Running Bear's Coffee Shop LXXI


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Joe, the plan is an employer group plan. There are no marketplace plans here. An independent plan would cost roughly 4x as much as we are payng now, and cover even less. I could get a plan that would basically be the old, pre-affordable care lan, but would cost somewhere north of $2000 a month. And since it isn't an "approved" plan, I'd also have to pay the IRS a fine.
 
Conductor: There are track planning templates available which will assist you in do a drawing of your track plan. The one I have has various radii, switches and straight sections of track.

A little small for a pic, but its in the Walther's Reference book or online.
Greg
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Greg - The problem I have with anything Walthers is that I cannot justify paying their "shipping" on purchasing small orders.

It's insane to have to pay a 11.95 dollar shipping charge on say a package of spikes or a detail part!

Besides - the track planning tool that you posted os OOS and not expected until June?
 
Afternoon All,

It was foggy earlier but now it's close to 80. The downside is a cold front comes through late tomorrow and by Sunday we will have highs in the 50's for a couple of days. You have to love FL in the winter. I finished the build today and I will "mount" it tomorrow on the layout. Sunday my son and I are taking a concealed carry class.

I need to ask you all that know about painting stainless steel. What do you recommend to use to prep the surface? The paint is enamel.

VA Ken- Great progress.

Jesse- I was very old school. I measured the T/O dimensions then used graph paper. For curves I marked the start and end point of the curve and then fared it in. Not perfect, but it worked good enough for me. I'm not smart enough to do the computer programs.

Sherrel- I feel the same way about Walthers. I have never ordered from them.

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I hope everyone has a good night.
 
PRR Modeler said:
Afternoon All,

It was foggy earlier but now it's close to 80. The downside is a cold front comes through late tomorrow and by Sunday we will have highs in the 50's for a couple of days. You have to love FL in the winter. I finished the build today and I will "mount" it tomorrow on the layout. Sunday my son and I are taking a concealed carry class.

I need to ask you all that know about painting stainless steel. What do you recommend to use to prep the surface? The paint is enamel.

VA Ken- Great progress.

Jesse- I was very old school. I measured the T/O dimensions then used graph paper. For curves I marked the start and end point of the curve and then fared it in. Not perfect, but it worked good enough for me. I'm not smart enough to do the computer programs.

Sherrel- I feel the same way about Walthers. I have never ordered from them.

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I hope everyone has a good night.
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That's part of my problem. I don't have a t/o to measure. The other part is, while I'm not young enough to not know what life was like before computers, I am old enough to not have learned how to do it the old school way. Also, I'm terrible why math. It was always my arch nemesis in school. I guess I could search YouTube for a tutorial. Everything else seems to be on there.

Florida weather can be summed up in 5 easy steps:
Hot
Less hot
Rain
Love bug
Snowbird
Many of these also overlap.

Good luck with your class.

Building looks great.

Jesse
 
chessie_system3 said:
I put this in my other post. I'll put it here as well. Anyone have any good ideas of elements I should add on my layout?

Justin
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I've mentioned it briefly in some of my previous posts, but I'll explain further here. I have a 1958 Plymouth Fury I plan to paint white over red and place in a not so hidden but not prominent place on my layout. I am, of course, recreating Stephen King's Christine. I don't agree with his politics, but since that isn't allowed here anyway, I'll focus on my point. I've read nearly every book the man has published, and enjoyed most of them. So I got the idea to strategically place random elements from my favorite books throughout the layout. By now, the red balloon hovering over a storm drain has gone viral, but I have other ideas as well. A dog standing on the hood of a pinto (Cujo), a rose in the middle of a dirt field (Dark Tower Series), a pet sematary, a buried UFO in the woods (Tommyknockers), etc. Various little things that the casual observer may not notice, but anyone with the knowledge would recognize instantly.

I'm not sure what type of elements you had in mind, but these are some of what I've considered.

Jesse
 
I think I've settled on a modified oval plan I can live with. The small green line is going to be my industry. The blue line is a creek leading to a small pond in the trees. The black line will be an abandoned line for a defunct passenger line. The blue x is going to be a diner car converted to serve as the town diner. The red x is a service station with a pump island and a one or two Bay garage, depending on space. I haven't decided on placement yet, but I plan to build a church and across the street from that will be the local dive bar. Should be a good source of local drama. I want to add a small police station/vfd combo, but haven't figured out where yet. In the S curve on the backside I may add a small hill for the town cemetery if it'll fit. It sounds like a lot, but not enough at the same time. I'll have to see how much space the structures take up. I'd love to at switches in a couple of the corners for future expansion, but I've learned through experimentation with the software that it won't line up correctly unless I put one in each corner. That's a lot of expensive track. And it won't fit in the available space.
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Jesse
 
Hey Jesse, the key to making things fit is to go with small stuff on your table. You're not going to do well trying to model the Grand Central Station. In this case, you would really have to stick to very small stuff, i.e. mom & pop auto repair shop, a less than car load loading dock, a small railfans house, etc.

In the mean time guys, did more work on the module this evening. Applied some plaster cover to the screen and painted the roadbed wood.
The transit case has a storage compartment in it now for all the legs to the modules and a front plug door for it.
I'll probably work on building the bridge systems this weekend. Three days off, yeaaaaaaa.

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Jesse, the voice of experience here says to try your best to make a short straight track on either end of the reverse curve. Even an inch on either end will help.
 
D & J - Yes. Small is key. I have a few core buildings that MUST be included, if space allows for more I will be happy. This plan my go out the window as soon as I try to lay it out, but we'll see. For now, this is it. THE layout plan to end all layout plans.

Until a better idea pops into my noggin. Lol

Jesse
 
bnsf971 said:
Jesse, the voice of experience here says to try your best to make a short straight track on either end of the reverse curve. Even an inch on either end will help.
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Good advice. I'll see what I can come up with.

Jesse
 
Jesse...I think that's great and I totally agree with Ken as that's my identical situation...Thus my comment about "small
painted cardboard boxes"...On a max 4 x 8 layout it's gon'a take a little trial & error to figure out what works where...My
'Brewery' can't be the second coming Anheuser-Busch...And I too want some room for a few little oddities that give the
layout a personality of it's own...The 'Elevated Test Section' goes up tomorrow...I hope...Trig :D
 
Good evening ...

Sherrel.... I thought of you when I just read an article about 747's being retired for commercial aviation. It said Delta is retiring its last 747, and it is the last one to fly for US airlines. It's going to Pinal County Air Field in AZ.


I "flew" this plane there..... LOL

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Curt .... Your building looks outstanding.

Ken D&J ... It s good to see your progress.
 
Trig - I'm working with half of that, so I really have to do some serious decision making. I want a realistic small town without looking cluttered. I hope that I will eventually have the space to model the layout I want, but until then I will be happy with just having a layout after about 15 years of saying I'm going to have a layout. No more talking. Time for ACTION! LOL.

Jesse
 
ACL-CSX said:
Trig - I'm working with half of that, so I really have to do some serious decision making. I want a realistic small town without looking cluttered. I hope that I will eventually have the space to model the layout I want, but until then I will be happy with just having a layout after about 15 years of saying I'm going to have a layout. No more talking. Time for ACTION! LOL.

Jesse
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Put a hill on a corner of the layout, with the track going through a tunnel under the hill. Put the town on the side of the hill. It'll still be tight, but a little hillside modeling can help a lot. Also, try using z scale buildings further up the hill, to give a forced perspective. That will make the houses toward the top of the hill seem further away.
 
ACL-CSX said:
Trig - I'm working with half of that, so I really have to do some serious decision making. I want a realistic small town without looking cluttered. I hope that I will eventually have the space to model the layout I want, but until then I will be happy with just having a layout after about 15 years of saying I'm going to have a layout. No more talking. Time for ACTION! LOL.

Jesse
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Yep...And there in lay the inevitable compromises...My layouts gon'a be full of 'em !!! :)...LOL...Speaking of a 4% grade !!!
And just like you it's been 15 years since my last layout...I'll be thrilled when I get some Trains running !!!

And Terry, the 'Forced Perspective' is a valuable lesson to remember...Just like Disneyland where each step up in height takes
a step down in scale to force the appearance of greater height than really exists...Trig
 
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