Jeffrey's Trackside Diner - August 2016

[angelob6660]

Afternoon guys,

Nothing much is happening. Just waiting for the Trainworx BN hoppers to leave the hobby shop. I got 4 of them, 2 with the big BN logo and name, the other two are plain. I can't find pictures of the small BN logo without safety stripes to represent my timeline.

Top of the page. I'll pay for everyone's meals and drinks.

[der5997]

hon30critter

der5997:

I like the layout plan.

The flowers look good too!

Dave

 

Thanks Dave - the layout plan has gone through many versions - and (GASP!) has no lakes, streams, rivers, bridges - any that do happen will be retro-fits! Heard somewhere that "Less is more" so I'm giving that a whirl this time around.

[hon30critter]

der5997:

I like the layout plan.

The flowers look good too!

Dave

[hon30critter]

Terry:

The rebuilt scene is impressive. Very realistic trees!

Dave

[der5997]

 

Zoe, a large mug of Russian Caravan tea, and if there’s any of Petra’s cherry cake left, that would be grand.

Ja Bear: Read your parts price list in that MR Intro (Kudos, BTW) One question; was that US or Kiwi dollars? Oh, wait, second question. Our cost accountants in the bakery I worked with in England in the mid 60s would have every product carry its full weight of ingredient, labour, admin, sales and depreciation. (In consequence, real profit was near nigh impossible to achieve in a competitive meat pie market!) Your parts list costs are for whole packets of parts, rather than those used for the single one-off model? If so, wouldn’t that bring the cost down to well below $40?

Just sitting back and listening to all this air/naval yarn spinning is a wonderful way for me to get an education! Thanks guys! BTW,

And yes I’m getting old fashioned, I still like cables, push rods and the like.

“Fly-by-wire” has always reminded me of my far off days of control line model airplanes! LOL

Garry asked

I am starting my bridge project which should take a few weeks with all of the non-model-railroad interruptions considered. Does anybody else have plans for working on their layouts in the days ahead? (….and about an hour ago) Howdy.   Where is everybody?  Is anyone working on their model trains today? ... I worked on bridges last evening do a while. 

Have finally sorted out exactly how the tracks are meant to work – the container cars having made non-sense of the SCARM drawn track plan as regards the larger curves. So, here’s the latest effort.

Also, the Z scale tracks for my N3n “Tourist line” to a castle on a hill  now loops through the castle walls. Getting the gates to look anything like realistic was my main task for this afternoon.

 

Workout Front: I’ve pretty much given up walking while there’s frequent yard work. However, the dry weather has meant less mowing in the past few weeks. Tending the veggies just isn’t the same exercise. I know I should be more intentional – your constant reminders may do the trick!

Horticulturally this is turning out to be a banner year for flowers, even the orchid left us by our friends who are now outside Victoria, B.C. is blooming.

And the Foxgloves and Hollyhocks we planted two years ago have been a pleasure. 

The far ones there got to be as high as the eves trough before the last rain brought them down.

There is a mmr connection to all this flowery language. Trees, á la Saronaterry!  Most of mine are home grown – or field gathered in the case of wild Spirea. I find Golden Rod a bit too feathery when it’s dried. Astilbe is a wonderful start point. Being in N helps of course – most flower stems are a tad thin even for N, let alone H orribly O versized. I was interested to see that you applied the ground foam to the underside of the Golden Rod first. Have you ever gone to the length of using a darker colour foam for that stage, to represent shadow? I read somewhere that can be effective – tried it, but can’t say I saw a great difference – and one has to use two different excess foam collection box lids. Too much like w*rk…

Johnboy:That’s some low-point!  Hope you and Ulrich and all the others in here needing better situations see happier days soon. That’s not a casual BTW, most days my wife and I remember you, even if I’m not in here that often.

 Time to thinking of this evening's "Farewell Dinner" for a couple at church who are moving next week to Moncton. They're all hyped about the move (a promotion for him, I think) but when we look at the weather forecasts year-on- year it's not a move we'd rush into!

Once i get the track all painted (touch up still hasn't happened) and cleaned there's the wiring to see to. I'm planning on re-using a hill I saved from the last layout. It's going to have the interchange run through it. So I'll get it set in place on the layout and then clear some trees,and bore the tunnel. Say, almost getting to be prototypical in my old age! I wonder how many other layouts have tunnels cut-in-place?

DER is AFK.

"There are always alternatives, Captain" - Spock.

[hon30critter]

Bear:

More interesting photographs! Assembling the Otter is just like building a model.

Thanks

Dave

[cats think well of me]

Good day Garry,

I got a coal load done for a loco that didn't have one. A piece of expanded cell foam cut roughly to shape and Woodland Scenics fine coal added on. Glue, water, alcohol mix to hold it in place. Great project to get done before work.

Alvie

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Howdy.   Where is everybody?  Is anyone working on their model trains today? ... I worked on bridges last evening do a while. 

["JaBear"]

Gidday Chloe, my usual green tea please.

 

YGW that is actually the hydraulically operated bucket at the rear of the truck. The very first trucks had the bucket at the front which was filled from bags, but the use of bulk fertiliser was far more efficient hence the double cab design shown in the photo. At about the 1min 30 mark in that video I posted you see the load being dropped from the truck bucket into the Beavers hopper which occupied the cabin behind the pilots seat.  Depending on the slope of the airstrip, wind strength and direction, from memory, the Beaver started off with 19 cwt (2128 lbs) going up to 21 cwt (2352 lbs) as the fuel burned off.

 

I was not actually offended by the old surplus comments made here in the Diner, though in all seriousness the subject has been on several occasions like waving a red rag at a Bear. The most recent was at a meeting chaired by the Director of the NZ Civil Aviation Authority on future funding models for the organisation. In a lengthy presentation the CFO for a large training organisation proposed that the bulk of the funding be carried by operators of old aircraft because according to his Risk Management Assessment they required more oversight from the CAA inspectors due to their age. I pointed out that his RMA was flawed as he did not take into account the possible risk to his own person by insulting the professionalism and integrity of the certifying maintenance engineers of these older aircraft. As the Director is an ex Air Force Engineer he did get my point though it didn’t do my Fit and Proper Person Status much good.

 

Flipand Dave, a pleasure. Here’s a link Dave to what is now ZK-VAS, my photo of the Otter on floats, when it carried the RCAF serial 3677.

 

http://www.dhc3otter.com/janvennix2011.htm

 

I would think that in military service both Canadian and US, that the Beavers and Otters would have mostly operated on their wheels especially the US ones that Tom mentioned seeing in Viet Nam. (I hope I haven’t raised bad memories).

 

I never got my tickets for certifying helicopters, (I hate exams) but have certainly enough experience and if I was ever to admit that I had a favourite helicopter, it would be the Huey. I first worked on the RNZAF Huey refurbishment programme as member of the civilian contractors’ crew, and later contracted to an outfit that bought up a number of US military surplus Hueys for forestry work, fire fighting, spraying, lifting etc. On paint stripping one we found the evidence of former combat in the form of some nicely done bullet hole patches.

 

I had to have a look Ray, but there are still 3 Pietenpol AirCampers active on the NZ register with another being built, though it is proving a slow process, the builder keeps getting side tracked on to other projects.

 

Rick J, I’m not saying that turbine engines don’t fail but while I can’t remember the exact figures from attending a PWC PT6 series maintenance course, a lot of the statistical odds were up around the 1: 1,000,000 and that was not taking into account any warning signs. And yes I’m getting old fashioned, I still like cables, push rods and the like.

 

I’ve had a think on how to say this nicely but at the risk of sounding completely unsympathetic, you need to see that foot doctor Ken, you’re not doing yourself any favours.

 

Thoughts and Best Wishes to All that need them.

Cheers, the Bear.

[FRRYKid]

saronaterry

FRRYKid, how about some pics of your progress? We like photos!

For the moment, all I have it a lot of plywood, track in a few places, the beginnings of the river and not much else. Maybe if I get the river covered I might take a few pics.

Heartland Division CB&Q

FRRY ... I found a bag of left over Walthers Modulars parts which include some of the connector pieces if you need some. Problem is my PM's don't work even though I have tried to get the settings correct for that. 

I have an idea on that subject but let me do some checking on it.

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good evening .

Terry ... Wow ! ... You are mking quick work with scenery re-build, and the results look great. . .... I think you have early Burlington Northern which includes CB&Q, GN, and NP.... My layout is CB&Q in 1962, and GN and NP have running rights over my line. 

FRRY ... I found a bag of left over Walthers Modulars parts which include some of the connector pieces if you need some. Problem is my PM's don't work even though I have tried to get the settings correct for that. 

Below is my bakery made mostly with Walthers Modulars. ... The photo cuts off most of the smaller bakery ofice building to the left. 

[MisterBeasley]

Gentlemen, keep a positive attitude.  That's the best advice I can give.

I have a wife and 3 girlfriends.  Got that?  No, things between me and the wife aren't great, but, well, I'm keeping a positive attitude, OK?  I've got high cholesterol, high blood pressure and now Type 2 Diabetes.  And you know what?  I feel better than I have in years.  I'm getting exercise and taking care of myself.

Don't complain.  Your life belongs to you. Do what you want with it.  Remember that things can always be better, and if you try just a bit, they will be.

[cudaken]

 Evening Dinners

 Flo, Ed and I will have a and give YGW anything he wants.

 OK the good news.

 1 Got the computer up and running again with AVG installed!

 2 Got the B&O coal cars from YGW! You are right, great looking cars! I only un-wrapped 4 so far but I am 

 Not so good news.

 1 Health is looking questionable. (spell check) Left foot may still be a problem. I am wearing a wound boot and it does take a lot of pressure off the toe with the ulcer. I am suppost to see the foot Dr again Tuesday and have a bone scan to see if there is a infection in the bone. But more than likely I will not be able to go due to problem 2.

 2 The dependable car is DOA. It is no longer worth fixing. Repair cost could be well over $800.00 and the car is just not worth it! I cannot drive the second car into St Louis in the shape it is in! It was the one I was going to get rid of a few weeks ago.

 There is more to talk about, but I am beat.

 Ken

 

 

[howmus]

Evenin' folks!

Just popping in to say hi!  I spent all day working out at the R&GV RR museum on the old Erie Caboose.  We were being pushed by our US Army FM H12-44!  I say Pushed because the cabooses were in between the to Diesels we were using so the back of the tiny train I was working had the H12-44 behind the Erie when we were moving forward.  The other "train" is service was the PC Caboose being pulled by the Alco RS3m  (LV #211)  We finally have to old girl back in service now.  Sweet, sweet, sweet to hear the Alco fire up her EMD 567B Prime mover!  Yep you heard me right!

http://www.rgvrrm.org/about/railroad/lv211/index.htm

Here is the H12-44: http://www.rgvrrm.org/about/railroad/usa1843/index.htmHave a great night!

73

[cats think well of me]

Ulrich, I'll be keeping you in my thoughts and wishing you a successful recovery. 

Terry, the layout photos look great. Thank you for sharing them with us.

On the home front, I got a load of old furniture taken to the thrift store. 

My BLI P70s arrived yesterday. I like them so far, as they're a significant improvement over previous P70 models I've owned. Tomorrow, I'll try the cars out at the club layout. 

Alvie

[saronaterry]

ATSFGuy

Saronaterry, 

Cool photos of your layout!  Is this based on a particular location? What time period do you model?

 

 

Hey, ATSF Guy! Thanks!

Hard to see, but my avatar is a map of the old Omaha X (C&NW) in Spooner WIS.

I model the line from Spooner to Cameron. The ROW is a snowmobile/ATV trail now and runs past my house.(about 2 miles away). Kind of a proto-what if layout. I like the BN in 1972 just after the merger so I can run BN,CB&Q, NP and GN just like Garry. In my world the BN bought the system when C&NW wanted to abandon it. That didn't actually get abandoned til the 80's, but that's my story.

I try to stay faithful to the "prototype" as far as town sequence and trackage. With an around the walls linear design that was pretty easy!

So there ya have it!

Still raining. Wish we could send some out west!

Moving along on the scenery re-build:

Terry

[ATSFGuy]

Saronaterry, 

Cool photos of your layout!  Is this based on a particular location? What time period do you model?

 

[saronaterry]

Hi, guys!

62f and light rain. All day. Started raining yesterday. 2 days ago it was so hot I sent the crew home at 1:00pm.

Hang in there, Ulrich.

FRRY Kid, how about some pics of your progress? We like photos!

I took your question about working on the layout as a personal challenge, Garry! This area south of Spooner was the first attempt at scenery some 10 years ago. It looks more like the bayous of the south than NW Wisconsin!

 

Sooo, out it came:

 

 

Then I dressed the ballast a little and added some ground cover/ underbrush:

After this sets up, it'll be time to forest the hillside. More later!

Terry

[last mountain & eastern hogger]

Ulrich, I sorry to hear you are still being bothered by various things, that certainly is no fun at all. But keep looking for the light at the end of the tunnel.

My low point was after they tired to open my esophagus and the radiated scar tissue tore and bled profusly collapsing my right lung etc. I had gone from 208 lbs. to a low of 162. But I have survived and now, even though eating is non existance, only down the stomach tube, I have gained wt. back to 180.  I do not want to go any higher, so I have to keep an eye on that now.

But you too will overcome, we are all pulling and praying for you, so please find strength in that.  Do what the Sawbones tells you and Petra also.

A Belated Happy Birthday to you and Ed. as well.  I have you Guys beat by 15 1/2 years, so you have a ways to go yet.  I'll be 76 this Nov.

I love the new additions to your Swiss layout.

Johnboy out.................

[FRRYKid]

Heartland Division CB&Q

Good morning ...

FRRY ... I have leftover HO Walthers Modulars parts ... Hang on until I have a chance to see what I have. 

Does anybody else have plans for working on their layouts in the days ahead? 

Wasn't planning on doing any building quite yet, other than maybe getting a vehicle doorway that's too small bashed to the needed size. I figure that getting the expansion section closer to being done, rough scenery wise, is going to take up most of the time. River work takes a bit of time between getting the screen installed and getting the paper mache made and applied. This time I will also have sandbars that I will have to do things a little differently than I have in the past.

[MisterBeasley]

Hot and humid does me in, too.  I hate to skip even a walk for a bit of a workout, but when the weather gets to me, sometimes it's better not to.

But, good for you for giving it a try.  Keep that attitude.

[Anonymous]

Just a quick stopover before I´ll be entered on the MIA list. Our weather has turned to hot & humid again, leaving me with respiratory problems. I tried to go for a walk, but had to go back after only a few yards. I will have that checked on Monday, if things don´t improve. Never had it that bad.

 

[MisterBeasley]

Good morning.

I've decided I like my new "anatomic" bike seat on my road bike, so I'll be getting another one for my mountain bike.  Today is cooler so I'll install it and get out for a ride later.

My wife was supposed to return today from her trip to Florida to visit her parents, but she extended the trip 2 more weeks.  They are very old and frail, but they still manipulate her and she goes along meekly and waits on them hand and foot.  To be honest, I like the peace and quiet of living by myself right now.

[ricktrains4824]

Good morning all.

Chloe, I will do the breakfast special, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and a OJ please. Thanks.

Wifi Issue - Modem was bad, got that replaced yesterday, got home from w**k, was just getting on when the power went out. Got the power back for a short time, and it went out again, and stayed out until early morning hours. (The Zero-dark-thirty kind.) So, now that we have that back, attempting a post. Power issue was possibly weather related.

W**k - Tech issues last night, killed email, and that kills reports. Good thing I had the district managers cell number, as I at least could report part of the reports to him via text message. Our truck deliveries have been nuts, getting 250+ pieces last 8 days. Have well over 100 still waiting to get stocked in the proper places, and about 20 not even opened to tell us what they even are. Being short handed and no official store manager as yet is really hurting our productivity now. Just got called in early today, so will be getting ready to go in soon.

Weather - Hot and humid,  in the area last night, expected this afternoon, and forcasted for tomorrow. Last nights rolled through shortly before 8pm, was cleared out by 845, but the wind had caused some issues, and just after 9pm is when our power went out. It came right back on, but was acting like a tree limb was brushing up against the line somewhere, fading in and out for a little while, before going out and staying out just after 930pm. Never got restored until around 1am. By then, the house was quite warm, so sleep never came until around 230-3am.

Hobby - Plan was to work on a boxcar kit last night, but no lights kinda shot that down, maybe get it finished tonight. Scaletrains kits are well built, and fairly well detailed for the price. Just need to do final assembly (weather the wheelsets and install, add Kadee's,) and then do a weathering job on the car itself. Car is already been sealed with clear-flat, and trucks received a grime coat, along with that they are now also dead-flat. (Joys of acrylic's - most leave a flat finish.) Will use PanPastels to do a fade and grime coat, and then find a nice rust treatment on the roof panels and truck springs. I also need to highlight the bearing caps.

Well, off to get ready for w**k now. Hope everyone is doing well, and all have a good afternoon! 

[RideOnRoad]

Another great day in the saddle. Last night I had pretty much decided I was not going to ride this morning because I went to bed a little later than planned. When I woke up at 5:00 (I usually get up at 4:15 when I am going to ride to beat the heat) the temperature was only 78, the wind was light, and I decided I needed to ride. The temperature stayed under 80 for my ride--25 miles in just under 90 minutes. Glorious.

Today Mrs. ROR gets back after being gone for a week. She went up to BYU with her lady friends for Education Week. It will be good to have her back home. After 32 good years of marriage, I feel like I am missing a part of myself when she is gone. It will be good to be whole again. (Plus I am excited to show her the skirting I received for the layout.)

I have a piano lesson today. We are putting together a repertoire for a solo recital. I have never had a solo recital before. It is scheduled for December and will include about 50 minutes of music, all me. It's a bucket list thing.

[fec153]

BEAR- Thanks for the vidio.

RAY- If you quit dusting you can use the coffee table for a message board.

FLIP

 

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good morning ...

FRRY ... I have leftover HO Walthers Modulars parts ... Hang on until I have a chance to see what I have. 

Ed .. Interesting stuff. 

I am starting my bridge project which should take a few weeks with all of the non-model-railroad interuptions consdiered. 

Does anybody else have plans for working on their layouts in the days ahead? 

[FRRYKid]

Given that I kept forgotting: Happy Belated Birthday Ulrich!

So wishing today was tomorrow. W*rk has been a royal pain this week (and I still have one more day yet).

Positive note: My new gondola (the new release one from Athearn that I placed on backorder) is on the way. According to tracking I should have it next Saturday. Will go with the ExactRail flats that I already have.

Hobby Front: More layout work on Sunday. (My release from all the stress from work.) Main hope: Get the river extension screened and hopefully covered. (I use aluminum window screen for mesh and ground newspaper for cover. Have a blender specifically for that purpose.) Sandbars probably won't be for a week or two yet. Secondary: Get more legs attached and change fasteners in one spot. (Got the needed carriage bolts, etc on Thursday.)

[cudaken]

 Evening Diners

 Flo, Beer for Ed and I and big slab of cake.

 See I made it back just in time to see Ulrich hit 60! Buddy, we all live on browed time and you are doing better than many!

 YGW may have told you I was having computer problems and could not get on line. I fixed some of the problems but I am running around naked with no Ant-Viurs so this will be a short.

 YGW Got the coal cars today! Now I may have time to open the box.

 Ken

[hon30critter]

JaBear:

Neat video - thanks!

I don't recall ever seeing a Beaver with just wheels on it!

Cheers

Dave