Running Bear's October 2019 Coffee Shop


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Hi crew, just popping in to let y'all know I'm still alive and kickin.

In a nutshell: I haven't posted recently because there is just too much angst in my life at the moment. [1] Wife has some sort of lower GI ailment that the doc is trying to manage with oral medicines, but if these don't work, she may need surgery. [2] My son, who finally got admitted to PA school this past spring after three years of trying, is having migraines almost every day that are making it extremely difficult to concentrate on his course material - which is 10 times the difficulty level of his college courses. He absolutely can't afford to be sidelined by health issues at this critical time! [3] A friend of ours had surgery for a non-malignant brain tumor, but suffered two strokes while he was under anethstesia and though they weren't in 'critical' parts of his brain, he still isn't waking up; a cliff-hanger situation for his distraught wife and daughter.

On the mrr front: Saturday, I was hoping to apply some static grass along the side of the peninsula opposite the steel mill, but was unable to find any of my containers of static grass. So I had to place an order for new stuff with Scenic Express and wait until next weekend to continue with that project. Layout is currently too cluttered for me to operate any trains; and besides, I'm too stressed to enjoy doing that even if I were able.

Apologies for the gloom-n-doom, hopefully some of the dust will have settled by the time I make my next visit.
 
IB KEN ... Keep the Faith - Things will get better for all. Prayers for your wife 1st! The rest will follow.

I am so sleepy I am trying to type this with one eye closed. Keep wishing Houston would put an end to another boring game - maybe I give up on it.

LOUIS - JOE -- Why do the Yankees NOT have their names on the back of their jerseys????
 
IronBeltKen said:
Hi crew, just popping in to let y'all know I'm still alive and kickin.

In a nutshell: I haven't posted recently because there is just too much angst in my life at the moment. [1] Wife has some sort of lower GI ailment that the doc is trying to manage with oral medicines, but if these don't work, she may need surgery. [2] My son, who finally got admitted to PA school this past spring after three years of trying, is having migraines almost every day that are making it extremely difficult to concentrate on his course material - which is 10 times the difficulty level of his college courses. He absolutely can't afford to be sidelined by health issues at this critical time! [3] A friend of ours had surgery for a non-malignant brain tumor, but suffered two strokes while he was under anethstesia and though they weren't in 'critical' parts of his brain, he still isn't waking up; a cliff-hanger situation for his distraught wife and daughter.

On the mrr front: Saturday, I was hoping to apply some static grass along the side of the peninsula opposite the steel mill, but was unable to find any of my containers of static grass. So I had to place an order for new stuff with Scenic Express and wait until next weekend to continue with that project. Layout is currently too cluttered for me to operate any trains; and besides, I'm too stressed to enjoy doing that even if I were able.

Apologies for the gloom-n-doom, hopefully some of the dust will have settled by the time I make my next visit.
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Positive thoughts coming you and your wife, son and friends way. Hopefully, as you say, the dust will settle and a return to some sort of calmness will ensue.
 
IronBeltKen said:
Hi crew, just popping in to let y'all know I'm still alive and kickin.
[2] My son, who finally got admitted to PA school this past spring after three years of trying, is having migraines almost every day that are making it extremely difficult to concentrate on his course material - which is 10 times the difficulty level of his college courses. He absolutely can't afford to be sidelined by health issues at this critical time!
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Ken, there has been some new (?) research that indicates migraines can be caused by, and made much worse by, caffeine. If he is constantly chugging coffee or energy drinks to keep going, they could be making the problem worse. I know if I drink a cup of coffee while suffering from a migraine, it makes it more intense, and last longer. Not trying to tell you to tell him what to do, but I am sharing what I've learned. Cutting back on coffee, sodas with caffeine, and energy drinks may or may not help, but at least it won't hurt anything.
 
Willie, I could not agree more, Maryland has the money and it would be best spent on the kids, our future, but how the money gets spent is another question I don't have an answer for.

Maryland recently passed both DC and New Jersey in income. People are flocking to Maryland from all over the country. There are new housing developments all over the Baltimore metro area, while many of the DC suburbs are in decay. I see this first hand in my travels for Amazon.

Neighborhoods in Baltimore, like Canton, Federal Hill and many others are being revitalized by young home owners who don't want long commutes. As well as many of DC's top earners who don't mind an hour commute because they don't want to be in or around DC. These young people love city life in Baltimore!

Areas around private airports, Like Martin's in Middle River (where I grew up) have new housing developments with million dollar homes. Those super rich residents are using private Jets to commute to New York and other places. We already had many who used Amtrak to commute and ridership is growing.

The Baltimore/Washington corridor is bustling with activity. The commercial property around BWI airport is becoming scarce and very expensive. Downtown Baltimore is booming with the Medical industry and research.

The Port of Baltimore is busy with mostly European trade. That has given rise to many small trucking companies and even some owner operators along with a plethora of contractors all of who are making close to 7 figures and even more! I was shocked when I recently did 2 consulting jobs. One was a for a son of a customer I had over 20 years ago. He turned his dad's small time operation into more than 100 power units!

When I was getting started in business in the 80s I had to scratch and claw for work. Now there is more than companies can do.

We have the economic might, but do we know how best to use it? How do we confront the disparity in areas left behind? I don't know. I think people have to take personal responsibility for themselves, but no all are ready, willing or able.

My beloved Maryland has been changing rapidly in this century. Area's where you could have bought houses for under $10,000 in the 80s are now selling for $250,000 and up! Another sad part is many of our farms are being lost to housing developments. Maryland no longer produces more food than we consume.

Like all changes there are winners and losers. Keep pace or be left behind. God knows I had to "shift gears" more than once in my life, but I always managed to keep pace.
 
Morning all,

I'll play catch up on the other 19 pages later. Was babysitting some grand kids last week to burn up some comp time I had built up. I also had some train time as well. I got all but 30" of the inner loop completed. The last part is the 2nd lift bridge. I have a near dead spot in the middle of a piece of flex track that I have to clean as I have connection on the ends. I haven't yet attached the track to cork underlay yet, so I can replace it easily if necessary. I was delayed by the fact I had to set the cork for the siding switches first and just haven't gotten back downstairs to get it finished.

I had a new Micheal's open in Wichita a week ago and was able to get to the opening. Between the wife and I we each got a $10 gift card. With a 50% off coupon and the gift cards I got a small miter box and a testers airbrush kit. Although it is what I consider a starter kit as I have to buy the small air bottles, I think it will give me something to practice with before getting something more expensive. The pair of items were basically free as I still have a couple of bucks on a gift card remaining.
 
bnsf971 said:
Work has been progressing on the small-ish N scale layout. We go until we reach a stopping point, then we have to wait until I have time to continue. We put down some plaster cloth under where the track will go on the subroadbed today, now we have to wait for it to dry for the next step.
Just for S&Gs, I tried running a DPU train on the larger layout this afternoon. The result was deemed not successful.

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Missed this somehow, so had to go back. Try 3-2-1 next time. Having 3 pushers at the back would put more pressure on the couplers and on the mid helpers. May be causing binding of the couplers. Whether you have up and down grades that encompass the whole train, but in opposite grades will affect that too. Having more power biased forward, should (theoretically) keep the couplers taught.
 
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Good morning everyone. 43 and clear out there. Heading for the low 70's today. Time for coffee and a muffin.

A pretty uneventful weekend. Mowed the entire yard, hopefully for the last time, although I'll use the mower later to mulch leaves. Finished all the woodcrafts to fill the New York gift shop order and to sell at the craft fair in a couple of weeks.

Just got caught up with the posts since last Friday.

Mike, Cambria, Chessie, Lee, Sherrel, and anyone I may have missed - thanks for the likes and comments on my post last Friday,
Boris - thanks for that story about your retirement. Every bit of information helps.
Willie - Great photos of your town. Love the drone photos. amazing what those 1:87 cameras can do
Lee - Nice work on that funeral home and the hearse.
Garry - I like seeing the NYCentral logo on things!!
Chet - Nice deer photo you posted the other day. We have deer every day in our yard - right now they're eating the acorns on the ground. We also have a red fox, a beaver, an occasional rabbit stop by - we could start our own zoo!

Okay - Now that the lumber company area is pretty much finished, I've identified the next area of the layout I want to work on. It's at the north end of the layout, and has had "placeholders" sitting there for the entire three years since I started building this layout. I plan to extend the road out of the town and run it along the businesses that are currently there (a dairy and a lumber yard), decide where to put any hills and other scenery, add the landscaping trees/bushes/dirt/grass, and add vehicles and people to the area. Below is a photo of what it looks like now - that's the north end of the town of Pine Valley at the back and to the left of the photo:
DairyAndLumberyard1_Oct_2019.jpg


So, I'll start posting photos of progress as soon as I get things going.

have a good day everyone.
 
Good Morning All. 58° and hazy. Moon was especially bright last night before the haze. We're beginning that roller coaster fall weather pattern right now. Cool for the last few days, up to the 90's by tomorrow, then a couple more cool 70° days and back to the upper 80's Friday and the rest of the weekend. Minimal chance of rain around midnight tonight. It's gardening time again on the SFW estate. This week I will plant the garlic for harvest next May. Disappointed that I am not harvesting a fall garden this season, but in retrospect I made the right decision by not planting. We've only gotten one day of really measurable rain since June.
Start me up with the meat lovers special today Flo, bacon, sausage and ham with an English Muffin on the side!

Thanks for all of the likes and comments yesterday for the flyover shots; Ray, Joe, Phil, Chet, Z, Jerome, Sherrel, Clint, Garry, Tom, Curt, Dave, Justin, Chad, Johnny.
Here's a long shot of the other "downtown" of Vernon that I showed a few shots of last week.
10-13-19 004.001.JPG

There's a second half of this town on the right, but that shot is too blurred to post. I'll get another later today.

Yesterday was a somewhat wasted day in the train shed. I found this near the entrance to the upper level yard.
10-13-19 005.002.JPG

Yep! An air reservoir. I spent two hours examining over 325 cars for the missing part. Haven't found the car yet. In the meantime, I did do some minor repairs/maintenance on some cars that I noted along the way. Things like broken stirups, missing coupler springs and a dead cricket lodged in a truck. Today I will start on cars that are on the lower deck as I sometimes move them back and forth.

Ray -
tootnkumin said:
C'mon, it was a Drone that took those photos, wasn't it?
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I've been called a lot of things in my life, but never a drone!:cool:
Z - Have a safe trip to Arizona. Take pictures for us.
Ken - Hang in there buddy. Thoughts and prayers for your family.
Patrick - Good to see that you survived the vacation.
Johnny -
Raincoat2 said:
Gee, I hope we don't have to repeat the course! Can they still "hold you back one grade" when you're this old?
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Only if you sleep through the course!

Everybody have a great day.
 
bnsf971 said:
Chet, if you are using the DT402, or similar, I can probably talk you through it.
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I think the controllers we use for Digitrax is or similar. They are wireless with a phone plug attached for entering the locomotives. I entered an A and B into into the right throttle and when the second A unit was put in behind the first two facing the opposite direction, it went in the opposite direction. The second A unit was programmed to a different number and was entered on the left throttle. While I was distracted he hit the MU button I believe. How can I do this again?

DT500D_jpg_2000x2000_q85.jpg
 
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