Running Bear's December 2018 Coffee Shop


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Apparently people are unwilling to keep up with the times, so I started the December issue. Myrtal, you got any really black coffee? Good, Bruette really loves the stuff, give him a cup. I'll just have the standard Joe. I know that Chet drinks from demitasse and he want's his with cream. Chet is that the little finger that sticks out when you hold the demitasse; or, the middle finger?

Temps. are +27 degrees with a high today of +29. Foggy now as it has been for three days with snow and drizzle all day long! I haven't seem the sun since I don't know when! Ah well, it is December!
 
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No wonder the old place was empty! :)

Thanks for the coffee mark.

I'm red hot and rolling, been crossed of a few more things from the todo list this morning and I've been to Walmart and back again and the sun is just coming up.
 
Good morning gang,
Frost on the pumpkin this morning. Soon GF will be here, and then it's off to TSC to pick up my new Dewalt 60 gallon 155 PSI air compressor. That should be potent enough to propel all the air tools in the shop Plus what it will do for the air brushes. It's kind of like a Christmas present to myself.
Then later today we will go to select our Christmas tree, and bring it home. Then lots of other shopping to do.
Flo, can I get a coffee in a to go cup? I have a feeling I'm gonna need it!
 
Good Morning All. 53° and clear this morning. Thunderstorms last night were all pomp and no circumstance. Lots of thunder and lightning but the rain failed to fall here, just a trace in the gauge this morning. My wife must have thought it was going to be more serious, as there's candles out all around the house. Clocks are not blinking, so the power must have stayed on. I was asleep. Tornadoes didn't seem to have materialized either, luckily. Thirty minutes of anxiety still beats shoveling snow any day.
While out on the grocery/beer trek yesterday, I took my wife over to Home Depot to pick out the trim and moulding for the bathroom remodel. She decided on the inside and outside corner trim only, no moulding for the floor, ceiling, door or window. She took pictures of lots of choices and will study them before deciding. This is why home improvement projects take so long to do.
Out in the train shed, I added some ground cover to various locations and did some preliminary painting to the latest gas station model. Since I finished the benchwork and main line construction a few months ago, I thought that I would be doing scenery at a faster pace. NO! I am just running more trains.:cool: Switched out my town of Graham, switching cars at a grain elevator, pallet manufacturer, paper goods distributor and the cannery. Tied up on a siding for the night (my night, the crew "went for beans"), today I'll continue with the scrapyard, tractor distributor, tannery and a small appliance manufacturer. Used a pair of GP35's for this run, along with six boxcars, a flat car, a gondola, three grain hoppers and a tanker full of corn oil.

Chet - My main issue with the washing machine was getting into the house. I used an eight foot 2" x 12" as a ramp up onto the porch, but my wife was guiding (commenting) through the doorway, you know the speech, "you're too close here, you're too close there" etc. It's not like I couldn't see for myself. This also wasn't my first appliance install, Other than the fridge and upright freezer, I managed all of the others myself. Of course she wasn't home for most of them!
Very nice job on the Alco switcher. It does make a nice addition to the family.
Garry -
Willie .... You said your Dad had a '53 Buick. We had a '50 Buick back then. We lived near Chicago, and made a lot of family trips in IL, MO, IA, and KS. ... Two lane roads, ... Burma Shave signs, .... Passing many smelly barnyards,.... Ah, the memories .....
Unfortunately on our road trips to the Catskills, all we smelled was our parents cigarette fumes. Between them they consumed three packs of Lucky Strike non filters a day. During his last year on earth, they threatened to kick Dad out of the hospital one time, for sneaking one in the bathroom.
Mark - Lutefisk just doesn't sound too tasty to me either. Right up there with calf fries and menudo.
Sherrel -
You have to realize that that is almost 25% of our annual rainfall of 13.32 inches.
Wow! I got that much in two days back in early October. Happens at least twice a year in these parts.
Your oil tale reminds me about buying gasoline with no ethanol. Normally it's only available at farm/tractor places, but I noticed that it's available at the new Buc-Ees gas station that just opened in Denton. That's the place we talked about on the phone the other day with the $1.69/gal gasoline.
Garry (again) - Have a safe trip to Florida. George H. W. Bush, may he rest in peace. I never got to meet him, but met "Dubya" several times at Texas Ranger baseball games when he was the majority owner (and also governor of Texas). He always sat in the stands with fans and the company that gave me tickets had the box seats right behind him.
Tom - That's quite the coal loader there at the club.
Louis - Good Morning. Glad to see that you found the new place. Yesterday evening's tornado watch was just a watch, not a warning. While they are unusual in the winter months, tornadoes do happen all twelve months of the year here in North Central Texas. In my 37 years in this house (57 years in Texas), I only actually took shelter once, that was in 2015 when one passed about three miles south of me. Weather Bureau actually tracked that tornado for over 25 miles across open land without hitting a single structure. Uprooted a few trees and fences along the way, but that was all. Could have been really destructive had it hit anything they said.

Well everybody have a great day and a wonderful weekend.
 
Good morning. It's cloudy and 53.
My "new" laptop was provided to me yesterday evening, with a rather stern admonishment to "not do whatever it was you did" to the last one.
 
Good Morning Everyone....overcast and rain coming maybe up to an inch today.

Back down to continue the mine project. I have to decide if I'll air brush the structure's weathering or use pastel powders. It make a difference which process I use since if I do the air brush route, I have to wait to install the light fixture and or lamps. I'm just taking my time. The real metal corrugated shingles I'll use the Monroe Products rust and aging solutions.

Later....

Greg
 
Well ... I'm late to the party this morning. Have been up for over 3 hours - just reading e-mail, FB's from all the relatives, trying to fill up the doggies (they always want treats while I have coffee) I have spoiled them too much; they are starting to demand it!
Looks like a nice day outside ... few puffy clouds, but temp is a cool 53* and looking for a high of 60* today.
I realize cool/cold to me is anything below 60* and you all just laugh at me, but the old bloodstream has thinned out since my desert days in Saudia Arabia 75-81. A couple years in Laughlin, NV, finished me off! That has to be the hottest place on earth - just take Las Vegas and add 10 degrees (no joke).

Not much on tap for today - I will wander over to the NAPA store later on ... still want to know why an air compressor needs NON Detergent oil? Thought sure all U auto geniuses would know?
Later tonight the Spousal Unit and I will attend a church Christmas singing group recital.
I see out the window that my neighbor has another pickup load of glass crates - so I know he will want my help unloading and sawing them for something. Wonder what he has in mind for this time?

Still trying to figure out what train to put around the tree this year. Do I go eith my boyhood MARX set (now 70 years old), or the G-Scale? If I set up the G - then I have to do some repair to the Loco - has some loose drivers!
All for now.
 
Good afternoon. Started off at 28 degrees and may hit the mid 30's this afternoon.

Mark - Thanks for starting the new Coffee Shop. Terry does have a lot of irons in the fire.

Willie- My wife is doing the weekly slip and slid to town on the icy roads for groceries and beer. I am almost done with the laundry. Home Depot delivered out refrigerator and got it up the steps on the front porch, but there was no way to get it through the front door, which is a standard 36 inch door. The freezer drawer had to be removed and the front doors which was fun because of the plumbing for the ice machine and water. Took a couple of hours to get it in and then reassemble it.

Terry - Be nice to your new laptop. The power to be could bring you in for 'puter abuse. Grin.gif

Sherrel
- Has foxie been given a clean bill of health and getting back to normal??

We're waiting for out new mattress to be delivered. Can't believe how expensive they've gotten.

While rummaging around when I found the Alco switcher, I also came across a couple of Ribside box car kits that I also forgot I have. These are some pretty nice kits. The come in a rather plain box. Decals are provided for numerous road numbers.

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They also come with already assembled sprung trucks and metal wheels. This one is for the Hiawatha. Here is one completed for the Olympian.

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Have the Christmas party for my wifes employer tonight and she is in charge of the gifts so I had better get her out here and give her a hand.

Here's a rail photo for today.

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Later
 
Afternoon All,

I worked on the Ice House roof today and realized that I didn't buy enough. I knew I should of bought 2 packs but talked myself out of it:rolleyes:. When I finish what I have left I'll have about 20% left to do, so I ordered another pack. I should finish up what I have tomorrow. MOH was supposed to go out with daughter and grandkids to hallmark for ornaments but the eldest grandson was sick today. Sounds like some kind of stomach virus.

Greg- Awhile back I believe you said you put corrugated roofing on your mine. If you did can you take a picture of it?

Garry- :confused:.

Cambria- Nice club scenes.

Chet- Nice ribbed MW boxcar. I have one in the group of about 10 non Pennsy cars on the layout. Nice layout and rail shot.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Louis likes to put lots of pic out. so I will join him!
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Wish the photographer would have snuck up and closed that compartment door for the shot. The only one they had for a short while after a merger. It was gone within thereabouts of a year.
 
Tom,

Those are some hot trailers. They look so much better than the clunky Walthers ones that came out about 9 months ago. The way your turning out this UPS equipment I expect to see a big UPS terminal on your layout. Keep showing us the fine work!
 
Boy, oh boy, it's a hot one today. 103f at 3:10 this Sunday afternoon (officially) with a wind to match. Just been outside for 10mins. Almost turned into a pillar of salt. Feels a heck of a lot more. Sure glad we got the A/C in the lounge fixed in time and with the new one added to another bedroom, they're keeping it good inside. Having the ceiling insulated was the best other thing we ever did.

There's still over a 100 fires burning all over the state, they saved that town I mentioned, but there's been evacuation notices coming over the TV constantly for other areas. It's different country to where you had the fires in CA. The Eucalypt forests are more open, so the fires are driven through at high speed. There was one report from people watching from their house as a fire in the distance was racing by, only to have a wind change that sent it directly at them. They just got out with their lives, lost a pet because they couldn't find it in time. House was wiped out totally. When you see them from the air, it just looks like a bit of smoke, see it from the ground and it's raging. There's one more day of high temps forecast here, then a week of light rain. Hope they get the same up there.

Finally got around to giving the new loco a DC test after checking the motor mounts to make sure they hadn't broken in the rough ride it had. Appears to run quite smoothly. I'll replace/reglue the loose fans, but leave the dislodged handrails and the Dynamic brake shroud off till I determine how I want to mount the decoder and speaker. The chassis is very similar to the newer SD40 releases that have sound or are sound ready, except for the weight over the rear truck, which although similarly screwed to the chassis at it's front, is taller and therefore closer to the top of the shell and with a groove though the middle for the tailight wires.

It wouldn't be hard to remove that weight and file off the raised sides, which would then allow the mounting of a iP4s or iP6s plus 5.5" speaker (preferred) on top, as I have done with the sound version. I'm also considering, as all these locos have the older style, open motor, which quite frankly being 5 pole, runs quite well, leaving the installed lighting board in place as a mount for the replacement Econami, after cleaning off all it's electronics and trimming it, or mounting the speaker to that (5mm thick o'all) and the decoder to under the dynamic fans, so I can fix the LEDs and their wires/resistors where they won't get disturbed if removing the shell. It's probably 6 of one, half a dozen of the other as to which wires are most likely to get in the way/get nipped when replacing the shell, but I'll experiment. Trying to avoid the bane of Athearn's where one wire to the lights always seems to slip down the side and get nipped
 
Good Morning All. 53° and clear this morning. Thunderstorms last night were all pomp and no circumstance. Lots of thunder and lightning but the rain failed to fall here, just a trace in the gauge this morning. My wife must have thought it was going to be more serious, as there's candles out all around the house. Clocks are not blinking, so the power must have stayed on. I was asleep. Tornadoes didn't seem to have materialized either, luckily. Thirty minutes of anxiety still beats shoveling snow any day.
While out on the grocery/beer trek yesterday, I took my wife over to Home Depot to pick out the trim and moulding for the bathroom remodel. She decided on the inside and outside corner trim only, no moulding for the floor, ceiling, door or window. She took pictures of lots of choices and will study them before deciding. This is why home improvement projects take so long to do.
Out in the train shed, I added some ground cover to various locations and did some preliminary painting to the latest gas station model. Since I finished the benchwork and main line construction a few months ago, I thought that I would be doing scenery at a faster pace. NO! I am just running more trains.:cool: Switched out my town of Graham, switching cars at a grain elevator, pallet manufacturer, paper goods distributor and the cannery. Tied up on a siding for the night (my night, the crew "went for beans"), today I'll continue with the scrapyard, tractor distributor, tannery and a small appliance manufacturer. Used a pair of GP35's for this run, along with six boxcars, a flat car, a gondola, three grain hoppers and a tanker full of corn oil.

Louis - Good Morning. Glad to see that you found the new place. Yesterday evening's tornado watch was just a watch, not a warning. While they are unusual in the winter months, tornadoes do happen all twelve months of the year here in North Central Texas. In my 37 years in this house (57 years in Texas), I only actually took shelter once, that was in 2015 when one passed about three miles south of me. Weather Bureau actually tracked that tornado for over 25 miles across open land without hitting a single structure. Uprooted a few trees and fences along the way, but that was all. Could have been really destructive had it hit anything they said.

Willie, I'm glad the tornado passed you by, thank God. I'll take shoveling a little snow and slipping on ice over the threat of tornados. I'm not from Texas and not much worries me, but those tornados are another story all together!

I got a Home Depot Credit card, I love Home depot and mine is only a few blocks from me. I'm not a big fan of credit, but I do like cards with benefits. Home depot does not give rewards, but with the card I get 1 year no hassle returns, no receipt needed! In addition they offer 6-12-18 up to 24 months with no interest. I always over buy and I like to play with other peoples money.

I finally realized it don't matter how long the home project takes, it's the end result that is important.

GPs are my favorites!
 
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Not much on tap for today - I will wander over to the NAPA store later on ... still want to know why an air compressor needs NON Detergent oil? Thought sure all U auto geniuses would know?

Sherrel, I am by no means a auto-genius or even an expert on oils, but I'll tell you what I know. Detergents are added to collect any particles too small to be filtered out. Once they are gathered up they can be filtered out.

Furthermore and I am speculating here; It stands to reason that any machine without an oil filter would not need a detergent oil. Detergents gathering small particles may increase the chance of wear to the parts the oils is ment to protect if there is no filter to remove them.

I was an industrial mechanic, not an engineer. I have always followed the manufactures recommendations, I never try to reengineer anything.
 
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