Running Bear's June 2020 Coffee Shop


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Good Morning Everyone. 70° and thunderstorms again this morning. OK, this is enough, four days in a row that I have gotten up to thunder, lightning and rain. The sound of grass growing is almost as loud as the thunder. Flash flood warning has returned.

How about a non-traditional breakfast this morning Flo. A sliced brisket sandwich and some potato salad should hit the spot.

Thanks for the reactions and likes yesterday regarding the layout progress; Guy, Chad, Jerome, Garry, James, Sherrel, Patrick, Phil, Curt, Tom, David.

I started cleaning up the used car lot yesterday. When I built it, I added an interior to it.
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I put a new billboard on the roof to replace the old one that had completely faded and fallen off.
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This structure will be getting interior lighting.

Curt - My pond normally doesn't have any mosquitoes. They breed in stagnant water. My pond doesn't fit into that category. Between the bullfrogs, turtles and occasional ducks, they remove all of the eggs, as well as the algae that the larvae need to feed on. Cannot say the same for the standing water in the ditches along the road though.
David -
Trussrod said:
I hope the ponf has a lower drainage than your train she'd
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Spillway on the opposite side usually takes care of that. Very occasionally the runoff from my hayfield and neighbor's pasture uphill will cause everything to be overwhelmed and the water might (only happened twice) run over the top of the surrounding levee, but it channels itself away from the train shed and house.
Here are a couple of shots of that happening in June 2019. Compare this picture with the one posted yesterday to see the difference.
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Here was some of the water running into the pond that day, going through the drainage sluice. The levee on the left is normally about 18" high
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That was the day that I posted this picture of part of the front yard where all of that overflow was going by.
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Mikey - You're right that activity here has been pretty minimal recently.

It appears that the thunderstorm has moved on and there is just a light rain now. Only 0.35" in the gauge so I may not have to pump water out of the pool this morning.
Have a great and safe day.
 
Good Morning, Everyone!
I'm prepared to say that we here in the frozen great white, have you southern types beat during the summer. With the temperatures averaging a livable 65-70F in the summer, we don't fry our rosy cheeks and bake the soles of our feet on hot tarmac. We also don't compete with snakes, scorpions, big hairy spiders, and large, nasty lizards. For a few short months of the year, it's actually very nice around here.
I'm so happy, I think I'll have a BLT double to get the day going, and stay long enough to enjoy more than a couple of slow coffee's.

Willie - It looks like you had better rig up the rod. There a chance you might be able to catch a catfish from you're front porch if the rain keeps up.

Phil - What 'other' diner!? This is the best place in town.

On a layout building note, I did get that one module table built. Had to attach the legs after it was brought down into the dark, dungeon-like basement, or else I would never get it down the stairs. Sadly, I live in a small, older home built in the 60's.
Here it is in the crowded space where I built many-a R/C aircraft, back in the day:
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Obviously, I have to get that space cleaned up and built into an area a little more train room friendly. In that area of the adventure, I have been notably negligent. I just wanted a module to get a start on, hoping a blank top to lay track on would give me motivation to model-on!

Now, I have to figure out what to do with that old, plywood top. This is supposed to be the module that holds Whitecourts small CN yard. I realize that there's not a whole lot of area there to work with, but, I'm going to play with it.

I suppose the first step is to get some wood filler on that old, weathered 1/2" plywood. Maybe it was sitting outside for too long. I'm a true believer in using up what's on hand.
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Don't be fooled by the weak look of that table. When it's finished and in position, I'll do a square dance on the top of it.

Have a great day, everyone!
 
Good morning .

Joe ... I am hoping the surgery is going well.

Toot .... The big locomotives in Western Australia look awesome.

Willie.... I continue to enjoy seeing your layout progresss. The interior at the used car lot office is nicely done.

Phil ..... Thanks very much for checking. SO far, I can't locate John Boy.

Guy ..... I'm in two model railroad forums. The other one, hosted by Model Railroader, is where I met Jeffrey Running Bear who belonged to about a half dozen forums. When his health worsened and he was going into the hospital, I offered to post updates about him in various forums. I would talk to his father on the phone, and then post the info in the forums. .... I continued to post here since Jeff passed away , and I like the guys here. So far, people here did not kick me out. LOL ..... Your layout table looks very sturdy. Nice work.

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Good Morning Everyone.....sunny after three inches of rain last night.

Back from the cabin on Sunday afternoon and the ticks are extremely bad this year! Most sprays including DEET aren't effective at all in repelling the little breasts.

Going back up to the cabin on Friday and hoping going to win more money at the local hang out. Last week was the first venture out into the public since last March 1st. This county was a low infection rate, under 10 individuals, so I feel more comfortable there than near Milwaukee where the Virus is running wild. Besides when playing a machine, I'm off in the back room playing a machine and have no real contact with people. My rule to play the minium bet and I stop playing when I double the amount of money that I intended to play with at the machines. My best slot bet was a dollar bet in Vegas at the Rio where I bet a dollar and hit 800 dollars.

List of things to do like repair a hose bib that's leaking, look at a dehumidifier, emails and then maybe some trains.

We had a large Ash tree removed over the weekend and the cost was right and the contractor did a great job. My neighbor had his tree taken down at the same time since it was only 30 feet away. He kept all the firewood from my tree without asking if he could have the wood. I had no intention of splitting the logs, but he should of asked if we wanted the wood since there was at least a face cord of good fire wood. At the cabin if the county or power utility cuts trees or does trimming they leave the firewood along the road for anyone who wants the wood to split and burn.

Enough about non-model railroading.

Still reading the instructions for a DCC Specialties PSX-1 circuit breaker. I thought I was just buying a simple circuit breaker.

Later.....

Greg

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A Walters Trainline MILW switcher, equipped with DCC is working the OMRO siding. These are inexpensive locomotives, but are great runners right out of the box. The two lamp signal in the rear controls one of the turnouts in the layout's reverse loop. The signal is from Tomar and it has Green and Red LED's.-Greg
 
I hope everyone had a Happy Juneteenth and a Happy Father’s Day!

Life has been a little chaotic and busy for me. In the early hours Juneteenth, my wife’s store was robbed at gun point. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and it was over quickly. The idiot only made off with a little over $200 in cash because my wife’s employees had followed policy by dropping large amounts of cash into the automated safe. Even though he wore a mask and hood he has been identified by his fingerprints he left on the counter. Turns out he is a life-long petty thief and more than likely a drug addict. It’s unusual for a drug addict to have a gun, they usually sell everything they have of value and guns are easy to sell.

I have been stopping by to visit the overnight shift at my wife’s store and it has disrupted my sleep schedule. That has thrown me off my routine. In addition, I have been busy with selling on Amazon. Seems like every few days I get a call about a pallet of this or that I can buy far below wholesale price. I opened a can of worms when I bought those Craftsman tools. I know I am supposed to be semi-retired/disabled, but I find it hard to turn away fast and easy money. The work is not hard, but everything takes time.

I hope everyone has been healthy and happy. God willing my routine will return to normal soon.

Have a great day Everyone!
 
santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. 66° with heavy, noisy thunderstorms. Once again, this event as well as yesterdays and Friday nights were not in the forecast. After much house shaking thunder for four hours yesterday, the rain finally hit around 8:00 am. By noon when it stopped, I had 1.75" in the gauge. So far since 1:30 this morning I have an additional 1.1" with more coming. Looks like about another two hours of this stuff. After 35 days without rain, we have gotten 5.35" since Friday night. Take that Sherrel!;) I didn't pump enough water out of the pool yesterday for this. Ironically, the Flash Flood Watch for yesterday has expired and a new one has not yet been issued.
A view of my overfilled pond behind the train shed.
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Another view at the inlet.
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Those large trees are normally about 5' from the waters edge. No mowing today!:(

A large stack of blueberry pancakes with a stack of sausage patties for me this morning, Flo.

Thanks for the likes and comments yesterday regarding the slow progress; Guy, Phil, Garry, Jerome, Karl, Sherrel, Ken, Curt, Patrick.

Yesterday was mostly a "catch up on loose ends" day in the train shed. Painted some more on some figures that I will be using, added figures to several structures, vacuumed up construction debris and pondered.
I gave the liquor store a proper name and made and applied a sign along with the customers out front.
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And a few more in front of Miss Mary's.
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Down the block, Vivian's Shoe Store got a few more.
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As did Sally's Antiques.
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It's a bit windy around the corner where Jake has to hold on to his hat.
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I found a business on the "salvaged from the old layout" storage shelf that I might use in this scene.
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It's called "Honest Sam's Used Cars". I think that it was a Tyco kit when I bought it years ago. It's advertised on Walther's as an IHC kit currently still available. It's in need of some work.

Guy - I am not too pleased with all of the window treatments in that structure either. Some are a bit garish and most of the upper floor are a bit out of scale.
The fire truck seems like a neat project. I am sure that you will post pictures when the time comes. Likewise for the first module.
Sherrel - I love the sign on the structure behind the engine in your picture in post #611. Community Abattoir
Joe -

Is that the result of the "No Bail" law, or the elimination of 600 plain-clothes cops? Or a combination of both as well as other factors? Maybe "Stop and Frisk" wasn't such a bad idea.
Curt - Not good to read about the do-over on the first module. Thankfully you caught the issue before getting too far into the project.

I believe that today is National Onion Rings Day. Mmmmh Good!
Everybody have a great day.
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Willie: It sure looks as though you got a considerable amount of rain. I hope the ponf has a lower drainage than your train she'd ?

I really like the various window treatments as to the curtains etc ! Very imaginative indeed and the people certainly add to the scenes.
 
Patrick said:
Morning all,

Happy belated father's day to all the dads!

Coffee this morning and a sweet roll, thanks Flo!

Got a new air filter and serpentine belt put in the truck on Friday. Place that does my oil changes recommended both be changed at a cost of $175 for both (air filter was $45 and Belt was $85 + $45 labor). I ordered the belt and air filter from Rock Auto and with shipping spent $62.47. % minutes for the air filter and 20 minutes on the belt. This one was easy as I didn't have to over the fan or remove any engine supports. In all fairness it had stretched over an inch over the past 11 years and 171,000+ miles. I have a little squeak in the tensioner on startup but that wasn't unexpected. I'll replace when it either fails or the engine fails. Right now it's just noise in an 11 year old truck.

Did get some train time yesterday and figured out more on my air brush. I've found I needed to thin the paint a lot more than I had previously. I started some paint on the tracks. I found some older Art paint that one of the daughter's left behind that I think looks pretty good, but I need to find another bottle of it. Color is called "grapevine", it's a medium brown. I'm not sure if they got it at Micheal's or Walmart.

I started to look at one of the model kits I picked up in one of my auction bundles. It's an Alexander Scale model kit of a B&O interlock tower.

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It's old enough that their address in is Grand Rapids MI, and they are now in Benton Harbor. They still sell the kit $63.00, my box says $5.95. The paper parts have the old paper smell. I've got to figure out the color scheme and then get the paint. They give the original colors as yellow with black trim and a slate roof.

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(Image of completed model from Alexander's web page)

Although it could be any color, I am going to use it in the switch yard as a control building.
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Patrick:. Very nice looking switch tower.
 
McLeod said:
We also don't compete with snakes, scorpions, big hairy spiders, and large, nasty lizards. For a few short months of the year, it's actually very nice around here.
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But we don't have mosquitoes as big as buzzards either!!!! LOL

We used to vacation in the U.P. of Michigan (parents live there now) and they basically have 2 seasons...Winter and Mosquito.

On your module top, you could put some foam board (not the white Styrofoam). Comes in 1/2" to 2" thickness and is easy to work on\with. In my case, it will make having the creek I'd like to have easier to create.
 
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Afternoon All,

Went to Lowes this morning to get lumber and screen spline. Luckily they received more of what I needed so I got good looking lumber. After a early lunch I built the next module, a short 4 ft. one. Not sure if I'm working on the layout tomorrow or if higher authority (married guys know what I mean) has me working on pool enclosure screens.

Patrick- We have 2 six month seasons also: Hurricane and Non-Hurricane.

Joe- Nice photos. I hope your surgery went well today.

Tom- I had to look up what that loco is. It should be a nice addition to your fleet.

Willie- Very nice interior and billboard.

Garry- Nice layout shot.

Guy- The table looks good. You said you run N scale right?

Louis- Nice photos. I'm glad your wife and her co-workers are OK.

Greg- Nice layout shot.

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I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Patrick said:
On your module top, you could put some foam board (not the white Styrofoam). Comes in 1/2" to 2" thickness and is easy to work on\with. In my case, it will make having the creek I'd like to have easier to create.
Click to expand...

In fact, some (like me -- N scale) ONLY have the foam (pink/blue insulation foam sheets) as the table top, suspended on a frame. It is plenty stiff and makes it easy to come up with wiring underneath or whatever you need to do. A 2" or so also allows you to do some shallow excavation if you need to create water bodies, etc.
 
Patrick said:
On your module top, you could put some foam board
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I'm thinking about it, Patrick, and I might do just that. I'm toying with different ideas, though. Might go the foam insulation route and cover it with a harder surface, like stucco patch. In 1965, there would have only been gravel and sand in Whitecourt; no pavement at all.

PRR Modeler said:
Guy- The table looks good. You said you run N scale right?
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Curt, I do own more N-scale stuff than HO, but, I will be running the HO.

While the wife was having her coffee friends over for a visit today, I was in the basement playing; trying to figure out what to do on my first module. I'm trying to make this part look kinda like the small Whitecourt CN yard. So this module will hold some switches to sidings and some downtown buildings, that I'll try to make 1965ish. There's no way it will be close to exact, but, I'd like the basic feel to be there.
I've cut out some cardboard foot prints of buildings that I can make right away, as I have scratch build plans for them. Still need to get a firehall, a town hall, and some commercial retail buildings.

Took some photos of today's playtime. There will be small town buildings on either side of the tracks, and gravel roadwork so the G-kids can play with the vehicles:
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It's not much, I know. Just a start. This module will be mostly town.

Have a good evening. Guy
 
Good evening Shop Dwellers. 74*F and calm with 90% humidity - yuk!

Boris said:
. . .
Ken: Don't forget to order your B&O cabin cars. I almost bit on the 1978 Chessie scheme, before I came to my senses....I model PRR/PC and Reading :rolleyes: They are really nice cabins.
. . .
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No worries Joe, I'm right on top of it this time! That Chessie car is beyond my era, so I'm going for the dark blue w/yellow ends.

I'm enjoying everybody's photos, they all look great - don't have any time to comment individually on them so my "likes" will have to suffice.

In my previous "long" post, I believe I was discussing how I would have to continue soaking my L&I GP40 and GP38 shells in alcohol to soften the paint enough to be brushed off. Well, that plan didn't work out too well; the remaining paint stayed stiff and "leathery" and would be extremely difficult [if not impossible] to get off around the fans, grab irons, etc. So I decided to get one of these guys:

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...a Central Pneumatic Air Eraser from Harbor Freight Tools, for slightly <$30. And on Saturday, I brought it over to a local friend's house and used his compressor with a 15gal tank on it for a steady supply of 65psi air. I was able to get a significant amount of the leftover tuscan paint residue off the shells, but the kit didn't include enough aluminum oxide powder for me to completely finish the job. So I had to order a 5lb container of the Paasche brand 240-grit powder from Amazon (Harbor Freight doesn't sell replacement blast media for a precision tool like this one). It just got delivered today, but - after a pop-up thunderstorm - the air was too humid for me to go outside and do any blasting.

It's getting late and I have to be up at 5:30am, so...g'nite!
 
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