Running Bear’s August 2019 Coffee Shop


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Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 74°. Weatherman missed the mark yesterday when a sudden rain shower hit here around 11:00. Left only .17" in the gauge but it settled the dust for a day. Probably not enough to cause the grass/weeds to start growing again, but they got a bath and look green again.
Blueberry waffles and sausage links for me this morning Francine. After all, today is National Waffle Day.
Outside I made a little headway on the large brush pile before making the trip to the PT and the rain hit. After lunch, household chores once again took over.

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding the slight progress on the Tire Shack; Chad, Sherrel. Phil, Garry, Mikey, Louis, Jerome, Tom.
Thanks also for the additional comments on the trailer scene from Thursday; Johnny, Chet.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I started by running trains, with a disaster! An EZ-Mate shelf coupler broke on an Athearn tanker and the ensuing derailment damaged another tanker when it sideswiped some boxcars on the siding. Grrrh! :( I spent about 45 minutes repairing both cars rather than putting them on the RIP track. Not sure why I hadn't already replaced that coupler with a Kadee #119, the other one on the same car had already been replaced. Must have run out or something when I was replacing them in the beginning. As a result, I didn't spend any time on scenery, I needed a break anyway, but I did continue to paint some detail parts that are cluttering up the workbench. I also cleared some scrap pieces of styrene off the bench and redeposited some other stuff in the parts drawers. A bit more room to clutter up now!
In lieu of any progress pictures, I went into the library and found a couple of bank photos. Both of these are cardstock structures that were free downloads from The Illinois State Historical Society.
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They are both historically connected to Abraham Lincoln's home town of Springfield, Illinois in some way or another. They originally had over thirty structures available for free download, but they seemed to have removed them from the site after being there for three or four years.

Chet - Using that small area for the trailer scene is one of many on my layout. I guess that I am a bit of a fanatic about adding something that's appropriate wherever I can. After switching on the layout, modeling scenes is my favorite aspect of the hobby. I am encouraged by your's and Garry's layouts. I'd like to see some more of some of the other visitors works as well.
Pictures from the club were great as usual. At least the operators weren't getting in each others way this week!
Louis - That was just the basic recipe for nacho cheese. You have the right idea regarding adding jalapenos. I sometimes add pimentos as well. Stay away from Habaneros though!!!
Tom - Nice looking bridge picture. I vaguely recall my Dad taking me near Rochester (if I recall correctly) somewhere to view that bridge back in the 50's when we lived in NY. He liked both railroads and bridges. Wondering whether the environmentalists and NIMBY's would let them build the Erie Canal today?

Besides being National Waffle Day, today is also National Maryland Day; in honor of Louis's home state. Historically it would have been my late mother's 90th birthday as well.
Everybody have a great Saturday and an awesome weekend.
 
Almost Afternoon everyone.

I was off yesterday (except I got called in early morning) so I could run updates on the servers today. I was delayed because Bambi didn't look both ways before crossing the road. Fortunately it appears that only the plastic grill work on my '09 Colorado is busted along with the headlights, etc. No sheet metal damage that I or the officer could see.

Otherwise everyone have a great weekend.
 
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Good afternoon. Taking a break from yard work to check in.

Sherrel - Nice to see that you have finally gotten a break from the heat. I will try to get a hold of Randy and help him.

Tom - Really like the photo of the bridge. Nice.

Louis - Great information on the tires. I have also done a lot of research on tires over the years. With the winters we have up here, a good tire is very important. When I was working I always put a good winter tire on my car. I can remember having to bust trail at 0530 in the morning because the plows hadn't got to the roads yet. It is a pain to change the in the fall and spring. That particular Nokian tire has many outstanding customer reviews for winter driving and it is not a winter tire, but an all weather tire. My summer tires will have to be replaced next year and I will only get one more winter out of my winter tires and am disappointed that the Nokian that are on the wife's car are not available for my Buick. I will be researching a good all around tire for it in the spring.

Willie - Good looking bank buildings. Well done.

Patrick - You are lucky that you didn't have more damage from the deer incident. Years back I had some bad luck with them. Hit 3 deer in 5 weeks. I usually left for work around 0530 and I swear that they were lined up along the highway waiting to commit suicide. After hitting the third one, the guy at the body shop said that he moved that target to the back bumper. Guess it worked as I haven't had any more deer encounters.

Here's my photo for the day of the pond put in along the main line with the nude sun bathers.

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Back to work, Later
 
The Great Divide said:
Hey all, I am still waiting to see if my photo's will load into an album for me. It keeps telling me my images "need approval" before they can be loaded in. So while stuck in the station..... I was looking around I thought, perhaps, I could come over here and ask for approval, this seems like a go to group of go-getters who could solve any problem.....! But then they told me; that's a bad idea.... this area is more for the guy's who can't run the trains fast anymore.

Well I notice that I actually like running the trains slower now anyway... So I though with that in mind it might be OK to stop in and say hi.

How'd I do?

Randy
Click to expand...

Sent a PM
 
santafewillie said:
...

Out in the train shed yesterday, I started by running trains, with a disaster! An EZ-Mate shelf coupler broke on an Athearn tanker and the ensuing derailment damaged another tanker when it sideswiped some boxcars on the siding. Grrrh! :( I spent about 45 minutes repairing both cars rather than putting them on the RIP track. Not sure why I hadn't already replaced that coupler with a Kadee #119, the other one on the same car had already been replaced. Must have run out or something when I was replacing them in the beginning. As a result, I didn't spend any time on scenery, I needed a break anyway, but I did continue to paint some detail parts that are cluttering up the workbench. I also cleared some scrap pieces of styrene off the bench and redeposited some other stuff in the parts drawers. A bit more room to clutter up now!
In lieu of any progress pictures, I went into the library and found a couple of bank photos. Both of these are cardstock structures that were free downloads from The Illinois State Historical Society.
View attachment 38863
View attachment 38864
They are both historically connected to Abraham Lincoln's home town of Springfield, Illinois in some way or another. They originally had over thirty structures available for free download, but they seemed to have removed them from the site after being there for three or four years.


Louis - That was just the basic recipe for nacho cheese. You have the right idea regarding adding jalapenos. I sometimes add pimentos as well. Stay away from Habaneros though!!!


Besides being National Waffle Day, today is also National Maryland Day; in honor of Louis's home state. Historically it would have been my late mother's 90th birthday as well.
Everybody have a great Saturday and an awesome weekend.
Click to expand...

Willie, I owe you a debt of gratitude. I really appreciate you giving me a starting point for nacho cheese, I absolutely love the stuff! Now that I have read the ingredients of the canned nacho cheese, your recipe is even more important. A few of the ingredients, I would struggle to spell, are not good for my kidneys.

Sorry to hear about the train wreck, but it sounds like even your wrecks are prototypical!

While, Chet and Garry do have what I consider to be museum quality layouts, your layout just as inspiring. Your layout is still a work in progress and will soon enough rival theirs. Watching your work develop affords me and others the opportunity to learn.

I'm not a fan of waffles, or anything made from grains, except for beer and whiskey. I do however appreciate knowing today is Maryland day, thank you.

Thank God for your Mom! I believe "the tree will be judged by the fruit" and from what I know of you, I can say, your Mom must have been a great person.
 
montanan said:
...

Louis - Great information on the tires. I have also done a lot of research on tires over the years. With the winters we have up here, a good tire is very important. When I was working I always put a good winter tire on my car. I can remember having to bust trail at 0530 in the morning because the plows hadn't got to the roads yet. It is a pain to change the in the fall and spring. That particular Nokian tire has many outstanding customer reviews for winter driving and it is not a winter tire, but an all weather tire. My summer tires will have to be replaced next year and I will only get one more winter out of my winter tires and am disappointed that the Nokian that are on the wife's car are not available for my Buick. I will be researching a good all around tire for it in the spring.
Click to expand...

Chet, I don't have much experience with snow tires. Most of Maryland is not snow tire country. I have sold a few snow tires to customers with vehicles only used on snow days. And a few pairs of wheels with snow tires for the customer to install when needed, but those customers are few and far between in the Baltimore mero area.

I did have a new service manager at Ryder who came to us from the mountains of Tennessee that insisted on having snow tires on his S-10 company vehicle. We got less than 10,000 miles out of them and when it finally snowed enough to need snow tires they were already more than half worn and not of much use anyway. I suggested we keep the snow tires on hand and put them on the day before it was to snow, but he knew better.

There are so many good all-weather tires today and with your experience I'm sure you will be happy with what ever you choose.
 
Good morning. It's mostly cloudy and 60. I haven't been here much (at all) lately, I've been a little busy the last few days, dealing with an RV show. I have to go back again this afternoon and tear everything down and move it back to our shop.
I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, hopefully everything will be okay.
Louis, I spent several years dealing with tires, the last was in 2006 as district safety director for a tire manufacturer whose owner was great friends with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. I agree that PC's equipment looked good when it was clean, though the only time that seemed to happen was right out of the factory. I have an N scale model of NS 1073 that I got at a great price from my LHS. I got it home, decoder install was a breeze, and I plopped it on my test track to run for a while. Then, I noticed a little baggie nestled in a corner of the box. I discovered that in that baggie were all the handrails and grab irons to be installed in the engine. Oh, and I need to drill the holes to install them. I had a tough enough time doing this on my HO stuff, so I think I'll just install the cab sunshades on it, and call it a day...
B2A21B3D-CF1A-44D5-8E5C-83C58176916D.jpeg
 
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Now, just a very short while ago I told a couple of fellows on here I wasn't going to be buying any more Locos and concentrating on getting sound decoders for the ones I have now. OK, I have now got enough for most of them, with only a couple, not really fitting into my main interest, that haven't, but which I got before that happened.
But. I have, as I have just done, bought another MRL loco and partially justified that by the fact it had DCC/sound fitted from local seller. The same seller has now listed within the last 2 days, an Athearn DCC ready with NCE DCC decoder, SD40-2XR, that I don't have. Auction ends on the 31st. I have 5 SD40's including the only genuine SD40-2 MRL owns #250. I really don't need another and can't really justify it. But, it is here in Aus and the shipping like the other is only $20, rather than the $70-80 from the US.

To add to my anguish, on US ebay, there have been also recently listed, 4 Genesis MRL SD70ACe's by the same seller over there. Oddly, 3 by auction and 1 by BIN. 3 are from the 2nd run produced, that I didn't buy from and 1 that I have, from the 1st run. Oddly, the BIN (2nd run) is used, but priced very near what they were new at MBK on release. The ones on auction are 2 used and 1 'new'. That one is not as high in the bidding. (maybe it's the 13 in the number). I would be breaking my promise to myself, to not buy anything over what I can pay off in the interest free period of my 'plastic'. They do all have Tsunami (1st edition) sound in them, as do all my other Genesis ACe's, though. I really can't justify it, but.
 
bnsf971 said:
Good morning. It's mostly cloudy and 60. I haven't been here much (at all) lately, I've been a little busy the last few days, dealing with an RV show. I have to go back again this afternoon and tear everything down and move it back to our shop.
I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, hopefully everything will be okay.
Louis, I spent several years dealing with tires, the last was in 2006 as district safety director for a tire manufacturer whose owner was great friends with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. I agree that PC's equipment looked good when it was clean, though the only time that seemed to happen was right out of the factory. I have an N scale model of NS 1073 that I got at a great price from my LHS. I got it home, decoder install was a breeze, and I plopped it on my test track to run for a while. Then, I noticed a little baggie nestled in a corner of the box. I discovered that in that baggie were all the handrails and grab irons to be installed in the engine. Oh, and I need to drill the holes to install them. I had a tough enough time doing this on my HO stuff, so I think I'll just install the cab sunshades on it, and call it a day...View attachment 38883
Click to expand...
A Kato is it? I bought an HO NS SD80MAC from Klein's, Fully assembled by Kobe shop's w/sound and then later, another DCC ready, 'cause I felt it would be lonely. It came like that too. What a nightmare putting on all the grabs etc. Exacerbated by the fact they are all plastic and twisted about all over the place, getting them into their holes (at least they were drilled). It has been sitting in a plastic container now for months, awaiting spraying with dullcote to make it prototypical, all in bits. I think the Kobe shop's one can stay shiny and represent one of NS's rebuilt ones, even if they have had new, different cabs etc, retrofitted since.
 
Good Morning All. 72° and clear here today, There's a dew on the ground, kinda unusual for August. Expecting 96° later today, 102° tomorrow and then the cool front originally predicted for Thursday arrives Tuesday, maybe! Highs around 90° for a week or so, maybe longer. Pool water was especially refreshing yesterday at 80°. Cool morning yesterday and I didn't have to be "somewhere", so I was able to do some general garden cleanup and maintenance. I'm unsure whether or not to attempt a fall garden this season due to the current lack of ground moisture.
Update on wife's knee replacement for those who have expressed interest in getting one: After the PT Friday, she stopped using the cane. While we were there, another older lady who had the same procedure with the same doctor, two weeks later, came in. She had already switched from walker to cane after just nine days and she scolded my wife for not having done so sooner than she had.

Thanks for the comments and likes for yesterday's cardstock pictures; Jerome, Mike, Patrick, Phil, Chad, Chet, Garry, Justin, Tom. They are always fun to do. And if you make a mistake, just print that page over again! Granted though, they are generally best if used in the background or at a distance.

Mostly just piddled around in the train shed yesterday. Added a few more minor details to the Fresh Market. Soda machine on one side.
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Trash in the rear.
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Sadly, this side of the structure will not be visible.

Randy - Looks like your picture made it over here in the Coffee Shop.
Tom - I'm not a big fan of looking down off bridges either.
Terry - I don't know how anyone can install grabs on an N scale car.
Ray - One can never have enough SD40-2's. I have 15! Don't know about MRL, but ATSF had 187, so I'm a long way from being complete!

Everybody have a great day.
 
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