@Steve Tyler I like it!
@Tom Densel posted:You walk into the house after work and your wife says " The UPS driver dropped a package off for you..." as she gives you the "look".
Tom
That's why I ship my trains to my office.....
At least I can control when I smuggle it into the house. 
When you drive back to the hobby shop to buy an item you passed on, and it's gone. It just happened this morning and I left empty handed.
@Allegheny posted:This is why when I leave home for extended periods of time, I turn the water off before I leave.
One never knows what can happen when you are away. Rubber hoses to your washer could fail and flood the entire house in no time flat let alone for several days.
As an example, the family and I went on a winter holiday for a few days to Montréal, Canada (Yeah I know the wrong direction, but I'm from Michigan). During that period of time, while we were away, there was a significant cold snap into the single digits during day and negative values at night.
When we arrived home, and I turned the water on, and I heard water running. It turned out that the water spicket on the outside of the house had frozen back into the house and cracked the supposed freeze/frost free pipe. The leak was in the basement ceiling. Fortunately I was right on it and shut everything down.
Needless to say I would have had a flooded basement with real serious issues to deal with!
Good advice, but unless you significantly reduce the heat setting in your home while away, probably optional, depending on your home's vulnerabilities Several additional thoughts:
- Smart thermostats allow you to monitor home temps and, if you get a cold snap, you can remotely bump up the settings
- Many external faucets have internal cutoff valves, which allow you to drain the water out of the external faucet and pipe. For those that do not, there are shaped-foam external covers available that will further insulate and protect the faucet and pipe. If you do not drain your external faucets (or provide additional insulation), they can remain vulnerable even with the water off, as Allegheney discovered!
If you live in a cold climate, it falls to the homeowner to anticipate their home's vulnerabilities, and take preventative/corrective action. For instance, the supply line for the toilet in our master bedroom had a bad habit of freezing up in significantly sub-freezing temps. It turned out the original insulation was not only between the pipe and the foundation, but also between the pipe and the *inside*, forming a "thermal sandwich" that prevented inside warmth from getting to and protecting the pipe. I removed the wayward insulation, and haven't had a freeze-up since! 😁👍
If I leave overnight the water gets shut off. It takes 2 seconds and it's good practice to work the valve every so often regardless. This isn't fool proof but will hopefully save a severe flood with feet of water in the basement.
@Allegheny posted:This is why when I leave home for extended periods of time, I turn the water off before I leave.
One never knows what can happen when you are away. Rubber hoses to your washer could fail and flood the entire house in no time flat let alone for several days.
As an example, the family and I went on a winter holiday for a few days to Montréal, Canada (Yeah I know the wrong direction, but I'm from Michigan). During that period of time, while we were away, there was a significant cold snap into the single digits during day and negative values at night.
When we arrived home, and I turned the water on, and I heard water running. It turned out that the water spicket on the outside of the house had frozen back into the house and cracked the supposed freeze/frost free pipe. The leak was in the basement ceiling. Fortunately I was right on it and shut everything down.
Needless to say I would have had a flooded basement with real serious issues to deal with!
Take hoses off the spigot in winter time. The freeze resistant spigots don't work if there is water trapped in them!
Also - If you turn the water off to the house, be sure to turn off the water heater!
@jhz563 posted:Take hoses off the spigot in winter time. The freeze resistant spigots don't work if there is water trapped in them!
Also - If you turn the water off to the house, be sure to turn off the water heater!
Good common sense advice.
I typically remove the hoses from the house during the fall when I've cleaned my lawn tractor for the season.
I also lower the temp setting on the water heater to the pilot setting when the water is turned off.
@RSJB18 posted:That's why I ship my trains to my office.....
At least I can control when I smuggle it into the house.
OMG I totally do that too! 
@H1000 posted:Or when you know something is on the way and you have to think up of another fib to tell her about what's in the box!
I always lie and say "oh, I got it really cheap on clearance" and I'll make up some stupid low number like $20 (when it was more like $200).
I grabbed Satin Clear instead of Crystal Clear Gloss and coated all four prewar passenger car shells... Never realized it until I wondered why they were not as Glossy as when I painted em later..... Very unhappy was I!
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@James Brown posted:I always lie and say "oh, I got it really cheap on clearance" and I'll make up some stupid low number like $20 (when it was more like $200).
My greatest fear is that someday my wife will sell my trains for what I told her I paid for them!
@James Brown posted:I always lie and say "oh, I got it really cheap on clearance" and I'll make up some stupid low number like $20 (when it was more like $200).
. . . I assume your wife is not on the forum, then? 
@paigetrain posted:when you can't afford the trains you want because you're a broke college student with 20 grand in student debt
when you set up the trains you do have and they don't want to cooperate
when you've been trying to build your safe haven for 21 years and you just keep hitting snags because your family is nasty and against your passion to the point where they constantly talk crap about your trains and try to take them away and its even worse when you have autism and trains are your outlet to freedom and peace
when you show your godparents the train you want and they say no thats too expensive or say ask your dad knowing full well he would get mad as fire
Not to worry, paigetrain. To borrow a phrase, "It gets better!" The trick is just trying to stay chill and have fun until it does! Good luck, in any event! 
@Steve Tyler posted:. . . I assume your wife is not on the forum, then?
LOL thank goodness no. Trains are expensive but divorces are REALLY expensive!
Hokie71 has it right, this is a hoot but sometimes makes you backside pucker up.
Or when your best train bud goes to set his brand new Sn3 Brass K-27 on the tracks and it slips out of his hands and you just see it in slow motion hit the concrete and then you hear that sickening sound as it comes apart and bounces off the floor, oh my what an awful sound. And then you quietly say to your self, I'm so glad that wasn't mine.
@PRRick posted:When you drive back to the hobby shop to buy an item you passed on, and it's gone. It just happened this morning and I left empty handed.
My train store has a sign that says "The best time to buy a train is when you see it". So true.
Tony V
@James Brown posted:I always lie and say "oh, I got it really cheap on clearance" and I'll make up some stupid low number like $20 (when it was more like $200).
Drop a zero......move the decimal point.......works for me! 
I see an emerging common thread surrounding our wives developing here.....
I don’t lie to my wife about my trains. Or anything else. Makes life so much easier, if you tell the truth you don’t have to worry about remembering what story you told…
As for the original topic, I recently broke a pilot off an engine. Was servicing the truck gears. Took the mounting screw out of the pilot and it was still stuck. Gave it a few taps on the table to loosen it and it broke. Grrrrrr…
The one that got me today, running an early Odyssey equipped diesel that was in for repair of a burned out trace on the mainboard from a previous derailment short, at medium speed, and you hear this loud pop/bang, and then it runs away. Just when you thought you fixed the original problem- bam!!!
That moment the magnet ring exploded off the flywheel. But kicker, it's a pressed on flywheel, and the magnet ring faces the motor, and the flywheel has to come off to put a new ring on, and there is no setscrew- again pressed on flywheel. Oh and kicker, the explosion took out the incandescent internal cab lights when the magnet slammed into the fake cab motor cover with the lights. Shook them hard enough the filaments failed burned out.
Your credit card gets charged a hefty sum because your much anticipated BTO loco has finally shipped. And then the very next day you get your property tax bill -Oof! Does anybody ever truly own their house?
@Tony_V posted:My train store has a sign that says "The best time to buy a train is when you see it". So true.Tony V
I didn't know I "needed" it at the time. By the time I realized the error in my ways it was too late 😄
When the new catalog comes out and you say yes I want this and that and you go to pre order and see what the final cost is….OUCH!!!!
Seeing a friend sit on your newly stick built , cattle car that a club member placed on a chair after switch out cars on the club layout
@Dave Koehler posted:been there , done that!
AMEN!
