Running Bear's December 2019 Coffee Shop

[Patrick]

Raincoat2: What's the drop from the house to the back shed?

When we were there and looking at houses there was a house in Ozark that the ground was 8" below the siding on the left facing the front and 10' (yes 10 feet) on the right side. The house faced east, and the road was a north\south direction. I could only imagine an ice storm where you'd slide out of the driveway and it was 1000' to the bottom, where another house had its driveway. Your car in their garage, and their car out the back.......

We ended up buying "in the flats" on the west side (4800 block of Burbank). Looked out the front door onto the old Frisco tracks. Owned that house for about 4 months.

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Dropped off our riding lawnmower for a couple of repairs and tune up. It's been really overcast all day and is supposed to rain for about 8 hours tonight then cooler temps.

Willie- I look forward to seeing your completed build.

Beady- Most of my buildings are weathered. The easiest way for me is a coat of A&I then dry brushing the chosen color.

Johnny- Neat video.

Sherrel- That sounds horrible.

Garry- Jeffrey did amazing things with little to nothing.

I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good afternoon to everyone. A cold (46) sunny day here in H-Town. Still alot of other things to do before Christmas.

I did get the transfer track in and started some scenery.

 

[Alcomotive]

Jerome and Terry....

I came across this today....it reminded me when we were at Spencer NC (NC Transportation Museum) seeing steam loco #611..

http://www.polkcounty.org/saludagrade/611/611.html

This was near where my buddy Gary lives whom you guys met that day at the museum.

James

 

[Alcomotive]

Terry and Jerome!

My buddy Gary as you know is a photographer by trade. He took these pictures the day we were in Spencer NC and wanted to share these! Enjoy!

James

 

[Alcomotive]

Next batch from Gary....

 

[Alcomotive]

a few more....

 

[Alcomotive]

last set....

 

[Beady]

Everybody ..

Apparently, we neglected to honor Jeffrey Running Bear . He passed away 4 years ago on December 14.

Jeff was a popular member of several model railroad forums. I recall talking with him on the phone a couple of times in addition to conversations within forums. I miss him.

I never knew him but, oddly enough, I was thinking of the general subject of death and remembering, just yesterday. The reason I was thinking about it is that both our mothers go into deep depressions on the anniversaries of their respective husband's death, and for MIL that was just a couple of days ago.

Seems to me that there's no point in remembering a death, it's more important to remember someone's life and effect on others, and that's exactly what this forum does every day through its name. I remember asking about the name, and several others have asked since then, and so Jeff's story keeps getting retold. Jeff was at least part Indian (I forget how much), and the Mohawk have a tradition that you become part of a story just by hearing it. Most if not all of us are now part of Jeff's story. For me, that would be enough of a remembrance.

 

[Beady]

Got down to the basement last night. I had intended to clean up the the layout in preparation for starting the 2nd half, but wound up running trains and tinkering with minor adjustments. Most of you seem to like "operations," meaning, I assume, mainly switching. I've found that one or more trains simply running around the track on their own is downright soothing and relaxing.

Mind, I am looking forward to the completed setup: a figure 8 bent at a right angle at the intersection and connected via a double crossover; inside each half of the 8 will be an inner loop, connected to the outer via another double crossover. The half I've "finished" has the locomotive and freight yards inside the inner loop; the other half of the 8 is going to be where I do all my playing around, both with the track and the scenery; there's not enough room to set everything out at once, so I'll be doing different setups at different times. Also, the three double crossovers will allow me to run up to four independent trains at once (remember, this is DC), or I can open all three and combine all the track into a single course of ~2.5 scale miles.

 

[Burlington Bob]

Good afternoon, gents! So far the temp is only up to 21 degrees! That's a lot better than back when this picture was taken during the winter of 2013-14. The sign says "-31, hell froze over". We were building a natural gas fired power plant in northern Illinois. I'm the runt, the third from the right, in front. Four of the guys in that picture are retired now.

Looks like the diner has had a pretty fair amount of business today. I took the foreman to her doctor appointment this morning to get her knew checked. They took x-rays and now we just wait and see. Been giving her some pain when she has to walk very far.

A lot of good pictures posted........too much for me to keep track of, so a big thanks, good job and everybody keep up the good work!

 

[Trussrod]

JiM - What a mess, Olie! Been there, done that! Not with train stuff, but I used to build dollhouses and once knocked my compartmented tray of pins, nails, and stuff - must have been a dozen different sizes of things - off the workbench. Fortunately, a magnet grabbed them, but I was sorting nails for hours! BTW - Nice Christmas Railroad picture.

David - good to see you making an appearance? How is your roof holding up?

Mikey - very sorry to hear of your trials and tribulations lately? I hope you can muddle your way through and keep you wits. I am glad to hear that there was not too terrible a loss at the RR. To me, any loss of older stuff like you mentioned is not good.

Willie -- Nice photo: I like the many 1/87 people, the scene shows much activity!
We had a Western Auto in the small town not much more than a hundred yards from our house.
The proprietor also repaired washing machines and TV's and was a Preacher on Sundays. His daughter was in my class and was just about the roughest one of the whole class - constantly in trouble. I used to get old radios from him to take apart and play with and about anything else mechanical that he would let me carry out the door. I should have been a "junk man". I always collect more than I take to the dump. My garage shows it today. Speaking of that ... The Catholic Church decided to clean out their storage area - so a neighbor and I went yesterday and I now have 9- 12 foot - full size 2 x 3 Maple boards to play with.(I haven't checked, but I imagine that they cost a bunch! Anyone have an idea of what I should do with them?

BBob - I like that! squeaky beard - lol. Glad you had a good time.

Sherrel: Thanks for catching my posts before. My roof is not doin g too bad considering it's age, I just need to get my leg strength back so I can get back up on it to do a bit more patching here on there. But for the most part things are staying dry I keep getting a fire going helps to matter too !

 

[Trussrod]

Happy Birthday, David !

Boris

Boris: Thanks for the Be wish. It seems as we get older we generally all start having problems of one sort or another unfortunately, hopefully we can find solutions and share them.

I recently started taking Citracal Calicium with D agsin and think I'm starting to feel a bit better and have a bit more energy. My leg muscles and knees still feel a bit weak but I'm able to carry in a large size 24lb empty cat food bag of Oak wood for the fire with my left hand while using the cane in my right hand. Usually I have to do this a couple of times a day.

 

[ShermanHill]

Since foul weather is the topic - de- jour, I thought I'd submit this:

I didn't take this... well I did take(steal) this, but a friend got this a couple years ago.

 

[Texas Hobo]

Got down to the basement last night. I had intended to clean up the the layout in preparation for starting the 2nd half, but wound up running trains and tinkering with minor adjustments. Most of you seem to like "operations," meaning, I assume, mainly switching. I've found that one or more trains simply running around the track on their own is downright soothing and relaxing.

Mind, I am looking forward to the completed setup: a figure 8 bent at a right angle at the intersection and connected via a double crossover; inside each half of the 8 will be an inner loop, connected to the outer via another double crossover. The half I've "finished" has the locomotive and freight yards inside the inner loop; the other half of the 8 is going to be where I do all my playing around, both with the track and the scenery; there's not enough room to set everything out at once, so I'll be doing different setups at different times. Also, the three double crossovers will allow me to run up to four independent trains at once (remember, this is DC), or I can open all three and combine all the track into a single course of ~2.5 scale miles.

I sometimes do the same thing. MU a couple of engines, make up a longer than usual train, pour a scotch and sit back and sip and watch.

 

[Burlington Bob]

Since foul weather is the topic - de- jour, I thought I'd submit this:
View attachment 42487
I didn't take this... well I did take(steal) this, but a friend got this a couple years ago.

That's absolutely awesome!

 

[max diyer]

Good afternoon, gents! So far the temp is only up to 21 degrees! That's a lot better than back when this picture was taken during the winter of 2013-14. The sign says "-31, hell froze over". We were building a natural gas fired power plant in northern Illinois. I'm the runt, the third from the right, in front. Four of the guys in that picture are retired now.

View attachment 42484


Looks like the diner has had a pretty fair amount of business today. I took the foreman to her doctor appointment this morning to get her knew checked. They took x-rays and now we just wait and see. Been giving her some pain when she has to walk very far.

A lot of good pictures posted........too much for me to keep track of, so a big thanks, good job and everybody keep up the good work!

-31 I'll bet you guys had your cahonies warmers on high!

 

[Burlington Bob]

-31 I'll bet you guys had your cahonies warmers on high!

We always had extras "on hand"! And stuck on top of our toes in our boots to keep the steel toes in our boots from freezing our toes off. Actually that day wasn't the worst due to the fact that they did try to put us in areas that were sheltered from the wind. The worst was replacing the standoffs that held the ladder on the side of one of the stacks. The stacks were built in sections and that included the ladders. Then they were set in place, aligned and welded together, inside and out.

After we had set the sections of one of the 150' tall stacks, they had some standoffs with cracks that were found as they were putting the ladder on one of the sections for the other one. That meant working out of a JLG (manlift) to cut off and weld new ones on in their place. When they couldn't be reached from a JLG, me and my apprentice had to do it from the ladder itself. The temps were often zero or lower for highs during that time and then factor in the windchill and you get the idea. Here's a picture when I finally got to the top. My apprentice did the really hard work of pulling the welding lead, air hose and electric extension cords up from the walkway around the top. When he was rested up from that, he got to enjoy the view and take a few pictures.

 

[max diyer]

Bob - that is amazing work you guys do! I couldn't imagine doing that. Matter in fact, I wouldn't do it as I'm not good with heights. I do like welding and fabrication - but on the ground!

 

[Burlington Bob]

Thanks Jim! I enjoyed it overall....................and I did have a few moments that included the "pucker factor".