Coffee Shop XXV

[ho/ttothemoss]

good morning everyone cold and sunny in my part of town......

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 62 and cloudy. The high will be 70 with the sun peeking through at times.

This morning I installed a Digitrax DZ125 decoder in the Bachmann GP38-2 I recently got. If you look at the photo below you will note that there are actually two decoders. The Bachmann board (cheap Lenz POC) controls the LED's and the DZ125 controls the motor. Why didn't I just have the Digitrax decoder do both? Two reasons. #1, I didn't feel like cutting the LED's loose from the board and soldering resisters onto them and #2, the light functions of this DZ125 don't work. That was why I pulled it out of the loco it was in. Now the setup may look ridiculous but don't laugh, it works. The loco has already been programmed with an address and a speed setting.

 

[RexHea]

......But then again, what do you call a smart blonde???
.
.
A golden retriever !!!!!

Oh Jeeze! My sides are splitting from laughing so hard. That is one of my favorites and that is the one that pisses my blond daughter off the most .

The 'man-in-brown' delivered our Christmas camera and gear yesterday. I managed to unpack it for inventory, when the wife shouted, "STOP! Not until Christmas". She then grabbed everything and took all into the bedroom to wrap for under the tree. (Me: speechless with bowed head and tear running down cheek.)

Beards? Hummph! I quit growing one when my face began looking like a big white snowball.

Corey: Darn fellow, I am sorry it didn't work out. A friend of mine and his wife tried the same thing and it didn't work either. They took-in a couple of foster children and managed to adopt one, and then two. A couple of years later, she started hatching one after the other. The "old wives" said they were trying too hard in the beginning .

 

[Trussrod]

Good afternoon all,
It's windy with light rain and cloudy or course and sure looks like I'm in for more. The temp isn't too bad though at 44*. Good thing I made three trips up on the roof yesterday doing roof repair, an old shake-roof, as I found a number of spots that looked questionable and some down right holes too. How the roof wasn't leaking I don't know?? Anyway as they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!


Hey Rex, sounds like you were taking your life in your hands by starting to unwrap the new camera. For God's sake, be cautious, we don't want to hear of another injury happening out your way.


Say Jeff, glad you didn't have a BM when installing the new decoder, that really can get costly I'm sure! I'm rather interested in installing sound modules in my loco's even though I just running strkaight DC
it sure ads a lot to the operation but that's down the line a ways yet.

Hope everyone has a good day.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I'm rather interested in installing sound modules in my loco's even though I just running strkaight DC
it sure ads a lot to the operation but that's down the line a ways yet.

It's been my experience that the sound equipped locos don't always do well on DC. The throttle has to be advanced over halfway just to get them to move.

 

[alcoman]

Okay. I'm ready for summer now.

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 AM EST SUNDAY.

* TIMING: SNOW WILL CONTINUE TO FALL INTO TONIGHT WITH THE BULK OF THE ACCUMULATIONS OCCURRING BEFORE MIDNIGHT.

And it's 30 degrees but fells like 23. Nothing in the 10 day forecast looks much better.

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's cloudy and 33 this morning. It's supposed to snow later today. Just flurries, they tell me. What is this "flurries" they speak of? It didn't say anything about "flurries" in the brochure they sent me when they talked me into coming here...

I liked the way it snowed in California. You could see the snow on top of the mountains.

Here is what "flurries" look like here: (2+")

 

[kbkchooch]

Here is what "flurries" look like here: (2+")

How did you get,,,,,,when we got......nuttin! The 10 day looks like daytime highs all next week at 40 or so, nightime lows in the upper 20s, but next weekend, oooooooooooh,,snow showers!

My prediction, sometime before Christmas well see 2-4 inches,,, then the next day it will be 50 degrees outside....poof,,all gone!
Then nothing til the 2nd week of January. At that time we will hear forcasts of 2-4 inches, but it wont stop til its 2-4 inches from the family jewels!!!
Typical Maryland weather

I remember last year!

 

[Littlefoot14]

Well, Rudy the Rabbit is back from another track meet. Did really well, especially for the first meet of the season.

Gained our lap back and advanced a position in our 4x800m relay.
Finished 2nd in my 600m, couldve finished first but coach seeded another runner in the wrong heat, so he beat me.
Finished Second to last in my 1000m, and i wasnt even trying

Man, HOYardsales Media Weekends really fill up my inbox, 125 messages and i checked it this morning

Is $40 for an Athearn RTR AC4400 a good price?

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Is $40 for an Athearn RTR AC4400 a good price?

That's a very good price.

 

[Littlefoot14]

So if im the seller, look for a better deal?

 

[bnsf971]

Man, HOYardsales Media Weekends really fill up my inbox, 125 messages and i checked it this morning

Switch to "daily digest". I went from having several hundred emails to 3-4 digests. Digest version also strips out the attachments, so if somebody manages to send spam or a virus, it gets removed before it hits my inbox.
Speaking of virusses, my wife clicked on a link in a Facebook message, clicked "install" to something that purported to be an Adobe update, and promptly got half a dozen trojans. AV got 3 of them, but the other 3 dumped a bunch more in her computer. I spent nearly 8 hours last night trying to clean up the mess before finally giving up, reformatting and re-installing Windows. And, of course, I asked about her backups. "No, it made the computer run slow". Sigh...

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

So if im the seller, look for a better deal?

If I was the buyer I would jump on it in a minute at $40! $60 would still be a good price, The one I had cost around $80-$90 new.

 

[Cjcrescent]

Got banished to the basement today. Not complaining at all!
Spent a good part of the day working on my TT. While testing all the new wiring in the yard last night, the TT started making a funny noise, and the table stopped moving. The motor was still running, but nothing was moving.

Had to get underneath the layout and remove the three screws that allowed me to remove the motor and gearing. The TT is powered by a Hankscraft 1.5 rpm motor, and the shaft out of it wasn't turning. I drilled out the rivets holding the motor and gearbox together. On one of the secondary gears, about 5 teeth were broken off of a cast metal gear. Da**. I checked with my local pusher and no luck. I tried to come up with a substitute motor and gearing, but couldn't come up with an appropriate setup.

Then I remembered! I have a SSLtd Sterling TT kit, with the motorized drive! The motor used in that is a Hankscraft .5rpm motor. A temporary, drop in replacement until I can get a new 1.5rpm ordered.

The TT is a AAA 120ft. It was made by a small company out of CT. It was a gift to me by one of our older members. He had ordered it about 10yrs ago, and never used it, and he decided that I needed it more than he did. It came with an indexing circuitry that uses infared to index by. It was supposed to be top notch, but after hooking it up by the directions, nothing worked! So to make lemonade outta the lemons, I bypassed the circuitry, and use the MkI eyeball system to align the TT ends by. To me, the loss of indexing is no big deal as the prototype doesn't use it! It also helps that the TT is only about 18" away from the edge of the layout.

Anyway, the TT is back up and running again, even if its a little slow.

So now the yard is completely wired and functioning well. I still want to test it further to make sure there really are no problems. Once that is done, we can actually start having some op sessions here! Once that starts, construction I think will slow alittle.

I also have to brag a little. I was perusing the wilds of evilbay, and came across a recording of SRR Ps-4 #1401. Thats the SRR 4-6-2 thats inside the Smithsonian in DC. It was only $4.99 with free shipping. I can't wait for it to get here! I'm gonna see if I can digitalize the sounds and transfer them into one of Digitrax's sound decoders. That would really be neat, running my 2 PFM Ps-4's around the layout with actual sounds of the real locos. (SRR steam sounds are very hard to come by except for the excursion locos, none of which are pacifics.)

Tomorrow I will spend the day away from the layout, as I get to put up the Christmas decorations.

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

12/05/2010

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Morning

We got another 6" of the white stuff ast night so we plowed it out--now comes the fun...

We are expecting up to foot of snow today, then another foot tonight, then another foot tomorrow

So plowing and snow shovelling will be our lot for the next few days

And, of course, I get to drive in this stuff...

Can you tell I'm a happy camper?

 

[Cjcrescent]

Good Morning

We got another 6" of the white stuff ast night so we plowed it out--now comes the fun...:rolleyes

We are expecting up to foot of snow today, then another foot tonight, then another foot tomorrow

So plowing and snow shovelling will be our lot for the next few days

And, of course, I get to drive in this stuff...

Can you tell I'm a happy camper?

Barry;

That's the reason why I live in the "Sunny South!"

Prior to last year, where we got about 3/4" of snow the whole year, the last pure snowstorm we had here was December 15, 1997 Oh, then we only had 1", and it melted away before nightfall. I will say the nativity scene I had put up that year was really gorgeous.

We've had one ice storm around '01-'02 that was a mess, but it too was gone in a day or so.

I love to watch snow fall, but I could care less if it sticks. Watching it fall is always beautiful.

 

[Littlefoot14]

Barry;
I love to watch snow fall, but I could care less if it sticks. Watching it fall is always beautiful.

Snows great! For the first couple feet.... after that, if it doesnt cause a snowday, its more of a pain in the rear.

Speaking of which, woke up to flurries which have turned in to decent sized flakes. Hard to say if anythings sticking right now, but its supposed to snow all day.

 

[leghome]

We got around 3" of snow here in Central Indiana since Fri. Morning. Might be more or less but the grass is under snow and the drive has less than half of what the grass doe but it melted off some yesterday while it was still coming down. I am now ready for spring. I have had my fill of snow and cold weather. When it gets below 70 it is to danged cold.

 

[bnsf971]

And, of course, I get to drive in this stuff..

Can you tell I'm a happy camper?

Prior to last year, where we got about 3/4" of snow the whole year, the last pure snowstorm we had here was December 15, 1997

We've had one ice storm around '01-'02 that was a mess, but it too was gone in a day or so.

I love to watch snow fall, but I could care less if it sticks. Watching it fall is always beautiful.

There's something unnerving about touching the brake pedal, and hearing the ABS system on my truck kick in... I got to hear that a lot on my way back from Spencer yesterday. Since it was only supposed to be late afternoon fluuries , I went to Salisbury to see my nephew, then stopped at the Choo Choo shop, where I took the photos in my last post.

I was doing no more than 45 on the Interstate, and nobody was passing me.