Coffee Shop XXIX

[vato loco]

Chris, good luck with your big day. At least they're leaving you with a little money. Emphasis on little!

Well I was robbing Paul to pay Peter, then mugging Peter to pay Paul Back......then repeat! I'm going to try to keep it going......until they realize what's going on and Kick my Arse!

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning...

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

 

[Steve B]

Chris It's all down to that paper stuff that buys things or lack of it . I have just built a shed extension out of the most bizarre bits of crap i had lying around, one sections gotta glass shower door in it and the roofs made from 3 curved glass shower panels siliconed together like a giant flat fish tank

 

[Littlefoot14]

Happy (very!) Belated Birthday Rex!

Good Luck Chris!

Jeff- I wasnt aware that Model Power had made GP9s. That looks sort of like that Walthers Trainline offering. Good luck with the new locos!

The other day turned out to be my last day of work. I knew it was a seasonal job, but i wouldve liked a little bit of a notice so that i can put in applications elsewhere. I wouldnt be nearly as mad if my boss (shes actually family) had told me not to bother looking for a more permanent or even a winter job because ill be being moved inside as soon as i turned 16. That was 3 weeks ago, and now instead of having a new job with a better wage like i was told, i now have no job . I really hate to be angry about it, they treated me great when i worked there, but not getting the job i was told i could have, even told not to take another job, just kindve burned me alittle. Perhaps im just dissapointed, who knows. The next step? Well, probably apply at the new walmart. Its not a job that i want, at all, but its a job.

In other news, my mom is out of town for most of the week, leaving my father, sister, and i to fend for ourselves. Im sure well be eating out alot this week, darn

Aaaaand in the model railroading world, im about to send out a money order for 48 pieces of trains. I love buying larger lots of trains. Included in this lot are 19 locomotives. I cant wait for them to arrive

Have a good day gents.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good afternoon. It's 63° and cloudy. For the high it will be 71° and mostly cloudy.

So far today has been no bed of roses. I had a bad night due to gall stones. Got only a few hours of sleep. This morning my virus protection program detected a threat and took out the file it was in. My Windows XP didn't like that and promptly crashed. I tried repairing it but there was to be no raising of the dead on this Sunday. I had to reinstall Windows. Of course that knocked out many programs that I need including Firefox (main browser) and Opera (backup browser). Internet Explorer was there of course but it's a last resort. I reinstalled Firefox from a CD and spent the rest of the morning making those little changes and tweaks to make everything function as it did (or nearly so) before the crash. Now that I'm done with all that my mind is about wiped. I think I'll use the rest of this day of rest to get some rest.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Jeff- I wasnt aware that Model Power had made GP9s. That looks sort of like that Walthers Trainline offering. Good luck with the new locos!

Walthers carries the Model Power GP9. At this point the Conrail model only and it'll be discontinued when it's sold out. I found eight on Ebay for Conrail, Southern, BNSF and CN between $20 and $30 each and that's just in the 'BUY IT NOW' column. I found a total of fifteen with one as low as $15 (used). I don't buy them unless they're new and in the box.

 

[kbkchooch]

Walthers carries the Model Power GP9. At this point the Conrail model only and it'll be discontinued when it's sold out. I found eight on Ebay for Conrail, Southern, BNSF and CN between $20 and $30 each and that's just in the 'BUY IT NOW' column. I found a total of fifteen with one as low as $15 (used). I don't buy them unless they're new and in the box.

I got one a few months back for my son. Got one used with a DCC decoder installed for 20 bucks. Nice little unit, runs fine, but the body is a little wide like the older Athearn units. Looks ok by itself, but not so good next to my
P2K or Atlas units.

 

[Trussrod]

Good late morning to all,
It was about 68* earlier and now at about noon is about 75* it seems.

Littlefoot [Carey? -sorry], that's a bummer about the job situation, everyone seems to be hurting for income these days and cutting corners wherever they feel they have to and unfortunately you just happen to be in the wrong corner. I'm with you though, they should ave given you some forewarning, I'd be a bit up set too.

I'd watch your money though now that your without a job as jobs are getting scarce as you just found out but hopefully you'll get into a better position.

Hope everyone has a good day.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I got one a few months back for my son. Got one used with a DCC decoder installed for 20 bucks. Nice little unit, runs fine, but the body is a little wide like the older Athearn units. Looks ok by itself, but not so good next to my
P2K or Atlas units.

The wide hood is one of the reasons I got it. I have a couple of the old Athearn wide hoods already.One is the 70's era SD45.

 

[RexHea]

HI All! Hope your weekend has been a good'un.
After a week of honey-do's (more to go), I enjoyed football games on the TV. There were some good ones, but next weekend will begin to tell it all with conference play starting. Love-it that AUBURN got kicked in the "donkey" (big time!) with their loss. Sorry Mikey

On the railroad scene, I hope to get back to building town structures this coming week...if I can do it between the Honey list. I have four towns that need buildings. I am assembling the four walls of each kit that I have and get an idea what building for where before I do any permanent fixing. Then the real fun will begin.

Thanks Dave/Matt!

BTW Dave: Littlefoot= Matt, Cjcrescent= Carey

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning...

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

 

[Trussrod]

HI All! Hope your weekend has been a good'un.

Thanks Dave/Matt!

BTW Dave: Littlefoot= Matt, Cjcrescent= Carey

Your welcome Rex and thanks for the correction.

Apologies Matt that's what happens when I've been away for awhile.
And apologies to you too CJ, I sure got things mixed up.

Mom's passing August 10th, didn't help matters either.


I wonder how Jim is doing Rex?

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 64° and cloudy. The high is due to be 87° and there's a 60% chance of thunderstorms all day.

Well yesterday was a wasted day. When I wasn't working on the computer I was in bed trying to be as comfortable as possible and wishing the pain from the gall stones would subside. It finally did and I hope I don't have to go through that again anytime soon. Fortunately I didn't have to reformat the computer, just reinstall Windows over what was already there. No plans for today. Since my new locos aren't here yet there won't be any decoder installations. I've decided to wait and see if the Model Power GP9 is DCC Ready. If it needs to be converted through a hard wire installation and isolating the motor I may go ahead and put an 8-pin plug on the DZ125 and drop it into the Atlas H24-66. I'll have to hard wire the Atlas FP7, that's a given. The motor there is already isolated so that simplifies things a bit and the headlight gets it's power directly from the pickups so there's no light board, hence no resistors to play with. I also have a few projects on the back burner until I can get some decoder wire. I have two GP7's that will permanently mu'd together electronically and electrically. The pickups of both units will be joined together so they can pick up power like one large loco so the power can be shared by both. This increases the pickup area and makes it virtually impossible for one loco to lose power while the other is still running. As long as one is picking up power they will both be running. I'll also be doing this with an A/B set of F9's and an A/B/B lashup consisting of two F3's (A/B) and an F7B. An F7B dummy will be coupled on behind but will just be along for the ride.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I'll keep an eye out for it.

 

[RexHea]

Sorry David, I neglected to give you my condolences for your Mother passing away. I am very sorry and hope that you have begun to heal from your loss.

 

[Trussrod]

Thanks Rex & ood morning,
It's appreciated and no problem. It's a loss but one of those things I didn't like to think about but knew was coming but she died under very suspicious circumstances for sure which I feel was quite neglagent on the part of the Convalescent Hospital. I'm trying to find an attorney at present who will take the case.


Good morning to the rest of you guys & girls too.

 

[Steve B]

Rex
Hey Rex,,, did you say Auburn LOST


Whooops oh dear what a shame he he

Evening All Hope everyone's well on this fine windy wet cold day, i think im about finished bleeding from the mouth after the trip to the dentist last week, what a bad weekend it's been

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The Atlas FP7 has successfully been fitted with a Bachmann light board type decoder. This is the first Atlas I've run across that had a frame grounded motor. Isolating it wasn't hard. I put a strip of electrical tape in the motor well and left out a screw that anchored the motor to the frame. I put some tape around the bottom edge of the motor and made it a friction fit. After that everything was smooth sailing. The way this thing can creep is something else. It's also well speed matched with the 70's era Atlas FP7 it'll be working with. I don't know how old this one is but the five pole skewed motor says it's much newer than the other one.

This is the chassis of the newer one:

And this is the chassis of the older one:

Now I have a Model Power GP9 to work on.

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Yes, Rex, AUBURN did lose and it is probibly not the last on this season.

But BAMA is not invincible and they will not be playing North Texas University every week.

Aren't you glad it it college football season again?

I have been skimming the forum lately and getting ready to move again. I finally got the roof replaced with a metal roof after the tornado lifted the plywood decking in several places where you could see daylight out the roof.
Then, we got the leaks repaired after the Hurricane Irene rains dropped 7 inches of rain on us.

I'll try to pop in the reply column a little more often, especially after Rex and Steve offer thir opinions!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The Model Power GP9 got here in just two days, well next day almost considering on eof the days was Sunday. When they said expedited shipping they weren't kidding. It was sent out Saturday and I have it today. Now right out of the box I can see this thing is a light weight. It weighs a whole 8.4 ounces. With the exception of the vents and the low hood the shell is almost an identical copy of the old Athearn GP7 shell on my old Hobbytown chassis, wide hood and all. In fact this new shell fits almost perfectly on the Hobbytown drive. And there's a reason Model Power used the old wide hood design. In this modern day of small powerful motors the motor in this loco is huge by comparison. There's maybe 1/32nd of an inch of play between each side of the motor and the shell. It also has big flanges. Even bigger than those on the Hobbytown loco. Anybody got a pizza that needs cutting? As far as DCC is concerned, saying that this loco is anywhere near DCC Ready is like saying modern jet fighters existed in the middle ages. However there's nothing present that can get in the way of a conversion. The motor has a wired tab that touches the metal frame. This is easily bent up away from the frame thus isolating the motor. That's if I want to put a decoder in it. I do but not at this time. The decoder will be going into the Atlas H24-66.