Number Twelve Coffee Shop is now open

[Steve B]

It's not been a good week for some, but it was a good one for others, hang in there if it's been a bad one and congratulations if it's been a good one.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Hi gang,

Haven't posted here lately I realize - been busy doing stuff in the trainroom. Just little odd-n-ends kinda stuff, like: (1) re-laying some track in my [future] engine terminal area, to eliminate some abrupt curves; (2) troubleshooting and correcting a decoder installation in an Atlas C40-8, where the bottom of the decoder had been grounding on the motor housing; (3) replaced a lame orange headlight LED in a Kato SD40-2 with a Minitronics YelloGlo ultra-bright LED, makes quite a difference - now it actually shines! I've cut away a circle in the 2" foam surface where I plan to install a Walthers 90ft turntable. It's the much-maligned 'kit' version, not one of those $300 pre-built motorized jobs. [I can only wish...] I'll probably be spending the weekend finishing assembling it, it's mostly just there to 'look purty' so I can explain to people how I turn around my locos on those rare occassions when a single engine has to be sent back in the opposite direction.

Rex - I'm nowhere near ready to tackle the sort of electrical work that you've been doing on your layout. Good luck with that!

Carey - hope you succeed in fighting off that GI bug soon, so you can go to the ARG luncheon. Condolences on the passing of your MIL.

Phillip - congrats on your being appointed associate pastor! It must be great to see a lifelong dream become a reality.

Jim - I hope you won't be too severely impacted by the Wall Street debacle. I avoid news coverage of that kind of stuff because I can't really do much about it, other than trust the folks at Vanguard to limit the damage to my pension funds.

Steve - hope your NZ med exams turn out OK.

Time to go, lunch break's almost over

 

[Steve B]

It'll be right Ken, if the turntable is only going to be used once in a while i could never justify spending like $300 on an all singing and dancing version, cheap and cheerful win's the day.

just made the mistake of rubbing my eye after utting red chilly peppers up, AGHHHHH

Medicals went fine, wifes to fat so had to have an extra blood check (£50) and i have to get a specialist report (£???)

 

[UP2CSX]

Afternoon, everyone.

Steve, they make you have all this medical work to emigrate to New Zealand? Aren't they still kind of part of the Commonwealth? Are they trying to make sure you won't cost them health insurance money or what? Assuming that Nz has the same RN shortage we have, I would think they'd be paying your plane fare. Maybe you should consider coming to Alabama.

Rex, indeed, early season football often show up the loopholes of polls to rank teams. OTOH, Oregon has always been an underrated team. This really makes tomorrow's Bama game interesting. If we could actually beat Georgia, there's a good chance we could move up to #3 in the polls, depending on how bad USC is hurt by their defeat. I agree with Ken about all the electrical stuff you're doing. Getting two grade crossing flashers and gates to work right is taxing my electrical skills.

CJ, I hope you're feeling a bit better. We are all looking forward to seeing you at the Irondale.

Ken, you are about as safe as you can get with Vanguard. If they go down, I'm cashing in my CD's to buy more food and ammo. With Washington Mutual going belly up and, I suspect, Wachovia fast on its heels, it's a nervous time for all. The collapse of the so-called rescue plan hasn't helped any. I think the Senate will come up with some kind of plan this weekend but it will not stop the market fall. This is just one of the bad economic times we're going to have ride out until enough weak sisters fall by the wayside and stronger companies can get things moving again.

I've never had enough nerve to put in anything but one of those cheesy $35 Atlas turntables so I'm sure anything you do will come out better than if I did it.

It's another warm day here with a temperature of 94 right now. Still low humidity so not so bad and no sign of rain. Luckily, Tropical Storm Kyle and the extratropical low that's now starting move up the mid-Atlantic coast will stay far enough apart not to interact. All you guy up the coast are still going to get some pretty good wind and rain from this low though. Just in case we have anyone in Nova Scotia, it looks like Kyle will make landfall as fairly strong tropical storm

 

[RexHea]

...Medicals went fine, wifes to fat so had to have an extra blood check

OMG! You are in serious poo-poo if she finds out you wrote that. Where do we send flowers for your funeral?

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

09-27-2008

Good Morning from Tipton IN !

 

[Steve B]

Jim I did look into America and Canada at first but the CFO won't have it, If you live in the south Pacific islands you can move to NZ without any hassle at all, no medicals or anything and don't work when you get there thats all OK, but if you are hard working with skills they want you get torn to shreds for any tiny issue that crops up, it is stupid.
RexAn Inch to fat, thats all she was but that inch cost us another £50 !!!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning.

It's 62 and clear. Today's high should be in the mid 80's with plenty of sunshine.

Yesterday my internet service was about to drive me crazy. Up one minute, down the next, slow post times, photos loading at a snails pace. Last night it took five minutes to get a two line reply posted. This is an intermittent problem that's been ongoing for the last six months or so. Right now it's working very well so I hope the problem has been corrected. If there was a better broadband ISP in this area I'd go with them but there's not, so I'm stuck with what I have. Fiber-optics are great when the system is working right but have just one little thing go wrong and it's not worth crap.

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA 71446-6114 9/27/2008

Wind Chill: 60°F
Humidity: 78%
Dew Point: 53°F

So Far Today
High: 65°F
Low: 60°F
Rain: 0.00"
Rain Rate: 0.00"/h
Gust: 0mph NNE

Today High: 85 Partly cloudy. Highs in the mid 80s. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight Low: 55 Partly cloudy. Lows in the mid 50s. Northeast winds around 5 mph in the evening becoming light after midnight.

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n3/proudIndian/P1010078.jpg

 

[Steve B]

Jeffery Same here, and were quite a distance from the telephone exchange which slows it down some.

Off out again later for some good steamy fun, the train was 90 min's late past us with the empty coaching stock, steam loco and diesel loco up front, after a quick change at Manchester the delay was down to 60 min's for the steam leg to begin, hopefully she'll be under an hour late this afternoon, hopefully !!!

 

[OldGettysk]

Good Morning Everyone ! A bit overcast with some rain but nothing like there getting along the East Coast , I guess we're to far west . Not much going on took out the window air conditioners. Two down and two more to go . I thing I'll be spending some time in the train room today so that will be exciting. Well have to go get some coffee in me so hoe you all have a real good day !

 

[rhoward]

Morning everyone!

Just another beautiful day here in the Finger Lakes. That is, if you like cool, damp,and rainy. Currently 65°F with the forecast for the forseeable future being "Cloudy with occasional rain showers. High 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%." Right now it is a gentle sprinkle but there is heavier rain headed right for my house. Good day to work on the layout.

NAACP Dinner went well last night. it was well attended and I got to chat with our School Superintendent and the Asst' Superintendent, a bunch of local politicians (A couple state assemblymen as well, yawn!), my minister and his wife (he gave the invocation), and so many wonderful people of color from Geneva that comprise the heart and soul of this city (and serve as our conscience I might add). I sat there thinking how blessed I was to have been welcomed into that community almost as soon as I started teaching here. The local president of the NAACP and her sister have been friends of mine since my first year here. Near the end of that year I got a big hug from both of them to thank me for being one of their children's favorite teachers and one who supported all students. Kind of blew this "white" teacher away! BTW both of those "kids" were there last night. One became a teacher here and the other is a now a local businessman. Got to sit with the family of a young lady who was honored for getting her High School Diploma......... Yea, wow, right? She got it in spite of the fact that she has a progressive degenerative disease that now has her almost unable to walk. She will be in a wheelchair very soon and can barely talk but managed to have almost perfect attendance last year at school. She was very happy to sit with her old 2nd. grade music teacher. I was honored! She is also a very sweet young lady who doesn't have much to look forward to. Another one of my "heros" was there as well. Charles is now 92 and still has a wonderful wit and huge grin! Charles was born and raised here, was the first Black man to be elected to our Board of Education, worked for many years in the Athletic Dept. at Hobart and William Smith Collages, and is now married (first wife died about 10 years ago) to a lady 25 years his junior, and is a blast to be around. When I grow up, I want to just like him!

Sorry for the long story but it was an emotional dinner.

Have a great day!

 

[Steve B]

Went to a great spot to watch the steamtrain,,, and the camera decided to turn itself off just as i was about to shoot,,, so i missed a great shot but the surroundings were stunning, saw it later though on the empty return working

 

[RexHea]

Hello fellows, can I join you for some lunch? Just came back inside from prepping the RV and have a bite to eat while doing a quick-check-charlie on the forum. The boss lady and I will be heading to the wilderness Monday for three nights. This will be the first camping trip for the Bama Boys (pups) and should be interesting. I plan on getting them in the water and swimming. We were going the following week, but that is fall break for the school systems and most of the good campsites were reserved. (Alabama schools start back first of August and then have a fall break. I believe they are working toward a year-round system.)

Super football game tonight on ESPN: #8 Alabama vs. #3 Georgia. This should be a real test for my blood pressure pills . Hope you tune in. ROLL TIDE!

Ya'll have a good'un, ya'heer!

 

[rhoward]

Hey Rex! Enjoy your "wilderness" trip. Now if you were backing out into the wilderness, I might want to go with you... Bet those pups will have the time of their lives. So many new and different smells out there. At one time we had a Springer Spaniel mix that we used to board when we went camping. Out of necessity we had to take him with us one time. He loved it and was the best happy dog you could imagine. After that he always went with us.

Well today has not been good so far! I started work on one of the remaining tortis that will installed in the yard, and had to move cars out of there to get to the turnout. Since the Decapod was hooked on to a string of boxcars that needed to be moved, I fired up the layout, choose the loco, turned on its lights, and tried to back it up into the rest of the cars on that track. Nothing. give it more throttle, nothing. Finally started to move (at mach 3) just as the puff of smoke came pouring out of the tender. Of course now it is backing up at the speed of light and won't stop! Rams into the string of boxcars derailing a couple. This is the only loco I have had problems with from Bachmann. There was a short in the pickup wiring of the loco. Bachmann was supposed to send me the new harness for it as soon as they had it in stock, never came. I have reworked it a couple of times, and now since it also is wider than the other locos I have (it can't get through the ash pit area without binding), I think I will just retire it for the time being.

Then I get the dremel out to drill a hole through the turnout throw down through the sub base as there was never a hole for the turnout throw. I hold the drill after drilling it in the hole so i can see if it came out the other side. SNAP! Tungsten Carbide drill snaps off in the hole. So I say THWI and get my regular drill and put in the smallest bit I have not numbered. Drill the hole. Put rasp cutter in the dremel start to open up the hole under the layout..... Oops! right up through the turnout. Finally decided to to remove the durn thing and get a new turnout. Of course this has already been ballasted..... No problem as water melted the glue quickly. Now I get to start over!

Mail just arrivd so I will see how many unexpected bills there are. Later!

 

[Steve B]

Blimey Ray that sounds like a bad day at the office

Rex Have a great trip will ya

 

[IronBeltKen]

Geez Ray, and here I thought I was the only one who has "bad layout" days! Sounds like you got things under control at least.

Rex, c'mon and admit it - you're not going camping, you're spending some time at a wilderness luxury suite! I saw that trailer first-hand when I was there... but seriously though, have fun!

Steve, bummer about the camera failure! But at least this wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing that you missed.

Been taking advantage of the weather and decided to tackle my turntable today. It's only window dressing, so I didn't bother putting a motor in it. Now I know exactly why people hate the thing so much: To get everything lined up right, you need precision tools that are not available to the common man - plus the skill to use them. No wonder the fully-assembled motorized version costs $300, whereas I paid $40 for the motorless kit. That's OK though, I'm getting exactly what I need for my situation.

Made a trip to MB Klein's this afternoon, it was pouring down buckets from the time I left until when I got home. Some of those roads around Cockysville were freakin' rivers...!

 

[rhoward]

Blimey Ray that sounds like a bad day at the office

I took most of the evening off and went over to my Son's house to have dinner, and play with my granddaughter, of course. She was having a lot of fun walking into the house from the deck, and then turning around and walking back outside. There is a small step down (about 1.5 inches) going out to the deck. She was doing this for about 45 minutes straight. She finally was doing this looking straight up in the air, then looking at me and giggling.

 

[Steve B]

Ken I'll just have to wait a few weeks and she'll be backkkkkk.
Ray times like that make everything so worthwhile, it makes you forget the day to day grind when you can have fun with the little ones

 

[Steve B]

I moved the world today,,
Below is a class 185, on the Manchester airport to Barrow service

And by the magic of paintshop,,, we are now in New Zealand

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

09-28-2008

Good Morning from Tipton IN !