Good Evening Diners,
Flo, I'll have a glass of whatever passes for wine, please.
Galaxy: Glad to hear you're OK albeit sore and in pain.
Stumbled onto another forum the other day when I was describing a trackside cafe In my home town here in the diner. The forum was describing local railroad things. The UP Kansas division went through there as the route between KC and Denver. ATSF had a branch line that went through there on its way to Osborne, KS. Rock Island had a branch that terminated there. What was interesting about that was that there was a manual powered turntable used to turn the locomotive around as they got ready to return to Herrington, KS. In my archives, I have an old black and white photo of the train crew all pushing the lever as they were turning the locomotive around.MoPac also had trackage there. As a kid I used to see first generation geeps pulling trains down to the air base. Back to the UP, they used to run DD-35s through there. There was an Alco probably RS-3 that took the daily down to McPherson and back. The main yard locos were Alco S switchers, probably S-3s, but I'm not sure. The Alcos were neat because there was a whistle sound that accompanied the throbbing of the diesel. I regret not taking many more pictures of the activities and places because now I wish I had the record of the times.
well, off to bed.
I hope everyone is OK, safe, and warm.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Today's Word:
-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, all. Galaxy, I see you're up early, or perhaps you were up early and have gone back to sleep. I've had nights like that.
My grade crossing project isn't going well. I got my IR phototransistors, and unfortunately they still have enough sensitivity to visible light that they lack the perfection I was hoping for. I'll have to try shrouding them to see if I can clean their performance up a bit. Yesterday I soldered extensions on to the gate activation rods of my NJ International crossing gates. The solder didn't hold (the rods are stainless steel) and when I looked at them later, the original rods had become detached inside their housings. Both of them. Bah.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Extra strong coffee in a Columbia & Cowlitz Railway mug, please.
Looks like sleet, snow and ice later today. Need to go mail a bill and pick up a few things in town before it starts.
Later today, will vacuum the half of the Train Room floor that is clear and set up some wide radius Kato Unitrack, just to get a train fix. Might finally get to test out that Beyer Garratt loco, too.
Have a great day all.
Cheers! Rob
We're snowed in with a heavy amount of white stuff. I heard the interstate highway is closed.
This is a great day for model railroading indoors, but I will work on income taxes. Dang.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Mornin' everyone!
Zoe, I'll have a large bowl of cinnimon oatmeal squares and a pot of Marrakesh Express Dark Roast Coffee this morning. I have a seat by the stove on the back of the car, so I can do my morning crossword puzzle undisturbed...
Yesterday when the insurance adjustor was here he told me to find a photo of the old shelving units that got ruined. He said that would help the company determine what current replacment cost would be. So last night I went into the living room, sat on the couch, and looked through old family photos for an hour. Nope no recent photos of the shevles. Finally found some from the late 1970's of when we owned a very large mobile home and lived in Oakfield, NY. Did see a whole lot of photos I haven't looked at in decades. Had more than a few times when I had to wipe my eyes! Those were the good days... Made me so aware once again how much I still miss my wife.
Galaxy hope the pain is bearable for you! Sounds like you will do fine with the recovery period.
Back to the crossword puzzle...
Oh.... Just noticed I didn't give this mornings forecast. Currently 29°F here in the Finger Lakes Region, with a predicted high of 18°F. Hmmmm.... Yep! That's what it says!!!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Heartland Division CB&Q We're snowed in with a heavy amount of white stuff. I heard the interstate highway is closed. This is a great day for model railroading indoors, but I will work on income taxes. Dang.
Don't remind me!!! I just started mine yesterday....le sigh.
Good Morning
Back for a couple more days of bitter ccold then we start the warm up...
It has been a bit coocoo here for past little while. Audrey came down with the flu which then migrated to me...of course...new flu bug...dangit...
Then we had relatives over and one of them caught the stupid thing and guess who got the rebound...yep...yours truly. Now am taking even more antibiotics than I was before...
Anyways....I am about 80% ready to release my groups album...just needs mixdown and such...and traintime!!!!
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/
Galaxy: Hope things get better for you!!!!
blownout cylinder This is a great day for model railroading indoors, but I will work on income taxes. Dang. Don't remind me!!! Dead I just started mine yesterday....le sigh.
Taxes? What are these taxes you speak of? LIONS do not pay taxes, that is problem for zookeeper to worry about.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Coffee refill, please.
***Ray, I'll join you by the wood stove. It's still only a cold rain here but I need to warm up. Won't bother you while you work on that crossword puzzle, unless you get stuck.
Any of you run MTH locos on regular DCC systems?
Will head back out to do hay rounds in a bit. Really do need to warm back up first. My core temp stays way too low as it is.
Healing thoughts to those in need.
Good late Morning Gang,
Chloe, I'll have the brunch special, Pancakes, Sausage, home fries, creamed peas, and a hot chocolate, Please and thanks.
I feel for Rob and Garry and others in the south that are getting far more winter than what they are used to. It has been very cold here, but today it is supposed to warm up a little and stay for a wekk or so. I might get that snow bank off my Dutch Gables yet. There has to be 1000 pounds of snow up there.
I had a electrical problem to sort out yesterday: The Interchange track is on it's own block, but the track leading to it was being fed from the lower west mainline that was shorting out the branchline.
It took a little figuring but I solved it by making a seperate block for the lead to the Interchange Track, called it the Interlocking as it is right in front of the East Tower and thought it was appropriate as it looks after three other blocks to keep them working properly.
So now I believe I am on to the west section and will get my Union station in place. It will be elevated to the main line while the secondary main and branchline run below it. Something similar to Garry's but not so much track below. The second thing on the work list is to get the land form in on the east end on which will be a townsite and will hide the Interchange track and the second main from where it goes into the mountain on the north section and comes out by the East Tower on the south section. This is all accessible from underneath and behind.
Well, that's the latest from the LM&E. I am back to work tomorrow for a couple of days, then Sunday off and work two more then my treatment in Saskatoon on Wednesday.. And just like that the first (third) of March will be gone.
Prayers and blessings for those who are feeling poorly. I know lots of folks are down with that Flu right now, my Son in Montana being one of them. He says he has never been this sick before and feels terrible everywhere. Galaxy we are thinking of you as well, you one armed bandit. Lol.
Have to leave here shortly to get a haircut, so had better cut this short.
Johnboy out.......................for now
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
hi
well, we went to teh Regular Dr. becasue I caught cold, he started a once daily antibiotic.
We picked up a new arm sling as this contraption doesn't seem to work well. the Hospital supplied one is bogus, a bit.
MOHs car is STUCK in the ice divots. I cannot push it naturally so we will have to wiat till it warms up and go get some rocks form Lowes to put in the divots
We finally laid down for a well deserved nap and woker up to NO HEAT. the igniter doens't want to ignite! It is now soem 58F in here nad cooling down rapidly fromthe 65F mOH set it at.. The elecric heatrers can't be run on anything highre than medium as the electric blows the circuits otherwise. SO awaiting the heat man,,it is 3: 26 now,tehy siad they'd be here today on regualr hours! They'd best be!
I don;t knwo they chiopped teh root acanal tooth at the hospital wiht teh intubation or whatever for surgery. SO IF they get the furnace fixed today, I seethe dentist tomoorrow for repair or pull?
MY woudned wing is SORE today as all the good hospital drugs have definitely owrn off by now!
It is really inconvenient. I can type sonehwhat wiht the keyboard on the edge of the desk,Still ot the greatest,but what teh heck.
Awaiting on the heat man...now down antoher degree. They'd best be soon and have the part available!
Biy, the sugeryy, the tooth, the chest cold, the heat goign out the car gettting stuck, I am nto so much having good luck now...more like bad luck!
AND NO the chest cold is nto fromthe surgery..I had a mild dry cough the night before teh suregey, but coudl have been jsut dry throat. Apparnely NOT.
darn
later
Hello Railfans! Flo - a large cup of hot chocolate in a PM mug please. Maybe a blue plate breakfast special if Mel can produce one at this late hour of the day.
To many folks amazement, it is actually snowing here. Yes thats right, i said it is snowing here (someone call Guiness Records!). Have no fear, it will be gone by tomarow, and all will be back to the norm - beach weather.
I am sorry to hear about those who are suffering from health issues. I can sympathize with you, as of late, health issues are of concern in this household too. My wish is that as soon as possible, the light of prosperity will shine brightly on you once again.
I read today in the news that two German Nationals were sentenced for spray painting trains in Singapore. While it is a very, very, light punishment, I emplore this country to do the same! With the exception that the punishment be 100x what Singapore divied out!
KEN - Hey man, i totally understand. Think no more of it, and if things improve for you.... come see me again. I am sure we can always do something.
In General - As mentioned, a move is imminant for me. Storage has already been aquired, and 1 truckload of trains has already been placed there. Along with some other assorted personal belongings.
So much for my new layout, and ofcourse the coupler project i was working on has now been placed in a holding pattern. Shame too, i was having alot of fun with it.
Good thing here is there is no time limit on the move. Just that it happens. Thus allowing me to take my time. Should be out of here in a month.
RR Front - Temporarily closed.
Okay folks, gonna browse some other threads while i have the time. And maybe look out the window a time or two. I know it will not look like this tomarow.
Douglas
One last coffee refill, please.
Think it may be time to consider upgrading my DCC system to AT LEAST a 28 function and preferable a 128 function unit. Way too many things I can't do with these DCC steamers without those function keys. Would be nice to quill a whistle. Any thoughts on an EASY to use DCC system with those added function keys?
Finally got the Beyer Garratt together. Good grief, only took me over a dozen tries to line up the middle to front sections and get them together. Runs great and sounds decent. Better sound than my other larger locos, some of which had (one still has) other issues that required some working on. For some reason, I found the best sounding of all are the small locos.
***Garry, in hindsight, except for the Beyer Garratt, which I will definitely enjoy running on the future layout, I think having a fleet of all smaller locos might have been a better route to go. The BLI Y6b just doesn't sound good to my ears at all, almost like a bad speaker, although it runs beautifully down the tracks.
OK, time for evening critter rounds. The bad weather skipped here, just some very cold rain.
Healing thoughts for those in need.
hi all
$200 and a new igniter {the third one in 4 years on a 4 year old furnace} later, we have "automatic heat" again. They asked if we wnted A/c installed about $2500-3000, we said we'd think about it, like we have an extra $3K laying round. The Central a/c WOULD be nice, but for nwo the window units will have to do! The second guy who showed up with the "universal igniter" said and I quote' It shoudl last 10 years or more, his face dropped whne I said this is the 3rd in 4 years!
ULRICH UPDATE: I got 5 dontations totaling $195 from AZ, to Another in ILL, to others! SOme wish to remain Anonymous, but suffice it to say if you sent a donation on Monday I probably got it today! That gives us a total of $1070, and I may just add to my donation to make it an even $1100. Ulrich said the wire fee of $75 + is to much to pay, so I need to find out what a return receipt requested, insured, fastest Air Mail postal service that he HAS to sign for will cost, plus the fee for the bank to draw the cashier's draft off the savings account it is in. THAT may all cost $75 too! Again we thank you all! If you still want to donate, Ulrich will keep the "overage" for a future pair of glasses as he will most assuredly need a future pair. IF you still want to donate, SEnd me a PM! They should all clear by firday teh 13th to mail out on Monday the 16th! OR wire out the 16th.
Well, I ma tired again, so I shoudl lie down.
Pizza for dinner...
The House Dinner Special, please.
***Galaxy, glad you have a good source of heat up and running again. And continued healing to you.
I just realized, that Digitrax starter system I have should control 28 functions. Guess I need to find and read the instructions before looking at a new system, huh!
Will be in the corner booth, warming up near the wood stove.
AS it is supposed to be -2F tonight, adn we MAY beat teh old record, youbetcha ists nice to ahve automatic heat again!
The electric oil filled radiator heaters ar nice to supplement the existing heat,but not for total heat, not on our electric. I ahve considered having it update, adn added outlets to wach room on the update elecetric, BUT to many otehr maintenance issues wiht teh trailer have surfaced so much lately that that is nto in he current budget, At least tehy were able to fix the heat! The first guy had no usable igniterr on board so they snet a second guy. If I didn't already have a cold the first guy woudl have shared his! Teh second guy siad this igniter would "last 10 years or more' I siad "well this is the 3rd igniter in 4 years" His jaw dropped. OR did I say all that already? The old igniter was broken clean off. Msut be the good drugs.
Well i napped early so now am up and likely to be up a spell before going to sleep, so I thought I'd pester you guys.
well If I am to do the ealry mornign greeting, Id best get to sleep.
I have to email Ulrich to let himknow the goings on!
Later.
Evening Dinners
Flo, a JSTL and a please, and give the Buick guy one as well.
Work Front At 7:55 PM I heard the sound I normally hate, the door dinger! Yep a customer came in with in 5 minutes of closing. Well, I am glad they did, they spent $1060.00 and up to that point I only had $55.00 for the day!
Douglas I am glad you understand about the computer. I would love to have the one you started on for me but the are other things I need more. Like new tires. Tires on my driver that are not all most bald are dry rotted and I have to air them up every few days.
Rob If you go with Digitrax, don't waste your money of the Zepher. While it is a good system I had a friend bring his over and I did a test run with it. I had all ready bought a Zepher for my self, but it was still in the box. It can do more than my Bachmann E Z Command it controled the trains the same. 1 at a time. If you are running engine 1 at 30% power and then start running engine 2 at 50% and then go back to engine 1 unless you remember it was at 30% power, it will jump to 50%.
Simmon 1966 only uses his Zepher as a booster in his switching yard. His main system is a Super Empire Builder and so is mine. If you want more details let me know.
Later, Ken
I hate Rust
***Ken, I definitely would. The basic unit (Digitrax DCS 51) was my wifes, so now that it's just me and I'm going to build a new layout, I am more than interested in learning about your set up and options available. For instance, a quilable whistle feature would be very nice, as would two throttles!?!
Time for me to call it a night. Exhausted.
Good Morning!
Galaxy sent me an email, informing me about the amount you have donated.
I feel humbled and grateful!
This would never have happened in my country, where people think it is the government´s job to help the needy and leave to the government to decide, what that need is.
All I can express are my sincere thanks.
It´ll be about another two weeks until I´ll get my new beepers. I try to drop in as often as possible in the meantime, but reading and typing is still rather awkward.
Blessings to you all!
Today's WORD:
Good cold morning.
Ulrich ... That is what friends do. .... Both Canadians and Americans voluteer to help friends when they can. ... We'll avoid conversations about government assistance because it could possibly digress into politics.
Ken .... Glad to hear about the big last minute sale.
Galaxy ... I hope you are omproving.
John Boy ... Good to hear you are working on the layout. SOunds like you are doing a lot.
Rob ... I hope I am not discouraging you from having any locomotive you wnt. Have fun. .... My DCC system is MRC wireless. Works fine for me.
DennnisV8 ... I had the bad flu in late January even though I had a flu shot. My doctor told me it is likely the flu would have been even worse had I not had the flu shot. He told of patients being hopitalized with the flu.
Winter weather: .... Some of you may have seen on national news the interstate highway in Kentucky with cars and trucks stuck in the snow. People have been stranded in snowbound vehicles for 24 hours. ... It was 0 degrees F here last night. ....
Yesterday, I decided to use my truck to make ruts so we can drive. .... The good news is the truck drove through the 15" deep snow climbing the slope of the driveway to the road..... The bad news is snow drifts in the road were more than my truck could handle. Even with 4-wheel drive, it would not shove through. With all 4 wheels spinning (Alternating forward and reverse), the vehcle kept sliding sideways. So now it is stuck on the side of the road at the top of a ravine. Any more attempts would only send it deeper into the ravine. ... We are at the end of a long dead end road, and there is no traffic... Warmer weather will be here in a few days, and we are hunkered down for now.
I hope others are having better luck with weather.
Garry, your predicament with the 4WD truck reminded me of a version of Shakespeare's "Richard III" starring Ian McKellan. It's an alternate setting of the play, taking place in England in the World War I timeframe. King Richard is alone on a muddy battlefield in a jeep, and he ends up bottomed out on a rock with all 4 wheels spinning in the mud. It is there that he speaks the famous line, "My kingdom for a horse!"
Galaxy, I hope the pain is dying down naturally. I try to take myself off the "good meds" before the supply runs out. I hate the side effects.
Ken, I love that picture with the PCC car. It makes you realize how massive those beautiful old steam engines are. Hey, I've got a question for you. My wife just got a new mattress for her parents. It's a queen, and she says it's undersized. Nominally, a queen mattress is 60x80, but she says this one is just 77 inches long. She measured it along the edges, but I told her to measure it across the middle. The guy at the mattress store, who she says is kind of sleazy, says "Oh, they're all a little different." Is that true, or is this a "bargain" mattress that's undersized but being marketed as a queen?
Tonight, hopefully, will be the last night of single-digit temperatures this season.
Goodmorning diners, It was a cool -2 in SE Ohio this AM. So far the city is boycotting our neighborhood for snow removal. Haven't seen a snowplow since Wednesday evening about an hour after it started to snow. I guess the city must have more important things to do than snow removal in our area. And this time the snow is actually kind of deep with about 10 inches in the street.
Time to head to the basement and kerf some more homesote for curved roadbed. Sure want to thank everyone for the good advice I have received on track laying and handling the homesote as I am definetely a newbie at layout construction.
Galaxy, keep on healing and getting better. Best of luck with the dentist.
Jim
Extra strong coffee in a MOUNT RAINIER SCENIC RAILROAD mug, please.
***Garry, stay safe there. That drive sounds a bit treacherous. I think you had a valid point about loco size. Only larger loco that has me hooked is the Beyer Garratt. The way it snakes well around curves, it looks great. In hindsight, the other beasts I could have done without. Maybe the touch of buyers-remorse I feel will go away when the new layout is up and running!?!
***MisterBeasley, I have several queen-size mattresses here (both guest bedrooms have them) and one is different than the other two. I have also found the same thing to be true with queen size sheets, some fit tighter than others.
A dusting of snow this morning, but it melted away not long after sunrise.
The last shipment of tree starts (4 hazelnut, 2 peach, 2 apple) is scheduled to arrive today. Fingers crossed my occasional hired hand can make it out here to plant them tomorrow. Will be a good while before I can do this kind of work again.
After some farm chores, going to run a train or two around the loop and try to program a few loco numbers.
Will ask again, anyone here have any MTH locos you run on regular DCC systems?
My dad ran a F7 AB Western Maryland set when he first got them just to test them on our NCE power cab setup and was happy with how they worked. Hope this posts ok, using dads phone since he's shoveling 10" of winter. Since purchase he dismanteled setup to make way for new layout an work has interfered big time, but will be back up by summer we hope,at least running again.
Shanny10
B&O, C&O, PRR
Just lovin trains
A good High Noon to all...
I have already been out and about running some errands and other stuff. the other stuff was I had on my computer an appoinment with the ENT Doc. for 11:00AM this morning. Went down there and the recpetilnist starts checking and says, "Ah.... I have you down for 1PM this afternnon." I assured her I had a whole lot of other stuff to do and I will be back at 1PM. The appointment got changed about 3 times over the last couple of months and I think I changed the date and forgot to correct the time on the computer. Oh Well!
The Solar panels are fired up and producing electric today. Well, nothing to write home about, all of 33 watts when I just checked down cellar. But, that is the most power they have produced in almost 2 months. The snow pack on the ones I couldn't clean is now solid ice so it will take a while for them to clear. The next several days are all supoosed to get up into the high 30's and low 40's so I figure by next Tuesday they should clear themselves. The only part of my drivway I haven't been able to shovel is right by tghe mailbox. The mailman couldn't get his truck through it yestareday so didn't leave my mail. That pile from the sn*w plow on the street is also solid ice. Ii tried chipping it down with my sn*wshovel but couldn't even make a dent. I took a can of salt ice remover out ther and hit it pretty good. Will see what happens.
Rob, I don't have (and will never buy) any MTH anything, but... There have been several threads at the NCE Yahoo group talking about MTH Locos. They should (at least the newer ones) be able to be run on DCC. You won't be able to access all 4,535 whistle sounds and some other stuff Mike has on his toys, but you should be able to at least run the locomotive. There should be some documentation that comes with the loco???
I gotta grab some lunch and head back down to the Doc soon. Later!
Garry how much white stuff did you get ? Must have been pretty deep to stick a 4 wheel drive truck ! Many moons ago I had a Bronco II, Best vehicle for snow I ever had. We had twoo feet of snow one winter and myself and some friends hoped in that little mini bronco and went driving on roads that had not seen plows. The snow and drifts were so deep we had snow up to the head lights. It went through the sno like a hot knife through butter. Loved that vehicle.
Howmus - why do you not like MTH ?
Rob - how are you doing ? Are you still on crutches ? Is teh shoulder still bothering you ?
Galaxy - see that you are doing pretty good with one handed typing ! Pretty impressive. Hope you are feeling better.
Jim - Hello and welcome to Jeffries diner
Ken - That must have made your day ! That is a lot for a mattress.
Wasnt able to post yesterday. For some reason couldnt pick up a siganl and also spent the day shoveling white stuff off of teh drive, cleaning off snow off of the vehicles and doing honey do projects around the house . I am so sore today !! Had to take soem pain meds just so I could sleep last night ! Well tomorrow is teh girls last basket ball game of teh season HURRAY ! Not that I dont like doing this for my kids but teh season is so LOOONNNGGGG. It seems at times like it will never end. Now soon on to more fun stuff like modeling !!!!
TTYL
YGW
[/quote]
yougottawanta Garry how much white stuff did you get ? Must have been pretty deep to stick a 4 wheel drive truck ! Many moons ago I had a Bronco II, Best vehicle for snow I ever had. We had twoo feet of snow one winter and myself and some friends hoped in that little mini bronco and went driving on roads that had not seen plows. The snow and drifts were so deep we had snow up to the head lights. It went through the sno like a hot knife through butter. Loved that vehicle.
YGW ... We had 15" of snow on top of a 2" to 3" layer of ice. (freezing rain and sleet prior to snow) Snow drifts on the road were about 3'. ... Warmer weather is coming.
Coffee refill, please & thank you.
***YGW, off crutches (not sure if I am supposed to be or not) and taking very calculated, most careful steps when out on the farm. Shoulder is still giving me much grief. Trying not to use that arm for anything.
Ran a few trains. Finally got the Bachmann Spectrum (HO) 70 Ton 3 Truck Climax off the shelf and tried it on the loop today. It has a bad hitch in its git-along. Moving forward it is binding somewhere and even stops, while the chuff sounds continue. In reverse it runs OK. Going to send it in to Bachmann and hope for the best. Guess there is no hurry since I bought it on 2/5/14, so it's no longer under warranty. Perhaps I should just wait until the new layout is built and I am ready to really work it? My own fault for not running it sooner.
Watched some interesting vids of engines being hoisted by cranes and other devices on you-tube.