ALL ABOOOAAARRRRD!!!

One of the things that I was very happy to bring home with me from Grandma's house was an American Flyer S-gauge train set built in 1953. While I am sure that it was originally purchased for my older brothers, I fondly remember playing with it as a child. Below is a picture of the engine.

Unfortunately after I unpacked it it was clear that the cord to the power supply/transformer needed to be replaced as it was literally crumbling. After disassembling it, soldering the wires, etc I plugged it in and there was power to the track. Then the train proceeded to hum, click, spark and do everything but move. Following a little bit of internet reseach I found a fellow in New York that was more than happy to correspond with me a few times and give me a some pointers on what may be wrong and how I might get it working again. He also emailed me a copy of the original 60 page instruction manual on how the train worked that was extremely helpful. With this info I proceeded to do a thorough cleaning of the track and metal electrified wheels, and then take apart the engine so I could clean, lubricate and fix a couple of pieces that were broken. If you look a the video below you'll see the fruits of my labors.

There is something very soothing about sitting in the middle of the track and watching it go round and round. My family thinks I am crazy. My next thing to do is buy some more track and switches on ebay and set up a layout on a 4'x8' ft sheet of plywood. Hopefully I'll get it done before Christmas so I'll have something to do with my train crazy grandson. Ah, retirement is sweet.

Sometimes I Amaze Even Myself

So about 10 days ago our big screen TV finally went kaput after 11 years of faithful service. I still say it was the best money I ever spent. Pretty much all the experts say that when a TV is that old that it is not worth the money to try and repair as something else will eventually go wrong and you'll be out the $500 average service call. I pretty much had resigned myself to having to buy a new plasma or lcd TV (oh darn). HOWEVER, being a true Torgesen, dropping that kind of cash tends to give me severe pains, so I looked for an alternative.

I went on to Google and described the symtoms that my TV was having, (would not turn on, red light on in the back.) After a bit of searching I came across a discussion thread where several others had the same problem after 10-11 years. Fortunately a service person was also contributing and described two components on the massive PC board that are often the cause of this malfunction. Two or three people had tried the fix and it had worked for them.

So I ordered the parts off the internet as I wanted to give it a try (nothing to lose!) A few days later they arrived and I started to look at what I needed to do. In the first place the back of the TV is a rat's nest of wires, components, etc. So I have to disconnect several things and partially slide the PC board out to get access, then clip off the old components. I had practiced soldering on some copper wire so that hopefully I wouldn't wreck anything. Then with the help of Mom (holding the board so I could get at it) and Brooke (holding the component in place), I then proceeded to solder the pieces onto the exposed leads that I had left from the old ones.

Then came the moment of truth... plugging it in. Amazingly enough it fired right up and after connecting the antenna, the picture came in great. So now I've got it running for a few hours to make sure it keeps going before moving it back into the house. Total cost... parts $5, shipping $10, soldering pencil and solder $15... total cost to repair $30. Now that's a sense of accomplishment!!

Squirelly Squirrel

Seems we have an univited guest at our bird feeder this year. I'm going to have to put on my thinking cap to figure out how to out smart him!

Don't Have a Heart Attack

Hi Everybody,

Now don't keel over since we're updating the blog today. We just finished our Spring Break Trip to Denver and Salem and wanted to post a few of our favorite pictures...

In front of Denver's famous Casa Bonita restaurant

Flying a kite at Gleneden Beach

Grandma's favorite thing to do

OK... so no more complaining about not updating the blog!!!

Miss Us?

Don't worry. We didn't get attacked by bears or anything.
We just don't know how to blog.

More to come soon....hopefully.