A special toast to Christina who is a lady who knows how to dress. [tup]
Enjoy the the friendship all.
Sleep tight and good night.
Hello all
Back at work again. Couldn’t get to sleep Tues night so I went up to the dining hall around midnight to catch up on the pot. Night manager wouldn’t let me turn on the lights, so I couldn’t post since I can’t see the keys in the dark (they are not backlit). Discovered tonight that my old IBM thinkpad has a nifty little reading light at the top of the screen though that should help next time.
Got called off on Wed. since they needed someone to take two observers from the University of Stockholm to the telescope on Thurs. They are real academics as apparently niether drive Telescope was still down anyway due to the computer problems from the aforementioned (and preventable) UPS issue we had before I left last week. On that note, I am working on becoming at least an assistant ‘Field Marshal’ in order to actually deal w/ some of these problems. We’ll see where that goes.
So since I had yesterday afternoon off, I went to the electronics store and the local hobby shop. A few more parts for the circuit breaker and voltage/amp readout box. Still looking for an amp gauge, but that can wait. Also exchanged the olive drab paint I already had for zinc chromate green and picked up a nifty little mixer from Badger to stir up all my 30 yr old model paint. And yes, it separates but it still good after mixing.
Then I finally put in the new needle and seat fuel inlets in the hardtop carbs. When heat soaked (shut down after running for more than 5 minutes) the carbs tend to bleed fuel into the heads. These are aftermarket spring loaded ball valves which help prevent this. Idles much better now. The idle mixer screw actually means something. Ran great under load before but idled like I had a heck of a cam in it and was hard to start due to the flooding.
Next check I can hopefully get rear shocks.
Computer controlled door locks? Please…Yes, I know they have them, remember me swearing at t
Konbanwa,
We had unseasonably warm weather today – it reached 61 this afternoon. The workday flew by and nothing exciting happened. We grilled some burgers for dinner tonight: topped mine with bacon and grilled onion. The wife also made homemade vanilla-maple ice cream. It was quite tasty, especially in a glass of root beer. We’ll spend the rest of the night relaxing together.
Laz – That’s cool your wife won the Coal Cracker 10K before. I remember you telling us about the race you and Minnie ran last year.
Hey Roy! I hope you’re surviving that crazy Texas weather.
RT – I hope your back feels better soon.
Sayonara,
Joe
Sounds cool. I am having some issues with the wings on my P-38, but I am thinking maybe glueing some cotton balls on the spots, pulling the cotton out and making it look as if some fuel tanks got hit, but the fuel didn’t catch. I’ll see about some rivet decals before doing this though.
Good morning. Uneventful day other than that I finally have some work again. The paycheck that I’m getting today will be great. Estimated to be about $150, give or take $10.
Hi GUYZ,
Nice here at 37. Gonna be windy today, got PT done now gonna take MINNIE for a walk to river. Work on layout later.
DENNIS V8 MINNIE is a weird cross between a black lab and a chiwauwau. Figure that out and we will both know. Gentleness of a lab but the speed and agility of the Wauwau.
STURFISH, TGIF!!! Glad to see you agin.
JACK,KEV,JEFFERY, nope not a social drinker, I buy the big cans. 15.5 gal. pretty hard to recycle, and will take a loss. Little cans are from outdoor beer season which starts the first day of trout season on March 30.
JOEY D, don’t say that your WIFE makes BINNELLA ICE CREAM, SIR JAMES is lurking.
SIR JAMES!!!
RYAN, Good job with the cat!!!
HUDSONJOHN,keep on rocken!
BRENT, beauty of a gal better lock her up before HS.
BUCKEYE & CHUCK, TGIF!!!
Stay frosty my friends,
laz57
BOB,
Regarding the chicken, we called it that because it had a claw instead of a bucket for digging. The claw had three fingers on the bottom and two fingers that closed and meshed on the top. It was better then using an electromagnet crane for digging into a pile of steel. You could grab right in and pull out large amounts of piping and sheet steel. We had a contest on friday to pick up a soda can with the claws, winner didn’t crush the can. Very difficult but great fun. Ah those were the dayz. Then of course cold beer after work!
laz57
Off to Florida land. Happy times Yanks in your cold and snohio. [(-D]
Mornin’ Fellas
Got ThePrincess dropped off at daycare. Now back home to get some work done before the social worker comes for our first post placement meeting… glad we only have two more and then we are done with all these meetings and inspections! The Hospitals pretty much all check to see that the carseat is installed properly, but once the carseat is locked in place they are out of your hair.
Matthew’s It’s a Boy car arrived yesterday. Still no York badge or TCA membership card - but the CC has been charged. Oh well.
Kev - glad to have “helped”. Any idea how to pop that door panel on my BMW? [}:)][:(!][banghead]
Sounds like most everyone around the world is having fun on this March 1st Friday.
I’m sitting here looking out the window at a heavy snowscape. Spent part of yesterday fixing my 47 year old Cub Cadet tractor that got hard use in the recent large snowfalls. I bent the heck out of one of the primary brace bars and had to use a scissor jack and large furniture clamps to straighten the bar. There were other issues as well, and I got those fixed also.
Then I had time for fun, some success and a little frustration.
I’m working on some early postwar coil couplers. There is a break in the copper winding near the top layer and know I will find out when I mount it on a frame and put it on an rcs track, but if anyone knows I would appreciate it.
My Minneapolis and St. Louis ALCO FA customization is coming along well. Last month I mentioned this project, having acquired a beat up ALCO mostly for the chassis and motor, to use on another locomotive. The cab has been sitting for a while and I kept looking at it with an eye towards possibilies… and I had another junked ALCO cab. The M&St.L was missing the front apron, so I cut the closed apron off of the junker and have glued it to the M&St.L. And I rebuilt a 200 series motor and put it on a frame, and it runs well.
What about the paint? The owner of one of our local Lionel train shops (Fred’s in Overland Park, KS) told me once that Testors 1103 Red is a close match for many of the Lionel ALCO red cabs. It is for the Santa Fe, but the M&St.L ALCO seems to have a slight red-orange hue. Yesterday I set about mixing paint.
For the benefit of anyone or all, here is the formula/recipe for mixing this paint. It is easy, as follows:
-
One 1/4 oz. bottle of Testors 1103 Red
-
One 1/4 oz. bottle of Testors 1127 Orange
Pour the entire bottle of red into a larger paint jar, such as an empty Testors Model Master 1/2 oz. paint jar
**Bob…**neither is 85,000 miles, which I now have on that one. There has been a lot of automotive talk here as of late, so I thought I would throw in my current situation.
I am now coming up on some routine automotive maintenance: brakes, replace (original) alternator and serpentine belts, will have him check the (original) hoses, my front outer tie rod ends need replacing (plus alignment), annual inspection, and an oil change. Same mechanic checked the condition of the (original) coolant as well as the transmission and differential fluids this past Fall (September) and said all of that stuff was up to snuff.
Since I am neither particularly mechanically inclined nor do I have experience, manuals, or tools, this upcoming visit to my local (trusted) mechanic of nearly 19 years is not going to be an inexpensive one. I think I need to rob a bank. [banghead]
Jack
The weather today is a rerun of yesterday.
“Kev - If I recall, yours is due a bit ahead of mine? Late June I believe? Ours is mid July. Of course you’re use to it by now, so what’s your secret? Just let them have control of the transformer, right?”
Ray, You got it. just let them go. I start out showing them the whistle button but just make sure the train on the track is one you don’t care tooo much about. [:O]
Katie is early July. She will have a C section because she had one with Lexi so I guess she has to have one.
Bob, I sent you a PM, Thanks!
Brent, I can’t help you on the door card on the BMW. Come to think of it I don’t think I have ever been in a BMW.[^o)] I bet a crowbar would do the trick. [swg] No No No.
Prairietype, Nice work! What did you use for glue?
So, headed down stairs to begin touching up the cab. I may give Jeff the Train Tender a call to get a couple of reversing units for this and another chassis rebuild I have in the bin.
To KRM: I used 5 minute Epoxy as the adhesive d’jour on this project. I plan to install a metal pilot backing plate with a couple additional spots of Epoxy to give added strength to the pilot apron.
Weather Report for Florida…
High of 32 today. Freezing rain turning to snow. All airports are closed.
Nope. Compared to mine it’s hardly off the starting block!
Good morning. It’s 36° with 86% humidity. The high will be 55°.
Looks like it’s going to be a nice but somewhat cool day. It’s partly cloudy now but is due to be mostly cloudy later.
In a while I’ll be heading into town to pay some bills, get gas for the van, get the first half of the grocery shopping done and whatever else I need to get done today. Later I’ll clean up more of the layout, that is if the rest of my day doesn’t get hijacked.
I was looking at my locos earlier and counted them. I have thirty-two in serviceable condition. Of that number less than half still have their factory built drives. Many of them are rebuilds with different motors or trucks and fully a third are Frankenlocos cobbled together from spare or junk parts that weren’t intended to be where they are. What a menagerie I’ve assembled.
[quote user=“Prairietype”]
…My Minneapolis and St. Louis ALCO FA customization is coming along well. Last month I mentioned this project, having acquired a beat up ALCO mostly for the chassis and motor, to use on another locomotive. The cab has been sitting for a while and I kept looking at it with an eye towards possibilies… And, I had another junked ALCO cab. The M&St.L was missing the front apron, so I cut the closed apron off of the junker and have glued it to the M&St.L. And I rebuilt a 200 series motor and put it ona frame. and it runs fine.
What about the paint? The owner of one of our local Lionel train shops (Fred’s in Overland Park, KS) told me once that Testors 1103 Red is a close match for many of the Lionel ALCO red cabs. It is for the Santa Fe, but the M&St.L ALCO seems to have a slight red-orange hue. Yesterday I set about mixing paint.
For the benefit of anyone or all, here is the formula/recipe for mixing this paint. It is easy, as follows:
-
One 1/4 oz. bottle of Testors 1103 Red
-
One 1/4 oz. bottle of Testors 1127 Orange
Pour the entire bottle of red into a larger paint jar, such as an empty Testors Model Master 1/2 oz. paint jar.
Pour 1/3 of the orange in with the red and mix. That’s it.
I gradually added the orange in stages and let the samples dry and it appears to match exactly when mixed in the proportion described above. When applied it looks initially to be ever so slightly brighter, but once it dries it is pretty exact (I’ve looked at a small touch up area under a several light spectrums that include incandescent, flourescent and overcast daylight, but not bright sunlight because there hasn’t been any sun for several days.)
I feel confident enough to begin the touch-up in earnest of the rubbed edges and other appropriate paint brushing spots. I plan to airbrush the apron, and I have not yet figured out
Just looked on the doorstep and a package arrived. It’s a 2343C, the B unit I’ve wanted for a long time. I only waited about 30 years to add this to the consist to make it complete and right. It has just the right patina of age and handling to make it a perfect match with the others. I just road tested it, all good.
It even came with a complete box and liner, one flap torn free but included. Someday I am going to figure out what adhesive and/or technique to use to re-attach a flap in a quality way. I know there has to be a good method other than tape, or Elmers glue (which dries to hard.)
Aloha. Snow showering today. Nice TARDIS ride last night. Solved all the world’s problems… Repairing the tunnel beneath Eagles Ridge that the curious kittens destroyed whilst exploring. Hope Chief is warm in FLA. Brent, I’m glad your kids fit comfortably in your existing cars. When we got number two, it was time for a minivan. Ugly, basic, functional. It sure came in handy shuttling the kid’s friends and gear over the years… Now it’s perfect for moving them to college. Ryan, stray cats are wonderful. We’ve hosted many over the years.! Prairetype, that ALCO looks great.
Jack,
I have a couple of metal replacement aprons in my parts bin. I bought a bunch of these from Jeff the Train Tender months back. I plan to install one on this unit and as an extra measure put a few spots of expoxy between them for added integrity.
Prairietype, I have put those in all of my ALCOs but never thought of addong some expoxy. That is a good idea. I like using the stuff they call Two Ton expoxy. Takes longer to set up but holds great.
Like Jeffery, Off to town to pay bills.