Hi Jim, i've been very busy on the layout wife went home to Milwaukee to take care of her sister's two kids, so her sis and hubby could go to Jamica man. So i have stayed home all week on vac. I have finely started on my engine facitly. I am taking a break for some hot chili I made, then its time to cut the hole for the 90ft turntable. I started down there at 4:30 this morning. Funny i am on vac but still can't sleep past 3:00am. I hit grand crossing for about 45 mins this morning it was way to cold to sit there and I didn't want to keep running the motor. I did see one cool train it was a BNSF coal train on the CP (from power plant at Portage Wi.) it had 3 ATSF SD70's red and silver and they were very clean.He was WB and empty and hauling butt. Also saw a EB auto rack train on the CP with one GE, and on the BN there was one WB and one EB stack train. Not bad for little less then a hour.
Yesterday I stopped out there about 2:00pm caught a WB genral fre. on the BNSF with a Ferro Mex GE on it, what a awesome paint job dark green with white and then red stripes, thats the second one I have seen here in the last three weeks. While back to work, can't wait to get the turntable in.
grayfox1119 wrote:Alright children that's enough , DUKE..show them the door>>>
Out the back, to the left.
hey guys how is every thing?
Morning Gang: Well wouldn't you know it my last day and we had snow and freezing rain over night. The interstate was a mess and a the normal 45 min drive took me 2 hours. What a way to wrap things up.
Dick I'll get to work on that idea tomorrow. It's going to be messy so except for feeding and picking up the tractor I'll stay inside.
Time to go and get another cup of coffee. I'll see you all later.
Good Groundhog Morning! Zoe, a cup of coffee and a cinnamon raisin bagel, please.
Currently in Cape Girardeau: 25 F (Wind chill of19 F) Cloudy Wind: Variable 5 mph Barometer: 29.90 Sunrise: 7:01 a.m. Sunset: 5:22 p.m. Humidity: 71% Visibility: 10.0 milesCloudy with flurries today, clearing later in morning, then blustery and cold the rest of the day.
JP, sent you an email back. Hope you have fun on your LHS trip, and maybe even a little success finding bargains.
JR, good to hear from you again, and same for fargo - it's been a while since I've seen you in the Diner. What've you been up to?
Not much news on the MR front here. Looked at a couple of apartments last night, and tried using Google SketchUp to draw the apartments' dimensions and to see how I could arrange things (including the layout) in them. Still learning how to use SketchUp, and it seems overly sensitive and hard to draw a line and stop at even feet dimensions. Maybe practice (and a stop at Google's help pages) might help.
Time to start getting ready for work. See everyone later, and stay warm - cold out there!
Blessings,
Jim in Cape Girardeau
Der, you should check with your LHS Revell made a fishing trawler thats just about perfect HO size. Its really detailed I picked one up last year,it would look great at your fish oil plant. Its about 3ins wide and 16 in long.
Inch, count down is on.
Good Morning All,
We've had an exciting week in the diner I see. Glad the back is better Inch - could have been worse as with Ryans' lucky (persistent) find.
Happy Belated Birthday RT. and congrats Paul. Just one more day and then you can transition to ROF.
Der - My sister appreciates the added office space off the plant. She's been promoted from "fishwife" to inspector and now shuttles back and forth from Lockeport to Shelburne and Yarmouth at all hours to meet the boats as they come in and inspect the cargo. Most of the fishery offices are little more than shacks tacked onto the plant.
We feel your pain Gearjammer - utilities here have doubled in one year for electricity and I'm afraid to open the gas bill. Thankfully it's been a mild winter so far.
Dick - I ended up with a 2 level layout for the same reasons you are working through now. The upper level is countryside, the incline to the lower level is mostly hidden, and the lower level is more urban with a city scene and industry (along with sidings) broken into sections by the raised double track (sort of like the New Haven Shoreline route). Between the limitations of what I had for room and what I wanted for ops, I selectively compressed into just a couple of scenes and the "racetrack" up top. I think the trick is to leave most of the big areas to the imagination i.e. the edge of a city (where the tracks usually are), the edge of a farm, the siding end of a gravel company, etc. To do a good job with Crawford Notch how about trying it in the middle with the hills each side of it as a scene divider and work out from there? Instead of a single mountain to divide things, the notch could be an "untunnel" with farms on one side and an urban area the other. Just a thought.
Been AWOL here all week as I scramble around trying to catch up. We definitely need another pair of hands here especially in the unit room as it is tough for me to find the time to concentrate on gearbox work and still supervise the rest of the shop. At least the storm has so far missed us again. Time to pick up tools. CUL,J.R.
Mornin all, an irish coffee Zoe,
A HAPPY GROUND DAY, to all, A cloudy day here with a high bout 25, so I geuss springs coming early. Super Bowl weekend is suppose to be cold with lows of 5 to 7 and highs round 16 to 18, wind chill below 0. Then turn off even colder next week.
RYAN, you were lucky, both with catching it and the repairs.
Pdragon, like the pics for sharing them.
DER, hope you get the bug worked out on the puter, and yes my back was some better yesterday, but some sore this morning, think I slept wrong or the weathers got arther worked up.
Did get some work done on the wiring yesterday, hoping for some more today, so I can run a train this weekend maybe.
We have to run to Terre Haute tonight and pick up some more 1099 tax form for the county fair. Mother sent them out last week to all the winners they had. Then started getting phone calls that the winnings had been doubled from what they got. When she check it out, it was in the puter program. Some of the winnings showed up twice. She got that fixed now she has to send out new ones. One good thing is, she hadn't sent the copies out to the state or federal, so don't have that mess.
Best get ta chores, if I'm gonna play, Hope yall has a gooden
inch
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/4309
Today's Weather for: Sundown, LA 71446-6114 2/2/2007
Sundown Fire Dept., Station 23 Wind Chill: 34°FHumidity: 95%Dew Point: 39°F So Far TodayHigh: 42°FLow: 40°FRain: 0.00"Rain Rate: 0.00"/hGust: 9mph N High: 44 °FLow: 38 °F
Today High: 48 Mostly cloudy. Highs in the upper 40s. North winds 10 to 15 mph.
Tonight Low: 28 Decreasing clouds. Colder. Lows in the upper 20s. Light and variable winds.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Good morning ! from Indiana.
02-02-07
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
HI ALL::
S P & S-------Spokane Portland and Seattle
This was the only RR on this part of the coast [west Oregon ] also went to spokane and then to Seattle by way of GN. Area around here was taken out in '56 all the way to Astoria,Astoria to Portland is still here but is a short line. The MRR that I'm trying to do is the logging road from a site called Camp 18 [ which was somewhere around 18 miles from the end of the old SP&S in Seaside which is 18 miles from Astoria . 18 miles from Astoria to Seaside south. Torn out was a bridge across the bay which was about 1&1/2 miles long. Then 18 miles to Seaside and maybe??????? a roundhouse and shop area ??Most of the logging road is just paper trail. Camp 18 is a very good rest. and at one time the camp for the logging road......
[ garbage sail ] is my funny for yearly sale and trade for garage sale, where a lot of RR stuff is bought or sold or traded mostly SP&S also GN ; WP and whatever you have. This is put on by historical society
Chuck GOD BLESS and keep you all........
Last call for Coffee on the east coast!!!
PAUL: I can use 18" radius in some places because locomotives of this time era in New England were mostly Mike's, Pacifics and Moguls in Northern NE.
PDRAGON: I will indeed post the layout plan when I get it to my satisfaction.
DER JOHN: The towns are small, and I believe that I can make this work with space compression, Green and White mountains used to great advantage.
JEFF: Win98 may be the problem. I have used those readers and with XP and now Vista OS, they work fine. I also can load directly into PC via USB port with VISTA, don't need a reader at all. Don't smash that camera yet.
Bon Soir,
Good evening TSDs: It was another sunny day on Nova Scotia’s eastern shore, but that came to an end this evening. (by which I mean a change in the weather, not just sunset!) The snow for tomorrow has already started. However they were saying rain maybe…you can guess which one I’d prefer…
I thought that it was going to be warmer on my walk last night, so I didn’t wear my leather mits, just regular ski gloves. Bad mistake. I ended up with fingers so cold it was like being back in grade school, (some pain you never forget Dick) where my winter memories have many instances of trying to button up my shirt after changing from soccer gear, but being unable to because of the pain of thawing fingers. Bad circulation, that has never improved.
I’ve decided that my Omega 3 fish oil plant needs an office building and lab space, so I think I can shoe-horn in a 40x30 cut off to 15 (is that a rhombus?) two storey where I put a small hill off the road going down to the wharf. (extreme left of photo) That will also tie in the mini tank farm. It will be close to the tracks, but hey! Isn’t that our favourite locale? Here’s the tanks, vents, AC units, etc. That vent up by the gable end, BTW, is a cut down “keeper” from a One Touch blood test lancet.
Mike: Hope your back is better today. Take care on that ice! It can happen so quickly, can’t it? We’ve each got a pair of “crampon” like things that fit on our gum-boots by Velcro straps. Great for a trip to the mail box, but not a long distance fix!
This afternoon, when I started this, (I’ve edited so as to disguise that so far!) my Netscape had been really weird. It crashed 3 times while I was on another site, and it wasn’t able to bring in the Yahoo mail page all the time I’d been reading in the diner. The diner page wasn’t in it’s usual format, no graphics opened, and no “Reply” button was visible! The page wouldn’t load below Dick’s post that had his remark to Mike.
MIKE: Good Lord man, be careful when you step out on ice, you can be permanently damaged!!!!!! Keep
Dick: From what you’ve been saying, I think that perhaps you are trying to get very specific about the places you want to model, and they don’t “ “fit” with each other because of the space restrictions of your layout area. That’s why I’ve gone for “feel” rather than specifics. Since you’ve got 3 states to cover (in your mind’s “ideal”) I think you will be really challenged to make that happen. “Happy” is a relative state maybe. Speaking as a Canadian, compromises may have to be reached. (seems we are noted for that sort of thing )
Ryan: Scary stuff on that capacitor thing. Very disturbing, especially when you can’t see quickly what the source of the burning smell is.
CapeJim: (Re Paul scanning layout space for Dick) Your thinking must be almost as twisted as mine!
Pdragon: to the diner. Great layout shots! Thanks for showing us.
underworld: also. Have I missed seeing you around here before?
Jeff: That’s a disappointment on the camera. I can see why you would be not a little annoyed. I’m still getting used to the Kodak C330. Its software has usurped the normal Windows photo download function, and most of the time when I “Save as” and file, the photo ends up in the trash!!!!!. Now I know this, I can deal with it. I don’t mind too much as the Kodak photo edit works quite well for most of what I want to do. RT’s granary photo reminded me of the shot I took of the plastics factory at Truro.
Too late tonight to start any more on the layout. I need to let the sawdust / glue mix I put on the other day dry some more anyway.
So, I’ll say all, and God Bless. Prayers for all in need of healing, comfort, and peace.
"There are always alternatives, Captain" - Spock.
Jeffery I have the CD33 I believe they still sell it at walmart for about the same money and I use to run it on win98 I believe it does good pics and all heres a close up I took of a ogauge size double seater house
and heres one at the grainery I took of a truck being dumped (18 wheeler)
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
Evening Gang:
Pdragon: That is a great layout. You do very nice work. Could you post a layout plan?
Would you believe that on the way home I drove through a snow storm? The snow wasn't cold enough to stay on the ground. As soon as it hit it melted. It was strange and rather pretty.
Tomorrow willbe the last time I have to listen to the alarm clock. Oh Happy day. Right now I'm tired and I do want to get up alittle early and get donuts for the guys.
You All have a good Night and I'll see you tomorrow.
Dick: I got your E-mail. What do you want for a minimum radius curve?
Wow....hopefully you can get the camera situation worked out.
underworld
About 22 degrees right now....supposed to be highs in the single digits the next several days.
Grayfox
Plan sounds so great I'm getting homesick. Like to see you post a copy of your layout plan when you get it done. Keep me updated!
Evening all -
Not much to write right now, so I'll keep this msg a short one.
Lee - Check your Email!
JimCG - Check your Email - I need the Walther's catalog number so I know what I'm looking for, please!
JP!
//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
SUE: I have not decided on any software yet.....I have never used CAD, so whatever I would choose, I would want something that had a short learning curve.....I have patience to read manuals, but I would want the program to be intuitive. Do you have any experience in this arena? I would greatly appreciate hearing of your experiences.
PDRAGON: Wow, another born New Englander living beyond the Berkshires!! Thank you for your suggestions, greatly appreciated. Seeing that you are a Patriot by birthright, you sure know New England well, so you can relate to what area I speak of. My layout will start in Portland Maine and have several routes. One to Millinocket to lumber mills, one to Berlin NH to paper mills, one through North Conway and Crawford Notch to Whitefield. From Whitefield the line goes to Gorham and Berlin, the other line runs out of Whitefield, NH to St. Johnsbury VT, and then along the CT river to White River Jct and then to Bellows Falls, and back south to Portland. Another line runs from Essex Jct, VT to Rutland VT and then to Bellows Falls. This route would be the famous Milk run from the Dairies in VT to the cities further south in New England. I paln to have most of NH and VT on two of the large tables that measure 5'-6" wide by 16' long, while Maine will be on the east wall which measures 30" wide by 16' long. There are 36" X 30" returns at each end connecting the eat and west wall tables. Short trains are not a problem because most of the rail traffic was short trains in the northern states anyways. Only the former Boston & Albany ( B&A) now Amtrak and CSX main line to Selkirk, NY had long drags, and of course pulled by the famous "Berkshire" locomotives. The southern NE layout is my plan for a year or two from now on the 2nd floor of the garage which has a floor of 28 feet x 16 feet wide to play with. I love your layout, excellent job !!!!
SilverSpike wrote: grayfox1119 wrote:RYAN: WOW, that is enought to keep you awake all night!!!! We had a similar situation a year ago, it was our Artesian well pressure control box melting. Water had leaked onto the box and gotten inside on the electrical contacts and wires. The contacts oxidized, turning them into one big carbon resistor which in turn overheated and started to melt the plastic cover....boy did that ever stink the house up!!! Yes, it can be very scary until you find the source of the smell. One family in a neighboring town was not so lucky a few years back. They had just finished installing vinyl siding when their house caught fire and was severely damaged. It seems that a nail was driven into a wire inside the wall ( nail was too long for the job ) and right into the 120V feed wire to a wall outlet. It caused the hot lead to spark and arc without blowing the breaker, until the wood in the wall caught fire. They were lucky because the fire didn't break through until daylight when everyone was up and out.Electrical fires are a nasty critter! And you have to use CO2 class C fire extinguishers to put them out. Amazing that in the case of the nail that the fire burned within the walls for such a long time before penetrating through.
grayfox1119 wrote:RYAN: WOW, that is enought to keep you awake all night!!!! We had a similar situation a year ago, it was our Artesian well pressure control box melting. Water had leaked onto the box and gotten inside on the electrical contacts and wires. The contacts oxidized, turning them into one big carbon resistor which in turn overheated and started to melt the plastic cover....boy did that ever stink the house up!!! Yes, it can be very scary until you find the source of the smell. One family in a neighboring town was not so lucky a few years back. They had just finished installing vinyl siding when their house caught fire and was severely damaged. It seems that a nail was driven into a wire inside the wall ( nail was too long for the job ) and right into the 120V feed wire to a wall outlet. It caused the hot lead to spark and arc without blowing the breaker, until the wood in the wall caught fire. They were lucky because the fire didn't break through until daylight when everyone was up and out.
Electrical fires are a nasty critter! And you have to use CO2 class C fire extinguishers to put them out. Amazing that in the case of the nail that the fire burned within the walls for such a long time before penetrating through.
I was always taught once you secure power to a class C fire its becomes a class A (paper type fire) so you then can fight it with good ole H2O But normally you wouldn't want to do that as the water could cause more damage to the electrical parts but in an emergencey thats what you can do.
Jeepers RYAN!! Glad your alright!!! Sounds like thes were watchin over ya.
Hey ladies give Ryan the FIREHOUSE special!!
Jim at the cape- We haven't got those #'s yet but we were selling so much that I could'nt keep my shelves full! I'm still trying to recover the boxed stock and my non-boxed took a major hit! We are looking for more collections to fill the empty spots. Out of the N-scale coll. we got before Christmas we have only half left.
RT-
This weekend we start tearing down the old layout so when you visit my house bring a hardhat or you'll end up w/a! lol!
Later all
Dick
I read about your planning struggle. I had the same one. Being a 'Boston boy' at heart, wanted to cover the area from Beantown to White River Junction. My layout is only 12X24 so I compromised with short trains and long distances hidden in tunnels. It wasn't so much the long trains over the long runs (would've liked it, though) as much as I liked the operation and switching more. I run from Boston's Somerville yard (I was born there - Somerville, not the yard) to the Woburn loop (raised there - Woburn, not the loop) up through Billerica, Methuen and Merrick, NH. Here, trains are moved on to White River junction or Northern, NH.
If you really don't need the long run and long trains, shorter trains running more often over shorter distances might be your answer
Pulling out of North Station
Woburn Station on the Loop
Methun Station
Town of Merrimack, NH
White River Junction Service Yard
Mills and lumber yards in Northern, NH
Hows it going guys, been a couple of days...
JimCG - I'm doing my lessons with a private company, on a side note, I work full time.
Ryan - CLOSE call, at least you were home when you started smelling it, i'd hate to think if you were out.
Onto other news, I hope to order my track in the next week or so and begin the layout, HOn3.5 track is quite pricey here, so i'm due to spend a few dollars. The ADSL modem at home broke on Wednesday night so we've got to get a new one today sometime. Also, I'm going to see INXS with a couple of my friends on April 1, I need a good night out, should be a good night.
All for now,
Oz
James, Brisbane Australia
Modelling AT&SF in the 90s
Dick,
Just came in from limbing some of the trees that are down. I'll work on it some tomorrow. It is next years wood so it will sit out there until late summer.
Your heating sounds like ours. We are on a hill with normal daily winds of 5-20 mph in the afternoon, except in the summer when it would help cool things. We have a lot of glass which I expect to be some of the problem. Our bill was $440 for the January statement. The heat pump is forced air with electric furnace. The train room is on the northeast corner so it can get a little chilly when the sun is shining on the thermostat.
Are you still trying to figure out which software to use?
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.