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Just returned from a weekend trip to my kids' college in Steubenville, OH, for Homecoming/Parents Weekend. Driving up took ~5 hours, a normal time lapse when you have two female passengers in the car who require frequent rest stops. Coming back was different though - 7 hours. I-68 East was gridlocked for the last 5 miles before it ends at I-70, I don't think my speedometer ever registered anything above 5mph during the entire stretch! Encountered a few similar delays on I-70 East, but nothing quite as bad as what we had on I-68. All I know is, I'm totally exhausted and would sleep for 10 hours if my body allowed it...
Yesterday the forecast temp was 32C (89.6F) and reached 35C (95F)officially. Today (Monday) it is supposed to be 35C but will no doubt hit 38C (100.4F). Thankfully humidity is fairly low and we are not mid spring yet. The place is so dry 'cause we've had little rain since July, when you walk on the grass it crunches like it was a frost. The bush fire risk is high and with so many trees in suburbia, people just don't seem to realise it could happen here.
Got a little done today train wise. Took the GP50 apart for a full inspection. Cleaned it, put back together and re-lubed. Need to replace motor mounts. Parts on order. Watch two movies today. This morning I watched 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' and this afternoon/evening I watched 'The Longest Day'.
Time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.
Temperatures will range from 53 to 60 degrees with partly cloudy skies. Winds will remain steady around 11 miles per hour from the west. No precipitation is expected.
Garry, I very much remember those billboards! When we'd go to Louisville to the old GATS that used to be held there, we always knew we'd be getting close when those signs started appearing north of Bowling Green.
Good afternoon. It's 72° with 45% humidity. The high will be 78° and will feel like like 80°.
I'm not feeling good today. Woke up around 2:45 this morning due to an asthma attack. A bad one. I used my mothers old cure-all, Tabasco to get through it. It was cleared up nicely. However I was unable to get back to sleep so now I'm very tired. I've already had several naps and all before noon.
I'm expecting a package to arrive today. Nothing important. Just an A2M0003 Disk II disk drive. I don't see anything train related getting done today.
soo terry, is the J still running strong????
my son has the MTH J also, the only complaint. is that the smoke fluid gets on the rail so hes gonna check the smole unit
I was thinking about this "tattoos done while you wait" concept some of you have been talking about. If tried, that might go over well as it would seem to add a valuable convenience factor to this otherwise very popular service. You have my vote of confidence on that!
I got my Apple disk drive today. It worked right out of the box but the write protect function didn't work. I opened it up, located the trouble and fixed it. Now it works properly.
soo terry, is the J still running strong????
my son has the MTH J also, the only complaint. is that the smoke fluid gets on the rail so hes gonna check the smole unit
It's working pretty much flawlessly. As for the smoke, I generally don't use it, and turn it off. Since it's new, I'm running the smoke, which seems to be doing fine. A few drops is all it takes, maybe a half dozen, then it will smoke for a long time.
Well today I put a couple of small details on one of the F3's. One of those is a step between the pilot and the engineers side cab ladder.
The Apple disk drive I worked on earlier had just a very small problem. One of the wires that goes from the write protect switch to the board had come loose, shaken loose in shipping probably. While reattaching it I added a toggle switch that allows me to turn the write protection on and off. When on the drive can write to the disk only when the write protect notch on the disk is open. When that notch is covered the disk can't be written to. When the switch is turned on the write protection is turned off no matter what, even if the disk has no notch, allowing the drive to write to the disk no matter what.
Time for me to call it a night. see y'all tomorrow.
High temperatures will range from 63 to 65 degrees with clear skies. Winds will remain steady around 7 miles per hour from the southeast. No precipitation is expected.
The weather changed suddenly yesterday afternoon, and we are back to "Fall". The leaves are also beginning to "fall". I suppose it's time to cover the air conditioner unit. I pulled out most of the tomato and pepper plants yesterday, "harvesting" the remaining produce. I also spent some time on the layout.
I dug out a Branchline 12-1 Pullman last night, and later today, I'm going to find out if it tolerates my less than perfect track especially the reverse loop.
Good morning. It's 63° with 74% humidity. The high will be 78° and will feel like 83°.
Well today I'll be putting an end to and argument my father and I had this morning about my weight. He says I weigh more now than I did just after my surgery. I weighed 255 then. After he left to go do some things he needed to do in town I had my step mother get out her scale. She weighed herself first as we both know her weight and it was right on the money. Then I stood on it and it stopped at 240. I weigh LESS than I did after my surgery, not more. Fifteen pounds less. Then I double checked that by using HIS scale. It too stopped at 240. My step mother is a witness to both readings so now we both have something to beat him over the head with. It also gives me another chance to tell him that before he starts telling others how to manage their life he better make sure his room is clean too.
Good afternoon,
I happened to be in the area and figured I stop into Flo's for some coffee, Oh, Hello Francine, don't you look nice. I keep getting pulled in different directions due to various things that need to be done as well as trying to help some others in various areas. The main problem is I have to just get started to taking care of various problems and attack one at a time but as many of you know they all seem to happen at once or at least they all pile up in short order of each other.
I did get a bit more done on my layout so some progress is being made but not enough and I get frustrated over that too but I also allow myself to get pulled in too many other directions.
Afternoon all,
After much reading and video watching yesterday I now have a little bit better idea of trains and how they operate.
I have finally come to the realization that my layout area is not big enough for all I want on it. Bummer.
I think I will spend the rest of the day looking into modeling a switching, classification yard.
I will just have to explain to the grandson that I cannot have a main line also.
I guess I will have to draw it all up and see what I come up with in the end.
I will say I have seen some well designed small layouts that focus on a classification yard and terminal but still allow for continuous running. The main line just isn't real long and a lot of it is hidden. Depending on how important it is to keep the young one's interest and engagement with the hobby, that might be an option to look at. I know that for most kids, just seeing the trains run around is really a good part of the experience, even if we're old enough to know that gets boring.
Take a look at both the original 101 track plans book from Kalmbach (by Linn Westcott) as well as the recent sequel by Jeff Wilson. And Model Railroader has a new special coming out.
Afternoon all,
After much reading and video watching yesterday I now have a little bit better idea of trains and how they operate.
I have finally come to the realization that my layout area is not big enough for all I want on it. Bummer.
I think I will spend the rest of the day looking into modeling a switching, classification yard.
I will just have to explain to the grandson that I cannot have a main line also.
I guess I will have to draw it all up and see what I come up with in the end.
:beer: