Ole Timer, sounds almost more trouble than it’s worth to belong to that site. I help run a private muscle car board and we don’t have anything near that stringent for inclusion.
Chief, 'New out of the box " is the key words here. But remember the thousands of Lionel, Flyer, Marx that will still run today with nothing more than a fresh drop of oil. It’s not the company I dislike, it’s the battery. And anybody that says they don’t have problems got their engines from a different company than the one who made mine.
DJ … no not really … I thought when I applied … what the heck … then a few days later and after a couple emails … walla . They just want to keep it smaller and for completely dedicated folks … it’s worth it … fabulous site … I’m going to learn alot . [swg]
Evening all
Just got home from work, trying to follow to pot and going out to a teeball game. At least it won’t be quite as muddy tonight.
I will check in later
May God bless
Jim
Afternoon All.
I dropped in to post a “heads-up” for something that we have started doing on the club’s layout. It’s probably not as big an issue on the “home” layouts, but we run at least 40hrs per week.
We have started running a “magnetic sweeper car” to clean up any and all ferrous type debris that gets deposited along the tracks. The debris can be metallic flakes, screws, springs, etc from the cars and locos. The photo below shows what we pulled off the magnets with tape.
This was a direct result of a couple of loco sound system failures caused by shavings shorting out the speaker and zapping the board. Forgot to say the yuck on the tape was a result of two days worth of runtime. The mag car ran friday morning then again on sunday morning. Just think what a “magnetraction” engine would look like !
I run UP and Conrail as you wills ee UP and Conrail MU’d in with NS. Got one CN right now. Have a lot of old CN custom painted by me. Old layout in old house with basement was CN.
Now for some excitement. Tornados everywhere. Damages mostly east of us. Now one over Cary NC [big town next to Raleigh] headed for north Raleigh. Whole county under TORNADO WARNING. Watching radar to be sure it goes west of Roseyville. We had one hit in the 80’s that killed one guy right out of town. No one in town knew about it as Weather Service did NOT set of alert. They got reamed for that one. Actually 3 in Raleigh were killed before it hit Roseyville.
911 for Wake County verified my home number yesterday and that I was Mayor. I guess to notify me of emergencies. We have one case of Novel H1N1 flu [swine flu is the improper name per Health Dept in meeting yesterday] down east of us.
Back to radar to watch for Tornados. Later
Take cover chief don’t want anything happening to our mayor. We had tornado warnings north west of us but were still watching as there warning was till midnight tonight.
Once a month we split a can of salmon among our cats( our children) well tonight was that night and I decieded to have Talapi myself well the main one that has claimed me had to have talapi (so donna cut one up for them) also and then some of mine.
Well not to much else going on here just taking it easy.
Brutus I put the keys in the milk box out back [:-^] of your place.
Good lord guys be careful … do any of you have one of those tornado alert units that will wake you in the night while you’re asleep ? That seems like when those rascals sneak in and catch folks . Even a scanner with the alert freq. on in case … buddy here on the police force said he’s going to get the freq. for me … sounds a loud irritating tone then a warning … come to think of it he has’nt been by lately … gotta call him for it . He said you lock that channel down … he’s also a member of civil defense … don’t know which organization has it . Even if it’s not near me I could call my sons to warn them . I guess my neighbors would’nt mind me firing up the siren on my jeep and broadcasting a warning on it’s PA system in the middle of the night if one was coming to our neighborhhod … LOL . I’m sure they’d be cussing at first though … [(-D]
Ole Timer at first they probally would say whats that drunken fool gotten into to do this crazy stunt.
All calm for us now. Rotations went over downtown Raleigh and the Capital. Did not seem to touch down. Then headed east on US 64 hitting the edge of Knightdale. Don’t think it touched down there either. Lots of rain. Some streets in Raleigh were closed due to water flooding them. One TV weather guy at WRAL-TV [which is right across the street from NCSU] stated he had been here for 15 years and had never heard the tornado sirens go off at NCSU. East of us in Johnston Co and Wilson Co, homes damaged or destroyed.
Yes, weather alert in my house and at the lake house will wake you up. Loud.
Later
Hello all, ran some trains today and had a problem with MTH Santa Fe 4-8-4 proto 2. I took the engine off the track to clean wheels due to contact problems. Put it back and engine would not start. Tried everything. Reset feature and factory. Nothing! Put new batteries in hand held controller and still no luck. Finally I checked the wire harness betwen engine and tender. It was not plugged in. Duh! Problem solved.
Don, how does fish line help installing traction tires? Sounds like you are doing some major gardening work at your house. I cut down a big bush in the back yard yesterday using hand operated hedge clippers as well as electric. Loaded up three trash cans for green guy. I was all in after that. Not used to real work. I’'m sure the Chief will laugh at me after all the stuff he does. But I don’t have a John Deer and all those other toys he has. I’m doing good just to walk for 45 minutes each day.
Roofing job at our house is finally complete with the installation of a new skylight yesterday. Next project will probably be getting my old cars repainted. I hear Earl Schieb is still in business but he does’nt do it for 29.95 anymore. I used to have a BIL that painted a 50ish Plymouth with a brush. Did’nt look too bad either if you did’nt get too close.
Went to TTOS Western Division Train meet Sunday but did not buy anything. Lots of things for sale though but not many engines.
Later, Ray
Good Evening
I saw some of the damage in NC on the WC,thought of the chief. I hope they are still safe. And all others as well.
Did morning errands,reg. gas was $2.09, up ten cents from a few days ago. Much better than four dollars. Groceries are still going up even in the No Brand store. Grass is cut.
Finished the strawberries over banilla. Still have banilla for the thingy ride though. So Brutus fire it up…S.J.
Hi everyone. So, wha’d I miss since last week? Hear the pot had to be changed, but didn’t get a taste of the lost one, so I’ll stay quiet on that. Parents left today. Hope they got out of Hotlanta without trouble as we have had quite a day of the weather.
Don, did see the “snot” at York, but I didn’t bite as I wanted to hear what others thought before diving into that.
Doug, thanks for posting the thought and photos of the magnetic cleaning you did. I am building my own track cleaner car and intend to have a good sized magnet placed to pick up such items. Thought about making it with a holder over the magnet to catch the nasty stuff in a lens paper, so it will keep the magnet clean.
Chief, sorry to hear of the issues with the new engines. Glad you didn’t go back for the other premier engine? Glad I am sticking to the 40s for my engines as that will assure me some products in NYC livery.
Was a big day of it here. Had three big cases and have another early morning ahead. Turns out both kids have graduation the same day next week, so having made arrangements, I will have to cover some time swapping. Should make for some long days ahead. Once the activity calms down, I will get back to finishing the layout. Really motivated as I want to get my new aquisitions on the rails.
God Bless,
Dennis
Warming up a little in St. Louis area - supposed to rain overnight I think? Had a bad headache for a couple days, think it was muscles in the neck plus allergies. Doing a lot better today though [tup] Had a Cinco de Mayo party at work and people brought all this food in crockpots, but nobody brought paper plates or bowls, lol.
Found the keys, RT - thanks for the assist. Ready for tonight and I’ll drive to give you guys a break. TTFN!
All calm. Watching news with laptop going. Had 8 tornado touch downs in NC. One in Raleigh. Lightning hit the NCSU bell tower and threw chunks of granite. Ran trains. MTH lashups and Atlas lashups. Did get to finally open the box with traveling car. Should already be shipped. Was late getting to me but that is OK. BTW: where is Rich??? Very pretty Ann Arbor orange box car. Will get it run and photoed. Off to bed.
Cloudy all day with a few drops of rain. Temp. in the 60’s. Got a nasty-gram from the guy on e-bay that I bought the tank car from saying that I had forgotten to include shipping. Did some checking, and he was right. Oops. Shipping payment on the way now. It will be a little while longer before I get that 1962 Texas Special freight outfit together and running…
Making plans for vacation next week. I’ll be working on projects around the house until Wednesday, when I’ll head out to Bowling Green Ky. for the Buick GS Nationals. Meet some old friends from Michigan and watch those old 455 cubic inch dinasours run.
Chief - glad the weather missed you. My chair is a wing back. Does that make it wingbackizing instead of reclinerizing? Or is reclinerizing a generic term like kleenex?
Spanky - how well does the smoke unit work on that Polar Express?
Ray,
When I need to replace the tires, the fishing line works well. The way I use it is;
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Place the tire on the wheel surface
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Thread the fishline through the tire, typically use 6 to 8 inch length
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Place tire around the easily accessible area of the wheel and hold it in place with one hand.
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Then hold the two ends of the fishing line together and pull the tire around the wheel, (flexible, easy to hold, no problem)
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After the tire is in place, then simply release one end of the fishing line and pull it out.
The front planter is now all naked and bare. Looks good.
Going to go to AGHR club Wednesday night, election voting for a Presient…
Tired, GLAD NO HURT with the twisters.
Don, you should submit your fishing line trick to the CTT Tips suggestion.
Chief, glad you were missed by the storm. Also good that the MTH’s cooperated for the lashups…finally.
Early morning here. Already set to go, but we have “Lung Conference” this morning, so it will be a late start on the cases. Hope to get done in a reasonable time so that I can make the violin lessons. I have not been in a month. Have to practice by watching the wife and kids and learning from them.
Got lucky last night in that we did not have to deal with a liver laceration…those can be a bear of a case. Person was beaten…Sad. Anyway, just have to watch them and with some luck, the better option will be for the person to heal without surgery.
Have to run. Hope everyone has a great day.
Dennis
Hello from the Central Virginia Rain Forest. Have had rain and no sun for 8 days in a row. Not complaining, just glad I raise pasture grass and don’t plant corn or make hay (I buy my winter hay).
Chief - Glad you survived the bad weather. Those Grits will protect you every time.[:-^]
A while back I was told that the Lionel NASCAR engine couldn’t pull more than the few cars in the starter set and one expansion set. WRONG!
I have most of the NASCAR train cars from the various drivers sets, purchased from ebay, Choo-Choo, Nicholis Smith Trains, Etc. Most were found for me by RT, Chief, Don and others. Thanks. I have been running the NASCAR train with 6 cars with the rest of the cars on the shelves.
Just for the fun of it, yesterday I added the rest of the NASCAR cars plus 15 others, a few at a time, for a total of 32 cars. The engine pulled them as if no cars were attached. In fact, at full speed they would have gone off the track!
My layout started out 11 years ago as MTH with a P-1 starter set and now has the Z4000 and DCS system. I can run 4 trains at a time. The NASCAR train is my first Lionel and I am impressed.[tup]
Patrick
Dwiemer … your whole family plays the violin ? That’s GREAT ! I love to hear them and I guess they’re different … the fiddles … maybe you can tell me the difference . Hardly ever hear any played around here … it must be becoming a lost art . My 3rd son had lessons in school for them … I even bought one instead of renting hopeing he’d be interested … he quit … to my dismay . [V] I’m lucky I can play a stereo … no musical ear at all . [:o)]
Patrick … who’s your favorite driver ? Did’nt know you were searching for nascar addons … I live on Ebay … LOL .