Running Bear's Coffee Shop LXX


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Evening fellers. Had a scratch my head and wonder kind of day today. No idea what happened to my truck. The whole front end seems ok. All of my checks I found nothing. I guess this will be another mystery. My layout I got some good pointers last night I need to look into. Unfortunately no layout today. I saw where a pic of my track work on my layout was uncovered and posted today. I'd share some pics but with my camera I can't get a decent pic of any of my trouble spots. Of course y'all would remember I was grumbling about my turnouts curving. Yeah they are still curved. Tomorrow is a new day hopefully it'll turn out for the better.

Justin
 
Good evening y'all. 26° and breezy, never got above freezing today.

Curt: The water tower is a great model. I like it.

Garry: Nice layout shot. The Builder looks good.

Edgemoor Yard 1973.jpg

Photo of the then relatively new, revamped Edgemoor Yard in Wilmington, DE from back in 1973 or so. Photo was taken from the Yardmaster's tower. Photo shows crews working with EMD and Baldwin yard power, shortly before the Baldwins were retired. Left to right, the Shellpot Secondary, the Receiving Yard and the Classification yard. Edgemoor was a busy yard, once had two gravity humps with car riders. This flat switching yard was built where the Southbound Hump was once located, and permitted retirement of the Northbound Hump also. On a good day, 600 to 700 cars went down the switching ladder.
 
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TRIG -- Welcome to the group. I commented on one of your posts last evening. I am/have been mostly an armchair modeler for many years for many different reasons which I will avoid boring you with for the moment. If you are in "no rush" we will get along just fine.
This is a great group and an outstanding bunch of modelers - hell, they ever tolerate me - and that really says a lot!
Glad to see you in the coffee Shop (aka Jeffrey's Diner). Stay with us .. contribute often ... and laugh with/at us.
Thanks Much & I appreciate your earlier comment...And yes I'm gon'a go about this slow & easy with plenty of time to think
things over before diving in head 1st...I'll be lurking around...Lots to learn from you folks !!!...Trig
 
Good early morning gents,
35 and clear it says here. I don't know. I was out back with a little fire pit I built.
Wish I could eat. Some hot dogs over the flame cant be beat.
Toasted bun works fine.
Side dish of macaroni salad suits me as well.
How about some baked beans? BBQ baked beans please.

When you haven't eaten (like a human) since Sep. 2016 you think, and appreciate, these things.
E
 
Good morning, y'all. 25° and cloudy, with a new layer of snow on the ground overnight. Same amount as the other day but with much less hype.

hanley_1938_Ahrens_Fox_1000_gpm_Pumper.jpg

1938 Ahrens - Fox front pump engine. Reminded me that somewhere, in my vast collection of unfinished business, is a Jordan model of a 1927 version. Wouldn't take much to update it by 10 years. The white building in the background was a Bowling alley. Into the 60s, the pins had to be reset manually. The other smaller building, housed a Blacksmith and Welding shop. Not sure if anything is still standing.
 
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Good Morning All. 41° and clear. 73° yesterday, probably won't be that warm again until Christmas day, but it will be mild for at least the next ten days. Spent part of the day making some long put off plumbing repairs to a gray-water drain line that had become disconnected and was leaking in the yard. That's a dishwasher/washing machine/bathtub line that bypasses the septic tank and leaches into a field. I will make the grocery/beer trek today and my wife will probably want to make side stops for more Christmas shopping, if she goes. Supper is at my house tonight if you can make it. I'm making prime rib w/fixings that I got on sale last week. Hope that you like it medium rare, almost rare. Just a little change of pace from four consecutive days of grilling.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I added interiors and signs to some structures along with a few customers. Slowly but surely, I am using up my stockpiled Preiser stock that I painted over the last ten years, several of which were between layouts. I wish that vehicles were as inexpensive as figures!

Garry - Your layout building in "baby steps" is not a bad method. I sort of do that with the benchwork and track laying. I diverge and do the next section before I do scenery which is why I have 95% layout trackwork/wiring completed but only 20% scenery, which I am working on now. Ballasting is about 50% complete. I like to say that I am still testing that trackwork!!!
I'm glad that I mentioned your tannery and boot factory; now I am seeing pictures of parts of your layout that I haven't seen before.:) Nice modeling.
Eric - Oh what a mess. I hope that nothing was destroyed.
Curt - I don't model the water tower era so I really cannot judge, but I think that you did an excellent job on yours. Most pictures that I see show them to be in far worse shape than the imperfections that you are seeing. You are your own worst critic.

Eric brought up Dave in Minnesota's name yesterday. I sure miss his posts and videos. I hope that he is doing OK. I remember that he was going through some job switches, estate stuff and new home planning so maybe he's just busy.

Everybody have a great day.

Willie
 
Good morning everyone. 35 and partly cloudy here in SW MO. I'll have a big cup of coffee and a couple of bear claws - one for me and one for our new friend, Trigster.

Today is my wife's and my anniversary - 43 years together!! We'll do dinner at a nice restaurant, gift and card. Then probably some more Christmas shopping!! (With MOH it never ends.)

Trig - Warm welcome to the coffee shop!! I'm a relative newbie myself, about a year-and-a-half into my first layout build, and I can tell you the folks on this forum are really helpful. I've learned tons from them (and tons more from making mistakes on my own :rolleyes: ). Like others have said, I look forward to hearing from you and watching your layout take shape. We all learn from one another in this hobby.
Chet - State troooper in Florida? Didn't know that, but maybe it was mentioned somewhere in earlier posts. What years were you there? I lived in FL 2002-2007 - just wondering if I ever had the pleasure of getting pulled over by you :cool: !!
Chet and Willie - I hear you on shuffling buildings around in a town setup - that's what I'm doing right now, trying to get the right "look" - fun, isn't it??
Willie - I'll take a rain check on that prime rib dinner at your place :)
Sherrel - I'm with you on your reaction to the Dem's boasting after their Alabama win
Curt - That water tank looks nicely-done to me
Garry - that's a nice photo of the Shoe and Boot factory - the background scenery is nice - that's one area I'm still struggling with. Where did you get your scenes on the wall?

Took the day off work yesterday to spend almost 3 hours in a dentist's chair and then do some Christmas shopping. So didn't get much time in the train room - did some more work on MR-V, put together one of those metal shelves I've had sitting around and then took some of the mess in the train room and organized it (an organized mess?) - that's about it.

Have a good day everyone.
 
Good morning .... Coffee and a donut, please.

Justin .... The new day is here, and I hope it is a goo done for you.

Joe ... Thanks for commenting on my photo. I like your pictures of the Wilmington yard and also the antique fire truck .

Willie .... Thanks for your remarks about my photo. Those two buildings were originally placed elsewhere on the layout, and then I called them a vegetable packing plant. Later I build other buildings for my vegetable packing plant. ....... I think most people build layouts the way you do. The result in the early years is lots of just boards and track. Instead of that, I decided at the beginning to build a small section with industries for switching activities. I wanted to include scenery before going to the next section so it would look right to me. My layout design is basically a two track mainline which is against the walls in the layout room. Each new section just moved along the walls.

Johnny ..... Happy anniversary .... Thanks for your comments..... The backdrop in this section is made by Faller, and it is printed on paper. When I first used it, I used wallpaper paste which was according to instructions. The water in the paste ruined the backdrop. Next time, I used 3M spray-on adhesive, and that is the best way to put it up. ... Also, I can't allow too much humidity in the layout room or it will wrinkle up. .. The feature I like the best is the realistic sky with clouds.
 
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Good morning, or not so good morning. 18 degrees to start off the day. Another exciting trip to work. We had a couple of inches of snow during the afternoon yesterday and this morning the roads were a sheet of ice again. To add to that, heavy fog and then the stupid deer are trying to get across the highway. Got close to a couple mussing them by about 5 feet. Lucky that I was only doing around 30 mph due to the road conditions.

Garry - Enjoyed your photo as usual. Excellent scene. I guess we both build about the same way. My layout for the most part is all along the wall nad I built my 1x4 frames for the bench work in 8 foot sections. I did have most of them up before starting to lay track. Hand laying was a slow process, but I really liked the looks of the code 70 track after leaving N scale, with the grossly oversize track. I never really had a track plan, but did know what I wanted to build. Like you, track was put down in arounf 8 foot sections. Structures were built, at least partially so I know hat the foorprint would be and industrial sidings were added accordingly.

In a way I was happy to start using the Shinohara turnouts and flex track when my Kadee spike gun bit the dust. Shinohara at the time had the best selection of code 70 turnouts and this helped speed up track laying a lot. Scenery was also done in sections, like you did. A little at a time. You got more done than I did in a shorter period of time. I had problems needless to say not having any hobby shops around. The time spent working slowly amd making sure that there were no issues with the track work was well worth working slower. As I have mentioned in the past, I have on a couple of accasions left trains running and totally forgot about them and came back the next day and they're still making laps without any derailments. Working a little slower does pay off.

Joe - Interesting photo. Nice to have the firt hand explanation to the picture also. I always enjoy your input. The fire truck is interesting. I know a retired fireman who totally restored the same kind of truck after he retired. Took him a long time. I did manage to help him a bit finding some parts. He knew I did car restorations and through some of my connections, I was able to help him. He uses it for parades or sometimes just drives it around town.

Johnny
- Happy Anniversary. It is also my daughters 41st birthday today. I did have to rub that in. I was a state trooper from 1970 when I first got out of the Navy until I left in 1976 to moved back home to Montana. My daughter was born i 1976 and I couldn't see raising kids in south Florida.

Bruce - Nice to see you paying us a visit. Hope you are making progress with the shingles.

Justin - Good luck with the truck. I also can't think of what would have caused the hub to lock up. Hope today is a better day for you.

Willie - You-re going to have to post some photos when you get the scenes populated. Those unpainted figures can be a pain in the butt, but once they're done, they really bring life to a scene.

Here's another rail photo for today.

4544193-53997-old-sepia-railroad-tracks-going-through-a-forest.jpg

Later
 
My "Jump School" shoulder injury and my medial meniscus tear in my knee hurt like heck I must be getting better! LOL The shingles overshadowed and overpowered ALL my chronic pains. I did not miss them but I'm actually glad they are back!

PLANNING continues apace. Raising the lines that were going to require the turnout on the curve is going to help as those lines will be elevated elsewhere and this will save me a good 6 inches I would have needed to grade up to the highest level. A two line main instead of four. A double crossing figure 8 and yes, some scenery is going into the plan. If not in the figure 8 a double crossing is a must as it is a local feature I have always wanted to replicate and it has been in the mix since construction began.

Left chest still a bit tight and the pains have eased and moved to the edges of the formerly affected area. No shiv in the ribs for a couple days now, just "naggers" popping every so often. That dull ache DEEP in your chest like after being punched HARD? Yea, that one.
 
Chet - I never had a full track plan either, just a rough hand-drawn idea of what I wanted, keeping in mind the space restrictions I had to work in. I tried several track-drawing programs, including a couple recommended by folks on this site, but never could get any of them to work right. Probably user error :rolleyes: . I have expanded the layout where I could, and now getting ready to add a new peninsula to accommodate a couple of sidings for industries and a small village - this part was never in my original plans, but I'd rather have a point-to-point layout rather than an out-and-back. The new peninsula will take a back seat for a while, though.
 
Good Morning All! 41 degrees going up towards 81 for a high. It's clear - we are supposed to be into the rainy season by now, but none is showing anywhere. Winds here are very calm, but they still are dealing with the Santa Ana's up the coast. Nephew and family are still away from home and reports from them place the fire (now 30% contained - whatever that means) about 5-6 miles away but moving in the direction of their home. After today the winds are supposed to weaken hopefully giving the firefighters a chance to get the fire under control.

Spousal Unit and daughter did not get home until 8:30 PM from the trip 45 miles away for her x-ray after leaving here at 12:30 PM; - then they wanted to do a scan as well which resulted in a lot of "waiting". Daughter did get her eye exam taken care of as well. The final verdict is NOT in on the daughter's pain, but plem reports think that possibility of a pinched nerve from the surgery position may have happened. The TREE is up, but not fully decorated! Today will be taken up with putting up the outside lights and such.
All a total waste to me as we are not planning to be here for Christmas anyway, but SWMBO cannot stand an undercoated house - me, if I want to see decor, I just go down the street a couple miles and look at all the mall "stuff".

Well - I've bored everyone enough this morning! Love the photo, JOE. Glad you did not hit the deer, CHET! JUSTIN - hope this day is good to you? JERRY, I never used track planing except for pencil/paper sketches of what I wanted - did use a lot of erasers in my planning. BRUCE - really glad to see you back again .. hope you continue to improve.
 
Drove the truck today and nothing. It drove fine. Handled fine. I'm chasing a ghost!!! So I'm going to repack the wheel bearings as I was flinging axle grease out the spindle ends. Seems to be a starting point. Even though I don't have a whine or grinding noise it may be my issue as the way it was acting made it seem that a bearing is going bad. Sadly these are new bearings. Not the cheapest ones either. It stinks because I want to work my layout either figure out what happened to my track or start the tear down process. Which electrical aspects aside I have some bad spots that cause derails. No idea how to approach this.

Justin
 
BREAKING NEWS
I have just been asked to take down the 14th box! .... A good Bet would be that the remaining 3 come down in the next couple days!
 
JUSTIN, as many of us have said - pick a starting point and work forward ONE FOOT AT A TIME!

BTW - HOW LARGE IS YOUR LAYOUT???
 
Mine is the sacred sheet. Good ol 4x8. I'd like to change that. I have enough space for it. I can expand 6-7 feet one way and 2-4 the other. And I have gotten the go ahead from the wife to do a tear down and rebuild. Now whether or not I want to go ahead and do that I don't know. I may keep the sacred sheet I have now. I need to even out my rough spots though. I have to this point been unsuccessful in this endeavor.

Justin
 
Mine is the sacred sheet. Good ol 4x8. I'd like to change that. I have enough space for it. I can expand 6-7 feet one way and 2-4 the other. And I have gotten the go ahead from the wife to do a tear down and rebuild. Now whether or not I want to go ahead and do that I don't know. I may keep the sacred sheet I have now. I need to even out my rough spots though. I have to this point been unsuccessful in this endeavor.

Justin
Justin, here's something to think about, if you go for a "do-over":
http://www.layoutvision.com/id28.html
 
Justin - If you have some additional space available, I would have to agree with Terry and expand into what ever extra space you have. This could give you a lot more possibilities. A larger turning radius, more room for industries for just a few things to think about.
 
Afternoon All,

Not much happening today. I did some chores earlier, but have been slacking since then.

Thank you to Johnny, Eric, Chet, Garry, Joe, and Willie for the kind words. I'm sorry if I missed anyone.

Willie- You're probably right about me being my own worst critic.

Joe- Another great photo. I don't know if you heard that Bill from Bills Pennsy Photos has passed away. No one knows what's going to happen to his wealth of Pennsy photos. I ordered several things from him in the past.

Johnny- Happy Anniversary to you and your missus.

Chet- Happy Birthday to your daughter. Unfortunately many places are becoming like South Florida as the drugs and crime spread. Nice track photo.

Justin- Sometimes it makes more sense to start over, but obviously it's your call.

This is my meat packing siding

20171214_141131.jpg

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
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