Coffee Shop XXXV-12/3/2012


Well, it's 5 pm here in Bay Area. They say there's a possibly of snow at ground level overnite. I have not seen snow at ground level possibly since '98 - '99. If there is, I will post some pixs.............I'm crossing my fingers for snow
 
jeffery sorry about your mom. i have been there. but i see bobby jindel has called a state of emergancy for your state :eek:
 
blackz28 said:
jeffery sorry about your mom. i have been there. but i see bobby jindel has called a state of emergancy for your state :eek:
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Yep. The governor declared a state of emergency for much of the state. Acadia, Avoyelles, Concordia, East Carroll, Evangeline, Livingston, and St. Landry Parishes had earlier declared states of emergency in order to assist residents in areas already experiencing flooding.

AVOYELLES PARISH IN CENTRAL LOUISIANA... EASTERN VERNON PARISH IN WEST CENTRAL LOUISIANA... EXTREME NORTH CENTRAL EVANGELINE PARISH IN CENTRAL LOUISIANA... RAPIDES PARISH IN CENTRAL LOUISIANA...ARE UNDER AN AREAL FLOOD WARNING...
 
Time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

KCS 682, SD40-3. This was taken four or five years ago in Leesville (Museum of West Louisiana). At that time it was one of just a few KCS SD40 type locos still in the white ghost paint.
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Jeffrey - bummer about your mother's failing health, and the weather in your state. Hope it doesn't get too chaotic down there.

Speaking of chaos: I had my first op session in over 3 years last night. [BTW Karl was there] In spite of the construction-zone atmosphere of my trainroom, everybody had fun and I didn't suffer any serious embarrassment:eek:. I was just micro-managing a bit too much. Overall the evening was a success!

That also marks the final time of running it as a CSX layout. Now I have to order ~20 decoders to put in my mothballed B&O engines. People are saying I need specific decoders for my various different types of locos; but many of them are 20+ years old and don't have the so-called DCC-ready pins on their light boards. Probably easier just to rip everything out and hardwire them, and replace the bulbs with YeloGlo LEDs. Also need to do some painting & decaling of the newer ones. I'm definitely heading into another period of "perspiration" to transform my "inspiration" into reality :eek:.

Prayers for all who need 'em.
 
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Burlington Bob said:
Pea size Hail = coarse snow.:D
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That's about correct too Bob! At least it didn't last very long as the temp warmed up just a bit.

It was rather unique though and I think it would be like a bunch of the closed cell foam beads on an HO layout.

It's still quite cold and starting to edge below 30*F with a lot of moisture in the air.


Jeffrey, I'm sorry also to hear about your Moms situation.
 
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CSX_road_slug said:
That also marks the final time of running it as a CSX layout. Now I have to order ~20 decoders to put in my mothballed B&O engines. People are saying I need specific decoders for my various different types of locos; but many of them are 20+ years old and don't have the so-called DCC-ready pins on their light boards. Probably easier just to rip everything out and hardwire them, and replace the bulbs with YeloGlo LEDs. Also need to do some painting & decaling of the newer ones.

I'm definitely heading into another period of "perspiration" to transform my "inspiration" into reality :eek:.

Prayers for all who need 'em.
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Say Ken, It sure sounds as though your in for a lot of work. I'd ask around to some of the guys familiar with installing decoders in your era of locos as you might be able to save yourself some frustration, unless you already have?
 
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I just looked out the window and saw that all of the snow is gone with a light fog and rain. The temperature is also 49 degrees!
 
Trussrod said:
Say Ken, It sure sounds as though your in for a lot of work. I'd ask around to some of the guys familiar with installing decoders in your era of locos as you might be able to save yourself some frustration, unless you already have?
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David - believe me, if I had a choice I would certainly go that route! But when I do an online search, the lowest price I find for installing is $45 for a loco that doesn't need the motor isolated, otherwise even more than that. Doing the math for 20 locos, even if I did nave that much extra money I'd rather use it to buy quality locos and rolling stock.
 
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CSX_road_slug said:
David - believe me, if I had a choice I would certainly go that route! But when I do an online search, the lowest price I find for installing is $45 for a loco that doesn't need the motor isolated, otherwise even more than that. Doing the math for 20 locos, even if I did nave that much extra money I'd rather use it to buy quality locos and rolling stock.
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How many decoders Ken?? Nuttin too it!:rolleyes: We've had decoder install parties before! :D:D:D

I would recommend 1 thing, any "plug n play" chassis you have, plan on gutting them and hardwiring them. Lately, it seems I've run into too many folks having issues with them. I even had a dual mode Atlas decoder die, because the jumper plug came loose! Cheap fix, but an aggravation none the less.:cool:
 
Good morning. It's 46° with 100% humidity and patchy fog. It'll be cloudy with a high of 72°.
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It's still wet here in the Sportsman's Paradise but at least it's not raining. It's cool enough to make it a little chilly in here so I have the heater turned up a bit. Shouldn't take long for that little smaller than a shoebox heater to warm it up from 58° to 70°.

No plans for today. I'm thinking I may have to drag out the spare parts for the computer. I don't know how long it's going to keep going. Last night something caused a heck of a big power drain in this area. From the lights I'd say the incoming power was cut by half and there was a strong scent of ozone in the air. The computer was affected. How bad I don't exactly know. I don't have my test equipment anymore. Most of the USB ports on the back of it aren't working anymore. They still come up on the system hardware check as good but they won't respond to anything being plugged into them. The ports on an add-on USB board are still working and that's what's keeping my modem going as well as the phone, secondary hard drive and flash drives on the powered front hub. All the USB ports on the main board are dead. The main hard drive and DVD drive seem to be unaffected.

I may get some layout work in later.

DSCN3003.jpg
 
Good Morning from Jersey!

It's a mild and dreary morning, with some rain predicted for later today, and tonight.

Interesting that after super hyping the milder than average temperatures expected over the weekend, the prognosticators are now hyping next weeks colder than average temperatures.

Looks like a good day to work on the layout.

Joe
 
This is the flood situation here.

AREAL FLOOD WARNING
Now to Friday, Jan 11, 8:00pm
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAKE CHARLES HAS EXTENDED THE

* FLOOD WARNING FOR... AVOYELLES PARISH IN CENTRAL LOUISIANA... EASTERN VERNON PARISH IN WEST CENTRAL LOUISIANA... EXTREME NORTH CENTRAL EVANGELINE PARISH IN CENTRAL LOUISIANA... RAPIDES PARISH IN CENTRAL LOUISIANA...

* UNTIL 800 PM CST FRIDAY

* AT 746 PM CST...RADAR AND RAIN GAUGE OBSERVATIONS INDICATE THAT WIDE SPREAD RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 5 TO 10 INCHES OCCURRED ACROSS CENTRAL LOUISIANA FROM TUESDAY INTO WEDNESDAY. NUMEROUS CREEKS AND STREAMS ARE FLOODED...WITH SEVERAL ROADS CLOSED OR IMPASSABLE. SOME OF THE HIGHWAYS CURRENTLY REPORTED TO BE CLOSED DUE TO HIGH WATER AND FLOODING INCLUDE LOUISIANA HIGHWAY 114 NEAR MANSURA AND HIGHWAY 1204 IN RAPIDES PARISH. AT THIS TIME NUMEROUS SECONDARY PARISH ROADS ARE REPORTED TO BE FLOODED...MAINLY IN RAPIDES AND AVOYELLES PARISHES.

FURTHER WEST...ACROSS EASTERN VERNON PARISH...GAGES LOCATED ON LOW WATER CROSSINGS ON SIXMILE CREEK ARE SHOWING WATER LEVELS RECEDING...BUT STILL ABOVE FLOOD STAGE. WATER LEVELS ON OTHER SMALL STREAMS AND BAYOUS ARE ALSO EXPECTED TO RECEDE TONIGHT...WHILE WATER LEVELS WILL CONTINUE TO RISE ON THE LARGER RIVERS.

***** No rain today but it'll be starting back up tonight with a 60% chance then it looks like rain all the way through to and including Thursday. Don't use your prayers for me. I can take care of myself well enough. The folks in those areas named above need them more than I do.
 
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Well the computer is up to snuff again. I didn't have to replace anything, just reset some things. Shut down, removed CMOS battery, put board in test mode, reset CMOS to defaults, reset the circuit breakers for the USB ports (they stayed open for some odd reason), replaced the CMOS battery, reconfigured CMOS, reset board to operations mode and restarted the system. Everything is working. It's 10 for 10. I guess all that technical garbage I studied from my college courses finally came in handy. Now I can put the spare main board away. And I don't fix computers for others. The only ones I fix are mine and those that belong to family members.
 
Good morning.....lol......from mid-ohio where it seems Jeffreys rain and warm temps have moved in up here. 60* degrees today and wet......63* tomorrow.

Good to hear about Ken and Karl getting together to run trains. Sounds like fun. I'll be doing some decoder installs myself soon.



Mike
 
jeffrey-wimberly said:
WOW! At a weight of around 150 tons it'd take some humungous pontoons to float a 1:1 loco the size of a GP40.:eek::D
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I remember in WWII, the allies installed water wings on their tanks. The theory was they could float onto shore during an invasion.
The idea didn't work out so good, much to the Allies (and the tank crews) chagrin.
 
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