wll, well, seems we aren't the only ones car shopping. Guess who else? and who wants our help? The FIL.
MOH called me this morning to tell me that the FIL wants us to help out car shopping. His car is 13 years old and he figures time to replace it, and he has always been jealous of MOH's Gr. Caravan and my Kia Sedona minivans. MIL was short and petite at 4'8" so a low riding car was for her. Now he wants his minivan. We think. He thinks. SO Saturday will be another car shopping day for us with him in tow. He likes to and can afford to buy new. He mentioned the kia sedons, but they only have one kia sedona and it is loaded at like $34k. A subaru forester might be good for him, adn they start about $25K.
Hmm FIL may try to pass the Taurus he has onto us, but MOH doesn't like it at all. and as he knows it is 13 years old.
so what else is new? waiting for money to hit the bansk to do the CUing. The grocery shopping was going to take place today, but will do tomorrow and the banking too. Then I have the dentist tomorrow...whoppee!
We shall se what else we can get into trouble with later on.
Have a great day, you can make it so!
Remember everything is 50% what happens and 50% how you respond to it.
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Good morning, everyone. Despite the arrival of spring last week, it has still been in the teens temperature-wise on my way into work in the mornings. Maybe some more snow tomorrow. After that, though, the 10-day forecast is warming up a bit, as in "spring skiing" warm, not "bicycling in tight black shorts" warm.
We will be skiing again this weekend. We've got 3 more weekends for sure, and maybe more depending on whether they keep the lifts running or just lay everyone off to save money. I blame it on baseball and soccer. Once April comes, too many kids are required to give up the family ski trips and instead submit to mandatory practices at home, so the numbers drop at the ski areas. There's lots of snow this year, but the only people there all have season passes and they're not making a lot of income.
Best wishes to all of you who have ailments. I've scheduled a physical for May. It's long overdue, but I don't have any issues, so I hate going to a doctor's office where I might catch something.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Howdy everybody! ..... I'll have coffee and a cheese Danish please.
Eric .... Welcome. Sounds like a nice layout.
CN Charlie ..... Sounds like you are putting together a geat looking town.
Vincent .... Glad to see you. Have fun with the tax refund.
Z Stripe .... Good to hear you are working on the layout.
Jimmy ..... Hope all goes well with your situation. Modern medicine does wondeful things.
Jeff .... Hop the doctor is looking at the wound you described.
With my railroad, I re-installed the sound decoder in my 2-10-2, and I'm pleased with the results. This decoder was at Soundtraxx for repairs.
Happy Model Railroading
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Mr. B - Please get a FULL Exam and include a COLONOSCOPY. I had NO indications of any problems, yet there was a polyp, with cancer cells and a CANCEROUS mass in the esophagus that they had to cut out .
Ray- makes sense re-Good luck for clients.
Prayers for all.
Flip
howmusTomorrow I hope to put in the dirt road/driveway up to the shop. As I decided not to use the bridge in this spot, the road will dead end at the shop.
Nice to say the very least Question is it looks like it snowed so how the heck are you going to do road work in that kind of weather.
Dennis
CDN Dennis
Modeling the HO scale something or other RR in the shadow of the Canadian Rockies Alberta, Canada
Mornin'.... Good to see the place busy today!
Zoe, when you get a chance I'd like a cup of Marrakesh Express dark roast in my R&GV RR Mug please, and a couple sour cream glazed donuts to dunk.
Partly cloudy here in the Finger Lakes this morning. Currently 29°F on its way to around 39°F this afternoon. Sun has been visiting from time to time so I should be a decent day for Solar Power.
I will be very glad when my sister gets back from her travels Thursday Evening. Driving to Canandaigua every day and wasting 3 hours of modeling time is getting old just like the Winter weather!
Flip/Phil, I second your suggestion for Mr. B to get that colonoscopy done too. I will be due for my next one in a year, possibly two. My first one had 8 precancerous polyps removed! Last time they removed a couple small growths that were of the benign sort (don't become cancerous) so I could go 6 years before the one coming up. I figure getting that first one may have saved my life (or prolonged it anyway...). Keeping you in my prayers!
Going to go turn on the heat and lights down cellar and hope to get a few minutes work done before lunch.
Later!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
galaxyDennis: glad MIL is settled. That takes a load off your minds. I will still keep her on as "family" of diners...
Thanks Gallaxy and you are so right... a big load off our minds for the time being at least. The worst is yet to come unfortunatly.
Good Grief, we have a winter storm warning in place... again. Lucky us . Speaking of income tax returns, I did mine up with Turbo Tax, it didn't complain so I sent the return in thinking I was getting a return and guess what. I had to pay them $500 bucks. That was fun.
Been surfing the various Makes of cars on the net just to see what the heck is out there. I have no idea what to buy but whatever it is will be NEW this time as opposed to the last 4 vehicles we have had. Pre Owned is a shell game sometimes. Oh yes, here is a good one. All the auto companies in Canada place an automatic 20% surcharge on all vehicles, even the ones built up here. AND, the US dealers are under orders to not sell vehicles to Canadians. How's that for gouging.
Ok Vinie I'm done with the rant.
Got quite a lot done on the RR yesterday. MOH cancelled the clean the living room plan so it left me with all day to mess around down in my kingdom. More work on the stream/lake. More screen down for land forms a mine location put in place plus some other odds and sods.
Today I'll be laying some track me thinks.
On the subject of pellet stoves, they are getting more and more popular in our neck of the woods due mostly to the PIA of getting firewood/ splitting and stacking. Have some friends with them and they really pump out the heat.
CU all later, I'm off to join the track gang.
It's still cold here, snow for this afternoon...
Dennis, I've heard from friends the pellet stoves/furnace are great. Are you getting the timed release hopper for the top?
Several people here tried to install the wood burning furnaces, they were shut down because the building code required the top of the chimney has to be a certain height above the roof line. These furnaces are metal fireboxes that are built on a pad outside. An air duct is run from the house through the firebox.
BM1 Lee Soule USCG (ret) L.S.&W Railroad Serving the Lower Great Lakes
Well guys, it is going to be 70 degrees here next Monday. Guess that means going out to railfan and get some photos of the some of the last standing conrail tri light signals, before NS decides to replace them.
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
]Hello again folks. Thank you all for the welcome, it is appreciated. Today, I'm just doing a little more wiring on the turnouts and associated relays. I salvaged a lot of the Atlas turnouts from the previous layouts. They are the ones with the metal frogs. I also bought/installed new Walthers curved turnouts and a double slip switch. All the turnouts are being operated by Atlas under-the-table switch machines and relays, controlled by SPDT center-off push button switches.I'm taking a break now and eating lunch, but a large portion of my morning was spent doing a side project for my wife. The project is reupholstering the dining room chair seats. There is a total of 10 and I've gotten 4 done between yesterday and today. I'm only doing 2 a day because I've never done this before and I don't want to mess it up. Besides, I don't want to take too much time away from the layout. I'm eating all these 'elephants' in little bites.Garry, when it comes time for the scenery, I hope to incorporate some of your ideas for the downtown/urban area. Well that's it for now. Take care.
Eric
Ray - I'm thinking you made a good choice on eliminating the bridge. Don't get me wrong, I like bridges on layouts, but in this case, the photos you showed earlier, I thought it detracted from your blacksmith shop. Which is a winner and requires total attention.
We had a great weekend railfanning this past weekend. On Saturday we went to our usual spot and caught 11 trains in 2 hours. Intermodals, coal, mixed, denatured alcohol, a road railer, and a string of about 70 +- empty gondolas.
Then Sunday we went across town to catch CSX. Saw 3 trains in an hour and a half. A mixed freight, 1 auto rack, and an intermodal. Left there and went to our usual spot for Norfolk Southern. There we got 7 trains in 2 hours. 4 intermodals, 2 mixed freight and 3 engines running light back to Conway Yard.
This new spot across town I found for CSX is great. About 20 to 30 minutes round trip. Which is a whole lot better than the 4 hour round trip to Conneaut, Ohio we used to make. Although I must admit we saw some interesting foreign power up there.
Foreign power seen over the weekend included 2 Canadian Pacific, a Citirail (leaseing unit) and a CSX on a Norfolk Southern train.
This morning I saw on the internet that the Pennsylvania heritage unit was reported westbound at Cresson, PA 2 hours previously. So we put together a couple of sandwiches for lunch and headed on out. Went to Glenfield, PA and finally got to see that gem on a coal train.. We also caught 1 crude oil and 2 mixed freights. One of the mixed freights had a nice shiny Canadian National ES44AC.
We won't be rail fanning next week end as we are going to Camp Hill, PA for our great nephew's birthday party. Hope the weather is decent, as I don't like driving the PA Turnpike in bad weather.
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA
Yeah, I know. The colonoscopy is on the list. Not during ski season, though. I schedule it for a Monday morning so I can have Sunday for the "preparations." Not something I'm going to start if I'm going to be on chairlift.
To you younger guys, here's hopin' you'll all get there and understand this some day. Even better, here's hopin' somebody comes up with a little chirping thing like Dr. McCoy has on Star Trek so none of us has to deal with this.
Hello all again { I know groan its me}
Jimmy Braum:...GOod to see you in again! You may have noticed I added you to the healing thoughts, energies and prayers list this morning per your request. Hope all goes well for you. We do have some who are really sick who seem to be benefitting form our efforts.
If'fen you all don't know, I light candles to go with the morning prayers and "guide" healing energies in the directions of those who need them. i 'spect, iff'en you have been reading the posts here, you know that. I quieted down the "prayers" item so as to not violate the "no religion" clause of our hosts rules, they do seem to be ameniable to the prayer lists, though. At least I haven't gotten suspended for it. Hope not to. I periodically remind that you don't have to believe in a diety to believe in the energies of the universe and that positive energies can heal. It takes only one's desire to engage those helaing energies.
It takes far less energy to believe in the positives, than the negatives! A positive attitude can get you through most anything, if not, it can help along the way. Remember, positves attract! Negatives repell!
pav: ERic:Welcome back! Sounds great to have the layout work to do. I did mine to fast really. It IS a small layout, which can be fun, but I also decided to tear it down to rework it into a bit of a bigger layout. Then discovered there really is no room for it to get bigger. I have it in a tiny spare room. Upholstery..you should get faster as you go, so you will have those chairs done in no time....Then you will havemore "train time" unless your OH wnats something else "done"!!
RAy: am I to understand you are taking that gorgeous start of a bridge out? I agree that I did not like the location of said bridge, but who was I to judge? It looked like fine work too, so I hope you find another spot for it?
Mr. B: There really is NOTHING to a colonoscopy! You won't even know its been done! The "preparations" are not THAT bad. SO you vacate the system. big deal. Mine came out clean, but a someone I know had to have something like 10" of colon removed because he put it off until there was something really wrong. Nowadays we can fight things_IF caught early. So I sing it's praises as well. Oh, nad yes, while it is important to do, NO you don't want to be sitting onthe chairlift while you prepare...but DON't put it off to long, a weekend of skiing over late diagnosis can be a BIG PRICE to pay!
Tom in Pitt: I sure wish NS would pull a heritage fleet around here, but then again, I don't actively 'stalk" the trains anymore. I used to go sit in a grocery store lot at trackside to glimsp. parking lot at edge of tracks. I think they run about 5 trains around/through here.
Well, dinner is SUrf 'N TUrf... ahi tuna and steak med-rare for MOH, and swordfish and steak med-well for me.
sounds delicious! best get it started!
Later guys!
Good Afternoon,
A balmy 14F right now with 0F windchill but it is sunny. I know many of you are envious of our sunny weather up here but some are just luckier than others.
Ah the colonoscopy disucssion. How can you tell most of the diners are 55+. Strangely I wish I could have one but due to a diverticular problem I had to get a barium enema instead. What did I tell you about lucky.
I think I'm coming down with something. BLI just announced they are doing Alco PAs in CN with sound (N scale) but I don't have any desire to get one. Perhaps it will pass. CN didn' t own any but Alco did a demo painted in CN colours so the loco did exist even if only for a year or so. That's it! The demo was in 1950 or so but my layout is late '50s. No wonder I don't want one. Guess I'm ok afterall.
A book I ordered arrived today. It is Steam to the Niagara Frontier by Ian Wilson. I was able to get a used one in as new condition as they are out of print. I now have 7 of the 9 he wrote and will have to wait and search for the 2 I am missing. They really are great books if you are into CN steam. All are set at June 26,1954 when CN was running with about 70% steam.
Well I think I'll just sit in the sun, indoors of course, thumb through the new book and enjoy my coffee. We bought one of those Kureg machines at Christmas and I must say they do brew a good coffee.
CN Charlie
Wor
Galaxy, thanks you a lot. It could be either a scab, a beniegn one, or a skin melanoma. At least I caught it early if it is dangerous.
Wasted day. Went to the docs office this morning. He shuffled me off onto the ER. This morning I was in a very foul mood. I'd been up every half hour or so puking my guts out, couldn't get any sleep and by ER time I didn't know whether I was coming or going. Everything was appearing in stop motion and flashes. I didn't know what was going on. I told the doc I was leaving and I did. I called my father to pick me up. Later we went back for my van. I still don't know how I got it there in one piece. Tomorrow morning I'll go back and re-register and see if we can all do this right. One of the things I remember is they were talking about transport by ambulance. I was pretty sure my insurance doesn't cover that and now I know it doesn't. Non-emergency only. Ambulance rides have to go through 911. I'm feeling better now but still a bit spacey. My sinuses are driving me crazy and I'm hocking up that long sticky mucus that likes to hang from that thing in the back of throat. I wish I could blow my sinuses clean and keep them that way.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Hello everybody.
Cool day here too. We even had a little snow flurries. I'll have some chili please.
Galaxy ... I'll try not to spill the chili on the rivit counter you polished at the beginning of the month.
Jeff ... Hope you are okay. I read your post across the street in which you said you were going to the doctor. Your problem sounded very serious, and we will be worrying about you. Prayers for you. .... (Edit. Just read you post now. Hope all gets better soon)
CN Charlie .... It's hard for me to picture CN Alco PA's. Would have been nice if CN decided to order them. ..... Sounds like a good book .
Eric ... Thanks for the compliment regarding scenery.... There are others in the forum including Diners who have done good work modeling towns.
Blue jays were in the yard yesterday. Today a dumb cardinal has been beating his beak on one of our windows. Cats are nuts about that.
I worked on my mothers income taxes today. I do not like income taxes. They tax your time as well as your money. If there is to be a tax, a sales tax makes more sense in my opinion. .... Ooops.... Okay Vinnie, I'll drop that topic.
Flip .... I hope you continue recoring from surgery and will be back to noram soon..
edit .... Jimmy just saw your post. Praying this problem is not serious.
I'm hoping JohnBoy will be back with us soon.
Happy Model Railroading .
JEFFREY,
Sounds like You have an internal infection. Don't be sitting on your hands too long. With you being a Diabetic, thats serious. Your Doc. should have seen that.
Take Care! Buddy, My prayers are with You.
Stripe
Good Evening...We are supposed to go to 3F tonight...can winter go now? Had some friends over today to run some choochoo's and had nada for incidents, accidents, go to grounds, or general wipe-outs today I'm having to dl some huge files here...ordered a new DAW online and now need to dl 3 seperate files. 1-Daw itself, 2.5 Gb .zip2-instruments, 3.0 Gb zip. 3 soundsets and etcetera...6.7 Gb .zipIt will probably take most of the evening here....
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
well
We now know what kind of car MOH will be getting. It is a '01 Taurus, my FIL's old car. FOr free can't beat it I guess. Maybe for the best, thought MOH hates, no rather loathes the car. I dont think it so bad, but I don't have to drive it if at all, not often. Gives us a chance to save towards the next vehicle. That way we aren't rushing it and have time to "do it right". WE have to keep it at least a couple of years as I told MOH, otherwise FIL will get angry for "getting rid of a perfectly good car". Last car he gave that was 13 years old gave HIM no trouble, but caused us many problems, so...ANd if the A/C on it quits, MOH won't like it! {nor will I on days When mine is in the shop and I have to ride in it}. We know we like the Sentras, so... and I may Get yet another Gr, caravan in 2 years IF they still make them. BUT, MOH will want a replacement sooner as the Taurus is still the older vehicle by 5 years. Taht means when FIL wants to haul something, it will BE ME he calls.
Jimmy Braum: I had a couple benign basal cell carcinomas removed, and a couple nasty {benign} moles. The former requiring surgery and in one case a skin graft. Hope you don't have melanoma.
I slept most of the day, must be ny new med for the pain. Only thing I can think of.
well, I shall soon abed myself. See you in the morning!
blownout cylinder Good Evening...We are supposed to go to 3F tonight...can winter go now?
Good Evening...We are supposed to go to 3F tonight...can winter go now?
Barry, I agree.
We set records last night for cold. We have, apparently, set quite a few "cold" records this winter!
Tonight to be in the teens, so warmer than the last few nights. THEY PROMISE warmer weather {50s!!!} will be here end of week,and tomorrow to be warmer too.
Cannot WAIT!
Evenin' folks!
Janie, a cup of hot decaf would hit the spot right now.
28°F currently here in the Finger lakes on its way down to 17°F before the sun comes up.... How's everyone enjoying Spring so far? (ducks flying object being thrown at him...)
Had a meeting of a newly formed committee (Presbyterians use comittees for everything) to see about improving the acoustics in the Sanctuary of the church. I have been complaining for over 20 years about it (as have a whole lot of other people), and since I am the only person in the church who has actually studied the subject and ran a business doing live sound and professional on location recording, I was kept off all the earlier comittees devoted to the subject.... This time I think we are ready to actually do some things to get an intelegible sound in the space. I was able to explain the problem/solutions in a way that even the Music Director who gets very nervous whenever this subject comes up would agree with. Some of the others on the committee have actually gone out and done some homework and when a couple of "dumb" questions or "Solutions" came up others were able to explain why that is not a good idea.... Took a lot of presure off me. We actually came up with a sequence of items to see what needs to be done and get it done!
I did manage to get some more done on the project down cellar... The road crew showed up today and put in a gravel road up the hill and around the Blacksmith's Shop.
Have a great evening and know all those in need are in my prayers!
Hey guys. It's below 40 here again on the gulf coast...
Just got back from the train club. One of my SD40-2s I kept there failed on me. For some reason it doesn't want to move, or if it does it's very slow. I though one of the wires to the 9-pin plug was loose, so I tried to solder it. Except the soldering iron there isn't very precise, and it wound up desoldering more wires than it soldered. I brought it home to work on it tomorrow. So my consist for my mixed frieght at the club was 2 SD40-2s bracketing an F45. Turns out it wasn't enough power to pull my train out of storage because of the 5%+ grade and fairly sharp turn. A friend wound up using his BLI mohawk to pull me out until it could go under it's own power. Ran that for a few laps, then put it up. I ran a long coal train with 2 C30-7s and 2 U30Cs for most of the night. Then I went to my passenger train with 2 F40PHs and 14 cars. Did I mention for all the trains except for the latter, I had to push the pot in my throttle down to get it to go above like 15 scale mph... I also got commisioned to weather another car, so that puts some more money into my pocket.
I also got a package in the mail full of smokey valley brass handrail stanchions. There is enough to do 1 SD7 and 2 SD40-2s. I really only needed the SD7 ones; but I took the SD40-2 ones to see if I could use them for trade bait for other detail parts, or to use them later for an SD40-2B (although I would need an Athearn BB SD40-2)
Tomorrow's plans after work are to fix that SD40-2, and start weathering that car I got. If I remember to buy some batteries I'll try to get pictures. I'm guessing I'm getting pretty good cause the guy who comissions me the most goes to and displays work at RPP meets.
Jeff, take care with whatever is going on with you now. I'd agree with the recommendation to see the ER at night. I've only gone once and that was for a broken arm when I was like 8, 3 am at a military hospital. No one was there.
Garry, I still have a good chunk of the money left, even after the 3 new SD40-2s. I'll use it for a new throttle.
Ray, looks good. Is that part of the layout gonna be set in snow? lol
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
I'm late due to MOH doing "homework" on the 'puter, but morning has sprung, now if Spring would do the same..
Mututatial - Something that is borrowed. (rare)
There once was a mystic named LukeWho dined on the seed of a cuke.A ghost in his hovelSaid, "Isn't this novel:A spook spooking Luke who's a kook."
Quotable quotes: Mistakes are part of the dues that one pays for a full life. -Sophia Loren, actress (b. 1934)
Good Morning All,
30F and overcast this morning. A 16 degree improvement over yesterday morning. Not much going on just now but w..k and sleep. I did watch the Uconn womens game last night though it was a bit of a snoozer. I hope they are up to it when they start meeting better opponents later in the NCAA tournament.
Just a blueberry bagel with cream cheese and a regular coffee to go please Zoe.
Jeff - sounds like others have suggested you should get that foot looked at. The nasel stuff does sound like the beginnings of an internal infection. Best not to wait.
Finishing up a brake upgrade project in the shop and trying to keep ahead of the other projects. Nothing to report on the MRR front this week.
Prayers for those in need and best wishes for full recoveries. Cheers, J.R.
Hockey last night. Normally, it's just fun, but last night was a bummer. There was a murder in one of the Boston suburbs last week, and we found out that the victim was the son of one of our teammates. Not much info, but they know the guys they're looking for. The victim was a high school senior, a good kid by all accounts.
Thanks for listening.
Todd
Central Illinoyz
In order to keep my position as Master and Supreme Ruler of the House, I don't argue with my wife.
I'm a small town boy. A product of two people from even smaller towns. I don’t talk on topic….. I just talk.
Ray - Looking at the photos of the blacksmith's shop you posted last night, I thought that's a great place to railfan, sitting on top of the retaining wall over looking the tracks. A bench would be nice for us older folks. Yes sir, a bottle of wine, cold chicken & trains. Doesn't get any better than that.
Got up this morning to see everything outside covered with a dusting of white stuff. Will it never end? Easy to clean the walks & driveway with a leaf blower though. Still... I want it gone till next year.