Elliotts Trackside Diner (est 1-1-07)

[Paul W. Beverung]

Evening Gang:

Jim: I finished the last section of track this morning. Now I have to make the rail joiners. I made a one joiner to try out the design but it was after dark when I got it done so couldn't try it.

We sent the 97 F-150 off to the repair shop this afternoon. We should know something soon on what it will take to get it running. Worst case will be an entire engine.

I haven't been able to get to the basement lately. Once we get a place to put all the stuff that is stored there I'll be able to get back to some serious w**k on the layout.

I still haven't been able to contact Peoplepc. There phones are alwas busy. They ask that I call back at a more convient time. Convient for who?

Well it's really late so I'll say Good Night.

[GMTRacing]

Good Evening All,

    Back to page two again, must be a slow evening.

Thanks for the nice comments - I'm trying to do a proper job this time after years of green velour on wood. Made up the rest of the castingsfor the museum display and started work on the next set of spurs off the line to the gravel company. I will fit a power plant and a stone cutting plant into the remaining area of the lower level by the inlet. The power plant will have a siding and perhaps in the future a dock for receiving coal or whatever by barge. Gives a reason for having the inlet in the first place. Anyway here's a shot of tonights' doings.

Time to head out and get some zzz's.  CUL,J.R.

[pcarrell]

Phil, isn't nice to see a caboose still in action, our daily train that goes to City Brew still has to use a caboose. They have about a 10mile trip up to the brewery. The bad thing is it runs at about 1am and is still at the brewery on my way to work at 3am.

And on CSX, no doubt!  And they were using it as more then a spacer car too.  They pulled up to the switch and the guy jumped off (he was inside, so it wasn't locked up).  I did notice the red flags on it though.  Does anyone know what those are for?

And maybe some cool night shots of that caboose at the brewry would be possible.  That would be most excellent!

[gear-jammer]

Good afternoon, All. I will have a pepsi please.

It is sunny and believe it or not, the thermometer just hit 70.  I went out to mow the lawn and had equipment trouble.  I guess the tune up on the tractor should have been on the mower.  I suspect that it is just a belt problem, but I am too lazy to tear into it.  I was afraid that if I mow that the lawn it will start growing.

I quess that I will go plant some trees on the layout.

Sue

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Thanks for the comments, Fargo.  Wow!  Big dollars for those kits. 

[Anonymous]

Garry, almost fell out of my chair yesterday, a Walthers Steelmill blast furnace went for $387.00, an a elec furnace went for $276.00.. I did check out those pic's of yours, very nice. I looked at a steel mill, but i already had way to may cars done for my paper mills.

 Phil, isn't nice to see a caboose still in action, our daily train that goes to City Brew still has to use a caboose. They have about a 10mile trip up to the brewery. The bad thing is it runs at about 1am and is still at the brewery on my way to work at 3am.

[wetidlerjr]

Good evening ! from Indiana.

03-05-07

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Hello everybody.  I just posted my steel mill pix under the thread: "Steel Mill"......   It's been a fun project.  A bit time consuming.  Have fun!

[james saunders]

Chuck and Kathy...

 Thanks for the compliments on the photographs and the video. I hope your grandkids get a kick out of it. Perhaps you should visit Downunder...one day

 

 

Oz 

[pcarrell]

     PHILIP:

  We made a slide show out of your pictures and saved it to DVD to show to the grandkids just like the one we did of OZ's . Again thank you.

Wow, you're easily impressed!   Just kidding!  I didn't post all the pics I took.  Here's the page I put them all on.  You're welcome to them!  http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/

 

[sunsetbeachry]

  HI ALL:

   Ladies may I please have coffee/choc. and a glass of Ed's OJ,thank you. Not much going on at the moment Kathy's shower is over and she is studing the inside of her eyelids for awhile.

      INCH:

Just be carefull with the rebuild and remember to check all the specs to be sure you get the right ones instead less so the cont. gets more.

       JERRY this is from last nite

  Prayer for both you and Sally, we know what it is like when both are down and sometimes one worse than the other.        KATHY

         PC:

That picture of the signals looks familiar !! I remember some that looked like that on the South Shore in Chicago when I was a kid years ago.

     OZ:

We liked all the pictures of the older trains espacelly when they are from a country that we have never been to ,enjoyed the video. Did a little bit of work on your video, took it through a c/2 process and put it all together , came out with a 21sec. video with no problems and much better verry good the pictures were good and clear and we loved seeing all the people enjoying themselves witch makes me happy. We really loved the video.

     PHILIP:

  We made a slide show out of your pictures and saved it to DVD to show to the grandkids just like the one we did of OZ's . Again thank you.

      JR:

The rr just gets better and better . I'm jelous!!!! We still can't get to the rr room the ground is to soft for Kathy's chair and can't afford to buy gravel untill June thats  when we have it in the works.

   I think I'm caught up I donnu know. Thank You girls for all the coffee. Time to take pills and make Kathy's lunch , I'll just finish this butt and go.

   Prayers for all in need, and keep your head above water. LOL

                                         KATHY and CHUCK

[pcarrell]

Grayfox, 

Mike is so worried about me catching up to him that he didn't even mention it!  Really, he has nothing to fear.  He's way better at it then I am!

Anyways, it's time for lunch!  Fajitas!

[inch53]

Chow time, I think I'll have a cheese buger loaded, onion rings and ice tea Zoe,

Been busy this this morning with chores n such. Was able to get some extra stuff done even, no kids and no wife bugging me, first time in over a week. I've even got a little time on the layout last night and this morning.  Mothers been happy with all the cooking. She cooked for 8 Fri, 14 Sat, and 12 last night. Do think she's kinda hope for just 2 tonight though.

2 of the grandkids spent Sat night, Leroy was one them. He came and got in bed with us bout 2 and run me out obed bout 4. He blamed it n grandma trying to push him out of bed. Then Jamie and 4 of her kids spent last night. they left to head back to Springfield after breakfsat

Need to get busy, kinda nice out today, going to pick up the yard some. Catch ya'll laters

inch

[Cox 47]

Good Morning All....Its sunny and a little warmer here today....Hope I'm not to late for PC's Breakfast bar that looks good....Got Sallie off to Dialysis this morning and got a call from them they were having trouble and she will be late getting home...I messed around on the Ebay this morning bidding on a IC SW 8 and 3 IC 4 bay hoppers...Wonder where folks are this morning looks like not many have checked in....You all have a good one....Jerry

[grayfox1119]

Man!  Whats the deal?  Only one person has been in here this morning?

Guess I'll have to do the weather and serve up breakfast myself (on Jim's tab!)!

Well, there's the weather.......

Now for the good stuff!

or you can help yourself to the breakfast bar.............

 

PC: I just don't care for SOS too much for breakfast...that is why I am late, I waited for lunch lol. BTW, very nice job with your pics...you might win an emmy with some of them!!!! Mike, you had better watch out, PC is right behind you !!

JEFF: It seems that your 4400 has stirred quite a discussion on the gen forum. C Marchand has some real good data to share, I found it very informative.

LUC: RS, BestBuy, etc. carry Up fans, you should have no problem replacing it. Hopefully the Up has not been damaged by excessive heat with fan not working.

---

         We have another vicious Arctic cold front pushing southward and eastward today, whiteout conditions on the highways at evening commute are quite possible. I sure don't miss driving in that any more.

I see on the news that Pres. Bush is going to Brazil to ink a contract for Ethanol import. Brazil makes their Ethanol from sugar cane, which is much cheaper to produce than from corn. All of the cars produced in Brazil have to be able to run on Gas, Ethanol, or any mix of both. We are only at 85% gas to Ethanol at present. I think we will see a lot more tanker cars on the RR's soon. I saw a new Ethanol tanker in my LHS last month, very well done.

I hear the lunch bell ringing.....

[jeffrey-wimberly]

West central Louisiana weather data for Monday, March 5th, 2007

Wind Chill:  54°F
Humidity:  25%
Dew Point:  19°F
 
So Far Today
High:  54°F
Low:  31°F
Rain:  0.00"
Rain Rate:  0.00"/h
Gust:  6mph N
 
Today  High: 68    Sunny. Highs in the upper 60s. Light and variable winds.  

Tonight  Low: 32    Mostly clear. Lows in the lower 30s. Light and variable winds.

Bacon and eggs for me today.

[GUB]

You know ... some of us work for a living to pay for this Hobby of ours. I'll have a coffee and a danish please. Have a great day.

GUB

[JimRCGMO]

Man!  Whats the deal?  Only one person has been in here this morning?

Guess I'll have to do the weather and serve up breakfast myself (on Jim's tab!)!

Hey, PC, (so long as I'm paying anyway - I think I'll hit the breakfast bar! Paperw**k gives me an appetite (sometimes...).

Guess everyone else is sleeping in, or maybe already down in their train rooms, hard at it!

 

Blessings on your day (wherever the rest of the Diners are ),

Jim in Cape Girardeau

[pcarrell]

Man!  Whats the deal?  Only one person has been in here this morning?

Guess I'll have to do the weather and serve up breakfast myself (on Jim's tab!)!

Well, there's the weather.......

Now for the good stuff!

or you can help yourself to the breakfast bar.............

[JimRCGMO]

Good Morning, Zoe, looks like I might be the first one in this morning (or are the others in the back booth I didn't check?). I'd like scrambled eggs with toast, a cup of coffee, a glass of Ed's orange juice, and a glass of milk. Yum! Looks like breakfast will be on me this morning! Now I know why I didn't see anyone in here - they're waiting outside until someone starts a new page. Okay, Zoe, let me know what the damage is when I swing back through later in the day. Lucky me, huh?

Kind of cool this morning - 24 degrees and some frost on my car's windshield to scrape off today. But we're supposed to warm up into the mid-50's (F) today. Then a cold front comes in tonight. Anyone else this far north (or farther) noticed that the robins are already thinking it's spring? Of course, I'm betting that some mornings they're wishing they had long johns to wear...

Got  a few of the figures for our MRR club's diner painted yesterday afternoon. Also re-did one siding track to make a little more room for an industry there. That one's still not going to have a lot of space, and will require a thinner/smaller industry.

Inch, good to hear that your S-I-L and family have located a place to stay and all so quickly. Good that they have a lawyer who can help them 'deal' with the insur. company. 

JR, I'd have to agree with the others - your coal mine pics look great!

Paul, are you getting close to ready with your rail sections? I know you've been working pretty hard on getting them done lately. With all the time you've been putting in on the track and other stuff lately, it's almost like you haven't retired yet! Better watch out or you might find yourself hankerin' after a j*b again.

PC, thanks for the pics of your local's switching. I still have a couple of those to look at, but love the ones I've seen.

Oh, this weekend I picked up my order from our LHS owner/club member - got some more Walthers modular building kits (on sale), a heavyweight observation/lounge car, some Preiser figures (including moose - one of those 'have to have' things), and some Chooch car loads. Also went by Hobby Lobby and picked up a pine tree kit (Woodland Scenics).

Not much else going today, except for having to go to  wk this morning.

Hope everyone has a great week (and no water or furnace problems). 

 

Blessings,

Jim in Cape Girardeau 

[pcarrell]

PC - great shots from you as well -- must have been a busy day. Back to it before it gets too late.

Thanks!  I took those on the way to church this morning.  They started switching at about 9:30am and I left at 10:00am.  They were still working the siding when I took off, but when I passed by on the way home all the cars were gone except for the gon on the closer siding.

BTW, the coal mine looks great.  The photo backdrop adds a lot of depth.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Jeff: I'm with Dick on wanting to know why something is doing what it does. I've spent so many years trouble shooting equipment.

Paul: I got it sorted out, finally. It was a combination of things. I must have gotten a Friday loco. The pickups in the trucks were badly placed, causing intermittant contact and in some cases were shorting out. The soldering on the wiring was very sloppy. Most of the wires on the trucks were so badly soldered that they would come off with just a slight tug. So I fixed the trucks and redid the soldering. The big thing is that the motor is faulty. I changed it out with one from a John Deere BB F7. The 4400 runs fine now on DC and DCC. No humming or growling, except a little growl from the BB motor. It's funny, the growl sounds almost like a diesel engine. Now these problems are all things that I would expect to find in a BB locomotive, not a $110 RTR model. If this had been a Proto 2000, Walther's would have gotten it back with a strong letter of complaint.

[Paul W. Beverung]

Evening Gang:

Jeff: I'm with Dick on wanting to know why something is doing what it does. I've spent so many years trouble shooting equipment.

I got all the cross ties milled and de-burred, I also got 3 sections welded up. Just 2 more sections to weld and then make up the rail joiners and I'm finished.

JR: Nice little coal mine there.

Well I'll try again to get ahold of PeoplePC. I got another busy message last night. I'd call during the day but I've got other things that need doing.

I'm going to head out and then to bed.

Good Night All

[GMTRacing]

Good Evning All,

    Y'all have been busy today. I worked on chores and delivered the car to Rowayton today and just got into the layout. Waiting for the trackbed glue to dry on the bit where the power plant and coal company will go. Here's a shot of where some of the coal will originate from still not finished or detailed, but further along than before.

James - the video is great - ask and we shall receive eh? The equipment looks immaculate the folks doing the work must be proud fit to burst.

PC - great shots from you as well -- must have been a busy day. Back to it before it gets too late.   CUL,J.R.

[pcarrell]

I arrived this morning bright and early to find the cars waiting to be switched out at the local industry.  They wee sitting in the morning sun next to the double track main.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/Pic4.jpg

I waited for a bit and the local showed up right on time, ready for it's morning run to begin.

They pulled past the switch and waited for the man in the caboose to throw the points.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07-12.jpg

They backed down the siding and hooked up to the first car.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07-5.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07-6.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07-7.jpg

They pulled past the points and then backed onto the main.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07-3.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07-19.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07-10.jpg

They dropped the car and eased forward to clear the points again so they could grab another car.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07-15.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07-4.jpg

Just then, the Hotshot blasts past on it's way to Indy doing 50mph!

Meanwhile, the switching continues until all the cars are picked up.  They'll be back this evening with empties so business can continue tomorrow.

And here's the stars of the show!

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07-11.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07-13.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/Fortville%20Local/3-4-07-18.jpg

Hope you liked the photo essay!

 

[grayfox1119]

JEFF: The lousy power connections could be one cause, but you obviously repaired that problem. How about the gearing. If the gears are hitting too deep in the mesh, you sure will get a lot of noise.

ED: JP: How about the RED SOX pitching today ??? !!!!

[Anonymous]

Hi freak, happy brithday, how's things going on the car repairs front? Your only legal if they start the draft back up, you can get your brains spattered but you can't have a BEER! ( still think that sucks)

   Jeff its not your decoder, its just that its a GE, the real ones are loud to, so your just like the prototype.

[james saunders]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn2WjOqg7k4

 Here is a video I shot yesterday for you guys, so you can hear her working. The quality isn't the best because of youtube's compression software.

 

Thanks all for the comments on the photo's I was pleased with them too. 

 

 

Oz 

[ModelTrainLover]

hey guys. I gust got back from the State Meet. I did well in my first event but that was it. I dropped time in the 200 Free with a 2:19.32

Colby

[jeffrey-wimberly]

JEFF: What type of motors does Athearn use in that 4400? It would be interesting to talk with people at Athearn to get their take on this problem..quiet running on DC and growling like an Alaskan Grissly with constipation. I guess that is the engineer in me Jeff, I like to know the "reasons" why something does what it does.

Grayfox: The motor is what Athearn calls a HP MOTOR. It looks like standard BB fare to me. I can't see any difference. The soldering on the trucks was very badly done. Two of the wires came off off as soon as I touched them, so I redid all the soldering.

Here's a pic of the HP motor

And here's a pic of a motor in a F7 BB unit. I see little or no difference.

On the light board / DCC adapter. It burned up 15 minutes into the break-in and is totally fried.