Running Bear's Coffee Shop LXXII


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bnsf971 said:
In other news, we got the lab results back from the latest round of tests for my wife.
The good news: she's not pregnant.
The bad news: her kidney function is even worse than the doctor thought.
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Terry .... I'm very sad to hear your news.... Prayers continue.
 
I guess I had a senior moment. I knew that from the post yesterday. Old.gif
 
Like I mentioned yesterday, gravity seems to work better when you get older. I have also looked for my glasses when wearing them. One thing that does bother me is when I go upstairs from the train room to get something off of my work bench and forget what I went upstairs to get. banghead_125.gif

Terry, prayers for you and your wife. Saw the post on the phone and did not respond because I hate pecking away on the phone.
 
Good morning America, how are ya? It's 10° and we got about 3" of snow by the time I got off work at 11 PM. It made for a slow drive home because snowplows in Illinois are an endangered species. They seldom get out before the snow quits, even if it lasts 8-10 hours. Big change from when I used to drive to Peoria to work. 60 miles one way and even if they were predicting 10" of snow you didn't worry much because the plows would be out, the roads would be in good shape and you knew you would get home with little added delay. What a far cry from the 90's!

My wife is very disappointed today. She found out that Patti's 1880's Settlement had a fire and will be closed while they rebuild. She wanted to go there this summer to eat and see some of Kentucky on our motorcycle. We'll see how their rebuilding goes. Another place that we loved, The Mining Camp Restaurant in Apache Junction, AZ, burned to the ground last year. Now we worry about Babe's in Texas. At least Babe's has more than one location.
 
Sorry to hear about your wife Terry. I have had a serious medical issue in my family as well. Received a phone call from my mom on Saturday letting me know my grandmother suffered a stroke Friday night. Good news is she is making a recovery and is alert and talking. I hope everything gets better for your wife Terry.

Justin
 
Burlington Bob said:
Good morning America, how are ya? It's 10° and we got about 3" of snow by the time I got off work at 11 PM. It made for a slow drive home because snowplows in Illinois are an endangered species. They seldom get out before the snow quits, even if it lasts 8-10 hours. Big change from when I used to drive to Peoria to work. 60 miles one way and even if they were predicting 10" of snow you didn't worry much because the plows would be out, the roads would be in good shape and you knew you would get home with little added delay. What a far cry from the 90's!

My wife is very disappointed today. She found out that Patti's 1880's Settlement had a fire and will be closed while they rebuild. She wanted to go there this summer to eat and see some of Kentucky on our motorcycle. We'll see how their rebuilding goes. Another place that we loved, The Mining Camp Restaurant in Apache Junction, AZ, burned to the ground last year. Now we worry about Babe's in Texas. At least Babe's has more than one location.
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Bob. ... Patti’s fire was in the kitchen and offices above the kitchen. The news is preliminary, and they have not announced when they hope to open . I suspect they will be open before summer. ... We live south of Patti’s. We might be able to meet you there if you like. Also, feel free to schedule a visit here for a train layout tour. There are three train layouts here at the lake .
 
I forgot to mention. Mainline has passed the ol SD7 test. No derails. I have a problem spot I need to work out. It's the turnout for my passing siding coming off the widest curve. I have found that many of my turnouts are warped. When I bend them slightly it seems to correct many of my issues. I also need to clean the frogs as there are stray pieces of ballast in them causing some bumps. Nothing too bad. Trackwork is as solid as I can make it with what I have. I'm sure some adjustments will be needed. But all things considered I'm happy with what I have. No stuttering or headlamp flashing so I know I have good voltage to my rails.

Justin
 
Afternoon All,

Ran an errand to get more cold medicine. MOH seems better, but my son and I are still dealing with cold symptoms. I talked with my Dad today and it sounds like Mom has come down with it. Today I painted the detail pieces and weathered the roof but decided not to glue it to the base until I'm done with the lighting which I will probably do tomorrow.

I talked to Phil for a bit today.

Joe- Thank you.

Justin- Nice video. Best wishes for your Grandma.

Johnny- Thank you.

Garry- Thank you.

Chet- Thank you- Interesting rail shot. Is it just the perspective or is that a really small diamond?

Terry- I'm very sorry to hear your news. I continue to pray for you both.

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I hope everyone has a good night.
 
bnsf971 said:
Personally, I'm not quite to the point where I can hide my own Easter eggs. Though I do sometimes look for my glasses while I'm wearing them...
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Funny ! Good thing you still have your sense of humor. I'm sorry to hear the news about your wife. Will continue prayers, and hope a long term solution comes quickly.
 
Good evening Everybody!

I had a busy and productive few days, by my standards that is. Got to strike while the iron is hot.

I enjoyed the Super Bowl, even cooked on my weber Kettle for the first time in my new (to me) back yard. The steady cold light rain did not deter me, i was determined to have a Johnsonville jalapeno cheddar sausage. I sat in the cold rain and had a National Premium beer as I grilled my food. After getting nice grill marks on both sides of everything I moved the food off the flame, closed the lid and let indirect heat and smoke finish the job. I've been saying for years I would write a little cook book "the lazy mans guide to grilling", one of these days I am actually going to do it.

I hope Everybody is doing well, God Bless us Everyone.
 
Good evening all,

Another cold day here in Northern Illinois. We ended up with about 5'" of snow last night.....UGG!.

Ken,

Very nice video! I kind of wish we had a club near me that had a modular layout,

Have a great evening all!
 
Good morning everyone, now evening and several days past my intended posting. The cell phone isn't quite as convenient as the computer. My apologies for being so late and having to add in what I forgot prior.

Feb. 6th, 2018
The weather here is very mild;
57° at 8:56Pm & 69% Hum-i-dity.

santafewillie said:
Good Morning Guys. 47° and slightly cloudy skies right now. According to the Weather Underground, the wind is 0 mph out of the NW, now how do they know it's NW when it's 0 mph? It's Thursday and time for the weekly trek to the big city for groceries/beer. A side trip to Wally World and the local plant nursery is also on the agenda. Oh! let me add cat food at the Dollar General before I forget. Well that's 3-4 hours out of my day!:(
Out in the train shed, I played with my new diesels quite a bit. Test runs/breaking them in were the priorities. They all ran well alone and in various consists with each other. Hauled a few trains from one end of the layout to the other on both levels. I guess that for the heck of it, I will see how many cars a single engine can pull. Oddly enough, I hadn't ever done that in over 35 years of model railroading until Bruce made a post here about a year ago! Other than that, I dull-coated a half dozen recent freight cars builds, for protection of the new dry transfer numbers on them. Anyone else still do dry transfers?
Thanks for the comments on the SD40-2's and the PEN, Chet, Garry, Mark, Joe, Curt, and anyone else that I may have missed.

Mark - I haven't tested that ink pen yet, I hope that it works!:cool:
Garry - I like SD40-2' as well, I now have 15. The large back porch really gives them character.
Joe - These engines are their "Rivet Counters" line. I would have been happy with the "Operator" level and added additional details myself, but ATSF was not offered in that line. Other than their couplers/coupler boxes, these ScaleTrains folks really seem to have their act together. I just wish that they were around ten years ago when I went on my pre-retirement buying spree for supplies and equipment. I couldn't pass on these though!
Phil - Sorry to say, but they are out of my era, plus they won't fit!
Curt - Your structure continues to come along nicely.
Johnny - I haven't forgotten you. Here's a comparison of two different builds of Vic's Barber Shop, the one on the left was done by me and represents a barber shop. The one on the right I purchased off the consignment table at my LHS a few years ago. I am using it as a clock shop in a different town. Looks like we both retained the original Walther's brick color although I added mortar and weathering to mine.
View attachment 65199View attachment 65200
Sorry but it's not my best picture taking attempt.

Everybody have a great day.

Willie
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Willie: Your Barber shop buildings look great and the photography isn't all that bad.


Sirfoldalot said:
Ken in MD, Karl, and others I think I mentioned this before - maybe worth saying again.
Anxious to try out my new big air compressor tomorrow. I will gladly, happily de-paint via sand, or glass beads any locomotive shell with a 24 hour turnaround time. My expensive fee is a return prepaid shipping label.

Much easier than what you are showing, but I might add, nice work!
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Sherrel: I would think the glass beads would tend to distort the plastic but I guess your using a fairly pressure setting.


WJLI26 said:
Chet: A funny thing happened on the way to the Coach yard. The car vanished from inventory. The dealer contacted me and advised it was no longer available. :mad:

Now, an even funnier thing happened later when I researched availability. I stubbornly resist purchasing or selling on e-Bay...It's just me. No valid reason, I just don't. There were a few more at various stages of e-bayness, Buy it Now, in progress auction, etc. I found one at Walthers, yes, Walthers at full MSRP. For what it's worth, I was able to get it for roughly the same price as the other vendor had charged. The other Vendor, offered the unit at $185, plus shipping, and NJ Sales tax. Total cost, $ 206.46 I had a Walthers 10% discount coupon, bringing the price down to $ 202.50, shipping was free and there was no tax. Net cost $202.50, or $3.96 cheaper. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

RDC cars are neat. They were everything the Gas cars (aka Doodlebugs), were not. Clean, bright air conditioned, quiet, vs noisy, oily hot or drafty. RDCs were fast. RDCs could go almost everywhere. Paul Reistrup, a former Director of Passenger services for the B&O/C&O, and CEO of Amtrak, advocated trains of RDCs leaving the endpoint, and dropping cars for other destinations at each junction. They were very versatile. The B&O and Reading had cars that offered food service.

I had the opportunity once to run the PRR gas car 4666, the Main Generator, was adjacent to the control stand. No wonder I'm hard of hearing. :rolleyes: I also ran the RDC, the Torque Converter Drive sounded like a Greyhound bus, with the engines and drive mechanism beneath the floor. You could hear each transition.

Karl: Thanks, I saved your post for reference.

Willie: Nice SD40-2s. I really like Scale Trains rivet Counter freight cars, for instance the Airslide Covered Hopper, and the Carbon Black car.
Health wise, I really don't know at this point. I see the guy next Tuesday. My Doctor took an EKG, and found nothing wrong, but wanted a stress test, and another opinion. If I was younger, and if the guy around the corner hadn't recently dropped dead, I would have blown this off. Now, I'm looking for confirmation that nothing is amiss.
Justin: Similarly, check your drive train on the GP35s. I have some that bind up on straight track, and 32" radius curves. Another thing you might consider, that's bumping out your curves to 19" or 20", if you can. Sherrel has a point adding 3" or the width of a 1"x4" to each side of your layout. It would give you a little breathing room.
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Joe: Glad that things are looking fairly good so far, you know better than anyone else how you feel. Let's hope you keep improving.
Good advice for Justin about opening up the tight spot.


montanan said:
Good morning. 21 degrees with cloudy skies.

Karl - Nice to see you back here again. Very interesting video. I'l have to put that in the old memory bank for future reference.

Terry - Apparently you haven't evicted Murphy yet. Bummer of a way to start the day.

Louis - Nice t see you up and about on the forum. Hope you have some good plans for the wife's birthday.

Joe - A can see that you are watering at the mouth for that RDC. I would also. I don't know why, but I am fascinated with the RDC's. I only got to ride on one once when I was a kid but always thought that it was cool to have a passenger car move on its own without a locomotive. They offered an undecorated version that would have been perfect for me to letter for my own railroad, but again, I was run off due to the price. $225 retail for the DC version. Here's a video from Rapido trains on the unit for those who are not familiar with it.

[video=youtube;r4UgNaVij98]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4UgNaVij98&t=419s[/video]

The details on these units are second to none and they accurately model the different versions that the different railroads had. I still want one but I just can't seem to justify the price for the amount of use I would get out of it. By the way, the building is looking good.

Justin - Take your time and get it right. A couple of extra sticks of flex track ain't gonna put you in the poor house, but maybe the dog house ??? View attachment 65191

Johnny - Another nice photo. The background is well done.

Willie - Those SD40's are sweet. That was big of them to throw in pen.

Here's a rail picture for today.

View attachment 65192

Later
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Chet,: That's my kind of rural track!


chessie_system3 said:
Morning fellers. Sooooo.....Houston we have a problem! My radius is too tight!!!! Oddly everything besides my GP35s will go through it. However they bog down really bad. At first I figured well a six axle isn't going to go through 18" curves very happily. But! When my actual coal shifter GP35 derails.....I have no choice but to take that section up and adjust it as needed. Glad I caught this early on. Seems to me I need to stop testing with my SD7 and test with my GP35. I miss the mark by a little over a railhead width. Just tight enough to cause a problem. And if I can't use my GP35 then it is no good to me. Cause the layout plan for motive power is my Uboat for yard switching and GP35 for coal shifter. Now that being said when I said this was a C&O based plan as close as I can get it I also meant there will be no Chessie power on this one. This is a C&O layout. So my C&O U23B and my C&O GP35 are the staples. I shouldn't say no Chessie power on this. Who am I kidding? But anyways I have to get the track issues under control first.

Justin
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Justin: Good to hear your getting everything working to your satisfaction.
 
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