Elliot's Trackside Diner, DECEMBER, 2012!

[Robby P.]

 Good morning everybody.  Not as cold this morning, but rainy!!

 Go visist some today and relax.  

 Here's a better picture of my hopper.

  

 

 

 Hope everybody has a good morning/day.

 

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

[fec153]

OH JOY !  Don't post for almost a month and hit T O P .

O.K., Credit card is at the register. Enjoy!  MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Flip

 

 

[fec153]

Wish all at the Diner a MERRY CHRISTMAS . 

Thanks to everyone for ten years of friendship and good food.

 

Phil  aka Fla.Phil   Flip.

 

[Curt Webb]

Morning All,

Not much planned today. MOH has some cooking to do for Christmas dinner with the family. I will probably run some trains for awhile. I go back to w**k tomorrow but it is my early day so I will be able to have Christmas dinner with the family.

Barry- Your cat does not look very pleased.

Ulrich- I would love a small piece of Petra's cake.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy  New Year. I hope 2013 is a great year. And as always prayers for those in need.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Looks like Barry caught the fifty foot cat on film!

*

Good morning. It's 60° with 99% humidity. Mostly cloudy becoming partly cloudy later with a chance of rain. Expecting a high of 70°.


Well it looks like we'll have some decent weather today at least until late afternoon/early evening when the wind shifts and the chance of rain jumps up to 80% and the bottom drops out!

No plans for today other than doing some cleanup on the layout once in a while. I still have to get a few things together so I can get back to work on the grain elevator.

[GMTRacing]

Good Morning All,

    A regular and a blueberry danish please to go. 25F and mostly sunny this morning. Hope you all have an enjoyable Christmas tomorrow.

   Bear - thanks for the links for NZ (I finally caught up posts). We'd been looking at doing the North/South island train if there's not too big a job list between weekends and the more info the better. CFO has become much more interested in riding and viewing as I'd hoped (she was as interested in the machinery and hoists at the Gulburn museum as she was the rolling stock. Must be the machinist in her).

 I'm in the shop today until the normal time doing cleanup and such - the joys of running your own business.      .  Catch y'all later, J.R.

[TMarsh]

Good Morning!!!

Coffee and waffles please. Than….oh wait! I see a piece of Petra’s cake over there! I’ll have that instead thank you.

Merry Christmas Eve! I see Spring has taken her usual amongst the decorations position.

 We will have the kids over today about 1 and Brenda w**ks til noon so that means I will be the chef for today. Menu will be…..Prime Rib, green beans, brown sugared sweet potatoes (actually Yams but….We call em sweet potatoes anyway. Sounds less yuppie), and glazed carrots.  

I see right thru my wonderful wife’s plan. She schedules things to where I have to cook, they all get a taste, remember what it was like when I did, and then want me to cook all the time thereby getting her off the hook. Well I have news for THEM! This will be a tease. Even if I have to fake a sprained wrist and ankle at the same time. Did I mention caramel swirl cheesecake for desert? Says she cheated this time using one of them premade graham cracker crusts instead of the regular springform pan cake looking thing. Didn’t have enough cream cheese and wasn’t gonna go to town to get some last night and I don’t blame her. Guess it’s a cheesepie. It’ll be plenty as they usually don’t eat much in the way of desert anyway. Odd.

Ken- The room where they made the Mayan calendar!

Welp, best pull the roast out of the fridge to let it come to room temp before it hits the oven.

If anyone’s celebrating with alcohol tonight, please be smart and designate a driver, or else take a cab….. Preferably one with a driver.

Ya’ll have a good day, ya hear!!!!

[blownout cylinder]

Merry Christmas!!!!!

[rtraincollector]

Morning all stopped in to say merry Christmas to all. Hope you have a good one and get some stuff with flanges.

[rtraincollector]

 This is from an unknown author, and has circulated around the 'Net several
times, but it's appropriate for the holiday season.

 'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through my pike,
 Not a steamer was stirring, not even a Mike.
 My yard tracks invitingly empty and bare,
 In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

 The diesels were nestled all snug in their sheds,
 While visions of DCC danced in their heads.
 While I, in my blue-and-white engineer's cap,
 Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

 When down in the train room, there rose such a clatter,
 I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
 Away to the basement I flew like an ace,
Tripped over the cat and fell flat on my face.

 I stifled a curse meant for Chessie (the cat),
 And I muttered to no one, "I meant to do that,"
 When what to my wondering eyes should appear
 But an HO-scale sleigh and eight Preiser reindeer,

 With an engineer driving, so lively and quick,
 I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
 More rapid than GG-1's, onward they came,
 And he blew a steam whistle and called them by name:

 "On Athearn!  On Lionel, Kato and Walthers!
 On Kadee and Micro-Trains, Atlas and others!
 To the top of the mountains of Hydrocal plaster,
 Now dash away, dash away, dash away faster!"

 As dry leaves that behind a new Genesis fly,
 When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
 So in through the window the coursers they flew
 With the sleigh full of trains, and St. Nicholas too.

 And then, on my roundhouse, I saw on the roof
 The prints in the dust of each HO-scale hoof.
 As I drew a deep breathe, and was turning around,
 From beneath the benchwork, St. Nick came with a bound.

 He was dressed like an engineer from head to foot,
 And his clothes had that fine smell of ashes and soot;
 A bundle of trains he had flung on his back,
 And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

 His eyes - just like marker lights! Dimples, how merry!
 His cheeks like a Warbonnet; nose like a cherry!
 His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
 And his beard was so white; it would please Phoebe Snow.

 He puffed on a pipe as he refilled its bowl,
 And the smoke, it smelled just like bituminous coal.
 He had a broad face and a belly (I found)
 That shook like a tank car with wheels out-of-round.

 He was chubby and plump, and I wanted to shout,
 "Yes!  The man's got a route the UP can't buy out!"
 A wink of his eye as he passed near the door
 Soon gave me to know I'd have freight cars galore.

 He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work.
 He filled all my yard tracks; then turned with a jerk,
 And leaving an airbrush he'd found on eBay,
 And giving a nod, he returned to his sleigh.

 He pumped up the brakes, blew two blasts on his whistle,
 And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
 But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
 "MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!  KEEP 'EM ROLLING! GOOD-NIGHT!"

 High greens and clear track to all of you!

[LSWrr]

Good morning,

Happy Christmas Eve to all!

Ken I would guess by the refractive clay it’s a kiln.

The snow from the other day is almost gone, but some snow showers on the way.

["JaBear"]

Gidday All, ,My goodness, if there are any leftovers of Ulrichs cake I reckon that 1/2 of a slice would do me. 

Currently 0005 hours , Christmas Day, 68 F, 83% humidity so from the Antipodes I'll wish you all a 

Very Merry Christmas

and to those who don't celebrate Christmas, have a Great Day anyhow.

Thoughts and Best Wishes to All that need them.

Cheers, the Bear. 

[galaxy]

Morning Coffee in the Diner with friends

GOOD MORNING!!!

Merry Happy Christmas EVE!!!

Almost too late to shop for Christmas presents!

but, to shop now is "better late than never";

Meaning:

To arrive or do something later than expected isn't good, but it is better than not at all.

Origin:

This proverb is often expressed with a degree of sarcasm, apparently saying something positive but in fact merely remarking on someone's lateness. A teacher might say it to a child arriving late for school, for example. Geoffery Chaucer appears to have been the first person to have put the proverb into print, in The Yeoman's Prologue and Tale, Canterbury Tales, circa 1386:

For bet than never is late. [Better than never is late.]

For those of you who will be celebrating with your "better half"..I'll bet you didn't know this: 

 Meaning:

husband or my wife

Origin:

This term wasn't originally restricted to referring to one's spouse as we use it now, but to a dear friend. It was used that way by the Roman poet Horace and later by Statius. The allusion then was to a friend so dear that he/she was more than half of a person's being. That meaning persists, although these days, if the term is used seriously rather than sarcastically, it is generally considered to mean 'the superior half of a married couple'. That is, better in quality rather than in quantity.

Sir Philip Sidney was the first to put into print the use of this phrase to mean spouse, in The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia, 1580:

"My deare, my better halfe (sayd hee) I find I must now leaue thee."

The prayer candles wil be lit for: those who have had a loved one pass, for those in need of healing thoughts, and for those need special prayers for any reason, and one for the "itty bitty baby who was born in isreal"

[wetidlerjr]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

Monday, December 24, 2012

TIPTON

[last mountain & eastern hogger]

Been pretty busy here and very little Railroading as late, but still check in here to see what you are all up to.

Won't be in for the next couple of days so I wanted to stop in before bed and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and rewarding holiday season.    Do make a special effort in remembering the Reason for the Season.  All of what we have is His and we are only Stewards of it for a period on time.  May the Lord bless each one of you in the way that he knows it is needed.

Our condolences to you Rob on your Fathers passing.  Never good news, but especially not at this time of year.   Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Ulrich, I have never done any brass work, but you seem to have it down pat... I really like what I see, please keep posting.  I would love a piece of Petra's cake, it looks scrumsious.

Please do not drink and drive, the life you save may be your OWN....

Johnboy out........ and wondering if it is too late to write a letter to Santa ??

[Anonymous]

Good Morning!

A heat wave, we are having a tropical heat wave 

Currently 5 C, expecting o go up to 10C during the day. Some parts in southern Germany are expecting up to 20C!

Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night
Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way to say Merry Christmas to you 

No plans for the day. As our son won´t be with us, we have plenty of food in the refrigerator to take us over the holidays. Petra is adding finishing touches to the cake she made:

It´s a cranberry cream cake - delicious, but I just can´t eat more than just one slice of eat, it´s too rich for more! Guess I´ll be taking the leftovers to the Diner ...

All shops and businesses close at noon today for the holidays. All the hustle and the bustle of the past days will come to an abrupt end and an almost ghostly silence is all over the country.

Petra and I will go to attend a special mass tonight - instead of the regular Christmas service, we will attend a performance of J.S. Bach´s Christmas Oratory. I know we will be enjoying it.

Have a good one!

[howmus]

Evenin' folks!

Janie, I'll have a hot mug of decaf and a couple of the butterscotch toll house cookies please.

Been a good day to get things done.  Presents are all wrapped, cookies baked, clothes dried and brought upstairs waiting to be put away.  I have a nice warm fire in the wood stove going so all is well here in the Finger Lakes.

J.R. nice shot of your layout!

The next two days will be very busy for me, so I think I will call it a day and catch some zzzzz's.

Prayers for all in need, and there are quite a few out there!

73

[jeffrey-wimberly]

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

[Cederstrand]

Chamomile tea, please.

***JR, cool layout pic.

Have a good night y'all.

Rob

[Curt Webb]

Ken- I will probably be making one later this week where I will have one at each end of a coal drag.

My guess is a very old outdoor sweat lodge or sauna.

[cudaken]

 Evening All

 Why Thank You Flo for the I need it.

 I was wondering today on the way into work if we were going to be busy or slow? I was guessing slow.BOY WAS I WRONG! I had people in the door 20 minutes before we opened! Service Manager told me last night he was not coming in till 10:00 AM, he had something to do! I am guessing . (on the schedule he should have been in at 9:00 AM with me) By 9:30 AM I had people stand 8 deep to get in! We stayed busy till 4:00 PM.

 It was a very good day for me with $3400.00 in sales! This coming check will look pretty good compared to what I have been getting!    

 Gary Was it me that talked to you on the phone and got you into go DCC? Getting old sucks, but I think it was you. Only way I really know anything about DCC is by all the mistakes I have made! 

 Curt Can you make longer videos? While that clip was great, it was way to short!

 Well I am beat, see you all Christmas Eve, I am off!

 Ken

 

 Want to guess what that is?

[JeremyB]

Hi Guys

Well we might actually get some snow tomorrow and into Christmas. There calling for a good amount on boxing day plus some pretty decent winds also. I'm glad I only have to go to my parents house which is about 5 minutes away.

I was going to start work on that Sherman tank today but found myself working on the railroad instead. I have a few more things I want to do tomorrow. The art supply store is going to be having a boxing day sale so I hope I can pick up a few tubes of oil paints that im running low on at a good price.

Has anybody picked up this year's version of Great Model Railroads? How is it?

Well, im going to go grab some chips and sit down in front of the tv

[Curt Webb]

Evening All,

Had a 4 hour visit with the grand kids that was a great time today while MOH and daughter were off doing things. Phil had previously given me a beginners Lionel set for them so we ran that for about 90 minutes and they loved it,  Hmmmmmm.....(wheels turning) Do I see a 4 x 8 layout in their future? I think so.

Not much else happened today.

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

[jeffrey-wimberly]

chochowillie

Going down to -26C tonight Jeffery, although I suspect the thought of it makes ya shivvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeer

-15F? Yeah, you can keep that. I don't think my little heater could handle that!

[chochowillie]

jeffrey-wimberly

He had to get a mallet to hit the wrench a couple of times to break it loose.

A mallet you say Jeffery? That's a heck of a big powerful locomotive just to take an oil filter off 

Going down to -26C tonight Jeffery, although I suspect the thought of it makes ya shivvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeer

Stay dry

Cheers

Dennis 

[Mr. Dispatcher]

jeffrey-wimberly

He said I had weak hands and arms until he tried to loosen it. He grabbed it and twisted. He turned while the filter remained stationary! He had to get a mallet to hit the wrench a couple of times to break it loose.

 

Looks like somebody forgot to eat his wheaties this morning didn't he.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Looks like we have nasty weather moving in tomorrow. There's a 30% chance tonight and tomorrow morning then in the afternoon the winds will shift to the north and the chance of rain goes up to 80% for Monday afternoon and night then to 90% for Christmas Day. Looks like it's gonna be a WET Christmas. The high is due to be around 70 both days.

Gave my nephew a little help today on dropping the tranny from his 4X4, mostly holding wrenches on nuts and bolts that wanted to turn as the other end was being turned. He in turn loosened the oil filter on my van so I could change it out. He said I had weak hands and arms until he tried to loosen it. He grabbed it and twisted. He turned while the filter remained stationary! He had to get a mallet to hit the wrench a couple of times to break it loose.

[GMTRacing]

Good Evening All,

After chores today I spent most of the afternoon on the layout.   Had a couple of dips in the track at joins that I was able to pull up with the soldering gun and straighten. Also had the gauge of the bridge track too narrow but I was able to straighten that again by using the soldering gun to soften the glue and a fixture we made to regauge the rail correctly. I got the track to work smoothly all the way around and started to get some of the other locomotives out and programmed.

 

C-liner pulls a cut of coal cars away from the processing plant siding towards the power station.

  I found out a few interesting things though. I probably will need a booster if I want to run more than one sound equipped loco at once. Just the Tsunami equipped DL109 pops the breaker on the main unit if run with another decoder equipped locomotive going. Also once elected, you don't seem to be able to deselect so they all draw. That might be my unfamiliarity with the system and not necessarily a flaw in the plan. If true. the solution is to have on/off switches on the sidings to kill power to the engines when not in use.

    As far as the DCC itself it seems pretty useful. I can crawl along at speed 1 and not stall out as we used to. Still need to gleam the track but I think that will wait until I have the yard and sidings done. It was fun just to run stuff around for a while even if the sidings aren't done.

   I shall catch up on posts and try to check in again later.      J.R.

[blownout cylinder]

Good Afternoon.

Well, sort of.

It has been  wonderfully dull day for us here..as well...seems that wife has come up with a new name for what shows up round here when everyone gets stressed about the prefect Xmas, Christmas-itis, inflammation of the Christmas ...

We went to Wally World and saw a few critters as well as our usual things...a lot of electronic goodies are already marked down up here...although we know...