Coffee Shop XXIX

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning...

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

 

[vato loco]

Just checking in, have been winning some micro battles I have been fighting. If you remember the state was taking 50% of my Lowe's check...I got them to stop that!, Finalized the divorce!, Got the water TURNED back on! Just got to get the bills caught up and I can start to look into getting a back up vehical to back and fourth from works!

As for the MRR club issues, sounds like a job that you have pay to work at! I for one could handle the drama that come with MOST MRR clubs. if I'm going to bust my but on something with people I HAVE to learn to get a long with and put up with drama.....I'll go get another job! OBTW: Might have a third job!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 65° and sunny with patchy fog.. The high will be 92° and it will be partly cloudy.

Well, yesterday I resurrected a seemingly partially fried decoder by hitting it with a reset code in blast mode on the main. Before that I couldn't clear it on the program track nor on the main following normal procedures. I couldn't even write a new address to it. The Zephyr would read it but that was about all and the decoder would work for forward but not for reverse. I thought some kind of programming error might be responsible and it appears I was right. The decoder now works properly in all respects and checks out on every test I can throw at it. I plugged it into my Atlas Trainmaster and the loco runs great. In fact I'm going to have to adjust the speed tables a bit as it easily outruns nearly everything I have. I figure if I cut the figures in half (CV2=13, CV6=64, CV=77) it should be about right. That will give it a good startup with good acceleration through the mid-point and hit a believable top speed instead of making a sonic boom while breaking the land speed record. So now that leaves me with a little problem. I still have a DZ125 decoder that can be used on another loco but which one? All those that I rebuilt that can take a decoder without turning it into a scorched corn flake already have them. That leaves a Model Power GP9 and a Bachmann FT. Oh, decisions, decisions.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

That's a 70's era Athearn Alco PA1.

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning...

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

 

[vato loco]

Bill........where the women at? What your not posting their pic's any more?

 

[Secondhandmodeler]

Can't afford to pay them in this economy.

 

[Espeefan]

Thanks. I knew I had seen models of them, but thought there was no way anyone built something like that prototypically. I guess I thought wrong. I guess I'm more used to seeing flatter hooded diesels.

ALCO's Rule! Neat looking unit. I have a bunch, and prefer their looks to the E unit. The Blue boxers and especially the Proto 2000's will pull the plaster off the wall.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 66°F and cloudy. The high will be 85 and it will be partly cloudy.

Today I'll be putting installing the DZ125 decoder in the Model Power GP9. I'll have to put a bit of tape on the frame directly beneath the ground connection on the motor as it's very close to the frame. Yesterday I put a new Trainline GP9m shell on my Hobbytown chassis. Hood is just as wide as the 60's era B&O shell and most details (lack thereof actually) are mostly the same but it looks a lot better. With only a very small modification the shell fit perfectly. Today I'll take the factory installed light out of the Model Power loco and install it in the Hobbytown loco. The decoder for the newer unit has a light connected to it already. Other than that I have no plans for today.

 

[posse]

Morning all from Mason City. Work is going fine right now, only thing is they transferred me to Mason City because they had too many in Marquette and not enough here. It's supposed to be temporary, we'll see. The cool thing is for the past few nights I've been working with Chad (chadmichels) in the yard. I like working with him.

Today, I will be heading to my grandma's funeral. I should be back Sunday.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The decoder install for the Model Power GP9 is done. I'm going to have to make a couple of small tunnels to go over the shafts. The couplings have a knack for grabbing wire bundles.

 

[Steve B]

Evening all

Carey sorry to hear about your eyes, sounds like the cataracts are pretty advanced, surgery will fix you up hopefully.

Posse sorry to hear about your grandma passing away, god bless her.

Jeff The PA's in D&H paint look stunning machines, always did admire them for that.

Well after i don't know how many months i am finally pain free from toothache, what a living hell that was. So feeling better we have started work once again on the railroad after a 6 month break.

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning...

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Jeff The PA's in D&H paint look stunning machines, always did admire them for that.

I do too but I had more need of some F units. I traded the Alco P's and a Mehano steamer for the two Stewart F9's that needed motors, a Proto 2000 E6 chassis with a Trainline E7 shell and a Proto 2000 BL2 that needed some TLC.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

These newer cars have "change oil now" and "check tire pressure" lights for a reason, but I guess some of us won't "get it" until the auto makers invent and install a big hand that comes out of the steering wheel and slaps the driver repeatedly until the problem is corrected.

That's the kind of thing my mother needs. Not just in the car but all over the house.



Good morning. It's 59 and mostly clear. The high will be 87 and it will be mostly sunny.

Yesterday I finished cleaning the gears and bearings on the Hobbytown drive and installed a headlight in the top of the cab. There's no room in there for the crew as it is unless they lay on skate boards on top of that enormous flywheel. I may see if I can change out the motor with something more DCC friendly. I have a modern Athearn motor in mind.

I also got the decoder install done on the Model Power GP9. I had to wrap the pickup wires up good as the drive shaft couplings had a penchant for grabbing them. There's not much room inside the shell even with the small size of the Z Scale decoder. I initially thought of putting the decoder on top of the rear gear tower but the shaft coupling kept grabbing at the wires no matter what I did. I ended up taping the wires down on top of the motor and having the decoder hanging in free space above the rear shaft coupling. I have both of the FX wires (white and yellow) connected to the negative lead of the light so it's on whether the loco is going forward or backward. The blue wire is of course on the positive lead. I thought about putting in a light at the rear but those vicious shaft couplings get in the way again. They manage to grab anything that's near them.

 

[RexHea]

Yeah, the tire pressure lights are good, but: Last week, I told the wife she had a low tire on the rear. Her reply, " No, no, the tire pressure light isn't on. It can't be low." So, I told her to watch as I measured..."what does it read?", "Oh! It is low, but the LIGHT didn't come on!". Then I asked, "Did you reset to calibrate when you had a tire fixed about two months ago?",........"uh, uh, I forgot how to do it."

Don't know about yours, but our Bonneville SSEi doesn't detect a low tire until you are about 5lbs low. This one works by detecting change in tire RPM, a low tire turning more o) than a full one. If you don't recalibrate after airing up, the feedback doesn't have a correct benchmark to make a comparison with.

It doesn't matter how "idiot proof" you make something, it will never replace responsibility or just plain old common sense.

Bama vs. Arkansas: ROLL TIDE!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Patrick: No box yet. Maybe Monday.

 

[Trussrod]

Good morning all,
It fairly warm here this morning with a temp of about 88* and only a very slight breeze.
It's somewhat cloudy and I may get some rain?

I'll be glad when it starts to cool down as I hate the high heat. I still haven't got around to building the well enclosure due to the heat but have it all figured out how I want it to be and how I plan to fasten it down without going through too much work.

Work on the layout is progressing slowly so I also need to get that going again too.


Say Rex: Your right when you say nothing beat good old common sense!

Reminds me of the joke about a certain gubberment official and a teleaprompter at his urinal instructing him what to do and whoever controlled the info on it was messing with the officials head and said to pee first before taking it out and there was a puddle of pee on the floor!

Yep, good old comm sense.

 

[kbkchooch]

These newer cars have "change oil now" and "check tire pressure" lights for a reason, but I guess some of us won't "get it" until the auto makers invent and install a big hand that comes out of the steering wheel and slaps the driver repeatedly until the problem is corrected.

Don't look now, but coming soon to a bland econobox near you, cars that will not allow use of all gears when service is overdue. Just imagine, only having
1st & 2nd gears, and/or having ground speed limited to 40 mph until maintenance is performed or tire pressures reset.
Oh, and don't blame the Government for this one. This idea was born out of the Ford Explorer/Firestone tire lawsuits. Manufacturers realized then that the best way to stop lawsuits was to make the vehicles smarter then the people that use/abuse them!

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning...

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.