Running Bear's April 2019 Coffee Shop


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Alco,s Close coupling , i think it,s pretty neat
this build is getting more interesting every day, This is the Proto 2000 FA2 & FB2 Chuck
IMG_20190417_150503.jpg
 
Morning Troops! It's "fiddy degrees" and clear - forecasters are in a squabble - one says 76 high today, the other says 64?
We had a quicky rain shower last evening; it did not last long and my "rain bucket" was turned upside down.

Lots to catch up on - you guys have been busy!
Baseplate for the "TOAD" arrived yesterday. Still have to gather up a few parts to hook it all up - two more were ordered yesterday - now all I need is the wiring harness for the lights.
 
No surgery! He gave me a cortisone shot in the shoulder and set me up with PT, and that's pretty much it. I'll be seeing him every six weeks for monitoring, and getting another shot every other visit. Apparently the tendon is frayed from rubbing on a rough spot, but isn't torn. He says it could even heal itself, over time.

OTOH, insomnia hit me last night, so I'm waiting for the mail and then sleepy-poo.
 
Beady - That's good news for you ... glad to hear that!

Chuck - Love the close coupling of the Alco's. What did you use for the diaphragms? (probably didn't spell that right)

Willie - The cardstock build looks very nice - put some rafters on the edge of the roof!

Johnny - Very sorry to hear of your cousins. I have two first cousins that are in really bad shape.

RAY - excellent viedos!

Louis -- Shape up, son, we need you back in the coaches box!
 
Beady - That's good news for you ... glad to hear that!

Chuck - Love the close coupling of the Alco's. What did you use for the diaphragms? (probably didn't spell that right)

Willie - The cardstock build looks very nice - put some rafters on the edge of the roof!

Johnny - Very sorry to hear of your cousins. I have two first cousins that are in really bad shape.

RAY - excellent viedos!

Louis -- Shape up, son, we need you back in the coaches box!

The close coupling , belive it or not , came like that out of the box .
i must investigate further into the couplings . no paperwork came with the locos
i purchased them from The Fatherland { Germany }
mabye they were put on the locos by Herr Fitz Gutten Tite
shall take a pic of the couplings mabye somebody can shed some light on them
Just came across this Article
http://mid-atlantichauntings.blogspot.com/2014/03/ghosts-of-duffys-cut-malvern-pa.html
Chuck
 
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Dave, I don't think that paper clipping is from 1972. The engine is a dash-2 Geep, not produced until 1972, and it is identified as Helm Leasing being the owner. In theory, that should mean the MoPac had the engine until the lease expired, at least ten years after it was built, and more likely 15, which would put the photo from 1982-1987.
 
Dave, I don't think that paper clipping is from 1972. The engine is a dash-2 Geep, not produced until 1972, and it is identified as Helm Leasing being the owner. In theory, that should mean the MoPac had the engine until the lease expired, at least ten years after it was built, and more likely 15, which would put the photo from 1982-1987.
I just found a photo of that engine from 1980, still identified as MoPac being the owner, so your article would have to be from after that.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4083985
 
Dave, I don't think that paper clipping is from 1972. The engine is a dash-2 Geep, not produced until 1972, and it is identified as Helm Leasing being the owner. In theory, that should mean the MoPac had the engine until the lease expired, at least ten years after it was built, and more likely 15, which would put the photo from 1982-1987.
I just found a photo of that engine from 1980, still identified as MoPac being the owner, so your article would have to be from after that.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4083985

For those of us who are extremely obsessive, the years in that general time frame in which February 7 fell on a Wednesday (and by default the 12th on Monday) were 1968, 1973, 1979, 1990 and 1996. Take your pick!
 
Good Morning Everyone....rainy weather, but rain is better than snow right Chet and Mark.

Been down in the train room this morning and finished wiring the last N&J dwarf turnout indicator. Turnout indicators sure help let engineers know the positions of turnouts that are distance from them and the turnout's position can't be seen very well. I had to reverse the connections for the red and green lamps since I didn't get it right the first time.

It's a dog to work under the layout and have to come out from under each time to get tools or try the turnout(s) to see if the turnouts and lamps work properly. I need an assistant.

The green lamp is a bit dimmer than the red so maybe I need to boost the voltage now that I've added additional lamps.

I visited N&J's web site and just about all their signal products are sold out....??? Are they staying in business?

I've been using solid telephone wire that comes in a gray plastic covering with four colored wires per cable. I purchased the wire at a hardware store in bulk. The covering strips off nice and I use telephone clamp type spade connectors to join the wire to terminal blocks.

Yesterday, I became side tracked and ended the railroading day early.

Maybe scenery projects after lunch.

Willie: That card stock structure looks nice and Sherrel's suggestion is good. A would go a step farther and add some wall mounted lighting. Just my two cents worth to an outstanding job so far.

Chuck: Being 100% Prussian/German, I like your saying, "Herr Fitz Gutten Tite" and my German grandfather who was a boiler maker would enjoy it as well.

Added the photo below which I enjoy and get ideas for my own layout. Just a ton of detail in the scene.

That's all for now.

Greg

F&SM Photo 1.jpeg

More inspiration for me to work on my layout's scenery...the great F&SM by George Sellios. Just fantastic work. Looking at the photo I think people do not use enough scenery materials like trees and ground foam on their layouts. -Greg
 
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Afternoon All,

My laptop showed up today, and my wife spent several hours sitting it up:). All my photos are back and I downloaded the ones on my phone. My favorites list is gone but my wife says she has a paper list of them so I'll enter them tomorrow while the wife is volunteering.

Louis- I'm glad you're improving.

Mark- Interesting looking ten wheeler.

Karl- The mix of the parts looks good.

Beady- Good news about the shoulder.

Toot- Great videos.

Willie- Nice looking building. I find it amazing how good paper type buildings can look. Our family get together will only be 13 and 5 of those are friends.

Chet- Nice looking cabin car.

Greg- Beautiful scene from George Selios. You can probably find the NJ Inter. signals on Ebay and other online sellers.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Good morning, everyone. 57 and sunny. Having several good spring days until some severe weather hits us tomorrow night.

Have had several rounds of bad news: a cousin who lives and works in Thailand was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in November of last year and was given 3-6 months to live. Just heard over the weekend that he died on January 2. That was way too fast :confused: Had been emailing him but not hearing anything back - now I know why. Then yesterday got a letter from another cousin's daughter saying that both my cousin and his wife died in January of last year! Within 3 days of each other!! Now I know why they didn't send a Christmas card last year. Cousins are passing away too fast!! Only three of us left.

Absolutely nothing to report from the trainroom. Got home from work yesterday and went outside to prep the ground and put in some grass seed. Got a dozen more large spots to do that to, then some places that need overseeding. Ain't spring grand?!?!

Have a good day everyone.

Johnny: Very sorry to hear about the losses of your cousins. Kind of odd that they all happened so close together.
 
Howdy ... I know I keep promising I’ll catch up with your posts, but stuff keeps happening .

I got up at 5:00 am . I went to Nashville for my medical appointments at Vanderbilt to deal with some of my issues. ... I got home at 2:00 pm, and then went to Murray to get some stuff.... This evening we went to the Rotary Club fundraiser auction in town. Shelley actually won a bid and bought something. ... Shelley’s Mom in Nashville was doing well with a family visit a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately she has deteriorated since then. We will probably go back very soon to visit her. Maybe as early as tomorrow.

I still hope to catch up everybody here . Have a nice night everybody .
 
Good Morning Everyone....rainy weather, but rain is better than snow right Chet and Mark.

Been down in the train room this morning and finished wiring the last N&J dwarf turnout indicator. Turnout indicators sure help let engineers know the positions of turnouts that are distance from them and the turnout's position can't be seen very well. I had to reverse the connections for the red and green lamps since I didn't get it right the first time.

It's a dog to work under the layout and have to come out from under each time to get tools or try the turnout(s) to see if the turnouts and lamps work properly. I need an assistant.

The green lamp is a bit dimmer than the red so maybe I need to boost the voltage now that I've added additional lamps.

I visited N&J's web site and just about all their signal products are sold out....??? Are they staying in business?

I've been using solid telephone wire that comes in a gray plastic covering with four colored wires per cable. I purchased the wire at a hardware store in bulk. The covering strips off nice and I use telephone clamp type spade connectors to join the wire to terminal blocks.

Yesterday, I became side tracked and ended the railroading day early.

Maybe scenery projects after lunch.

Willie: That card stock structure looks nice and Sherrel's suggestion is good. A would go a step farther and add some wall mounted lighting. Just my two cents worth to an outstanding job so far.

Chuck: Being 100% Prussian/German, I like your saying, "Herr Fitz Gutten Tite" and my German grandfather who was a boiler maker would enjoy it as well.

Added the photo below which I enjoy and get ideas for my own layout. Just a ton of detail in the scene.

That's all for now.

Greg

View attachment 36054

More inspiration for me to work on my layout's scenery...the great F&SM by George Sellios. Just fantastic work. Looking at the photo I think people do not use enough scenery materials like trees ad ground foam on their layouts. -Greg
Greg , Fitz Gutten Tite & Herr Flick are from one of the best Comedy shows to come from the UK
Here is one from you tube
 
If you want great British Humor, in my opinion, none where better than John Cleese in Fawlty Towers! I especially liked the episode called "The Germans"


38 degrees and showers today!
 
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Morning all,

Hopefully a light day today. I finalized (or so I thought) my outer loop.
20190417_191602.jpg


This is supposed to be a shot of my track inspector car running the rails. I know I need to get better shots with my camera. I only made 1 mistake, I don't have enough straight track before the bridge in this shot. Figured it out when my lead E7 hit the bridge rail and flipped onto the floor....yes there is body shell damage, but the engine runs fine otherwise. Repairs are under way. I'm rethinking that bridge....

Fawlty Towers one one of my favorites back in the day. I've always liked John Cleese.

Storms overnight with some hail, but all small in my area. Partly cloudy and 49 Currently with a chance of rain late today.
 
Good Morning Everyone. Mostly cloudy and 61°. I'll take waffles, bacon and OJ this morning Flo. The thunderstorms predicted for yesterday at noon, got here after I went to bed. 2.7" of rain in the gauge this morning, most of which fell between 9:00 pm and midnight. Good thing that I mowed part of the yard yesterday. It will be a less than pleasant morning with humidity at 93% and the expected rapid warming. Winds return around noon to offer some relief. Barometer rising to over 30.10" by tomorrow morning. Making the grocery/beer trek this morning, back on schedule after erratic days off with my wife.
Hope that all of you fellow forum members weathered the storms (pun intended) last night without any problems. Too dark here to check yet, but I'm sure that the septic tank will be sluggish.

Thanks for the comments and likes for yesterday's post, Patrick, Chuck, Phil, Sherrel, Justin, Curt, David and all others that I may have missed.

Made some progress out in the train shed yesterday. Actually made eight more trees and started planting a few of them in the scenery project area. Here's a couple of progress shots with the cut-out structures included, opinions welcome. I still have a few other things to do before I consider this area complete. There's a pile of details, signs, figures and a couple of vehicles along with some extra trees over on the workbench waiting for all of the landscape to be completed.
04-1-19 001.JPG

Note the red dot on the rail. Since this is at my eye level, I cannot easily see which way the ground throw is set. If it points to the red dot, then it is the diverging route. Since I put some ground throws on the opposite sides of the tracks, the direction that it pointing (towards frog, away from frog) is not always consistent without the red dot.
In this next picture, I have not dealt with the dog food factory on the right yet. I might remove it or move it over to the right hand side of the structure on the right. This is still a work in progress.
04-1-19 002.JPG


Chet - I like the scene with the transfer caboose.
Beady - Good news regarding the surgery.
Greg - Thanks also for your suggestion on dressing up that cardstock structure. I have done that on another one, but didn't think about it on this one. It would be appropriate. It's now in my notes for when I get to that part of the layout for scenery.
Garry - That's a drag regarding your MIL's condition.

Today is Holy Thursday in some religions, otherwise it's National Animal Cracker Day.
Have a great day everyone.
 
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