Running Bear's Coffee Shop LXII


Good morning all! Got my donut and cup a Joe in hand. Doing some train research today and thank you (Louis) for the link to the B&O museum, wow so cool. Was interesting to see Micheal Gross is a part of it and into trains. All I could think of is that I wonder if he worries about tremor snakes causing problems with tracks breaking somewhere..lol I would love to see that museum and the show! Well see you all later.
 
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Good morning, everyone. Room for one more at this table? Nice to see folks I haven't heard from before.

43 and sunny sunny sunny here in SW MO. Heading for 70 today and 70s all weekend into next week. These are outdoor days, which makes it hard to get anywhere in the trainroom.

Willie - MRII looking good.
I remember Bruce saying he was taking a hiatus for a while - that was right after the political discussion we were having a month ago.

Quick weathering question: I'm reading in the latest issue of MR about weathering track by spray painting with Rust-Oleum Camouflage Earth Brown paint. What's your opinion? Good or bad idea? What do you guys do to weather your track?

See ya later. Have a good day everyone.
Johnny
 
Good Morning. 34 ddgrees to start off the day here. Wow, all sorts of posting yesterday. My phone was buzzing all evening.

First off, Joe, it's great to have you back. I was wondering what had happened to you and your wealth of knowledge.

Louis - Sure wish there was a way to get the the museum. Sounds like quite the gathering.

Karl - You'll enjoy the improvements to your water system. For me, one of the rites of spring was to drain the water heater and get the shop vac out to clean out around 7 to 8 inches of calcium that had built up in the bottom. When we put in the tankless water heater we also put in a water softener. Made quite a difference. Easier on the clothes which came out a lot cleaner.

Mark - No problem. You haven't been on the forum long enough to have known how the coffee house works. I goes to 100 pages and then moves on. Glad to see you active here. You just get a 5 doughnut penalty. Grin.gif

Eric - If you're lurking, good morning.
 
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Joe - welcome back! Glad to see you are still actively working on your layout.

Karl - you've got my number, just text me or call when you're ready to talk.

Everyone else, have a great day!
 
Raincoat2 said:
Quick weathering question: I'm reading in the latest issue of MR about weathering track by spray painting with Rust-Oleum Camouflage Earth Brown paint. What's your opinion? Good or bad idea? What do you guys do to weather your track?
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Johnny - I have not read that article yet, and I have not used the Rust-Oleum product. I do use Model Master "Light Earth" rattle cans to spray paint my track and ties after I spike everything down and test for a while. I spray about 2-3 feet at a time and immediately wipe off the tops of the rails with a folded paper towel, before it has a chance to dry. A day or two later, I take several bottles of various shades of Polly S brown paint, such as Rail Tie Brown, Rooftop Brown and Boxcar Brown; as well as some gray and Grimy Black and randomly paint over some of the individual ties for variety. Maybe 1 out of every 7 or 8 ties gets a different shade.
As a side note. The Light Earth color works well for coating the plywood prior to applying ground cover. I sprayed some on a piece of paper and took it to my local Home Depot, and they matched it with a spectograph and mixed up a quart of paint for me for about the price of two rattle cans. I still use the rattle cans on the track because it is easier and more convenient. I'd guesstimate that I get about 120' of track per can.

Willie
 
santafewillie said:
Johnny - I have not read that article yet, and I have not used the Rust-Oleum product. I do use Model Master "Light Earth" rattle cans to spray paint my track and ties after I spike everything down and test for a while. I spray about 2-3 feet at a time and immediately wipe off the tops of the rails with a folded paper towel, before it has a chance to dry. A day or two later, I take several bottles of various shades of Polly S brown paint, such as Rail Tie Brown, Rooftop Brown and Boxcar Brown; as well as some gray and Grimy Black and randomly paint over some of the individual ties for variety. Maybe 1 out of every 7 or 8 ties gets a different shade.
As a side note. The Light Earth color works well for coating the plywood prior to applying ground cover. I sprayed some on a piece of paper and took it to my local Home Depot, and they matched it with a spectograph and mixed up a quart of paint for me for about the price of two rattle cans. I still use the rattle cans on the track because it is easier and more convenient. I'd guesstimate that I get about 120' of track per can.

Willie
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Willie - you spray the track after you spike the track? I was going to do it before spiking. Do you tape off the surrounding plywood or ground cover, or do you just let any overspray fall where it may?
Johnny
 
Willie - Never mind - I get it - you must do this in areas where you haven't started the ground cover, and just let the overspray go onto the plywood. Gotcha.
Johnny
 
Off to the cabin and lunch on the way... small bar and grill in a very small town (two bars and a beauty salon are the only businesses in town). Having Sea Scallops, cut fires, soup and salad bar for $9.00!!!

After the cabin stopping at local watering hole to catch up on local news...after a couple of sodas....back home.

Trains tomorrow.
 
Good mornin' y'all, hope it's a Happy Friday.
David - I've got a question for you that came up, in my mind, dealing with my 1890 to 1910 baggage & passenger service using shorty coaches. I realize it quite a ways back out of your normal model RR era. My question is, if a passenger train heads out to make it's morning run, lets say, but the towns on both ends of it run have no prevision to turn the cars around for the evening run back, yet but do have a run-around track at either end. Is the Locos position just swapped and pulls the coaches in reverse? That really seems to be a redundant question as how else could they make the return trip other than leaving the train in it original coupled sequence and run in reverse? I was trying to come up with some operational plan for my layout which I do plan to operate as a point to point it times and I was wondering if you had ever come across anything similar to this?
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David: In the absence of turning facilities, they simply ran around the train, recoupled to the opposite end, moved the markers and proceeded. Probably happened more often than we realize. That's why they mount headlamps on tenders. The worst thing was the rush of wind into the open cab, in the winter, as the train moved tender first. Keep in mind that railroads were always tight with a buck, (undercapitalized?), and only spent what they needed to, to provide basic service. The Strasburg Rail Road, in Lancaster County Pennsylvania replicates rail operation at the turn of the last century, shorter open ended coaches et. all, and pulls the train to the Amtrak connection at Lehman, runs around it to return to East Strasburg, tender leading.
 
Hi guys!

Thanks for the kind thoughts and words, I'm still kicking, just taking it easy on the posting and paying attention to the outside world, nothing to see there so I don't bother looking anymore. My patience has run out, my "give a damn" is broken and I won't tolerate the FAKE anything anymore! I'm having SERIOUS "aging issues" over this last birthday coinciding with formerly minor injuries that will NOT heal correctly! My only optimism comes from knowing now WHY old men are so angry! LOL! MRR is trying to find a space in the new paradigm and I'm not sure it will. If it comes to THAT I'll give y'all first crack at the stock and get what I can out of it.

The only constant is change.

Happy Rolling.
 
Friday! It's finally Friday. However in Chessie's world of being a Pepsi employee I'll have a visit from all of my bosses next week. Today and Monday will be a dusting off and polishing everything. I feel as if though I'm back in the US Army again. I was never a fan of dog and pony shows. At any rate at least I can reap the benefits of two days off. Hopefully I can accomplish something on my layout this weekend.

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Bruce - It sounds like you're ready to try out for the sequel of "Grumpy Old Men". My wife sometimes says that I can get pretty grumpy and all I can tell her is that I have been practicing for many maay years. Maybe I'm finally getting to down right. icon_lol.gif
 
Morning Folks ... Just leave the pot for me. Slept in late because I could not go to sleep last evening and as I really had nothing really on my mind - I just could not doze off.

Good to see all the strays showing up again around here - lol. Told you! JOE is just crammed chock full of knowledge. BTW .. didn't most of the cars that were used have seat backs that they just shifted to the other side for the return trip?

Well doggies .. from drought to the "storm of the century"! All the TV weather people are preaching gloom and doom this morning and, we currently have partly cloudy outside, and doubtful that we will experience very much of the deluge they are shouting for 50-100 miles to the North. It never fails to surprise me what a difference 30-40 miles makes in the weather patterns here.

That's about it from here, except .. I am expecting a couple more passenger and freight cars for my minuscule MARX collection. About a year or so back I started gathering a few of the 4 wheel - 6 inch cars. They are great for the g-kids to "bang"around and they are simple to re-rail when they derail. I have two sections of rollers - set of nice ones for me and set that I don't mind if they get banged up- which the "wee ones" are good at!
 
Raincoat2 said:
Willie - Never mind - I get it - you must do this in areas where you haven't started the ground cover, and just let the overspray go onto the plywood. Gotcha.
Johnny
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There are folks that paint the flex track before attaching it. It does leave little shiny spots where the molded on track clips (is that the term?) cover the track before you curve it. Those have to be touched up. Too much trouble for me. But like everything, there is more than one way of doing things. Others use a paint pen and do it by hand, or a fine brush and hand paint. My method is easiest for me.

Willie
 
Testing... testing...

Tapatalk must have upgraded again;I had to sign in today, something I haven't had to do in forever.

I'm really getting excited about the train,show tomorrow. Haven't been to one in a couple of years, I actually have money to spend, and the wife wants to stay home.

10 days until they start work on the basement. The end of the tunnel is almost in sight.

Oh yeah: Got a Kato UP Mikado in the mail yesterday.

One other note. Went to the sixth session of my cop class last night. It was interesting but grim. It was the Detective Bureau's turn, and the brought security camera footage. Than god most of it was in black and white.

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Beady - I posted an answer to your flying switch question yesterday, but then the Coffee House moved ahead. Here is a video of a "Flying Switch". A car or cars are set in motion and the locomotive is uncoupled and the cars are switched onto another track.

[video=youtube;CO8KCgKqsPU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO8KCgKqsPU[/video]
 
This turned up in the newspaper. Apparently, Lansing at one time had trolleys running on a regular basis out to Lake Lansing, then a popular amusement park and water recreation area.
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Afternoon All,

Finished up about half of the second platform before I ran out of modeling wood. It will probably be several days before I can get more. Tomorrow we have youngest grandson's karate advancement program then the train club for a bit. Sunday I should start working on the tracks for the crane.

Garry- Very nice scene.

Ken- I'm glad you are doing better.

Sherrel- Those in warmer climates have to stick together!:cool:

Beady- Congrats on the windfall, they are always nice to get.

Joe- Welcome back. That sounds like a very interesting kitbash.

Johnny- I use a latex paint called "Rust" from Lowes. I brush it on with a paintbrush. At first it looks off but as it sits for a couple of days it looks good. Jeffrey was the one that gave me the info on it when I first started laying track about 5 years ago.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
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