Running Bear's Coffee Shop LIX
- Thread starter bnsf971
- Start date
kbkchooch
"retired" conductor
new guy
Active Member
Mmm, Danish. Tried to nip in to the old place and "missed it by THAT much!" LOL! Brisk but beautiful on the scoot today. That old C&O caboose is rather regal on it's perch in front of the Fair Grounds, I like to ride by and say hi when I'm out that way. NICE little town Eagle, I saw the Memorial Day Parade there, VERY "Norman Rockwell"! LOVED it! Reminded me of the small town parades up north when I was a kid.
kbkchooch
"retired" conductor
1K (or 1,000 ohms) may be a little heavy handed, but like Louis said,we don't know your operating specs.
I like to use LED's as nice bright headlights on my DCC installations. Typical decoder output is 12-14 volts. I use a 470 ohm resistor to drop the voltage down for the Miniatronics LED's
So what are you working with?
chessie_system3
Well-Known Member
Man it's like we had just started the last one and now we are on to a new one. I'm going to post some pics of my so called yard office tomorrow. The more I think about it the more I kind of cringe. It's really really small. Might be better to use it as a scale house. Who knows. I'll appreciate anyone's advice on it. Yall have a good night.
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new guy
Active Member
I dunno, there is a tiny "shack" at the yard by my house about the size of a double seat outhouse. I got a close look once and it seems to be just an old weather shelter for that end of the yard. It's right by the ladder on that end and it's just a 3x8 maybe, slant roof I think, a door, a window on the track side and a small bench across the other wall. I'll try to get a pic Friday, I'll be out scooting again and it's a good way to get shots for modeling projects.
chessie_system3
Well-Known Member
I know the one I have is really small. Would be a perfect scale house for sure. I may use it as my yard office though. It could very well work. I wouldn't mind seeing a pic of the one you are talking about.
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santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Good Morning Everyone. Somewhat warmer this morning at 58° and scattered clouds. 85° yesterday afternoon. Cold front's arrival time has been moved up to this time tomorrow morning...tomorrows high of 61° will be at midnight tonight. I'll take a couple of Danish and probably have a heart attack.
Scotchlock discussion has been interesting. I have never used them, but considered them before. Meanwhile I just keep plugging away at my almost non-existent soldering skills. I'll probably get it about the time the two Danish arrive.
Out in the train shed, I continued to work on a structure. Keep meaning to take some pictures of recent builds, but I misplaced the memory card for the camera.
Horrors! I had a derailment yesterday on a section of track that I put down about 10 weeks ago. I have run hundreds of railcars over this section (post turnout) without one. The covered hopper was completely in spec, metal wheels, correct weight and Kadee coupler height, and no truck bind! Inspected the track and found one track nail that wasn't completely nailed in so the track was very slightly raised at that point. Fixed that and no problem now. Can't understand why only one car out of hundreds was affected. Of course that's the main reason that I run trains for 90-120 days over newly laid track before ballasting.
Justin - Neat video. I noted that it was taken in March of this year...pretty recent for a caboose. By the way, they had the engine on backwards!!!
Curt - A milestone for you. Looking forward to seeing the signals in place on the layout.
Karl - Good to hear that the sales are going well. Your friends widow will be happy to see you. A noble gesture on your part to begin with. Sounds like there is an IV tube from Louis's bank account to hers! LOL
Bruce - Good pictures. The gondola really sets the scene there. So typical of an older rail yard.
Everybody have a great day. Oh look!!! There's the memory card still in the slot on the computer!
Willie
Scotchlock discussion has been interesting. I have never used them, but considered them before. Meanwhile I just keep plugging away at my almost non-existent soldering skills. I'll probably get it about the time the two Danish arrive.
Out in the train shed, I continued to work on a structure. Keep meaning to take some pictures of recent builds, but I misplaced the memory card for the camera.
Horrors! I had a derailment yesterday on a section of track that I put down about 10 weeks ago. I have run hundreds of railcars over this section (post turnout) without one. The covered hopper was completely in spec, metal wheels, correct weight and Kadee coupler height, and no truck bind! Inspected the track and found one track nail that wasn't completely nailed in so the track was very slightly raised at that point. Fixed that and no problem now. Can't understand why only one car out of hundreds was affected. Of course that's the main reason that I run trains for 90-120 days over newly laid track before ballasting.
Justin - Neat video. I noted that it was taken in March of this year...pretty recent for a caboose. By the way, they had the engine on backwards!!!
Curt - A milestone for you. Looking forward to seeing the signals in place on the layout.
Karl - Good to hear that the sales are going well. Your friends widow will be happy to see you. A noble gesture on your part to begin with. Sounds like there is an IV tube from Louis's bank account to hers! LOL
Bruce - Good pictures. The gondola really sets the scene there. So typical of an older rail yard.
Everybody have a great day. Oh look!!! There's the memory card still in the slot on the computer!
Willie
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new guy
Active Member
No problem, I might go get the shot today sometime.
Chilly right now but supposed to get very nice later.
chessie_system3
Well-Known Member
Seeing videos and getting actual ops with a locomotive running backwards makes me feel better as I do shoves to the loadout and come back with my locomotive facing backwards as well. I sure do have some fun with my layout. Now if I can fix the track problems I'll be in business! Those short filler pieces I used give me headaches. I really wish the joiners would hold snugly to the rails.
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Can they be soldered?
new guy
Active Member
Give em a gentle squeeze to tighten em up a little before you put em on.
When they want to be slidy I crimp em on tight with a pair of shovel nose clippers, it helps conductivity issues too.
montanan
Whiskey Merchant
Good morning. I'll take a cup and a Dainish sounds good. 
Thankfully, our winter weather advisory turned out to be wrong. The temps did go down into the high 20's and there wasn't much snow at all. Dodged a bullet I guess, but it looks like the upper mid west is going to be hammered.
Justin - Like Toot mentioned, you can always solder the rails to the joiners. Parts of my layout have been up for over 30 years and over this time I have had only a couple of connectivity problems with the joiners. Even with weather rail, a touch of solder fixed the problem. Using a hot soldering iron, touch the tip to the outside of the rail and rail joiner. The rail does take a bit it time to heat up, but once it is hot, touch the solder to the rail and the joiner (not the iron). Once it is hot enough, the solder will flow easily and fill the gap solving the problem.
Curt - The signal looks like it has come to life. Really looking good.
Gotta get out of here, Later.
Thankfully, our winter weather advisory turned out to be wrong. The temps did go down into the high 20's and there wasn't much snow at all. Dodged a bullet I guess, but it looks like the upper mid west is going to be hammered.
Justin - Like Toot mentioned, you can always solder the rails to the joiners. Parts of my layout have been up for over 30 years and over this time I have had only a couple of connectivity problems with the joiners. Even with weather rail, a touch of solder fixed the problem. Using a hot soldering iron, touch the tip to the outside of the rail and rail joiner. The rail does take a bit it time to heat up, but once it is hot, touch the solder to the rail and the joiner (not the iron). Once it is hot enough, the solder will flow easily and fill the gap solving the problem.
Curt - The signal looks like it has come to life. Really looking good.
Gotta get out of here, Later.
new guy
Active Member
Check em and squeeze em down, I've used the same ones three or four times no problem. Gotta make sure they are tight and you'll be alright!
My track does not pass inspection until I can go backwards and forwards facing both ways through the section slow, fast with long trains and short trains, all loco's must "like it" before I call it "good". I did that before and was so confident in my track I'd let em run while I go make coffee, check the mail, go to the bathroom, get something to eat, go to the store, FORGET and go to sleep! You get the idea.
rhoward
S.L.O.&W. Trainman
Interesting....... So, how do you know the locomotive in the video was going "backwards"? I can't see close enough in the video to be sure of it. Some roads used to run long hood forward and some roads ran short hood forward. So how can we know which was which? Hmmmmm..... Here is a photo of the museum's 45 Tonner RG&E 1941 Beebee Station with our PC Caboose:
Was the photo taken of the front of the locomotive or the rear? Lets see what some of you say?
OK, here is a better photo of her. Now do you know which way is forward? Let me know what you think and why!
73
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Beady
Well-Known Member
It's 62, here in mid-Michigan; supposed to be the same tomorrow, then snow. :/
So, I haven't yet disassembled my layout prior to the yet-to-be-scheduled asbestos abatement. I'm waiting until the last minute, and in the meantime I've been attempting to run trains and locos, but I'm starting to get discoraged.
The specs: N guage, Kato sectional double-track in a bridged figure 8, with a double crossover and single-track turnouts.
There is one spot on the downs lope where most of my locos derail. My FEF3 is the only loco that can go over it reliably, while the AX derails consistently. Other locos have various results. I'm beginning to change my mind about taking a file to the rails. There are still some things I'll be trying first.
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PRR Modeler
Well-Known Member
Afternoon All,
Nice new paint job in the coffee shop! I did another signal head today so it is drying now. My black styrene should be here tomorrow. I figure I can do 1 signal head per day. It takes about 90 minutes to solder everything up, test, fit and glue in place, and test again. Honestly the hardest thing to do is fit everything inside the head. It was reinforced to me today about testing before gluing. One of the LED's was not working. I don't know if I messed it up somehow or if it was bad. I double checked and everything was in the correct polarity.
Ray- I would say the side with the silver exhaust stack is front.
NG- Thanks for the kind words. That gondola would be a great siding project.
Louis- Great suggestion. I put 2 of the 1k resistors in series and the lights seem to be not so bright as to cause seizures now. Thanks for the idea.
Karl- Thanks for the info.
Garry- I hope you are doing well.
Justin- For my yard office I just modeled a scene from various bits and pieces.
I hope everyone has a good night.
Nice new paint job in the coffee shop! I did another signal head today so it is drying now. My black styrene should be here tomorrow. I figure I can do 1 signal head per day. It takes about 90 minutes to solder everything up, test, fit and glue in place, and test again. Honestly the hardest thing to do is fit everything inside the head. It was reinforced to me today about testing before gluing. One of the LED's was not working. I don't know if I messed it up somehow or if it was bad. I double checked and everything was in the correct polarity.
Ray- I would say the side with the silver exhaust stack is front.
NG- Thanks for the kind words. That gondola would be a great siding project.
Louis- Great suggestion. I put 2 of the 1k resistors in series and the lights seem to be not so bright as to cause seizures now. Thanks for the idea.
Karl- Thanks for the info.
Garry- I hope you are doing well.
Justin- For my yard office I just modeled a scene from various bits and pieces.
I hope everyone has a good night.
