GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Morning everyone. This weather system that is causing so many problems for everyone is actually making it nicer here in central PA. It's pulling milder air up from the south. Daytime highs are in the upper 40s with a lot of rain. The only problem is a flood watch for low lying areas due to rain and melting snow.
I'm taking a weeks vacation the week of March 12th. Not going anywhere just taking some time to recharge the batteries. The determining factor was the people are going to install my new water softener on 3/13 so I decided to take the whole week off. Hopefully I can get some time on the layout.
Hope everyone who has been sick is feeling better and those with other problems like fires are recovering. See you later.
Attaboy wrote: Morning everyone. This weather system that is causing so many problems for everyone is actually making it nicer here in central PA.
Morning everyone. This weather system that is causing so many problems for everyone is actually making it nicer here in central PA.
Awww, I wouldn't want you to feel left out! Tell ya what......I'll send some your way, OK?
Hey guys,
Way up here in the east the snow's coming down fast and there's already 5 or 6 inches out there. I guess that's about all i have right now, so see y'all later.
-Alex
Afternoon all and Chloe how about a nice cold Pepsi,please.
Stopping in to let everyone know that I am still around and kicking and have been watch'n and listen'n from the wwwaaaayyy back corner booth.
to the new faces since my last post and this is a good place as you have already found out.
Best to all on sick call and those recovering.
That's about it
Talk to you later
Duke
"Don't take a wooden nickel,because it isn't worth a dime" by my Dad
"There are only 3 things you need out of life:A gentle grade,the wind in your face,and cinders in your hair.....But keep an eye on the water glass!" Jack Evans
AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Snow day here! 2nd one in the past 34 days.
Fanitcy Baseball!! I have joined a league on yahoo! called the Mainerslive draft pick set to 8pm today. Layout news: now much except for making a "must by" list for an up comming train show. I need HO rail-joiners, and coulpers, and some more rolling stock, cause my yard is looking like it's hardly being used even with my 12 to 14 pices of rolling stock.
Colby
Good evening gents, what a day today has been. We received about 2" of snow during the night then it changed to freezing rain. We awoke to 1/2" coating on everything, and the sound of crashing tree limbs in the woods and the street. They didn't cancel school, but there was a 2 hour start delay, so I was on duty to go get the grandkids in two loads to their bus stops.
I had to stop the car to remove a big pine tree limb that was blocking the street completely. Just like PC said about the streams, all ours are at flood stage here also, but receeding tonight.
The police scanner was going non stop all morning and well into the afternoon. We had transformers shorting and catching fire, house basements flooded, tree limbs blocking streets and knocking out power, all three schools for 3 hours, no traffic lights working, the list went on and on all day. All three volunteer fire stations had to be manned, as well as the rescue squads.
As I was working on one problem, the wife told me I had water coming into the new train room. Mind you I live at the TOP of the hill, just about 50 feet from the actually peak. No matter with clay soil, water will leak into the basement even with drainage tiles under certain conditions like today. One quick look outside told be the problem. Water was all along the back wall of the addition, the train room is in the basement under this room. I headed outside in the pouring rain with shovel, and had to shovel snow and break ice jam that blocked the drainage route to a surface drain. No damage to train room other than a wet carpet in 1/3 of the room. This is a garage duty short pile carpet, so being wet does no harm. The furnace is only 10 feet away, so the heat will dry the carpet in a few hours.
Being outside for an hour in the pouring rain did not due my head cold any good either. I would rather have 2 feet of snow than this crap.!!
JEFF: Nice locomotives, did you get a good price? Silly question right?
DUKE: !!!! Glad to see you buddy!!! I thought you had fallen asleep in that far rear seat. BTW, you absolutely have to go see that new movie about the 4 Bikers with John Travolta...you will die laughing...this is one great funny movie !!!!!! All you Bikers in the Diner will love this movie.
COLBY: How much snow did you guys get?
10-4
Evening Gang: Not much got done on anything today. We took my son and his wife out for breakfast. It is Dyane's birthday. We gave her a little bear sitting on a birthday cake. She collects the bears. After that we came home and I got to work on the milling machine long enough to get 4 more ties milled out. Then it was off to town again to go to the bank, get the oil changed in the truck, drop off the tax stuff at the CPAs, get a bite to eat and pick up some ice and bottled water. When I got home I went out to the shop and cranked up the mill again. I managed to get 12 more ties milled and got the mill loaded for tomorrow. We ate supper and here I am trying to get into my E-mail. I've got Outlook express turned on in the hopes that it will pick up some or all the mail from PeoplePC. It did get some last night. If I ever get through I'll have a hard time not using some rough language.
Jerry: I hope that Sallie gets to feeling better soon. My thoughts are with the two of you.
Inch: It doesn't sound like a good idea to put $70,000 into a house that only is worth $30,000.
Well I'm going to go and try and get in touch with PeoplePC again. Wish me luck.
Good Night All
PC: I am taking your excellent advice and headed for bed real soon, been along tough day, and I am still coughing quite a bit.
MIKE: I hate gas. When we bought our 1st house in the city when I just got out of the Army, it had gas, I had it removed entirely from the hosue and went oil fired for the heating system and electric for cooking and dryer. They don't explode, and they don't have leaks that scare the hell out of you when you smell gas. I hope your SIL goes for a new home build. They can put the latest features into the house for insulation, and heating, maybe a ground heat exchanger system.
Good morning ! from Indiana.
03-03-07
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
grayfox1119 wrote: PC: I am taking your excellent advice and headed for bed real soon, been along tough day, and I am still coughing quite a bit.
Hope you don't have what the wife's got......it's NASTY!
Last night I decided that it was time to put a decoder in the new AC4400. It runs so quiet on DC that it should just whisper on DCC right? WRONG!! I installed the decoder, placed it on the track and gave it power. I've heard electric can openers that are quieter. I worked on it for a couple of hours to see if I could get it to run quiet, but to no avail. At about 10:00 pm I removed the decoder and rewired the unit for regular DC. I was thinking that maybe it's the decoder that's causing the noise, so I installed it in my Proto 2000 PA1. Expecting to hear a high speed can opener I applied the power and to my surprise the PA eased forward and trundled down the main line with nary a sound. Seems to me that the quiet motors of the RTR Athearn units aren't all they're cracked up to be. I know I won't be buying another one real soon. It's funny. I put a decoder in a cheap BB and it runs without a sound. I put one in an expensive RTR and the neighbors can hear it. Go figure.
Today's Weather for: Sundown, LA 71446-6114 3/3/2007
Sundown Fire Dept., Station 23 Wind Chill: 34°FHumidity: 81%Dew Point: 32°F So Far TodayHigh: 51°FLow: 38°FRain: 0.00"Rain Rate: 0.00"/hGust: 6mph NE High: 64 °FLow: 30 °F
Today High: 65 Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 60s. North winds 10 to 15 mph.
Tonight Low: 30 Partly cloudy. Lows around 30. North winds around 10 mph.
Biscuits and gravy today.
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
Howdy y'all. It's been a bit.
I come to you one year older and wiser than I had been. I'm now legal. And so I've been told, now that I'm 18 (and 1 day), I'll start complaining about aches and pains and whatnot. At least I won't feel left out at work now.
Train show today for my birthday! I get to go blow the cash I got yesterday. Maybe I'll get some articulated auto-carriers that I've been drooling over or something...Don't know how this train show'll be. It's the First-Annual Train Show by the Maryland Steam Society.
I'm going to have less time to spend around here between increasing school work, work, spring musical rehersal, and now a girlfriend. Life's hectic, but it's fun for the most part.
I'll see y'all later.
Scott - Dispatcher, Norfolk Southern
Gratfox;
Why is that you hate gas? Are you refering to Natural gas or Propane perhaps? I have lived all my life with the exception of a few rentals with natural gas. Found it was reliable and safe. Had a new high efficiency furnace put in a few years ago and am quite satisfied. Our hot water tank is gas. Our range is gas as well and our BBQ is gas. Just wondering.
GUB
Good morning everyone, what a beautiful day today compared with yesterday!!! The temp has already climbed rapidly up to 48F (10C ) from morning low of 28F. We will hit 50's easily today, and we haven't seen that for weeks. Heavy duty melting is taking place.
PC: The wife had it real bad, either in bed or in recliner all day for three days with sinus pressure headachs from coughing. She is better now, but now I am fighting the bug. I don't have it as bad as she did, nor your wife.
GUB: I use Propane for the grille, but that is OUTSIDE the house. I have seen so many houses explode to splinters by either natural gas or propane leaks, that I prefer the peace of mind of not living with the possibility of an explosion, no matter how remote. Everytime I see a story on TV news of another building or home blown up by leaking gas fumes, I always tell the wife " yup, safe, economical gas, another one bites the dust". Most people will go through their lives without ever a problem, but I prefer to be 100% sure. I can sleep nights!!
JEFF: That is really too bad. I wonder why the Athearn motor doesn't like a pulsed voltage? Have you contacted Athearn? I certainly would, there has to be an explanation, I am very curious about this.
SCOTT: Happy 18th Birthday Scott!!! I can understand your busy schedule, and how MRR and this Diner, may take a back seat for a while....maybe....a looooong while like many of us. For me it was 46 year Scott, and the the same reasons that you have stated, cars, girls, school, work. Next it will be the Military (maybe), College, more girls, a wife, career job/s, family, sports ( kids and maybe you too ), vacations with family, etc. etc. until it is just you and wife living at home alone once again ( unless the kids come back to live with you LOL ) So my friend, it may be at age 55 or 60 that you return to this hobby. We will save your favorite seat Scott, stop in to see us once in awhile OK ?
Good Morning All,
A regular and a donut please Chloe. Nice day out today but I'm in the shop playing catch up again. Need to have the second set of cars and the trailer they ride in done by a week from tomorrow so it's nose to the grindstone time.
Hope you are recovering from the weather of the last couple of days. We got lots of rain and a bit of flooding but not anything that directly affected the shop or home. We'll see what affect the snow has on flight schedules as I still have people in Fla racing and they need to fly home come Monday.
Dick - I can see your point, but we've had city gas in our last two places and no problems but then we check things on a regular basis. So long as pipes don't break it's pretty safe and to tell the truth we've seen more problems with our neighbors and their oil heaters.
Scott - Happy Birthday and hope you find good shopping at the train show.
Time to get back to it and start milling away like Paul. CUL, J.R.
Garry: Thanks for the Nova Scotia Tourism Boost! Let us know when you plan your trip, we are on the more scenic but less traveled route to Cape Breton. There are Festivals there from time to time throughout he season, which extends well into the Fall to accommodate the Fall Colours.
To me, it beats rivet counters and their perfectly precise dating of equipment.
Jeff: Powerful looking chunk of metal that AC4400!
I've been known to lash up an 1860's wood burner with an SD40-2. Hey, it's on it way to a railfan trip someplace.
On the Decoder noise with the AC4400, it can’t be the drive train because it’s quite on DC. Has the AC4400 a capacitor between the motor brushes that the Proto 2000 doesn’t have by any chance?
OZJim:
We now have five Operable steam locomotives in the QR steam heritage fleet, one Diesel Hydraulic, and two steamers in the repair shops, one needing a whole new boiler, and the other (a Garratt) needing a complete refurb.
Mike: We seldom guess just how kids, especially young ones, interpret events…like the
how sorry she is for not picking them up when mommy ask her to
Hey Duke! Good to see you made it in. How do you like the new look?
Dick: Sorry to hear about your storm woes, and hope the cold clears quickly. Here we had far less than the forecast suggested. Being on the shore works out well sometimes. Started snowing, sorta, after dinner on my walk, so I cut it short, but didn’t need to as it turned out. Maybe 1-1½ inches of snow, then freezing rain, then rain. Wind all the time before, and a bit after. All done by about 3:30 a.m. Brilliant sun all day, cloudless. To look at it you’d never know, except the barometer is down a bit.
Most people will go through their lives without ever a problem, but I prefer to be 100% sure. I can sleep nights!!
Our house in Alberta had gas heating, and we loved it. Installed a Brit made gas fireplace in the basement (UK manufacturers understand that heat is meant to go into the room, not up the chimney!) that had Royal Doulton “logs”! Both Kris and I prefer cooking on a gas stove because of the exact temperature control, but then we grew up on that. (Couldn’t tell you now what temperature a “Regulo” 5 oven is at though!)
Paul:
Scott: Good to see you back again too, however briefly. That’s a great way to spend your bd.…all this and a gf as well.
Well, back to the layout. More sawdust/glue scenery work this afternoon. I’ve just used up the 2 Litres (½ gallon) of sifted sawdust with which I started this phase of the layout. The acres of blue foam are slowly disappearing. I’ve also got to figure how to build that Range Light.
TTFN.
"There are always alternatives, Captain" - Spock.
Well, I went to get a good pic of an interesting signal in downtown Indy, but just before I got there, a hiway bridge that is just up the tracks had some chunks of concrete falling off of it onto the tracks, so they closed the tracks for a couple of hours til they get that fixed. As such, the great shots that I was going to get of trains blasting through the lit up signal in the snow are now without lights or trains. Oh well, here's the signal in the snow anyways.
der5997 wrote:On the Decoder noise with the AC4400, it can’t be the drive train because it’s quite on DC. Has the AC4400 a capacitor between the motor brushes that the Proto 2000 doesn’t have by any chance?
is it snowing somewhere my wife swears it must be as I'm finally getting the walls put up in the train/office/guess room lol. that I've been telling you all I was going to do the floors are next lol that'll probally be another year lol.
Hi all welcome to any body thats new to me. been spending a lot of time over on the classic toy trains coffee shop as I do lionel and there more my scale but still like coming in and reading all your all good advive even if I don't post that often I'm in about 4 times a week reading so I don't get to far behind.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
Evenin' All,
It's been a good day here is sunny Alabama. I miss the snow, but not that much. Spring might as well be here now as flowers are blooming all over the place. Enough bragging. Zoe, may I haqve a ginger ale please? Thanks.
I think I owe Attaboy and PC an apology. For some reason I've been thinking that it was PC who sent me the photos of the PRR station at Lewistown but it was Attaboy who did. How can you ever forgive me?
grayfox1119 wrote: I hate gas.
Well I'm now to the point that if I don't see some new track in this house real soon now I'll burst. I took a layout magazine to Jamie's swimming class again today. Reading all those articles, seeing all the layouts and slobbering all over the pages are making me jittery. I gotta lay some track. Maybe I'll build a bareboard timesaver just so I can run a train, even if it is only four feet.
We can't even hear the locomotive horns from this new house! I NEED SOME TRACK. If I don't get some soon I'll aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Evening Gang: Just a quick note tonight. I spent the day out at son John's place working on the crossings for his railroad. We got one done. I did alot of triming of trees along the proposed right of way. Anyway I'm really tired. I also managed to bust the rear view merrior on the truck. Oh well it's only money. My left leg is sore tonight. I had a cramp in it a couple night's ago and the mussels are sore.
Jeff: Is the 4400 running on DC alright again? This problem does sound interesting.
I'm off to bed.
OK, I guess I had better clarify further my point on natural gas, and Propane. My dislike is strictly and soley from a "safety" point of view. I know it heats well, the Condo we go to up in the White Mountains has a Propane fireplace. I have a Propane fired Grille outside. Again...my issue is Safety. I have seen FAR too many homes blasted apart because of gas leaks. Yes, I know that if maintenance is done annually, there should never be a problem. But many people do not follow directions, hell, they can't even read a manual when they purchase a VCR, how the heck are they going to know what a furnace needs for care. The same does hold for an oil fired furnace, but I never heard of an oil fired furnace blowing a house apart.
Then there are the contractors who dig up the street, rupture a gas line, or otherwise cause a leak, that follows the gas line into the houses and one spark and your off to the moon baby. It is all about peace of mind at night sleeping. Otherwise, check the canary often.
PAUL: You have really been on a tear since retiring, don't burn out the candle so fast Paul, pace that bod !!! LOL
JEFF: I can hear that 4400 all the way up here!!!!
Good Evening All,
Got the evening in working on scenicing a bit of the layout so we'll try show and tell
this is the gravel company transplanted from the old layout and it's now where the river used to be under the Beichstaller or whatever bridge.
this is the spur leading to the gravel company - no ballast yet and the track needs a good clean up but you get the idea. Well I need to do a tidy up and get some ZZZZZZz's so CUL,J.R.
der5997.......... you're welcome regarding NS travel...... we'd like to get back there and enjoy it without the aftermath of 9/11 impacting the trip. Again, we appreciated the kindness from Canadians to all the people stranded in NS at the time.
Philip...That signal bridge photo certainly had a mood to it. It felt cold and damp just looking at it.
Everybody.......... I've been finalizing my steel mill and am thinking of posting photos soon. It might give ideas to people thinking of building one.
Good night, and Happy Model Railroading!
Paul and Grayfox: It works fine on DC now that I've hardwired it. It really ticked me off when the light board smoked after only 20 minutes running on DC. I tried two decoders in the blasted thing and got the same result. It sounded like a 20 year old electric can opener on both of them. On regular DC it runs quiet, for an Athearn. I won't be buying any more of Athearn's expensive junk. They've stung me twice already, they'll not have a third chance. The first was a Genesis Light Pacific 4-6-2 that had major drive issues and now this 4400 with DCC noise issues and electrical problems. I'll stick with Athearn's BB's. I have a bunch of them and they all run, which is more than I can say for the Pacific and they run better than the 4400, especially the F7 that I converted to DCC. It runs quiet, no hum or growl. I'm going to convert more of them and an Athearn BB PA2-PB2 set that I have.
Afternoon all,
As promised here are some pics of the Steam train sunday, I'll post a link to the trains forum, where there is a separate post.
http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/1056200/ShowPost.aspx
Der, As for the costs for insurance i'm not too sure, but I wouldn't say it would be too high, as the QR heritage is a division of Queensland Rail, which is still mostly Government owned. QR has a very big belief that heritage preservation is important. I'll see if I can find out the costs etc, for you.
all for now,
Oz
James, Brisbane Australia
Modelling AT&SF in the 90s