Good Morning All. 68° and partly cloudy today. Interesting day for me yesterday. Met
Johnny and his wife Dena at Discount Model Railroads in Addison TX while they were on the drive home from a conference here in Texas. He is just as pleasant in person as here in the Coffee Shop. Of course he had NYC equipment in hand! I then went to meet an old work buddy for lunch, his part of the plant is still located where it has been forever. The Main Plant moved 11 miles away shortly after I retired and left a vacant building next door. Well that door was open yesterday while the landlord was having some work done inside so I walked in to look around. Very eerie walking through a 450,000 sq ft building that I had only known to be filled with equipment and bustling with 600 employees for 43 years, now to be absolutely vacant. They haven't been able to lease it to anyone else since my former company vacated.
After arriving home, the wheat combine started harvesting the wheat field next door, and the wind sent a major shower of wheat chaff over and it all seemed to settle in the pool. Then out of nowhere, an unpredicted thunderstorm appeared and barreled down from Oklahoma and dumped 1.35" of rain into my gauge in about 90 minutes. Temperature dropped 28°, from 95° to 67° in a half hour. Weather Underground station one mile south recorded winds up to 60 mph during the storm, my ground observation confirmed this. Good, as the ground really needed the rain, even though I irrigated the garden yesterday morning around dawn. Bad, as I got trapped in the house instead of the train shed. Interesting that none of the online weather services even acknowledged the storm until it was nearly over, although it was definitely on the radar. Since the pool overflowed, I guess that the chaff washed away, or it has settled on the bottom.
Due to all my morning plans, I postponed the grocery/beer trek until today. Also on the agenda is picking up a couple of branches throughout the yard. Nothing major, all appear to be already dead (leafless) so it saves me from having to retrieve them from the trees themselves,
Out in the train shed when I was finally there, I mainly spent time inspecting my morning purchases from Discount. Picked up a municipal building from DPM, a small industrial building from City Classics, a 31" radius grade crossing kit from Blair Line to use on a forgotten scene, detail parts and metal wheels which I was out of. Lurking somewhere on the layout there are still 45-50 freight cars with plastic ones. I located three yesterday and changed them out. Also located two cars which were on the database list of plastic, that actually had already been done but not documented, whooops!
Terry - Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely follow through as this one's already apart again.
Chet - I should check the amperage draw of this loco. This really isn't an "older" Athearn model, as it came out within the last ten years or so. I have never had to replace an Athearn motor, as I have always been able to get top performance by some simple "tune-up" tricks; hard wire, tooth polish on the gears, proper but not excessive lubrication, worm shaft washers etc. I have no grades so I don't experience the surge, although the washers on the ends of the worm gear shafts would fix that. This is the first one of their engines that I have had this noise. It may have been there when I purchased the engine, I just never noticed until I got hearing aids. Thanks.
Curt - Continued prayers and thoughts for your SIL and her family.
While I still haven't caught that third armadillo yet I am being vigilant. Here's it's kin that I caught Wednesday in the trap that really shows how small this current group in.
Compare this with a full sized one that I trapped back in August.
Everybody have a great Friday. It's the beginning of a four day weekend for me!
