Running Bear's June 2019 Coffee Shop


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Afternoon All,

Did some chores earlier then spent a couple of hours working on the flat cars. I finished the underside brake rigging on both and placed the hand grabs and step up irons (can't see the end of car ones in the photo) on one. We just had our mandatory afternoon thunderstorm and downpour.

Greg- Nice weathering on the SOO box car, also nice layout scene and ore car.

Sherrel- Strange looking loco.

Espeefan- Nice looking auto.

Willie- Nice layout scenes and flat car load.

Patrick- I hope your family is OK now.

Dave- Nice layout scene.

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I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Patrick: I used some pieces of nickel/silver sectional track to practice my soldering skills. Again, hot pencil iron, clean working area, thin solder (.32) and flux and you're on your way.

Hope all the blood pressure gets under control.

Greg
I have a ton of older track that I can practice on. About 8-9 years ago I bought a large layout at an estate sale, but had to strip it in place as I couldn't get the table structure apart. I even have some older brass track sections.

Patrick-- something about the blood pressure issues. That is a scary thing, cause the higher it gets the more you tend to worry, like that "out of control" feeling.

I was fighting blood pressure a few years ago but somehow got it under control and now was able to drop the medication as well. For me, the biggest aid is NO SALT coupled with staying physically active.

Both the Mrs. and I are on BP meds, mine as a result of a job I absolutely hated. So I get the salt, we try to buy as much low-no salt stuff as we can.
We also try to buy and eat as much "Whole" food as we can, not necessarily organic.

I also cut down on the stress, one of the things I like about my current job, it that I have very little stress. I'm fortunate to have a supervisor that isn't like a diaper. I get paid enough to be comfortable, but about 10% less than the local market, but when you get to a certain age money isn't everything.
 
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Afternoon fellers. I hope everyone is doing well. Had to play catch up again on the posts. Back to the dreaded Monday again. I've started my countdown to my first week of vacation which will be next week followed by madness in the workplace afterwards. I'll have to see how that all pans out when the time comes. Well time to share some more Appalachian coal mining pics. I had to do some digging for these. I hope y'all enjoy.
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Good morning, looks like I am first today! Have a couple early days at work, headed for the airport to test concrete and then the bituminious plant to monitor the mixes.

Patrick-- you are fortunate to have a low stress workplace! I left a couple jobs due to the work environment, where I am at now is not too bad, usually.

Justin-- the middle photo of the shacks right on the tracks is a gem! Imagine what some families put up with cause that is the way it is

Todays layout photo, the gravel area prior to getting the bin and big conveyor in place. I did most areas over 3 times by the time I was done with the layout.

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Everyone have a great day, Dave
 
Good morning .

I had the surgery yesterday . Tumor is removed okay. Going home today.

Many thanks to each of you who gave me well wishes.

Have a good day. (Using cell phone to post )

Edit: Meanwhile ...... One of our daughters in Michigan went via ambulance to the hospital early Sunday morning . She is still there having tests. She is very ill.
 
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Good Morning All. A very pleasant and cool 62° and mostly cloudy this morning. While this is great for outdoor tasks and sleeping with open windows; the pool is cooling off, down to 82° yesterday, most likely around 78° this morning.
Just some sausage links and whole wheat toast this morning Francine, I'm not real hungry after grilling fajitas last night.
Spent the morning yesterday pruning hackberry trees that grow wildly and tend to grow downward and swat me in the face when mowing. Second time this season, and I will have to do it again due to all of this rain. Pruning also causes the trees to send out multiple new shoots from their trunks that can grow 18" in two or three weeks. Today we're taking my wife's SUV to our "shade tree mechanic" for some TLC. It's a bit rough during certain acceleration situations. Have to first go and pick up a rental car since she won't drive my Honda Civic with its manual transmission. She cannot currently even get in or out of it with her soon to be replaced knee anyway.

Thanks for all of the likes and positive comments regarding yesterday's structure and flatcar pictures; Johnny, Phil, Sherrel, Patrick, Jerome, Dave, Curt, Justin.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I mostly cleaned the place up. Used the shop-vac to remove dirt and grass clippings/leaf debris that had stuck to my wet shoes over the past month. I moved the ballasting supplies that I hadn't used in three weeks back to their storage area as well as some other landscaping supplies that I won't be using in the near future. Started making trees for the peninsula project, don't need too many for an industrial park! I also started making some very small trim parts for the Masonic Lodge.
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These are a scale 3' in length, less than half an inch, cut from very delicate 1/16" stripwood angle. I need twelve in this or very similar configurations. This one took 25 minutes, the rest will go faster now that I have a pattern that works. I read ahead and found the following instruction: "Cut a brick strip from the brick sheet one row in height". Wait! What? A brick strip one row high...and I need 20" of it!o_O
Meanwhile a few more structure pictures. All of these are temporarily staged in a 2' x 16' blank plywood area (one of several) with a main line and passing siding running through it. There are industries on one end, four of them featured in the previous layout project, and a couple more incomplete at the other end of town.
Here's a shoe store, gym and appliance dealer.
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All three of these are Smalltown structure kits.
A couple more, the bank is also a Smalltown kit and the cafe on the left is from City Classics.
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This area is on the to do list for 2020 as I am going to tackle several other smaller areas after the current peninsula project.

Greg - Enjoy your extended stay at the cabin, without the Mrs? Watch that excessive partying with young neighbors!;)
Patrick - Hope your young ones can get that BP in check. It is one of the easiest things to control with the proper medications which are the cheapest ones that I take. As Dave posted, no salt and lots of physical activity. In my case I should lose some pounds as well.:( You're right about the stress. My job could have been extremely stressful if I had let it, a scheduling manager at a plant with over 600 employees. I learned early on to leave it behind me as soon as I left the parking lot and I never thought about it at home.
Garry - Great news this morning. Have a speedy recovery.

Everybody have a great day.
 
Morning Shop People - - WE HAVE A BUNCO ON THE TEMP TODAY!
Supposed to be 91, last year 91, and record 91 in 2018 - how does that happen?

I see that there are many posts to catch up on!
 
Good morning. 52 degrees to start off the day with an expected high in the 70's. Eat your heart out Sherrel.

Garry _ I take it that your surgery was successful, but was sad to hear about your daughter. Hoping thebest and sending prayers.

Justin - Always enjoy your photos.

Karl - Nice photo. We were hoping top get down to the Grand Canyon and ride the train, and stop by the Nevada Railroad Museum in Ely, NV on the way back home, but I have to stick around for physical therapy. Want to be able to get back in shape for bowling league.

Willie - I sure like the variety of building you have. You probably have just about everything covered when it comes to businesses.

Greg - Nice photos. Like the ore car. Nice work.

Terry - Sounds like you need a boat instead of an RV.

Ray
- That locomotive looks like someone threw a bowl of spaghetti at it.

Alan
- Nice looking ride. I am familiar with that car and it is basically a Mercedes. Up here we are limited to the dealerships. No Lexus, Mercedes, BMW, Infinity, Acura, Volvo and many others. I won't even consider getting a vehicle that I can't get services locally. That brass loco is beautiful.

Patrick - Hope everyone is able to get their high blood pressure under control.

Dave - Keep those layout photos coming. You did some beautiful work.

Sherrel - Don't melt.

Did some work on some freight cars and found that I can't find my couple pocket clips that hold the couplers in on the Athearn Blue Box cars. I know I had a raft of them but can't find them. Guess I'll have to order some. I did get the Oxford '57 Dodge pickup in the mail yesterday. They seem to improve with each new offering.

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I also got he board for the crossing signals in the mail, but will have to get some shrinkable spaghetti as the leads for the IR detectors are too short and I'll have to splice some longer leads on them. I'll pick some up at Radio Shack the next time I get into town.

Not much else to do today with the exception of perhaps running some trains.

Later.
 
Glad to see this place is still open.
Was shocked to learn the last time I posted was December of 2012.
Time does fly.
Good to see some new faces. New to me anyways.
 
Nearly afternoon all,

Kids left last night to go back home. They are all doing better and a couple still have followup appointments. Fell asleep so hard that I woke up with my knees sore from laying in one position all night.

Garry: Glad to hear the surgery went well. Prayers for your daughter

Willie: I opted out of a manual truck when I purchased my little Chevy 10 years ago due to bad knees. I like sticks, but didn't want to try again to teach the wife how to drive one. The closest we ever came to a divorce was over my trying to teach her to drive one.
 
Good morning .

I had the surgery yesterday . Tumor is removed okay. Going home today.

Many thanks to each of you who gave me well wishes.

Have a good day. (Using cell phone to post )

Edit: Meanwhile ...... One of our daughters in Michigan went via ambulance to the hospital early Sunday morning . She is still there having tests. She is very ill.


Glad to hear you are OK, will PRAY for daughter (the best I can do)

Dave
 
Afternoon All,

Did some basic pool upkeep today and still draining the pool to get rid of the rain we've accumulated over the last 3 or 4 days. I spent another couple of hours working on the FM flat cars and I think I'm at the point where they are ready for painting and decaling. The decks aren't going on until after that since I have AMB wooden decks to put on the 4 cars (2 F22 and 2 FM). I think I'm tied up the rest of the work week.

Justin- More great photos.

Dave- Nice layout photo.

Garry- Good news for you, saying prayers for your daughter.

Sherrel- There's magic in the air.

Chet- Awesome looking truck.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Glad to see this place is still open.
Was shocked to learn the last time I posted was December of 2012.
Time does fly.
Good to see some new faces. New to me anyways.
Welcome back. We thought you were dead... Don’t leave so much time between posts.
 
Glad to see this place is still open.
Was shocked to learn the last time I posted was December of 2012.
Time does fly.
Good to see some new faces. New to me anyways.
Hey Old 97 - Welcome to the new version of the Coffee Shop. I barely remember you from 2012, I was still in the working class at the time and didn't spend much time in the Coffee Shop or the forum in general. Hope you can find more time to spend with us now. Things are a little slow right now with the onset of summer, hopefully they will pick up soon. Again, welcome back.
 
Good evening Shop Dwellers! I figured that if Ol' 97 can do it, then I, too, probably should climb out of my hole like the proverbial groundhog and get some sunshine.

Things have happened over the past 6 months that have put my model train enthusiasm on Life Support. It all started last November when I got some abnormal numbers on a semi-annual blood test. That put me on a trail of seeing specialists and getting ultrasound scans, then a biopsy, and finally a diagnosis of prostate cancer - which I learned about a week ago. I had wondered why my energy level seemed to keep dropping, now I guess I have my answer.

I'll be meeting with the surgeon a week from today, and hopefully he will get me scheduled for a so-called "radical" prostatectomy ASAP. According to my urologist the tumor is still fully contained, so this should theoretically bring a full cure, i.e., no need for chemo afterwards. But I still fear the possibility of life-changing complications from the surgery [which I will NOT describe on a familiy-friendly forum LOL!]. At least I'll be getting it done at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, which is considered a World-class medical facility and therefore offers a higher probability of success.

...there, I got it off my chest! Maybe actually communicating with fellow modelers will breathe some life back into my enjoyment of trains. Greetings to those of you who already know me, and welcome to the newcomers who haven't met me yet. Prayers and positive thoughts for all of you who are facing their own tough situations.

-keN
 
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