Running Bear’s August 2019 Coffee Shop


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It can get interesting running trains in the opposite direction on the same main line tracks. Meets can be interesting
Last night, at the club, I was doing that with another member coming the other way running a new steamer by itself. It stopped inside a tunnel on curved track, right in the middle. Couldn't reach it to get it out, so I uncoupled my 3 loco consist from my train waiting in the siding and ran it into the tunnel, hoping it would couple to the steamer. Fortunately it did and it wasn't a derailment that had stopped it, and pulled it out. Don't know what we would have done otherwise.
 
Last night, at the club, I was doing that with another member coming the other way running a new steamer by itself. It stopped inside a tunnel on curved track, right in the middle. Couldn't reach it to get it out, so I uncoupled my 3 loco consist from my train waiting in the siding and ran it into the tunnel, hoping it would couple to the steamer. Fortunately it did and it wasn't a derailment that had stopped it, and pulled it out. Don't know what we would have done otherwise.
That's why god made ramrods.
 
That's why god made ramrods.
Does he make curved one's too? Don't know that anything like that would have worked anyway without the risk of pushing it off the track. The track in the tunnel is an S bend, the entry at one end is after a long cut, so restricted access, the other, the track comes out and around the end of a peninsular which has perspex edge protection. It was actually very fortunate that the steamer wasn't derailed and would slide along the track. And it had been fitted with metal KD's. It was some pickup problem that had stopped it. A grabber might have worked.
 
Hi Shop Dwellers, I couldn't post anything yesterday because the Verizon FiOS network went out for my entire neighborhood. Wasn't about to try to post anything from my cellphone, I have enough problems with the "auto-correct" feature distorting simple txt messages. Not about to take that risk with forum posts.

Justin - I really enjoyed seeing your Parkersburg photos! I visited there during a road trip on my way to Huntington WV, in the '70s before Chessie ripped out all the tracks. Those were the days, never dreamed it was all going to disappear.

* * *

My new wifi router arrived yesterday, and I spent roughly an hour this morning setting it up. The computer I'm using it with is intentionally isolated from the internet, and the installation script on the CD kept aborting because it "couldn't find a valid internet connection." So I ended up calling Linksys tech support, and they walked me thru configuring it independently of the CD; in fact, I would up using my smartphone [rather than the laptop] to set it up. So now the router is projecting its own wifi signal and the laptop is able to detect it and connect to it.

That's the good news...

Next, I installed the Engine Driver app on my smartphone, and set all its properties; then I went to PanelPro on the laptop and started the WiiThrottle server. But my smartphone couldn't detect the wifi signal. Typing-in the router's IP address didn't work either. So...it looks like I have to wait for my JMRI "wizard" friend to return from his weekend hunting trip and help me with it, before I can get this thing to work. I don't want to screw it up any more than I've already done!o_O
 
Does he make curved one's too? Don't know that anything like that would have worked anyway without the risk of pushing it off the track. The track in the tunnel is an S bend, the entry at one end is after a long cut, so restricted access, the other, the track comes out and around the end of a peninsular which has perspex edge protection. It was actually very fortunate that the steamer wasn't derailed and would slide along the track. And it had been fitted with metal KD's. It was some pickup problem that had stopped it. A grabber might have worked.
The old sailing navies used flexible ramrods. Sometimes the old ways are the best.
 
Louis- Microwaving a brat kills me he flavor. Then again, Johnsonville isn’t a real brat.
Just as well the Katzenjammer Kids aren't still around.
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To use horse racing terminology, the Mets have finished "in the money" (1st, 2nd or 3rd) 30 times since 1962, over 50%!

Overall the Mets have lost about 370 more games than they have won, but they lost an average of 105+ for their first 7 seasons, a total of 737 loses from 1962-1968. To turn that around and win the 1969 World Series is why they will forever be the Amazing Mets.

They have appeared in the World Series 5 times having won 2 of them. Compared to the long history, 100+ years of the Chicago Cubs and others, the Mets look pretty successful.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYM/index.shtml
https://sabr.org/research/new-york-mets-team-ownership-history
 
Louis- Microwaving a brat kills me he flavor. Then again, Johnsonville isn’t a real brat.

Mike, forgive me, I failed to mention the Brat was a left over. It was originally cooked on a Weber kettle charcoal grill. In addition I have a high power, 2.2cft Panasonic microwave with Inverter technology. I have little to no idea what Inverter technology is, but it is the best microwave I have ever used. It took 30 seconds to make the Johnsonville brat (at least that is what Johnsonville calls it) taste like it just came off the grill.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

For the record; I have not tried a Johnsonville product that I did not love! Even my picky, food snob, her only fault, otherwise she is perfect, my Hungarian Wife loves Johnsonville! Having been to Hungary I can understand why she can be a food snob. They have amazing food. Much of their meats are not from big companies. Many small farmers make their own and sell them in the local markets. The market in Kecskemet, my wife's home town has literally dozens and dozens of all kinds of sausages hanging in the stalls. Even the cheapest lunchmeats from the Grocery store (Kaiser's) is better then many of our most expensive lunch meats. I can honestly and proudly say, they can't beat American beef, even my wife agrees! USA, USA :)

Here are a few of my Johnsonville favorites;
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Ive tried many varieties of Johnsonville brats, they are all good.
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Same with these, all varieties are good, but these are my favorites. They even rival hamburgers!
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Last, but not least!
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For many years I only used Ostrowski's Polish sausage, made right here in Baltimore for my Thanksgiving Sauerkraut. That was until I tasted Johnsonville's Irish O'Garlic sausage!

I could go on and on. I'll buy any thing Johnsonville, when it's on sale that is. My freezer is stocked with a good variety of Johnsonville products.
 
Louis-- kind of vain to call themselves amazing. At least to a midwesterner. Or, puts some pressure on, hate to call myself amazing then not be the best continually.

Dave, I think it's a New York thing. Some New Yorkers have an abundance of vanity and they could careless if they earn it or not. Some New Yorkers think they are the best at everything, just ask them, they will tell you, no matter how stupid they sound.

I have followed your threads, I've seen your YouTube videos. I can honestly say you are an amazing model railroader!

Not to mention, I admire humility.
 
Louis: Bad defense like the play you described is reminiscent of Casey Stengle's Amazin Mets.

. When the team was first established, they were so bad that the (then numerous), Tabloids created synonyms for their collective ineptness Amazin took hold when they actually not only won the pennant, but also defeated a far superior Baltimore orioles team for the World Championship.

Boris

I did not see much of the inept NY Mets, As you know there was no ESPN or MLB network back then and I can't remember ever seeing them on the Saturday afternoon "game of the week" I did however read about how bad they were in the news papers. That bad defense they previously showed only made it worse for me when they played such great defense in the 1969 World Series.

I blame the Senators, they traded manager Gil Hodges to the Mets!
 
Good morning Everybody!

I'm all caught up on sleep, if that is even possible. I slept most of yesterday. I slept for 6 hours last night and as you may have noticed, I'm bright-eyed and bushy-tallied this morning!

Sometimes you just have to ride the storm out. uh-oh :)
 
So we are starting to wrap up our trip to Japan. Saturday is coming to an end. Tomorrow we will attend services in Amagasaki, and then come home and spend the day with my wife's mom, sister, and her husband (where we have been staying). I brought some Mexican fixin's and all be making some Beef Fajitas and some Chicken Tacos (all using soft wraps, not hard shells -- harder to bring) for our Japanese relations. Monday we head to Tokyo and will spend Tuesday and Wednesday at Tokyo Disneyland, as long as the weather gods approve (a Typhoon -- an Asian Hurricane -- is supposed to hit somewhere in Japan middle of this coming week), and Thursday evening we will head home. And thanks to the magic of crossing the international date line, we will land in California early Thursday afternoon (remember we are leaving Thursday evening Tokyo time). Unfortunately our flight from LAX to SLC was changed after we booked and a 3 hour layover turned into something like a 7 hour layover at LAX. So we don't land in SLC until 23:00 (planned). Long day.

Anyway, as we are starting to wrap up, I took the kids this morning on the subway and a train (Super Hakuto limited express -- see below) to Umeda (part of Osaka and where the main Osaka station is) and from there another rapid or limited express to the Nipponbashi part of Osaka where there is a section called "Den Den Town" (electric town -- similar to but much scaled down from the (in)famous Akihabara in Tokyo). There is an electronics/appliances/department store chain in Japan called "Joshin Denki" (Joshin Electric Store) that are all over, but in "Den Den Town" they have several different locations (relatively close to each other) and each one is specialized. We went to the "Kids Land" store, which is 5 levels of mostly hobby stuff. The first floor is generic toys (stuffed animals, small kids toys, legos, action figures, etc). The other floors included a "Tamiya Land", one that had model planes, cars, etc. and also a huge amount of Airsoft (they take Airsoft seriously in Japan), and a whole floor of model train stuff. N-scale is the predominant scale in Japan so most things on the floor are N-scale, though they do have some H0 and some Z. They had a ton of stuff and on previous trips I had bought lots of train sets etc here. Since I am basically on a purchase moratorium right now (we have started the process to build a house next year) I just grabbed a few things.

I got some KATO "open pit" track which is rails on concrete "pillars" which I saw at the Shinkansen station in Shin-Hakodate on Hokkaido (different than the normal concrete track). I got a 90 deg crossing as my son wanted it (not sure what we will do with it), 2 N-scale busses, one of the Hogarakadou sets of 12' containers (with writing/livery) -- they seem to be refrigerated containers. Hogarakadou is an expensive brand of container compared to Tomix or KATO so I just got the one. Plus they make containers in the white that you can paint or decal yourself (for special purposes). I got a few of those sets of the 12' and 20' variety for future use. And I got 6x KATO FL12 cab car decoders. These are DCC decoders used in cab cars to control lighting. They are made for KATO trains and are a weird form factor (and very expensive in the US). I probably need more than that but I went for 6 for now.

Here is the "Super Hakuto" (astute readers will see that the train we took in Hokkaido is "Super Hokuto" and this is "Super Hakuto"). It is a diesel DMU called HOT7000 and originated in the 90s. It is actually run by a "Third Sector" railway company called Chizu Express together with JR West. (Third Sector railway operators are public/private companies that run railways that the JR companies wanted to close down as unprofitable but the local governments wanted to keep alive, which they do in a pubic/private way). Normally it would not have been part of the JR Pass as a non-JR train, but when it gets into JR West territory (I am not sure where that is, but along the more profitable main lines) it is run by JR West and counts. I had not been on it before.

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Here is what I got at the Joshin Denki store "Kids Land" in "Den Den Town" in Osaka.

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And here is an interesting thing we saw in the subway station where we get off near my sister-in-law's: a bird had built a nest and had young ones. The nest was on a clock above the self-serve ticket machines. They've basically put a box under the clock to catch the bird poop and have left the birds alone. Here is a pic -- look at the sign at the very top and then the box at the bottom.

IMG_2122.jpg
 
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Baltimore Chapter, National Railway Historical Society
"Not our normal "style" of photo for this page, but we thought we'd go "atmospheric" for this one.
This shot by one-time Chapter President John S. Thomsen is shot from the rear of a westbound train departing the PRR Johnstown, Pa. station at dawn as the train is crossing the Little Conemaugh River early on a January 1968 day. PRR SD45 6173 is to the right. Judging from the dawn hour and the timetables, the train Thomsen is riding is probably a late-running Manhattan Limited, due into Pittsburgh at 7:00 AM. Penn Central would take over the PRR days later."

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Some New Yorkers have an abundance of vanity and they could careless if they earn it or not. Some New Yorkers think they are the best at everything, just ask them, they will tell you, no matter how stupid they sound.

Louis: "But it's New Yawk!" New Yorkers are arrogant, and demanding, but many tend to excell where others don't. They are also abrupt and eternally in a hurry. When I first moved here 33 years ago, most of my neighbors were refugees from State Island and Brooklyn, who had difficulty curtting the umbilical cord with their old neighborhood. At least the BENNYs were seasonal.

Speaking of "the Amazins", the Mets pulled off an awesome comeback last night. They entered the bottom of the ninth down 6-3 to the Nationals, and blew the Nats out of the ball park. When Michael Conforto drove in the game winning run, Citi Field went Nutz. This team has won 14 of their last 15 games, and are building momentum. Amazin! Ya gotta believe! Lets go Mets!


[QUOTE="IronBeltKen, post: 461397, member: 167"]Next, I installed the Engine Driver app on my smartphone, and set all its properties; then I went to PanelPro on the laptop and started the WiiThrottle server. But my smartphone couldn't detect the wifi signal. Typing-in the router's IP address didn't work either. So...it looks like I have to wait for my JMRI "wizard" friend to return from his weekend hunting trip and help me with it, before I can get this thing to work. I don't want to screw it up any more than I've already done!o_O[/QUOTE]

Ken:
The good news is that you have recovered sufficiently to be focused on other matters, in particular Model Railroad electronics.

Boris
 
Good Morning All. Starting with 78° and clear sunny skies today. Even though the weather forecasters continue to predict triple digits here, it hasn't quite made it yet. I did record 99.9° at some point yesterday afternoon, might as well have been 100°. Still in the forecast until Tuesday. Thought that I had an easy day yesterday until my wife announced that my other daughter and family were coming up today to visit her and help themselves to lunch here. That meant extra household chores that I was going to space out over a few days. Earlier I did some more mowing, with only 1" of rain in the last six weeks, I wonder why the grass/weeds are still growing!o_O I also finally removed the second low hanging branch from the tree in the back of the house. I am able to use my new garden cart for the first time hauling the wood to the woodpile.
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Good Morning Francine, I'll take Eggs Benedict smothered in Hollandaise sauce this morning. Looks like Louis is alive and well today.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I worked on two structures primarily. Added signage to the gas station.
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City Classics includes an interior for the office, but the garage bays really need one as well. I'll be searching the Internet for suitable era photos and manipulating them to fit. Working on the gas pumps next.
Had an awakening in the process. I wondered why they included three of all of the company signs for the signpost.
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It's for that magic moment when you realize that these aren't decals, after soaking the first one in water for 3-4 minutes!:confused:
I also did some painting on the fresh market, got the brickwork and windows painted, concrete sills and trim are next.
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Everything lined up.
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Johnny - Nice shot down Main Street.
Chet - No worries about melting here! Between the pool, A/C, and ice cold beer, I can survive. Lived in this part of Texas for nearly 58 years, this isn't actually too bad and it's far from the worst summer. It's actually below normal temperature wise and about normal rainfall wise.
I look forward to the club pictures every Friday.
Beady -
That's why god made ramrods.
How blasphemous of you!;)
Ken - I'm with you on posting from the phone.
Chad - Have a very safe trip home next week.

Today is National Bowling Day and National Garage Sale Day. Take your pick. I know where Chet might be!
Everybody have a great day.
 
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