Running Bear's LXXIII Coffee Shop


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Good Afternoon Sports .. ER RR Fans!
Spousal Unitis back with her Mom again this weekend. I have actually been catching up with many projects that have been sidelined for a couple years. (Not ready to tackle re-doing the dishwasher yet!)
Still haven't heard back from my auto mechanic. Could be that he is scared to call me? Or maybe he just cannot admit defeat? I have to say that this is the first time he has let me down; however, this may be totally out of reason in trying to "sneak through just one more time"!

We actually had a good 1/2 inch of rain yesterday, and another 1/8 inch overnight - with another shower posted for tonight, maybe.

Nice to see that most all of you back there survived the weather onslaught. I guess that things out here are not too far from normal - except we should be getting a lot of rain this time of year. I hear that snowfall up North has been light as well.

JUSTIN - I had an Aunt, lived to 103, who used to say quite often, " Some people just need killing". I kept trying to give her a list!

Have a good weekend all!
 
montanan said:

Karl - Good luck with the GF. Hopefully she will get to like trains.
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She actually likes what she sees, with me and the hobby. ;)

However M.B. Kleins has lost an in store customer I am afraid. The storefront is now smaller than it has ever been, with most items hidden away "in the warehouse". You must go in their website now at one of the in store kiosks, look up what you want , place an internet based order, enter in all of your CC numbers just like you were ordering it from home, then wait til someone fills your order to get whet you came for. Browsing in store is discouraged just be the size of the public area. Then to make matters worse after jumping through all the hoops their machine would not accept either of my credit cars. Both these cards were entered twice and rejected both times. The credit available on both cards would buy a nice used car, but no decoders?
In my exasperation I loudly dropped an F bomb and started for the door, when one of the wallflower salesmen jumped up and offered to get what I wanted from the back. He produced the desired stuff, they rang me up and my CC flew right through.
Why did it have to be like this? I noticed another man there have the same issue while I was there.....

I hate these kiosks, its like what is the world coming to? Relying on kiosks until a $200+ order almost walks in the door??

I doubt I will ever be back. I can drive the same distace in an opposite direction to go where the salefolks are friendly, knowledgeable and I can touch and examine the items, for just a few dollars more.
 
Curt - thanks for relaying the message, I called Phil and everything's all set.

Justin - don't despair, soldering is a skill acquired thru repetition. Grab a few pieces of "junk" track and practice on those until you get comfortable with it, that's how I learned to solder track feeders. And there are so-called suitcase connectors available that you can use to join the feeder wires to the buss wire, so you won't have to crawl under the layout with a hot soldering iron.

Sherrell - my #1 daughter and son-I-L are in your town tonight, staying with his parents. They flew out there to attend a wedding for one of SIL's cousins.

* * *

For power outages, I have a small (7500 watt) generator that I can use for basic electrical needs, like running the refrigerators, lights, well pump, and the [oil-fired] furnace in cold weather. Not powerful enough for the electric hot water heater though. I bought it right before Hurricane Isobel (2003) hit, and it powered the sump pump and saved my basement from flooding. I've only had to use it long-term on 3 separate occasions after that, since our electric company trimmed the tree branches and shrubbery away from the lines that feed into our neighborhood.

Karl - I was in Pro Custom last week, and it looks like they are actually ramping-up their business again - possibly since Glen closed the Moose Caboose and people have no other nearby places to go. They're establishing direct accounts with the various hobby manufacturers and ditching Walthers. They're also open on Tuesdays now. Not quite what they used to be in Catonsville, but a viable alternative to MBK...
 
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Hello everybody.

Justin... I suggest you Google "How to solder You Tube"..... You should be able to find a video to help you learn what to do.
 
I have considered a generator system occasionaly, but this is the first time in almost ten years that I have been without power. I can't justify the cost against the one time use every decade. They will need major overhaul in ten years. For me, it's just a mild inconvienience. I never have much in the refridgerator to go bad. Landromat is easy to use. I just add another blanket at night and close the window when temps dip below 45. I charge the cell phone in the truck when it gets low.
 
Good morning gang
32 and clear, going for a high of 45. Gotta clean up the yard some, then NAPCAR this afternoon. 1st, the grocery store.
 
Good morning. It's clear and 30.
Justin, there are two things, beside solder, you need in order to solder. Clean surfaces and heat. If you used non-acid flux on the joints, and you still don't have good solder joints, you probably need more heat. I use a 20/40 watt soldering iron for the stuff I do. I turn it on the high setting, and verify it's hot by cleaning the tip of the iron on a wet sponge before trying to solder. If the water doesn't immediately hiss when you try cleaning the tip, it's not hot enough.

For generators at home, I use the pair of 2000 watt units we got for our camping trips. I place them outdoors (duh!) with the exhaust pointing away from the house, in the back driveway. I alternate the generators when using them in single, running the fridge and freezer until they cycle off, then connect to a space heater in the office. When the first generator is almost out of gas, I start the other one, plug in to the fridge and freezer, make sure they are still cold enough, then switch to the space heater, and shut down the first generator. After it cools off, I fill it with gas, ready to repeat the cycle. We've been without power here for almost a day, a couple of times since we've lived here.
 
Good Sunday Morning Everyone. 61° and overcast. Forecasters are calling for a 40% chance of thundershowers around noon. Radar currently looks like nothing...there's rain activity 200 miles off to the east in Arkansas and Louisiana, but around here rain never comes from the east. Another sign of spring around here is the ants are out and biting. I got all of the downed tree limbs out of the immediate yard and I'm about half done with cutting them into usable firewood for next winter.
Thanks for all of the kind comments on the beauty salon structure that I posted yesterday, Garry, Ken in MD, Joe, Sam, Curt, and anyone that I may have missed.
Out in the train shed, I am taking a break from current projects until I hear back from Walther's regarding the Vulcan Mfg. decals. I am attacking my New Years resolution (from 2014) to complete some nearly completed areas of scenery. On the layout, I have 99% of the benchwork completed (except fascia), 95% or the trackwork and wiring completed, 50% of the backdrop completed, 45% of the track ballasted, 70% of the structures in place but only about 15% of the ground cover done. I have no excuse; I have a file cabinet full of Woodland Scenics products and recently purchased 50 store-bought trees to go with some hand-made ones that I stockpiled recently. It's time to cover some plywood!

Phil - Thanks for those words of wisdom. Hope that you get to feeling better as well.
Ken in MD - Good news on the minor damage and inconvenience from the storm.
Sam - I'm a step ahead, there's already an Irish pub across the street next to a park with benches.
Ken (D&J) - Sounds more serious in your neck of the woods, no power until Monday? Can't run trains without power. Good to know that you had no physical damage, at least you didn't mention any.
Justin - You're not alone regarding soldering. I am really lousy at it. An occasional visitor to the Coffee Shop named Ray, posted a video about a year ago that helped me. Tinning both surfaces first has been a big help in reducing my frustration. Use a piece of that sectional track that you're not using any more and practice. Clean surfaces are a necessity and additional flux can be helpful.

Louis - I know that you are probably still very busy, but drop in and say HI if you can.

Have a great day everyone.

Willie
 
Well......I guess if I tinned my wires beforehand it may go a little easier....I haven't been doing that! I know better than that.....I've wired up old blue box locomotives numerous times. Tinned my wires then too. Another blonde moment.

Justin
 
Good morning ....

Power outages...... We lived through the Kentucky Ice Storm of 2009. The entire western half of KY was buried in very heavy ice. Trees were knocked down and broken everywhere. Entire forests were wiped out. Power lines were broken everywhere. Some of the towers that support high tension electrical transmission lines were broken. Cell phone towers were broken.

There was no way for us to escape. Broken trees were all over our road. There was too much ice to drive over the hills even if there were no broken trees. Thankfully, our house was spared of major damage. Some houses had large trees fall onto them which crushed through the roofs. ..... We were isolated from the rest of the world. No power. No county water. No land line phone. No cell phone. We did not have a generator. ... Survival: We closed doors of rooms. We used the gas fireplace to heat the center of the house which was not much heat. We put frozen food in a cooler and placed it outside on the deck. We put refrigerated food in a cooler and placed it in our insulated garage. Extra blankets were barely warm enough. ... It became a waiting game. In the daytime we sat next to windows and read books. I moved a table next to a window, and I built my City Classics Diner..... A few days later, workers cleared our road. We could drive to town for provisions. County water came back on as they used generators. Power was restored to our house 9 days after the storm. Land line phone was restored the next day..... Many homes in KY did not have power restored until 5 or 6 weeks after the storm.

Aftermath: .... We bought a generator and had the house wired so it could be hooked to certain circuits we would need if there was another event like that. ..... Thankfully, we have not needed it.
 
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Joe- Can you walk through the caboose or is it used as a shed?
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Curt: No, they don't allow walk throughs, unfortunately. of course, I imagine it's similar to steel cabins owned by the CNJ.

KenMD: Pro Custom was my go to place back in the day. I used to drive up to Catonsville, from Bowie. Nice to hear they might become a viable alternative once more. Will have to check them out.

Justin: I have had recent success tinning the tip of the iron. I flux the surface and the wire. so far, so good. Keep the tip of your iron clean...that's important. Just assembled a few recycled Shinohara Code 70 #4s that way. Some time you need practice, other times you just need luck, other times you just need to be patient.

KenVA: After Sandy and the follow-up snowstorm in 2012, I seriously considered a back-up generator, one that runs on natural gas. I ultimately decided not to invest the money, and I won't regret that until the next extended outage. Advantage of natural gas is the capability of stove top cooking and hot water on demand. If you are dependent on well pumps for water, a smaller diesel generator to run heat and well may pay off???

Another cloudy day with temperatures in the mid 40s. The whole week is going to be like this apparently, except for rain/snow mid week. Just noticed, change to daylight Time is Next Sunday! Wow, where did the time go?
 
Good Morning everyone....sunny and seasonal temps here in Wisconsin.

Karl: M.B. Klein's sound much like the showroom at Walthers. They have a show room with new arrivals and some close outs, but the bulk of the sales are from hobbyists using the two or three computers in the show room or customer already have their part numbers that was done from the catalog or online store. Hours are limited too. The sales staff fills the orders from the warehouse in back.

Justin: Like Willie commented above, are you using a solder flux when wiring your feeders? The flux will aid in the soldering process.

Terry: I feel for you and not having any electrical power. In 1976 we had an ice storm that knocked out the electric power for seven days. My parents were watching a friend house who had a lower level, below grade and the sump pumps needed to operate 24/7 to keep the water out. I brought a small generator from my work and ran the pumps at night and while my dad watched them during the day.

Next eye surgery tomorrow.

That's all for now.

Greg

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Morning All: A beautiful day here fora change. The rain "spit" at us sometime during the darkness.
High temp today says it will reach 60 - then 73 tomorrow. Sky is clear and the hot air balloons are everywhere this morning.

Have to make the re-scheduled Vascular DR appointment tomorrow morning .. Hope he has recovered from the flu.
I have not decided if I will take the train .. will check the times in a moment. I need to be back for SIL's BD Dinner Party at 5pm, so I just may drive as much as I dislike the thought!

Willie - I missed commenting on your latest build .. it looks "FAB" ... and remember: don't stand on a fire ant hill! :eek:
 
Good morning all.

Bright sunny going up to the mid 40s today.

I've been working on seeing what N scale items I have left to sell to list it. Don't have all that much stuff left. Lots of passenger Amtrak locos, and rolling stock, and Chicago Metra commuter cars and locos. Problem is I keep finding things that I thought I had sold all of it. Found 5 more crude oil tankers, and some more TOFC cars. At least its modern, and it sells really well.

Have a good day all!
 
Good morning. Started off at 26 degrees and my weather rock is white (again). When we were coming back from town yesterday I opened my big yap and mentioned how nice it was that out lane was completely clear of snow.

Ken D&J - You have a really good attitude abut losing power, especially as long as it may be. We do have a whole house back up generator. We don't have many power outages, but living in a more rural area it can take a bit longer to get power back. Wet snow taking tree limbs down on power lines, some idiot driving into a power pole on the back roads and such.

Terry - I did spring on the B&M Kadee box car. The price was good and the shipping reasonable. Talked to Phil a few minutes ago and he had one state of Maine box car he's sending and he wanted me to let you know that Murphy has apparently moved in with him. He threw his back out a couple of weeks ago, the A/C in his car quit and then the battery dies. Also his computer crapped out.

Justin - You may be learning what you need top know about soldering. Having worked in electronics in the service soldering comes as second nature. When we had now guys come pn the ship to work on our gear, just about all of them needed guidance and lessons on how to solder properly.

Karl - Louis had mentioned that there was only a very small show room at MB Kleins, but the way you are talking, it may have been downsized even more. I will also be watching the NASCAR race and hope that is is not as boring as last weeks race.

Willie - You are certainly moving ahead with your layout. I really liked the job you did on the salon. Nice work.

Time to grab a sandwich and get ready for the race. No trains today.

Later
 
The status web page says a crew is working on this section now. On the way home from church I saw the crew setting up where a pole had snapped and the power lines were laying in the trees. I thought that was odd because the pole was pretty much surrounded by trees providing a wind break, but then it caught my eye. A large dead pine tree as laying on the power lines that led to the snapped pole. Yeah, the very tree that I had called the county about several times over the past 6 months. The tree has been dead for some time and was beginning to uproot and fall over toward the lines, actually laying on the lines a bit the last time I called. Now, the wind took the tree down and pulled the lines down with it. Phhffft, what do I know. I'm just a tax resource. Shut up and go back to work and raise more tax money for us.
 
I will also be watching the NASCAR race and hope that is is not as boring as last weeks race.
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Chet: Somehow, this does not surprise me :rolleyes:

A large dead pine tree as laying on the power lines that led to the snapped pole. Yeah, the very tree that I had called the county about several times over the past 6 months.
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KenVA: Again, not surprising. Weather related outages were quite common here until JCP&L was required to trim the trees along the pole line. Now, there are very few outages, and most are of short duration.

There is pre season baseball on TV...
 
Another power outage adventure: .... We went to Michigan to attend a wedding, and had checked into a hotel. It was time to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. My wife was in the shower and asked me to plug in the iron so she could iron her dress. I set up the ironing board and plugged in the iron. At that instant, the room lights went out. I thought the iron tripped a circuit breaker. My wife at first thought I was pranking her by turning off the bathroom light when she was in the shower.

I dialed the front desk to request hotel maintenance to correct the problem. Nobody answered at first. I tried again five minutes later, and I was told the entire hotel was without power. The hotel was attempting to contact the electric company. ..... Later, the desk clerk said the power company said there was a blackout all of the way to the east coast. They wondered if it was the result of a terrorist attack. ....

I said to my wife: .... " I plugged in an iron for you, and I caused blackout all of the way to New York City. " .... I was joking of course. ... It helps to have humor at times. .... Our vehicle was low on gas, and we knew the gas stations were closed because of lack of power. So we hunkered down in the hotel until power was restored a couple of days later. .... We used bottled water and wash cloths for "baths". We ate whatever food the hotel could locate for us. .... The plumbing was not working, and we used the public restroom which became very stinky as others used it too. .... We wanted to cool off in the swimming pool, but it was ceded because filter pumps were not operating. ....

That was not a good trip.
 
Still no decision: Train - Drive - Train? So Far the Train is winning ... need to check the schedule!
 
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