Running Bear's October 2019 Coffee Shop


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Afternoon All,

Well my 75 minute drive to the port this morning turned into 2.5 hours due to a accident blocking all the eastbound lanes just past the bridge over the intercoastal about 5 mile from my exit :mad:. What a damn traffic mess. On the way home the eastbound lanes only had 1 lane open.

TrucTrain- Very nice circus cars.

Ken- Nice book haul.

Greg- Nice job on the roof.

Chet- I wish you the best. Nice layout shots.

Willie- The barn looks great.

Johnny- Nice layout shots.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Good morning Everybody!

Sorry I was absent, "my dog ate my homework?" No, just busy, life is good! Wow I missed a lot in a couple of days.

It's 59 with 84% humidity under cloudy skies in southeast Baltimore.

I got the furnace tuned up, vacuumed all the registers and grills and then the temperatures were near 80 on Sunday. The temperature in my house has not dropped below 69, the heat has still not come on, but we are ready when it does!

Now it's time to make up some meatballs to cook later today. After that I'll make breakfast for my grandson then take him to school. I hope to stop back after that.

Have a great day Everybody!

I almost forgot, how about the Astros' starting pitching?! Wow are they deep! I'm a Nationals fan and I still enjoyed the games, I love watching good pitching. As the old saying goes "good pitching beats good hitting" It would have been better for me if the Nationals had pitched better, but that's baseball!
 
Charles Edwards - ‎Chessie System Pictorial
B&O SD9 1839 and a GP7 team up to do some switching at Cumberland MD. 7-75.
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Morning all,

I got home had supper and fell asleep in the recliner during Wheel of Fortune. That hasn't happened in a long time, but I guess I needed the nap. The wife and I retire early as she has to be to work at 5:30 am so we get up around 4:00 am. I start work at 6:30, so we're early risers and early to bed.
Quiet so far at the office. Usually PD has called me by now.

Willie: I really like that barn. I've seen a lot of them running years ago through western KS and Oklahoma when I was a field tech for a couple of companies. In the past 20 years, I haven't been on the road nearly as much and not at all in the past 10. God, I'm getting old (so my grandson reminds me).
 
Patrick said:
Morning all,

I got home had supper and fell asleep in the recliner during Wheel of Fortune. That hasn't happened in a long time, but I guess I needed the nap. The wife and I retire early as she has to be to work at 5:30 am so we get up around 4:00 am. I start work at 6:30, so we're early risers and early to bed.
Quiet so far at the office. Usually PD has called me by now.

Willie: I really like that barn. I've seen a lot of them running years ago through western KS and Oklahoma when I was a field tech for a couple of companies. In the past 20 years, I haven't been on the road nearly as much and not at all in the past 10. God, I'm getting old (so my grandson reminds me).
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I've been retired since the beginning of 2013! Previous to when I retired I started work at 6:00 AM, so I needed to get up at 5:00 to make it to work on time. Since then, I can not sleep any later than 5:00. You get into a habit and it becomes difficult to break that habit!
 
28F at 6am. Supposed to be "snow" today. Sunday we had some snow -- enough to make the ground look like a heavy frost -- maybe 1/2". Hopefully it is not much more than that today. Next 10 days is "sunny" or "mostly sunny", with one day "partly cloudy" (in a week) in the forecast. Tomorrow should be cold, but then gradually warm back to 50s during the day by the weekend. Yesterday was really nice.

Good morning! I got up with the rest of the family today and am working (my job is from my home office to a home office in Indiana). I've been working a problem a few days and I think I got some enlightenment on it while sitting on the throne this morning after getting up. Time to test the idea.
 
Good morning everyone. 39 and cloudy out there.

IBKen, Tom, Chad, Sherrel, Patrick, Wheeler, Greg, Chet, Curt, and anyone I may have missed - Thanks for the likes and comments on my layout progress photos from yesterday.
Tom - Yeah, that's too bad about the Sunday part of the layout tour. Was looking forward to more photos.
Willie - Wanted to say again how good that barn looks. Very unique. Nice work.

Nothing to report from the train room. We're in our Craft Fair week here at work. Already sold two items and had an order for another one, which I worked on in the woodshop last night - that's why I didn't have any train time. But, hey - like I say, selling wood crafts is one way I fund my model railroad habit ;) I'll post a photo of my craft table sometime this week.

Wanted to show you the photo below. My wife and I like to go antiquing. When I first got into model railroading (just 4 years ago), we were hitting some antique stores and noticed this. Not sure whether it's original, but it appears to be. Paid 30 bucks for it and it's been hanging in the train room ever since. You can see my layout in the reflection. I don't model D&RG but I do like this mirror.

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Have a good day everyone.
 
Good Morning All. 40° and misting, so I guess it's cloudy! High today is only supposed to reach 48°, same tomorrow until sunset when the north winds start howling and it drops below freezing a bit after midnight. Upper 60's by this time next week. Misty most of the day yesterday, stopped only when we drove to town for supper with two other couples at our favorite Italian restaurant. Yes, that's the one Sherrel.

I'll take the sausage, cheese and egg burritos for breakfast this morning Flo. Lots of hot salsa to go with it.

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding the barn progress yesterday; Chet, Rick, Chad, Phil, TH, Greg, Jerome, Sherrel, Patrick, Curt, Joe, Tom, Ken, Johnny. Over the years I have built over 300 structures but this is my first attempt at a derelict building. I am pleased with the results so far, but I am far from finished with the overall scene.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I did a tiny bit more weathering on the bars. I added more ground foam around it and added the derelict tractor with one axle on a block. Scenery is not complete as I will be adding trees and weeds but not until after I add the barbed wire fence first.
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This is really an antique tractor and I should weather the wheels some more.

Texas Hobo - One of the things that I liked about growing up in Brooklyn, was the tunnels, back remote entrances, air shafts and hidden alleys that we played in as kids.
Greg - You can keep that snow up there at your cabin.
Regarding track cleaning, I really haven't had any issues in the train shed which I built in 2011. Maybe it's still too new to have any dust issues, but I made it pretty air-tight to begin with. For some prevention I use dust-monkeys on every caboose. Like Chet, I use a Walther's track cleaning car which I run about once a month as a preventive measure only. I'm not sure I need to, but it's no big deal to run it so why not. About once every two years I use one of those cleaning wands from Woodland Scenics called Rail Tracker, to clean remote sidings and spurs.
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Patrick - I had a barn similar to this one about a quarter mile north until four or five years ago when the owner donated the aged lumber to the local "Cowboy Church" and they dismantled it and used it in their new church.

Everybody have a great day. Today is National Cat Day. Mine looks funny today while wet!
 
Texas Hobo said:
"I know I will never be a great model railroader, but that's not my goal. My goal is to have fun with my toy trains."
It is my belief that you can have a circle of track on the floor with a shoe box lid for a freight station, and be a model railroader. I think most of us will never be as you put it "Hall of Famers", but I believe we all enjoy the fun of the little worlds we create. Our imagination makes our railroad an empire, and your imagination fills in all the scenery that is needed for a complete operation. If one can sit down and run a model train for an hour or two and have the fun and enjoyment that brings, who cares
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You summed it up perfectly!
 
Good morning. A brisk start top the day with a couple of inches of fresh snow over night. Just heard from the wife. The highway was a sheet of ice all of the way to work for her. She went in late so she would not have to deal with the crappy roads in the dark. Heard back from the hospital yesterday afternoon and everything is fine.

thumbnail_20191029_053533.jpg Supposed to get colder tonight but then warm up some by the weekend. Feel bad for the kids that want to trick or treat. Is it the costume or warm clothing. A typical Halloween up here. The Mall in Bozeman each year enjoys having the kids come through the mall going to the different businesses for their treats. One way to deal with a cold Halloween.

Sherrel - I sure hope that you aren't having any problems with the fires out there in the land of fruit and nuts. Sure is a b**ch to fill up your car with $4.50 a gallon gas to to to a house without any electricity, if the house is still there. I can remember California back in the late 60's. I really enjoyed the visits I had beck then. Now I don't even want to cross the state line. When we were in Reno a few years ago, we took the interstate to Truckee to head down to Lake Tahoe, but quickly high tailed it over the state line back into Nevada.

Johnny - Like the photos. A lot of progress. Sweet. That mirror is a keeper./

Tom - What a bummer. Like Willie, I was hoping to see some more photos.

Louis - Really like that Chessie SD-9. Good photo.

Willie - That barn is a winner. What are you going to come up with to top the barn???

Guess I'll head down to the train room later. A bit too cold to do anything outdoors. Think summer might be over.

Digging into the Logan Valley archives, here is another before and after shot.

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Later
 
Good Morning Everyone....light snow overnight on the grass and tree leaves. More snow on Thursday.

Looks like train time today and then tomorrow. I though about my Lilly pad project last night and in some spots the glue that I used to hold the pads in place shows a bit. So I'll add some more pads to hide the glue which was supposed to dry clear. I was careful but I guess not careful enough. I thought of removing everything that I could and pour another coat of Enviro-Tex liquid which I used for the water and hide the glue. I think extra pads and some drift wood will do the trick in the spot where the glue is visible will work.

Additional coats of Enviro-Tex usually covers up mistakes and flaws in the water pours.

I use the Dead Falls from Woodland Scenics because of their variety in wood pieces their realistic, scale appearance and sometimes look for small wood pieces in my woods, but I'm hard pressed to find anything close to Woodland's products.

I can't stand for long periods of time so sitting on an elevated chair that my wife purchased for me to use while running trains will work just fine while I work on adding more pads to the water areas.

I when to Menard's yesterday with my wife and as I sat in her car, a elderly man walked from the store using a cane in each hand and was bent over in an extreme position. He took his time to walk to his vehicle and I thought that no matter how bad you think things maybe for you there's always someone else with problems worst than yours. I give this guy credit for the guts to over-come his disabilities.

I plan on adding a rear, red beacon in a SOO caboose which is typical of the brown version of the cabooses used by the SOO and which had the rear warning lights. I plan on installing a small LED or a low voltage lamp along with a flasher unit and power pick up trucks. I'm not sure what to use for the fixture ring around the lamp. (Anyone have any ideas what to use?)

I hope this project meets one qualification for the NMRA MMR Electrical section.

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I been reviewing what needs to be done for the sections of the MMR Achievement Award and some seem very do able while other not so easy.

That's about all..........

Greg

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Bruette said:
I know I will never be a great model railroader, but that's not my goal. My goal is to have fun with my toy trains.
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While I am in awe of the great modelers I see, I have no aspirations of modeling. I may try now and then, as I like a challenge, but for me, the interest in trains is the emotional interest in trains from places I have been or like to go. So shiny plastic buildings and vehicles, unweathered trains, simple landscapes, etc. work for me since I am not looking at the details, but rather the whole tie back to where I've been or want to go.

As we travel to Japan every other year, more or less, to visit the wife's family and to see her country and experience it, and as we travel by train a whole ton while there, I like the Japanese themed trains. It invokes the emotional feel of being there and planning the next trip there. I overlook the lack of details (weathering, etc) and just like playing with the trains. I run non-prototypical batches (ie, JR West and JR East on the same layout at the same time). As long as it evokes the image of Japan for me, I am game.

The same thing applies to the European trains (mostly Germany/Austria/Switzerland). Not only did I live in Germany twice (86-87, 91-93), and ride a lot of trains during the first sojourn, I've been back a few times and ridden some trains. But more than that, to me, the German trains means a trip -- a vacation -- even if only in distant dreams. (I will finally go back in 2020 and ride a bunch of trains when I go to a missionary reunion in Munich). I don't go to Europe as often as Japan, but it still holds the emotional attachment of having lived there and ridden trains there, and of a potential future trip there to look forward to. To dream about. So that is why I like the European trains -- especially the German/Austrian/Swiss.

I don't have or play with US model trains, though I love to look at all you guys' layouts and trains and great modeling skills. I have no real connection to the US trains. I rarely see them (mostly occasionally see the Frontrunner commuter train and I do see the light rail regularly) -- only see them when I drive up to Wyoming or very occasionally when they run through the valley. And we don't ride trains much in the US and I have not ridden more than light rail types since I rode a commuter train to Boston back in the late 80s. So there is a geek interest in looking at them and their technology and stuff, but no real emotional need to have them myself.

So, to sum up a long post, I agree with @Bruette -- I'll never be a great model railroader (though once I get my train room built and eventually get into retirement, I'll make a good go at it), I just like to run them and set up stuff to help me get excited about the next trip, to pretend to be there, and to remember the past trips.
 
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Good morning, y'all. Today could be Houston's day...or Strasburg could extend the inevitable by a another day.

For some reason, I'm getting this horrible vibe that my laptop is about to crash. Then, it could be Chrome? Ever since Microsoft's last update, both Firefox and Chrome have behaved in a peculiar manner.

Short and sweet, Willie, the old barn and tractor are awesome. Chet, I'm certainly glad we don't have those temperatures this early in the season. Your before and after sequence encourages me, as I'm still in the "before" stage. Johnny, that mirror was a nice find, Louis, nice photo of the Cumberland drill.

In a little while, I'll brave the fog and drizzle to pick up a prescription, and pay my quarterly property taxes.

This is my latest progress photo, of the dockside terminal and pier:
Dockside Warehouse 10-28-19.jpg

I'm not exactly thrilled with the way the roof came together, I have to paint it or cover it with something. Meanwhile, I'm beginning to fill in the space between the tracks so I can place the concrete slabs to the right. The installation of the bulkhead remains, as does the assembly and painting of the dockside gantry crane, fencing and ground storage.

Have a great day.

Boris
 
GREG - Thanks for the info - those are some good looking pallets!

CHET - Your description of making a "white lighting" run to CA and back was most enlighting.
I remember you starting the layout of the "downtown" streets on your layout. You really captured the moment!

Willie - The barn turned out very well .. If you can - try for a small cupola on the top with broken slats and weather vane?

OK , Flo ... How about coffee and a couple of eggs up with sausage, hash browns, and a bottle of hot sauce?
It's 41 degrees here this morning - the record low for this date is 40!
Winds are calm around here, so far ... we really only had one day of windy conditions which resulted in my patio getting its annual baptism of those damn beans again - two 5 gal buckets, so far.. Yes, I failed to get the tree cut down - I'm in a quandary over it - It is on county property - not the association.

Drove the truck yesterday for the first time in a week ... took it to the grocery store about 2 miles away and it ran normally with no problem. I'm beginning to think that it is a temperature-induced fault? Maybe I will try again today.
 
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