Running Bear's April 2024 Coffee Shop


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PRR Modeler said:
Swal- Accidents usually occur due to a string of small things leading up to it and not just one thing. Interesting about the 5 minute rule. I have never heard of it.
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Curt I knew the rule from when I was a fireman & engineer. Coming out of a siding in signal territory, you can't just throw the switch and proceed on to the main. What if a train is already in the block? You don't know that? The brakeman throws the switch. That changes the aspects of 2 signals to approach and red. Then he looks at his watch. After 5 minutes he gives you the signal that the 5 minutes are up. Then you can proceed from the siding to the main or whatever track your proceeding on that's governed by signals. Kind of tough rule for model railroaders to adhere to.
Swal
 
I know this 5-minute rule well because we used it every night. This was the last job I worked on the railroad. They were electrifying the track from North White Plains to Brewster NY. We left Brewster yard at 10 pm unloaded the 4 carloads of new 3rd rail ties and were back in the yard at 2am. Worked 4 hours got paid for 8. Got my 7 hours of sleep and played golf every day on this job. My brother was on the job as the section foreman. It was going good then Bobby H & Joe G came on the job. I guess their bills were such they couldn't afford to live on 8 hours pay, They wanted 4 hours overtime on a job that only lasted 4 hours. They wanted 12 hours pay with overtime. I told them the routine and they told me that it would have to change. I was the engineer the conductor was the boss. So after 2 hours of unloading ties they wanted to hide in a siding. So every night we're in the siding hiding. In the morning, we would have to go through the 5 minute rule to proceed back on the main line. So I know the rule well. Now my brother decided he's not putting up with this bull and had one of his men drive a car down to where we were working for the night and be back home at 2am. I quit the railroad after this job, wasting my golf time away on some old siding with these 2 crooks.
Swal
 
Strange that nothing has been posted since 2pm MDT (4pm EDT).

Anyway, gas still about $3.99 here. A few places it dropped down a few cents but seems to maybae have gone back up. Walmart was about $3.79 last I saw. Diesel is now up to 30 cents or more less per gallon than regular, when in January it was a dollar or higher more than regular.

Over the weekend and last week we got the Japanese bath floor tgiled and grouted, and the two showers (which have Kohler pans) tiled with large 24" x 48" tile, but not yet grouted. We had wanted to get the Japanese bath walls on the shower/tub side also tiled using large 24" x 48" but ran out of time. Also got most of the missingoutlets and lights and switches in last week and various other bits. My nephew in law was down last weke for most of the week but left Saturday at 11am to go home to Wyoming. He has a big renovation and addition job starting this week and had to get back to be with his family and also get ready for this new job.

The house is amazingly energy efficient. The (currently) lne thermostat is set to heat and at 60F. Last few days during the day it has been up in the 60s and even low 70s, while anywhere from 30F to mid 40s F at night. We had heated the house up to 68F over night and on one day to heat the floor to help some waterproofing lidquid membrane to dry and then set it back to 60F. It took 3 or 4 days to get back down close to 60F and it was cooler out. Then the days got warmer again and over 2 or so days it only went from 60F or 61F to 64F even with the sun shining and the outside temps high 60s or mid 70s. Over night it would drop down a degree or two each night. Today it went from 62F to 63F during the day. And there are no window coverings. Sunny and high 60s. My current stick and contractor grade insulated house that is much smaller rose 6 or 7 degrees F during th3 day today with all the shades down to block the sun.

Gas bill last month was within 30 cents for the two houses even though the new one is usually a degree or so cooler many days (or at least nights) due to being 50 or 75' higher in elevation. And the new house is 4-5x larger in square footage (including both the main and bonus floors).

Anyway, I need to go to bed. Just catching up on some day-job stuff that was due. We work in 2 week long sprints and I am supposed to merge an older version's work into the latest and then create a new branch for the current work so the newest can go into the current "develop" branch. No need to understand what I just wrote -- not sure I do either. But I'm the guy they go to to manage all the various source repositories for our work :)
 
Good morning!
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WWII (Location and date unknown)
 
Good morning from my part of Wisconsin. It’s 51f degrees now heading to the mid 60’s, it’s cloudy but dry. We never received the 100% of rain yesterday afternoon or overnight. Radar doesn’t indicate rain popping in today and the app says a 15% chance.

Enjoy the day
 
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I am getting forgetful. There was a major 15 minute event yesterday!

We did close on the new property acquisition in the afternoon. 950 mol acres added to the inventory of which 500+ acres is woodland. The surveyors will be working the next few weeks on dividing 400 acres into a subdivision of 5 acres lots. We will keep 100 acres for our family. 20% of the 400 planned acres (80) must stay as green space. We are hoping with roads added that we have 60 lots.

The neighbor could not have been nicer or more appreciative. He did say he spoke to the family that his financial business is his business. I know the son is still ticked off but too bad. The neighbor told me the son now wants to stop farming and sell off his farmlands. Not my concern.

Enjoy
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 55°, headed for the 80's for the next 10 days. Maybe rain this weekend but still warm, that will be fun! Think humidity.

Lots of indoor tasks yesterday since the ground is still too soft for any meaningful activity. Some gardening activity this morning as I need to pick Broccoli and Green Onions. I should be able to get in some yard tasks this afternoon, but not mowing yet.

Yesterday out in the train shed, I resumed with the quarterly cleaning project which has been stop and go since 4-5. For those who have not read the explanation of this always ongoing project before, I repeat here. I have divided my layout into roughly 8 sections, 4 on the bottom level and 4 on the top. Each quarter I do a thorough cleaning of all track, ballast, scenery, structures, vehicles and everything else. So each section gets a visit once every two years. It generally takes 3-4 days each, an hour or 2 every time, and I do other stuff at the same time, including running trains. For this quarter I have already done all track and ground maintenance and cleaning. I started yesterday removing structures and cleaning them at the workbench. While there, I may touch up paint or add details as needed. Yesterday I did 7 structures, mostly just cleaning and replacing roof details that I knocked off. Two got some minor work as well. One is "2nd Hand Rose", a kit from the "Houses of Yesterday" series that were popular in the 80's and 90's. Many companies had this tooling at one time or another, my kit was sold by IHC at the time.
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An improvement and one that makes it match with others in this series was to paint the curbs a concrete color.
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On another, "Roy's Fix-It Shop", i had to re-attach the sidewalk which was poorly attached to begin with. It is a Smalltown USA structure of the same name.
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Today I will finally add some figures to the front. I also added lighting to one of the other structures, but my lighting buss doesn't exist that far yet, which is another project for another day.
I'll be getting to many others today as well, and will turn the corner down another aisle.

John - Great looking plank scenes yesterday.
Tom O/Patrick - Since Texas is where Buc-ee's started, they're all over down here. Something for everyone inside them. There's one near me in Denton TX, just 30 miles away, but I really just consider them over-hyped tourist traps! We do use them for their restrooms while traveling, but there is cheaper gas available just about everywhere. The food is also OK, if it coincides with a meal break for us, but we generally seek out more localized places where we can sit and enjoy instead of eating in the car. At least I haven't found any indoor seating areas in the ones that I have visited. Besides the one in Denton, there are two others within an hours drive of home.

For the folks across the pond, today is St George's Day. I don't remember if it is a national holiday or just another day to go to the pub.
Everyone have a great Tuesday.
 
PRR Modeler said:
The first backdrop is life-like.
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Curt: Thanks. Now that the tracks are finally in, I can work on scenery. The location I'm trying to replicate is in Pennsylvania, the photo is taken along 1 and 9 in Jersey. I'm professionally familiar with both locations. The reality is ya see one refinery, ya seen them all. ;) I am pleased with the background. Hopefully, the foreground will turn out as I envision.
 
Good Morning!

Depending how I bend my body, I'm still feeling some pain from the surgery. Mostly, I'm just trying to do easy, no muscle required kind of stuff.
Certainly, I can't just lay around all day.

I feel like I'm making a mess of the InterAction gas station. I've been using that cheap paint purchased at the dollar store, and it don't want to agree with me:
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I've also been brushing on Tamiya green. Being alcohol based, Tamiya never brushes good, and should only be shot out of the airbrush.
Anyway, the whole project is a mess and I need to make a change today.
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I'm headed downtown today, to pick up some rattle cans. My daddy always told me you can fix anything with a 1/4" of paint.

chadbag said:
Strange that nothing has been posted since 2pm MDT (4pm EDT).
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Hockey play-offs and alcohol might have something to do with that.

I was downtown yesterday, but never thought to pick up paint. There was a line of freight cars down there, that I took some interest in.
No locomotive with them. They were just sitting there waiting to get pushed into the mill:
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They were very well surrounded by poles.

Well, that's it for today. Have a great one!
 
After a day to think about it, instead of putting Baron's Ridge back up into storage, I have brought it inside and have decided to update and refurbish it. New backscene and redoing the scenic areas in the foreground are the main priority along with a general tidy up.

New backscene already ordered!!
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Well, howdy there internet peeps and those who were sucked into an alternate dimension and avoided posting yesterday afternoon and evening.

Hope you were running trains in that dimension.

It's Troy again.

TODAY is hearing test day. Hopefully going to order new hearing aids. That begins at 4:30 p,m. Eastern time

Last night was a night for the sleep headband with speakers. Weird dreams of an anxious sort that were filled with past episodes twisted into todays world. Like relieving a time when our barely teen daughter was traveling internationally (UK and France) with a group - and she left all of her converted cash at home. But in the dream it was me going to college as an adult... And the tinnitus seemed to react to the anxious dreams, increasing it's volume a couple of notches.

I'm starting to suspect the "stress" behind the tinnitus jump is some latent anxiety.... hmmmmm...

Still working through rebuilding the old manuscripts. Finished the 10th yesterday. Out of 19, that's past the half-way point.

Almost have my tanks ready for dullcoate spray. One more layer of drybrushing light sand to pop the hightlights. After that, I really need to work on the layout.

In addition to everything else going on, I realized why I've been stalling. I need to cut a hole in or two in the backdrop.

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See the two black rectangles, rear-left side of the main lower-level section? There need to be two tunnel openings. One elevated at 2" above the deck, and one at deck height. I don't have the foam riser totally layed on the staging yard to left of screen where everything is piled up. I need to get that figured out, so I know where to cut through. But ... do I make one big hole, or two smaller ones?

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The marker squares keep moving as I play with pencil lines on the back, staging yard side.

I need to just get stuck in on the staging yard design, pencil stuff in, lay the foam riser for the mainline loop that doesn't connect to the yard, but hides on that side of the backdrop, and then cut a hole or two.

I'm leaning to one large hole, so I have room to play with the yard layout as it progresses. I'd rather building up scenery to hide the hole slop, than have to widen or move a hole later.

Input is welcome.
 
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