The Random Thoughts Thread

[John Oke]

10 hours ago, TTC Guy said:

Thanks all for the advice, unfortunately she already knows I like transit as well as aviation and still talks to me which is great. I’m going to take it slowly cause I have a tendency to mess things up

Hold up were you the guy on the CLRV farewell trip (4001)who was being all nerdy and telling girls facts about the CLRV?

[TTC Guy]

33 minutes ago, John Oke said:

Hold up were you the guy on the CLRV farewell trip (4001)who was being all nerdy and telling girls facts about the CLRV?

No, I was not able to make the day as I was out of town with family. Thanks for the advice everyone, I’ll let you know how it goes. 

[Bus_Medic]

42 minutes ago, John Oke said:

Hold up were you the guy on the CLRV farewell trip (4001)who was being all nerdy and telling girls facts about the CLRV?

Nice......

[Wayside Observer]

On February 16, 2020 at 10:17 PM, J. S. Bach said:

Mine is a 270 series 2. Great meter, I use it more than the digital one that I have.

That's a nice meter.  The 270 is the improved precision model, right?  Does it have the parallax mirror strip on the dial face?  I did some digging when I got my 260 because I was surprised it didn't have the mirror and discovered it was an option.  It'd be a shame to have the higher precision meter but then possibly negate it with parallax error if you inadvertently look at the dial pointer from a bit of an angle instead of square on.

On February 22, 2020 at 11:33 PM, Doppelkupplung said:

Also not a bad idea to have other hobbies and interests that lie outside of transit. Greater chance of connecting with more people. Just my two cents.

No kidding.  You don't want to be a one-trick-dog that's completely consumed by one interest.  That's a slippery slope down to turning into the extreme kind of foamer that does one thing obsessively and totally puts other people off.  That's actually one of the reasons for the football helmet picture.  I'm kind of taking a shot at them since I do a lot more than just train stuff whereas a lot of the worst foamers world's begin and end at steel wheels on rails or bus tires.

5 hours ago, John Oke said:

Hold up were you the guy on the CLRV farewell trip (4001)who was being all nerdy and telling girls facts about the CLRV?

Yes, exactly, that kind of foamer.  I can only shake my head.

[J. S. Bach]

On 2/24/2020 at 1:35 PM, Wayside Observer said:

That's a nice meter.  The 270 is the improved precision model, right?  Does it have the parallax mirror strip on the dial face?  I did some digging when I got my 260 because I was surprised it didn't have the mirror and discovered it was an option.  It'd be a shame to have the higher precision meter but then possibly negate it with parallax error if you inadvertently look at the dial pointer from a bit of an angle instead of square on.

Yes, it does have the mirrored strip. I believe that the model number would have an "M" after it (260-6M) to indicate the parallax mirror. I suppose that I should snap a few photos of mine. As a temporary stand-in here is a nixie tube display operating at a high rate of change:

And a frequency counter:

 

[Downsview 108]

On 2/24/2020 at 7:29 AM, John Oke said:

Hold up were you the guy on the CLRV farewell trip (4001)who was being all nerdy and telling girls facts about the CLRV?

Come on, those are some solid pick up lines.

-Girl you look so good you make it go from an L2 to an L3!

-Girl you look so good I'd charter you just to get in your carhouse.

-Girl if UTDC made anything prettier I hope they kept it for themselves.

 

 

[Thomasw]

I just learned that my Ex has now moved on...

 

 

 

 

 

 

and is now dating my best friend. WTF. This sounds like some sick sh*t right out of some kinda porno

[Downsview 108]

Write a country song about it.

[John Oke]

1 hour ago, Downsview 108 said:

Come on, those are some solid pick up lines.

-Girl you look so good you make it go from an L2 to an L3!

-Girl you look so good I'd charter you just to get in your carhouse.

-Girl if UTDC made anything prettier I hope they kept it for themselves.

 

 

He was telling them facts about the Streetcars and why 4001 is special

[Downsview 108]

54 minutes ago, John Oke said:

He was telling them facts about the Streetcars and why 4001 is special

That's some next level game right there.

[Doppelkupplung]

Trivial observation:

There are some days when I listen to old ZF ecomat 6 speeds rowing through all the ratios, and I'm like this just couldn't get any better. 

 

On 2/26/2020 at 9:53 AM, Downsview 108 said:

Come on, those are some solid pick up lines.

-Girl you look so good you make it go from an L2 to an L3!

-Girl you look so good I'd charter you just to get in your carhouse.

-Girl if UTDC made anything prettier I hope they kept it for themselves.

 

 

Or for our beloved bus frothing department, "Hey girl, you're the Allison to my Cummins". 

 

There's a funny Allison meme out there somewhere. I'll try and find it. 

[Bus_Medic]

I almost named my daughter Allison.

-true story.

[Doppelkupplung]

Found it

[Wayside Observer]

On 2/26/2020 at 9:53 AM, Downsview 108 said:

Come on, those are some solid pick up lines.

-Girl you look so good you make it go from an L2 to an L3!

-Girl you look so good I'd charter you just to get in your carhouse.

-Girl if UTDC made anything prettier I hope they kept it for themselves.

Oh brother.  I can see the giant hook coming out from behind the curtains at the side to drag you off the stage.

On 2/25/2020 at 4:04 PM, J. S. Bach said:

Yes, it does have the mirrored strip. I believe that the model number would have an "M" after it (260-6M) to indicate the parallax mirror. I suppose that I should snap a few photos of mine. As a temporary stand-in here is a nixie tube display operating at a high rate of change:

And a frequency counter:

 

Very nice!   I decided to go for broke and try to get some vintage analog, LED and nixie in the same picture all while doing something useful.
 

I picked up a vintage HP calculator for a reasonable price the other night since the battery pack was long gone and one of the corroded battery terminals broke off when the seller tried to clean it.  The calculator also didn’t work when he tried to run it off the AC adapter either, which could have fried it since the calculator depends on a good battery pack being present to load down the incoming voltage so I had some testing to do:

Hook up a seriously old Canadian Research Institute power supply to the calculator.  There was more than enough of the broken off terminal to get a clip lead to bite to.

Hook up a snazzy vintage Philips nixie DMM as a sanity check of the power supply’s voltmeter.

And there it is working.  Luckily the calculator didn’t fry.  Analog, LEDs, and nixies.

Here’s a closeup is the DMM measuring the output of the calculator’s adapter.  It’s rated at a nominal 10 V AC out and here it is providing it.  There’s an intermittent in the cord that must’ve saved the calculator from getting blasted when the guy selling it tried to power it up.  I love how the far left indicator tube indicates the meter’s in AC though.

FOAM.  Just for fun, I did put some foam into one of the pictures for you guys.  Can you find it?

[Downsview 108]

8 hours ago, Wayside Observer said:

Oh brother.  I can see the giant hook coming out from behind the curtains at the side to drag you off the stage.

Very nice!   I decided to go for broke and try to get some vintage analog, LED and nixie in the same picture all while doing something useful.
 

I picked up a vintage HP calculator for a reasonable price the other night since the battery pack was long gone and one of the corroded battery terminals broke off when the seller tried to clean it.  The calculator also didn’t work when he tried to run it off the AC adapter either, which could have fried it since the calculator depends on a good battery pack being present to load down the incoming voltage so I had some testing to do:

Hook up a seriously old Canadian Research Institute power supply to the calculator.  There was more than enough of the broken off terminal to get a clip lead to bite to.

Hook up a snazzy vintage Philips nixie DMM as a sanity check of the power supply’s voltmeter.

And there it is working.  Luckily the calculator didn’t fry.  Analog, LEDs, and nixies.

Here’s a closeup is the DMM measuring the output of the calculator’s adapter.  It’s rated at a nominal 10 V AC out and here it is providing it.  There’s an intermittent in the cord that must’ve saved the calculator from getting blasted when the guy selling it tried to power it up.  I love how the far left indicator tube indicates the meter’s in AC though.

FOAM.  Just for fun, I did put some foam into one of the pictures for you guys.  Can you find it?

man that multimeter looks sweet.

As for the foam, I'm guessing the "4500" on the calculator.

Speaking of which, I think one of my classmates brought one of those old HP calculators to class but it had those old blue LEDs. Did HP make any like that? Maybe it was a different brand. I like that type of display as much as nixie tubes. I use an old BSR X-10 unit as a desk clock.

 

[Wayside Observer]

5 hours ago, Downsview 108 said:

man that multimeter looks sweet.

As for the foam, I'm guessing the "4500" on the calculator.

Speaking of which, I think one of my classmates brought one of those old HP calculators to class but it had those old blue LEDs. Did HP make any like that? Maybe it was a different brand. I like that type of display as much as nixie tubes. I use an old BSR X-10 unit as a desk clock.

 

That Philips DMM was a $10 Kijiji find, believe it or not.  Actually, come to think of it, that's the second nixie Philips DMM that was a $10 Kijiji find that I picked up.  Both were listed as multimeters and neither of them mentioned that they had nixie displays so anybody searching by keyword for nixie wouldn't have had them turn up in their results but I was browsing multimeters in each case and saw the distinctive readout in the thumbnail pictures and was able to score each of them for the $10 asking price since I didn't haggle.  I'll spin up the other one and take some pictures later today if I get a chance.  I really should spin up the vintage gear more often than I do but that's another story.

Blue LEDs are a fairly recent innovation.  Calculators and watches etc. got away from LEDs pretty fast because of the drain they have on batteries which is why they're all older and kind of scarce these days; their day ended before blue LEDs came out.  Chances are what your friend had was a calculator with a vacuum fluorescent display.  VFDs could have a strong blue tint to them between the colour of the phosphor used and the filter over top of the display being tinted blue to suppress the faint orange glow from the display's warm filament wires.  I don't know for sure that they never made any but I can't think of any HP calculator that had a VFD display so what your friend had was probably made by a different company.

That's a nice X10 controller!  Have you ever hooked any devices up to it?  That's a good reminder that home automation and smart homes are not exactly a new thing and that the concept predates the internet by quite a large margin.

You are correct, the 4500 on the calculator was the foam.  I threw it in because why not?  There was an opportunity to work some foam in so I did.  Speaking of foam, here's a random foam thought based on a conversation from a couple of weeks ago:

The basis in fact behind the foam BS:  Braking takes precedence over power on PCC cars.

The foam BS:  Because braking is a higher priority in power on PCC cars, it is impossible for PCC cars to experience brake failures.

The truth:  Even though braking does take priority over power on PCC cars, PCCs can and do experience brake failures.  Nobody has managed to build a vehicle yet that has made a brake failure an impossibility.

[Downsview 108]

19 hours ago, Wayside Observer said:

That Philips DMM was a $10 Kijiji find, believe it or not.  Actually, come to think of it, that's the second nixie Philips DMM that was a $10 Kijiji find that I picked up.  Both were listed as multimeters and neither of them mentioned that they had nixie displays so anybody searching by keyword for nixie wouldn't have had them turn up in their results but I was browsing multimeters in each case and saw the distinctive readout in the thumbnail pictures and was able to score each of them for the $10 asking price since I didn't haggle.  I'll spin up the other one and take some pictures later today if I get a chance.  I really should spin up the vintage gear more often than I do but that's another story.

Blue LEDs are a fairly recent innovation.  Calculators and watches etc. got away from LEDs pretty fast because of the drain they have on batteries which is why they're all older and kind of scarce these days; their day ended before blue LEDs came out.  Chances are what your friend had was a calculator with a vacuum fluorescent display.  VFDs could have a strong blue tint to them between the colour of the phosphor used and the filter over top of the display being tinted blue to suppress the faint orange glow from the display's warm filament wires.  I don't know for sure that they never made any but I can't think of any HP calculator that had a VFD display so what your friend had was probably made by a different company.

That's a nice X10 controller!  Have you ever hooked any devices up to it?  That's a good reminder that home automation and smart homes are not exactly a new thing and that the concept predates the internet by quite a large margin.

You are correct, the 4500 on the calculator was the foam.  I threw it in because why not?  There was an opportunity to work some foam in so I did.  Speaking of foam, here's a random foam thought based on a conversation from a couple of weeks ago:

The basis in fact behind the foam BS:  Braking takes precedence over power on PCC cars.

The foam BS:  Because braking is a higher priority in power on PCC cars, it is impossible for PCC cars to experience brake failures.

The truth:  Even though braking does take priority over power on PCC cars, PCCs can and do experience brake failures.  Nobody has managed to build a vehicle yet that has made a brake failure an impossibility.

Does that Philips multimeter work just as any old multimeter you'd buy at Canadian Tire or The Source? If so, I am DEFINITELY getting me one of those. That is the coolest thing I've ever seen. And you must have been running red lights to get that deal before someone else scooped it up. It looks like it's worth a lot more than just $10 bucks. Sad to think that if that went that cheap, then there must be countless other vintage gems out there that people just threw away because no one wanted them. 

I never heard of VFD. I always thought it was an early colour of LED but it has a very unique look to it. Is that the same thing that is on this X-10 unit? My friend's calculator may have been a SHARP brand, I can't remember. Basically the same display as an older printing calculator but without the printing. The buttons on those old calculators probably were designed to alert your teacher or professor if you were using one on a test when you weren't suppose to. They remind me of those old Jerrold converter box remotes. So tactile you need two fingers to depress the buttons.

I never hooked up anything to the controller. In fact, I don't think anything is supposed to hook up directly to it. I think it sends signals to whatever device it is controlling through the power lines. I found it in a random box of stuff I bought for maybe $7. Just thought it looked cooler than my $40 Dream Machine LOL. Keeps time perfectly I might add. It actually sets time faster than any clock radio I have ever seen. 

LMAO touche. I see you've used a PCC streetcar reference next to electronic testing equipment. Pretty slick.  Don't let anyone from HCRR see this post.

Was that brake theory an actual foamer theory that you heard? Hopefully not from a mechanic.

[Wayside Observer]

On 2/29/2020 at 10:42 AM, Downsview 108 said:

Does that Philips multimeter work just as any old multimeter you'd buy at Canadian Tire or The Source? If so, I am DEFINITELY getting me one of those. That is the coolest thing I've ever seen. And you must have been running red lights to get that deal before someone else scooped it up. It looks like it's worth a lot more than just $10 bucks. Sad to think that if that went that cheap, then there must be countless other vintage gems out there that people just threw away because no one wanted them. 

That Philips works the same way as any other non-autoranging meter does where you push the button to chose AC or DC, crank the knob to the V, mA, or Ohms range you want to use for your measurement, hook up the leads and read the result.  It’s actually very similar to this one from Canadian Tire.

I fired up the other two Philips PM2423 nixie DMMs I have along with the PM2422 and hooked them up to the power supply. You can see a bit of difference in the readings between meters.  Some of it’s probably the meters themselves but most of it’s probably attributable to less than good connections with the fast crappy hookup job I did to daisy chain them.  

It looks like I was able to squeeze in a short clip under the 10 MB post limit of the digits changing on two of them as the power supply’s output filter caps discharged after I switched it off but it isn’t the greatest footage I’ve shot so apologies for that.

The one on the left was another $10 Kijiji find and the one on the right was $80, so that’s $100 worth of vintage nixie multimeters there.   The power supply was $40 and all of them came from Kijiji.  There are deals out there but not on eBay where nixie tube stuff commands a collector’s premium and it is possible to set up a retro workbench without breaking the bank.

 

On 2/29/2020 at 10:42 AM, Downsview 108 said:

I never heard of VFD. I always thought it was an early colour of LED but it has a very unique look to it. Is that the same thing that is on this X-10 unit? My friend's calculator may have been a SHARP brand, I can't remember. Basically the same display as an older printing calculator but without the printing. The buttons on those old calculators probably were designed to alert your teacher or professor if you were using one on a test when you weren't suppose to. They remind me of those old Jerrold converter box remotes. So tactile you need two fingers to depress the buttons.

Yes, that’d be vacuum fluorescent displays for sure.  It looks like that X10 controller has one too.  They were common in VCRs and still are in microwave ovens.

On 2/29/2020 at 10:42 AM, Downsview 108 said:

I never hooked up anything to the controller. In fact, I don't think anything is supposed to hook up directly to it. I think it sends signals to whatever device it is controlling through the power lines. I found it in a random box of stuff I bought for maybe $7. Just thought it looked cooler than my $40 Dream Machine LOL. Keeps time perfectly I might add. It actually sets time faster than any clock radio I have ever seen. 

The carrier medium for X10 is typically the power line so you’re already half hooked up by plugging it in and turning it on.  I was just wondering if you’d hooked up any of the downstream devices elsewhere and used it’s control functions.

On 2/29/2020 at 10:42 AM, Downsview 108 said:

LMAO touche. I see you've used a PCC streetcar reference next to electronic testing equipment. Pretty slick.  Don't let anyone from HCRR see this post.

Was that brake theory an actual foamer theory that you heard? Hopefully not from a mechanic.

It wasn’t from a mechanic, it was from an instructor.  Mechanics at trolley museums usually pretty good and stick to the facts or working theories as they’re understood to be (new information does come along and causes things to be revised in light of it as it does in any environment) and say so if they don’t know something instead of veering off into theories that are totally bonkers.  Outside of shop staff, trolley museum people seem to vary wildly from what I’ve seen.  As in all over the map.

Let’s do another.

The basis in fact behind the foam BS:

Someone was operating a streetcar with a conventional K type platform controller and straight manual lapping air brake valve very slowly but eventually got it up into parallel with a bit of speed.

The foam BS:

I’ll just quote this one. “She’s only running on one motor now and I can feel it, she’s getting tired.”

The truth:

If your streetcar is down to one working motor, regardless of whether it’s a two motor or a four motor car, you’d better be moving it with the dead motors cut out.  When you do that, throwing any of the motor cut out switches in a K how platform controller, it causes a lever to move into position where it blocks the controller from being moved past full series.  Since the streetcar did finally pick up some speed once the guy wound it up and got it into parallel, we know for certain it was on the full complement of motors.  This one actually caused three of us to have a WTF moment among ourselves later.  I was disarming people by saying my experience is mainly with operating and maintaining PCC cars and we had a good laugh at the way I framed it.

Anyways, electronics with K controller references, yes shhh it’s true I can do pre-1936 equipment too, but yeah we’d better not let HCRR see this post either.  Actually, speaking of K controllers, HCRR, and trolley museums in general, the whole limit the streetcar to series only routine is usually accomplished by doing exactly that, throwing a motor cutout switch in the controller.  There’s probably a good chance if you pop the cover off the controllers in 2424 or 2894 and cut all the motors in, you’d have the whole range back on those cars.  Well, we’d definitely better not let them see this post!

[T3G]

 

  

On 2/3/2020 at 12:59 PM, PCC Guy said:

Found out that I cost myself the chance to win a rare, out of print book on the history of buses in Bratislava because I don't use Facebook in Slovak, and therefore I didn't understand the exact terms of a contest.

In Slovak, "správy" means "news", so I assumed that when I was informed to send a photo submission to their "správa" (singular form of news), they meant it as a reply to their post (because when you make a social media post, you are sharing news, be it of a personal or business-related nature). This post went up in mid January, and already 3 other people had replied with photos, so I put 2 and 2 together and replied to the post with a submission of my own. As the month dragged on, no other people ended up entering the contest, so I was starting to think I had it in the bag. The contest was supposed to close on January 31, and on February 1, all of the photos submitted would be posted by the host of the contest (the transit company that runs regional trains and buses in the Bratislava area), and 3 of those who got the most likes and heart reacts would win a package which includes a hoodie, an umbrella, a water battle, a copy of a new book on the history of trolleybuses in Bratislava (which I already have on order, so I would have a second copy that I would've sold), and the aforementioned book on the history of buses in the city, which came out in early 2018 and had a limited print run, and is now next to impossible to source.

Well, yesterday I inquired about when they were planning on posting the photos, since February 1 had come and gone, and while I didn't get a reply from them, someone replied that I was not supposed to reply to their comment, but to send it to their "správa" - and it was only after inquiring with my parents, whose first language is Slovak, did I discover that you were supposed to send it as a DM.

The book is impossible to source otherwise. It's not in print anymore, and no one is selling second hand copies of it on the internet.

+∞ self hatred/stupidity points pour moi

 

Remember this post? Well they ended up accepting my photo submission, and I ended up winning the contest, which closed on February 29. They announced the winners today but strangely have not contacted me about where to deliver the prize package to (which is why I didn't post this in the FY moments thread).

EDIT: Alright, I'm in. Life turns out alright sometimes

[Downsview 108]

On 3/3/2020 at 11:37 AM, Wayside Observer said:

That Philips works the same way as any other non-autoranging meter does where you push the button to chose AC or DC, crank the knob to the V, mA, or Ohms range you want to use for your measurement, hook up the leads and read the result.  It’s actually very similar to this one from Canadian Tire.

I fired up the other two Philips PM2423 nixie DMMs I have along with the PM2422 and hooked them up to the power supply. You can see a bit of difference in the readings between meters.  Some of it’s probably the meters themselves but most of it’s probably attributable to less than good connections with the fast crappy hookup job I did to daisy chain them.  

 

IMG_6890.MOV 6.22 MB · 0 downloads

It looks like I was able to squeeze in a short clip under the 10 MB post limit of the digits changing on two of them as the power supply’s output filter caps discharged after I switched it off but it isn’t the greatest footage I’ve shot so apologies for that.

The one on the left was another $10 Kijiji find and the one on the right was $80, so that’s $100 worth of vintage nixie multimeters there.   The power supply was $40 and all of them came from Kijiji.  There are deals out there but not on eBay where nixie tube stuff commands a collector’s premium and it is possible to set up a retro workbench without breaking the bank.

 

Yes, that’d be vacuum fluorescent displays for sure.  It looks like that X10 controller has one too.  They were common in VCRs and still are in microwave ovens.

The carrier medium for X10 is typically the power line so you’re already half hooked up by plugging it in and turning it on.  I was just wondering if you’d hooked up any of the downstream devices elsewhere and used it’s control functions.

It wasn’t from a mechanic, it was from an instructor.  Mechanics at trolley museums usually pretty good and stick to the facts or working theories as they’re understood to be (new information does come along and causes things to be revised in light of it as it does in any environment) and say so if they don’t know something instead of veering off into theories that are totally bonkers.  Outside of shop staff, trolley museum people seem to vary wildly from what I’ve seen.  As in all over the map.

Let’s do another.

The basis in fact behind the foam BS:

Someone was operating a streetcar with a conventional K type platform controller and straight manual lapping air brake valve very slowly but eventually got it up into parallel with a bit of speed.

The foam BS:

I’ll just quote this one. “She’s only running on one motor now and I can feel it, she’s getting tired.”

The truth:

If your streetcar is down to one working motor, regardless of whether it’s a two motor or a four motor car, you’d better be moving it with the dead motors cut out.  When you do that, throwing any of the motor cut out switches in a K how platform controller, it causes a lever to move into position where it blocks the controller from being moved past full series.  Since the streetcar did finally pick up some speed once the guy wound it up and got it into parallel, we know for certain it was on the full complement of motors.  This one actually caused three of us to have a WTF moment among ourselves later.  I was disarming people by saying my experience is mainly with operating and maintaining PCC cars and we had a good laugh at the way I framed it.

Anyways, electronics with K controller references, yes shhh it’s true I can do pre-1936 equipment too, but yeah we’d better not let HCRR see this post either.  Actually, speaking of K controllers, HCRR, and trolley museums in general, the whole limit the streetcar to series only routine is usually accomplished by doing exactly that, throwing a motor cutout switch in the controller.  There’s probably a good chance if you pop the cover off the controllers in 2424 or 2894 and cut all the motors in, you’d have the whole range back on those cars.  Well, we’d definitely better not let them see this post!

Thanks for that. Nice video. I assume the machine at the top-right has a red filter to get the text to look that colour? I also noticed how quickly the numbers change without fading. I have never seen a Nixie tube display in person so I had no idea. Thought it would fade like a light bulb. I will definitely keep my eyes open on Kijiji or other places like estate sales if those are around. I don't have any electronics projects lined up (and haven't for years) but I'll find something if I can make use of a beautiful machine like that!

Oh ok. I don't have any devices compatible with the X-10 (at least to my knowledge) so I wouldn't be able to test if this thing still works. It was a bit dirty when I got it. I wonder. How did they keep a machine like this from turning off your neighbours appliances?

I see. You'd think instructors would simply ask the mechanics if there's something they don't know.

LOL thanks for that info. I haven't been to HCRR in nearly 20 years. I rode a couple Witts there a few times but they never made that motor whining sound. Does that series-limit have to do with that? The montreal suburban car and the snow plow I rode there once were pretty fast. Hard to believe those were in series. I imagine they have the old style controller as well. Do they even bring those cars out to ride anymore, by the way? I also remember riding the Rail Grinder (the old single truck one) but that wasn't going very fast.

 

[J. S. Bach]

On 2/26/2020 at 10:03 AM, Thomasw said:

I just learned that my Ex has now moved on... and is now dating my best friend. WTF. This sounds like some sick sh*t right out of some kinda porno

More like a weekday tv soap.

[Wayside Observer]

On March 4, 2020 at 12:46 PM, Downsview 108 said:

Thanks for that. Nice video. I assume the machine at the top-right has a red filter to get the text to look that colour? I also noticed how quickly the numbers change without fading. I have never seen a Nixie tube display in person so I had no idea. Thought it would fade like a light bulb. I will definitely keep my eyes open on Kijiji or other places like estate sales if those are around. I don't have any electronics projects lined up (and haven't for years) but I'll find something if I can make use of a beautiful machine like that!

Even if nothing else, just checking batteries is a good excuse for turning on the neat old stuff if you find one.  The larger meter has a very deep red filter over the display that gives the readout that colour.  It also knocks the brightness down a lot.  I was having trouble getting decent pictures with all three meters on between not underexposing the seriously dark red display into oblivion while not blowing the other two so much that they were unreadable.  I've got a lot of reject photos on my phone to delete from that...

On March 4, 2020 at 12:46 PM, Downsview 108 said:

Oh ok. I don't have any devices compatible with the X-10 (at least to my knowledge) so I wouldn't be able to test if this thing still works. It was a bit dirty when I got it. I wonder. How did they keep a machine like this from turning off your neighbours appliances?

It's a very weak signal modulated onto the power line.  My guess is that they put it on the neutral.  I was thinking about this and there's no guarantee that any downstream device is going to be on the same 120 V leg of the power supply that the controller's on but the neutral's common to everything except for the odd 240-only item like electric water heaters which you wouldn't switch with X10 anyways.  Chances are they're relying on the length of the run from one controller in one residence through the domestic wiring, back out through the hydro meter, up to the pole and then back down through all of that to knock it down enough it won't interfere with someone else's X10 system nearby.  Come to think of it, to get from one person's residence to another, you have to go through two hydro meters and I'm trying to remember if there's a current coil in the neutral but can't off hand.  If there is, going through two inductances like that would definitely help with knocking down any high frequency control signals.

On March 4, 2020 at 12:46 PM, Downsview 108 said:

LOL thanks for that info. I haven't been to HCRR in nearly 20 years. I rode a couple Witts there a few times but they never made that motor whining sound. Does that series-limit have to do with that? The montreal suburban car and the snow plow I rode there once were pretty fast. Hard to believe those were in series. I imagine they have the old style controller as well. Do they even bring those cars out to ride anymore, by the way? I also remember riding the Rail Grinder (the old single truck one) but that wasn't going very fast.

I haven't been to HCRR in ages either.  You know, the snow plow is one thing I never rode on or took a close look at out there.  The Montreal and Southern Counties car is an interurban so it was built for more speed than a a typical streetcar was and would've been outfitted with HP appropriate motors and geared fairly tall for a higher top speed so even in series, given all that, you'd get a good head of speed out of full series being on long enough.  It's also a multiple unit car so it's got different equipment to some degree.  I don't know if throwing a motor cutout on that one would cause it to top out in series the way it does in cars with K controllers.  I would've expected the opposite out of the snow plow to be honest.  That's something I would've expected large motors on too but with some serious reduction gearing since you'd need brute force power in that application to shove heavy snow out of the way but not speed.

The one I'm curious about is L & PS 8.  The Montreal car's a typical 600 V car but not 8.  London and Port Stanley was a 1500 V electrification so that car's running less than half voltage at HCRR.  I remember probably about 20 years ago there was discussion about putting a 600 V air compressor on it because the 1500 volt one took an absolute eternity to pump the car up running at reduced speed.  Don't know if they ever did.  Interestingly, there's a motor generator set mounted on the car which piqued my interest because I couldn't hear it running and I took a look at the builder's plate on it one day.  It took 1500 V in and popped out 600 V on the output side so I figure they bypassed it since the incoming line's at 600 anyways.  Then I saw in one of the switch cabinets in one of the cabs how it was set up and a lot of the control and lighting etc. was 600 V that would have been supplied by that motor generator.  That gives you pause to think when 600 V is the low voltage side.  Anyways, it would be interesting to see what that would have been like running on the full, proper, unadulterated 1500 V line voltage it was designed for.  Too bad dropping it on the Ottawa LRT tracks and raising the pantograph isn't an option...

[Doppelkupplung]

Don't wanna sound like a bad dude, but it could be a decent time to buy stock, or in the near future anyways?

[Bus_Medic]

19 minutes ago, Doppelkupplung said:

Don't wanna sound like a bad dude, but it could be a decent time to buy stock, or in the near future anyways?

I’d wait. It hasn’t reached the basement yet.

[TTC Guy]

Just an update for those who helped me a few weeks ago, I’m talking to her more and more and getting to know her more. Nothing much will change in the next few weeks as all Ontario schools have been closed. I find texting isn’t as good as in person