Coffee Shop XXXVIII-7/20/2013

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The fireworks display was from steel wool caught in the front truck,(bad cleaning idea??) and the clicking noise was from 4 cracked axle gears!!

Yep! Using steel wool to clean anything model railroad related is a bad idea. A guy brought me a loco that wasn't running. All shorted out. I opened it up and the motor was full of the stuff. How stupid could someone get? It took me nearly four hours to get it all out. Normally I'd have charged $10 for a simple loco cleaning. In this case I charged him $35 an hour. He never used steel wool on his layout again.

Wait a sec, did Stewart buy trucks from Proto?? Or maybe I got an engine that another Dr. Frankenstein got ahold of???
It running great now, smooth and quiet. Gonna play with the loose & busted handrails later.

Certainly sounds like a Frankenloco.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

My father got two packages of glue traps this morning. Tomcat Glue Boards and Catchmaster baited glue traps. We're trying them both to see which one performs better. The glue boards are large so I cut one in half. Now one trap is good for two locations. I folded a second glue board into a box that has both ends open. Anything that enters won't be leaving. The catchmaster traps are basically plastic glue pits. Anything that gets on it will have a very big problem.

I got descent frontal shot of the two metal F3A's. They don't look so heavy in the photo.

 

[Cjcrescent]

Alan, Do you know what model the driver was off of? Dave's got an ATSF 4-8-4 from Jim in his store. Do you think it could be from that? Or do you think he may have it still at his place? If you think that its at Dave's I can check it for the "live" drivers.

 

[Espeefan]

Alan, Do you know what model the driver was off of? Dave's got an ATSF 4-8-4 from Jim in his store. Do you think it could be from that? Or do you think he may have it still at his place? If you think that its at Dave's I can check it for the "live" drivers.

No way to tell Carey! He had many of these Santa Fe Northerns (3765 class). I painted three and kept one, there's one at Dave's, and this one I have, plus I believe he has more! You could check it, however I spoke with Jim today, and he says this model came direct from PFM new, and was never disassembled until now! Possible QC problem? It would have failed their run test! You could check the one at Dave's just to be safe. I am going to the brass list and the Santa Fe list to see if I can scare up some rods. If not I will try and alter these to make the model run. That is a last resort though!

 

[Trussrod]

Would you believe I have at least one of each wheel arrangement that the SP ran during the time I model? That's a lot of locomotives! Only took 20 years to get 'em all!

Well the 4-8-4 is not fixable in it's current form. There was one driver set out of quarter, but the rod set is incorrect. Where there should be a front-middle-rear rod set, Jim has a front-front-rear rod set. Because the front driver is offset slightly forward from the rear three, this ain't gonna work. It's also not really suitable to be filed down as the lapping is wrong I have Jim looking for stray parts. There was also a driver set with two insulated tires. I asked about this as the logical conclusion is that if he had more than one model apart at a time (which we know he did), it is possible that there is a model out there with two "live" tires which will short out the rails on someone's railroad!

The 2-10-2 has been re-quartered and I have to put everything back together.

I was talking to the Captain yesterday and he started having chest pain (angina again) Hopefully we'll talk tonight. I'm keeping a close eye on the situation

Say Alan,
I tried to send you a PM but your box was too full of old messages so I'll post it hear.

Hi Alan,
Your friend Jim should get some, 'Nattokinase', [an all natural health food substance that will clean out his veins and artries but it is a bit of a blood thinner so he would have to notify his doctor as it might get his blood too thin otherwise] this should help to keep his blood flowing better and clean out all the fatty deposits!

It won't happen over night but after taking it for about a week he should start to feel better.


Another very good item is, Huperzine 'A' to help keep the memory sharp.

They are both all natural and the least expensive place I've found on the web is, 'Allstarheath.com' . I prefer the 'NOW Brand' of Nattokinase and Source Naturals for the Huperzine 'A'

These should help him, just be sure he checks with his Dr. about the blood thinning issue.

I have personal experience with these and they have helped.

 

[Trussrod]

Good afternoon all, It another fairly warm day here but cooler than it has been. 83.3°F climbing to 91°F with 37% Humidity and a low tonight of 61°F.


Not to much else to report from my place.

 

[GarryCBQ]

Did the dog steal the car, and take the cell phone to set up a card game with the other pack members?

LOL .... Son & his wife have a giant dog. I let the dog out in their fenced back yard. The dog jumped over the 5' fence! Anyhow, he returned later. ....

JEFF ... I had metal Varney F3's long ago. I vaguely recall the number boards were separate pieces that would slip into the square holes like I see in the photos. .... I like your work on the F3's!

Ken in Maryland .. ... A couple of days ago, you posted a steel mill picture in the MR forum, and mentioned a spill of molten iron from a bottle car would be a serious situation. Check your MR PM's because I described such an incident to you. I was at National Steel's Great Lakes steel mill in Ecorse Michigan when a train of bottle cars derailed. Some of the molten iron went into the Detroit River causing a huge explosion.

Cheers!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

JEFF ... I had metal Varney F3's long ago. I vaguely recall the number boards were separate pieces that would slip into the square holes like I see in the photos. .... I like your work on the F3's!

And I can't find any of the number boards.

*

Time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

It's Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Temperature in TIPTON IN

High in the low 70s with no rain.

 

[tootnkumin]

inbox

RODNEY McGIVERON, PLEASE CLEAR SPACE IN YOUR INBOX.

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Morning

A sunny morning with the high of 68 today..right now we are at a chilly 43.....

Another busy day for us...got the tongue and groove 6" wide yellow pine wood for both my studio and Audrey's attic workshop space....

Got some things need done this morning..have a good day!!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 74° with 86% humidity. The high will be 95°and will feel like 101°. Anyone up for improving their tan?

Well I guess today I'll see if there's some way I can make some number boards for these F3's. That should be a neat trick as I have none of the materials with which to do it. This situation may call for me to put on my thinking cap and get creative. As for any other plans, I have none at this time.

 

[railfan]

Salutations to all ye model train enthusiacs on this fine september morning! We here in historic medieval central ohio, are busy polishing our gargoyles and feeding the bats in the belfrys. King Charles the Great will be stopping by this afternoon so we're sprucing things up a bit for his arrival. It's an exilirating 52* degrees and rising......sunny with a high temp around 70* today. Humpty frumpty foo! Hope you have a smashing day!

 

[bnsf971]

Well I guess today I'll see if there's some way I can make some number boards for these F3's. That should be a neat trick as I have none of the materials with which to do it. This situation may call for me to put on my thinking cap and get creative.

You can try scotch tape and Elmer's glue. Tape over the number board, and put a few drops of glue inside. When the glue dries, peel off the scotch tape. The worst that could happen is it won't stick to the zamac.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Ken in Maryland .. ... A couple of days ago, you posted a steel mill picture in the MR forum, and mentioned a spill of molten iron from a bottle car would be a serious situation. Check your MR PM's because I described such an incident to you. I was at National Steel's Great Lakes steel mill in Ecorse Michigan when a train of bottle cars derailed. Some of the molten iron went into the Detroit River causing a huge explosion.

Hi Garry, sorry I didn't notice your message to me across the street. [BTW I've read it now and replied to it.] For some reason after Kalmbach 'upgraded' their server software the last time, the 'Messages' text on the front page was always showing in red even when I couldn't find any un-read messages in my PM box. So I got in the habit of ignoring it. I just cleaned out a huge number of ancient messages and noticed the front page text is now showing in normal black text again - shoulda done that earlier I guess!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

You can try scotch tape and Elmer's glue. Tape over the number board, and put a few drops of glue inside. When the glue dries, peel off the scotch tape. The worst that could happen is it won't stick to the zamac.

I'm doing that now with Loctite Go2glue. The number board slots are open on both the inside and outside with the outside opening being largest. So I taped over the inside then filled in the outside then taped over that as well. After a few minutes I peeled off the tape on the inside and now have the shell standing on it's nose while the glue dries. As for the glue sticking to the Zamac did just great on the porthole glass experiment. I had to use a wire wheel to get it off the outside of the shell!

 

[Trussrod]

Good afternoon,

It's supposed to be about the same temp as yesterday so what does WW say? It's only 78.8 °F & 31% Humidity going for a high of 84°F & a low tonight of 52°F which is getting fairly nice and cool sleeping weather.


As yesterday was so comfortable I finally got around to building the Simi-Y curved switch and double checked track guage as I went along too as well as rolling and old truck with Kadee metal wheels on it through it to ensure everything was working as it should. The only things left to do are gap the PC tie strips and solder the shallow u shaped code 55 rail to the base of the points, along with the throw rod, once I remove the switch from the template which I'll be doing shortly.


In another situation I got a bit of a surprise when I went to pick something up from the carpet below and just slightly to the side of the dinning room table. It looked square and dark in color and I wasn't sure just what it was. You see I have to half grown female cats that are quite playful and adventurous and I sometimes leave them to roam through the West end of the house and garage, where the layout is, to see if by chance they might scare up a mouse as I think there may still be one out there as it was up on the layout and taking smaller branches of a
Doc and pulling them inside the Horseshoe Meadow Depot as I have a 'L' opening I need to close off as it's part of the outside wall in an area that projects inward near the warehouse platform.

Anyway, one of the cats, Buffy - Some what looks like a little Leopard but Grey in color, sure seems to take an interest in the trains and maybe smelled the mouse or two I had up in that section of the layout. I have a few cars & loco's up there and other things.

So what to my surprise did I pick-up off the carpet but my little MDC hand car that I put plastic axels on so I could tow it behind the Mack Rail bus as I made a bail to go on one end of the hand car to attach over an open triangular end of the tow bar I added to the back of the Rail bus which swings back to right side, looking from the rear of the bus, into a holder when not in use.

So I guess she carefully grabbed the little hand car, which has the pumping arms which move freely, off the upper section and carried it down and set it in the dinning room as nothing was damaged. Maybe thinking she had caught something she wanted to show me? Her and here sister both are readly starting to investigate Gopher holes when I let them out with me while watering the front yard.

That was quite a surprise for sure!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I did more work on the Super F3. No number boards yet though the slots have been filled level with the shell. I may be able to to make the boards themselves from a piece of basswood I scrounged up. In the photo below is evidence of another experiment. I added filter screens on the grilles. I made them from pieces of cloth adhesive tape which I fixed in place with super glue. Just put the glue on and let it soak through.

 

[kbkchooch]

Hey Gang!
Not much goin on here. Spent most of the day either arguing with my cell phone. It kept losing my contacts and Verizon is about as clear as mud on how to fix it. I finally just did the intelligent thing. I set it on the kitchen counter til SWMBO got home. She spent 2 hours on the phone with Verizon before they decided the phone was broke (duh!!) and are overnighting me a new one.
I had my own hell to deal with, installing a set of Smokey Valley handrails on a GP9B. Never again. 5 of em broke coming off the sprue, and I was using a set of stainless nippers made just for that!!! Absolute junk IMHO. Then soldering handrails on a plastic shell was nerve wracking itself!! Yeah, they look great now, but I can live with Athearn metal rails other than these in the future.
Better hit the sack now. 2 cords of wood coming at 7 am, and I have a meeting in town at 9.
Nite all!

 

[tootnkumin]

Ain't modern teknerology marvellous.