Running Bear’s August 2019 Coffee Shop


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Supposed to only reach 89* today - a relief of the "bumping 100* MARK".
Have been looking at temps/humidity all over the ARK-LA-TEX ... sure thinking about pulling the plug as a solo act - with the pups, of course! The ranch is not a "rosie" place to be.
Willie - It's not the temp I am looking at where you are - It's the "feels like" 115* - yikes!

I think it's a New York thing. Some New Yorkers have an abundance of vanity and they could careless if they earn it or not. Some New Yorkers think they are the best at everything, just ask them, they will tell you, no matter how stupid they sound.
Louis - AOC is a prime A#1 example of this!
BTW - I have really enjoyed all your posted pictures of trains -but the Brats have made me hungry!
Thanks to you and JOE for the history on the Mets! I enjoyed reading it all.

CHAD - Have a safe trip home; I hate to see you leave - It has been very enjoyable reading of you and family's travels and sights. I like that little BLUE style train ... Pretty!
BTW - I only saw chopsticks with the bowl of ramen - do you have a spoon for the soup, or tilt the bowl?

Johnny - The Main Street photo of your layout is outstanding!
 
Afternoon fellers. I'm getting some more model railroad time today. Finally got around to lubricating the GP7. What a difference that made! The motor hums a little bit but not enough to annoy me. It did cure the coffee grinder noise though so that's a plus. Some good layout and project shots being shared as usual. I won't be sharing any layout pics for awhile. My layout is a disaster area! Of course I learned that my layout is a dust magnet!!! I had to clean the track again today before I could run trains without issues. I don't recall having to do it weekly. Then again my P2K SD7 is just as iffy. Maybe temperamental locomotives instead of dust and dirt? Haven't ran any other locomotives on the layout today so far. Might give my Chessie GP35 a go. It'll run on anything! I'll be back later to share some prototype photos.
 
Afternoon fellers. I'm getting some more model railroad time today. Finally got around to lubricating the GP7. What a difference that made! The motor hums a little bit but not enough to annoy me. It did cure the coffee grinder noise though so that's a plus. Some good layout and project shots being shared as usual. I won't be sharing any layout pics for awhile. My layout is a disaster area! Of course I learned that my layout is a dust magnet!!! I had to clean the track again today before I could run trains without issues. I don't recall having to do it weekly. Then again my P2K SD7 is just as iffy. Maybe temperamental locomotives instead of dust and dirt? Haven't ran any other locomotives on the layout today so far. Might give my Chessie GP35 a go. It'll run on anything! I'll be back later to share some prototype photos.
OK, let's see if we can solve or partially solve this dust issue that seems to plague you. Where is your layout located? I seem to recall you posting a few years ago that it was in the garage. I may be incorrect. If so, do vehicles share that location thus requiring the door to repeatedly open and shut? Maybe enough of our minds (what little we have left), can help figure this out. Or maybe you shouldn't haul coal! LOL
 
Justin, you could put a 2x2 on each corner of the layout, above layout level, and one in the center, and lay a tarp or painter's cover over it. That would greatly reduce the dust, and be relatively easy to put on and off.
 
Good afternoon. A beautiful day out with temps in the high 70's. I had planned on mowing today but we had some pretty hefty thunder storms yesterday afternoon and over night and it's just a little wet to mow. I did finally get some time to spend down in the train room. They were still there and did a bit of switching and thought (not too hard) about installing the flashing units for the grade crossings.

Chad - Glad that you are enjoying your trip. Thanks for posting all of the photos. Enjoyed them. I really feel for you having to go through LAX. When we flew back from Hawaii a few years ago the only flight left at 10:30 PM and we landed at LAX at 0500. Everything was closed up except for one coffee shop. I was really starting to get hungry, but no food. Our connecting flight to SLC left an hour later but when we got to Salt Lake, all we could find was fast food restaurants and I was ready for a REAL meal by then. Didn't have a lot of time to search because out flight to Bozeman was leaving shortly. When we finally landed in Bozeman, all of the latches on the cargo compartments were frozen shut. Another delay. This was in January and the temps at altitude were minus 67 degrees. I was ready to eat the hind end of a skunk by then. When we finally got home, I almost tore the door off of the fridge.

Louis - We love brats and Johnsonville has a good selection. We used to have a local meat shop that made their own, but the owner finally retired and the new owner did not offer them.

Willie - Nice photos. Glad you have cold beer on hand. We do not and A/C with the exception of a window unit which we'll put in the bedroom.Only used it a handful of times as we normally cool off at least into the 60's at night, if not the mid 50's at this altitude. A window mounter fan is all we usually need.

Justin - The suggestion about the tarp is good, or even a light weight plastic drop cloth could work. I don;t have much of a problem with dust, but I will usually have one freight car with Woodland Scenics "Dust Monkeys" in a train.

Later
 
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Ok soooo.....with the garage. It was once used for storage of my vehicles. After a few winters of getting snowed in and missing work the decision was made to just use it as storage space only. So far this year no vehicles have been in the garage. My bronco was the last one and well it was basically in storage anyways. What I have failed to mention is my garage is directly under the living room. So lots of foot traffic and playing kids to contend with. Dust hasn't really been too big of a concern for me this whole time. Now with that being said. I finally returned to my layout after a really really really long time! Dad duties have kept me away. My thought on this and I wish I had thought of this earlier. I did a thorough cleaning on my track. At least in my head I did. I did a good enough job to run my trains with no issues. Perhaps I thought I did a thorough job but really only cleaned it good enough. But with my gripe comes good suggestions. I've already been thinking maybe a cover for it would make things better. I feel that it's really been that long since I've ran my trains that the dust build up is more than I thought. Under normal circumstances I can go weeks at a time before I need to clean my track. So I was surprised that my GP7 was having issues. Issues my Athearn is not. It's kind of a confirmation that my Atlas and P2K locomotives are really picky when it comes to track cleanliness. Where my athearns are more forgiving. Big reason why my Athearn GP35 is my workhorse. Now that my fingers are gonna fall off I'll leave off here.
 
Howdy ...

Everybody .... Thanks for the "likes" and the comments for my photo of my Kato business car.

Chet .... I think we talked about the Kato NP business car. I also have one, and the colors are not right.

Louis .... We also like Johnsonville sausage. Their Italian sausage is good.

..
Below is a photo of my FT ABBA. I made it a few years ago from Stewart undecorated kits. I painted them and applied decals to them. I also added a few details. They are made to look like CB&Q FT's as they appeared when acquired from EMD in 1944.

35934111834_35af9f5aa7_b.jpg
 
Justin, you could put a 2x2 on each corner of the layout, above layout level, and one in the center, and lay a tarp or painter's cover over it. That would greatly reduce the dust, and be relatively easy to put on and off.
Exactly what I was thinking, although I was thinking an old bedsheet which would weigh less.
OK, Justin posted while I was still typing. That under the living room thing is a big problem. It is most likely that purchasing enough plywood to semi-finish the ceiling might be a budget buster right now, but maybe getting a roll of plastic like painters use as throwaway drop cloths, might be the answer. Tack it up to the joists and overlap a bit, and possibly use duct tape to seal. That in conjunction with a cover as suggested might do the trick, at least it would help.
I also use Dust Monkeys even though I don't have nearly the dust issue that many others have. One on every caboose. Prevention is easier than remediation just like everything else in life.
 
An interesting MRL locals/works train update from MRL@groups.io

>>What locals/roadswitchers currently operate on MRL? Are there set call times and work days for these? <<
Mark,Others have answered the other questions, I'll try to get the locals for you.
The new Bozeman Turn is on duty Laurel 1600 M-F and has been running with an SD45 and SD40. You should note, that SD45 has been on that job long enough, it may be due an inspection soon. I've seen several nice early evening photos of the 355 leading westward.
The new Park City local hasn't started yet. Not sure how far along they are building the new trans-load yard in Park City.
Former Livingston Local, still the 841, is now on duty in Bozeman at 0900. Works between Livingston and Logan.
Logan Local 844 on duty Logan 0800, working the Fifth Sub and maybe also between Manhattan and Trident.
Don't forget the ballast loaders at the far end of the Fifth Sub west of Whitehall. Usually a few a week, this time of year.
The Helena switch has been doing Montana City first thing in the mornings while the B&B works on the Missouri River bridge west of Townsend. Later in the day they go to Townsend, usually with the perennial MRL 109 and a SD40.
A Missoula crewed Jimbo Local (work train) has been following the tie gang east of Clinton with SD45 346 in it's consist. The 346 also is used with the 127 to run the ballast train back to Pipestone on the Fifth Sub for loading.
The Gas Locals are on duty 0400 and 1600 daily. Usually the 4406/ 4408, but sometimes if one of them doesn't make it back on HOS, they will run the next Gas with spare SD40s or other power to keep the cycle moving. As Rich W. mentioned, can go west via St Regis.
There's still some sort of Bonner Local that runs east of Missoula as needed. Usuaully MRL 500 (WP Lives!) facing west. The 500 is the regular unit for the switch crew at the west end of Missoula Yard.
 
Looks to be somewhat overcast but still 82F at 7:30am this Sunday morning in Kobe.

CHAD - Have a safe trip home; I hate to see you leave - It has been very enjoyable reading of you and family's travels and sights. I like that little BLUE style train ... Pretty!
BTW - I only saw chopsticks with the bowl of ramen - do you have a spoon for the soup, or tilt the bowl?

Thanks. My kids feel the same way about leaving. Especially since school will be starting when they get back (they are actually missing the first 2 days due to the trip).

The Blue Super Hakuto was interesting. It was a diesel, but much different than the other diesels we've been on. Not the low rumble and no turbo whine. Much different transmission sound as well. It was a fun one to ride. Quite quick and fast, and the seats were not bad. Pretty interior with wood and all as well. We were only on it about 15 minutes from Sannomiya (Kobe) to Osaka, but I did some research on it and where it comes from/goes to and on our next trip may head up there as it is on the north side of the main island along the Sea of Japan. Never been on that side. Next trip is tentatively over Christmas 2020. It will be the last one my son is on probably as he'll be a senior in HS that year. We try and go about every other year, and the last several have been over Christmas breaks. This year we moved it up a few months into the summer, and so the end effect is a bit of a compressed schedule with two approximately 1.5 years or a total of 3 years instead of 4 for the last set of trips. It was good though as my daughter had not been in the summer since she was old enough to remember, I don't think (we used to go late August/early September when my son was younger and my daughter a baby), and my MIL was diagnosed with cancer last Fall (she is doing pretty well) so moving up to the summer allowed us to see her again while she is still pretty "normal" (we had tickets before she was diagnosed so it was serendipity that it worked out well).

I'm headed to Europe (mostly Germany) in June next year with my daughter. I have a reunion in Munich to attend. While I'll probably rent a car due to cost, we'll be riding some trains as well and will be checking out trains and model shops.

There was a Chinese style soup spoon tucked in next to the bowl, hidden by the flared lip of the bowl. I drank all the broth but it seems a lot of people don't. Personal preference I guess.

Chad - Glad that you are enjoying your trip. Thanks for posting all of the photos. Enjoyed them. I really feel for you having to go through LAX. When we flew back from Hawaii a few years ago the only flight left at 10:30 PM and we landed at LAX at 0500. Everything was closed up except for one coffee shop. I was really starting to get hungry, but no food. Our connecting flight to SLC left an hour later but when we got to Salt Lake, all we could find was fast food restaurants and I was ready for a REAL meal by then. Didn't have a lot of time to search because out flight to Bozeman was leaving shortly. When we finally landed in Bozeman, all of the latches on the cargo compartments were frozen shut. Another delay. This was in January and the temps at altitude were minus 67 degrees. I was ready to eat the hind end of a skunk by then. When we finally got home, I almost tore the door off of the fridge.

I can relate. Not been to Hawaii myself (except as a few hour layover on the way to Japan once), though the wife has. It seems from research that the red-eye flights are popular. But they are a killer. We took one to Boston two summers ago so I could show the kids where I grew up and it was hard to land at 5am or 6am and have a full day ahead of us.

You can get hungry traveling and besides there often not being anything open at crazy hours in the airport, they kill you on jacking up prices as well in some areas. I like traveling but I hate flying. But I hate sitting in airports more than I hate flying. I am not looking forward to this trip home as the total time door to door, will be close to 24 hours (with travel to from airports, security lines, layovers, etc) and even longer day since the flight leaves at 7pm local time so we have the whole day before we leave. And the jet lag from flying West to East is a killer (much more so than from East to West -- personal experience as well as US Army studies on soldiers going to and from Europe). Friday we all have off and though the kids school we're not making them get up. We'll be sleeping in with any luck -- funny thing about jet lag is you are wide awake at 3am and dead tired at noon. Forcing yourself into your new schedule and taking Melatonin when going to sleep helps you adjust a bit faster.

Tomorrow morning off to Tokyo. Hopefully Typhoon Krosa stays away.

ALL --

I've been enjoying all the photos posted from layouts (or prototypes). While I don't run/model or know much about US railroads, I like looking at the photos and find them inspiring. When we were in Green River WY this past February for a swim meet for the kids, we drove past a UP rail yard multiple times and it was interesting (and made me go look at some KATO models, though I resisted :) ).
 
Chet- we have a local meat market(Hewitt Meats) that makes quite a variety of fresh brats & other sausages, about a block away from my POE. My personal favorites are their cranberry & Reuben brats. I keep a few packs of their snack sticks in the fridge so I can throw one into my work cooler for a break time munch. They also carry their own variety of rubs & marinades as well. I try to “buy local” whenever I can, even if costs a little bit more.
 
Chad - I have pretty well given up flying commercial if at all possible. That return trip from Hawaii was the clincher for me. I do have a private pilots license and access to an aircraft for shorter trips otherwise I will drive if at all possible, even cross country.

Mike - I have always enjoyed sausage, in fact we had some this evening. When I was in the Navy, I attended three different electronic schools in Great Lakes, IL, and really enjoyed the fairs that were held in the Milwaukee area. Sausage heaven. The guy who had the local butcher shop was from Germany and really knew his sausage and always had a wide selection available in his shop. Sure hated to see him retire.
 
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Chad , have enjoyed your travels and pixs and happy for you and your family. Have a safe trip home.

Day started at 81* , rose to 92* and now down to 83* No rain here but t/s's to the east and northeast most of the day. Of course humidity level high.
Wish all a goodnight with pleasant dreams.
Prayers for all
Phil

HE WHO ANGERS YOU,CONTROLS YOU
 
Louis: "But it's New Yawk!" New Yorkers are arrogant, and demanding, but many tend to excell where others don't. They are also abrupt and eternally in a hurry. When I first moved here 33 years ago, most of my neighbors were refugees from State Island and Brooklyn, who had difficulty curtting the umbilical cord with their old neighborhood. At least the BENNYs were seasonal.

Speaking of "the Amazins", the Mets pulled off an awesome comeback last night. They entered the bottom of the ninth down 6-3 to the Nationals, and blew the Nats out of the ball park. When Michael Conforto drove in the game winning run, Citi Field went Nutz. This team has won 14 of their last 15 games, and are building momentum. Amazin! Ya gotta believe! Lets go Mets!

Boris

New York - "forget about it!" :) Too many loud mouthed blowhards for me. It's easier to excel where others have not when you have more money than you know what to do with. I'd like to see how they handle a real world budget. If DC is any indication it would just be huge deficit spending.

The Mets exposed the Nationals weakness, the backend of the bullpen. Conventional wisdom says "you don't spend big for 1 inning pitchers" I'd bet the Nationals front office would disagree now.

Buck Showalter thought different. It went mostly unnoticed how much his Orioles teams spent on relievers, even when they won the AL East by 12 games very few noticed. Quality relivers can be the best bargin in baseball, but, the problem is most relivers are not consistent from year to year.
 
Come to think of it, speaking of deficit spending; why doesn't anybody balk at raising the debt celling anymore? Robin Hood in reverse; rob the working man to give to the rich.

Herbert Hover economics, have fun while the party lasts.
 
Louis - We love brats and Johnsonville has a good selection. We used to have a local meat shop that made their own, but the owner finally retired and the new owner did not offer them.

Chet,
I have my wife's, father's recipe to make Hungarian sausage, I have the meat grinder, the wood smoker and the casings, I even have paprika from Hungary. All I need now is to do it, it's on the list.
 
Good morning ll. It was 80* at o dark hundred. Will be back to the 90's later with the humidity with it.
School starts here on Monday .Drivers have been warned about STRICT new laws in school zones .
Wish all a good day.
Phil

ASK GRAMPA ANYTHING - I KNOW A LOT, AND WHEN I DON'T I CAN PROVIDE YOU WITH A REALLY GOOD MADE UP ANSWER.
 
Good morning, 58°, and sunny.
speaking of deficit spending; why doesn't anybody balk at raising the debt celling anymore?

Louis: Rand Paul still does. Mitch McConnell still wants a cut to offset each expenditure. But most politicians have found that Austerity doesn't work. Sequester, and Government Shut down, the last two attempts at forcing a balanced budget neither cut spending nor balancing the budget.

Each side has their special interests to pander to, and we still have to defend ourselves from potential enemys around the world. No one can agree which expenditure to cut, and Economists have a new theory, which implies deficit spending isn't as harmful as the "Return to the Gold Standard" crowd, would imply.

Boris
 
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