Time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.
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
Insomniac Special, please.
***Ulrich, that is going to be a fine and usable layout. Such fine benchwork.
***Jeffrey, that is a nifty looking little loco. I too am curious if it will cut a deep dish pizza.
***Johnboy, always great to hear from you. Continued healing thoughts heading your way.
Going to be moving a bunch of my fence along the property line. Seems some of it is on or went slightly over the line and since the new neighbor will have cows, I would rather have my horse fence on my side. Then he can put up his own barbed wire for his cows. I do not use barbed wire for horses. It is going to be a lot of work. Oh well, it's just more time and money away from fun stuff.
Cheers! Rob
morning coffee in the diner...
-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 Afternoon!
Chloe, lots of coffee in my K.H. RR. & Nav. Co. mug, please!
Today is a nice day. After yesterday´s ra*n and storm, we are back to nice Spring weather again. Good for my spirits.
Started early in the morning to do some w*rk on the layout. Got out my sander to smooth the benchwork joints, while Petra was in the bathroom. When she came out, the job was done and the mess cleaned up - she didn´t even hear me
Started to put down the track, which went surprisingly well. It sure helps to have a good plan! Here is a sneak preview of my today´s achievement:
I´ll now take a rest, as my back is starting to kill me.
Johnboy - good to hear you are in good spirits and on the road to recovery!
Have a great day!
Good Morning All!
Galaxy, I second your thoughts and prayers to the folks you mentioned and to all in general.
We're expecting a small group of relatives for dinner tomorrow, so a good chunk of the day will be cleaning. I still have to paint one last side of the house, but the weather will determine when that gets done. It may or may not happen before my wife and I take a little vacation and head down to Myrtle Beach for a week. I had traded in a timeshare week that was about to expire and we decided to go someplace new, that would be within a (long) days drive.
Layout-wise, the wiring was completed and in test running locos, I found a few things needed tweaking. Even though I had powered the Atlas turnout frogs with their relays, I found one that caused the loco to stall at slow speed. After some head scratching and muttering, I checked the voltages with a multimeter and found that the frog was not the problem. The problem was with the switchpoint rail not making electrical contact with the neighboring rail near the switchpoint rivet. There is a metal strip that touches the neighboring rail from under the rivet and this is what needed to be bent up slightly to make the necessary contact. In another area, I found that I overlooked connecting a couple of feeders. Anywho.....
Happy Easter Everyone!
Eric
Good morning all! Sorry i have been tardy again... or should I say.. As usual.
Things are going good here on my end. I am in the process of exploring my retirement options from the military. Hard to believe that come September 1st, I'll have 20 years in. And I'm ok with the tought of retiring now. If I could have done it back on January 1st, I would be alot happier now than I am. All of the bs at the base and office have really brought me down and I've threatened my supervisor with resigning before I have my 20 years in. But I have not done it as that "magic number" is what is driving me to stay.
As for what I'm going to do in retirement, I'm looking into starting my own business doing small residential landscaping. Nothing big as it's just me doing most of the work. My dad may help out here and there, but not all the time. I've actually gone to a seminar in the last month for veterans who are looking to start their own business. Met some nice people there and one group actually helps you from counseling to mentoring to plan development, etc from the time you first meet with them up until you either sell the business, close it for good, or pass away.
As for my layout progress, well it's nonexistant at the moment. Not sure if I mentioned this the last time I checked in, but I've had to do a complete gut and remodel of my main bathroom. And while it's still not done, it's about 85% finished. All that's left is a few more granite tiles, grout, plumbing fixture installation and about 30min of electrical work for a ceiling exhaust fan. So, all of my funds for a layout have been exhausted by the bathroom. The room the layout is going in, will be next on the list. It's going to get insulated and all new electrical wiring lights and outlets. Then will be my room followed by the room I use as my office.
Anyways, I need to get going. My laundry and dishes will not wash themselves.
Take care!
//signed// John Powell President / CEO CNY Transportation Corp (fictional)
http://s155.photobucket.com/albums/s303/nuts4sports34/
Hunter - When we met in January of 2000, you were just a 6 week old pup who walked his way into this heart of mine as the only runt in the litter who would come over to me. And today, I sit here and tell you I am sorry we had to put you down. It was the best thing for you and also the right thing to do. May you now rest in peace and comfort. Love, Dad. 8 June 2010
I love you and miss you Mom. Say hi to everyone up there for me. Rest in peace and comfort. Love, John. 29 March 2017
JP ... Great to see you again. Sounds like overall things are going well in spite of a situation at work now.
JohnBoy .... I hope your recovery continues to go well. That is funny about the fire hose.
Ulrich ... Glad to see some track being layed.
My Soundtraxx TSU1000 sound decoder is going back to the factory for its 3rd time. Frustrating.
Shelley and I attended the local Rotary Club auction which raises funds for college schoalships with the proceeds. Shelley has good luck with door prizes. A couple of years ago she won a Panasonic TV with a very large screen. This time she won a quarter steer of Angus beef. However, we don't have a large freezer! The TV and the beef were each won by spending just $10.00.
Happy Easter everybody.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Cederstrand***Jeffrey, that is a nifty looking little loco. I too am curious if it will cut a deep dish pizza.Laugh
Ulrich: The layout is looking good.
JPowellAnyways, I need to get going. My laundry and dishes will not wash themselves.
Wouldn't it be great if they did? Would that require clicker training?
Extra strong coffee in a SOUTHERN PACIFIC mug, please.
***Garry, you married a Winner there. BTW, there is plenty of freezer space here.
***John P., have you ever used one of those Ventrac 4500 slope mowers? Or any other slope mowers? Test drove one the other day and it was kinda fun driving sideways on a hill.
Good morning. It's 69° with 65% humidity. The high will be 78° with some clouds.It was a long night. Had dinner last night then took my meds minus insulin as I was concerned it would bring on a crash toward morning. As it turned out the Metformin the Rehab Hospital doc put me on in addition to my other meds saw to that and then some. I went into a crash less than an hour after taking the meds. So I had to eat again to bring my blood sugar back up. I thought it was over. Silly me. Within two hours I was headed into a full blown crash again! Yep, had to eat again to bring the blood sugar back up. By now my system was so upset I spent most of the rest of the night on the throne. I did manage to get a little sleep but I'm too tired this morning to do anything. I had planned to work on my van today but now that's out. I'm dropping the changes that doc made to my meds. What I was using before was working and he had no business changing it. I've already removed the Metformin from my meds and will not taking it anymore. That stuff is massive overkill.I'll be taking it easy today and hopefully get some rest. The wound vac is working fine. I added some extra drape film to the dressing to reinforce it as it has to last till Monday when it will be changed by the Home Health nurse.
Afternoon all, I got a bit of railfanning in this mornng and captured my first FECX unit, and the NS Interstate unit on teh same train. I found out I am receiving my dad's narrow gauge stuff at some point in the near future, and I finished painting the living room last night. I managed to also get this week a Citirail locomotive, a Twin bay NS hopper(Dolly Partons), two FerroMex locomotives, and maybe a photo of an old keystone on a PRR Bridge. It's about 60 degrees outside, and partly cloudy. Btw, here's a link to someof my Heritage unt shots (Seen 17 of the NS heritage units, photographed 16, seen 1 UP heritage, 1 amtrak unit, and a mix of other stuff).
(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).
Our plans for Easter have changed once again. Usually we go to my nephews, but he and his family left for a 10 day vacation in Italy on Friday. So we had invited my brother-in-law and his wife to our house on Easter. But he called Thursday evening and canceled due to broncitis. So it's just the wife & I. Because we don't have to knock ourselves out getting ready for guests, we took a couple of hours off this morning & went railfanning at our usual spot. Packed a little picnic basket with ham I swiped from tomorrows dinner. Anyway, we caught 9 trains in 3 hours. 1 crude oil, 2 coal, 1 mixed freight, 4 intermodal & 1 string of empy gons. But best of all, we caught 2 of NS's Heritage units, the Monongahela spotting coal hoppers on sidings righ behind us, and the Southern leading an intermodal.
Jimmy - Your link didn't work. There are 5 Heritage units I haven't seen yet, and the Interstate is one of them. I see where it's been hanging around the Mon Valley lately, and I keep hoping it will hit the Fort Wayne Line one of these days.
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA
Genius me forgot to include the link Let's try that again. https://www.flickr.com/photos/123453664@N04/sets/72157644097771971/ There you go.
Oh, to share some of my favorites.
Afternoon folks!
I didn't make it in this morning as I was late getting out the door to go to our Boy Scout Camp for a Properties Committee Work Day. I reinstalled the Sound Board for the Season (They need it for Woodbadge next weekend...). Hooked everything back up and all is well. The mixer took a hit last summer in the lightning strike out there and needed to have 3 channels replaced over the winter. Then, after lunch, I spent an hour and a half sweeping down cobwebs and dirt from around the walls in the dining room. Another old Scouter swept the main floors as I was working the walls. Got to chat with several old Scouting friends I haven't seen in a few years along with a "mom" of one of the Scouts out there helping. The "mom" appeared to know me right off and she looked familiar to me but I just couldn't place her, until she mentioned something about activity out at the museum... She came to the museum with her son's troop when the troop was out there doing the Merit Badge with me last year.
The trip out to the camp was interesting as well! On the way out, I managed to see one White Deer (as in the herd inside the old Seneca Ordinance Depot) right along the way, a beautiful Ring Necked Pheasant right in the ditch by the side of the road, but the real "WOW!" moment was coming across a Mennonite Farmer plowing a field with a team of six huge Percheron work horses! I believe they were pulling 3 bottom plow! All six were working perfectly as a team and I could see the muscles on these giants ripple with every step!!! Absolutely beautiful horses. Rob would have gone nuts I bet! Then on the way home in the same field where the team was plowing, right in the middle, there was a wild turkey looking for food in the newly turned earth... I do love living in the Finger Lakes!
I have also had about 50 starlings, 8 robins, 4 cardinals, and a pair of Downy Woodpecters visiting my Flowering Quince this Spring almost every day at breakfast time.
Sun decided to come out this afternoon so I should be able to count some kWhs of electric again today. Life is good!
Have a great day and a Happy Easter to those of the faith.
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Jimmy - Thanks for the link. I enjoyed looking to see what you caught. Might have to head down the Mon Line one of these days to see what kind of luck I might have there. I haven't seen any of the demonstrators, so that was interesting.
Ray - A couple of years ago we were at the Strasburg Railroad and I noted an Amish farmer plowing his field with 6 horses in a line. So we pulled over and watched from the side of the road. I couldn't believe the square corners they were making. Sure didn't waste any ground in that field. Brought the plow right up to the fence. It seemed like the horses knew what they had to do, and didn't require much in the way of directions. On one of our wine trips, we were driving down the east side of Seneca Lake past the Depot, when we spotted a very large herd of deer on what I would call the "perimiter road". When I was in the service, every Army Post I was stationed at had large deer herds, even though there was always limited hunting. They seem to get sort of tame as many herds became tourist attractions with people showing up at the fence lines in the evening to feed them. I always enjoyed watching them.
Tom, I think 18 of the 20 NS units have been down here at one point or another. Plus with the current motive power shortage, There's been Canadian National and Canadian Pacific locomotives down here as well. Usually check out the Monongahela Aquatorium for railfanning, or the parking lot that was the former PRR station/platform. The other day there was a continusly welded rail train making it's way down. Plus the motive power around here is impressive. A lot of old GP units (38's, a few GP40-2's, a high hood, a couple of the RP units, But mostly a lot of ES44AC's and SD90'S). It;s not as busy as say, horseshoe curve, but usually there is about 6 trains a day during the summer.
Tom, I used to love to watch the "Horse Pull" at our fairground when I was a kid. It was like the tractor pull used to be, but using horses and a lighter pull drag. I always used to wonder at some of the farmers who used to drive their horses with whips and yelling at them.... They never seemed to win but never learned either. The winners used to hook up the team to the pull and just a couple words and a whislte or two and the team would lean into the task and make the pull easily. Horses are very intelligent and seem to love leaning into the load when asked (nicely...). I was NYS Master Guernsey Showman back in 1965. My showmanship cow was very aware that she was on display and what she was supposed to do. One reason I won that year is I could drop the halter and let it hang then just guide her with soft words and head movements. She knew exactly what to do! She would get nervous just like I did when we entered the ring but put on her act perfectly for me. Don't, however, try to stop her after her foot touched the dirt outside the ring! She would be back to her spot in the barn before I could try to stop her!!! Those horses when treated well love what they do just like any athlete.
Oh, what you saw was the herd of "White Deer" that are protected inside the fence of the depot. Here is more information on them for you (and anyone who may be interested in them). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_white_deer There is a lot of controversy on what will become of the herd as the old Depot is developed....
Well, I'd said I wasn't going to work on the van today. Silly me. I got an email alert that the packages with the decoders and computer parts had been delivered so I wad going to go to my fathers place to get them. Went to start my van and 'CLICK'! So I ended up having to work on it anyway. Took off the clamps and cables then put a steel brush bit in the Dremel and polished everything. Posts, clamps, cable ends, nuts, bolts, tabs. It all got cleaned. Put it all back together and it starts up great now. Still gotta get a new battery though. This ones toast. About ten to twenty seconds cranking is all it's good for then it's just real slow cranking. By the time I got it started I was wiped. So went down to my fathers place and opened the packages there. I inspected them them put everything in one box for ease of carrying.Power went out too. For about five hours. There were about thirteen hundred homes effected. When it came back on my step mothers Life Alert system got a wild hair and called 911 so we were all surprised when an ambulance showed up in the driveway.Had to change the filter canister on my wound vac. It's only been one day and it was full already! It holds 150 ml and it was indeed full. So it has a new filter on it now. I put the old one in a gallon bag so the Home Health nurse can see it Monday.My father wants me to go with him to the Easter service at church tomorrow morning. I don't often go to church services as I'm very uncomfortable around crowds But I decided that since it's a special day I'd make an exception and go. Also he hasn't got many years left and I want to spend as much time with as I can with him. We didn't get along well when I was younger and it seems we're both trying to make amends for that in the last few years. He's mellowed quite a bit and I've calmed down a lot from the wild person I used to be.Here you can see the Digitrax decoders and most of the computer boards I picked up. The CP/m board is already in a computer and isn't in this photo. What is here is a RAM expansion card and three disk drive controller cards.
Jeff, I think that's the best gift you can give your dad. Your love and support is priceless to him.
It's way better than a chocolate bunny.
Happy Easter to you and the family
Good evening everyone. I forgot to send prayers earlier to all those in need.
Jeffrey... If laundry and dishes could do themselves, I wouldn't have alot to do on my off days which would lend to doing more train related activities.
Speaking of train related activites, I did some railfanning earlier this evening after an 8.2 mile bike ride. Took a short trip from the Erie Canal trail I rode and stopped near the CSX mainline and within 10 minutes, caught a westbound K train full of empty tank cars that was being lead by 2 BNSF Pumpkin units.
Rob - I've never heard of that brand. Was it a stand up rider or a sit down rider? Is it one of those that lets the chassis stay angled while the body and seat are level? I have a JD D140 rider for my personal use. Once I get the business certificate and funding through the business, the mower and my truck will be paid off with that money. Also, any tools I buy from this point forward will be under the business and not me personally. Then I'll get some magnetic vinal signs for the truck and a trailer and then I'll be set.
Anyways gang, I am heading off for the evening. I'll try to make it in tomorrow, but if I don't or you don't, then I hope you have a Happy Easter.
The computer cards have all been tested and been found to be in good working order.The two Digitrax DH126D decoders have been installed in two of my repowered Varney F3A's and they run great.Van starts and runs good after all the work I did on it today. That's less that I have to do tomorrow. However my back and my left foot are letting me know all about it.Time to call it a night. See y'all sometime tomorrow.
Good Morning!
Another nice day, which is most unusual for Easter in our neck of the woods. Murphy´s law usually provides us with lots of and .
I am not quite sure whether I will find the time to do some more w*rk on my layout. I have a sore shoulder (from what?) and we will be visiting Petra´s aunt in the early afternoon. Going there will put my sentiment to a test. She lives in the same nursing home where my Dad spent his last days. Seeing the place brings back the memories of the fights my Mom had with him while they were there.
Easter blessings to you all!
Easter sunrise coffee in the diner...
multivious: having many directions; leading many ways
claire de lune: moonlight
scintilla: spark; atom
Hi folks,
Younger bro, his partner and two girls came around today and we had a lovely easter sunday together.
the two girls enjoying some chocolate.
This side will be low hills along the backdrop. Where the hills rise to blend into the other side will be a ranch. The other end will be a large orange grove and you can see another small section to the left of the photo will be an town and industrial area with a grain elevator and a produce supplier.
Off to get started on the trackwork.
Cheers!
James, Brisbane Australia
Modelling AT&SF in the 90s
Happy Easter everyone. Hope it is an enjoyable one at that.
Happy Easter.
Won't have any model railroading today. Church first then to Nashville,TB to vist family there.
We are back from visiting Petra´s aunt. It´s always depressing me quite a lot, there are just too many bad memories attached to that place.
I did find some time to w*rk on the layout. Laid some more track, but the fun bit is yet to come - doing that diamond crossing. I have no idea how to do that - yet.
Good afternoon. It's 79° with 42% humidity. The high will be 82° and it's cloudy.This morning I, my father and stepmother went to Burger King for breakfast, my treat. From there it was on the Baptist church for the Easter service. Yes, it was nice of me to go but with my problems it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. It was fun for them, miserable for me. I'm uncomfortable in crowded places. Add to that my foot and my right knee were doing their darnedest to make me wish I'd never left my trailer. By 2pm I was back home and I can relax like I'm supposed to.Last night was another bad one for me. The wound vac kept shutting down and several alarms kept going off. Blocked line. A close inspection couldn't detect any blockage. Low pressure - Therapy interrupted. What low pressure? It was running at 125 mmhg, peak performance. Leak in dressing. Nope. Inspected it very carefully. No leak found. It still registered 'Leak in dressing' with the line pinched off. For that it should have set off the 'Blockage Detected' alarm. Replaced the filter canister and suction line and that made no difference at all. It wouldn't work for more than twenty minutes before one of the alarms went off and often the alarm had nothing to do with why it shut off. So I removed the dressing this morning and replaced it with a standard wet to dry dressing and set the wound vac aside. Tomorrow I'm going to recommend to the Home Health nurse that it be inspected and/or replaced before they attempt putting it on me again.The rest of the day I'm going to relax and take it easy. I don't even intend to turn one of the old computers today.
''Happy Easter'' To All!
Jeff, I'm beginning to believe that Murphy, follows You around.
Hang in there, buddy!
Frank
zstripeJeff, I'm beginning to believe that Murphy, follows You around.