Large Scale Central

Summer officially over in New England

General Discussion
#1

This morning I awoke to the sight of a 22 Ft. pontoon boat high and dry in the back yard. This is my signal that the summer season has officially ended. We usually haul out the boat just before Halloween since we had some vandalism at the marina one year. Of course there will always be at least one gorgeous Indian Summer weekend in November that we will wish we could go out on the lake. Unfortunately the Fall weather didn’t cooperate this year. We had one foliage outing dressed in full winter gear that wasn’t much fun.

The railroad is buried under a pile of leaves and branches. We had a very wet and windy weekend. I had a huge branch fall across the main and one leg of the wye. Fortunately the shape of the branch protected the rail and there was no damage. Next weekend I hope to uncover it and at least run a train or two after bagging leaves and winterizing the boat.

Good thing about cold and rainy weekends is that indoor work gets done. I finally finished the track alignment on phase 1 of the reverse loop / indoor yard. I started doing some wiring but got side tracked when my power supply went belly up after I dropped it 8 inches while on. DANG :frowning: Sure am glad I have at least one battery powered engine.

JR

#2

OUCH! and Ouch! I’ve got a limb that hangs over the main line out of Fiddle. Private tree trimmers and the power company both say it will have to fall and then they’ll put the line back up going to my neighbors house. Something about, I have too many toys in my backyard.

Sorry to hear about the power supply. You’d think they’d make those things so they could bounce.

Last race was last weekend, so we are deep into pullin boats now. This will go on until Christmas with almost no breaks as far as a back log of work. Pays the bills, can’t complain.

#3

Only 8 inches? That shouldn’t have bothered it

#4

Tom Ruby said:
Only 8 inches? That shouldn’t have bothered it

No it shouldn’t have, but it did. This is a simple supply. I opened it up and looked around for trouble. The secondary supply is good, it just won’t pass through the regulator. One of the 3 leads to a heat-sink mounted power transistor was connected to the stud mount and the nut was very loose. My theory is that the circuit opened due to the shock and something down the line didn’t like it. There are three small signal transistors and a couple of resistors making up the regulator circuit. I started trying to diagram the circuit, but gave up when I realized it would probably be faster and better to build a new regulator circuit from scratch than to troubleshoot this poor design. One long shot attempt would be to swap out the power transistor. It’s a $1 part. Did I mention it landed on a box car? The car survived with very little to indicate the wreck. This is an old 7 Amp Pyramid Phase III (read cheap) supply left over from my Ham Radio days. I was able to tweak the output voltage to 18V, so it worked well to drive my TE. I’ve temporarily replaced it with a similar 12A supply, but I cant get the voltage to adjust at all, so I’m stuck at 13.8V. I also have one of their ‘top of the line’ 35A supplies that is down. I managed to get it working to a point, but ran in to a dead end trying to guess the value of a blown zener diode. I looked at it again Sunday for the first time in 3 years and UI think I’ll order in a few assorted Zeners and give it another go. I’d love to replace them all with an Ultima or better yet something from Bridgeworks, but there is no budget for that. More than you wanted to know, right? JR

#5

Summer is officially over in the Inland Northwest too…:frowning: It snowed yesterday…and it was only 15f this morning. :frowning: :frowning: :frowning:

Warren

#6

Gentlemen,

It has been snowing here for the last two hours. Fall is officially over!

#7

Sheesh I feel like I’m in Australia or somethin’, I’m reering to start up outside when everyone else is running inside.

Well all this talk means to me is that the $%#^@# heat is over with. The garage is closer to being finished, I’ll be moving my workbench into the new studio part as soon as the french doors are installed (still 3 weeks away). I’ll be getting the garage walls sheethed in either drywall or masonite before then, and since its winter I’ll hold on installing the A/C units till next spring. Till then its evenings in the garage fixing up the studio and the garage, including redoing the indoor branch, and weekends building the outdoor branch and making improvements like paving and plants.

#8
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Gentlemen,

It has been snowing here for the last two hours. Fall is officially over!


Thanks, HJ. You sent it south of the border. The temp outside in beautiful downtown Deer Park is 20F (-7C) and the snow is sticking. So much for global warming!

madwolf

#9

Victor,

I agree with you 100%. I can put more clothes on, but they want to arrest me if I take too many off. And besides, I’m getting to the point I even scare myself. :wink:

#10
Victor Smith said:
Sheesh I feel like I'm in Australia or somethin', I'm reering to start up outside when everyone else is running inside.

Well all this talk means to me is that the $%#^@# heat is over with. The garage is closer to being finished, I’ll be moving my workbench into the new studio part as soon as the french doors are installed (still 3 weeks away). I’ll be getting the garage walls sheethed in either drywall or masonite before then, and since its winter I’ll hold on installing the A/C units till next spring. Till then its evenings in the garage fixing up the studio and the garage, including redoing the indoor branch, and weekends building the outdoor branch and making improvements like paving and plants.


Vic,

Sorry to disappoint but all that just doesn’t compare with XC skiing! hehehehehehehe

#11

I agree with you’s guys…I like the fall Shirtsleeve and jacket weather…can putter about the layout with a hot cup of coffee or sit at the bench in my comfy old sweater…(yeah the one that looks like Mr Rogers use to wear…Bite Me) I like a bit of a bite in the air…

#12

The north end of the pond is iced over this morning.

#13
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Victor Smith said:
Sheesh I feel like I'm in Australia or somethin', I'm reering to start up outside when everyone else is running inside.

Well all this talk means to me is that the $%#^@# heat is over with. The garage is closer to being finished, I’ll be moving my workbench into the new studio part as soon as the french doors are installed (still 3 weeks away). I’ll be getting the garage walls sheethed in either drywall or masonite before then, and since its winter I’ll hold on installing the A/C units till next spring. Till then its evenings in the garage fixing up the studio and the garage, including redoing the indoor branch, and weekends building the outdoor branch and making improvements like paving and plants.


Vic,

Sorry to disappoint but all that just doesn’t compare with XC skiing! hehehehehehehe


Your forgetting HJ, I’m in Southern California, where in winter we can literally go surfing in the morning and skiing in the afternoon. Hope we get a good dusting this year, I found a ski resort that rents skibobs here and am itching to try it. Can’t be much different than my mountain bike.

#14
Tom Ruby said:
The north end of the pond is iced over this morning.
Yeah I got Ice covering a bucket that was collecting rain water.......
#15

We marked the calendar this morning at the marina for the first signs of skim ice along the edges of the pond. 46 degrees at noon with beautiful sunshine and no wind.

#16
"Bart" said:
I like a bit of a bite in the air..........
I agree with you there. Much better than sweating so much that my glasses keep falling off. :( But unfortunately we went from summer to winter over night. It snowed for the second time Wednesday...and it's been fairly much cold and raining ever since. Just a little too much sucky weather for my modelling interests.

Warren

#17

78F today…going to 81F tomorrow…Screw the cold

#18

Screw the 115f heat all summer long too…:frowning:

Warren

#19

Here it is November 7th, and they are calling for a high of 12 C tomorrow. No snow and today was a great sunny warm day. It isn’t even going below freezing for the rest of the week, so the forcasts show.

I think I’ll dress up in my shorts and tee shirt; go out and run a train, then pump the pond down.

This is great weather for a garden pike…no bugs, no sunstroke, no lawn mowing (Although I seldom mow the lawn—if you don’t feed it; don’t water it; then it doesn’t grow…just stays green and short most of the year)

I think tomorrow afternoon is the time for a good old party on the front lawn.
The bheer cooler is ready and the BBQ is fueled up.

All this due to my Full Moon Nude Sun Dance on Sunday last, at midnight…!!

#20

Looks like I might have to try the Nude dancing at midnight. :confused: The weather here just flat sucks and is getting worse. We have had it snow twice already…not much but still snow. It’s been down to 15f, and it’s been pouring rain the rest of the time…and no letup in sight. :frowning:

Warren