Running Bear's Coffee Shop August 2018


Good morning gents, on this rainy Friday morning. Only the discussion of grills & brews, here are my favs. New Glarus pretty much has a cult-like following, since you can only buy it here in Wisconsin.
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Raincoat- I'm a fan of a lot of those Christian rock bands, too. I saw Petra, Rez, DeGarmo & Key, Mylon & Broken Heart and a few others in the late 80's/90's.
 
Good morning. 52 degrees to start off the day with a high expected in the low 80's. It did clear up yesterday and we did get up to 81.

Karl - Enjoyed that video. I will agree with the thers about the slightest imperfection on out layouts causing a mess.

Louis - I think we should all converge on your place for hot dogs and beer. laugh.gif

Willie - I have used a Dremel cutting whel to cut track on a regular basis. I use the finest wheel I can find, but always cut the gaps in straight sections of track. You can always use a sliver of styrene to fill in the gap and trim it to fit.

We had a lot of visitors that the club yesterday. I ran the little NW2 and my RS-1 at the same time. Quite interesting. With the layout in three different rooms, you sure had to be on your toes. Hese's a photo of the NW2 in the east yard getting ready to put a train together.

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Wide open, the switcher was quite slow compared to other locomotives. We tried to speed it up, but top no avail. It did make things interesting having to grab a passing siding when ever a faster train was coming up from behind. One of the guys had a decoder problem that ended up blocking the main line in both directions for a while until they figured out the problem. Parked the switcher in a yard and did some switching in the Gardiner area. Here's a photo showing some more of the details in that area.

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It was an interesting day. We only have three more Thursdays for public viewing as the Museum will shut down after Labor Day until next year. Really don't like driving at night much any more so our visits to the club will be less than normal. Hate driving over that pass in the winter.

As soon as it warms up a bit I will pick up the hoses and get ready to mow tomorrow and then try to fly the drone again. I tried flying it last night for a while, but it was a bit breezy and after parking it in a bush, I quit for the night.

Here's my rail picture for today.

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Evening fellers. I've had some catching up to do. Been a hectic last two weeks. Have finally gotten some normality back. Enjoying the break in the heat here these past two days. Had the POTUS visit us this week here in Charleston. Created a small traffic jam on the interstate.
 
Good morning gang!
62° beeeeaaaaauuuutiful degrees here in sunny central Absurdistan!! Yea, I have to work today from 8 til 2, but its hard to be grumpy after a drive to work with the a/c off and the windows cracked,,, refreshing! It even makes the coffee taste better!
 
Good Morning Gang. It's a beautiful 79° and clear here in North Central Texas. Should get to 99° again today. Might receive my new pulley and bearing today for the repair on the mower deck. It will get a workout once installed since I only got a minimal amount of yard mowed after the recent 8.5" of rain. Pool temperature has recovered from the cool spell earlier this week, starting the day off at 82° and only going up to 84° by sunset. Perfect!
Out in the train shed, I mostly ran trains yesterday. I started doing one of those projects that I have neglected for far too long, installing ground throws. While all of the ones along the main lines are installed, many of the secondary ones are just laying on the layout next to their respective turnouts. Out of 153 switches, 48 still need the ground throws. They're all there, just need to be installed. Glad that I'm not using Tortoises! $$$

Karl - Interesting video. It kept my attention.
Chet - The Dremel did a good job, but with the thinnest wheel that I have, it still left a gap of 1/8". It is also a bit awkward to keep it exactly parallel, even with the flex-shaft attachment. Since I'm cutting at the bridge ends that are all on a curve and fastened in place, I would prefer a thinner gap, which looks like I may need to use a hacksaw. I am going to continue to experiment with the Dremel to see if I can improve my technique.
Keep posting pictures from the club, they are quite good and will hopefully inspire me to get more scenery done soon.
Louis - Hard rock for me. While I can tolerate most of those songs that you posted, "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray has to be the worst song that I have ever heard.

Today is both National Banana Split Day and National Whiskey Sour Day. Take your pick.
Everybody have a great day and an awesome weekend, 2:00 can't come too soon, can it Karl!
 
Willie, maybe you can combine the two, and have a banana split float using whiskey sour...
 
Howdy ... .. |

My mother would have had her 99th birthday today. However, she did live to be 96, and that is remarkable.

Chet ... That is a beautiful shot of the NW2.... Where is the roof on the building in the background ? Tornado?

Willie .... I'll pass on either a banana split or a whiskey sour. today. There are better options for desert and for a drink.

Terry .... No thanks.. Sounds like a bad combination.

Mike Hub City ... A beer and a brat would hit the spot for me. Much better than what Willie, Terry, and Karl are taking about.
 
kbkchooch said:
Awesome idea Terry! But I do have some "shine" at home with some rootbeer flavoring that makes a better float!
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I have some hard root beer, I might try a float.




I'll let all y'all know how sick it made me when I'm able to post again...
 
GarryCBQ said:
Willie .... I'll pass on either a banana split or a whiskey sour. today. There are better options for desert and for a drink.

Terry .... No thanks.. Sounds like a bad combination.

Mike Hub City ... A beer and a brat would hit the spot for me. Much better than what Willie, Terry, and Karl are taking about.
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I actually would much prefer the beer and brat combo myself. I don't do distilled spirits.
 
santafewillie said:
Good Morning Gang. It's a beautiful 79° and clear here in North Central Texas. Should get to 99° again today. Might receive my new pulley and bearing today for the repair on the mower deck. It will get a workout once installed since I only got a minimal amount of yard mowed after the recent 8.5" of rain. Pool temperature has recovered from the cool spell earlier this week, starting the day off at 82° and only going up to 84° by sunset. Perfect!
Out in the train shed, I mostly ran trains yesterday. I started doing one of those projects that I have neglected for far too long, installing ground throws. While all of the ones along the main lines are installed, many of the secondary ones are just laying on the layout next to their respective turnouts. Out of 153 switches, 48 still need the ground throws. They're all there, just need to be installed. Glad that I'm not using Tortoises! $$$

Karl - Interesting video. It kept my attention.
Chet - The Dremel did a good job, but with the thinnest wheel that I have, it still left a gap of 1/8". It is also a bit awkward to keep it exactly parallel, even with the flex-shaft attachment. Since I'm cutting at the bridge ends that are all on a curve and fastened in place, I would prefer a thinner gap, which looks like I may need to use a hacksaw. I am going to continue to experiment with the Dremel to see if I can improve my technique.
Keep posting pictures from the club, they are quite good and will hopefully inspire me to get more scenery done soon.
Louis - Hard rock for me. While I can tolerate most of those songs that you posted, "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray has to be the worst song that I have ever heard.

Today is both National Banana Split Day and National Whiskey Sour Day. Take your pick.
Everybody have a great day and an awesome weekend, 2:00 can't come too soon, can it Karl!
Click to expand...


Willie...I always preferred the Atlas sawfor cutting rails...much thinner gap than a Dremel, easily to keep parallel to the track and cuts surprisingly fast.
 

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Good afternoon.

I took the truck in for its last complimentary oil change this morning. After they did that, and reprogrammed the radio from a botched over-the-air uopdate, I headed to my LHS to pick up a package of Kadee couplers. They were having a sale, and I came away with a Rapido GMD-1 for $118. The only drawback is, it's one of those bizarre 5 axle engines exported to Cuba. I'll see if I can find some "parts" to make it more in keeping with North American motive power.

Now all I have to do is pay the credit card bill...
 
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Looks like another slow day in the coffee shop.

Good morning. It's partly cloudy and 64.

The GMD-1 runs well, though the decoder I initially installed in it went *poof*.
 
Have been doing the 3 (or is it more) paces back for every 1 forward this weekend. Decided to forgo the club running day in order to advance with some decoder work. First was an older Athearn SD45 RTR with the open motor from the time when they changed to Tsunami (has the same shell as the 1st edition Genesis's). I was robbing the decoder from a Genesis SD45-2, and just mounting it with DS tape on top of the motor. I intended to use the last of the iPhone 4s speakers I had, mounted on top of that, which just had enough clearance between the decoder and shell, which would have had it producing it's sound right in the correct spot. Unfortunately that came to an end when I broke a wiring contact off the speaker, with no hope of repairing it. That brought that to an end. Got more of the particulr type ordered and on the way, but only found one source this time and not genuine OEM's. I lost 1/2 the day to other "duties" (not a euphemism, I can assure you) and tidying up the workbench etc, so wasn't pleased with myself at all.

Today I figured I might as well tackle a Proto 2K SD45 that has bugged me since I got it, which is factory fitted with Tsunami sound (Mk 1 also). Poor sound and slow running, especially as I'd like to run it with the recent release Athearn SD40's. Removed the shell and cleaned and reoiled it (pretty dry) and installed the CV's=Values I use in my Athearns with the same era Tsunami's, but try as I might, I couldn't improve the sound, particularly the volume. I have read that was a problem with these. Even with the volume almost maxed out, and the 28mm speaker it comes with, I could not match the sound for either volume or quality that I'm getting out of the iP4s speakers fitted in place of Athearn's original in the SD40's at less than 1/2 the values. Both locos start moving at Spd step 2. The custom settings I use have the unusual effect of being silent when placed on powered track or when power is first applied and come on at step 1 (except for some reason the Athearn SD40's, which start the sound immediately on contact, but also start to move at step 2, fortunately).

Consisting the P2K and the ATH 40's, shows a marked difference in throttle advance response, the single SD40 I was using with the P2K, both start to move together, but after that, the Proto is only to less than halfway along my 2 lengths of flex, whilst the '40 is at the foam stop at the end. I program to a linear speed curve on all the Athearns, but I think I'll try programming the Proto to a curve that boosts the initial voltage and see if I can hit one that gets them , at least to something bordering on matching. Time I got that computer I bought to use JMRI and made a longer bit of track to do this on, methinks.
 
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