In re to the cloudy headlamp lenses, in PA you will no longer pass state inspections with cloudy head lamp lenses.
Kev, dont forget the magnetic [B] can holder for the tractor, might get the whole way down that lane and get thirsty!
Rain and sleet here. heavy rains coming tonight
I have been advised that the wife is going to Florida in a few weeks (she won’t tell exactly that date untill a day or two before as she knows me all too well)
As much as I love her, its nice to have some peace and quiet at the house for a week or so.
…Finally decided to keep our long term health care insurance for another six months. It’s expensive but the alternatives are not good if you need it later on. I feel better about it for now.
[2c] IMHO, a very wise move, a smart move. Insurance, all insurance, is for a catastrophic event should you ever need it. What alternative(s) are better than what you already have put into place? This is an investment albeit an expensive one. You have invested for a long time in yourself, for your future welfare, and for your protection.
You previously made the comment that the money might have been better spent taking the premium $ and investing them, growing them. The fact of the matter is that few people do so.
Think of it as a forced savings just like your home. Statistics show that in a rent versus home ownership comparison (over a lifetime) that while home ownership costs more over the life of each choice, one has the home equity at the back end whereas the renter wonders where all of the money went.
I was looking at a railroad engineer’s profile on another forum and saw this funny comment. Under the heading of hobbies or interest he wrote: "Are you kidding? I work for the railroad. I don’t even have time to mow the lawn.
[(-D] If only you could go back and print out all of your posts with your RR observations, stories, and experiences, you would have half your book written!!! You write beautifully, and your words put the snapshot in my head as I read.&n
Kev - This is our first and to be perfectly honest I really don’t care if it’s a boy or girl. Just glad to have a grandchild. Also, it gives me more reasons to buy more trains! [swg] And these don’t have to be delivered to HudsonJohn’s house either! [(-D]
Just got back from the doc’s and the pharmacy, antibiotic’s and cough syrup. Took Nyquil last night at 10:00 and still saw 3:00am on the clock. [banghead]. If I don’t sleep tonight I’ll be posting tomorrow afternoon from home.
Greetings from the Heartlands where we are working hard to stem the drought of 2012! Last week we received a disappointing 4" of snow, we were hoping for the forecasted 8.2" but oh no, not to be. This morning I awoke to barely a dusting of precip and the most we were to receive today was 1-3", at this very moment we are getting close to the 6" level, YES!!! It’s supposed to snow most of the night, sure hope so. The good news is that this snow is very wet and shouldn’t blow, the even better news is that it’s right at 32 degrees so we at least don’t have that bone chilling wind. I might plow the driveway or I might just wait until tomorrow since the boss is in MPLS and I have plenty of food and adult beverages to survive.
Ice makers: ours began a slow death about 6 months ago, this was also the same line I had used for a previous fridge w/ice maker. Long story short – that original copper line had one of those valves that you simply screw into a water supply line, self tapping. My friend the plumber was here installing a new sink and ran a clear plastic line to the fridge with a proper water valve shut off, works like a champ now, same ice maker. There are better alternatives than those self tapping water lines, lesson learned.
Geo thermal is a great idea if you plan on staying in your home for a length of time, it’s a long pay back as the front end costs are very high. Our friends who have them also have supplemental heat for those colder days/nights.
Time to throw another log into the fireplace, life is good [tup]
I finally received my Atlas FP7 in the mail today, eleven days after it was shipped. It’s a 70’s era model as I expected. Originally Santa Fe, somebody stripped it and very carefully sanded off all the molded on grabs then painted it primer gray. A diesel detail kit came with it. It’s standard DC of course. I test ran it to see if the motor works. It works quite well but the gears were as dry as burnt toast and very loud! Add to that the pickups on the rear truck were loose and the pickup keepers had fallen off. I had my work cut out for me. I got all that sorted and it runs smooth and quiet now. That makes five FP7’s I have now, four 70’s era Atlas and one 80’s era Con-Cor. Here’s what $20 bought:
Now I gotta get me something to eat. My blood sugar is down to 67. When I get to working on stuff like this it’s almost to the exclusion of all else!
I am still not sure which way to go about the gears. If I trust shop#1 to do it, I’ll hopefully have 4.10s with no issues. If I swap the entire axle myself, I’ll have 3.73s, but at 3x the cost of shop#1.
That’s part of the whole issue. It’s a weekend/nice weather toy, and gas mileage isn’t a concern. It has only seen parking lots and rain three times each since I’ve owned it. If I wanted gas mileage, I would’ve went for a V6. I don’t trust anyone to do the gear swap, and I don’t trust shops trying to push parts. Ford never offered the 4.10 as an option. Optional ratios have been 3.55 or 3.73, with the 3.73 being standard on the 2008-09 Bullitt.
Don’t forget the P-47 and Hellcat. P-47 wasn’t fast, but with 8 50 cal. machine guns and tough enough to handle continuous fire from a Focke Wulf 190, who needs speed? Also had the luck of seeing WW1 aircraft at a museum nearby.
Ended up getting somewhere between 10" and 12" of snow last night - that wet heavy stuff. The last two shots of the snow cannon have exceeded the yearly snow fall here in mid Missouri. Think you could aim that thing in another direction? If not another direction, at least put a lighter load in it!
I hope a plow gets down our street tonight. If that does not happen, I’ll have a bunch more shoveling to do before I can get to work tomorrow.
Rainy in SE Indiana. Good to see you back, Stur-fish. Good day at work yesterday. Busy day today. Lousy news last night on that which I cannot talk about. Hopefully by the end of March, a conversation can be held on that topic. Weather is supposed to be even worse tomorrow. Could be an interesting drive. No beacon tonight as I am heading to bed soon. I hope everyone has a good day.
Looked at MTH RTR catalog today. Nothing to write home about. Maybe Tinplate catalog will give me something to think about. If not, there will be some stuff from the Lionel book heading my way sometime.
Had Fettuccine Alfredo for dinner tonight, something I don’t have often. Well as I reported earlier I got my fifth FP7 today. That makes four Atlas and one Con-Cor. I don’t much like the mostly plastic motor Con-Cor used. When it fails I’ll slip in a PPW can motor. Enough about that. Back to the new arrival. It’s a 70’s era Atlas model. I had to put a bunch of work into it, little things mostly but they were time consuming. I did something new on the rear coupler. On all my FP7’s a #5 or #148 would be too low. This time I calculated how much I’d have to shave off the rear of the shell to have #148 in a #242 draft gear box at the proper height then ground off that much. I also had to chop off about half the length of the box to clear the rear truck. I installed the coupler and box then checked it with my Kadee coupler height gauge. It’s right on the mark. I know what I’ll be doing to the other four FP7’s. I also installed a DCC decoder. I hard wired in a 9-pin harness and plugged in an old Lenz decoder. It’ll do for testing and a good run-in. Later I can pull out the Lenz and plug in a Digitrax DH123 when I have one to put in. That was my fun for today.
Time for me to call it a night. See y’all tomorrow.
