Running Bear's Coffee Shop XLIX

[BigE]

Corn on the cob on the grill... ummmmm
Baked onion (vidailia of course) ..... double ummmmm
Steaks (make mine rare)..... and I'm about to mess in my shorts.
Send me home with a girlfriend who likes trains after all that and you just met the future Mrs. White
And if she can talk to me about astrophysics and astronomy and I die tomorrow, I will be a VERY happy camper for my time here on this oblate-spheroid called Earth.

 

[Bruette]

BigE, steaks off of my grill are always rare! God gave us the microwave to finish them to make them well done for other people..

I actually prefer hot dogs on the grill over steak and today I tried an Eckrich 4 pepper smoked sausage that was fantastic!

As far as onions go I prefer a strong yellow onion.

Sorry I can't help you with the lady, that is a tall order you are looking for, but you are welcome anytime to eat. I always cook enough to feed at least 10 and there is only 5 of us.

 

[GarryCBQ]

Guys ... There you go again. Razzing me about my tipos.

 

[bnsf971]

Good evening. It's cloudy and 50.
Don't forget to turn off the lights when y'all leave for the night.

 

[kbkchooch]

Guys ... There you go again. Razzing me about my tipos.

Um, Typos??? We only tease cuz we care!

Been a "fun" evening. My latest project is a brass 2-8-0 that had a real idiot for a prior owner. Filled the boiler with so much metal alloy that it smashed all the suspension springs and killed the open frame (Pittman?) motor. All because some klutz dropped it on its wheels and cracked the frame. Well the frame is repaired, so now comes removing all the metal from inside. I dont know what kind of alloy it is, but I can melt it with my soldering gun, and drilling it can only be done slowly and with enough oil on the bit, or what the bit cuts melts to the shaft of the bit before it rises to the top of the bit, Needless to say, a high speed grinder is no use. I did manage to get a 1/4 inch hole all the way through tonight. Santa brought me a new set of bits up to 1 inch, I expect I will use most of them in the next few evenings. How heavy is it? The boiler shell weighs a full pound. The loco originally weighed about that much, with a frame, mechanism and tender! This puppy needs a diet before it gets remotored!!



My workbench tonight!

Well, thats it for me,

Louis, be safe down there, I never thought I'd see the day when the safest place in B'more might be IN the inner harbor! (doin the backstroke!)

 

[Trussrod]

Fellow Gandy Dancers,
It's another late one tonight, more problems At&t both for myself as well as an older former Marine friend that's about 10 miles from me but also having issues with his cell phone service too and he evidently is directly connected with At&t where I deal with Pure-Talk who buyes time from them and resells it as I've been told they use At&t lines and equipment. Both of us are lacking service. My friend says he can call out, but whenever he is calling the phones rings twice and call is dropped.
I've experienced the same thing in the past. It's very frustrating to say the least and could be life threatening if a person need help!

Hi all. Woke up at 4 am to my little dog howling. I was angry he woke me up until I found our he was letting me know rhe sump pump quit. Got enough water to soak the blankets in his kennel. Unhook the float switch and the pump runs. Gonna have some clean up and a switch repair but I guess it could have been a lot worse. So much for my original projects for today.

Say Matt, Pets can often alert us to various things so I glad you realized your dogs howling was for a reason.

Hello Forum:

Cool, but sunny day here in Wisconsin. Great day for model railroading in the basement. Been there already, waiting for glue to dry and then back.

Regards.

Greg

Good to see you again Greg, how have things been?

Good morning, 39*F and cloudy here in central MD. Radar actually shows some light snowfall [!?]

Terry - I'm glad things worked out between you and the club. Usually it's just one jerk who's the driving force behind that sort of situation, but oftentimes that person has a lot of political clout within the org so people are afraid to oppose them.

You guys in the Southeast - hope you won't be affected by any of the tornadoes TWC is predicting for your region.

* * *
I went to an op session last night at the house of an old friend, someone I haven't seen much of in the past 10 years since he moved to Hagerstown (an hour's drive west of my place). Glad I went, I had a great time. His layout is steel mill-based, it's roughly the same size as mine but the mill occupies his entire layout. The number and variety of train movements was enough to keep four operators busy for a few hours.

I have several chores on my ToDo list: De-winterizing my mower and mowing my lawn for the first time in the season, changing the oil in my truck, getting a haircut, and picking up my youngest daughter from a friend's house where she spent the night after the Prom. [Hopefully she'll be getting her drivers license sometime in May..?] If I get all those things done, I might have time to apply some home-printed decals to this 1:87 transit bus model I've been working on.

Have a great day!

Say Ken, Glad you had a good time at your friends place, it's always good to get re-acquainted!

Sherrel ... I'll be praying it ill go okay for you. Thanks for commenting on the photo. I was not a big fan of the BN green paint scheme either.

David ... Thanks for commenting on the SD24 photo.

Joe .. Thank you, too.

Well as I said, I took my wife out to dinner in Paducah Thursday. She is getting spoiled. Went to dinner with neighbors to celebrate 3 birthdays including here last night at Patti's restaurant in Grand Rivers. The other two birthdays were for Gus, a model railroad friend here and for the wife of another model railroad friend here, Dan.

Meanwhile, a model railroad friend will be visiting here from Iowa for a layout tour of my model railroad. I'll see if Murphy's Law of Layout Visitors is applicable again.

Say Garry, As always your very welcome to my comment, your modeling work and photography are very nice. Speaking of photography, with the problem I'm having with my cell phone provider even though I've taken pictures of recent work I've done on my layout, extending the upper main line I can't get the images uploaded to PB as I can't connect.

I'm also with you about wishing Sherrel the best of luck with his added Chemo.

Good morning folks.

It's cool and gloomy again today. I guess it's suppose to start warming up again in a few days.

I'm thinking about installing my backdrop again. I had to trash the old one when I moved so I have to start over. I can't decide if I want to paint the sky blue color before or after I install it. Last time I installed the Masonite hard board first, counter sunk the screws, mud and taped the seams and painted over that. Well, I have some permanently installed buildings in that section now and I'd hate to bump or splatter paint on them. I think I'll start by priming and painting the sections of board and installing them that way. I could always cover the seams and screws after. Yup, it's been decided. It's funny how I can make a decision as I type my options on here!

Hope everyone is well.
Have a good day.

Good to see you back Corey

Good morning. I promised to let everybody know about my dealings with my recently discovered entailer. I got the box with the engine in it yesterday, delivered by Fedwrecks. The engine was new, undisturbed, and in its original, unopened box. Evrything was as described, and it runs and sound good. If it wasn't for Walthers' repair and parts policies, I would start actively looking for more of their stuff.
Here is a link to a video I took of it last night, in the company of a Bowser U25B.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddVHJTUnRUw

Glad the repaired loco arrived in good condition. Out here in Calif., FedX is much better at delivering undamaged packages than UPS but even they are getting better!

 

[Trussrod]

Good very early morning fellow Gandy Dancers,
Terry, I can tell your man after my own heart. You found some new help for the dinner already.

Good morning. It's cloudy and 42. I found someone to help out in the coffee shop until Bill returns.

She certainly tall and leggy, looks to be Scandinavian alright!

So, that's the FLO that David talks about all the time!

I'm with you .. TOOT!

Well actually Sherrel she's not. The ladies I became familiar with when joining the forums here were these two ladies:

I always considered Flo to be the tall Blonde above.

Actually, this is Flo:http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=49705&stc=1&d=1430056969

[Image]http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=49705&stc=1&d=1430056969[/Image]

But Terry's Flo is quite lovely too a showing some impressive credentials! LoL

 

[Bruette]

Um, Typos??? We only tease cuz we care!

Been a "fun" evening. My latest project is a brass 2-8-0 that had a real idiot for a prior owner. Filled the boiler with so much metal alloy that it smashed all the suspension springs and killed the open frame (Pittman?) motor. All because some klutz dropped it on its wheels and cracked the frame. Well the frame is repaired, so now comes removing all the metal from inside. I dont know what kind of alloy it is, but I can melt it with my soldering gun, and drilling it can only be done slowly and with enough oil on the bit, or what the bit cuts melts to the shaft of the bit before it rises to the top of the bit, Needless to say, a high speed grinder is no use. I did manage to get a 1/4 inch hole all the way through tonight. Santa brought me a new set of bits up to 1 inch, I expect I will use most of them in the next few evenings. How heavy is it? The boiler shell weighs a full pound. The loco originally weighed about that much, with a frame, mechanism and tender! This puppy needs a diet before it gets remotored!!

View attachment 49711

My workbench tonight!

Well, thats it for me,

Louis, be safe down there, I never thought I'd see the day when the safest place in B'more might be IN the inner harbor! (doin the backstroke!)

Karl I am enjoying following your project and learning too, thanks for sharing!

As for the madness going on in my beloved city; fortunately it has confined itself, between the western district police station and city hall to the east. If you take a walk in my neighborhood you would never know there was any trouble. Other than the helicopters flying over going back and forth between Martin's airport and downtown.

Watching what was happening Saturday night really upset me. I felt terrible for the innocent people caught in grid lock down town and for our wonderful and caring Mayor, she can't win for losing. I was proud of our police force, the restraint and discipline they showed was impressive.

Racism is everywhere, but Baltimore has the least of it of any place I have ever been. It was not about the police chasing an innocent man, the guy was a known drug offender with 15 separate investigations ongoing, but I am not hearing about that on TV or radio and almost nobody reads the news papers anymore. One national news program went as far as to say "the police had no probable cause to chase and no reason to arrest" What about the fact he was a known member of a drug gang and the fact that he was carrying an illegal switch blade? Seems like the truth has nothing to do with a good story.

I can't believe the media is crazy enough to compare Baltimore to Ferguson. Maybe they are crazy like a fox, they are getting big ratings and that is all that matters in the news business of today.

It's typical of the world today, no matter what the incident is as soon as the masses hear a sound bite in the news or on social media, they think they know the story and there is no need for further investigation. No matter if it is a train wreck, big play in the super bowl or an incident like this.

I am against police brutality, but lets be fair. You will find a bad apple in almost every bushel.

 

[Bruette]

Good morning everybody!

51 with a few stars between the clouds in the sky this morning in peaceful southeast Baltimore.

The only sounds I could hear outside was the faint sounds of the horns from the switchers working at the port, music to my ears.

Have a great day everybody!

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's clear and 38.
Looks like we'll be moving in to a new coffee shop in the morning.

 

[Boris]

Good morning. 47° and overcast.

Louis: Most people are not haters, there are always people who stir the pot for their own reasons, as well as professional agitators, who serve no other purpose other than to create issues. Preakness week is in several weeks, and what better way to gain an upper hand but to hold this event hostage.

The news media is interested in creating conflict. They are very selective of what they report, and how they report it. The cable services that position themselves on partisan issues are the worst, but they are all equally bad. Just like the Weather Forecasting channels, to them there is always a crisis to embellish, whether it's the annual brush fire season, the annual tornado season, or the latest "named" snow storm. Just stay home, glued to the TV, and help us sell advertising.

Hopefully this will resolve it self shortly.

 

[montanan]

Morning all. 34 degrees and fog. Had a decent weekend at the bowling tournament. Did decent in most games but got my poop in a group for singles and rolled a 757 scratch. So far, first place.

It was a miserable day Sunday with rain and snow but I did try to take some pictures along the old Milwaukee Road right of way that I pretty much take for granted.

The first is an old tunnel right along side the present day BNSF line. The BNSF tunnel is hidden to the right behind trees and the bridge is for the BNSF main line. Please excuse the picture quality. As I mentioned it was raining and snowing plus we were moving along at 80 mph.



In the next picture, the grade crossing is the BNSF right of way and just a few yards beyond you can see the old Milwaukee Road right of way. From Garrison Junction to Missoula, the tracks were extremely close together at times.



Next is an old abandoned power substation about 20 miles east of Missoula.



In the next picture was passed a westbound BNSF grain train.



I have a few more photos I'll post later. Sometimes you just can't get your mind off of trains.
Tried to keep up on the weekend posts on TapTalk but was really too busy.

 

[GarryCBQ]

Good morning.

Karl... Of course I was razzzing you back for razzing me about my tippos LOLL. .... Locomotive project looks like fun.

Chet .... I like the photos.

Louis ... Baltimore continues being a great city in my opinion. It is a shame, however, to see people being stirred up by the media.

Happy Model Railroading, everybody ....

 

[montanan]

Here's another photo. This is the smoke stack from the old smelter in Anaconda, MT. The smelter is long gone and they were going to take down the stack but there is so much history in the Butte area and the copper industry that they were able to save the stack. Another poor picture as the weather was getting worse as we got near the Continental Divide.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

My O My .. Everyone has been busy .. Great posts everyone.

DAVID, love the girls. Need to look at that every now and then just to remind me how it once was .. LoL!

KARL, whose make is the 2-8-0? Another of your bargains?

LOUIS, great sounding food. Wish I was there to enjoy some of it with you. Sorry to hear of the problems in your city.
Not only does the media stir the pot, but the politicians have to keep it going as well. Watched a program about the GG-1 on the farm channel. I had not realized that there were tht many of the critters produced.

BORIS, well said on the view of reporters and media.

The spousal unit returns home from SFO today. She was attending a memorial for a close friend that she flew with for 20 years on the airline. She lived in the SFO area during her first marriage and was able to connect with many of her former friends who attended as well. We actually had a little rain for parts of two days. Notice that I said little; maybe 1/2 inch overall. Temp is supposed to be in the high 80's this week .. It's been very nice.

 

[logandsawman]

Hi guys, finally getting around to signing in today,

CHET we have lots of old grades here, too; but the land is pretty flat and so many trees that you can't usually see more than 100' or so, not too interesting. Most of the abandoned track is NP, GN, and SOO. Still a few of the trestles maybe I will get a couple shots.

Supposed to be really nice all week, 60's and green grass.

 

[montanan]

A lot of the old Milwaukee Road right of way has either been over grown or used as roads in some cases. It is really interesting to watch how close the old main line is to the old Northern Pacific (now BNSF) right of way.In places the tracks could be separated by a half mile or more and in some places the separation is a matter of yards. I places the tracks actually cross over each over. I can imagine that there could have been some races going on back in the day. I would have liked to have had the time to stop and take some better pictures, but the weather was lousy and we were in a hurry to get home.

 

[Secondhandmodeler]

Don't normally watch news channels anymore, but this business in Baltimore is going to get messy.

 

[Bruette]

Good morning. 47° and overcast.

Louis: Most people are not haters, there are always people who stir the pot for their own reasons, as well as professional agitators, who serve no other purpose other than to create issues. Preakness week is in several weeks, and what better way to gain an upper hand but to hold this event hostage.

The news media is interested in creating conflict. They are very selective of what they report, and how they report it. The cable services that position themselves on partisan issues are the worst, but they are all equally bad. Just like the Weather Forecasting channels, to them there is always a crisis to embellish, whether it's the annual brush fire season, the annual tornado season, or the latest "named" snow storm. Just stay home, glued to the TV, and help us sell advertising.

Hopefully this will resolve it self shortly.

Louis ... Baltimore continues being a great city in my opinion. It is a shame, however, to see people being stirred up by the media.

LOUIS, great sounding food. Wish I was there to enjoy some of it with you. Sorry to hear of the problems in your city.
Not only does the media stir the pot, but the politicians have to keep it going as well. Watched a program about the GG-1 on the farm channel. I had not realized that there were tht many of the critters produced.

BORIS, well said on the view of reporters and media.

I am proud to see the model railroad community has so many rational people!

I would have loved to have seen that program about the GG1, the 8th wonder of the world in my opinion!

The food is always plentiful at my table, thank God and you are all always welcome to join us!

Great pictures, thank you all who posted them!

Considering the number of posts foreshadowing a new coffee shop I won't get to catch up with all the great posts I wanted to comment on, but the good news is the mad rush of activity has slowed considerably for me and I should be able to keep up from now on.

Now it is time to get ready for little league practice.

Have a great night everybody!

 

[logandsawman]

Hi Louis, just thought I would let you know I got a B & O boxcar for my layout!

You mentioned that you would like to see one on there and found something nice on ebay that goes with my time era.