Very nice work, man! And you got an A+ from Laz!
Dennis - we have a rule for the kids that they can only watch a movie once in the same day. We’ve got a ton of movies, too.
Greetings all from chilly NYC. Got some drizzle and sleet today. Natives say this is the coldest it has been up here all winter. No snow to date. Got the Grand Central Layout ready to pack today. Tomorrow it goes into the crates and onto the truck. The MTA Museum Annex had great attendance for the display.
Glad to see all are well.
Jim - agree with LAZ - A+ on those bookcases you built.
Chief turned over surveillance of the Northern aggressors to me for the rest of this week.
Have a great day tomorrow all!
Roy, keep up the good work behind the enemy lines [above the Mason-Dixon].
John, remember my setup for sump pump when no power or if the old one stops. Have two 1000 gph bielge pumps on a float switch and a deep cycle battery with maintainer [not a trickle charger, trickle charge will damage a battery]. Pumps out two holes through the wall and outside above ground level.
Ran trains on the layout for two hours [Dennis, notice I said layout [;)]]. Frank53, found box when I went up to run trains. That is great and thanks.
Time for bed. Been reclinerizing. Later
Good morning, everyone!
A dusting of snow on the ground this morning.
Chief, glad you made it home ok. What was in the box from Frank53?!!! Don’t tell me it was a pair of post war 2343s!!!
Dr. John, I forgot to ask when you had your layout up, but how did that gorgeous blue Marx loco run for you? Ready to sell it yet?
John CSX, Maybe a ray of sunshine will soon cheer you up from your flooded basement blues.
I heard a rumor that Gordon is going to be the next Thomas engine to be produced by Lionel. Based on the Hogwart’s loco.
Got to get cracking. Busy today already (7:05am).
Jim
HI GIZ,
31 and not bad today, could get some snow?
Going to take in my engines today to train shop to get that lurching taken care of.
TGIF.
All have a good one.
laz57
YAWN!!!
Well the weathermen here in Bal’mer have no clue what they are doing…
Yesterday they told us we would get a wintry mix over night - nothing. They told us today the high would be in the upper 30’s low 40’s it was 35 this morning and may hit 50 this afternoon. Weathermen have the easiest job in the world, all you have to do is be accurate 20% of the time and your golden! If 20% of my applications worked, well I’d be flipping burgers dressed in a nice red and yellow outfit!
Anyhoo… EOB arrived last night. First upgrade I am doing myself… so far I am 1.5 hours into the project, have the EOB rigged, the tach installed, and have to decide if I want the puff-n-chuff or standard smoke. So only things left are to cut the #24 pin on the mainboard, solder 1 wire to it, solder 1 wire to the #24 pin on the underside of the RDLC and then if I go puff-n-chuff solder 1 wire to the #17 pin on the underside of the RDLC, reassemble, program, and test.
I took a video of the engine before the upgrade starting off - it just zooms by. Also took a few pics of the before inside look of the engine, planning on taking a couple more shots of the during and then a couple of the post upgrade. All in all it hasn’t been too bad! I’ll let you know what I think of soldering.
1 question though. I have the cold point wireless soldering iron from Radio Shack. Should I pick up a new soldering iron while I am at Radio Shack today? The directions say to avoid cross soldering pins, I’ve never done precision soldering like this and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions? Diameter of solder to use, soldering tips, etc. Also to do this you have to hold 3 items with 2 hands… I think I am one hand short… was thinking I could align the wire where I want it and then temporarily hold it in place with some electrical tape (not where I will be soldering), is that a good idea?
Brent, when solderuing I’ve found, what I call, surgical clamps invaluable. They look like scissors. I have a couple of different sizes, some with straight tips and some with curved. I addition to holding wires while soldering they also serve as heat sinks. Being stainless the solder doesn’t stick to them. I got mine at a flea market a number of years ago.
For circuit boards I’d use the thinnest solder (rosin core) I could get with a fine tipped iron.
Brent,
I’ve heard bad things about that cold point soldering iron. A 15, 25, or 40 watt pencil tipped iron is only $8:00 at Radio Shack. You should also buy some tip tinner and cleaner. It’s in a little can and you dip the hot iron into the paste to clean and tin it. Especially a new iron. Worked like pie for me.
Good morning all,
It is cold and cloudy in SE Indiana with temps maybe getting to the 30s today. Went to the YMCA and did dishes for the missus while she exercised with her girl friends. Hope she keeps it up. Tonight is a big night for Lucas. He and his girl friend are going to a “Winter Formal”, which is where the kids wear nicer clothes than blue jeans and t-shirts. I hope everyone has a good day.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
Mornin’ boys.
Mornin’ jaabat. How’ r they ridin’ today?
Chief, I tried to keep’em in order, but… Even tried serving the youngin’s grits. When I turned my back they shucked them and grabbed the cookie crisp. Ungrateful, simply ungrateful.[V]
Well, Mrs. fifedog heard me tapping on the keys, and has givin’ me a honey-do-NOW list, as long as a unit coal train.
Good Morning from Blueberryhill…
It is a windy 31 degrees ( feels like 20 ). A few snow showers last night didn’t quite cover the ground. Going up to 34 today with , maybe a few more snow showers. Nothing heavy.
**John ( csxt30 ) and the guys up North…**Sounds like you are going to get some heavy " lake effect " snow. Good luck
Today, I will run over to the local lumber yard and pick up some lumber needed for the layout. Switches from CA should be here today. Then I can start the expansion. Need to get busy on that.
Expecting company tomorrow. Daughter and family. 3rd attempt to make it down here from Cleveland. Still have Christmas presents for them.
" All Aboard " for the Dining Car. Breakfast. Talk later.
Y’all have a great Friday.
Chuck
Morning all,
Thanks for the kudos on the bookcases, Laz, an A+, wow thats the best grade I ever got in shop!
Not too bad out mid 30’s and spittin’ flurries. On break at work and thought I’d check in. Take care
Jim
Brent
The Shack has .032 rosin core solder which is really small and suitable for delicate work. Also have sharp tipped 25 watt soldering irons.
Made the noble effort to find the other item at the LHS but no luck. Hope you’ve got a place for it, and let me know if you want a bigger laoding dock. I can slap one together pretty quickly.
Good morning, fifedog. They are riding clean and comfortably today. You are talking about my underwear, right?
We ran trains last night for a solid hour. Three trains at once! The Lionel El Capitan on the outer loop. Thomas pulling coal hoppers on the inner loop. And an RMT Beep pulling State of Maine boxcars on the floor. Man, is FasTrack quiet on the carpet as compared to the layout table.
So 3, count 'em 3 trains running at once last night.
I might as well admit this here as any where else. Lately, I’ve been running and enjoying the diesel passenger trains much more than steamer-pulled freights. If that weren’t enough, I’ve also been running everything much slower than usual and I like it!!! What is happening to me?!!! Please God, don’t turn me into a prototypical or scale operator!!
Jim
Good morning from a brisk Chicago where the hawk is out - the wind is blowing to make it seem like a balmly 15 degrees.
Got you beat, Jim, I had five running after church last night - one freight pulled by the 520, three K-Line passenger cars pulled by the GG1 and the Western Hobbycraft Johnston, New Orleans and Philadephia trolleys.
Laz, I thought of you when I had a spectacular pileup where I had fiddled with the track underlay around a curve and the GG1 and cars dumped themselves off the track in a most importune place. Then the new Hand cart - sans hobos - derailed in the middle of the Mt Seaman tunnel… Ah well. Couldn’t find the Riddle electrics book at the library -they’re all reorganizing the shelves. So rewiring Mt Seaman will probably wait a bit more.
jaabat - you betcha! COMANDO kinda guy myself… Oh, and welcome to the dark side (dummm-dummm-dummm-dum-dee-dumm-dum-de-dummmmm).
Thanks for the tips! Not sure where I could find surgical equipment on such short notice… [%-)]
Jim,
Me too - personal experience actually - you can’t leave the tip in contact very long or the plastic holder will begin to melt - very bad design flaw!
I was figureing I would pick up something with a very fine tip, and some very fine solder. Thanks for the tip on the tip tinner! I’ll pick some of that up as well!
I use the cold point solding iron for quick jobs now, I used it to create all my connection point connectors for the Christmas layout, and now realize their wire I used is under sized, so I have to go back and redo some of it… the switches are fine, as are the city lights and the few accessories I have, but I want to change out the track feeds with something larger than the 18 AWG I used - lionelsoni don’t jump on me! I didn’t know any better till I read all the posts on wiring you and the others have made! [#oops]
Hey y’all, Really busy at work yesterdaY, then went to school for my duaghters Winter Dance Concert. She was really good. Went home & packed, got 20 winks in, to her to school this morning. She’s not happy about Dad going to NJ without her(and I think she misses me[swg] when I go). Here in “sunny” FLA, it’s in the low 50’s windy cloudy. In NJ, it’s in the 30’s! SNOW maybe?
I went to my LHS and the N&W tender & steamer is a Lionel 6-18638 and he wants $125 + tax. It is new in the box. Is it worth it? I’ll be back in FL Wednesday and if it’s worth it I’ll probably buy it. I’ll take all opinions (even the Southern ones!).
I’ll be checking sporatically, Mom & Dad only have dial up…and the Family is gonna keep me busy this week(so they say…)
Brent,
Wanna make your soldering life really easy? Buy pre-tinned stranded wire. All you have to do is heat it with the iron and the joint is soldered! A 2 hand operation instead of a 3 hander!
From the sounds of it, you’d think I was an old soldering pro. I just soldered for the first time in my life Monday afternoon. Look for others to chime in and tell us what faulty info I’m giving you. My advice - listen to them!! [:)]
Jim