Running Bear's Coffee Shop LXVII


Ken, we had both US and local visitors at the club, Friday night. The US people were from Idaho and as they were all members of a club that ran outdoor 7-1/2" gauge, not that familiar with DCC. Must have been familiar with DC operation, because we got comments about having trains able to pass each other in opposite directions through a 3 track yard reducing to single track each end and all trains moving under independent control. They remarked how good it looked.
 
Good Early Morning Everyone. It's 74° and raining which is why I am not out walking right now. Looks like 1.7" in the rain gauge from overnight, but it was dark and still raining so I didn't linger out there for too long. Should be gone before I have to drive to Mass. Didn't really have any outdoor activities planned for today anyway.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I ballasted another 4' stretch of mainline including two turnouts, and maybe 5' of industrial siding. Painted a few more turnouts which are next in line for ballasting - these always require a little TLC. RANT -I really don't like these scale McHenry couplers that Athearn has been putting on their equipment for the past ten years or so. While they do have a spring like Kadees do, they jam open or closed on a rather regular basis. I generally keep stock couplers on equipment until they give me trouble, then I replace them with Kadee #148's; which couple with my extensive fleet of #5's better than the scale #158's do.

Terry - Gosh, even the doggie has got a black cloud. You're not really alone though, my granddog who has been staying with us, has puked in the house twice in the last eight days. At least I didn't discover it in the middle of the night, barefoot in the dark!
Louis - That is an interesting graphic that you posted yesterday. Interesting in that with two exceptions, 18 of the 20 cities are east of a roughly New Orleans-St. Louis-Milwaukee line.
Toot - The Armadillos would probably survive on most of your continent. Their only enemies are vehicles. When frightened, they jump straight up in the air several feet and hit the underside of the vehicle above them, which usually spells death on the highway. The vultures and buzzards around here love them so they must be tasty. I know that people eat them as well up near where Sherrel was raised, as well as in other rural areas!
Garry - Thanks for the comment regarding the houses. They are only lined up there while I get the basic landscaping done where they will eventually end up. I don't normally have RR tracks in front yards! On another note, you are absolutely right regarding addiction not being confined to big cities. Even out here inm my rural county of 38,000 there is a meth problem. Fortunately it is mostly centered up in the far northern part of the county that borders Oklahoma near their casino. Too many homeowners with big guns (who use them) in the southern part where I reside.
Ken (D&J) - Good luck in your search for the box. Did you look in the china cabinet? Nice videos as well, especially the yard and passing trains.
Sherrel - Thanks for the pictures of the scrapyard. It does look "too clean" compared with the ones in TX. I am glad that you are feeling better. As others have posted, just give it some time. That was TWO major surgeries back-to-back only five or six weeks ago.
Joe - Thanks for the recent well-thought posts. I too read that story regarding the teachers union in NYC. What a shame that the union and media think that way. While it was not possible for me to send my three kids to private or charter schools, the rural district that we are in has an excellent school, run by folks with old-fashioned ideas regarding education. Until the late '90's, all of the school bus drivers carried paddles on their buses, although they were mostly for show. Kept kids in line though because all parents in the district approved of them. I had one valedictorian, one salutatorian and all three had partial scholarships to college. They now all make far more $$ than I ever did! Best of all, none of the three moved back home after college graduation! ;)
Curt - Your friend Doug's layout looks impressive. Thanks for the pictures. Thanks to you too Phil for reminding Curt! Separate outbuilding is the way I went as well. I know that not everyone is able to do that, but it is really optimal for me. Of course I don't have to trek through 3' of snow to get there either.

Everyone have a great Sunday.

Willie
 
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Howdy ... .... We were out on the boat again yesterday evening. We're liking it so far.

Willie ... Good to hear you are getting more work done on your layout. Like you, I use the plastic couplers as long as they function. Then I replace with Kadees. Walthers has "Proto-Max" couplers which do have metal construction. They are on my Walthers Photo F7's, and one of them has failed too. ......

Ken D&J ... That is a very nice video of running trains.

...

Work in progress .... Here are some shots of my layout extension under construction. I'm not done laying track, but I already started scenery as you know. This is the West End of my layout which includes a reverse loop. ... Again, my railroad is primarily a double track line with a reverse loop at each end. There are branch lines such as the one with my recent bridge project. Most of the layout follows 130' of walls.

My next project for my layout section will be the foreground where tracks curve around the wall from the older part of the layout to the layout extension. I hope to get started in about a month after some non-model-railroad diversions.

I don't normally like looking at just boards and track, but here is how the layout extension looks today.

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Good morning all, 81 and some clouds today, that's 20 degrees cooler than it has been....wheeew...feel good!
Garry......always enjoy pics of your layout, in the 3rd pic of your last post (above), what are your plans for the corner?
Everyone stay safe.......have a great day!
 
Good morning all, 81 and some clouds today, that's 20 degrees cooler than it has been....wheeew...feel good!
Garry......always enjoy pics of your layout, in the 3rd pic of your last post (above), what are your plans for the corner?
Everyone stay safe.......have a great day!


Jerry ..... Thanks for commenting .... I have several ideas for the corner, and some will require adding a little more to the benchwork ... If you look to the far right of the 3rd photo, you may see a track that ends above the lower level tracks. I am thinking of adding a bridge so I can have track in the upper level of the foreground. Next, I will put together one of my ideas for the corner. .. I will begin work in mid-September on this corner.
 
Good morning. Starting off at 58 degrees with cloudy skies. Maybe we'll gat a shower today.

Garry - Thanks for posting those photos. These are the first photos I have seen of your layout from a distance showing more of your layout. Impressive.

Karl - Like the gun control post. So true. Those locomotives do look nice. I have bought from Terry also and would have no reservations to do it again. Funny that you should mention power washing. We are in the last stages of finishing out back deck and yesterday we scrubbed the back deck so stain can go on today. We got a product from Home Depot made for cleaning decks. I had thought about power washing but was advised not to. Ken D&J made a good point. Power washing can be rough on surfaces. This deck was built 40 years ago and this is only the second time we have worked on it. I had replaced the deck surface around 15 years ago with redwood. It is on the north side of the house and in the winter the snow can stay on the deck for a long time. The deck was works extremely well. Glad that they had some good people who knew their stuff at Home Depot.

Curt - Thanks for posting those photos. This looks like it will become another huge empire like Ken's in MD. Would like to see some update photos if possible.

Sherrel - As mentioned, that would be an interesting industry to model. Glad to see that you are getting more sleep.

Ken D&J - Nice video. Always enjoy seeing action on your layout.

Took a couple of videos last night at the club. I did bring my old Atlas RS units last night. It was nice to have something with some guts. The Atlas RS-1 I bought with DCC was such a wimp that it could only handle 8 cars on this grade. I did pull the grade with only 2 of my DC RS units, but then they wanted me to pull their track cleaning car which weighs a ton. It is the UP car right behind the locomotives. 2 locomotives were able to do the job, but were atarting to struggle a but with the addition of the track cleaning car so I put a third locomotive in.

[video=youtube;JkBElSxesTM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkBElSxesTM&feature=youtu.be[/video]

It was a busy night there last night with a lot of visitors. We have plenty of trains running for their entertainment.

Here's my rails photo for the day.

Rails-wallpaper-10562971.jpg

Later
 
Garry........will be looking forward on how that corner progresses..........
Sherrel......[QUOTE

DRAT - just lost a rather long post!/QUOTE].........you are not the only one......I've been there......
I have a new learning curve approaching.......ordered a new lap top.....other one is just shy of ten years old, no longer "supported" by Dell or anybody else...go figure!
Happy Sunday.......
 
Garry........will be looking forward on how that corner progresses..........
Sherrel......[QUOTE

DRAT - just lost a rather long post!/QUOTE].........you are not the only one......I've been there......
I have a new learning curve approaching.......ordered a new lap top.....other one is just shy of ten years old, no longer "supported" by Dell or anybody else...go figure!
Happy Sunday.......

From now own - if I use the ASUS - I will compose my post in word and copy/paste to the forum.
Now, repete after me 100 times! AND I'm going to cover up the touchpad since I seem unable to NOT "brush" it!
 
Chet: can't beat those DC powered Atlas Alcos, eh?

Garry: That's a large expansion. going to look great.

Sherrel: I thought I was the only one that "lost" large posts :confused:.

Jerry: I never get that type of mileage out of a lap top, maybe 4 years at best. The worst part will be acclimating yourself to WIN10's quirks.

Louis: Birds won, big; Nat's win, after a long rain delay, was at a steep price. Bryce Harper hurt his knee. The Popeye Cartoon was great.
 
Good morning guys, 68 and some scattered rain today.

We survived our day sailing on Lake Superior, it was very calm at first, but a little puff of wind came up and we had a couple hours of nice sailing. I was surprised how easy it was, just put up the sails, set the auto pilot, and watch and relax.

The wife got a bit seasick, she is cured of any further sailing adventures. I will probably go out again, however.

I shared Chets' (I think) quote about the boat, and everyone got a big kick: Boat: a hole in the water you throw money into. My nephew, the boat owner, agreed.

I am taking a few more days off before I start buiding the water tank. It doesn't look too difficult, mainly a matter of getting the materials together. I decided to go scratch build other than buying the spout kit.

EVERYONE have a pleasant Sunday afternoon!
 
The two happiest days in the life of a boat owner:
The day he buys it.
The day he sells it.
 
Have I posted pics of the railroad now that I have it all ballasted and green turf everywhere?
 
Good Evening All,

Did some house chores earlier. We got a downpour for about 20 minutes today. If you walk outside you can feel the moisture in the air. I attempted to make the roof removable on the sand house. After spending around 90 minutes I still could not get it to fit like it should. I decided to glue the roof on with several bad words:mad:. I also sprayed the corrugated roofing sheets (from wild west) with Rustoleum Caramel Brown (close to a box car red but browner). Tomorrow I plan on attaching the roofing and then dry brushing Polyscale zinc chromate and a craft country grey.

VA Ken- Very nice video with the multiple trains.

Louis- Will do.

Willie- I usually change the couplers immediately, but the only cars I have bought in a long time were kits.

Garry- Great pic's. You should do a layout video.

Chet- Great video. I like the multiple RS units.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Sherrel and others, re loosing posts. Before beginning all over again, have a look at the bottom left of the 'Quick Reply' field to see if it says 'Restore Previous Content'. Every so often as you're typing a message, in a little yellow box at the bottom right, saying 'Auto saved' will appear. The forum's software saves whatever you have written, and by clicking that 'Restore' box (Gray) you'll get whatever was written before it was saved back again.
 



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