Running Bear's August 2021 Coffee Shop


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Afternoon All,

Spent the day at Dad's. When we drive up to VA on 9 Sept. for the family memorial for Mom one of us will be driving his car up there and leaving it for him until the last part of October (when he moves there) so he put it in for routine maintenance which ran a little over $800. I'm taking tomorrow off but will be back at it on Sunday.

Sherrel- Nice closeup.

Steve- Looks good to me. It may be the angle of the camera but several of the tracks that sit on the TT lip don't look like they're long enough.

Christian- The bumpers work fine.

Greg- Water damage roof/flooring is the reason I'm working on a new layout. Nice layout shot.

Willie- Very nice buildings and scenes.

Chet- Welcome back. Very sorry to hear your personal news. Great layout shots. Is your layout gone now?

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Some updates to my earlier post...

My wife's vehicle was at the dealer for repairs to the A/C condensation drain and the tech found mouse damage to the drain hose, cabin air filter, carpet and other areas. They repaired the vehicle and added an air freshener to remove any odors. This the second time this vehicle has had mouse damage.

My pickup truck also had mouse damage to the extend of $713.00. Destroyed wiring and filters.

I contribute all this damage to the bird food Cathy had kept in the garage. It's now in small steel containers outside. Still, the bird food spilled from the feeder could provide a feast for the mice.

The Service Manager recommend to Cathy to buy a small sonic mouse preventer, which he highly recommended. I ordered two from Amazon, one for her car and one for my Lexus.

I hate to figure out the annual cost to feed each bird when you count the bird food, containers, feeders and then the vehicle damage!

Time for an exterminator.

Greg

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Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very happy to announce that the ladder tracks are powered and I can run trains via DCC!!! Enough for today, tomorrow I will finish the yard feeders and will be able to do switching ops.

A few rough spots to clean up, and the Micro Engineering weathered track does take a bit to clean. I am using 320 grit sand paper to get the initial weathering off. Then I'll go over with a Bright Boy. Has anyone ever used a felt pad in a dremel tool? Does that work at all?
 
MilwRoader_Steve said:
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very happy to announce that the ladder tracks are powered and I can run trains via DCC!!! Enough for today, tomorrow I will finish the yard feeders and will be able to do switching ops.

A few rough spots to clean up, and the Micro Engineering weathered track does take a bit to clean. I am using 320 grit sand paper to get the initial weathering off. Then I'll go over with a Bright Boy. Has anyone ever used a felt pad in a dremel tool? Does that work at all?
Click to expand...
Steve

I used a wire brush on my Drexel to remove the weather on ME rail. When done soldering I painted a light rust

TomO
 
Well fellers I figure it's time to do a check in. Been a good little bit since my last post. Haven't had anything really to talk about. I've been angry with current events but not for reasons one would expect. Had some helpful insight and wisdom handed to me by a former classmate turned Major in the Army that's helped some. Moving on to a better topic here. I added to the fleet. It was too good of a deal to pass up. It also completes my paint schemes. Curse the C&O railroad for so many different paint schemes! It breaks the bank!
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This one was the most popular next to the simple C&O scheme. I've been trying to get my hands on one in this paint since I started my Geep purchases. Well now I have one. Funny as this may seem. This was a bid auction. I won as the only bidder. I guess nobody likes to install detail parts anymore. I for one don't mind to do it. Well I guess this sums everything up for now. Waiting on the lumber prices to come down again so I can hit the reset. Hope everyone has a good night. I'll stop by again when I get a chance.
 
From the West! Have been up for a couple hours already and need to return to the comfort of the bed again. It is 67° heading for 95° they say - another 100° high yesterday - 2 in a row. Not a wisp of a cloud anywhere.

I spent the afternoon with the Spouse at the MIL ranch. MIL was not talkative at all - just sat there in her chair and sort of stared into space; she is slipping a little each time I see her.
Wife and I have talked about leaving CA after she is gone, but we can't seem to find an area that has our current weather - even with the 100° days there is no sweat due to the lower humidity, and if you do not like wet, this place is it! I'm just spoiled!
I'm starting to yawn - so I think I will lay down again?
BBL folks.
 
Its been a hot, humid week here. so have spent a lot of time in my basement enjoying the coolness and the layout. I got a Stewart F3 off ebay but it is the single headlight version, and I need a double headlight. Any one want to trade? Not a lot going on otherwise, which is good.

Mike
 
Good Morning Folks. Clear and 73° here this morning. Looking ahead, other than Tuesday and Wednesday, the ten day forecast is only calling for temperatures in the low 90's coming up.
Yesterday was a slow day on the SFW estate. I really just took the day off from chores and tasks except for food prep. Grilled a Rib Eye last night and made some delicious mushrooms to go with it. Also had a good helping of homemade coleslaw and blueberries. Tonight is fajitas with a skirt steak that I started marinating yesterday.

Thanks for the likes and comments yesterday regarding the structure post from yesterday; Christian, Karl, Tom O, Patrick, Steve J, Sherrel, Chad, Hughie, Rick, Curt, Justin, Guy.

Eggs over easy and a bunch of bacon this morning Flo. Hope that you enjoyed your day off yesterday.

Yesterday in the train shed was productive but not in photogenic ways, yet. Amazon did deliver my fine gray ballast three days early so I resumed that project but it just looked like a pool of glue/water when I left to start supper. Since I still have the weed making stuff out, I added some more to other areas of the layout while I am still in that mode. Still pondering where I will go to start my next project, the list is endless. I tried using my phone to take some layout pictures yesterday for the first time. Mixed results. Here's two.
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Need to hold it sideways!

Christian - Either I missed it the first time around, or you added the Peco question to your inquiry yesterday. Caboose Industries has the same ground throw available with five different add-on end pieces, one of which fits Peco. It's the 218S ground throw. You might try looking at someone other than Caboose Industries for the same product, as the manufacturer always has higher prices than some of the discounters like Model Train Stuff, or Trainworld. I don't know about shipping. They might be available from Hatton's in Great Britain with a lesser shipping cost.
Patrick - Don't be afraid of retiring early, I did it at 63 and there are others here who retired younger than that. The key to a successful retirement is not to tell anyone that you're retired, especially your kids. They'll figure it out in due time anyway. ;)
Greg - I received the same E-Mail from Scaletrains; I had been expecting it for a while. However for me, it does say that the price of existing pre-orders will not change. I have four diesels on pre-order with them. Those four will bring my total up to 13 from them, time to call it quits anyway. Those $100 Katos and P2K's from 20 years ago still run very well.
Cats work great for mouse control.
Bob - Let me add to the chorus of thanks for all of your work keeping the site running trouble-free.
Chet - WOW! What a curve ball you threw us yesterday about separation. I hope that things work out amicably. I fully agree with you on Florida, add insects to that. Then there's the hurricanes. Continued good luck with your estate hunting in Montana.
Steve J -
MilwRoader_Steve said:
I am using 320 grit sand paper to get the initial weathering off.
Click to expand...
It may be too late now, but I would avoid using sandpaper on track. Especially since you're going with DCC. Since I have never used the Micro Engineering track, I cannot offer a suggestion.

Dennis/Mike - Great to see some fresh faces in here this morning. Don't be strangers.

I wish that I could post more about the current political situation both nationally and internationally here; things sure seem to be... I don't do social media so that's out. Let's just say that I am concerned.

Today is National Red Wine Day. I need to hide the corkscrew from my wife!
Everybody have a great day and stay safe.
 
Good Morning!

We will be taking a day off from fishing today, only to have a garden party with friends. The wife is making up a whole lot of food, mostly based on fresh trout and garden harvest. She's baking up fresh apple crisp as I speak, with apples picked yesterday. - I have a feeling there will be a pile of people here come the afternoon, and one family from out-of-town will be staying the night.
Secretly, I dislike parties and entertaining guests. The wife, on the other hand, enjoys the socializing immensely. It's her thing. - I suppose her calling me a grumpy old man is the truth.
At least, it will be a nice day for a garden party. The temps are supposed to hit in the high 60's under blue sky. Right now at 6:00am, it's 44f.

I did go back a few pages and read a bunch of posts. Thank you for posting so many wonderful photos, to those who do.
Also, thank-you heaps, for the likes on my recent posts that have nothing to do with modeling.

Sometimes I'll take a photo of older buildings for future modelling reference. That was the case with this General Store that I photographed in Robb, Alberta.
When I was younger, I used to purchase my fishing license and some tackle at this store. Now, I see it's all boarded up. I suspect this is a result of the current conditions of the economy. It's sad, that store was a once a favorite stop during fishing trips in the area. With that store closed, it's a long way to the next gas stop, so one had better have a full tank before going on.
Here's the store today:
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There was an open-pit coal mine in the area at one time. I worked there as an industrial electrician for a couple of years.
Don't know if it's still operating, as there don't seem to be a whole lot of action along the coal branch or on the forestry trunk road.
Here's a photo of the mine that I took in 2008, when I worked there:
CoalValley_2008.jpg

I hope it's out of business, as you would be hard pressed to find an industry more greedy and destructive than a surface mine. They drain lakes and relocate bodies in cemeteries so they can mine what's underneath. I've seen it happen. There's no such thing as a 'final resting place' if black-gold money is involved.

Anyway, I suppose I had better help the wife with party preparations. Need to mow the lawn and make sure the yard is up to it; clean things up.

Have a great day, friends!
 
santafewillie said:
Christian - Either I missed it the first time around, or you added the Peco question to your inquiry yesterday. Caboose Industries has the same ground throw available with five different add-on end pieces, one of which fits Peco. It's the 218S ground throw. You might try looking at someone other than Caboose Industries for the same product, as the manufacturer always has higher prices than some of the discounters like Model Train Stuff, or Trainworld. I don't know about shipping. They might be available from Hatton's in Great Britain with a lesser shipping cost.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for your time, patience and replies Willie. Unfortunately Hattons doesn't sell it. I bought all my American stuff from them. Low prices, low shipping cost and fortunately, they are not very far away from me.
 
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