SeeYou190 the only day of the week that holds any meaning to me is Friday, the day trash is picked up.
the only day of the week that holds any meaning to me is Friday, the day trash is picked up.
Sounds good to me Kevin
I can only hope the trash gets picked up on Friday around here
PH
I'm enjoying semi-retirement. It's nice to pick and choose and only work when I want to. I think I earned that in the 40 plus years of the grindstone.
The day I do become fully retired I know this like many of you do. I will always have to find physical things to do every day otherwise I stiffen up like an old board with Rusty Nails in the joints.
I learned that one the hard way.
TF
SeeYou190 gmpullman Monday, again! ? That is the only day that I need to get something done. I am loving this. -Kevin
gmpullman Monday, again! ?
That is the only day that I need to get something done.
I am loving this.
-Kevin
You and me both! I tell every young guy I know to save their money for retirement. It's a great life!
York1 John
gmpullmanMonday, again! ?
Since I retired, the only day of the week that holds any meaning to me is Friday, the day trash is picked up.
Living the dream.
gmpullmanSeen in Tlalnepantla, Mexico. Just outside Mexico City:
I love the look of those diesels -- I have ever since I was a kid watching them pull passenger trains through my town.
Like Kevin said -- that is what railroading looks like to me.
Ed: Great picture. I love F units pulling boxcars. That just looks like railroading to me.
Morning all, hot humid already this morning. Not much going on, I mowed the jungle and whacked down a holly bush that had taken over one side of the house. Worked on radios, uploaded a new radio repair video. cleaned some basement ( I was looking for missplaced parts).
That is about all.
Monday, again! ?
Seen in Tlalnepantla, Mexico. Just outside Mexico City:
N-de-M_6205_F2 by Edmund, on Flickr
Big explosion in Baltimore?
Cheers, Ed
Water Level Route My oldest has her driving test tomorrow for her license. Not sure how that happened. In my mind, she's still 10 years old most of the time.
Only one of my daughters got her full driver license when she was a teenager. They all had learner permits at 15, but driving was not a big priority for any of them.
I taught them all to drive, my wife was having none of that terror.
York1Enjoy the days! Your family will be out on their own before you blink. In my mind, my daughters are still 10-years-old.
Mine too!
A couple years ago, I received a 8 by 10 picture of them that they had photo-shopped for me. The three of them took pictures of when they were ten years old, and combined them into one image. It is the most perfect picture.
GMTRacingTF, the few people who can fix iron castings especially in motors are real artists. With all the pre-heat, post-heat etc it is really difficult. We have over the years had a few fixed that were just unobtainable and when the repair holds it is still like magic to me.
When I was very young I was working on a 6-71 Detroit Diesel 2-valve that was used as a fire pump engine in a condominium. The head was cracked in four places.
2-valve 71 series head castings were unobtainable. The common repair was to replace the head with a 4-valve head with dogbone reliefs, and replace the injectors with N-series with the same maximum CC rating, pay all the bad-core-charges, and be done with it.
However, any engineering change to a fire pump requires the installation to be re-certified by the Fire Marshall which the condominium association was opposed to.
The cracks were repaired by Lamont's Machine Shop in Fort Myers, and as of five years ago, there were still no problems with the repair.
Amazing... just like magic.
Good morning. Bacon, eggs, and black coffee.
Got the trail walk in this morning as early as I could. It's already hot and humid, so everyone outside was already sweating at 6:30 a.m.
Water Level RouteMy oldest has her driving test tomorrow for her license. Not sure how that happened. In my mind, she's still 10 years old most of the time.
Enjoy the days! Your family will be out on their own before you blink. In my mind, my daughters are still 10-years-old. In reality, they all have children of their own.
I remember when my kids were younger, I didn't like the idea of them driving. But by they time they turned 16 in high school, I was so tired of driving them to practices, lessons, youth groups, etc., that I was happy they got their licenses. It was nice to just hand them the keys and say, "Be careful".
More indoor work today on the layout. It's too hot and humid for an old man to work outside. At least that's my excuse for unfinished projects in the backyard.
Good Morning All,
68F and the sun is coming up into mostly blue skies. Still trees down and power outages here with the utilitiy company catching major flak from government and industry for not being prepared. As usual, lots of finger pointing but at least the mutual aid people are here from all over and progress is being made.
TF, the few people who can fix iron castings especially in motors are real artists. With all the pre-heat, post-heat etc it is really difficult. We have over the years had a few fixed that were just unobtainable and when the repair holds it is still like magic to me.
Leaving the fan run allows the coolant to thermosiphon while the thermostat remains open and gets the motor to cool gradually which is good. Kevins' idea is good especially with an turbo motor where there is no cooler except for the oil going through the bushing in the center. I will spare you all the rest of the disertation but I spent 4 years in a previous lifetime running an R&D shop that was devoted to automotive oiling and cooling systems.
Back into the shop for me. Lots to do this week. Ciao, J.R.
Good morning all. Flo, I'll have the special with three eggs please. And a large grape juice. As usual, the weekend went way to fast. Hopefully work is tolerable this week. My oldest has her driving test tomorrow for her license. Not sure how that happened. In my mind, she's still 10 years old most of the time.
Mike
Track fiddler With the consideration of ME only having a number 6 turnout and how fragile I found it is I decided on the PECO. My brother said I lucked out on how long I took to decide because now they have the unifrog turnouts.
All my friends in N scale are in agreement that PECO is the best line of track.
My Dream House N scale layout had Peco turnouts and Atlas track. It worked very well. All my other N scale layouts had Atlas turnouts, and I never had problems, but the PECO line has a lot of advantages.
Track fiddler It's not that it overheated but when I shut it off it gets hotter.
What you are describing is "Heat Soak", which can cause all kinds of wierd problems.
Basically, when you shut an engine off, the coolant is 180 degrees, but the pistons, combustion chamber surfaces, and exhaust manifolds can be much hotter. When the coolant pump and fan stop turning, that heat migrates into all other components, so the coolant temperature rises.
Your fan that you leave running most likely just cools the radiator. You would be better off to allow the engine to idle at low speed for 5 minutes and the excess heat can escape through the tail pipe.
It sounds like the crack repair was done well. You have good advice... never let the engine overheat with a repaired crack. As long as it does not overheat the repair should be permanent.
Evening
My ride consisted of about a half hour 40 minutes, it's just too darn hot out there to enjoy it.
I left the fan on for a half hour when I got home. It has an electric fan with a 3 core radiator. It's not that it overheated but when I shut it off it gets hotter.
When it was rebuilt, one of the Machinists was a master at what he does. The heads were cracked from overheating. Finding major engine components for these old classic cars can be like pulling teeth sometimes and if you do find them they will cost you an arm and a leg.
This machinist was a Wisconsin farm boy and would repair cracked heads on John Deere's and none of the farmers that he did the work for ever had problems with them again. His only rule afterwards was don't ever let that engine overheat again.
He would take the heads and drill a hole at the end of the cracks, fill the holes with welds and resurface the heads.
I met him at the bar before he retired with my brother-in-law and we all had a beer. He explained things to me like this. Imagine a Dorito bag and a Rip, the Rip will continue all the way down the bag unless you turn the rip and bring it back up, then it won't continue. He said it's the same principle with your Heads but don't ever let your engine overheat again.
Erv thinks I'm nuts. He always asks me why I leave my fan on for a while when it's hot out. I don't know but I promised that machinist I would never let it overheat again.
I never heard of such a thing before I met that man. I thought once heads were cracked they were junk. I've had the car eight years after it was rebuilt and have driven it hard at times. That Old Farm Boys work on those heads seem to be just fine.
Eveing Diners1
Flo, give the gang and I a please and Dirk a dog treat.
Boy we had some last night and today. Started last night around 1:00 AM and ended around 11:30 AM. Normally I like the sound of a thunderstorm! Not this one! Some of the strikes where way close to home. It was so bad around 10:00 AM I unplugged the computers to be safe.
Had a lot of rain. Front yard still has standing water after 8 hours later. Took Dirk to the park and the small lake was up over a foot and a half!
Fraidy Cat Wife Story. I had bought some bacon for Sunday Breakfest. We nomaly have breakest around 10:00 AM on Sunday while the thunder storm was going on. I hate frying bacon so my wife does it, not today? She thinks it is unsafe to use a stove while there is a thunderstorm!
If electric, well I sort of understand. But It Is A Gas Stove! No bacon for me!
Time to sit outside with Dirk and the wife.
Later, Ken and Dirk say's Woof, Woof.
I hate Rust
Post-hog Post-hog
Nice!
I just looked outside and seen how beautiful it is right now. It was supposed to be rainy all day. Radar weather says nothing's moving in till 6 p.m.
I'm gonna grab my pony and go for a Romp
Talk to you guys this evening
Thanks for all the WB greetings today
CNCharlie T.F. I'm trying to imagine what your layout table looks like. Is it hinged to the wall? How big is it? I'm curious as to how you like the Peco track. If I had to do it over again I think I would use it too, certainly for my HO layout. Mind you the ME stuff is ok but tough to work with.
T.F. I'm trying to imagine what your layout table looks like. Is it hinged to the wall? How big is it? I'm curious as to how you like the Peco track. If I had to do it over again I think I would use it too, certainly for my HO layout. Mind you the ME stuff is ok but tough to work with.
Here's a couple pictures from when I first built it Charlie. What I thought was a good idea at the time was a very bad idea. I had installed some large Industrial drawer slides since these pictures so I could pull it out 3/4 of the way to work on the other side.
After I started working in the building all my tools ended up under my layout as it was the only place I could put them. I got sick of ducking under it and tripping over tools. I'm keeping the table top of the benchwork of course as it's extremely light and strong but everything else has gone in the dumpster.
Love the PECO track. There is nothing more prototypical than N-Scale ME track. Beautiful stuff but Cosmetics isn't everything. With the consideration of ME only having a number 6 turnout and how fragile I found it is I decided on the PECO. My brother said I lucked out on how long I took to decide because now they have the unifrog turnouts.
I plan on taking my layout to train shows someday when I'm older as I love talking to people. I like how the rails are embedded in the ties on this track. I won't have to worry about anything breaking. I am now in the process of building cabinet benchwork on wheels. I'm doing the best I can on keeping everything ultra light and modular as I will have to move this stuff around someday.
Good Morning,
Expecting showers here shortly. Hope they show up as I'm in the mood for a little rain.
Brent, What department did your Dad work in when he was in the Winnipeg P.O.? My Grandfather was in the Registered Mail Department. He retired in about 1944. It was a large post office so who knows. My father worked there briefly but quit to go work for Underwood as they guaranteed jobs for returning vets but the P.O. didn't at that time.
T.F. nice to see you back. I'm trying to imagine what your layout table looks like. Is it hinged to the wall? How big is it? I'm curious as to how you like the Peco track. If I had to do it over again I think I would use it too, certainly for my HO layout. Mind you the ME stuff is ok but tough to work with.
Nothing on the agenda today. Like most days. Yesterday I did the veg/fruit order pickup and wow the fresh stuff sure is expensive now. Perhaps I'll put together a train of express reefers. They are a nice solution to using passenger power on a small layout. I usually put the light mountain on duty for such trains but maybe the Hudson can be pressed into service. Express reefers at 100 mph. Why not?
I've been doing a little research on Terraplanes. Not surprising the '32 was fast as it had a 70 hp. six with another 10 h.p. using an optional head. Also they were quite light. That is more power than a Ford V8 that year. Seems that bronze paint was used on a promo car each dealer got so my Grandfather managed to get his hands on the one the Winnipeg dealer had. The wheels were painted red.
Well time for another coffee.
CN Charlie
TF, glad to see you're OK and back. Your posts were missed. It's another sign of normalcy. It seems like Brent was missing for a while, too.
I hope Lion is OK. I know his family really was hard hit.
Church was fairly full this morning. The restaurant was fairly full after church. The grocery store was fairly busy. None of them back to pre-virus times, but a nice change from isolation.
We're back to August weather. Today will be in the 90s, with high humidity. We actually had a dew point yesterday of 81°. That's New Orleans or southern Florida type of humid weather. You are immediately wet when you go outside.
I'm going to start scratchbuilding a new bank for my layout town. The town of Altair has now grown enough that they need a bank. Progress.
We stay inside during these hot August days as much as we stay inside during the below zero days of January. Old age.
Hope everyone with health issues feels better.
Edit: Top of the page.
A Sunday brunch with a Bloody Mary for anyone who wants one with me.
Right Ed!
I hope He's okay as well. Maybe your idea will help Lure Him out
Here Lion Lion, Here Lion Lion! Rare Prime-rib wildebeest here
And thanks for the pie
Track fiddlerNo sense sending out the search Posse I'm still here. I've just been a little scarce latey.
Glad to have you back, TF
Now to locate that missing LION. Wildebeest for bait? I hope the ol' boy is OK.
Something new from Broadway Limited:::
PRR_3768 by Edmund, on Flickr
I'm having some Boston Cream Pie for Sunday breakfast. Plenty here, grab a plate
BC_pie by Edmund, on Flickr
Good morning and Hello all
No sense sending out the search Posse but thanks for the concern Kevin, Brent. I'm still here, I've just been a little scarce latey. I finally got my Peco Unifrog turnout problem resolved. There is a shortage on Right turnouts but I finally found some and they are on their way.
My benchwork I originally designed and built was cantilevered out from the wall and the top of the layout would slide out so I could crawl under and work on the other side. This was a very unuser-friendly poor design (I hate it, I'm always moving stuff out of the way) and I have no idea why I spent the money and did things this way. So I've been busy with all of my spare time building new cabinet benchwork on wheels to get ready for laying my track.
Congratulations Brent... The overtime Canucks-Wild Tie-breaker game was intense! Joyous for you and heartbreaking for me. I'm sure Chris Tanev is a Great Canadian Hero up there eh?
Well, I ain't ready to give up hockey just yet! What's that saying? ..."If you can't beat em, join em"
Well, Back to my benchwork.
Have a great Sunday guys
Just checking in quickly, no breakfast yet.
That's a neat picture of the church, Brent.
Our first day out in over two weeks! -- I'll hold my breath out the front door.
It looks like it has been about a week since Track Fiddler dropped by the diner.
Maybe we should send out a search party for our post hog.
Eveing Diners
Flo, give the gang and I a and Dirk his dog treat.
Seems the wall is working. It is keeping diners out of Mexico?
Seems I over did it yesterday. Felt like ash pit today at work . I left 2 hours early not that it mattered.
Summer is back.
Need to take Dirk and the wife out, so later.
Cuda Ken and Dirk says Woof, Woof!
Afternoon all from the sunny West Coast.
I tell ya, I am falling to pieces, put my back out and here I sit. I took a bunch of Yoga courses about 40 years ago and doing it now is really helping a lot to get me back in the groove. Yoga is amazing for what ales you though I tend to only do it when I have injured myself. If I did it all the time I probably would not hurt myself.
I have been watching a lot of hockey this week and loving it, the Canucks eliminated the Wild and so we are on to the next round. Sorry TF.
Speaking of TF, he is missing in action, a search party is required. I posted that photo on the Name The Place thread hoping to draw him out but to no avail.
Charlie, my Dad worked for the Post Office in Winnipeg starting in the 1930s and transferred to Vancouver in 1957 and retired in 1976. He probably knew your Dad. Small world. Dad tried to join the Army in 1939 when the war started and failed the medical, so he tried the airforce and failed the medical and then tried the Navy and failed the medical. He had Muscular Dystrophy and would never pass, but he sure tried.
I agree with those that say we have had it easy compared to those that came before us. I really worked hard to get what I have and have had my share of trials and tribulations, however, I never had to stop and go fight a war. Knowing no matter how bad things could get I would have a full stomach, somewhere to sleep, healthcare and access to education just made life a little easier.
Had the first Sledge Hockey session last night and it went well. I don't think the group will need our guidance for long as they are a capable lot. I guess if you have seen combat or have successfully managed a disability you can do just about anything. It is good to help get them up and running. The kid had left his skates in Ottawa and borrowed my 40-year-old Super Tacks. He loved them and I don't think I am getting them back.
Just about ready for the painters, only a couple of small repairs to do. I tend to keep everything as perfect as I can at all times. After the painters go the windows will be next if we can schedule it as we are going to be busy and away from home so it might have to wait until spring. The wife has pretty much narrowed down the hardwood floor colour and will figure out the new kitchen stuff before we pull that trigger. I'll be glad when it is all done but something tells me it is going to take longer than we think with our other commitments. Also, even with things somewhat back to normal on the covid front, it is taking time to get items from offshore.
On the news/ storm warning front, we always heed the weather office when a big blow off the Pacific is headed our way. Sometimes you are lucky and sometimes not. My sister lives 10 miles away as the crow flies but that is enough to make a huge difference in the amount of storm damage either of us may get. Don't blame the news for getting lucky.
In 1885 the town of Notch Hill came into being as a CPR pusher station. Notch Hill was the steepest grade in Canada and many engines would be added to help get the trains headed East started on the climb through the mountains. With pushers no longer needed this church from that seemingly forgotten time still stands watch over the railway and its workers as it did so long ago.
All the best to all.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
A nice day here with sun and about 80F for a high.
My father's parents were born in the 1870s so they were adults in 1900 and my grandmother passed away in 1961 so she saw everything from the first car, airplane right up to Sputnik. My grandfathers on both sides had jobs right through the depression, one a post office supervisor and the other a railway policeman, so they and my parents didn't experience the hardship many went through. The post office one had a car from the mid 20s until his passing in 1947. He had a '32 Terraplane and then a '37. A Terraplane was a line of cars produced by Hudson. They were quite inovative and fast. My father said the '32 was more than a match for a V8 Ford. He said it could do 90mph. I wonder how he knew? It also was one of the first cars with metallic paint. Theirs was a copper colour that was only done on a very few cars. It just doesn't go with the reserved personality that my Dad said he had. My sister was able to get the exam results for the various tests he had to do for promotions in the post office. Amazing what is available on line.
That sums up the exciting time we are having here. Can't really complain but we do miss seeing our friends. I did run my beach special train yesterday.
Dust is a problem on my layout too. I use a puffer made to clean photo lenses. I bought it about 50 years ago and it does a great job as it has a very fine brush at the end of the puffer that doesn't harm engine details.
My brass engine is on its way here. It went from Ocala to Jacksonville and now is in the Miami International sorting facility. Next stop I guess will be somewhere in the NE and then on to Toronto.
Well time for a shower and then off for a veg pick up at our 'greengrocer'.
My grandmother was born in a sod hut in Kansas. One of her first memories was going along the ATSF rails to pick up cinders to be used for fuel by the family. She was orphaned at a young age and taken by an older sister to be raised in the oil fields of California. During the Depression, my grandfather worked as a night watchman at an orange packing house to keep the hobos from pilfering. They had a camp nearby where he hung out with them and learned some great recipes that are still in the family. My grandparents and dad lived on small piece of land that afforded them a subsistance garden and grandpa scavenged through dumps to gather materials that enabled him to raise chickens and turkeys. After the depression, grandma worked in the the polio ward of the Rancho Los Amigos Hospital delivering food to the kids who were suffering from that awful disease. Our current situation is difficult but I am lucky to have family experience that keeps it in perspective.
Tim
Late to the model railroad party but playing catch-up.....
My Mom's mom was born in 1899, her parents died in the 1918 flu epidemic. She ended up raising some of her siblings. Her favorite thing to say was she lived from the horse and buggy age to the space age, and she voted in every election since women go the right to vote. She passed at age 92 I was lucky enought to have video taped her telling "grandma stories" a few years before she passed.
well back to mowing the jungle, i had to let myself cool off.
York1My father and mother were both born before 1920.
The only elderly member of my family I had a relationship with when I was young was my Paternal Grandmother.
She was born in 1910 and saw everything change in her lifetime. She was a little girl during World War 1 on a farm in Wisconsin, and lived long enough to have email and an early cell phone.