Text 1154, 252 rader
Skriven 2012-07-23 22:39:32 av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
Kommentar till text 1142 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
Ärende: Darwion award candidate
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HI roy,
On Sun 2012-Jul-22 06:58, Roy Witt (1:387/22) wrote to Richard Webb:
<snip>
Roy>>> Especially attempting to stop. That's what I think when I see a
Roy>>> load of gravel in the hopper of an 18 wheeler coming off the
Roy>>> freeway at freeway speeds of 65/70mph, even though the ramp
Roy>>> speedlimit is 45 mph. And then they think they have the right of
Roy>>> way over traffic that is already on that ramp.
RW>> OH yeah I'm awlays amazed at those guys. I know our remote
RW>> truck is heavy even for a 19" bed box truck, because of the
RW>> lead and other insulating materials under the skin of the
RW>> box and all the electronics inside. Bringing that bad boy
RW>> to a stop from highway speeds can even be fun. Iirc it tips the
RW>> scales when the duals in back are on the platform at 18k or
RW>> thereabouts.
Roy>> One nice thing about air and hydraulic assisted braking is that the
Roy>> power assist does all the work with just a light touch by the
Roy>> driver. The first time I towed the race car and trailer, I had no
Roy>> electronic hook-up for the trailer brakes and it was all the 4
Roy>> wheel discs on the pickup could do to bring that baby down. It was
Roy>> at that time that I gave more thought to installing the trailer
Roy>> brake controller in the pickup.
RW> YEah I know, and this one just has the hydraulics. Has the
RW> air horn though, but the tank for the air horn seems to
RW> slowly leak air.
Roy> Might be a cracked hose too.
That's what I'm thinking, just a bit of a leak, and the tank looks good. But,
if you don't use the air horn you can see
the air gauge go down.
RW> I think it was aftermarketed to just use hydraulics for the brakes,
RW> and I'm not sure that was such a great idea.
Roy> Hydraulic assisted braking is an OEM heavy duty truck feature.
Roy> Especially if it's a diesel powered truck. Although I've seen big
Roy> block gasoline powered Chevys in 3500HDs using OEM hydraulic
Roy> assisted braking.
Right, this is gasoline, the usual 350 cubic inch v8. I've
replaced the hydraulic booster pump twice now. <arrrrgh> I don't know what
I'm going to do when it needs more work, my
favorite big truck mechanic around here retired, lost his
lease and threw in the towel, he's an old guy anyway. I've
been to two other guys out here in the county who would
apparently do big trucks, but one I don't trust, and the
other ... well I'm not really sure about him either. HE
doesn't act like he wants to work that badly. The guy who
sold me this dOdge van says he'll tackle some jobs for me,
but he's more of a hobbyist, and a building contractor for
his day gig. The guy I might trust if I could get him to
show an interest in working seems to have more business than he wants from the
area farmers though, and his dad lives
down the street and across it from me, and we got off on the wrong foot shortly
after i moved in because his dog used to
be just let loose to ramble the neighborhood, and used to
harrass my dog, who's properly restrained when she's out.
HIs wife ran to rescue their dog once and made a comment
which didn't get a sympathetic response from me, after all,
my dog never runs wild in the neighborhood, theirs does.
<small town life>.
Roy>>> I've heard stories about those bulls, but havn't seen any of it up
Roy>>> close. It seemed like every RR employee was on the lookout for
Roy>>> youngsters crossing the tracks at the yard. A chase would always
Roy>>> ensue and when we made it to the 'other side' the chase ended.
Roy>>> Don't know what would have happened had we been caught, since we
Roy>>> were always faster than those fat bellied RR workers. 8^)
RW>> YEah I noted that with the bulls even in the railroad shops, we used
RW>> to cut through there to go sledding,
<snip>
Roy>> Charges of trespassing comes to mind. That's about all they could
Roy>> do.
RW> YEah that's about all they could do. THe boes used to say
RW> though that the bulls sort of enjoyed whipping up on 'em a
RW> bit if they could catch 'em. We may have been able to
RW> outrun those guys, but part of being small twon kids was
RW> that everybody knew everybody, and no doubt one of those
RW> guys would know at least one kid in the group, and parents
RW> would be notified, and the usual lectures ensue.
Roy> OTH, had one of those kids been beaten up by a bull, the shoe would
Roy> be on the other foot. I'd have feigned mild injuries whether that
Roy> bull caught me or not. 'He twisted my arm and kicked me in the butt,
Roy> dad!' Being a RR buff, my dad knew those guys too.
YEp, and in West Burlington they didn't really have to lay a hand on us, just
pick out the kid they knew, tell parents,
let parents handle it.
RW> IT was just so much quicker to cut through the yard at the railroad
RW> shops than to walk around via the roads.
Roy> The only other way to the fishing ponds was down the two-lane
Roy> highway and over the guard rail at the bridge...
YEp, same sort of thing, cross the bridge over the main rail line after going a
good distance east, then come back in on
a gravel road. Just as easy to cut through the shops and
their attendant yard.
Roy>>>> Illinois Central ran through Freeport, where my grandfather
Roy>>>> (clark) would get on board as the conductor of the Land-O-Corn,
Roy>>>> ride it into Iowa and back to Chicago and then back to Freeport
Roy>>>> where he got off...all of that track is gone now and so are the
Roy>>>> yards and the depot.
<snip>
RW>>> YEp, my mom's dad was an engineer for C B & Q, and then for
RW>>> SAnta Fe. One of her uncles who lived in MEdia, Il. not too far
RW>>> from where you grew up iirc was a fireman in the steam days.
Roy>>> Hmmm. Media is in Chicago. Freeport is about 120 miles to the west
Roy>>> of Chi-town, on Illinois/Interstate 20...
RW>> YEp, that sounds about right.
<snip>
Roy> Riding the train into Chicago and back was quite an experience, one
Roy> that I'll never forget. I've forgotten most of the western shows,
Roy> but the trains still impress me.
ME too. I'd rather take the train long distance than the
Grey dog, but often the Grey dog goes closer to where i want to go, and is
cheaper. STill, did some train traveling with my grandmother as a kid, and
always liked it much better.
Get up and move around more, go to the dining car to eat,
etc. Iirc they even had a bar car where Grandma could ahve
a libation when I went to Chicago with her a couple of
times. That was a real special occasion of a summer when
the folks would let us go with Grandma to Chicago.
RW> MOm's aunt lived in Villla Park when I was growing up, when we'd go
RW> over there to visit I'd hear lots of stories. IN fact,
RW> mom's aunt on her mom's side, the uncle I referenced was on
RW> her dad's, who lived in the Chicago area all the time I was
RW> growing up married a farmer from outside there where
RW> Standard Oil wanted to build a facility, I think
RW> distribution and possibly refining.
Roy> That had to be around the lower East Side, maybe close to Calumet
Roy> City.
That sound very familiar, so I'm betting you're right on
that one.
RW> Part of the deal for his farmland was S.O. stock, and she still had
RW> quite a bit of it when she died.
Roy> Would have been nice to be mentioned in that will.
OH yeah it sure would have been, but they had an only child, a daughter, and
she did fairly well by it. Mom aunt wasn't
actually profligate with her resources, but when you
traveled with her or did anything she wanted to make sure
the world knew that she and hers could afford the very best. When she was
pretty far gone I took my new bride to visit
her when we honeymooned and combined it with a convention in Chicago, auntie
come out of her purse with a $100 bill and
told us where she wanted us to go for supper down near the
Palmer HOuse where we were staying. HEr place was one of
the first i ever saw with central air conditioning in fact.
RW>>> THis one was same vintage, Murray Iron works iirc.
RW>>> DIfferent name now, but it's still in business, friend of
RW>>> mine's a machinist for 'em. My xyl sold him some "joe
RW>>> blocks" is waht he called them that were her ex husbands.
Roy>>> Stover went belly up during the depression or after WW2 ... Jo
Roy>>> Blocks were called that because the inventor's name was Joe
Roy>>> something. He was a Swede, I think. They're precision metal blocks
Roy>>> that are lapped to size and they're supposed to have a tolerance
Roy>>> of plus or minus .0001"... If you gave them some finger-oil and
Roy>>> rub a few together, they'd stick together if you needed a stack to
Roy>>> make up a set thickness of blocks. Too expensive for a machinist
Roy>>> to buy, but they were easily lost for whatever reason. I have a
Roy>>> few odds and ends in my tool box that I used to check the accuracy
Roy>>> of my 'mics'
RW>> That sounds about right. These had a nice carrying case. I thought
RW>> they were probably templates for something like that.
RW>> Not templates, but precision building blocks...
RW> Okay, wrong choice of words there <grin>.
RW>> Iirc he gave the xyl a couple hundred bucks for 'em. WAs a nice set,
RW>> you coudl tell that just by looking, and my buddy the machinist was
RW>> quite happy to get them at that price.
Roy>> I'll bet. I'd give a couple of hundred for a set.
RW> I'd bet so. sHe felt she got a good deal though, we needed
RW> the $$$ and didn't need them. HE was crowing about the good deal he
RW> got, he was the only machinist around the plant had some.
Roy> I think I'm the only one in town who does custom machining that has
Roy> an 18" by 24" granite plate for checking the parts I make. It would
Roy> be nice to have a set of 'jo blocks' to go with it. Not that
Roy> anything I do these days has to be that accurate.
true, but it would be nice to know you could do that sort of precision work if
you wanted to I'll bet. I'm still beating the bushes around here for somebody
does some machine shop
work. I'm trying to find soembody who'll do a device which
will go into my trailer hitch receiver on the van, I put one of those sections
of portable military masting in it,
tighten the setscrew and then add a fwe more mast sections.
A friend of mine has such a system, but the guy who rigged
it up for him's no longer around here, and I haven't found
anybody else around here does custom work like that. I"ve
got another local I intend to talk to though next time I see him at a radio
club meeting. IF he's still got access to
the shop, and appropriate metal stock he'll probably
fabricate it up for me for a reasonable price.
Roy>>> LOL! Been there and done that. Dropped on my knees to a block of
Roy>>> concrete just under the water's surface. I didn't have much fun
Roy>>> that day.
RW>> <ouch. Can picture it. The cedar river there was sort of a gravel
RW>> bed, and though it ran fairly fast through there it wasn't that
RW>> deep, and i knew letting go of my handhold was not a good idea!
Roy>> Definately not a good idea. Water tends to pack gravel down so it
Roy>> can be as hard as concrete to land on.
RW> That's kinda what I figured even then, didn't look like any
RW> fun.
RW> It wouldn't have been.
I was quite sure of that one. I thought I was taking a
shortcut down a hillside in the woods one afternoon, ended
up going down what was vertical bouncing off the rock after
I belly flopped when I tried to run off the cliff,
unbeknownst to old blind man. NOw if i don't carry the
white cane in the woods I've got a good sized trekking pole
that I can use to feel around in front of me <grin>.
Regards,
Richard
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* Origin: (1:116/901)
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