Running Bear's May 2019 Coffee Shop


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Good Afternoon Everyone.......rain and then sun here in Wisconsin.

Just drove home in the rain from the cabin. Mostly heavy rain on Interstate 41 with some of the traffic traveling at 70+ mph....crazy in the heavy rain.

Came home to find that the deer pruned a new bush we just planted last Wednesday! Great timing. Almost hit two deer on the way back from Baraboo, Wisconsin to the cabin. I saw the two deer standing on the other side of the road and then they ran across the road in front of my truck. The woman behind me wasn't paying attention and took to the shoulder of the road to avoid rear-ending me. We drove Highway 33 which runs between some beautiful rocky bluffs on either side of the road and the road follows an old river bed.

Tomorrow, I'll retreat to the train room and do some projects. I have a CP box car that is yellow and needs some toning down so I'll use oils and do some rust streaking and create some damage to the car. It will be a rust bucket when I finish weathering it. I ordered some markers to indentifiy the turnouts in the Saxeville Interchange for the engineers and I need to install very small decal numbers on the signs which are actually whistle posts.

Dave: Great looking log cars and log loads. Logging is in full swing in the area around our cabin. Lots of Red and White Pine woods where the cutting is happening.

Chet: Your new signals look great and I'm waiting to see them in action. Two great photos of your layout.

Willie: My 50th Reunion has come and gone. Little interest in reunions at my high school so a fellow has organized a reunion each year for the classes that graduated in the years of the 1960's through 1980's. I went once and didn't know or recognized many people. So many have passed away during and since Vietnam. I still keep in touch with several of the guys I graduated with from high school and even one guy from grade school from a class of 17! Just lost one fellow that owned Wegner Motor Sports and he manufactured and supplied engines for short and dirt track racing.

That's all for now.

Greg
 
FYI: Woodland Scenics has an app in the App Store that gives you equivalent measurements in real life and in the various scales. I currently have approx 40 feet of track laid, which is 2133.336 yards in N scale (yards/meters are the largest unit). Going the other way, 5 real inches equals 66.667 N scale feet, or 36.25 HO feet.

The app allows you to use custom scales, and it differentiates between, say, British and American scales (N=1:160/1:148). The actual name of the app is ModelScaler (one word).

GARRY I skipped my 50th reunion, even though I live only 45 miles from where it was held. There are a lot of reasons, but mainly that my memories are not very fond, and anyway the people I went to school with no longer exist in one way or another. Never went to any of the other reunions, either.
 
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Good Morning! It's about 34 degrees even though Weather Underground says it's about 37 and supposed to be mostly sunny today! We craned in the remainder of the sailboats getting launched that way on Saturday. The weather was horrible, about 35 degrees raining and blustery wind. My engine would not start so the boat sat close to the mouth of the harbor. It was so choppy at the mouth that the gel coat was damaged from the constant movement of a fender on the hull. This might end up being an Insurance claim, we shall see!

Too bad about the Vandals, Beady! I did not go to my 50 year reunion last year because of bad memories and the stupid high cost of attending! I have three buddies I stay in contact with. Don't need to keep in-touch with anyone else!
 
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morning from LA,LA Land!
50 degrees, cloudy and misting rain, again today - all day yesterday as well - total about 1/2 inch (maybe).
High today expected in the 63 range .. 71 last year .. 97 in 2000.
We are getting close to doubling our moisture total of last year!

Lots of news, but lack of sleep last two nights has me NOT wanting to take the time to jot it down for you == Aren't you glad?

GARRY .. iNTERESTING FLIGHT - gotta watch out for that dangerous fudge! Dave PV may be on to something!

More comments later on during the day, maybe!
 
Good Morning All. 69° and cloudy, wind gusts from the SE at 6 mph. Forecast is for 86° and thunderstorms, although the closest current rain is over 250 miles away and moving into Kansas. Good day Flo, I'll go for the toasted English Muffin, two eggs sunny side-up and sausage links today.
Had a nice visit yesterday from my daughter, two grandsons and the granddog while SIL played golf. Today I take my wife to the doctor for a 12:00 appointment. Who the heck schedules appointments for 12:00? Don't they take a lunch break??? That's when it will probably start raining.

Once again yesterday, modeling time in the train shed was brief, unfortunately. But I did get to run some trains for the grandkids. They are losing their allure with them somewhat. The younger one, age 9, does like to see the new scene development and makes suggestions, yesterday suggesting one of his LEGO monsters; he doesn't quite get the concept of scale yet! After they left, I worked a bit more on the grade crossing and surrounding scenery.
No progress pictures today, but here are a couple of pictures taken on my old long gone layout. Pictures were taken in 2004.
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Mark - OK, I always knew that you were a little off-beat (in a good way), and loved the outdoors as much as I do; but going sailing in 35°, rainy, windy weather?!?!o_O I think that trains would have been a better choice.

That was really tragic reading about the model train vandals in England. No amount of reparations can cover the cost of the lost time and love of producing many of those models and layouts. And since it is England, the vandals will not serve any jail time.

Everybody have an awesome day.
 
Good morning. 33 degree and partly cloudy to start the day with a high forecast only in the mid 40's. Went out last night and had a nice belated Mothers Day dinner with out daughter and the grand kids as my wife was out of town on Mothers Day for a bowling tournament.

Dave - Like the log cars. Nice work.

Greg - You're not the only one who wants to see those crossing signals working. Just waiting for the boards and IR detection units to arrive. Up here deer are a pain in the butt. I am so glad that I no longer have to take the early morning trips top work. Can't count how many close calls I have had over the years.

Beady - That is a real shame what happened to the modelers in the UK. Even if the people who did this are caught, so much nice work is down the tubes.

Mark - Sorry to hear about the damage to your boat. Even when I lived in Florida, I never owned a boat. I had a number available to me belonging to friends who now use my house in the keys. To me a boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money.

Willie - Fantastic photos. The detail work is outstanding.

Got a call over the weekend letting me know that the Thursday operating sessions will begin this week from 1 PM until 4 PM. Looking forward to running there on a regular basis again. I do miss the Saturday sessions during the winter, but not the trip over the pass.

Is this a smoke break or a gossip session.

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Later
 
Greetings from Orlando.

This is that whirlwind trip I mentioned. In fact, Curt (who lives nearby) and I won't even be able to get together. Violent weather caused a delay in our flight out of Springfield, which caused us to miss our connecting flight in Charlotte. Which got us to Orlando around 7 in the evening Sunday night. Got to the hotel around 8, crashed, and now two days of workshops, then fly back Wednesday. Runnin' with my tongue hangin' out!!

See ya tomorrow. have a good day everyone.
 
Afternoon All,

Did some chores then finished up what I can do with the F22's at this point. Next for them is a trip up to Jon's. Tomorrow I'm driving out to see my parents for a couple of hours. It's hot as Hades here, and our second FL season starts in 11 days.

Johnny- Doesn't sound like fun.

Dave- Nice looking cars and loads.

Greg- Condolences on your friend's loss.

Beady- Thanks for the app info. After checking it out I loaded it onto my phone. Much easier than what I was doing before.

Willie- Nice looking Santa Fe whatever it is loco.

Mark- Sorry about your boat.

Chet- Nice scene. Believe me a pool is another money black hole.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Good Afternoon Everyone...just came up from the train room.

Planted some additional "weeds" in a wet area of the layout to add more visual interest. Next comes the lily pads installation when the 1/8" punch arrives tomorrow from Micro-Mark.

Started to weathered a BB SOO Line grain box car. Did a light wash with fast drying oil thinner and then added the rust marks. The wash gives the exterior a light weathered look by itself. Next time I'll let the wash completely dry and then spray some Dull Kote to seal the oils and then add the rust marks. Then more weathering with some powders for the newer and the rust that just starting. What I did turned out okay for a brown box car. I'm not sure about how to handle the roof and rust found there on older box cars.

Going to tackle installing more utility wires very soon.

Curt: Thanks for the condolences. So many people have passed away in the last several years.

We lost the year stickers for the stored convertible and I applied on line last Thursday for replacements and the replacements arrived in today's mail...fast service for a State Agency!

Neighbor mowed our lower property this morning. He does this every year and I never met him, but Cathy has talked to him. Some time when the entire lawn is long he's cut the grass without asking. Every Christmas I send him a cheese and sausage box from Usinger's as a thank you. I have to get to know him better and invite him for a few cold ones at our bar.

Oil change tomorrow for the pick up. I have the dealer do the changes since I have an extended warranty. There a spring vehicle auction near the cabin in a few weeks and we looked at some of the vehicles last week. Lost of classic cars. There's a panel delivery truck from the early 50's that interests me, but Model Railroading is like that boat being just a hole in the water to throw cash.

Thanks.

Greg
 
Howdy .... I'm having another busy week....

We went to Nashville again yesterday to visit my wife's Mom in Long Term Care. ... Work crews are still working on I-24 near Nashville because of the big mud slide in February.

....

Here is a rotary plow in Ogden at the RR museum. .. The boiler belongs to a D&RGW narrow gauge locomotive being rebuilt at the museum.

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The new Atlas SD35 arrived today, going by the documentation, the silent decoder in it is a later version than the one Terry spoke of, has speed curve setting functions and appears very similar to the NCE D13SRJ I have a couple still of (replaced now with the D13J, a bit smaller). Took the 2 MTH DCC ready 'ACe's and the Scale Trains GE Tier4 DCC ready that I put Tsunami2 decoders in and the Athearn RTR SD40 with Econami decoder to the club on Sunday to give them a break-in run. So far I've made no adjustments to any CV's apart from setting the long addresses of each. Got the Manuals for each type of decoder down loaded, printed and stapled into sections. All four actually ran extremely well matched without much problem. I ran them in an NCE Advanced consist about a foot apart and it took half way around the club layout before they all closed up. So I put the rear on the front and ran a long train with them. The GE was the slowest, got caught up to about a 3rd of the way round.

The GE has a single iPhone7s speaker mounted up under the top of the shell, above the decoder, with the opening facing forward towards the exhaust and dynamic brake vents. The original Sugar cube enclosure is still in place, may get a couple and add them in. They fit into the chassis above the rear truck and the chassis has to be split along a horizontal joint to get to them. Or I could use another slightly shortened iP6s in the gap under the removable rear weight. That would require the mock fan housings to be ground off the underside of that. The ESU motherboard was removed to fit the Soundtraxx decoder. I could then fill the speaker space with lead.

The MTH 'Ace's have had the original silent decoder removed and the Tsunami2's put in their places. There was room to likewise fit iP7s speakers above them, but as they supply the enclosures for twin 28mm speakers to go in the fuel tank, I had some Railmaster Hobbies ones that were intended to replace the OEM ones fitted to my other Tsunami 1st gen Genesis 'ACe's, I used them instead. You sure can hear them especially the horn.

The Athearn SD40, I used an iP6s speaker (slightly slimmer than the iP7s) mounted also under the top of the long hood, above the decoder, that being attached to the open frame motor (Kato replacements are the dream, also lower than the OEM's for more room between decoder and speaker, an insulating strip between at the moment). The decoder is mounted to the top wiring/brush holder brass strip by double sided tape (2 small squares) to achieve enough gap. LED's and optic fiber provide the lights.

I'm now starting on mounting an ESU Loksound Select into a Genesis 'ACe EMD/Caterpillar EMD demonstrator #1201. If I can hit myself over the back of my head hard enough, I might remember to take photos. The reason for the ESU? I plan it to be the lead loco on my Caterpillar train where the Kato NS SD80MAC's and Intermountain GE ES44AC NS Heritage #8114, also all ESU fitted will do duty.

The double sided tape I am using is the type sold in Auto parts stores to stick exterior trim strip to.
 
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Good Morning! Thirty Seven Degrees and sunny today. Boat's in the slip and life is good!
 
montanan said:
Mark - Sorry to hear about the damage to your boat. Even when I lived in Florida, I never owned a boat. I had a number available to me belonging to friends who now use my house in the keys. To me a boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money.

Yes, they have a lot in common with Model Railroad Layouts!

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Later
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Just a quick note to say good morning from this workshop/conference in Orlando. Have a good day everyone.
 
Good Morning All. 66° and raining. This is the rain that was supposed to come yesterday, Mother Nature forgot to check with the weather bureau. I forgot to empty the gauge after Saturday's rain, but the Weather Underground station around the corner recorded .65" so far today since 0530. The worst is over and headed east. Should hit Johnny's place in the next hour, but he's in Orlando.
Just sausage and toast this morning Flo.
Taking my wife back to the same doctor this morning for some kind of heart echo test. Don't know why they didn't do it yesterday. Medicare doesn't reimburse me for the gas. They have a desk in the office set up with jigsaw puzzles, I'll be able to finish the one I worked on yesterday. Someone else started it but only did the borders. It has 600 pieces and I did around 200.
Thanks for the comments and likes yesterday; Sherrel, Jerome, Chet, Curt, Garry, Phil, Justin.

I did get out in the train shed late yesterday, and did some ballasting and other scenery work. A little out of focus, but here is a progress photo of the ballasting.
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Second part of the grade crossing is now mostly completed. A little fine tuning is still necessary.
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OK, I asked a rhetorical question last week regarding what to put in a blank space and Dave Banta suggested something along the lines of an overgrown area. I liked his suggestion quite a bit, and I started with a deteriorating concrete slab behind the maintenance shed that I already put there. What do you guys think?
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Curt - Forgive me for not ID'ing those locos, the triple lash up in the first picture are P2K GP60's, the lead loco in the second is also a P2K SD45.

Everybody have a great day.
 
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