Running Bear’s October 2020 Coffee Shop


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Boris: I've found that Good Rx prices to be lower than many products on my Prescription Plan.

Greg:
Thanks, I also find that to be true in for some prescriptions. Actually, while they are higher than the Do-nut price for the wife's Rx, they are cheaper than several other Rx plans.

Guy: Nice job on the Cub Cadet!

Chet: Good Idea, should help the light reflection.

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments on my warehouse project, and the Photos.

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Passenger Train operated by the 714th Railway Operating Bn, back in the late 1960s. Photo Courtesy Warren Calloway. If the timeline is correct, this is around the time i was stationed at Ft. Eustis, VA. There were several "Passenger" consists run each day. The steam powered one ran for school groups, while MRS-1 powered trains ran out to the Ranges / the Airfield and for other Training purposes.
 
Good afternoon from the So. Central portion of Wisconsin. It has hit 51 the supposed high for the day. Low 40’s due in on Wednesday and then mid-70’s on Thursday. Supposed to have rain the next 4 days but it’s already 2 hours past due.

Drove to the Hockey store to have the grandson’s helmet repaired, the screws won’t hold on the chin strap but it’s not a safety issue as there are 2 connection points. The shop because this is the second time, replaced every attachment point, no charge.

Stopped next at Dollar Tree for cheap hairspray for the tree leaves, in and out no lingering there! Traffic seems to be really down again, like not many drivers anywhere. Thought about Hobby Lobby in the same strip mall but didn’t have my phone and I buy nothing at Hobby Lobby unless I have the 40% off coupon. Yes, you can leave the house and survive without the cell phone. But, it is a funny feeling.

The pictures of real and models are great, please keep it up.

Have a great day
TomO
 
Afternoon All,

Today I installed the next 3 pieces of flex track on the curved incline. Thank goodness for the Ribbon Rail track tool. For some reason it couldn't get the same constant radius on it visually. After that I tested it with a diesel and the 2-8-8-2, then I added 2 sets of feeders and connected them to the power buss. Finally I put in the cardboard lattice work around the right end of the layout. Since I'm gone tomorrow I should plaster it on Thursday.

Joe- Neat photos. Great looking building. Are you putting a interior in it?

Willie- Nice pictures.

Guy- Nice job on the lawn tractor. I was thinking that a trimmed down plastic soda bottle cap would work for the mower deck.

Chet- That looks like a great looking and pulling shifter.

Greg- Probably as good as anyone running.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Joe- Neat photos. Great looking building. Are you putting a interior in it?

Curt:
No, this is strictly a background structure with two car spots, no lights, no interior.

Gary S:
Nice work on the tug so far.

TomO:
I hear you, yes we can live without the phones...for a short while anyway. BTW the local HL is claiming everything is marked down...40% off Coupon not honored, since they reopened after Covid. No stock except the cheap seasonal crap either. Maybe they don't like doing buisness in Central jersey any longer...

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Amtrak's Wilmington DE Enginehouse in the 1980s - John Curdy Photo. Moved my first locomotive - without a overseer on 12-12-1967, when it was a Pennsylvania RR Facility. Spent a lot of time there early in my career with PRR / PC. Meatball is on Track 1, G on # 2, both facing South.
 
TomO: I hear you, yes we can live without the phones...for a short while anyway. BTW the local HL is claiming everything is marked down...40% off Coupon not honored, since they reopened after Covid. No stock except the cheap seasonal crap either. Maybe they don't like doing buisness in Central jersey any longer...

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Amtrak's Wilmington DE Enginehouse in the 1980s - John Curdy Photo. Moved my first locomotive - without a overseer on 12-12-1967, when it was a Pennsylvania RR Facility. Spent a lot of time there early in my career with PRR / PC. Meatball is on Track 1, G on # 2, both facing South.

Maybe that explains why I am not getting my Hobby Lobby discount emails. Thanks for the information. Love the Electrics

Tom
 
Hi Shop Dwellers, no time for a weather update since I need to get to bed soon...

Really enjoying the photos everyone is sharing, it took me ~ 40 minutes to get thru the last 8 pages. Haven't had a whole lot of "me" time lately, with (a) working full time, (b) my exercise regimen, (c) dealing with a tone-deaf solar panel service, and (d) too many doctors' visits (having a blood clot can really make life a tad inconvenient sometimes). The few hours of free time I've had, I was experimenting with ways to make homegrown exterior window screens for my fleet of I-12 cabin cars.

After much trial-n-error, I believe I finally found a workable solution. Here is a photo of an I-12 that was originally factory-painted in red, but I re-did it in blue+yellow. It's the one I use only when I'm running short of cabins for an op session, so it didn't really matter if I screwed it up - made a handy learning platform:

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For reference, here's a link to a proto photo:
...so if I apply what I've learned from my mistakes on this unit, I should have my other five I-12's looking presentable with homemade "screens".

BTW Sherrell - I finally found the email you sent to my old mailbox - much appreciated! Will compose and send a reply from my gmail account when I find the time....

Cheers!
 
Good Morning coffee clatchers, still dry in this corner of the Great Basin, have been AWOL for several, many days. One guess to were I went, well that was easy wasn't it. It was eastern Oregon, east side of the Steens mountains. Did a vacation of quading, exploring, relic hunting, rock hounding, metal detecting.
I do feel like I do need to apologize, even though I'm a newbie here, for not saying anything ahead of time. But, I'm paranoid! I live alone and with the way social media is, hackers, GPS and all that crap, I just didn't want to give somebody a heads up that I will be gone for a week. I even go so far as to remove my address from envelopes that go in the trash. (Burned in the winter time.) And I certainly DON'T think it would be anybody here on the front of the forum, maybe somebody lurking in the back ground on the internet, sorry for being stupid!

It took me well over an hour to get caught up just on the Coffee Shop posts, great photo's and posts of layouts and proto stuff, enjoyed the the reads.
Greg, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, belatedly!
I'll leave you guys with a couple of pics, this one is the Steens mountains, woke up Monday morning with snow on it, that's an elevation of 9700 and some odd feet, I'm standing at 4300 ft taking the pic. The Alvord basin sits at the base of the Steens.
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Also, here is a Geep that was dropped of for the switch crew to use, I haven't seen one this clean before still in BN paint.
I couldn't make out the ID numbers on it, somebody know what it is, GP- 50 perhaps?

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EVERBODY HAVE A GREAT DAY!
 
I'm up... Coffee and bacon this morning Flo. Wake Mel up and tell him chewy bacon, not the burned kind.

Welp... I didn't get the kitty litter restocked yesterday. First stop after the donut was at Michael's craft store. Need a bunch of cheap craft paints in the grey variety to paint and weather rocks. All I've got in those colours is expensive Vallejo paints. So I made the trek to the north side of town and skipped Target.

This must have been "Remote Learning Painting Week" - their shelves were bare. If I wanted NEON coloured rocks on the layout, they could help. But, that's just not the style I'm going for. ;) So off to Hobby Lobby. Like Curt, I only purchase there with coupon, or everything under $3 each. Half a dozen $1 paint, a couple of bags of cheap paintbrushes, and a bottle of India ink (hint: they have it in plastic paint bottles - 3 oz??? Same size as the craft paint, but over in the artist aisle).

As an aside: Wear a mask and give others their space. Saw a lot more folks at Hobby Lobby sans face coverings, and queuing up like there's no pandemic. I shopped a while longer, and waited on the lines to empty out before I went to pay.

I did get some Woodland scenics Earth Shade down on the Misty Valley end of the layout last night, and used the putty knife to gather some excess plaster from the table where I had been cutting the plaster cloth before applying it. Cutting plaster cloth is messy! I used the excess plaster to fill in some divots on the trackbed portion on the risers. Hope to get to track laying tonight.

Question for the brain trust: Plaster cloth over WS risers and inclines: Is caulk enough to hold cork roadbed down? (Yes, I'll use T-pins to hold it while it dries). Or should I go up to a project adhesive?
 
Drizzle eh, funny it's called that, I've always thought it should be called Wetzzle.
If you've never visited the Midwestern part of the US, we have all sorts of rain here. We have mist, drizzle, (both in light and moderate amounts), sprinkles, light rain, rain, moderate rain, heavy rain, downpour, deluge, cats & dogs level, build an arc time, and then you get into the nasty stuff.

While we lived in southern Californa (four years of being an hour away from Sherrel and HOexplorer JIM... four years of missing out on fun train stuff!!!!!) The few times it did rain, her coworkers would charge into her office shouting "It's Raining!!!" My wife would look out at the moisture falling from the sky, "Nope, not even a drizzle. That's a heavy mist."

When it comes to rain, midwestern girls are true connoisseurs of the moisture.
 
Good morning from Wisconsin where there is a slight drizzle coming down. Wetness from the sky will increase later but at least it’s not the white stuff Northern Wisconsin was getting yesterday.

Troy—I have used Elmer’s GlueAll full strength for cork and I have used DAP’s cheapest and other brands of caulk.. Both hold very well, the Elmers came up when I needed adjustments. The caulk did not for me, the cork got destroyed.

Mask wearing is still a mandate in Wisconsin but the other party is again in court against the Governor rulings. I believe in Dr Faucci and mask wearing protects everyone.

Have a great day
TomO
 
Morning, everyone! 22° here in the snow zone, and I shoveled walks twice yesterday. Trying to prevent ice forming on the driveway. - Only have time for a coffee, as we are headed to the compulsory mask-up zone of the big city. Wife has a medical specialist appointment there. It will eat up the whole day; there and back.

In the modeling arena yesterday, all I got done was splashing some paint on the hardware store gang. I only use enamels, so it can get a bit long allowing dry time. Not done yet, but, I'm working at it:
Tractor8_10-20-2020.jpg

I did a little research on Cub Cadet lawn tractors, and found that the basic shape of my model was around as early as 1961. And, I no longer believe I'm too far out of scale for an HO tractor. It looks about right.

Thanks for all the likes, comments, and suggestions on past posts!! It's 6:00am, and I gotta make tracks! See ya later!
 
Good morning. Have to make it quick today. Going to visit the vampire this morning to get a blood draw for my annual physical at the end of the month. Have to fast so I hope Francine and Flo have a good hearty breakfast ready, like half a cow. After that I'll be heading ocer to my friends house to install the baseboard and other trim in the rooms that we put the new flooring into. Have got load up the compressor and nail gun.

Joe - Again, love the photos and my choice would be the GG-1.

keN - That caboose is a gem. Sweet.

Jerry - Like the photos. You should have cut some of that sage brush for trees. That make fantastic armatures. These only took about 10 minutes to make and the price is right.

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That will have to be my photo for today. Gotta go.

Later
 
Good morning...59° and Coastal Fog through mid day.

Maybe that explains why I am not getting my Hobby Lobby discount emails.
Tom: Don't know about HL policy, except the local ones. Owner was quite pissed when he had to close for covid. I'm inclined to think it's local only. Thhis HL also has a unique client base, not usually found in other locations, and that affects bottom line.

I believe in Dr Faucci and mask wearing protects everyone.
Tom: Personally, I feel that the mask provides me with protection from not only Covid, but Colds and Seasonal Flu. I'm annoyed with the large number of people around here that leave their noses uncovered...they are still wearing a mask...but capable of spreading the virus...I don't get the opposition to protecting themselves.... Dr. Faucci, I fear, has become a bit full of himself, with all the media limelight. I do listen to advice of my personal physicians, and they all say to be careful and wear a mask.

Here is a photo of an I-12 that was originally factory-painted in red, but I re-did it in blue+yellow.
Ken: Nice! I had forgotten how the screens were set on the I-12.

I did a little research on Cub Cadet lawn tractors, and found that the basic shape of my model was around as early as 1961
Guy: The complete painted tractor is very good...the figures look good.

E44s @ PY 11-16-1969.jpg

Motors off an inbound reversing off the Hump for the Pit track at Potomac Yard 11-16-1969
 
Good Morning Everyone. It's partly cloudy and 67° here. Perfect fall weather, it reached 86° yesterday and will be the same today and tomorrow. Next cool front is supposed to be on Friday with a chance of rain.
Headed out for another doctor appointment this morning at 9:00. New one for me, I think that he is a vascular surgeon or something like that. The CT scan back in September showed some kind of issue, my regular doctor is not an expert on that type of thing, so he set me up with a specialist for review. I think that it is just another case of milking Medicare and lining his friends pockets. While out, I have to pick up an Rx that wasn't ready Monday and my wife is shopping for new tennis shoes.

Western omelet for me this morning with extra bacon on the side, Francine. I like that chewy bacon as well.

Thanks once again for the likes and comments regarding the pictures that I posted yesterday; Patrick, Guy, Karl, Tom O, Garry, Chet, Joe, James, Chad, Curt, Tom, Jerome, Sherrel, Phil, Ken.

Continued slow day in the train shed yesterday. Did some more general cleanup and train running, since I won't be able to do that after Friday. While I still had those extra signs on the workbench, I retrieved one of the structures that needed one. It is a "five & dime" store from Smalltown that has resided on the layout for some time now.
Before.
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After.
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I did some other stuff, but I just don't recall at the moment.
Some of our Coffee Shop visitors were not here about 14 months ago when I made this Bar Mills laser-cut wood structure, so I'll post three new pictures of it today. It is Oakleaf Storage.
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Patrick -
Sadly I feel like I live in a dictatorship as for all the state\local offices, there's only 1 candidate from 1 party on the ballot. Sadly any other party or independent candidate also wouldn't get elected locally either.
Up until recently that was pretty much the way my area was. Just incumbents on the ballot. Now there are token opposition candidates who generally get less than 5% of the vote. Even in national races like President and Senator, my vote wouldn't make a difference. It's so overwhelming that a vote for the winner is not significant, and a vote for the loser is lost in the landslide.
Joe - I once again have to add kudos to the backdrop structure. I looked at that post again, and I think the scene is able to support multiple detailing opportunities.
Guy - Are you taking orders for additional tractors?;) I will have to bookmark the varied posts so I can copy your work. It may be a tad small, but remember that Rebecca is quite a tall woman. And yes they were that small 60 years ago.
Don't worry about dropping in to the Coffee Shop too often, your posts are always informative. We have previously had members drop by 10-15 times a day; keeps Flo and Francine on their toes and earns them some good tip money.
Chet -
Make sure that your wife does get some time to walk around during your trip. Sitting still won't be good for her. I
That's the main reason that we're going for the new shoes today. Now that both legs are the same length and both work properly, the old worn shoes don't work too well. She'll break in the new ones when we go grocery shopping tomorrow.
I sure hate the projects when you end up having to make multiple trips to the store. For me it's a 30 mile round trip.
I hear you on that, for me it's a fifty mile round trip to either of the two closest Home Depots.
Tom O - I waited until I was 66 before I finally even got a cell phone. I still leave it at home most of the time unless reminded by the other half. She panics without it, I guess it's because she's had hers over 30 years now. Among other things, I find it cumbersome. In addition, I don't think that tracking is ever turned off even if requested.
Ken - Nice work on the screens.
Jerry - I always agreed on being cautious of what you post on the Internet, but I have gotten away from that more recently. Why? I don't really know. I have posted here about my vacation plans before, somewhat hesitatingly. On the home front, there's four security cameras and a Ring doorbell that all send alerts to my wife's phone if motion is detected as well as live videos. The recordings are stored on the cloud service. It used to be annoying when the motion detecting aspect caught the cat jumping on the porch while we were gone, or in some cases the branches on trees 30' away swaying. For vacations, four of my closest neighbors (we've all been neighbors for 40 years), keep their eyes open when they pass the house. Although we're not really visible if they're not driving by. Terry beat me to the answer on the Geep.
Troy - I wear my mask even when others aren't, to help protect me against them. It is no longer mandatory in my area and wasn't really followed or actually needed; although our county just went over 500 cases and recorded the seventh death. However in the next county where I do most of my business (doctors, groceries, spirits etc.) it is still mandatory and is very well complied with.
Your memories of the rain in California remind me of our visit to Gulf Shores AL two years ago. They were panicked about the impending hurricane that did hit them while we were just getting there. It was quick and it rained right at 1" and there were 40 mph winds! That's just a typical mild spring storm for us here on the prairie. They did have a storm surge, but I don't remember how great.

Gotta cut it short today to get ready for the doctor appointment.
Everybody have a great day.
 
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Where the heck is everybody??? We just returned from our sojourn to the big city, and the good news is that the doctor that I saw sent me away with a clean bill of health. In fact, he questioned why my primary care physician sent me there to begin with. That fits in with the technician that did the CT scan who had said he didn't see anything unusual while doing the scan. While it was a waste of time, it was also comforting to know that the specialist didn't see any problem. Happy for that.
 
Hello, the Coffee Shop. First time here. Just a comment. Is the plural of caboose, cabooses or cabeese? Answere: NONE of the above. If you are a Burlington Route fan, it is...way cars! ;) Not sure if the other James Hill lines (GN, NP) also used the same terminology. Second thought from my fevered brain: What did the "Q" call suburban commuter trains? Answer: "Dinkies". o_O Will try to come up with more intelligent posts in the future.
Stay well and safe!
 
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