Elliot's Trackside Diner....JUNE 2013!!!!

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Good evening.

Got poured on earlier today. Some rather strong thunderstorms, but there didn't seem to be any damage from them.

Picked up a P-40B Warhawk at the LHS today and will be decorating it for the AVG (American Volunteer Group, made the shark's mouth scheme famous). Can't wait to see how it turns out. Will be looking online for a Zero or an Oscar kit to go with the P-40B.

Night everyone.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

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

[howmus]

Evenin' folks,

Janie, just a cup of decaf please.

I got a call from a neighbor across the side street.  He let me know that if I wanted to have any vegetables left in my garden I better get out there as there were a bunch of kids pulling up everything...  I grabbed my hat and headed out back.  The next door neighbors were having an end of the school year party for a bunch of friends and one of the couples had brought 3 little kids....  They were about 4 years old up to maybe 7 or so.  I called them over and headed for the back door of the neighbors house.  All the time the oldest was busy blaming the other two and scared to death!  His father came out and told him to be quiet and listen to us.  I finally just put my finger up to my lips and just kept saying shhhh!  I then proceeded to let them know I was not very happy about them playing in my garden, and that I would never come to their house and pull flowers or other plants out of the ground.  We then talked about respecting things that don't belong to you.  I was 100% supported by their Mom and Dad who were mortified the kids would do such a thing.  What they were doing was filling empty plastic cups with dirt from the piles in the side yard and "transplanting" onions and lettuce into them.....  Turns out they didn't do much damage.  Basically thinned out some lettuce and I am missing a few onions...  Hopefully I was able to handle it so the kids learned something valuable without me making a scene!

Another dull day here in the Finger Lakes...  Sprinkled and a little rain with little sun all day.  The Solar panels made all of 6.77 kWh today.  Enough to charge the car a couple times...  June has been a poor month for this time of year. 

Tomorrow I will be working with a Boy Scout Troop on the RR Merit Badge out at the museum all day...  Best get some shuteye I think.

73

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good evening ....

Is suppose I should not have mentioned the topic I brought up earlier about the 1961 TWA crash near my childhood house near Chicago. If you are interested, here is the Wikipedia write-up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_529

Here is an 1961 old TV report:

http://www.fuzzymemories.tv/#videoclip-4118

It was about 2:30 am. At first I thought lightning hit our house, and I thought that is what awakend me. I was going to run down the hall to awaken the rest of the family because I thought the lightning set the house on fire. One side of the house was in a bright light for a brief period as the fuel burned.. Darkness returned and soon I heard the first of hundreds of sirens. They were the old mechanical sirens of that era. I could not go back to sleep, and I went to the scene. Nothing I could do. The TV coverage shows some of the horrors. A dead soldier here. A dead mother with dead baby there. 78 died. If the aircraft sayed in the air a few moments longer, it could have hit our house because it was moving towards us when it crashed.

 I remain haunted. As I said, I do fly, but I don't like doing it. I wish there were more trains to travel on.

 

Good night

 

[galaxy]

Morning Coffee in the diner..

GOOD SATURDAY MORNING!!!

Today is Saturday, June 29th, 2013!!!

I will light the prayer candles as long as we are home today for those in need...

MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!!!

["JaBear"]

 

Lehigh Valley 2089

Picked up a P-40B Warhawk at the LHS today and will be decorating it for the AVG (American Volunteer Group, made the shark's mouth scheme famous)

Gidday Jake, not the AVG, but my young fellow, (he'll be 21 next month), in front of a restored P40 done in the "Aleutian Tiger" scheme of the USAAF 343 rd Fighter Group.

Flying on the occasional "operational"  test flight is just part of my job, just don't ask me to climb up a ladder to paint the house!!!!!

Thoughts and Best Wishes to All that need them.

Cheers, the Bear.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 76° with 95% humidity. It will be mostly sunny and the high will be 95°.


Today I hope to clear more stuff out from under the layout. I'm not looking forward to going under there to fish out the larger items that in the way. I need to be able to access the wiring hence the need for the clear out. One things for sure. I'll have to make a new park scene. That doesn't bother me too much. There's some things about the current one that I wasn't happy with when it was done. Now I'll have a chance to correct them. One thing is that the batters bat was broken right out of the package and I was never able to fix it. I'd like to get another set of the kids playing baseball that has the batter with the bat intact.

USPS tracking shows that the new power supply for my IIe computer will be here today. It'll be nice to get the old Apple functioning properly again. The power supply in it now works but all the components in it are thirty plus years old and subject to age related failure. That was the reasoning behind finding one that has never been used. I consider it the same as a car collector who's rebuilding an antique sports car. Why settle for the part pulled off a junker when you can get one that was found in a warehouse still in it's packaging. After the new supply is installed I'll put the old one in the other IIe that's in the closet. When I can afford to I'll find a good one for it as well.

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning

Going to have more rain on top of rain today...high of 73F expected...

Yesterday we had a wonderful day filled with buckets and barrels of rain be falling on our'n heads..about 4" worth...a big ol' t'underboomer came through and when it was over two big ol' Maple trees on our crescent were split right down the middle...what a fracking mess here...

Today we get to go to the mall nd pick up some more basic food..and other stuff...then to the trainroom I go...no lair of doom stuff today!!

Have a good one!!

[kbkchooch]

Morning gang

Gonna be another hot and muggy day in the Mid Atlantic today, the yard needs cutting but its too wet right now from last nights rain....seems to rain every night lately.

Yesterday was a crappy day.  I was awakened at 12:30 am by a falling sensation,,yes I managed to fall out of bed,,with my face riding the front of the nightstand and the drawer handles all the way down. Not only did it scare the bejesus out of SWMBO, but I cut up the inside of my mouth and smashed my nose. (it's still sore) Got back to sleep, got up and had a normal day at w*rk til about 2:30 when I got back to the office and was informed that the company was doing much worse than anticipated, and they were cutting back and since I was the new guy, I was the 1st to go.  Never mind that in 8 weeks I had covered more of the territory than had been covered in years! So with a letter of recommendation and a promise of 3 more checks (reg pay, bonus and expenses) I was out the door.  At least my workbench is covered right now with other peoples projects that pay cash, so now I have some time to get them done! (between job hunts)

Jeremy, a fright car?? I pictured a stock car full of spooks and demons trying to get out between the boards.......yes,,,,I have an imagination, twisted as it is.

I don't think Bill T is mad at us,,he may have just let his subscription lapse. 

All this talk about airplanes! Personally, I'm not afraid to fly fixed wing aircraft...they still are safer than the freeway. Choppers on the other hand get me excited! Had my 1st helicopter ride when I was about 10 and I've been hooked since. Really should have gone in the military when I was younger and learned to fly, but I was blessed with crappy eyesight.  Lasik came 20 years too late!  

Ray,  Maybe you taught the little urchins a lesson!  Sound like at 1st you scared em half to death! 

Have a goodun everyone,,,I will,,,no matter what

[Curt Webb]

Morning All,

Not sure what's on tap for the weekend, but my regular work partner will be gone next week. He is taking his family to Daytona for the race and staying in a camper on the infield. He is a huge NASCAR fan..me not so much, I prefer Drag Racing.

Garry- How old were you when the Lockheed crashed?

Karl- Great reproduction of a real RR scene in WPF.

 

 

 

 

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

 

[TMarsh]

Good Morning!!!

Coffee and some sour cream donuts please, thanks.

A chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 74. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Karl- Sorry to hear you’ll be looking for another job.

Flying…hm, Not scared to fly but I’d rather drive if I can. I used to hate it, flying that is, but like needles, thanks to the Army it doesn’t bother me. Now heights on the other hand…..I’ll admit the older I get, the less I can get off the ground. I used to not be that way. Anymore I can climb a ladder and get on a one story roof, but have real trouble getting back on said ladder to get down. Like someone else said it absolutely is the falling and not the height because that is all that’s going through my head is all the things that could happen to cause me to fall. Ladder slip, my clumbsyness stumble and flop off before I even get all the way on the thing. That kind of stuff. In a plane or helicopter it doesn’t bother me at all. In a building with those big windows my palms start to sweat and start to think……, someone could fall into me…., we’d hit the glass just right…., causing the glass to break…., I’d fall 50 floors to my …..well you get the idea. So I back away and think… I watch too many movies.

Ya’ll have a good day, ya hear!!!!

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good morning. Where's the coffee?... Bill T were are you?

Karl ... I like your WPF pictures with the model on one and the prototype in the other. Sorry about the jobs situation. There are too many stories similar to yours. Now, it seems, most jobs available are part time with no benefits. 

Curt .... I like your museum photos. In particular I like PRR 5901, the E7. Remarkably all other E7's were scrapped. The E7 was the most common passenger diesel locomotive. PRR had the most e7's and CB&Q was second in the number of E7's. 

You asked how old I was in 1961 when the TWA plane crashed. I was in high school. I lived a half mile from the crash scene, and my good friend, Reggie, lived inbetween. His house was a 1/4 mile away, and explosion cracked windows on his house and cracked some ceiling plaster. He and I mowed grass to earn money, and one of our lawn jobs was at the scene. It was a 5 acre lawn, and some of the debris and bodies had fallen into property owned by our customer. We were not allowed to mow for several days awaiting site investigation.

Later we were allowed to cute grass again. I recall seeing the wooden stakes that were placed at the location of each body with a tag. (Of course the bodies had been carried away by then.) There were similar stakes placed where some plane parts had landed. I recall reading the tags on some of them. One said: "Propeller Number 3". Partly burned papers such as magazines were scattered throughout the grass. 

My friend, Reggie, and I are still very good friends. He is the name sake of  "Reggie's Junk Yard" on my layout. He is a model railroader. He and I visited the offices of Model Railroader last Fall. 

The other problem I have with flying is I can't go through metal detectors with my implanted heart device. So, I get to see my good pal, TSA Agent "Pat Down" if I fly.  

[pascaff*]

  Morning All,

    Heat wave has started in earnest here. Supposed to hit 104 today, and 108 on Monday. Bad timing for the "Great Food Truck Festival" in Carson today. Something my daughters and I really enjoy. Checking out all the different gourmet offerings that can be made in a truck. Most of the food is really excellent. We will be drinking a lot of water and trying to stay cool as we ourselves silly.

    I am not afraid of heights, but ladders do bother me. Flying is also not my favorite thing. One of my late wife's favorite stories about me not liking flying was when I had my double by-pass in 2004. She insisted I go to the hospital because of the pain in my back and the rubbing of my left arm. I walked into the emergency room and felt fine. They did bunches of tests and finally said I had had a heart attack. They wanted me to go up to Reno for an angiagram and possibly heart surgery. She said nothing they said phased me, until they said I would have to be flown up in a helicopter. She said I turned gray. Like I said, I am not a big fan of flying.

   Prayers to all in need.

    Paul

 EDIT I got top so everyone eat up on me. Only fitting since I will be eating most of the day also.

[Packer]

Afternoon guys

Been busy the last few. Work has been crazy for the past couple of weeks. Summer vacation is here I guess.

Today I went to the train club, ran my usual 51 car coal train until there were 3 other people trying to run, then I cut it down to 34... The new boxes I came up with for taking it around came in handy. They take less time to set up and put back, and weigh less. I got home and started on my backlog of kits. I got all but 4 (2x Mckean 40' boxes, and 2x McKean UP centerbeams) done. I just need more centering springs and metal wheels to finish them out.

Ken, any updates on the B&O car? I have the fuel tanks in the box with it and it's ready to go out... Anything else I'm missing?

Flying, I've always wanted to be a fighter pilot. Unfortunately that's probably never gonna happen. My eyesight is just too poor to even get in the military. Top that off with some mental health issues and I can't even get in the military.

[galaxy]

Well

I received a package from way down "weezy-anna" way! Tx. Haven't opened it yet, will later.  Trust it is full of goodies!

Went to the 6TH annual Scottish Festival in Ithaca. Bought more stuff than we shoulda. Got my clan tartan  in a scarf, MOH choose the Wales Heritage tartan scarf, an I got a kilt {cheap one} and wee bit o' the wool blend stockings to werm me feets when th' cold wind is a'blowin'.

I have a good Irish first name and a good Scottish last name! MOH has a wee bit o' the welsh and Scottish and some Irish too {that half of MOH that  is NOT German}.

Oh got two good wool blankies for the winter too...{wrong  clan tartan but all they had and we liked the ones we bought-red field and we both like red}

Spent a pretty penny  but MOH doesn't ask for much and I had fun too. We've already decided with MOH new job and all, we WON'T  be able to go to Baltimore like we'd like to, so....this will have to do. Cheaper than Baltimore too.

Now we are broke again! {Actaully a tinch more}

NOW EXHAUSTED< I go for  a nap!!!

 

[tcwright973]

My niece and her family are in Pittsburgh to see a Pirate game and will be stopping in tomorrow for a little visit. We wouldn't miss that opportunity, so we changed our rail fanning plans to today. And it was worth it. 12 trains in a little over 2 hours. We also got to watch a string of loaded ballast cars being cut and put onto storage tracks right where we go.

Besides these ballast cars, we saw 2 other ballast trains pass by. One east bound and one west bound.  Although Norfolk Southern is doing track maintainance on the main line, I was wondering if all the heavy rain and flash flooding in our area was the reason for seeing this many ballast trains. I haven't seen that before. There were a lot of meets in front of us because the ballast cars being switched out were on track 1, while the other traffic was switched over to the other 2 mains. Quite interesting.

All this talk of heights makes me feel a little better. Seems I'm not the only one who likes heights less and less as I got older. When I first started in the fire service, I had no qualms about walking along a gutter on a 2 or 3 story house. Would I do that today? Not a chance.

Karl - I'm with you. I don't fly often, only a couple of times in the last 25 years. It's like riding in a car and doesn't really impress me. Having spent my career as a professional fire fighter at Greater Pitt, I'm well aware of all the things that could go south. But I'm also aware that the odds are against anything major going wrong.

As for helicopters, well there isn't a more exciting mode of transportation that I know off. My year in Viet Nam was spent assigned to a helicopter company of both guns and slicks. Although not on flight status, I flew quite a bit with test flights and recovery / road service. And on occasion as a door gunner or crew chief. We normally flew with the doors open and it never bothered me. I was fortunate to have a couple of hours stick time. I really enjoyed flying over there. Not so much when I got back to the States. Doors had to be closed and pinned, sleeves rolled down, flight gloves and lots of other safety protocols. Very boring in comparison to what I was use to.

Curt - I'm also enjoying your photos from the PA Museum. I've been there a couple of times and I'm hoping to get back there this Fall. Please keep them coming.

Oh, by the way. I received an e-mail yesterday that my PRR Heritage unit from Intermountain was shipped and should be here Monday. I'm anxious to see it. If it's as nice as I expext it to be, I might have to consider getting a Monongahela unit.

Have a nice weekend everybody...

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Murphy has been laughing up his sleeves big time at me today. I went to Wal-Mart this morning to do some grocery shopping. No sooner than I drove into the lower part of the parking lot the van died. I pulled it into a space and tried starting it. It wants to start but it's apparently not getting enough gas. I sprayed some carb cleaner in the carb and tried it and it kicked right over then died due to fuel starvation. So I'm thinking either fuel filter or fuel pump. Both are on the engine and easy to get at. I'll have my nephew look at it and see what he can do. I called my father and told him to come get me as I needed a ride home. The best place to wait was inside the store. It was 96 outside. I no sooner got that far into the call and my cell phone died. The battery in it is bad. I need to find a repair shop and see if they have a good battery for a Blackberry. Yeah it's a dinosaur, like virtually everything else I own. I looked around and there were no of those electric carts around and unusual for a parking lot, there were absolutely NO vehicles going toward the store. So there was only one way I was getting to the store. Walk the 400 yards up the hill. I had to stop every hundred to hundred and fifty feet and rest a bit then continue. I finally made it to the store. Suddenly there were lots of vehicles coming toward the store and there was an electric cart right at the door with a full charge. So I went inside and got a couple of non-food items. A battery tie-down kit for the van and a surge suppressor for the IIe. About the time I got through checkout my father shows up. We go to his place and he got the keys to his pickup and drove it up out of the back yard and handed me the keys. After all I need some way to get around. I went back to Wal-Mart to do my grocery shopping. No breakdown this time. I get the shopping done and get the groceries into the bed of the truck and headed home. No incidents. I get home and grab two bags (both double bagged) of canned goods and start toward my trailer and both of the bags rip open spilling the cans out on the ground. I got the rest of the groceries into the trailer without incident. I haven't picked up the cans yet, They're still out there in the yard. They can wait until I'm not hurting so bad. Right now I feel like I'm trying to bench press a steam roller from the squat position and my back, hips and knees feel like they are on fire. One other Murphy incident occurred this morning. I went to clean the a/c filter. Just pull the fiberglass sheet out and vacuum it. I got as far as turning the Shop-Vac on and it promptly blew up in my face! The motor shorted out. It's not that old! I only got it four or five years ago and it's hardly been used. Fortunately I have a motor that'll fit in it. One good thing. The power supply for the IIe came in and it tests good in all respects. I thought it had a six amp max load. Turns out it has a seven amp max load. That's a big upgrade for the IIe. The supply in it now has a three amp max load. That may have something to do with why the power regulator went south. Six disk drives, the CP/M and the built-in 128k memory is a pretty fair load to be putting on thirty plus year old components. I did get more stuff out from under the layout and out into the trash can before this sleigh ride began this morning. Well I guess it's time to go outside and pick up the canned goods. This time I'm triple bagging! I'll probably be in my bed most of the evening.

[cudaken]

Evening Diners!

Flo, pleases.

Just want to stop by and tell you all I am still a live!

Still knee deep in my renewed Mopar Love Affair!

Work Front If I did indeed get the raise I had a killer paid period! If I did not get the raises I had a good week. 

Hope to see Ulrich post again!

Ken

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

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Say Bear, is that a P-40N? Just wondering because of the wing mounted guns. 

Hello! 

Been busy with the P-40B today. One thing that really stood out about it was that it was INCREDIBLY CHEAP. I don't get why. After all, it was made by Revell, the same company that made my P-38J Lightning, Spitfire and Me Bf 109G-10, and they all were of really decent quality. Don't understand why this one would be of such poor quality. However, despite, I was able to get it together and now it looks pretty sharp, so the trouble seems to have been worthwhile. 

No layout work again. As a matter of fact, there hasn't been any layout work for a while. However, these aircraft will look good in front of an airplane hanger on an O gauge layout. Plan on building one for my O gauge equipment when I get the time, money and space. Will still have a small layout for my N scale equipment. 

Night everyone. 

["JaBear"]

Lehigh Valley 2089

Say Bear, is that a P-40N? Just wondering because of the wing mounted guns. 

P-40K Jake. Here's a couple of links................

http://www.warbirdrestoration.co.nz/past.html#thurman

http://www.warbirdrestoration.co.nz/thurman_001.html

http://www.warbirdrestoration.co.nz/thurman_006.html

Cheers, the Bear.

[rdgk1se3019]

Howdy....

Was planning on firing up the air brush today.......but instead went to 5 places looking for a #405 stipple brush for my Dremel.

Also went out with a few friends and got a pic or two of the NS heritage Penn Central and Illinois Terminal units on a Brakken oil train........these pics were taken around 6 or 6:30PM about 5 or so miles south of Columbia PA on the old PRR "Port Road"

Will be in Kempton PA tomorrow to help run the layout that the Schuylkill & Lehigh Model RR club has in the old baggage car behind the station at the Wanamaker, Kempton, & Southern RR.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Although I had a bad day something good did come of it. I got the new power supply installed in the IIe. Easier than installing a DCC decoder. It was literally a drop-in installation. Drop it into place, put in four screws from the bottom and connect a six pin wire harness. The test run went off without a hitch. For those who may be curious I took a couple of photos. One of the new unit installed and one of the tag with the amp limits.

I don't wish to force photos on those who don't want to see them so I'm posting links only. After all, not everybody is an antique computer nut.

Installed unit

Data label

Other than moving some stuff out from under the layout there was no layout work today. Unless you count rerailing a loco I knocked over when I was cleaning the a/c filter. Yes, I do have more than one Shop-Vac. I have three. Large, medium and small. And I've already remotored the one that went ka-flooey this morning. Don't let it be said that I've been idle today. Sometimes working on something is my best way of dealing with pain.

Time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow, providing I can get out of bed in the morning.

[Cederstrand]

Chamomile tea, please.

***Jeffrey, stop picking fights with that Murphy fella. Sounds like he's getting the better of you. Hope you get to feeling much better soon.

Some real neat pics of the full scale stuff being posted in the Diner I see.

Spotted a couple tiny spots I missed with the roller when I did the blue coat over the primer coated patches in the Train Room. So miniscule, I may not even bother to touch that up. Now need to start cleaning the room up and then work on planning how to maximize space for additional layout.

Always loved to fly, but no longer do. Now my flying is entirely with RC planes. Have a cousin who taught airline pilots how to fly the big stuff, retired now. And my Dad was a lead bombardier in WWII (B24 Liberators). That's it for flying that I am aware of in my family.

Have a good night all. Rob

[galaxy]

Morning Coffee in the diner..

GOOD SUNDAY MORNING!!!

Today is Sunday, JUNE 30th, 2013!!!

I will light the prayer candles at 9 am after early AM services for those in need....

MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!!!

 

 

[Anonymous]

Good Morning on this very last day of June!

Janie, a big Sunday breakfast, please! Make that scrambled eggs, bacon, buttered toast, jams, OJ and lots of coffee, thank you, dear!

I have been quite busy lately with all that party footw*rk. Good news is, that we have all the support necessary to register for the September election. I also had to do a lot of troubleshooting with the party, as we have a small, but fairly loud number of members causing unnecessary trouble. Things will be a little more quiet after today, as we are entering the summer holiday season. I hope I find the time to draft up a number of campaign speeches. Official start of the campaign is beginning of August, but we won´t go in much before the beginning of September. Better to let the enemy come close, before aiming and shooting...

Jeff - do take care of yourself, pal!

Lots of MIA´s lately...

Have a good Sunday!

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 73° with 75% humidity. The high will be 92°.


Sore and stiff this morning and I'm having a hard time getting around. My knees and back are screaming at me about that long uphill trek yesterday. No layout work, indeed no work period planned for today. It hurts just to lift my arms and I have quite a sunburn to contend with.

For those concerned about Bill, I got a message from him. 'All is OK. I'm just taking a break. I seem to have too many "irons in the fire" right now.
Thanks for your concern.

Bill'

That's all for now, maybe all for the day.

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning!

Well, we kinda got lucky yesterday...sunny all day ...today? ppppffft. Back to kinda dull and dribbly again..oh...and muggy....

We did have a BBQ yesterday at our diner up here..good evening was had by all.

Also got a chance to see a CP/CN meet by the throat...what we call the tracks by our place..both CN and CP tracks come pretty close to each other as they both enter London through the same...erm...pass..as it were...

Anyhooo...have a good day!!

Ulrich:  Good luck at the elections!!

Jeff: I kinda wish I still I had the Vic20 here..that was a fun little computer....

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Good morning. 

Will be visiting the grandmother today. Other than that, I don't think I'll get much done. 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Hey, hey, hey! Jake has TOP! Just roll out the breakfast bar. I'll take the whole thing!

[blownout cylinder]

I'll take 2 of everything please....