Smudge617
Well-Known Member
Yeah have a similar problem going into London, my first thought is usually "now where did I leave that flipping tank"
Running Bear's March 2022 Coffee Shop
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OBTC 1909
Well-Known Member
Good morning all! Very rainy and 42 here in SE Illinois. Rain was coming down crazy hard about 4 hours ago or so. The wind and rain woke me up right about time the power went out. It stayed out for about 25 minutes. I got a new generator recently but don't have everything set up to where I can safely hook it up to the house. Didn't really need it for a 25 minute outage, but spring storms will soon be here so I'd like to get things ready. Every spring when the storms start up we have a bunch of people come in to the store buying generators and the supplies to quickly hook them up to power their homes. Sadly, they want to do it the easy way instead of the right way and the easy way is dangerous.
Seemed weird being back to work on my regular shift yesterday after being on nights the last 2 weeks. Nice to get back to normal. I only have 9 work days left there before moving on. I heard yesterday several other people are also leaving very soon, so the staffing problem will only get worse for those who remain. The corporate leadership is sadly more interested in keeping payroll low than keeping the store adequately staffed, yet they expect the workers to keep up great customer service and prevent those bad surveys from coming in. They don't seem to care that it's impossible for the few people they have working to help the number of customers coming in each day.
But anyway.....Hope you all have a great day!
Seemed weird being back to work on my regular shift yesterday after being on nights the last 2 weeks. Nice to get back to normal. I only have 9 work days left there before moving on. I heard yesterday several other people are also leaving very soon, so the staffing problem will only get worse for those who remain. The corporate leadership is sadly more interested in keeping payroll low than keeping the store adequately staffed, yet they expect the workers to keep up great customer service and prevent those bad surveys from coming in. They don't seem to care that it's impossible for the few people they have working to help the number of customers coming in each day.
But anyway.....Hope you all have a great day!
CambriaArea51
Well-Known Member
Good morning.....Last night I took my 3 Chessie units and with the ESU lokprogrammer did the advanced consist. Turned out great, just have to make a couple of lighting and sound changes and all will be good.
chessie_system3
Well-Known Member
Monday again....crazy weather today and the rest of the week. 70s today then the temps plummet again. Did some repairs over the weekend to the fleet. Had an Atlas GP7 that a wire had broke off of the motor. Repaired that and got it running. Had to adjust the heights of some hoppers to get the couplers to match the rest of the fleet. Got that done up. Only things I did train wise. As per-usual, raising temps means layout warps. This translates to poor switching ability as well. At this point I just shake my head. I fear the same occurrence again if I do a new build. Think that's why I haven't ran out and purchased what I need. I'm not going to beat a dead horse on this subject. Well it's back to work for me. I'll stop by later if I get a chance. Hope everyone is doing well
D&J RailRoad
Professor of HO
I guess the best protest is when nobody says anything or attracts any attention, until there's something that really troubles me.
Patrick
Alien Attitude.
Morning all,
Had some freezing rain yesterday afternoon, enough so that it was unexpected. That said, roadways in the immediate area in good shape this morning as the warm ground and otherwise dry air made short work of it once it stopped. Supposed to get to near 40° later today.
Had some train time yesterday, I need to get some plaster of paris to complete the rest of what I'm needing to do. More on that in my build thread. Had to stop as I had some invading buildings on the layout...
My great lakes lighthouse collection. Daughter coming in to get some more of her stuff out of the basement asked if they could take my curio cabinet as it is a match for hers, both bought at the the same store a month or so apart. Store owner was the next door neighbor, so he ordered the second one for me. They promised me a new(er) one. For where they are wanting them the matched pair is a good idea. And as much as I need to downsize, they are all boxed up at this time. Many are of the same 2 lighthouses from where I spent my first years (Grand Haven and Holland Michigan). There are some other ones as well. All of them I have seen in person at one time.
Got my home appraisal for the next tax year, valuation up nearly 13% over last year. Problem is I really can't argue too much as another house in the neighborhood sold within 24 hours for $20,000 over asking. Houses in the neighborhood were in the $115-$125 thousand dollar range when we bought ours 8 years ago.
Terry: Hope the wife is doing well.
BBL
Had some freezing rain yesterday afternoon, enough so that it was unexpected. That said, roadways in the immediate area in good shape this morning as the warm ground and otherwise dry air made short work of it once it stopped. Supposed to get to near 40° later today.
Had some train time yesterday, I need to get some plaster of paris to complete the rest of what I'm needing to do. More on that in my build thread. Had to stop as I had some invading buildings on the layout...
My great lakes lighthouse collection. Daughter coming in to get some more of her stuff out of the basement asked if they could take my curio cabinet as it is a match for hers, both bought at the the same store a month or so apart. Store owner was the next door neighbor, so he ordered the second one for me. They promised me a new(er) one. For where they are wanting them the matched pair is a good idea. And as much as I need to downsize, they are all boxed up at this time. Many are of the same 2 lighthouses from where I spent my first years (Grand Haven and Holland Michigan). There are some other ones as well. All of them I have seen in person at one time.
Got my home appraisal for the next tax year, valuation up nearly 13% over last year. Problem is I really can't argue too much as another house in the neighborhood sold within 24 hours for $20,000 over asking. Houses in the neighborhood were in the $115-$125 thousand dollar range when we bought ours 8 years ago.
Terry: Hope the wife is doing well.
BBL
santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Obviously not concerned about income!
MilwRoader_Steve
Well-Known Member
Sorry all, no posts for a few days. Been busy with RL and finally got some serious train room work done yesterday. Can't spend the time perusing all the posts - - no doubt I am missing important info.
This evening, I should lay the inner north loop and the western straight to give me full loops on both inner and outter. Wednesday, I hope to take a video of trains running both loops.
Ken - your ops session sounds fun; glad you have a decent group of guys with which to spend such fun times.
Whatever happened to the other Steve? Haven't seen him on the forum in quite some time. I would still like to hook up with him at the Hennepin Overland so he can help tutor me re my Atlas loco that won't go.
******* So I Have a Fear ******* Within a few weeks, if I can keep up the pace, I will have all the track laid. I'm having a blast with the track laying. What if I get all the track down and then get bored?! Maybe I just like the track laying part????
Made wifeykins leave her knitting and come "ooh and ahh" my achievements yesterday. SHowed her the plan for what is left. "Where is the town?" she asked. What town? "You know, the town with the cute houses and quaint shops."
I said this is no fairy-land town - - this is hard action industry! Raw goods into finished products; money; industrial waste. Then I mentioned the above fear to her. She said, "Then start the track along the walls over our chairs, but I want a cute little village!"
There goes our retirement savings! But I will stay busy!
This evening, I should lay the inner north loop and the western straight to give me full loops on both inner and outter. Wednesday, I hope to take a video of trains running both loops.
Ken - your ops session sounds fun; glad you have a decent group of guys with which to spend such fun times.
Whatever happened to the other Steve? Haven't seen him on the forum in quite some time. I would still like to hook up with him at the Hennepin Overland so he can help tutor me re my Atlas loco that won't go.
******* So I Have a Fear ******* Within a few weeks, if I can keep up the pace, I will have all the track laid. I'm having a blast with the track laying. What if I get all the track down and then get bored?! Maybe I just like the track laying part????
Made wifeykins leave her knitting and come "ooh and ahh" my achievements yesterday. SHowed her the plan for what is left. "Where is the town?" she asked. What town? "You know, the town with the cute houses and quaint shops."
I said this is no fairy-land town - - this is hard action industry! Raw goods into finished products; money; industrial waste. Then I mentioned the above fear to her. She said, "Then start the track along the walls over our chairs, but I want a cute little village!"
There goes our retirement savings! But I will stay busy!
McLeod
Forest Lurker
Wow! - A one hour heatwave is passing through this white northern landscape, before we suffer a suggested 17F drop in temperature come this afternoon. 30F right now and dropping to 12F. Back into the freezer after the teaser.
It's a good day to sand drywall tape and get a coat of primer on the walls of the layout room. I just want to get that done, since I love sanding drywall mud so much.
The Maligne Lake boat launch is a 3hr drive from my house, in Jasper National Park.
I miss walking the tracks to photograph what's down there. I'm also sad that there's no more SD40's being used in the area, so it seems. I don't know what CN did with them all. We were getting SD40's changed out about once a month for the past two years that I've been photographing local rail-works, as they were used for local switching duties.
Here's a couple of SD40 photos from my collection. Just for the sake of posting some photos:
Aw Well! If I can't get anymore old engine photos, perhaps I'll soon be able to post photos of the new layout construction. One thing for sure, I'm not the type to post anything if I have no photos.
7:15am, and the wind is howling outside. Suppose I'd better go walk that dog and then get to work on the sanding.
Thanks for the likes on these simple posts! Have a good one.
It's a good day to sand drywall tape and get a coat of primer on the walls of the layout room. I just want to get that done, since I love sanding drywall mud so much.
Thank you for the comment, Gary. - We usually seem to get into the 4' mark as far as snow accumulation goes. I'm not sure what the scientists measure, though. The average local red-neck will usually peg snow accumulation at a 'ell-of-alot'.
The Maligne Lake boat launch is a 3hr drive from my house, in Jasper National Park.
I miss walking the tracks to photograph what's down there. I'm also sad that there's no more SD40's being used in the area, so it seems. I don't know what CN did with them all. We were getting SD40's changed out about once a month for the past two years that I've been photographing local rail-works, as they were used for local switching duties.
Here's a couple of SD40 photos from my collection. Just for the sake of posting some photos:
Aw Well! If I can't get anymore old engine photos, perhaps I'll soon be able to post photos of the new layout construction. One thing for sure, I'm not the type to post anything if I have no photos.
7:15am, and the wind is howling outside. Suppose I'd better go walk that dog and then get to work on the sanding.
Thanks for the likes on these simple posts! Have a good one.
moermusic
Well-Known Member
now at 4.92
logandsawman
Well-Known Member
Good morning all,
I'll take the wheat chex and coffee, please. Thanks Flo.
Had a great weekend with the layout, got a new technique for the hydrocal and it went like clockwork. Using styrofoam cups for measuring water and powder. Measuring exact and mixing 1/2 c water and about 10-11 oz volume of hydrocal.
Willie - The City Classic bldg looks great!
DJ - Op session a big hit
Wages - I was making 7.69 per hour in 1980. I had a 4 year degree in Forestry and my position was District Forester. In charge of 200,000 acres of State Land near Williams, MN. (half way between Warroad and Baudette.) Recall, that was the height of a recession. My budget had zero wiggle room.
McLeod - LOVE the wilderness pic post from Saturday
Greg - nice couple photos of future modelling ideas
Hughie - I enjoy your night scenes
\
IB Ken - the switches on the panel may not look like much, but there is a lot behind them!
Boris - interesting crash details
Steve (from Minnesota) - After track laying comes scenery, then buildings, then vehicles, then people. Then you will want to go back and redo a bunch of stuff. Bored?
Saw that I could make a mold from tin foil, and noticed a snowbank showing the layers of snow looked like the rock formation I wanted to copy.
Couldn't believe how little time this took. Normally new ideas take me days to assimilate:
Here is what the mold looked like. I pressed it against the snowbank that had layers, and improved it by pushing the piece of wood into it to get the lines I was looking for. Note, it was a game changer to simply write words POUR where I was supposed to pour the hydrocal.
Here I poured it. Used a couple rags and stick to help keep its shape (above)
Here I have it where it will go, finally moved it a bit right (above)
After a day and a half, getting ready to put down ground cover, paint quarry face.
More later, Dave LASM
I'll take the wheat chex and coffee, please. Thanks Flo.
Had a great weekend with the layout, got a new technique for the hydrocal and it went like clockwork. Using styrofoam cups for measuring water and powder. Measuring exact and mixing 1/2 c water and about 10-11 oz volume of hydrocal.
Willie - The City Classic bldg looks great!
DJ - Op session a big hit
Wages - I was making 7.69 per hour in 1980. I had a 4 year degree in Forestry and my position was District Forester. In charge of 200,000 acres of State Land near Williams, MN. (half way between Warroad and Baudette.) Recall, that was the height of a recession. My budget had zero wiggle room.
McLeod - LOVE the wilderness pic post from Saturday
Greg - nice couple photos of future modelling ideas
Hughie - I enjoy your night scenes
\
IB Ken - the switches on the panel may not look like much, but there is a lot behind them!
Boris - interesting crash details
Steve (from Minnesota) - After track laying comes scenery, then buildings, then vehicles, then people. Then you will want to go back and redo a bunch of stuff. Bored?
Saw that I could make a mold from tin foil, and noticed a snowbank showing the layers of snow looked like the rock formation I wanted to copy.
Couldn't believe how little time this took. Normally new ideas take me days to assimilate:
Here is what the mold looked like. I pressed it against the snowbank that had layers, and improved it by pushing the piece of wood into it to get the lines I was looking for. Note, it was a game changer to simply write words POUR where I was supposed to pour the hydrocal.
Here I poured it. Used a couple rags and stick to help keep its shape (above)
Here I have it where it will go, finally moved it a bit right (above)
After a day and a half, getting ready to put down ground cover, paint quarry face.
More later, Dave LASM
NYC_George
Well-Known Member
I guess you could never live on Long Island. No protest needed. Traffic jams a daily routine. In 1972 I told my girls friends parents there's no way I'm living here OK that's out. If I go north from where we live the first traffic light is 5 miles away. South it's a mile and 1/2 then the next light's 3 miles away. Get in the car and go. Don't have to worry about people getting in your way.
George
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D&J RailRoad
Professor of HO
If you're gluing your track down, you might consider just putting a thin bead of glue along the edge of the ties and not in the middle. That will make it easier to salvage the track later if ya decide to move it. Gluing down the middle makes it much more difficult to separate it from the roadbed.
If you're nailing it down, be sure the nail doesn't pull down on the tie and change the gauge of the track.
chadbag
Well-Known Member
Is that CDN dollar?
Our gasoline jumped a month or so ago from 3.09 to 3.29 to 3.19 to 3.39 a couple weeks ago and this past week or week and a half it went to 3.59, 3.69, and 3.79 in just a couple of days. Really sucks.
Luckily electricity hasn't changed so my driving around town on electric power (at least for part of the trip until the small battery depletes) hasn't gotten much more expensive. But the wife's car and the boys car (I subsidize his gasoline partly as he runs errands for us, takes his sister to school on averge once a week, etc) have gotten more expensive to drive.
santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 34°, 31° cooler than this time yesterday. Brief thunderstorm last night left me 0.25" in the rain gauge, only enough to get everything wet on the surface. Right now it's snowing about five miles south of me and further away to the NE.
Thanks to all who commented or reacted to yesterday's post regarding the completed structure; Patrick, Rick, Troy, Guy, Smudge, Karl, Sherrel, Dave (PV), Gary, Justin, Hughie, Tom, Chad, IB Ken, Jaz, Louis, Curt, GGeorge, IB Ken, Tom O, Steve J.
Another short day in the train shed yesterday Sunday's always are short days.
I switched directions entirely. Since I am headed into a period of doing many small projects on the lower level, I need to add the LED lights under there so that I can see. Much of the scenery on that level that is already done, was done while or before the second level was added. That's why there are many 5"-19" gaps!
So yesterday, I ran some 14/2 cable and installed some outlet boxes. This is distinct from structure lighting which is on a transformer circuit. Nothing photogenic under my layout.
So back to the archives. I found the other two cats on the layout so these are actually new pictures
It's a very large cat.
George - I am not meaning to argue with you regarding NY, but as Patrick reiterated, $15/hr is adequate in low cost of living states in this part of the US. No you can't buy a home or a new car, but you can definitely live on it unless you have ten kids or something. Two immediate comparisons are gasoline tax in NY is 48¢/gal, while in TX it's 20¢/gal. I have 15 acres, 1500 sq ft house and the 800 sq ft train shed and my property taxes are just over $800, compared with your $8000. I am assuming here that's what you meant by that figure. That's a hell of a heating bill, In mid-summer our A/C costs about $150/month.
Jaz - Prayers and best wishes for your other half.
Todd - 30" aisles should be adequate for a single operator. Mine are 32" and greater in all places but one, and I have no issues. Looks like a plan with plenty of possibilities for scenery, industry and operations.
Curt - Yes, that noise level at TRH seems to turn a lot of people off. But the food is great.
Mikey - Yes those walkers certainly get in the way, but I tolerate it because it goes a long way towards improvement.
Chad - The Keto diet becomes a high protein diet without intending to be just because folks using it substitute proteins more than low carb veggies.
Justin - It's humidity more than temperature that causes the warping. I know that you can't control that in your garage, but have you thought about using steel studs instead of wood?
Everyone have a great day.
Thanks to all who commented or reacted to yesterday's post regarding the completed structure; Patrick, Rick, Troy, Guy, Smudge, Karl, Sherrel, Dave (PV), Gary, Justin, Hughie, Tom, Chad, IB Ken, Jaz, Louis, Curt, GGeorge, IB Ken, Tom O, Steve J.
Another short day in the train shed yesterday Sunday's always are short days.
I switched directions entirely. Since I am headed into a period of doing many small projects on the lower level, I need to add the LED lights under there so that I can see. Much of the scenery on that level that is already done, was done while or before the second level was added. That's why there are many 5"-19" gaps!
So yesterday, I ran some 14/2 cable and installed some outlet boxes. This is distinct from structure lighting which is on a transformer circuit. Nothing photogenic under my layout.
So back to the archives. I found the other two cats on the layout so these are actually new pictures
George - I am not meaning to argue with you regarding NY, but as Patrick reiterated, $15/hr is adequate in low cost of living states in this part of the US. No you can't buy a home or a new car, but you can definitely live on it unless you have ten kids or something. Two immediate comparisons are gasoline tax in NY is 48¢/gal, while in TX it's 20¢/gal. I have 15 acres, 1500 sq ft house and the 800 sq ft train shed and my property taxes are just over $800, compared with your $8000. I am assuming here that's what you meant by that figure. That's a hell of a heating bill, In mid-summer our A/C costs about $150/month.
Jaz - Prayers and best wishes for your other half.
Todd - 30" aisles should be adequate for a single operator. Mine are 32" and greater in all places but one, and I have no issues. Looks like a plan with plenty of possibilities for scenery, industry and operations.
Curt - Yes, that noise level at TRH seems to turn a lot of people off. But the food is great.
Mikey - Yes those walkers certainly get in the way, but I tolerate it because it goes a long way towards improvement.
Chad - The Keto diet becomes a high protein diet without intending to be just because folks using it substitute proteins more than low carb veggies.
Justin - It's humidity more than temperature that causes the warping. I know that you can't control that in your garage, but have you thought about using steel studs instead of wood?
Everyone have a great day.
Boris
Beach Bum
Good morning: 72° and sunny.
It's easy to see the change of season, the deer are eating the emerging bulbs, the migrant birds are cleaning out the bird feeders, and the nasal allergies are starting. Beginning tomorrow, temperatures will be more seasonable, but the snow for Wednesday has been removed from the forecast.
Hope everyone has a nice day.
CR 8263 - Washington Yard Crew WHWA01 - 02/17/1993. Al Moran Photo. Ardmore - Ardwick Shifter.
It's easy to see the change of season, the deer are eating the emerging bulbs, the migrant birds are cleaning out the bird feeders, and the nasal allergies are starting. Beginning tomorrow, temperatures will be more seasonable, but the snow for Wednesday has been removed from the forecast.
Hope everyone has a nice day.
CR 8263 - Washington Yard Crew WHWA01 - 02/17/1993. Al Moran Photo. Ardmore - Ardwick Shifter.
TrucTrain55
Well-Known Member
Good Morning all. I can barely smell the fresh paint here nice color this month. Sorry been gone just too busy lately.
Wille. The feed store is looking great nice progress Hope to have something going on the HO scale side soon take care
Wille. The feed store is looking great nice progress Hope to have something going on the HO scale side soon take care
TrucTrain55
Well-Known Member
Love those Railboxes
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