Running Bear's February 2020 Coffee Shop


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Just to add a couple of things that I forgot in my first post....

I some times need some inspiration before I go down to the layout and I have several photos that I look at to get that inspiration and that anything is possible. Here's one of the photos....

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A seldom viewed scene on George Sellios' layout the F&SM railroad. Lots of detail and realistic clutter to make the scene representative of New England in the 1930's. So many of the details items in the scene are available to most modelers to use and I think that the changes in grade, along with the attention to details, like the different fencing along the track and the narrow road and varied vegetation are examples of what George has created makes the layout so outstanding!-Greg

I been adding signs to my layout where ever possible and I believe details like signs bring a layout to life.

Greg

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Afternoon All,

I'm beat again today. Need to move some furniture upstairs tomorrow when son is available. Otherwise everything has been moved to where it belongs but...wait for it, the new sewing room. There are still boxes in the train room and the new grandkids room and MOH is moving at a snail pace but doesn't want help in the sewing room. I should be ready to start the new layout sometime late in March.

Beady- Good luck with your wife's eye surgery.

Tom- Nice layout pictures.

Garry- Very clean locos.

Terry- Sorry about the glasses.

Sherrel- Nice scene.

Greg- Nice layout scenes and the Selios shot.

Jim- Nice looking loco and layout scene.

Alco- It's amazing the things that can be made with 3D printing.

Johnny- Interesting ad.

Jerome- Interesting photos.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Wife came through her cataract surgery just fine. We see the doctor again tomorrow morning, after witch she'll only have to wear the patch at night for the next week or so. She has always been extremely myopic, but the doctor says, after the 2nd eye is done, she'll only need reading glasses.

To celebrate:

The few, the proud.

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Good evening.
The eyeglass place is replacing the non-fitting ones with ones that I can use.
My truck's electronic systems went kaplooey, and it is at the stealership getting repaired. I have a loaner until it's fixed. I am not encouraged by the fact the technicians have never seen this particular issue before.
 
bnsf971 said:
Good evening.
The eyeglass place is replacing the non-fitting ones with ones that I can use.
My truck's electronic systems went kaplooey, and it is at the stealership getting repaired. I have a loaner until it's fixed. I am not encouraged by the fact the technicians have never seen this particular issue before.
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Sorry to hear about the truck issues Terry, but what is the truck doing or not doing? Most of the real issues that I've seen in the last five years, have been either with corrosion or Critter damage. So either of the technicians that are looking at your truck are 18 years old and fresh out of a tech school, or they are too relient on the computer. In either case the technicians best friend is a Fluke meter and a wiring schematic. If they don't cover the basics of wiring 1st, all the computers GM has wont fix a damn thing. Good luck and keep us posted!
 
kbkchooch said:
Sorry to hear about the truck issues Terry, but what is the truck doing or not doing? Most of the real issues that I've seen in the last five years, have been either with corrosion or Critter damage. So either of the technicians that are looking at your truck are 18 years old and fresh out of a tech school, or they are too relient on the computer. In either case the technicians best friend is a Fluke meter and a wiring schematic. If they don't cover the basics of wiring 1st, all the computers GM has wont fix a damn thing. Good luck and keep us posted!
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Karl, periodically everything inside the truck that emits sound completely stops making sound. Radio, turn signal clicky thing, door chime, everything. It will do it from the time I start the truck until the time I shut it off, remove the key, and open the door.
 
Good Morning All. 57° and cloudy. That's supposed to be the high temperature between now and Sunday after hitting 79° yesterday. Yard/garden maintenance and laundry were the tasks for the day yesterday. Today is additional yard stuff including mowing around the septic tank and lateral lines. I also have a couple of trees that I need to remove from the "back 40" over the next few days.

Thanks for the likes and comments on the pictures posted yesterday; Tom, Sherrel, Jerome, Joe, Bob, Dave, Karl, Chad, Phil, Ken, Justin.

Today will be a good day for poached eggs and bacon, Flo; with a blueberry muffin on the side.

Out in the train shed, I made more progress on the grain elevator piping than I had expected. Finished the first two and installed them.
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One more to go over to the mill.
Planted a few trees as well.
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And some scraggly ones also.
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Hope to make some more trees today after painting a few additional armatures yesterday evening.
I also did some train running to liven things up. Gotta keep that track clean by running.

Bob - You do know of course, that the tools that you give away or sell will be the first ones that you'll need after you move!:confused:
Greg - That is actually one of my favorite Selios scenes. I love his stuff even though it is well out of my locale and time era.

Today is National Drink Wine Day. Too bad that my wife has to work!:confused: She'll have to wait until she returns home.
Everybody have a great day.
 
Greg@mnrr said:
Espessfan: Alan, I'm not an expert on the more advance programmers, but the Digitrax PR-4 will do sound files, but only with Digitrax sound decoders. So far the PR-4 has worked on every brand of decoder I come across to change CV"s except T have not tried it on LokSound and ESU decoders.

Again, the video of your club in MRH was outstanding. Having so many people in to view the layout during an Open House are they any problems with theft or accidental damage to the layout?
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Neither am I, and it took a little research which yielded the following: The two devices are very similar. They operate much the same way. The Lok Programmer is meant to be a stand alone device only, where the PR-4 can be integrated into Loco Net and your layout, or be a stand alone programmer. The PR-4 is not capable of handling Lok Sound projects, and the Lok Programmer won't do Digitrax sound projects either (I don't think!) though it will read/write to other brands of decoders. I needed the ability to handle Lok Sound projects or I probably would have bought the PR-4 based on price point. Looking at how the two devices operate I believe I would have had the same problem no matter which one I used! It was strictly an unqualified Noob thing. I've since found out what I did was scramble the function mapping page somehow. Everything was still in the decoder, but the map was swapped around. Still don't know how I did that! The key thing I don't think the PR-4 will do is download complete sound files and load them into a decoder. Looking at the manuals for the two devices, neither tells you much about their basic operation. I guess they assume we'll figure it out. The Lok Sound site has some video tutorials, that are helpful, but I needed one for idiots. Nuff said!

The video? You mean Ken Patterson's Podcast? Yeah that was fun. I enjoyed talking with him. We don't count visitors, but it's pretty jammed in there all evening. I think one year we counted and had 6-700 folks come through. We stopped counting after that. Never had any theft or damage, though in recent years we've had people's kids fiddle with turnout controls now & then. We can't lock them all out because members are constantly needing to use them in getting trains on & off the layout. No cornfield meets yet!
 
Morning all,

I'll have some Blueberry pancakes this morning with a double side of bacon and coffee, Thanks Francine.

Took me some time to get caught up reading after my holiday weekend. No more of those now until Memorial day.

Well, I did get my train stuff on Saturday, but the weekend was shot to heck when the daughter who lives 70 miles away said they were coming on Sunday. Since it was mom's weekend to have her oldest, they ladies decided to advance the grandson's birthday party by a week some all the family could be there, so......I suddenly lost a week on a chess board I was making for his birthday, along with all the house stuff that needed done at the last minute. Then my truck decided to start having issues that should be fixed today (hopefully). Then the grandson needed help building his pinewood derby car so as he was off yesterday, that was my day besides shuffling vehicles to the various oil changes and service shops. It was busy but NOT what I intended.

On the truck, I really can't complain about it having issues. It is nearly 11 years old, I am the only owner, it other than routine maintenance (gas, oil tires, brakes, etc) I haven't put anything into it. When I get it back, they only idiot\warning light should be the tire pressure monitor light. I was quoted $400 to replace them at my last tire change this past October. I had the tire place put the old fashioned valve stems in. This particular system I've always hated as when you have a tire below its set point, it says low tire, not which tire is low. It only seemed to tell me I had a problem when it was either 5 degrees and blowing snow, or when it was pouring rain. Never on a sunny warm day. It should last me another few years. Many at the office thought it was newer as it still looks good for it's age. Even the body shop where I had the deer damage fixed, said it was in great shape. It did hit 165,000 miles on Friday and still averages 22 mpg.


Oh well, back to work.
 
Good morning everyone. 36 and overcast. Time for eggs, bacon, and a short stack of pancakes, please, Flo - - and a big cup of coffee. (It's not that I WANT coffee, but rather I NEED coffee!!)

Patrick, Justin, Tom, Flip, Chad, Karl, B-Bob, Boris, Sherrel, Wheeler, and anyone I may have missed - thanks for the likes and comments on my post yesterday.
Jim - Nice progress on your layout.
Willie - Great photos of the grain elevator and trees. Trees are something I have not tackled yet (making my own, I mean).
BurlingtonBob - Sorry the photo was so blurry. Blame it on operator error. As far as I can make out, prices were in the $80 range, for entire trains. Not sure if that included track, but my guess would be yes.
Greg - That is indeed a great photo from the F&SM layout. I agree, signs do add a dimension of reality to a layout. I have some, but need to add more.

Ran trains for a while last night - first time since we got back from the Florida trip. Reaching back into my slim archives, I found this photo of my Pine Valley firehouse. Had to have a firehouse on the layout in honor of my dad who was a 45-year member of the fire department in the town where we lived, fire department secretary for most of that time, EMT, tournament team member for some years, etc.. The structure was something I bought at a train show and did a major remodel on. The truck in the bay is courtesy of Chet in Montana - thank you again, Chet. The scene still needs some more exterior details, but it's coming along. Note the Orange Crush machine on the right - my favorite drink growing up - have many rotten teeth because of that drink!! The interior has lockers with fire fighting gear, and is lighted. I'll have to take a good photo of the interior and post it.
Firehouse 2.jpg


That's it for now. Have a good day everyone.
 
Good morning America! It's cloudy and 31 degrees with a high of 36. Oh well. At least it's not snowing!

Beady- I'm thankful for the few..........

Willie- The grain bin is very realistic..............just the right amount of weathering! Have you ever tried sage brush for trees instead of WS armatures? Chet uses them and I picked a box full when we went to Arizona. Tried a couple of trees with them and it makes the most realistic trees ever! I'm going to be very selective about my tools!

Johnny- Nice fire station. Imagine what $80 would be in today's money!!!

Jerome- Those are great pictures. Really like the one on that steep banked curve!

Got to take one of our "boys" to get his hair cut. He loves the lady that does his grooming and really gets excited when we tell him he's going. I don't care what anyone says, dogs are extremely smart!

Here's a picture we took last month at a scenic overlook just east of Sparta.

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