Elliot's Trackside Diner..MAY 2013!!

[cudaken]

 Morning I think?

 Flo, Diet Dew to go pleases.

 Did not sleep worth a darn last night, I wonder why?

 Sitting here wondering what kind of nightmare work will be today.

 Ken

[TMarsh]

Good Morning!!!

Coffee please. No, just coffee, already ate, but thanks anyway. Oh and can you make sure I don’t get any of that Rattlesnake gut coffee from yesterday? Great. Thanks. And they say people from the South eat weird stuff. Whoa.

A 50 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 74. Well, judging by the fact it’s raining now, let’s just bump that up to 100% chance of rain.

Mike- What were you doing all these years?! Saving the injuries? Glad you’re ok…..sort of. Remember, time is no longer money and you get no bonus for finishing early anymore. (I know that doesn’t always happen but sometimes with a motivated customer….) The wife will always have something else to do and you will never get things done fast enough so just slow down hoss. Time to enjoy what you’re doing and not think of you used to get paid for this now you do it for fun.

Ken- You never told us what the “T” stood for in the tire thing. Or I missed it. By the way, I agree with Jeffrey.

Don’t know what I’ll do today. Depends on how long it rains and how much. Still plenty of things I can do.

A lot of times when I’m looking for something and I finally find it, I keep looking just so I can say it WASN’T in the last place I looked. Just sayin’

Ya’ll have a good day, ya hear!!!!

[Burlington Northern #24]

I feel nasty, I can't inhale much air without hacking up my guts, my joints hurt, and I feel this pressure in my head.... 

I have the W word tonight, so I'll go to class and then wait to go to work once I get home....

[howmus]

Mornin' everyone!

Zoe, I'll have a bowl of raisin bran cereal (yes the organic stuff) with some blueberries added, and a cup of....  Oh still got a pot of the Rattlesnake Gutter blend?  Why sure I'll drink it up for you.

Ken, try not to fall asleep at work....  That way you won't have so many nightmares there...  LOL   Seriously, hope you have a good day today.

Currently 72°F with some light rain going on here in the Finger Lakes Region.  Looking at more thunderstorms this afternoon and tonight.  Right now the neighbor kitty corner across the street (the one that had the tree taken down) is getting their driveway resurfaced (in the rain...). 

Gary....  That doesn't sound good!  Maybe you should call in sick rather than spread whatever it is you have around.  Not always nice to share.

I need to get everything packed for the Scholarship Dinner tonight.

Catch you all later!

73

[MisterBeasley]

Burlington Northern #24

I feel nasty, I can't inhale much air without hacking up my guts, my joints hurt, and I feel this pressure in my head....

Pollen?  I had some of those symptoms a couple of weeks back, and I'm sure that was it.  Once I got back to work on Monday in the filtered office air, I felt fine.  The rain we've had, and are supposed to get more of, should help clear the air, too.

I learned one lesson on that last year.  I'm keeping the train room windows closed until the pollen count drops.  I was having all sorts of trouble just running trains, with stalling everywhere by engines that are solid and reliable.  Turns out I had pollen on the tracks.  I had to run the CMX machine, and I'm still finding rolling stock that was near the windows then and needs a good dusting.

[pascaff*]

  Morning All,

    45 with an expected high of 65 under mostly sunny skies, with some gusty winds.

     Day off, so I have a load of laundry going. Then a small amount of grocery shopping, and pick up one of my meds. I do have to finish glass bedding a rifle for friend, a non-paying customer. Then hopefully do some more w**k on the layout. The three Switch Tender motors were in yesterdays mail, so if I get the time, should be a productive mrr day.

     Prayers to all in need.

       Paul

[Anonymous]

Good Afternoon Folks!

¡ɹǝpunuʍop ɯoɹɟ sʞloɟ ǝɥʇ oʇ ʇɥƃıu pooƃ

What a miserable day! We had a bad temperature drop last night - it is only about 40F today, no sun, but lots of wind and rain

I decided to have a day off from party work, well, at least to a degree. Maybe just 10 phone calls, and 40 emails ...

As I needed to get my mind set on nicer things than the enemy from within, who is giving us a hard time these days, I toyed with some more ideas for that micro layout I have in the pipeline.

Busch has released a new HOn2 train set, running on 6.5mm track. The locos are "precision instruments", running just like a Swiss watch - fun to observe the gear motion of that little Diesel critter.

The thing is about 1  1/3 inches long - really tiny!

I adapted my plan to incorporate a loop for continuous running. The layout has two "faces" - the front being the harbor scene, and the back showing a beach scene.

Well, another option.

The next days will be really busy - prep work for yet one more party conference. I have to write two speeches for it. Not really fond of that, but we cannot afford a ghost writer, yet!

Blessings!

[galaxy]

ONR FAN

galaxy

 

.
IT is 72 inside with the A/c on low blow, I don't see a need to bump it.Of course the computer room here has no a//c so it is 77 in here. The front a/c takes care of that end, the bedroom a/c the rear of the house..the computer room in the center no air flow except the fan we use to draw A/C air into it which doens't work so well.

Of course last year we had this in first of April. The a/cs came on and never off til Sept.

tme for a nap....

later

 

I've been thinking about adding a second heating and air conditioning unit to my home.  Having two has its benefits.  I've been looking at units that are installed in the attic.  The 3rd floor is always either hot or cold.  How big is your house?  Don't the two units help keep a constant temperature through out the home?

we have a bit of an odd situation here, most likely different from yours.

 

It is a 930 sq foot trailer, which heats up like a tin can on a camp fire at the summer picnic in July. Front to back it is organized thusly:

KIT, LR, BR{computer room}, BR {train room}, BA, MBR.

There is a large unit 13,500 BTU in the LR that takes care of the LR and KIT nicely.  There is a 6,500 BTU unit in the MBR that works very nicley for there, the bath and most of the hall. The computer room and the hall outside it seems to stagnate. no air flow directly to it. being mofre or less center of the home. A fan helps, but not cools enough to compare to the other areas of the house.

Those two units pretty much cover the whole house, and often the MBR unit is not on, only when extrememly warm in here. {it IS on at night though from about April to November 30th.}

 

If not too expensive, we have thought of the Mitsubishi air flow ductless A/C units for the computer room and to replace these units when they go. That way it is similar to Central a/c but still controlable per area.

It will cost another $3k to have Central A/C installed to control the whole home.

 

So there you go.

 

Well, erm other things:

I go to  see the cardiologist shortly. Storm is coming in and a migraine is developiing so I'd best get off the computer!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning (at least it was when I started typing this). It's 71° with 93% humidity. The high will be 85°.


Things got a little last night when the storms started coming through then it calmed down. That is until around 2am when things took a turn for the worse. We had high winds, lots of thunder and nearly continuous lightning. Cable out here was out most of the morning. Power never did go out here. The cable came back on around 10am. The yard is a wreck but I expected nothing less.

Looks like today will be a lazy day. I'm still aching from the banging around I took on the tractor yesterday. You'd think Murray could have put some better springs on the seat.

[Packer]

Afternoon guys

I got all the loads for my thrall gons assembled. Now waiting for glue to dry before shaping the loads and painting them...

I started work on my Rivarossi U25C. I started with the CB&Q one I had for a while. Got both side radiator grilles cut out by drilling small holes, then using an X-acto blade between them... Then I preceeded to do the same to the top radiator grille. Well the whole thing cracked and broke... So I glued it together and grabbed the L&A one. I tried to speed it up this time and Used a larger drill that would take out most of the radiator grill in 1 swipe. It worked, but it wandered and took out part of a door. Luckily not hitting anything... The top I did the same, but then used a dremel with a grinding stone to try to grind most of it out. Worked ok, but then when I tried to trim the remaining bits of the top grill out, the shell cracked... I got mad, glued it, then put them both away before I threw something. The L&A shell may be fixable. the CB&Q might be a write-off. I'll probably just patch up the door with some scrap styrene on the L&A, but if it don't work, I can cut a section of the Q one out and splice it in. I'll keep an eye out at the Tallahassee show for another U25C shell.

Gary, get well soon. Plenty of rest and OJ usually works for me.

[Burlington Northern #24]

Thanks guys, yeah I feel a bit better. I have to push my luck though and go to "W***" I'm the only guy they scheduled to do my job tonight. it's going to be a long night, I'll just focus on my goal while I work. 

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Good afternoon. 

Well, I'm done with Physics for the year. Took the second part of my final today. Got some small decals on the 109. Feeling good. 

The only thing that's not real good about today is the fact that it's hot and humid. Uncomfortable out now. 

[galaxy]

Well

The cardiologist says I "still have a heart". He just doesn't know I wear it on my sleeve.

MOH and I wore our matching Hawaiian shirts { you can get them that way} and made an impression on all hwo saw them {they are new ones}. People commented on them form all walks of life and asked where they came from, we were pleased to say "from Hawaii, of course".Jealousy rears its ugly head sometimes you know.

well off for a nap as a storm blew through here giving me a migraine...

later

 

 

[Cederstrand]

The House Special, please.

Finally received the last of the pre-ordered locos. The Walthers 0-8-0 looks sharp and I will test it this Sat.

However, the MTH Daylight appears to be missing a switch for DCC/DCS that is clearly shown on their website, located on the bottom middle of tender. Nothing but a hollow rectangular hole where the switch should be? Just e-mailed Trainworld to let them know and ask how to proceed from here. For the amount those locos cost, they should be delivered tested, ready to go, with a rose and mint on my pillow as well.

Have a good night all.

Cheers!  Rob

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Good evening. 

Getting cloudy now. Sister said she thought she heard some thunder earlier, so we may see a storm here in a little bit. Plan on adding some more decals to the 109 here soon. 

[cudaken]

 Evening Dinners

 Flo, Beer Pleases.

 Work Front Evil Tyler did peak out for about 5 minutes and that was about it, so today was not bad and getting off at 5:00 AM was heaven!

 

TMarsh

Ken- You never told us what the “T” stood for in the tire thing. Or I missed it. By the way, I agree with Jeffrey.

 Todd, sort of wishes you did not bring that up, but here we go. I have readed to versions.

 Extra Load Tire and Extra Load Truck.

 Here is where the problem started with Evil Tyler.

 Had a lady come in with a 2005 Ford F150 4 X 4. She wanted a quite and smooth riding tire and never had or wanted to go off road. She did lite hauling and not often. So I set her up with a set of XLT tires and sat a appointment for my day off.

 Tires load limit and speed rating meet what her trucked need. Plus, it paid better that the BFG, OK I some what greedy.

 Tyler was the one that helped her when she came in, and changed the tires to BFG's. Reason?

 Tyler told me they are car tires and not truck tires because they say touring. Hum, some BFG truck tires say touring? In fact our own web site says "The comfort of a passenger car tire with the durability of a truck tire"?  Weight range was the same?  Speed rating was the same? So why could they not be used on her truck?

 After 20 minutes of berating, it was because he was worried some one like at Jiffy Lube would tell her they car tires and we would have to eat the tires, and give her another set for free. They are more for crossover vehicles.

 But the kicker? If someone with say a lowered F-150 street rod truck, Chevy 1500 SS, or a 1979 1500 Dodge Little Red Wagon came in, they would be fine? What can I say, I must be stupid!

 Later, Ken

http://s83.photobucket.com/user/cudaken/media/Real%20Trains/S_662-3_rj_001.jpg.html]

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Well not much done here today. I played around with a rebuilt F7 that's a mix a Athearn, Proto and God knows what else. It's good mechanically but it has a Bachmann decoder and has less than stellar performance. I my be able to get a DZ125 decoder for it. That would improve it's performance greatly.

I got another Athearn F7A shell in the mail today. Union Pacific paint. I put it in the alcohol for a few hours. Most of the paint came off but there's still some patches holding on. I'm leaving it to soak overnight. I'll check it sometime tomorrow. If there's any little spots left I'll scrape them loose with a small screwdriver.

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

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Will be getting to bed soon. Night everyone.

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning

Up at funny time of morning...been one of those days

High will be 60F today...after we had highs around upper 70's/low80's here...mmmmm...Friday appears that high will only get to 54F...

Saturday operating session coming up this weekend...hopefully no Broake and Howe boys show up....

If anyone is up at this funny time of morning..have a good'un!!

[galaxy]

Morning Coffee in the diner with friends...

GOOD THURSDAY MORNING!!!

Today is Thursday, May 23rd, 2013!!

I will have the prayer candles lit as long as I am home today for those in need...

MAKE it a GrEaT dAy! Help someone today!

[wetidlerjr]

"Good Morning!" from Tipton IN

5/23/13

    

TIPTON IN

[galaxy]

It's been a while since I posted some "tidbits" and "origin of speaches and phrasiology" SO:

Hands Down:

This basically means to score a victory without much work. One version is with horse racing the jockey doesn't even have to lift his hands to guide his horse if he's way out in front. Another one is for boxing in which the opponent is a pushover and so the winner doesn't even have to raise his hands to protect himself.

 

ROBOT:

Karl Capek, a Czech playwright was a pioneer in science fiction.  He wrote a play during WWI called "R.U.R., which was a group of mechanized monsters revolting against their maker.  The Czech term for work or drudgery was robota, and so Capek shortened his characters to be robots.

 

Gibberish: {do you speak it?}

Sounds or words that can't be understood are said to be gibberish. Back in England, people any foreigner with dark hair and olive skin was assumed to be from Egypt and  were nicknamed, "Gypts." Later the word became "Gypsies." Their talk wasn't very understandable to the British so they would say they were talking "gibberish" (the "g" is pronounced like a "j"). Other phrases used to describe their talk was "gibber" and then "jabber."

 

Nothing to sneeze at:

The upper class years ago had a craze for sneezing.  All the elite would carry snuff boxes with herbs, which made them sneeze when they put a pinch into their noses.  It was said that a good sneeze was  a way to clear one's mind. Soon, a sneeze was a way of expressing boredom. They'd hear something and if they weren't impressed, they'd sneeze afterwards. Therefore, if something wasn't sneezed at, it meant that it was important or interesting. Today it simply means it is worth taking notice of

 

Have{ing} an axe to grind:

Benjamin Franklin published a lot of stories, one of which he was the central character. Franklin was approached by a stranger who stopped to admire the family grindstone.  He asked to be shown how it worked and offered Ben Franklin an axe to demonstrate. Once his axe was sharp the stranger walked off laughing.  Today "having an axe to grind" means that someone has a selfish or mean motive behind their actions.  It also means to have a grudge or dispute with someone in which that person seeks some confrontation, justice or  reciprocated action. This can be openly known or a hidden agenda, also

 

You don't know beans:

This phrase comes from an old riddle often told in old rural country stores.  The question:  How many blue beans does it take to make 7 white beans? Do you know?  If you don't then you are said to "not know beans." 

{The answer is: 7 blue make 7 white. Why? When you peel 7 blue you get 7 white- UH DUH!}. 

The term today about "you don't know beans" refers to anyone who doesn't know anything that should be common sense or general knowledge

 

HOCUS-POCUS:

Early jugglers altered a Latin phrase used during Holy Communion.  They took the word "hocus" which means "here is the body..." and just formed a rhyming word go to with it for their magical presentations resulting in "hocus-pocus."  The pocus added to it assumedly meant to play close attention to the object

Alternative meaning:

In the Middle Ages, most people were illiterate and certainly didn't understand Latin, the language of the Catholic mass.  During the Eucharist in the mass, the priest would turn away from the congregation and look at the cross, making his words hard to hear and/or understand.  When he raised the host (bread), he uttered the words "Hoc est corpus mei......", or "This is my body....", in Latin.  The congregation didn't understand the meaning of the words, but they did know that, somehow through some magic, these words turned the bread into the actual body of Christ, the fantastic magical event of transubstantiation.  So, words that sounded like "hocus pocus" to the illiterate and uneducated masses would enable a magical and miraculous event to transpire, and, presumably, these words were a facilitator or enabler of a magical act or event.

 

HAVE A GREAT day!

Smile

 

 

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Good morning.

Don't have to be in until about 1:13 today. Trig final.

Hope it goes as well as the Physics final. 23/30 on that.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 71° with 100% humidity. The high will be 92°.


Got the Athearn F7 shell out of the alcohol this morning. There were still some stubborn holdouts but I was able to gently scrape them off with my right thumbnail. I was able to recover most of the alcohol so it can be used again. However I'll have to get a new cover for the cake pan I use to immerse items in for stripping. The elements have taken their toll and most of the plastic cover disintegrated when I put it back on the pan this morning. UV rays and plastic don't play well together. But then UV rays and most things don't play well together. I washed the loco shell with clean alcohol and let it air dry. So far I don't see any white or gray film developing except on the very end where I didn't clean it as well. It's gonna be covered in black paint anyway so no problem there.

No plans for the rest of the day. I may work on the layout later.

The word for today is saloli which translates to 'squirrel'.

[MisterBeasley]

Good morning from sunny foggy New England!  It looks like we will be socked in for the next couple of days, and the weekend isn't looking too promising either.  Unless, of course, you define "promising" as "good modeling weather."  3 days with no SWMBO-induced yard work should yield great progress on the layout.  It will be warm, and I can spray paint in the garage if I have to.

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Howdy. Good to see everybody here.

We returned from Nashville last evening, and I will conclude the appointments with the surgeon were very good.

Rob .... I was starting to notice you were not posting, and I'm glad to see you here now.

Ken .... I must wonder about the rusted old switchers in the picture. They should have been sold for scrap long ago. Railroad scrap can be valuable.

Jeff ...... You mentioned using a thumb nail to complete the paint stripping, You may be interested in knowing I also have two of those versatile thumb nail thingees in my workshop. Handy tools. Right?

[TMarsh]

Good Morning!!!

Coffee and an egg salad sandwich please, thanks.

A 30 percent chance of showers, mainly before 1pm. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 63.

Ken – Sorry, just curious. Tire markings have changed some between the two, but I believe the combined letters LT are used as a designation for Light Truck still today. Not all light truck tires say LT on them, like my factory tires on my truck, but I have yet to see LT on a car tire anywhere. And for liability reasons, I doubt a tire company would compare a car tire to a tuck tire, but comparing a truck tire to a car tire as they did would not cause any confusion issues. So it rides well. Car tires and truck tires are interchangeable as long as the sizing and weight  ratings are adequate. For liability issues and ambulance chasing lawyers I would steer clear of that, without a signed waiver of liability understanding the tire may/will not handle the weights normally expected with a light truck, but based on what you’ve described, I don’t believe you were selling a car tire anyway.Sleep well. I think your boss may be an idiot.

Garry- Glad the reports were good.

Welp, got a phone call for breakfast so I’m back now. Re read my posting to Ken and believe it or not shortened it considerably. Maybe I should wait another hour and I can shorten some more… And now for a load of laundry, then hopefully the grass will be dry enough to mow before I need a baler. They just fertilized it Tuesday so it’s off and growing like….a weed.

Ya’ll have a good day, ya hear!!!!

[pascaff*]

Morning All,

    Currently it is 36 with an expected high of 64 under mostly sunny skies.

    Opening shift today, so layout w**k this morning, but hopefully this evening.

    Yesterday it never really warmed up enough to glass bed my friends rifle, so that will have to wait for another time.

   I was able to lay some track, and wire in two Switch Tender motors for two turnouts. I am w**king from layout plans in my head, kind of. Sometimes I have to make compromises because things do not turn out like I envision they should. So far I have not been to disappointed with the results.

    Prayers to all in need.

     Paul

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

 Heading to school to take the first part of my trig final.

See you all this evening.

[howmus]

Uh!  Huh?  What...  sigh...  OK, I'm awake!  Didn't sleep well last night  Way too much adrenaline pumping through my veins.  A good morning to all of you from the ever changing Finger Lakes.

Zoe, just more dark roast coffee, please.  Lots more!

The Scholarship dinner went very well last night.  Only problem was the air conditioning failed at the college and the room was about 95°F and humid the whole time.  Meals were excellent.  We had a large crowd, and all but about 5 people who said they were coming showed up.  I had several good comments on my powerpoint presentation which played for the gathering and during dinner.  In fact one of the pastors attending wants a copy of it to show at a diner at his church.  One family accidentally sat at one of our two reserved tables for the committee (Right up front because many of us had to be able to get up to speak and such).  Turns out it was the family of a college professor who walked in paid for his bills and wrote us a check for $500 to the Scholarship fund!  I assured him his family was welcome at our table.   We had three extra places there anyway...  Problem was there were two more of our members who needed seats  and there were four in his family.  One of our members who wasn't speaking graciously sat with some friends at a different table.  The two members were late to get to the table as they were working the check in table out in the hallway.

I will be babysitting for my granddaughters this afternoon, have to get my allergy shot, do some grocery shopping, and then get to the Troop's planning meeting by 6:30 tonight!  I may get to check out the basement and make sure the model trains are still there sometime tomorrow!

We are still threatened with some strong thunderstorms today, but it looks like most of them will not go through Geneva or Waterloo...

Hope you all have a great and safe day out there!

73