter to mail off to the store manager where MOH volunteered to go to. Seems MOH did not get paid all of hours worked.
MOH and others had a meeting this AM. May ease MOH's work troubles, we will see, and how fast!
WEll, errands inside need to be accomplished and a nap taken. I am bushed form heat and form still the migraine meds wearing off.
later
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Afternoon gang!
Flo, just an iced tea please....
Ulrich and Dennis, one of the major plans for here in NYS is to rebuild many of the Amtrak Stations to reduce the amount of time boarding and getting luggage on and off. They figure some small changes can cut 5 minutes off the time spent at each station. We had a program at one of our R&GV RR Museum meetings last Winter on the topic. I think they said there are 28 (?) stops from New York City to Buffalo. That alone would cut 2 hours off the time between the two cities. One of the big problems is that Amtrak owns all of 9 miles of track up here...... They follow the old "Water Level Route" of the NYC now owned by CSX and that goes along side the Mohawk River for quite a ways. Since it has a lot of curves the top speed has to be cut way down or the train will leave the tracks! They would like to add a 3rd. track along a portion just for Amtrak use, but the cost would be prohibitive. They could super elevate one of the tracks, but that wouldn't work for the coal drags that occupy the tracks much of the time. They also are not a "priority" train anymore... That freight has to get there first you know!!! Actually, through the Buffalo yards CSX is very good at moving Amtrak through very quickly! Gets them out of the way of the bill paying trains I think.
I'm just waiting for some glue to dry (and a bit of Varish too) down cellar. I'm putting in a 2% grade out of the yard to be able to clear the lower mainline in the new section. It will be a long fill, similar to what the LV used to have here in Geneva way back when....
Jeffrey, yep I think the EPA et al would not be happy to see steam back in daily mainline service! I would have to agree with them! As much as I love Steam, they are not exactly a clean source of power... LOL
Later!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Ray - we all agree that this is no way to run a railroad. AMTRAK´s mandate, imposed by Congress, is just to provide some sort of long distance passenger service - within budgetary constraints. That´s what they just do - nothing more. The Cinderella of modern transport.
Afternoon fellas, been hanging out, spent time with Aaron this morning before it got hot.
Chris, thanks, and sounds like you had an interesting day yesterday…yeah kids and sugar are crazy together.
Jeff, yeah man, just chill today.
Garry, heck yeah; how have you been?
Ulrich, without getting into too many details and political debates, the American passenger trains are behind partly because of the interstates and highways, making it a lot easier to just get in the car and go, embodying the spirit of American freedom and adventure. Another is jet airplanes absolutely killed the rest of passenger service, which was already in decline because of the auto. Now there was super-easy, super quick long distance travel, or the freedom of the open road.
Der, just build a loop then, and maybe add a small engine service and maybe a couple industries in a town, with some rural scenes on the rest of the track. That way you can salvage buildings etc, but not have much tied down in scenery materials and wood and track (and you could not ballast or solder and save the track). (Sweet shot btw!)
Jim, thanks, and yessir, scorching! The humidity actually isn’t that bad; I kinda enjoy it. Yesterday it spiked right before a thunderstorm that never actually “came”; in that time I did manage to build the modules. In theory, they should fit in my car without too much hassle; my bigger concern was switching and also being able to move with them.
I’ll hopefully be making some supertrees later today for the diorama; I’ll probably get foam down on the layout modules Wednesday or Thursday, hopefully.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
Good Afternoon All,
Dennis, 29 hours? I think it’s funny when you read train ads that claimed it could go from Buffalo to Chicago in 7 hours 40 minutes (549 miles) and 14 hours from Chicago to San Francisco (2132 miles). Haven’t things changed…
BM1 Lee Soule USCG (ret) L.S.&W Railroad Serving the Lower Great Lakes
JimRCGMO Sakel - to the Diner! Yep, we are using Gregorian calendars, but they (I had to go look it up) weren't adopted until 1582 AD. Julian was much earlier...(No, I wasn't around then for the start of either calendar...) So what are your MRR'ing plans/design/dreams? Fill us in and have a beverage on me.
Sakel - to the Diner! Yep, we are using Gregorian calendars, but they (I had to go look it up) weren't adopted until 1582 AD. Julian was much earlier...(No, I wasn't around then for the start of either calendar...) So what are your MRR'ing plans/design/dreams? Fill us in and have a beverage on me.
I am currently building a freelanced CSX/NS layout. It will have two main lines and a small branch for switching. I am operating on DC currently, with plans to move to DCC soon, depending on what the buget look like.
Thanks for the welcome!
Samuel A. Kelly
I can draw pictures with my keyboard!
-------- ( It's a worm)
Sakel, sounds good, NS is wayyyyy better than CSX though; much more friendly.
More diorama progress. I made some supertrees, and the retaining walls. They are white and gray spray paint on styrene, then white aim weathering powder, then yellow, then white again. The road is also temporarily in place...that bridge will need to be shallow!
Packers#1,are you biulding that diorama for a contest, ar to just have a diorama? So far it looks great!
sakel Packers#1,are you biulding that diorama for a contest, ar to just have a diorama? So far it looks great!
Thanks! and well, to refresh my scenery skills, practice building a hwy bridge, and to photograph outdoors. I'm really pleased with it so far, but it's a LONGGGGG way from finished, trust me :D there will be some details that make it pop
afternoon fellas,
Spent the morning yesterday removing a old fence from my front yard, makes the yard look alot more tidy and open, Im sure it will just invite people to cut across my lawn now... oh well the grass looks like hay anyway. I then spent the afternoon playing baseball in the 90F heat before a BBQ
Today I woke up with a stuffy nose and sneezing and just put it down to my allergies but it never went away, and I also felt cold today in the house with the central A/C on. so I have now come to the conclusion that I have a crappy summer cold. colds suck but when its summer they seem to suck a little more,lol. Oh well just a cold, the ones in the summer go pretty quick for me. I might just read some train magazines and hit they bed early tonight and see if that helps a bit, I know they say that rest is the best thing for a cold but for me I find it better to be moving around and sweating it out makes it go quicker.
Anybody have any tips to get rid of a cold quick???,lol
- Jeremy
Good to see you back Sawyer
Just stopping in to say hi. Sorry to hear of the trials some of you are having and Jeffs close call. Had a day off yesterday and spent the time cleaning the layout after chores. Here's a pic of the only part I have beyond track and basics.
This is the river gorge with bridges half built and the river not complete. Scenery is a combination of hand made and store bought rock ledge with trees from all over but primarily WS and Super Trees and Grand Canyon Gems for the blue spruce, Catch Y'all later, J.R.
ps Looks like I have TOP. Dinner is on me and the credit card is on the register, I've gotta skedaddle as tomorrow is another day.
Jeremy, good to be back, and I hear ya. A couple of weeks ago I caught a virus which devolved into a cold...it suckedddddddddddd. I find that not staying in a ton of ac helps me a bit
GMT, niceeeee bridge scene!
JeremyB Anybody have any tips to get rid of a cold quick???,lol
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
Did a little work today. Went down and helped my father move some bags of potting soil and mulch to the front garden. My mother says she wants to work on it. Odds are they'll sit there till the cows come home and there ain't been any of those around here for years. The other job was fitting a U25B cab to a GP7 just for the heck of it.
Good Evening...
Everything is sealed up here..AC on and being cool at 70F...
Got a bunch of things done with the layout this afternoon..actually had a couple of the neighbours show up and we ran some trains for a bit...and no incidents, accidents or giant scale mishaps occurred here...
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 guys
*stumbles into the diner again* Flo, an RBF with something to wake me up in it.
I don't think I've been in here and it's 6 pages already. I've been too busy to stop in.
Yesterday after work I had a date (for like the first time in a year) and it went well and we had a good time. She even commented it was one of the best dates she'd had. We watched her choice of a movie, and she choose "snow white and the huntsman." Niether one of us liked it, too drawn out. Then we ate at Moe's (a mexican restaraunt) I had a loaded up burrito (they are pretty big if anyone hasn't eaten there) and she had a vegan one...
Today was a torture test for me. I had to work from 6am until 5pm. Most of the last few hours were changing signs and stuff. I managed to prank my boss by sticking an old window-cling poster onto the windshield of her Explorer. She went out to her truck and didn't notice it until she talked with a co-worker who was in on it. We were both laughing when she returned and she asked "did you do something to me?" I said "nope, nothing" but the co-worker said "not to you." My boss looked at her car, smiled a bit and jokingly said "we guys are so stupid, take that off." I took it off but contemplated sticking it on the co-worker who didn't keep her mouth shut's car
Anyways, I have tomorrow off so I'm gonna try to sleep in. Then run a few errands. Maybe I'll resume work on my GP5 now that I have 3 cabs i can make. This time I measure instead of eye-balling it. (the last cab was never measured)
Sawyer, good to see you back in the diner. I was about to bug you about it over facebook.
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
GMTRacing ps Looks like I have TOP. Dinner is on me and the credit card is on the register, I've gotta skedaddle as tomorrow is another day.
credit card? I didn't see a credit card.....(slips it into pocket)....
sakel GMTRacing: ps Looks like I have TOP. Dinner is on me and the credit card is on the register, I've gotta skedaddle as tomorrow is another day. credit card? I didn't see a credit card.....(slips it into pocket)....
GMTRacing: ps Looks like I have TOP. Dinner is on me and the credit card is on the register, I've gotta skedaddle as tomorrow is another day.
Sakel - no worries - the limit is so low we'd have issues paying for Packers burrito( Ever wonder why they named that dish after a donkey?) I'd worry at a Chinese place). Besides I suppose you haven't heard of cousin Vinnie the esteemed enforcer here. You know the one who asks if you like hospital food as you'll be getting a lot of it if you don't put the card back. J.R.
Good Evening Diners!
Well it was a warm one today in 'not Winterpeg' with a Humidex of 104F. What a crazy climate we have here, -40C in winter and +40C in summer. Luckily the central air is keeping the house a nice cool 72F.
Not much done today, but I did largely finish painting that station I've been slowing working. Wonder if it will take me a month to assemble it? Sounds like a good time frame to me as I'm not in a hurry and only have a dozen other buildings to do. I also read a little more of 'To Stratford Under Steam' while sipping a cold Coke in the shade by the pond. We have a waterfall and the sound always seems to make it seem cooler. Even the goldfish were hiding under a rock so maybe the sun was too much for them too.
Der, I have some of the same dilema as we plan on moving to Vancouver Island in a few years and I know I won't have much space for a layout. That was part of my motivation to build the N scale door layout. If I decide on HO I will likely have to get by with a switching shelf layout and so I've been collecting track plans. I have 5 PK2 switchers so I'm in good shape loco wise but I would sure miss not running my Northern but have resigned myself to the possibility that it might just become a shelf queen. I too like the steamers and with N scale they look fine on a door layout. Kato track is great stuff for reliability and ease of use but I went with Micro Engineering flex and found it fine. I bought samples of Kato and also Atlas but I liked working with the ME better than Atlas flex. I have Kato track on my HO layout as I was in a hurry to get it up and running. It is beautifully made but appearance wise it just doesn't seem right for North American prototype.
Well must soon start getting ready for work tomorrow as my holiday is over for now but will start again in 3 weeks, so I guess I'll just have to plug along. I wonder how many e-mails I'll have? My guess is over 200. That delete button will be getting a workout!
CN Charlie
(edges back to the counter).. Hey look I found the card! Guess I will have to give this to its rightful owner..(sighs)
EDIT: nice bridges!
Hi, Chloe - I'll have a hot fudge brownie sundae, please, and a Espee mug of coffee, please. Thank you!
Everyone talking about train rides got me thinking about my last one - I was the desgnated person "in charge" of a group of new Navy recruits heading from St. Louis to the Great Lakes Navy Recruit Training Command (in Great Lakes, IL, not that far from the Wisconsin state line). I got that assignment because I'd had some college, so I got the packet of orders for our group. Talk about cat-herding...We were (more or less) in a coach car on the way up there (really fun to sleep in those seats, yeahboy!). Amazingly, we all made it there (I think, it has been a while now...). Lessee, about 1969 or so, IIRC.
Bill T. - yep, back about then, it seems like a lot of people didn't smile that much in photos for whatever reason. I still wonder if they had had breakfast or not...
Rob, how have you been doing with the heat? Hopefully avoiding it as much as possible.
Sawyer, wanna put together some smaller modules for me? I got out my boards and the W-S corner modular layout kit tonight before heading over here. May take a little fiddlin', since the W-S corner module is 3'X3' (and the foam pieces are 18 inches by 3 feet, while my 1X4 boards are 4' long, and my other modules are (more or less) 2'X4'. But if I fit the foam inside of the 1X4's and glue it down, that can be adjusted for. We'll see what it will turn out to be... You're making great progress on your diorama, I'd say. Keep it up!
Sakel, we have some CSX Diners here, as well as some NS folks. Sounds like you're doing a subdivision (of your own flavor, right?). Hey, Sawyer, don't you model one of those two RR's? And I think Duke (the guy sleeping over there in the back booth) is a CSX fan (but don't quote me on that for sure). Hey, don't take JR's card - or he'll have to wash dishes for quite a while.
Jeremy, no fun on those summer colds. So far, I have avoided one (but now that I've said something, y'know what will happen). Sure you might not just have a bad allergy from all the dust and stuff you stirred up (no doubt) in taking out the fence? Rest up as best you can, so you can get rid of it (whatever it is) as soon as possible. But you may want to start out with a small dose of Jeffrey's "daBomb" hot sauce - I hear it is not to be trifled with. Then w**k your way up to a higher dose until your sinuses self-combust, or the summer cold runs the white flag up the pole...
JR - awesome bridges there! BridgeTom will be drooling if he pops by and sees that, I bet. I like that arched bridge, especially; you don't see as many of those (not modeled - I'm sure there are several 1:1 sized ones). Your little part looks pretty good, scenery as well as your bridges.
Ohmigosh, Barry! TWO op sessions in a row without Mr. Murphy showing up? C'mon, when are you going to have a seminar about how you do that? (That is great, all kidding aside)
Vincent, sound like you've been having fun (in more ways than one). Remember not to overdo with the boss/manager. First (new) date, eh? Sounds good so far. Long day at w**k for you, sounds like.
Speaking of which, this was supposed to be my day off w**k, but it didn't turn out that way. I'd said that my morning appointment didn't show up - well, my 2:30 showed up (not so bad to do the paperw**k for that), but my 4 p.m. intake assessment ran a bit long (and I still have a ways to go in cleaning up/rearranging it into something ready to turn over to our transcriptionist). Got done about 5:20 and got out the door about 5:40 p.m. Have two of the (shorter) follow-up appointments in the morning to do... But my co-w**ker said he would take care of my 3 p.m. one tomorrow afternoon, so I have a little time away before I go on-call at 4:30 p.m.
Think I'm ready for a weekend again, but won't get one of those until a week from Friday.
Think I'll doodle some module ideas on the paper napkin here at the Rivet Counter...
Blessings,
See - honesty - the best policy - especially around Cousin Vinnie right Todd? Haven't been around much lately. Did you do the self introduction thing for us Sakel (you know the usual name rank serial number.... no, no I meant scale, road, time period, etc).. Nosey people would like to know. J.R.
sakel (edges back to the counter).. Hey look I found the card! Guess I will have to give this to its rightful owner..(sighs)
Gotta love that Vinnie - always with the craftwork.
Thanks for the kind words on the scene. I didn't abandon the old factories, but did try to recycle them. Here's another earlier pic as I started modding them to suit. They front the incline to the elevated tracks from the yard.
Packer, nice prank…and figures abt FB haha
Jim, pay my airfare, I’ll be there ;)
GMT, dig the buildings man
Well, went for a run for a bit when it was still 93, but didn’t get far because we had eaten dinner about 30 minutes prior…I think I’ll start going for runs about 8 or 9ish, lot cooler and I won’t have food on my stomach. Also got some painting done…now to work in some reading time, and I’ll be doing everything I want to be doing. This summer I have to read Catch-22 and The Things They Carried. FINALLY some good books I’ll actually WANT to read!
EDIT: looks like I have top. Mr. Wallet is cringing in sheer terror!