Good Morning,
A sunny -5F here but it will go up to 1F today.
YGW, we manage fine in the cold as we are equiped for it. Houses have triple pane windows, etc. In fact they never stop construction for the cold and just keep on going. Once framed, houses are wrapped in plastic and sometimes they use heaters but not often.
Every day I'm feeling a little stronger which is great but I have to be careful not to push too fast and cause a problem. My wife is worried that I will 'do something silly'. I have resolved to be very careful as it takes many weeks for everything to heal up fully internally. Next week I should get the biopsy results and hope that the surgeon managed to get everything. If not I will be in for radiation therapy.
Sure will be glad when we can get Robbie back from our friends in Thief River Falls. Friends here will drive to the border with my wife and will pick him up there.
Seems like there is a lot of bad weather in the south and east.
Keep warm,
CN Charlie
Garry - It was on the truck report, but the description was very poorly done, and even though I knew what the item was called, the truck report had it abbreviated so badly, I had no idea it was the same item until I found it.
Oh well.
I will check back later on, off to w**k now.
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
Afternoon Folks!
Chloe, can I get a cup of hot chocolate please. It is chilly outside today....
Friend of mine just emailed me this... I think Cuda Ken and some others here will understand this one:
"Husband: (making call to Police station)My wife is missing.She went shopping yesterday and has not come home!Sheriff: Height? Husband: I'm not sure. A little over five-feet tall.Sheriff: Weight?Husband: Don't know. Not slim, not really fat.Sheriff: Color of eyes?Husband: Sort of brown I think. Never really noticed.Sheriff: Color of hair? Husband: Changes a couple times a year. Maybe dark brown now. I can’t remember.Sheriff: What was she wearing?Husband: Could have been pants, or maybe a skirt or shorts. I don't know exactly.Sheriff: What kind of car did she go in?Husband: She went in my truck.Sheriff: What kind of truck was it?Husband : A 2016 pearl white Ram Limited 4X4 with 6.4l Hemi V8 engine ordered with the Ram Box bar and fridge option, led lighting, back up and front camera, Moose hide leather heated and cooled seats, climate controlled air conditioning. It has a custom matching white cover for the bed, Weather Tech floor mats. Trailing package with gold hitch, sunroof, DVD with full GPS navigation, satellite radio, Cobra 75 WX ST 40-channel CB radio, six cup holders, 3 USB port, and 4 power outlets. I added special alloy wheels and off-road Toyo tires. It has custom retracting running boards and under-glow wheel well lighting. At this point the husband started choking up. Sheriff: Take it easy sir,we'll find your truck!!!"
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Afternoon Diners,
Rey- That was a good joke. It's been a while since I read one.
I laid some track to make a small yard. It was fun adding and subtracting freight cars. Since I don't know the width of yard, I thought of a 8 or 5 car length if it was more operational for small local and middle size trains. (12-14 cars)
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
Good evening gents, I'll have two boston creams and a large hi-octane!! Well, the weatherman once again blew the forecast. What was to be a dusting of snow seems to be about 4 inches laying on my grill right now. The more technology they get......well, you guys know where I am going with this subject. Anyways, all quiet on the basement lines as snow removal is now a priority. Last call from dispatch was a string of 40 foot empties headed back to the yard and a pennsy scrap train on the main.
Ken, my buddy bought his GTX when he was 15. It was a roller. It was an original automatic with 8 3/4 rear with a 3.23 if I remember. He picked up a 383, added a purple shaft and had some head work done way back when. I know he swapped out the rear gear to either a 4.10 or 4.56. Having trouble recalling the early 80's for some reason, lol. It ran consistent high 12's last time he had it to the track.
My camaro is a factory 375hp car, M-22 box with 12 bolt posi with factory 4.10's. It does have power brakes, but no other options, not even a console. I have slowly transformed it back to the showroom look. It still has the hooker super comps on it though. I love the sound!! Some things I just can't give up. Ahh, the thought of those boston creams is sending me back to the kitchen for some sweets. Back shortly........
Rich
Howdy ..
14 F here now..... Too cold. ... In roughly 10 days, we will get away from the cold winter weather and go see our daughter who lives in Arizona.
Ricky ..... Abreviates may save time for the person entering data, but do no good for the person who needs to use the data. I wonder about companies that allow sloppy data entry like that.
Our new water heater is working very well. It's good to have hot water at both ends of the house again.
Happy model railroading, everybody.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Evening Diners
Flo, Ed will have a Crown Royal, SS Rich will have a Boston Cream Pie? I will have a please.
Ray Now that did put a on my faces!
Home and Work was sort of a Caboose day. Started last night, Sparkie The Rocket Dog (American Eskimo) started blowing chunks, felt really bad and would not eat. This morning it was only 5 degrees and wife wanted me to walk him. Told her "I want you to take him to the Vet" and had to de-ice her car and get it warmed up. It was a bit of a pain, wiper where frozen to the wind sheid and took some time to get them free.
Vet said he just has a stomach bug and he should be fine.
Work was sort of slow till around 3:00 then it all so turned in to a bit of a pain! Why does every time I have a customer want to do a Well's Fargo Deal (Takes about 20 minutes) do other customer come in?
Rich Have any phots you care to show? When my 68 Road Runner was stock the only 396 I would look out for was the 396 375 HP motor. I listen for the soild tappet cam ticking. Now 427's and 454's, was not till I up grade the Road Runner that I would mess with them.
Later, Ken getting the big hook out again! Getting ready to say how great the trains where running.
I hate Rust
Cars--
The first car Mother drove was a 1914 Detroit Electric, in the year 1916. It had a range of 80 miles, and a top speed of 22 mph. Streets in Brownsville Texas were mostly 3 inches of dust, dry, or 3 inches of mud, wet. Gas cars of that time were referred to as "explosion" cars by the electric car salesmen. Gasoline "exploded" in the pistons to make the power, and one would hope that nothing went wrong.
The Detroit Electric sold for $2650.00 in 1912. If you wanted Edison Nickle Iron Batteries, that was an extra $600.00. Two Model T Fords could be bought for $600.00.
I believe it was Nissan that came out just a few years ago with "regenerative braking" That was first used on Kreger electric cars in 1898.
When we first moved to the farm here on the Island the house was wired for 12V. The 12V system was strung with the post and spool system. There was a windmill behind the house on top of a ledge, and we had 8 large rectangular glass,(about 1" thick) containers on a cement slab in the basement filled with battery acid, and a supply of replacement plates on a shelf under the main sill. We also had 110 AC, (The Island did not get electricity until 1936) that was in the old galvanized tin spiral wrapped "rat wire" (used to discourage rodents from chewing the insulation, as is their want.) The main fuse pannel was 30 amp.
Interesting to see how society has come full circle in more than one respect. What many think is new---isn't.
herrinchoker
My first car was a 2dr. 1935 Chevrolet roadster w/rumble seat, sorry to this day I sold it.--$25.00
I currently drive a Dark Blue 2010 Toyota Corolla, want to get a 2016 Corolla at some point so I can have Sirius XM in my car. All the local stations overlap each other. I want music discovery, not the same damn songs over and over.
Still, it's good on gas.
I've had Siruis XM on my phone since June 2016,
Here are my channels I currently have under favorites;
1. Pop2k (Pop hits from 2000-2009)
2. The Pulse (2000's and Today)
3. 80's/90's Pop
4. 70's/80's Pop
5. 90's on 9
6. 80's on 8
7. 70's on 7
8. 60's on 6
9. 50's on 5
10. Soul Town
11. Deep Tracks
12. Classic Vinyl
13. The Bridge
14. Yacht Rock Radio
15. Oldies Party
16. Poptropolis
17. The Groove
18. Road Trip Radio
19. Siriusly Sinatra
20. Underground Garage
21. 1st Wave (Hard Rock from the 80's.)
I mostly stick with the decade channels. When I see something that looks familiar or interesting, I hit that button. It all depends on the mood I'm in.
The 1st Wave channel I'm currently playing around with that one.
With a few exceptions, you can custom mix/match the channels to fit your mood. You can even change the style, popularly, variety, and tempo.
Sometimes I'll pause a song to read the extremely long biographies. Some are three paragraphs while others are twenty paragraphs.
You can also repeat tracks or fast forward to the next song.
Good Morning, Folks!
Rain fell on frozen ground yesterday evening, immediately covering all of northern Germany under a thick blanket of ice. Our parking lot has been transformed into an ice rink, "decorated" by ice sculptures looking very much like the cars that are parked there. No end to that in sight, it is quite foggy outside and the fog seems to freeze, Better to stay put until the side walk, the parking lot and the roads are cleared. No idea when that will happen - we need to get our food supplies restocked not later than Wednesday.
herrinchoker - I once read that there were more electric cars registered around 1900 in New york than there were gas powered cars. Ladies preferred the ease of handling and Macy´s had battery charging station in their parking lot.
The Ford Model T change the situation, as cars became more relieable, easier to handle and foremost, cheaper! Unfortunately, battery development also stopped pretty much around that time. We may have lost 100 years in developing high energy density batteries. Just imagine where the world would be today? Independency from oil imports from Arab countries and all subsequent political inclinations coming from the imports would be just one aspect of many!
Sometimes, looking back to what we once had and rediscovering old values is not at bad thing at all!
I am not sure what I will make of the day. My mind is still focussed on finding ways to move my family out of the mess threatening us. The more I look into the matter, the less I see a realistic chance for an "orderly retreat", which makes me sad and nearly paralyzes me.
What really makes me mad ist that my American foster parents wanted me to stay in the US. They even would have put me through college, but I felt I could not accept their generosity at that time. It was a big mistake, when seen from today´s angle.
Zoe, it´s Sunday and I have not had my big Sunday breakfast for a while. So, please make it a serving of pancakes and maple syrup, fried, crisp bacon, scrambled eggs, buttered toat and jams, a tall glass of OJ and lots of coffee - thank you!
Sir MadogRain fell on frozen ground yesterday evening, immediately covering all of northern Germany under a thick blanket of ice.
I really don't mind winter except for two situations that we get every once in a while. One is freezing rain. The other is white-outs. You are pretty much at the mercy of the gods in either case.
We live just south of a 'snow belt' that regularly provides the nastiest conditions that winter can offer. The weather can be nice here in Bradford but all you have to do is drive 10km north and you might as well be at the North Pole!
We get freezing rain a few times each winter. Usually it doesn't get too thick but every few years we get enough to pull down power lines and ruin a bunch of trees. I think I'd rather have white-outs.
On another topic, I seem to be having more than my usual share of senior's moments recently. Two days ago I woke up and I could not find my glasses. I looked high and low and repeated the process several times, and my beautiful wife even pulled all the garbage bags apart, bless her soul! Nada!! Today I climbed out of bed and found my glasses!! Unfortunately I found them with my foot! However I did it, I managed to drop them on to a small carpet beside our bed and the carpet pattern camouflaged them perfectly. There was no missing the sound of the 'crunch' however when I stepped on them.
OK, that was senior's moment #1. My next adventure was trying to find the details from my partially constructed Atlas Roundhouse which I intend to sell. I spent several very frustrating hours trying to find the windows and doors without luck. Finally, I looked into some storage drawers that I am using for wiring supplies. Lo and behold, the roundhouse parts were in the bottom of the drawer! What possessed me to put them there for safe keeping is beyond me, but at least I found them!
To sum it all up, I think I have spent about 8 hours in the past three days trying to find things that were right in front of me, or at least one of which was right in front of my feet. I sincerely hope this doesn't indicate how I will spend my future time!!!!
Best wishes to all, and let us all agree to try to keep the senior's moments to a minimum!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Good morning .... I'll have panckes like Ulriach has, please.
Dave:.... Your senior moment caused you to make a spectacle of yourself.
Herrinchoker... Interesting your grandmother had an electric car.
Speaking of cars, ..... I still recall my grandfather complaining the new cars no longer had running boards when he acquired his new Plymouth about in 1950. It replaced an oldcar with running boards.
The first car I drove was a 1955 Chevy wagon which later my parents gave to me. Eventually, I decided I needed something more appropriate for a young guy, and saved up for my 1962 Impala convertible. It would be nice if I still had that car if it was not for rust. .... I have had various cars of different makes since then. Mostly GM of Ford products.
Ken ... I have never owned any Chrysler product. Sorry.
Ulrich ... I have owned 3 German built cars of different makers. I still have that old Porsche, but it remains in the garage most of the time.
ATSF .... Most of the time, I don't listen to the radio. Glad you like it though.
I like having a variety of 1/87 vehicles on the layout. The newest model year for them is 1962.
Have a nice Sunday, everybody.
The icy fog has not lifted up until now and it won´t for the rest of the day, as we have less than 30 minutes of daylight left. The blanket of ice is still around, covering nearly all of Germany except the Northsea coastal reion and islands. Countless accidents have happened and quite a number of people got killed and injured.
The "facility manager" better known as janitor, who usually takes care of the buildings here, did not show up to clear the walk way. Let´s assume he just could not get here by car ... (he lives around the corner)!
Garry, German cars are not what they used to be. Aside from cheating emission control systems, their quality suffers from having become over complex systems that no one really is in command anymore. Mechanical failures happen rarely, but with the number of systems having to interact these days, it´s the lack of complete system inegration testing leading to breakdowns. Of course, squeezing the last cent out of part suppliers led to badly engineered and built components.
As I said in my previous post, we´d be better of looking back at what we already had, but lost in our endeavor of ever bigger, faster, greater but not necessarily better.
I still wish we would have a simple yet efficient electric vehicle instead of that gas powered, high maintenace requiring car. The cars available are too expensive and loaded with unnecessary gimmicks!
I wouln´t mind having a remake of a Stanley Steamer as well!
-1 degree outside.
Anybody want Sticky Buns with ICING on them?
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Lion, yes please to the sticky buns. I like mine with lots of cinammon too. We're at -4F right now, so much the same as you. Must be hard to keep your paws warm at that temp. Do you wear boots? How about a woolly jacket?
Quite a few birds at the feeders, especially the suet. We have had 80 species of birds in our back yard since we started this 'bird watching' thing 3 years ago. We really enjoy it and luckily our friends who retired about the same time have taken it up too so we compare notes and sightings. We've met some very interesting people too as there is quite a community of like minded people involved it it.
Nothing to report on the RR front. I have the latest MRR magazine to read and the latest book from Ian Wilson. It is only about 60 pages, more of a magazine really, but still I am glad to have it. If you like steam in Ontario, especially CN, they are a must read. I have a couple of Red Caboose kits to assemble but I'm not in the mood yet to tackle them. I have a CN boxcar and a PGE reefer to assemble.
Dave, I can relate to the weather you have as I did live in Barrie many moons ago. I also was in London, and Sarnia when I worked for Sunoco. That was back in the '70s. I travelled all over the area in the '90s with my job with the supplier to Stedmans stores. I was in charge of the commercial credit department and worked with store owners who got into financial difficulty. There were many of those as the pressure on small store owners was significant.
Well time to do more walking. I just go around and around the house but it does help build up my strength.
Chloe, Glad you made it in to wait on us today.... Rather icky and raw outside at the moment here in the Finger Lakes Region of NYS. Certainly not as bad as what some of you down in the South have though... (I'll take snow any day before Ice!) I'll have one of those "Sticky Buns" that Lion brought in to share. Huh? Yes, I know that it is in the middle of the afternoon.... I eat what I want when I want! Sheesh!
Had about half the usual number of people at church today. Either the road conditions kept them from coming or they heard I was doing the Moment for Mission this morning..... Actually I got rave reviews for it from many people. It is my once a year time to put on my theatrical hat and do my thing. Turns out the sermon said a lot of the same things that I did. I mentioned that to Pastor Deb, she grinned and said she remembers what I have done in the past and decided to build on it as she supports the same life goals and it was very appropriate for this time.
We are getting bands of "Lake Effect" here today. A couple minutes ago it was sn*wing so hard I couldn't see the house across the street and now the sun is back out.....
Need to get back to doing some cleaning and bridge work in the train room... catch you later!
CNCharlieLion, yes please to the sticky buns. I like mine with lots of cinammon too. We're at -4F right now, so much the same as you. Must be hard to keep your paws warm at that temp. Do you wear boots? How about a woolly jacket?
How about I stay Indoors!
Nice truck, bro!
Heading for the hay in a few moments, I am not feeling well. Nothing physical, though, just a bad case of winter blues and a helping of despair.
Cold at the beach, too. Currently 34 at 4 pm and will drop to about 20 tonight. Something warming is thus suggested: I'll have some Wild Turkey American Honey with just a couple ice cubes, please.
Lion - I guess I could send you a picture of a puddle with some ice around the edges, but it wouldn't be as impressive. Are the wildebeests making fun of you?
Garry - Late last summer I had that joy of stepping out into the garage and finding water running out of the water heater. I thought "Oh, that's $800". The newer ones have better and better insulation though, so there was an upside. After Hurricane Matthew knocked out our power on a Saturday, we still had warm water for showers on Sunday afternoon.
herrinchoker - My Dad used to enjoy telling the story when as a young man he would drive Grandma's 1903 curved-dash Oldsmobile to the service station in Freeport, Illinois and ask the attendant to check the oil. Puzzled looks would result, and then he would reveal that the motor was under the seat. I was told that it went to a musuem around Detroit, but I don't think the location was written down for us. I have a 1903 Olds on my layout in HO in honor of that. My first car was a 1953 Plymouth Cambridge 2-door in battleship grey which was known in my high school as "The Hemi", but had a flathead 6, 3-speed on the column.
CN Charley - Although not listed as a side effect from our surgery, I have had several instances of passing out and have found that I need to be really conscious of hydration. Keep drinking extra water.
Bill
cudaken Rich Have any phots you care to show? When my 68 Road Runner was stock the only 396 I would look out for was the 396 375 HP motor. I listen for the soild tappet cam ticking. Now 427's and 454's, was not till I up grade the Road Runner that I would mess with them.
Ken, this is from summer of 2015, going for that early 70's look........
Motor shot......Yeah, it has the solid lifter cam, the 11.5 to 1 compression and the big square port heads. Best time she ever did was back in 2004. She went 12.50's @ 117.9 on a drag radial.
Flo, I'll have a hot cup of joe and a jelly fill for starters. I tried to get some landscaping done on the HVBL this morning. It was just too dang cold down there. My scrap train derailed and that was the end of that session. Dispatch called and the town folk are out of heating oil. Gonna send out the tank train in the morning to get the heaters working again. I'm ready for spring already..........jeez
Good Evening Diners!
Flo, I'd like a good ol' cheeseburger and some of your famous, crispy fries. Thank you.
herrinchokerInteresting to see how society has come full circle in more than one respect. What many think is new---isn't.
I've been preaching that for years, Herrinchoker! The more history I study the more I become aware that the cycle remains unbrokken, both in technology and human behavior.
These cold January days have me retreating to the layout/RR workshop pretty frequently and I like it! The hustle-bustle of the Holiday is behind us so it's time to hunker-down and "hibernate".
CN Charlie, I've been enjoying birding for ten or twelve years now. Very enjoyable pastime. Around here we have many woodpeckers, including the big, noisy Pileateds and finches, orioles, blue birds, lots of cardinals and many others.
Do you feed the hummingbirds in the summer? They are fun to watch, too.
CNCharlie If you like steam in Ontario, especially CN, they are a must read.
Somebody say Steam in Ontario? Heres a film my dad shot on a CN fan trip. I'm in there at the ripe-old age of six!
Ken, did you look at the second QSI decoder I sent you for the E7/E8? I just wondered if IT matches the one that is giving you fits?
Well, that's all the time I have for now. I see my nice, juicy burger is up!
I hope everyone is doing well and offer my prayers for those in need...
Regards, Ed
After not being out railfanning since the beginning of December, this weekend was a great one to resume my favorite activity. 14 trains on Saturday & 15 trains today. Foreign power consisted of 4 Union Pacifics, 1 BNSF & 1 Ferromex. Norfolk Southern heritage units seen were the Erie & the Central of Georgia. The "Honoring our Veterans" unit was also spotted. We also spotted 2 SD90MACs in transit which are being converted to SD70ACUs. The 2 we spotted have new cabs in primer, & I suspect they were at Conway Yard for new electronics. Don't have any idea if all the other work has been completed.
It was interesting listening to the scanner this weekend too. CSX tracks are on the other side of the Ohio River, & they had problems. Saturday they had a couple of broken rails. The one train went into an emergency stop & ended up sitting on a rail with a 3 to 5 inch gap. Today a train broke apart between a mother & a slug, with a coupling being wedged under a truck of a trailing locomotive. Felt sorry for the dispatcher in Baltimore, but he seemed to have a handle on everything. So an active & interesting weekend. Dinner tonight was a London Broil, whole kernel corn, mashed potatoes with gravy, chocolate pudding & a bottle og Reisling from a Finger Lakes winery. Now I'm ready to face the coming week with it's long list of chores. Stay safe & have a great day...
It was interesting listening to the scanner this weekend too. CSX tracks are on the other side of the Ohio River, & they had problems. Saturday they had a couple of broken rails. The one train went into an emergency stop & ended up sitting on a rail with a 3 to 5 inch gap. Today a train broke apart between a mother & a slug, with a coupling being wedged under a truck of a trailing locomotive. Felt sorry for the dispatcher in Baltimore, but he seemed to have a handle on everything. So an active & interesting weekend.
Dinner tonight was a London Broil, whole kernel corn, mashed potatoes with gravy, chocolate pudding & a bottle og Reisling from a Finger Lakes winery. Now I'm ready to face the coming week with it's long list of chores.
Stay safe & have a great day...
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA
Ed, I enjoyed that film a lot. Just can't beat a CN Northern, but then again I might be slightly biased. We have a pileated that visits our feeder from time to time. Even though we are in the city we are close to a major river with a lot of woods on the shore plus we are close to to the university that has a lot of wooded land too. Right now we mostly get chickadees, red and white breasted nuthatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers plus the odd bluejay. Had a robin in the yard yesterday so he was lost to say the least. Hope he makes it. We hear and see ravens but they don't come to the yard.
Well nearly time for the latest Sherlock Holmes on PBS.
Flo, Ed will have a Crown Royal, SS Rich will have a Boston Cream and I will have a Keg of with a straw. Yep, one of those days.
I thought work was going to be slow? I had more customer at one point than I could handle! At one point I lost count of how many customers came into the store! Guess the biggest reason it seem so busy was 1 couple stayed in the store 3 hours!!!!!!!!!! In the mean time people came in looking for $100.00 twin mattress and cheap futon's. All wise happens when you have some one looking at a hight ticket iteam. Finally got the $3,000.00 deal and it took some work!!!!!!!!!!! They put there coats on twices because they want to shop around!
Ed Yes the PK2000 E unit board is the same as the one in the POS E-8 I have and thank you! Only reason I may tried to save the E-8 is because I still have a PK 2000 E-6 b unit. By it self, even working it could not pull worth a darn!
SS Rich Good looking Belly Button! It still amazes me that today a 12.50 car is slower than many stock current cars that get 25 MPG. My best time was 11.88 at 121 MPH but 60 foot time sucked. Never did cut up the wheel well to get bigger slicks in. Biggest slicks I could run where 10". Had to bring the engine up aginst the converter let her roll about 4 foot and easy into the throttle. Well not to easy.
This photo was from the mid 80's when I was really hard core.
Note she says Z-Eater behinde the door. Yep I was gunning for belly buttons cars. At one point my air scoop inserts said "Rat Poison". On the quarter windows there are Chevy Door Stickers with X's through them!
Trains are running great! So I am happy.
Ken
Evening all. Cold here today and tonight, then it gets warmer through the week 10 degrees now, going to be only 4 tonight.
Watched some football over the weekend, but whatever happened to competitive games? Are there really so few playoff-level teams in the NFL. Sadly, I think so.
I worked on trains with the games on in the background. Mostly, I played with the coupler mounts for my Rivarossi passenger cars, so the couplers would stop drooping, disconnecting and getting stuck in the tracks when they sagged. I've got the whole train working, finally. One car's interior lights won't go on, but I've got some ideas on that.
The wife has gone to Florida. She's visiting her Mom and will be back next week. In the meantime, I'll take over her big worktable downstairs and hopefully do a bunch of Bragdon foam castings. It's kind of time-consuming, but the results are worth it. The peace and quiet of this week will let me get this done.
I'm looking out for my feathered friends, too. I saw a very cold looking cardinal yesterday out in the yard, so I was happy to see her at the feeder this morning. After a slow start, I'm getting quite a variety of birds now. I've got to buy more seed tomorrow.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Hey, Ken!
Misery loves company, I guess.
I have a Walthers Proto QSI E7 that has been sitting on a shelf for over a year. I just put it on the test track and, wouldn't you know, it was dead silent. Lights all good, motor good but no sound.
I tried to do all the reset stuff, CVs, magnets, JMRI reset and nothing worked.
So I opened it up and started poking around, suspecting the speaker(s) and, sure enough, one of the speakers was open. Since they're wired in series that equates to...
NO SOUND!
Fortunately, I had a nearly identical 32mm, 8Ω, 1W speaker in my parts box.
I just finished up and everything is good! I thought I'd pass that on since it may be related to your problem. This will be the fourth time a bad speaker has been the cause of decoder sound problems for me.
Maybe the QC is poor on these things? Seems odd that so many have failed form different manufacturers.
I used a 1.5 v. battery with little wires to touch to the speaker pad (unplugged from the decoder) to check. When I didn't hear a click, I checked again with an ohm meter and sure enough, no resistance.
Good Luck, Ed