Me again!
We spent the entire morning searching for places with affordable rents, which are not those Eastern Block concrete slab places.
The only place there seems to be is actually my Mom´s home town, the eastern most city in Germany, right at the border to Poland. Actually, the city is divided, with the part on the western bank of the Neisse river being German, and the eastern part being now Polish. It´s a pretty town, which escaped bombing during WW II, but was subjected to socialist decay until 1989. The whole town was fortunate to receive a complete renovation and has turned into a jewel. There are plenty of affordable 1 or 2 bedroom apartments in beautifully restored 19th century houses available, as younger folks don´t find jobs. It has turned into a city of old age pensioners, which suits us fine. Petra and I will go there to take a close look.
Just to give you an impression of what I am talking about:
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
Howdy ...
We're headed to Nashville this morning to see my wife's mother again. Her condition has improved, and she was moved from the hospital to a nursing home a couple of days ago.
I'll catch up here when I can.
Have a nice Sunday, everybody.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Good Afternoon!
Pretty miserable day here, wet and windy, but rather mild. All the snow in the south is gone, with a danger of flooding.
Henry, when I think of trains in India, a luxury train hardly comes to my mind. Instead, I see pictures like this:
or this:
Thanks Bear, right now I need another cup of coffee.
Ken, wife hoarding makes me think of having more than one at a time. I couldn't handle that.
CBS Sunday Morning is celebrating it's 40th aniversary. For non-US, it is 90 minute show that features art, travel, music and entertainment rather than hard core news. They showed 5 sec of the Maharajas Express. Never heard of it.
It's a series of luxury train rides in India. The one tour I looked at had prices from $4 to $24 thousand US. It makes US private varnish look like steerage.
India isn't on my bucket list. My fathers' ship stopped somewhere there during WW2. (Bombay?) He had lots of pictures of funeral fires, tiny, 35 mm B&W pics of a couple naval officers sitting outside at a table in front of the most ornate buildings you can imagine, and a guy with a flute, a cobra in a basket, a mongoose and scorpions. All those pictures disappeared, I suspect my ex-wife.
So it ain't Texas, but something different for a Sunday morning
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
BATMAN, Liked the flowers, will see them in another four months here-- the Live Sex Demo in Vancouver was interesting as well.
herrinchoker
cudaken. The bedroom my wife turned into her Hording room is a mildew mess! I could not even walk in the room to get to the mold that is on the walls
Yea, well, all part of the moisture problems you are having with your house.
Mike.
My You Tube
Eveing Dinners
Flo, give the gag and I a please.
Charlie When I go up to the attic I do not plan to corner the raccoon just run them out if I see any. To be on the safe side I will take my Katana with me.
Wife Hording Problem. The bedroom my wife turned into her Hording room is a mildew mess! I could not even walk in the room to get to the mold that is on the walls! My daughter came over today and got my wife to give up some stuff! Something I have never been able to do. When I got home after Sharon left my wife exclaimed "I don't know what I was thinking!" Still a lot of junk to get rid of but made some headway.
Funny Part of the day. Wife gave me a big bag of High Heel shoes to take to Good Will as a donation. Told the guy I gave the shoes to "my 67 year wife doest think she needs to ware High Heels any more." He got a chuckel from that one.
Later, Ken
I hate Rust
ATLANTIC CENTRALmax speeds are typically restricted to 88 mph.
.
Add that to 1.21 gigawatts of electricity, and we might really have something to talk about (in the past tense).
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Evening folks,
Went to train day at the library, I was helping man the MSMRC switching layout.
I finally got my first MR of the new year!
Well I'll try to stop by later.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
Good afternoon gang!
Hope all is well! Not much going on at the moment. Not feeling too ambitious just yet. I did browse the pages of several MR books though yesterday after hitting the golf dome at one of the local casino's for a couple hours. While flipping through those, I have changed my mind yet again as to how I will set my layout up. Instead of having a multi-level layout, I will do something along the lines of a 4x8 and then about 3-4 different 2x8 or 2x10 switching layouts. This way, I don't have to worry about having a helix or a long grade to build and contend with.
I will post photos as I progress along.
Anyways, this is all I have for today. For now, that is.
Take care!
//signed// John Powell President / CEO CNY Transportation Corp (fictional)
http://s155.photobucket.com/albums/s303/nuts4sports34/
Hunter - When we met in January of 2000, you were just a 6 week old pup who walked his way into this heart of mine as the only runt in the litter who would come over to me. And today, I sit here and tell you I am sorry we had to put you down. It was the best thing for you and also the right thing to do. May you now rest in peace and comfort. Love, Dad. 8 June 2010
I love you and miss you Mom. Say hi to everyone up there for me. Rest in peace and comfort. Love, John. 29 March 2017
CNCharlieHave you thought about going somewhere else in the E.U.? I'm thinking about your healthcare besides a safer place. I could send you a P.M. on Canada if you like.
Well, with Germany being on the down turn, there will not be much time before the other follow. The only places we could go to are either Denmark or Norway - both places way too expensive to move to.
10 years ago we had plans to go to Canada, which didn´t materialize for the reason of Petra not wanting to leave our sun behind who was still at college then. We got quite familiar with Canadian Immigration laws and they preclude a regular immigration by now, as we are either too old or not rich enough to qualify. Which leaves us with applying for political asylum - and just like the US this has a high degree of uncertainty.
Good Morning,
A bit frosty this a.m. with a temp of -10F which isn't bad but the windchill is near -40. I see it might get very cold in the NE U.S. next week. We are somewhat used to it and we are set up for these conditions with triple pane windows, heavy insulation, block heaters for the car, etc. A block heater makes a big difference on how easily a car starts and how fast the heat will start. Even if it is -30 in the morning my car starts easily and I will have heat starting after about 5 minutes. My current car doesn't heat as fast as the old one but it's block heater was in the oil pan, not the water jacket. Both were/are Volvos.
Ken, be very careful dealing with racoons. They are fierce if cornered and you do need a professional to deal with them. I would never let a dog out in a yard if racoons are around as one can do a lot of damage even to a large dog. They have very sharp claws. Also you need to get up into the attic to clean out any poo that may be there. Racoon poo can carry nasty parasites. Wear gloves and a mask if you do such a job. You can easily tell if it was from a racoon as it looks like dog poo except it is black. We have had some in our backyard. We get frequent visits at night in summer from them. They ate all the goldfish in our pond. They are very clever and even unscrewed the cap on a bottle of goldfish food.
Ulrich, sorry to hear about your problems. Have you thought about going somewhere else in the E.U.? I'm thinking about your healthcare besides a safer place. I could send you a P.M. on Canada if you like.
Rob, nice to see you back in the diner! Do you still have your critters?
Well time to do something.
CN Charlie
Howdy, everybody .
Ulrich ... Continuing to pray for you and Petra. Your friends here in the Diner care.
Probably, we are going to Nashville tomorrow to see Shelley's mother again. She was moved to a nursing home form the hospital a couple of days ago.
As I said, one of our furnaces is not working. The remaining furnace is running continually in the meantime. So, one end of the house is much cooler now.
Model railroad. ... Having completed the mine head and the tipple/loader, I still have one or two more structures to build for the coal Mine project. .... I keep being busy with other stuff, but I hope to make more progress with the mine in the next few days.
Cheeers.
ATLANTIC CENTRALAre you wanting to come to the US?
That was our intention - to spend the rest of our days in freedom, without the fear of being attacked again. We have been saving up some funds, albeit a small amount, to help us get going over at your end of the Big Pond, with a small pension to cover the bare necessities, but I doubt we will make under the given circumstances.
mbinsewiYou notice nobody seams to be panicking, at least from what you can tell by watching, and it does stop. That's also why you see some GE locos with burns on the side of the cabinets, right by the exhaust. Some you see, the paint is burnt right off.
Yes, This was the root cause of the Lac Megantic disaster.
The engineer stopped his train and left the lead unit running to provide air for the brakes. (Of course he should hace set way more hand brakes than what he did).
Flames were coming out of the turbo charger and so passersby called the firedepartment, and they came in and shut down the engine. IIRC they even notified the railroad, but apparently the word did not get back to the engineer.
When the aire bled off, the brakes released (did I mention that he did not set enough and brakes?) and the train rolled down hill, (such is the effect of gravity) and the rest is history.
BTW: I was a one man crew, and after his sleep in a motel, the same engineer was to continue the journey.
The cab driver that took him to the motel commented about the 'fling oil' from the locomotive, and was told that this was normal. Even flames were normal, but as I said, the fire department was called and shutdown the unit.
Firemen and even EMTs are trained to shut down the locomotives when necessary, of course, no railroad has ever told us about the hand brakes.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Ulrich, sorry to hear about your landlord troubles. Are you wanting to come to the US? It is really a shame that the simplest things have become so dificuilt in this world.
Not wanting to get into the wrong topics, but I would really like to see my country make it easier, and less expensive, for good, honest people to come here legally.
Regarding your earlier post about the new passenger line in TX, I don't know anything about that area, but typically in the US, rail operations of this type are faced with safety problems including unfenced right of ways, lots of grade crossings, live stock or wild life possibly on the tracks, and trackage not suitable for 100 mph speeds.
The costs to correct these things tips the balance against having the rail line at all.
So we travel at slower speeds on our commuter and intercity short lines.
Even here in the Mid Atlantic/Northeast corridor, max speeds are typically restricted to 88 mph.
Take care, you and Petra are in my prayers,
Sheldon
We are having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave
Currently 39F and raining, and it will stay that way the next couple of days. All the white stuff has turned into something slippery, before it all disappeared. Back to normal in our neck of the woods.
Petra and I are draining our brains how to get out of the spot our landlord has put us in, but we haven´t come up with a solution yet. It certainly has put an end to all ideas of being able to leave this country for a better life, as we will have to spend all our savings to either stick it out in this apartment or move to a new place, where we can afford the rent. There are very few decent places around, and all of them not anywhere close to our family. The only option ist to move 380 mile southeast, right into what was communist Germany. Guess how much I´d like to do that!
I feel like being in a tunnel without seeing the light at the end of it.
Rob!!!!
Good to see you!
Terry
Terry in NW Wisconsin
Queenbogey715 is my Youtube channel
Eveing Diners
Critter Control Visit, was I ripped off? Not sure on that yet? Well seems we have raccoon's in the attic off and on and he found the hole they where getting in. Heck my dog could get in the hole! Seems I gave a 1.5 foot hole in my Fascia on the back patio and need about 20 feet replaced. Plus the end of the roof rafters need to be replaced so new Fascia can be nailed on.
Reason I am wondering if I was ripped off?
1 I was given the impression the $500.00 would include some patching of the hole where the animal's where getting in. Not, that is extra! Now with the damage I have I would not expect it in the $500.00 But.
2 He stated he was going to set a couple ot racoon traps befor he left with bait but not set just to get the Raccoon's use to going in the trap. He does not check traps on the weekend and I was fine with that.
He left a catalog here so I called him to let him know. He told me over the phone "I did not leave the traps becaue I had a call that raccon's are getting in a person garage so I needed them".
Hum, a garage is more important than my house? Plus he stated he did not Trap On The Weekends?
I will do a charge back so fast it will make his head spin if he is not here Monday!
There is a bright side to all of this! Saw what a dump I let the Garage / Train Room turn into so I got I gear and cleaned it up, not spotless but not embarrasssing any longer. Hard to imagine I used to mop the floors in the garage when I was Big Time into Cars.
Good Evening All,
Busy day today but just about time to head out home. Kevin, unless you use some sort of load beam, it will be all but impossible to balance the drivers. How much will the finished locomotive weigh? Is it possible to use air bags or air shocks or the old hydrolastic suspension units from the Austins? The hydrolastic units should be good for about 3 tons assuming 8 units. They interconnect with hoses so they are self leveling though you could complicate things like Rolls Royce with valving and accumulators and all kinds of other stuff. IIRC, steam locos mostly use leaf springs on balance beams to even out the load. I think the friction of the leaves against each other was also the main damping method so no shocks (dampers in the real world). With coil springs and no dampers you might have invented the first locomotive to make you sea sick. Sounds like an interesting project if somewhat more ambitious than I'd take on. Good Luck.
Russ, I hate when that happens. I dropped an entire box of rolling stock and broke all sorts of couplers and even one frame not to mention lots of detail parts some of which have not returned from their hiding places on the floor.
Catch y'all later, J.R.
Good Evening, Crew! Well, I finally picked up all the wires from under the layout, swept up the debris, remounted the table to the benchwork, and it's ready for penciling in the track and turnout centerlines. Last week sometime, I was reassembling the HO Kato NW2 chassis after cleaning off all the manufacturer's grease from the truck gears. I had it laying diagonally on a foam cradle and, when I had my back turned, it slipped from the cradle and went crashing onto the floor! I found all the parts but today, when I was looking things over, the plastic truck hangers that attach the trucks to the inside of the chassis were broken and one of the truck bodies was cracked as well. Kato still has the complete trucks with gears in stock, so I'll be placing an order with them in another day or so. In the meantime, I'll start working on drawing out my track plan on the layout table. One step forward and one step back model railroading going on here.
Russ
Modeling the early '50s Erie in Paterson, NJ. Here's the link to my railroad postcard collection: https://railroadpostcards.blogspot.com/
mbinsewiWow, you have something like that? where do you keep it?
Right now, what I have is a frame, eight drivers, main rods, and a trailing truck. It is not even a full roller yet.
I have a huge problem with springing the axles for proper balance. I tried to use coil springs (against the advide of people who knew better), and as a consequence I have hit a wall with the project.
I am most likely going to convert it into a 2-6-2, or possible a very odd looking (small drivers) 4-4-2.
The design I tried, with eight drivers, looks like it cannot be corrected.
Like I said, very poor.
EDIT: Where do I keep it... it is under a tarp in my back yard.
BigDaddyI've seen a number of webcam videos of diesel shooting fire out the stack. What catches fire?
A number of conditions can cause a visible flame from a diesel exhaust stack.
An older engine could have a build up of soot in the exhaust that also has unburned fuel mixing with it. This creates a hard shellac that can catch fire and burn.
Newer engines with aftertreatment can have a calatytic reaction in the aftertreatment device that causes fuel or oil to burn in one of the components and a visible flame will exit the pipe.
Turbocharger or injector failures will make this much more likely, but older engines could have it happen even if running properly (or what was considered properly back in the day).
SeeYou190It makes my 7 1/2" gauge (same scale) USRA Mikado look really poor.
Wow, you have something like that? where do you keep it?
BigDaddyUnder the topic of this hobby is too expensive, somebody bought it:
That is a stunning model.
Is it live steam? The backhead all looks functional, with compression fittings and real gauges, but the article did not say (that I saw).
It makes my 7 1/2" gauge (same scale) USRA Mikado look really poor.
The way it was explained to me, was this is more of a problem with GE than it is with EMD, but, something about the build up of fuel, during acceleration, and the turbo charger not starting right away to supple the proper air mixture, the excess fuel gets pushed out as thick black smoke, and ignites in the stack, causing the flame.
You notice nobody seams to be panicking, at least from what you can tell by watching, and it does stop. That's also why you see some GE locos with burns on the side of the cabinets, right by the exhaust. Some you see, the paint is burnt right off.
It all made sense to me, so that's what I'm stickin with.
Rob ... What a pleasant surprise ! Good to see you again . Glad you found your way back . Please continue posting here.
Henry .. Will you be bidding on that locomotive ? .. LOL
Brent ... Spring flowers in January? I bet they are nice.
Meanwhile , one of our two furnaces stopped working this morning . So, one end of the house will be cooler until a part arrives Tuesday.
Model railroad. ... I just completed the mine head for my coal mine project .
Extra strong coffee in a UNION PACIFIC mug, please.
It's good to see the Diner still on the rails.
Had to re-register to get in here.
Been working on enclosing the back screened porch here, so there will be a place to empty out excess "stuff" from the train room and resume working on the layout. Making progress, however slowly that may be.
Hope everyone is doing great these days.
Cheers! Rob
Good morning from the always beautiful West Coast. Sure glad Dad moved us out from Winterpeg in 1959.
Sorry, can't resist.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/flowers-blooming-vancouver-january-canada-freezes-2019?fbclid=IwAR3q1_aRnnd2rOgR6osctECqntHfmyBu51HJp--eOvoo16tsLx868RxCOPY
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."