Running Bear's Coffee Shop LXIII

[D&J RailRoad]

Just a few more spotting of freight cars tomorrow and the op session will be all set. I spent this evening setting up the cuts of cars to bring onto the empire from the staging yard. Long cuts of empty hoppers for the coal facility and long cuts of tankers for the oil facility. Both will have to come through the classification yard for a change from road diesel to road switchers. The coal facility also has a couple of long cuts of loaded hoppers that will make two assignments to move from there to the classification yard then down to the staging yard. I have the California Zepher staged along with a commuter train down in staging.
Tomorrow I'll finish up the industry assignments that make up one, two or three cars per industry. I have 15 industries on the division now.
Course of play will start out with just running trains as the operators arrive around noon. At about 1:30 I'll assign train crews; engineer and brakeman then start passing out assignments which should take about an hour or so to complete. After that, we will go back to just running trains. I'll have the crew lounge setup up stairs with the big screen playing my own personal rail fanning DVDs of California and Arizona trains.

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's partly cloudy and 54.

 

[logandsawman]

Good morning guys, thought I would get caught up a little and spend some time on the Forum today.

My life has hit one of those "too busy" periods when the railroad gets sidelined. With the work table on one side of the living room it is inevitable that some progress will be made soon on my potato warehouse and then I will be going on the wire grass storage buildings.

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang
Gonna be 72 degrees today, lotsa outside work planned fo today. Might even get to fire up the airbrush later!!!
Cya!

 

[GarryCBQ]

Good morning everybody ..... I was working on my bridge project yesterday. I wonder if I will ever get it completed with so many interruptions happening.

Good evening y'all. The test revealed that I have two issues with my right arm. 1. Carpal Tunnel and 2. A nerve issue behind the elbow, which is causing muscle issues and weakness in the hand.
Good news, There is no issue with pinched nerve(s) in my neck. Bad news, there may be permanent damage to some muscle groups in my right hand. The bulk of the problem is surgically correctable. Go back to the orthopedic guy next Wednesday.

Garry: Big night for University of Kentucky. Hope they put a whuppin on UCLA!

Joe ... ... First of all, I am glad doctors identified the problem, and it is good much can be surgically corrected. ... Yes, U of KY defeated UCLA 86-75. I watched. The next game is with North Carolina, and that may be the best game of the entire NCAA finals ....

 

[new guy]

Rain and not nearly as warm as yesterday. The scooting was excellent such as it was, got a late start and just did a loop thru campus, it was worth it.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. 48° and mostly cloudy today. Where is everyone? I know that I am a little late checking in...was hung up on editing Wikipedia rock & roll pages. It will be a lot cooler today only, with a high of 73°. OK though, as I am roasting a turkey in the oven and I won't have to turn on the A/C. Special treat for the wife who is working at H&R Block rather steadily for the next three weeks. Today and tomorrow I will start planting my tomato plants. I have 42 ready to go in. It will take two days because I am no longer a big fan of stooping and bending over!
Lazy day in the train shed yesterday. I did get a chance to paint some white-metal details that I will be using soon.
For what it is worth, Bruce posted about a "Centerline" cleaner car yesterday. If you don't already have one, they are a good product. About twice a year, whether needed or not, I run mine in a small cleaning train with a "John Allen " masonite car and an old Bachmann cleaning car with dry pads. Masonite car first, Centerline car with alcohol next, engine third, and the dry pad car follows up. I no longer have a dirty track situation since opening the train shed, but I believe in preventive maintenance (don't always practice it though!!!).
Johnny -

Willie - You mean you've put together every kit you'll ever need?!

Not yet, I still have about 20 or so structures on the shelf and another two dozen blue box type kits to go. Then I have around 600 cars to weather yet. I'll probably still be painting some of my stockpiled Preiser people ten years from now.
Chet - All of the VFD's in our county are now part of a county-wide district as well. Mutual assistance is available from some of the neighboring cities in the next county as well. I once remarked to a Sheriffs Deputy, that it took him 45 minutes to get to our location, but the VFD got there in 7 minutes. Told him that if I ever have a problem, I hope for a fire instead of a home invasion. He laughed...
Bruce - Be safe on the scooter and have fun.
Greg - Must be really hard to hold back when you live so close to Walther's. lol
Joe - Hope that there is an easy treatment for you.
Ken (D&J) - I know that I am repeating myself, but it sounds like a great session coming up this afternoon.

Well no sooner than I typed earlier, Terry, Dave and Karl and now Garry and Bruce showed up as well. Good Morning guys.
Everybody have a great day.
Willie

 

[tootnkumin]

Rain and not nearly as warm as yesterday. The scooting was excellent such as it was, got a late start and just did a loop thru campus, it was worth it.

You'll get a reputation "here comes that old "Perv" trying to look like an Italian lothario again".

 

[new guy]

You'll get a reputation "here comes that old "Perv" trying to look like an Italian lothario again".

I try to avoid STARING, and have NO illusions of "lotharioness". I actually try not to look "nice" at all, dirty boots, jeans and a Swiss Army coat of a very unusual cammo pattern is my "uniform" when riding. I don't go to campus very often, it's actually quite depressing seeing all those people wasting all that money. They don't provide education at Universities, they sell degrees, weather or not you LEARN anything is not their concern, just buy the piece of paper.

 

[Beady]

Just sitting here, waiting for the waterproofing guy to show up. This is really it, the beginning of the end.

Spent $25 on ebay for a gadget I'm still making up my mind about. Some guy attached a pair of jeweler's loupes to an eyeglass frame, and then attached an led to each loupe, and he's selling these rigs as MRR "inspectacles," or some such. My current impression is that it was a good idea, but... First, the two loupes cannot be positioned so that they act together, as with a pair of binoculars, so you get the effect that each eye is looking down its own tunnel. This can be fixed by flipping one of the loupes out of the way, so one eye is magnified while the other is normal vision. For those of you who can work this way, OK. The other problem is that the loupes have a fixed focus of about one inch, with virtually no depth of field. Don't know about you, but I can't work like that. Haven't had to use them for any actual inspection, yet.

I turn 67 in another hour or so, 11:17 am. Been getting a lot of Happy Birthdays from folks, but for the last couple of years I haven't been able to shake the thought that Dad died at 73. OTOH, I'm in better health than he was at 67, and Mom turns 90 in early July.

Here's my birthday present to all of us:

This signature is intended to irritate people.

 

[new guy]

Happy Birthday!

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Willie: I use a similar track cleaning method with the Masonite pad mounted on a box car and Center Line cars. In place of alcohol, occasionally I use the track cleaning fluid ACT 6000 by Aero Lube. Cleaned the track last March and just now cleaning again.

I need to control myself with Walther's being so close.

Today, more LED lighting installs and working on the layout. Rain most of the day. I can listen to the basement sump pump running from the layout room.

Wisconsin lost a close game last night against Florida.

That's all.

Greg

 

[logandsawman]

Hey Beady, Happy Birthday! I would have never guessed you were 67.

 

[Bruette]

Beady I would have thought you were 90 you crusty old curmudgeon!!! "No I won't keep off your lawn and give me back my baseball old man!"

You were on to something with one picture, then right back to your recruiting drive for the seminary.

All joking aside, enjoy your day my friend. I wish you 67 more, the forum is much better off with you as a part of it!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

 

[Bruette]

I need to control myself with Walther's being so close.

Greg I know how you feel, I live 20 minutes from MB Klein/Model Train Stuff

Congratulations on your finds. Don't let guilt spoil your fun. As long as you are not spending the food budget, it's all good! Think of it this way, you are contributing to the common good of mankind. The world needs a strong model railroad economy to keep the hobby flourishing for generations to come.

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Slightly cool today but very nice. Talking about VFD's. I know they are necessary but my experience with them has left a bad taste in my mouth. Back in 1980 I was stationed in Charleston but lived outside of Summerville, SC. We were covered by a VFD that you had to buy "insurance" from, for the VFD to respond if you had a fire. They would respond if a neighbor had the insurance to make sure your fire did not spread to the covered house. To me that always seemed like extortion.

Today being Saturday it is Train Club day and I will be leaving for it in a couple of hours.

Tomorrow I want to do so pull testing on my Heritage 0-8-0 from Walthers. I am trying to decide if I need to add weight to it. Normally it just works around the coal mine which is flat but I would like to run it on the mainline occasionally and I have the 3% grades to contend with.

Sherrel- Thanks for the well wishes.

Joe- Sorry to hear of your nerve issues.

VA Ken- It sounds like it is going to be a blast.

Beady- Happy Birthday.

I hope everyone has a good day.

 

[montanan]

Good afternoon. Just got back from town and our weekly shopping trip. Partly cloudy and temps in the 50's.

Beady HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Bruce - I am interested in your track cleaning car. I have around 40 feet of hidden track that can be hard to clean.

Curt - That sure is a scam by the VFD wanting you to buy insurance.

Nothing really going on so it's down to the train room to get some trains running.

Later.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Almost mid morning here and the weather is just stinking beautiful - low 70's and clear and calm.

Beady - I am still in shock at your photo! Lots of things come to mind, but not sure they would be allowed here, so I will just wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and be done with it. Oh, good luck with the basement.

My daughter from D.C. arrived here about 9pm last evening. She will be working in San Diego all this next week and came out a couple days early so she could visit.

Willie good luck with the gardening - my this year has gone by fast - it seems like only yesterday that you were planting tomatoes.
FORTY TWO plants! I am livid with envy! LOL

Have a baseball game to attend in a couple hours. Grandson called last evening to see if we were coming. He said, " I might get to play second base today". He has been stuck in right field the past couple games and not much action out there for the 10 year olds.

Hope everyone's club meetings and operating sessions go as programed.

 

[CMMR]

Happy Saturday Everyone...

Still winter here but it's supposed to get nicer next week.

Finished up my CEMR Hy-Rail Crew Cab this morning. It's a Trident model with a Details West Hy-Rail kit. The scratchbuilt headache rack is a little bulky, but other than that I am pretty happy with it.

Tomorrow I hope to finish it's companion, a River Point Station Regular Cab.

 

[Boris]

Beady: Happy Birthday! 67 ain't so bad. neither is 68 69 is better

Curt: Interesting, that a VFD would do that. Usually a fire protection fee is something charged by a private, for hire fire service. (eg. Rural-Metro). Common in the Southwest. Benjamin Franklin, is credited with starting the first "Volunteer" Fire department, back in Colonial times. He also is credited with founding the first Mutual Protection Association, (Fire Insurance Co>), in Philadelphia. Other sources credit Charleston SC, as the location of the first Fire Insurance company. The way it worked was if you were a policy holder, and your property caught fire, the Volunteers would respond. If you had the Insurance Medallion displayed on your property, they would put the fire out. If you were not a Medallion holder, they would stand there and watch you try to put your own fire out... In some locations, rival insurance associations would compete for business, and finance their own fire companies to protect their clients. Ultimately, this didn't work out, and municipal fire departments either paid or volunteer, responsible for suppressing all fires, insured or not, were established. Too many uninsured fires grew into conflagrations. FWIW, here in Jersey, we pay a Fire Tax, which is assessed by the local Fire Board of Commissioners. (There are six districts in our Township).