Ye OLE Coffee SHOPEE XXVI


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You wouldn't recognize the drive line if you saw it. The body and frame are Stewart, the motor, shafts and worms are Athearn, the trucks are Proto 2000 AAR trucks from an old FA. I still have the wiring to handle and a Bachmann decoder will be going into it (also laying around). I couldn't believe how easily the Athearn motor mounts went into the frame. The mounts and the motor just dropped right in as if the frame had been made for them. The same with the trucks. I didn't have to change anything to mount the Proto 2000 trucks.
Originally the Stewart U25B, as well as the AS616, were designed to use Athearn drives.
 
Today I received two Stewart/Kato U25B's from a friend. One is in fine working order. The other was in ill health. It had a dead motor and a Proto 2000 motor I had laying around wasn't going to work in it. So after a little head scratching and a little measuring I got together the parts I would need. Now I almost have the dead U25B ready to go. You wouldn't recognize the drive line if you saw it. The body and frame are Stewart, the motor, shafts and worms are Athearn, the trucks are Proto 2000 AAR trucks from an old FA. I still have the wiring to handle and a Bachmann decoder will be going into it (also laying around). I couldn't believe how easily the Athearn motor mounts went into the frame. The mounts and the motor just dropped right in as if the frame had been made for them. The same with the trucks. I didn't have to change anything to mount the Proto 2000 trucks. Why change them? The Kato trucks proved to be incompatible with the Athearn worms. The trucks just popped right in. The only thing I had to change was one drive shaft. It was a bit short so I cut the end off it, pulled the coupling off the worm shaft and joined the two shafts with a flexible piece of heat shrink tubing with a drop of super glue gel in each end. A lit match did the trick for shrinking the tubing. When I finish the only outward appearance that something had been changed will be the trucks and if you're not looking close they'll sneak right past you.



Jeffrey
At one time, Stewart used the Athearn motor with Kato truck, before they went to a different motor, thats why it dropped right in. I have 2 AS16's, one with Athearn drive, one with Kato,,,same frames!
 
02/12/2011

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.
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:eek:
 
Good morning. It's 26° and clear. The high will be 61° and sunny.

Sometime today I'll be opening up the second Stewart U25B to install a Bachmann DCC decoder. It;s certainly not the best but it's what I have available and all I need is motor control. Other than that I'll be picking up the vehicles and small details that are still on the layout. I had intended to do that yesterday but I got sidetracked on changing out the motor and trucks on the first of two Stewart U25B's then fitting it with a decoder for motor control. I received some WS clump foliage and lichen in various colors yesterday but no fine ground foam. It's a good start for trees and bushes but not for grass, dirt or ballast.

Forgot to mention that I'll be stripping the two U25B shells.
 
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"Flo, I'm in a rare good mood!:eek: I'll have Steak and Eggs with 1/2# of bacon, 1/2# of Maple sausages and 4 slices of toast! Also keep the coffee cup full! Put it on Terrys tab today! and if crys about getting stuck with the bill then tack 1/2 on Karls bill!"

Yes, good mood!:eek: Hard to believe, I start my second job next saturday! Friday got a letter from Pasco County, that Rick Scott our govener has decide to make all State and local Government employees Pay 5% into our own Retirement fund!:mad: Basically Unless your already retired or in the DROP you will be starting over from scratch with your retartedment! I wouldn't care if we were still getting pay raises and due promotions as NORMAL.....But State of Florida Employees haven't seen a pay raise in over 3 years! and Most Have LOST more than 15% in reduction in their pay checks and been demoted down several positions! Plus we're still having Layoffs! My department is fixing to lose 16 more employees! I lost 25%, My job, and my marriage to this Sad State!

I'm still in a good mood though, and the steps I'm making in the direction I'am going is the right way to go! Some of my fellow Employees are seeing what i'm doing a are taking notes!

Things I learned:
1. Never think a Job is forever and you will get the chance to retire from it!
2. No matter how great your job is never assume it's the best! There's
Better!
3. Never just rely on One JOB, Have at least one primary and one back up!

Changes I made:
1. KNOW and REMEMBER.. that After being laid off and divorce, Nothing is
written in stone as FOREVER!
2. Never stop Applying to all jobs of interest! Keep looking for better, you
never know whats around the bend.
3. Never rely on ONE income to be enough! A second Job my cut into your
R&R time a little but the second job will yield and added income to get
ahead,More freedom to do things when time is there, and makes it easier
to take on new jobs to help improve your income!

Either way I on the way to self improvement!:D and I got a big head start!:p
 
"Flo, I'm in a rare good mood!:eek: I'll have Steak and Eggs with 1/2# of bacon, 1/2# of Maple sausages and 4 slices of toast! Also keep the coffee cup full! Put it on Terrys tab today! and if crys about getting stuck with the bill then tack 1/2 on Karls bill!"
Chris, my credit card got declined. Maybe you can send back a couple slices of toast...

I spent most of yesterday on the phone with my cousin, who is handling my uncle's (his father's) estate. He had many questions, since he's not had to do this before. I think my best advice was to go have a lawyer help with it, and referred him to a friend of mine that's a probate attorney. He's lived in our home town of 3,000 people for 65 years, and has never met the man.:D
So, after an hour on the phone, everything is taken care of. $250 for an hour and a half in person, and doing all the needed legal stuff to take care of both my uncle's final expenses, etc., and making all the needed changes to my aunt's will and life insurance was a bargain. My cousin had been dreading this, but it was made relatively quick and painless. In case you're wondering, my part in this was to keep my cousin focused, and make sure he didn't do anything based solely on his emotional state (like give away all my uncle's estate to African missionaries). He did fine, though I feel kind of beat.
 
The paint on those Stewart U25B shells is some tough stuff. Maybe on the same order with what Bachmann uses. If that's the case they'll have to soak for twenty-four hours or more.
 
Good morning everyone.

Terry, I think lawyers get a bad rap. Every time I've needed them they were worth every penny. Now insurance salesmen, I have a different opinion of them! They're like the places that sell and set up cell phones. Once you have a problem they can't fix anything. You have to call the help line.:rolleyes:

It above freezing today with a chance of seeing that yellow thing in the sky. I'll believe it when I see it. I take that back, it's starting to brighten up outside as I type this.:) I know winter is far from over around here. I just want some of this crap to melt already!

I'm toying with painting my own backdrop behind my city of Mankato. All I need are some vague looking trees to simulate the bluff behind my rows of buildings. I hope to do a test section on some leftover masonite that had been painted the same color blue as the backdrop. My artisitc skills are not too great, but I think it will look better than a photograph. The only people that see my layout live here in town and know what the bluffs look like. After seeing other's pictures with backdrops I realized that my city section would benefit greatly from something other than blue sky.

My wife is done with her two days bed rest after our latest attempt at invitro fertilization. Now we wait for ten days to find out if she's pregnant or not. If not then I need to start saving money for adoption. That wouldn't be the end of the world as we've discussed on here before. We'll see what happens.

I better get back to work.

Have a great day everyone.
 
"Flo, I'm in a rare good mood!:eek: I'll have Steak and Eggs with 1/2# of bacon, 1/2# of Maple sausages and 4 slices of toast! Also keep the coffee cup full! Put it on Terrys tab today! and if crys about getting stuck with the bill then tack 1/2 on Karls bill!"

Chris,
Your working 2 jobs now, get your own credit card out!!! :p Stop mooching off Terry and me! :cool:
Nothing on the train schedule today. The house is chilly, and I have to put some new sealing strips on the woodstove. A few have fallen off and it's been eating wood like crazy lately. Once I get it all sealed up, I wont have to carry wood in as often!
 
Chris,
Your working 2 jobs now, get your own credit card out!!! :p Stop mooching off Terry and me! :cool:
Nothing on the train schedule today. The house is chilly, and I have to put some new sealing strips on the woodstove. A few have fallen off and it's been eating wood like crazy lately. Once I get it all sealed up, I wont have to carry wood in as often!

All the more reason for me to mooch! :D:D


BTW Went to Dana's trains (LHS) two blocks from here! They had their trian flea market! Pardon the French but, "What the HELL!" God the crap people think is gold I'll never understand? Some of the n scale stuff was higher than retail and it was used!LOL's I'll wait till Largos Train show!
 
God the crap people think is gold I'll never understand? Some of the n scale stuff was higher than retail and it was used!
I normally avoid the large flea market here as most everything is over-priced. I do however glance at some of the yard sales when I'm in town and once in a while come across a good deal. Picked up a Kato HO RSC2 for $15 still sealed in the box. Another find was a new Bachmann 4-8-4 Niagara still sealed in the box for $5. I've found some good rolling stock and structures too for literally pennies on the dollar.
 
Thanks for the condolances, guys! I appreciate it. Gave up and came home today as we couldn't do any more cleaning up and getting rid of things until some issues get settled.

Have tried 4 times in the last couple of weeks to get a stop in at CJ's. I still have a chance as there will be a few more trips up his way before I can get everything taken care of. The plan to get everything moved to storage in Mobile has been derailed, so we will see what happens next.

CJ did threaten to come down for an ops session. This month's session was scheduled for today, but I had to cancel it. I'll try to lock down next month's session for March 12th. Now all I need to do is get back in the train room and finish rebuilding the east end of Coalton. A switch failure last month caused the end of the passing sidings to be rebuilt with #10 turnouts. I am also rerouting the branch line at the east end to avoid the mainline. It should be a much more flexible and workable arrangement. I have a little more trackwork to do and some wiring to reconnect.

I appreciate all of you listening. I know I don't comment much, but I do lurk and keep up with all of you.

Glenn
 
Fellas;

I just got a double dose of some sad news, Glenn Samuel's (WC&WBrasshat), Father passed away Sunday night, and one of the ARG's members mother passed away last night.

My prayers and deepest sympathies goes out to both of these fine men.

Terry;

I think I posted this Wednesday.
 
Glenn, sorry but I missed it also and I am very sorry for your loss.
Carey had emailed me about Jimmy's mother, but I failed to see his post. I've been mostly just peeking in the coffee shop window this past week.:eek:
 
Elephant's Dance

Good morning. My morning started at 4 am when our upstairs neighbor decided to take up jogging--in her bedroom, which is directly above ours. She weighs a bit over 350#... For an hour and a half, it sounded like a herd of stampeding hippos in our ceiling. I have no idea what she really was doing, but we were expecting the roof to cave in on us at any moment. I'm glad we're moving out in about 36 days, 8 minutes, and 27 seconds.:D

In an unrelated event, my wife got up this morning to find a new laptop. This is her Valentine's day gift. This means I can toss her old one (hinges are broken, and the battery is toast). I've already cleaned her personal info off it, and reformatted and reloaded it with everything. I'm giving it to a co-worker along with a few bucks to help us move.
Not to be outdone, my wife made sure I found the Broadway Limited Y6b she got me for Valentine's day. These are the first "expensive" gifts we've gotten each other since Christmas 2006 (other "stuff" has been a joint gift from me and others to her, and her and others to me). So far, I think we both like our gifts to each other.
 
Good morning. It's 34° and sunny. The high will be 65° and still sunny.

I finally gave up on trying to strip the paint from the two Stewart U25B's yesterday. After nearly nine hours in the 91% alcohol only the cab numbers came off and that was with a lot of scrubbing with the toothbrush. The road names stayed very securely attached. So I washed the alcohol residue off the shells, dried them and repainted right over the existing paint. Gray hoods, walkways, handrails. Black trucks and cab. I wonder how hard it would be to graft an EMD style dynamic brake onto the top of one of them? It would make for an interesting eye catcher as both already have dynamic brake grids in the sides of the long hood. One unit already has new number boards. The other one will get it's new number boards today. They are #180 and #192. I still have to do some work on the part where the cab attaches. Seems there's some paint that has to be scrapped off so the bottoms of the cabs will sit flush. I also found out what happened to the original motor of the unit I had to remotor and retruck. Upon taking the motor apart I found that one of the brushes had worn down enough that the spring had made contact with the commutator and ZAP! That was the end of the commutator. It was sufficiently gouged as to be unusable.

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