Running Bear's February 2020 Coffee Shop


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Morning all,

Time for coffee this morning, thanks Flo......Oh and one of those Pecan rolls.

Well truck is partially fixed and running better. Still have the idiot light for the same issue, but at least I know why it's on instead of making a correct assumption as to what it may be. It needs new timing chains as the tensioners are worn to a point where there is too much slop for the computer to handle. At 165,000 miles, I just can't justify $2500 on an engine repair when for another grand I can put a V8 in it. Yes a crate 4.8, 5.3, 5.7 or 6.2 liter engines will fit as this was the first year GM put a V8 in the first generation Colorado. It is what it is. At least we don't have mandatory vehicle inspections. It does still pass the sniff test, so it isn't like I'm tossing too much crap in the air.

On a side note: Here's a picture of the chessboard I made for the grandson:

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It was a commission job. My son 3d printed a custom designed chess set for the kid and needed a chess board. Since dad has all the wood tools, he asked me to make it.

It was a piece of scrap 1/2 plywood, cut to 17" square. The red boarder is 1/2" wide with the squares cut into it at 2" intervals, depth of the cuts is about 1/8" (or just the depth of the first plywood layer). The squares are 1 7/8" square, allowing for the blade width. Had it been my choice, the stain and paint would have been different, But my son bought what he wanted, so I just finished it. Before the maroon-ish color paint went on, the stained portion had 6 coats of satin lacquer, I then masked off the board and painted the boarder. As of last night, I attached red felt to the bottom so it won't scratch good furniture, As you see I did make my son sand it and he didn't quite get all the cut lines sanded off the boarder. But it was about a 15 minute project on the table-saw, a bit more with finishing (especially waiting for finish to dry).
 
Good morning everyone. 29 and mostly clear. Winter is not ready to leave us alone yet. Possible snow flurries later this week. But, right now I need coffee, Francine - and a couple of chocolate croissants!

Iron Belt Ken, Boris, Texas Hobo, Flip, Jim, Chad, Karl, Patrick, Tom, Wheeler, Robots, Sherrel, BurlingtonBob, Curt, and anyone I may have missed - thanks everyone for the likes and comments on my firehouse post yesterday.
(By the way, FireHouse is still one of my favorite Hair Band groups from the 90's, and still rockin' today!)
Jim - Nice photos of your layout. What footprint does it occupy (L X W)? Just curious.

Not much to post today. Ran trains for a short while last night. Still locating freight cars whose couplers don't match very good which leads to random uncouplings, usually on curves or inclines. Will try to remember to take an interior photo of the firehouse and post it tomorrow.

That's it for now. Have a good day everyone.
 
Good Morning All. 36° with mostly clear skies this morning. Chance of rain later today. Spent part of yesterday pruning some major tree limbs, they were blocking the early morning sunlight to the garden and will now supply about two weeks of heating firewood for next season. It's some kind of Hackberry tree, more BTU's than oak!

Oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon this morning Flo. Need something to warm me up.

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding the progress report; Justin, Bob, Sherrel, Jerome, Tom, Karl, Chad, Rick, Jim, Curt, Phil, Joe, Ken. Several of you have commented on the weathering, Thanks. I go for lighter weathering on my structures mostly, as it is semi-arid in this area. There are also plenty of standing examples of these grain bins close by.

Didn't really get much time in the train shed yesterday due to other activities, but I did add some more details to the Majestic Hardware structure. Here are three lubricant dispensers that I added for various greases/oils used with farm implements. These are still in use at some rural places to this day.
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I also made and planted a few more trees as well as run some trains. An out and back switching turn to a large grain elevator switching 16 covered hoppers out and empties in. And a couple of mixed freights from end to end of the layout, all on the lower level.

Johnny - Making trees is not one of my favorite aspects of this hobby, but it is a necessary evil. Don't let my opinion discourage you from trying. though.
Bob - I have not tried sagebrush for trees because it doesn't grow around here. I have seen Chet's trees and I like them. WS armatures are not the only thing that I use, they were just the right thing for this situation. I have used some other weeds that grow here but was not happy with the results. I add ground foam to some commercially available trees from JTT (a division of MRC) and get a good result.
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That's one to the left. I use some other similar products as well.
I have also used Super Trees from Scenic Express, but I am still working out the process on them.
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Trees look good but crickets like to eat the tiny seeds on the branches and leave me with a pile of foam and a bare trunk. I sprayed this one with Dull Coat before and after to see if that discourages them, but I won't know until they return in the summer.
Sherrel -
Willie - I'm starting to wonder what you will do when you complete your layout - I think you may suffer withdrawal pangs!
Not likely to happen anytime soon. If that's the case, remember from your visit, I have the room to expand the train shed easily.
Careful moving that couch.
Jim -
Willie - My suggestion for the area between the facilities would be to keep it a little bit country. High grass, weeds, a couple of trees and a few deer waiting to cross the tracks.
I like the idea and it's on the list of possibilities. I already have all that I need including the deer and some rabbits.
Beady - Ugggh!

I'll take leave now, everybody have a great day, whichever one it is!
 
Good morning America! 21 degrees with a high around 30............if we're lucky. At least the sun is shining!

Karl- I have a Keep-a-Live installed in my ConCor Great Northern S2 4-8-4. It will run for almost 15-20 seconds if you cut the track power. Kind of eliminates the emergency stop option of the big off switch!

Toot- How is the fire situation in Oz now? I haven't read or heard much lately, so hopefully things are improving.

Patrick- Nice work on the chess board. The part of wood working that I don't much care for is the finishing.

Johnny- Looking forward to the interior pictures of the fire house. Details like that really add to a model!

Willie- Your trees look great. I especially like the open areas of a tree. Looks so much better than the puff ball trees! I think Chet could have a pretty good business supplying sage brush. Speaking of Chet, I haven't seen any posts from him lately. Hope he's OK!

Got to back to packing and sorting. Making progress, slow but sure!

Later!
 
Well, the storm turned out to be just a lot of show as far as my place was concerned. Did get a heavy shower out of it, but apart from just some overcast, it must have moved away south. Was a bit worrying. Sydney copped a real beating from one a day or two ago.
Jeez, first the animals try to kill everyone in Oz, then the wildfires, now God. Who did you guys piss off?
 
Beady - Ugggh!
Maybe we should have a beauty contest: everybody here, post a similar picture of yourself.

Which reminds me: next time you're in a place with a lot of people, like a restaurant or shopping mall, spend a few minutes just people-watching. Look carefully at each couple (try to do it without getting arrested) and remind yourself that those two are attracted to each other.

It's been a couple of days since the wife's cataract surgery. She was extremely myopic and was developing cataracts in both eyes. On Monday they operated on the strong eye, which caused a major imbalance between the two, so I popped the strong eye's lens out of her glasses and she's been going around the house wearing a half-pair of glasses, as it were. She says she already sees better than she did before the surgery, and may be able to get by with only reading glasses when it's all done. Before, with her glasses, she couldn't read the grandfather clock on the other side of the room; now, with her "new eye," not a problem.

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Afternoon All,

Spent the day moving stuff around. The kids bedroom is clear of sewing room things and the only the train room has sewing room things (a lot) but MOH did make good progress inside the sewing room today. Tomorrow she is chaperoning a field trip for our daughter's class. Friday we're driving over to Tampa for a Saturday 5K that MOH signed up for long before the repairs started. We won't be back until Sunday.

Terry- Sorry about your MIL. Nice pics.

Bob- Interesting video.

Patrick- Nice job on the chess board.

Willie- Nice looking hardware store. I haven't had much luck making trees that look decent.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
That's what concerns me a bit about using them on a club layout.

Why would that be different than using them at home??

For the un-annointed, keep alive circuits are basically capacitors that store power for later use. They really are quite controllable as long as you don't use them as an excuse for not cleaning your track, so that DCC command packets are hidden. IF you want to see one in action check out my youtube video below. These were filmed on my old FCSME modules. there is a 3 inch bridge track between each module that the engine traverses several times without a hiccup. at 4.27 begins the real test, with the engine traversing a 6 inch long section of track with 1 rail covered by masking tape. Most awesome in a small locomotive!
 
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Good Afternoon Everyone....Sunny here in Wisconsin.

Worked on the layout ofr a good part of the day. Mainly stringing utility wires and ungluing my fingers. I may have perhaps another 2 hours of pole wiring tomorrow and that's finished.

Took time to photograph some of the cars I've been working on lately.

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I patched Accurail hopper now bearing the logo for the CM&N railroad.-Greg

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A patched former Western Maryland 55 ton hopper and now has the C&MN logo. The plastic wheels were replaced with metal wheel sets from Walthers which were painted on all surfaces except the threads, couplers replaced with #148 Whiskers from Kadee and painted rust color the coal load will have Woodland's coal attached to the tops to make it more realistic. Four more Western Maryland cars to go.-Greg



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Green slime in a hollow near the SOO storage shed.-Greg


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Patched ore cars for the CM&N.-Greg


Tomorrow I'll remove all the equipment form the Saxeville interchange. Everything wil be dusted and the locomotive wheels cleaned. It should take maybe 5 hours to complete.

That's all for now........

Greg

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A patched former Western Maryland 55 ton hopper and now has the C&MN logo. The plastic wheels were replaced with metal wheel sets from Walthers which were painted on all surfaces except the threads, couplers replaced with #148 Whiskers from Kadee and painted rust color the cola load with have Woodland's coal attache to the top to maek it more realistic.-Greg

SACRILEGE !!!!!

but you did a good job! ;)
 
Patrick- Nice job on the chess board. It looks simple, but laying out the cuts can be difficult if not well thought out.
Greg- It is the little details that really make a layout stand out to visitors. Many times people only have a general impression of a scene until details are added or subtracted.
OLD SOUTHERN SAYING- There are many intelligent species in the universe. They are all owned by cats.

Just caught the weather on TV.
Birmingham, Alabama official rainfall for this month is 11.26" so far. Average rainfall for all February is 2.84 ".
No wonder we are have flooding problems.
 
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Patrick- Nice job on the chess board. It looks simple, but laying out the cuts can be difficult if not well thought out.
Greg- It is the little details that really make a layout stand out to visitors. Many times people only have a general impression of a scene until details are added or subtracted.
OLD SOUTHERN SAYING- There are many intelligent species in the universe. They are all owned by cats.

Just caught the weather on TV.
Birmingham, Alabama official rainfall for this month is 1126" so far. Average rainfall for all February is 2.84 ".
No wonder we are have flooding problems.
Mike- is there a missing decimal somewhere or has B’ham really had over 90 feet of rain this month?
 
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