Coffee Shop XXXVIII-7/20/2013

[logandsawman]

Did you have train schedule when you walked across the trestle? I would be afraidy cat anyhoo.
-

The speed limit on the track was 10 mph so I could hear them coming from about 2 miles away. Calculating about a 2 minute 440 yard dash I figured I had pretty good odds.

Plus, I crossed during the spring "break up" period, when the frost was coming up out of the ground and the ground was shifting, and I don't think they were using the track at all.

Anyway, that was a concern. But it was either walk the trestle or hike about 4 miles of marshy muddy trail and ford a couple creeks to access about 3 hours of timber cruising.

logandsawman

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I had the Mitac drives apart today for inspection, cleaning, repair and tightening of anything loose. I gave the shells a nice coat of silver metallic paint. The paint covers three decades of scuff marks. The drives work flawlessly and now they look as good as they work. I still have two more items coming in the mail. An 80 column/64k memory expansion card that's coming from Indiana and a 2.5 foot Disk II drive cable that's coming from Bulgaria.

Well I got my exercise today. I packed three fifty-five gallon cans of trash out to the roadside, one can at a time. After the third can I was coming back up the driveway real slow. That was enough for today.

Well it's time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Evening...

Basically was a good day here...I managed to get some of the plans put together..the fun part will be wiring management. We have something like 3 20 channel patchbays to muck with ...hopefully these will be the only ones needed...but we all know how that goes, roight?

The floor is going to be fun too. I need to lift the floor up by a couple of inches to get some underpadding down for the drums...too much bass reflection in one area... :-/

Well, better be off and getting some reading done...have a good night!!

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

It's Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Temperature in TIPTON IN

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Morning

Somewhat dull today...a bunch more rain in our forecast..high of 75 feeling like 88 later on.

Going to the diner a little later on, see the gang then go to LHS and pick up some garden railroad books...then do some long term planning for that as well...

Studio work later on as well...

 

[Boris]

Good Morning:

Yesterday was a fantastic day. Today.......It's 67°, and sunny right now. The forecasters think the humidity will return, along with rain and thunder, later this afternoon.

I have a small outside painting project to complete early, and I'm expecting a parcel from the Train store in Brooklyn, later today.

Have a pleasant day.

joe

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good luck on the painting project Joe.

*

Good morning. It's 78° with 95% humidity. Outside it feels like 88°. The high will be 98° but will feel like 106°. Somebody must have ordered sunshine because we're getting a lot of it this week.

No plans for today but I'm reasonably certain something will present itself.

 

[railfan]

Two weeks ago I drove up to Marion, Ohio to watch freight trains. On one of the videos I took, the same train had cars with markings from many railroads. (BTW, whomever does their weathering is a true artist! )

The three locomotives were CSX. Cars had all these roads:

1.) CSX
2.) Union Pacific
3.) Norfolk Southern
4.) Southern Pacific
5.) Kansas City Southern
6.) NYC = New York Central?
7.) Chicago North Western
8.) Western Pacific
9.) Conrail

So I no longer worry about the mix of roads in the trains on my layout.

 

[bnsf971]

Two weeks ago I drove up to Marion, Ohio to watch freight trains. On one of the videos I took, the same train had cars with markings from many railroads. (BTW, whomever does their weathering is a true artist! )

The three locomotives were CSX. Cars had all these roads:

1.) CSX
2.) Union Pacific
3.) Norfolk Southern
4.) Southern Pacific
5.) Kansas City Southern
6.) NYC = New York Central?
7.) Chicago North Western
8.) Western Pacific
9.) Conrail

So I no longer worry about the mix of roads in the trains on my layout.

NYC=CSX.
PRR=NS.
CR can be either CSX or NS.

 

[Boris]

Good luck on the painting project Joe.

The painting was done in no time, the masking and prep and the cleanup were time consumers, Jeffrey.

My new version Walthers SW1 arrived around 2PM. Runs well, compares favorably with the old 1990s version. My initial plan was to take the old body and put it on the new chassis, but now I'm thinking I could really use two SW1s........

I have to think this out..........

Joe

[h=2][/h]

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good luck on the painting project Joe.

The painting was done in no time, the masking and prep and the cleanup were time consumers, Jeffrey.

Sounds like the painting jobs I've been doing lately. Painting the shell of a disk drive doesn't take long but getting the shell off then back on the drive takes a little while, then there's the drying time to consider.

Nothing special today other than I adjusted the Quentin disk drive. It was off on it's read/write speed by 52.8 milliseconds. I got it down to +/- 4.5 milliseconds of baseline. Can't get it any lower without an oscilloscope provided I knew how to use one. I made do using the recommended settings in a maintenance manual. It's for an Apple drive but I figure an Apple compatible should be pretty much the same.

Have to talk with my father tomorrow about some things he wants to discuss about the upcoming operation. He tried telling me what they are today from work but the phone connection was so bad I couldn't understand him. That's OK. He'll be home tomorrow.

It's still 89 here. Supposed to be a low of 75 tonight. Well it's time to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

 

[tootnkumin]

Two weeks ago I drove up to Marion, Ohio to watch freight trains. On one of the videos I took, the same train had cars with markings from many railroads. (BTW, whomever does their weathering is a true artist! )

So I no longer worry about the mix of roads in the trains on my layout.

This is one of the most frustrating things when looking at models to buy, especially when from my distance away, the only opportunity (apart from your post for example) to guage what model's road/s will fit within a time frame is usually photos or vids and they don't always get posted on the date they were taken (and often not for several years). So how common is it to see fallen flag rolling stock still in common usage?

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

It's wednesday, August 7, 2013

Temperature in TIPTON IN

 

[bnsf971]

So how common is it to see fallen flag rolling stock still in common usage?

Very. It costs money and time to repaint a car, along with lost revenue time while it's sitting getting painted. Back in the olden days of yore, railroads and shippers tried to keep their rolling stock at least presentable, knowing the stuff was a rolling billboard for their companies. Now, with railroads being more or less hidden from view, and seen more as a pipeline rather than as independent companies, they don't bother.
The locomotives usually stay fairly clean, for the most part, but rolling stock rarely, if ever, gets even washed, much less painted into new livery.
On my home layout, any car that could possibly bee seen on a railroad in the time frame modeled gets used, no matter what railroad, company, or reporting marks are on it. And yes, I have trains with Pennsylvania Railroad and Rock Island rolling stock being pulled by SD70ACes and AC6000CWs. The Pennsy cars are coming up on no longer being allowed to be in those trains, since that railroad has been gone for almost 50 years.

 

[Boris]

This is one of the most frustrating things when looking at models to buy, especially when from my distance away, the only opportunity (apart from your post for example) to guage what model's road/s will fit within a time frame is usually photos or vids and they don't always get posted on the date they were taken (and often not for several years). So how common is it to see fallen flag rolling stock still in common usage?

For the most part, fallen flag rolling stock is quite rare, except for equipment that doesn't go off line. The AAR has a rule that prohibits 40 year old rolling stock from interchange. There are exceptions, but....... Keep in mind, the last major flag to fall, Conrail, was split in 1998, that's now 15 years ago. If I remember correctly, most of Conrail's later investment was in Gondolas and coal hoppers and intermodal but intermodal was mostly leased (TTX) equipment.

Joe

 

[Boris]

Good Morning:

It's 67° and overcast, with 78% humidity this morning at the Jersey Shore. There is a 40% chance of rain and storms for today. Yesterday's forecast rain never happened. The local public schools announced yesterday, that schools will open on September 9. So the local kids have a month of vacation left.

Going to a local orchard today, weather permitting, this place is a mecca for New Yorkers, out for a ride in the "Country" on weekends, but during the week it's a pleasant experience.

I am having a problem motivating myself to work on the layout. Maybe later today.

Have a great day!

Joe

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Morning

Dull and very muggy out here, expecting some 'excitement' here as well, high of 83 feeling like 99 later on.

I'm going off to the mall and get some walking in...having been remiss in my walking lately is no fun. Also this morning, get to go to vampire's and get more blood taken out of me. Hopefully everything will be clear...

Have a good day, everyone!!

 

[Cjcrescent]

For the most part, fallen flag rolling stock is quite rare, except for equipment that doesn't go off line. ...

Joe

Joe,
Down here in the south, there are still many fallen flag cars running. We see them all the time here. Its very common to see "Southern", "SCL", "SP", and others. Many of these cars won't be approaching their 40 year limit for another 10 years. But, I am seeing many more cars for "NS", "CSX", etc, than I used to.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 78 here. Looks like it'll be 99 this afternoon. Gonna be a bit busy today. My father and I will be going to Lowe's to get some things this morning then he has some plans that include my help later. Tracking shows that the memory card I ordered is coming today. Pizza for lunch today.

 

[Dr. John]

Joe,
Down here in the south, there are still many fallen flag cars running. We see them all the time here. Its very common to see "Southern", "SCL", "SP", and others. Many of these cars won't be approaching their 40 year limit for another 10 years. But, I am seeing many more cars for "NS", "CSX", etc, than I used to.

I see cars still in their original Southern and Southern Pacific schemes nearly every day on the Autauga Northern RR (former CSX/NS) as they serve the International Paper plant here in Prattville. Saw an L&N car a few weeks back but it was so badly faded (and covered with graffiti ) that it was almost unrecognizable. The railroad bridge over main street still sports the GM&O logo, even though the GM&O merged with the IC back in 1967.