Coffee Shop XXXVIII-7/20/2013

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Welcome GarryCB&Q! I thought that was you from the MR forums. Welcome to the better of the two! Like Ken, this has been my "home" forum since 2005 as well. The folks are a lot more friendly, and its very rare to see the "fights" so common over there, here.

Speaking of Garys, today I had a visit from Gary Seritt, here on the forums as gseritt. I showed him the mess growing in the basement and we talked, and talked, and he wound up staying a little longer than his SWMBO liked I believe. Sorry Mrs Seritt!! It'll never happen again:rolleyes:.

I just hope that the advice that I and other members of the Alabama Rail Gang give him helps him. Today he showed me a picture of his Great-Granddad standing in front of his passenger engine at one of the terminals here in Birmingham. From the number on the loco, and with a slight side view in order to determine the wheel arrangement, we determined that he was the engineer on a Southern Ps, 4-6-2. These were light Pacifics that had inboard bearing on the trailing trucks. We then went E-baying and found a couple of brass locos that would be good starting points to make a Ps Pacific. We didn't even hit the used dealers like Caboose, Bills or any others.

I showed him how my roadbed, which is a type of spline, was put together. I took the technique off of an Alan Keller video of a B&O modeler, who used hot glue to assemble the spline with. I have to agree with the modeler, its fast, super strong and durable to say the least. I have parts that has been in place for almost 9 years that hasn't moved an inch from when it was first put down. The secret to this durability I think comes from clamping it together as it is assembled, and after it cools, (after about 30 secs), you can't tear this stuff apart.
 
Garry, to make you feel right at home, here's a couple of "oldies but goodies" for you

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Good morning. It's 73° with 100% humidity. The high will be 95° (feel like 108°) and there's a fair chance of thunderstorms.
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with a
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It's Sunday! My last day of freedom for a while. Today I'll move some more stuff down to my fathers place and I'll set up the surge suppressor. I could let my father do it but he'll make a major operation out of it and still manage to screw it up. The outlet is behind a table leg so I got a suppressor that lays flat against the wall. It will cover the outlet and the cords will plug into the sides of it at up to a 90° angle relative to the wall. It's an RCA unit, only 1,200 joule but that should be sufficient for my needs. It has six outlets, three per side.

Tonight I'll be making preparations for leaving. Early tomorrow morning the a/c unit will be set to 81° to keep it a safe temperature in here for the electronics, the water heater and surge suppressor strips will be turned off and the water will be turned off. The only electric items that will be running will be the fridge, a/c, a small fan on the hallway ceiling and a small fan in the bedroom. The two fans are for air circulation.

Speaking of fans, the black IIe I have set up here has a DC case fan mounted in the case lid. It gets it's power from an outside power source. An old AT computer power supply I scrounged from a lightning blasted HP computer a neighbor gave me. The power supply box (it's fan is long gone) is open to the air so there's no danger of it overheating and as it's next to the back wall not much chance of arrant hands getting into it. The fan is powered from one of the 3.5" floppy power plugs. It's a somewhat wild setup but it works. I've used a similar setup to power the lights on my layout. The 5v side can pull a lot of lights. I had twenty-seven structures lit and that was with the small Christmas lights. Each structure had two lights connected in series so that was over fifty lights and they were on 24/7 for over ten years. So think about that before you toss that old AT computer power supply and those Christmas lights you don't use anymore. You can also use a more modern computer power supply but you'll probably have to wire a large resistor to it to put a load on it. Without a load it won't turn on.

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Hi Garry - welcome to the forum! :)

Jeffrey, hope your surgery goes well tomorrow and that you have a rapid recovery so you can get back to your trains and computers!
 
Good Morning

Another nice and sunny day for us....high near 72...mmmmm...where did summer, as in HHH, go to? ???

The band did the club in last night...packed house, and blown fuses!! LOL!!! :confused: ;) :rolleyes: It appears that one of their staff put in the worgn fuses and we showed up, LOL!! But we did the show, with back up fuses installed, after the the night manager found where the other package of fuses went....:confused:

BTW...whoever was asking about the video...the club we are at is getting a professional to do this in a few weeks...we shall see then.... ;)

Good luck with the surgery, Jeff!!
 
Running Bear, good luck with your surgery. Most hospitals have wifi, maybe you could talk your father into bringing his laptop with him when he visits, so you can keep up with the chaos.
 
Morning Gang! :cool:

Well, I can see by the empty plate that Barry has already had his donuts. Wow, not even any crumbs for the Meeces!:rolleyes:


Cjcrescent said:
I showed him how my roadbed, which is a type of spline, was put together. I took the technique off of an Alan Keller video of a B&O modeler, who used hot glue to assemble the spline with. I have to agree with the modeler, its fast, super strong and durable to say the least. I have parts that has been in place for almost 9 years that hasn't moved an inch from when it was first put down. The secret to this durability I think comes from clamping it together as it is assembled, and after it cools, (after about 30 secs), you can't tear this stuff apart.
Click to expand...

Hey Carey, are ya sure it wasn't Kellers video of Howard Zane's WM Piermont Division where you got that technique? I've still got the scars from helping Howard with hot glueing all kinds of stuff (including roadbed) over the years. Likes the technique so much I even used it as a "spine" for some 6 ft modules I built for shows when I was with the FCSME.
spline.jpg
My frames & spline were made with Luan underlayment instead of clear pine, but 8 years and many shows later, they are still holding up well. The new layout will be all spline too. Love that stuff!;)

Jeffrey, enjoy your last day of freedom for a while. Our best wishes and prayers go with you, see ya soon!:D

Well, gotta go run some errands, maybe cut the lawn, be back later!
 
Karl,

If Howard models the B&O, that's where I got it. One way I remember the video, is that the modeler featured runs modern bodies on Hobbytown chassis, with huge can motors. He hooked one chassis up with clips to the brush tabs and another chassis started moving when he cut the power. The first motor, without any power and just the ommph from the flywheels, generated enough electricity to move the second engine a good 1.5'. It was very surprising to see this. I have several hobbytown chassis myself, and didn't know that with the right motor, they would do this.
 
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The Apple IIe I have set up in my room at my fathers place. The table looks like it's bearing up well under the weight.

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I did some work on the old Frankenstein computer I have in the office down there. It's slow but it gets me where I need to go on the net. I put that computer down there shortly after hurricane Rita blew through here in 2005. Today I put in a powered four port USB hub, an SD card reader and a four gig flash drive. That gets it kind'a caught up with what I have here. I also took one of my cameras down there along with a battery charger to keep the batteries up. Also taken down were my Dremel, Dremal bits and accessories, pliers, needle nose pliers, small wire snips, large wire snips, pair of scissors, wire stripper, assortment of screwdrivers, a meter, some toggle switches and a bit of wire.

I'll be leaving at 5am tomorrow.
 
kbkchooch said:
Morning Gang! :cool:

6 ft modules I built for shows when I was with the FCSME.
View attachment 38825
My frames & spline were made with Luan underlayment instead of clear pine, but 8 years and many shows later, they are still holding up well. The new layout will be all spline too. Love that stuff!;)
Click to expand...
I get a sense there will be zero chance of roadbed sagging while it rests on top of that formidable spline construction. Less vibration, great stability and strength. That's some pretty serious benchwork.......I like it!
 
railfan said:
I get a sense there will be zero chance of roadbed sagging while it rests on top of that formidable spline construction. Less vibration, great stability and strength. That's some pretty serious benchwork.......I like it!
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The best part, it is 6 ft long, yet it weighs less than a 4 ft module made with dimensional lumber and plywood subroadbed! :cool:
 
Good afternoon from the Coarsegold foothills,
It Sunny and fairly warm here, 84°F with 24% Humidity a 1mph breeze. I see though that WundgrndW is saying there is a Super Typhoon Utor (Western Pacific). I assume that means of the coast of Hawaii or maybe over toward Russia.


Say Gary, Welcome to the forums here! As your already finding out this is a great place with a lot of knowledge being freely shared.

I've been here since 09-09-2007.



Say Carey, Do you think you have Gary Seritt's wife [SWMBO] buffaloed, I'm sure when you and Gary get together again even a longer time will elapse. I know that's what happens when I have friends stop over or I go over to their place.



Say Dr. John, I also have an Atlas TT on my layout and my MDC Kit 4-4-0 which is probably as long as your Bachman fits just fine. I'll post a picture or two and show a modification I made that is a big help for over hanging coupler arms. I have mine set-up to work off track voltage which is controlled with the same Radio controlled hand throttle, Quest, and a Atlas Pollarity reversing unit which I leave the sliders set half half way until I want to get the table to move or route the power.



Say Jeffrey, 100% Humidity, I experienced that in Massachuetts when I was back there handling my my Aunt's Estate. It was like walking through a fine drizzle mist. I think it was 85°F at that time. It's clammy weather for sure!!


Hope everyone has a good day.
 
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Cjcrescent said:
Karl,

If Howard models the B&O, that's where I got it. One way I remember the video, is that the modeler featured runs modern bodies on Hobbytown chassis, with huge can motors. He hooked one chassis up with clips to the brush tabs and another chassis started moving when he cut the power. The first motor, without any power and just the ommph from the flywheels, generated enough electricity to move the second engine a good 1.5'. It was very surprising to see this. I have several hobbytown chassis myself, and didn't know that with the right motor, they would do this.
Click to expand...

At the time the Keller video's were made (They did 3, volumes 12, 44, & 58) he was running 90% brass engines, only had a few plastic engines. I can only assume that the Allen Keller videos did duplicate some subject manner at some point.
 
Good evening.
Now that I have that out of the way, on to the day's disasters:
Yesterday there was a train show, only 3 hours away, so I went. Compared to the last two years, it was horrible. There was very little stuff, what there was of it was either beaten half to death, about 40% higher in price than if I had simply walked into a non-discount hobby shop, or both. There were a couple of exceptions, which I snapped up. First was an IHC 2-10-2, DCC and sound ready, for $50, new in box. Then there was a pair of Genesis GP9s, one on B&O, the other in C&O, for about 40% off MSRP. The B&O unit has sound and DCC, and the C&O is DCC ready. I stopped on the way home, and picked up a Tsunami for the steam engine, and installed it last night.
Then today dawned.
I tried operating the B&O unit, and it sounds good and looks good, but it won't go around corners. I can't see anything wrong with it, the trucks lay flat on my glass tabletop, all the wheels are in gauge, and the trucks swivel freely. It only comes off the track when I turn my back on it for a second.
Then I ran the C&O engine. Briefly. Very briefly. The non-sound decoder went *poof*. No shorts, the motor draws less than a tenth of an amp, and the mechanism works freely.
I then decided I'd had enough of trains for today, went out to the shed and got out the Cub to mow the lawn. Midway through the first circuit of the lawn, the front wheels, hubs, and spindles fell off the damned thing. This tractor is a little over a year old. I gathered up all the bits and pieces, and with the help of my wife, we partly reassembled it and dragged it back into the shed. In a thunderstorm that came up during the fracas. I've decided I've had enough of things mechanical and electrical today, and after I post this, I'm going to go sit quietly in a chair and read a book.
 
Had a good ops session yesterday. Not quite a full crew but fuller than the last few months. If I can pick up a few more operators, I may even get back to building the rest of the layout.

Carey,

The last I talked to Tom(about 3 weeks ago) he was still happy with the engines. I will probably see him in 2 weeks. If he complains, I may run down to his house since we will be in Foley and check out the problem. I know he will be doing a lot of testing the next month or so, since SWARM is scheduled to visit his layout next month.

Jeffery,

Good luck with your surgery and recovery!

William,

I'm familiar with Bluford shops. Most of their items are too modern for my tastes.

Glenn
 


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