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Good morning. It's 70° (21c) and cloudy. The high should be 90° (32c) and it should be partly cloudy.
Not much planned for today. I have to adjust some CV's on the H24-66 as it still displays a tendency to break the railroad land speed record. Entering a lower number for CV 5 should tame the top speed. CV 5 is currently at 77. This thing must have a hot rod motor in it. On the default settings it almost tries to burn the wheels off on it's way to warp two. My curves and track work don't allow for that kind of speed. The crew wouldn't be able to hold onto their coffee cups. It's also time to start work on the patching of the Soo GP9m shell. After it's patched I'll dirty it up a bit.
Hi all! Pleasant Sunday here in the Heart of Dixie.
After watching football most of yesterday and half the night, my eyeballs must feel like Carey's.
Our car's tire pressure status is located in the vehicle status window. All you do is select it and push reset button. After driving for ~15 minutes it is suppose to be calibrated. Still, an eyeball and tire gauge is best......but convince a woman of that! After working in industry for many of my working years and trying to come up with idiot proofing gizmos to prevent operator error, I am convinced it is impossible! Someone will always find away around it.
We will be going camping in a couple of weeks, so the prep countdown began today. Go started with cleaning/treating the trailer roof (which is loads of fun) and then washing the rest. Still have to check tires, propane, water pipes, battery, etc. We will be taking the boat and that will add another cleaning and checkout. Plenty of time (for once) and hopefully the days before launch will be more relaxed.
Think I might work the rest of the day.......in the depot
I hope all are happy and in good health. It's cool and beautiful around here lately. September is by far the best month for weather in Minnesota. The leaves are changing color and the air is crisp and clear. The only problem is we are only about six weeks out from that nasty white stuff. It doesn't usually snow that much in November, but it can!
I saved myself from the agony of watching the Vikings blow another good lead. I turned on the game and we were up 20 to nothing in the 3rd quarter. I decided to not watch and wash the car instead. When I was done I turned on the game again to see if we won. We lost 26 to 23! Watching sports in Minnesota is bad for your health.
Once again I found myself staring at the layout with nothing to do. My wife reminded me to run some trains and it will come to me. Bingo!, I decided to continue adding ground foam and such to behind the depot area. This was an area that was partly finished a year ago. I'm slowly adding to all of these partly finished areas. At first glance they look done, but they need so much more variation and detail. I'm quite pleased with the progress done today. That's funny when me wife reminds me to Play with trains! I found a good one I tell ya!
I think I'll continue the random work on the layout. Maybe this thing will look like something if I keep it up.
Well, I made a start on the redneck caboose project today. I removed the sides at one end starting at the bay window and going to the rear wall. After the sides were out I removed the end wall. The roof, ladder and platform railing are being left in place. I also painted out the Soo markings on the Walthers GP9m shell. The speed and lighting problems of the H24-66 have been dealt with. The front light is a MARS light and the rear light is a double pulse strobe.
Good morning!
I'm trying to adjust my attitude to get the club layout finished with the repairs needed to begin showing to the public on Nov 5th.
We will be on display at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham again this holiday season for 9 weeks. It tends to make for short weekends.
At least the scenery is pleasant on and off the layout during the show!
Y'all have a great day.
Good morning. It's 78° and mostly cloudy. The high will be 93°. It will be mostly cloudy and humid. There's a 10% chance of rain for the afternoon.
Today I'll see if I can get the L&A decals on the GP9m and get some more work done on the caboose project. Other than that there's nothing on the schedule for today. I have a lot of pain today and really don't feel like doing anything.
The funeral went well, it was a real nice day for once. I've been to enough funerals when it is single digits for a high and windy. My dad, brother and I got a gas line for a grain dryer fixed while we were there. It had a compression fitting on it and the line has had it's fair share of abuse over the years. One of the nuts was cracked and there was no way a compression fitting was going to work on it again. Luckly the local hardware store had a flairing tool and we used that repair the line.
I'm gong to drive up to San Jose and back tomorrow. It's exactly 1,000 miles for the round-trip, but eliminates having to spend the night. While we're there, I'll stop in at my favorite train store and pick up the two Athearn Genesis Black Widows that I ordered. They weren't supposed to arrive until November/December, and were supposed to be my Christmas present. Oh well, Christmas comes early this year.
One of my chief frustrations has been not having a place to work. We have a large house, but because of the design, they only place I have for trains is a 9X11 sitting room off the master bedroom (and it's full of layout). The garage is out of the question most of the year. It's just too hot. I decided to put a small work bench in my office, which is already crowded with office stuff, but it's a place where I can at least do a little model building. I ordered a bench from Sears, and it arrives on Wednesday. In the meantime, I have to find a place to relocate a bookcase, and a rack with much of my computer equipment (UPS, modems, routers, etc.)
At least I'll be able to get on with some kit building, and should have room to set up a test/programming track near the computer so I can learn DecoderPro. The office efficiency will suffer, but I do have priorities. Trains come first.
I received two items in the mail today. An Amtrak station and a walking beam oil pump. The station looks to be the same one offered by Walthers. I'll cut it half and modify it a bit so it looks like a loading terminal of some kind. The oil pump is a Faller offering (no longer available at Walthers). It works great and is very quiet. Now to find a place for it.
Yep, I remember them being all over Texas, including near my home town which I haven't been back to since the late 80's. Once in a while I come across one or two here in central Louisiana.
Yesterday was cooler and I took advantage and built a replace enclosure for my water well and electrical components. The old one was literally falling apart so it was more than over due. I've got to put the finishing touches on it and then take it down to the well and set it in place.
Tom & Jeffery: I also remember them being in the Long Beach area of the Los Angeles area as well as other locals and even in the Bakersfield area and North many years ago. They were always pretty dirty looking as I recall.
How time goes bye, but it sure nice to recall! Thanks for posting Jeff.
Good, You got them. Looks like pump survived anyway. I still think they are too big for HO, but like I said, I know they make them in different sizes. The bigger the pumpjack, typically the deeper the well is. I used to work in the oil field when I was not as smart as I think I am now...LOL
This particular model is of a beam ablanced pump and they tend to be on the big side. They fill fill the need of economically producing many of the shallow wells. The pump most people are used to seeing is the conventional unit which is widely known and accepted. It's the old reliable 'WORK HORSE' of the oil patch an dis the most universally adaptable. Other types include unitorque, low profile (useful in fields irrigated by traveling sprinkler systems or in urban areas), air balanced units which use compressed air instead of heavy counter weights, reverse mark which is similar to the conventional unit but requires a smaller prime mover for the same amount of work.
After my earlier post I spent the rest of the day finishing off the well enclosure, a box that is 28W x 39"L x 28" high on the back and slopes to 26 on the front, by adding a 2x2 riser all around as well cutting a filler for the slot the water line passes through to completely enclose the four walls, I previously made a top covered with Aluminum siding to protect against the rain that I used on the old enclosure and it fit this new box just fine as it's the same size. Probably the only thing I should have done is to Creasote bottom risers to help keep bugs and termites away. Maybe just a good dose of bug spray will do about the same thing?
Now the next 'touchy thing', I have to do is to get the 220 volt control boxes secured on the mounting board I already installed. That's tomorrows chore that hopefully shouldn't take too long. Thank God for cordless/reversible drills. Then the next thing is to is to put Aluminum siding on the enclosure to ensure the elements are kept off the OSB I used to build it from. Also a couple of pieces of rebar in the corners would help to firmly anchor it down.
After working in industry for many of my working years and trying to come up with idiot proofing gizmos to prevent operator error, I am convinced it is impossible! Someone will always find away around it. 
