Howdy....
Steven NWPSWP.... Congratulations on your graduation.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Morning diners,
Tinplate Toddler Steven - congratulation! IIRC, your graduation from highschool must have been yesterday - or is it today?
Steven - congratulation! IIRC, your graduation from highschool must have been yesterday - or is it today?
Graduation is this Saturday, that's why I'm going to Pensacola, to walk in the graduation ceremony.
I'm actually a year early, so I'm taking a year off, next year is my senior/18th birthday trip, I was thinking of taking Amtrak out west somewhere.
Here's a link to the ceremony live stream.
http://athome.abeka.com/GraduationEvent/Default.aspx
One thing I learned recently is here in Louisiana if a tornado has been through an area that's where they'll usually be.
Getting the final stuff together to leave.
I'll be back in a while.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
hon30critterI can appreciate the language the observer was using.
Dave - there are only two more videos available on this incident, one by a guy who got stuck in his car when the tornado hit. His language was even more explicit.
By no means is Germany prepared for tornados. I am really surprised not more people get hurt or even killed by the debris flying around, consisting mainly of concrete roofing tiles - needless to say what you will look like when got hit by one of those.
I am fortunate only to have seen the birth of a tornado, which hit Hamburg less than half an hour later.
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
Tinplate ToddlerHere is a video taken of yesterday´s beauty:
That is pretty scary stuff!! I can appreciate the language the observer was using.
When we lived in Chatham, Ontario in the 1980s we watched the formation of a tornado right over our house. The skies were a strange green colour and the clouds were swirling above us. Amazingly, the air at ground level was quite calm. Fortunately for us it moved on before it generated enough force to touch ground, but it ended up doing a lot of damage in London about 80 kms to the east. We had heavy rain but no wind damage. Unfortunately for us, we were in the midst of having our roof replaced and all the shingles had been stripped off. The contractor applied plastic sheeting over the bare roof before the storm, but the rather stupid workers installed the plastic sheets starting at the peak and working down. That meant that the sheets overlapped the wrong way so that the water landing on the top sheet flowed under the next sheet below it, and then into our house!! We had about an inch of water on the dining room floor and the ceilings started to collapse. The dining room chandelier had water flowing out of the arms like a fountain, and it was still on! We gave up trying to catch the water and just let it flow into the basement.
To add insult to injury, the roofing contractor lived right next door. He told us afterward that he could see us moving around in the wee hours of the morning during the height of the storm. Apparently he was too lazy to get out of bed and offer us a hand. I can't comment here on his moral standards other than to say that he was not the ethical religious man that he professed to be. I had tried to do my neighbour a favour by giving him the contract. He turned out to be the worst person I have ever dealt with.
Please pardon my venting. After 35 years I am still bitter.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critterI never associated Europe with tornadoes. How often does that happen on the Continent?
Tornados were unheard of in my youth, but have become a regular phenomenon during the past 10 to 15 years. Fortunately, they don´t do as much damage as the ones on your side of the Big Pond, which is partly due to the more solid construction of buildings, power lines being undergound and few billboards "adorning" the countryside.
Here is a video taken of yesterday´s beauty:
Ulrich:
I never associated Europe with tornadoes. How often does that happen on the Continent?
About 10 days ago we had some really severe wind storms in Southern Ontario and the North Eastern USA. There were thousands of trees downed, and tens of thousands of people without power. The damage was worse than the really bad ice storm that we suffered in April. I had to pick Dianne up at work and there was large debris flying around us for most of the trip. Nothing hit the van but we did drive over several branches that landed right in front of us as we drove. There was no time to brake and no shoulder to run around them on. It was hard to stay calm.
Good Morning!
The day starts grey, but still no rain in sight! Actually, the grey morning we had yesterday turned into a rather pleasant day, with a nice breeze to keep the daytime temperature at a comfortable level.
Western Germany was under a tornado watch yeterday, and it didn´t take long for one to form.
That beast did considerable damage.
I´ll be heading to our local DIY place in the afternoon to order the lumber and the plywood I need to build the table for my new tinplate layout. I am just glad the cut everything to the exact size I need without an extra charge. I´ll be meeting my friend Claus tomorrow morning to pickt the stuff up, as it wouldn´t fit into our little car. His is a Mercedes E class station wagon, which has ample room for jobs like that. I am happy to be back into building a layout again!
Gary - I am sorry to hear about your ongoing health issues. The last year has not been kind to me, either, but I try to ignore it as much as I can. Does not work always.
ES44AH,ES44AC, AC44CW, AC4400CW - I am los! I know my way around SD´s and GP´s, but wouldn´t be able to tell which is which with those new, but look alike generation of motive power. It´s the same here - it´s mostly electrics of the Bombardier Traxx family, which all look very similar if not identical. Boring!
Have a nice day!
BigDaddyNot sure I will get the hang of modern nomenclature, ES44AH,ES44AC, AC44CW, AC4400CW
Gesundheit!
My eyes totally glaze over when things get beyond the Geeps and SDs. Even those I don't understand very well. Please give me Fs and Es, and maybe an RS-2 or 3. Even the S and SW switchers confuse me!
The weird thing is that I can identify an older car simply by seeing a tail light or a part of a fender. I'm sure many others have the same ability. We were in a restaurant earlier this week that was housed in an old garage. Naturally it had an automotive theme. Right beside our table was a hood. I immediately identified it as being from an early 70s Thunderbird. Could be wrong of course, but I was pretty sure what I was looking at. Why I can't do the same thing with locomotives is beyond me.
It's the same with watching birds. I have been watching birds for 45 years and I still have to use the bird book most of the time!
HHHHHHeeeeelllllllllloooooo,
WHERE IS EVERYBODY!!!
What's going on no posts in 4 hours?
Anyways if anybody shows up I'll be talking to myself.
So assorted updates, BLI has not emailed me back, hopefully they will tomorrow, issues I contacted them about? Quite a few, first problem, my brothers RSD15 P2, the decoder "appears" to be fried, no motor function and the sounds and lights only sometimes work, I thought about it perhaps a upgrade in decoders is in order. Second the T1 is a derailment dragon and I'd like to slay it. Third a fellow club member wants to sell his BLI P2 Santa Fe 4-8-4 Northern only two problems, first the foam packaging inside the box is nonexistent, second at low speed the locomotive surges slightly, if I end up buying it (only 200 bucks) I'd like to remedy both issues.
Got paid! And my grandmother gave me a $100 bill as a graduation gift, that's the largest denomination and amount of money she has ever given me!
I talked my mom into lifting the ban and letting me buy some tools for kit bashing, I'll also be ordering the stuff I need to upgrade 1 IHC car, I'm going to fix one at a time and run it on the club layout a while to get it running smoothly.
When I get some more cash saved I am buying a new lawn mower (self propelled push type) I figure I'm going to have to start small to get my business going.
Leaving tomorrow morning for Florida!
My therapist mentioned something about a big train store up in Ponchatoula does anyone have some information on this? We might make a detour on the return trip.
I was looking at twitter and came across a rumor that movie star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will be running for POTUS in 2020, his prospective VP is Tom Hanks, at least we model railroaders won't need those tacky commemorative cars to show our support, just get a few of these!
I see Ken has stumbled in as I'm typing this, well everybody have a round on me.
Ken, the T1s front driver is jumping the rails, usually on curvature, it's not radius because the minimum at the club is 30" and the Ts MRR(Minimum Recommended Radius) is 22". It's always the first driver, the other trucks are pretty reliable and only come off if I bump it, run through a fouled switch, or if the driver derails and wants to take the whole train with it.
Eveing Dinners
Flo, the gang and I will have a please and give Rick and Steven what they like.
Weight Master Gary Sorry to hear about your problems. At age 62 I feel like walking death most of the time. I am Diabitic but have that under control. I have lost around 30 pounds and with good A1C test I still don't feel like doing a thing. I think there are some other life changing things a head of me. I just hope I can make the changes.
Steven I have read the real PRR T-1 where problem engines. What kind of derailment problems are you having? Front trucks, drive wheels, rear trucks or tender? As much as I love steam they can be a pain in the caboose!
Later Ken
I hate Rust
Afternoon diners, *(echos in the emptiness of the diner)*
Yesterday went to the club, we operated with dispatcher, even with a dispatcher all the traffic jams up at "(un)Pleasant Hill" I suggested we consider adding double track from say Grand Cane through Robeline, to relieve the bottle neck, I contacted BLI about various problems one being the T1s derailments.
Leaving tomorrow for Pensacola for graduation!
Gary we are still on the right side of the dirt, so we are doing better than some. Once in a while I think back on friends who where killed in car accidents in high school and college. They missed out so much.
I saw some click bait on the internet, 120 year old woman says longevity is a punishment. Never met anyone 100 years old, but if you lived to be 120, there's a good chance you outlived all your friends, some of your kids and grandkids. Enough of that, celebrate being alive everyday.
My day was spent waiting for my wife's colonoscopy. They knew she had a polyp but had trouble finding it, they went in and out twice before they found it. A number of people in the waiting room were having conversations on their phones, none of them less than 50 years old. I could hear both sides of one conversation and the guy was on the other side of the room from me. Then a woman sat 3 chairs away. I can't smell very well but her perfume started me sneezing.
I started recording loco numbers on the Deshler OH webcam. I have 51 locos in 24 hours. It's possible to back up the recording 3 hours, so I am not glued to the webcam, like some. I have only seen one loco twice.
Not sure I will get the hang of modern nomenclature, ES44AH,ES44AC, AC44CW, AC4400CW
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Over 17 hours since the last post; I hope it's not vultures overhead, at least not quite yet. I think it is finally spring, high 80's in the TC area. Things have been pretty dull in this area. My big "excitement" has been 2 ambulance rides to the hospital: end of January, severe case of arthritic gout in my left knee, which feels like the leg is packed with broken glass being microwaved. Sunday night, trouble breathing. Back on track for the most part now; I talked the doc into letting me come home Monday PM.
They did tell me it was good I came in, as things probably would have gotten a lot worse at home. I'm a bit envious of some of you at or beyond my age who are still going with a full head of steam (73 in a couple weeks). The last 15 years have been sort of an adventure, with a 3-bypass, abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, a-fib, COPD, CHF, PAD, and probably more I can't think of. If you look at a map of the Central U. S., follow Interstate 35 from Duluth to Dallas: that pretty well shows my surgical scar.
I've probably bored everybody silly by now, so a very early good evening. Cheers back at you, Dave, and I don't think they are vultures after all!
Gary
Hi fellow birders!
Dianne and I just got back from Point Pelee on Lake Erie. We started out Monday morning to head for the tip of the point but decided to go back to the hotel rather than walk around in the woods during a heavy thunder storm. Things cleared up in the afternoon and although there weren't huge numbers of birds we were able to see a total of 51 species between the two of us in about four hours. The highlight was a pair of Sandhill Cranes feeding in a field north of the point. We got good use out of our new spotting scope looking at shore birds and ducks at the Hillman Marsh which is a man made wetland close to Point Pelee. The scope is not high end but it works well enough.
Dianne was given a bird clock as a retirement gift. It sings a different bird song every hour. It's cute but it sure isn't going in our new kitchen! I believe the proper way to look at the gift is that it was thoughtful, tacky, but thoughtful.
Cheers all! May the birds circling directly above you not be turkey vultures!
Good Morning, Folks!
It´s a grey day in our neck of the woods, but still no rain. Mother Nature has become rather thirsty now.
It´s the last day of our guided tour throught Austria. Austria is not a big country, only 90% of the size of Maine, so it´s now wonder we have pretty much covered what there is to see and do.
Today, we will head for Graz again and board a steam train to Köflach, a small town about 50 miles from Graz. The town itsel is nothing really spectacular, but the steam engine pulling the train is! It is the last survivor of a Southern Railway (Südbahn) class 23 0-6-0 built in 1860 and in service ever since. It is the oldest still working steam engine in the world, but still going strong in her 158th year!
I hope you have enjoyed the tour and will join me again in one of the coming months on a tour throughout - well, I am not going to tell you, yet!
Have a great day!
Jimmy_BraumI might need a haircut before too long, but then again, I look good with long hair.
Hey Jimmy:
You might think that you look good with long hair, but a potential employer might not agree. I suggest that you get a reasonably conservative hair cut and keep it that way until you have landed a job. Shine your shoes too!
24 cars plus the T1 and tender and two B units, so yeah "long train a runnin'"
Hello everybody.
Ulrich. ... I enjoyed the video of double headed steam, short open platform coaches, and narrow gauge . .. thanks.
Ken ... I hope the Athearn trucks work well on the coach
Kevin ... when we visited that part of Florida last year, we went to St Augustine, and we liked it.
Eveing Diners
Flo, the gang an I will have a and give Steven and Rick what they like.
Ulrich Thank you for the tour! Sure glad you are back in the dinner!
Henery I have had good look with Glue Guns when I stick foam togather. I bought one with two temp settings and low worked the best. I still added weight and used a few Bambo BBQ Spears to hold the foam togather. The glue does not sweall like the glue Ken Patterson uses.
Gary I am going to test fit the Athearn truck here in a few minutes. I am confident I can make it work.
Steven 25 85' foot passanger cars? That would be a train not counting engines that would be around 29 feet long?
Honeysuckle is one of my favorite summertime smells that and Privet Hedge, in the spring usually March and April the Privet comes into bloom and fills the air with its scent.
We passed peak Oak tree pollen season, where your windshield gets covered up by short green chains of oak seeds and everything turns green. Honeysuckle season is the worst of my hayfever and it hasn't started, but my eyes fell like I fell asleep on the beach, face down with my eyes open.
Everything I have to say about MR is in my Caulk goes bad thread., Well not everything. I decided to record the loco numbers I see on webcams. I'm not sure why. At least it will help me identify which model locos I am seeing. Up till now, they all seem to have that big overhanging thing on the back and look alike to me.
I had to go up to Jacksonville today for work. I pulled off of I-95 to get a picture with the ATLANTIC COAST LINE USRA Pacific they have on display at the convention center.
.
There is a ton of construction in the area, and getting to and from the parking lot turned out to be a real pain.
But... I did get the picture!
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Hey all.
Well today was productive...updated my resume, put a call in for a company about employment, deposited my refund check and bought a project for me model railroading wise.
Work: after the stuff going on at work lately... I need a change of scenery for my mental health.
Guitar: Spent some time today getting the timing down on Sultans of Swing...my chord hand hurts for some reason after playing Dire Straits songs....
I've been rereading a stephen King classic recently "The Stand" , and it's amazing how many intentional and unintentional literally illusions there are. It's good to get back to novels- for a while I've been unable to sit down and actually enjoy a book- must be the depression and anxiety in effect.
I might need a haircut before too long, but then again, I look good with long hair.
I'm also working on writing up a presenation on an abandoned railroad branch...I give the presentation in November.
(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).
Good day diners,
Ed that CUT ad is pretty cool, gotta love those NYC P Motors!
Got a hair cut, it's anticipation for graduation, they need you to have a short haircut or they'll throw you out.
The way it was before I got it cut I could wet it down add some pomade and I'd look like this
Vino talk, alchohism runs on my dad's side, he kicked the habit when I was born and hasn't touched it since, so when I'm of age nonalcoholic vino will be for me.
Just 5 days till graduation!
Coon wars are mostly over, now we're after a possum.
I'll be hanging around, later!
BigDaddyDoes Germany have a Mothers Day? No reason to expect it would be on the same day all over the world.
Same date here down under.
My Mum passed away 14 years ago, but my wife would make my life miserable if she didn't get breakfast in bed.
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Good Morning, Everyone!
Our weather guessers are wrong and how wrong they are! We were supposed to get lots of rain yesterday afternoon and today, but not a drop in sight! It´s too dry already, so we are under a forest fire watch!
Let´s make use of the fine day and make a short trip to the northwest of Vienna into the remote Waldviertel, bordering the Czech Republic. The Waldviertel (Forest Quarter) is the northwestern region of the northeast Austrian state of Lower Austria. It is bounded to the south by the Danube, to the southwest by Upper Austria, to the northwest and the north by the Czech Republic and to the east by the Manhartsberg (537 m), which is the survey point dividing Waldviertel from Weinviertel.
In Gmünd, the main town in this region, we will board a steam train, pulled by a class Mh 0-8-0T Engerth Loco.
Sputnick was upsetting to America. The Russians were ahead of us.
I did my freshman year at FIT, which is now called Florida Tech, in 1969. That was during Apollo 12 and 13. Our protocol for launches was to buy beer in quart bottles, Old Milwaukee or Busch. Less than $1 a quart if I remember and drive up to Cape Canaveral.
It was about a 90- minute drive. Eventually we would fall asleep in the car parked on the side of the road with a zillion other cars. In the morning we would have breakfast, beer and cereal. No milk. We were a couple miles from the launch pad. Every launch was spectacular. We also went up for night launches of communication satellites. You could easily read a book from the light of one of those smaller rockets.
A former colleague who served in Vietnam then became a Navy doc. He said there is an audio tape of the Apollo 1 test module burning up. They did not simply lose consciousness despite what your read on Wiki.
My aunt told me that people gathered in the streets and truly panicked by the War of the Worlds broadcast. That was 1938. Little did they know about Cybermen, Daleks and Klingons.
Good evening Diners,
Brunhilda, I'll have an Earl Grey tea with cream and honey, please.
Big Daddy, Kevin: The space center is really neat. The last time I was there, they offered two tours, one for the shuttle launches and one for the old mercury through Apollo launches. I'm old enough to remember Sputnik, so it was a real thrill to see the old launch facilities for the explorer satellites, the Mercury launch sites and the Gemini sites. The original Cape Canaveral launch sites were so archaic looking compared to the later facilities. It's kind of hard to believe such important history began from these two unassuming buildings. I don't think they were even 50 yards from the launch pads.
Hello to everyone, and I hope everyone is OK and safe.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Howdy. I’m still busy with other stuff, but I did have time to solder the connections in the remaining two units of my Santa Fe FM Erie Built ABA .
I tried them out hauling a freight train for an entire round trip on my layout which is about 260’. No problems at all. I’m thinking I will finally unbox my Super Chief To operate it With the FM’s.
FRRY .. Good to hear the progress with your SD45 and your 1200.
Henry. ... is the adhesive still tacky now?
Ken ... I hope you get the coach in working order .
Steven NWP SWP... I saw your thread on the IHC cars. I would suggest you start with a much shorter train than the 24 cars you are considering. I would suggest starting with only 5 or 6 cars and later adding more. .... IHC cars are constructed similar to Rivarossi cars and Con Cor 85’ cars. I modify them to operate on my layout as follows.... Take off trucks . Install body mounted long shank Kadee couplers. Couplers should be set back far enough so the gap between cars is minimal. Install good quality trucks with pivot point in center of trucks instead of offset. A new mounting hole will be needed with its surface even with old mounting hole. You have to add a little flat plastic to do this. Use a screw instead of the pin ... Add weight to get the car at NMRA standards.
Check coupler height after trucks are installed, and adjust as needed.
Everybody... have a nice evening
BigDaddyThe Daytona raceway tour is cool, Kennedy Space Center is even better.
I love visiting the Space Center. It is absolutely amazing. I am here for work, but I might have time for a visit on Wednesday afternoon.
I will see how the week turns out.
Hopefully the weather gets better.