The Coffee Shop (a place to chat) Est. 2004

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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Good evening gents…another banner day here in central Mass, in fact, the entire New England…clear blue skies, Dew point of 14 degrees, and humidity is 12%…that is LOW and very, very dry…if it weren’t for all the woodlands and ponds, I’d think I was in the desert!!! The downside is…they have halted all open burning permits until we get some rain. Brush fires have started up all over the area, in fact, my youngest son is out fighting a woodland fire at this moment somewhere north of us…

JIM: Usually I get to bed around midnight, but lately I have been too tired after all the outside work, so I hit the sack about 11pm. And watch out for them thar bees…they can get very hostile. I was cutting a tree up several years ago and stepped on a ground yellow jacket nest without knowing it. I got stung 8 times before I get get out of the area. Luckily I am not alergic to bees.

BOB: We are also up north in the Fall for chan ging colors. We are in the North Conway area the 1st two weeks of October. If you have the time, and want to m ake a very nice circuit drive in folliage season, take route 100 all the way up through Vermont. It runs from the Mass border to the Canadian border. It goes right past Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream factory where you can take a tour, also, the Von Trappe lodge is just a bit further north. After hitting the end of route 100, take route 115 back southeast through the great northeast kingdom of Vermont into New Hampshire at North Stratford where you cross the Connecticut river. The follow route 3 south to Lincoln , NH, where you take route 112 east over the pass to route 16 in Conway, NH. Take route 16 north throught he beautiful town of North Conway. The Scenic RR is right there in town, and you can take a 5 hour ride up through Crawford Notch, past the Mt Washington Hotel to Fabian Station before the engine switched over to return back to North Conway. You will see some of the most beautiful scenery that you will find anywhere in the Fall. You stop on two high br

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Hey there GMTRacing-are they still running FL9`s on the commuter service out your way? Nice to find a Lotus mechanic out there, Colin Chapman would be delighted !! regards,nick

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Chloe, a decaf mocha for me please…

Hi guys, just a quick check-in:

Adam –
Are you doing both N and HO now? Or are you doing a total conversion to N?

Capt. Turk –

It appears that you’ve been listening to Brad Paisley’s latest country song quite a bit lately! [swg][:D]

Brian –
I wish you the best of luck with that insurance co. job, if that is the one you really want…but wouldn’t the Amtrak job be more fun if you could get that?

Siberian Tom –
You’ve done it again my friend: given new meaning to the word dazzle! [:P][tup][:P][tup][:P]

JimCG –
Glad to be of assistance. I think if they have had it on their shelf since 2003, they’ll probably still have it on Friday…

You mean shorter vertically and longer horizontally …right?

Ga. Tom –
I probably need to read “Military Aircraft For Dummies”, but I have a question:

What exactly is a “Puff”? It must be spectacular if Paul compares it to hot metal being poured.

*** –

[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by grayfox1119
. And watch out for them thar bees…they can get very hostile. I was cutting a tree up several years ago and stepped on a grou

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Evening everyone… hope you can stand one more comment about my " N " scale train set. Got it up and running today, my grandson loves it, I like it also. It sure makes you appreciate HO a lot more. HO is still No. 1 in my book!!!

Everyone have A great evening.

Stan.

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Hi All;

Teffy we know that you weren’t gloating. ( I think) If Trent does buy one of them are you going to pack like I did?

Good evening Ken. Puff was a C-47 equipped with 3 mini-guns so they could fire out the left side of the aircraft. The pilot flew the aircraft in a left circle with the target in the center. Some Show.

This ones going to be short tonight.

Good Night All

Paul

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ken -

I completely agree that the Amtrak job would be more fun but also alot less pay… not to mention that I would be in the middle of limbo all the time seeing as I guess the job is out of Albequerque or something… wich could mean LA to New Mexico or New Mexico to New Orleans. So I will still send in my application but if I get the insurance job I think I will try and stick with that for a while.

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Goodnearlytomorrow folks. I started this sometime after lunch, and have been taking up good table space ever since! Good thing this place isn’t run like the coffee shop Hawthorne the hermit crab ran in Sherman’s Lagoon (The Shark Diaries, pages 41-43), or I’d be thrown out[(-D]

Stan:

…but check out the website I told Ken about on page 416. Now, that’s tiny [(-D]

CapeJim:

Wouldn’t want to lead the young and impressionable astray, now would we Jim? Actually it sounds very festive. Kris does a killer Cranberry and Orange sauce for Turkey[yum][dinner]

Thinks…is this a job for Super Pedromorgan? Cast resin doodads like that might work? Where is Pedro these days? Did he nod off at work and forget to go home?[(-D] Glad you liked the amazing miniatures! Try soldering those motor leads, and how about fixing motor brushes!![wow] [gasp]

Yes, B-17 sounds familiar, now you mention it. If memory serves, the super fortress morphed into the airliners Pan Am used for long haul just after the war. Like the Lancaster became the Avro York (of which I was once the proud owner of a Dinky Toy™ model[:D])
As to getting back to mrr, a step in that direction was taken today with the filing of income tax returns for both Kris and myself. Now it’s just Kris’ mother’s to do. Oh, w

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Good Evening Chloe, looks like you got a little rest in between the dinner rush and the late-late crew. Don’t need to get up from soaking your feet - I can reach the coffee pot and cups, thanks! I’ll even put my coins on the counter by the register and you can put it in if anyone else comes in. Since Georgia Tom and JR are fighting to see who buys the drinks, I’ll pour a second cup, too!

Well, looks like your break is over - Der John just cut through and I see *** and Jack are here now, and [#welcome] mercme! [tup] Have a cup on me (well, really on GMTRacing and twhite, who started this page)! Come in and pick a comfy seat, and tell us a bit about you: What scale do you model? Any particular RR or freelancing like myself? Diesel, steam or both? And do you model a particular time period? Inquiring minds want to know… [:)] You’ll find this a friendly bunch - we discourage flaming in here, but a lot of other varieties of ideas/scales/thoughts can be found in here. Oh, if you like to watch the trains, that corner booth is good for that.

Nick:

Yep, but I don’t think all of the ones I’m talking about are Catholics, I’d say! [;)] Sounds like you had a really good time, if the pool team had to send some gents down your way with their ‘request’. [B)]

JP, I’d go for the chocolate chips, since I would expect that both of those together would not be my [tip of the hat in a Northeasterly direction here] cup of tea…[}:)]

***, I’d be careful around those bees - I’ve heard of people becoming allergic to them after they get stung badly. Don’t want to find out the hard way, if you are now allergic.

Praise God for a quick selection of the new Pope - may he be as good a Pope as Pope John Paul II (or better, even)!

Ken - they’ve had that kit since 2003!? Should I try to get a discount because of that? (Who, me, cheapskate</

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Good evening folks. Long day at work it’s crew evaluation time and I’m not the sort who enjoys paper work so chloe I think a beer tonight please.Ltes see what questions can i attempt to answer tonight.Cape Jim - If you are looking for industrial sah windows look at tichy train and grandt Line they bioth have a huge selection of different types. I’ve found some from both which i can use for passenger/streetcar windows The prices aren’t to bad either.Si Nice job on the polar express shelf.[tup][[tup]I may have to enlist you to help mne with scenery work. Seriously that’s some nice work there[8D][;)][bow] Duke yah no word on the openning(s)two jobs open now yet. They have three more people to interview so it may be a while yet. trent I’m thinking positive for you bud. It’s good that you have a nice thourough Dr. Brian good luck on the job front.As encouragement when I’m interviewing people if i give them a second and an orientation i’m usually pretty sure that I want them on board so i’ve got all my oposable didgets crossed for you.well i’m beat bedtime for bonzo[:D][|)][zzz][zzz][zzz] Rob

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Good Evening all … just closed up “Our Place” over on Classic Trains and saw the light on … nothing for me, thanx.

Gotta do a little catching up with my replies …

I wonder if what you are seeing belongs to the “Acadian” rail tours outfit? These folks offer rail tours from the U.S. northeast northward into Canada and the Maritimes plus Quebec. Be interesting to see what you have … I’ve checked some travel sites out and haven’t come across any RDC’s with “Acadian” - but who knows?

Thanx for the insight! I’ve collected some info about these cars, but all from North American sources … now the “picture” is complete! VIA Rail has done a good job in getting the “Renaissance” cars adapted to NA rail standards … Unfortunately, they simply do not measure up for those of us who prefer the older equipment with the “yesteryear” ambiance … BUDD’s stainless steel cars. Thanx again![tup]

[quote]
QUOTE: der5997 Posted: 16 Apr 2

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Just got back from choir practice, and it was interesting to say the least–much talk about our new Pope–everything from ‘He’s supposed to be a very warm person’ to ‘Well, we’ve finally gotten ourselves a German Shepherd’. Franciscans are nothing if not opinionated. We’ll see what happens–but Fr. Anthony put it about as well as I’ve heard it, by saying “Remember, we’re not replacing John Paul II, we’re replacing the spirit of St. Peter.” Hm–gives one something to think about.

Siberianmo: That Polar Express is just SUPER, my friend!! Talk about Magic Atmosphere, you’ve got it in spades–wonderful work!

Steve: I was afraid the ‘Black Pudding’ was what I thought it was. I had something similar in Germany a few years back, only they called it ‘Blutwurst’ and if I’d thought about translating it–oh well, it went pretty well with about four or five Lagers, LOL! Don’t ask me why, but it reminds me of the old Haggis joke: “The reason the bagpipers pipe ceremoniously around the table is to keep your mind off of what you’re eating.” The mustard sounds very cool, however.

Well, I ran out of ‘track shoes’ (so did my LHS), so I ordered some more sets. I think I’m just going to equip every loco I have with the little nifties, it’s sure made a difference on my old brass. Still think I’ll get a couple of them fitted with NWSL cans–have an older SP MK-5 2-8-2 that sounds like a coffee grinder, even with cleaning and lube, though it will pull the paint off of the walls.

And thanks, guys, for the condolences and prayers. My priest and I were talking about it yesterday, and he smiled and said, “Do you notice that the prayers are not for the departed–they’re already with God. The prayers are to help those of us left behind to deal with it.” So before I get all maudlin and philosophical, I’ll just thank you again. Life goes on, and I have some scenery to build and trees to plant–Spooky started shredding furnace filter material again-- and I just found a

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Hi All [:)]

I worked a 10 hour shift tonight so too tired to read everything. I just skimmed a little. [B)] [8]

As I was getting ready for this early this afternoon I watched a video of the 4449. That was one beautiful engine and the Mars lights were very effective. I like the Mars and the Gryalite much better than the ditch lights. [:0]

I once worked in a restaurant that served a Beef and Kidney Pot Pie. It was served with a puff. I tried it once. I thought it was ok, but it didn’t stay on the menu very long. The customers (mostly Americans of course) were too skiddi***o order it and try it.

I hope everyone is doing well.

I have good news and bad news. [:I]

The good news is today is Wednesday [:)]
.
The bad news is today is not Friday. [:p]

One newsworthly note, one of my female coworkers suffered a heart attack at work Tuesday night. At first I didn’t know what was happening but she was crying and holding her chest and arm. I tried to ask her questions but she just kept crying. I ask if she wanted me to call the nurse. She said NO. Finally the nurse was called. Then the nurse radioed security for an ambulance. On Wednesday she will have an angioplasty ( ? ). So please remember her in your prayers. Poor women fell about 6 weeks ago and broke her tailbone. She was off about a month with that. She is really having a rough time financially and now it will be getting worse with all the new bills from the heart attack. [V]

Stay Safe, Be Careful and Drink Milk. [:D]

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Good Morning All,
Coffees fresh and ready. No fresh bagels this morning tho - trying to lose a bit of weight.

NickWales - I haven’t seen any FL-9s’ lately except for the one in the local rail museum (I am not that strong on loco i.d. yet but I think it is a retired FL-9). I cross the commuter line twice a day going to work and all they use now are those tinkertoy pushme-pullu’s that look as though someone angle cut a piece of alloy box tube. At least the cars are vintage repaints on stainless pullman coaches using the Mcginnes era scheme (odd to honor the fellow that finally ruined the finances beyond repair, but…) If I ever figure out the posted picture thing I’ll try to include local 1:1 as well as my HO.My real job is restoration and race prep of vintage road race cars so we see a variety of Loti, Elvas’, Brabham, RALT and other mostly Brit, mostly single seaters.

derJohn - I think the B29 morphed into Boeings Stratocruiser after WWII. My father was a Sperry ball turrent gunner in both B-17’s and B-24’s and going in the visiting planes when they come to the airport, neither has enough interior room to swing a cat and wouldn’t have converted very well.

Siberianmo - Yes I meant the HO layout also in the pictures, I know the pictures were really of the Polar Express, but I have never been real good at staying on task. I keep looking at what others have done for ideas, and the terracing caught my eye. Both layouts are gorgeous, but I’m really waiting for the “levitated” S scale you threatened to suspend from the ceiling.

My quest for a theme remains a freelanced version of the New Haven probably in the transition era so I can run both steam and early diesel. I’m struggling with how to fit what I want in the space I have (like that’s a new problem) so the tentative name for the road is SCNH (for Southern Connecticut New Haven or Seriously Conflicted New Haven if I don’t do the compression thing right). I’m trying to plan a flavor of the area

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Good morning all,
I don’t know if ya’ll heard about the indian that came into the coffee shop the other morning. He was leading a bull with a rope, and had a shotgun under his arm. He sat down at the counter and asked Zoe if she served indians in here. Of course, Zoe said we serve anyone. Well, the indian ordered a cup of coffee. Zoe brought him his coffee and he drank it right down. When he finished his coffee, he got up, turned around and shot the bull with the shotgun, blowing blood and flesh all over the place. He didn’t say a word and just walked out.
The next morning, in comes the indian again. He has another bull with him and the shotgun. He orders a cup of coffee, and Zoe says “Now wait a minute, you made such a terrible mess in here yesterday morning that we still haven’t got it all cleaned up. What’s the deal with the bull?”
The indian replys " Me train for upper level management".
Zoe asks “Training for upper level management, what do you mean?”
The indian answers “Come in morning, drink coffee, shoot bull, make big mess for workers to clean up, and leave for rest of day!”
Everybody have a nice day[:D][:D][4:-)]

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You hit it on the head “Magic” is what our hobby is all about - trying to recreate something “sitting” in your mind’s eye - hoping that when finished - it “works”!
Appreciate the compliment …[tup][;)]

By the way, those rock formations on the last picture you posted are fantastic … how’d you do that? My HO layout is landscaped with insulated foam boards and I’m still “finishing” it … since the layout is rather large, I’m always looking for creative ways to form and shape the “rock.”

Also - got a kick out of the “German Shepherd” reference … clever![:)]

See ya! [tup][;)]

Tom in Chesterfield, MO, USA (Siberianmo)

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Good Morning All:

I don’t know if I’m just after Capt Turk but after that story OOOOOOOOOHHHHH!

It amazes me how many people come in and visit and never post anything. Their are three people in here now and neither of the other two have ever posted anything.

Fergie didn’t say if he was liking the “extra” time on or not but he’s ready to come home because he’s run out of RR projects.

***:
I’ve done the “fall color” trip 13 times and the wife was always “going on the next one”. I’ve been to the maritimes seven times and she was always “going on the next one”. That’s one of the advantages of owning a charter bus company. After her stroke I decided that the “future” was now and she and I were going to do a fall color trip and she wanted to add the Maritimes so that’s what we did last fall. I got to meet Fergie and John and was impressed with both of their layouts. Fergie gave us a personal tour of Halifax and of course we went railfanning and found two turntables. One of them didn’t have the pitt in the ground all the way around and I’m going to do my second one just like that.

On the motorcoach tours I always drove thru Maine into the Maritimes and took the ferry from Yarmouth to Portland, but on our trip I went the other way as she wanted to sleep on the ferry.

On one trip we went to a local playhouse and saw one of the Von Trapp grandaughters in the play “Sound of Music” portraying her famous grandmother.

On one trip or another, I think I’ve been on all of the roads that you mentioned. The good thing about our trip was that we were in NY, VT, NH, and ME and then went into the Maritimes for six days and then back into New England. The colors that we missed on the first pass through we caught on the second. We left toward the end of Sept and the colors were great. Several guys on the forum were keeping me posted as to how the colors were doing, and they told us on a Tuesday that it was close so we left Saturd

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Good Morning, Zoe - I’ll have a coffee and a cinnamon roll to go please. Laundromat run to do before I go to work at 1. I see I just missed Teffy and Capt. Turk.[:(]

GMTRacing

Careful, JR, Spooky will think that was a recommendation on what the tailgunner should do…[;)]

Capt. Turk - Great story! [(-D] I’ll have to tell that one at work this afternoon.[tup]

Ark.Jim, sorry to hear about your co-worker. Will be praying for her.

Teffy:

Bob, that rings all too true [(-D] - for a lot of hobbies!

Got to go shave, dress and do laundry. (Well, I ran out of clean clothes for work…)[swg]

Blessings on everyone’s day,

Jim in Cape Girardeau

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Good mid-morning all -
Well, the moving day is almost upon us. When I leave here this afternoon, I’ll be off till Monday morning. And by then, I will have completely moved into my new place. I’ve decided to forgo cable tv for the time being…try and save money since some of what I used last week for security and 1st month’s, was put aside for wife to use for some of her closing costs. Not that it will help much, but as some folks say…every penny helps!
Anyways, I am not sure when it was last said, but HOW 'BOUT THEM RED SOX? Yeah, I know…they last last night in the 9th when they were unable to tie the game. But, on a good note…the Yanks also lost!
Well all - time to get some more work done. I’ll check in a little later to see a menu for today’s lunch.
Take care…
JP

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Darn! I did it again… I really need to stop doing this!
Zoe / Chloe… Set 'em up for the folks!
Everyone…enjoy your favorite beverage on me today!
JP

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Hi all

Well, completed “Provisional Registration” - basically this saves time in September and means I won’t have to worry about getting into the modules I want. Had to make a couple of changes to my plans as I’d forgotten the “core module” that I have to do for the degree scheme and one of my planned choices wasn’t in fact running. Good news on the MRR front too – my next batch of LGB lighting kit is on the way – should have a “how to” feature on fitting lighting and pickups to LGB passenger cars on my webspace soon, will post a link when it’s done.

Tom (siberianmo), the Polar Express is looking good. Really like that Lionel throttle unit – looks far more “serious” than anything else I’ve seen!

Duke, it’s not too bad – there’s three modules per semester and only about 6 lectures and 3 seminars per week, so there’s plenty of spare time to get stuff done. Thanks for the good wishes – luckily I don’t have to start on the dissertation until this time next year.

Jim, I was seriously considering setting the alarm off – could say “saved by the bell” - very boring seminar! The ones for that module started a week late, and we’ve had so many of the lectures cancelled that nobody bothers to turn up now, as we’re fed up with seeing the “lecture cancelled” sign on the door! Dissertation length is, as yet, unknown – no need to worry about it until next year though – thanks for the good wishes! The little shunting tractor is currently sat in its box awaiting a sunny weekend when I can get some track out on the patio and run some trains.

Nick, I’ve seen the timber trains in Aber in the metal – was driving into town one day when one went over the rail bridge directly above me. They’re using the Network Rail MPVs (think that’s the right name) – basically these are container flats with a small cab and a truck engine for power, marshalled either end of a train of conventional timber wagons. They put a “37” on the first run as they were worried the MPVs wouldn’t cope w