Coffee Shop XXIX

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning...

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Congrats to CJCRESCENT!
I just found out CJ will be receiving TWO NMRA Acheivement certifications for the work he has done on his layout. Well done!!

But, he will have to re-submit for the scenery certificate.
CJ, I told you a grass mat and spray can of green paint was not enough for scenery!

Seriously, CJ deserves the recognition for all his modeling work.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Congratulations CJ.


Good morning. It's 78° and partly cloudy. The high will be 99° (feel like 111°). There's a 20% chance of thunderstorms this afternoon.

I got the Trainmaster finished yesterday. All that remains is coming up with a decoder with an 8-pin plug to take the place of this dummy plug.

I converted the SD45 to DCC. It now has a Bachmann decoder hard wired into it. There's a lot of space inside that old wide hood. They had to be wide then to have room for the motors of the day.

As to what I'll be doing today, I have no plans. I had a rough night so maybe I'll just get some rest today.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

This morning I worked on an old AHM/Rivarossi U25C and got it running fairly well. It still has the original motor so converting it to DCC is out of the question. It's one of those 'something to do' projects that I keep around.

 

[tompm]

Felt the earthquake at work here in the Philadelphia suburbs (King of Prussia, PA). The building we were in moved quite a bit. It kind of felt like a bad amusement park ride. Wife said the lights in the house were swaying and the water almost came out of the fish tank. Quake was centered in Mineral, VA and was a 5.9.

 

[Secondhandmodeler]

Good afternoon folks.

I hope all who felt the earthquake didn't have any damage.

Congratulations to Cjcrescent!

I've spent most of my day off playing with trains. I started by adding widow shades to the building flats and mounting them on their foam core backs. Then I decided to run some trains. My Proto 1000 F3A didn't seem to like the cleanliness of the track. I cleaned all of the track with alcohol and the loco still didn't run right. Then I cleaned the wheels on the loco and that sort of fixed it. I'm wondering if the pickups have somehow gotten dirty. I decided to remove the offending loco and return to steam. My Bachmann Berkshire ran beautifully on the nice clean track. I may need to look a little closer at the F3 and see what's up.

I also cleaned through my extra parts pile. I threw out a good portion of the leftovers from previously built kits. I know it's a no no in Model railroading but I'm sick of saving EVERYTHING. I saved the stuff that still has possibilities like windows, awnings, chimneys and other things. The rest went in the trash. I also cleaned up my work table. Man is it nice to have everything put away. Now I'll have to take it back out piece by piece as I work on another project!

I'm off to do some Kiwanis volunteering but I hope to continue sorting through my junk when I get home.

Have a great rest of the day everyone.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

No damage at my younger sisters places in PA. Their home was built in the 1860's. It'll take more that that to knock it down.

 

[kbkchooch]

Hiya Gang!

Congrats CJ!

Yes, we too did the shakey-shakey thing today. Cars on lifts are kinda scary when the whole shop is shaking, but except for some soiled drawers, no damage was done.

Now to fix some steaks on the grill!

 

[Littlefoot14]

Hey guys,

Been forever since I've had a chance to sign into the forums here.

We had an earthquake here around 2. If thats the same one in virginia then we felt the earthquake here in upstate NY as well. That's is only the second earthquake I've ever experienced, it's really pretty cool. I was working when it happened.

Hope all is well with everybody.

Have a great evening,
Matt

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning...

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

 

[Train-Master]

Hello all. Just checking in before getting ready for school. I am having a problem seeing eye to eye with my science teacher. If it keeps up I will be seeing about changing to another science class.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

That course has what, another four weeks for you before you start another subject? Put up with the jerk, keep your mouth shut and you'll get through it.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 75° and mostly clear. The high will be 101° (feel like 114°) with a 20% chance of thunderstorms increasing to 50% this evening.

Worked on an old AHM/Rivarossi U25C yesterday. Cleaned up the motor and the transfer case then cleaned up the gear boxes in the trucks. Gotta love those old brass gears. They make more noise than plastic but they last a long time. I could see no discernible wear on the worms or the gears. The lube was a little cruddy so I cleaned it out and applied new lube before sealing everything back up. I thought the motor was going to be a pancake type but despite it's short length the armature is nearly half an inch long on a shaft one and a quarter inch in length. I was impressed. With all the toy train stuff I'd seen from Rivarossi over the years here's something that's built fairly solid. Wish I could say the same for Athearn's RTR line. Yep, got my hands on an Athearn RTR GP38-2 late yesterday. I have two of these that I bought over a year ago and had to remotor both of them. This one I picked up yesterday had a good motor (already removed it for use elsewhere) but one of the trucks is bad. I can place my thumb on the wheels and turn them and hear the gears clicking as they barely engage each other. The frame also has an issue. At first I thought it was a crack from being dropped but on closer inspection it looks to a fissure left over from molding as the paint is in the fissure as well as on the surface. If I was a newbie getting an Athearn for the first time and I got this one it would probably make me want to avoid them just as some modelers avoid Bachmann after having gotten burned in the 80's on their 'toy train' fare. Funny thing last night was when I went to power up my Zephyr I kept getting a short. I was wondering why then it dawned on me that I had left my kadee coupler gauge on the track. DUH!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Thanks Patrick. David's a good kid but he needs to learn some of the hard truths of life. Putting up with people you don't like is one of them. That's one of the lessons I had to learn early on. I'm trying to keep him from making the same mistakes I did but there are some you have to make if you're going to learn from them.

 

[RexHea]

Congrats CJ! You should be close to completing your Master Modeler.

Only thing, CJ..........I don't know how you got the electrical when all your locomotives are "wind-up" Mattels :.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I did read an article in the paper where the human brain isn't fully developed until we hit about 24 years of age. I think that's about the time I remember a lot of the impulsiveness leaving. Of course, I don't act on impulse near enough sometimes....LOL

Usually when I act on impulse it results in my wallet becoming lighter at the LHS.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Well my mother wants to have lunch at Ryan's in DeRidder then go shopping at Wal-Mart, so looks like I'll be doing some driving. Be back later.

 

[Secondhandmodeler]

Good afternoon folks.

I had a great day off yesterday doing whatever I wanted. It was downright blissful. Today is a different kind of day. Sometimes customers can be pricks. I've realized today that sometimes vendors can be bigger pricks. What they don't realize is that I can be the biggest prick of them all! The last time this company pissed me off their sales to us were cut in half for the season. Nothing like losing twenty grand in business because you were bitchy on the phone to me.

Sorry for the rant. I think I feel much better now! The only problem with having a relaxing day off like yesterday is getting geared up for crappy days like today. You're so damn peaceful it takes a couple seconds to realize someone is being nasty to you.

Carry on.

 

[posse]

It's been a long time since I've been able to chat here. Work is going fine, keeping me busy. Monday, I was marked up, meaning I am no longer a student. Also, when I got my call to go to work, they also wanted to send a new student in training with me. I told them this is my fist trip alone and not this time. We'll see about next time.



I think someone needs to tell Flo where the new coffee shop is.

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning...

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.