Elliot's Trackside Diner..MAY 2013!!

[alexstan]

Todd and Blownout-Cylinder- It's not today, its next week, May the 10.

NP2626- Happy Birthday to your son!

And guys, I know my username is alexstan, but please call me Alexander.  

And thank you so much for all your birthday wishes so far!

[mbinsewi]

Galaxy,  Thanks, see, you can teach an old dog new tricks.  I guess I should be familiar with all of this, as this type of "tool" header is in just about everything I use, like Office, Word, etc.  DAH ! 

Well, I'm glad to hear you folks got a chance to do a little economy stimulating, and consuming of goods.  Remember, I've been sitting quietly at the counter for quite a while before speaking up,  and announcing my presence, so It's also great to hear YOH found some employment, and the hopes of better jobs to come along with better opportunities for you folks.

BN #24, Gary,  There was a thread not too long ago about this very topic, trains longer than the platforms. Yep, and it still happens today.  I occasionally  have been know to take Amtrak's Hiawatha service between Milwaukee, WI and Chicago, IL., and just about every place it stops, the train is longer.  They make you walk through the cars that are beyond the platform,  to get to a car that is, to get off.  In loading, everybody fills up the cars at the platform first, and people getting on at the next stop have to walk through those cars to get to one with empty seats.  There is no reserved seats on Hiawatha, it runs 4 or 5 times a day, back and forth, first come, first serve.  Amtrak's Empire Builder,  with loading and unloading,  reserved seats are the norm, and the train will pull ahead and make two stops at most stations, so every one can board, or get off at the platform.  Kind of long winded here, but that's my experience.

Later folks, back to the garage to continue on with some projects that have been waiting for good weather.

Mike.

[chochowillie]

narrow gauge nuclear

Another beautiful spring day in the Old Dominion state! 

Ok, dumb Canadian question here..... Where pray tell is the "Dominion State:."

Dennis

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Packer

I figure it was about 18-24 inches long, gray/tan with black/brown squares on it's back. I thought it might be a small diamondback, but it didn't have any rattles.

Does this look like what you saw?

This is one of the species of shovelnose snake. It can put on a very convincing show including making a rattling sound by scraping it's scale against each other. It's essentially harmless but the encounter could still leave you looking for a change of underwear.

[Burlington Northern #24]

mbinsewi

Galaxy,  Thanks, see, you can teach an old dog new tricks.  I guess I should be familiar with all of this, as this type of "tool" header is in just about everything I use, like Office, Word, etc.  DAH ! 

Well, I'm glad to hear you folks got a chance to do a little economy stimulating, and consuming of goods.  Remember, I've been sitting quietly at the counter for quite a while before speaking up,  and announcing my presence, so It's also great to hear YOH found some employment, and the hopes of better jobs to come along with better opportunities for you folks.

BN #24, Gary,  There was a thread not too long ago about this very topic, trains longer than the platforms. Yep, and it still happens today.  I occasionally  have been know to take Amtrak's Hiawatha service between Milwaukee, WI and Chicago, IL., and just about every place it stops, the train is longer.  They make you walk through the cars that are beyond the platform,  to get to a car that is, to get off.  In loading, everybody fills up the cars at the platform first, and people getting on at the next stop have to walk through those cars to get to one with empty seats.  There is no reserved seats on Hiawatha, it runs 4 or 5 times a day, back and forth, first come, first serve.  Amtrak's Empire Builder,  with loading and unloading,  reserved seats are the norm, and the train will pull ahead and make two stops at most stations, so every one can board, or get off at the platform.  Kind of long winded here, but that's my experience.

Later folks, back to the garage to continue on with some projects that have been waiting for good weather.

Mike.

yeah I read that, I think to cut down on traffic hold up if I can't fit a passing track I will limit trains to 5 cars unless they're through trains.

[chochowillie]

Well now!! Finally a nice enough day to get outside a do some yard work. Got the back yard leaves all blown/dug out etc. and then mulched them up with the new mower I bought last fall. Wow, it started second  pull even on stale gas  Mind you for the amount I paid for the fool thing it should really mow the lawn itself. 

I'll do the front tomorrow if the weather up here turns out like the weather guessers are predicting. Ya never know till you look out the window in the morning.

Later all, time to go do some scenery stuff.

Dennis

[jeffrey-wimberly]

chochowillie

Ok, dumb Canadian question here..... Where pray tell is the "Dominion State:."

Unless I'm mistaken it's Virginia.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

mbinsewi

Hi Jeff, I think it was a post from me, directed to you, that Todd was referring to.  I'm not sure how you highlight the name like you do...I'll try this:  Jeffrey-Wimberly,  I don't know how you do the the color thing with the name, but anyway,  the question I had for you, since you are way more computer savy than I will  ever be,   I stll use a computer with Windows XP, home edition, and IE 8.0.  I don't think I can up-grade any more, as the automatice updates, etc., have expired, as far as I know, especially for IE 8.  I discovered that FireFox seemed a lot better and faster on a lot of the sites I use,  so I now use it, version 20, with auto-updates, for most of my browseing.  I have noticed that there are some things I can not do on Fire Fox, that I can do on IE 8, and one of them is view the web cams in Trains.  After reading about Java, and Fire Fox, I understand there are some secutiy issues between Fire Fox and Java, so I was wondering if it's something I can do on my computer?  or just avoid any hassles, and use IE 8 when I want to view the cams.

I use Java and Firefox with no problem. I use AVG virus protection and it lets me know it there's any problem and so far, silence is golden. I stopped using IE several years ago because it seemed like the errors it made increased exponentially with every upgrade and got to the point where I couldn't even have three tabs open without it dropping one, two or all three and had to 'recover' all of them. I used XP for years and really liked it. Now that I have a new computer I'm using Windows 8 which came preloaded on it. The first thing I did was download Firefox then dumped IE off the desktop.

[saronaterry]

Well, we really enjoyed our 3 days of summer up here. Currently under a Winter Storm Warning. 5-8" of sn**.

Already got the rain/sleet earlier, now the final nail.

31f and sn**ing.

Trian time!!

I started another kit-bash/mingle/etc. for American Excelsior, a company in Rice Lake that makes erosion blankets and the like.

That's all for now!

 

Terry in NW Wisconsin

[tcwright973]

It was a beautiful day here in Pittsburgh. Temperatures were in the mid 70's with sunny skies, low humidy and a nice gentle breeze. Now if it would only stay like this all year round. Fat chance of that though.

Because the wife wife really enjoys it, we drove down to the Wheeling Island Casino this morning. We played for a couple of hours and ended up losing what we take to play on. But, I kind of look at it like it's an entertainment expense, so I really never go with the expectation of winning. It is nice when it happens though. Up until today, we have been playing on casino money (winnings) for the last 4 or 5 years. Today, it came out of my pocket today so we need to win big and go back to playing with their money. Much more fun that way. We do enjoy the buffet there. Great food and you can't beat the price. Because I had a buy one, get one free couplon, the 2 meals cost me a total of $14.00. The bottom line is the wife goes to play the slots, and I go for the buffet.

Need to get some things done in the next couple of days. The windows need washed inside and ou. No small task as this old house has 23 windows and 2 doors with glass inserts. The car needs to be washed so I can get a coat of wax on it, and the main flower bed needs to be roto tilled and prepared for planting. That's not as big a job as it once was as I have been planting more and more perenials over the last couple of years. Then there's... Never mind, I'm not going to get it all done anyway. I'll probably invoke the "Retired Guy's" option. Which is "I'll do it later".

Have a good one and enjoy where ever it is we are...

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Wow....... 3 pages and the day is not over yet! .... I'm glad to see so many diners! 

Happy Birthday to Alex and to NP2626's son! .... Hope the day was great! 

I keep thinking of Jerry and his loss of Sallie. He is such a good friend of the Diner, and I hope he will be okay. 

Barry ... You mentioned birds are back. Is Spring enjoying looking out a window at the Spring birds? 

Terry ...... Nice photo! 

Karl .... I read your post about your experience with the NWSL conversion kit for doodlebugs. Funnt  Ireached the same conclusion not to use the dummy Stanton truck. 

I posted a thread on my NWSL conversion of the Bachmann doodlebug. It took a while to type and edit my errors. 

Happy May Day1 

[Packer]

I wound up working on the trains some today. Got the ATSF SD40-2 back together now that the beacon is fixed. The original lense cracked when tried to glue it back on. I had 2 spare Details west ones and they were a perfect fit. Drilled one out for the bulb, then it took off into the nether reagions. Grabbed the other and when trying to drill it, it took off. After searching I found the first one. So now I wait for the handrails I ordered from athearn 1 week ago for it. I still have yet to wire-in the new bulb, i'm gonna check current first just to be sure it's not a board issue causing the last one to fry.

Jeff, no not it. After looking at the pictures my brother took and comparing them to a guid put out by the county to the east; I think it was a young grey rat snake, maybe a florida pine snake. I have some pics my brother took here (after waiting for the new slower photobucket:

http://s275.photobucket.com/user/PackerPhan66/slideshow/Snake%20in%20a%20miata

 

[chochowillie]

Jeffrey

jeffrey-wimberly

The first thing I did was download Firefox then dumped IE off the desktop.

Hopefully you kept a copy because as I'm sure you know, automatic updates will only work with IE whatever. 

Cheers

Dennis

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Packer

Jeff, no not it. After looking at the pictures my brother took and comparing them to a guid put out by the county to the east; I think it was a young grey rat snake, maybe a florida pine snake. I have some pics my brother took here (after waiting for the new slower photobucket:

That's possibly what it is. Though some of the shovelnose species look similar to that most of them have a head and neck that flattens out somewhat like a cobras. It can really scare the crap out of you. They're also well known for making a load hissing sound which gives them an additional designation. Puff adder.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

chochowillie

Hopefully you kept a copy because as I'm sure you know, automatic updates will only work with IE whatever. 

IE is still there. It's just not on the desktop anymore. I unpinned it and deleted the shortcut. I can get to IE if I should need it by selecting it from the START page.

[Curt Webb]

Evening All,

Was going to BBQ some corned beef brisket tonight but for some reason the gas was not getting to the burners (tank was full) and since it was starting to rain, no troubleshooting. Cooked it in a counter top rotisserie.

Been looking at the layout and I think I am going to change one of the feeds (widen) to the TT so larger engines can use either lead. I'll do it after vacation. It was one thing I did not think about when I was doing the last major project.

 

Here is some wildlife on the layout

 

Ulrich- Best wishes. Sounds like a good exciting time.

I hope Jerry is doing OK.

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

[Curt Webb]

Looks like I have top of the page. I gave Vinnie my card so everyone eat and drink up.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Got a Bachmann GP40 in the mail today. Looks like old Spectrum/Bachmann Plus. It sounds like a threshing machine crossed with an electric cheese grater. I'm going to rebuild it - MY WAY. Looked around on flea-bay. Parts are on the way.

I also received several kits. Roundhouse undec rotary snow plow and tender kit (unpowered). Atlas signal tower kit, a metal mine building kit. Many sharp edges. Looks like Black Bart maybe. No instructions. Gonna have to look around and see if I can find that. A Tyco log dump car set. Looks to have never been used. May make a nice display model. A mustard yellow caboose. No roadname or number. No manufacturer mark. Five windows on toolbox side, three windows on the other side. Body mount couplers. Offset cupola.

[rdgk1se3019]

Okay.....4 pages in .........SO......Where...........IS........The..........Diner???

[chochowillie]

Curt Webb

Was going to BBQ some corned beef brisket tonight but for some reason the gas was not getting to the burners (tank was full) and since it was starting to rain, no troubleshooting.

I don't suppose you forgot and turned the tank valve on real quick like? That will usually cause the auto shutoff to stop any gas flow because it thinks it a broken hose or some such thing?

Being a FireMedic you wouldn't forget a thing like that would you

Dennis

[Burlington Northern #24]

good question, where are we?

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

BN Gary .... You might like this photo as will some of the other Diners.

 

[galaxy]

rdgk1se3019

Okay.....4 pages in .........SO......Where...........IS........The..........Diner???

The diner is in SOMETOWN, ANYSTATE, USA. {or ANYCOUNTRY, EARTH} This month it will be where ever YOU live so YOU can enjoy it in your own backyard! If it had a name, it would be JOHN DOE. OR, you can fantasize about where you'd like it to be. SHARE WITH US your "secret location" with pictures and links to train stuff!!!

Strange, MOH got a call bout the other j-o-b MOH really wants {or thinks so anyway}. Has an interview Friday AM- they wnat MOH to bring 2 forms ID, including SS card, and IMMUNIZATION records...sounds suspiciously like MOH may have the job? {MOH says not to talk about it and jinx it but I gotta tell somebody or I'll burst}. NOw, the only reason someone would want SS card is to: run the background check more thoroughly; or to file for records for hiring, and immunization records should only be required at hiring time. SO- SAY PRAYERS PLEASE! Of course there is : part time {19 hours nad under} nad "half time" which is 30 hours and under. SO possibility that MOH can work parttime there AND part tiem grocery sotre to make a full time paycheck. It is too bad that wiht Obamacare that many places have dropped full time work form their schedules! That is all I will say on obamacare- it can be a flame war topic!!

So MOH tried out the new mower- works good. at least it does for now, ask me again in 15 years, may have another one then! Now to dispose of the old one...we have a scrap processor here i hope will take it as Garbage won't cause of flamable issues. Have 2 rims to take to them too. so maybe I get $5 for my efforts to take them there.

The two new rungs look GREAT on the floor in the hall. main thing is they should be vacuumable without geting sucked to vacuum or stalling the brush on it. That/they are the only "decorating" money spent since I painted the train room and fixed the floor in there about 7, 8 years ago! Oh no that is not true we bought new hrow rungs for the bath 2 years ago,, the washable kind.

Well have a great night and sleep well, see you early in the AM!!

 

[MisterBeasley]

Maybe the Diner is here....

Dennis, I thank you for that bit of knowledge about gas grills.  I've had that happen a couple of times, and I never understood the problem.  Is the solution just to close the tank and then re-open it slowly?  Should I open the burner valve and then close it before re-opening the tank to relieve any pressure?

This place has more knowledge than the entire Great Library of Alexandria.

[mbinsewi]

jeffrey-wimberly

]Hi Jeff, I think it was a post from me, directed to you, that Todd was referring to.  I'm not sure how you highlight the name like you do...I'll try this:  Jeffrey-Wimberly,  I don't know how you do the the color thing with the name, but anyway,  the question I had for you, since you are way more computer savy than I will  ever be,   I stll use a computer with Windows XP, home edition, and IE 8.0.  I don't think I can up-grade any more, as the automatice updates, etc., have expired, as far as I know, especially for IE 8.  I discovered that FireFox seemed a lot better and faster on a lot of the sites I use,  so I now use it, version 20, with auto-updates, for most of my browseing.  I have noticed that there are some things I can not do on Fire Fox, that I can do on IE 8, and one of them is view the web cams in Trains.  After reading about Java, and Fire Fox, I understand there are some secutiy issues between Fire Fox and Java, so I was wondering if it's something I can do on my computer?  or just avoid any hassles, and use IE 8 when I want to view the cams.

I use Java and Firefox with no problem. I use AVG virus protection and it lets me know it there's any problem and so far, silence is golden. I stopped using IE several years ago because it seemed like the errors it made increased exponentially with every upgrade and got to the point where I couldn't even have three tabs open without it dropping one, two or all three and had to 'recover' all of them. I used XP for years and really liked it. Now that I have a new computer I'm using Windows 8 which came preloaded on it. The first thing I did was download Firefox then dumped IE off the desktop.[/quote

Thanks Jeff,  Maybe it's a problem with the Norton that I have.  I never get any error messages about it, just a blank box where the cam should be showing, like the Roanoke cam, the area that should be the live feed from the cam is a blank white screen.  I get every thing else on the page.  I close Fire Fox and go back on using IE, and I instantly get the live cam feed.  Oh well, no biggy, I don't watch it that much anyway, just something I noticed.  Next time I'll look at the top of the page, and see if I'm missing something from Fire Fox, or they blocked it...for what ever reason.  Thanks again for the input.

Mike.

[mbinsewi]

Wow, I have no idea what I did to make that happen....I only quoted your post....

Mike.

[cudaken]

 Evening Dinners

 Flo, Beer pleases and put the new guy tab on mine. Sorry I am bad about names but welcome anyway!

 Work Front, while slow I had a few pain in the caboose customers today. To top it all off, one of the Pain in the Cabooses customers only bought 2 tires and the Mechanic installed the wrong sizes tires?  Got that fixed in a jiffy, thank goodness. 

 Trip Home. I was able to get off at 5:30 PM (Did not close today) and traffic was bad! Today it was warm and I had to uses A/C. After about 30 minutes the engine started getting a little warn. My temperature gauge uses bars to show temp and I went 1 LED above that is brighter than the norm but still in the normal range. Turned off the A/C, brighter LED still stayed on.

 Finally got to highway speed, and after a mile and a half LED went off. So I flipped the A/C back on, brighter LED came back on! So I turned the A/C back off and after 2 miles it cooled down again, for a while! Came home the rest of the way with the A/C OFF. Brighter LED would come on, the off, then on and off. Just hope I need to add a little cool-net.

 Shakey The PK 2000 GP 20  Is back to it old tricks?   After I shut down the layout, to get Shakey started again, I have to tip the engine to on side, then it runs fine. Just real odd.

 Vince's speaking of Shakey, I still have the detail parts for my old and now yours SD 40-2. You still need them? (pretty sure you do) I could all so uses the fuel tanks for the F 3's. Neither engine had them. While we are at it, what would you charge me to get another Kato motor, cut it down to fit the PK 1000 F 3? All so how you installed the Kato motor in the F3?

 See you all later, Ken

http://s83.photobucket.com/user/cudaken/media/Real%20Trains/00018472.jpg.html]

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Good evening. Watching first episode of Season 10 of Mythbusters. Put final nail in the "Rocket Car" myth. Night everyone. Jazz Band practice in morning.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

mbinsewi

Wow, I have no idea what I did to make that happen....I only quoted your post....

Mike.

You can quote part of a post by highlighting the part you want to quote then click quote. The part will show up in the reply box. Simple as falling off a log in your sleep after you done it a couple of times. If you don't know to do something just ask some of the old hands what been around here a while. If they don't know they probably know someone who does. I'm more or less home bound so I do a lot of poking around and learning things. Just ask others who tosses out many of the tricks here about using Photobucket or getting around some of this sites more aggravating nonsense.

[howmus]

Evenin' folks!

Janie, can I get a cup of decaf please?  Thank you, Ma'am...

Curt and Mr. Beasley, I had the same problem with one of my 20lb. propane bottles.  Was going to turn it in for a different one at the Propane Dealership (owned by a friend of mine).  A lady who works there and fills bottles, asked me if I did the drop it on the sidewalk trick???  I said, "The what!?  She told me to close the valve remove the tank from the grill and just drop the tank from 6" to up about a foot onto the sidewalk or pavement a couple times.  I gave it try and, yep, it works.  Started working again.  She said the check valve inside will sometimes stick.  It should release by itself, but every once in a while a bottle will stick and not release.  You won't do any damage to the cylinder, just drop it from about 6" to 1' a couple times and hook it back up.  Bet you morning coffee the problem is cured...

So....  Where the heck are we?

Finished mowing the lawn today, trimmed around the house and trees with the string trimmer, did laundry, and....  I actually did some Model Railroading for a change.  I installed the ladder on the water tank...  Remember the water tank I put on the roof of the power plant a few months ago???  It is now almost complete.  just a few more details and it will be ready to put in its place on Bare Mountain.  Just have to put stone on the roof and figure out what I want to do for a sign for the place.  South of here about half way down Seneca Lake there is a now mothballed coal fired power station called Greenidge Power Station.  mine will be more appropriate and will bear the name Brownidge Power Station...

I'm still waiting on an order from Proto 87 I need to continue working on some track in the new section Details), but painted some taller "trees" on the backdrop today where there will be a woods behind the tracks.

Fruit trees are starting to blossom here in the Finger Lakes now that the temp is a bit warmer...  Yes, we had a mild winter here this spring.

Have a great night and prayers for all in need!

73