Welcome to Coffee Shop 17

[AndrewC]

Good morning from a very humid Ye Olde London Towne. Thunder-boomers last night. They rolled in just as the BBQ was ready to go. Oh B*gger. Temp dropped from 28c to 19c in about 12 seconds.

Screwjack: wedding AND root canal? Ouch! Don't worry about the other teeth, they'll settle down in a day or 2. Its all the movement and disturbance that inflames the nerves in neighbouring teeth. Been there done that far too many times.

BoC: PMSL. I remember the whole french thing. They even demanded that Sony come up with a french trademark for 'Walkman'.

Rex: only 8%. Most of the Belgian beers I have in the cellar start around 9% and go up to 13%. There is a Californian brewery called the Lost Abbey. They've got a brew called Angel's Share. 13%. Beautiful, but you have to treat it like drinking wine. Lots of states have strange laws when it comes to booze. I worked in Houston a number of years ago and the local Irish pub couldn't import Guinness as it was over the maximum 4.5% they were allowed to serve as draft beer. Then again some of the best beers I've ever had were in the 3%-5% range.

Larry: 50!! Wow. Congrats you you and the missus.

Chris: put down that bottle of Bud and try some of the 'yuppie' beers. Even the mid-sized regional brews are better than the mass manufactured stuff. They may cost more but I'd rather have one of them than a 6 pack of gassy piddle. Old Monty Python saying: "American beer is like making love in a canoe. f*ckin close to water"

Its Sunday morning so time to fire up the BBQ and espresso machine again for our weekly break-b-q in the garden.

Lastly, anyone have recommendations on type or size of portable air-con units to look at or avoid? I only need to cool about 750sqft and can't justify installing a permanent system for the 10 days a year we really need one.

Have a good day all and take care.

 

[kbkchooch]

Uh Karl...seems they have photos. One has you with a thong on your head, the others are censored .

The thong I can explain, one of the cheerleaders had a thing for pirates. I put ot over my head, covered 1 eye and said, "Rrrrrrr wench! Shall ye shiver me timbers?"
The other?,,,,,errr,,,a,, nebbermind!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Jeffrey, if the jerk down the street complains about the lawnmower, just tell him you're helping wake him up early for church.

Hey, that's a good one! Maybe I should use the loud Briggs & Stratton V-twin instead of the 1 cylinder Kohler. They're both 19 hp so it really doesn't matter from a power standpoint, just a decibels standpoint. I can cut the grass faster with the V-twin as that tractor has a bigger deck (60" vs 42").

 

[vato loco]

Chris: put down that bottle of Bud and try some of the 'yuppie' beers. Even the mid-sized regional brews are better than the mass manufactured stuff. They may cost more but I'd rather have one of them than a 6 pack of gassy piddle. Old Monty Python saying: "American beer is like making love in a canoe. f*ckin close to water"

My God man are you Serious! LOL's This Redneck would have his butt kicked off if caught with a yuppie beer in my redneck hood No thank you! I got my first buzz off a american beer mass produced, Made some pretty bad/good choices cause of American mass made beer, and will die from liver failure Cause of american made mass produced beer!

 

[kbkchooch]

I sure hope you didn't get one of those dual motor 44 tonners. The single motor jobs are fine but have fun trying to install a decoder if it's the two motor model.

Jim...The 44 tonner is the new drive! I've had the old twin motor drive, and have installed decoders in them both......later sold them both. I would never attempt that install again. Frustration becomes an understatement for an exercise like that!

We did have one funny thing happen at the show yesterday. One of the "newbies" committed a series of mortal sins. After twice rear ending my B&O "Ambassador", then backing a train out of the yard in front of an oncoming quartet of F's with 30 passenger cars in tow, he walked away from the layout for a moment leaving his train parked on the mainline!!!! I couldn't stop myself, from 30 feet away I took control of his train with my Procab-R. He cam back to find his train running . Whne he plugged his throttle in, I reversed direction! He stopped the train, put it in forward, got it moving and unplugged to go to the next throttle port. Then I reversed it again. He plugged in, I put in forward. He unplugged, I reversed. This went on for 5 minutes before he reached over and picked his loco up off the tracks. Needless to say, several of us were trying to hide between a cinderblock column while laughing our guts out as quietly as possible! After it was over I informed the club prez as to what happened any why. He's gonna have a sit-down with the newbie and talk to him about his apparent lack of attention and what it caused him. Sure beats pounding him over the head I guess!

More stories and photos from the show tonight!

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Morning---

It is wet and VERY dull out here---We are supposed to see showers today and Monday--Periods of rain Tuesday and Wednesday, chance of showers both Thursday and Friday---showers Saturday----SHEEEESH!!!---oh whell---the lake's floating dock will be used this week--

Jim I think it is out here now but not so sure about availability? There sometimes seems to be a bit of a gap that shows up---maybe Best Buy has it---

Karl was there a lot of people at the show?--the "newbie" situation is why I don't try running trains at shows---I'm still trying to work my OWN bugs out of me! Why give other people then my issues as well! There is a point about doing it closer to prototype after all----

Chris, Andrew Most of the beers I have are Molson Canadian, Labbatts Blue, or Lakeports' beers----but I also go for ice beers(how's 33% sound?), or the yorkshire beers---things like Old Speckled Hen I've even tried some of the local Chinese beers---there is a guy in our neighbourhood who imports the stuff---

Jeff I do find that the noisier a lawn mower is, the better they work!!

I's be getting some handlaying of track done today and if'n I's be really lucky get to test run some of the other lokies I have here------

Have a good one--

 

[IronBeltKen]

Morning everyone,

It's cloudy and dry here in the mid 'Lantic region. After I got home from the trainshow yesterday, I went with to family to a neighborhood get-together. Didn't partake of any spirits though since I have medical conditions that preclude that. But I sure downed a lot of their wicked-good Italian sausage! I'll be going to 10:00am Mass, then it's off to Timonium again to run some trains with the FCSME.

I sustained some minor collateral damage during Karl's er..."disciplinary" action with the absent-minded noob yesterday. When he asked me to throw a switch to guide 'his' train into the yard, I accidentally threw it under my own train and derailed it. Still not totally familiar with those turnout schematics. But other than that, I had zero derailments or separations after lunch - smooth sailing all the way!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Well I finally finished mowing the parents yard. I used the older mower since I had just readjusted the mower deck yesterday. I did the adjustment just the way the manual says to do it, to the letter. The tips of BOTH blades were the same distance from the ground at the outside edges of the deck. I measured it to be sure! This morning it was STILL cutting higher on the left side than it was on the right. Tire pressure? I checked it. 12 pounds in all tires just as it should be. So I adjusted the deck again. No dice. It still cut higher on the left than on the right. In fact, no matter how much I dropped the left side of the deck it still kept cutting higher on the left. After about 5 adjustments I was getting pretty irked! I finally just said the * with their way! I'm adjusting it my way! I parked the mower on the walkway in front of the house just the way I did yesterday. This time I put the deck all the way down until it was on the ground then pulled it back up so the drag wheels were just above the ground. Guess what. They were both different distances from the ground! I adjusted the deck until the wheels were both the same distance from the ground then tightened the adjusting gear. Guess what. It cuts level now. I went back to the manual and circled the procedure described there then crossed it out and wrote across it in big red letters the word: IGNORE! What's funny about this is that I ended up following my grandfather's advice. WHEN FOLLOWING THE DIRECTIONS FAILS, IGNORE THEM AND DO WHATEVER WORKS! I'll probably have to do the same thing on the other one as well being that it has the same kind of adjustment system.

 

[bnsf971]

Lastly, anyone have recommendations on type or size of portable air-con units to look at or avoid? I only need to cool about 750sqft and can't justify installing a permanent system for the 10 days a year we really need one.

If you were in North America, I could tell you what to avoid, which would help. I would say, for the ten days you need it, almost anything would get you by, even a fan blowing over a bucket of ice would help.

 

[RexHea]

You beer lovers haven't experienced a beer flavor until you have tried a Thai beer. WHOA! That stuff is bitter. You never knew if you were going to get a bottle with 12% alcohol or 22%, axe splitting headache or just plain sick at your stomach.

Andy: you wouldn't believe Alabama's logic behind limiting the alcohol content. I am too embarrassed to write it here. BTW: about the American tourists wearing socks with sandals: they were dim Yankee Boys! Southern boys are barefooted .

Karl, love the newbie story. I first thought you were talking about Ken until I read further down....just kidding!

Jeff: your Grandfathers advice...Priceless!

Larry: A hardy congratulations to you and the wife. We have eight to go for that mark...I think

Ya'll have a good'un!

 

[kbkchooch]

Karl, love the newbie story. I first thought you were talking about Ken until I read further down....just kidding!

Noobie Update!!!! Day 2.
Before I spill todays beans, let me say one thing. Ken, it just hit me funny that you referred to the Noob as a Noob, since he HAS been in the club longer than you. But upon reflection I realized you were right. Noob to the club, Noob to model railroading, and Noob to common sense all have thier own parameters and meanings.
Anyhoo, our little band tries to focus on prototype modeling. The geographic area, time of year, and other such niceties are all spelled out in our spec book. However we never have spelled out "equiptment allowed" to anyone. The original target was to run WM,B&O,C&O,Pennsy, or N&W. That has filtered down to all the above, plus any subsequent roads from mergers. We also have a few members the run ATSF, GN and/or NYC stuff. Basicly all prototype stuff. We also have our share of Thomas and friends on the layout at times. After all, If you have the kiddies excited, the parents are a captive audience.
This brings the dilemma. Noob brings a Chinese diesel today, will 4 unprotypical boxcars (Popsicle, Klondike bar, Dots & something else) with 3 really short Amtrak cars (40 ft?) the literally sat 1/4 inch clear of the trucks. They were as tall as the boxcars.
IMHO, it looked rediculous, plus it reflected poorly on the rest of the group. Now this is no kid, I'm guessing he's 50 some years old, and does have other trains.
Anybody got any suggestions on how to edjumicate the noob, or am I peeing up a rope here????

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The power here went out shortly after noon today. A small car traveling at a high rate of speed tried to straighten a curve a couple of miles from here and went off the road. It was going fast enough to snap a wood utility pole off even with the ground. The force of the impact threw the pole about 10 feet and spun the car 180 degrees with the pole comeing to rest on top of the car. The driver wasn't seriously hurt. She had only had her license for about 6 months. Somehow I'm not surprised. The power was restored after several hours work by a line crew. Cable customers were without service for over 5 hours. Several Sundown fire fighters (including myself) were on hand to assist with traffic control. The allowed a couple of sheriff's deputies to work elsewhere. Temp was 99 in the shade. Out in the sunlight it was over 103. My car was hot enough to fry steaks on!

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Evenin'

We had several hours of rain be pourin' on our heads and a bit of sun then along comes FLASHKABOOM!! for a coupla hours.

Supposed to clear up a little tonight---

I'se be sittin' out on deck doin' Salmon on the grill right now---

Karl A couple of small questions---A) How long was he there?, and B) is he really observant? I remember that a club I was a member at actually had an education program that clued noobies in on things. Might that help?----otherwise if'n this guy was in for a while and he STILL don't get it then---??

RexH This little puppy had Thai beer. 3X. Never again!! Actually had one that worked out to 45%!!

 

[UP2CSX]

Evening, everyone.

Dan, beer tents usually get better organized as the day goes by as long as the vendors aren't drinking more than the customers.

Andrew, I think you have Costco over there. Here's one at http://www.costco.com/Browse/Produc...3&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1 that doesn't require permanent installation and should easily cool 750 square feet. Alabama just signed into law in May an ordinance that allows beers from 6% to 13% to be made and imported. There are still a host of other weird Alabama beer laws though. More at http://www.freethehops.org/restrictions/.

Karl, that story of the Noob is hilarious. He must have thought he was going crazy when nothing worked like it was supposed to. As far as his strange choices of motive power and rolling stock, maybe the club needs to decide how much this guy is really worth in terms of membership. I've never had much luck educating 50 year olds about anything.

Jeffrey, did that cranky guy ever give you any grief about the early morning lawn mowing? Sounds like the lawn mower company need sto have you write the instruction manual. Your method actually makes sense.

BOC, it's supposed to stop raining up there so we can get some rain.

Ken, sounds like you had a pretty good run at the show once you got out of Karl's way. I really miss a good Italian sausage sandwich with peppers.

Rex, did you try the Thai cigarettes when you were there? I can't remember the brand name but the pack had an elephant on it. They were 35 cents a pack and one was all you needed for about two hours. They are the only tobacco cigarettes that actually made me dizzy. I don't think they'd pass the new FDA standards for nicotine.

Survived our softball practice today but just barely. It was 104 with a heat index of about 112 when we were practicing. Everyone else was in their 20's and 30's so I really felt like a senior citizen. It's the first time I've played in about 20 years. I was surprised I could still hit pretty well but my fielding still needs some work. I think I drank about a half gallon of water and still couldn't keep hydrated, since we spent most of the time running around shagging balls. I was sweating like a pig until after an hour into practice, when I stopped sweating. Bad sign. The first step to heat stroke is when you stop sweating. It was time to quit anyway since our "not so hot front" was coming in. It was blazing sun the whole time until we got some clouds for the last five minutes of practice. I got home and stood under a cold shower for about 20 minutes and drank another half gallon of water. I'm so sore I can hardly move. Boy, Southern heat and getting old is a tough combination. At least all our games our at night.

Our front bought us two bolts of lightning and maybe 8 drops of rain. That's it. It's 79 now, which is about four degrees cooler than last night. It should "only" get up to 97 tomorrow. Invest 93L is just about completely gone and the Gulf is almost cloud free. I'd say our chances of rain for the next week are about as good as the Indians taking the Series.

 

[leghome]

What a day Sunday turned out to be. Started out at 1AM with the hershey squirts followed by the upchucks at 10AM. The only thing I can think of that caused this mirade of malady's was to much sun. I got sunburned on Tuesday forgot to put on the sunscreen and I payed for it all week. I did put on the sunscreen Sat but was still outside for a little over four hours. I did not eat anything unusual so I am a thinkin a little bit of sun poisoning was the culprit. So 24 hours later I am getting back to normal well as normal as is for me. Glendia says I have never been normal and more than likely will never be. Oh well I always have a good time until something like this pops up which is rarely thank goodness. Well it is back to bed to try and sleep but after being up for a half hour yesterday and then napping for two hours continually yesterday sleep does not seem to be coming very easy this morning.

 

[Secondhandmodeler]

Good morning folks.

We finally had nice weather yesterday. Boy do I hate humidity! I was starting to think that we would have August weather all summer, blah.

I had a family reunion and a niece's birthday party yesterday so no modeling. We had a great time catching up with relatives I haven't seen since I was a kid. What blast from the past.

As soon as I reclaim some time I'm going to start building my mill for Mankato. I had thought that I would just build a representation of it, but now I'm looking closer at doing a better job. The problem is not having enough room to build the building and not enough track to service something that large. I'm sure I'll find a suitable compromise. I also don't want each building to take six months either. At the pace I'm going, it'll take ten years to get this done! Well, I guess that wouldn't be all bad.

 

[kbkchooch]

Morning guys!
Ohhhh my achin back!!! Usually the day after a show I feel it, but should be fine later......just stiff joints from overuse. Saw the weather report for the nation this morning....Rex,Jim,Jeff, my heart goes out to ya. Hot aint the word for what I saw!!
Jeff. Frying steak on the car again?? I'll take one medium rare!
BOC. The Noob has been with us about 6-8 months, and has the attention span of a knat! And just to clear up something. I am not the only one who has noticed this. Yesterday, the first train out was my brass D&H sharks with a passenger consist. Before I even cleared the yard, the guys doing the dispatching informed me that I would not have to worry about getting rear-ended by the Noob. They had already planned to put him on the OTHER main.
Jim. It was funny! Wish I had a video of it! I'm ready to write the Noob off at this point, but the club Prez is a bit more forgiving than I, so there is some hope for the Noob. As far as Ken is concerned, once he got clear track ahead of him, he put some serious mileage on his stuff! Our next show isn't til October, but something tells me he'll be all over that layout too! (And it will be 3x bigger!)
Larry Uhhh,,,,,Too Much Information Dude!!!! Hope ya feel better soon!!!

 

[bnsf971]

About the newbie... I once belonged to a club that had a member that had been around since the club started. He was a really nice guy, and loved trains, a very avid N scaler. But--he contracted Parkinson's. Over a period of a few years his motor coordination had deteriorated to the point he took an hour to put a passenger train on the rails. His attention span had also greatly diminished (why I'm saying something), and he got the nasty "habit" of not paying attention to where and what his train was doing. He wrecked several trains, and destroyed several brass steam locomotives, both his and others'. He collided head-on with a freight I was running, with the result my 3 diesels, his brass Niagra, 3 passenger cars, and about a half dozen coal hoppers were demolished when they fell off the layout onto the concrete floor. After that, most people would park their trains in sidings while he ran. My point (I do have one) is your newbie may have something wrong with him that's making the problem worse, and you'll need to decide if his enthusiasm is worth the cost. In out case, we had a otherwise pleasant, long-standing member with a medical condition, and we all just kind of dealt with it.
Of course, your guy could just be an ID10T.

Summer has finally arrived in SoCal, it got up to 102 yesterday. No clouds, but I can see if I can box up some smog and send it to y'all, if you want it...

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Jeffrey, did that cranky guy ever give you any grief about the early morning lawn mowing?

Nope. That's the funny thing. He was out mowing his before I even got started. He couldn't complain without coming off looking like a hypocrite.



Got a bit overheated being out in that hot sun on the accident scene yesterday. I was out there over 2 hours. Luckily I had plenty to drink. Heat stress is very very sneaky. It can come up on you before you know what's happening. I did have some trains running yesterday. It's gonna be another scorcher today with a heat index of 115. There's a small chance of an isolated thunderstorm.

 

[RexHea]

Happy MONDAY!
Karl, actually we are into a cold spell...low 90's for a couple of days. We finally got a couple of quick showers yesterday afternoon, but they didn't even settle the dust. The grass in the front lawn was sounding like an orgy, absorbing all the rain it could with....ooou...ahhhh....ooou....ahhhh....

Finally, I have finished pressure washing the porch (covered deck). I spent 5 1/2 hours yesterday holding that wand with only two short smoke breaks and my arms and shoulders are talking to me now. I did find out to not balance myself on a ladder while pulling its trigger . Man, that thing has some kick . All together, it took about 12 man hours. The deck is 20x24 feet and the railings/beams have a lot of fancy diagonal boards for looks, all of which had to be cleaned near to the bare wood best as possible. The rails and fancy stuff should be dry enough Wednesday to start applying new stain.

Unbelievable, the more I do the longer the list becomes. Naturally, it all needs to be done now....while the temperature is Hot and Humid. HELP! I need some railroad time.

Have a wonderful day!