Running Bear's January 2020 Coffee Shop


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Jim-there is not much ingenuity, mostly desperation to find something small enough to fit a flatcar when packaged..
I just have to keep looking.
I've been out of pocket for the last couple days. Drove to Huntsville yesterday in time to help pack up my MIL from rehab and take her home. She can barely get out of her recliner and has to have help going to the bathroom, yet. Her insurance ran out, so they discharged her. However, we and she are happy to have her home and feel she will make more progress there. My wife will remain in Huntsville to help take are of her mother.
I guess I will take down the christmas tree and build some more flatcar loads while she is gone.
 
Howdy. Trying to catch up on many of you here. There is a lot going on.

Curt ... I am very sad to hear about your sister in law. Terrible news. Prayers for your family.

Boris ... prayers for your mother in law . Also prayers for you with your situation.

Sherrel... Very nice truck!

B Bob ... very nice grandkids and truck.
 
Good morning, America! It's a frigid 2° in Forgottonia, with a hoped for high of a whopping 12°, it we're lucky! Over all, it's been a pretty mild winter so far and this is nowhere close to being as bad as it can be! At least I'm not working outside! We'll be mainly busy getting everything, well we hope everything, ready for tomorrow. We've got somebody to come and stay with our fur kids, so as long as nothing happens on her end to cause problems, we'll be all set. Time to get somewhere a little warmer!

Be safe and stay warm!
 
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Good Morning All. Clear and 32° this morning. Beginning to dry out here, not much but it is a start. Got a call yesterday that my new eyeglasses are ready so later today I will go and pick them up. I'm a bit apprehensive since I have not worn glasses other than readers before. These are something called progressive bifocals, or trifocals? Readers at the bottom, normal in the middle and corrected on the top for farsightedness; at least that is what I think they said. Made for outdoor use (won't slide off due to sweat) and are supposedly unbreakable. 180 day guarantee. If they're unbreakable why do I need a guarantee?

Oatmeal with a side of bacon this morning Flo. I need something to "stick to my ribs".

Thanks for the likes and comments yesterday regarding the staging yard; Tom, Joe, Jerome, Sherrel, Ken, Bob, Karl, Bill, Greg, Phil, Jim, Hughie, Justin, Garry.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I cleared up the gridlock caused by the yard closure. Kind of reminded me of the UP mess about 25 years ago.
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Now I just have to move those engines to the other end.
Elsewhere on the layout, here's a picture of me, my young wife and her brother checking out the rear of my used 1961 VW that was our first car.
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BIL still has that Elvis pompadour to this day. That's not dust, but grime from the gravel road that we lived on at the time.

Joe - Sad to read about your MIL's condition. Many thoughts and prayers for her, your wife especially, you and all of the family members in these trying times.
I'm not understanding all of your PT right now. My wife saw the doctor for the first time and was on the operating table less than five weeks later. No injections, no PT, no nothing.
Bob - I truly admire your ability to work in N scale. Neat spray booth. Looks a lot better than the one I made 30 years ago using the inside of an old dishwasher.
Beady - Get well soon.
Tom - Not sure if I posted before, but I like the manner in which you weather your freight cars. Nice and subtle, not overdone.
Chet - At the other end of the lower level, there is another six track yard, although not quite as long. It still holds my normal 20-24 car trains, which is the length of most of the passing sidings. The girls on my roofs are sunbathing. Refraining from posting them though.
Jim - I like the beer story. Before I retired, I imagined life drinking beer starting with lunch, but decided that it affected the quality of modeling too much. I now only indulge if I am running trains or in the last 30 minutes of modeling before supper. Over the years, I have also discovered modeling mistakes made when I was younger.
Looks like you'll have plenty of switching action on the layout.

Today is Dolly Parton's 74th birthday. It would have also been Janis Joplin's 77th if she hadn't done something stupid.
Everybody have a great day.
 
Good morning. It's mostly cloudy and 39.
My boss/landlord and his wife came by yesterday to see how my wife was doing. During the course of the conversation, he managed to put his foot further in his mouth than I remember seeing anyone do before. He told my wife she was fat, and needed more exercise.
 
Good morning....Thanks for the likes on the grain car,Bob,Sherrel,Chet,Roofintrash,Phil,Jim,Jerome,Justin,Ken,Bill,Garry,and Willie.
Willie- I look at a lot of pics and videos to see how cars are weathered some are light some heavy.Depending on the car I try to do something in between. Getting rid of the plastic look without overdoing it to look like it's over done.
 
I messed up my previous post and hit the number three key as well as the two key. I wish that it was 32 degrees!

Greg, I started doing a little research about iced up gutters and came across this. https://m.bestreviews.com/best-heat-cables-for-roofs-and-gutters. Might be of some use or interest.

Beady-
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That probably has a ring of truth to it for more than one person!

Justin- Hopefully the wheel cleaning will solve your problem. That has to rank as one of the worst parts of this hobby!

Jim- Six or seven beers and they would have to call in the NTSB to investigate all of the derailments and wrecks I was involved in!:)

Willie- That's a great idea, recreating a scene from earlier times in your life. I like that! Working in N scale requires magnifiers, an assortment of tweezers, good lighting, steady hands and lots of patience! And some luck doesn't hurt either!

Terry- All I can say is WOW!

Tom- You've definitely hit on the right combination! Your cars turn out looking excellent!
 
MikeGTW said:
Jerome I texted him back asked him could he get a couple of them
He says how many do I want he can get me 2 to 5 a week I'd go get that one today but it's only 6 degrees outside
Click to expand...

MIKE -- Please set one aside for me! BBoB has inspired me to "greatness", lol. That makes a nice looking paint booth! I will cover shipping - no hurry - I can wait for warmer weather?
 
Morning Everyone! Flo, I'll just have a quick coffee to go! I need to hit Wally World this morning before the crowds. It's supposed to be 75 degrees later on with partly cloudy - Prayers for all this morning (it is Sunday) and stay warm back there in the deep freeze!

Willie -- I'll take that pair of CF-7's on the back wall -- that will free up a siding for you?
 
On mine, I removed the four nuts around the housing and rotated it 90 degrees, then replaced the nuts. The discharge was set in the vertical position, but it can be changed in 90 degree increments. Easy to do. I used a single pole light switch and hooked the ground wire from the cord to the motor ground wire as well as connecting the ground to the switch and to the box. That way the motor, the frame, the switch and the electrical box are all grounded. This is important, don't skip making ALL of the ground connections.
 
Good Morning Everyone.....sunny and cold this morning in Wisconsin Land. Too cold for starting a fire in the the fireplace today...the heat lost when the fire dies down is enormous Very windy last night and no birds at the feeders this morning.

Could you store your photos on discs or remote hard drives rather than a second "party" that could end up closing up shop? I need to organized my photos.

No sleep last night since I was thinking about my layout and some of the challenges that a modest size layout presents. Like a short passing siding, limited yard space and a whole list of other concerns and...I still have to find a track planning software to do my layout plan. Guess I have to stop watching those cab rides on huge layouts.

When weathering the SOO caboose I learned that when weathering rolling stock that Kadee couplers should be adjusted prior to any weathering or any detail assembling that reequire handling the model. I weathered a bunch of ore cars and I didn't think about the coupler adjustment since they previously were coupled using draw bars. All of the CM&N weathered ore cars have Kadee couplers.

I need to travel down into downtown Milwaukee and visit what's left of the Milwaukee Road yards to get some pictures of old weathered pieces of rolling stock. Seems to me that there's several tracks somewhere down there or near the harbor area that has some storage tracks for old equipment. Several years ago I did see a old Milwaukee Road SW1500/SOO Line bandit still operating.

BBob: Thanks for the gutter/roof heater information. Whatever I do is on the back burner until summer when I can get some bids since ladders and me parted company a long time ago. Until then I'll just use my snow rake and pull some of the snow down to allow the sun to heat the roof and melt the snow/ice. Nice spray booth.

Willie: I have a rule that I follow, but may break it once in awhile for special occasions, that I never have a drink before 5:00 PM. I enjoy a cold draft beer at a outdoor event or picnic, but rarely have a beer at home. I drank my share of beer when the beer only drinking age in Wisconsin was 18 in the 1960's and this was when a person could go to certain Wisconsin counties and drink beer in an establishment that sold beer only, but no carry outs. Driving 50 miles one way to drink beer and listen to a live band was common.

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The only beer to drink while listening to live Rock 'n Roll in 1967!!!-Greg

I'll once in awhile, later in the afternoon take a cocktail down to the layout room and watch a train do its rounds while I drink my favorite Southern Comfort Old Fashioned cocktail. In fact right now I'm on the computer listening to a new radio station that is called Party 92.2 broadcasting from Hartford, Wisconsin that plays music for partying or to just listen to and get into the party mood.

Back to model railroading....looks like only a couple of hours down in the layout room before the Packer game starts. It's funny that road in front of our house during the Packer games will not have one vehicle will travel by our house. All activity stops and pitty the poor GB fans who have to work during a Packer playoff game.

Later, I plan on taking apart a GP38-2 due to one of its rear headlights has fallen into its shell and needs to be reinstalled and I'll adjust the couplers if needed and clean the locomotive's wheels. Then I'll let it run on the layout for awhile.

That's all for now....

Greg

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Locomotive #4441 is ready for duty or the junk heap? This is the loco that needs one of the rear headlights re-installed later today. It's an Athearn with DCC/Sound and is a sweet runner inspite its looks.-Greg
 
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23° this afternoon, with a light snow fall. It finally looks like winter. Not that I'm a big fan of winter, but c'mon, no real snow until mid January? Seriously?

The cats and wife are taking their afternoon siestas, and all I can hear are the internal workings of the house (furnace, sump pump, etc). There'll be time for trains later; right now, I'm enjoying the quiet.

Greg, I was never much of a beer drinker, although it is good on a hot day, and I never turn one down when offered. Ever since we discovered Caribbean cruises, rum cocktails have been my drink of choice. It used to be vodka, but rum adds a flavor where vodka just adds alcohol. BTW, if I could do it all over again, I would plan my entire life with the aim of retiring somewhere in the Eastern Caribbean; I've never met a friendlier group of people, and if you go south enough, St Lucia or Barbados, you miss the hurricanes.

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GREG -- 4441 looks as if it has it's better days behind it! You named a bunch of railroads the other day, but you left my favorite out! This - too me - is one of the better livery out there?

I wonder which GB team, the good one or the not too good one, will show up this afternoon?

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Sherrel: Even living in Wisconsin all my life, I've never seen a Green Bay and Western locomotive or train in action and live within 110 miles of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

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The Green Bay & Western was fond of using ALCO's as their primary locomotive. I need at least one GB&W locomotive for my fleet.

Greg
 
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