BR60103

Many years ago, someone wrote an article on how to modify the snowplow to a more scale appearance. Since then, they have been unavailable over here on the second hand market.

Question for those who have been members more than a year. How are renewals handled? Is there a memo? Do they just take from the same paymene system?

About 65 years ago I wandered through our local (small town) yard and saw how grain cars were done. There was a sliding door boxcar. The door opening was blocked partway up with boards (horizontal). I think the grain was unloaded by knocking out boards from the top. I think there may have been paper on the inside. At some point, grain car doors were available in HO. A square of scribed sheeting would probably work.

I'm glad to hear you're keeping the uncoupling pins. On one layout I operated on, we used pointed wood sticks to pull the trip pins over, rather than poking in from above. It also worked if there were corridor connections. Also, I suggest that you check the coupler height several times before you adjust the trip pins. They are usually supplied to the right specification. If you have the height gauge, it has a little platform at the bottom to check trip pin height. However, if you just put the car down with the trip pin on the platform, the coupler will get raised to the right level but can drop below when moved off. Check by running the car up to the gauge, but don't assume the pin needs adjusting if it catches. (I will also claim to have started with the mechanical K series. There was a pin going down from the bend in the knuckle and they used a ramp kind of like the old Hornby Dublo but narrower.)

I haven't done any Athearn kits for quite a few years. This coupler mounting is different to any that I've used. In the 50s, the cover of the pocket was mounted with a screw in the middle the went through the boss that the coupler pivoted on. It never went up into the weight. Later they used a sheet metal cover that was U shaped and clipped onto a couple of projections on the side of the plastic box. This could, under strain, shear the projections off and never work again. Modellers who couldn't get Kadee height gauges used Athearn cars as standards. I recently bought a kit to drill and tap a hole in the boss that the coupler pivots on. This lets you screw the coupler box lid on. (Is it a lid if it goes on the bottom?)

The tune that keeps running through my head is the Invocation of the Priests (Numi custode e vindice) from Verdi's Aida.

Dayle had lunch today with two old work colleagues. This was just past the middle of the nearest big city. (or the biggest near city) That was an hour and a bit drive on motorways. I drove them to the restaurant (called Ferrovia) then went a bit farther for a quick lunch and visit to a train shop. I lef with only a few magazines and a calendar. The shop was just across the road from Rapido Trains headquarters, but I was short of time and didn't like to bother them. I was back at the restaurant in time to watch them pay the bills. There was a bit of a tie-up on the road home so we took back roads for the last 20 miles. TTC has announced what went wrong with their magnetic induction transit line. Bolts holding the induction rail down came loose and the cover rose up and derailed a car. The line was scheduled to be mothballed (bustituted) at the end of the year anyways. steve munro's report

The old Kadee K-4 might be suitable. (Modern #4) It may have been designed for the original Mantua coupler which was an inside-out tension lock; the small hook was right at the inside and the loop slid over the other loop. I have two in my collection.

Today I went to renew my health card and driver's licence. Both expire on my birthday, the week before Christmas. I arrived there at 9:01 according to my parking card and I was out of there about 9:30. Only about half the chairs were occupied. The government has stopped mailing out reminders and apparently there has been a drop-off in renewals.

We have a Los Angeles channel on our cable TV. The other day we watched a police chase (started in the middle, so we didn't find out why). It started on a freeway and then the guy pulled off onto a city street. He managed to thread his way through 4 lanes of traffic, drove on the sidewalk at one point and ended up boxed in by a pickup truck trying to be helpful -- head on meet at very low speed. Then a funny 5 minutes as the police stood back 50 feet and the guy tried to crawl out his window and caught his pants on something. There was commentary by the TV crew that stopping a car with your pickup that way wasn't a good idea as nobody was going to pay for any damage.

jjb: As Flanders and Swann said in their Song of Reproduction, "I never did care for music, much; It's the High Fidelity."

Had lunch with model railroading buddy yesterday. He said that he went for a medical test and was asked "Have you had your liquid?" He was supposed to drink 2 litres of something. That direction was supposedly on the back of the form, but his doctor had only printed one side. He was very vocal on his next visit. Today was the Friends of the Library book sale. Dayle picked up two books on "How to build your own Cathedral" (or similar). I have a two volume history of Canadian National, a couple of books on mathematics, and two records: Steeleye Span and Copper Capped Engines. By the contents, I think Steeleye Span are a folk music group. The railway LP was the cheapest of the lot.

Checking the available family trees, my mother's father was born 1878 and his wife 1881. My father's parents were born late 1880s. My mother was one of 7 children (one died in infancy). Either my grandfather or his father fled north, to or from Hawick, due to participation in union activity. (From my father, who can no longer be consulted.) Then to Edinburgh.

Pete: Around the Great Hall, chiseled into the stone, are the names of all the cities you used to be able to get to by train. The big white thing at the bottom of the CN Tower is the football stadium (current name eludes me) which was built on the site of the CN roundhouse. I believe the turntable pit is used as the visiting team's showers. It could be modelled using a bedpan as a base. I think there was a plan once to move all the railway stations from the city centre out to where no one could find them.

I had a Dr.'s appointment at 1:45. At noon the weatherman from the next city was standing (with umbrella) in the rain. We had blue skies. When we drove out of the garage a bit after 1:00 it started pouring heavily. It did this in fits and starts until we were close to the office. It was dry when I got out of the car and back in. We've been in our house for 10 years. That's been time for 2 generations of students through the University next door plus a bit. Dayle is a great-great-aunt through her half-sister, who was about 10 years older than Dayle. Her oldest nephew got married a few years after we did; I think another nephew and a niece were married before that.

When Phoebe needed daily pills, we used the above but added (on vet's advice) a puff down the nose to cause her to swallow. We never had any problems with her.

We used the Ottawa station for the first few years of my life. After my sister was born, Dad bought a car and we only occasionally took the train. I don't have clear memories of it, but the line in went along the side of the Rideau canal. There was a single track that went out the other side across the river to Quebec.

Gryphon: I'll try to answer your queries as another North American. I have a Minories terminal on my layout. It works best with small suburban (commuter) trains with small locomotives. The train is pulled into the station and a different locomotive couples to the back end and takes it off the suburbs again. The loco that brought it in either goes to the spare track to wait or goes to the back of the next train in. The train can go to either a fiddle yard or out onto the layout until it comes back in. Coaches have letters describing them. F First S Second T Third or Tourist. (Second was discontinued at one point; years later third was renamed second.) B Brake. A combination of a baggage compartment and a room with a brake wheel in it. See the beginning of the movie A Hard Day's Night. C Composite of F,S, and T (2 or 3 of them) K Corridor -- compartments with a walkway down one side. Like American sleeping cars. See the Harry Potter movies. O Open. No divisions between seating sections and probably an aisle down the middle. R is Restaurant which may have a Kitchen or Buffet. May also be Second or Unclassified. SL Sleeper P Pullman. Not a sleeper, but a notch above first. DBSO Driving Brake Second Open a combine with a driving compartment at one end. Trailer refers to a car with no motor/engine in it. In multiple units, it may be driving or non-driving. This came out of a 40 year old book. For some reason, British passenger cars didn't seem to have hand applied brakes, except in the Brake cars. So trains had a brake car at the outer end in case a section had to be left somewhere or decided to go off on its own. A train that divided (multiple destinations) would have a brake for each section.

John Armstrong, who came up with the "Givens and Druthers" of layout planning, also came up with "by the squares" to determine what would fit. A square has a side equal the minimum mainline radius plus twice the track centre. The layout area is divided by this to get the area in squares. It also helps to position them around obstacles and such. He also provides a guide to how many squares certain features will take. A turnback loop is 2 squares wide and 3 squares or more long. A turntable and roundhouse takes takes 1.25 by .75 to 1.25 squares. A yard ladder for 5 tracks is only half a square deep but 2 squares long. I think there is a table of a lot of other features, but not in the book I have to hand.

Keith A tip I learned over half a century ago: run a fine thread (6" to a foot) through the middle of the coupler spring while you're trying to install it. When it misses the points it won't spring very far. The thread can be removed gently without disturbing the spring. With that many couplers you need the coupler height gauge. I have mine on a track on a board with a rerailer mounted on the other end.

Today turned out to be clean up the garage day. There was a bit of changeover to winter decorations, then move everything around and sweep. Also check what's in the boxes. Shift the shelves around a bit. Then we vacuumed the window sill and blinds for the first time in 10 years. Final task "The side door won't close." This door had blown open earlier this year and pulled out all the screws on the hinges. When our neighbour saw that they were only 3/4", he replaced them with longer screws. I'm now slightly worried that the threadless shank is the only part that's in the wood. Anyway, the door now shuts.

I didn't see it myself, but at one of the Great British Train Shows a point motor caught fire, probably from a push button sticking on.

I read that somewhere they used a stud contact system with a skate. There were occasional problems with horses stepping on the studs. They worked on a system with something to short out the studs if they remained on. Sorry, but I don't recall details like where or in which book I read it.

Country of origin is a contentious point in North American free trade discussions. Apparently, some parts of automobile manufacturing cross and recross the border a surprising number of times -- 16 comes to mind. I don't understand how or why.

If a diesel is broken down, how do they make compressed air for the horn? or does it work from something else?