Good morning all,
Cold and windy up here, going to the Lorain County National Model Railroaders Train show-flea market today. Full report when I get back. For those of you that live in NE Ohio the Lakeland Railfest is next weekend I'll be one of the many people waiting for the doors to open!
BM1 Lee Soule USCG (ret) L.S.&W Railroad Serving the Lower Great Lakes
Good morning ! from Indiana.
03-04-07
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
Morinin, I'll have coffee and a sweet roll Janie.
The kids got them a house rented for awhile and started moving in yesterday, and with any luck they'll be staying there tonight. A church over in Hazel Dell gave them some beds along with few plates, pots n pans and such. Deb's sister has a ice box for them and a freind of ours has some other furniture in storage for them. Me n mother went an got'em some odds n ends too. So them can at least have coffee and toast. When things settle some and get sorted out, we're going to pick up some other things they need
Our grandson MAC is coming down from springfield later today. When he found out that uncle EJ and them had lost every thing, he wanted to give them his tv and entendo, so they could watch tv and play games, till they could get another one. He remembered what it was like like to loss ever thing in a fire from when their apartment burnt 5 years ago. All they had was the clothes on their backs.
Had another appraiser in in yesterday, so far the bids run from 38,000 to 70,000. The last one said if he got the job, he was going to just give the kids the check. He didn't think the house was worth saving [he was from the bank]. What the insurance company doesn't know is EJ's [my x-BIL] is a realestate lawyer and I told the kids to get a hold of him for some advice.
Guess I need to get off this subject, afor I bore ya'll to death with it.
DICK, sounds like you folks had some nasty weather your way, kinda like what we had a week or so back. glad ya'll made it through it ok.
Heather already said her and the kids are NOT moving back into that house and their bank aggreed. We've not had much trouble with gas, kinda like it even. Wood and coal is the best heat I think, not as dry as the others.
JERRY, hope Sally's feeling better today. The Rockome train show swap, is April 21 an 22. I think we're going up.
SCOTT, try not to get so busy ya wear yourself out with all thats you have going on.
PC, liked the photo, even if there wasn't a train going through.
GMT, great pics of the layout hope we get to see some more.
OZ, great pics of that down under steam, thanks.
The weathers suppose to be sunny, with highs in the 40's and less wind than we've had the last couple days, I need to do some outside work today, so not much train time. Plus Jamie and them are comin down, so another feed is on for today. Mother likes it when she has a bunch to cook for, say's it's easier than than just cooking for me n her and I have to aggree.
I'd best get on ta some chores, Hope ya'll has a good day
inch
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/4309
Morning All;
Anyone here form the London (Ontario) area? And are you going to the show in Byron today? Just wondering.
GUB
Good morning. It's Sunday, the 4th day March in the year of our lord, 2007.Here's todays weather data for the west central Louisiana area.
Wind Chill: 33°FHumidity: 47%Dew Point: 19°F So Far TodayHigh: 45°FLow: 34°FRain: 0.00"Rain Rate: 0.00"/hGust: 11mph N Today High: 58 Sunny. Highs in the upper 50s. Northwest winds around 10 mph.
Tonight Low: 28 Clear. Lows in the upper 20s. Northwest winds up to 10 mph in the evening becoming light and variable.
Ham and eggs today and some doughnuts too.
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
Hi.
Just a quick visit. My 'puter is still down with a hardware problem. I'm using one at work today.
Just want to make sure I still have a corner...
Hope you have a great day
Haapy MRRing
Good Morning All,
It's a nice sunny day out - I'll try to get some yard chores done at home. Also need to do some more castings for the museum display and deliver a car to Rowayton this afternoon.
OZJim - great pictures, the old consist in the modern settings is jarring, but the equipment is gorgeous. We should take up a collection to get you a video camera so we can see and hear the sights.
Luc - i think the girls bronzed your reserved for placard so no worries there. Just lean over when you're in and wake up Duke and Scott.
Inch - getting a lawyer involved at least for advice is the best bet at this point. The last thing your family needs right now is the run-around especially as the ins companies are famous for offering less than what you need to make things right or get them replaced.
All for now - hope those ailing are doing better - has anyone heard from Fergie lately? CUL,J.R.
Good Sunday morning to everyone, right and sunny here today with a temp of 33F. A cold front moved through overnight, dropped a dusting of snow, but by Tuesday, the Polar air will arrive with only a high of 20F....ohh well, Spring is not that far away.......is it??
VISTA UPDATE: Microsoft sent me a free Ultimate version of Vista for a thank you for taking part in their Friends & Family Beta testing program for their new Software. I am reloading some of my programs and upgrading others. One feature that I really like, is these two meters that are on the right sidbar of the screen. One is a speedometer that shows CPU use, the 2nd speedometer shows RAM ( Random Access Memory ) use which is particularly great to have. This shows the % of memory that is used while I run programs. You will know right away why your PC is slowing down visually!! Very nice features.
MIKE: Sure happy to see that the kids have a house now and that supplies are arriving for them to refit their household needs. Rural America at it's best, alive and well thank God!!
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. BTW, a might cold down there in LA at 47F for a high !!!!!!!
J.R. : Nice layout pictures, you have some very nice scenery constructed!!!
LUC: What is the issue with your computer? Maybe I can help you out if I know what it is doing/not doing. Will it start in Safe Mode at all? There are 4 small LED lights on the rear of the PC, are they lit? Are they all green or are some Amber, let me know the light code if they are lit, (ie 1st and 3rd green, 2 and 4 amber.)
PAUL: Hope you take it easy today buddy, Sunday should be a day of rest and relaxation as God intended, so read your MRR mags and stay out of the shop.
RYAN: Haven't heard much from the hills of North Carolina lately, whatsup?
FERGIE: Stop peeking through the screen door to the Diner and get in here !!!!!! What have you been up to??
DER JOHN: It looks like you and I are having record Winters for low snow amounts. We usually get 72" here, we have had about 24" and running about +6F above average. All the snow came mostly in late January and early February. We have about 5" of snow remaining on the ground.
Noontime....time for dinner, see you guys later.
Dick - I think the CPU cooling fan has stopped working. It just a matter of finding the time to get at it and replace the thing.
Happy MRRing
grayfox1119 wrote: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.
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
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
James, Brisbane Australia
Modelling AT&SF in the 90s
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.
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 ??? !!!!
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!
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.
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
Paul W. Beverung wrote: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.
GMTRacing wrote: PC - great shots from you as well -- must have been a busy day. Back to it before it gets too late.
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.
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?
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
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.............
pcarrell wrote: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 ),
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.
West central Louisiana weather data for Monday, March 5th, 2007
Wind Chill: 54°FHumidity: 25%Dew Point: 19°F So Far TodayHigh: 54°FLow: 31°FRain: 0.00"Rain Rate: 0.00"/hGust: 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.
pcarrell wrote: 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.....
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.....
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
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!
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