Running Bear's July 2018 Coffee Shop


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afternoon Fellows .... It's clear, 96 degrees (says feels like 100) with only 28% humidity.
Sure feels like more hotter than that. Started breaking camp at 10 am ... just arrived back at the homestead where the postman just delivered a registered letter from the HOA with a picture of the RV sitting x-ways in the drive where we loaded it up for our trip last Thursday. Have to go before the Board on the next meeting on the 7th of August.
Going to be an interesting meeting for sure. They are acting like I cannot even bring it into the subdivision at all! GOD! I Hate HOA'S!
That's all for now - glad to see that everyone is still Choo- Chooing and Chugging along.
 
You guys have already heard the news in general. The local club just published this message from Walthers:

"Due to a factory closure in China, availability will be limited for
locomotives and rolling stock from some of the brands that Walthers
distributes to hobby shops and sells at walthers.com. We will keep our
dealer and consumer websites updated with the current availability of these
items.

"The factory that closed did not produce any of our Walthers brand products,
and its closing will not affect availability of any Walthers brand products."

And here's the note from Intermountain:
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afternoon Fellows .... It's clear, 96 degrees (says feels like 100) with only 28% humidity.
Sure feels like more hotter than that. Started breaking camp at 10 am ... just arrived back at the homestead where the postman just delivered a registered letter from the HOA with a picture of the RV sitting x-ways in the drive where we loaded it up for our trip last Thursday. Have to go before the Board on the next meeting on the 7th of August.
Going to be an interesting meeting for sure. They are acting like I cannot even bring it into the subdivision at all! GOD! I Hate HOA'S!
That's all for now - glad to see that everyone is still Choo- Chooing and Chugging along.
Is there a set time limit for an RV being in front of a house? If so, who determines when it's been there too long? Do they use a calendar, or a stopwatch?
 
Good morning Everybody! :)

I just wanted to stop and say hello, I miss my train buddies.

God willing I will have more time in the near future.
 
Good morning, and happy National Avocado Day. It's cloudy and 71, with 1-3" of rain, and flash floods expected over the next day or so.
 
A model box top illustration jogged a long forgotten and deeply buried memory of when I must have been very young. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had seen a real one, sitting atop the Catapult on a US warship at a dock in Auckland Harbor, NZ. You couldn't mistake that float.
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Good Morning All. Whoa! It's 66° and mostly clear. Just went through the house and opened many windows. High yesterday only hit 92° and today is forecast for 89°, nice light wind out of the north. This weather won't last long. The rain yesterday didn't amount to much, .3" was all that was in the rain gauge. Won't be enough to break the drought and there's none in the ten day forecast.
Got the new toilet for the remodeled bathroom yesterday and got it installed. Used the new shower without the elusive shower door, by simply putting up the old rod/curtain. Backwards hot/cold univalve didn't matter to me. He'll fix that when the door comes in and he gets time to return, possibly Friday. Then I'll have to reverse myself, sigh! For anyone else doing remodeling projects, remember that a happy wife does not buy off the shelf products for any home remodeling job.
Ran a lot of trains in the train shed yesterday, trying to get some mileage on all the locomotives. Paused for a day on the warehouse build. I'll inspect the paint job and touch it up today and possibly remember that you all like pictures. I also started to install some of the fascia that I cut last week. Can't decide yet on the color, although I dreamed that I took a loco down to HD and had them match the ATSF warbonnet blue!:D

Chet - There's certainly a dark cloud hanging over that rail pic from yesterday.
Curt -
Willie- I hope you get finished with your remodel soon.
What was supposed to be a three week job has now lasted five weeks, although there was a whole week and some scattered days of inactivity interspersed. The only real bother is that I want life to get back to normal; no more naps in the guest bedroom, no more having my contractor going in and out the door umpteen times an hour tracking dirt with him (and air-conditioning the back yard), no more tripping over tools left in the house overnight and during the day as well, no more Spanish music coming out of the bathroom, and not scheduling supper around his activity like water turned off. Twice he has worked late (past 9:00 pm) which also interferes with my sleep time!:mad: I'm not meaning to sound negative about him personally, he's a great guy. He did suffer a setback when his helper got another job and left him working alone, but he is actually making more money by pocketing that $150/day himself! Actual working days are still three days under projection. We knew that there would be life disruptions going in to this project, and some of the delays have definitely been because of us. Next project, she has to have everything selected and purchased before we start.
Sherrel - Sorry to hear of the ongoing issues with the HOA. I know that you really like where you live except for their BS, but maybe you could threaten to sell the house to some completely undesirable scumbag like a liberal California politician, Maxine, Kamela, Adam, Nancy, Dianne, they all come to mind. My HOA never gives me any problems, oh wait, I am the HOA!
Beady - Thanks for the update from Walther's and InterMountain.
Louis - A short Hello to you.

I don't like avocados.
Everybody have a great day.
 
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Good morning y'all. 75 with 92% humidity. Forecast says mid 80s and 70% chance of storms. Thanks to those that sent their condolences for my friend that passed. I've since found out more details about the incident. His employer told our pastor, who was also my friend's best friend, one thing. My wife stopped by on a whim one afternoon to try to figure out what happened because our friend and his wife moved from Alaska and had no family in the area that could fill the role as a go-between for our buddy's widow. They told her that they suspected something internal (cardiac arrest, aneurysm, etc). According to information uncovered in the last couple of days, that is not the case. It seems that my friend was operating a poorly maintained piece of equipment that he had never been given the proper safety training to use. There was some sort of accident involving the equipment and he died as a result of a severed spinal cord. As sad as I am that my friend is gone, and that it could have been prevented, I know he's in a much better place now. I feel for his family, they have a difficult time ahead of them.

Willie - Good luck with the continued bathroom remodel adventure. Yes, we want pictures!

Sherrel - That type of BS is the very reason I could never live in an HOA controlled neighborhood. That and the only person allowed to tell me what I can and can't do with and around MY house that I paid for is my wife.

Toot - thanks for sharing the video. Will check it out if I can find the time later.
 
Good morning, everybody....

National Avocado Day ? .... We like avocados, but they don't excite me enough to celebrate them.

Sherrel .... You could really get the HOA riled up if you displayed a Confederate flag on the RV next time you have it in your driveway. .. LOL ... We don't have a HOA problem here.

Willie ... It seems like any project, such as the bathroom, job takes long than planned.

I have my "15 minute projects" that take hours to complete. Sometimes, I say to my wife: "I'll be in the garage about 15 minutes to make a repair." Then everything goes wrong. Each little "correction" has ripple effects costing another hour. Hours later, I come into the house to sheepishly explain I could not fix the original problem. At times, I can be a real klutz. ... I have similar experiences with the model railroad. ..

Cheers !
 
HOA's have their place. It is nice to NOT have trashy surroundings and autos dissembled and such, but they can be too much restrictive boarding on the ridiculous as well!
Restriction just says "No RV parking on the street or driveway"!
 
Garry -- Every yard sprinkler repair that I try to work on (a 15 minute job) usually entails two hours plus two trips to HD!
 
Need some advice y'all, so I thought I'd consult my favorite panel of experts first. I have 2 N scale F9 As. The problem that I'm finding is that one of the roads I model ran the F9, but they did run the F7. Now here's my questions. Is it worth my time to try to convert an F9 to an F7? Or just look for F7 shells to fit the chassis? Are the differences in details enough to be noticed by anyone other than hardcore rivet counters?
 
Good morning. 55 degrees to start off the day with a high expected around 90. Sounds like a good day to go down to the basement and run trains.

Toot - Nice video. I have ridden behind 844 and 3895 a number of times. Cheyenne isn't too far away from us.

Sherrel - I can see why you hate HOAs. They can be quite a pain in the a**. So happy we don't have any covenants where we are.

Curt -
It is a shame Shinohara is quitting production. I am a big fan of their track and turn outs. When I switched from hand laying track to Shinohara products, I was able to really move ahead with my layout. They were the only company years ago that had a decent selection of turnouts in code 70. It looks like the Chinese company who supplies a number of companies locomotives has also quite production. That may have some effect on the hobby. I can possibly see prices going up. Happy that I no longer need any locomotives.

Here's a rail picture for today. Willie, a bit brighter for you.

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Later
 
Need some advice y'all, so I thought I'd consult my favorite panel of experts first. I have 2 N scale F9 As. The problem that I'm finding is that one of the roads I model ran the F9, but they did run the F7. Now here's my questions. Is it worth my time to try to convert an F9 to an F7? Or just look for F7 shells to fit the chassis? Are the differences in details enough to be noticed by anyone other than hardcore rivet counters?
The F7s were damaged in a wreck, and EMD rebuilt them in F9 bodies. Even if it didn't happen with those exact units, the practice was common enough to make it plausible.
I think the biggest spotting feature for an F9 is the very rear of the engine, whether it is straight or tapered.
 
Good Afternoon Everyone.....Sunny and humid in Wisconsin.

Just finished the "Mrs. To Do List" in the yard and after lunch off to the landfill with the truck full of branches.

This afternoon I'll install a decoder in a Bachmann R4 that arrived yesterday. I'm sure that I have a decoder in my decoder box that will fit the S4.

Tomorrow all trains.....

Interesting about the Chinese factories closing down or are they just stopping production of goods destined for the US since the tariff issue arose? This appears to be different than the quality issues Atlas had with its suppliers in China. I for one would pay a slightly higher price for US made products if need be.

Shinohara: Produced some well made turnouts and I believe Shinohara supplied Walther's with their Walther's brand turnouts. I have a box of code 70 turnouts from the last layout.

Sherrel: I could use a HOA for a couple of the homeowners around here. Wish they would use their garages for their vehicles instead of four vehicles parked on the driveway. My pet peeve.

The area around the cabin is classic back woods with no rules what so ever. Glad most are in the woods and the trees hide the messes they have created.

Off to Walther's on Thursday....! Stock up on metal wheel sets.

That's all for now.

Greg

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