Afternoon All…Its sunny and pleasant here today but posta start raining with a chance of rain every day till tuesday…so says the weather guesser on TV…My tomatoe plants are kinda yellow I think from too much rain hope they come out of it…its still early…I made a deal with a feller today for a bunch of used Accumate couplers should be enough to do some more cars I have ready…Some folks don’t seem to like the Accumates but I think they do just about as well as the M/T’s…
RT…Thats great news about your house…This will call for a big house warming party here in the dinner…
My next to oldest Daughter gets Her CNA tonite…Sallie and I had plan to go but Sallie isn’t up to it after having Dyailiss two days in a row…Care giver fixed Stuffed peppers and Snitcle[sp] for this week end so we are gonna have some good eats!..
I’ll have a Diet Coke and onion rings and slide over in the corner and see who drops in…You all have a good one…Jerry
Wow!!Looks like I’d better come out of corner put the apron on and head to kitchen for dish patrol…Order up and enjoy…Maybe I can drag out the grill out back and do up some pork Burgers,Brots and Polish Sasage with some tater salad on fresh corn on the cob and Ice down 3 or 4 watermelons in the old wash tub…Jerry
***Jerry, considering 99% of my cars have rapido, you’re way ahead of me with those Accumates. I have wondered if by the time I convert each of my vintage cars, if I might be better off selling them off and then buying newer cars that already come with those metal wheels and fancy couplers?
Just got back from a Hay run. This years round bales = real nice looking hay!
For anyone who never saw these before (like me), here are some cool tractor/train photos to share. Anyone know where they were taken?
Rob, personally, I go for the Micro-Trains, but if it comes with Accumates I’ll usually leave it unless it’s a problem child. As for the older cars, I convert them to MT’s by buying the MT bulk packs. I do the low profiles though, and the bulk packs of those are getting hard to find since MT changed how they packaged them so that they make us buy the wheels seperate. [V] I also actually prefer the plastic wheels to the metal ones. I don’t see a big difference in the cleanliness between the plastic and the metal (I’ve experimented), and the plastic ones are much quieter. The only things I run metal wheels on are loco’s (obviously) and lighted cars that need the power pickup, like passenger cars and cabeese…but thats just me.
Good afternoon …raining out, 51F, so I didn’t get the rest of the garden planted. With food prices going crazy, we are planting every kind of veggie that we eat. We also have Apple and Pear trees, blueberries, strawberries, red raspberries and black berries. I still can’t get bananas and oranges to grwo up here in zone 5 though, LOL
Tomorrow we are headed up the Mass Pike to Lenox, Ma and the train station on the CSX ( formerly old B&A main line ). The MBRE ( Mass Bay Railroad Enthusiasts, what a mouthful ) is sponsoring a railfan trip up in the Berkshires. It will run from Lenox to Pittsfield, then turn south and travel all the way to Canaan, Connecticut all along the Hoosatonic River, and back to Lenox. Part of this trip will be along trackage that has not seen passenger trains since the 70’s. The trip starts at 10:30 and is scheduled back by 5:30 depending upon the runbys for photo ops. The weather is supposed to be sunny for most of this trip luckily, as we have one storm departing by 6am tomorrow and another moving in by tomorrow night. Vintage Diesels will be and the front end as well as vintage passenger cars.
GARRY: Duke’s bike is very quiet, at least the bike he came here to visit me with.
ATTABOY: We are actually OK for rainfall, it’s just that it has been so windy and very low humidity, so the woods dry out VERY quickly until everything is fully green.
J.P.: Our prayers will be with you every night young soldier, you watch yourself over there please.
I have to have the home inspection discrepenceys turned in by 6 P.M. today and the inspector is sitting on it yet. Hasn’t sent it . [censored] [banghead]
Afternoon Gang: I just wanted to let you all know that the surfery went well. I got back about an hour ago and am feeling good. I have a small headach and that is all. I can’t take asprin so Ill have to find some Tylinol. Right now I have a metal patch with a blue rubber edge over my right eye. Help the Borg are assymilating me. I’ll be able to take the patch off in about an hour and remove the pad that is under neath it. Then the patch or my glasses go back on to protect the eye. I’ll have to wear the patch while I sleep so I don’t rub the eye in my sleep. I also have a sore throat from the breathing tube.
JP: you take care over there. When I went to Viet Nam I took a suppleof modeling stuff. I managed to build two small shelf layouts and a couple of scratch built HOn3 cars. Walthers was able to get me stuff I had ordered altho it did take some time.
Well I think that I’ll laydown for a bit. I’ve got to do my ORF credits.
Been out today looking at refrigerators. The one I have is going on fourteen years old now. It may run for another ten years or may quit in the next ten days, no way to tell. Anyway, I found several that meet my requirements, are new and are below $400. It’s always good to know where to grab a new one.
Paul …Ditto on the sore throat that was the only thing that bothered me when I had cataracks off…Mine last 2 or 3 days and wasn’t as bad on second eye…glad to hear you are doing OK…
Rob…I have been picking up Accumates from folks that don’t like them and are updating…I even picked up some that were just in parts that i did pretty good on putting back together…They mate with the M/T’s and I think they look and perform just about as well…They do tend to come apart but I have been carefully using a little heat to seal the coupler box and this seems to take care of that…Jerry
Just climbed out of the pool to keep cool (yah, yah, I know, California+Heat=swimming pools, LOL!). It’s 104 out there, got every fan I own on in the garage. Heck, it blew Fred right out of the ash-pit car. I KNOW he’s around there, someplace, LOL! Anyway, it’s supposed to cool off to 102 tomorrow and be back in the high 80’s by Tuesday. Funny thing about this heat wave, it’s affecting the entire West Coast clear up to British Columbia, and the ‘coast’ itself is baking. 94 in San Francisco yesterday, about 86 today–that doesn’t usually happen, especially in May. As I said earlier, I just hope it’s not a Harbinger Of Things To Come.
Did mainly inside work on the MR today–put cab-shades on my other two Yellowstones so that they’ll all look somewhat similar. I mean, they’re SUPPOSED to, aren’t they, LOL[:I]
Paul: Take extra special care with that eye for a few days. The sore throat should go away in a day or two (HATE those tubes!!).
Rob: Yah, forgot the mudslides–but we don’t have them up here in the North part of the state. Just avalanches in the winter. Forest fires in the summer. And everyone thinks we just lay on the beach or surf, LOL! WHAT beach, WHAT surfing? I live 100 miles from the ocean, for cryin’ out loud![8D] And I don’t like to go there that much, anyway–three days near the ocean, I start sprouting gills and fins! Easier to head into the mountains, they’re only a half hour to the east. And you can BREATHE! Yummy![:P]
Jerry: The only problem I’ve had with Accumates is that they tend to ‘split’ on downgrades with the weight of a heavy train (I’ve got a pretty fearsome 2.2-2.4% downgrade
I have a tank car that had Accu-Mates on it when I bought it. It tended to come uncoupled for seemingly no good reason so I changed them out with Kadee #5’s.
It was another dry but fairly warm day here, well at least warm for us. Nothing like Tom’s warm. We did get up to 70 today which is about normal for this time of year. Sure could use more rain though as it is really dry.
Dick, I think you are in a bananna belt if you’re in zone 5. We’re in 3 here so we can’t even plant out yet as there is always a risk of frost right to the end of the month. Sounds like you’ll have a fun day tomorrow and remember, we do want photos!
RT, Sorry to hear about your frustration but do hope it goes well for you in the end. I’d love to help but it would probably be a 3 or 4 day drive one way so we’ll just have to settle for a little party here in the diner.
Jeff, It sometimes is amazing how long an appliance will last. We got our fridge 26 years ago and it is still OK. When we got it a service man said that it would last about 15 years so you never know. Good idea though to have a back-up plan just in case as a fridge isn’t something you can get along without for very long.
Well tomorrow is our errand day and we have a long list. One thing will be to get some soil and grass seed to repair the back yard lawn as 2 dogs do tend create a lot of grass damage over a winter. That will be Sunday’s project. It is a long week-end here, Victoria Day and I also plan on taking most of next week off as holidays. Got a lot of jobs to do including getting the boat ready which will take about 2 days. It needs a thorough job this year including bottom paint. That stuff is worse than model RR stuff for cost- $55 for one litre. It is also tricky to apply as it literally dries in minutes. You put a small amount in a paint tray and then roller like mad as it dries in 2 minutes. It used to be fun getting it ready for launch but after 24 years it is now a chore. I guess it’s time to sell-maybe next year.
Well it’s after 11 here so I had better sign off .
Today: Showers likely, with thunderstorms also possible after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 66. Breezy, with a west wind between 17 and 22 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Tonight: Showers likely, mainly after 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 44. Breezy, with a west wind between 14 and 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
It’s 59 degrees on it’s way to a high in the low 80’s. The sky is partly cloudy and will increase to mostly cloudy.
[b]
Today’s Weather for:
Sundown, LA 71446-6114 5/17/2008
Wind Chill: 59°F
Humidity: 87%
Dew Point: 55°F
So Far Today
High: 59°F
Low: 55°F
Rain: 0.00"
Rain Rate: 0.00"/h
Gust: 3mph NNE
Today High: 82 Partly sunny. Highs in the lower 80s. Light and variable winds.
Tonight Low: 55 Mostly cloudy. Lows in the mid 50s. Light and variable winds.
[/b]
According to Mike Finan on KCRA Sacto News, the heat wave’s supposed to ‘break’ today, with a high of only 102. I get such a kick out of that TV station–everytime the temperature climbs above 95, they all look at each other so gleefully. They’re REALLY from ‘out-of-state’.
Well, took my Basket Case Yellowstone for her first ‘maiden run’ last night, hooked up a 30-odd car reefer train behind her and let her rip. Runs like a dream, she didn’t even let on she was pulling anything, started the train up my 1.5% like it wasn’t even there. EXCEPT: the big flexable steam line from the boiler to the front set of cylinders appears to be warped, and derails the front set of drivers on a left-hand turn. Now I KNOW it was a Basket Case when I bought it, but how in the name of Mother Theresa did a 1/4" round solid brass tube get itself WARPED? I think it’s repairable, but if not, I’m going to have to get some brass tubing and fashion another one. But hey–it’s brass, it’s easy to work with and I KNOW it’s repairable.
So I guess that’s my project for today. Sometimes model railroading is like smoking a pipe–you spend far more time fiddling with the equipment than you ever do using it, LOL!
Speaking of–better hit the kitchen table. She’s on it staring at me patiently.
Best wishes to all, prayers to those in need of them.
