Elliott's Trackside Diner - August 2012

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good evening, DIners .....

Looks like the Chapel Car should be dispatched to the diner for prayers. Stan: our thoughts and prayers to you regarding your Dad's passing.  Paul in NV: prayers for your wife and for her recovery from illness. On going prayers for other Diners dealing with various issues. Prayers for those in the path of the storm in the Gulf.

Stan ... While I'm glad to see you again, I'm saddend by your news. Also, when you can get to it, I'm still thinking of the CB&Q steam painting. I like the Santa Fe painting!

Chris ... Nice progress on the roundhouse.

Sue ... New models of CB&Q F-units look white, but are very light gray. I have weathered a few of my CB&Q F-units, but somehow, it really don't like doing it even though it makes them look more real.

I'm going tomorrow to Nashville, TN for medical appointments. I'm hoping the heart surgeon will say it is okay to wait a long time for the the next operation. I still hurt since the recent one.

Not too much done on the layout. Too much non-model-railroad-stuff. .  

Cheers, everybody.

[pascaff*]

Evening Folks,

Stan, sorry to hear of your father's passing. Prayers to you and your family.

Just returned from the hospital. Wife tried some solid food this afternoon, but after about 45 minutes it did not sit well, so she is back on IV and a liquid diet, probably untill we get back from Stanford. Made reservations at a hotel near the medical center that caters to patients there, so they gave us a pretty good rate.

 I hope everyone down south stays safe during Issac's visit.

Paul 

[Packer]

Stan, sorry to hear about your father

Ken, as far as the rio grandes, the B is mostly stripped but the A is giving me fits. It's been soaking since I've gotten it and hardly anything has come up. I don't have the SD45s to weigh right now, but I have one of the F45s because I had to re-solder some wires. IIRC, they are about a pound each. How big do they let the trains get at K10? I doubt I could fit enough cars on my local MR club layout to see what they'd pull.

 

[cudaken]

Packer

but I have one of the F45s because I had to re-solder some wires. IIRC, they are about a pound each. How big do they let the trains get at K10?

 During open house, I think it is about 20 or so. Lot of people (None engineer's) type so they keep the trains short. When I pulled 75 cars with the PCM Y6B it was a Christmas Party and few where invited. So I had plenty of room. When I tried 100 cars I picked a section that had tighter turn. It was this section shown with my RSD 15.

 

 And they string lined, in other words they fell over on to there sides.

 Might be time to try for a 100 again, if Ken will let me when the layout is not being ran.

 Ken

  

[Anonymous]

Good Morning!

Flo, coffee and a cinnamon roll, please.

Well, our labor administration refused my application to pay for the training, so this gives me a chance to file an appeal, which I did. The outcome is open ... European railroads are short of 15,000 engineers, so there´s be also an opening for me, but only if I have the license. Frankly, I don´t give it much of a chance

Stan - my sincere condolences on the passing of your father.

Wolfgang Dudler has passed away last week. You all remember his contributions to this forum. He was not able to finish his last project, the Pueblo & Salida HOn3 modular layout. Wolfgang was an outstanding model railroader, a fountain of information and advice, and a warm and friendly man, In Germany, he was the motor of of the US prototype model railroading community. He will be missed!

Have a good day!

[herrinchoker]

Stan, condolences to you and your family on your Dad's passing. Paul, when my wife was going through treatment and unable to eat, one of the things I tried, which was a cure for sea sickness, that worked, was giving her canned Mandarin Oranges, Geisha brand as I recall. The first day or so she just drank some of the liquid, and then started eating one or two of the slices. After four or so days she was able to keep yogurt and toast down. Within a week she could tolerate bland food. I was fishing for tuna full time, and had a good year. I pulled the boat out of the water at a local marina and was able to stay home and take care of her. At that time the closest oncology center was Maine Med in Portland, 45 miles one way. I made that trip with her three times a week while she was receiving treatment. Today we have one five miles from the house. Finished the re-build of the track this evening where I slid four three pound lead ingots across the table, and through three runs of track. Tomorrow I will start working on the under table switches for the new turnouts. Tried one of my new 4-8-2 engines, it ran for 7-8 inches and promptly left the track. Found one of the pins that holds a driver to the front wheel is missing. It is a Bachmann Spectrum so will contact them later today and find out what to do with the remains. Prayers to those with challanges. herrinchoker

[wetidlerjr]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

August 27, 2012 is the 240^th day of the year 2012 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 126 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Monday.

If you are trying to learn French then this day of the week in French is lundi.

TIPTON

[galaxy]

Morning Coffee!!!

GOOD MORNING!!!

Bill has provided the date.

Smile and Make Someone's Day!!!

TO Eat Crow, or humble pie:

eat crow - acknowledge a mistake (giving rise to personal discomfort), suffer humiliation - the expression's origins are American, from imagery and folklore from the late 19th century. Crow would have been regarded as a rather distasteful dish, much like the original English Umble Pie metaphor from the 1700s (see Eat Humble Pie below). According to etymologist James Rogers, eating crow became the subject of a story reported in the Atlanta Constitution in 1888, which told the tale of an American soldier in the War of 1812, who shot a crow during a ceasefire. A British officer complimented the soldier on his shooting and asked to see the gun, which when handed to him, he turned on the soldier, reprimanding him for trespassing, and forcing the soldier to eat a piece of the dead crow. However, on having the gun returned to him, the soldier promptly turned the weapon on the officer, and made him eat the rest of the crow.

eat humble pie - acknowledge one's own mistake or adopt a subordinate position, particularly giving rise to personal discomfort - nothing to do with the word 'humble' originally; 'umbles' were the offal of animals hunted for their meat; while the lord and his guests dined on venison, his hunting staff ate pie made from the umbles. The word 'umbles' is from 16th century England and had been mistranslated into 'humble' by the late 19th century (Brewer references it in his dictionary of 1870).

[mononguy63]

Morning, all. Making a little cameo appearance here at the Diner.

Sad news about Wolfgang. Always seemed like a nice fellow from his posts.

Jeffrey - Whereabouts in Louisiana are you? The forecasters have kept pushing Isaac farther and farther west for the past several days, and now the Louisiana coast is in the crosshairs again. You and Drew Brees are the only guys I 'know' in those parts. Hope you're not too severely affected by landfall. The five-day track has the storm still holding together as a tropical depression all the way up here in Indiana by the weekend which is very unusual - while it may only put a damper (so to speak) on my plans to attend Saturday's Purdue football game, the coast may once again be in real danger. Stay safe.

Jim

[blownout cylinder]

Morning

Gonna be dull and dribbly here for a bit...thunderboomers later on. 

Going to the doctors later this afternoon to check on bloodwork as well as get more taken out of picline...

Sad news all around, Stan, sorry for your loss, as well as to Wolfgang's family for their loss...

[gear-jammer]

I need coffee this morning.  Must be too much weekend I guess.

Stan, Sad news about you father.  I didn't know that you were a painter.  Thanks for sharing it.

Garry,  I hope you get good news from your heart surgeon.

Sue

[jeffrey-wimberly]

mononguy63

Jeffrey - Whereabouts in Louisiana are you? The forecasters have kept pushing Isaac farther and farther west for the past several days, and now the Louisiana coast is in the crosshairs again.

West-central, about eighteen miles from the Texas line. Coordinates  of the nearest town (Leesville)   31°08′37″N 93°16′16″W. Not too worried about Issac. That's way west.

*

Sad to hear about Wolfgang Dudler. I hope his family is OK.

[TMarsh]

Good Morning!!!

Coffee and a celebratory sweet roll because it sounds like good news in the diner!!!!

I see they’ve taken rain out of the forecast. It now says: Areas of fog before 10am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 88.

Barry- 

Stan- I’m sorry about your Father. Glad to see you stop in though. Nice painting too!

THER YA GO RAY!!!! My thoughts exactly. If you’re gonna go to the trouble of keeping some weed alive, you oughta at least be able to eat it. Or some part of it anyway.

Ulrich- Sorry about the letter. Maybe the fates knew of the health issues and are waiting for those to pass? I hope so.

Yes I saw the thread about Wolfgang. Dropped off my condolences. Sad.

Welp once again, don’t know what’s in store for moi. (that’s Spanish by the way of which I’m fluent) Still have some odds and tiny ends in the bathroom that I’ve put off for the last couple days. Just received an e-mail the shower door showed up yesterday (? Sunday ?) yep, it said yesterday and is ready for pick up so I’ll get it today as tomorrow is Brenda’s surgery on her elbow and with w**k in the afternoon I doubt I’ll get a chance to get it.

Need to do some picking up around the house too. Walls are starting to close in. Again.  

Ya’ll have a good day!!!!

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 79° with 85% humidity. A tropical storm watch is in effect. The chance for rain today is small. It'll be partly cloudy and the high will be 95° but will feel like 102°.

Nothing much going on today. I think I'll do some catching up on my movie watching. The bones in my right leg are letting me know they're unhappy and it hurts just to stand. This morning I'm watching my three GP9F's slowly pull a string of twenty-one cars around the layout.

[howmus]

Mornin' everyone!

Zoe, I'll have the Blueberry waffle with NYS Maple Syrup and a side order of breakfast sausage, please.  Oh, yes, I will need my dark roast coffee in a R&GV RR mug as well!

Very sad to hear about Wolfgang Dudler.  I have some working switch stands made the way he did them on my layout.  Always fun to see the look on peoples faces when I throw the turnout and they see the tiny stand change positions.  I will need to do more of them on the new section!

Currently 76°F here in the Finger Lakes with a high of 81° later.  We have some thunderboomers scheduled for this afternoon and more all through the evening and night they say.

I shall be getting the NMRA Division newsletter ready to mail and then hiding out in the train room most of the rest of today.

Stay safe out there!

73

[pascaff*]

 Morning All,

   Cool morning here at 58, but going to a high of 92.

A/C repairman is supposed to be here this morning. Will see if he shows up.

I have a closing shift today, so I will stop at the hospital before wook.

I do not think much railroad stuff will happen today.

Paul

[cudaken]

 Morning All

 Flo, Coffee Pleases.

 Well, if hurting feet is good, I am in great shape! My feet still hurt from yesterday!

 Time to go eat, I will stop by later.

            Ken

[JeremyB]

Jeff: Is Issac going to be a problem in your area of Louisiana?

[galaxy]

Afternoon tea and crumpets

Good Afternoon

Well well

A do-nothing day for me. Have a headache, nothing unusual about that.

Train Nut friend came for a visit. Actually, he came to waste time while the wifey worked before she drives him for nerve injections in HIS back like I get cause he has back issues too. His first time. He will see what he thinks about it.

We solidified our plans to go to Steamtown for the LAbor day Rail Fest this year. usually by now we have been to Steamtown, but didn't go yet. It will be the last day to see steam run excepting a few excursions for leap-peeping and Xmas. We will go there AND  MAYBE go to the Houdini Museum in Scranton too, then go to the Red Robin Diner for a tasty burger.

Well, i go rest now.

Prayers and thoughts for those in need, and prayers/thoughts for those who have passed.

Have a good afternoon

[Packer]

Afternoon guys

Well today's my 23rd birthday, but I haven't done anything special. I don't know if my folks will take me out for a birthday dinner on account of Issac.

Be back on later.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

JeremyB

Jeff: Is Issac going to be a problem in your area of Louisiana?

It looks like we could get some fallout from it. My father is trying to get his generator in order in case he needs it. It started OK for a test this morning but not it won't even click. We checked all the battery connections on the RV. They're clean and tight. Checked all the breakers and fuses. They're good. So it's most likely a loose connection back at the generator. That will be checked today.

With the very real possibility of coming buckets of rain I got the mowing done this morning while the grass was still manageable. Not something I really wanted to do but it had to be done. Otherwise I'd need a bush hog to mow the yard. Needless to say my right leg isn't very happy with right now.

Vincent: Happy birthday!

[james saunders]

Happy Birthday Vincent!  

[teen steam fan]

Hey guys

Vincent-Happy birthday 

Ken- Hope your feet feel better. 

Maybe I should change my username, aw well, another challenge for later

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Well my father went out to his RV this morning to check if the generator would start. It did. so then he shut it down and pulled the fuse out of the faceplate on the genny. The fuse fell out of the fuse holder and ended up in a little hole at the bottom of the well where the fuse fits in. Now I wonder why he pulled the fuse. The thing started, it worked, obviously it was good. Why pull the fuse out? Well he wanted to see if it was good. God, I know this man isn't an idiot, so why does he act like one? Anyway, he reached in with a needle-nose pliers and managed to ground the hot contact of the fuse clamp to ground and the sparks flew! At that point I finished with mowing the grass and stopped to see what he was doing. Well I made the smart play. I took the face plate off the panel and used a small magnet on the end of a plastic rod to fish the fuse out then put the panel back on. I used a small piece of electrical tape to secure the fuse to the little holder it's in so it couldn't fall out again then put the fuse and holder back into the front of the genny. He went to start it from inside and it wouldn't do anything, not even click. I checked all the fuses in the vehicle with a fuse tester and used a multi-meter on the ones the tester wouldn't reach. So then he calls my nephew and tells him he needs him to come down to see what's ailing it. Now this man knows what bait to use. He hung a case of beer out there as a reward and the boy came running! Within an hour he found the problem. My father had fried the circuit board that controls the starter. No new board for a twenty-five year old Onan genny. So he rigged a bypass on it so it can be started and cut off. It starts now and it works! So my Father has a working genny in case the coming storm takes out the power. It's not much but it can run both fridges and a couple of lights and fans. That's all he needs it to do. Can't run a TV on it. We tried that when Rita came through in 2005. I had to carry the TV out of the house before it burned the place down! The genny puts out AC but it's not clean. The circuit for that is built into the RV but doesn't seem to work with outside appliances.

Since 5:00 pm we've been getting short showers here. Some light, others heavy. Looks like it's starting.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Just got this flash from my weather service. It's something all of us along the gulf coast should be thinking about.

...TROPICAL STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT...

...PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

PREPARATIONS SHOULD BE MADE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE...BEFORE CONDITIONS DETERIORATE. KEEP INFORMED WHILE LISTENING FOR POSSIBLE WARNINGS. SECURE LOOSE OUTDOOR OBJECTS WHICH CAN BE BLOWN AROUND. STRONGLY CONSIDER EVACUATING IF YOU LIVE IN A MOBILE HOME...AND DO SO IF ORDERED BY LOCAL OFFICIALS.

CLASSES AT LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY AT EUNICE WILL BE CLOSED TUESDAY.

&&

...PROBABILITY OF TROPICAL STORM/HURRICANE CONDITIONS... THE CHANCE FOR HURRICANE CONDITIONS AT THIS TIME (for my area) IS LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO 11 PERCENT. ALSO...THE CHANCE FOR TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS AT THIS TIME IS UP TO 75 PERCENT. THIS REPRESENTS A GENERAL UPWARD TREND SINCE THE LAST FORECAST.

...WINDS... AS TROPICAL STORM ISAAC MOVES CLOSER...THE THREAT FOR SUSTAINED HIGH WINDS IS LIKELY TO INCREASE. THE LATEST FORECAST IS FOR WINDS TO REMAIN BELOW TROPICAL STORM FORCE. HOWEVER...A SLIGHT JOG TO THE WEST MAY PUT SUSTAINED TROPICAL STORM WINDS INTO THE AREA FROM LAKE CHARLES TO FORT POLK TO ALEXANDRIA.

[LSWrr]

Jeff, I hope you don't need that Onan.  I hope the storms dies out before it hits the coast.  You can get parts for that Onan Genset at a marina that services the Comercial fishing boats.  You can also get parts from the company that bought Onan, I think it was OMC...

[jeffrey-wimberly]

LSWrr

You can get parts for that Onan Genset at a marina that services the Comercial fishing boats.  You can also get parts from the company that bought Onan, I think it was OMC...

Thanks for the information. I'll pass it on to my father.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow, weather permitting.

[cudaken]

 Evening Jeffery. You seem to be the only person here tonight.

 Flo, Beer Pleases.

 Not a lot to talk about tonight. Work was kind of slow tonight. That means I did not make squat! There a phases  for you to look up Galaxy. Have a pretty good idea of where it came from!

 Well Great, my Digitrax System just died! Only hand 2 engines running and a few sound engines in the back ground. Then all went quite? Power light is not on, that is the first time I have seen that happen! So either the power supply took a dump, or the DB150. Looks like I am back on the Bachmann E Z Command again! I am not surprised, it not been working just right for awhile now.

  I just hope my PR 3 will work as a stand alone. I only have 3 engines that the Bachmann can control.

 Ken

[pascaff*]

  Evening Folks,

  Well the A/C repair guy came out and the outside unit needed a new motor. Naturally it is a very popular one and he did not have anymore on the truck. He had to drive into Reno (30 miles) to get a new one. Got it fixed at a cost of only $326.00 Stopped at the hospital and was only 3 hours late for work, so decided to just go home. Like Ken, it was slow and I would not make much anyway.

Sure hope Issac dies down a bit before it its you guys down south.

Vincent

Prayers to all in need.

Paul