Running Bear's April 2019 Coffee Shop


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Well, my afternoon went kind of weird on me.
I went to my local Big Box electronics store to return a tablet. They started the return, and got as far as entering the item number into the computer when lightning struck a pole outside, and the power went out. After 30 minutes, the power partially came back on. For whatever reason, a glitch prevented the return from being a return, and it had to be modified into an exchange. I still returned the tablet, but am now the proud (?) owner of a laptop that we had to use as exchange bait for their system.
I'll probably hang onto it for a week or two, then return that.
Anybody want a new Asus laptop, cheep?
 
Well, my afternoon went kind of weird on me.
I went to my local Big Box electronics store to return a tablet. They started the return, and got as far as entering the item number into the computer when lightning struck a pole outside, and the power went out. After 30 minutes, the power partially came back on. For whatever reason, a glitch prevented the return from being a return, and it had to be modified into an exchange. I still returned the tablet, but am now the proud (?) owner of a laptop that we had to use as exchange bait for their system.
I'll probably hang onto it for a week or two, then return that.
Anybody want a new Asus laptop, cheep?
Forgot to add in the full moon in the equation.:)
 
Good afternoon. 80 degrees this afternoon.

Terry - Good luck. You don't have a good history with computers.

Chuck - the GP-7 is coming along nicely.

Karl - Stay dry.

Tom - That quite a lot of equipment he has. Do they have any accurate vintage HO sclae items?

Today was steam day for running. I haven't run many of the steamers for a while so I thought I would let them tretch their legs and get some time running on the main line for a while. I don't keep this Challenger on the layout because it's too long for the turntable, but it was nice to see it running again. A decent puling loco. Can handle 25 cars on the grade without any problems.

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Some of them hide in here.

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A light and a heavy mike.

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The heavy mike is painted for the Southern but I have been trying to figure out what would be needed to detail for a Northern Pacific Mike. I guess I could letter it for the Logan Valley also.

Later
 
Terry - Hope all goes well,springtime brings some nasty weather.
Chet - They have older stuff too,couldn't get pic of all of it but they do have vintage ho that looks pretty accurate.
 
Well, my afternoon went kind of weird on me.
I went to my local Big Box electronics store to return a tablet. They started the return, and got as far as entering the item number into the computer when lightning struck a pole outside, and the power went out. After 30 minutes, the power partially came back on. For whatever reason, a glitch prevented the return from being a return, and it had to be modified into an exchange. I still returned the tablet, but am now the proud (?) owner of a laptop that we had to use as exchange bait for their system.
I'll probably hang onto it for a week or two, then return that.
Anybody want a new Asus laptop, cheep?
When are you going to write a book, Terry. You know, "Terry's Travels in the Twilight Zone".
 
Ray - Quite a deal in the SD-35.
Not quite as cheap as I thought, came across another dealer site from the time they were released (2007) which had a listed price of $135 and sale price of $98. I've seen quite a few of the Kato models of the same offered, but their blue is "off". This is the first Atlas I was aware of. Not complaining, it's a good buy.
 
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.
View attachment 36072
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.
View attachment 36073

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.

Willie: Neat trick using the Red dot.

I like your card stock building, the rafters will add slot as Sherrel suggested.
Greetings -- Presently 65? ...Supposed to be 81? today ... Weather Underground has been all over lately - If I click on history - it gives me Carlsbad?

TemeculaWeather.com says Presently 61? with a high of 88?

I'll just look at my own chepo China made weather clock!

This was on FB this morning ....
View attachment 36083

Sherrel:. LMAO ROTF about to the Xacto 'First Aid Accessory display' !! That's about just how it is too. Actually, I associate it more with Dremel as I've received some nasty cuts in the past using the fine round saw blade mounted on a mandrel.
 
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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 and ground foam on their layouts. -Greg

Greg: A lot of nice detail work.
 
I am writing to you by a great favor. On my wife's computer. Reason. Mine fell to bits. Explanation. I moved both our machines and desks into another room after it had been refurbished. I have been noticing an acrid smell for a while since emanating from mine. So just a while ago I decided to take the side panel off and check it out for dust, because I couldn't isolate a source. Mine has a large heatsink with about a 4" fan attached to the processor and the fin sides are hard up against the vents in the side panel when it's in place. I vacuumed out the dust in the casing and then checked the fan and fins. Because the fan is on the side, I couldn't see into the fins very clearly, so tried to suck out what I could gently.

Next thing I hear some bits of stuff fall into the bottom of the case, then the fan/fin assembly followed with a crash. The bits that fell were the collapsed plastic sockets mounted in the motherboard that plastic pins on the frame mounted to the fins used to secure it to that, were pressed into. Pretty obvious that all that was holding the assembly in position was the side panel, although there is evidence of some sort of coating on the face of the processor and the copper rods that transfer heat to the fins.

If I don't write much till after Easter, this will be why. Least I can blow the crap out of it more easily.
 
I just was contacted by a relative of one of my friends to let me know he had passed on last night. He was by no means a traditional person, and much though I'd like to, I won't be able to attend his life celebration. It should prove to be, umm, "memorable". I told his nephew to take pictures, or it never happened.
 
Good morning y'all. 65°, and raining. The predicted severe weather for last night never materialized. Definitely have to cut the lawn Monday.

Boris
 
Good Morning All. 50° and clear and sunny. Looking at 80° for a high today, right now there is no wind, expecting light breezes later. Mower is in for a workout today after the rain this week. Dew still needs to dry before I start though. Filled the gas can Thursday, so I'm ready.

Thanks for all of the comments and likes regarding the small house scene yesterday, Chuck, Garry, Sherrel, Chet, Clint, Tom, Curt, Phil, Justin and anyone else that I may have overlooked.

Did a lot more scenery work in the train shed yesterday. Funny how after you think that an area is finished, you can look at it the next day and see a myriad of ways to improve it. Some of what I did was blending it into the adjacent areas that were already done. Starting on details, figures and vehicles now. In between I continued to do the scheduled cleanup of this quarters target area. This section is easy as over half of it has absolutely no scenery, not even ballast. I removed some structures to the workbench for delicate cleaning. Here's a shot of a small farmhouse from American Model Builders known as "139 Maple Street". I do have laser-cut kits from manufacturers other than Bar Mills.;)
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I have a barn also from AMB that is on the same farm, simply known as "Loft Barn"
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Garry - That is a great scrapyard scene. A lot of action in that area.
Sherrel - That is not piano wire, but some .017" wire that I got from work years ago. It is sold commercially to tie inventory tags to stuff in warehouses. Believe it or not, I still have some sawdust in use as scenery material, blended with other stuff.
Chet - Glad to read of the progress with the PT.
Chuck - My, you work quickly. Nice job on the Geep.
Tom -
Should've saved yourself the trouble and just put the clothes in the dryer.:)
Yes, but I couldn't model that!:p
That looked like a real interesting hobby shop. I wish that I was closer as I am always in need of vehicles.
Terry - Condolences on your friend's passing. "Traditional person"; I don't know too many of them! Sherrel might be the closest!;)

Looking forward to the traditional family Easter egg hunt and feast tomorrow. 48 descendants and their spouses of my parents will gather to celebrate and I have been advised that there will most likely be two widowers there as well. I can easily estimate how much beer to bring, but I have no real clue as to how much macaroni salad to make! At least one other person has a beer assignment as well.
Whoa! Look at the time, gotta go now. Everybody have a great day and a fabulous Easter weekend.
 
Good morning all, we had a beautiful day yesterday and today is stacking up to be a banner day in the 70's and sun!

Chet-- more nice layout shots, I like your steam lineup
Willie-- a couple more nice buildings

Toot-- Terry-- tough luck in the computers seems to be contagious

A few new purchases came while I was at the training session, an AMB caboose for the layout and a couple more box roundhouse truss rod boxcars.

Here is today's layout photo, probably posted this a couple years ago but cannot remember:

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This is a gritty industrial part of town

more later, Dave
 
Good morning ...... We got home at midnight. .... Sleeping in this morning and phone rings. Telemarketing. Reverse mortgage scam. Idiot. We never borrow any money any time for anything. If we did, the last choice would be a reverse mortgage. That type of loan should not be legal.

Curt, Chet, Sherrel, Willie , and anyone I missed....... Thanks for commenting on my photo.

Chet .. The NP 4-6-6-4 is magnificent. NP had one of the best looking engines with that one. Several years ago, I had an idea of kit bashing a Rivarossi UP 4-6-6-4 into an NP one. Of course, I have more ideas than time to do all of them. ..... Nice engine terminal on your layout.

Willie ... Your house and barn look great. barn

Chuck ... Excellent painting of the GP7

Dave .... Your crossing scene looks good.

Terry ... I'm sorry to hear your friend passed away. Your comments suggest he was a character.
 
OK ... This is how I started my day!

LITTLE LARRY!
A teacher asked her class how many of them were Bernie Sanders fans.​
Not really knowing what a Bernie Sanders fan was, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raised their hands except for little Larry.​
The teacher asked little Larry why he decided to be different.​
Little Larry said, 'Because I'm not a Bernie Sanders fan.'​
The teacher asked, 'Why aren't you a Bernie Sanders fan?'​
Little Larry said, 'Because I'm a Conservative.'​
The teacher asked him why he's a Conservative.​
Little Larry answered, 'Well, my Mom is a Conservative and my Dad is a Conservative, so I'm a Conservative.'​
Annoyed by this answer, the teacher asked, 'If your Mom was a moron and your Dad was an idiot, what would that make you?'​
Little Larry replied, 'A Bernie Sanders fan.'​
Cheers to all Beer Drinkers!
 
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