Running Bear's Coffee Shop LXXII


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Afternoon All,

First thing this morning we took the youngest grandson to his orthodontics appointment then did several chores after getting home. My friend Mark stopped by for a couple of minutes. He has been on the road for 2 days and wanted to get home before rush hour (lives about 40 minutes from me). I also finished the planning of the freight house and made a template of the overall size.

Sherrel- Sounds like good news about your car, but that's normal for home improvement projects...twice the time, money and hassle then what's expected.

VA Ken- Sorry to hear of your editing issues. I'm sure it's extremely frustrating.

Karl- Great looking loco.

Ken- Don't you hate it when life interferes with modeling?

Johnny- Great picture.

Chet- Nice photos.

Justin- Nice track work.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Well ... here is a little tidbit just came over the PCD!

A winter storm system will bring snow to the mountains tonight, beginning in the San Bernardino County Mountains early this evening, spreading south overnight and reaching the San Diego County Mountains by midnight. Heaviest snowfall will be overnight tonight, with periodic snow showers Tuesday with brief heavy snow rates. The snow will end Tuesday evening. Snow levels will fall from 5000 feet early tonight to 2500 to 3000 feet Tuesday morning. Local snowfall over the highest mountains will be 12 to 18 inches.

BTW.. The "check eng" light has remained out for the required 60 miles ... therefore, the car will attempt to pass the smog check tomorrow. I may be forced to hug my mechanic!(I sure hope so)
 
Lots of stuff going on between all of us.
I did a little shopping this afternoon for an up to date video editor. Looks like it's going to be around $4,500 for a custom built machine with the software already installed. Basically, a turn key system. I just didn't want to spend the time spinning up on the current components like I did with this last machine. It took about six months of learning, then another month to find and order the parts then another week to actually build it and optimize the system. This will have 8 processors running with over a Terrabyte of video storage and couple other 300 Gigabyte storage units for the finished videos and the operating software.
I'm waiting on a call back from the builder for the final details.
 
Holy Smoley there Cycle Man! - Don't suppose you could talk them into a "donation" for religious reasons?
 
Sirfoldalot said:
KARL- Purdy, Purdy ... that is a "beefy" 2=10=0! I thought you were referring to one of the smaller Russian models, that is a monster!
Click to expand...

Here and I-1 and an I2 side by side, rear couplers even. Yes the I2 is a beast!..
WM I1 vs I 2.jpg
 
Good morning everyone. 44 and partly cloudy here in SW MO, heading for 64 today. Rain tonight and tomorrow and then sunny and warmer for the rest of the week and the weekend. Could the end of winter be in sight?

Gotta run. Be back later.
Have a good day all.
 
Good morning fellers. Ran some trains last night. Shoved and moved cars across every switch for the layout to insure I can run flawless operations. As it stands I can handle 4 hoppers with a caboose at a time. Not very big trains but it's one more hopper than my previous layout. My yard leads so far can handle 6 cars per lead. So now I have to get my loadout tracks to match the yard leads. I need or rather want 4 hoppers per stall for the loadout. At least for the moment I have crunched numbers for my operations. It was rather time consuming just moving cars around without working the loadout. Which is a good thing!

Justin
 
Good Morning Guys. 50° and mostly cloudy. Hmmmh! An hour ago the Weather Bureau was calling for a 100% chance of thundershowers by 0700 CT; now they have changed that to 90% by 1215. There's nothing on the radar for over 300 miles away from here, I guess we'll see.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I continued to add mortar lines to the Vulcan Manufacturing kit, three sides are complete. I did install windows on two completed sides without installing the glass. This is a large structure and my hand readily fits inside so it won't be difficult. Ran trains, including a couple of engine sets that haven't moved in about a month. Had an intermittent shorting problem that took a while to track down. It turned out to be a stray coupler trip pin that had fallen into a switch and kept getting moved around when I moved the train by hand in an effort to locate a possible derailed car. Now to find the car that needs it back! It wasn't in the train that was involved.

Greg (GA) - Got any full views of those cars that you had in yesterday's pictures?
Johnny - Nice looking granddaughter.
Sherrel - Come and get all of the rainwater that you need. I collected it in my pond out back just for you. For all intents and purposes, this past week's rain is the first significant rain that we had since before Christmas. Without looking it up, I think that we had .75" in January which didn't really do us any good except to settle the dust for a couple of days.
Chet - None of my appliances are younger than 25 years old which is why they still work. Work well I might add. That's why I strive to replace parts rather than getting a new appliance. Our Maytag dishwasher is much more quiet than any others that I have been around anywhere.
Justin - Nice progress. Mess? What mess? That's immaculate compared with any unfinished parts of my layout. I don't have a real place to store my cordless drill/screwdriver that just moves from one place to another on the layout! Now's the time to test every loco that you have, with and without freight cars, backwards and forwards etc. Many times!
Ken (D&J) - Sometimes we all have to bite the bullet and just go "turnkey". Sounds like you made the best decision here.

Everybody have a great day.

Willie
 
Good morning. Clear skies, full moon and 4 degrees.

Karl - Nice photo of the locomotives. The I2 is a beast. Sweet.

Ken D&J - Ouch ! $4,500 ????? I sure hope that you're able to get you moneys worth out of it. Being that it is turn key is one good feature. Hope things work out.

Justin - Apparently the work you put into laying down the track paid off. Nice to get trains running.

Willie - Good detective work finding the shorting problem. Waiting to see the completed building. The only reason we replaced the kitchen appliances is because of the remodeling, plus the wife wanted a gas range. Didn't care for the electric. We didn't hve natural gas when we got the electric. We were able to give the old appliances away and they are still operating just fine.

Here's a rail picture for today.

Railroad_Tracks_-_Merritt_Island,_Florida.jpg

Later
 
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I managed all of this without any derails. And it's officially SD rated. I ran my SD7 or SD9 whatever you wanna call it and my SD40 with not an issue. I'll never run six axles that much but it's good to know my layout will handle them without any issues. I'll continue to run my trains in every which direction to make 100% sure my track work is good.

Justin
 
Good morning again. Had lots to take care of before I got a minute to breathe and get back to the forum.

In the train room last night made good progress on wiring the 14 X 2 layout expansion area for "regional control." I've given up the idea of a central control panel for the whole layout. The original control panel will still work for the freight yard and the north side of the layout. The new section will have its own and I'll put in another for the town and south end of the layout. Will post a photo when I can.

Here's my "Extreme Makeover - Firehouse Edition." Can't see it in this photo but the bay door is now hanging above the door as if it were rolled up on the rack. I don't have any firetrucks yet to park there - hope to score a couple at the local train show in 4 weeks. Then I need some firemen, a couple of Coke and snack machines to put along the left wall inside the firehouse. Put the new sign on the front as well. Still a few things to do to the outside - it's missing an outside staircase on the right wall. Like I said, I paid $5 for this structure at a train show last fall, and it needs some more improvements, but not bad for a newbie, I guess.

FirehouseMakeoverFeb2018.jpg

Have a good day everyone.
 
Johnny - The firehouse look good. A nice addition. I have the firetrucks but just was not able to squeeze in a firehouse any where on the layout.
 
So I'm going to share some pics here. Of my passing siding and the long lead of my marshalling yard. Officially the long lead in the yard can hold 7 hoppers. I chose 6 as it's an even number.
ce6b829d3cc2b7617324e723bf1d1db1.jpg
b83eb105f73141c25259abd4f3803af7.jpg


Justin
 
Johnny: Fire house looks real good.

Justin: OK, now you're making progress, and it meets your expectations.

Chet: Is it ever going to warm up in your neck of the woods?

I made some progress with the industrial center, but ran into a wall, literally, assembling some DPM modular pieces fro the very low relief background buildings along the back drop...I need to learn patience. Tried to upload a photo, and it came up sideways...so again I need to learn patience :rolleyes:
 
Afternoon All,

Started clearing away the existing ground cover and a small ridge that ran behind the old freight house. Of course I had forgotten about my crappy bench work in the area (add on) so I will have to level it before I do anything else.:(

Karl- Wow, that really is a difference

Justin- Great news bout your layout success.

Chet- Nice rail picture, you've weathered it nicely.:)

Johnny- Nice job on the firehouse. I like the open door.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Chet: Is it ever going to warm up in your neck of the woods?

Joe - We did get up into the mid 40's for a day a few weeks ago. icon_lol.gif
 
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