Running Bear's Coffee Sbop LXIX


Good morning ....

Fall is here and winter will be approaching. Does anybody have plans for work on their layouts during the winter ?

Willie ..... The museum photo are impressive. I bet seeing it in person was quite an experience.

Joe.... That was a high scoring baseball game. I favor the Cubs.

...

Below is the bridge in Vicksburg, MS. It used to have a public highway, but now the road is only for railroad maintenance crews. Perhaps we should have daily bridge photo to go with Chet's daily track photo.

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Good morning. 30 degrees to start off the day.

Willie - Nice photos. That museum is a great place to visit. We stopped there a few years back when we went to the Fire Cracker 400 in Saytona. Had to make a short detour, but it was well worth it. Being a private pilot, I lake aircraft. Glad you made it home safely also.

Justin - Your town is starting to come together. Looking good.

Ken D&J - I hope the rehab people are able to help your grand daughter. Don't you just love it when a simple job becomes a pain because you don't have the right tools. Restoring classic cars is rather simple when it comes to tool, but I have found that working on modern cars can be a real pain. I have the programs on my laptop to diagnose and work on them, but all of the different tools that are necessary could put one in the poor House. No wonder shop rates are so high.

Sherrel - learning this new phone has been a pain in the butt. Thankfully my son who is a computer geek and also has a Samsung phone has been able to give me some pointers, but there is still a lot to learn. I miss my old flip phone.

Curt -
I sure hope that the windows in that engine house are large enough to let people appreciate the fantastic details you've done. Outstanding !

Garry - Great photo.

Here's a rails picture for the day.


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Later
 
Afternoon All,

Happy Birthday to the US Navy celebrating their 242nd birthday today.

Never have made it to the train room today. I started with working on the pool then MOH wanted to go to Wally World. After getting home we had lunch then I received a email from a friend saying he had received 3 emails from me (but not me). I changed my password to see if that fixes the problem. I sent out a email to my address book so some of you will get a email from me.

Speaking of cameras. These are my choices and the lowest size is the only one I don't have issues with:

2.4 M (16.9) 2048x1152 works 100% of the time
3.1 M (4:3) 2048x1536 this one works about 50% of the time
6.0 M (1:1) 2448x2448
6.0 M (16:9) 3264x1836
8.0 M (4:3) 3264x2448

Justin- Nice looking structures

Willie- Thank you. Nice looking pictures.

VA Ken- Happy Birthday to your grandson.

Garry- I do but I model all year long. Great picture.

I hope everyone has a good night.

Chet- Thank you. That scene could be from a Horror movie.
 
Good afternoon Rail Workers,

Hi Flo - Francine, How are you both doing today? Good, glad to hear it. Jeffreys' Dinner seems fairly busy. I'll have some coffee and a Apple Fritter, heated if you would with butter & Cinnamon. Thanks Flo.




It's 67°F feels like 66.7°, it' Sunny;
Winds from the South at 2.7, with Gusts to 4.9 mph.
The high was 72°F with a low of 48° tonight
Tomorrow is forecast to be Much Warmer than today.


Afternoon All,

Happy Birthday to the US Navy celebrating their 242nd birthday today.

Never have made it to the train room today. I started with working on the pool then MOH wanted to go to Wally World. After getting home we had lunch then I received a email from a friend saying he had received 3 emails from me (but not me). I changed my password to see if that fixes the problem. I sent out a email to my address book so some of you will get a email from me.

Speaking of cameras. These are my choices and the lowest size is the only one I don't have issues with:

2.4 M (16.9) 2048x1152 works 100% of the time
3.1 M (4:3) 2048x1536 this one works about 50% of the time
6.0 M (1:1) 2448x2448
6.0 M (16:9) 3264x1836
8.0 M (4:3) 3264x2448


I hope everyone has a good night.


Curt: Yes indeed, Happy Birthday Navy! Btw your modeling is looking great.

The chart of image sizes along with their specific resolutions is a very good reference.
>As you noted:
2.4 M (16:9) 2048x1152 works 100% of the time
3.1 M (4:3) 2048x1536 this one works about 50% of the time<

I've also found that images that are around 2.4 to 3.0 Mega Pixels usually load best to the forum. In fact, as I recall, about a year ago or more, we were being asked to load our images to a hosting site to save space on here.

The fact is, that for the size of the images we post on here a 2.4 to 3.0 mega pixel image is more than sufficient. The main issue to concern yourself with is weather or not you have any intention of having the image/s you shoot enlarged to any great extent?
Granted the sensor size in most of the cell phones doesn't probably begin to approximate even the reduced size of the image sensor in a 35mm type camera but due to technical advances even the smaller sensors can still produce some very nice size images of probably at least 11" x 14", possibly 13" x 19" and maybe even up to 16" x 20"? If this seem beyond belief, consider this. In a dicussion in, 'The Range Finder' a Professional Photographers magazine back in 2,000, the question was posed about how large a 6.0 Mp image, with the technology back then, from a less than full frame 35mm format sensor could produce and the professional writing the article who had some very large printers said it could be enlarged to 40" x 60"s with very good clarity when viewed from about 8' feet away. That's about 3/4ths the size of a 4'x8' sheet of plywood. I really haven't tried to print any images from my cell phones yet but maybe in the near feature? In talking about this I'm rather curious to see what my new, XRN 4x's camera which is 13 Mp's will produce on my 13" x 19" printer?

The facts about image size in Mp is not widely understood and really only applies to enlarging your image/s to print out a very large size print. I've shot images at 3.0 Mp and printed the image out on a Canon 13" x 19" printer with exceptional clarity even when viewed up real close but I was shooting with my Fuji S2 less than full frame camera too and not my cell phone.



Good morning ....

Fall is here and winter will be approaching. Does anybody have plans for work on their layouts during the winter ?

Below is the bridge in Vicksburg, MS. It used to have a public highway, but now the road is only for railroad maintenance crews. Perhaps we should have daily bridge photo to go with Chet's daily track photo.

37639366312_487a9354e6_k.jpg


Garry: The shot is very interesting especially the near end of the bridge showing the way the vehicles climb a ramp off to the Right as well as the two posts, one on each side having what appear to be flags/signals attached to them. The Right post has a Yellow marker on it and the Left post has a green and a white marker on it. I wonder those are for?

Along side of Left rail about 6 ft prior to the post is what appears to be a very light weight switch throw with a rod running over to the track near the point of the center guard rails but there is nothing to move there? Maybe it's a signal housing of one type or another?


Hope everyone has a good evening!
 
Along side of Left rail about 6 ft prior to the post is what appears to be a very light weight switch throw with a rod running over to the track near the point of the center guard rails but there is nothing to move there? Maybe it's a signal housing of one type or another?

A hot box detector maybe, or axle counter? Have heard of them, but never seen one, so purely guesses.
 
That sounds reasonable and logical, I wonder what the pipe/rod going under the rail is?

Don't think it's going under the ground, a bit of an optical illusion. I would say that white pipe/rod is at wheel bearing height and the sensor is on it's end. You can make out a shadow on the ground/ballast from that pipe. There is also a pipe/tube sticking up from the back of the box with a rectagular solar panel at it's top, obscured by tree foliage, shadow also on the ground. Probably doubles as a radio aerial to send back information to base.
 
Good Morning All. 70° and clear. High temperature yesterday was 93°, way above the average of 80° but still below the record of 97°. Ended up going on a grocery/beer trek yesterday with an additional stop at the wine store to replenish the pantry. Returned library books and also hit the vitamin shop. Had a very calm conversation with the neighbor's teenage daughter regarding responsibility and dependability after she forgot to feed our resident cats while we were gone, like she had agreed to do. I do believe that I was talking to the air though. I did point out that she saved me money on cat food and I also saved the $20 bill that I intended to give her for her time. Spent some time traversing the SFW estate to see how things fared while we were gone. The only thing of note is that the resident snakes were all on the move, fall must be approaching. Saw my buddy "Sammy the Snake" (named after a character on Sesame Street), who is now about 8.5' long, headed for his favorite winter residence under the floor in the shop in the barn. Didn't see his main squeeze "Suzie", but observed at least four other smaller relatives. One was about 4' while the other three were between 12" and 18".
Out in the train shed, I ran lots of trains, mostly from one end of the layout to the other to both entertain me and keep their engineers on their toes. I hope to renew some of my layout detailing today...there's lots to do.

Johnny - Thanks. I also enjoy working with wood but have gotten away from it in the last twenty years or so. I built furniture; a dining room table that we have used for over 40 years, made from recycled lumber, bunk beds for my daughters, an entertainment center that we can no longer use because of the "Big Screen", various cabinets and desks, etc. Even built stereo speakers that I sold for extra income. I do miss it, but trains won out when time was a factor.
seems we're getting home too late every evening,
Don't you hate it when life gets in the way?
Joe - Thanks. I have some more from the Naval museum, stay tuned.
Ken (D&J) - Happy Birthday to your grandson.
Garry - Thanks. I really like that view of the bridge. Did you take it? Today I am posting a couple of pictures that my wife took of the bridge.
I model all year long, When it's hot outside, the train shed is air conditioned, when it's cold outside, it's heated, in between I am able to open the screened windows and sometimes the door, insect permitting. But I refrain from going out there too much because then it would resemble a job again!:(
Chet - Thanks to you as well.
Curt - Thanks. There's more museum pictures to come. If you're ever in the NW part of your state, it's a must see place. It's also FREE!

OK, here are the pictures that my wife took of the KCS bridge over the Mississippi River in Vicksburg MS. Because of the proximity of the highway bridge to the railroad bridge, and the overall length of the bridge at 8,546', one cannot get the whole bridge in one shot. She managed to get these four through the car window while we were traveling at 70 mph.
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There is an interesting history regarding this bridge and truck traffic, I'll add a post with a link since I have used my quota of attachments for a single post already.

Everybody have a great day and weekend.

Willie
 
Good morning ..

Willie ..... Thanks for posting the photos. I found the photo I posted by Googling, and there are several other photos of the bridge out there. I see you just posted the link to Wikipedia's article which has the photo I copied. You were driving at 70 mph. I noticed the train speed limit is 10 mph. .... If I recall correctly, the bridge was originally on an Illinois Central line that went across Louisiana. That line was sold to a short line called Mid South Railroad. After several years, Kansas City Southern acquired Mid South.

David in CA.... I'm not sure about the items next t the bridge, but Toot's ideas might be correct.
 
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I crossed that bridge back in the 80's when it was still A traffic bridge, was driving a U haul moving my cousin who was in the Air Force at the time. Him nor his wife were comfortable driving a large truck so a 14 day road trip was my duty. It would be an excellent feature to any layout.

Mornings are relatively pain free butt by the afternoon I'm getting the 14 gage wire REDHOT straight through my left chest, scary as hell and if there were other symptoms I'd be thinking I was having a heart attack. I seems to be starting few seconds or minutes later each day so I guess that is progress. Weeping in pain every night by 9 pm is not much in the way of progress but if a later onset is what I got...it's what I'll take. Can't concentrate, move, lift, or be productive in any way, sipping coffee and smoking while my brain slowly slides out through my ear holes, tears of frustration and pain running through my beard is the extent of my daily activities. GET the frikking shingles shot, I don't want any of you feeling like this.
 
Garry - On a previous trip last year, we did observe a train traveling eastbound while we were going westbound. It did seem to be slow-moving.

Willie
 
A few more pictures from The Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola FL.
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That last one of the Mercury space capsule was especially interesting. It is quite small, not for the claustrophobic!

Willie
 
Didn't realize that they had the MARS FLYING BOAT in there too! Even see a MIG 15 as well! Been across that older Vicksburg bridge several times - not the new one at all.

Still trying to learn something about this phone. See if I can post a pic?

NOPE - Smallest file of 4MB won't upload. I find NO WAY to reduce the photos to a smaller size. The ratios I posted produce a picture of 4MB, 5.5MB, and 7MB. There are no other "adjustments" on the camera - and nothing in the instructions.
I will attempt to look for a "program" for the computer?
 
Didn't realize that they had the MARS FLYING BOAT in there too! Even see a MIG 15 as well!

Sherrel: It's amazing what they have in there. NAS Pensacola has one awesome museum. Can't help you with posting photos from the phone, I'm having my own issues with posting photos into this forum.
 
Didn't realize that they had the MARS FLYING BOAT in there too! Even see a MIG 15 as well! Been across that older Vicksburg bridge several times - not the new one at all.

Still trying to learn something about this phone. See if I can post a pic?

NOPE - Smallest file of 4MB won't upload. I find NO WAY to reduce the photos to a smaller size. The ratios I posted produce a picture of 4MB, 5.5MB, and 7MB. There are no other "adjustments" on the camera - and nothing in the instructions.
I will attempt to look for a "program" for the computer?

Sherrel, you can email one of the photos you're having trouble with, and I'll see what I have to do to post it here. After that, maybe I can help Chet...
 
Good afternoon .

Bruce New Guy ... Sorry to hear about your continued pain from shingles. I hope you are seeing a doctor to be sure you do not also have other issues such as heart problems. Thanks for the advice to people about getting the shingles vaccine. It would be good if you continued to do that. I had had mine, but I know other people who should do likewise.

Willie .... All of this talk about the bridge made me think of the lyrics for an old Chuck Berry song, "Memphis" when he sang ".... just a half mile from the Mississippi River bridge ...... " ... Not the same location, but the same river.

Airplane museums .... I visited the big one in Tuscan, AZ a few years ago. Amazing collection of aircraft.
 
Afternoon All,

Finished the project today including the ground cover around the structure. Going to watch some college ball in a bit.

Joe- Thanks for the birthday wishes.

Willie- Glad you enjoyed the trip. Great photos. I have driven by the museum several times but never stopped, just like Don Garlits drag racing museum.

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I hope everyone has a good night.
 



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