Coffee Shop XXXVIII-7/20/2013
- Thread starter Bill Tidler Jr.
- Start date
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
Played Doom3 for the first time today. Did fair for a beginner. I actually found the missing scientist and was about to take him back to headquarters. I made the mistake of turning my back on him. When I looked back at him he had turned into a demon and the stinky stuff hit the fan! I gave a good accounting of myself but he mopped the floor with me then punched my ticket. Next time I'm going in prepared and fully loaded. God, Give all and Give keys. Ain't cheat codes great?
I looked at the old O.K. Streamline passenger cars and decided I'll have to look at them some more after I've gone through the parts that came with them. I estimate they're at least forty years old, maybe as old as sixty years and are going to need some TLC to get them into shape.
There should be two Athearn chassis coming in Tuesday. Then I'll be able to get to work on the metal Varney F3A dummy and turn it into a power unit.
That's all for today. See y'all tomorrow.
I looked at the old O.K. Streamline passenger cars and decided I'll have to look at them some more after I've gone through the parts that came with them. I estimate they're at least forty years old, maybe as old as sixty years and are going to need some TLC to get them into shape.
There should be two Athearn chassis coming in Tuesday. Then I'll be able to get to work on the metal Varney F3A dummy and turn it into a power unit.
That's all for today. See y'all tomorrow.
Bill Tidler Jr.
Retired NS Signal Construction Gang Signalman
Good Morning! from Tipton IN.
It's Sunday, September 1, 2013
]
Temperature in TIPTON IN
We had lots of rain yesterday and last night. In the 90s today.
It's Sunday, September 1, 2013
Temperature in TIPTON IN
We had lots of rain yesterday and last night. In the 90s today.
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
Good morning. It's 74° with 93% humidity. The high will be 95° and will feel like 106°.
Today I intend to inspect the O.K. shorty Streamline passenger cars I received yesterday. My initial 'quick' inspection yesterday showed that they need a lot of work. Perhaps with a more thorough inspection I'll be able to find some shortcuts. One I can see on the RPO right now is one of the grabs looks like it needs to be replaced. But if I squeeze it with my pliers I should be able to straighten it without removing it from the car.
Any work on the Varney F3 is at a standstill for now until I get the parts I need for it. Hence the Athearn chassis that are due Tuesday. Haven't heard anything yet on the powered Varney F3. It'll probably ship Tuesday. Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday! I'm starting to sound like the captain of the Enterprise-B explaining that many important things they need NOW won't be installed until Tuesday.
No other plans for today. Yet.
Today I intend to inspect the O.K. shorty Streamline passenger cars I received yesterday. My initial 'quick' inspection yesterday showed that they need a lot of work. Perhaps with a more thorough inspection I'll be able to find some shortcuts. One I can see on the RPO right now is one of the grabs looks like it needs to be replaced. But if I squeeze it with my pliers I should be able to straighten it without removing it from the car.
Any work on the Varney F3 is at a standstill for now until I get the parts I need for it. Hence the Athearn chassis that are due Tuesday. Haven't heard anything yet on the powered Varney F3. It'll probably ship Tuesday. Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday! I'm starting to sound like the captain of the Enterprise-B explaining that many important things they need NOW won't be installed until Tuesday.
No other plans for today. Yet.
Boris
Beach Bum
Good Morning, Happy Sunday!
Well, from the sounds of things the SEC season has started...the Tide rolled........the Dawgs rolled over......up here in Yankee-land, where we just discovered Division 1 Football, neither Rutgers nor UConn nor the Pros look all that impressive...The NY Football Gnats were not all that good in pre-season, and the Jets most impressive QB, will ride the taxi squad. At least, the Super Bowl in Jersey promoters won't have to worry about selling the Giants vs the Jets .
This morning is overcast and 73°, and there is a 40% chance of rain showers.
School doesn't open around here until September 9, so the kids have another week to prepare.
From what I remember about the OK Line passenger cars is that they are relatively indestructible. While they will never satisfy a rivet counter, there is much opportunity to add detail, or not as you prefer.
I have to run out in a bit and pick up a quart of milk for da Boss. (SWMBO) Otherwise, I have no plans for today.
Joe
Well, from the sounds of things the SEC season has started...the Tide rolled........the Dawgs rolled over......up here in Yankee-land, where we just discovered Division 1 Football, neither Rutgers nor UConn nor the Pros look all that impressive...The NY Football Gnats were not all that good in pre-season, and the Jets most impressive QB, will ride the taxi squad. At least, the Super Bowl in Jersey promoters won't have to worry about selling the Giants vs the Jets
.This morning is overcast and 73°, and there is a 40% chance of rain showers.
School doesn't open around here until September 9, so the kids have another week to prepare.
From what I remember about the OK Line passenger cars is that they are relatively indestructible. While they will never satisfy a rivet counter, there is much opportunity to add detail, or not as you prefer.
I have to run out in a bit and pick up a quart of milk for da Boss. (SWMBO) Otherwise, I have no plans for today.
Joe
IronBeltKen
Lazy Daydreamer
Hullo Forumites, 84 and sunny here in Central MD. Might get a T-storm or two early evening but that's a coin-toss.
Still continuing with the rehearsal runs of my planned op session. There have been a few glitches but of course I expected that. Most of them have to do with my not having speed-matched the locos that are in consists with each other. That [speed matching] is a DCC skill I haven't yet acquired - from what I've read it's a very time-consuming process of trial-and-error and I hate to admit but I lack the necessary patience. [Maybe DecoderPro has a way of making this easier?
] There are two that I'm a bit more concerned about: First, one of my Tortoise-controlled turnouts 'sticks' once in a while. Then, after 30 minutes of flawless operation, my Walthers turntable briefly took on a mind of its own and continued rotating past the selected track and until it stopped at a random spot where no rails existed. When I keyed in a different track# it went there like it should, then right after that, I was able to point it to the track I originally wanted it to line up with. Go figure....
Hope you all continue to enjoy the long weekend!
Still continuing with the rehearsal runs of my planned op session. There have been a few glitches but of course I expected that. Most of them have to do with my not having speed-matched the locos that are in consists with each other. That [speed matching] is a DCC skill I haven't yet acquired - from what I've read it's a very time-consuming process of trial-and-error and I hate to admit but I lack the necessary patience. [Maybe DecoderPro has a way of making this easier?
Hope you all continue to enjoy the long weekend!
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Ken, doesn't that happen to us all. I have even tried surprising my layout by not telling it that visitors are coming......didn't work!
If any of your locos have Tsunami or newer QSI decoders you can set the RTC (regulated throttle control) to ON. This will take care of all but extreme differences in how they perform by auto sensing the pull/push and adjusting accordingly.
If any of your locos have Tsunami or newer QSI decoders you can set the RTC (regulated throttle control) to ON. This will take care of all but extreme differences in how they perform by auto sensing the pull/push and adjusting accordingly.
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
The time that Murphy is going to seriously play with your trains is when a visitor is watching. When you're alone, no problem. When somebody else is watching, problems will abound.
*
I spent the morning working on the O.K. passenger cars. Just little stuff like gluing doors back in place, putting window film back in place, putting vents on some cars, fitting an antenna to the roof of the observation car, mounted trucks on said observation car as well as put the end panel in it (that was a pain in the butt). The ends in one of the cars were cracked so I replaced them with a couple I found in the parts bag. I also straightened a few bent grabs. The RPO is the only car that has them. A stirrup under one of the doors was a royal pain in the butt.There's a couple of cars that need diaphragms. I don't know where I'm gonna find those. Did I say that the cars are all metal? Well except for the floor and underside detail of some of them. The others are all metal.
*
I spent the morning working on the O.K. passenger cars. Just little stuff like gluing doors back in place, putting window film back in place, putting vents on some cars, fitting an antenna to the roof of the observation car, mounted trucks on said observation car as well as put the end panel in it (that was a pain in the butt). The ends in one of the cars were cracked so I replaced them with a couple I found in the parts bag. I also straightened a few bent grabs. The RPO is the only car that has them. A stirrup under one of the doors was a royal pain in the butt.There's a couple of cars that need diaphragms. I don't know where I'm gonna find those. Did I say that the cars are all metal? Well except for the floor and underside detail of some of them. The others are all metal.
Trussrod
Well-Known Member
Good afternoon all,
I thought I was going to post prior to noon time but it didn't work out that way. Hmm?
It's fairly comfortable here in Central Calif. foothills of Coarsegold. What does WW say, says it's 90.5°F with 32% Humidity and dropping to a low of 64°F tonight.
There is a very large fire burning North East of my location, the Aspen Fire which started near Huntington Lake due to a lightening strike which is about 50 miles away but there are actually other fires, the Rim fire which extends North from Yosemite National Park, 22, 253 acres have burned within it's boundries, and Northward toward Lake Tahoe about 175 miles North and a bit East. These are really major fires and I copied the link so you wouldn't think I was making this stuff up. Indeed I had to check what my other friend said because of the enormity of the number of the total area burned.
>> www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/...yosemite/2750635/
1 day ago - "Overnight, the fire grew nearly 6,000 acres and now has burned a total of 219,277 acres or nearly 343 square miles." ... Smoke rises from an area that was burned by the Rim Fire near ... 28 near Yosemite National Park in California. ... to north of Lake Tahoe has been under an air-quality alert for nearly a ... <<
Oddly enough, my area isn't stricken with smoke fumes from the fire as the wind, I guess, is keeping it blown away. It's unbeleivable the size of this fire!!
Last night I plugged my new Soldering Iron in to test out the little Chisel tip I ground on one of the pencil point tips and after a bit the iron heated up and I began tinning the PC tie strips with ease and then the rails to as well as soldering them to the PC Strips to form the V of the frog.
I'm now working on a Right hand #6 Curved Switch but it will almost resemble a curved Y as the Left hand rails due start to curve slightly toward the Engine House yard area.
Other than that I dug out my Ohm meter and had to clean up the battery contact but the Old Duracell battery checked out fine with it self checker of it. So now I'll be able to track down where the problem lies with my TT track not getting any power when it did a couple of weeks ago!
Say Jeffrey, You said: The time that Murphy is going to seriously play with your trains is when a visitor is watching. When you're alone, no problem. When somebody else is watching, problems will abound.
How true that often seems to be.e
Twyl
I thought I was going to post prior to noon time but it didn't work out that way. Hmm?
It's fairly comfortable here in Central Calif. foothills of Coarsegold. What does WW say, says it's 90.5°F with 32% Humidity and dropping to a low of 64°F tonight.
There is a very large fire burning North East of my location, the Aspen Fire which started near Huntington Lake due to a lightening strike which is about 50 miles away but there are actually other fires, the Rim fire which extends North from Yosemite National Park, 22, 253 acres have burned within it's boundries, and Northward toward Lake Tahoe about 175 miles North and a bit East. These are really major fires and I copied the link so you wouldn't think I was making this stuff up. Indeed I had to check what my other friend said because of the enormity of the number of the total area burned.
>> www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/...yosemite/2750635/
1 day ago - "Overnight, the fire grew nearly 6,000 acres and now has burned a total of 219,277 acres or nearly 343 square miles." ... Smoke rises from an area that was burned by the Rim Fire near ... 28 near Yosemite National Park in California. ... to north of Lake Tahoe has been under an air-quality alert for nearly a ... <<
Oddly enough, my area isn't stricken with smoke fumes from the fire as the wind, I guess, is keeping it blown away. It's unbeleivable the size of this fire!!
Last night I plugged my new Soldering Iron in to test out the little Chisel tip I ground on one of the pencil point tips and after a bit the iron heated up and I began tinning the PC tie strips with ease and then the rails to as well as soldering them to the PC Strips to form the V of the frog.
I'm now working on a Right hand #6 Curved Switch but it will almost resemble a curved Y as the Left hand rails due start to curve slightly toward the Engine House yard area.
Other than that I dug out my Ohm meter and had to clean up the battery contact but the Old Duracell battery checked out fine with it self checker of it. So now I'll be able to track down where the problem lies with my TT track not getting any power when it did a couple of weeks ago!
Say Jeffrey, You said: The time that Murphy is going to seriously play with your trains is when a visitor is watching. When you're alone, no problem. When somebody else is watching, problems will abound.
How true that often seems to be.e
Twyl
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railfan
junk collector
That little piece of information is what I've been wanting to hear. Auto-sensing speed control......awesome!
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
Here's one of the cars I worked on today, the RPO.
I straightened some of the grabs as best I could with the few tools I have on hand. Pliers, needlenose pliers, small flat blade screwdriver. Using the pliers I could straighten grabs that were bent to one side or the other. Using the screwdriver I could push or pry grabs that were bent in toward the car or out away from it by pressing or prying. a couple of the roof vents were missing so I replaced those. The doors were loose or knocked out completely. They were still with the car so I opened it up and glued the doors back in place and straightened up the mess that was the window glazing. One of the grabs on the roof is still bent as I never got around to straightening it. There's a lot of what I'm guessing is supposed to be rust around the doors and on some parts of the body. As I have neither paint nor brush I'll leave it be for now. The car still needs a lot of work but it already looks much better than it did yesterday. Here are some photos taken after the work was done today.
I straightened some of the grabs as best I could with the few tools I have on hand. Pliers, needlenose pliers, small flat blade screwdriver. Using the pliers I could straighten grabs that were bent to one side or the other. Using the screwdriver I could push or pry grabs that were bent in toward the car or out away from it by pressing or prying. a couple of the roof vents were missing so I replaced those. The doors were loose or knocked out completely. They were still with the car so I opened it up and glued the doors back in place and straightened up the mess that was the window glazing. One of the grabs on the roof is still bent as I never got around to straightening it. There's a lot of what I'm guessing is supposed to be rust around the doors and on some parts of the body. As I have neither paint nor brush I'll leave it be for now. The car still needs a lot of work but it already looks much better than it did yesterday. Here are some photos taken after the work was done today.
IronBeltKen
Lazy Daydreamer
Rex, a layout is a living entity - it can read your mind!
. . .
I did some more rehearsal ops, and discovered another defect that won't be quite as easy to fix: One of my steel mill switchers has a semi-broken motor wire or a defective decoder. Lights work perfectly fine; but as for the motor, sometimes it runs and other times it doesn't. I'll probably have to dissassemble the whole chassis to get that motor out and solder on new wires.
As I was doing a trial run of the Trailer Jet, I was watching the 3 GP40's glide down the straightaway with those piggyback flatcars and reliving the memories of seeing these things on the Camden Line when suddenly my reverie was interrupted by a...derailment! WTF!? Further investigation revealed that I had forgotten to restore the mill crossover turnouts to their closed [normal] position.
Boris
Beach Bum
As I was doing a trial run of the Trailer Jet, I was watching the 3 GP40's glide down the straightaway with those piggyback flatcars and reliving the memories of seeing these things on the Camden Line when suddenly my reverie was interrupted by a...derailment! WTF!? Further investigation revealed that I had forgotten to restore the mill crossover turnouts to their closed [normal] position.D'oh!!
Leacing the crossover switches open.........and...Running through an improperly lined crossover switch - oh no! I really hate it when that happens. And....with the Trailer Jet, yet!!!!!!! Somebody is going to be in trouble, and I think his name is Ken. Opps!
Better now than during the ops session.
Joe
Bill Tidler Jr.
Retired NS Signal Construction Gang Signalman
Good Morning! from Tipton IN.
It's Monday, September 2, 2013
Temperature in TIPTON IN
Much cooler today. High in the low 80s.
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
Good morning. It's 74° with 98% humidity. The high will be 98° but it'll feel like 109°.
with a
Well there doesn't seem to be much interest in my current project so I won't trouble you further with multiple photos. Maybe just a description with a single side-on full length photo will suffice. Anyway I'll likely be working on the baggage car today. It's a bit of an odd bird. It has one coupler body mounted and the other coupler is truck mounted. It doesn't need much in the way of real repair work. Most of that I already did when I glued the doors back in place and redid the window glazing. Mostly it needs a good clean-up. Other than that I have no plans for today.
Well there doesn't seem to be much interest in my current project so I won't trouble you further with multiple photos. Maybe just a description with a single side-on full length photo will suffice. Anyway I'll likely be working on the baggage car today. It's a bit of an odd bird. It has one coupler body mounted and the other coupler is truck mounted. It doesn't need much in the way of real repair work. Most of that I already did when I glued the doors back in place and redid the window glazing. Mostly it needs a good clean-up. Other than that I have no plans for today.
Bill Tidler Jr.
Retired NS Signal Construction Gang Signalman
Good morning. It's 74° with 98% humidity. The high will be 98° but it'll feel like 109°.
with a
Well there doesn't seem to be much interest in my current project so I won't trouble you further with multiple photos. Maybe just a description with a single side-on full length photo will suffice. Anyway I'll likely be working on the baggage car today. It's a bit of an odd bird. It has one coupler body mounted and the other coupler is truck mounted. It doesn't need much in the way of real repair work. Most of that I already did when I glued the doors back in place and redid the window glazing. Mostly it needs a good clean-up. Other than that I have no plans for today.
http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l608/scott-running-bear/DSCN4786.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n3/proudIndian/P1010078.jpg
You can trouble me, Jeffrey! I always read your posts and enjoy your pics and I like seeing old stuff brought back to life.
There is interest, we are just quietly watching.Good morning. It's 74° with 98% humidity. The high will be 98° but it'll feel like 109°.
with a
Well there doesn't seem to be much interest in my current project so I won't trouble you further with multiple photos. Maybe just a description with a single side-on full length photo will suffice. Anyway I'll likely be working on the baggage car today. It's a bit of an odd bird. It has one coupler body mounted and the other coupler is truck mounted. It doesn't need much in the way of real repair work. Most of that I already did when I glued the doors back in place and redid the window glazing. Mostly it needs a good clean-up. Other than that I have no plans for today.
A lot of the rust is caused by the steel wire used, possibly you can locate some stainless wire to replace it. I also had some of those cars, and some of that yucky yellow stuff is the glue used when the car was originally assembled.
If the cars are aluminum, you can polish them with Met-All polish, and have them so shiny you can brush your teeth in the reflection.
Speaking of which, do you know how we can tell a hillbilly invented the toothbrush?
If it was anybody else, it would be a TEETHbrush.
