Running Bear's April 2019 Coffee Shop


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Good Afternoon Everyone....overcast and snowing here in this part of Wisconsin. 63 degrees on Tuesday.

I'm glad I repaired that SOO GP-2 with the power pick up problem. I did learn that when ever I purchase a locomotive I'll test run the loco before taking it home and check all the detail parts very carefully. The plow on this unit should never been installed covering the MU hoses. Also, the Fireman's side window was pushed into against the body most likely from the start.

The locomotive has a SoundTraxx Sound decoder.

After taking this locomotive basically 75% apart I'm glad the re-assembly went smooth and basically uneventful. This was the first time I noticed that one of front windows is partially open. I hope its the way Athearn intended to have it.

I admire the hobbist(s) who run their locomotives and their locomotives are basically intact from I can tell in video and photographs. All the hand rails, vents, horn and detail parts are in place. As careful as I can be I alsways manage a way to break some detail part.

It may be a good idea to purchase a set set of hand rails, and other detail parts when you first purchase a locomotive. Sooner than later some thing will get broken. Later on it will difficult to purchase this parts when the manufactures runs out of inventory.

I did glue down some ground foam by a telephone pole that I realigned and this has been a long over due short project. Straighten up the work bench a bit.

I'll work on the layout tomorrow to finish what I didn't complete this weekend.

Fun how rapidly the track gets dirty. Even with the Dust Monkeys and CenterLine track cleaning cars.

I had a question for Rail Logic and Charles from Rail Logic returned my email the same day on a Saturday. Great customer service. I like their signal animators that make it look like I have a complex detection system. The signal(s) turn red after the locomotive passes a sensor in the track then after 30 seconds turns yellow and then after the final thirty seconds it returns to green. I'm using either ground signals or Tomar's three ligth mast signals.

That's all for now.

Later.............

Greg

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Afternoon All,

Not much accomplished today. Did some chores this morning then using a makeup brush I dusted equipment, roads and buildings on the layout.

Willie- Nice buildings. I use the BB stanchions for loco train phone supports.

Greg- Very nice looking background building. With your signals are you talking about Logic Rail Technologies?

Chet- Great looking scenes.

Justin- Nice B&O photos.

Garry- Interesting scene.

Dana- That looks like a awesome club layout.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Good evening, y'all. Damn, the place was quiet since Curt stopped by.

Guess everyone was watching the Masters, and Tigers resurgence, or, like myself, spent the day watching Hockey playoffs. Some really good, interesting games today, Especially if you are either a NY Islanders fan, a Columbus Blue Jacket fan or a fan of the Winnipeg Jets. Hopefully, no one took to the hills because of nasty weather.

I actually completed a small project on the layout between games.

Boris
 
Joe - It gets that way quite often. I have noticed that after my post in the mornings, sometimes I think that I have broken the forum - as it may be hours before anyone else posts. Then, on top of that - lots of the time NO ONE comments on my photos, or content! Anyway, I'm just "messing". I have been totally bored as of late, and sucking through retirement monies with med co-pays and RV stuff and auto repair - - not to mention buying another vehicle. I know where the Black Hole is hanging out!

Like I said - I am just on a down for the moment - the pendulum will swing!
The last two days productive time probably could have been accomplished in 4 hours.
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Hello rail gang.

Thought I'd better stop by to see what's is going on.

I've had my share of problems around my place, the sluggish septic tank was causing me fits but thankfully a fair amount of RidX along with some prior caustic soda seems to have opened things up ? I hope I'm not speaking too soon as about two weeks ago I also thought it was back to normal but it wasn't. I've poured a lot down the laundry room washing drain as well as the closest toilet so I hope it's on the mend.

I'm still having my Left leg muscle poblrms which impairs moving around freely and sleeping comfortably too long so a lot of broken sleep. Maybe I should take some Jack Daniels, which I have but don't generally drink.

There are other issues too but enough for now.

Good to see everyone !
 
Good Morning Folks, Moons over My Hammy Please .... And a Large Coffee .

Wicked weather here overnight , storm force gusts and heavy Rain .
postman has arrived with a Bachmann 63809 F7B in B & O Livery
i am highly impressed , for value for $$$$ , just fitted a decoder and it is a smooth runner .
so happy with the purchase
Afternoons post should see the A unit arrive { sound equipped }
nothing else to report on this end
wishing you all a great day { and stay safe in the bad weather }

Chuck
 
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Joe - It gets that way quite often. I have noticed that after my post in the mornings, sometimes I think that I have broken the forum - as it may be hours before anyone else posts. Then, on top of that - lots of the time NO ONE comments on my photos, or content! Anyway, I'm just "messing". I have been totally bored as of late, and sucking through retirement monies with med co-pays and RV stuff and auto repair - - not to mention buying another vehicle. I know where the Black Hole is hanging out!

Like I said - I am just on a down for the moment - the pendulum will swing!
The last two days productive time probably could have been accomplished in 4 hours.
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Ya needs to jump in the RV Brother , grab a bottle or two of J.D. and head for the hills .
peace n quiet . thats the cure. a few days away .you are more than welcome to visit here , but after the Jameson and the red headed women
you would be in no state to fly back :)
 
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Jameson, this early in the day? A man after me own heart!!!

After nine O'clock this morning, I don'r see the temperature going below freezing for the next nine days. There will be precipitation; nut, none of it snow!

A couple eggs over easy and links. Keep the coffee coming, Flo!
 
Good morning, y'all! (un) Happy Tax Day :rolleyes:. 58° and clearing after a night of rain. I need another cup of coffee.

Boris
 
Good morning everyone. 41 and sunny out there. And time for more coffee.

It snowed yesterday morning. Can you believe this?! Snow, in mid-April in this part of the country?!?!

Not much to share this morning. Had the kids and grandkids over for dinner yesterday. It was oldest granddaughter's 15th birthday, so cake-and-ice-cream time!!! And spent time on the floor with the other granddaughter (almost 3) giving her horsey rides and playing hide and seek, and was able to run the trains to show off the latest stuff on the layout. Did some work in the modeling room, and continued working on adding lights to the layout structures. Got to get a low-voltage switch to control the lights. Waiting for my eBay purchase of an Athearn Genesis F3A NY Central diesel loco to arrive.

Have a good day everyone.
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 51°, still dark though. How about a breakfast burrito and OJ here this morning Flo. Yesterday turned out to be a beautiful day, except for the wet ground and some remaining standing water. Probably will hit 80° later today with high winds from the south for the next three days. Steady barometer for three days. Ate lunch in Muenster TX yesterday, a German town nearby. I had sauerbraten, red cabbage and potatoes, along with some hearty German beer.They are setting up for "Germanfest" coming up later this month, their spring equivalent of Oktoberfest. Muenster isn't a big town, maybe 1500 people, but this celebration is a big deal in this part of Texas. There's several other German communities nearby, including the town of Lindsay where our Catholic church is located. Muenster also has a Catholic grade school/high school as well as public schools.

Thanks for the comments and likes about yesterday's posting, Dave, Phil, Garry, Chet, Chuck,Curt, Jim and all others whom I may have overlooked.
What have I got for today? How about the church in Charlottesville with the cross laying on the ground, a probable victim of overreaching!:mad:
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This structure is so old that I don't remember who manufactured the kit; Patal, Lifelike or Model Power maybe?

Limited time in the train shed yesterday, so I started the quarterly cleanup area of the layout. This quarter it's the general northwest corner of the upper level. In short, my layout is large so I have it divided into eight sections, and I clean/dust/repair/upgrade one section each yearly quarter over a two year period. I also took a few progress pictures of the Bar Mills laser-cut kit, 'Oakleaf Industries" that I am working on over at the workbench. Structures are all now fastened to the base; next up is the wooden bumper around the entire base, additional signs, detailing, steps, weathering and people/junk. Another three or four days depending on my mood. This is a displat board set up just for pictures. With the window behind the workbench, it's really hard to take pictures there!:(
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Dave - Enjoy your stay in Duluth later this week and have a safe trip. Flat cars are looking good so far. I think that I may have a single freight car from Hobby Line around somewhere, rather vintage models.
Dana - Nice bridges.
Chet - That shot of Logan is one of my favorites on your layout. It definitely has that "small town" feel to it, with those grand old trees and well maintained homes. A lot of traffic there as well.
Willie - That's another great looking city block. You'll have one heck of an interesting layout.
I am trying to keep it interesting, with different themes in different towns. I think that I now have all of the switching industries that I need, 75 or so; I now need to concentrate on filling towns with businesses and homes along with finishing the scenery. I still need to find some additional small structures to fill in empty spaces. Being as it is mostly a narrow (24" - 32") shelf layout, I cannot offer views like your mainstreet
Greg -
As careful as I can be I always manage a way to break some detail part.
I know the feeling.
Fun how rapidly the track gets dirty. Even with the Dust Monkeys and CenterLine track cleaning cars.
Is your layout in a basement or garage? You do seem to have a bit more of a clean track problem than most.
This was the first time I noticed that one of front windows is partially open. I hope its the way Athearn intended to have it.
Most of the newer Athearn RTR's have operating windows. It was bizarre when I first noticed several months after purchasing one, then realized that several that I had purchased a few years earlier had them as well.
Sherrel - If anyone can break the forum, it would be you or Louis!:cool: Nice picture of that Frisco U25B. I occasionally saw them in the early 70's running by the place that I worked. The high short hood really stood out.
Mark -
Jameson, this early in the day? A man after me own heart!!!
Gotta remember that Chuck is across the pond in Ireland! Five or six hours ahead of us.

Hey! It's tax day. If you owe then you better pay up or file that extension (still have to pay an estimation). If they owe you, they don't care when you file.
Everybody have a great day.
 
Good morning all---31 and sunny here,

David Trussrod-- glad to hear from you today. Hope your septic is cleared up

Terry, Chuck, Mark, Boris, Johnny, good to hear from you this morning as well!

Willie, the Oakleaf Building really turned out! By the way I love the German food. My grandparents were polish and they shared some of the same fare.

I got a bunch done on the flat cars yesterday also completed more research for the new layout.

I am glad I took Sherrel's advice and started working on the plan, it will be more involved than I thought

Today's layout photo, fuel and lubricants area of the old layout:

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More later, Dave
 
Good morning. 32 degrees with about 3 inches of partly cloudy on the ground. Mike do not keep it his way. Already up to 38 with an expected high near 50 later today should bear things off.

Chuck - Really happy that you are impressed with the B unit. Hope the A unit matches the performance.

Willie - Nice photos of the church. Every photo yo post will add so much interest to your layout. Another winner.

Greg - Working with detailed locomotives can really be a pain. Trying not to break off any of the detail parts is difficult at times.

Dave - Another great photo. Like the details.

Karl - Hard to believe that the club president was unaware oof the NMRA function. I can see wht you got your panties in a bunch.

Medicare for All - Don't know how that's going to work. The plan is also to remove all of the health care insurers. I got my bill in the mail yesterday for just the surgeon and it was $5,200. Medicare only allowed $1,600 for the procedure. That would leave me to pay the balance. Thankfully my Blue Cross supplement picked up the balance. Sounds almost as bad as the Unaffrodable Care Act. Still waiting for the bill from the hospital.

I did get to run trains for a while yesterday being that the NASCAR race was on Saturday. Did a lot of switching and let the Northern Pacific F units out on the rails for a while pulling 32 cars.

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Can't wait to get them running at the club later this month.

Physical therapy again later this morning and then lunch with friends. .

Later
 
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Good Morning Everyone.....sunny today and rain in the forecast with warmer weather.

Willie: Just to answer your question about the location of my railroad....my layout is in the basement in its own room surrounded on three and half sides by finished drywall, a drop in ceiling and carpet tiles on the floor. I might be a bit more sensitive to track conditions and do not have a major problem. I just ran some locomotives in a a section of track that hasn't seen any track cleaning in a year and everything ran just fine.

Its just amazing to see the rollers on my CenterLine Track cleaning cars get dirty when just pulled around the layout.

Trussrod: Speaking of septic tanks, we turned the water on at the cabin last April 26th and found that the tank froze over winter without a lot of snow cover to protect the tank form the extreme cold we experienced. The tank cover was buried under a foot of ice and sand costing $275.00 to open and the service call and]another $200.00 to pump the small amount of liquid so we could us the tank and it would be likely 2-3 weeks before the ice cube in the tank thawed.

Sherrel: I know what you mean about watching money disappear during retirement with co-pays, supplements and regular insurance for the Mrs. and it adds up to about $1,600 a month for both of us until she turns 65 and starts Medicare. The Mrs. is seven years younger than me so the moral of the story is I should of married a girl older than me...just kidding of course

Later I'll try to order some replacement parts for my SOO GP38-2 and hopefully Athearn still has them in stock.

Montanan: Every time I break a detail part, which isn't too often, my heart sinks. I always work using a foam cradle and cover the foam with a plastic cover to keep the detail parts from catching on the foam. The dumbest thing I ever did was leave a Atlas Chassis loco on top of the heater heater and the heat from the vent warped the side of the locomotive's cab. I find that running the early Proto 1000 and Atlas Classis locomotives are more bullet proof due to their lack of detail parts.

The way the government works it will be years before any changes are made to the current health system.

One thing that ticks me off is see how the clinics and hospitals keep expanding and my costs keep increasing. They spare no costs in the construction either! I have doctors and a nurse in the family and I have to keep my mouth shut about this subject and then there's my Nephew the attorney.

Planing a trip to the cabin to start cleaning up after being closed for the winter. This is the first winter we didn't stay over for a few nights becuase of all the snow. I'll install a larger deer horn light fixture over the dining room table to replace the small one that there but doesn't produce much light. I'll start closing valves and get ready to turn on the water for the season as soon as it warms up a bit.

Down to the train and work on the train projects.

Later.............

Greg

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Here's the SOO locomotive that I warped the cab side from keeping it on the top of the water heater. -Greg
 
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Morning all,

Got on late as Mondays are heck first thing.

While I wasn't able to get to the train show over the weekend, I did get more accomplished on the layout. The lift bridge should be complete when I get home as I was waiting for the glue to dry. I should be able to start laying the track on my outer loop to start running trains again. My biggest concern is how to power the lift out section. I'll have to get some wiring to it, but I think rail joiners will do for a temporary fix.
 
Afternoon fellers. More chilly of a start today than the past several days. Highs only in the 50s today. Didn't get to work on my layout this weekend. Shoot I didn't even get to run trains. Oh well. I'm beginning to think I'll have to do late night work to it if I want to get anything done. The baby is a handful. Anyways I have some more pictures to share.
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Chet.....I thought you could use another round of snow. You didn’t get enough this winter! :)

We got about 5 inches. It’s going up to the mid 40s today, and close to 60 tomorrow. It will be like if never happened by tomorrow afternoon.
 
Medicare for All - Don't know how that's going to work. The plan is also to remove all of the health care insurers. I got my bill in the mail yesterday for just the surgeon and it was $5,200. Medicare only allowed $1,600 for the procedure. That would leave me to pay the balance. Thankfully my Blue Cross supplement picked up the balance. Sounds almost as bad as the Unaffrodable Care Act. Still waiting for the bill from the hospital.

Chet: Not to create another storm, but under Medicare, it doesn't matter what the surgeon charges, the most the provider gets is what Medicare allows. Medicare pays 80% and the Supplement carrier pays 20%. You are NOT responsible for the balance billed. And the providers are all aware of the requirement. A good supplement plan will cover any deductibles, and there are no co-pays like in those frequently advertised Medicare Advantage HMO Plans. The only ones hurt by the concept of Medicare for All would be the vested interests, ie: providers, Hospitals and Insurers.

After years of cost sharing, deductibles, co-payments, and Network Restrictions, I went to straight Medicare plus supplement. Everything is straight forward and I never have to pay out of pocket.

Boris
 
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