ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.
Yeah, it had the same name/command then. I was out of Brookley AFB, Mobile, Al. I belonged to an electronics installation squadron (GEEIA). We were on TDY to the Cape and stayed at Patrick for awhile before pulling some strings and getting to stay in a Motel over at Cocoa Beach. That was FINE!
Sorry I haven't visited much lately. With electricity now costing us an extra ~$175/month, that casts doubt on the viability of my hobby so I haven't done much of anything mrr-related lately. Ray, I desperately need a copy of that book! I doubt I'll be able to cut our energy consumption in half, but maybe there'll be a few things in there we haven't tried yet (like replacing all our incandescent bulbs with spiral-shaped ones, etc.).
Scoot those are great launch pics! Some of the ones you've seen were probably carrying payloads built by my employer (the Applied Physics Laboratory). About once a year, a few of of my co-workers are sent to the Cape to assist in final preparations for a launch of one of our satellites.
It is raining and it looks like it will be a soaker. We really need a good soaker so that the ground feels like ground again instead of concrete. It was 67 F when I left home. The high should be 70 F with rain.
Interesting day at the office yesterday. A water main broke and the office had no running water. Since the township we are in is very strict about building codes and occupation codes they had to close the office. Only problem was I was on a field view in upper Bucks County. I was relieved when we got back to the office and I could get in to reterive my belongings before I went home.
I continued working on the Accurail Lehigh Valley boxcar. I also began working on an Accurail Penn Central 40’ AAR Boxcar. I pulled out a Bev-Bel/Athearn Family Lines 50’ Double Door kit to assemble. I also have 2 Trainman ACF 50’6” Boxcars (Ashley Drew & Northern), a Atlas 60’ Single Door Auto Parts Boxcar (Chessie – B&O), a Atlas 60’ Double Door Auto Parts Boxcar (Western Maryland), and a Athearn RTR 50’ Superior Door Boxcar (Norfolk & Western) pulled out of the pile for weathering.
We are getting rain as well here in florida...it was 77 this morning. We could use cool weather without the humidity though.
I went to the local club last nite hung out there for a bit for a meet and greet deal. Turned in my application for membership and paid a initiation fee. There is a 3 month probation review I guess so we shall see how that goes. I plan on bringing some of my unit next week to run and show off. Just gotta decide which ones...GPs or Es or SDs or Fs hmmm tough choices...LOL
Good Morning All ! A bit cooler today but no rain . Looks like I'll have to do some Fall yardwork . Oh well another cup of coffee and the I'll contemplate my options. You all have a nice day !!!!!!
Mornin' KenL! The name of the book is "The Home Energy Diet: How to Save Money by Making Your House Energy-smart" (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series) written by Paul Scheckel. I got it at Amazon.com $12.89. I also bought a device called Kill-a-Watt that plugs in between devices and tells you exactly how much power an appliance is using when it's on and when it's off.... If you buy both, you qualify for free shipping (made the book almost free). The best prices I have found for CFLs is at http://www.1000bulbs.com/ especially if you want a case lot. CFLs can cut your lighting costs significantly. If you replace a 100W incandescent bulb with a 25W CFL you save 75W. If you use that bulb 4 hours a day, it will save you around 110 Kw of electricity per year. And that's just one bulb. Where you live, every BTU of heat that anything makes in your house has to paid for twice. That 75W difference is totally wasted heat produced by the bulb. You have to pay for it twice because you are 1. wasting electricity producing heat, and 2. paying to pump that heat outside your house with an Air Conditioner.
"If every US household made their next light an Energy Star, the reduction in air pollution would be the same as removing 1.2 million cars from the road for one year. This would amount to 8.5 Billion kWh in energy savings. That's enough to power over 808,000 homes for one year yielding $840,000,000 in savings on power bills nationally." - Energy Star
When LED lighting becomes available it will be a major lighting revolution as LEDs use about 10% as much power as an incandescent. Good luck with your energy problem.
Guess it's still morning here.....barely! Busy, busy day!
Kinda cool 'round here lately! Finally cooling off and getting some wet stuff from the sky! I hear GA. is getting some wet stuff too! Good news for them! I'll just bet CA. would like some of that about now.
Got another doctors appointment for the wife later. We'll know the extent of her upcomming surgery later I guess. Still has me concerned though. There is a very real chance that because of her condition she may not wake up from the surgery. I know God is in control, but it still has me quite concerned.
Greetings folks. I guess I should comment on the weather here. All week it is suppose to be partly cloudy, highs in the fifties. Not bad, not bad. One thing I notice with people trying to save energy is, most don't mention good insulation and ventilation. The house I live in was built in the early seventies. When I moved in, I decided to check out the attic for the proper ventilation and insulation. To my surprise, the sofits were plugged up with what little insulation there was. I could see the trusses through the insulation. We added ventilation and a foot of insulation. It decreased our heating and cooling bills substantially. We live in Wisconsin, so we see temperatures from upper nineties in summer to ten below in the winter. I bring this up because of all of the conversations about changing light bulbs to save energy. If you havn't looked in your attic lately, you should. It will save you far more money than changing light bulbs. Granted, all the changes are just pieces of the energy savings puzzle. Hope eveyone has a good day!
Thank you all for the prayers. It really helps, more then you know!
Corey, you're right about the insulation and ventalation. We added insulating foam to all of the electrical outlet boxes and all of the light switch boxes on the outside walls of the house and that made a big (bigger then you'd think) difference too. Also, we installed LoE glass on our new house and now, even though our house is double the size of our old one our bills are basically the same! The house is actually more comfortable with less drafts (from windows and such) too! And the best part.....almost all of that is tax deductable! You get to save double! It's like lowering your energy bills for virtually nothing!
Corey, very good advise. And yes there are many pieces to the energy puzzle. What I was amazed at is just how much can be saved without spending much at all. The attic of my house has 18" of insulation put in by the previous owner. On the other hand, my living room where my wood stove is was originally a side porch on the house. I have a feeling that it is made of 2x4" rafters 2x6 at the most and has not nearly enough insulation as I would like. The cost of tearing the entire roof off and redoing the entire room, is much more than I would save by heating (especially if most of my heat comes from Free wood).
Right now the living room roof has developed a leak (roof is fairly new) most likely where the brace for the wood stove chimney is screwed to it. I have a roofer coming over on Friday to see what needs to be done. Oh well it's only $$$$.
Holy cow guys, San Diego is burning up! I managed to get kicked out of my apartment for a short time. Lucky it got no where near me. We've got an steady onshore wind now, opposite that of the hot dry Santa Ana's. Thats a good thing for me, its pushing the fires away from me. However, its still burning, and its burning STRONG.
I'm sure you all saw it on CNN, the news field reporter who reported live from his house burning down?
I hope everyone stays safe in San Diego.
My house was decent for a first home. Along with no insulation, the front and side doors were hollow core doors. I couldn't believe it! The closet and bedroom doors were oak, six panel doors. We promptly replaced the exterior doors. We also have the original 140,000 btu furnace. Most of the upgrades we have made are not to necessarily save money, it's more a quality of living thing.
Modeling: I recently started to redo my mainstreet section. I had used fine ballast for a dirt road. I knew it didn't look right, I just had to hear it from somebody else. Now I'm trying wooland scenics earth colored turf. It's avery fine powder, much better. I sprayed the bejesus out of it to make it muddy. We'll see what the finished results are when I get home from work.
Good day, all.
Phillip, I will keep your wife in my prayers and ask God to guide her doctor's hands so she returns home to you.
Josh, the weather is looking much better now with the Santa Ana dying down and more of an onshore flow. The fires will still burn for days but the firefighters should be able to start containment now instead of just structure protection. I'll certainly hope for the best for everyone down there. I worked the Oakland Hills fire as a deputy called in for mutual aid and the only thing that saved the entire city of Berkeley was a shift to onshore winds. Once nature decides to burn, she goes until she decides to stop. It's truly awesome to see in person.
I'm lucky to live in a a relatively new home with double paned windows and good insulation. I've switched all my lights to fluorescent and compact fluorescent, including the layout lighting. Kent, I don't know what your rate per kilowatt hour is but $175 sounds like an awfully high bill. My house is 3400 square feet and the high was never below 95 and we had nine days over 100 in September. The A/C ran 24 hours a day non-stop and my bill was $303. It's usually $100 or less when we're not using A/C. I agree that insulation and caulking are two biggies for saving energy but every little bit helps.
Cool shuttle shot, Scoot. Now that I live relatively close, I'm going to get down there and see a launch.
We finally got rain all day yesterday. There were also a few severe storms but nothing serious. We got 1.34 inches of rain, which is the most rain we've gotten in one day since moved her in April, 2006. The cold front that went through Jeffrey's place went though here about noon and temperatures dropped 10 degrees in an hour. It's 54 right now, quite a change from the 80's and 90's of the past week. The rain is too late to help the farmers but it will at least relieve some of the stress on the native plants so we won't lose as many if we get a hard freeze.
Modeling" I installed two Busch lighted pick-up trucks this morning. They are 1950 Chevy's and are good looking trucks in their own right. Busch installed micro-incandescent bulbs in the head lights and tail lights so you don't have to fool with resistors like you do with LED's. They were on sale at Walthers for $16.98 each so I bought two. The lights are really good looking, with the head and tail lights bright and visible even under bright light. The best thing is you just wire them straight to your lighting buss wires with no resistors to worry about or LED's to blow up. They are back to their regular $20.99 price now but Walther's seems to put them on sale about once a quarter so keep an eye out if you're looking for some lighted vehicles.
Josh - Hope you and Claudia escape the wrath of those fires!
Ray - my order has been placed [both items], thanx for the info!
Jim - Us Marylanders pay higher-than-average rates for electricity because no new power plants have been built here in the last 25 years to keep pace with the growing population (thanx alot NIMBYs! ). So, my utility company has to buy large amounts of power from out-of-state sources. A 6-year rate freeze just expired, so now we're being hit with the cumulative increases (72%) that would have been smaller if split over that period.
Seems like California is fairly safe. I have not caught up on the status of the Malibu/LA county fires, partially because of the destruction here. Seems that we've done pretty good this time. There may be a large amount of land, and tons of homes lost, but the loss of life was relatively low. Last i knew, 5 people had died, and about 20 were injured.
). So, my utility company has to buy large amounts of power from out-of-state sources. A 6-year rate freeze just expired, so now we're being hit with the cumulative increases (72%) that would have been smaller if split over that period.