Running Bear's October 2019 Coffee Shop


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Charlie Bowyer - ‎Classic Conrail
October, 1977 Laying down the sand at Highland cut (MP 37 on the Fort Wayne Line)
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Good morning everyone. 45 and sunny out there. Well, pretty much good-bye to summer, and right into fall. Late this week we'll feel the first bite of winter, looks like.

Chet - Long johns are ready and hangin' in the closet!!
Lee (TrucTrain55) - I live in Springfield, MO. We get our apples at a place called Murphy's Orchard in Marionville, southwest of here.
Louis, Posse, Ken, Willy, Boris, Sherrel, Chad, Greg, Chet, Wheeler, Lee, Chessie, Curt, and anyone I may have missed - thanks for the likes and comments on my lumber company area progress. It's fun getting another section of the layout finished.
Karl, Louis, and others - thanks for the tips on managing diabetes.

MOH Birthday - Well, today's the big day - she turns 65! Today I'll surprise her with flowers delivered to where she works, and tonight we'll go out to eat. "Happy wife, happy life!"

Layout Progress - did some more landscaping on the lumber company area, but didn't take a photo to post. Not much left to do there, so I'll post a photo when it's entirely done.

In the meantime, here's an older photo of my steamer, which I don't run very often, pulling freight behind the town. Need to run it more.

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Well, that's it for today.
Have a good day everyone.
 
Good Morning All. 53° and clear with absolutely no breeze. Should see a warm up for a couple of days, then watch out. 40° Friday and then back into the 80's by Monday. Started yesterday with an uneventful visit to the dentist for a cavity filling replacement. Got a good workout in the yard later, removing leaves and grass clippings from the excessive growth that occurred while we were on vacation. Today I have to check out the wood burning heater to ensure that it's ready for winter. I swept the chimney last March, so all I probably need to do is remove ashes. Very simple heater, no moving parts except the door, no motors, fans or electrical components. I already have fire starter boxes ready (soft drink boxes filled with twigs and sticks), but I need to move some wood inside.
Morning Flo. Sausage and hash browns today, no eggs.

Thanks for the comments and likes yesterday regarding my newest sub-project for that blank layout area; Jerome, Sherrel, Johnny, Garry, Louis, Justin, Lee, Tom.

Mostly finished up that background structure yesterday. While not a dairy per se, it will be a milk processor.
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Johnny - Happy Birthday to Dena.
Chet - Thanks for your comments on the hoppers and engines. They're all a bit new for your era.
I enjoy the higher speed limits as well. Even across Louisiana and Mississippi, there are pockets of 75 mph. Nothing like those parts of the Texas highways where 80 or 85 is posted but ignored!
Kyle - Great picture. Welcome to the Coffee Shop. Interesting observation regarding the sand pipe. Thanks!
Texas Hobo - Nice build sequence. Welcome to the Coffee Shop as well.
Lee - Looks like you have your work cut out for you with those MoPac engines.
Sherrel - Bold stuck again???

Everybody have a great day.
 
I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I have ordered my set of 4 Michelin Tires from Costco and I have an appointment to have them installed next Monday at 10am.

While I wait I'll use the time to stock up on Kirkland 100% Columbian coffee and tour the store to see what is new. I'll also get to see my busy little girl as she will still be working.

That reminds me of the last time I visited Costco. I found a Ring security system to go with my Ring door bell. Like my tires it also came with an instant rebate.

And that reminds me of last week. My Ring door bell lost it's connection to the home network. I checked and double checked everything. I even went through the setup program, twice, still no connection. My 10 year old grandson suggested "try restarting the router". I asked is the internet working on your Xbox, tablets, computers, TVs and other devices? He said yes, I thought "what's the point of restarting the router?" I proceeded to go through the setup again and this time I noticed the troubleshooting steps. "restart your router" was one of the first, hmm. Sure enough, I restarted the router and the door bell automatically connected to the network. Next time I'll just put my grandson on the job from the jump!
 
Johnny. Thanks I use to deliver containers to Springfield most I had a decaded haul to Ozark Mo hauling gun powder and ammunition to Foicchi loved that run did it for about 5 years love the older pic too

Thanks guys for the complements and likes here’s a pics I took yesterday evening before I bought this F unit to be fixed up
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Yo:
Checking in. Many nice photos / models / individual efforts and humorous comments this morning. I am learning to utilize the like tool.
HVAC guy was here this morning to set up the system for the winter, and change the humidifier filter. I changed the air filter, yesterday.
Now, we are good to go.
It's considerably cooler today. Yesterdays 82°, with considerable clouds and a cool breeze. I think I will wander down to the train room, and work on a few of my ongoing projects.
Yesterday's visit with the Cardiologist went well. Everything is status quo, but my cholesterol is a little high...Changing my eating habits is difficult, but as y'all were discussing yesterday, ya gotta do what ya gotta do!
Alex Ovetchkin threw the first pitch, and inspired Mad Max to pitch a fantastic game, one that he doesn't have to atone for. Now, it comes down to one game between the Nats and da Bums in LA...
While watching last night's game between St. Louis and Toronto, I became annoyed with the multiple advertisements for Sports Betting from multiple Sports Book organizations, one after another. My first thought was,and Pete Rose is still banned"?
Lee: The Penn Line F-7 is so cool. Penn Line was mainly known for their PRR steam models that were later manufactured by Bowser.
Willie: Great background project. The Walthers module sections are great to work with, too bad Walthers mishandled the marketing and gave up on the product.
Johnny: Scenery is looking good. Congratulations to your Wife on her 65th.

Boris
 
Good morning. Starting the day off at 39 degrees with an expected high in the low 60's, but then things are forecast to go south with a winter storm watch predicted. hope the forecast is as accurate as the last one with the bulk of the weather hitting the north part of the state. The current radar shows precipitation crossing the continental divide and heading north again. Lows in the single digits are forecasted on Wednesday and Thursday night and then warming with clear weather. If it does clear, I hope to head over the pass to the club in Livingston. Want to try out the F-7 A-B-A consist.

Willie
- The background building is coming along nicely. The trip between here and Las Vegas are interstate (I-15) all the way with the exception of 2 land from here to Idaho Falls. Cuts 100 miles off the trip instead to the interstate to Butte on I-90 to I-15. I just set the cruise control at around 82 and get down the road. The Buick averaged 33.8 mpg in both directions. With those furry legs, do you build up a static charge when you walk?? Grin.gif

Lee - Quite the project you have ahead of you. Over the past couple of years I custom painted and detailed a few F-7 A units and a B unit. I think the worst part was drilling the shell for the handrails. In the second photo, the A unit on the right is a factory painted Genisis unit. All of these F units were older ones from Stewart. The green was totally wrong and both the A and B units had to be totally repainted. The F-9 I numbered 7012A because I had seen the prototype the day it left the BN Livingston shops on it's way to Washington state. It now is operated by the Mount Rainier Scenic Railway.

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Johnny - I really like the photo of the steamer. The scenery is excellent. You'll have to post more photos.

Joe - Glad the Cardiologist gave you some good news.

Posse - I really like the photo of your son rail fanning. Thumb up.gif

Greg - That SOO locomotive sure looks in sad shape. I can remember seeing a large herd of ex CNW geeps lined up at the MRL shops years ago waiting for a rebuild and they looked in a lot better shape. It does look outstanding.

Texas Hobo - Welcome aboard. Nice to have new members in the coffee shop. There's always something going on here.

Went down to the basement for a few minutes and the train room is still there. Think I'll try to spend some time there this afternoon.

Later
 
CHET - You can keep that cold up there! The last two days here have been 94 & 95 degrees for a high, but only expected to be 85* today. The record low for this date is 47* (2011) and the record high 105* (1999). Still clear as can be!
 
Good Morning Everyone: Sunny and another nice fall day before the rain sets in for the weekend.

Louis: With Morton being paid 30M over two seasons and which is 25% of the teams salary, I wonder how the lower paid players feel about playing with Morton making more $$$ than the others??? I'm sure many of the other players are making a healthy salary in spite of Morton's cut of the team salary. Imagine the pain to the owners and coaching staff if he gets a throwing arm strain and has to sit out games?

That VW Micro-Bus in the photo you posted is likely worth 20-30k or more in its current condition to a collector today to restore. A fun vehicle to drive back in the hippie days of Woodstock.

Boris: I too wish that Walther's had continued their modular building systems. Layout buildings could be configured in little time using the modular system. I have one modular building on the layout and another one ready for the expansion area.

A little more exercise with a diet modification will help reduce the cholesterol levels. I'm lucky to have extremely low cholesterol levels for both good and bad.

Louis: That photo of Hartford Road looks just like the way many Main Street buildings look today in many smaller Wisconsin rural towns.

Chet: Great looking F7 A-B-A units. Hope the weather is in your favor to travel to the Livingston Club this weekend.

Tomorrow, I walk outside for the first time.

No other news.....

Greg

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The Walther's modular building is on the far left in the unfinished Waupaca industrail area on the layout. It needs to be set back a few more feet from the track to look better. The building needs some exterior lighting as well as vegetation along the foundation to tie the building to the layout The track to far right will lead through the wall to the new expansion frieght yard. -Greg
 
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65F at 12:45PM. This morning it was about 41F at 5:30AM and is supposed to get up to around 72F per the forecast. But tomorrow the high is supposed to be 50F and the low near freezing with "frozen mix". The next day the high is in the 30s and the low in the 20s (but no more precipitation) and then gradually getting warmer every day so back to low to mid 60s high in 7-10 days. I guess we need to harvest as many tomatoes as we can, and maybe cover (or even bring some into the house -- they are potted) tonight. We planted late and are trying to get as many tomatoes as possible to make up for all the water we dumped on them with the sprinklers while we were in Japan :)

Got some more wire so I can make more feeders and finish up re-wiring my test layout.

Then back to some DCC conversions half-done from this summer/spring and back to my DIY lightboard testing.
 
That VW Micro-Bus in the photo you posted is likely worth 20-30k or more in its current condition to a collector today to restore. A fun vehicle to drive back in the hippie days of Woodstock.

Back in 1991 I moved to Germany to work for a (US) computer company called Digital Equipment GmbH (the German subsidiary for Digital Equipment Corporation, aka DEC, of Massachusetts -- RIP DEC). I had been working for DEC in the US for a few years and took the opportunity to go overseas. I had done missionary work in Germany in 86-87 and so knew my way around the language and the area (DEC GmbH was in Munich, near where I had been in the 80s). We got a ridiculous amount of paid time off and I was planning to buy a VW bus and drive it to St Petersburg and then back through Finland, Ferry to Sweden, and then down to Denmark and Germany again. Like a 5 or 6 week tour. Unfortunately, I was in a car accident on the autobahn (not my fault -- 64 car pile up in the fog, and I had just barely gotten on), which took several years to finally settle and get my money for my car etc. and so in the mean time I had to pay a bunch out of pocket, which depleted my funds for the trip, and I ended up not staying in Germany as long as I had planned to (18 months vs 4-5 years planned). It would have been cool to drive through the newly opened East back in the wild days of the opening of the East block. And I figured the VW Bus would have been the perfect vehicle for it -- anybody can work on them and parts should be available everywhere (at least 28 years ago, In Europe).

While I was in the Heilbronn area in 1987, we had noticed an ex-Bundeswehr VW Bus for sale at a car dealership, and knew an American soldier who needed a very cheap vehicle for his family, so we hooked him up with the car dealer. I got to take a test drive in it -- it was pretty cool. It has metal cleats in the floor for your rifle buttstock to sit in and was set up to carry around 6 soldiers in austere conditions. Someone had painted it an ugly brown from the normal olive color it had been.
 
Afternoon All,

It's been raining here most the day but we need it (down 7.5 in. from average). I think we got about 2 inches. I weathered the 4 TOFC flat car decks. I'll post a picture later. I'll most likely be gone all day tomorrow with the VA and errands.

Phil called me today and we talked a bit and he is doing well. He mentioned he hasn't been on the computer for awhile.

Louis- I usually take a combo of ASA and Ibuprofen before hand and I usually don't get sick from the shot. Like the 1:1 photos.

TX Hobo- Nice layout shot.

Johnny- Happy Birthday to your wife.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Louis and Company: My wife joined Costco several years ago and I never set foot inside a Costco and its been years since I when into Sam's Club even having a Sam's Business Membership. Working in a shopping center development/business office in a regional shopping center I could go several weeks before walking the mall or going into a store especially during a special projct or budget time.

Now, if there was a hobby shop that would be a different story.

I remember the old Hobby Horse in a shopping center in the Milwaukee area and the large number of brass locomotives the store carried.

I liked the old Dime Stores when growing up as 50's kid.

Greg

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