Coffee Shop XXXIII 06/21/12


I got a package in the mail today. Fairly heavy too. It turned out to be the items I traded the Y6B for. A Walthers Trainline Dash 8-40B, Two Athearn F7A's (one dummy), an Athearn F7A body (undec), two Bachmann FT bodies (A & B), two F7/F9 dress up kits and two Digitrax DH-123 decoders. I'm fairly certain some of those were birthday gifts.

I'm down to just three working steamers now. A Pemco 2-6-0, 70's era Bachmann 0-6-0, Fleischmann 0-4-0. The Bachmann and the Fleischmann are staying.

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Rex,
Condolences to you and yours, may she rest in peace and may you smile each time you remember her! :)
 
Evening Rex. I wish to extend my condolences to you and your family. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Sorry to hear about your mom. I hope that you are well. Take care sir,and God Bless. William.
 
Time for me to call it a night. Worked on the Dash 8-40B today. The headlight likes to drop down into the cab and light up the windows. I'll take it apart when I have the chance and see what can be done. I already had it open today checking over the wires. I found that the screw holes for the screws that hold the coupler pockets were stripped out. I substituted somewhat larger brass screws so now they're tight. Also looked over the Athearn F7A. Blue box undecorated body, hex drive, very quiet. It looks brand new. There was a blue box Santa Fe Warbonnet F7A body available so I put that on the chassis of my lead Frankenstein F unit. Nice splash of color. See y'all tomorrow.

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I have two different number atlas N scale Dash 8-40B, BNSF. Finest detailed locomotos in my fleet. The nipsy man told me to go to sleep now.
 
Good morning. It's 72°F and cloudy. Humidity is 100%. The high will be 85°F. Showers and thunderstorms are likely.
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I'm going to be working on the Dash 8-40B today. The wires for the front headlight need to lengthened, left rail pickup from the front truck is non-existent and the wheels are quite dirty. I also need to rework the front light so it's enclosed better and is more securely attached to the top of the cab. It's an LED so heat isn't an issue. Depending on how much free time I have I may be able to get it all done today.

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The problems I listed with the Dash 8-40B have been corrected. The pickup problem with the front truck turned out to be a loose wire. I cleaned up the wheels some. They still look dirty but the pickup is much better. Later I'll clean them with Krud Kutter then rinse them with alcohol. The problems with the front headlight were fairly simple to fix. The metal tube the LED fits into was held in place with a loop of electrical tape. The adhesive on electrical tape isn't the best for this and combined with with gravity it couldn't hold the tube in place. I removed all the tape. I blacked out the front windows with a strip of tape then placed the light tube where I needed it to be and drizzled hot glue over and to either side of it. Using a small flat point screwdriver I moved it to the exact position it needed to be and held it there until the hot glue cooled. I also wrapped a strip of tape around the LED so the light only shows directly ahead instead of ahead and to the sides as it was doing. The locos headlight now looks the way it should look (a bit too white for my taste but it'll do) with no bleed over to the windows or into the cab. The headlight wire problem was corrected by simply adding a two inch piece of wire to the shorter of the two wires. The loco is now running long hood forward at the end of a three loco consist comprised of a Bachmann GP38-2, my Atlas SD27J and of course the Walthers Dash 8-40B. Speed matching it to the other two locos (both with Bachmann decoders) was fairly simple as it has a Digitrax DH123 decoder. I may have a potential customer for the undec Athearn F7A so I'm not going to do anything to it at this time.

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I'm sure I'll be trying out DCC eventually because the speed matching ability will be usefull to me.....especially when using helper locos midtrain and on the rear of long trains.
 
Hi everyone!
Well, my Mother passed away Sunday night in her sleep. Fortunately, she didn't have any suffering during her last days. At 96 years old, she had a full and very good life and was a full time mother to the end. When you think of 96 being very old, look at it from being born in 1915 and all the events that have happened since; now, that was a ways back.

Again, I thank all of you for the warm and sincere support you have given me. You are a very special group of guys.;)



My sincere sympathy Rex and to Caroline too as well as your Daughter. It's not easy loosing your Mom, glad she departed peacefully. She did indeed live a very full life and experienced many changes and new things for sure!

May God Bless!
David
 
Say Railfan,
Speed matching isn't always necessary especially for a short distance.

Remember here that I running straight DC.
My first experience in using a helper was with when I tried to pull three shorty coaches, that were fairly well weighted down with various interior details of metal and figures too, up my 6+% grade using an MDC 2-8-0 Consolidation with all nickel silver drivers. At about the halfway point of climbing the grade the little loco completely lost traction. So I brought up an earlier MDC 2-8-0 that had Brass tiresd on it and coupled the end coach and that allowed the first loco to pull the consist on up to the Ridgecrest station which was about six or more feet yet. Eerything worked just fine even though the older Consolidation was a slower runner, the traction was the main factor.

I'll grant you that if your going to use a helper that will stay coupled for a long continuous run speed matching could be useful.
 
It's been extremely hot here in Central Calif for the last three days or so and today seems to be the hottest!

The inside back porch thermometer which is about 10* cooler than outside read 100* at 2:00 Pm lets see what Wunderground Weather says?
100.8 according to them.

I'll check it with my Caldwell digital wind machine with temp. I read a whopping 117.4*!! It may have climbed higher yet but that was enough for me.

No wonder it's so warm in the house. I need to get an Ice Creme maker for myself.

Take care and stay cool!
 
I'll grant you that if your going to use a helper that will stay coupled for a long continuous run speed matching could be useful.
Yeah David, it's mostly an idea I have for the future. Not really needed....but kind of like mount everest......many do it because "IT'S THERE". Ha ha! :)

Was just watching the news.......an enormous train explosion in columbus, ohio at 2am this morning......50 miles south of here. Something about an alcohol filled tank car derailed. !! >> boom << !!


Mike
 
Climbing El Cap is an amazing accomplishment Jeffrey. My hat's off to you on that. I was scoping out the climbers on it with my binoculars. I feel fortunate to have just seen it in person. Yosemite is too awesome!


Mike
 
Climbing El Cap is an amazing accomplishment Jeffrey. My hat's off to you on that. I was scoping out the climbers on it with my binoculars. I feel fortunate to have just seen it in person. Yosemite is too awesome!


Mike
Last time I was there was around '81.
 



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