This post will always be first and contains descriptions and terms that are regularly updated.
My parents got a divorce in 1978 and to make a long story short I had no contact with my dad for several years. In 1985 he moved to the PNW. I later got in contact with him in 1992, lost contact again and then contacted him again in 1994. From that point on he has sent me a letter each week that is a sort of diary of his life in the PNW later he started sending emails. These emails that I will post begin in 1998. Since he still lives there and does not know about this blog, and to protect his job, etc. names and places have been altered. Any spelling errors are original and left in for their comedic value. In early emails he used all caps. During the time my wife and I almost divorced his emails are only addressed to me. Due to a screw up in my mail client some posts have been lost. Starting February of 2003 he puts a week number, this number represents how many weeks till he turns 100.
It is best to start at the first post and work your way up.
Dad - Replaces my dads name when he talks in the third person.
Old Yellar - His 1978ish Chevrolet Suburban (Yellow and white).
Joyce - my Dad's ex-girlfriend
PNW - Pacific North West.
Stamp Collector - A person who collects trains but not "Seriously".
ET - a hobby shop somewhere near Seattle.
Simple - The owner of ET.
S - The owner of ET (in early letters he was referred to by name).
Bitch one - Wife/Exwife of Simple
B1 - Bitch One
fdlr - A privately owned collection of Fire apparatus (acronym not correct).
Gold Plated Platinum - Gasoline
GPPLST - Gold Plated PLatinum with Silver Trim - Gasoline
GT - Owner of fdlr.
K and R - My wife and I.
Buck/Bucky - an employee at ET
Burt - an employee at ET.
Girly Boy - an employee at ET
Troy - an employee at ET.
Captain Sunshine - an employee at ET.
AF - American Flyer
MTH - Mikes Train house (manufacturer of model trains).
Jodie - A friend of my fathers.
Charlene - another friend.
Bob C - a friend who owns a Fire Engine.
Bill C - His Brother.
Ted H - Another Friend that owns a fire engine.
Big Red - Bob C's Fire Engine.
Bill M - Another friend.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Sunday, September 29, 2002
All kinds of things today, What a train layout, Storage locker bigger than my apt, Marx goodies for Jodie
Hi K and R;
Monday...............weather....What weather just another beautiful day in the PNW. Weatherman still says Sun all week.
First thing put more MTH loco's on charge, nine including my SPRR GS-4 Daylight. Look at Al's two loco's he gave me for repair. The MTH GP-38-2 I could get it to run, Al couldn't get it to run in reverse. I think the battery won't hold a charge, won't find out until Tues. The Weaver 0-8-0 switch engine wouldn't run, just make sounds. I called Weaver and talked with a tech, he suggested as I expected try a new command PCB (it has Lionel sound). Replaced the PCB and reprogrammed, that was the reason I called Weaver. I needed the code number to reprogram. The loco ran just fine, but when I talked to the tech he also pointed out the tender is where the antenna is, the hand rails, not the loco hand rails. The tender shell has to be insulated from the frame. Several of the insulators were missing, so I called Weaver back and ordered the missing parts and a command PCB. All items were free. Talking with the tech I asked him did they use any other brand of electronics ? They use QSI in special run loco's like the one for the Masonic Temple. Oh, I have one of those 0-8-0's and the reason I bought it was because it didn't have Lionel electronics. AND the tech replied smart move...............Need I say any more ?
Bob B came in with a 1946 Lionel steam engine that was shorted out. As soon as I turned the tender up side down I saw one problem the third rail roller was mounted up side down. Bob B said he thought he may have done it. The loco ran OK the problem was the third rail roller was grounding to the frame. Easy fix. Oil and greased the loco too. I wasn't going to charge for the fix, but Bob gave me $5 any way. OK by me...........
Tom A's full time mechanic / maintenance man came in to pick up a MTH oil derrick for $87. While I was talking to him I mentioned Tom was having a part made for my Crown. Oh, that would be Louise ! I don't know, Tom just said he took the part to Puyallup. Oh that is Louise, he is a real great machinist, he made the exhaust manifold for the Duesenburg. He can make anything. Gee, think I may be in good hands ????
8:35 I am stopping for supper. Baked pork chop and baked potatoes. Over three years ago Jodie gave me a electric oven and that is the best thing I have for fixing my supper and not much work for me either.
My Erie Triplex came back from MTH today. So I checked it out on the layout. I do question if I have another problem. or for some reason the battery was low. Should know more on Tues or Weds.
I even bought some MTH trains today, first in many months. Got a RailKing UPRR 125 ton crane and crane tender for $81.60.
Buck was talking to S and mentioned he was going to "let" S Jr take lunch. Lunch, that sounds like a good idea, it was 1:15 and I lost track of time, so I took my lunch and took a walk down to the lake and enjoy a really nice day.
I also painted the wye and siamese to go on the Crown. They look a lot better painted red, rather than a rust color.
After work I drove down to JP and dropped off my latest junk for the Crown. I finally have a water fire extinguisher to carry on the rig. Ted H has been on my case for not having one. The only items I still need is a hose bed cover, door handle, jump seats and safety belts, more 2 1/2 inch hose (450 ft), 5 inch double female (not what you are thinking ?)and pike pole. Well I need a first aid kit too.
Tuesday..........weather ANOTHER beautiful day here in the PNW.
I started off the morning cutting up some mild steel I found down the alley about a year ago, never know when you can find a use for it. I did........Cut two pieces one inch by eight inches long and drilled three pilot holes which I will finish when I go to JP and with some hardware I will have a pair of brackets to hold my large diameter hose clamp on the tail board.
Back to the MTH battery charge brigade, this time only seven loco's plus my Triplex. The Triplex is OK, but for some reason the battery was low after it came back from MTH.
Faked it all day with nothing to do. Al's GP-38-2 did only have a low battery.
Ran trains and talked with a few, very few customers, Tues is our slowest day of the week. Made two sales, Nick Fisher came in to pick up a bell and bracket for his MTH scale Hudson the factory sent me and he bought some LGB people and a large oiler for $27. Rich C from Janesville came in and picked up his AF Frontier set that I sold him last week for $395. Told him the story about S saying we should have priced it higher............Cause I sold it so fast. Rich just rolled his eyes.
John B called and invited me to his home Weds night to run trains on his 700 sq ft layout. This is the layout that David H rewired so John could run both Lionel and MTH with Lionel command and MTH DCS. Should be a fun time.
Wednesday.................weather here we go again with lots of Sun and high 60's.
More MTH trains go on charge, this time nine. Looks like one will get a new battery or it may have to go back to MTH with a problem.
Received a repair from Gleneden, OR for a Lionel command base system. The signal box only transmitted 13 to 16 volts, with no throttle control or any other functions. Replaced the unit and called the customer. Total of repair was $72.
The insurance company spent all day starting to unload racks of product so they could rip out the floor from the flood damage last Summer. Don't know what the cost will be, but there is a lot of work to replace the floor from a $2 mistake that started out by S being to cheap to hire a plumber to replace a washer in a faucet.
Tom A came in to pick up more goodies for his train layout. He only picked up $95 worth, one Lionel flood light tower and some misc items and light bulbs. He said he called Louise and left a message. "If the bolt isn't on the way call me".
Trains, trains and more trains...............I came home had soup for supper (Don't waste your money on Progresso soup, real junk )and off to John B's and play with trains, and I mean really play with lots of trains. John lives in the Ravenna area of Seattle in a really big old house that is really neat. The layout is located in the basement in two rooms that each about 25 ft square and off set from one another. There is a double track main line that goes all around the room and a large six track freight yards that could hold may be 400 cars or more. Then there is a second level with a single main line that also goes all the way around the room, but this track is two rail scale, not three rail. Running up there is a scale brass UPRR Big Boy and 20 metal freight cars. There is a eleven track round house with only three tracks under a roof, plus a large service facility for diesels and electrics too. We spent the first two hours trying to find out why the MTH DCS system wouldn't work. Turned out the unit had fried itself. ( I sent it to MTH Thurs morning ) Then we ran trains. David H ran his MTH Blue Comet steam engine and seven heavy weight passenger cars and I ran my BNSF GS-4 black steam engine and seven "Golden State" red and silver streamlined passenger cars. First time I have ever ran these cars, boy are they beautiful. We left about 10:30 and have plans for next week, David and I left both of our trains there. Took a lot of pixs too.
Thursday..............weather will we start off with clouds, but the Sun does shine. Weatherman is talking rain by Sunday, see I told you the good weather wouldn't last................
Back to more MTH battery recharge. This time only ten diesels and steam engines. One way be going back to MTH for a recharge problem or lost program.
Made two sales, one for $40 to GT for a MTH freight car and the other to Jim M for three Lionel freight cars for $143.
Several weeks ago Buck was asking questions about all the stuff in the back room, ref when they do the floor. I told Buck that S said T and I would watch over the people who would be moving everything out of the building. T and I decided there was a lot of stuff that could just go back upstairs and be forgotten and we sure would fill the dumpter with a lot more junk too. Buck told me he was going to be in charge................."OK General". Well Weds they moved the first load out to the storage locker in the back parking lot. Over half of the "repairs" were not repairs, but junk from upstairs T and I had been working on for store use, when ever..........Buck was really keeping a close eye on the movers, half of the case lot boxes got put in the storage locker "backwards" and I had to rearrange them so we knew what was in them. BUT remember he is in charge...............When they start the next section they will have a lot more fun 70 percent of what is on the shelves needs to be trashed. BUT hey I ain't paying the bill let someone get paid to move the junk twice for no reason..........S said the bill for the floor replacement is $31,000. All because S wouldn't hire a plumber to replace a $2 washer. More to come, I 'm sure !
Friday............weather morning is foggy and some overcast, but what a beautiful day after 10:30AM.
When I got to work, Buck was already there "supervising" ??? There was a new problem with the old floor, it wasn't just glued down, it was glued, nailed and screwed down. They had Thurs evening cut the floor in three ft squares with the idea they could rip it up. Wrong.....They had to cut it up into four inch squares to rip it up. Oh what does Buck have to do with the project ? NOTHING ! He is only there to make sure no one steals anything and because S can't "handle" any situation above a cup of coffee.
We couldn't work in the shop area, so Bert went home and I strayed on the floor most all day. T went upstairs and drove S nuts............."Go upstairs T and sort out the old track and switches". We have boxes and boxes of old track that is worthless. S says box it up and he will sell it at the Nov swap meet. T suggests he take the track to Pacific metals and sell it by the lbs. S says no way...........T put two boxes in our trash container and poured soda pop over the track so S wouldn't try and recover any. But wait there is more. There were four more boxes and if T threw them in our trash, S would fish them out. So the floor crew were going to the dump with a trailer load of old flooring and they told T he could add more to the load. So T got rid of the other four, S doesn't know it and that is just fine. We have more room for more new junk, next time S buys some.
I made a few sales $98 worth of Thomas the tank and related Lionel toy trains too. Sold a K-Line C&NWRR B unit for $145. Something else but I don't remember.
David H came in to visit and show me his how he has taken MTH RR signals and revised them electricity to operate for a by directional RR track and block control. He is doing this for John Cunningham and has John B interested too. C L came in to pay on his MTH Lay away of a Std ga train set. Jerry F came in to see what is new and ordered a K-Line NPRR B unit.
Lets go back to the floor project.............Remember Thurs ref T and I would fill the dumpter with junk from behind my desk. Well S and Buck called me to the back room and were concerned "they" found a problem. What to do with all the junk behind my desk ??? Throw 40 % away and continue on with life. S wanted everything upstairs. What ever, but I am not the one carrying any of it, my knees and ankles won't take the up and down on the stairs. So T, Christ and S moved what I don't know, and don't care. T went home early before I could find out if he was able to get rid of anything.
After over to JP and work on the Crown.........No not the problem with the broken bolt. I drilled the holes in the brackets for the hose clamp bracket and the tail board. Then stopped at True Value and picked up hardware before coming home. Oh yeah, my new Black and Decker 1/2 drive is really strong. I was drilling thru the tail board and the drill stuck and before I could let go, it wrapped the cord around the drill bit and cut the cord and nearly broke my arm. So I had to stop and repair the cord...........
Saturday.................weather more good Fall weather, with some clouds and Sun too.
On the way to work I stop at Rawley's storage in Issaquah and rent a locker bigger than my apt.............10ft by 15ft by 30 ft long with enough room outside to turn a fire engine around and back in. So for only $240 a month I have a new home for my Crown and all my junk up in Everett too. I was paying $105 for the Everett storage that was 10ft by 10ft. Bob C is going to help me move all my junk south.
First thing at work three of the bolts I bought last night for the hose clamp bracket were not threaded the full length of the bolt, so I rethreaded the bolts. Then my next project was to fix my electric drill power cord that I wrapped around the drill bit last night. Soldered the wires together and heat shrunk some sleeving on the cord.
Now to ET work...................My first customer Todd Wright from Kenniwick, WA bought a Lionel barrel roll coal dumper and 50 pieces of rubber road bed for $501.
Ran the train layout and then sold a MTH SPRR 4449 passenger starter set to a couple for there seven yr old Son as a Xmas present for $360.
Tom Regelion came in and put a MTH Premier GNRR 2-8-2 steam engine on lay away for $840. I gave him the early buy price of $759 verses catalog price of $799 and S's price of $895.
Then John M came in and picked up his Lionel NPRR two car add on passenger cars,Lionel Milw box car and a "HO" Marklin diesel loco for $502. He ordered on early buy a MTH FT NPRR A-B-A diesel set, Milw RR EP-5 power and dummy electric loco's and a CPRR box car for $1200. BUT we aren't thru..............John is looking at a MTH Premier Santa Fe 4-8-4 Northern for $1195. "You can lay it away John". So John gives me $300 as a deposit. When your hot your hot...........Dave W says yea and what does your ex wife say ? "if she knew I owned a fire engine she would be the hot one" ! Right ?
A couple in the store were looking around and I asked the lady did she need any help. "Yes, do you have a Lionel 'California Zephyr' passenger train" ? I have one pulled by a Western Pacific diesel set for $1895. This lady was a "Zephyrette". The "CZ" had only women "stewardess" and they were also a RN. So I had some questions to ask her. She was assigned to the CZ from Chicago to Oakland/San Francisco, or the entire line. Her husband was into "G" ga and I showed him that USA trains was coming out with the CZ with all three diesel sets. CB&Q, D&RGW and WP. Hopefully they will come back at a later date.
After work over to 85th and Aurora for $1.199 fuel and then stop at Fred Meyer's for Death by Chocolate ice cream. They didn't have any last Sunday evening and the Freddy's in Bellevue didn't have on Tues night when I stopped for groceries. Time to panic................
Sunday.............weather I get woke up during the night cause of rain. Lite rain on the way to church, but the Sun is shining by the time service is over.
Left for WS at 9:00AM and got home to my apt at 7:15PM. Stopped for pixs at K-Mart. Well Jodie was early for church she got there at 10:25 and a half. One of the greeters commented "Jodie you're early" and Jodie replied "Early for next week's service". So Jodie and I had a chance to talk for five minutes before the services started. After service Jodie couldn't visit long cause she was having a B'day party for Uncle John at Grannies and needed to take John home and then run to her house and pick up items and then return to Grannies. I showed Jodie pictures of John B's big train layout. Jodie was impressed and happy that at least someone has a really nice layout too. When T and I were moving junk upstairs last week I found some Marx switches that "needed" a new home. So I gave Jodie six Marx switches and a pair of Japan made switches for a "copy" of a Marx train, another item she had gotten from me when she bought my collection two yrs ago. Jodie and I shared a big hug and she was off and running once again. When she was looking at the pixs she noticed the turntable. "You want a turntable" ? Jodie says yes she would love to have one. I have one that Al R gave me, you can have it. Told her I would bring it next week. Dad loves to see Jodie smile..........
From church over to JP and work on the Crown. I finished putting the brackets together to hold the hose clamp on the tail board. Things didn't work out exactly as plAd, but I did get the job finished. From JP over to Issaquah storage and drop off junk that was in ole yeller, then head to Everett. I picked up all of the MTH and Williams empty loco boxes and brought them back to Issaquah. Bob C is going to help me move "everything" and hopefully in only two trips. Note, I said hopefully..........I also plan to do some different "things" to my apt too.
I stopped at Target to get a pad lock and a new pocket knife. I lost my knife Friday evening while at JP, and have not found it. The one I had was a gift in 1991 and a direct replacement cost $30, decided I better look a lot harder for the old one. Decided to have supper at the Ole Country restaurant in Bellevue until I saw the line. So I headed to Seattle and stopped for more fuel at you know where and then to Mr Bill's. Country fried steak was good and the second one will be my dinner some evening this coming week.
8:30 just got off the phone to Jodie. Had to tell her about the Zephyrette. She was familiar with the CZ so I knew she would be interested. She is also interested in buying some of my die cast toys too.
Well that brings another week to a close, only 2032 plus to go.
Write, call or e-mail if the mood strikes.......
Love Dad
Monday...............weather....What weather just another beautiful day in the PNW. Weatherman still says Sun all week.
First thing put more MTH loco's on charge, nine including my SPRR GS-4 Daylight. Look at Al's two loco's he gave me for repair. The MTH GP-38-2 I could get it to run, Al couldn't get it to run in reverse. I think the battery won't hold a charge, won't find out until Tues. The Weaver 0-8-0 switch engine wouldn't run, just make sounds. I called Weaver and talked with a tech, he suggested as I expected try a new command PCB (it has Lionel sound). Replaced the PCB and reprogrammed, that was the reason I called Weaver. I needed the code number to reprogram. The loco ran just fine, but when I talked to the tech he also pointed out the tender is where the antenna is, the hand rails, not the loco hand rails. The tender shell has to be insulated from the frame. Several of the insulators were missing, so I called Weaver back and ordered the missing parts and a command PCB. All items were free. Talking with the tech I asked him did they use any other brand of electronics ? They use QSI in special run loco's like the one for the Masonic Temple. Oh, I have one of those 0-8-0's and the reason I bought it was because it didn't have Lionel electronics. AND the tech replied smart move...............Need I say any more ?
Bob B came in with a 1946 Lionel steam engine that was shorted out. As soon as I turned the tender up side down I saw one problem the third rail roller was mounted up side down. Bob B said he thought he may have done it. The loco ran OK the problem was the third rail roller was grounding to the frame. Easy fix. Oil and greased the loco too. I wasn't going to charge for the fix, but Bob gave me $5 any way. OK by me...........
Tom A's full time mechanic / maintenance man came in to pick up a MTH oil derrick for $87. While I was talking to him I mentioned Tom was having a part made for my Crown. Oh, that would be Louise ! I don't know, Tom just said he took the part to Puyallup. Oh that is Louise, he is a real great machinist, he made the exhaust manifold for the Duesenburg. He can make anything. Gee, think I may be in good hands ????
8:35 I am stopping for supper. Baked pork chop and baked potatoes. Over three years ago Jodie gave me a electric oven and that is the best thing I have for fixing my supper and not much work for me either.
My Erie Triplex came back from MTH today. So I checked it out on the layout. I do question if I have another problem. or for some reason the battery was low. Should know more on Tues or Weds.
I even bought some MTH trains today, first in many months. Got a RailKing UPRR 125 ton crane and crane tender for $81.60.
Buck was talking to S and mentioned he was going to "let" S Jr take lunch. Lunch, that sounds like a good idea, it was 1:15 and I lost track of time, so I took my lunch and took a walk down to the lake and enjoy a really nice day.
I also painted the wye and siamese to go on the Crown. They look a lot better painted red, rather than a rust color.
After work I drove down to JP and dropped off my latest junk for the Crown. I finally have a water fire extinguisher to carry on the rig. Ted H has been on my case for not having one. The only items I still need is a hose bed cover, door handle, jump seats and safety belts, more 2 1/2 inch hose (450 ft), 5 inch double female (not what you are thinking ?)and pike pole. Well I need a first aid kit too.
Tuesday..........weather ANOTHER beautiful day here in the PNW.
I started off the morning cutting up some mild steel I found down the alley about a year ago, never know when you can find a use for it. I did........Cut two pieces one inch by eight inches long and drilled three pilot holes which I will finish when I go to JP and with some hardware I will have a pair of brackets to hold my large diameter hose clamp on the tail board.
Back to the MTH battery charge brigade, this time only seven loco's plus my Triplex. The Triplex is OK, but for some reason the battery was low after it came back from MTH.
Faked it all day with nothing to do. Al's GP-38-2 did only have a low battery.
Ran trains and talked with a few, very few customers, Tues is our slowest day of the week. Made two sales, Nick Fisher came in to pick up a bell and bracket for his MTH scale Hudson the factory sent me and he bought some LGB people and a large oiler for $27. Rich C from Janesville came in and picked up his AF Frontier set that I sold him last week for $395. Told him the story about S saying we should have priced it higher............Cause I sold it so fast. Rich just rolled his eyes.
John B called and invited me to his home Weds night to run trains on his 700 sq ft layout. This is the layout that David H rewired so John could run both Lionel and MTH with Lionel command and MTH DCS. Should be a fun time.
Wednesday.................weather here we go again with lots of Sun and high 60's.
More MTH trains go on charge, this time nine. Looks like one will get a new battery or it may have to go back to MTH with a problem.
Received a repair from Gleneden, OR for a Lionel command base system. The signal box only transmitted 13 to 16 volts, with no throttle control or any other functions. Replaced the unit and called the customer. Total of repair was $72.
The insurance company spent all day starting to unload racks of product so they could rip out the floor from the flood damage last Summer. Don't know what the cost will be, but there is a lot of work to replace the floor from a $2 mistake that started out by S being to cheap to hire a plumber to replace a washer in a faucet.
Tom A came in to pick up more goodies for his train layout. He only picked up $95 worth, one Lionel flood light tower and some misc items and light bulbs. He said he called Louise and left a message. "If the bolt isn't on the way call me".
Trains, trains and more trains...............I came home had soup for supper (Don't waste your money on Progresso soup, real junk )and off to John B's and play with trains, and I mean really play with lots of trains. John lives in the Ravenna area of Seattle in a really big old house that is really neat. The layout is located in the basement in two rooms that each about 25 ft square and off set from one another. There is a double track main line that goes all around the room and a large six track freight yards that could hold may be 400 cars or more. Then there is a second level with a single main line that also goes all the way around the room, but this track is two rail scale, not three rail. Running up there is a scale brass UPRR Big Boy and 20 metal freight cars. There is a eleven track round house with only three tracks under a roof, plus a large service facility for diesels and electrics too. We spent the first two hours trying to find out why the MTH DCS system wouldn't work. Turned out the unit had fried itself. ( I sent it to MTH Thurs morning ) Then we ran trains. David H ran his MTH Blue Comet steam engine and seven heavy weight passenger cars and I ran my BNSF GS-4 black steam engine and seven "Golden State" red and silver streamlined passenger cars. First time I have ever ran these cars, boy are they beautiful. We left about 10:30 and have plans for next week, David and I left both of our trains there. Took a lot of pixs too.
Thursday..............weather will we start off with clouds, but the Sun does shine. Weatherman is talking rain by Sunday, see I told you the good weather wouldn't last................
Back to more MTH battery recharge. This time only ten diesels and steam engines. One way be going back to MTH for a recharge problem or lost program.
Made two sales, one for $40 to GT for a MTH freight car and the other to Jim M for three Lionel freight cars for $143.
Several weeks ago Buck was asking questions about all the stuff in the back room, ref when they do the floor. I told Buck that S said T and I would watch over the people who would be moving everything out of the building. T and I decided there was a lot of stuff that could just go back upstairs and be forgotten and we sure would fill the dumpter with a lot more junk too. Buck told me he was going to be in charge................."OK General". Well Weds they moved the first load out to the storage locker in the back parking lot. Over half of the "repairs" were not repairs, but junk from upstairs T and I had been working on for store use, when ever..........Buck was really keeping a close eye on the movers, half of the case lot boxes got put in the storage locker "backwards" and I had to rearrange them so we knew what was in them. BUT remember he is in charge...............When they start the next section they will have a lot more fun 70 percent of what is on the shelves needs to be trashed. BUT hey I ain't paying the bill let someone get paid to move the junk twice for no reason..........S said the bill for the floor replacement is $31,000. All because S wouldn't hire a plumber to replace a $2 washer. More to come, I 'm sure !
Friday............weather morning is foggy and some overcast, but what a beautiful day after 10:30AM.
When I got to work, Buck was already there "supervising" ??? There was a new problem with the old floor, it wasn't just glued down, it was glued, nailed and screwed down. They had Thurs evening cut the floor in three ft squares with the idea they could rip it up. Wrong.....They had to cut it up into four inch squares to rip it up. Oh what does Buck have to do with the project ? NOTHING ! He is only there to make sure no one steals anything and because S can't "handle" any situation above a cup of coffee.
We couldn't work in the shop area, so Bert went home and I strayed on the floor most all day. T went upstairs and drove S nuts............."Go upstairs T and sort out the old track and switches". We have boxes and boxes of old track that is worthless. S says box it up and he will sell it at the Nov swap meet. T suggests he take the track to Pacific metals and sell it by the lbs. S says no way...........T put two boxes in our trash container and poured soda pop over the track so S wouldn't try and recover any. But wait there is more. There were four more boxes and if T threw them in our trash, S would fish them out. So the floor crew were going to the dump with a trailer load of old flooring and they told T he could add more to the load. So T got rid of the other four, S doesn't know it and that is just fine. We have more room for more new junk, next time S buys some.
I made a few sales $98 worth of Thomas the tank and related Lionel toy trains too. Sold a K-Line C&NWRR B unit for $145. Something else but I don't remember.
David H came in to visit and show me his how he has taken MTH RR signals and revised them electricity to operate for a by directional RR track and block control. He is doing this for John Cunningham and has John B interested too. C L came in to pay on his MTH Lay away of a Std ga train set. Jerry F came in to see what is new and ordered a K-Line NPRR B unit.
Lets go back to the floor project.............Remember Thurs ref T and I would fill the dumpter with junk from behind my desk. Well S and Buck called me to the back room and were concerned "they" found a problem. What to do with all the junk behind my desk ??? Throw 40 % away and continue on with life. S wanted everything upstairs. What ever, but I am not the one carrying any of it, my knees and ankles won't take the up and down on the stairs. So T, Christ and S moved what I don't know, and don't care. T went home early before I could find out if he was able to get rid of anything.
After over to JP and work on the Crown.........No not the problem with the broken bolt. I drilled the holes in the brackets for the hose clamp bracket and the tail board. Then stopped at True Value and picked up hardware before coming home. Oh yeah, my new Black and Decker 1/2 drive is really strong. I was drilling thru the tail board and the drill stuck and before I could let go, it wrapped the cord around the drill bit and cut the cord and nearly broke my arm. So I had to stop and repair the cord...........
Saturday.................weather more good Fall weather, with some clouds and Sun too.
On the way to work I stop at Rawley's storage in Issaquah and rent a locker bigger than my apt.............10ft by 15ft by 30 ft long with enough room outside to turn a fire engine around and back in. So for only $240 a month I have a new home for my Crown and all my junk up in Everett too. I was paying $105 for the Everett storage that was 10ft by 10ft. Bob C is going to help me move all my junk south.
First thing at work three of the bolts I bought last night for the hose clamp bracket were not threaded the full length of the bolt, so I rethreaded the bolts. Then my next project was to fix my electric drill power cord that I wrapped around the drill bit last night. Soldered the wires together and heat shrunk some sleeving on the cord.
Now to ET work...................My first customer Todd Wright from Kenniwick, WA bought a Lionel barrel roll coal dumper and 50 pieces of rubber road bed for $501.
Ran the train layout and then sold a MTH SPRR 4449 passenger starter set to a couple for there seven yr old Son as a Xmas present for $360.
Tom Regelion came in and put a MTH Premier GNRR 2-8-2 steam engine on lay away for $840. I gave him the early buy price of $759 verses catalog price of $799 and S's price of $895.
Then John M came in and picked up his Lionel NPRR two car add on passenger cars,Lionel Milw box car and a "HO" Marklin diesel loco for $502. He ordered on early buy a MTH FT NPRR A-B-A diesel set, Milw RR EP-5 power and dummy electric loco's and a CPRR box car for $1200. BUT we aren't thru..............John is looking at a MTH Premier Santa Fe 4-8-4 Northern for $1195. "You can lay it away John". So John gives me $300 as a deposit. When your hot your hot...........Dave W says yea and what does your ex wife say ? "if she knew I owned a fire engine she would be the hot one" ! Right ?
A couple in the store were looking around and I asked the lady did she need any help. "Yes, do you have a Lionel 'California Zephyr' passenger train" ? I have one pulled by a Western Pacific diesel set for $1895. This lady was a "Zephyrette". The "CZ" had only women "stewardess" and they were also a RN. So I had some questions to ask her. She was assigned to the CZ from Chicago to Oakland/San Francisco, or the entire line. Her husband was into "G" ga and I showed him that USA trains was coming out with the CZ with all three diesel sets. CB&Q, D&RGW and WP. Hopefully they will come back at a later date.
After work over to 85th and Aurora for $1.199 fuel and then stop at Fred Meyer's for Death by Chocolate ice cream. They didn't have any last Sunday evening and the Freddy's in Bellevue didn't have on Tues night when I stopped for groceries. Time to panic................
Sunday.............weather I get woke up during the night cause of rain. Lite rain on the way to church, but the Sun is shining by the time service is over.
Left for WS at 9:00AM and got home to my apt at 7:15PM. Stopped for pixs at K-Mart. Well Jodie was early for church she got there at 10:25 and a half. One of the greeters commented "Jodie you're early" and Jodie replied "Early for next week's service". So Jodie and I had a chance to talk for five minutes before the services started. After service Jodie couldn't visit long cause she was having a B'day party for Uncle John at Grannies and needed to take John home and then run to her house and pick up items and then return to Grannies. I showed Jodie pictures of John B's big train layout. Jodie was impressed and happy that at least someone has a really nice layout too. When T and I were moving junk upstairs last week I found some Marx switches that "needed" a new home. So I gave Jodie six Marx switches and a pair of Japan made switches for a "copy" of a Marx train, another item she had gotten from me when she bought my collection two yrs ago. Jodie and I shared a big hug and she was off and running once again. When she was looking at the pixs she noticed the turntable. "You want a turntable" ? Jodie says yes she would love to have one. I have one that Al R gave me, you can have it. Told her I would bring it next week. Dad loves to see Jodie smile..........
From church over to JP and work on the Crown. I finished putting the brackets together to hold the hose clamp on the tail board. Things didn't work out exactly as plAd, but I did get the job finished. From JP over to Issaquah storage and drop off junk that was in ole yeller, then head to Everett. I picked up all of the MTH and Williams empty loco boxes and brought them back to Issaquah. Bob C is going to help me move "everything" and hopefully in only two trips. Note, I said hopefully..........I also plan to do some different "things" to my apt too.
I stopped at Target to get a pad lock and a new pocket knife. I lost my knife Friday evening while at JP, and have not found it. The one I had was a gift in 1991 and a direct replacement cost $30, decided I better look a lot harder for the old one. Decided to have supper at the Ole Country restaurant in Bellevue until I saw the line. So I headed to Seattle and stopped for more fuel at you know where and then to Mr Bill's. Country fried steak was good and the second one will be my dinner some evening this coming week.
8:30 just got off the phone to Jodie. Had to tell her about the Zephyrette. She was familiar with the CZ so I knew she would be interested. She is also interested in buying some of my die cast toys too.
Well that brings another week to a close, only 2032 plus to go.
Write, call or e-mail if the mood strikes.......
Love Dad
Sunday, September 22, 2002
Crown part being machined, 1931 SJ Duesenburg, Jodie makes it to church on time..............Really
Hi K and R;
Monday...............weather I wake up to a very lite rain. We even have Sun breaks too, some over cast right now.
I start off packing up a box of used Marx trains to go to a customer in Canada, when his check arrives. $107 worth.
Spent most of the day cleaning up a 1953 Lionel $29.95 freight set in the original boxes. S will get about $295 for the set. The four freight cars and tender only needs some coupler work, the engine I took apart and cleaned and oiled, replaced the smoke unit plunger.
Al R came in and spent some money. Sold him a MTH UPRR weed sprayer set which is really neat, it includes a loco made from a flat car and a old outside braced box car and includes two tanks car too. He got a few misc items for a total of $402, then returned five minutes later for a MTH bridge for another $20.
Tom A came in with a his childhood friend from Oklahoma and picked up a Lionel flood light tower, MTH signal and two I-tad devices and other misc items for $300 worth. I showed him the broken bolt from the Crown and asked if he knew a good machinist to make a new one. He took the part and said he has a friend that owes him a favor or two. Isn't it great to have friends in the right places and the right time too.
Customer came in with a 1959 AF old time frontier set in the original set box and the "bonus" add on passenger car in the original box too. I offered him $150 for the set and he took it. We should get about $350 or $400 for the set.
Tuesday............-weather another beautiful day. How about that ?
First thing clean up the AF Frontier set and get S to price it and find a place for it in the display case. I plan to sell this set in short order. Price is $395.
I finish up a box car from last week that T had sprayed with pledge. It did clean it up and S's price is $150, OUCH. Also clean up a 1948 caboose and rewire. That is the last time I am at my desk all day.
David H shows up with the MTH DCS system, but it only works with a telephone cable, not by radio signal. T tries to resolder the antenna cable, but it is so small the solder gun destroys the nylon insulation. So I call Regina at MTH and get a RA for return. I start to pack the unit up for shipment, but get many interruptions.
Customer looking thru the junk Lionel box finds a couple of freight cars he can fix, if we have a set of trucks. He ends up spending $148 on misc items and a used Lionel operating milk car.
It is 1:00PM I am going to lunch, well I got as far as the kitchen. Customer has two loco's that won't run in Lionel command. One is a K-Line Also RS-3 switcher and the other a Lionel scale Erie Pacific steam engine. The RS-3 won't run, I call K-Line tech support asking for the program number to reprogram loco. Tech says they don't use a program number...............Either the tech doesn't know or Lionel is selling some really junky crap to the other manufactures. I finally get the loco to run, but it will change direction on it own and run real jerky too. Tell the customer this one has to go back to K-Line, I can't fix it cause the unit does not have Std Lionel PCB's. When I look at the Lionel loco first thing I find is the unit has the switch in "repro" instead of "run". Customer is not a "rocket scientist" and I got S over my shoulder saying he didn't buy it from us. "Don't you have a bunch of used Lionel to over price or something" ? Run the loco and the chuff fades in and out. The infra red connected between the tender and loco draw bar is not in alignment. I can't bend the two parts into alignment the spring on the front of the rear truck won't let the draw bar drop into place. So I add three washers under the rear truck mount and that raises the rear of the draw bar and aligns the two parts. Redesigning more Lionel crap.................
1:50PM I am going to lunch and head down to the lake and enjoy some quiet time. Not many people at the lake and sure no Lionel problems to try and fix.
As soon as I get back Tom G is waiting for me, he had dropped off a Williams SPRR GS-4 that won't run. Will check that out some time Weds. Tom wants to know more about Lionel and MTH command systems and of course S has to throw in his useless two cents worth too. Tom buys a MTH freight car and some die cast trucks and other misc items for $170 worth.
M Winters comes in looking around, I had just got his two car MTH add on passenger set in. He will pick them up and a five car set on Saturday. Had to show him the new MTH catalog that had come in Monday.
Rich C the airline pilot from Janesville came in too. He wants to know what is new and I show him the AF frontier set. SOLD........Is that a fast enough sale ???He pays off his last lay away and picks up the last items and then pays on the Ives Std ga set and puts money down on the AF frontier set. T, Rich, M and I stand around and talk for the next hour, great way to finish off the day.
When I get home I change spark plugs in ole yeller, first time in about three years, got to get my money's worth. In the apt I am cleaning the grease off my hands and the phone rings, it is Al R with a problem with a Lionel loco. See Lionel haunts me at home too.
Wednesday.............weather another fine day in the PNW. They say rain is coming...........
First thing this morning T informed me S thinks he should have priced the AF frontier set a lot higher since I sold it in just one day. He told T he might have gotten more for it on e Bay or could have asked $500. T told him you only made a $250 profit on a item you paid $150 for. AND why do you think the customer bought it, he likes coming here and getting a good deal and the friendship too...............
I start off working on the repair for Tom G. The 1941 whistling tender doesn't whistle. I had worked on it several months ago. I worked on it for a hour and then gave it to T. He went thru it and it finally started working, but we are not sure why. It may be just old and tired like me sometimes. Next item is a Williams GS-4(I have worked on one of these before, nice loco.) Tom says the loco only runs backwards. I can't get it to run at all. Take the tender apart and check for broken wires, take the loco apart and check and see if the motor runs. Ask T to check the bridge rectifier. While he is checking it out the loco takes off. Then it stops running. The problem is a cut wire in the harness. So I cut the wire slip on some heat shrink and solder the wire. Put everything back together and charge Tom $25.
Next a customer from Canada, Gunther Sage a old German, got to watch those old Germans. He bought a MTH Z4000 Xfmer for $400. Ordered a new MTH CNRR F-3 A-B-A diesel units and five passenger cars for $900.
Time for lunch. Sat in the kitchen and read, didn't need to exercise my poor aching feet.
After lunch who should show up, but Tom A looking for some MTH freight cars and items to do landscaping on his layout. He told me the part for the Crown is being machined and he will it have by no later than early next week. Sure is nice to know the right people and have friends too. Tom only spent $185 this time. All the time Tom was in the store, "General" Buck was going crazy. Tom's Grandson Sn was playing with the Thomas the tank engine layout and he was carrying around a TTTE helicopter and Buck was sure he would steal it. Plus two other kids were also playing and making a lot of noise, more than Buck can handle. Six months ago Buck removed Sn from behind the big layout control panel. I was letting him run the trains, he knows all about Z4000's his Granddad has two. Tom told me Buck was lucky, "No one touches my Grand kids". I had a talk with Buck later that day, what a jerk...........
Stopped at Fred Meyer's for grocieries and I spent some money on my household. I bought a new set of silverware the old set dated to Jan 1990 and had feed a few mouths and was looking pretty back.
Thursday................weather morning is blue skies, by noon we have overcast and coming home from work we have rain.
Start off checking out a signal bridge mask that Tom A brought back that wouldn't work. It took me almost and hour to figure out the problem, the male pins in the mask would move when ever you plugged it into a socket. Super glued the plug in the mask and used it on our display and put the good one in the unit to be sold.
Didn't have anything to repair all day and didn't do much either. S did get a MTH SPRR cab forward from a customer in WV and I checked it out before we put it in the case. We sold the loco in Apr 2000 for $1350, S offered him $700 and our price is $1295. Also got a Lionel PRR T-1 back from repair, this is the loco that took a dive off the table because the electronics failed and did damage to both the loco and tender when it hit the floor. Lionel did replace both shells. I have never had a MTH loco run off the layout on the floor due to electronic failure.
Tim B came in and picked up a Lionel train set for his Son for Xmas and I sold him two MTH freight cars for a total of $320. He also ordered a MTH D&RGWRR steam loco painted in RioGrande colors for $430.
I had no sooner finished lunch and a big truck showed up with 150 boxes of new Lionel. So I did a good job of burning off my lunch real quick.
Made two sales in the afternoon, Richard P came in a picked up some layout design books and I sold him a Lionel switch like the four he bought two weeks ago for a total of $87. I may still get the piano, since I will have room in my new storage locker, just don't know when I am moving at this time. Other sale was for $60 for misc Lionel and track products.
It getting pretty bad when I look in my freezer and I find ice cream in a new flavor and I don't remember buying it. Dam Crown takes all my attention.............
Started taking orders for the new MTH catalog. Gunther Sage ordered a CNRR A-B-A F-3 diesel set and five passenger cars for $860. Tom A ordered a MTH RailKing UPRR Big Boy for $570. M Winters ordered a NYC Empire State Express Hudson and seven passenger cars for $1400 and a PRR S-1 6-4-4-6 steam engine/tender and seven passenger cars for $1600. I have more coming too.
Friday...............weather ? Would you believe we have a beautiful day. Weatherman just can't get it right ref rain or Sun.
I spent the morning checking out older MTH loco's that had dead battteries and putting them on charge, ten to be exact. Will have more next week, haven't did a battery check in over a year. Got to find something to do.
Made a few sales. Tom H bought some MTH track and misc items for $87 and ordered a RailKing BNRR GP-7 and a RR station. Sold a customer from Calif a Lionel operating brakeman box car for $93 including shipping. Sold a Canadian customer a Lionel Conrail GP-9 diesel freight set for $315 including shipping to ND ? Matt D came in and picked up a MTH N&WRR passenger car and some misc items for $67.
Tom A showed up with his wife, Susan and Tom's childhood friend from OK and his wife. "So Tom what brings you out today" ? "Oh we were just out Duesenburgen' around". He was driving his 1931 "SJ" black Duesenburg. The car is only worth a cool $ 1 million. He turned a few heads at the shop, all of the sales people had to go take a look. I took pixs. Last week end Tom had the car at a wedding to take the bride and groom to the reception hall. So many people were looking at the car before the wedding, that it was finally suggested everyone come in to the church so they could start the wedding, people were more interested in the car than the wedding couple...............Tom paid $100,000 for the car unrestored and has spent a few bucks since then. Like $2500 each for head light lens, he has more than one set, he had eight connecting rods drop forged for somewhere in the $2500 for each rod.
Saturday...............weather I won't tell you how great a day, but it was really great................
First thing over to 85th and Aurora and get fuel for $1.199 again, better than $1.399 in Kirkland or in some areas even higher.
Played with the MTH battery parade part of the day, will have plenty more on Monday.
Sold a lot of trains and took a lot of early buy orders too. Some of the high lites were $357 for a Lionel Alien train set and four weird freight cars too. Don C came in to pick up two MTH freight cars, but I ended up selling him a Lionel H-9 PRR 2-8-0 steam engine for a total of $624. He put on lay away a Lionel UPRR 4-12-2 steam engine for $1350 and did a early buy order for a MTH PRR S-1 steam engine and seven passenger cars for another $1600.
After work I decided it was to nice a day to just go home, so I drove to WS and picked up supper at MacDonald's and sat on Alki Bach at Lincoln park and enjoyed what was left of a great day here in the beautiful PNW.
I got a e-mail from the Crown club ref a few goodies for sale..............Detroit diesel 8V-92 with automatic transmission for $1500 FOB Calif plus a 1500 gpm pump and transfrer case for $1500 too removed from a 1980 Crown. Talked to Ted H about the diesel, ref installation in my Crown. Ted says it won't work cause the 8V-92 has more horse power than a 1091 cid Hall-Scott and I would also need a new drive line assembly too. Oh well it was a good idea.
Sunday...............weather what a beautiful day, great day to be driving my Crown all over town, but no the friggen thing is out of service...........Last week the weatherman said rain most all week, we got one day of drizzles. This week the weatherman says Sun and 70's all week long.......What to bet we get rain ?
Up at seven something and get my day started, shave and fix breakfast. 9:15 off to WS and drop off pixs at K-Mart and then to church. At 10:15 I decide I need to caught up on some Bible reading from last week ref our 50 day study of Jesus, and since Jodie won't arrive until 10:29 and one half I have plenty of time. 10:20 Jodie and the group arrive. Walking outside I hold out my arms to Jodie "You are ten minutes early" ! Jodie says "In the book 'Unseen Christ' one item is mentioned is to be in church on time". "I am turning over a new leaf, I don't want to offend Jesus'. As we are walking up the stairs I mention to Jodie there is one item from last week that you did that was very unsetting to me. Jodie asked what was that ? Remember you prayed to God to numb everyones taste buds ? Yes... Well it took until Wednesday until I got mine back. Jodie asked "why were you sick" ? No Jodie I was just kidding. Then we both had a big laugh. In church I sat behind her and we talked for ten minutes. Told her about Tom A and his Duesenburg and how he has a wonderful collection of old cars, plus racing cars and MTH trains too. How he is a self made millionire and now retired. She says it is great to hear about someone who has money and knows how to enjoy it and even help others too. Told her about Tom having the part made for my Crown. Once services started I sat next to Uncle John. Yes, we were sitting in the second row. After services we walked out to her car and stood and talked some more. Told her more about Tom and how his Son died at age 30 from a heart attack. He was also a race car driver and when he died Tom's wife Susan said they would not retire there Son's race car. Instead Susan learned to drive the race car and still does at age 60. Told her Tom and his wife live in a 5 million house and the Daughter in law lives next door in a $2 million house. Again Jodie said how great to hear about people that know how to enjoy life and money they have worked hard for. Told her more about my Crown adventure, ref the over heating problem and how today would be a good day to be out driving the rig. Brannan was giving Jodie a rough time about selling her trains, then she would have money to buy anything she wanted. "You know like shoes, groceries, a new car, selling the trains you would have 1000's". Jodie don't listen to Brannan you could end up buying a old fire truck like I did. She didn't think so..........As we saying good by, Jodie said she wasn't going to take Brannan advice. I pointed to Brannan, "Did you hear what your Mother said" ? No, so I repeated it. Good for you Jodie........... We gave one another a big hug and were off to our next exciting adventure in life here in the beautiful PNW..........
Came home and paged Bob C. Bob called me back and I made arrangements to meet him at his house in about and hour. So I headed up to Bothell and my reason for the trip was to find more of my fire engine equipment that was in Bob's garage. Of course we had to check out Crown sitting in Bob's drive way too. This is also a 1960 rig that needs a engine rebuild or replacement. Bob has a sick 935 Hall-Scott in his garage along with a very servicable Detroit 6-71 turbo charged diesel too. Anyway we found my large diameter hose clamp, "Scott" SCBA air mask and tank. Bob has my 5 gal pump can on another crown and so I need one too. He had a two and half gal pressureized water extinisher. We didn't know if it worked, so we filled it with water and pressureized it to 100 PSI. The gauge didn't regisiter. Then I discovered we had two leaks, which we were able to fix. Filled it and tried again, we had pressure and no leaks, but the gauge still didn't work. Just sitting there the gauge came up onits own. So I drained it and refilled it and then the gauge was working. Two other items we couldn't find in the garage. The two and a half wye and the two and half siamese. Bob didn't remember them, so I pointed out they were on the rig until he did the engine swap out at the FDLR shop. Then Bob remembered he had some items in the back of his old van. Sure enough they were in the van. So came home with more goodies for my rig. From Bob's I stopped to look at a storage locker in Kenmore, but they only had a 10 by 25 with a 9ft wide door.
Stopped at Al R's to see what was new. He had built a subway train system. Remember the two draw bridges, well underneath them he put in a subway that runs all over under the main layout on about 30 ft of track in a big dog bone in the shape of a letter "C". Using MTH subway cars they really stop at the station and announce the arrival and departure of the trains. Al gave me a "O" ga turntable that can be used with small diesels and small steam engines. Don't have any idea where I can put it, but it was free. Al also gave me two loco's a MTH and a Weaver to fix at work next week. The MTH won't reverse and the Weaver won't run period, it has Lionel electronics. From Al's I stopped at Mr Bill's.
For supper I had.................you guessed it Lasagna and a dinner salad. Couldn't find one of the deer to kill at JP ?!?!?!? R..........................
Well that brings another week to a close. 2033 plus to go.
Hope everyone is doing OK and the weather is getting better, ha ha
Love Dad
Monday...............weather I wake up to a very lite rain. We even have Sun breaks too, some over cast right now.
I start off packing up a box of used Marx trains to go to a customer in Canada, when his check arrives. $107 worth.
Spent most of the day cleaning up a 1953 Lionel $29.95 freight set in the original boxes. S will get about $295 for the set. The four freight cars and tender only needs some coupler work, the engine I took apart and cleaned and oiled, replaced the smoke unit plunger.
Al R came in and spent some money. Sold him a MTH UPRR weed sprayer set which is really neat, it includes a loco made from a flat car and a old outside braced box car and includes two tanks car too. He got a few misc items for a total of $402, then returned five minutes later for a MTH bridge for another $20.
Tom A came in with a his childhood friend from Oklahoma and picked up a Lionel flood light tower, MTH signal and two I-tad devices and other misc items for $300 worth. I showed him the broken bolt from the Crown and asked if he knew a good machinist to make a new one. He took the part and said he has a friend that owes him a favor or two. Isn't it great to have friends in the right places and the right time too.
Customer came in with a 1959 AF old time frontier set in the original set box and the "bonus" add on passenger car in the original box too. I offered him $150 for the set and he took it. We should get about $350 or $400 for the set.
Tuesday............-weather another beautiful day. How about that ?
First thing clean up the AF Frontier set and get S to price it and find a place for it in the display case. I plan to sell this set in short order. Price is $395.
I finish up a box car from last week that T had sprayed with pledge. It did clean it up and S's price is $150, OUCH. Also clean up a 1948 caboose and rewire. That is the last time I am at my desk all day.
David H shows up with the MTH DCS system, but it only works with a telephone cable, not by radio signal. T tries to resolder the antenna cable, but it is so small the solder gun destroys the nylon insulation. So I call Regina at MTH and get a RA for return. I start to pack the unit up for shipment, but get many interruptions.
Customer looking thru the junk Lionel box finds a couple of freight cars he can fix, if we have a set of trucks. He ends up spending $148 on misc items and a used Lionel operating milk car.
It is 1:00PM I am going to lunch, well I got as far as the kitchen. Customer has two loco's that won't run in Lionel command. One is a K-Line Also RS-3 switcher and the other a Lionel scale Erie Pacific steam engine. The RS-3 won't run, I call K-Line tech support asking for the program number to reprogram loco. Tech says they don't use a program number...............Either the tech doesn't know or Lionel is selling some really junky crap to the other manufactures. I finally get the loco to run, but it will change direction on it own and run real jerky too. Tell the customer this one has to go back to K-Line, I can't fix it cause the unit does not have Std Lionel PCB's. When I look at the Lionel loco first thing I find is the unit has the switch in "repro" instead of "run". Customer is not a "rocket scientist" and I got S over my shoulder saying he didn't buy it from us. "Don't you have a bunch of used Lionel to over price or something" ? Run the loco and the chuff fades in and out. The infra red connected between the tender and loco draw bar is not in alignment. I can't bend the two parts into alignment the spring on the front of the rear truck won't let the draw bar drop into place. So I add three washers under the rear truck mount and that raises the rear of the draw bar and aligns the two parts. Redesigning more Lionel crap.................
1:50PM I am going to lunch and head down to the lake and enjoy some quiet time. Not many people at the lake and sure no Lionel problems to try and fix.
As soon as I get back Tom G is waiting for me, he had dropped off a Williams SPRR GS-4 that won't run. Will check that out some time Weds. Tom wants to know more about Lionel and MTH command systems and of course S has to throw in his useless two cents worth too. Tom buys a MTH freight car and some die cast trucks and other misc items for $170 worth.
M Winters comes in looking around, I had just got his two car MTH add on passenger set in. He will pick them up and a five car set on Saturday. Had to show him the new MTH catalog that had come in Monday.
Rich C the airline pilot from Janesville came in too. He wants to know what is new and I show him the AF frontier set. SOLD........Is that a fast enough sale ???He pays off his last lay away and picks up the last items and then pays on the Ives Std ga set and puts money down on the AF frontier set. T, Rich, M and I stand around and talk for the next hour, great way to finish off the day.
When I get home I change spark plugs in ole yeller, first time in about three years, got to get my money's worth. In the apt I am cleaning the grease off my hands and the phone rings, it is Al R with a problem with a Lionel loco. See Lionel haunts me at home too.
Wednesday.............weather another fine day in the PNW. They say rain is coming...........
First thing this morning T informed me S thinks he should have priced the AF frontier set a lot higher since I sold it in just one day. He told T he might have gotten more for it on e Bay or could have asked $500. T told him you only made a $250 profit on a item you paid $150 for. AND why do you think the customer bought it, he likes coming here and getting a good deal and the friendship too...............
I start off working on the repair for Tom G. The 1941 whistling tender doesn't whistle. I had worked on it several months ago. I worked on it for a hour and then gave it to T. He went thru it and it finally started working, but we are not sure why. It may be just old and tired like me sometimes. Next item is a Williams GS-4(I have worked on one of these before, nice loco.) Tom says the loco only runs backwards. I can't get it to run at all. Take the tender apart and check for broken wires, take the loco apart and check and see if the motor runs. Ask T to check the bridge rectifier. While he is checking it out the loco takes off. Then it stops running. The problem is a cut wire in the harness. So I cut the wire slip on some heat shrink and solder the wire. Put everything back together and charge Tom $25.
Next a customer from Canada, Gunther Sage a old German, got to watch those old Germans. He bought a MTH Z4000 Xfmer for $400. Ordered a new MTH CNRR F-3 A-B-A diesel units and five passenger cars for $900.
Time for lunch. Sat in the kitchen and read, didn't need to exercise my poor aching feet.
After lunch who should show up, but Tom A looking for some MTH freight cars and items to do landscaping on his layout. He told me the part for the Crown is being machined and he will it have by no later than early next week. Sure is nice to know the right people and have friends too. Tom only spent $185 this time. All the time Tom was in the store, "General" Buck was going crazy. Tom's Grandson Sn was playing with the Thomas the tank engine layout and he was carrying around a TTTE helicopter and Buck was sure he would steal it. Plus two other kids were also playing and making a lot of noise, more than Buck can handle. Six months ago Buck removed Sn from behind the big layout control panel. I was letting him run the trains, he knows all about Z4000's his Granddad has two. Tom told me Buck was lucky, "No one touches my Grand kids". I had a talk with Buck later that day, what a jerk...........
Stopped at Fred Meyer's for grocieries and I spent some money on my household. I bought a new set of silverware the old set dated to Jan 1990 and had feed a few mouths and was looking pretty back.
Thursday................weather morning is blue skies, by noon we have overcast and coming home from work we have rain.
Start off checking out a signal bridge mask that Tom A brought back that wouldn't work. It took me almost and hour to figure out the problem, the male pins in the mask would move when ever you plugged it into a socket. Super glued the plug in the mask and used it on our display and put the good one in the unit to be sold.
Didn't have anything to repair all day and didn't do much either. S did get a MTH SPRR cab forward from a customer in WV and I checked it out before we put it in the case. We sold the loco in Apr 2000 for $1350, S offered him $700 and our price is $1295. Also got a Lionel PRR T-1 back from repair, this is the loco that took a dive off the table because the electronics failed and did damage to both the loco and tender when it hit the floor. Lionel did replace both shells. I have never had a MTH loco run off the layout on the floor due to electronic failure.
Tim B came in and picked up a Lionel train set for his Son for Xmas and I sold him two MTH freight cars for a total of $320. He also ordered a MTH D&RGWRR steam loco painted in RioGrande colors for $430.
I had no sooner finished lunch and a big truck showed up with 150 boxes of new Lionel. So I did a good job of burning off my lunch real quick.
Made two sales in the afternoon, Richard P came in a picked up some layout design books and I sold him a Lionel switch like the four he bought two weeks ago for a total of $87. I may still get the piano, since I will have room in my new storage locker, just don't know when I am moving at this time. Other sale was for $60 for misc Lionel and track products.
It getting pretty bad when I look in my freezer and I find ice cream in a new flavor and I don't remember buying it. Dam Crown takes all my attention.............
Started taking orders for the new MTH catalog. Gunther Sage ordered a CNRR A-B-A F-3 diesel set and five passenger cars for $860. Tom A ordered a MTH RailKing UPRR Big Boy for $570. M Winters ordered a NYC Empire State Express Hudson and seven passenger cars for $1400 and a PRR S-1 6-4-4-6 steam engine/tender and seven passenger cars for $1600. I have more coming too.
Friday...............weather ? Would you believe we have a beautiful day. Weatherman just can't get it right ref rain or Sun.
I spent the morning checking out older MTH loco's that had dead battteries and putting them on charge, ten to be exact. Will have more next week, haven't did a battery check in over a year. Got to find something to do.
Made a few sales. Tom H bought some MTH track and misc items for $87 and ordered a RailKing BNRR GP-7 and a RR station. Sold a customer from Calif a Lionel operating brakeman box car for $93 including shipping. Sold a Canadian customer a Lionel Conrail GP-9 diesel freight set for $315 including shipping to ND ? Matt D came in and picked up a MTH N&WRR passenger car and some misc items for $67.
Tom A showed up with his wife, Susan and Tom's childhood friend from OK and his wife. "So Tom what brings you out today" ? "Oh we were just out Duesenburgen' around". He was driving his 1931 "SJ" black Duesenburg. The car is only worth a cool $ 1 million. He turned a few heads at the shop, all of the sales people had to go take a look. I took pixs. Last week end Tom had the car at a wedding to take the bride and groom to the reception hall. So many people were looking at the car before the wedding, that it was finally suggested everyone come in to the church so they could start the wedding, people were more interested in the car than the wedding couple...............Tom paid $100,000 for the car unrestored and has spent a few bucks since then. Like $2500 each for head light lens, he has more than one set, he had eight connecting rods drop forged for somewhere in the $2500 for each rod.
Saturday...............weather I won't tell you how great a day, but it was really great................
First thing over to 85th and Aurora and get fuel for $1.199 again, better than $1.399 in Kirkland or in some areas even higher.
Played with the MTH battery parade part of the day, will have plenty more on Monday.
Sold a lot of trains and took a lot of early buy orders too. Some of the high lites were $357 for a Lionel Alien train set and four weird freight cars too. Don C came in to pick up two MTH freight cars, but I ended up selling him a Lionel H-9 PRR 2-8-0 steam engine for a total of $624. He put on lay away a Lionel UPRR 4-12-2 steam engine for $1350 and did a early buy order for a MTH PRR S-1 steam engine and seven passenger cars for another $1600.
After work I decided it was to nice a day to just go home, so I drove to WS and picked up supper at MacDonald's and sat on Alki Bach at Lincoln park and enjoyed what was left of a great day here in the beautiful PNW.
I got a e-mail from the Crown club ref a few goodies for sale..............Detroit diesel 8V-92 with automatic transmission for $1500 FOB Calif plus a 1500 gpm pump and transfrer case for $1500 too removed from a 1980 Crown. Talked to Ted H about the diesel, ref installation in my Crown. Ted says it won't work cause the 8V-92 has more horse power than a 1091 cid Hall-Scott and I would also need a new drive line assembly too. Oh well it was a good idea.
Sunday...............weather what a beautiful day, great day to be driving my Crown all over town, but no the friggen thing is out of service...........Last week the weatherman said rain most all week, we got one day of drizzles. This week the weatherman says Sun and 70's all week long.......What to bet we get rain ?
Up at seven something and get my day started, shave and fix breakfast. 9:15 off to WS and drop off pixs at K-Mart and then to church. At 10:15 I decide I need to caught up on some Bible reading from last week ref our 50 day study of Jesus, and since Jodie won't arrive until 10:29 and one half I have plenty of time. 10:20 Jodie and the group arrive. Walking outside I hold out my arms to Jodie "You are ten minutes early" ! Jodie says "In the book 'Unseen Christ' one item is mentioned is to be in church on time". "I am turning over a new leaf, I don't want to offend Jesus'. As we are walking up the stairs I mention to Jodie there is one item from last week that you did that was very unsetting to me. Jodie asked what was that ? Remember you prayed to God to numb everyones taste buds ? Yes... Well it took until Wednesday until I got mine back. Jodie asked "why were you sick" ? No Jodie I was just kidding. Then we both had a big laugh. In church I sat behind her and we talked for ten minutes. Told her about Tom A and his Duesenburg and how he has a wonderful collection of old cars, plus racing cars and MTH trains too. How he is a self made millionire and now retired. She says it is great to hear about someone who has money and knows how to enjoy it and even help others too. Told her about Tom having the part made for my Crown. Once services started I sat next to Uncle John. Yes, we were sitting in the second row. After services we walked out to her car and stood and talked some more. Told her more about Tom and how his Son died at age 30 from a heart attack. He was also a race car driver and when he died Tom's wife Susan said they would not retire there Son's race car. Instead Susan learned to drive the race car and still does at age 60. Told her Tom and his wife live in a 5 million house and the Daughter in law lives next door in a $2 million house. Again Jodie said how great to hear about people that know how to enjoy life and money they have worked hard for. Told her more about my Crown adventure, ref the over heating problem and how today would be a good day to be out driving the rig. Brannan was giving Jodie a rough time about selling her trains, then she would have money to buy anything she wanted. "You know like shoes, groceries, a new car, selling the trains you would have 1000's". Jodie don't listen to Brannan you could end up buying a old fire truck like I did. She didn't think so..........As we saying good by, Jodie said she wasn't going to take Brannan advice. I pointed to Brannan, "Did you hear what your Mother said" ? No, so I repeated it. Good for you Jodie........... We gave one another a big hug and were off to our next exciting adventure in life here in the beautiful PNW..........
Came home and paged Bob C. Bob called me back and I made arrangements to meet him at his house in about and hour. So I headed up to Bothell and my reason for the trip was to find more of my fire engine equipment that was in Bob's garage. Of course we had to check out Crown sitting in Bob's drive way too. This is also a 1960 rig that needs a engine rebuild or replacement. Bob has a sick 935 Hall-Scott in his garage along with a very servicable Detroit 6-71 turbo charged diesel too. Anyway we found my large diameter hose clamp, "Scott" SCBA air mask and tank. Bob has my 5 gal pump can on another crown and so I need one too. He had a two and half gal pressureized water extinisher. We didn't know if it worked, so we filled it with water and pressureized it to 100 PSI. The gauge didn't regisiter. Then I discovered we had two leaks, which we were able to fix. Filled it and tried again, we had pressure and no leaks, but the gauge still didn't work. Just sitting there the gauge came up onits own. So I drained it and refilled it and then the gauge was working. Two other items we couldn't find in the garage. The two and a half wye and the two and half siamese. Bob didn't remember them, so I pointed out they were on the rig until he did the engine swap out at the FDLR shop. Then Bob remembered he had some items in the back of his old van. Sure enough they were in the van. So came home with more goodies for my rig. From Bob's I stopped to look at a storage locker in Kenmore, but they only had a 10 by 25 with a 9ft wide door.
Stopped at Al R's to see what was new. He had built a subway train system. Remember the two draw bridges, well underneath them he put in a subway that runs all over under the main layout on about 30 ft of track in a big dog bone in the shape of a letter "C". Using MTH subway cars they really stop at the station and announce the arrival and departure of the trains. Al gave me a "O" ga turntable that can be used with small diesels and small steam engines. Don't have any idea where I can put it, but it was free. Al also gave me two loco's a MTH and a Weaver to fix at work next week. The MTH won't reverse and the Weaver won't run period, it has Lionel electronics. From Al's I stopped at Mr Bill's.
For supper I had.................you guessed it Lasagna and a dinner salad. Couldn't find one of the deer to kill at JP ?!?!?!? R..........................
Well that brings another week to a close. 2033 plus to go.
Hope everyone is doing OK and the weather is getting better, ha ha
Love Dad
Sunday, September 15, 2002
Another Lionel moment, Why the Crown overheats, two hugs from Jodie and hold her hand too. stop laughing
Hi K and R;
Monday................weather what a beautiful day, to nice to work and not many left with Fall and Winter just around the corner.
Before I go into the day I have to say anyone that does drugs or alcohol has never spent the week end driving a ole fire engine. I spent all day coming down from a nature high and still haven't completely recovered yet.
I started off the morning trying to restring another MTH 25 ton crane. First thing you have to figure out is how and what they did to screw it up. This one had a new problem a broken part that I had to epoxy, faster than trying to get one from MTH. Tues I will finish it, I hope.
The rest of the day I worked on a wonderful Lionel ZW Xfmer that had blown out the Mother PCB. I got if finished about 4:30, and took the rest of the day off and did nothing.
Got a nice care package from Jim Y in Lynden, WA. Three blind caps for my 2 1/2 inch discharges, two ax heads and another alum wheel chock, now I have a pair. AND when the next time Ted's Crown rolls into Seattle from Lynden there will be a pike pole on board for my rig too.
After work over to JP and check on the rig. Added water and fired the engine up and let it get up to operating temp. The engine ran OK and the cooling system is circulating. I had talked to Larry Wb and he agrees the problem is timing and carbine deposits. Added a 4 inch flex line I found in the alley at work to use for the duct work from the air cleaner and the carburetor including the clamps...What a deal.
Tuesday................weather WOW............end of sentence.
First thing I ship my MTH 2-10-0 off to Sumner, WA and then finish the ZW by calibrating the throttles verses power bricks. Finish stringing the MTH crane, what fun........S says the customer said "Bob, told me don't let the kids play with it or they will unstring it".
UPS shows up with my MTH BNSF black GS-4 finally back from repair for the third time. It works this time. Also some parts I have been trying to get for over six months.
Next repair is a 1954 Lionel steam turbine. Open the tender and find I can't fix the whistle because the field winding has a broken internal wire. Only way to fix is drill out four riveted locations and send the field back to Maryland and then epoxy back together at a cost of $45. So much for the tender. Open the loco and find it won't run. But first time for lunch and I walk down to the lake and enjoy a beautiful day, but dam I have to go back to work.
I just "played" with the Lionel the rest of the day, to nice to work hard. Ran trains and just took it easy. Of course I need to take it easy, since I have a lot of problems with my ankles, they hurt most of the time when I am on my feet, need to talk to the doctor. Couldn't be I am getting old ?
One of our electronic customers came in and picked up the MTH DCS system to upgrade it to 2.2 on line. He will have it back Weds. S doesn't like it that the MTH system can be upgraded on line, the Lionel system has no upgrade, gee what a surprise.
After work over to JP and make a stop at the hardware store to get ax handles. No luck. They suggested a hardware store in WS, will check Weds evening, when I pick up my pixs at K-Mart. At JP I check fluids and fire up the rig. Wait for it to warm up and see what I can find, ref the over heating. The engine warms up, but not the top of the radiator, oh, oh. Shut the engine down and wait five minutes. The temp comes up on the radiator, so I restart the engine and see how it runs. There was some over flow before I shut it down the first time. Shut the engine off again and start looking for a leak. What I find is not a leak, but I do find the over heating problem. A broken bolt on the fan, water pump and air compressor belt adjustment. Just need to figure out how much of a problem to remove the broken bolt.
Came home took a shower and fixed my wonderful home made potato soup.
Wednesday...............weather. WOW, a little warmer today.
I finished up the turbine, with the exception of the drive rods that were missing, S will bring them Thurs. Of course I had to take some tome to figure out why the smoke unit wouldn't work, but still show continuity.
David H came in to pick up his timing light, I had borrowed and the $100 Ted had given me to buy goodies in Tacoma, never found any. David asked me if the MTH std ga Crane was the only we had ? Yes. Box it up Bob, and I will take it home. $237 worth.
Sold $367 worth of Lionel track, a used Lionel Amtrak passenger set and a MTH trolley car to a customer that was starting to work on this years Xmas layout.
Two new customers from Spokane picked up some AF used items and new rubber road bed for $68 and $142 worth. By the time I finished with these customers it was 2:00PM so i headed to the lake and enjoyed a quiet lunch and watched the world go by. Being thankful I am a live on God's great earth, Amen......
After work I head to WS to pick up two ax handles from a hardware store in White Center. The hardware store in Newcastle had ax handles, but not large enough and cost $25 each. The store had the correct handles for only $10 each and I also got some large and small nylon tie wraps too for $27 total. Then back to K-Mart and pick up pixs from last weekend. Pics included mostly rigs and the wreck we arrived at. From WS back north to 85th and Aurora and get fuel at only $1.199.........Then over to the FDLR and who should be there, but Chief K and his wife. So I was able to give him a set of pixs of the accident in Federal Way. The accident was caused by the lady driving the Volvo. Volvo was NB and made a left turn right in front of a red car driving SB. The red car ended up, up side down in a ditch and the Volvo spun around and was now heading SB. A van driven by a woman that was towing a pick up truck, she was able to control the van and rear ended the Volvo with minor damage to the van. Four people were in the red car and two kids in the back seat had there seat belts on and didn't receive a scratch, the driver was trapped and had to removed with the jaws of life. After we left both drivers were air lifted to a local hospital. As we were rolling up with my Crown the accident had happened within just a minute or two. First rig on the scene was a AMR ambulance that had just left the scene of a aid call only six blocks further south on Hwy 99. AMR contacted Tacoma Ladder four that had been at the same aid call and requested they respond. (out side there area) As we were pulling up L4 was just arriving. Next engine was FWFD Engine 62 and then Chief K. He had seen my rig and noticed I had turned it around, but was to busy to talk with me. Gee, I wonder why ? As I said there five engines, one ladder, and at least five aid cars on the scene. So I got the rest of the story and was able to give Chief K a set of pixs that he would share with the troops. From the FDLR over to Fred Meyer's for what ??? Groceries.
Thursday..............weather another wonderful day in the Seattle area. Talking about rain on Sunday thru part of next week.
I finished up the turbine by adding the missing drive rod parts and a total of $65 in repairs.
Had a few sales, $140 for some MTH items and die cast cars to a customer from Milw, WI. Tom A came in and picked up three MTH buildings for $185 worth and David H came in and picked up some track and wire for John Cunningham for $33.
Had a problem with the MTH DCS after having it upgraded Weds. It would not read any loco, period. David looked at it and ended up taking it home and he had no sooner drove out of the parking lot when Tom Reidlion called ref the DCS. He had upgraded it, told him the problem and he says it could be a PCB had disconnected. So I called Dave and left him a message. Hour later Dave calls and says he found the problem, the antenna wire had broke off the PCB where it was soldered. Dave will return the unit on Saturday.
After work over to JP and put the axes on the rig, they look great. Took a look at the broken bolt and did drill out part of the broken bolt, may be Friday I can finish it, I hope.
Friday...................weather you figure it out...............
I worked on some odd and ends Lionel today. The first car was a 6464 series box car worth over a $100, but when I washed the car body I discovered that some one had used some type of cleaner that damaged the paint. T sprayed the car with "pledge", but if that doesn't work we have a $10 car instead of $100 one. Next a 1950 nine inch box car that also needs to be cleaned up, it has nicks, but really good paint. Both coupler assemblies are bad, at $4.50 each for a replacement I decide to find two more used one instead. S is asking $55 to $59 for one of these cars. I price this one at $45, still to much, but if it sells, that is OK. S only pays $5 to $10 for these cars. Then I have a 1953 caboose that has good paint, but many nicks too. So after I clean it up and made sure it lights up I put a $25 price tag on it. S is asking $39 and only pays $5. No profit there ?????????? I checked the computer we had only sold one in three years anyway. The last item is a 1951 Lionel crane. Once I start cleaning it up I find several problems. Boom was broke and someone patched it. The cab has broken mounting bosses and broken window frames. So I find the parts I need and will need to find another cab.
Ran trains and made two sales all day. Sold Don Byran a MTH crane and crane tender and some misc items for $167. Took $300 on a lay away for a MTH Climax logging loco for a customer in Oregon. GT came in and didn't spend a dine. He had me show him the new MTH UPRR three unit weed sprayer. Cost is $399 and S said I could let him have one for $359 early buy. He didn't bite, we are thinking he will buy one thru the mail and save tax.
Walked down to the lake for lunch again, really pretty day too.
After work over to JP and work on the rig. I had T take a look too and we decide I need to pull the fan mounting bracket and fan blades. So I got as far as breaking the four bolts loose on the fan and spraying the two bolts that hold the fan housing to the engine block. By 7:00PM I run out of day light. May get to work on it for a short time on Sunday afternoon again. Real problem I have is sore ankles, bad knees that require me to use a old pillow when I am kneeing down working on the rig and a bad back too. My right hip wants to "jump" out of joint too. I sure would like to kick the big black mexican in the ass that gave me my back injury back when I was in the ninth grade at Phx Union. He knocked me on my tail bone and cracked it, the reason why I have a constant back problem. Who's idea was it for a 60 year ole man to buy a 9 ton fire engine to work on or drive ???
Came home and finished the rest of my home made soup.
Saturday...............weather . Want to take a guess ?????
10:00PM I just got home from the ET.
I start off the morning trying to fix the 6460 crane but find out I don't have a cab, so I find a complete crane minus the boom crank. So I exchange same and putt hat one in the case at $75.
Customer calls from Canada and asked if I am still holding the Marx items from two weeks ago. Yes......He adds a pair of auto's, two PFE reefers and a stationary crane for a total of $107, will send me a check next week.
Accept a $150 deposit on a lay away that I sold to a customer two weeks ago.
Gary W came in to pick up his Lionel PRR H-9 2-8-0 steam engine from Lionel repair for the second time. When I sold it to him the loco had a bad paint job on the boiler, we exchanged that. Then he brought it back cause the rear coupler would not open. I replaced PCB's per Lionel tech support. Still would not work, I sent it back and when it came bad from Lionel it had broken parts on the loco, so I sent it back again. When I gave it to the customer and he opened the box it now had more broken parts...............He didn't want it anymore. Gee, I wonder why ? He exchanged it for a Lionel NPRR 4-4-2 Atlantic steam engine and $165 more.
Barry C came in at the same time to pick up his Lionel H 16-44 baby Trainmaster that would not work except in very strange ways. Lionel tech support says it works fine now. Wrong. Right out of the box it was shorted, running on the layout it was worst. I won't go into all the details, but to add insult to injury some plastic detail parts were broken off the fuel tank. Instead of replacing the parts they painted over them. Barry says I don't want the loco, this is the third Lionel in a roll that has failed, give me credit. He went home with a MTH UPRR SD-90 a much better loco.
Rest of the day I ran trains and talked with customers.
Coming to work Kirkland's finest had blocked off Lake Washington Blvd for bike riders, problem is they ran the bikers in a big circle and boxed in all the traffic coming onto Kirkland. It took me 30 minutes to go about two miles and finally get to the shop. Two minutes after I parked the truck there was a bad car, bike accident just two blocks away. So the police decided they really needed do a better job of controlling traffic. No kidding ? Dave H showed up at the shop with his produce truck because he couldn't get to exit 17 due to the bikers. He had parked the truck in our lot. "General" Buck had to remind David he would have to move the truck before we opened at 9:30............Right "General". Buck just has to be "in charge".
After work the ET group went to Dick B's home for a special dinner to honor Dick who passed away last Oct 25th. His wife Jan and all three grown kids had us over for a fun time and remembrance to Dick. I made sure that Jan and Chad the oldest Son heard about "General" Buck, they had heard some of the stories all ready. Plan is to later this winter start working on Dick's layout on Thurs nights, Jan will feed us to. Most likely only Burt, T and myself, may be Chris will be helping on the project.
Sunday.............weather is very overcast and expecting rain later in the day and then the next five days too.
I ate a very lite breakfast after all the food last night. Left the house at 8:15 and head to 85th and Aurora for fuel at $1.199 again, then to WS and stop at the hardware store for a grade 8 bolt to fix the Crown fan adjustment.
Jodie shows up with only Uncle John and we invite Mary R to sit with us too. Starting today and continuing for the next 50 days the church is having a special "Seeing the unseen Christ" and How His Presence Transforms Life. There will be a special dinner tonight and Jodie is chief cook on the project, so we should have a very enjoyable meal and a good time too. After church Jodie and I stood outside and talked for about 30 minutes. She had cooked a special mexican dinner last night for some friends and she had made enough food for 20 and only had six people at the party. Told her about the party last night at the Brintall's and what a fun time we had and how great there family is. This is the time of year she does a lot of catering for the ish people and is very busy. Gave her a couple of train magazines I had got from a customer, I always make sure Jodie has something to read or add to her train collection. I was telling her I had plAd to take her for a ride last week in the Crown, but when I started having the overheating problem I figured I better take it home to JP. Told her what the problem was and how I could fix it as soon as I can get to the broken bolt. As I told her I have very little help from friends when it comes to working on the rig. She commented isn't is fun having a hobby and not enough time to enjoy it. The Pastor this morning had said "Come to church first on Sunday and you will be blessed by God the rest of the day". Jodie also commented "God blesses those who attend church and praise Him on Sunday morning". I told Jodie I was going to JP and with luck I would get the part off and remove the broken bolt. Always got to say good by with a big hug for each other.
Got to JP about 1:00PM and changed into my coveralls. I removed four bolts holding the fan blade to the hub and then three bolts that held the fan housing to the engine block. Taking the housing off I was wondering why I didn't have very much adjustment to put on or take off the fan belts. Once I got the housing off I found out why. The broken bolt was not in two pieces, it was in three pieces and the fan should have dropped about four inches. Instead it only dropped about a half inch. I was able to get both parts of the broken bolt out by just unscrewing them, that made the problem a lot easier, but I do have to have the end of the new bolt machined. Hopefully T can do the job. Was cleaned up and left JP by 2:30 and came home. Will go back to the hardware store and hope I can get a longer bolt to finish the job. Jodie was right I took the time to attend church and God did bless me and make the job a lot easier.
3:45 over to WS and stop at the hardware store again. I picked up three grade 5 and 8 bolts that are six inches long. Will need to have some machine work done on them to make them fit. Can't order 1959 parts from Waukesha.
Back to church for the dinner and special evening service. When I got there Jodie and five other women were putting on the final touches for the meal. Jodie had made spaghetti and meat balls with a really special salad. ( Due to money matters, is why spaghetti and not something really fancy, but the meal was really good ) After the meal I was talking with Jodie and she said the meal was a disaster, she never did sit down to eat. Anyway she said that the kitchen has two electric ranges, but only one really works. She had put a large pan of sauce on to simmer and the burner on its own turned itself up to high and nearly burned the sauce. Jodie said she prayed to God "Please God make every ones taste buds be numb tonight". Then she asked me did the sauce taste burned ? No, it was really good. She said she hoped she had hid her mistake. She is such a good cook, but you would think she was cooking for the very first time. I will and would eat her cooking anytime, even left overs. We all were to go upstairs for the special service. "Jodie could I save you a seat upstairs in the front row for the evening service" ? Yes......but the second roll, not the front roll. ( We only sit in the front row when Jodie is really late ) Everyone was seated and still no Jodie, even the other ladies that had helped her prepare the meal. Finally Jodie showed up and I stood up to let her in. As She sat down Pastor Starks said would everyone please stand up to sing. "See Jodie I told you when you arrive at church the service begins".......... At the end of the service we all stood around the room and held hands and said the final prayer. So I got to hold Jodie's hand too and for a long time like about five minutes are more. Nice way to finish off the week end. Back downstairs we had dessert some that Jodie had baked, a new recipe for vanilla/chocolate brownies. They were really good too. When I was leaving Jodie was still in the kitchen washing a large sauce pan (with burnt spaghetti sauce) and I handed her a dish towel. "What's this for" ? To wipe your hands so you can give me a good by hug. "You mean I can't hug you with a wet hands" ? No............She also showed me where she had sauce on her white blouse from when the sauce boiled over. What a neat lady, oh you have heard that one before and will hear it many more times too.
From WS home to finish this e-mail.
This is another week down and counting 2034 plus to go.
Hope everyone is OK and the bugs don't bite.
It still hasen't rained.................
Love Dad
Monday................weather what a beautiful day, to nice to work and not many left with Fall and Winter just around the corner.
Before I go into the day I have to say anyone that does drugs or alcohol has never spent the week end driving a ole fire engine. I spent all day coming down from a nature high and still haven't completely recovered yet.
I started off the morning trying to restring another MTH 25 ton crane. First thing you have to figure out is how and what they did to screw it up. This one had a new problem a broken part that I had to epoxy, faster than trying to get one from MTH. Tues I will finish it, I hope.
The rest of the day I worked on a wonderful Lionel ZW Xfmer that had blown out the Mother PCB. I got if finished about 4:30, and took the rest of the day off and did nothing.
Got a nice care package from Jim Y in Lynden, WA. Three blind caps for my 2 1/2 inch discharges, two ax heads and another alum wheel chock, now I have a pair. AND when the next time Ted's Crown rolls into Seattle from Lynden there will be a pike pole on board for my rig too.
After work over to JP and check on the rig. Added water and fired the engine up and let it get up to operating temp. The engine ran OK and the cooling system is circulating. I had talked to Larry Wb and he agrees the problem is timing and carbine deposits. Added a 4 inch flex line I found in the alley at work to use for the duct work from the air cleaner and the carburetor including the clamps...What a deal.
Tuesday................weather WOW............end of sentence.
First thing I ship my MTH 2-10-0 off to Sumner, WA and then finish the ZW by calibrating the throttles verses power bricks. Finish stringing the MTH crane, what fun........S says the customer said "Bob, told me don't let the kids play with it or they will unstring it".
UPS shows up with my MTH BNSF black GS-4 finally back from repair for the third time. It works this time. Also some parts I have been trying to get for over six months.
Next repair is a 1954 Lionel steam turbine. Open the tender and find I can't fix the whistle because the field winding has a broken internal wire. Only way to fix is drill out four riveted locations and send the field back to Maryland and then epoxy back together at a cost of $45. So much for the tender. Open the loco and find it won't run. But first time for lunch and I walk down to the lake and enjoy a beautiful day, but dam I have to go back to work.
I just "played" with the Lionel the rest of the day, to nice to work hard. Ran trains and just took it easy. Of course I need to take it easy, since I have a lot of problems with my ankles, they hurt most of the time when I am on my feet, need to talk to the doctor. Couldn't be I am getting old ?
One of our electronic customers came in and picked up the MTH DCS system to upgrade it to 2.2 on line. He will have it back Weds. S doesn't like it that the MTH system can be upgraded on line, the Lionel system has no upgrade, gee what a surprise.
After work over to JP and make a stop at the hardware store to get ax handles. No luck. They suggested a hardware store in WS, will check Weds evening, when I pick up my pixs at K-Mart. At JP I check fluids and fire up the rig. Wait for it to warm up and see what I can find, ref the over heating. The engine warms up, but not the top of the radiator, oh, oh. Shut the engine down and wait five minutes. The temp comes up on the radiator, so I restart the engine and see how it runs. There was some over flow before I shut it down the first time. Shut the engine off again and start looking for a leak. What I find is not a leak, but I do find the over heating problem. A broken bolt on the fan, water pump and air compressor belt adjustment. Just need to figure out how much of a problem to remove the broken bolt.
Came home took a shower and fixed my wonderful home made potato soup.
Wednesday...............weather. WOW, a little warmer today.
I finished up the turbine, with the exception of the drive rods that were missing, S will bring them Thurs. Of course I had to take some tome to figure out why the smoke unit wouldn't work, but still show continuity.
David H came in to pick up his timing light, I had borrowed and the $100 Ted had given me to buy goodies in Tacoma, never found any. David asked me if the MTH std ga Crane was the only we had ? Yes. Box it up Bob, and I will take it home. $237 worth.
Sold $367 worth of Lionel track, a used Lionel Amtrak passenger set and a MTH trolley car to a customer that was starting to work on this years Xmas layout.
Two new customers from Spokane picked up some AF used items and new rubber road bed for $68 and $142 worth. By the time I finished with these customers it was 2:00PM so i headed to the lake and enjoyed a quiet lunch and watched the world go by. Being thankful I am a live on God's great earth, Amen......
After work I head to WS to pick up two ax handles from a hardware store in White Center. The hardware store in Newcastle had ax handles, but not large enough and cost $25 each. The store had the correct handles for only $10 each and I also got some large and small nylon tie wraps too for $27 total. Then back to K-Mart and pick up pixs from last weekend. Pics included mostly rigs and the wreck we arrived at. From WS back north to 85th and Aurora and get fuel at only $1.199.........Then over to the FDLR and who should be there, but Chief K and his wife. So I was able to give him a set of pixs of the accident in Federal Way. The accident was caused by the lady driving the Volvo. Volvo was NB and made a left turn right in front of a red car driving SB. The red car ended up, up side down in a ditch and the Volvo spun around and was now heading SB. A van driven by a woman that was towing a pick up truck, she was able to control the van and rear ended the Volvo with minor damage to the van. Four people were in the red car and two kids in the back seat had there seat belts on and didn't receive a scratch, the driver was trapped and had to removed with the jaws of life. After we left both drivers were air lifted to a local hospital. As we were rolling up with my Crown the accident had happened within just a minute or two. First rig on the scene was a AMR ambulance that had just left the scene of a aid call only six blocks further south on Hwy 99. AMR contacted Tacoma Ladder four that had been at the same aid call and requested they respond. (out side there area) As we were pulling up L4 was just arriving. Next engine was FWFD Engine 62 and then Chief K. He had seen my rig and noticed I had turned it around, but was to busy to talk with me. Gee, I wonder why ? As I said there five engines, one ladder, and at least five aid cars on the scene. So I got the rest of the story and was able to give Chief K a set of pixs that he would share with the troops. From the FDLR over to Fred Meyer's for what ??? Groceries.
Thursday..............weather another wonderful day in the Seattle area. Talking about rain on Sunday thru part of next week.
I finished up the turbine by adding the missing drive rod parts and a total of $65 in repairs.
Had a few sales, $140 for some MTH items and die cast cars to a customer from Milw, WI. Tom A came in and picked up three MTH buildings for $185 worth and David H came in and picked up some track and wire for John Cunningham for $33.
Had a problem with the MTH DCS after having it upgraded Weds. It would not read any loco, period. David looked at it and ended up taking it home and he had no sooner drove out of the parking lot when Tom Reidlion called ref the DCS. He had upgraded it, told him the problem and he says it could be a PCB had disconnected. So I called Dave and left him a message. Hour later Dave calls and says he found the problem, the antenna wire had broke off the PCB where it was soldered. Dave will return the unit on Saturday.
After work over to JP and put the axes on the rig, they look great. Took a look at the broken bolt and did drill out part of the broken bolt, may be Friday I can finish it, I hope.
Friday...................weather you figure it out...............
I worked on some odd and ends Lionel today. The first car was a 6464 series box car worth over a $100, but when I washed the car body I discovered that some one had used some type of cleaner that damaged the paint. T sprayed the car with "pledge", but if that doesn't work we have a $10 car instead of $100 one. Next a 1950 nine inch box car that also needs to be cleaned up, it has nicks, but really good paint. Both coupler assemblies are bad, at $4.50 each for a replacement I decide to find two more used one instead. S is asking $55 to $59 for one of these cars. I price this one at $45, still to much, but if it sells, that is OK. S only pays $5 to $10 for these cars. Then I have a 1953 caboose that has good paint, but many nicks too. So after I clean it up and made sure it lights up I put a $25 price tag on it. S is asking $39 and only pays $5. No profit there ?????????? I checked the computer we had only sold one in three years anyway. The last item is a 1951 Lionel crane. Once I start cleaning it up I find several problems. Boom was broke and someone patched it. The cab has broken mounting bosses and broken window frames. So I find the parts I need and will need to find another cab.
Ran trains and made two sales all day. Sold Don Byran a MTH crane and crane tender and some misc items for $167. Took $300 on a lay away for a MTH Climax logging loco for a customer in Oregon. GT came in and didn't spend a dine. He had me show him the new MTH UPRR three unit weed sprayer. Cost is $399 and S said I could let him have one for $359 early buy. He didn't bite, we are thinking he will buy one thru the mail and save tax.
Walked down to the lake for lunch again, really pretty day too.
After work over to JP and work on the rig. I had T take a look too and we decide I need to pull the fan mounting bracket and fan blades. So I got as far as breaking the four bolts loose on the fan and spraying the two bolts that hold the fan housing to the engine block. By 7:00PM I run out of day light. May get to work on it for a short time on Sunday afternoon again. Real problem I have is sore ankles, bad knees that require me to use a old pillow when I am kneeing down working on the rig and a bad back too. My right hip wants to "jump" out of joint too. I sure would like to kick the big black mexican in the ass that gave me my back injury back when I was in the ninth grade at Phx Union. He knocked me on my tail bone and cracked it, the reason why I have a constant back problem. Who's idea was it for a 60 year ole man to buy a 9 ton fire engine to work on or drive ???
Came home and finished the rest of my home made soup.
Saturday...............weather . Want to take a guess ?????
10:00PM I just got home from the ET.
I start off the morning trying to fix the 6460 crane but find out I don't have a cab, so I find a complete crane minus the boom crank. So I exchange same and putt hat one in the case at $75.
Customer calls from Canada and asked if I am still holding the Marx items from two weeks ago. Yes......He adds a pair of auto's, two PFE reefers and a stationary crane for a total of $107, will send me a check next week.
Accept a $150 deposit on a lay away that I sold to a customer two weeks ago.
Gary W came in to pick up his Lionel PRR H-9 2-8-0 steam engine from Lionel repair for the second time. When I sold it to him the loco had a bad paint job on the boiler, we exchanged that. Then he brought it back cause the rear coupler would not open. I replaced PCB's per Lionel tech support. Still would not work, I sent it back and when it came bad from Lionel it had broken parts on the loco, so I sent it back again. When I gave it to the customer and he opened the box it now had more broken parts...............He didn't want it anymore. Gee, I wonder why ? He exchanged it for a Lionel NPRR 4-4-2 Atlantic steam engine and $165 more.
Barry C came in at the same time to pick up his Lionel H 16-44 baby Trainmaster that would not work except in very strange ways. Lionel tech support says it works fine now. Wrong. Right out of the box it was shorted, running on the layout it was worst. I won't go into all the details, but to add insult to injury some plastic detail parts were broken off the fuel tank. Instead of replacing the parts they painted over them. Barry says I don't want the loco, this is the third Lionel in a roll that has failed, give me credit. He went home with a MTH UPRR SD-90 a much better loco.
Rest of the day I ran trains and talked with customers.
Coming to work Kirkland's finest had blocked off Lake Washington Blvd for bike riders, problem is they ran the bikers in a big circle and boxed in all the traffic coming onto Kirkland. It took me 30 minutes to go about two miles and finally get to the shop. Two minutes after I parked the truck there was a bad car, bike accident just two blocks away. So the police decided they really needed do a better job of controlling traffic. No kidding ? Dave H showed up at the shop with his produce truck because he couldn't get to exit 17 due to the bikers. He had parked the truck in our lot. "General" Buck had to remind David he would have to move the truck before we opened at 9:30............Right "General". Buck just has to be "in charge".
After work the ET group went to Dick B's home for a special dinner to honor Dick who passed away last Oct 25th. His wife Jan and all three grown kids had us over for a fun time and remembrance to Dick. I made sure that Jan and Chad the oldest Son heard about "General" Buck, they had heard some of the stories all ready. Plan is to later this winter start working on Dick's layout on Thurs nights, Jan will feed us to. Most likely only Burt, T and myself, may be Chris will be helping on the project.
Sunday.............weather is very overcast and expecting rain later in the day and then the next five days too.
I ate a very lite breakfast after all the food last night. Left the house at 8:15 and head to 85th and Aurora for fuel at $1.199 again, then to WS and stop at the hardware store for a grade 8 bolt to fix the Crown fan adjustment.
Jodie shows up with only Uncle John and we invite Mary R to sit with us too. Starting today and continuing for the next 50 days the church is having a special "Seeing the unseen Christ" and How His Presence Transforms Life. There will be a special dinner tonight and Jodie is chief cook on the project, so we should have a very enjoyable meal and a good time too. After church Jodie and I stood outside and talked for about 30 minutes. She had cooked a special mexican dinner last night for some friends and she had made enough food for 20 and only had six people at the party. Told her about the party last night at the Brintall's and what a fun time we had and how great there family is. This is the time of year she does a lot of catering for the ish people and is very busy. Gave her a couple of train magazines I had got from a customer, I always make sure Jodie has something to read or add to her train collection. I was telling her I had plAd to take her for a ride last week in the Crown, but when I started having the overheating problem I figured I better take it home to JP. Told her what the problem was and how I could fix it as soon as I can get to the broken bolt. As I told her I have very little help from friends when it comes to working on the rig. She commented isn't is fun having a hobby and not enough time to enjoy it. The Pastor this morning had said "Come to church first on Sunday and you will be blessed by God the rest of the day". Jodie also commented "God blesses those who attend church and praise Him on Sunday morning". I told Jodie I was going to JP and with luck I would get the part off and remove the broken bolt. Always got to say good by with a big hug for each other.
Got to JP about 1:00PM and changed into my coveralls. I removed four bolts holding the fan blade to the hub and then three bolts that held the fan housing to the engine block. Taking the housing off I was wondering why I didn't have very much adjustment to put on or take off the fan belts. Once I got the housing off I found out why. The broken bolt was not in two pieces, it was in three pieces and the fan should have dropped about four inches. Instead it only dropped about a half inch. I was able to get both parts of the broken bolt out by just unscrewing them, that made the problem a lot easier, but I do have to have the end of the new bolt machined. Hopefully T can do the job. Was cleaned up and left JP by 2:30 and came home. Will go back to the hardware store and hope I can get a longer bolt to finish the job. Jodie was right I took the time to attend church and God did bless me and make the job a lot easier.
3:45 over to WS and stop at the hardware store again. I picked up three grade 5 and 8 bolts that are six inches long. Will need to have some machine work done on them to make them fit. Can't order 1959 parts from Waukesha.
Back to church for the dinner and special evening service. When I got there Jodie and five other women were putting on the final touches for the meal. Jodie had made spaghetti and meat balls with a really special salad. ( Due to money matters, is why spaghetti and not something really fancy, but the meal was really good ) After the meal I was talking with Jodie and she said the meal was a disaster, she never did sit down to eat. Anyway she said that the kitchen has two electric ranges, but only one really works. She had put a large pan of sauce on to simmer and the burner on its own turned itself up to high and nearly burned the sauce. Jodie said she prayed to God "Please God make every ones taste buds be numb tonight". Then she asked me did the sauce taste burned ? No, it was really good. She said she hoped she had hid her mistake. She is such a good cook, but you would think she was cooking for the very first time. I will and would eat her cooking anytime, even left overs. We all were to go upstairs for the special service. "Jodie could I save you a seat upstairs in the front row for the evening service" ? Yes......but the second roll, not the front roll. ( We only sit in the front row when Jodie is really late ) Everyone was seated and still no Jodie, even the other ladies that had helped her prepare the meal. Finally Jodie showed up and I stood up to let her in. As She sat down Pastor Starks said would everyone please stand up to sing. "See Jodie I told you when you arrive at church the service begins".......... At the end of the service we all stood around the room and held hands and said the final prayer. So I got to hold Jodie's hand too and for a long time like about five minutes are more. Nice way to finish off the week end. Back downstairs we had dessert some that Jodie had baked, a new recipe for vanilla/chocolate brownies. They were really good too. When I was leaving Jodie was still in the kitchen washing a large sauce pan (with burnt spaghetti sauce) and I handed her a dish towel. "What's this for" ? To wipe your hands so you can give me a good by hug. "You mean I can't hug you with a wet hands" ? No............She also showed me where she had sauce on her white blouse from when the sauce boiled over. What a neat lady, oh you have heard that one before and will hear it many more times too.
From WS home to finish this e-mail.
This is another week down and counting 2034 plus to go.
Hope everyone is OK and the bugs don't bite.
It still hasen't rained.................
Love Dad
Sunday, September 8, 2002
Tues already, lunch on Lake Washington, Crown to Home, WA, Crown and Jodie in church, WOW
Hi K and R;
Tuesday..............weather morning starts out with lots of clouds and "may be" rain. Then about 11:00 the Sun came out and the rest of the was beautiful. Coming home I did notice there is a hint of Fall in the air. Oh well 27 days this Summer of over 80 degrees is enough..................
I finish up the AF NHRR steam engine, well as far as I could. I still need a rear truck for the loco, T has to order a couple from a AF parts person.
I worked off and on all day on a 1945 Lionel 2-6-2 engine and tender. Will have it finished in the morning some time.
I made one sale for $110 worth of Atlas '"O" ga track. Ran trains and ordered more parts for my Crown.
Tony P in Calif says he has found the door handle I need and a pair of jump seats, but to hot to work on getting them out of the rig. at this time.
Coming home I stopped at the FDLR and met with Doug the NAPA man and picked up a set of spark plugs for the rig and a spark plug socket too. $19 worth.
GT came in and picked up three MTH freight cars, not on his early buy list. Total $130. He mentioned I didn't give him "early buy", I didn't mention he didn't gave me early buy on the tow job last June either. "Don't F___ me Uncle Bob". Right ????
Wednesday.............weather Boy can the weatherman F___ up we were suppose to have rain yesterday and today. Will guess what we had another beautiful day may be about 65 degrees. There is no question Fall is in the air and the temperature too.
First thing I get a phone call from a customer looking for a MTH "Aerotrain", we have one. He wants to check prices, but in ten minutes he calls me back. So my first sale was for $410.
I finish up the 1945 Lionel and call the customer, total of repair $51.
I clean up a 1950 Lionel operating cattle car and corral. Interesting thing this is a early one, and was of a better design than later ones. Later ones are hard to make work due to not having the proper rubber grommets. Part of the grommets used on the earlier ones are different and don't deteriorate.
Spent a good part of the day going thru boxes of the latest Lionel and Marx "junk" that S had bought. Boy I think I could sell S the Brooklyn bridge.
After work over to JP and drop off the new spark plugs and T gave me a white fire helmet I had found in one of the buildings. More goodies for my toy.
Came home and had chicken fried chicken that I had cooked Tues evening. T so impressed me with the idea I had to try it myself. Came out pretty good even if I do say so myself. So I sat here and wrote e-mails, talked on the phone to Ted, Bob C and Jim Y.
Thursday...................weather another wonderful day of Sun and blue skies.
First thing call MTH and order a new harness for a RailKing PRR 4-8-2 steam engine, then call Lionel and try to get some info for T ref a "G" ga steam engine. We need a schematic for the loco, and they are not available. So they faxed me a hand drawing of the area in question.
I cleaned up a few more cars to put in the display case.
Before lunch I made a good sale for $850. Customer was looking for a 1958 Lionel very cheap Alco FA-1 diesel. I had one for only $65. Plus he needed a helicopter for a operating flat car. That cost $35. Both of these items were just some of the trains he had stolen. He also bought a new Lionel PRR GG-1 electric and a GNRR snow plow to run out the sale.
Then Burt, T and I went to lunch at the lake and Burt suggested we take a ride in his 16 ft outboard motor boat. So we motored out in the lake and cut the engine and let the boat drift and enjoyed a relaxing lunch for and hour.....OOPS. When we got back we started cutting up card board boxes and Buck came out and told Burt and T we could no longer take a lunch together, but he didn't tell me a thing. So we decided that the next time we go for a boat ride with Burt we will take Buck with us and tie a long rope to him and throw him over board and go trolling for sharks and other fine fish. If we don't caught anything we will just cut the rope and go home.....................Margie and Joyce both never liked it when myself or the kids had any fun, they always tried to put us down when we were having fun. Buck isn't any different, except he thinks he is still a "general" in the army. Don't mess with Uncle Bob".
I made three more good sales in the afternoon. Customer from Tacoma who used to own a German retreatant with trains running inside is now up grading his own collection bought a MTH RailKing PRR 2-10-0 steam engine and three MTH cabooses for $590. Then he saw the Amtrak NW passenger set in the case and once I demonstrated it he was sold. He spent another $695.
Then Stan W came in and picked up his Lionel CPR SD-40 for another $401.
I think I earned my keep and had a nice boat ride on Lake Washington, even if Buck didn't like it, hey I don't care either.
Friday..............weather another beautiful day.
I didn't sell much and only some small repairs. Buck came by and told me we can't all take our lunch hour together any more.........................Sure is fun to be in K garden again at age 60. I may have to be a bad boy and belive me I can be bad. I broke one supervisor at Sperry many years ago for treating me like a kid.
Enough bull about ET.
After work I drove up to Lake Sns and met Ted at his storage locker where he keeps the KW fire engine ( the Crown is at Jim Y's in Lynden, WA) in Jim's own three bay fire house. Any way I picked up 400 ft of 2 1/2 (8 lengths) and 500 ft of 3 1/2 (10 lengths) and loaded all but one length in ole yeller and then Ted and I headed to JP and David met us there. Ted put the last length in his car. It was about 8:30 when we got to JP and it was almost 11:00PM before we got finished up and headed for home. So I now have my 3 1/2 supply line, just like Phx and 2 1/2 in the reverse bed for a attack line. Coming home on I-90 it was raining lightly, so when I got home Ted and I covered the hose bed with a blue tarp.
Saturday..............Another beautiful day that started off overcast.
Up at 6:00AM who can sleep when you have a fire engine to play with. After breakfast I took the rig over to 4th Ave South and put $20 worth of fuel in the rig. T showed up about 8:30 and we off to Home, WA. We head south on Hwy 99 and get rolling. In Federal Way we stop for fuel again, $38 worth at $1.319, I had paid $1.399 in Seattle (yes it is still $1.259 at 85th and Aurora) Three miles south and we encounter a really bad accident that had just happened. One car is up side down in a ditch with people trapped, a late model Volvo has the whole front end torn off and the lady driver is injured too. A van towing a pick up truck was also involved, the van had rear ended the Volvo. The police close Hwy 99 and we can't get thru, so I park the rig north bound and T and I walk to the wreck site. Three engine's from Federal Way, One engine and one ladder from Tacoma, and one engine from Milton and about five aid cars for all three FD's were also on the scene. The FWFD batt chief in charge was Chuck K also a FDLR member. So I took a lot of pixs including one with my Crown in the foreground. Chuck didn't know or see my Crown, but he will when I send him some pixs later. We had to make a 45 minute detour to skirt around the accident site, so we lost some times heading south. Once in Tacoma we headed across "Galloping Gerdie" on SR-16 and made about a 25 mile run on the interstate. Something I don't like to do, since I can only do 45 mph max. We arrived at Home at noon. Time for buying and swapping of fire engine goodies. I got another turn out coat, a hydrant wrench, 25 ft length of 3 1/2 to use when pumping into my Humet valve, 4 1/2 soft suction, mine is shot, and a 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 double female which will end up on Ted's KW at some point in the future. 1:00PM we head to Bay Lake to draft. We only had five rigs, my Crown, Jim D 67 KW, ex Seattle, Bill Aires 1941 ALF, a 1939 Seagrave, ex Bremerton and the 1936 Portland, OR hose wagon. There was one other rig at Home, but not at Bay Lake. The 1941 ALF "JO" 65ft aerial ladder that has been sitting for about ten years in a yard in Home. The rig is driveable and the new owner had the aerial raised and extended too. I pumped from draft two 2 1/2 lines to the Portland hose wagon. The Seagrave pumped two lines to his own deck gun, the KW pumped three lines to his monitor and the ALF pumped one hand line and one line to the Port land hose wagon too. I pumped for about and hour. From the lake I headed back to Bill M's before going home. I wanted T to see Bill's piano toys. Bill has a unbelievable collection of player pianos and Wurlitzer toys. 5:45 we leave Bill's and head for Seattle. I stop in Tacoma for more fuel at $1.239 and full up another 28 gallons. I used a little over a half a tank as of tonight. We got to my apt at about 8:00PM. A very long day, a fun day and I am very tired to after driving about a 150 miles in a fire engine.
Sunday..............weather I wake up to a overcast day and talk of rain..........NO........After breakfast and etc I go out check the rig for water and oil. ( 9:40PM I started this e-mail at 8:00PM, but have spent the time on the phone to Bill H, Jim Y and David H ref the Crown. )
I go out to check the water and oil and find I am three quarts low on oil, not unusual, but I am three gallons low on coolant. Have never had a problem with the coolant before, it was always full. Add water and fire up the rig, no leaks ? 8:45 I head to WS and make a stop at K-Mart to drop off pixs. When I come out there is coolant under the rig. Now what ? I drive by Jodie's and then straight to church. I park down the street a block away, morning service has not let out and I need to park in the big lot out back. I open the hood and find coolant coming out the overflow. Why ? AT 10:00 I drive over to church and park the rig out back and go in to say good morning to members that I know. One of the first people I meet is Jordan Ss who is a south King county fireman. I tell him I have the rig outside and he has to go out and take a look. Several people have now seen the rig and stop to ask me questions about the rig. Roger F is a greeter and he says he had seen the rig when he pulled in, but was running late and would look at it after church. 10:XX something and Roger mentions it much be about time for church services. I mention it can't be time to start, cause Jodie hadn't showed up yet. No sooner said than Jodie and the group pulled in. "Roger time to start the service Jodie just arrived". First words out of Jodie's mouth is "where is your truck, Bob" ? Oh, I parked it out back. As we were walking down the isle K N stopped me. "Bob, I was looking at your fire engine, and North ( her gifted Son) really enjoyed it, he loves fire engines. When Jodie and I sat down I asked her did she check to see if I had given her a 1949 Lionel catalog with out a cover ? She said she was running late and brought the entire collection and we could check after services. So I told her the reason she didn't see my truck was because I have the fire engine. 'Oh cool".........During service the weekend was caughting up with me, I was having a problem staying a wake, I felt like Uncle John, he always falls a sleep during services, but wakes up to sing. Great guy.
After services K stopped me again. "Thanks Bob for bringing the fire engine, North got woke early and he wasn't in a good mood, but when he saw the fire engine I told him if he would be quiet in church she would let Him sit in the front seat before going inside". Which she did........She is also the lady that wants me to do her Son's birthday. Out side it is a light rain, great I don't have a hose bed cover and my new hose is getting wet. I walk over to Jodie's car and we check to see if she has the 49 catalog, turns out she doesn't have all of her catalogs in "one place". So I tell Jodie come over to the rig and I will give her the catalog anyway. "I'd give Jodie my heart and sole", but you know that anyway........... We get over to the rig and there are kids everywhere and a few adults too. Lots of people have never seen a fire engine up close and for sure never touched one. Great Grandma Ss and Great Grand daughter Margaret are both checking out the rig. Pastor Pierre A is checking out the rig, "Hey Bob why didn't you say something before services I would have announced to the membership you had brought the fire engine"? I think I was a hit, well the Crown was.......... Even Uncle John had to climb up and take a good look, his Father is a fallen Seattle fire fighter. Jodie and I gave one another a really big hug and I held on to her and asked. "What's for supper next Sunday evening" ? Jodie was asked by Pastor A to plan the menu for the church supper next week end. It should be great. Jodie said she wasn't sure, but I will bet she already knows. So I spent about 15 minutes after Jodie left with kids and adults asking questions and watching kids climb all over the rig. It is now a very light rain and I need to get the rig home to JP. I check the coolant again and I am almost three gallons low again. I add more water and build a fire under the hood and head out. I take the low level route until I get to the WS bridge and decide it would be better to take the "high rise" instead of the low bridge which requires a steep climb to get on the bridge. Exit the WSB and run city streets until I am back at Dearborn St and take I-90 EB. EB I have a long pull once of the floating bridge, so I kick the Waukesha in the ass and we pull the grade with out problems, but the engine is really laboring hard. Take the Bellevue exit and go north and then east and pick up Coal Creek Pkwy at 116th SE and head back south and under I-90 and roll thru Newcastle and turn left at 91th SE. As I start up the finally hill into JP the rig is really laboring hard and I have to pull the hill in first gear, something isn't right............ Once at JP I park the rig and let it idle while I pull out ole yeller. Turn the rig around and back down the driveway. Off load all my junk and then park the rig inside and shut down. The rig as of last night doesn't "diesel" anymore. I am burning out all the carbine deposits. As I am off loading the last of the goodies the rig is "tooting" it owns horn ? Turned out it was because of low coolant again. Soon as I relieve pressure on the radiator it stops. So I refill the radiator with the engine running and then shut it down. What could be wrong ??????????
From JP I head to Everett and pick up a box for my MTH 2-10-0 which I have sold, then stop at H's, no one home. From there I stop at the FDLR and talk to GT for a while before going home. GT has found out I am selling my train collection and wants to buy my Triplex loco. I don't want to sell it to him, cause one he won't pay my price and two any item you sell GT he will always bug you if something goes wrong with it.
Got home at 5:30 and took a nap until 8:00. After talking with Bill, Jim and David one of three things could and will be wrong and why. Leaking head gasket, stuck thermostat, or timing is way off due to carbine breaking up in combustion chambers and 'things" are changing. The engine has never really been run hard like I did on Saturday. . All feel the last one is the real problem, lets pray that is the problem. stay tuned...........
11:00PM time to say good night.
Hope everyone is OK and this brings week 2035 plus to a close.
Love Dad
Tuesday..............weather morning starts out with lots of clouds and "may be" rain. Then about 11:00 the Sun came out and the rest of the was beautiful. Coming home I did notice there is a hint of Fall in the air. Oh well 27 days this Summer of over 80 degrees is enough..................
I finish up the AF NHRR steam engine, well as far as I could. I still need a rear truck for the loco, T has to order a couple from a AF parts person.
I worked off and on all day on a 1945 Lionel 2-6-2 engine and tender. Will have it finished in the morning some time.
I made one sale for $110 worth of Atlas '"O" ga track. Ran trains and ordered more parts for my Crown.
Tony P in Calif says he has found the door handle I need and a pair of jump seats, but to hot to work on getting them out of the rig. at this time.
Coming home I stopped at the FDLR and met with Doug the NAPA man and picked up a set of spark plugs for the rig and a spark plug socket too. $19 worth.
GT came in and picked up three MTH freight cars, not on his early buy list. Total $130. He mentioned I didn't give him "early buy", I didn't mention he didn't gave me early buy on the tow job last June either. "Don't F___ me Uncle Bob". Right ????
Wednesday.............weather Boy can the weatherman F___ up we were suppose to have rain yesterday and today. Will guess what we had another beautiful day may be about 65 degrees. There is no question Fall is in the air and the temperature too.
First thing I get a phone call from a customer looking for a MTH "Aerotrain", we have one. He wants to check prices, but in ten minutes he calls me back. So my first sale was for $410.
I finish up the 1945 Lionel and call the customer, total of repair $51.
I clean up a 1950 Lionel operating cattle car and corral. Interesting thing this is a early one, and was of a better design than later ones. Later ones are hard to make work due to not having the proper rubber grommets. Part of the grommets used on the earlier ones are different and don't deteriorate.
Spent a good part of the day going thru boxes of the latest Lionel and Marx "junk" that S had bought. Boy I think I could sell S the Brooklyn bridge.
After work over to JP and drop off the new spark plugs and T gave me a white fire helmet I had found in one of the buildings. More goodies for my toy.
Came home and had chicken fried chicken that I had cooked Tues evening. T so impressed me with the idea I had to try it myself. Came out pretty good even if I do say so myself. So I sat here and wrote e-mails, talked on the phone to Ted, Bob C and Jim Y.
Thursday...................weather another wonderful day of Sun and blue skies.
First thing call MTH and order a new harness for a RailKing PRR 4-8-2 steam engine, then call Lionel and try to get some info for T ref a "G" ga steam engine. We need a schematic for the loco, and they are not available. So they faxed me a hand drawing of the area in question.
I cleaned up a few more cars to put in the display case.
Before lunch I made a good sale for $850. Customer was looking for a 1958 Lionel very cheap Alco FA-1 diesel. I had one for only $65. Plus he needed a helicopter for a operating flat car. That cost $35. Both of these items were just some of the trains he had stolen. He also bought a new Lionel PRR GG-1 electric and a GNRR snow plow to run out the sale.
Then Burt, T and I went to lunch at the lake and Burt suggested we take a ride in his 16 ft outboard motor boat. So we motored out in the lake and cut the engine and let the boat drift and enjoyed a relaxing lunch for and hour.....OOPS. When we got back we started cutting up card board boxes and Buck came out and told Burt and T we could no longer take a lunch together, but he didn't tell me a thing. So we decided that the next time we go for a boat ride with Burt we will take Buck with us and tie a long rope to him and throw him over board and go trolling for sharks and other fine fish. If we don't caught anything we will just cut the rope and go home.....................Margie and Joyce both never liked it when myself or the kids had any fun, they always tried to put us down when we were having fun. Buck isn't any different, except he thinks he is still a "general" in the army. Don't mess with Uncle Bob".
I made three more good sales in the afternoon. Customer from Tacoma who used to own a German retreatant with trains running inside is now up grading his own collection bought a MTH RailKing PRR 2-10-0 steam engine and three MTH cabooses for $590. Then he saw the Amtrak NW passenger set in the case and once I demonstrated it he was sold. He spent another $695.
Then Stan W came in and picked up his Lionel CPR SD-40 for another $401.
I think I earned my keep and had a nice boat ride on Lake Washington, even if Buck didn't like it, hey I don't care either.
Friday..............weather another beautiful day.
I didn't sell much and only some small repairs. Buck came by and told me we can't all take our lunch hour together any more.........................Sure is fun to be in K garden again at age 60. I may have to be a bad boy and belive me I can be bad. I broke one supervisor at Sperry many years ago for treating me like a kid.
Enough bull about ET.
After work I drove up to Lake Sns and met Ted at his storage locker where he keeps the KW fire engine ( the Crown is at Jim Y's in Lynden, WA) in Jim's own three bay fire house. Any way I picked up 400 ft of 2 1/2 (8 lengths) and 500 ft of 3 1/2 (10 lengths) and loaded all but one length in ole yeller and then Ted and I headed to JP and David met us there. Ted put the last length in his car. It was about 8:30 when we got to JP and it was almost 11:00PM before we got finished up and headed for home. So I now have my 3 1/2 supply line, just like Phx and 2 1/2 in the reverse bed for a attack line. Coming home on I-90 it was raining lightly, so when I got home Ted and I covered the hose bed with a blue tarp.
Saturday..............Another beautiful day that started off overcast.
Up at 6:00AM who can sleep when you have a fire engine to play with. After breakfast I took the rig over to 4th Ave South and put $20 worth of fuel in the rig. T showed up about 8:30 and we off to Home, WA. We head south on Hwy 99 and get rolling. In Federal Way we stop for fuel again, $38 worth at $1.319, I had paid $1.399 in Seattle (yes it is still $1.259 at 85th and Aurora) Three miles south and we encounter a really bad accident that had just happened. One car is up side down in a ditch with people trapped, a late model Volvo has the whole front end torn off and the lady driver is injured too. A van towing a pick up truck was also involved, the van had rear ended the Volvo. The police close Hwy 99 and we can't get thru, so I park the rig north bound and T and I walk to the wreck site. Three engine's from Federal Way, One engine and one ladder from Tacoma, and one engine from Milton and about five aid cars for all three FD's were also on the scene. The FWFD batt chief in charge was Chuck K also a FDLR member. So I took a lot of pixs including one with my Crown in the foreground. Chuck didn't know or see my Crown, but he will when I send him some pixs later. We had to make a 45 minute detour to skirt around the accident site, so we lost some times heading south. Once in Tacoma we headed across "Galloping Gerdie" on SR-16 and made about a 25 mile run on the interstate. Something I don't like to do, since I can only do 45 mph max. We arrived at Home at noon. Time for buying and swapping of fire engine goodies. I got another turn out coat, a hydrant wrench, 25 ft length of 3 1/2 to use when pumping into my Humet valve, 4 1/2 soft suction, mine is shot, and a 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 double female which will end up on Ted's KW at some point in the future. 1:00PM we head to Bay Lake to draft. We only had five rigs, my Crown, Jim D 67 KW, ex Seattle, Bill Aires 1941 ALF, a 1939 Seagrave, ex Bremerton and the 1936 Portland, OR hose wagon. There was one other rig at Home, but not at Bay Lake. The 1941 ALF "JO" 65ft aerial ladder that has been sitting for about ten years in a yard in Home. The rig is driveable and the new owner had the aerial raised and extended too. I pumped from draft two 2 1/2 lines to the Portland hose wagon. The Seagrave pumped two lines to his own deck gun, the KW pumped three lines to his monitor and the ALF pumped one hand line and one line to the Port land hose wagon too. I pumped for about and hour. From the lake I headed back to Bill M's before going home. I wanted T to see Bill's piano toys. Bill has a unbelievable collection of player pianos and Wurlitzer toys. 5:45 we leave Bill's and head for Seattle. I stop in Tacoma for more fuel at $1.239 and full up another 28 gallons. I used a little over a half a tank as of tonight. We got to my apt at about 8:00PM. A very long day, a fun day and I am very tired to after driving about a 150 miles in a fire engine.
Sunday..............weather I wake up to a overcast day and talk of rain..........NO........After breakfast and etc I go out check the rig for water and oil. ( 9:40PM I started this e-mail at 8:00PM, but have spent the time on the phone to Bill H, Jim Y and David H ref the Crown. )
I go out to check the water and oil and find I am three quarts low on oil, not unusual, but I am three gallons low on coolant. Have never had a problem with the coolant before, it was always full. Add water and fire up the rig, no leaks ? 8:45 I head to WS and make a stop at K-Mart to drop off pixs. When I come out there is coolant under the rig. Now what ? I drive by Jodie's and then straight to church. I park down the street a block away, morning service has not let out and I need to park in the big lot out back. I open the hood and find coolant coming out the overflow. Why ? AT 10:00 I drive over to church and park the rig out back and go in to say good morning to members that I know. One of the first people I meet is Jordan Ss who is a south King county fireman. I tell him I have the rig outside and he has to go out and take a look. Several people have now seen the rig and stop to ask me questions about the rig. Roger F is a greeter and he says he had seen the rig when he pulled in, but was running late and would look at it after church. 10:XX something and Roger mentions it much be about time for church services. I mention it can't be time to start, cause Jodie hadn't showed up yet. No sooner said than Jodie and the group pulled in. "Roger time to start the service Jodie just arrived". First words out of Jodie's mouth is "where is your truck, Bob" ? Oh, I parked it out back. As we were walking down the isle K N stopped me. "Bob, I was looking at your fire engine, and North ( her gifted Son) really enjoyed it, he loves fire engines. When Jodie and I sat down I asked her did she check to see if I had given her a 1949 Lionel catalog with out a cover ? She said she was running late and brought the entire collection and we could check after services. So I told her the reason she didn't see my truck was because I have the fire engine. 'Oh cool".........During service the weekend was caughting up with me, I was having a problem staying a wake, I felt like Uncle John, he always falls a sleep during services, but wakes up to sing. Great guy.
After services K stopped me again. "Thanks Bob for bringing the fire engine, North got woke early and he wasn't in a good mood, but when he saw the fire engine I told him if he would be quiet in church she would let Him sit in the front seat before going inside". Which she did........She is also the lady that wants me to do her Son's birthday. Out side it is a light rain, great I don't have a hose bed cover and my new hose is getting wet. I walk over to Jodie's car and we check to see if she has the 49 catalog, turns out she doesn't have all of her catalogs in "one place". So I tell Jodie come over to the rig and I will give her the catalog anyway. "I'd give Jodie my heart and sole", but you know that anyway........... We get over to the rig and there are kids everywhere and a few adults too. Lots of people have never seen a fire engine up close and for sure never touched one. Great Grandma Ss and Great Grand daughter Margaret are both checking out the rig. Pastor Pierre A is checking out the rig, "Hey Bob why didn't you say something before services I would have announced to the membership you had brought the fire engine"? I think I was a hit, well the Crown was.......... Even Uncle John had to climb up and take a good look, his Father is a fallen Seattle fire fighter. Jodie and I gave one another a really big hug and I held on to her and asked. "What's for supper next Sunday evening" ? Jodie was asked by Pastor A to plan the menu for the church supper next week end. It should be great. Jodie said she wasn't sure, but I will bet she already knows. So I spent about 15 minutes after Jodie left with kids and adults asking questions and watching kids climb all over the rig. It is now a very light rain and I need to get the rig home to JP. I check the coolant again and I am almost three gallons low again. I add more water and build a fire under the hood and head out. I take the low level route until I get to the WS bridge and decide it would be better to take the "high rise" instead of the low bridge which requires a steep climb to get on the bridge. Exit the WSB and run city streets until I am back at Dearborn St and take I-90 EB. EB I have a long pull once of the floating bridge, so I kick the Waukesha in the ass and we pull the grade with out problems, but the engine is really laboring hard. Take the Bellevue exit and go north and then east and pick up Coal Creek Pkwy at 116th SE and head back south and under I-90 and roll thru Newcastle and turn left at 91th SE. As I start up the finally hill into JP the rig is really laboring hard and I have to pull the hill in first gear, something isn't right............ Once at JP I park the rig and let it idle while I pull out ole yeller. Turn the rig around and back down the driveway. Off load all my junk and then park the rig inside and shut down. The rig as of last night doesn't "diesel" anymore. I am burning out all the carbine deposits. As I am off loading the last of the goodies the rig is "tooting" it owns horn ? Turned out it was because of low coolant again. Soon as I relieve pressure on the radiator it stops. So I refill the radiator with the engine running and then shut it down. What could be wrong ??????????
From JP I head to Everett and pick up a box for my MTH 2-10-0 which I have sold, then stop at H's, no one home. From there I stop at the FDLR and talk to GT for a while before going home. GT has found out I am selling my train collection and wants to buy my Triplex loco. I don't want to sell it to him, cause one he won't pay my price and two any item you sell GT he will always bug you if something goes wrong with it.
Got home at 5:30 and took a nap until 8:00. After talking with Bill, Jim and David one of three things could and will be wrong and why. Leaking head gasket, stuck thermostat, or timing is way off due to carbine breaking up in combustion chambers and 'things" are changing. The engine has never really been run hard like I did on Saturday. . All feel the last one is the real problem, lets pray that is the problem. stay tuned...........
11:00PM time to say good night.
Hope everyone is OK and this brings week 2035 plus to a close.
Love Dad
Monday, September 2, 2002
Lionel today, "Chief" is a great dog, Almost fire hose, Almost electronic ignition, but Jodie is in church on Sunday
Hi K and R;
Monday......................weather mostly cloudy, but we do get lots of blue patches in the sky. High today 74..
I start the morning off looking at the Lionel PRR T-1 steam engine that took a dive. I couldn't even get it to run, not alone dive off the table ???? Only thing I found was a broken wire on the rear motor. I soldered the wire and tried running the loco. It worked just fine. Ran it in both conventional and command. Only other problem I found was the smoke unit didn't work, so I changed out the command PCB. Will test run again in the morning.
"If you think no one cares about you. Just miss a few house and car payments"..........
"Why is it when parts of your body feel good" ? "Your conscience feels bad" !
Had a few customers all at the same time..................Tom T a new customer from Walla Walla, WA who paid for a LGB 0-4-0T tank engine that will be available in a month or so. He also bought a LGB six truck set of log disconnects to go with the loco he had ordered for $95. Caddy S came in and picked up a original Lionel operating cattle car in the box for $125 and ordered four new Lionel operating freight cars for $220. Barry W came in and picked up one pair of Atlas freight car trucks. He is in the process of buying anther house and plans to build a new layout.
Tuesday.................weather another nice Summer day. High today 81. The 21th day this Summer we went above 80 degrees. Sunset at 7:59PM, April 15th was the last time the sun set at that time of day.
I start off running the Lionel T-1 in command and I can't get the whistle to blow in command. Works fine in conventional. I figured out why the loco went off the table. The cruise control wasn't working. After trying six (6) different command PCB's I decide I will call Lionel on Weds. Think this one may go back for repair too. More Lionel crap.......... This was what I did until about 2:00PM Finally went to lunch and took a walk down to the lake.
Had one good sale to a Canadian customer for Lionel and MTH freight and passenger cars. $882 american about $1400 canadian.
The most excitement all day was out on the street. A lady crossing the street got hit by a car. The first lane of traffic stopped, but not the second lane. She was knocked down and was taken to the hospital. While the medics were treating her, police were directing traffic and some fool in a SUV started blowing his horn, he was in a hurry. A police officer went over to his SUV and the fool started arguing with the officer, so another officer showed up. The SUV driver took off.....................Want to bet they got his licence number and will talk with him later ?
The bank was robbed a block and a half south of us just a few minutes before the accident. Fun day.........
I finished off the day working on more AF from Tacoma. I took one look at the caboose they wanted fixed and told T the caboose in the junk box for $5 is better, so I traded and charged the customer $5 for the repair.........Next a NHRR EP-5 electric loco. T says it needs new axle bushings, they won't go for that. I clean up the cab, replace the broken horns and add four springs to the pantographs. Next make it run..............After getting no where I realize the unit is wired wrong, so T decides to take a look. We finally found quitting time.
I called Jodie about 8:30 and talked to her for short time. She was working outside. We talked about some of the e-mailed I had sent her. She really enjoyed them and was passing them on to other friends.
Wednesday..............weather another beautiful day. High today 87...............T and I did eat lunch on the lake ( you didn't know I could sit on water ? ) You should have seen the lines on this one boat, boat wasn't bad looking either.
Call Lionel and they are going to repair the PRR T-1 loco. Two many problems.
I got five loco's back from Lionel also.
I made one sale all day for $436 to Dave P for a 1957 Lionel smoking caboose, I think the price was smoking too.
I finished working on the AF EP-5. total with labor about $100, customer is not going to be real happy, but when you buy worn out junk repair costs do go up.
Don't remember a lot about Weds because after work I went to JP and after pulling the Crown out side T invited me in for a chicken fried chicken dinner and a movie "The man that knew to little" with Bill Murray. Really funny movie. Only thing I did to the rig was remove the RH battery for Bob C to pick up. I got home at 11:00PM.
Thursday............................weather another nice day. High today 75.
Start the morning off trying to get a 1958 Lionel F-3 diesel set to run. Found a lot of problems, broken wires to motor, bad solder joint to e-unit, bad horn, rusted horn relay lucky I had one from a tender to replace with, they are not available. Spent a lot of time on the unit, S will ask $495.
Got more goodies for me by UPS. Two books on fire engines and two Corgi Seagraves. 1956 "Lionelville" in red over cream with canopy cab and a 1960 cab forward "Baltimore" city FD in white with orange fenders. Have more rigs and books coming too.
Made one sale all day for $220 worth of older Lionel items and some Lionel junk freight cars to a customer from Canada.
Gary W came in to pick up his Lionel repair from warranty return. A PRR H-9 2-8-0 steam engine and tender. He has never ran the loco except to test it. Out of the box it was had paint damage, so I replaced the loco from stock. Then the rear coupler wouldn't open, Lionel tech sent me parts, but I couldn't get it to work. So back to Lionel. They found a bad wiring harness between loco and tender, plus a cracked maginet on the can motor (used for speed control). Gary wanted me to check it out before he took it home. First thing the coupler would not open, reprogrammed fixed that problem. But the box showed shipping damage and sure enough the tender and loco had parts broken or bent. AND the shipping box was missing and so were the instructions. So I called Lionel and ordered the instructions and you guessed it the loco went back again. Ramme suggested I return it since changing the broken hand rail stransions require taking the entire loco apart, plus there was other problems too. Originally I had shipped five loco's in one box with foam and styrofoam for packing. the items were well packed. Someone at Lionel used the same box and packed the five loco's in only "popcorn". UPS dropped the box and the rest is history. Speaking of history...............
Robber goes into a bank and says to the bank teller "This is a hold up give me all your money or you are geography". Teller says "Don't you mean history" ? Robber says "Don't you try and change the subject" !
Did some work on more AF for the boy's in Tacoma.
Took a walk down to the lake by myself, T and Burt drove to Seattle so T could buy some marine grade plywood. When they got back and showed me what T bought, I saw about four pieces in the alley down the street here by the apt and I didn't pick it up. Big mistake the plywood is very expensive. Oh well can't always be a junk collector or can I ?
9:00PM Bpb C picked me up and we drove out to JP and picked up the 8D battery. Bob will pick up a new one from Dyno Battery on Friday.
You met "Chief" Bob's dog. Bob says Chief likes to play catch the stick. The other day Chief decided he wanted to play using a rack. Bob says what a show as Chief tried to run around in the back yard with a rack in his mouth and running into everything. BUT don't think Chief isn't a smart dog when you read this next story. Last Sunday afternoon when Bob was at the FDLR he had Chief with him of course. Bob had kept Chief in the van while he helped GT with some maintence work. GT doesn't like anyone to bring animals to the shop. When he let Chief out to get some exercise he ran right to GT's beautiful Ford truck and relieved himself on one of the chrome wheels............GT was pissed, Chief was relieved and Bob couldn't stop laughing. "Good Dog, Chief" !
Friday............weather another what kind of day..............you guessed it.
I made a few sales, $58 for a Lionel freight car and $96 for a USA "G" ga caboose. Did put a MTH RailKing 0-6-0 switch engine on lay away for a customer. C L came in and picked up his 1940 Lionel 224 steam pasenger set that cost $600, new about $15.95 in 1940. He also bought the AF caboose I traded the Tacoma boy's for on Monday.
Worked on a AF NHRR steam engine and tender most all day and a Lionel F-3 diesel set that S wanted cleaned up for a possible customer who "might" pay $800 for a 1953 set of diesels.
Say this a few times real fast "Precious Mother Feather Plucker".
After work I drove to JP and took T out to a mexican dinner in Newcastle and we went in style, on the Crown of course. 8:45PM Bob C showed up and we installed another 8Dc battery. Now I have a pair of fresh batteries to keep the Crown rolling.
Saturday.........weather all I can says is "to nice a day to be working and not out playing instead".
Before going to Kirkland I stop for fuel at 85th and Aurora again, this time I pay $1.259 for fuel, $1.399 in Kirkland and right across the street at 85th it is $1.459...........Bet it is $1.219 in Taocma.
Made a lot of sales today. Sold $50 worth of MTH track, Three ET Trains die cast trucks for $50, Lionel sound whale car, MTH freight car, plus some misc items for $332, MTH crane and misc items for $72, MTH four NYC passenger cars, plus two books to a couple from North Carolina for $260, very friendly people, enjoyed talking with them and the last sale was different (time out for dinner, I am having liver and onions, mmm, mmm good) I sold a LGB starter set with a PRR 2-6-0 steam engine and tender plus to passenger cars to a customer that owns a scenic railway in Basseterre, St. Kitts, West Indies. We did a little changer rou. He wanted a sound version of the loco and so I gave him $100 off the set price and he got the better loco for a total of $450.
Off and on during the day I worked on the AF NHRR steam loco. The Tacoma boy's must think "we" are Santa's little helper with some of the items they want us to fix and make like new.
Larry Wb came in, my other Crown mechanic and he has the electronic parts to convert the rig with a new ignition system. Plan is to work on the rig early Monday morning. After work I drove up to Lynnwood and stopped at Walmart and got a ten inch buffer and polisher to work on the Crown with. I discovered when I worked on the rig before you were here I didn't do a very good job and now the rig needs to be gone over, but not by hand.............
Sunday............weather would you believe here it is the first of Sept and we have a very cloudy day. It tried to rain on the way to church, but didn't. Summer is over fast in the PNW. It stays overcast all day too. Talking about rain before morning.
Off to WS and today I am a greeter at church. By 10:25AM hardly anyone had shown up. Then when the P family arrived so did everyone else. I had four bulletons left so I handed them to Jodie and said you have to be the last people to arrive I am out of bulletons. During church I noticed Jodie was wearing a new pair of red loafers with traction tire soles. "I like your new shoes". Jodie says yea you like the color red ? Half way thru the service I noticed she had taken her shoes off. "New shoes to tight" ? Jodie says no she had worked two jobs on Saturday and her feet hurt. After church Jodie and I were talking outside and she says she finally got the Volvo fixed, it only cost her $6000. She said if she would have known it was going to be that much she would have bought another car. I mentioned she has to keep the car after spending that much money. The shop that was working on the AC system had a new problem they couldn't get the car to start. They had to have it towed to another shop, the air mass meter had gone bad, that was over $700. The shop felt so bad for Jodie they rented her a loaner car. Sunday the 15th of Sept the church is having a special dinner for the membership and Jodie has volunteered to organise the dinner and run the dinner, it should be really great I gave Jodie a new K-Line catalog and the same papers I sent you ref 9/11. She said she needed a big hug and was going home, may be to take a nap, she had a long day yesterday.
Coming home from WS I saw Dave W owner of Swedish Automotive out sweeping the curbs in front of his shop. So I stopped by to say HI. As soon as I got out of the truck he commented about "still driving ole yeller" ? Got 289,000 miles on that fine piece of mechinery. Had to show Dave pictures and tell him about my "white sports car" of course.
I came home and called the H boys to see if Ted was going to meet me with a load of fire hose. David said Ted had gone to Lake Sns to get the Kenworth and was going to the FDLR with the rig. So I headed to JP and work on the Crown. I had a different belt for the alternator, two inches shorter. Pulled the rig part way out and removed the old/new belt of only two weeks. Only way I could get the new belt over the pullies was to remove a extra bracket on the alternator. This one fits tight and I have a lot of adjustment left. Tried out the new buffer on the front of the cab and both sides. Also made a temporary drain under the rig because the front suction leaks due to a bad rubber fitting. Now when the rig is parked in the building the water drains to the storm sewer and not on the floor. Just have to remember to pull the drain anytime I move the rig outside. I put a plastic sheet on the drivers seat to remind me. 2:00PM I call the FDLR to see if Ted has arrived. GT says he left me a message at home "That Ted had run out of fuel and was not coming to the shop with the rig". We were suppose to get together and I would come home with a load of 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 fire hose for the rig. Need to talk to Ted later this week. Need to expain to him how to check fuel levels too. The gauge read a quarter, but he didn't dip the tank. Found another "fire related" goody at JP. Found a box of assorted sprinkler heads to carry on the rig.
From JP I stopped on the way home and picked up my perscription at Longs Drugs then dropped off some junk at the house before going out to eat. Went to Mr Bill's and had lasagne, a large dinner salad and a "purple people eater" shake. The menu said don't ask what was in the shake, so I can't tell you, but it was good. From Mr Bill's I came home.
Monday.............weather the morning is heavy overcast and talk of rain.
Up at 6:30 and get my day started (Bet Margie is still in BED ???) Anyway Larry Wb calls at 7:00 to make sure I am up and moving. I get to JP at just before 8:00 and build a fire under the hood of the Crown. Before I get the rig pulled out Larry shows up. I pull the rig out and open the hoods and all three side compartments near the engine. Larry removes the distributor cap and rotor, only to find out the factory sold him the wrong conversion kit. So we can't convert to electronic ignition. Suzy shows up and I have to give her the cooks tour of JP. She even takes pictures of us working and some of the animals too. May be we are the animals ??? So we go a head and change the ignition wires on the left hand distributor including both coil wires. This took about and hour or more. Larry says fire the rig up. I start the rig and check both ignitions and find out the we have no fire on the right hand side. Now what ? We check the points and the coil wire, the coil wire seems to be the problem. The coil wires goes into the coil about three inches. Try starting the rig again, now we have no ignition system at all. Larry does a lot more looking and testing and finds a further problem, some how we lost the rear coil completely. The front coil is just a bad connection. So we install the new coil and try again. We have fire once again..............It is now noon and Larry and Suzy have to leave they are going to a car race.
I take a break and run to (OK drive) to MacDonald's for a quick lunch. I have a leak in the front suction piping where it connects to the shut off valve under the rig. I try tightening the bolted flange, but can't move the nut with a three quarter drive socket. I need a new rubber gasket for the flange, but that will come later. I need to do more polishing, but my legs are hurting me and I need to sit down. I back the rig in the building and install my make shift gutter. Looking around the JP property I really should keep the tank full of water all the time. There is a lot of dry grass everywhere.
2:15 I drove over to Issaquah and go to Barnes and Noble and look at books. That was a mistake I found two great books on WTC from 9/11 that cost me $65. Like I need somehting else to read......Some parts of these books are hard to read with out tearing..........From B&N over to Chilli's for dinner. I had the chicken fried steak, corn on the cob and mashed potatos (actually baked then mashed), really good.
From there I came home in the rain, dam the weatherman was right. As soon as I get home I have a message from Ted, call him at work. We talk for and hour about why he ran out of fuel, and other subjects too. When his tank shows 1/4 it is time to look for fuel, plus he can't dip it. He lucked out he was only three blocks from storage and he had a enough scent to get the rig off the road and shut it down right away. GT ran out of fuel with APP 316 and didn't shut it down right away and had to prime the injectors to get it started, good way to damage the injectors, but hey GT is the idiot..........Ted is suppose to get a hold of me Weds or Thur ref fire hose for my rig. Ted says he has a line on a 1959 Seagrave 100ft straight frame aerial ex portland, OR that was powered by a 935cid Hall-Scott, now powered by a Detroit 6V-92 turbo charged diesel like what is in his Crown. Rig is inservice in another OR's county FD and they want to sell it to a collector.................Oh, Oh ? Ted did a dispaly with GT on Saturday over in Bremerton and there was another Ahrean-Fox on display, this one is from Kansas City, MO and now private owned by a BC in Vancouver, WA. He also owns Everett's 1914 American LaFrance pumper. GT owns the 1928 from Everett. First time they were together in over 50 years.
Well that brings another week and one day to a close. Week 2036 plus to go.
Hope you two had a good holiday week end and are doing just great.
Love Dad
Monday......................weather mostly cloudy, but we do get lots of blue patches in the sky. High today 74..
I start the morning off looking at the Lionel PRR T-1 steam engine that took a dive. I couldn't even get it to run, not alone dive off the table ???? Only thing I found was a broken wire on the rear motor. I soldered the wire and tried running the loco. It worked just fine. Ran it in both conventional and command. Only other problem I found was the smoke unit didn't work, so I changed out the command PCB. Will test run again in the morning.
"If you think no one cares about you. Just miss a few house and car payments"..........
"Why is it when parts of your body feel good" ? "Your conscience feels bad" !
Had a few customers all at the same time..................Tom T a new customer from Walla Walla, WA who paid for a LGB 0-4-0T tank engine that will be available in a month or so. He also bought a LGB six truck set of log disconnects to go with the loco he had ordered for $95. Caddy S came in and picked up a original Lionel operating cattle car in the box for $125 and ordered four new Lionel operating freight cars for $220. Barry W came in and picked up one pair of Atlas freight car trucks. He is in the process of buying anther house and plans to build a new layout.
Tuesday.................weather another nice Summer day. High today 81. The 21th day this Summer we went above 80 degrees. Sunset at 7:59PM, April 15th was the last time the sun set at that time of day.
I start off running the Lionel T-1 in command and I can't get the whistle to blow in command. Works fine in conventional. I figured out why the loco went off the table. The cruise control wasn't working. After trying six (6) different command PCB's I decide I will call Lionel on Weds. Think this one may go back for repair too. More Lionel crap.......... This was what I did until about 2:00PM Finally went to lunch and took a walk down to the lake.
Had one good sale to a Canadian customer for Lionel and MTH freight and passenger cars. $882 american about $1400 canadian.
The most excitement all day was out on the street. A lady crossing the street got hit by a car. The first lane of traffic stopped, but not the second lane. She was knocked down and was taken to the hospital. While the medics were treating her, police were directing traffic and some fool in a SUV started blowing his horn, he was in a hurry. A police officer went over to his SUV and the fool started arguing with the officer, so another officer showed up. The SUV driver took off.....................Want to bet they got his licence number and will talk with him later ?
The bank was robbed a block and a half south of us just a few minutes before the accident. Fun day.........
I finished off the day working on more AF from Tacoma. I took one look at the caboose they wanted fixed and told T the caboose in the junk box for $5 is better, so I traded and charged the customer $5 for the repair.........Next a NHRR EP-5 electric loco. T says it needs new axle bushings, they won't go for that. I clean up the cab, replace the broken horns and add four springs to the pantographs. Next make it run..............After getting no where I realize the unit is wired wrong, so T decides to take a look. We finally found quitting time.
I called Jodie about 8:30 and talked to her for short time. She was working outside. We talked about some of the e-mailed I had sent her. She really enjoyed them and was passing them on to other friends.
Wednesday..............weather another beautiful day. High today 87...............T and I did eat lunch on the lake ( you didn't know I could sit on water ? ) You should have seen the lines on this one boat, boat wasn't bad looking either.
Call Lionel and they are going to repair the PRR T-1 loco. Two many problems.
I got five loco's back from Lionel also.
I made one sale all day for $436 to Dave P for a 1957 Lionel smoking caboose, I think the price was smoking too.
I finished working on the AF EP-5. total with labor about $100, customer is not going to be real happy, but when you buy worn out junk repair costs do go up.
Don't remember a lot about Weds because after work I went to JP and after pulling the Crown out side T invited me in for a chicken fried chicken dinner and a movie "The man that knew to little" with Bill Murray. Really funny movie. Only thing I did to the rig was remove the RH battery for Bob C to pick up. I got home at 11:00PM.
Thursday............................weather another nice day. High today 75.
Start the morning off trying to get a 1958 Lionel F-3 diesel set to run. Found a lot of problems, broken wires to motor, bad solder joint to e-unit, bad horn, rusted horn relay lucky I had one from a tender to replace with, they are not available. Spent a lot of time on the unit, S will ask $495.
Got more goodies for me by UPS. Two books on fire engines and two Corgi Seagraves. 1956 "Lionelville" in red over cream with canopy cab and a 1960 cab forward "Baltimore" city FD in white with orange fenders. Have more rigs and books coming too.
Made one sale all day for $220 worth of older Lionel items and some Lionel junk freight cars to a customer from Canada.
Gary W came in to pick up his Lionel repair from warranty return. A PRR H-9 2-8-0 steam engine and tender. He has never ran the loco except to test it. Out of the box it was had paint damage, so I replaced the loco from stock. Then the rear coupler wouldn't open, Lionel tech sent me parts, but I couldn't get it to work. So back to Lionel. They found a bad wiring harness between loco and tender, plus a cracked maginet on the can motor (used for speed control). Gary wanted me to check it out before he took it home. First thing the coupler would not open, reprogrammed fixed that problem. But the box showed shipping damage and sure enough the tender and loco had parts broken or bent. AND the shipping box was missing and so were the instructions. So I called Lionel and ordered the instructions and you guessed it the loco went back again. Ramme suggested I return it since changing the broken hand rail stransions require taking the entire loco apart, plus there was other problems too. Originally I had shipped five loco's in one box with foam and styrofoam for packing. the items were well packed. Someone at Lionel used the same box and packed the five loco's in only "popcorn". UPS dropped the box and the rest is history. Speaking of history...............
Robber goes into a bank and says to the bank teller "This is a hold up give me all your money or you are geography". Teller says "Don't you mean history" ? Robber says "Don't you try and change the subject" !
Did some work on more AF for the boy's in Tacoma.
Took a walk down to the lake by myself, T and Burt drove to Seattle so T could buy some marine grade plywood. When they got back and showed me what T bought, I saw about four pieces in the alley down the street here by the apt and I didn't pick it up. Big mistake the plywood is very expensive. Oh well can't always be a junk collector or can I ?
9:00PM Bpb C picked me up and we drove out to JP and picked up the 8D battery. Bob will pick up a new one from Dyno Battery on Friday.
You met "Chief" Bob's dog. Bob says Chief likes to play catch the stick. The other day Chief decided he wanted to play using a rack. Bob says what a show as Chief tried to run around in the back yard with a rack in his mouth and running into everything. BUT don't think Chief isn't a smart dog when you read this next story. Last Sunday afternoon when Bob was at the FDLR he had Chief with him of course. Bob had kept Chief in the van while he helped GT with some maintence work. GT doesn't like anyone to bring animals to the shop. When he let Chief out to get some exercise he ran right to GT's beautiful Ford truck and relieved himself on one of the chrome wheels............GT was pissed, Chief was relieved and Bob couldn't stop laughing. "Good Dog, Chief" !
Friday............weather another what kind of day..............you guessed it.
I made a few sales, $58 for a Lionel freight car and $96 for a USA "G" ga caboose. Did put a MTH RailKing 0-6-0 switch engine on lay away for a customer. C L came in and picked up his 1940 Lionel 224 steam pasenger set that cost $600, new about $15.95 in 1940. He also bought the AF caboose I traded the Tacoma boy's for on Monday.
Worked on a AF NHRR steam engine and tender most all day and a Lionel F-3 diesel set that S wanted cleaned up for a possible customer who "might" pay $800 for a 1953 set of diesels.
Say this a few times real fast "Precious Mother Feather Plucker".
After work I drove to JP and took T out to a mexican dinner in Newcastle and we went in style, on the Crown of course. 8:45PM Bob C showed up and we installed another 8Dc battery. Now I have a pair of fresh batteries to keep the Crown rolling.
Saturday.........weather all I can says is "to nice a day to be working and not out playing instead".
Before going to Kirkland I stop for fuel at 85th and Aurora again, this time I pay $1.259 for fuel, $1.399 in Kirkland and right across the street at 85th it is $1.459...........Bet it is $1.219 in Taocma.
Made a lot of sales today. Sold $50 worth of MTH track, Three ET Trains die cast trucks for $50, Lionel sound whale car, MTH freight car, plus some misc items for $332, MTH crane and misc items for $72, MTH four NYC passenger cars, plus two books to a couple from North Carolina for $260, very friendly people, enjoyed talking with them and the last sale was different (time out for dinner, I am having liver and onions, mmm, mmm good) I sold a LGB starter set with a PRR 2-6-0 steam engine and tender plus to passenger cars to a customer that owns a scenic railway in Basseterre, St. Kitts, West Indies. We did a little changer rou. He wanted a sound version of the loco and so I gave him $100 off the set price and he got the better loco for a total of $450.
Off and on during the day I worked on the AF NHRR steam loco. The Tacoma boy's must think "we" are Santa's little helper with some of the items they want us to fix and make like new.
Larry Wb came in, my other Crown mechanic and he has the electronic parts to convert the rig with a new ignition system. Plan is to work on the rig early Monday morning. After work I drove up to Lynnwood and stopped at Walmart and got a ten inch buffer and polisher to work on the Crown with. I discovered when I worked on the rig before you were here I didn't do a very good job and now the rig needs to be gone over, but not by hand.............
Sunday............weather would you believe here it is the first of Sept and we have a very cloudy day. It tried to rain on the way to church, but didn't. Summer is over fast in the PNW. It stays overcast all day too. Talking about rain before morning.
Off to WS and today I am a greeter at church. By 10:25AM hardly anyone had shown up. Then when the P family arrived so did everyone else. I had four bulletons left so I handed them to Jodie and said you have to be the last people to arrive I am out of bulletons. During church I noticed Jodie was wearing a new pair of red loafers with traction tire soles. "I like your new shoes". Jodie says yea you like the color red ? Half way thru the service I noticed she had taken her shoes off. "New shoes to tight" ? Jodie says no she had worked two jobs on Saturday and her feet hurt. After church Jodie and I were talking outside and she says she finally got the Volvo fixed, it only cost her $6000. She said if she would have known it was going to be that much she would have bought another car. I mentioned she has to keep the car after spending that much money. The shop that was working on the AC system had a new problem they couldn't get the car to start. They had to have it towed to another shop, the air mass meter had gone bad, that was over $700. The shop felt so bad for Jodie they rented her a loaner car. Sunday the 15th of Sept the church is having a special dinner for the membership and Jodie has volunteered to organise the dinner and run the dinner, it should be really great I gave Jodie a new K-Line catalog and the same papers I sent you ref 9/11. She said she needed a big hug and was going home, may be to take a nap, she had a long day yesterday.
Coming home from WS I saw Dave W owner of Swedish Automotive out sweeping the curbs in front of his shop. So I stopped by to say HI. As soon as I got out of the truck he commented about "still driving ole yeller" ? Got 289,000 miles on that fine piece of mechinery. Had to show Dave pictures and tell him about my "white sports car" of course.
I came home and called the H boys to see if Ted was going to meet me with a load of fire hose. David said Ted had gone to Lake Sns to get the Kenworth and was going to the FDLR with the rig. So I headed to JP and work on the Crown. I had a different belt for the alternator, two inches shorter. Pulled the rig part way out and removed the old/new belt of only two weeks. Only way I could get the new belt over the pullies was to remove a extra bracket on the alternator. This one fits tight and I have a lot of adjustment left. Tried out the new buffer on the front of the cab and both sides. Also made a temporary drain under the rig because the front suction leaks due to a bad rubber fitting. Now when the rig is parked in the building the water drains to the storm sewer and not on the floor. Just have to remember to pull the drain anytime I move the rig outside. I put a plastic sheet on the drivers seat to remind me. 2:00PM I call the FDLR to see if Ted has arrived. GT says he left me a message at home "That Ted had run out of fuel and was not coming to the shop with the rig". We were suppose to get together and I would come home with a load of 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 fire hose for the rig. Need to talk to Ted later this week. Need to expain to him how to check fuel levels too. The gauge read a quarter, but he didn't dip the tank. Found another "fire related" goody at JP. Found a box of assorted sprinkler heads to carry on the rig.
From JP I stopped on the way home and picked up my perscription at Longs Drugs then dropped off some junk at the house before going out to eat. Went to Mr Bill's and had lasagne, a large dinner salad and a "purple people eater" shake. The menu said don't ask what was in the shake, so I can't tell you, but it was good. From Mr Bill's I came home.
Monday.............weather the morning is heavy overcast and talk of rain.
Up at 6:30 and get my day started (Bet Margie is still in BED ???) Anyway Larry Wb calls at 7:00 to make sure I am up and moving. I get to JP at just before 8:00 and build a fire under the hood of the Crown. Before I get the rig pulled out Larry shows up. I pull the rig out and open the hoods and all three side compartments near the engine. Larry removes the distributor cap and rotor, only to find out the factory sold him the wrong conversion kit. So we can't convert to electronic ignition. Suzy shows up and I have to give her the cooks tour of JP. She even takes pictures of us working and some of the animals too. May be we are the animals ??? So we go a head and change the ignition wires on the left hand distributor including both coil wires. This took about and hour or more. Larry says fire the rig up. I start the rig and check both ignitions and find out the we have no fire on the right hand side. Now what ? We check the points and the coil wire, the coil wire seems to be the problem. The coil wires goes into the coil about three inches. Try starting the rig again, now we have no ignition system at all. Larry does a lot more looking and testing and finds a further problem, some how we lost the rear coil completely. The front coil is just a bad connection. So we install the new coil and try again. We have fire once again..............It is now noon and Larry and Suzy have to leave they are going to a car race.
I take a break and run to (OK drive) to MacDonald's for a quick lunch. I have a leak in the front suction piping where it connects to the shut off valve under the rig. I try tightening the bolted flange, but can't move the nut with a three quarter drive socket. I need a new rubber gasket for the flange, but that will come later. I need to do more polishing, but my legs are hurting me and I need to sit down. I back the rig in the building and install my make shift gutter. Looking around the JP property I really should keep the tank full of water all the time. There is a lot of dry grass everywhere.
2:15 I drove over to Issaquah and go to Barnes and Noble and look at books. That was a mistake I found two great books on WTC from 9/11 that cost me $65. Like I need somehting else to read......Some parts of these books are hard to read with out tearing..........From B&N over to Chilli's for dinner. I had the chicken fried steak, corn on the cob and mashed potatos (actually baked then mashed), really good.
From there I came home in the rain, dam the weatherman was right. As soon as I get home I have a message from Ted, call him at work. We talk for and hour about why he ran out of fuel, and other subjects too. When his tank shows 1/4 it is time to look for fuel, plus he can't dip it. He lucked out he was only three blocks from storage and he had a enough scent to get the rig off the road and shut it down right away. GT ran out of fuel with APP 316 and didn't shut it down right away and had to prime the injectors to get it started, good way to damage the injectors, but hey GT is the idiot..........Ted is suppose to get a hold of me Weds or Thur ref fire hose for my rig. Ted says he has a line on a 1959 Seagrave 100ft straight frame aerial ex portland, OR that was powered by a 935cid Hall-Scott, now powered by a Detroit 6V-92 turbo charged diesel like what is in his Crown. Rig is inservice in another OR's county FD and they want to sell it to a collector.................Oh, Oh ? Ted did a dispaly with GT on Saturday over in Bremerton and there was another Ahrean-Fox on display, this one is from Kansas City, MO and now private owned by a BC in Vancouver, WA. He also owns Everett's 1914 American LaFrance pumper. GT owns the 1928 from Everett. First time they were together in over 50 years.
Well that brings another week and one day to a close. Week 2036 plus to go.
Hope you two had a good holiday week end and are doing just great.
Love Dad
Sunday, August 25, 2002
Triplex may need help, it does go back, talk with Jodie, Dad is center stage at Hokum Hall
Hi K and R;
First thing last Sunday's high was a big 74 degrees with a record high of 88 in 1991.
Monday.............weather I woke up to overcast and fog, it was cold enough that Burt, T and I didn't sit outside at lunch to cool. Didn't see the Sun until after 2:00PM and coming home the weather is clouding up. High today 69, record high 88 in 1962. Rain during the night and evening hours.
Actually I got woke up out of a sound sleep at 6:30AM because Dale A called from Calif to order more goodies and talk for a few minutes.
My first job at work was to take my Erie Triplex apart and find out why I don't have any marker or head lights and the smoke unit won't work in DCS. Friday I had taken the loco apart and found two pinched wire related to the head light, but that didn't correct the problem. The wires had worked there way in between two parts of the boiler from a steam pipe that would push on them every time the loco made a left turn. I have a call into MTH to talk to a tech. Good chance the loco will be going back.
made two sales all day.............$200 for a special order for a "S" Helper model of a "S" ga SW-1 SPRR switcher and to Dale A for $195 for a MTH Z750 Xfmer and a DCS AIU device (Accessory Interface Unit).
John B..........Came in with a MTH SD90MAC with no ditch lights. He had already taken the unit a part so I only had to find the problem. I tried turning on the ditch lights in DCS, but that didn't work. John said they were working a week ago. So I finally found the problem, a four point spring contact had one "short" lead. John was happy and he had nothing but praise for David H rewiring his layout. He really liked David and has invited David, Ted and myself over to run trains this coming Fall on Weds nights.
Rest of the day ran trains and talked with T and Burt.
"The young lady was a Wall Flower at the Dance, but she was a Dandy Lion in the Grass".
"A string walks into a bar and orders a drink. Bar tender says we don't serve String, get out. So the string goes outside and ties himself in a knot and returns. The knot orders a drink. Bar tender says 'Hey aren't you the string that was in here earlier' ? and the string replies "I'm afraid not....................."
Tuesday...............morning is foggy and clouds and cool too. I wore my jacket to work. You got to love Summer's in Seattle, you never know what the weather will bring........We didn't see the Sun until late, may be 3:00PM.
My first project a Lionel 397 coal loader that the customer says after it runs for a while it binds up. I ran the unit and could not get it to act up. So I took it apart and did find bad bearing surfaces. At some time the unit had not been oiled and motor housing and gear housing are damaged. All I could do is oil and grease it. Repair cost $20.
Next up clean up a Lionel operating dump car for the sales shelf. "Someone" with very little knowledge had worked on this one long before me. The dump body was messed up with a loose gear, dump door was misaligned and the mounting hinges were bent. The solenoid body was installed with the two wires tipping the solenoid sideways and the pin wouldn't drop. I also rewired the unit. It took about two hours to get it working and a price of $75.
Next up a 1949 Lionel SW1500 diesel switcher I started several weeks ago. I had it all apart and once back together it had a dead short. Where ? I finally figured it was in the power pick up truck assembly. It took me almost and hour to find the problem. The two screws that hold on the third rail roller assembly have a flat washer and a bushing to insulate them from the metal housing using a non metallic material. Someone had used a metal lock washer in place of a insulated flat washer. Weds I will finish working on the cab.
David H came by to pick up MTH accessories and Lionel command items to start building John Cunningham's new train layout. S my great boss is a idiot..............While I am trying to help David, S is telling him what a jerk Cunningham is for not buying large trains items from our shop anymore....................I think we all know why ???? Could it be S P_____ someone off again. Cunningham buys thru the mail order houses.
After work over to JP and check on the rig. Made sure the oil and water were OK. Then came home and took a shower and work on your e-mail.
Wednesday...........weather what a beautiful day............if I stay up till 11:15 I will tell you how beautiful a day it was, if not. You will have to take my word for it..........................High today 69, record high of 88 in 1966.
First thing call MTH and leave a message ref my Triplex.
S bought me the parts to finish up the SW-1500 switcher. His price is $295.
MTH calls me back and the tech says all I need to do is open the tender and remove the dark blue wire on pin 5 from the Aux PCB and switch it with the dark blue wire on pin 10 in the Mother PCB and the unit will work. He does suggest I order a new Aux PCB. For now just turn off the smoke units............Sure enough it works the lights come back and on and no "flashing".
Next restring a MTH 25ton crane that the customer did a nice job of tangling the boom and hook strings together. I suggested he do it himself, per the instruction book with the crane. He didn't want to learn anything new ????? It took me and hour, not the first one I have done one of these, this was the third one. Charged him $10 too.
Back to the Triplex and open the tender. Guess what no Aux PCB like the one in the loco boiler..OOPS. Call MTH back and leave another message. I find out later after lunch MTH had called back while I was eating lunch, but no one came and got me........................Stupid !
Had a good day selling trains........My first sale was to a customer in Wickfitts, OH where ever that is for $100 worth of Lionel 0-27 track and switches.
Then GT came in to pick up one MTH freight car. He went home with a MTH, K-Line, Lionel and Atlas freight car(s) for $265 worth.
Next a customer from Scottsdale, AZ who took advantage of our sale on Corgi busses and trucks for only $15 each. I had fourteen he took them all as door prices for the TCA group in Phx. $211 worth , regularly about $560 worth. S wanted to get rid of them, I did.............
Barry C came in, he is a truck driver and loves to buy trains. Could I help you, Barry ? He was interested in the MTH UPRR Propane Turbine for $695. Could I match the mail order price of $550 ? No, I could go early buy of $669. He said that would be OK, he likes to buy a train with repair service. Something you don't get mail order. So he went home with a Turbine for $728 on his motorcycle.
My last sale of the day was to William Hahn for a MTH DCS system, Lionel track and misc items for $465.
Then I had one "ball buster" at the end of the day.........Man came in looking for a Lionel gondola for a culvert unloading accessory. I have them brand new for $45 including the seven culverts. He was hoping for a lot better price........So I pointed out to him "This is 2002 not 1950". In 1956 the culvert unloader and car sold for less than $25. Today the accessory is either $100 or $200 if command equipped. He had a original, which I also pointed out don't work very good. He only paid $50, good luck, I didn't tell him we don't have parts either.............
Stopped for groceries coming home and finally after two years I remembered to pick up a new shower Cain, boy did I need one too.
Thursday..............weather another beautiful day, you got to believe me...........You believe in me. I got a neat bridge to sell you in Brooklyn too. High today 77. record high 87 in 1946.............
First thing call Jodie.......Nice way to start off any morning. We don't get to talk much in the evening anymore. I was asking Jodie how did she and Brannan end up in Calif on vacation while Evan was in Peru ? Brannan had a idea, while big brother is off to South America why couldn't "they" go someplace too. So they decided to go to Disneyland and Six flags for four day and have some fun too. Except Evan isn't having as much fun. He is on a work program to help a youth group build a church or something........Oh well. Brannan is building a computer from scratch with Jodie's help. Some kind of a project for "our" church group. Jodie said Evan was not happy when he heard Brannan was building a computer and started putting him down, saying he was to stupid to understand computers etc. Jodie says she is going to have a talk with Evan when he gets back home, she doesn't approve of negative talk like that...Jodie's Granny turned 94 over the week end, but Jodie says granny is really slowing down and she doesn't expect her to live much longer. She is now confined to a wheelchair full time and Jodie says she is having many more medical problems. Jodie is still having problems with the Volvo and the AC unit. Friends have been telling her to buy a new car. She has my idea of a new car...........What do we use for money ???? We wished one another a good day and a good weekend and we should see one another on Sunday at church.
Call MTH and leave a message...........
Bob you are requested to run trains for new customers. I get a call from Dale A and he wants to know if S will take $1800 (price is $2000) for the Lionel Santa Fe "anniversary" passenger set. S says yes, plus shipping. SOLD. So I box the set up and it weights 44 lbs. Later in the day, Dale calls me back and says charge the amount to two credit cards and ship.
MTH calls me back and the tech says he forgot the Triplex does not have a Aux PCB in the tender only in the loco. I have a damaged Mother PCB and he can send me one. I point out we are not a authorized MTH repair shop. He says he can still send me the PCB. I suggest I send it back, the unit is under warranty and since it is mine I want to be sure it is done right.
Lunch time I sat outside and read, but it was such a nice day I took a walk down to the lake and really enjoy the weather and the view two ( young ladies and the mother nature too. )
The rest of the day I worked on some AF repairs from one of our two Flyer buddies in Tacoma. They buy junk and then want us to make it like new again. In some cases they pay more for the repair work than what the item would cost if they just bought a used one from us. So T and I will be busy for a while, we have two boxes full of items.
Friday.............weather, dam another beautiful day and a little warmer too.....76 ???
First thing over to Discount Tires and have them check the right rear tire. Steel belt is showing. With 45000 miles on the tire replacement is $20. I have a spare that is about 20 years old and at some point in time Joyce had picked up a screw driver in the tire. So for a total of $104 I got two new front tires, the front tires moved to the rear (Got those in 04/2002) and made the left rear a spare ( one year old) So for the first time in almost twenty years all five tires match. Now I am set for another 80,000 miles................
Worked on a few more AF freight cars off and on during the day. T has decided we need to talk to the "boys" in Tacoma, ref how and what they want repaired in AF. They don't seem to understand AF went out of business in 1967. We can't call the factory and order "Anything" they want, and there is a limited amount of repro parts too.
Had only three sales all day.............$45 MTH RailKing B&ORR passenger car going to Vancouver, WA. Richard P came in with some old sheet music for T and questions for me, ref Lionel command. (Parke's owns the piano) He went home with four used Lionel "O" ga switches, a used 40 watt Xfmer and 45 ft of three conductor wire for $167. My last sale was for a Lionel SRR caboose to a lady from Portland for $27. "JUNK".
Ran trains and talked with customers, ate my lunch with Burt and T down at the lake and watched the pretty young things in bikinis. OH DEAR.....................One customer brought in a Lionel LionMaster PRR T-1 with problems, including it ran off the table. You got to love Lionel and how well they handle ?????????????
After work over to JP and drop off some items to put on the Crown. Two nice wooden boxes to hold "brass goodies" and a roll of aluminum foil for future manifold baking. Replaced the only not working light on the rig, right rear hose pick up light. Even all the compartment lights work, what a rig.........
Saturday................weather another nice day. High today 78, record high of 88 in 1982.
On the way to work I go out of my way to get fuel. In Kirkland fuel is $1.439 verses $1.299 in north Seattle. So over to 85th and Aurora, then back across the SR-520 bridge to work.
Had a few sales today, sold a pair of MTH 0-31 switches and some track to one customer for $127. another customer bought a MTH RailKing CPRR SD-90 diesel, 80 watt Lionel Xfmer and a video tape for $340. Harry P came in to pick up a pair of Lionel NPRR passenger cars and a Lionel command base for $362. Harry has a problem with his Lionel loco's when not running in command, tR is he is not very happy with Lionel performance. If the command base does not improve the situation he says he will not buy anymore Lionel loco's..... Larry Wb came in and picked up his eight car set of MTH passenger cars for the black BNSFRR "GS-4" loco at a cost of $446. Don C and his wife came in and picked up a MTH D&RGWRR 250ton crane and crane tender for $140. Alex Ocenberg came in to pick up a coal loader repair and had two items for me to look at. A MTH passenger car with two bent axles, cause as he put it, his wife was the cause of the accident when she put her toy people to close to the tracks and the car landed on the floor. The MTH T&PRR steam engine that had to many chuffs per revolution. I reprogrammed the loco to fix it. "Do you have passenger cars for the loco" ? NO. "Would you like a set" ? I had a set I wanted to sell and he liked the price. So he went home with six cars and I got another $150 for the Crown fund. Only customers I didn't see was the "gasoline twins", P and Winters. (they both manage gas stations) No Don B either.
After work Burt and I loaded a very nice 4 x 8 ft sheet of plywood with a 2 x 4 inch frame on the top of ole yeller that I found in the alley from ET Trains. I have two uses for the plywood, one to use as a train layout and two as a platform to load hose on the Crown at JP, so it won't get dirty from just laying on the ground.
Supper tonight was a "Jodie special" just ice cream, two favors.
Sunday................weather would you believe overcast all day long ? Well it was................
Up at 7:15 and get a slow start to my day. Off to WS about 9:30 and go to church. Jodie didn't show up, so on the way back from church I stopped by the house. Brannan said she had to work.
I stayed in WS all day long, cause I was going to Hokum Hall at 3:00PM. First stop was at K-Mart and pick up a pair of loafers to wear around the house. The present pair is about ten years and have been falling apart for several years now. K-Mart had a special on shoes any pair for $14.95 or $19.95 were on sale for $9. They also had T-shirts and briefs on sale for a $1 each so I got 12 shirts and six briefs too.
Next stop over to Lincoln Park and take a walk and sit on the beach and read until 2:00PM. Then a slow ride back to Hokum Hall and enjoy some great entertainment. A afternoon of Vaudeville again. At the last show there were four women singing as a "barber shop quartet". One lady a blonde even told "blonde jokes". When I was waiting for the show to start I noticed this blonde who looked familiar, it was the lady from the quartet. Turned out they would be singing again. I talked to her before the show and she told me the other ladies said she couldn't tell any blonde jokes today. Sue H the lady I took several months ago showed up with her daughter and the two grand kids, it was the grand daughters birthday. During the show Sue's grand daughter was the first magicians helper and her grand son was the second magicians helper. Then towards the end of the show the four ladies barber shop quartet asked to borrow my chair and since they needed a live body I went with the chair to center stage and they sang me a love song and "handled me to" and when I went back and sat down the lady sitting next to me said my face was "crimson". Sue told me later my face was "red" on stage......Dad had fun !?!?!? After the show was over Sue and her family and I were looking at the mighty Wurlitzer and they let a lady play the Wurlitzer that was 97 years young. She had played a Wurlitzer when she was very young in both church and silent movies too. Hokum may have competition. Grandmother G played a hand pump organ as a teenager at church and also at silent movies too. Mom's brother would pump the organ when ever she played at the movie house. Bet you didn't know that ???
From Hokum's over to the mexican restaurant and have two deep fried shredded beef burritos before coming home.
That brings to a close another week of fun and games.
Week 2037 plus to go.
Hope everyone is OK and may the Lord bless you two.
Love Dad
First thing last Sunday's high was a big 74 degrees with a record high of 88 in 1991.
Monday.............weather I woke up to overcast and fog, it was cold enough that Burt, T and I didn't sit outside at lunch to cool. Didn't see the Sun until after 2:00PM and coming home the weather is clouding up. High today 69, record high 88 in 1962. Rain during the night and evening hours.
Actually I got woke up out of a sound sleep at 6:30AM because Dale A called from Calif to order more goodies and talk for a few minutes.
My first job at work was to take my Erie Triplex apart and find out why I don't have any marker or head lights and the smoke unit won't work in DCS. Friday I had taken the loco apart and found two pinched wire related to the head light, but that didn't correct the problem. The wires had worked there way in between two parts of the boiler from a steam pipe that would push on them every time the loco made a left turn. I have a call into MTH to talk to a tech. Good chance the loco will be going back.
made two sales all day.............$200 for a special order for a "S" Helper model of a "S" ga SW-1 SPRR switcher and to Dale A for $195 for a MTH Z750 Xfmer and a DCS AIU device (Accessory Interface Unit).
John B..........Came in with a MTH SD90MAC with no ditch lights. He had already taken the unit a part so I only had to find the problem. I tried turning on the ditch lights in DCS, but that didn't work. John said they were working a week ago. So I finally found the problem, a four point spring contact had one "short" lead. John was happy and he had nothing but praise for David H rewiring his layout. He really liked David and has invited David, Ted and myself over to run trains this coming Fall on Weds nights.
Rest of the day ran trains and talked with T and Burt.
"The young lady was a Wall Flower at the Dance, but she was a Dandy Lion in the Grass".
"A string walks into a bar and orders a drink. Bar tender says we don't serve String, get out. So the string goes outside and ties himself in a knot and returns. The knot orders a drink. Bar tender says 'Hey aren't you the string that was in here earlier' ? and the string replies "I'm afraid not....................."
Tuesday...............morning is foggy and clouds and cool too. I wore my jacket to work. You got to love Summer's in Seattle, you never know what the weather will bring........We didn't see the Sun until late, may be 3:00PM.
My first project a Lionel 397 coal loader that the customer says after it runs for a while it binds up. I ran the unit and could not get it to act up. So I took it apart and did find bad bearing surfaces. At some time the unit had not been oiled and motor housing and gear housing are damaged. All I could do is oil and grease it. Repair cost $20.
Next up clean up a Lionel operating dump car for the sales shelf. "Someone" with very little knowledge had worked on this one long before me. The dump body was messed up with a loose gear, dump door was misaligned and the mounting hinges were bent. The solenoid body was installed with the two wires tipping the solenoid sideways and the pin wouldn't drop. I also rewired the unit. It took about two hours to get it working and a price of $75.
Next up a 1949 Lionel SW1500 diesel switcher I started several weeks ago. I had it all apart and once back together it had a dead short. Where ? I finally figured it was in the power pick up truck assembly. It took me almost and hour to find the problem. The two screws that hold on the third rail roller assembly have a flat washer and a bushing to insulate them from the metal housing using a non metallic material. Someone had used a metal lock washer in place of a insulated flat washer. Weds I will finish working on the cab.
David H came by to pick up MTH accessories and Lionel command items to start building John Cunningham's new train layout. S my great boss is a idiot..............While I am trying to help David, S is telling him what a jerk Cunningham is for not buying large trains items from our shop anymore....................I think we all know why ???? Could it be S P_____ someone off again. Cunningham buys thru the mail order houses.
After work over to JP and check on the rig. Made sure the oil and water were OK. Then came home and took a shower and work on your e-mail.
Wednesday...........weather what a beautiful day............if I stay up till 11:15 I will tell you how beautiful a day it was, if not. You will have to take my word for it..........................High today 69, record high of 88 in 1966.
First thing call MTH and leave a message ref my Triplex.
S bought me the parts to finish up the SW-1500 switcher. His price is $295.
MTH calls me back and the tech says all I need to do is open the tender and remove the dark blue wire on pin 5 from the Aux PCB and switch it with the dark blue wire on pin 10 in the Mother PCB and the unit will work. He does suggest I order a new Aux PCB. For now just turn off the smoke units............Sure enough it works the lights come back and on and no "flashing".
Next restring a MTH 25ton crane that the customer did a nice job of tangling the boom and hook strings together. I suggested he do it himself, per the instruction book with the crane. He didn't want to learn anything new ????? It took me and hour, not the first one I have done one of these, this was the third one. Charged him $10 too.
Back to the Triplex and open the tender. Guess what no Aux PCB like the one in the loco boiler..OOPS. Call MTH back and leave another message. I find out later after lunch MTH had called back while I was eating lunch, but no one came and got me........................Stupid !
Had a good day selling trains........My first sale was to a customer in Wickfitts, OH where ever that is for $100 worth of Lionel 0-27 track and switches.
Then GT came in to pick up one MTH freight car. He went home with a MTH, K-Line, Lionel and Atlas freight car(s) for $265 worth.
Next a customer from Scottsdale, AZ who took advantage of our sale on Corgi busses and trucks for only $15 each. I had fourteen he took them all as door prices for the TCA group in Phx. $211 worth , regularly about $560 worth. S wanted to get rid of them, I did.............
Barry C came in, he is a truck driver and loves to buy trains. Could I help you, Barry ? He was interested in the MTH UPRR Propane Turbine for $695. Could I match the mail order price of $550 ? No, I could go early buy of $669. He said that would be OK, he likes to buy a train with repair service. Something you don't get mail order. So he went home with a Turbine for $728 on his motorcycle.
My last sale of the day was to William Hahn for a MTH DCS system, Lionel track and misc items for $465.
Then I had one "ball buster" at the end of the day.........Man came in looking for a Lionel gondola for a culvert unloading accessory. I have them brand new for $45 including the seven culverts. He was hoping for a lot better price........So I pointed out to him "This is 2002 not 1950". In 1956 the culvert unloader and car sold for less than $25. Today the accessory is either $100 or $200 if command equipped. He had a original, which I also pointed out don't work very good. He only paid $50, good luck, I didn't tell him we don't have parts either.............
Stopped for groceries coming home and finally after two years I remembered to pick up a new shower Cain, boy did I need one too.
Thursday..............weather another beautiful day, you got to believe me...........You believe in me. I got a neat bridge to sell you in Brooklyn too. High today 77. record high 87 in 1946.............
First thing call Jodie.......Nice way to start off any morning. We don't get to talk much in the evening anymore. I was asking Jodie how did she and Brannan end up in Calif on vacation while Evan was in Peru ? Brannan had a idea, while big brother is off to South America why couldn't "they" go someplace too. So they decided to go to Disneyland and Six flags for four day and have some fun too. Except Evan isn't having as much fun. He is on a work program to help a youth group build a church or something........Oh well. Brannan is building a computer from scratch with Jodie's help. Some kind of a project for "our" church group. Jodie said Evan was not happy when he heard Brannan was building a computer and started putting him down, saying he was to stupid to understand computers etc. Jodie says she is going to have a talk with Evan when he gets back home, she doesn't approve of negative talk like that...Jodie's Granny turned 94 over the week end, but Jodie says granny is really slowing down and she doesn't expect her to live much longer. She is now confined to a wheelchair full time and Jodie says she is having many more medical problems. Jodie is still having problems with the Volvo and the AC unit. Friends have been telling her to buy a new car. She has my idea of a new car...........What do we use for money ???? We wished one another a good day and a good weekend and we should see one another on Sunday at church.
Call MTH and leave a message...........
Bob you are requested to run trains for new customers. I get a call from Dale A and he wants to know if S will take $1800 (price is $2000) for the Lionel Santa Fe "anniversary" passenger set. S says yes, plus shipping. SOLD. So I box the set up and it weights 44 lbs. Later in the day, Dale calls me back and says charge the amount to two credit cards and ship.
MTH calls me back and the tech says he forgot the Triplex does not have a Aux PCB in the tender only in the loco. I have a damaged Mother PCB and he can send me one. I point out we are not a authorized MTH repair shop. He says he can still send me the PCB. I suggest I send it back, the unit is under warranty and since it is mine I want to be sure it is done right.
Lunch time I sat outside and read, but it was such a nice day I took a walk down to the lake and really enjoy the weather and the view two ( young ladies and the mother nature too. )
The rest of the day I worked on some AF repairs from one of our two Flyer buddies in Tacoma. They buy junk and then want us to make it like new again. In some cases they pay more for the repair work than what the item would cost if they just bought a used one from us. So T and I will be busy for a while, we have two boxes full of items.
Friday.............weather, dam another beautiful day and a little warmer too.....76 ???
First thing over to Discount Tires and have them check the right rear tire. Steel belt is showing. With 45000 miles on the tire replacement is $20. I have a spare that is about 20 years old and at some point in time Joyce had picked up a screw driver in the tire. So for a total of $104 I got two new front tires, the front tires moved to the rear (Got those in 04/2002) and made the left rear a spare ( one year old) So for the first time in almost twenty years all five tires match. Now I am set for another 80,000 miles................
Worked on a few more AF freight cars off and on during the day. T has decided we need to talk to the "boys" in Tacoma, ref how and what they want repaired in AF. They don't seem to understand AF went out of business in 1967. We can't call the factory and order "Anything" they want, and there is a limited amount of repro parts too.
Had only three sales all day.............$45 MTH RailKing B&ORR passenger car going to Vancouver, WA. Richard P came in with some old sheet music for T and questions for me, ref Lionel command. (Parke's owns the piano) He went home with four used Lionel "O" ga switches, a used 40 watt Xfmer and 45 ft of three conductor wire for $167. My last sale was for a Lionel SRR caboose to a lady from Portland for $27. "JUNK".
Ran trains and talked with customers, ate my lunch with Burt and T down at the lake and watched the pretty young things in bikinis. OH DEAR.....................One customer brought in a Lionel LionMaster PRR T-1 with problems, including it ran off the table. You got to love Lionel and how well they handle ?????????????
After work over to JP and drop off some items to put on the Crown. Two nice wooden boxes to hold "brass goodies" and a roll of aluminum foil for future manifold baking. Replaced the only not working light on the rig, right rear hose pick up light. Even all the compartment lights work, what a rig.........
Saturday................weather another nice day. High today 78, record high of 88 in 1982.
On the way to work I go out of my way to get fuel. In Kirkland fuel is $1.439 verses $1.299 in north Seattle. So over to 85th and Aurora, then back across the SR-520 bridge to work.
Had a few sales today, sold a pair of MTH 0-31 switches and some track to one customer for $127. another customer bought a MTH RailKing CPRR SD-90 diesel, 80 watt Lionel Xfmer and a video tape for $340. Harry P came in to pick up a pair of Lionel NPRR passenger cars and a Lionel command base for $362. Harry has a problem with his Lionel loco's when not running in command, tR is he is not very happy with Lionel performance. If the command base does not improve the situation he says he will not buy anymore Lionel loco's..... Larry Wb came in and picked up his eight car set of MTH passenger cars for the black BNSFRR "GS-4" loco at a cost of $446. Don C and his wife came in and picked up a MTH D&RGWRR 250ton crane and crane tender for $140. Alex Ocenberg came in to pick up a coal loader repair and had two items for me to look at. A MTH passenger car with two bent axles, cause as he put it, his wife was the cause of the accident when she put her toy people to close to the tracks and the car landed on the floor. The MTH T&PRR steam engine that had to many chuffs per revolution. I reprogrammed the loco to fix it. "Do you have passenger cars for the loco" ? NO. "Would you like a set" ? I had a set I wanted to sell and he liked the price. So he went home with six cars and I got another $150 for the Crown fund. Only customers I didn't see was the "gasoline twins", P and Winters. (they both manage gas stations) No Don B either.
After work Burt and I loaded a very nice 4 x 8 ft sheet of plywood with a 2 x 4 inch frame on the top of ole yeller that I found in the alley from ET Trains. I have two uses for the plywood, one to use as a train layout and two as a platform to load hose on the Crown at JP, so it won't get dirty from just laying on the ground.
Supper tonight was a "Jodie special" just ice cream, two favors.
Sunday................weather would you believe overcast all day long ? Well it was................
Up at 7:15 and get a slow start to my day. Off to WS about 9:30 and go to church. Jodie didn't show up, so on the way back from church I stopped by the house. Brannan said she had to work.
I stayed in WS all day long, cause I was going to Hokum Hall at 3:00PM. First stop was at K-Mart and pick up a pair of loafers to wear around the house. The present pair is about ten years and have been falling apart for several years now. K-Mart had a special on shoes any pair for $14.95 or $19.95 were on sale for $9. They also had T-shirts and briefs on sale for a $1 each so I got 12 shirts and six briefs too.
Next stop over to Lincoln Park and take a walk and sit on the beach and read until 2:00PM. Then a slow ride back to Hokum Hall and enjoy some great entertainment. A afternoon of Vaudeville again. At the last show there were four women singing as a "barber shop quartet". One lady a blonde even told "blonde jokes". When I was waiting for the show to start I noticed this blonde who looked familiar, it was the lady from the quartet. Turned out they would be singing again. I talked to her before the show and she told me the other ladies said she couldn't tell any blonde jokes today. Sue H the lady I took several months ago showed up with her daughter and the two grand kids, it was the grand daughters birthday. During the show Sue's grand daughter was the first magicians helper and her grand son was the second magicians helper. Then towards the end of the show the four ladies barber shop quartet asked to borrow my chair and since they needed a live body I went with the chair to center stage and they sang me a love song and "handled me to" and when I went back and sat down the lady sitting next to me said my face was "crimson". Sue told me later my face was "red" on stage......Dad had fun !?!?!? After the show was over Sue and her family and I were looking at the mighty Wurlitzer and they let a lady play the Wurlitzer that was 97 years young. She had played a Wurlitzer when she was very young in both church and silent movies too. Hokum may have competition. Grandmother G played a hand pump organ as a teenager at church and also at silent movies too. Mom's brother would pump the organ when ever she played at the movie house. Bet you didn't know that ???
From Hokum's over to the mexican restaurant and have two deep fried shredded beef burritos before coming home.
That brings to a close another week of fun and games.
Week 2037 plus to go.
Hope everyone is OK and may the Lord bless you two.
Love Dad
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