Running Bear's Coffee Shop June 2018


ACL-CSX said:
Boris- my apologies if this is too common for you, but how goes the hunt for Moose and Squirrel?
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ACL-CSX: Is no problem. Moose and Squirrel still cause problems. Like White Spy and Black Spy in Mad Magazine, the chase never ends. ;)

Willie: That's a fine job on the courthouse.

Chet: The bacon makes me hungry!

Curt: It's good to hear your SIL is recovering, and that y'all are able to drive up and help out. The rehab is going to be an important part of her recovery. Oil Dealer's facility looks good too. Also, like you, I'm going to miss Jerry Britton's Keystone Crossings. There was a lot of good stuff there.

I've been quiet of late, trying to make the yard and house presentable, while dealing with a mysterious ailment that had me slowed down for a while several weeks ago. I have also been working on my Municipal Pier, which is eventually going to be a focal point on my layout.
 
Howdy ...

Busy here.... I was in Nashville, TN today, and now I am packing the Enclave. I leave for Michigan in the morning (10 hour long trip) . Shelley is already there with family. After taking care of stuff a couple of days, she and I will return home. ...

Sherrel .... I hope you are getting over the illness and feel better soon.

Curt .... I'll keep praying for your sister in law..... It sounds like a long recovery time is needed. ... I like your photos.

Ken D&J ..... Safe travels..

Chet .... Your rail photo is a good one. We have a good source of bacon here, too.

Boris..... I hope your mysterious ailment goes away. Take care. The pier project sounds interesting.

Willie ... The courthouse is great.

Greg .... That sounds like a fun trip you are planning. I have not had Hamm's Beer for a long time. Nice surprise from the Mrs.

Justin .... Enjoy the new GP50.

Johnny .... Sounds like a nice family get together. Good luck with remodeling and also with pouring the water.. No water falls this time.

Cheers .
 
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Good evening. It's 70 and thunderstorming. The dog is trying to crawl under my chair, not an easy task, since it's about 3" off the floor.

I am again learning that people absolutely do not read anything at all. They just look at the pretty pictures, and away they go. I put the Pennsy U25 up for sale on several Farcebook groups, and got several responses. All of them totally ignored almost everything in the post, and wanted to send checks (Paypal only), hold until Friday (no holds), swap a POS Athearn Hustler for it (no trades), and wanted to know how much shipping was to Canada (US shipping only, included in price).

And the ad was only three sentences long. It's not like I wrote the next Great American Novel, and buried the info on page 340.
 
Ray, for you, I'd have figured out shipping. The average Tom, Dick or Harry, no....
I do have a pair of Proto SD45s, if you're handy with an airbrush...
 
Since no one else tossed it out there...

Can I send you a check on Friday?

:D
 
And I have my Chessie gold GM50 locomotive in my hands! Haven't run it yet but it will get some run time tomorrow. Good score for me at only $30.50! They normally sell for closer to $100 on the eBay. So it's a win for sure. Information on this unit. From what I've dug up this locomotive was the second locomotive on B&Os 83 locomotive order built by EMD. First GP40-2 for the B&O was another odd ball as it was numbered 1977 to signify the B&Os 150th anniversary as a railroad.
 

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Good morning. It's intermittently thunderstorming and 68.

Well...

If I thought the Farcebook people were bad, at least they are more-or-less model railroaders. I was given a Dell tablet in lieu of payment, and have been peddling that on Craigslist. In spite of the clear "cash in person in a public place" in the ad, I've had no less than 20 texts and emails wanting to pay by Paypal, Moneygram, Walmart Pay, a courier, and ship to a number of bogus places. Most of the text replies are asking if the item is still available, and please email them at a Gmail address. Eventually, there will be one non-scammer that really wants it. I just hope I can tell the difference between that and all the scams.
 
Good Morning All. 77° and clear skies this morning. Looking forward to another warm day of 98° and low humidity. Pool is an inviting 81° right now, never got above 84° yesterday. A bit dirty though as the local farmer plowed the field across the road and the wind brought dust/chaff over to us. A minor downside to living here.
Thanks for all of the comments regarding the courthouse, Chet, Curt, Joe, Garry, and anyone else that I may have missed. Chet, looking at the pictures it seems that I may have overdone the weathering slightly, but it is not that pronounced in person. The camera flash sometimes distorts things.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I stared at the empty workbench (rare) for a while before deciding to run a few trains. On one run, I switched out all of the industries in a town named Graham which contains a grain elevator, pallet manufacturer, cannery, wholesale paper supplier, John Deere dealership, tannery, scrap yard and an appliance manufacturer. It took a bit over an hour to switch them all. Twelve cars and eight industries. The town has an additional turnout for an unknown, unbuilt industry that will eventually occupy a large layout corner.

Ken (D&J) - Have a safe trip.
Greg - There are no building inspectors to deal with where I live. That being said, while I didn't build this house, I have done major electrical and plumbing work over the years to fix some shortcomings. I always build to code even though I am not required to, other than the "graywater" disposal that I installed which simply drains into a field...no need to run all that soapy water through the septic tank. Wiring mistakes can be costly. I am doing the electrical work on this remodel since the contractor told me up front that he wasn't comfortable with it and he might have to bring in an expensive subcontractor. If it's something that I can't do (unlikely), my neighbor is a licensed electrician.
Curt - That's good news regarding your SIL. 16 hour trip, naw, even I don't do that anymore even with a co-driver. I like your scenes. People add so much to a layout in my opinion. While I have many of them already on the layout, I am still looking at where I can add mini-scenes like the hobo camp, or the bears that I posted a few weeks back.
Joe - Hope that you are feeling better soon.
Sherrel - Hope that you are also feeling better soon.
Garry - You also have a safe trip.
Terry - If you could paint the SD45's in ATSF blue/yellow warbonnet, #'s 5542 and 5573, I could meet you at the triple underpass in Dallas with my checkbook.

Everybody have a great day, whatever one it is. I forget now that I am retired!:confused:
 
Good morning everyone. 68 and cloudy, heading for 90. Had some thunderboomies move through overnight, waking us up. But got some good soaking rain out of them - didn't stop to look in the gauge this morning, but probably a quarter inch - will check this evening. Chance of more rain today and tomorrow, then the sun and heat return, hitting mid-90's every day.

Greg - I get a lot of stuff at Hobby Lobby with those 40% coupons from their website. Some weeks I go there 3 or 4 times to get different stuff. I'll have to see if ours carries that pack of everyday people you mentioned - I'm always looking for more people in different poses. Also, re that home remodeling story you posted - - my dad was one of those jack of all trades and taught me everything from woodworking to auto mechanics, so all my life I've never hesitated to tackle any kind of home job, but with all the regs these days plus my age :rolleyes: I leave most of the intricate work to the pros.
Garry - waterfall - yeah. Wish I could have put that on the layout somewhere. Hope you are dong well.
Willie - Don't remember if I mentioned it, as so many others have - that is a nice job on that courthouse. And again thanks for posting that photo of your MR-IV - it gave me some color scheme ideas.

Nothing much to report from the train room - finished putting the "glass" in all the windows. Also, since a couple of the walls were slightly warped, I've been straightening them with heavy weights - that's working well. Don't know what you guys do with warped walls. Next will put in window treatments including storefront window photos. Also will pour another layer in the lake and stream and work on landscaping the area around them.

I smell the fresh coffee!! Have a good day everyone.
 
Good morning fellas. Cloudy and cool(er) this morning thanks to some rain last night. More chances for it this evening. It's only Tuesday, but my weekend plans are already in the crapper. No train show for me this week. I guess I'll have to wait until fall. Don't know what I was thinking, believing I could take 2 Saturdays in a row for train related activities during peak irrigation season. Had a burst of new customer calls yesterday. Now I'm booked for the next two and a half weeks. Not that I'm complaining. I've been blessed with plenty of opportunities to grow my new business, and the more I work (and earn) now, the more money I have to buy trains on the off season.
 
Good morning. 58 degrees to start off the day. It did get up to 85 yesterday, but today we should be in the mid 70's. More comfortable.

Curt - Like to unloading facility. May have to incorporate something like that on some of mine.

Boris - Hope you'll post some photos on the pier. Having been in the Navy,I would have liked to have something like that, but where I'm modeling, that ain't gonna happen. Hope you get feeling better.

Terry - You are doing the right thing. Don't trust anyone.

I am wondering what effect that sales tax will now have to be collected on internet sales. A seller would have to apply to all the states that collect sales tax which is quite a pain in the butt. It could put a lot of internet businesses out of business. The company my wife works for bought out their competition and will new have to apply to all of the states where they sell their products. The poor woman who is responsible for that is ready to pull her hair out. Large companies like Amazon can afford this, but many small sellers may not want to go through all of the hoops necessary. Guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. What about ebay? No sale tax up here in Montana.

Justin - Hope that the GP-40 runs as good as it looks.

Willie - Sounds like your switching chores sounds like what I have. I didn't want to have the layout overloaded with track and the main line only passes through the layout one time, leaving room for towns and rail customers. I have spent hours working a local freight train with about a dozen cars. All of the town have a built in switching problem also just to make things interesting. I was thinking about drawing a diagram off one town and posting a switching contest. That's on the procrastination list also.

Here's a rail picture for today.

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Later
 
ACL-CSX said:
Good morning fellas. Cloudy and cool(er) this morning thanks to some rain last night. More chances for it this evening. It's only Tuesday, but my weekend plans are already in the crapper. No train show for me this week. I guess I'll have to wait until fall. Don't know what I was thinking, believing I could take 2 Saturdays in a row for train related activities during peak irrigation season. Had a burst of new customer calls yesterday. Now I'm booked for the next two and a half weeks. Not that I'm complaining. I've been blessed with plenty of opportunities to grow my new business, and the more I work (and earn) now, the more money I have to buy trains on the off season.
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ACL-CSX - congrats on your booming business. Way better than the alternative ;)
 
Morning troops! New Day- feeling better! Thanks for the "feel better" wishes.
Have no idea what hit me. MOH and I took a drive Saturday afternoon; we had nothing to eat while out and took our drinks with us. I had been plagued with severe sinus drainage for a couple days, and I guess that something entered my body that way. That night at 2 AM it hit me like a locomotive; It sure did a number on me - still sort of weak.

Haven't resolved anything about the "family issues" which involved both my son (Phoenix) and daughter/kids (Virginia). It's a mess - and I'm not in a position to help and they have never listened to any of my advice anyway. They are just going to have to work out their own problems.
 
Raincoat2 said:
ACL-CSX - congrats on your booming business. Way better than the alternative ;)
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Thank you. I picked a good field at the right time. Lots of growth near me. Lots of potential. And yes, beats the alternative AND making someone else rich also.
 
montanan said:
I am wondering what effect that sales tax will now have to be collected on internet sales. A seller would have to apply to all the states that collect sales tax which is quite a pain in the butt. It could put a lot of internet businesses out of business. The company my wife works for bought out their competition and will new have to apply to all of the states where they sell their products. The poor woman who is responsible for that is ready to pull her hair out. Large companies like Amazon can afford this, but many small sellers may not want to go through all of the hoops necessary. Guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. What about ebay? No sale tax up here in Montana.
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Chet: FWIW, Last night, I placed an order through MBK, and they included what appears to be the appropriate NJ Sales tax, in the transaction. I imagine that since Montana is a non sales tax state, like Delaware, they will not charge you tax. Had I picked up the order in person, they would have charged me the Maryland Sales tax, and I would supposedly still be liable for the Jersey Sales tax.

The second section of the pier requires some adjustment. Once that is completed, I will provide photos, as well as a 1939 aerial view of the pier.
I imagine that this pier would have been able to handle a DD or smaller vessel. It was primarily used for smaller pre ww2 coastal freighters and barges.
 
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