Running Bear's April 2020 Coffee Shop


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My Wife is an Angel, it was her idea I buy three $200 Lionel gift certificates from the Lionel Store at 20% off, $600 for $480, not bad!

I was going to buy 2 for the things I want, but she insisted I buy three incase I find something else I want.

"Incase I find something else I want"... With that kind of thinking I could buy $20,000 or even more worth of gift certificates! But where will I put it all?

I can't let her see my wish lists, she will buy stuff without checking for the lowest prices! I may be a train junkie, but I still search for the best deals!

It should be said again, my wife is an Angel.
 
Paul - Oooops! Sorry for the lack of an update. It was delicious and more delicious. Too bad you couldn't make it. I cooked a six pounder so there was enough for everybody who might have come. Sadly no one here but me and my wife.
Leftovers used to be hard to do, however one did it, the meat always cooked past the medium rare stage. Then I discovered a fantastic way to preserve its integrity. Slice the amount that you want and slip it into a Ziploc bag, ,remove as much air as you can and seal it. Set a large skillet on the stove and heat water to 120°. Submerge the bag and leave it for no more than 5-7 minutes. I usually turn the heat off after a minute or two. Heats without cooking unless you leave it in too long. I also have to place a pot of water on top to keep it submerged since I can't always get all of the air out.
Bon Appétit!

Willie, My wife and I have the same problem. It's my fault, I still cook like all the kids are here. That combined with the fact I went hungry so many times as a kid. I always had leftovers when the kids were home. I just don't like not having food left over from dinner, I can't help myself!

I'm going to borrow another of your ideas! I don't have any problems with leftovers. I'm a master of leftovers and the beagles take care of any meat we can't eat. But It's always good to find new ways to preserve the quality of leftovers, thank you!
 
Morning all,

Clear and 51* this morning. Rain and storms predicted for yesterday din't happen here, but 70 miles east, so I had to water the tomatoes.

Time for coffee and a western omelet this morning...Thanks Francine.

Again, nothing done on the train front except cause trouble here....you're welcome.

Here's a Great Northern picture for your day:

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Back in the late 70's, I was heading north to Vermont for a ski trip. A friend was driving a monster 1960's station wagon, 3 rows, roof rack, and maybe even the fake vinyl wood siding, LOL. We were watching for trains on the way, and some place in Connecticut or something, I saw a GG1 in the station. We stopped on the side of the road and admired it, and then it departed. I said "Hey, see if you can keep up with him!" He looks at me and says "Are you kidding, this thing has a V-8!" Well, he did manage to keep up with him but he was totally shocked by the acceleration. When we got to about 80 mph, he couldn't believe it. It was like 2 AM, so we drove along at 80 for a ways until the tracks split off from the road. Would have made a great video, but the primitive camcorders back then were out of reach of college kids, and besides, they certainly couldn't shoot at night.

When I was young, before I drove, I often crossed the tracks of the northeast corridor as a short cut. I really did grow up on the "wrong side of the tracks". The GG1 went by so fast that it seemed it would suck you under. Truly an amazing thing to experience.

For me the GG1 is the 8th wonder of the world.
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 58°. Quite a storm blew through here last night. Thunder, lightning, very high sustained winds and not much rainfall. It only lasted about 30 minutes at most. From what I can see in the darkness right now, there's some tree branches in the yard but only 0.3" in the rain gauge. According to the Weather Underground station about a mile away, the winds were in excess of 40 mph with gusts above 50 mph. I mostly slept through it, getting up only to close some windows and to relieve myself. Wife had candles going all over the house, but the power stayed on the whole time thankfully.
I did get to mow the south side of the yard and a little bit of the north side around the train shed earlier in the day. Gave the dishwasher and clothes washer a workout while my wife washed the outside of most of the windows. Temperature yesterday got warm enough to crank up one of the window A/C units for the first time this year. Had to run the one in the train shed as well.

Just a pair of sunny-side up eggs and a handful of bacon this morning Flo. Add a dozen doughnuts and give them to the next few customers that want them.

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding yesterday's post; Louis, Sherrel, Guy, Bob, Patrick, Jerome, Garry, Karl, Paul, Ray, Tom, Ken, Chad, James.

Out in the train shed, after looking at the area that I am working on right now, I made some minor changes.
I first patched and painted those cracks and imperfections in the plywood wall/backdrop. I decided to make the parking lot/loading apron behind Velikovsky's a bit larger and temporarily positioned the backdrop printed structures in place.
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The one on the left is protruding from the wall a bit, while the new one on the right is going to be mounted a bit higher to give the illusion of some depth back there.
Meanwhile over on the workbench, since I hadn't put up the dry transfers yet, I pulled a very old Athearn boxcar off the shelf that needed assembly and renumbering.
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New number applied, metal wheels and Kadee couplers added and here is what I have.
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The number is a bit prominent right now, I'll fix that when I weather the car.
Finally, I ran a couple of trains. Several of you mentioned that you liked the red/silver Santa Fe warbonnet scheme, so here are a pair of Scaletrains Dash9-44CW's in that scheme.
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Guy - OK, we just went through this with Johnny. You don't need a layout, and you don't have to post photos to visit us here. We welcome all enthusiasts. So don't stop visiting and chatting unless you just have too much else to do.
Patrick -
...my reduced hours at the city is making my contribution towards the state retirement fund less which may cost me in a few years when I think seriously about retiring.
I faced the same type of dilemma during the downturn in 2008-???? when my salary was frozen. I just contributed more to my Roth IRA and my traditional IRA.
Hughie - I am glad that our governor is re-opening parts of the state economy, part of which shouldn't have been shut down to begin with. I am going to continue with my face covering for the immediate future because I am in four of what some medical "experts" consider to be high risk categories. The only part of my life affected by the self-quaranting has been my ability to go and sit in a restaurant. All of the ones that I frequented offer pick up so it isn't that bad, except the food gets cold during the thirty minute trip home. Of course, the drinks at home are a lot cheaper!

Everyone have a great day.
 
Willie: I agree that the $600 payment on top of unemployment is a bit over the top and we'll all pay for it in the end. I was actually reading an online article this morning about how it has become a disincentive for some workers to return as they make more money on it than actually working. It should have been setup in some sort of sliding scale to have them just under their weekly take home as an incentive to go back once the all clear is set. The downside of the extra cash is that my reduced hours at the city is making my contribution towards the state retirement fund less which may cost me in a few years when I think seriously about retiring.

Who am I kidding, I'll be working till I'm dead... 🤣

My Wife's retail store has been understaffed due to the availability of warm bodies to fill positions. We thought that would change with all the new unemployment applications, but no. There is still of shortage of people applying for jobs. It's not a bad job, flexible hours, full time, health care, vacation, sick days and starts at $11/hour and lots of available overtime, but still not enough applicants.
 
BOB said, "A couple of comments. If you're making a longer post, with a lot of pictures and interesting info, don't be afraid to start a new post just for that."

Nice, BOB, but we all know that LOUIS just likes to play with the "Post reply" button!

It's one of the few things I can play with by myself that still works! Other things I need help with! ;)

I have an idea; so many people are infatuated with my use of the post button, how about a pool to guess how many times I will hit the post button each day?

To preserve the integrity of the pool I won't participate, but I do want a 10% cut of the money!
 
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Morning -- I'll try and slip something in before LOUIS returns - LOL!

Supposed to reach 88 today - up from 61 at this time with clear sunny skies. Got up to 89 yesterday and the stucco is starting to warm up - we had to crank the A/C on around 4 PM. The house is very well insulated and built with 6 inch walls and double pane windows with some fancy name for the glass; however, the heat still manages to seep in towards the end of the day. Most generally we only need a little cooling until the sun sets and the onshore winds start pushing the warmer air back towards the desert - wait - we are considered desert here!
AND so goes the lesson in local weather.

after reading JOHNNY"S post - I am asking myself what am I doing here? I don't have a layout, I don't build models, and I really have few photos of trains that I took myself, but I am pretty good at borrowing, OK stealing others photos, and generally trying to "poke" a little fun - sometimes - at others.
BUT, I do love looking at all modeling - ships, airplanes, vehicles, and trains -- and that my friends is why I am here.
JAMES ? is correct -- JOHNNY, Your time is not up!

I miss commenting on too many posts: I seriously think my mind is starting to go!
CURT - The mine build is looking great!
GARRY - I loved the construction photos - (are those legs made from particleboard?)
KARL - Love seeing your overhaul work and what you do!

I better run - LOUIS - may be wanting to post again?
 
Good Morning Everyone.....rainy day here in Wisconsin.

I had to go to the Froedtert Hospital and Medical College yesterday for some urgent work and the large complex, one of the larger med complexes in the entire county was essentially empty.

Late in the afternoon I did work on weathering that GP38-2, but I not happy with the roof so I'll so a paint stripper and start over. I need to improvement on applying soot to the roof along with rusting. The stripper will take it down to bare plastic like new once again.

On Monday I let a friegth run for hour without problems pulled by an ALCO #871 a MILW Road locomotive.

Heading down in a few minutes for a day of modeling.

Later everyone...

Greg

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Guy - OK, we just went through this with Johnny. You don't need a layout, and you don't have to post photos to visit us here. We welcome all enthusiasts. So don't stop visiting and chatting unless you just have too much else to do.

Perhaps my message of yesterday was not written quite right, and mis-understood. I'm not going anywhere; I'm not pulling a disappearing act. I like it here!
I know that I can post whatever I want and whenever I want, short of violent, pornographic nonsense; and I will.
Right at this time in spring, I'm hired to build fences, planters, decks and whatever else rich people are too lazy, or just don't know how to build themselves. So I'm just to busy to model or take a lot of photos at this time. I will be around to like or reply to whatever catches my fancy though, so don't think I'm going anywhere.

I simply like to have a photograph even dimly associated with my post's, or it wouldn't be me. So, here is a photograph of structures that can be modeled. A cabin, a trappers cabin, and a buckboard for a country pioneer setting;
Heritage.jpg

There, I snuck a photo into my post! Nhy, Nya!
Have a great day!
Guy
 
Good morning y'all. Back to cloudy and fixing to rain.

Louis, I enjoy your comments this morning. Same with yours Hughie.

Willie:
Nice work on the T&P Box car.

Karl: Good fix on the brass pup. Looking forward to the "Builder's" photo.

Not for nothing there were some Brass products that did not meet Athearn BB standards. I bought one, back when Athearn BB and Roundhouse were considered "the Standard". and that purchase caused me to be leary of buying brass. I developed an impression that brass was for Shelf Models to admire from a distance, as opposed to running on an active layout.

I have several articles on building a double crossover on 2" track center using Atlas 19° crossing, and four #6 Custom Line switches. So, I decided to try my hand at building one. My first observation is that Atlas either must have changed the tooling for the crossing, as there appears to be more injected plastic than the drawings indicate. Then it occurred to me, that there may be a significant difference in the code 100 crossing, vs. the Code 83 crossing. In any event I'm going to try this, and see where it goes.

Engine Change at South Amboy 03-07-1964.jpg


Engine change at South Amboy, as the New York "Coaster' swaps it's Shark for a GG1. Note the MU consist waiting in the MU Yard, and the hoppers in the background destined for the coal dumper on the Raritan Bay. The main reason why the Amboy and Dayton branches between SA and Midway were electrified was the coal traffic to the South Amboy Coal Dumper. South Amboy was quite the rail center, back in the day
 
Guy: I friend of mine build a hunting cabin similar to the one in your photo, but it was a bit taller with a small sleeping loft rather than a second floor. One end wall was withoiut windows and was intended for a collection of trophy mounts and skins and a large chandelier hung from the ceiling constructed out of animal horns.

A year after the cabin when through its first winter, the guys noticed that the two exterior doors were hard to open and close. The problem became increasingly worst over time.

A builder was hired to investigate the door problem and he found that the cabin was starting to lean due to the lack of cross beams at the second floor level. The cabin had to be straightened and beams added for support. An expensive project.

-Greg
 
Willie: I know the BB models use plastic wheel sets and should be replaced (in my case a money permits). What do you replace them with and is it the wheels only or the entire truck?

Patrick, I have replaced all my plastic wheels (about 350 cars worth) with metal. about half were replaced with Proto 2000 wheels, the rest were mostly Kadee. I tried Intermountain, but getting the proper fit in the truck was a bit of a bother with them. The P2K and KD wheels too the least amount of "adjusting".
truck tuner.jpg

By adjusting, if you find a tight axle, use a reamer (available from Micro Mark or your LHS) to add a little play to a tight axle fit, all to reduce friction and decrease rolling resistance. And yes, you don't have to replace the whole truck, just the wheel sets.
I did find a quick tutorial covering the basics .....

I other thing I do is paint each wheel set with rail brown or rust before I replace them. Saves me a step later on weathering.
 
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