Coffee Shop 15

[jeffrey-wimberly]

There was a tragedy in my life today. My G Scale narrow gauge Silverton Flyer which had been on static display (motor was burned out) in the front yard for 12 years was lost in a fire. It was a 4-6-0 Baldwin with tender, 40 foot wood boxcar lettered for Cascade Canyon and a combine custom lettered for the Durango and Silverton. My father and I were burning off the back yard and had a sufficient fire break between the front and back yards and the area around the display had been wet down to the point of being a mud hole. Somehow the fire jumped the break and broke into the front yard. Pushed by the breeze it headed straight for the display and somehow got past the muddy ring. All that's left is a few chunks of carbonized plastic and some metal wheel sets sitting on brass rails, the ties of which were burned away. Of the seven G Scale trains I had this was the only one I had kept, notably because I wasn't going to sell something that no longer ran.

 

[blownoutcylinder]

I see it was another quiet saturday. HMMN I had a crazy Saturday. BIL/nephew came down for the weekend to look through my record collection and talk about music with the little one--Eric(my nephew) is getting a band together as a potential summer job and a school project in one go. He however has a 'different' idea for music---We're talking more about it tomorrow---right now this one's going off to sleep

 

[kbkchooch]

Evening Gang!

Ken, your Merchants row looks GREAT! I can't wait to see it in person. Speaking of which, you still coming up next Saturday?

Chris. I can make it a little while without my car or truck, as I have 2 convenience stores less than 2 miles away. And I still have my 12 speed bike from years ago! However the wife's work is about 11 miles away, and mostly uphill! That being said, they can have my car & truck keys when they pry them out of my cold stiff fingers!!

Jeff, Sorry to hear about your loss, even though I still can't understand the reasoning behind using fire to clear the yard. Seems too close to the house for me!

Sparky, Sorry to hear you have to do an engine swap. Just remember to clearly mark stuff that isn't obvious. I've done a lot of engine swaps over the years, and still wind up scratchin my head (and wasting time) over a part or two every time! Masking tape and a Sharpie could be your best friends!

This week I finally got something completed! The motor swap in the Spectrum 2-8-0 got allt the reprogramming done to run with it's sister. It was amazing to see how much different (and better) it runs with the new motor. Of course, that chucked all the speed table out the window! And WM coach 820 rolled out of the paint shop yesterday. Finally, 2 of the 3 brass caboose kits are soldered together, with the 3rd slated for tomorrow. Then the 3 get grab iron and roowaalks installed, and its off to the paint shop. Poor Jake in the car shops isn't gonna get any rest!
Cya!

 

[RexHea]

Jeff, Sorry to hear about your loss, even though I still can't understand the reasoning behind using fire to clear the yard. Seems too close to the house for me!

...and he's a volunteer fireman! shhhhhhhhish!

Karl, that is a sweet scene you have the 2-8-0 in. I likey!

 

[IronBeltKen]

Hi yall, it's waaay too late for me to be awake but here I am anyhoo...

Karl - thanx for the MR-I compliment, your 2-8-0 looks purty damn good too! And yeah, I'll definitely be there. I know exactly where the place is, since I drive past it every weekday morning.

Jeff, that sux about the fire. But at least it didn't destroy your actual operating layout!

I'll be on the road for much of the day tomorrow, gotta drive Sarah back to her college. At least I pass thru a few interesting small towns in western PA, maybe I'll pickup a few inspirations for my next assembly project: MR-III

 

[sparkyftw]

Karl sounds like your motorswap is going better than mine. I still have to find another motor. I hear you on the tape and sharpie. Lot of blue tape in there. Luckily I have some guidance from my uncle, he knows what he is doing.

Jeff: Sucks that you lost the train. Ken is right now, good thing the layout is still there.

 

[James S]

Evenin' or Mornin' all...

Picked up an Atlas ATSF patched for BNSF GP35 and a few freight cars from the LHS today. I was Surprised they have got a few Atlas and Athearn locos and freight cars in the cabinet now.

Jeff, sorry to hear about the loss of your G scale display. Just lucky it didn't go real wrong and get to the house!

All for now.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Jeff, Sorry to hear about your loss, even though I still can't understand the reasoning behind using fire to clear the yard. Seems too close to the house for me!

Down here it's an accepted method of clearing matted pine straw and low brush. I still don't know how it got past the fire break though. That shouldn't have happened.

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Got BIL/nephew here until early this afternoon--lotsa records all over the place as nephew is pouring through stuff--

Jeff tiny puffs of wind from oddball direction can do that--they did a controlled burn up here at uncle's farm a few years back that had something happen similar--wind sort of backed from forecast direction--for a few minutes. That was enough----

Karl I like that 2-8-0---

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning.

It's 52 and clear. The high should be around 80 and it will be partly cloudy.

Didn't get any work done on the layout yesterday as I was too busy helping my father get pine straw moved from the rental properties. Personally I'd hand the tenants a rake each and say get with it. As for burning off my yard yesterday (I've received some flak about this from some wishful know-it-alls, NOT YOU KARL), it's an accepted method down here for quickly clearing low brush and stimulating new growth as there are plant species here that drop their seeds only after fire has cleared the ground and given the seeds their best chance for growth. The ash also returns much needed nitrogen to the soil without the expense of buying fertilizers that contain things I don't want in my yard. The major down side is my trailer smelled like a stubbed out cigar afterwards. Being as there was almost no wind at all the smoke just hung in the air and finding fresh air was a hit and miss proposition. At times visibility was about five feet. The only time a breeze sprang up was when we absolutely DID NOT need it. Of course the neighbors had been duly alerted beforehand about the burn. I've had the AC going all night with the fresh air port open and it has cleared much of the smell out. Today I'll be helping clear more pine straw from the rental properties IF my father doesn't get called for work that is. He's on call 24/7 and doesn't have any set times for work. With today's economy his chances of having work are much better than mine. I haven't had employment in so long I've forgotten what a time card looks like. Everybody is cutting back. Maybe if we cut back on driving the oil companies will pay us for a change. Probably wishful thinking at best.

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA 71446-6114 3/22/2009

Wind Chill: 56°F
Humidity: 95%
Dew Point: 54°F

So Far Today
High: 56°F
Low: 52°F
Rain: 0.00"
Rain Rate: 0.00"/h
Gust: 3mph E

Today High: 78 Partly cloudy in the morning then becoming mostly sunny. Patchy fog in the morning. Highs in the upper 70s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight Low: 58 Mostly clear in the evening then becoming mostly cloudy late. Patchy fog after midnight. Lows in the upper 50s. Southeast winds around 10 mph.

 

[RexHea]

Hope all are having a good day. The 70's weather couldn't be better in T-town and should last a few more days before rains come in....which is also welcomed in the Spring.

Jeff: Hope you didn't take offense with my post. I just thought it ironic that it would happen to you, a fireman. When we lived in the country, I've had several try to get away from me...kind of scary. Controlled burns are very common here for clearing undergrowth in the fall and early spring. It was also used in the city for certain types of thick grasses before being banned.

 

[blownoutcylinder]

AAGH!!-- now I got to reorganize the record collection!!! All 5000+ of the dang things----

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Jeff: Hope you didn't take offense with my post. I just thought it ironic that it would happen to you, a fireman. When we lived in the country, I've had several try to get away from me...kind of scary. Controlled burns are very common here for clearing undergrowth in the fall and early spring. It was also used in the city for certain types of thick grasses before being banned.

No problem. Even cops get mugged. Back in July 1999 I was getting ready to go to work. I started my car and the whole dash shorted out. The car burned to the ground in 5 minutes right there in my driveway. The only saving grace was it had a full tank of gas. A full tank won't explode, it'll just burn if it does anything at all. The biggest danger on older cars is the shock absorbers for the bumpers. One of them will blow a whole corner off the car. I got me another car that same day, same one I have now. Five days after the fire I drained the gas from the tank of the burned out car and put it in the new one.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I was busy this morning moving pine straw to my father's burn pile. Finished that around noon. Afterwards I had lunch with the parents. One of my favorites. Tacos! Then went and mowed my sisters yard then mowed my niece's yard then helped them put in a gate between the two yards. Tomorrow I'll be mowing my parents yard. I'm gonna find out how much of that 5 acres their new 19 horse Yardman will cut on one tank of gas. It has a 42" cutting width. With the old Peerless tractor (15 years is old for a tractor) I can cut their 5 acres, my sisters 2.5 acres and my niece's 1/2 acre and still have gas left over. Big difference is it has a 60" cutting width. My father jumped on the Yardman because it was on sale for $900 new. I like the cruise control on it but I hate the reverse mechanism. It's a small pedal you have to push straight down with the ball of your foot and it just creeps backward. The old tractor goes just as fast in reverse as it does in forward. Pretty handy for getting away from a stirred up hornets nest. No layout work today.

 

[pcarrell]

AAGH!!-- now I got to reorganize the record collection!!! All 5000+ of the dang things----

Record collections........Ahh, those were the days! I still have a bunch of them. Havent played any in a long time though, even though I do have a turntable. Mostly 60's and 70's rock. Mostly in excellent shape. Are ya lookin' for anything in particular? Maybe I can help out.

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Record collections........Ahh, those were the days! I still have a bunch of them. Havent played any in a long time though, even though I do have a turntable. Mostly 60's and 70's rock. Mostly in excellent shape. Are ya lookin' for anything in particular? Maybe I can help out.

Oh SURE!!! pepper me with more ---

Actually I'm a little crowded out in the living room at the current moment--The cat is walking around here looking like a puffball ---

 

[bnsf971]

Spent part of the day yesterday getting Ezra's home situation taken care of. He likes being close to his work so he had his house built on top of his gas station. The resulting structure is pretty wild but I can remember seeing similar buildings during my childhood. I often thought about what it must be like to live in one. Well I may not live in one but that doesn't mean I can't model one.

As a matter of fact, I did live in one back in the mid 1970's. It had the "showroom" and toilet downstairs in front, a small kitchen going back to the small living room in back, and a steep stairway going up to the bedroom and bathroom over the showroom. The bathroom was to the left of the stairs, the bedroom to the right. The bedroom was 9'x9', the bathroom was 9'x7', the stairs were 24" wide. The entire structure was about 30' square. If I did this right, this is a link:<iframe width="425" height="240" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/sv?cbp=12,181.71462628734267,,1,-0.9884615384615393&amp;cbll=41.745701,-77.279718&amp;panoid=&amp;v=1&amp;hl=en&amp;gl=us"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=UTF-8&amp;sourceid=navclient&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;q=safelite+auto+glass+wellsboro+pennsylvania&amp;fb=1&amp;split=1&amp;gl=us&amp;ei=kRDHSeDIMYHasAOkjZA8&amp;ll=41.746455,-77.274154&amp;spn=0.037356,0.139891&amp;t=h&amp;layer=c&amp;cbll=41.745701,-77.279718&amp;panoid=45xI54wnMrrCOcrvrQm6KQ&amp;cbp=12,181.71462628734267,,1,-0.9884615384615393&amp;source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>


In the olden days of yore, it was a Sunoco gas station.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Looks like your link crashed. My father and I were going to build one back in the early 90's, an efficiency apartment over a three car garage. Well that idea got scrapped and the garage became a large bedroom with the space between the house and the garage becoming part of the house. Over the next four years the house grew from 2,400 square feet to nearly 5,000 square feet and that's how my parents ended up with five bedrooms and three and a half baths. The bedrooms on the old half of the house are hardly used anymore. The last time I used my old room there was when Rita rolled through in 2005 and destroyed part of my roof.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning.

It's 61 and cloudy. The high today will be in the upper 70's and it will be mostly cloudy. Good mowing weather.

No layout work yesterday. If I wasn't busy moving pine straw I was mowing grass, if I wasn't mowing grass I was working on a gate, if I wasn't working on a gate I was caught up in something else. It was a mad house around here yesterday! Today I only have to mow my parents yard then the rest of the day will be mine, yeah, right. I've heard that one before. Just you watch, something else will come up then something more after that, etc. Mowing must be done today because rain is in the forecast for tomorrow. Why do I have this feeling that today is gonna be one of those days I should have stayed in bed?

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA 71446-6114 3/23/2009

Wind Chill: 59°F
Humidity: 88%
Dew Point: 57°F

So Far Today
High: 62°F
Low: 61°F
Rain: 0.00"
Rain Rate: 0.00"/h
Gust: 18mph SE

Today High: 78 Mostly cloudy. Highs in the upper 70s. Southeast winds 10 to 20 mph.

Tonight Low: 65 Partly cloudy. Lows in the mid 60s. Southeast winds 10 to 20 mph.

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Morning to you all--We's be going to a high of 5C with tonights low at -6C--we's be having a lot of freeze/thaw cycles...

Meeting this afternoon with 1 client visit as well today----

Have a good'n