Running Bear's Coffee Shop XLIX

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Another oft had conversation with my Uncle tonight. The usual fore-play "how you doin" back and forth, etc.
"How goes work on the trains? You still messing that?"
Perhaps someone in my family needs to stop by see just what I've done in these few months.
They all live at least a half-day's drive from here so that's not likely to happen any time soon.
Others are a full-day drive.

Towards the end of our always great conversations, I tell him I'm going to name my layout. Like most of you guys have named yours. Mostly after real rail roads. Mine is made up. There is no "theme" as I have said in the past.
He asked about my coal tower and "what does it do?" "Nothing, it just looks cool!" "Oh, OK.".

I was at first thinking of something local which doesn't matter to me. Chet has "Logan Valley" already taken. I live on Logan Way which leads to Logan Road which takes you Logan Farm. I knew the last descendent of all that property. (interesting man for sure)
Then I thought, it's only because of my Mother's death and her leaving me money from the sale of her car that this has all happened.
No. I'm naming my thing after her somehow.
"Palmer Valley Rail System"

"Palmer" definitely must be in there. I am, after all, half-Palmer.
Any thoughts?

E.
 
Eric,

I'd just name it "Palmer Valley" or "Palmer Valley Railroad". Otherwise I think that its a great name for a railroad.
 
Cjcrescent said:
Eric,

I'd just name it "Palmer Valley" or "Palmer Valley Railroad". Otherwise I think that its a great name for a railroad.
Click to expand...

Those were both my first pics as I told Jim tonight. He was a little speechless for a moment but absolutely loves the idea.
Either one of those two suit me just fine and I know Mom would like it.
I'll start with "Palmer Valley" and I can always add "Railroad" later.
E.
 


Trussrod said:
I've seen the models of these that Mantua, now part of Model Power put out as well as IHC. But I never really gave any thought to the workings of this Loco till I saw this picture. It just dawned on me that the fire box must have been at the extreme rear an the fireman had considerable exposure to the elements.

Checking Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelback_locomotive, They even show an early articulated one which I never knew was built, Erie Railroad's L-1 class!

I see they also built a 4-4-0 rail inspection loco that looked as though most of the boiler was surrounded by a passenger coach looking arrangement? Interesting what info is around.
Click to expand...

....and I used to think of them as ugly, something that their mother only could love....now, I wouldn't mind a couple! ;):D

.....aaaand a very good morning to you all, my dear friends on Model Railroad Forums (.com), may I wish you all a very Happy Easter!
 
Not having fun with my two Loksound Select locos (Kato SD80Mac Kobo shops fitted and Intermountain ES44AC). Set them up individually on my little test track. According to both hand books, they shouldn't start the sound up until F8 is pressed. The Intermountain says it may when placed on the track, and it does, but it does an odd thing. The sound starts up, goes through that sequence to idle and shuts down again after a short time. Then restarts again, so on and on. Pressing F8 will either start it up or shut it down (or that's how it seems) depending on where it is in the cycle and it also seems the right spot has to be picked to settle it into a steady idle. Weird.

Put them together on the track idling away, swapping control from one to the other and the Kato (Select Loco>address>enter) immediately goes into sound shutdown. F8 has to be pressed to start up again. They will consist together, but, but using F8 to shutdown, restart motor sounds can only be done by individually addressing with the same effect on the Kato. Will be interesting to see if the short NCE method of killing the consist works, or whether the longer "Browse Consists" will be required.

The Kato certainly has less (only 1 so far) idiosyncrasies than the Intermountain. The sound volume of the Kato, I've cut down to half, the Int's, I've brought both the motor and master CV's almost to max.
 
As I suspected the short cut method wasn't effective in killing consists with these. You'd think it would with the same decoder brand, but a least it did using the long method, yet to try mixing them with other brands. I was very hesitant about getting the Intermountain loco but didn't particularly want two black locos (NS) and it's the NS heritage one, it definitely is a weirdo on powering up.
 
Good morning everyone!

1st off, HAPPY EASTER everyone ! :D

I'm surprised I am up at all. SWMBO drug me from store to store yesterday. This grocery store for this, then Lowes to look at this & that. We did get some Easter Lilies , were marked $7.50 each, on clearance for 75 cents each but now I have to plant them all, except 1 for the MIL. Then home for a bit, then back out for more shopping, dinner at Chili's, then ANOTHER grocery store!!:p I did manage to score a brief visit the my LHS, so the day wasn't a total loss!
Spent my evening boxing up and labeling lots of eBay stuff (sorry Louis, you were outbid), then decaling a brass B&O I-12 caboose. or at least attempting to.


tootnkumin said:
Not having fun with my two Loksound Select locos (Kato SD80Mac Kobo shops fitted and Intermountain ES44AC). Set them up individually on my little test track. According to both hand books, they shouldn't start the sound up until F8 is pressed. The Intermountain says it may when placed on the track, and it does, but it does an odd thing. The sound starts up, goes through that sequence to idle and shuts down again after a short time. Then restarts again, so on and on. Pressing F8 will either start it up or shut it down (or that's how it seems) depending on where it is in the cycle and it also seems the right spot has to be picked to settle it into a steady idle. Weird.

Put them together on the track idling away, swapping control from one to the other and the Kato (Select Loco>address>enter) immediately goes into sound shutdown. F8 has to be pressed to start up again. They will consist together, but, but using F8 to shutdown, restart motor sounds can only be done by individually addressing with the same effect on the Kato. Will be interesting to see if the short NCE method of killing the consist works, or whether the longer "Browse Consists" will be required.

The Kato certainly has less (only 1 so far) idiosyncrasies than the Intermountain. The sound volume of the Kato, I've cut down to half, the Int's, I've brought both the motor and master CV's almost to max.
Click to expand...

Toot, may I suggest 2 things. 1st, get hooked up with JMRI. NCE works great with it, makes speed & sound adjustments a breeze. With that, there is a JMRI Yahoo group that has been absolutely wonderful. In fact, the guys who developed JMRI are on this group, and are constantly looking for ways to improve the interface and also are on the lookout for idiosyncrasies like your IM engine. You can find them here. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/jmriusers/info They saved my bacon before, helping me remap a Loksound decoder that had its functions set to "European" preferences for all the functions. It was a simple file download, that I then uploaded through JMRI to the decoder. That might be all you need!

Ooops.. coffee cup is empty, and my bladder is full,,,,catch y'all later!
 
Morning All,

Happy Easter to everyone. Today the only plans are to clean house then the family is coming over for supper. My Mom is making the usual white coconut cake with a jelly bean nest (like a birds nest) for dessert. She has been making it for Easter since I was a little kid and is a family tradition.

Wednesday I have to drive down to West Palm Beach (2.5 hours). Saturday is the train show in DeLand. I need to get 2 more tunnel portals and if I can find it the bridge kit that I want.

BigE- Great name.

I hope everyone has a great day.
 
PRR Modeler said:
Wednesday I have to drive down to West Palm Beach (2.5 hours). Saturday is the train show in DeLand. I need to get 2 more tunnel portals and if I can find it the bridge kit that I want.

BigE- Great name.
Click to expand...

West Palm is about next door to Wellington. My cousin was the Mayor there for years. I haven't talked to him in years so who knows what he's up to know.

Maybe I should cast a vote for a final name. I can't make up my mind.

1) Palmer Valley
2) Palmer Valley Rail
3) Palmer Valley Rail Road
4) Palmer Valley Rail System
5) Palmer Valley Rail Lines

I'm kind of leaning toward #2. It's short and says what it is.

It's driving me crazy not to be able to do some more work on the layout or model projects today. Patience and wisdom is telling me to back off until I get some more supplies. Unfortunately I haven't left myself anything to work on. No one can accuse me of procrastinating that's for sure. Over-enthusiasm - yeah probably guilty on that one.

I already finished off the control panel yesterday and took care of the fancy trim work on the interlocking tower with a paint pen. Both are looking great IMHO.

I suppose I could work on finishing making up my ground cover dirt/sand mix. I've already baked it but needs plenty of grinding up finer and some sifting.
At least it would be a little something to do. Not glorious but needs doing none the less.
E.
 


Happy Easter everyone!

Sunny and mild here in central MD. Slept kinda late this morning because I was up til 2:00am. Will likely be spending the day helping SWMBO prep for the Easter dinner.

Eric, of all those possible names for your freelance rail line, is that how you plan on decorating your locos/rolling stock? Other than Conrail, I haven't seen any prototype lines with the words "railroad", "railway", or "rail line" painted on their trains. I think Palmer Valley would look the most believable as lettering on your train equipment, while the railroad itself can still be known as any one of the others in your list.

Have a great day y'all!
 
BigE said:
West Palm is about next door to Wellington. My cousin was the Mayor there for years. I haven't talked to him in years so who knows what he's up to know.

Maybe I should cast a vote for a final name. I can't make up my mind.

1) Palmer Valley
2) Palmer Valley Rail
3) Palmer Valley Rail Road
4) Palmer Valley Rail System
5) Palmer Valley Rail Lines

I'm kind of leaning toward #2. It's short and says what it is.

It's driving me crazy not to be able to do some more work on the layout or model projects today. Patience and wisdom is telling me to back off until I get some more supplies. Unfortunately I haven't left myself anything to work on. No one can accuse me of procrastinating that's for sure. Over-enthusiasm - yeah probably guilty on that one.

I already finished off the control panel yesterday and took care of the fancy trim work on the interlocking tower with a paint pen. Both are looking great IMHO.

I suppose I could work on finishing making up my ground cover dirt/sand mix. I've already baked it but needs plenty of grinding up finer and some sifting.
At least it would be a little something to do. Not glorious but needs doing none the less.
E.
Click to expand...

Palmer Valley Family Lines, in case that you'd want to add something later....
I'm kinda leaning towards #3 myself...maybe Palmer Valley Railroad/Railway...
 
CSX_road_slug said:
Happy Easter everyone!

Sunny and mild here in central MD. Slept kinda late this morning because I was up til 2:00am. Will likely be spending the day helping SWMBO prep for the Easter dinner.

Eric, of all those possible names for your freelance rail line, is that how you plan on decorating your locos/rolling stock? Other than Conrail, I haven't seen any prototype lines with the words "railroad", "railway", or "rail line" painted on their trains. I think Palmer Valley would look the most believable as lettering on your train equipment, while the railroad itself can still be known as any one of the others in your list.

Have a great day y'all!
Click to expand...

Oh, no I'm not changing any engines or rolling stock at all.
If I were to make up my make-believe company right now off the top of my head, it would be the "Palmer Valley Trust" which would "own" the rail and property but lease/rent it out for use to Sante Fe, CSX and UP. If and when they go bankrupt or merge or get bailed out by the government, the Palmer Valley Trust still owns tangible real estate.
Just my thoughts.
E.
 
Milwaukee Road 113 said:
Palmer Valley Family Lines, in case that you'd want to add something later....
I'm kinda leaning towards #3 myself...maybe Palmer Valley Railroad/Railway...
Click to expand...

Adding "Family" to it I don't think is necessary. They already it's for Mom.
Railroad/Railway... I didn't know if those are two words or compound or hyphenated.
In the end, the logo would be a "PVR" logo of some sort.... which my brain is already swimming with right now.
I have all kinds of ideas in my head but don't have the artistic talent to put it on paper.
I may scratch out some later today.
 
BigE said:
I have all kinds of ideas in my head but don't have the artistic talent to put it on paper...
Click to expand...

Don't I know the feeling buddy, I don't even have the talent to use the PC for it! ;):D
Tried my best with my company logo, still need some work done to it...pain the tailpipe that Gimp2!
At some point, I'll get around to do a paint scheme....somehow! ;):D
As you put it, got plenty of ideas, just not the talent to put it on the paper...
 
Why not Palmer Valley Lines? Leave the word Rail out of the Name. Everyone can see it's a railroad.
 
Happy Easter! It's a beautiful sunny 65° day here in Central Jersey. A perfect Easter, except for the stiff gusty wind that picked up late this morning.

I'm just killing time until the Caps game comes on at 5PM, and dinner is served around 6:30PM. Having Lamb, with Asparagus and oven roasted potatoes.
Cheesecake for desert. It's a perfect dinner for two.
 
A gloomy and overcast day out here today, fog, drizzle, snow flurries.

HAPPY EASTER

BigE- Like the idea very much.

Got bored without a race on today and I found a couple of Milwaukee Road ribside boxcar kits I had forgotten about and put one together. They're pretty nice kits. It comes with sprung trucks, metal wheels and McHenry couplers. I replaced the couplers with Kadee 158 whisker couplers. Gripes, yes. One of the wheel sets are apparently out of round as the car has a slight wobble going down the track. The car comes un numbered and decals are supplied with a list of numbers that the cars actually had. The kit has a flat finish and I should have applied a bit of gloss where the number decal had to be as the decal film shows. This will be corrected with a bit of weathering. Being a Milwaukee Road fan, I do like the car.

IMAG0342.jpgIMAG0343.jpg
 


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