Running Bear's Coffee Shop June 2018


Good morning everyone. 66 and cloudy here, heading for only 80 today with a chance of rain.

Took the day off yesterday with two objectives: clean and organize my wood shop, which had gotten to be a mess over the winter and spring, and work on the layout. Achieved both!! Even poured my first lake - - following videos and other advice, made sure the lake (and stream) were sealed with Sculptamold and the paint was dry, then poured the Realistic Water. And of course a bunch leaked through someplace that wasn't sealed good enough!! Took a while to clean that off the cement floor. Hopefully it will seal whatever crack there was, and when I pour the next layer it won't leak. Not sure I like the final result, but it will have to do.

Have a good day everyone.
 
Everyone - I hit the "post" button too quickly. Meant to add a couple of comments:

Chet - nice photo of your place. Looks peaceful.
Willie - thanks for your advice about painting that you posted earlier this morning. I'm working on a Merchant's Row structure right now, and am trying to get those trim colors right. I don't use an airbrush (I'm too cheap to buy one and don't see the need to do so right now), but your tips on painting are helpful.

See you all later.
 
Good morning. 49 degrees and overcast. We did get some sun yesterday, but I ran into a humdinger of a thunderstorm on the way home. It was like driving under a waterfall. I sure am glad that I always put RainX on all of my vehicles. The shoulders of the road were full of vehicles that couldn't see. The storm passed in about 15 minutes but the rain gauge showed over a half inch of new rain.

Louis - Enjoyed the photo of the team and your grandsons. You are always talking about them and it is nice to finally see them. Being that the coach probably won't win a popularity contest, you may get stuck with the job.

Ken D&J - Enjoyed the video. Always enjoy them and like to follow the progress on your empire. I have watched it since the very beginning and enjoy watching it evolve. Sorry to hear about the fried decoder. Any idea for the unit in the future?

Garry - Nice job on the access. You would never know that it was there.

Terry - When I had the problem with the Atlas RS-1 I got it did take a bit of time for them to get back to me, but once I was contacted, things did move along quickly. I got a number of calls from Don in their service department. It did take a bit longer in my case as I am not a DCC operator and had no place to test the unit except at the club. In the end, I was very happy that they did resolve the problem. Got anything that I can use for my era or are you also moving back your time period and need them?

Willie - The saga continues. Glad that you got some points on the towel rack from your wife. The tile work was the only job that we didn't do ourselves. The guy I work for has a son who had a tiling company. One of hs guys did all of he work in his spare time. He did an outstanding job on the back splash in the kitchen. We also had him tile the floors in two bathrooms and the entry foyer. He did the tub surrounds in both bathrooms too. When he was laying the tile on the floor, I commented about not seeing any spacers between the floor tiles as they were going down. He said that spacers were for amateurs. Beautiful work and even though he was doing it in his spare time, the job went quickly.

Good advice you gave Justin on painting. We have a local hardware store that has a fantastic selection of spray paints. I have had better than expected results using them so I didn't have to use an air brush for years until I decided to paint my F units for the North Coast Limited. I really like the clear flat spray paint. About a quarter of the price of DullCoat. The same with the windows and trim. I always have an optivisor handy. One at the work bench, one in the train room and another that I forgot where I put it.

Here's a rail picture for today.

65279102_99cea1543a_b.jpg


Took this one a couple of years ago. This is at Logan, MT. The train with the auto racks is heading north to Helena, MT and west and the MRL going off to the right is a local peddler freight. The river is the Gallatin River which will join the Madison River and the Jefferson River a few miles west and become the Missouri River.

Later
 
Good morning fellers. Rainy start to the day. Supposed to let up for a little bit then come back with a vengeance! Atleast it's Friday. I may take a break from working on the bronco. Not even really working on it so much as prepping it for body work. As for structures yet again. I have used rattle cans. Down side is it bleeds through the tape. Brushes I have tried to use but they don't have the precision I like. Suppose I need to go buy some. And practice......a lot!!!!
 
Justin - To avoid the bleeding through the tape, try numerous extremely light coats of paint, spraying from over the tape so the spray won't have as much of a chance of going under. Hold the can far away from what you are spraying also. Practice a bit. If you spray extremely light coats of paint, the paint will be almost dry when it hits the surface of what you are painting and have less of a chance of bleeding under the tape.
 
Good morning all. Hot and dry here in South Carolina. Temperature seems to be hovering somewhere between Hades and surface of the sun. They've called for rain a few days this week, but the heat must have evaporated it in the atmosphere. STILL waiting for USPS to deliver my new locos. I've determined they are NOT model railroaders or else they would understand my need. Lol. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Good luck on all remodels, home projects, and filling the voids left by various activities ending for the year. I have to work on my own bathroom remodel that is longer in the making than I'd care to admit publicly. Here's a hint: think about how long a year is. Now add 2 more. Yea. That long. But now I actually have the money to buy materials for the custom built cabinet my wife wanted. It'll look good and make that long wait worth it to see her smile.
 
Good morning fellas. It's a cloudy day(mid 60's) here in the heart of dairy country today, but it's supposed to climb to the upper 70's. My aphasia & vertigo are kicking up today, so I took a sick day from work. Hoping to get to spend some time in the trainroom, doing some more module stripdown.

Louis- love reading your stories about the LL team & how you're helping them develop as players(& young men).

Here's a rail picture from my neck of the woods, a rare BNSF leading a double stack CN train thru the center of Marshfield.
IMG_1541.JPG
 
Last edited:
Chet, I've got a nice A/B pair of Broadway F7s in PRR. The A unit has the trainphone antennas on it, the B unt is a dummy. It has the DC/sound setup, which may work pretty well on your DC layout. I'd take a hundred bucks, shipped, for them.
 
chessie_system3 said:
Good morning fellers. Rainy start to the day. Supposed to let up for a little bit then come back with a vengeance! Atleast it's Friday. I may take a break from working on the bronco. Not even really working on it so much as prepping it for body work. As for structures yet again. I have used rattle cans. Down side is it bleeds through the tape. Brushes I have tried to use but they don't have the precision I like. Suppose I need to go buy some. And practice......a lot!!!!
Click to expand...
I didn't pick up on the 1st part of this conversation, but I'll just mention that I never had much luck with conventional masking tape. I usually used frosted Scotch tape, with the edges well-burnished. Just a thought.
 
Just the Proud and the Few. Could be Butch and Sundance took 'em for a ride ???
[THIS IS FOR CHET]

Anyway, it is hot and humid- triple digits outside. Hope y'all safe and hydrated.
Phil
 
montanan said:
Nice price, but there aren't many Pennsy units running around in Montana.
Click to expand...
I've also got three BNSF GE engines, two Tower 55 and one Athearn RTR, all with sound and dcc.
They would probably look and work best on the club's layout, which is what I had gotten them for.
 
Evening All,

Son and I went to see the new Jurassic World movie today. My son really liked it but I didn't think it was as good as the original Jurassic World. I finally found the train station kit I want to get after the first of the month. I'm still waiting on the lights for the freight depot to show up.:confused:

VA Ken- It's usually not that busy. Sometimes I see nothing and other times I see multiple trains. I watch the site while listening to music so I'm more inclined to sit and watch for awhile.

Sherrel- Actually there is a permanent display at Horseshoe Curve of a Pennsy GP9. It's my avatar.

Garry- I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Louis- Great story about the team and photos of them and your family.

Terry- Sorry to hear of your loco issues.

Willie- Thank you for your very kind words.

Johnny- I feel your pain about "water". I have never been happy with my attempts.

Chet- Great rail photo.

I hope everyone has a good day.
 
My bench work session got delayed as I had to go sign some papers about 9 AM. I took my motorcycle as the rain last night cooled things down, so it was a nice ride. My old home is on the market and I went by to cut the grass. Our recent rains and the heat means high thick grass and it bogged down the blade speed. It took about two hours to cut and weed-eat the yard. By the time I got home, I was hot and exhausted.
An egg salad sandwich, 28 oz. of ice water two hours in my lounger made me feel better.

I am reassembling 2' x 4' modules into 4' x 4'sections with legs braced in one direction, which makes them a little shaky. I spent a couple hours aligning the legs and bracing each one in two directions. This goes kinda slow working by myself.

Happy weekend to y'all.
 
Got home late tonight fellas, so you'll have to wait for better pics, but the USPS came through for me. New to me motive power has been added to the fleet. Still need to test run everything and see what needs what, but I'm happy with everything. May have questions about identifying some and of course maintenance technique (oiling, etc), but here they are:
20180622_231655.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top