Running Bear's Coffee Shop LXXII

[Trigster]

Hello All...I'm so far behind I won't even try...Way to many 'Got'a Dos' lately...Interfering with more important items on my list...
______________________________________________

Terry...I'm Very Sorry To Hear About Your Wife...My Thoughts Are With Both Of You...
______________________________________________

I shot a quick little up-date of the goings on in the world of The Mighty Blue Rock Railroad...And there is one little bit regarding
the 'Brackets' I used to secure the Background/Safety Barrier that's informative...Seems to have worked out pretty well...

Even with having to kafutz around with 'Taxes' and a few other 'Got'a Dos' I'm optimistic that I might have a 'Full Blown' Test Run
within a month...So maybe a St. Patricks' Day Opening...And I just happen to have the perfect Loco & Cars for that date ...Trig

https://youtu.be/oVf5MMA2kkc
​_____________________________________________

Sam...​Nice to see you in the Coffee Shop !!!.

 

[GarryCBQ]

Hello everybody.

Ken D&J. ... glad you had a good time with the younger granddaughters. That is a good age for children. Still pray the older granddaughter’s situation is improving.

Sherrel. ... sorry to learn you have tinnitus. Must be annoying. Hope it improves. ... when I was little, I had a Marx train too. It did not last like yours however.

Terry ... Continued prayers for your wife’s health.

 

[BigE]

Yay!! I scored a ride to the beer store!!!!!!
Serious rain event now.

 

[gngsquared]

Yay!! I scored a ride to the beer store!!!!!!
Serious rain event now.

The small things in life are always the best.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Good evening Shop Dwellers! 44*F with rain and fog here in central Maryland. Haven't had much time to participate in discussions here recently, because I've been using my scarce free time [after household chores/errands] to prepare for the op session. I was planning to send invitations this past Tuesday, but Murphy had other ideas: I discovered track problems in the yard at spots that had never given me any trouble in the past.

A half-dozen track dips and bulges appeared from shrinkage of the underlying 1/8th-inch thick, 4-foot wide sheet cork. [This stuff also gave me fits when I covered it with earth-colored latex paint, that in itself should've been a red flag!] There was a period during this recent Fall where I never turned on the heat pump at all, which probably caused the trainroom air to get really humid. Then when the bitter-cold weather hit in mid-December, I mothballed the heat pump and started using a high-powered space heater instead. That most likely caused the air to dry out, and shrink the sheet cork. Note to self: NEVER USE SHEET CORK under yard tracks again!

As a result, now I've been test-running every train I plan to stage for the op session, to spot any other 'gotchas' before my guest operators do.

Curt - your tower is really taking shape! The interior details remind me of my teen years when I would spend hours hanging out at the B&O's North Avenue Tower (at the upper end of the Howard Street Tunnel). I developed a great friendship with the Third Trick operator there, and eventually got him interested in mrr. Ahh, those were the days...!

Joe - that Rapido RDC is definitely sweet! Luckily for me, my pike does not have passenger service, or I'd be agonizing over how to scrape the money together to buy a few of those things.

Justin - good luck with your presentation, it's great that your daughter has such high enthusiasm for your hobby!

Sam - at least it's a starting point where you can actually run your locos.

Eric - hope that chemo nausea subsides soon, so you can get your trains running again.

I'll catch up with the rest of you later, it's already way past my bedtime. Goodnight!

 

[BigE]

I'm considering moving back to IL. Permanent this time.
My brother Bill is hitting me up about it.
He makes good points.
I just don't know.

 

[tootnkumin]

It's 7:10pm Sunday evening and there's a cracker storm passing just to our south, travelling from the ESE to ENE. Radar shows the activity in red and yellow, so supposedly not really heavy, heavy rain in it, but I have never seen such angry looking dark clouds and seen the trees in the park opposite being blown over at such an angle. The lightning through the rain at it's center is vivid and continuous. Glad we're not under it. No doubt someone is getting a beating.

 

[tootnkumin]

Once the storm had passed by (only the wind and a few spots of rain here) and out to the coast, the breadth of the lightning activity was revealed. Still flashing away furiously with many strikes hanging on for several seconds. TV is warning of more to come.. Hot days for the rest of the week, so T/storms in the afternoon/evenings will be the norm.

 

[Trussrod]

Good evening, 'Rail Placers & Spike Maulers',
Hi Francine, Flo's not around, oh, took a night off. I'd like some Coffee & a Cinnamon bun, heated with butter and extra Cinnamon. Thanks.

Weather wise, It's 46° & 63% Humidity.

Good evening.

Willie and Chet ..... Thanks for the comments on my rebuilt "floor model" .
.....

Here is another SD9. It is hauling a coal freight train. ..... Burlington SD9's and SD7's had dual controls, and could therefore be operated either short end forward or long end forward.

Garry: That must have been a very anxious time for you? Well the fellows st the Boyd Engine facilities did a great job rebuilding her!

Good Morning All. 42° and mostly cloudy, expecting it to reach 70° later today. Another cold front around sunset will drop temperatures to 23° by tomorrow night, back into the 60's by Tuesday. I'm ready for this cold weather to be over, we were spoiled in both 2016 and 2017 when we didn't drop below freezing after February 1. I am getting a bit tired of trying to catch up on all of my outdoor projects that were neglected over the last 15 years or so. I need more rainy weather so that I can stay inside the train shed more! LOL
Speaking of being out in the train shed, I added more roadbed to the new benchwork, using HO scale for the main line and N scale for the passing siding.
View attachment 65268
That mid-way jog in the main is an optical illusion I think, if it really is a jog, it's no problem to lay the track straight and disguise the jog with roadbed shaving and ballast later on. I don't angst over minor stuff like that and won't rip anything out. I did freak out because it looked like I miscalculated on the HO roadbed and I was going to be 10" short of having enough! But later I found a 22" piece that was on the layout behind a freight parked at the far end of that picture. Of course another trip to the LHS wouldn't have been a bad deal anyway. Now it's time to round up all of those pieces of flex track that are wherever I left them last. I put a few more miles on the new SD40-2's yesterday. Gosh! This never gets old, does it!

Sherrel - My prayers and best wishes continue for your wife's health. I have trust in the doctors that you us, if they can fix you, they can fix her. Most sciatica (if that's the eventual diagnosis) can be relieved without surgery.
Jesse - Wasn't meaning to knock N scale. I have seen it come a very long way since the early 70's and it is a real boon to those who don't have the space for any of the larger scales.

I have many unnamed structures still. Running trains is more important to me than having a name for everything right now. Eventually though!
Curt - Fine job there on the switch tower. I especially like the interior view.
Jesse - Congratulations on your new celebrity status.
Sam - Welcome to the Coffee Shop. No need to read every post from the beginning, just slip in and enjoy. We'll open a new place at the end of every 100 pages or so.
Garry - I occasionally run across stuff that I don't remember buying, but I can tell where I got it by looking at the design of the price sticker. I certainly don't remember specifics regarding each and every one of my 800 freight cars, gong back over 35 years! Damn! Has it been that long??? I actually do have all of the specific information in my database though.

All right now. I'm going to spend a few minutes watching Stuart Varney on Fox Business Network, to see him freak over the stock market! I have to admit that I freaked out and got out of the market earlier this week and cut my losses. I'm back to mid-January levels, thankfully, after having wiped two weeks of gains.
Everybody have a great day.

Willie

Willie: I'll have to agree that having the rail run at an angle to the table edge adds more effect if you have the room to do that.

Afternoon All,

Our home internet is still out but I'm using my phone as a WiFi Hotspot. I finished my project yesterday except for the outside chimney (brick work in shipment). The grand kids will be staying over on Saturday.

Joe- It sounds like a really nice RDC.

View attachment 65261

View attachment 65262

View attachment 65263

View attachment 65264

View attachment 65265

I hope everyone has a good night.

Curt: Nice job on the interlocking towers second story along all the added details!

Good Morning All. Looks to be 26° and partly cloudy here this morning. Well, the ice storm yesterday wasn't either a storm or ice. It barely sprinkled and some of that turned icy on the exposed metal surfaces outside, but my wife reports that the roads were safe. Forgot to mention that on the way home from the doctor Monday, I stopped by Home Depot and picked up the plywood and 1" x 4"'s that I need to complete the last 24' of upper deck benchwork. I also got several sheets of 3/16" sheathing to complete the backdrops (both levels) on the large double-sided u-shaped island. Weather should be nice enough in the next two days to set up the sawhorses outside and get to work, although it might be windy. Wind + plywood = trouble!
Meanwhile out in the train shed, I did nothing but run trains and prepare for the upcoming construction. You know it's not as easy moving a piece of plywood or sheathing around and through a room full of layout as it was when there was nothing in the room! It was also a sad day, as I used my last set of "original" P2K metal wheelsets on a freight car. In my opinion those are the very best looking metal wheels that ever hit the market. I have been using IM and KD for a few years now, and I saved the P2K's for special cars like tankers. The current "Protos" from Walther's are just too bright and shiny for me, and any car that I get with them has to have the "Blacken It" treatment before it hits the layout.


David - I did not scratch-build that structure, it is a Bar Mills kit. Regarding the sign on the fence, thanks for noticing it. I did that by rubbing a Bright Boy on the back of the paper sign until it was "onion-skin" thick, then I applied it to the fence with watered down Elmer's glue. Before it dried, I slit it between the boards with an Exacto knife.

Everybody have a great day.

Willie

Willie: The sign division from board-to-board look so perfectly divided, was the sign printed in sections the width of the various boards or did you have to apply it to a board or two and slit it?
Bar Mills puts out some nice kits.

Morning All: Have not had much going on to rave about the past few days. Have to take the car for smog check this morning and have no idea how long that will take or how much it will cost me. The check engine light has been on for over six months due to something in the sensor system. My car guru has put the light out a couple times, but has not really dug into it. Hopefully he can get it to stay out long enough to pass the test without spending a fortune to correct. I just hope that it is not the catalytic converter. The car is 12 years old.
Went to Dr. with Spousal Unit yesterday - she had a 3pm appointment - we did not get back hope until after 6pm. She is having a fit with her knee and x-rays yesterday did not show anything out of wack so more tests are in order. Doctor sais that it is not her knee as her pain is all down her schin.



I'm going to beat Chet to the track photo today:

View attachment 65242

Sherrel: The check engine light could be as simple as the engine idling too slow or too fast. That what happened with my Mitsubishi Turbo Eclipse on a couple of occasions. I had intentionally increased the idle a bit faster than than the lower speed that was required to pass smog the prior time. Once decreased and driven awhile the CE light went out and stayed out!

That Cast frog section must weigh a ton?!


Hope everyone has a good Sunday

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's raining and 65.

 

[bnsf971]

I've been experimenting with cell phone speakers in sound-equipped locomotives. Recently, I've discovered a really inexpensive source of iPhone speakers. I removed the factory sugar cuber speakers in an Intermountain Tier 4 Gevo, and replaced them with an iPhone speaker. Here is a link to the results. I have the sound turned down to a believable level for use on my layout, so you might need to turn the volume up slightly. I can tell you the difference in clarity and distortion is noticeable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTjhw4mEwIs

 

[chessie_system3]

Good morning fellers. I hope everyone is doing well. Soooooo I found out some cool info about my SD7. Chessie System SD7 #1840 was assigned to yard duties at the Cowen, WV yard. Atleast in 1976 it was. She may be a B&O unit. One of which I've tried to get rid of before but I'm glad I still have it on my roster. It's a great runner when my trackwork is laid really good.

Justin

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. 23° and cloudy. Radar is showing scattered freezing mist three or four miles away and elsewhere throughout the county, but it doesn't look heavy enough to accumulate. Didn't get home until after midnight last night, but the body refused to sleep in past 0600. A good nap is in order later today. I did some repair work on a kitchen sink drain yesterday, very minor leak that required a new bead of "plumber's putty" between the stainless steel sink and the drain. Surprisingly the retainer ring was not encrusted with gunk and corrosion, and was easily released by hand.
What did I do in the train shed yesterday? All that I remember is soldering a lot of rail feeders. While I am getting better at it, it is still my least favorite aspect of model railroading, not so much the feeders (I like a lot), but the soldering in general...I'm still rather poor at it. However, before attaching any feeders other than the first set at one end, an engine set ran just fine back and forth over 18' without issue. I'll still hook up the other three sets that I added to the main line. Still working on the passing siding. I also started aligning the approach tracks for either side of the continuous run stoop-under that is next to be added to the upper level of the layout. I am a little apprehensive about this portion of the project. Despite what looks to be more than enough clearance, I may be faced with entering the shed, stooping under and then closing the door behind me, if it is left in place. As far as underneath clearance, it will be 56" from floor to bottom of the superstructure; only a slight, easily made body maneuver for me. It is also an opening 54" wide. My guess is that I will leave it in place most of the time.

Sherrel - I finally got the hearing aids in 2014, should have gotten them years before. Vanity trumped practicality for quite some time. At work, I would go to the bi-weekly strategy meeting with 13 others, only three whom I could really hear. After the meetings, I would always go and meet with a fellow manager and he would brief me on what I missed!!!! LOL It was only after I got them that I researched the very noticeable effect on the tinnitus which came as an extra bonus for me. Those 10,000 cicadas went away. Even at night, the tinnitus effect seems to have abated mostly. Glasses - I noted last night at the party that I attended with 15 other folks my age, that I was the only one that didn't need glasses for normal vision. I have been using 1.5 readers for about a decade though.
Greg -

(Federal regs to have a car between the end of tank cars and train?)

My engineer friend from BNSF says YES on trains that he operates. And another "buffer" car between the leading units and the tankers, whether empty or full, toxic or non-toxic (vegetable oil). The buffer cars are, at least on BNSF, covered hoppers full of sand, and are identified as such. Most unit trains generally don't have any real "empty" tankers, as there is still residue in them (note that they are still placarded), thus the need to have buffers on them. BNSF normally doesn't use trailing power on loaded unit tank trains in this area because they are going downhill (southbound) ever so slightly.
Eric - Good to hear that the nausea has passed.

I'm considering moving back to IL. Permanent this time.

Whoa! That came out of left field. Good luck with whatever decision that you choose to make.
David - Regarding that fence. I did not pre-slit the sign. After sanding it down with a Bright Boy, (sandpaper would also work), I applied a water/Elmers glue mixture, the same one I use for scenery and ballast, and placed it on the fence. I waited a few minutes for it to somewhat set and then ran a single-edge razor between the boards. At the same time, I wiggled the blade somewhat from side to side to make the cut edges "wrap-around" the boards. This only added to the painted-on effect that I have used before. The alignment was purely coincidental.

It's late and I have to do now. Everybody have a great day.

Willie

 

[BBwells]

I've been experimenting with cell phone speakers in sound-equipped locomotives. Recently, I've discovered a really inexpensive source of iPhone speakers. I removed the factory sugar cuber speakers in an Intermountain Tier 4 Gevo, and replaced them with an iPhone speaker. Here is a link to the results. I have the sound turned down to a believable level for use on my layout, so you might need to turn the volume up slightly. I can tell you the difference in clarity and distortion is noticeable.
/QUOTE]

Where do you buy the IPhone speakers and do they have an enclosure or did you make one? Thanks.

 

[Genetk44]

I've been experimenting with cell phone speakers in sound-equipped locomotives. Recently, I've discovered a really inexpensive source of iPhone speakers. I removed the factory sugar cuber speakers in an Intermountain Tier 4 Gevo, and replaced them with an iPhone speaker. Here is a link to the results. I have the sound turned down to a believable level for use on my layout, so you might need to turn the volume up slightly. I can tell you the difference in clarity and distortion is noticeable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTjhw4mEwIs

Terry..why would you replace the sugar-cube speakers with iPhone speakers??

 

[bnsf971]

Terry..why would you replace the sugar-cube speakers with iPhone speakers??

To be blunt, because the sugar cube speakers Intermountain used are pure, unadulterated garbage. I'd compare them to the sound you would get on a cheap AM transistor radio from the 1960s, though that would be an insult to the sound quality of the transistor radio.

 

[bnsf971]

I've been experimenting with cell phone speakers in sound-equipped locomotives. Recently, I've discovered a really inexpensive source of iPhone speakers. I removed the factory sugar cuber speakers in an Intermountain Tier 4 Gevo, and replaced them with an iPhone speaker. Here is a link to the results. I have the sound turned down to a believable level for use on my layout, so you might need to turn the volume up slightly. I can tell you the difference in clarity and distortion is noticeable.
/QUOTE]

Where do you buy the IPhone speakers and do they have an enclosure or did you make one? Thanks.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-New-Re...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

They are complete.

 

[BBwells]

Terry: thanks for the link and they are cheap so I ordered 3 to try them out.

 

[migalyto]

Terry.....The new speakers sound really good! How easy was this to do?

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Did some chores this morning and the grandkids went home around 11 am. I "mounted" the tower on the layout and hooked it up electrically. I'm holding off with the touch up landscapping until I get the Pennsy tower signs (made from wood and have to be painted) I ordered.

Sam- Too funny.

Justin- Nice video.

Ken- Thank you. Sorry to hear about your track issues.

CA Dave- Thank you.

Terry- Nice job on the sound repair.

I hope everyone has a good night.