Running Bear's Coffee Shop XLII


Status
Not open for further replies.
kbkchooch said:
I remember when I was a kid they always told us the safest place in a thunderstorm was in a car. Maybe for you, but not for the car! A customer had their car towed in, it had been struck by lightning,,,while they were driving!! It was struck,,started running rough, got off the road then died! Now nothing works, the car smells of burnt electrical, but the only visible sign of the episode is the antenna on the roof,,,it is now about half its original length!
Click to expand...

A friend of mine had that happen with his 84 LTD Crown Vic. The car was struck completely blowing away the antenna. The car died almost instantly. He got off lucky. He replaced the alternator, pitched the electronic distributor and computer, put in an old style distributor that used condenser and points and got it running.
 
Good evening. It's a warm evening here. 81° out there and very humid. It's most clear with a good view of the sky. Too bad I don't have a telescope.

Finally got the chance to go to the bank today to deposit the donations I've received to change out the engine in my van. It's looking like that's going to be a reality. Got back from town and a couple hours later my father calls to invite me to dinner. Of course the van is vapor locked and won't start. So I call him back and tell him that and he comes to pick me up. Dinner was a nice affair of home fried hamburgers, his own recipe and quite good. After dinner we watched Wheel of Fortune. Afterward he took me back home where I tried starting the van again just to see if it would. Pressed the starter button and the battery connection went away. Brought out the tools and my Dremel rotary tool with steel wire brush attachment, removed both clamps, cleaned the posts and clamps then tore the clamps down and cleaned the cable ends, put it all back together and tried it again. Fired up no problem. Of course it'd been sitting for almost five hours so why shouldn't it. Other than that not much happened here today.

It's time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

DSCN1477.jpg


DSCN1476.jpg


DSCN1472.jpg
 
COFFEE_REFILL.png


Good Morning!

It's Sat 7/26/14

BLUECOFFEEMAN.png


Scattered showers here with a high of 87. I'm working in the yard and garden today. :D

TRAIN_ROUNDANDROUND.png


Tipton.gif

Temperature in TIPTON IN
 
Morning All,

Thanks for the coffee Bill. Have a lot going on today. A guy is coming out to give us a estimate on grinding down a stump in the back yard. It cost big bucks to rent a machine here. I also have a friend from my train club coming over at 1 PM to have a operating session (first time) so I am a little nervous about that, and we continue to watch the grand kids through Sunday while their Mom and Dad completely refurbish their bathroom.


Today I believe it is supposed to get to 95 F and with humidity probably feel like 104 F. Got to love Florida in the summer.


I wanted to thank everyone for the kind welcome yesterday. It was much appreciated. Talk to you soon.
 
Good Morning: 73° and overcast, going to 83° AccuWeather sez Clouds and Sun for today. So where is this "Polar Air Mass" and sub average temperatures the TV weather people have been hyping?

Not much planned for today, the wife and I have been walking a mile or so the last couple of days. We'll see how long this "healthy lifestyle" continues. :rolleyes:

Have a great weekend.

Joe
 
Good morning.It's slightly overcast and 73. High today is going to be 94, tomorrow 96, then dropping back to highs in the low to mid 80's for the rest of the week.



In other news, I've been made an offer of restitution to partially compensate for the item I got that wasn't quite as advertised. If he follows through as promised, I'll drop my claim with the post office, and consider the matter closed.
 
Good morning.

Karl .... A couple of years ago, lightning struck the car my brother-in-law in Nashville was driving. His hearing was affected for several weeks.

Glenn .... Thanks for the invite. When we go to Birmingham, it will be near the end of August when our family will help my mother celebrate her 95th birthday. We are contemplating another AL trip this fall when we may go to the AL Gulf Coast. That trip is still not certain.

Curt ... I bet the operating session will be a lot of fun. Enjoy the grand kids.

Joe ... Enjoy the walk with your wife. When my wife says "take a hike" she has another meaning.

Terry ... Glad the problem is being resolved.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Good morning. It's 80° with 88% humidity. The high will be 95° and sunny.
cond026.gif


Only one item of note today. My niece will be having her baby shower this afternoon. Other than that there's nothing special on my schedule. Sometime this morning I'll be putting Zelda (Apple IIc) through a battery of tests to check proper functioning of all components. I've already performed such a check on Diana (Apple //e) (first since ROM chip replacement) and found all functions to be within normal parameters.

Be back later.

P1010034.jpg


P1010032.jpg


P1010026.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Evening All,

Sitting here watching some really bad Sci-Fi with the grand kids. The operating session went well with my friend after a rocky start. He brought a BLI RS-12 (I think that what it was). He set it on the track and the headlights came on but nothing else. After trying everything we could think off still no luck. He ended up using my motive power without any further issue. Everything on the layout cooperated so I am happy. We started getting lightning after about 90 minutes so I shut down the layout and we had coffee and talked.

Not sure what the boss has planned for tomorrow so no idea what I will be doing. Hope everyone has a good night and talk to you tomorrow.
 
[Bold]Good afternoon,[/Bold] It's another hot one today. Lets check WW; 97.9 °F - Feels Like 95 °F, the Hum-i-dity is at ? [You see WW says todays weather is much like yesterdays so they are taking the day off and going fishing! LoL Winds are from the West at 5.3 Mph and the rest is unknown! Since a bit of time has passed since I first started posting I figured I check ww again as it seem hotter and it is. 102.9 °F going for a high 103 °F with Hum-i-dity at 12% increasing to 31% by 11:00 Pm with a temp of 80 °F, yuck!


*>
I did get out in my attached garage yesterday late afternoon and did get the second Left hand Curved switch spiked down on two ties, one regular length tie at the single track beginning and at a nearly full length switch length near the frog area. I had to wipe my face off during the process as well as glasses due to sweating. Anyway I was able to roll an Arch bar truck with the narrow code 88 treads through both switches on it own and then tried an old time channel frame log car that rolled through both switches ok too after some minor adjustments. Now I want to get out there and try a 36' car and see how it handles the switches and then two of them.

See you in a bit... Well after rolling the cars, a 36' box car with the old time channel frame log car attached, from the code 55 siding and then through both switches a few times it seems that everything is fairly well in adjustment. I did some find that a point on first switch did let go so I need to re-solder it which shouldn't be too much of a problem but it's getting too hot out there as the temp is now up o over 100 °F I'd bet. Yes, after I refreshed the ww page it now reads 102.9 °F going for a high 103 °F at 4:00 Pm.

*>

jeffrey-wimberly said:
P1010034.jpg


That's a neat shot of the old station or whatever it is with the old buck board wagon, also the Corrugated metal buildings on the far side of the tracks with their rusty roofs.


P1010032.jpg


The next shot of the modern day flat car with it load of Birch or whatever type of logs they are in interesting from the standpoint the square metal stakes, probably 5"x5" don't seem to be set in any stake pockets? Maybe they attach to the sides of the car with threaded studs welded to them?

Also this flat cars is great to show what rusts and what the rust looks like. What do you think the age of that modern flat car is?


P1010026.jpg
Click to expand...

This last modern box car is decorated with Graffiti similar to some of your cars, do you add that with decals or do the cars come that way?




kbkchooch said:
Kinda like my daily breakfast huh?? :rolleyes:
View attachment 44595
Yes, getting old sucks, but it beats the alternative!:cool:
Click to expand...

You got that right, for sure!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I print the graffiti on tracing paper and glue it to the car then seal it in place. On the photo of the flat car, that was taken ~ ten years ago. I have no idea of it's age. The photo with the rusted roofs, that's a little slice of Leesville's old industrial district. The building across the road is no longer there. It was demolished early this year. The station is the old KCS depot/freight station. It's been the Museum of West Louisiana since the mid 80's.
 
Thanks Jeffrey, That's interesting that you print your own Graffiti that way, I don't even see the edges the way you cut it. Very good. That's something that wasn't done in my era. Oh, I get back down to Fresno again and the cars are still there I'll take some shots of all the box cars coupled together, everyone of them was laden with Graffiti but it was actually some beautiful artwork at the same time.

The flat car appears to be a much newer one but probably 25 or 30 years old. Maybe someone else on the forum might know the year that type of car came out. I'm just curious as to how fast the car rusted. Although in your area and along the Coast areas with all the Humidity, like your 88%, that will promote rust alright. Anyway it's a great shot to use as a reference.

If anyone is interested the temp got up to 103.6 °F but started to drop and is now 102.2 °F.
 
PRR Modeler said:
Evening All,

Sitting here watching some really bad Sci-Fi with the grand kids. The operating session went well with my friend after a rocky start. He brought a BLI RS-12 (I think that what it was). He set it on the track and the headlights came on but nothing else. After trying everything we could think off still no luck. He ended up using my motive power without any further issue. Everything on the layout cooperated so I am happy. .
Click to expand...
If it's a Paragon (QSI)-equipped engine, you have to double press F6 to get it to start. If it's a Paragon 2 (late model stuff), you have to single-click F9 to get it to do anything.
 
Trussrod said:
The flat car appears to be a much newer one but probably 25 or 30 years old. Maybe someone else on the forum might know the year that type of car came out. I'm just curious as to how fast the car rusted. Although in your area and along the Coast areas with all the Humidity, like your 88%, that will promote rust alright. Anyway it's a great shot to use as a reference.
Click to expand...

I take those close up shots for reference but I have to be quick as the train is moving. It could be ten mph which makes it somewhat easier or it cold be moving through at forty mph which means I choose my shots quickly and go with the shortest shutter opening I can get. Not always easy with a Nikon L20 and even harder with an Olympus D550Z. The shot of the flat car was taken with the Olympus D550Z. 1/100th of a second exposure time, no flash.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Good evening. It's a warm but comfortable night. 83° and 79% humidity. Looks like tomorrow will be in the mid 90's and very humid and sunny.

Worked on Zelda (Apple IIc) this morning. Put her through a tough battery of tests that pushes the chips to their limits. She passed with flying colors. She's now an official addition to my collection. Diana (Apple //e) didn't do quite as well. The tests turned up a weakness in the video ROM. Replacing the chip fixed that. She scored full marks on the next test. Bravo. She's a keeper as well. Not bad for a rebuilt school computer from a private school in Wauconda Illinois. A computer has to be top notch to be in my collection and not just a parts source.

Went to my nieces baby shower this afternoon. Between the chicken, finger sandwiches, salad and snacks I think I overdid it a bit. But I did have fun. That's something I haven't had much of lately.

My father and I haven't chosen a date yet to take the van in to have the engine changed out. Things have been a bit busy around here. I have the money for the engine. He'll be paying for the swap out of the old with the new. Those who contributed have my thanks and the thanks of my family. These individuals know who they are. Thanks to all of you.

Time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

P1010021.jpg


P1010019.jpg


P1010017.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.



Back
Top