Jeffrey's Trackside Diner, July 2018

[NWP SWP]

Anyways, I'll have a coffee milkshake.

I got my bank card in today! 

I bought a green metal hard hat so as to prevent future damage to my cranium.

I'll post a picture of myself when I get it.

I have my 3rd party test Wednesday so if I pass by the end of the week I will have the big DeaL (get it DL)

[NWP SWP]

Here's some updates on my super gondola (I was going to say super gon but that just sounded wrong)

I changed the bottom plate to a full length plate and the side plates to black styrene they will get re-redone with thinner styrene so it's less noticeable.

I but the 6 wheel trucks on, I had to relocate the bolster location to accommodate the trucks, the car also rides about 1-2 mm higher so the couplers will probably need to be drop shank kds.

This is the working prototype so I'll be tinkering still.

as I was finishing up the work I knocked over a jar of testors styrene cement so now I need a new scale ruler because the glue "ate" it.

[FRRYKid]

Evening All! Flo, could I get a orange float with chocolate ice cream? It is entirely too hot here today! Thank you so much.

Hobby Front: Got the first piece of the layout moved it. (The corner section.) However, in the process, I discovered that I apparently mismeasured the wall. My original plan for the track is not going to work. The shop section is not going to fit where I thought it would. (I only have about 45" and I need quite a bit more.) I still think I have room for the car ferry section however. I will need to measure the section to see exactly how big it is. Depending on that, I might be able to build a new shop area without the turntable. In any event, it looks like I will building basically a new layout. Oh, well!

[Tinplate Toddler]

angelob6660

Ulrich- I like your passengers. How many package people is worth buying for a short layout like yours? Are you planning on adding some into your coaches?

I bought 2 packages, one containing 3 pairs of figures, and one containg 6 individual figures. I guess I will add a few more, like worshippers heading towards the church, maybe a group of nuns, some passer-byes doing window shopping. I will also add two or three more road vehicles. This may sound a little too much, but the figures generate the "how cute" effect I need to get Petra´s approval for my purchases

The coaches will not see any passengers. Mind you, these are over 60 years old tinplate coaches that don´t have any interior detail.

On my Swiss narrow gauge layout, all my passenger cars had figures in them, but you´d hardly noticed them - even on close-up pictures.

[maxman]

cudaken

Have felt like ash pitt all day. Sad When I woke up my blood surger was only 50 which is low for me. My morn has been 70 to 78. So I had a fair sizes breakfast of 2 eggs sunny side up, 4 1/2 stripes of bacon (wife cuts them in half) 2 good sizes sauages patty's and a slices of whole wheat toast. After that I was sleepy all day and did not feel like doing a thing. Took 2 naps yet?

Just out of curiosity, why are you checking your blood sugar?  Are you diabetic?  Type 1 or type 2?  You have mentioned blood sugar in several (many?) posts.

If you have a blood sugar issue, I hope you are not trying to manage this by yourself.  You need to be seeing a good endocrinologist.

The fact that you ate all that potentially artery hardening stuff does not mean that you blood sugar will get you to the correct b/g level.  Carbohydrates raise your blood sugar, not protein.  The wheat toast contained the most carbohydrate, probably 12 - 13 grams per slice.  If you Google the carbohydrate content of all the other items I believe that you'll find that the carbohydrate content is very low, or in the case of the eggs, zero.

The rule of thumb that I was given is that 1 carb will raise blood sugar 3 points.  But that is dependent on your weight.  If you are overweight, 1 carb may only raise your blood sugar by half as much.

I am not expert on this topic, but I learn something new every week.  I became an instant type 1 diabetic last October when I had my spleen, gall bladder, and pancreas removed.  So I have to use two types of insulin, injected daily.  And for some time trying to determine the insulin dosage was like trying to hit a moving target.  I'm getting a little better at that now.

And, yes, that 50 number is low.  I was told to get concerned if it dropped to 70.  My target numbers are 120 during the day, and 150 before bed time.  Blood sugar will drop overnight when the body "fasts".  In my case it will sometimes drop 100 points.  Are you checking prior to going to bed?  If your b/s drops much lower than 50, you may find yourself not wakng up in the morning.

Concerning falling asleep, my opinion is that is because you had such a large meal.

Again, I don't claim to be an expert, and I certainly don't know your medical history.  But I do think that you need a good endocrinologist.

Here endith the sermon.  And I will go back to changing my blood glucose monitor sensor and otherwise minding my own business.

[Track fiddler]

Heartland Division CB&Q

Steven NWS SWP .... Thanks for the interesting information about those KCS cars..... 

Henry .... We have Blue Herons here at the lake. They stand on the shore. If disturbed they make that screeching sound as they fly away. ... Normally, there is only one at a time. 

 

There was a big problem with blue herons up here in Minnesota.

The DNR didn't know what to do with it because they didn't have a clue on what was going on.

Their numbers were dropping rapidly for many years

This is one of those situations when I didn't have a problem with the government not figuring things out for a while.

I wouldn't have known what was going on either.

Apparently the raccoons were climbing up the trees and eating their eggs, so the herons reproduction cycle was not completing itself.

A simple fix of common sense.

The thing I have a problem with.

The DNR put aluminum metal around the bottoms of the trees the blue herons were nesting in.The raccoons couldn't climb up the trees and eat their eggs anymore and now the blue herons are bouncing back just fine.

Go figure

PS... This may sound a little weird but if you ever had one of these things crap on you, or even 10 foot near you I guarantee you, you would know it. I'm not going to elaborate on this. 

[cudaken]

 Afternoon Diners

 Flo, the gang and I will have a and give Rick and Steven what they like.

 Have felt like ash pitt all day. When I woke up my blood surger was only 50 which is low for me. My morn has been 70 to 78. So I had a fair sizes breakfast of 2 eggs sunny side up, 4 1/2 stripes of bacon (wife cuts them in half) 2 good sizes sauages patty's and a slices of whole wheat toast. After that I was sleepy all day and did not feel like doing a thing. Took 2 naps yet?

 Go to the VA Hospital Tuesday to see my normal Doctor. My main concern is not being able to have a good Downlaod! I take stool softers every day and a laxstive every week yet not much. Bet I have 3 pounds of ash in the old firebox.

 Next concern will be my ulicer on the right great toe. Last week it was pretty much gone, not now. Hope to be buried with all of the OEM parts God gave me.

 Not to worried about the A1C results. Think I will come in around 5.2 to 5.6. Here of late my meter says my 30 day avg is a 5.0.

 Soldern Iron Question. How long does your solderning iron take to warm up? My old Radio Shack 45 watt iron take's 8 too 12 minutes. Sometimes I have to use my lighter on the tip to get it hot. I am thinking it is time for a new one.

 BBQ is done, trains are running great so later. Ken

[NWP SWP]

That was my eventual goal, a 40 car train with four on the lead and two pushers, but for now I'll just stick to turning a few out a month.

[angelob6660]

Afternoon Diners,

Steven- Why not model a coal train with 16-18 cars? It will have the same length of realism with two locomotives. More than 24 cars will require at least 4 to 5 locomotives to pull.

Ulrich- I like your passengers. How many package people is worth buying for a short layout like yours? Are you planning on adding some into your coaches?

I thought of it a lot. I realized it's a difficult question to answer. Adding people in coaches will provide realistic ridership than empty seats. If you're coaches are always being shunted into the yard to break up or connect cars their will also be people in those seats without leaving.

I only bought two so far, bus stop people and lovers from Woodland Scenics but I still plan on more.

 

I recently bought 2 undecorated Atlas early FMC single door boxcars. I decided it was time to start collecting some cars to bring my fictional railroad to life. If I couldn't fully build my G.N.O. Railway at least I have a few freight cars to believe to myself that my railway is real when modeling the real class I railroads.

[Tinplate Toddler]

Good Evening!

At last, it rained today - precisely 5 minutes! Not enough to get us out of the forest fire warning zone., though!

I spent some quality time just playing with my trains, when all of a sudden one of my electrics (the blue one) kept derailing on the track leading to the engine house. The track was OK, as all my other engines passed through without any issue. It took me a while to find the reason - the loco had shed two of the four traction tires! Fixing that was a matter of a couple of minutes only. All I had to do is to unscrew the front coupler, lift out the truck frame and put the tires back onto the wheels.  Maintenance of these old Marklin locos is really easy, everything just drops nicely into the appropriate place and is fastened with a screw. No snap fits or clip ons that might break off! Changing the motor brushes and lubricating the engine requires 2 minutes! Everything is big enough for me to still be able to handle - if things don´t get worse.

We already had our supper, but I am still hungry! How about a big TLC burger & fries, Zoe, and a to wash it down, please!

Have a good one, folks!

[NWP SWP]

Ken, it's a high side gondola that were used for coal transport, no I didn't get a chance to use the stiff you sent on this project, I will be digging through it though to see if there's anything I can use on some of the cars.

[cudaken]

 Evening Diners

 Flo, the gang and I will a and give Rick and Steven what they like.

 Today Before work I got a little done in the backyard, maily weed eating the hill around the in ground pool and it is a pain with the round soul shoes I have to wear.

 Work was peacful which is not a good thing. I do wonder how much longer this company will stay a float. Thank Goodnes for SS, credit will go to heck but I will have the house.

 Steven That is a coal car? Looked like a gondola to me. Did you happen to use any of the coal cars I sent? I hope so, that way I feel like you could use some of the junk I sent.

 Trains are running Ok and I am beat so that's it folks.

 Ken

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Steven NWS SWP .... Thanks for the interesting information about those KCS cars..... 

Henry .... We have Blue Herons here at the lake. They stand on the shore. If disturbed they make that screeching sound as they fly away. ... Normally, there is only one at a time. 

[BigDaddy]

Turn the volume way up, Iphones aren't good directional microphones.

You can't see them but this is the sound of a great blue heron rookery.  The are nesting in a Virginia pine, and for such big birds, they are impossible to see.

Their cackle sounds more like a barking squirrel than it does in the video.  A squirrel on speed and they just go at if for hours on end.

[NittanyLion]

Went and looked at a house in Northern Virginia today. It was just at the top of the budget, but would have needed way more renovation than we expected and thus could afford. Have to pass, which we a huge shame. The basement had a 20x15 I shaped area of completely blank walls and some space in another room that would have made great staging  Oh well!

[NWP SWP]

http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/railwhales/aa-kcs404000.htm

That's a link to the webpage.

[tstage]

Steven,

Any chance of just posting the link to the webpage you pasted in your post above?  Some of the text gets cut off and it would be easier to go directly to the webpage.  It also cuts down on loading the post.  And it avoids possible copyright issues.

Tom

[Edit: Just checked.  The material is copyrighted so I'm going to edit your prior post with just the link]

[BigDaddy]

NWP SWP

My plan is to build around 20-40 cars to run as a unit coal train

20 cars would be a 17' long train.  Better start building that layout.

Laid some track today.  Really a nice day just to sit outside.

[NWP SWP]

I am waiting to see if the KCSHS archivist can get me a copy of the car blueprints.

My plan is to build around 20-40 cars to run as a unit coal train, as the cats were originally built for, I think I might decal them for the Rio Grand or Southern Pacific as if they bought the cars off KCS or they ordered some too.

The first car isn't perfect I have some more tinkering to do before I'm satisfied enough to start making them either from resin or something else.

[Little Timmy]

WOW ! That was a lot to "digest" .

Flo,... could I have a Coke to wash all that down ???

Actually I enjoyed the information.  Loved the truck's on the car in picture # 2

[NWP SWP]

Those are from a Web page detailing the history of the cars, the president of the MSMRC Chris "Casey" LeBlanc was on of the contributors, and one of the guys at the club actually built a few, I spoke to them and they did advise me on the project, the other bit of information is from the KCS historical society.

[NWP SWP]

Steven,

 

Around 1970, KCS's holding company formed a subsidiary called Howe Coal Company to exploit strip-mining potential beside the mainline at Howe, Oklahoma.  It also built a rail-to-ship bulk terminal at Port Arthur, Texas, from which the coal would be exported.  To haul the coal between mine and port in single-line captive service, the railway had Thrall build 75 gigantic rotary-dump coal gondolas in 1970.  They were 75' 11" long, and 13' high (72' 5" and 9' 6" internally).  Capacities were 6,100 cubic feet and 300,000 pounds.  (The typical car in unit-coal-train service holds about 4,000 cubic feet and 200,000 pounds.)  They were built of Cor-Ten ("pre-rusted") steel and rode on six-axle Buckeye trucks.  Distance between truck centers was 55'.  Axle spacings were 5' 6".  The 75 cars were numbered between 404004 and 404748, with the first five digits in series and the sixth being a validity check digit.

 

After two shiploads of coal went to Asia, the buyer there suddenly became subject to stricter environmental requirements and had to cancel the contract.  At the same time, the strip mine was plagued with ground-water intrusion.  The Howe Coal Company fizzled.  Two or three of the cars had already been destroyed in derailments (a possible indication that their loaded weight was excessive for the KCS's track quality at the time).  The remainder of the fleet, still practically new, was stored in a siding at Spiro, Oklahoma.  While KCS searched without success for a buyer who might want these monsters, a tornado descended on Spiro and derailed 40 of them.  One or two had to be scrapped, but the rest were re-railed.

 

Before long, Georgia Pacific bought a hardwood paper mill on KCS industrial trackage at Port Hudson, Louisiana (15 miles north of Baton Rouge on the east side of the Mississippi River).  Among GP's upgrades was a rotary dumper designed to handle, at the same time, two of KCS's old 40-foot gravel hoppers that had been extended upward (to a capacity of 5,104 cubic feet) for woodchip service.  A remote wood chipper was also installed on the KCS at Legonier, 58 miles above Baton Rouge on the opposite (west) side of the river.

 

Somebody soon realized that the monster coal gons would fit Georgia Pacific's rotary dumper (one at a time), and their 6,100 cubic-foot capacity would allow KCS to give the customer a better freight rate.  KCS pulled 20 cars out of storage at Spiro (the first 20 on the track, without regard to number) and replaced their six-axle trucks with four-axle trucks in order to reduce tare weight.  The railway was able to sell the Buckeye trucks.

 

Georgia Pacific was so well pleased with the lower rate that it asked KCS if the cars could be extended upward, like the old gravel hoppers, in order to increase cubic capacity and reduce the rate even more.  That wasn't an option, because such greater cubic capacity would make the gross weight (hardwood, remember) too much for the four-axle trucks.  Georgia Pacific was so set on higher capacity, that KCS decided to take the other 51 cars still at Spiro, leave them on their six-axle trucks, and extend them upward by 30 inches.  This made them 15' 6" tall (12' internally) and increased their capacity to 7,880 cubic feet!  The higher sides and ends added 16,000 pounds to tare weight and reduced cargo weight capacity to 284,000 pounds, but a full load of hardwood chips wouldn't exceed that anyway.

 

These cars served well in woodchip service, both the low 4-axle and the high six-axle versions.  They were never renumbered to distinguish which was which, so the numbers are all mixed up.  Eventually, another woodchip mill was established on the KCS near Clarence, Louisiana.  The cars were used from there to serve the first mill (173 miles) and another one only ten miles from Clarence.

 

By early 2006, 70 of the cars remained.  That's when KCS retired them and sold them to General American.  They became GACX 914-983.  The new owner removed the upward extension and put them all on four-axle trucks, giving them a gross weight of 286,000 pounds.  They were put into service for hauling garbage.  The cars are no longer listed in the UMLER (Universal Machine-Language Equipment Register)--the database of all interchangeable freight cars in North America--under their GACX numbers.  I do not know whether they have been, resold, renumbered or retired.  The "40-year rule" would have restricted their use in interchange service after about 2010; however, their Cor-Ten construction should give them permanent durability.  They might continue to serve somewhere in single-line (non-interchange) use, as they did for most of their careers on KCS.

 

Lowell G. McManus
Eagle Pass, Texas, USA

 

[NWP SWP]

http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/railwhales/aa-kcs404000.htm

[Post edited by moderator to copyrighted material]

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Howdy ..

Ulrich ... the figures look good.  It’s nice to see the happy travelers on the station platforms. 

Dave ... it’s been a long time since I was last in Toronto, but I do t recall traffic bring bad enough to be sixth worse in the world . 

Steven .. your kit bash project came out well . You deserve to be proud of it . I did not see if you said anything about the prototype and what it hauls. The picture you showed appears to have wood chips in it.  Where was the photo and what railroad owns the car? 

[Tinplate Toddler]

Steven - it´s much nicer to see the picture in your post than to have to click on a link before being able to view it!

Time to call it a day and head for the hay!

CU tomorrow!

[NWP SWP]

Here's better pictures!

http://imgur.com/a/YYHZQDm

 

[ricktrains4824]

Good afternoon all.

Flo - A RBF please. Thanks.

Trackfidler - The difference between your build, and Steven NWP's build, is yours is entirely scratch built out of styrene, whereas Steven's is a kitbash of two different cars combined to make one longer one. Hence the difference in looks between the two pictures.

Steven NWP - Looking good so far, now you need to show it with paint! 

Hope all are well, and all enjoy the day. 

[NWP SWP]

Morning diners,

So track fiddler, you don't think the photos are a good enough quality?

OK then I'll post some better photos.

Glad that got cleared up I thought I'd have to pull out the big guns.

[Jimmy_Braum]

Good morning all. 

[hon30critter]

The people look good Ulrich!

Dave