CoffeeShop XXXVII-5/1/2013


Good morning!

Time to get the Wrecking Crew club layouts complete for the NMRA National Convention Layout tour.
I added about 40 figures to the LG&W HO layout and it still looks like ghost towns on it.
It will take another 200 figures to look like the big town is occupied.
It should keep me busy for a few meetings.

Enjoy your Thursday!
No Mondays allowed today.
 
Good Morning!

It's 66°, and overcast this morning with a 50% chance of rain showers and thunderstorms. Funny, there was no mention of this last night, on TV. :confused:

Yesterday, was productive. I was able to speed match my P2K Alco RS27, to my Atlas Alco C-425 consist. They work well together, and better yet look "right":). Then I "repaired" the drive train and power pick-up on my "problem" Atlas SD35. It is now in a consist with another SD35. They speed matched almost perfectly. For the first time, I have more consists (4) running than singles (2) I'm nearing the limit of what my Prodigy Express can realistically handle. Today or tomorrow, I'm going to attempt to install decoders into a couple of Proto RDCs.

Have a great day!

Joe
 
Carey,

I can confirm the customer was happy with the engines. I should get to see them run in July.

I can't believe you were soooooo close on an ops Sat. and didn't come by!

Glenn

Sorry I couldn't make it Glenn. I was down for a HS Band reunion, and I actually only had a few hours to spare all day. It was held at the Grand Hotel at Point Clear. When I walked into the lobby, I felt that I should have been wearing a tux, it was so plush. Being on the historical registry, its amazing that they allowed some "modern amenities" there. I'm talking things like AC, seeing as how it was originally built as a get away from the heat and humidity of Mobile. It was beautiful there on the bay, and I had almost forgot how bad I miss that area at times...

It was great to see some folks that I haven't seen in 40 years or more! Some had changed a lot, and some haven't changed at all.

Pam and I should be coming back down soon. I'll give you a call and let you know.
 
I was busy today cutting out 'KEEP OFF!' labels. Most of the labels are 7/16" long and 3/32" high. I cut out 200+ of them. My order of three packs of Athearn geep horns came in so I now have eighteen horns to put on the locos I have that have no horns or the horns are broken. That should keep me busy for a little while. I went down to my fathers place and we chowed down on pinto beans, green beans, corn bread and jalapeno peppers.
 
Good Evening All:

I didn't spend much time on the Railroad today, but I did install a DN135PS decoder into a bachmann RS3. I actually test ran this one on the DC test track first, before replacing the OEM decoder. This one runs well enough that I am considering consisting it with an Atlas RS11. Maybe tomorrow I'll take a stab at one of the RDCs.

It was a mostly decent day, a few showers in the morning, temp went up to 79°.

Joe
 
I got new horns mounted on quite a few locos today. I put the FP7's back on the display rack and brought out the GP9's. They should get a good run tomorrow. Sometime tomorrow I'll bring out my rebuilt C420 and see if I can speed match it to the GP9's. It has a DZ125 so that should be a snap.

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

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Good Morning

Sunny with a high of 66F projected.....we'll see it get warmer....

Not much happening today...we still be cleaning 'The Lost Cause'...

Have a good day!!
 
Happy Friday!

It's Sunny and 66° this morning, with a high of 79° predicted.

We have a few chores this morning which leaves the afternoon for model railroad projects, if I choose to accept the challenge.:)

Enjoy the weekend.

Joe
 
Good morning. Temp 73°, humidity 93%, mostly cloudy, partly cloudy later. High 85°.
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First order of business on the layout this morning was to get my rebuilt C420 (Lima, Stewart, Athearn, Life-Like) speed matched with my GP9's. That took about fifteen minutes. Longest part of the process is moving the loco from the program track to the main and vice versa and making the entries for the CV's. Got it done and it no longer tries to leave the GP9's in the dust. I have more 'KEEP OFF!' labels to cut out. These are somewhat larger than the ones I cut out yesterday and there's not as many. Those yesterday are 7/16" by 3/32". These are 9/16" by 2/16". That doesn't seem like much but it's a very visible size difference. Later I'll see if I can get a photo of the two side by side. I have no other plans for today.

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Well why put off til later what can be done now. Below are samples of the labels I was talking about in my earlier post. On the right are two samples of those that I cut out yesterday and on the left are two samples of those I'm cutting out today. They don't seem to be so small until you compare to the Kadee coupler box cover on the left.

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I dropped one of my F7 Frankenstein locos this morning. Busted the body into three pieces, knocked some drive parts out and broke a couple of solder joints! Put the drive back together and test ran it. Everything seems to work fine. The body however is beyond all hope. Looked on Ebay and found a used Athearn F7A body (UP) that'll make a suitable replacement after the Sundown shops have painted it into the L&A scheme. There goes $11 from the grocery fund. Oh well. It should be here Wednesday. I was going to put the Frankenstein F unit trio in service today but that'll have to wait unless I put on a Bachmann FT-A body.

I got the large 'KEEP OFF!' labels cut out and put into an old pill bottle. That's what I keep my small model railroad parts in. Old pill bottles. Seems like a good use for them.

In other news I spotted a brown recluse spider crawling across the top of my night stand. The TV users manual came in handy for once and the spider was no more than a greasy smear on the table top!
 
I got new horns mounted on quite a few locos today. I put the FP7's back on the display rack and brought out the GP9's. They should get a good run tomorrow. Sometime tomorrow I'll bring out my rebuilt C420 and see if I can speed match it to the GP9's. It has a DZ125 so that should be a snap.

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

P1011976.jpg
funny thing is i have the same problem i have a dozen diesels with horns that are broken off ,i need to order a pack of horns also ;)
 
A couple of shots taken on the move while Ray Johnson 'rides the nose' of the lead GP40.

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

We found a whole pile of dullness for our viewing pleasure here..no partly was involved...

Also, Lost Cause won round one...still more stuff than there was before...sigh....so, on to round two tomorrow.....sigh....

As well we will have our Saturday afternoon operating session..and see who shows up....

Have a good'un....
 
Good Evening

We found a whole pile of dullness for our viewing pleasure here..no partly was involved...

Also, Lost Cause won round one...still more stuff than there was before...sigh....so, on to round two tomorrow.....sigh....

As well we will have our Saturday afternoon operating session..and see who shows up....

Have a good'un....

So Barry, what, pray tell, are you babbling about? That Pittsburgh has gone up 2-0 over the Sens??? - Thought London was Leaf Nation??

BTW: I hate the Pens and the Rangers......Since the Devils are out, I have no one to follow.....talk about Lost causes......

Joe
 
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Good morning. It's 73° with 94% humidity. It'll be cloudy with a high of 88°.
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Last night I spent about an hour putting 'KEEP OFF!' labels on the three Bachmann GP40's. The Atlas GP40 was done over a year ago. I had to redo a couple of the labels because the water in the glue made the ink run. Overall they look pretty good. They must be effective as Ray Johnson isn't on any of the units this morning. Being the son of the towns owner he gets away with a lot. He's also the foreman of the Sundown shops, so he figures if he wants to take a ride on one of the locos then he's taking a ride. Who's gonna be stupid enough to tell him he can't?. The owner of the locos. That's who.

Nothing going on today, that I know of that is. Who knows what other parties might have planned for my day? I figure it's a good day to watch TV and play with trains.

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Good morning, America! I'm all done working for now and am looking forward to starting my summer. Sure have plenty to do................chief among them is going fishing with our granddaughters! Our oldest one (12) told our daughter she was going to go fishing and she knew who to talk to about making it happen!

Plenty of home upkeep to catch up on too. Going to be buying a new lawn mower, as our old Toro gave up after a good long life of mowing. I would like to get another but we'll have to see what the prices are. Got to save money for the trains somehow!:D
 



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