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THE FLAT WHEEL CAFE Locked

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Posted by Railfan Alex on Monday, September 15, 2008 2:42 PM
Good Afternoon!

Ike hit us early this morning, and caused more sleep deprivation than anything else. I went to bed just after midnight, only to wake up around 4:30. It wasn't the storm that woke me up, it was really the few electronic devices in the house that started beeping because the power went out...
So I pretty much sat around in the dark with a flashlight, and figured I would complete the homework I didn't do over the weekend. There was lots of wind, and not much rain. A few older trees did fall in my area. And of course, lots of twigs and LOTS of leaves everywhere.

See y'all later!

Alex

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, September 15, 2008 12:10 PM

Well, my back yard is full of twigs.  The rain wasn't a problem, but we certainly got some wind.  My weather station showed a 27.9 mph gust at 2:48, and it's rather wind sheltered.

Every fire department in the county was out, I think.  Lots of trees down and trees on wires.  There was one house fire, but I'm not sure if it was actually storm related.  Still hearing some calls even 12 hours later, I suppose as people actually look in their yards.

Took the day off - needed my beauty sleep...

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Posted by cherokee woman on Monday, September 15, 2008 10:36 AM

I've got soup and sandwiches ready for lunch:  BLTs, grilled cheese, roast beef, turkey, burgers, cheeseburgers; and soups:  tomato, potato, vegetable, and cream of broccoli.

Mutt and I took a short walk, and discovered that no buses (TARC, public transp) can get through the next block south of our house:  two blocks west, the street is taped off to traffic.  Wonder when that will be closed before they take the tape down.

Anyone have any ideas/suggestions for  supper tonight?  If so, let me know, or else I'll try to think of something.

 

Angel cherokee woman "O'Toole's law: Murphy was an optimist."
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Posted by JoeKoh on Monday, September 15, 2008 10:25 AM

Morning

Bonjour Alex. welcome to the diner.Cw thanks for lunch.time for a nap.Mookie hope you have enough feathers in your duster.

stay safe

joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by Mookie on Monday, September 15, 2008 9:23 AM

Really dull weather-wise here in the true Midwest.  80 and wall-to-wall sunshine all week.  I am pleased! 

Saw LV got 75 mph winds and Tree should have been standing in water according to weather reports.  Ike was a mess - good riddance.

Sir C - mental head slap - I couldn't get past the red, white and blue to realize it was a geometry car.  Even tho I have only seen one or two, it just never registered.  Had it been in yellow, maybe it would have registered.  Kind of like that pig with lipstick..........couldn't get past the cosmetics to see what it really was!  It is on the tracks right next to Amtrak so my guess is your guess is right on.

Foxes are great to watch.  Such interesting little things. They make you forget they are wild and predators.

Well, now that my desk is cleared of problems I will take on the heavier task of domestic goddess. 

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by CANADIANPACIFIC2816 on Monday, September 15, 2008 7:13 AM

I am glad to hear that the Louisville area did not get hit any worse than it actually did with the remnants of Hurricane Ike. And if no one got hurt, that's the big point. I've looked at today's weather forecast for Louisville and it looks like Walt, Paula and Sarah will be enjoying some much cooler weather, with the temp at 72 degrees or a little better than that.

Right now in Sioux Falls, South Dakota we have a temp of 41.9 degrees. It is supposed to warm up here to about 70 this afternoon. I have today and the next three days off this week, and I am going to try catching up on reading, I have a few issues of Trains Magazine awaiting to be read. And I figure at some point this week I will grab one of my Nikons, a couple lenses and go looking for some trains to shoot in this area, the BNSF or the Dakota & Iowa.

I hope the rest of you out there all have a good day!

Ray     ooo    ooo ooOOOOOo

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Posted by grampaw pettibone on Monday, September 15, 2008 6:40 AM

Good morning Paula. Sounds like your area took a solid slap from Ike. Watching KHOU on the net, it looks like portions of Galveston and the Bolivar peninsula are simply gone, with large areas inacessable. The big concern is how many tried to ride it out and lost. They interviewed one guy who refused to evacuate and he was squalling about who was gonna help him now.... At present, here in Carolina, 74 and fog on the way to 91 and of course lightning later.

Welcome aboard Alex. Lotsa fine people here with a lot of knowledge and insight abour RRs and lots of other stuff too. Hang around and this place grows on you

Tom

COAST LINE FOREVER

It is better to dwell in the corner of a roof than to share a house with a contentious woman! (Solomon)

A contentious woman is like a constant dripping! (Solomon)

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Posted by Modelcar on Monday, September 15, 2008 6:39 AM

.....61 degrees and just a touch of wind.  Ike is long gone....At least the bulk of it.  It's to clear later this morning and be nice and sunny all week.  Believe the most of it streaked north of us.

Edit:  After reading my rain gauge I find Ike left us with just .04" of rain.

Quentin

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Posted by cherokee woman on Monday, September 15, 2008 6:21 AM

Good Monday morning, everyone, and welcome to the Flatwheel Cafe, Alex!  Very good to have you aboard. 

Well, when we went out to tour the area last night, it was really something to see.  A few blocks west of us, trees were down in the street, along with tree debris in yards and on sidewalks.  Saw a lot of traffic lights not working.  And people were actually adhering to the 'first one at the intersection goes" routine, so that everyone got to leave the intersections without causing an accident.  

My sister and her husband are without power, and two of their three children's homes are powerless.  Haven't heard anything from my twin brother.  Tried to call, and only get his voice mail/answering machine.  Mutt's sister called from Northern KY., to find out if we were all o.k., had power, etc.  She has a lot of tree debris in her yard, mostly from next door neighbor's tree.  But she has power.

Guess when it gets light out, we'll get outside, and see about putting the section of privacy fence back up, pick up all the branches and whatever else outside.  

Angel cherokee woman "O'Toole's law: Murphy was an optimist."
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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, September 14, 2008 9:16 PM
Looks like Ike is here - hearing numerous dispatches for wind damage to trees and wires.  We haven't gone out yet (knock on wood). 

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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Posted by Railfan Alex on Sunday, September 14, 2008 9:04 PM
No problem, thanks for the welcome!

I'll leave you all with my latest:

The photo is a terrible edit on a screencap from the video.

CN 309 first does some switching duties at Coteau, and preforms the same move as the OCR. He crept up behind the OCR on the same siding, cut the cars off, and proceeded to the crossover. He backed over the crossover, and reversed to Coteau to drop and pickup cars.

Later, we saw him again, at Landcaster, Ontario. That is the caption photo. Although you can't see all that well, the crew was very friendly to us over the scanner, since he saw we had one. A couple of toots on the horn and a nice big wave.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=uX-R_Q9EYC0




Alex

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Posted by Mookie on Sunday, September 14, 2008 8:48 PM

Welcome Alex.  We have a resident young man here that is in his teens.  Willy2 pops in from time to time, so we always enjoy hearing from the younger citizens.

Mookie

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by mudchicken on Sunday, September 14, 2008 8:46 PM
 Mookie wrote:

Notes:  Joe - saw the two CSX 7841 and 9002 engines you sent me.  That was nice, but they looked a little sad.  I will have to notify CSX and get them a new manicure.  Either that or they could get a manicure here, but it would be CSX in Ugh Orange!  Ugh.

Sir Muddy - At the depot...red, white and blue....all by itself.  DOTX 217 FRA Office of Safety motorhome on wheels.  Approve [^]  Let's see - they are here.....checking on...  No clue.  Maybe left over from the state fair?  Maybe lost?  Looking for a home for cold weather?  Need help here!

I know Sir Chicken is a tad busy right now, so maybe someone else can help me out? 

Stayin' for Sunday Dinner - need to find a bib. 

Little windy, sun shining finally.  Looks like a full week of clear and blue.  And warm.... ah....

Mooks: Re DOTX 217 (Geometry car), look here: http://www.atipsafety.com/public/about/DOTX_217.pdf

The "Ride Quality Management System" is an improved version of what we used to sarcastically call the "Empty Beercan on the Dashboard Test". Hope FRA and Ensco debugged the thing by now. Got really tired of chasing down phantom track defects. I suspect that car has some armour yellow paint underneath from its original owner. We saw the new UP self propelled geometry car Friday in Glenwood Canyon, heading to Denver. Suspect BNSF is getting its bi-annual check-up on its Amtrak and Powder River lines.

- Scraped frost off the windows the past few mornings (guess what's coming?).

- Working right across from Sardy Field at Aspen, a fox just out on its own has been watching us with a great deal of curiousity.(or waiting for one of the busses we have been playing chicken with to create a little roadkill dinner -it is also tormenting the dogs in the kennels at the county animal shelter)...Watching all the small airliners drop-in to this place (Sardy Field) is quite a site.

- Good to hear that snowman came out of his encounter with Ike relatively OK.

Sunburned Feathers

 

 

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by Railfan Alex on Sunday, September 14, 2008 8:42 PM
Thanks for the welcome! I will look into this "lounge" since I do take a fair amount of video, but sadly, no photos...Sad [:(]

Alex

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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, September 14, 2008 8:35 PM

Alex - Welcome to the "cafe."  All virtual calories here, plus talk about the weather and any number of other non-rail things (rail stuff is just fine, too!).

Another nice thread is the lounge - photography is a bit topic there.

Speaking of weather - Looks like Ike will pay us a visit after midnight.  They're suggesting some winds along with some heavy rain.  Hopefully nothing extraordinary.

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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  • From: Muncie, Indiana...Orig. from Pennsylvania
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Posted by Modelcar on Sunday, September 14, 2008 8:23 PM

....I'll say welcome Alex.

Quentin

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Posted by Railfan Alex on Sunday, September 14, 2008 8:17 PM
Hi!

I guess I'll post here too, when I have something to show or just to talk about whatever. I am part of Teen Railfan Place, but, ummm....

How can I put this: It's kinda a limited Market! Smile,Wink, & Grin [swg]

Alex

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Posted by Modelcar on Sunday, September 14, 2008 8:00 PM

.....An assessment of what it did around here.  Really not that much.

Some rain started after lunch time.  10 to 25 mph wind and then more rain in short blasts later in the afternoon and that brought down some dry leaves and small limbs on our street.  Didn't see anything more than that.  TV says Muncie...{That's recorded at Ball State Un.} had wind blasts from 20 something {earlier}, to some time this afternoon up to 54 mph.  We here, didn't see or here anything like that that I was alerted to.  Maybe it was just a quick dash of it and then was gone.....As I said something did bring down lots of small limbs, etc....Haven't looked at my rain gauge yet.  Radar shows it now to be just spotty light rain in places.....and it should be deminishing from here on out and by later tomorrow morning and all thru the upcoming week, it is to be sunny and mod. temps....Very nice.

Quentin

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Posted by cherokee woman on Sunday, September 14, 2008 6:24 PM

No rain around here; but, we've had hurricane force winds with gusts up to 75 to 81 mph.  Lots of power lines and tree limbs, and whole trees down all around the county, and in Bullitt County, and across the river in Southern Indiana.  We took a few pictures, and when Mutt gets them in a folder, etc., we'll try to post them.  Sarah's still at the firehouse.  No telling when she'll be home.  We have a whole section of our privacy fence in the back yard that was blown down.  Several branches of the pine tree in the front yard, and a piece of vinyl siding on the front of the house is flapping.  Here in the city, there are about 273,000

people without power (more people than were without power in 1974, after the tornado) And Sarah just came in the door.  Think we're going to go take a look-see around the neighborhood.  See you all later.

 

 

Angel cherokee woman "O'Toole's law: Murphy was an optimist."
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Posted by piouslion1 on Sunday, September 14, 2008 5:37 PM

Great weekend down here in Carolina (North that is). The missus and I went Kayaking on the New River around West Jefferson. Clear blue Carolina Blue Skies and a small breeze. A good time for getting away from the daily grind.

I am a bit disappointed that my Georgia Bulldogs are now at Number 3 in the MSNBC poll, especially after what we in this part of the country call a barn burner against South Carolina in Columbia yesterday (14 -7), but the season is still young.  

Clear and warm here in Winston-Salem. Got some much needed rain over the last two weeks and the lawnmower and I are keeping the growth under control.

I think it is a great night for burgers off the grill with some Vanilla Ice Cream to follow. Should be good.

Have a great evening

PL

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Posted by JoeKoh on Sunday, September 14, 2008 5:23 PM

cw thanks for supper.Mookie they might have a problem getting back home unless they go south of chicago.Ike is blowing things around here now.going to get cleaned up for work.Our forecast is like mookies clear and dry.

stay safe

joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by Mookie on Sunday, September 14, 2008 3:39 PM

Notes:  Joe - saw the two CSX 7841 and 9002 engines you sent me.  That was nice, but they looked a little sad.  I will have to notify CSX and get them a new manicure.  Either that or they could get a manicure here, but it would be CSX in Ugh Orange!  Ugh.

Sir Muddy - At the depot...red, white and blue....all by itself.  DOTX 217 FRA Office of Safety motorhome on wheels.  Approve [^]  Let's see - they are here.....checking on...  No clue.  Maybe left over from the state fair?  Maybe lost?  Looking for a home for cold weather?  Need help here!

I know Sir Chicken is a tad busy right now, so maybe someone else can help me out? 

Stayin' for Sunday Dinner - need to find a bib. 

Little windy, sun shining finally.  Looks like a full week of clear and blue.  And warm.... ah....

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by cherokee woman on Sunday, September 14, 2008 11:14 AM

Cloudy and overcast outside, with a very good wind blowing.  Our lights flickered a little bit a few minutes ago, but so far, that's about it.  Sarah got a run, on wires down, so she's gone on that.  So, while we still have power, I figured I should get in here, and post our Sunday Dinner menu:

Got the first round of steaks broiling in the broiler, and to go with them, we'll have:  your choice of baked potatoes, mashed taters w/brown gravy, peas & carrot, homemade buttermilk biscuits (and there's plenty of brown gravy to go on the biscuits as well as the mashed taters), and your choice of cole slaw or garden salad.

Desserts:

chocolate cake, peach cobbler, blackberry cobbler, coconut cream cake, and yellow cake w/caramel icing.

 

 

Angel cherokee woman "O'Toole's law: Murphy was an optimist."
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Posted by Modelcar on Sunday, September 14, 2008 8:59 AM

....Those are rather wild figures Randy....I realize there has to be an abundance of torgue to the drive wheels the way loaded 18 wheelers ascend hills these days.

Quentin

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Posted by rvos1979 on Sunday, September 14, 2008 8:02 AM

Quentin, I believe the engine in this truck is rated somewhere in the 1300-1500 lb-ft range, this engine does have the ability to switch between different ratings on the fly, thanks to the EFI system.  I do know one can get engines in the 2100lb-ft rating, those are usually in the heavy-haul sector, and run the 18-speed transmissions (I have a 10-speed).

I have an air-ride pressure gauge in my dashboard, taking off from a standstill, the gauge will fluctuate from 10-25 psi, just from the axles rotating on the suspension.

Randy    

Randy Vos

"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings

"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV

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Posted by Modelcar on Sunday, September 14, 2008 7:13 AM

Randy....What range torque does the avg. diesel in your type of tractor have....Is it in the range of 1000 ' # or much more.....?

I would imagine truck frames have to really be stout to handle that massive twisting load that engine is putting thru it.....That engine is trying to rotate something and if the frame would be weaker than what it takes to start turning wheels....well, twist would be the result.

Quentin

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Posted by Modelcar on Sunday, September 14, 2008 7:06 AM

...By the way, some forecasters are saying some parts of Indiana could get up to 4" of rain today.  looks like that heavy stuff would be north of us.

Right now the sky is bright in the east and the sun is peeking thru the neighbor's trees.  Temp is surprisingly warm...75 about a half hour ago.  Slight bit of wind.  We're to have on and off rain today from 1 to 2" possible.

Quentin

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Posted by Modelcar on Sunday, September 14, 2008 7:03 AM

Murray, Tom, Larry:

The ESSO station {Murray}, was on route 30 the Federal highway of coast to coast and went like gang busters and then in 1940 the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened {which parelled that route thru Pa.}, took a lot of business from route 30 and then WWII....But our family opened the station back up in 1946 after being closed for the war duration....and it was a good business for 45 years.

Henry J. Kiaser was trying eveything to stay competitive with the big three back after the "war" and the Henry J was one of the attempts.  The gal's father I was going with then purchased a brand new white one.  I was fascinated by some of Henry's products.  The "new" model Kaiser in 1951 was a beauty and still is today....!

Does anyone remember Sears Roebuck & Co. sold the "Allstate" in that era......It was a Henry J.....!  Just renamed Allstate with a small piece here and there changed to ID it as a Sears car.

Quentin

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Posted by JoeKoh on Sunday, September 14, 2008 6:49 AM

good morning

quiet here right now in nw ohio.rain going to move in later.

Cw thanks for breakfast.

stay safe

joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by cherokee woman on Sunday, September 14, 2008 6:23 AM

Good Sunday morning, everyone.  So glad to hear that Ed and everyone is all right down in Texas; including Dan Harmon's folks.  Ed got some fantastic pictures taken afterwards.  

Coffee, juice, tea (iced and hot water for hot tea) are fresh this morning, and on the warmer bar:  cinnamon rolls, pecan rolls, and several different flavored danish, along with a few bagels and bear claws.

Current temp this morning is 78 degrees, and very, very muggy out.  Supposedly we're to get some rain today.  Guess we'll see later on if they're getting it (forecast) right. 

Angel cherokee woman "O'Toole's law: Murphy was an optimist."

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