Elliott's Trackside Diner - April 2012

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Morning All,

Flo I would love a cup of coffee please. The darn animals woke me at 5:30 this morning scratching in our bedroom. This was followed by a call from work asking if I wanted to come in for OT. Since I am already getting paid today (time trade) that would have me working for free…not happening.

I’m going to do some electrical layout work today. The yard right now has power coming in through 1 track to 9 tracks. It works OK but if you throw a switch to a different direction it kills the power to the original lead downstream of the switch. Not my favorite job doing power leads but it needs done.

Well I got my new work schedule for May-Sept and it is exactly the same as I work now. It was my 9th choice. Not real happy about it.

Lee- The reason I mentioned the anchoring was because these guys anchor their boat 2 times a day for just about every day. While in the Navy one of the subs I was on had anchoring issues 3 different times. The last time we were practicing outside of Pearl and we couldn’t lift it so we had divers come out and tie a lead to it and we winched it up on deck using a capstan and entered port that way.MOH thought that was pretty funny [sigh].

Ulrich- I am ashamed[:$] to say I never knew about the FL museum. It looks like it is only open on Sat and Sun so I am going to try to get there the weekend of the 21st. It is about 2 hours from where I live. I will take lots of pictures when I go.

Everyone take care of yourself.

22

Mornin’ everyone!

Zoe, just an egg, bacon, and cheese muffin and a cup of dark roast to go. Heading out to church.

Floweedah, huh? Too darned hot there this time of year as far as I’m concerned. Guess I will just stay inside by the air conditioner and out of the sun! Nothin’ down here but bugs, poisonous snakes, and old people… [:-^] Just joking, I have some relatives down here too. Please don’t let them know I am in the area!

Later!

73

23

Good Morning!! Coffee and….you know what? Not really hungry right now, so just coffee. Thanks.

Sunny, with a high near 86. Southwest wind between 7 and 11 mph, with gusts as high as 15 mph.

Welp, I did it. I took down the layout and sold all the stuff for 7 dollars in change. Mostly quarters. APRIL FOOLS!!! Come on guys. I can’t even find the thing let alone get to it to take it down.[(-D]

Ok seriously. Me an Squatchy my Bigfoot were talking and decided…HAH!! Got you again![(-D]

Oh you guys are too easy. (chuckle)

Anyway, mowed more of the yard again yesterday but ran out of bags again[sigh]. I’m bagging because if I don’t there will be so much grass on the ground the grass will die out. I could rake it up, but I tried that last time and didn’t get around to getting it all due to other things coming up and it was not real good so I figure this time I’ll just do the bag thing and take the time. Better in the long run. I will get the last part done today, then mow the yard again because the front needs it again. I see a perpetual mowing month going on here.

Went to the Chinese buffet last night, got my favorite waitress again[Y]. This time her name was Susan.[^o)] I asked her, well pointed to the name on the ticket, and she smiled and said “yes, Susan” I said I thought it was Nancy. She smiled and said…”yes. Nancy”[:S] I’m gonna learn Chinese today so by Wednesday if I get there, I’ll know how to ask her name. Easier that way. Funny thing I was finishing my ice cream and my third Dotta Peppa ( she must think I’m dehydrated) and I noticed she was standing by my side holding the bill tray. She was looking at the buffet and I saw she was looking at Brenda who was up there talking to a friend of hers. She looked down and made a couple hesitant moves to set the bill down and then looked back at Brenda. She finally set the bill

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[:-^]

[quote user=“wetidlerjr”]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

Today is the first Sunday in April so don’t forget to set your clocks back one hour!

[:-^]

Tipton Bill,

You are a scream… Happy April Fools to you as well.

Johnboy out…and checking his watch that still shows the correct time.

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Well, it looks like the SDP40F’s (my two biggest six axle locos) will keep their decoders after all. I put them on the layout for a final chance to redeem themselves after their deplorable performance of a couple of weeks ago and they’ve decided to play ball. They’ve been running the entire route around the layout for nearly an hour now without a single problem and that’s even pushing a train backyards at high speed without so much as a hiccup. Considering the rough state of my track there’s something to be said for that. Miraculous might be the word. There’s been some minor track work between then and now, mostly clearing out some excess ballast and dealing with a set of turnout points that were sitting too high. That little bit must have made all the difference. I got some of the run on video too. SDP40F run.

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Got these two shots of the SDP40F’s. Both have Athearn blue box shells. The lead unit is on an Athearn blue box chassis that was rebuilt to RTR using the motor, drive parts and wheels from an Athearn AC4400. The trailing unit is on a cut down Proto 2000 E6 chassis. Both have Digitrax DZ125 Z Scale decoders and are speed matched and permanently mu’d. You’ll never see one without the other.

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Happy April 1st, everybody.

The visit is going well for the most part. I took the 10 year old grand daughter fishing on the dock. Unfortunately, some uncontrolled teenagers were running their jet skis at full throttle in our bay making fishing impossible. Grrr … We’ll try again later. Early evening should be a good time.

Mr. B … Nice of you to check in from Italy. We’ll have to have Italian food here this evening to celebrate.

Jeff … I said you use Z scale decoders. Any problems with them in large HO locomotives?

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I’ve had very few problems with them. The SDP40F is the largest loco I have. It’s bigger than an SD40-2, on the order of an E unit.

Here’s a shot of the interior of the lead unit. The small red thing above the rear flywheel is the decoder.

29

Afternoon folks!

Just popping in to see what is going on. I could use a nice cup of hot chocolate, Chloe. Thank You!

THAT is why I don’t bag up the clippings. Just leave them right on the lawn in hopes…

I keep thinking of more things to do with the Powerhouse by the quarry. Now I think I will scratch build a water tower for it. After all those boilers need to have a good constant water supply! I have put on various styles of vents on the roofs, and drain screens where the downspouts are and stone covering the flat roof (Well two of the three. The other will get done after I build the water tower).

Have any of you used the WS foam roadbed? If you have, what kind of glues have you used. I need to use something a bit more robust than the somewhat sticky, pull apart easy stuff sold by WS. I prefer putting down the ties with Pliobond. I’m thinking it might eat right through the roadbed material. Looks like the cork isn’t going to be around for a while as the company that makes it can’t find usable cork to import for it… [sigh]

Catch you all later!

73

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Columbian coffee in a SUNNY SOUTHERN mug, please.

***Jeffrey, enjoyed the video. It’s nice to get a broader feel for your layout.[Y]

Need to order a few tubes of oil paint, and discovered they also sell Scenic Accents Glue. So, added one of those for setting more of the little folks on the (HO) layout.

Taking a day of rest here.

[C):-)] Rob

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Happy Weekend Modelers!

Fire 90% Contained! - They say we might get SNOW/ RAIN soon!!!

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=215563989566450268982.0004bc2e2a43a753aeec4&msa=0&ll=39.488145,-105.254517&spn=0.200311,0.308647

32

Hello everybody!

Set your clocks back??? Oh, happy April Fools!

Got back a bit eailer than expected so that means now I have time to lift weights, which I like to do. Birthdays coming up on the third, so I should be getting some mr stuff.

See ya later

33

Evening All,

Well it’s back to work tomorrow. Temps for the week are supposed to be right at 90 F all week with no rain. It did rain yesterday for a little bit.

I got the yard powered and tested and now switch position does not effect power distribution, which is a good thing. After doing that I ran trains for awhile. So all in all it was a productive MRR day. MOH was supposed to sew the curtain for the open closet but she never got around to it.[sigh]

Jeff- Nice video. Were those tornado’s getting ready to touch down on your layout[(-D]. Just kidding.

Ray- Nice job on the roof.

Everybody have a good night and prayers for those in need.

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Afternoon/Evening, Flo - I’ll just have a RBF please (ate lunch late). Thanks!

Lee, (hopefully, I won’t set off the [soapbox] with this…) I wrote my Congresswoman and both my Senators, suggesting that if they really wanted to help out the “people of this fine land”, that they look at cutting back their healthcare plan and their retirement benefits (THAT would save the government some money!). And that’s about all I will say on that for now… [:-^]

Florida, eh? Hey, maybe if Flip stops by, he can point out a few local trainspotting places for us to visit!

Bill T. - you rascal, you! [oX)]

TSF, actually, your post is back there on the old siding - I read it before I can following the breadcrumb trail over here.

Ken, how soon can you update your resume? (Just kiddin’…I think!) Hope you don’t have to leave really soon, but sometimes it’s a hard choice about when/how soon.

Sue, with what I’ve seen about your weather on the news the past few days, I bet you’re ready for spring summer to arrive in the Northwest (I’d realized that someone in the previous Diner had mentioned that your non-wet season is about 3 months in duration (or less?).

Ray, Ray - On your list of Floridian things and critters, you forgot the Florida state pet - gators! [swg] Do you have want yours with or without the dog leash hanging out of its mouth? [:-^]

Ah, Jeff, Mr. Murphy’s just leading you on with your SDP40F’s… [;)] Still, I’d keep a good-running loco on my layout

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Curt: Good on getting the wiring done. When I originally switched from DC to DCC I had places all over the layout where power would dip and the trains would slow down. Running more feeders put a stop to that. You making fun of my fly paper strips?[(-D] They do look tacky hanging over the layout but it’s where they’re out of the way and they’re seemingly right in the bugs flight path when they come in whenever the doors opened. Time for some new strips.

Jim: It really surprised me this morning when those two big locos ran flawlessly. A few weeks ago they were derailing at the drop of a hat. As I indicated though I’ve done a bit of work on stripping out excess ballast, mostly from the sides of the rails. Glad I decided to check them again before opening them up and ripping out the decoders.

36

Good Evening…

We had another operating session tonight with about 4 people this time…and had 6 mishaps…Bang HeadSoapBox…I am not going to recite them…Grumpy

37

Evening Folks

Flo, Beer Please.

My head hurts, my feet hurts and even my butt hurts. (well the butt is OK but you get the idea)!

I forgot all about it being April Fool’s Day, that explains a lot! Satins Spawn Larry was being nice to me today and telling me I should approach Neil about being made into a manager. It was only him and I today so I thought he was just bettering me up to help him with the computer! Well I knew he was Lying! Reason I knew? His lips where moving!

Sometimes I am a knuckle head, I did help him with the computer. I never believed what he was saying but I did help him. [banghead] I keep telling my self the next time he needs help, just walk away and let him dangle in the wind! But I am a sap, and keep helping the Caboose!

Just plain tuckered out tonight.

Ken

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Time for me to call it a night. See y’all tomorrow.

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Chamomile tea, please.

***Jim: Yep, that’s exactly how Storm Cat earned her name and she lives up to it by scratching at the sliding glass door to go outside and watch the lightning. Very strange cat indeed.

Only in the country do you find a note on your mailbox reading:

[Missing Calf Brown bull calf with white head & face. Last seen March 26. Very gentle, but probably scared. Please call -----------]

No kidding, found it out there today. The note, not the calf.

Will be in the corner booth a bit, winding down. [C):-)] Rob

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OOPS, posted twice and couldn’t erase. Sorry!