Elliot´s Trackside Diner - January 2013

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. Happy New Year. It's 51° with 100% humidity. It's going to be a wet one today. The high will be 52°.


Looks like there will be plenty of rain today. Maybe the first day of the year will also be the wettest? Later I'll see what the rest of my family is up to. There's usually a New Years dinner or some such thing going on.

[galaxy]

Jeffrey- I AM  {often} jealous of the warmer temps you have down there in the winter months...but I can't breathe well in 60% or higher 'humdidity' like you have!

I tgreid living in FL once..itg was sometimes unbearable humdidity tehre too, especially after the noon-2 pm daily rain hit.

Funny thing is here we have the HUMIDIFIER on to keep the house AT 50-60% "humdidity' while the dry air of the furnace circulates....Then in the spring when the rains start, we will run the DEhumidifier to reduce the 'humdidity'.{it came out "humdidity' one day and we kept it...just like "re'frigid'ator".}

 

 

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning

Well, we are up...that is about it.

Kinda ccold and raw today but we are seeing a curious yellow orb this morning..high of 25F expected...low of 16F later

We did do the shiveree thing and got a little silly here...went through the neighbourhood collecting all sorts of people and ended up with a bit of a parade through the neigbourhood.. Now, if'n you did this this morning you would get old shoes, clocks, a few bottles and bricks...

Galaxy:  We tend to add sylylables to our wordords as well....kinda like the Flodidia thing

[jeffrey-wimberly]

galaxy

Jeffrey- I AM  {often} jealous of the warmer temps you have down there in the winter months...but I can't breathe well in 60% or higher 'humdidity' like you have!

Yeah, not everybody can take the conditions we have here. Someone from your part of the country moving down here in winter would be very comfortable but come spring they'd be staying inside as much as possible until they got acclimated to the conditions. That usually takes another year or two. I've seen it many times. The heat coupled with the humidity makes for a damp hot wave that smacks you in the face and makes you think you're standing in front of an oven with the door open on broil. They learn quickly to get outside things done in the early morning and the evening hours.

[saronaterry]

Good New Year's Day, all!

-11f with a bit of a breeze. I don't even want to know the windchill. I'll take a little of your heat, Jeff!

 Too cold to leave the house so today's a train day! YAY! Need to ballast some more, try my hand at weathering some cars, organize the workbench and run trains.

 Badgers play at 4pm, hope the 3rd time's a charm. Stanford's got a good defense against the run. Went to the Packer /Viqueens game Sunday at MPLS. Very disappointed with the officiating. Again. Boy ,was it LOUD there! My ears are still ringing. You'd think the queens actually finally won the Super Bowl! At least they got to play a 4 time SB Champ.

Working through a short punchlist on the job, should finish this one on Wednesday. Then a couple days off and I start a gut and remodel right next door to this one. I am blessed for the work, I know. A lot of contractors have none up here.

I responded to NP Mark out on the forum about operations, or at least how I figured it out. Hope it helped a little.

 

Prayers for those that need'm.

Terry in NW Wisconsin

[TMarsh]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Yes Flip, I’s sober as a judge and that makes me happy as a clam…or….as we say…happy as a pig in new mud.

Austria huh? I musta seen it before he took the “al” out. (When you name a country you should be careful it’s not too close to one that’s already out there.) So this is the place where they have all those pastries and wear lead hoses? Oh my….pretty architecture!

(yaaawn) Coffee and an order of black eyed peas please. Oh and could you scramble a couple eggs too? Thanks.

Got up bout 6, took the dog out, made coffee and then said….why not. So I took a nap. Yup, felt pretty good too.

Well, made it til midnight, but just barely. I tell you what, maybe because I’m older, I know I’m not any wiser, but maybe because I’m a wee older, I've noticed over the years that celebrating New Years has gratefully seen the replacing of alcohol with tasty morsels of food, and this year playing guess which coaster the “X” is under with my friends (the owner) 8 year old granddaughter. We have a good time even though Brenda doesn’t understand why I wasn’t taking her hints as to which one had the “X” on it. She doesn’t understand the game I guess. I explained later it was to occupy Madi’s time until Grandma went home, it’s easy for me to do, involves no money or effort on my part and besides, she has fun “fooling” me and was looking forward, according to her Mother, to coming in and playing. It’s either that or feed her pepperoni until she throws up on me. Her Grandma (friend’s wife) said she’d been looking for me all night to come in and play that game. She said she told her I might not want to play it tonight and she said “yes he will. If he’s too busy, he’ll feed me pepperoni. I’m easy to babysit” She’s a pistol.

Welp, didn’t get to the modeling desk yesterday, but today….well that’s a new day and year!

Speaking of new year, since the new years resolution last year about finishing a project before starting another, mainly just finish a project, went so well, I’ve decided to maaaybe try to quit smoking. I keep thinking maybe some year I’ll actually enjoy it, but that day has not arrived so I guess I’ll just try to quit. We’ll see how that goes. Better have a backup resolution just in case.

Ya’ll have a great day!!!  

[B&O1952]

Happy New Year everyone!

 Well, we closed the Rail Museum for the season with little fanfare, my friend Dave, a Z scale modeler, was my only visitor on the last day. Now I can start working on my city scene which is going to be the focal point of the layout.  I will be in and out of the museum taking down displays, and keeping the N scale layout running. 

Have a great day!    -Stan

[howmus]

Mornin' and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Zoe, I'll have...  Oh you have my dark roast coffee all ready for me....  What?  A new stronger roast,  Oh good, the stronger the better!  (Take sip, fire shoots out of eyes!  gasps for breath).  Holy Moley Zoe, that stuff could hair on your chest...  Ah, well not on your chest, no that wouldn't be good at all....  No! no!  You can set the frying pan down, I'll be good....  Well, who made the coffee this morning?  Jeffrey!  It's his special Jalapeno pepper bean coffee...  Ah, well, if I sip it, I will probably learn to like it.

So Austria, Huh?  Just as long as I don't have to wear any of those silly leather pant thingies....  Ulrich, Beautiful place, good choice!

Last night my son called and said to come over early and help them eat up the leftovers from the dinner Sunday before the the New Year's Eve party started.  Since I didn't have a clue what I was going to make for dinner I told him I would be right over.  As soon as I got there, I started to cough, and cough!  I think the dry air in his house aggravated the cold I am trying to get over.  We ate snacks, watched some dumb shows on the Idiot Box, ate some more snacks, and after the granddaughters had thoroughly ticked of their Mother and got themselves dragged off the bed, several of us decided to play dominoes for a couple hours before all the falling lighted up objects and count downs and drunk people reveling out in the cold commenced.  About 3 minutes before the stroke of mid-night I happened to look at my watch and suggested we break out the obligatory bottle of cheap bubbly to celebrate so Uncle Ben switched the channel to watch the rioting on the streets of New Yoke.  By that time the countdown was on 5 so we watched the rest of the countdown, clincked glasses, consumed the cheap bubbly and stared at the TV a bit.  After looking at the so-called Musicians up on the press stage, I decided 2012 was really the year of "Meh!" and I should call it a night and see if I could find a way to quit coughing.

Galaxy, you could have at least posted a link to Guy Lumbago and the Royal Canucks butchering the Robert Burns song........  BTW did they dig up Dick Clark this year....  If so, did he need more make up than usual?

It seems I have another meal to go to today out at my son's house...  Turkey Dinner at 3PM.  I didn't even bother to take my blood sugar when I got home last night...  As of 11AM this morning when I got my coffee made it was still 122...  Glad the season is almost over.  Oh, BTW, New Years day was always special in my family growing up.  'Twas my Parents Wedding anniversary.  My Dad claimed he was up all night on New Years Eve (playing in a band) and she dragged him to the alter when he was too tired to say no!  They were married 75 years ago today.  My Dad died a couple months before their 64th. anniversary.

Best get moving, got to get ready to go to my son's house...

73

[Anonymous]

howmus

So Austria, Huh?  Just as long as I don't have to wear any of those silly leather pant thingies....  Ulrich, Beautiful place, good choice!

Ray - only Japanese and US tourists wear those things nowadays

I am not feeling well. My BP is playing ups and downs and I don´t know why. Went to bed by about 10pm last night, only to wake up at midnight. Too much noise outside. I wonder how Petra managed to stay asleep.

Guess I might be coming down with something.

[tcwright973]

So we are off and running into the new year. I sincerely hope that its a better one for all of us. I must admit, last year was pretty good to the wife and I. But we are in our 70's and don't expect much. We didn't ring in the new year last night as the wife went to bed early and I fell asleep on the couch reading a book while waiting for that magic moment. It use to be that most of the neighborhood would bang pots, shoot off fireworks and do a lot of yelling, but that tradition seems to have died off around here the last couple of years. At least I didn't hear a thing last night.

We will start off the year with my favorite meal this evening of a pork roast, kielbasa, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and a bottle of Riesling from one of our favorite wineries on Seneca Lake. I'm even going to offer a toast to Ray for any part he might or might not have played in growing such great grapes.

Tomorrow we will try a new place for breakfast. Hope its not too bad. Afterwards I need to go and visit a longtime friend who has been bouncing between the hospital and a rehab center since mid-December. He's now in a different rehab center than the one he was in originally. His wife told me last night that he is doing a lot better in this one. He claims the food is very good, which is surprising considering he was a cook for many years and can be very critical when eating out. So that's a good thing I would think. He has a lot of different health problems so I hope they can get him up and around so he can return home.

Best wishes to all and good luck in all your endeavors this year...

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Happy New Year, everybody.

I just wrote a post in Mark (NP2626) 's operations thread. ... Now I'm out of time. 

Cheers! 

[Burlington Northern #24]

Happy New year, I have to wander across the border to germany and visit some relatives.

[cudaken]

 Happy New Year Fellow Dinner?

 Flo, it seems like a slow day, I will have a pleases.

 Been a some what boring day. Took the wife grocery shopping and it was not fun! She just plain drive me nuts at time say silly things like "don't drop the egg's honey, they will break!" It drives my daughter and I nuts! We know she cannot help her self.

 Bought Sue some powered speakers for her new HD LCD TV, hum, they don't work? Back to the drawing board, in other words go to Best Buy and talk to someone under 25 years old!

 JR are you going to share any more pictures of your layout?

 See you all later this year!

 Ken

 

 

[JeremyB]

Hi Guys

Happy New Year, Ken I really like that above picture you posted.

Well after today's New Years dinner at my Aunts house that wraps up the Holidays for us. I still cant believe how fast they come and go. My attention now turns to finding another job. I hope all had a good festive season. I don't know why but I find January through until March depressing, I guess its because its dark and cold out. I do enjoy getting out and playing hockey though, but Id rather be out on my mountain bike hitting the trails on a warm summer morning.

[blownout cylinder]

Good Evening

We just finished up dinner here...pork tenderloin done to perfection with 'taters and grilled veggies..yes, we even grilled the veggies and tenderloin out on the BBQ...I did not say we were normal here...

Actually got some traintime this afternoon as well...so it was a well rounded day here...

[GMTRacing]

Good Evening All,

    Not much ambition today. Cleaned a little in the shop, got some crack test stuff done then went home and finished chores. Got into the train room and added an extra turnout off the loop to allow access to the coal bunker past the turntable and roundhouse. I also mocked up one of the rod turnout controls to see if it is practical. Looks like it might work ok. It's a length of .047"piano wire bent to suit. The wire sits in a dent in the foam so once the ballast is in it will dissappear. I'm not sure if I'll grease the wire or cover it with shrink tube to keep it from getting stuck to the ballast cement. We shall see. If you follow the rod in the pic below you can just see the top of the bend sticking up in the middle of the throw bar of the turnout. Whaddaya think?

   Tomorrow it's back to full days in the shop so I'll have less time for the layout still I'm happy at the progress I've made this last week,

   Good to see some of the rest of you are getting some train time in. Even Todd!!! 

   Ken the bridge/approach section is the only part sceniced so far. The main lines are in and proven with the DCC (MRC Prodigy Advanced 2) hooked up and running. None of the turnout motors are powered up yet and I'm just starting the yard. Not too much to see yet but I'm trying to post progress photos as I go.

Catch Y'all later, J.R.

[rdgk1se3019]

GMTRacing

Good Evening All,

    Not much ambition today. Cleaned a little in the shop, got some crack test stuff done then went home and finished chores. Got into the train room and added an extra turnout off the loop to allow access to the coal bunker past the turntable and roundhouse. I also mocked up one of the rod turnout controls to see if it is practical. Looks like it might work ok. It's a length of .047"piano wire bent to suit. The wire sits in a dent in the foam so once the ballast is in it will dissappear. I'm not sure if I'll grease the wire or cover it with shrink tube to keep it from getting stuck to the ballast cement. We shall see. If you follow the rod in the below you can just see the top of the bend sticking up in the middle of the throw bar of the turnout. Whaddaya think?

   Tomorrow it's back to full days in the shop so I'll have less time for the layout still I'm happy at the progress I've made this last week,

  I shall catch up po

You could cut a small groove in the foam and run the wire through a plastic tube of some kind along with some dry graphite like Kadee grease em.

[chochowillie]

cudaken

Bought Sue some powered speakers for her new HD LCD TV, hum, they don't work? Back to the drawing board, in other words go to Best Buy and talk to someone under 25 years old!

Yep, they are a hoot to set up Cudaken... Drove me nuts for a week till I finally actually Sat down a thoroughly read the directions. . Then it made sense. You know how it is with men and instructions... we never look at them till we get into trouble. 

Speaking of reading instructions, I've got my Digitrax command station so fouled up that NOTHING works  Been reading and reading but so far... no luck. If I could just get it back to default CV39 I think maybe I could start fresh.

Enjoy your first "challenge" of 2013

Happy New Years one and all! Me, I just want to get back to normal whatever that is. 

Cheers

Dennis 

[chochowillie]

rdgk1se3019

You could cut a small groove in the foam and run the wire through a plastic tube of some kind along with some dry graphite like Kadee grease em.

My thoughts exactly. I just use this idea on my own yard once I get to it. Have to sort out the DCC thing first, then the fault/short problem. Think I'll set things up with four blocks. I have the dodad to do it with, in fact, I somehow bought 2 of them for some weird reason????????? 

Dennis

[GMTRacing]

Dennis,

   That's just a first attempt. I will dig a deeper trench for the wire when it's for real. Just not sure how I'll do it yet (eg hot knife, regular knife, roller of some sort) If I don't shrink the shrink tube it is flexible and somewhat slippey inside. I can get 3ft lengths in 1/16" that will work well with the .047" piano wire. Thanks for your thoughts.   J.R.

[saronaterry]

Well, my Badgers lost in the Rose Bowl. Again.

I did get lots accomplished train-wise. Ballasted the Soo Line interchange and trackage,cemented down a bunch of scenery, weathered a couple cars and made a lumber load for a bulkhead flat.

 

 

 

 

 

The yard is really coming together, JR!

Have a great night!

Terry in NW Wisconsin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Worked on an F7A today that just suddenly went dead on me. No pop, no poof, no smoke, no nothing! Opened it up to find that the black pickup wire that connects to the frame had burned in two. I stripped the ends, spliced in a new piece of wire then closed it up and tested it. First on the program track to check for any shorts then on the main line for a test run. It works all right now. I don't know why but it seems this problem occurs a lot with Bachmann decoders. If there's any weakness in the wires they'll find it. I've had this happen with a Digitrax decoder only once.

Went to my sisters place this afternoon for New Years Day dinner. It was great. I loaded my plate three times!

Low tonight 40 with a fair chance of rain.

Well, time to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

[csxns]

jeffrey-wimberly

I loaded my plate three times!

Where was i at ,you could have had me over also.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

csxns

jeffrey-wimberly

I loaded my plate three times!

Where was i at ,you could have had me over also.

Sorry. I didn't know you were hungry.

[csxns]

jeffrey-wimberly

Sorry. I didn't know you were hungry

I stay that way,have a good night,be back tomorow.

[BamaCSX83]

Happy New Years y'all.  Just stopping in and seeing what all's happening.  I had to w**k today, was a little busy, had a bunch of brake jobs to do, which made for a good, but long day.  I have tomorrow off, so I think I'm going to either do a small side job or two, or I may very well run by the dr's office and see what ails me (had some major sinus congestion and headaches like crazy and OTC stuff doesn't seem to be cutting it).  Welp, I think I'm also going to work a little bit on MRR stuff tomorrow too (as long as no one else changes that for me). 

Guess I think I'm going to call it a night, later taters!

[Anonymous]

Good Morning!

I hope you all enjoyed yesterday´s night out at the opera! Today will take us to Schoenbrunn Palace, once the residence of the Emperor Franz-Josef and his wife Sisi (Elisabeth).

After taking a tour of the palace, we will enjoy a sleigh ride to Mayerling, scene of the famous Mayerling incident, which led to the apparent murder-suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf, only son of Emperor Franz-Josef and Elisabeth, heir to the throne, and his lover, teenage Baroness Mary Vetsera.

From Mayerling we will go to Baden, once the hot spa for the Imperial family.

A special train will take us back to Vienna, right in time to enjoy more traditional Viennese food.

It´s Schnitzel time!

After dinner, we will give the local wine a try at a typical "Heurigen" (This year´s wine) pub.

Enjoy your day!

[Mr. Dispatcher]

Sir Madog

Good Morning!

I hope you all enjoyed yesterday´s night out at the opera! Today will take us to Schoenbrunn Palace, once the residence of the Emperor Franz-Josef and his wife Sisi (Elisabeth).

all those rooms and only one rest room

[Anonymous]

Mr. Dispatcher

Sir Madog

Good Morning!

I hope you all enjoyed yesterday´s night out at the opera! Today will take us to Schoenbrunn Palace, once the residence of the Emperor Franz-Josef and his wife Sisi (Elisabeth).

all those rooms and only one rest room

You are not that far off with this - I remember visiting this place and having to walk for about a mile, cross-legged, to find a rest room

[wetidlerjr]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

TIPTON