Coffee Shop XXXVIII-7/20/2013

[Trussrod]

Friday 8-02-2013
Good morning all,

Looks like I beat Bill this morning, well it only 12:54Am and I should be in bed, but a spot of coffee does sound good rather than all the soda I've been drinking.

Hope everyone has a good morning and day.

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

It's Friday, August 2, 2013

Temperature in TIPTON IN

 

[railfan]

57* and partly cloudy. Not sure why it stays 73* in here when it's below 60* outside. The furnace is not on. AC is set to 74*. The sun is barely above the horizon. Ordered one walthers soo line baggage/express car.........and also won another copy on ebay. Was hoping the one from ebay would come today. Wheels of Time makes some that are more detailed, but the Walthers are more my price range. I hope kato decides to make AC6000 locomotives in N scale some day, because I really need the extra horsepower to haul long coal trains.....(which are small and made of plastic).

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Morning

I am typing this with one hand...Spring is all cuddled on the other one, lol!!!

We are a little warmer this morning, but that will not last long as we will be back under those ol' t'underin'boomers this afternoon...76 today...70 tomorrow...

As I finished the filework yesterday my office work will be a lot lighter ...and I am off next week...heeheehee...

 

[logandsawman]

58 f. in northern Minnesota and going for a perfect 75. Mostly sunny and we have a high pressure stalled our over us for the weekend.

Yesterday saw BNSF 777 heading for Montana. A couple weeks it was BNSF 9999. Both the pushers on coal trains.

With the weekend looking good, it will be kayaking on the St. Louis river rather than model railroading. Although, I may get some boards screwed together while waiting for the little woman to get out of bed.

Everyone have a great day! logandsawman

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 86° with 67% humidity. It feels like 96° outside right now. The high will be 98° but will feel like 109°. Glad I did my outdoor stuff yesterday.

Well I spent a couple of hours this morning moving the main board of my mothers Apple IIe to an actual IIe case. The case it came in was one of the very early IIe cases. To make it more up to date with the later models I put it in a 1984 case. There are structural differences in the two designs that make interchanging case parts difficult if not near impossible. These later cases are somewhat easier to remove should the need arise, things like changing out a keyboard or power supply or changing out some of the chips. I put the main board of my IIe in the same type case when I changed out the power supply last month. Good thing I took the time to collect all these parts over the years.

Now as for what to do with the rest of the day, guess I'll start with cleaning up this mess I made working on the computer. After that I'll just see what happens.

 

[bnsf971]

57* and partly cloudy. Not sure why it stays 73* in here when it's below 60* outside. The furnace is not on. AC is set to 74*. The sun is barely above the horizon. Ordered one walthers soo line baggage/express car.........and also won another copy on ebay. Was hoping the one from ebay would come today. Wheels of Time makes some that are more detailed, but the Walthers are more my price range. I hope kato decides to make AC6000 locomotives in N scale some day, because I really need the extra horsepower to haul long coal trains.....(which are small and made of plastic).

Kato makes an SD90/43Mac and an SD80Mac in N scale.
I own several AC6000's in HO scale, and each one will easily pull 60 modern coal hoppers.

 

[railfan]

Kato makes an SD90/43Mac and an SD80Mac in N scale.
I own several AC6000's in HO scale, and each one will easily pull 60 modern coal hoppers.

Terry, It would be cool to see a photo of your AC6000's sometime. I might soon want a couple kato or Fox Valley CSX Dark Future ES44AC gevos. After seeing those in person last week......they move me! Fox Valley makes one with the optional steerable trucks like on the AC6000 in the above photo.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I finished with the Apple I was working on this morning. I hooked it up to a disk drive and an old trash 80 9" monitor and powered it up with a PRODOS system disk in the drive. I put it through the tests and it works perfectly. The case had quite a few big scuffs on it so I sanded them out as best I could. It still didn't look good enough for me so I painted it shiny basic black and applied a little Clear Flat. Now it looks quite a bit like the old Bell & Howell 'Darth Vader' Apple II+ they put out in the 80's except the keys are the wrong color and it very definitely says 'Apple IIe' on the case. I also painted one of the Franklin disk drives to match. Here's a couple of photos.

 

[Trussrod]

Say Bill, Is that the NEW Bunn Brew Master Flo got? That will just about take care of you and me as much as we drink, how about coffee for the rest of the guys and the gals that frequent here?

 

[bnsf971]

Terry, It would be cool to see a photo of your AC6000's sometime. I might soon want a couple kato or Fox Valley CSX Dark Future ES44AC gevos. After seeing those in person last week......they move me! Fox Valley makes one with the optional steerable trucks like on the AC6000's.

I did better than that. I shot a short video of one of my AC6000s pulling a short double stack train:
http://youtu.be/Y4Vdgyo0Yew

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Nice looking loco.

 

[Cjcrescent]

... The wife and I may work in a trip to the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum in Calera as an anniversary trip on Saturday, weather permitting. Surprisingly, it was her idea!

Too bad I'm going OOT myself or I'd come down and see you guys. Sunday will be a fun filled day. Will try and get the last of the "heavy" stuff out of daughter's house and then let her and her mother worry about everything else!

I'm tired and need a break!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Well computer wise it's been a productive day. I got a lot of work done on not one but two IIe's. I also got some scratches and a minor cut. Time to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

 

[tootnkumin]

Been wondering what these "steerable" trucks were like. (visions of the engineer with a steering wheel). Now I get it. Trucks that pivot about their centre.

 

[railfan]

Trucks that pivot about their centre.

I'm far from expert....I could be wrong.....yet I think these new steerable kind do something in addition to the center pivot which has existed for some time. It may be that rather than merely being free to pivot and follow the curve......the trucks are mechanically forced to pivot (very slightly) in the desired direction......purpose being to reduce friction and wear on the wheels and rail. In any case it is all automatic as I understand it......and sadly no steering wheel for the engineer to play with.

 

[Burlington Bob]

Got a call from the Union hall at about 11:30AM Tuesday to take a heavy wall tube welding test at a construction site about 2hrs. 40mins. from my house at 6:00AM Wednesday morning. Packed what I needed for three days in my truck and left REAL early Wednesday morning to take my test. Had to go through 6 1/2 hrs of orientation before starting my weld test. I had to stay in a motel and go back the next day to finish it. This was a "make or break" test, meaning that if I didn't pass, I would get a check for the time spent until I busted out. Then a long drive home.

Well, it turned out good so I had to stay in the motel another night. Got three days this week, 10 hrs each. Sunday afternoon, I'll pull my camper up to a campground that's only four miles from the jobsite and spend the rest of the summer up there. At least I'll get to come home on weekends. AND with a paycheck!

 

[IronBeltKen]

Congrats Bob, that's great news!

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Congrats Bob, that's great news!

Yaay for Bob!!!

------------------------------------------------------------

Good Early Morning

We did get dumped on again tonight...a li'l ol' flashkaboomer gave us about 3/4" of rain in 10 minutes here...they come, dump on our'n heads and leave just as quick...

Was pretty quiet at the office today...got home about 7 and went out for a coffee...mmmm...some coffee that turned out to be...took until just about 30 minutes ago!! lol!

Anyhoooo...have a good night's sleep or whatever!!

 

[Burlington Bob]

Thanks, guys! It made my wife and dogs happy too! It means we all get to eat. Maybe some more train stuff as well.