Coffee Shop XXXVIII-7/20/2013

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 74° with 70% humidity. The high will be 92° but will feel like 98°.

I may clean up the shell of the newest of the F3's but other than that I have no plans for today. But there's always the chance that something will come up.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Good afternoon gents! Sunny and 68*F in my corner of Central MD.

Sunday [to me] has always been a day of rest, and I rest by running my trains.

Be that as it may, outside my window there's a 2-acre lawn that cries out to be mowed! Oh well. Maybe I can at least daydream about trains while I'm on the tractor..?

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Right now I'm taking a break from my current project, making handrails for the plastic Burlington Varney F3A. I ran out of wire yesterday finishing up the railings on one of the metal F3's. The wire I'm using now is what I could scrounge up, mostly salvaged from bread ties. The hardest part is straightening all the kinks and bends. It's thin stuff but I'll take whatever I can get. If you don't have what you need and can't get it then use what you can get. One tie I found is from one of those big freezer bags and is about eight inches long. So I have about a foot of thin wire. I'll use that as far as it'll go.

 

[kbkchooch]

Lot #3 HO RS3, appears to be a MDC shell, with Athearn trucks, NS wheel sets, Sagami can motor and home made driveshafts (runs great!)

Did a little further inspection & research. The RS3 is not a MDC, but an ancient Stewart. Remember, they had Athearn drives so that explains the trucks, and the body shell is made up of several pieces glued together. Glued so well that I had no inkling from the outside that it wasn't a cast body like the MDC! I guess the original Athearn motor was too noisey, thats why it has the Sagami.

Sorry Terry, but the C420 is staying here. Gonna be a running mate for this Lima C420.

After, of course, paint, detailing and decoder install That is , unless you want to make me an offer I can't refuse!!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Got the handrails on the Burlington F3. It being plastic made the job a lot easier. I used my Dremel with a 105 engraving bit to remove the molded on handrails then cut new handrails from a piece of wire that was salvaged from one of those big freezer bag ties. I drilled the holes for the top of each handrail then crimped the top of the rail at a 90 degree angle and placed it in it's hole, made sure it was lined up at the top and bottom the applied a drop of super glue at the top and bottom to keep it in place. There's black lines left where the molded on rails were removed but they'll be covered when the shell is painted.

I'm performing an experiment with one of the metal shells. I'm attempting to make 'glass' in the portholes using clear tape and LocTite Go2 glue. So far it's looking good.

Handrails, engineer side, Burlington F3A:

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Karl ... That D&H #407 is a real beauty.
Very nice presentation.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The 'glass' experiment was pretty much a success!

 

[Cjcrescent]

Congrats on your team's victory, Cary.... Roll Tide! I still have the Bama mug that Rex gave me after the 2008 visit. Sis-in-Law gives me dirty looks when I use it in her presence - her hubby is an Auburn Alum!

I've heard that mixed marriages like that don't last long!

 

[Cjcrescent]

Just got back from a local auction. Bought 3 lots.

Lot #1 Marx (S or O27?) battery operated set, (missing the loco) and an MRC undec Alco C420 (HO) in the original box

Karl,

Are you sure it was battery operated and not clockwork? Looks like my first set and it was clockwork.

Edit: Karl, I should have read a little further, as Dr John also caught it.

 

[Cjcrescent]

Ahhhh!!! One of the Thorington collection I presume?... he also sent me a 4-8-4 mechanism and a 2-10-2 mechansim to fix. Quartering and out of position rods. Weekend fun! Find the bind...

Yes it was. Now I only need someone to sell me a PSC Ls-2 2-8-8-2, and Ls-1 2-8-8-2, for a dollar each, (thats all I can afford right now) and I'll have 1 of every brass engine type available for SRR. I know PSC had offered 2 types of Ps-4's and 2 types of 2-8-2's but I have the PFM versions.

Bob and I were supposed to fix those mechanisms, but then Bob had his TIA, and was out of circulation for a few days. Now hes having some more heart trouble that I hope he gets corrected soon. Definitely don't want to lose the Captain.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The mouse trap snapped twice today and no mouse. About half an hour ago it snapped a third time. This time there were sounds that wouldn't be coming from an empty trap. I got there just in time to see the little cuss twitch for the last time. He had gone to the trap for a free snack once too often and it cost him his life. I emptied the trap, cleaned it, added new bait then reset it and put it back. Then I looked into the depths of the cabinet and said 'Next'. My father will get some glue traps tomorrow and we'll set those out and see if they get any 'customers'.

Time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Jeffrey those spring traps never worked very well for me, always wound up using the sticky boxes and/or poison pellets. Much higher 'yield' for the effort involved in setting them up!

. . .

Well I managed to finish the entire mowing job in 2 hours - a record, it normally takes me 3. I was cutting along the edge of a so-called 'wild' area, facing direct sunlight, when I suddenly felt my right eyelid get grazed by a low-hanging thorny vine. Another quarter-inch lower and it would have got the eye itself.

After I finished mowing I headed for the train room, but I didn't relax; I ended up doing a mini-project that left me feeling exhausted. But it's a very satisfied kind of exhaustion - I believe that what I did greatly lowers the probability of yard derailments, and makes most of the non-tortoise turnouts much easier to operate. At first I noticed a few of my long curved t/o's where I rigged up some homegrown contacts/wiring mechanisms to power the frog. I had to use a 'T' pin to hold them in position due to the stiffness of the wires. Easy enough for me to use since I was the guy who built it, but what about a guest operator? I had a bulk bag of 30 Caboose Industry ground throws that had never been opened, figured I'd install 3 or 4 of them to replace the tee pins. When I discovered how [relatively] easy it was to install them, I got on a roll and wound up installing a total of 25 ground throws in the turnouts that I figured had the greatest need of them. In many of the yard t/o's, I had to drill new holes in the throwbar to make the ground throw fit between the tracks. And since a friend is borrowing my cordless drill, I had to use a pin vice to drill the various holes. Also needed to drill into the plywood subroadbed so I could push-in the anchoring nails. Now the tips of my thumb, index finger and middle finger are bruised - that pin vice shows no mercy to fingers LOL! The payoff of all this work will become evident during the op session.

Geez it's late, I've got a daytime job I need to be at tomorrow morning. G'night!

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

It's Monday, September 16, 2013

Temperature in TIPTON IN

Partly cloudy today with a high in the mid-60s.

 

[railfan]

"Hey folks!.......Why not enjoy a delicious hot cup of coffee from our refreshment center during the intermission? "

 

[Secondhandmodeler]

Good morning folks.

I've been busy and stressed out with work and with remodeling my home. Amongst all this stress I realized I'm missing my great stress reducer, trains. I've told myself that any money and any time spent should be on the house. Well, I just don't have enough money until year's end so I decided to play with trains. Yesterday I bolted all of the sections together and tore out most of the town of Mankato. That section has never pleased me so since it's torn up anyway, I figured I would change things around. I've deepened the Mankato scene by six inches after adding a 1x6 board cantilevered over the foundation wall of my split foyer home. It's not adding much but now I can have almost full buildings as a backdrop instead of just building facades. If I didn't add the boards, I would just have the extra room behind my backdrop. I haven't reconnected any track yet since the section breaks are mainly in corners. When I cut the flex track it let loose in some areas from the ballast. I'll work on that next time I'm stressed out. It sure was nice to get lost in train land for a few hours anyway.


I haven't read back over the forum so I hope everyone is doing well.

Have a good day everyone.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 74° with 88% humidity. The high will be 95° but will feel like 100°.

I don't really know what I'll be doing today. Something will come up I suppose. I heard a bit of something on the news this morning about an explosion or bombing or shooting somewhere but for now that's all I know about it. I'm sure the news media and the 'sky is falling' chicken little types that my step mother gossips with daily will make sure we have the whole story. My father is happy that we're light one mouse after last night. One less mouth to feed he says.

 

[GarryCBQ]

Howdy .... We were out of town for a few days. We were in Cincinnati taking care of grand daughters while Son and his wife were on a mini-vacation. Had a messy Friday the 13th there. We lost one of their dogs, lost one of their cars, lost one of their cell phones, and locked ourselves out of their house so we could not get back in. Terrific day. ... We drove home (over 300 miles) late Friday without incident.

Carey posted a photo for my benefit of nice model of the CB&Q streamlined 4-6-4 in the Model Railroader Forum. Good to see some of you guys in that forum. The model Carey posted is outstanding.

I've been following Jeff's posts about his work on the F3's, and I'm very impressed.

On my layout I continue working on an extension. I am laying track for some of it now.

Cheers!

 

[bnsf971]

Howdy .... We were out of town for a few days. We were in Cincinnati taking care of grand daughters while Son and his wife were on a mini-vacation. Had a messy Friday the 13th there. We lost one of their dogs, lost one of their cars, lost one of their cell phones, and locked ourselves out of their house so we could not get back in. Terrific day. ... We drove home (over 300 miles) late Friday without incident

Did the dog steal the car, and take the cell phone to set up a card game with the other pack members?

 

[Espeefan]

Yes it was. Now I only need someone to sell me a PSC Ls-2 2-8-8-2, and Ls-1 2-8-8-2, for a dollar each, (thats all I can afford right now) and I'll have 1 of every brass engine type available for SRR. I know PSC had offered 2 types of Ps-4's and 2 types of 2-8-2's but I have the PFM versions.

Bob and I were supposed to fix those mechanisms, but then Bob had his TIA, and was out of circulation for a few days. Now hes having some more heart trouble that I hope he gets corrected soon. Definitely don't want to lose the Captain.

Would you believe I have at least one of each wheel arrangement that the SP ran during the time I model? That's a lot of locomotives! Only took 20 years to get 'em all!

Well the 4-8-4 is not fixable in it's current form. There was one driver set out of quarter, but the rod set is incorrect. Where there should be a front-middle-rear rod set, Jim has a front-front-rear rod set. Because the front driver is offset slightly forward from the rear three, this ain't gonna work. It's also not really suitable to be filed down as the lapping is wrong I have Jim looking for stray parts. There was also a driver set with two insulated tires. I asked about this as the logical conclusion is that if he had more than one model apart at a time (which we know he did), it is possible that there is a model out there with two "live" tires which will short out the rails on someone's railroad!

The 2-10-2 has been re-quartered and I have to put everything back together.

I was talking to the Captain yesterday and he started having chest pain (angina again) Hopefully we'll talk tonight. I'm keeping a close eye on the situation

 

[kbkchooch]

Hey gang!

Garry, I think Terry might be right,,,I've seen card playing dogs before.....well...pictures of them!
Jeffrey. That cat better watch out. You keep catchin mice, they may keep you on the house and send the cat to the trailer!

Been messing with what I still think is a Stewart Rs3, new wrinkle in it. I didn't like the homemade drive. One end was Athearn, the other NWSL and the motor was not centered in the frame. Remounted the motor (was 3/4 inches off center) made new shafts from NWSL stuff, then ran it on DC. 2 problems. had a clicking noise from the axle and the front of the lead truck was putting on a fieworks display! Took her back to the bench. The fireworks display was from steel wool caught in the front truck,(bad cleaning idea??) and the clicking noise was from 4 cracked axle gears!! Wait a sec, did Stewart buy trucks from Proto?? Or maybe I got an engine that another Dr. Frankenstein got ahold of???
It running great now, smooth and quiet. Gonna play with the loose & busted handrails later.