Running Bear's September 2021 Coffee Shop


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The real question, that perhaps Christian can answer for us: When a French citizen uses naughty swear words, do they say the equivalent of "Pardon my American language?"
Absolutely not ! Sometimes we say that (in French, of course): "He speaks English like a Spanish cow".
Everybody knows that a cow doesn't speak a foreign language.🤣🤣🤣
Can I say: just my two cents ?
 
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Good Morning Everyone. Clear and 60° here. Wow! 60°! Pretty early in the season for a temperature that low. Whatever slim hope of extending the pool season just flew away. It's just 72° this morning, although it did rise to 75° yesterday.
Not much going on around the SFW estate yesterday. I did remodel under the kitchen sinks after the plumber replaced/repaired much of the guts under there a few weeks ago. What didn't require squatting or stooping, required laying on the floor contorting into the space. I now have four sliding storage racks and a replacement goods storage rack on the inside of the door. Since the door racks were only sold in pairs, the other went into the cookware cabinet to hold several pot/pan lids. Due to plumbing behind one of the sliding racks, it wasn't going to fit on the door on that side.

Sausage, egg and cheese biscuits this morning Flo.

Thanks for all of the likes and comments regarding yesterday's post; Tom O, Garry, Hughie, Karl, Christian, Steve J, Gary, Joe, Tom, Patrick, Justin, Guy.

Pretty much a goof-off day in the train shed yesterday. I did run trains, including one "out and back" switching job from the north yard on the lower level. Switched out a total of seven grain covered hoppers at two different elevators in Graham; an empty boxcar at the tannery plus one at the bulk paper distributor and two boxcars loaded with wood at the pallet manufacturer. On the way back to the yard, the two empties were left at the Frisco interchange.
I also continued with some additional touch-up painting on those Chinese figures.
Since I didn't bring the photographer along with his drone, I will have to search the archives if I am going to post pictures.
I built this antiques store about 14 months ago from a Bar Mills kit called Stanley Stove Co.
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I didn't need a stove company, but I used the white metal stoves as merchandise on the porch. In back behind the Coke machine.
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Guy - The highlight of yesterday's post was the tree debris build-up under the bridge. I am saving that picture for what I hope will one day be a river crossing scene.
On the subject of squirrels hanging up mushrooms, a couple of years ago, one enterprising squirrel used an abandoned bird nest in one of our trees to store acorns in for the winter. I have pictures but can't locate them readily after my computer failure last fall.
Garry - I have looked at purchasing additional Campbell kits online, but they seem a tad expensive. I am spoiled by dealing with discounters all of my active modeling career. The farmhouse looks very nice.
Sherrel - Maybe the whole RV sale thing was just a scheme to get you off your ass and fix things up so she could put it to use again!
Mikey - Birdhouses - I like that idea. I have anthills but no ants.
Troy - While I have never done it, I have toured layouts where the owner swapped out industries occasionally. I have also seen articles in either MRR or RMC about it also.

On a sort of an upbeat note, today is National Grandparent's Day. I fall into that category. Will I get a phone call from any of my grandkids? Probably not even though all three have their own personal cell phones.

Have a great Sunday. Stay safe.
 
Good Morning all! This will be a quick drop in as we are expecting Nickolas to visit later this evening and possibly hang around till Wednesday. I did a test run of the new generator and that went well. 65 db. in the back bedroom. I need to go out and secure all the stuff around the house.

STAY SAFE

LATER
 
Hello Shop Dwellers, I'm back....planning to start a separate "question" thread in the DCC sub-forum, so I figured I ought to check-in here first.

From reading the last few pages of posts, I see lot has been going on here lately - some of it bad, like the situation with Terry's DIL and his son who will be going thru hell dealing with the fallout 🙏 ...and some of it good, like Guy's detailed proto-photos (I like the 2nd shot better). Lots of excellent layout photos from the usual "suspects", I'll share some of my own later when I'm not in a hurry.

Joe - glad to see you and your property survived the Hurricane Ida remnant flooding and storms!

As for 9/11 - I remember where I was when the news first broke, and thinking that the world was coming to an end when I saw the towers collapse. Ran the full gamut of emotions over the following weeks after the event. Didn't suffer anywhere near the magnitude of loss that the people of NYC and surrounding communities did, but I still feel quite depressed every time I am reminded of that horror.

Now about my layout, and preparations for the MER 2021 op session (which is what has kept me from participating more regularly in here): I finished the work on the Ford plant facade, and have been developing manifests and switch lists for all the trains I want to run that day. This is always a time-consuming chore, especially when battling the JMRI train-building software on PanelPro. But that's the only way I can prevent the scenario of having the same car in two separate locations at the same time. I've gotten all the needed rolling stock out of their storage boxes and into their starting positions on the layout, and now I'm in the process of speed-matching and building my loco consists [which has led to my need to post a question elsewhere in this forum].

I'll try to get back in here more regularly once the op session has come and gone, but as for now, preparing for that still eats up the lion's share of my free time.

Everyone one stay healthy, stay safe!
 
Well, howdy there internet people

It's Troy again.

Today we're going to talk about that creepy feeling.

You know how you can look at something ordinary, something you see every day and forget the little details about.

But, sometimes you look and realize something changed?

That happened this morning. I made a Target run, because the cat was letting me know the magic bowl of kibbles was about empty. When Lord Fuzzbutt is low on kitty kibbles, it's a major tragedy.

According to my video doorbell, I got back from my shopping trip about 9:13 am.

Headed back out to the garage about 20 minutes later.

Our Condo is different in that we use the backdoor for general egress. Out the backdoor is our patio, then our detached garage. So the video doorbell faces the access gate from the parking area, as well as the people door into the garage.

I could see into the garage watching the video that I had left the door open AFTER I got back from Target.

Why am I looking at video footage?

Because there are two empty hooks in the roof joists next to the trash/recycle area. My 14 speed cheap bicycle that's about 6 years old hung there daily. I don't ride much, and didn't even bother changing the tubes on it this year.

Yep. It is no longer there.

It's only a $200 bike from the big-box sports store.

Wife's bike, on the pavement, other side of the garage was still there. As was the 20# tank of propane, and my chop saw, and my portable air compressor.

So, now I'm asking whether someone snatched the bike this morning between 9:10 and 9:30, or did it disappear on Friday when we were home, and I had the garage door open to help keep it cool? We are at the end of the parking lot run, but get a lot of delivery drivers. AND we've had a work crew in for the end unit gutting the place. Could have been any of them, or none of them.

Camera is set to catch motion at the back door of the condo all the way to the garage. I can't find any action there that isn't legit. And, I don't have a camera on the front of the garage since twenty condos share our parking lot. That's a lot of traffic that would trigger the camera.

I am considering adding a cam inside the garage. One of those "Just in Case" cams, and we'd be able to see if the garage door was open at bed time.

Oh well...
 
Howdy .....

This is great. How did you do that rock face?

Thank you ..... Here is a picture from another angle with part of the scene.

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The upper portion of the rock strata was from a commercially made HO scenery product made from foam. It was a scrap piece I received in a box full of HO junk given to me from a friend. It was not enough material to do the whole area. So, I made the lower part from plaster which I carved. I used acrylic paints for colors.
 
That looks like the farmhouse from Green Acres. Just needs Eddie Albert riding his Farmall tractor! 👍


Karl : ....... Well ......... The tractor is red. Close enough ?

Terry ..... I like your photo with the reefers.

Willie ..... The antique shop looks great. ..... I have not bought a Cambell kit in many years. I do recall it was a lot of fun putting them together.

Here is an old Campbell Howe Truss bridge on my worktable as I was getting it ready to put on my current layout a couple of years ago.

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Here is an old Campbell Howe Truss bridge on my worktable as I was getting it ready to put on my current layout a couple of years ago.

Garry: Years ago when the Packers were in their terrible years, I built a Campbell Howe Truss bridge at the kitchen table during each Packer game and by season's end I have a beautiful wood bridge for my layout. I had a spot picked out for the bridge and installed it one Sunday afternoon.

The layout was in the same area as the laundry and the washer and drier. That next Monday Cathy when down to do the wash and took out the towels from the drier. She some how got a towel hooked on the Howe Bridge and pulled it off its mountings and down to the floor. The bridge was in pieces!

She called my at my office n tears and explained what happen and she though that I re-glue the bridge back together. Well some where the pieces remain in a box after over 20 years and the bridge will never be on my layout in the future.

That is the rest of the story.

Greg

PS: Garry, nice job on the bridge.
 
Howdy .....



Thank you ..... Here is a picture from another angle with part of the scene.

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The upper portion of the rock strata was from a commercially made HO scenery product made from foam. It was a scrap piece I received in a box full of HO junk given to me from a friend. It was not enough material to do the whole area. So, I made the lower part from plaster which I carved. I used acrylic paints for colors.

Garry I like that Sylvan White WC22 with matching livestock trailer. Did you build it?
 
Howdy ....

Well some where the pieces remain in a box after over 20 years and the bridge will never be on my layout in the future.

Greg .... Sorry to hear it is in pieces. Maybe, you should never say "never", because eventually, you may decide it would be a fun project to restore it.

Garry I like that Sylvan White WC22 with matching livestock trailer. Did you build it?

Lee..... Thank you. Yes, I made the Sylvan tractor trailer livestock truck specifically for this scene. It was fun doing that.

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Everybody:.... Have a nice evening.
 
Evening, thanks for the likes on the hopper car. The other 2 are done. Had a Walthers pipe kit laying around for a while so I open it up and started cutting it from the spruce. After examining it for a couple of minutes I decided it needed rust ends for starters, hand painting is time consuming but looks pretty good in the end.
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Good Morning Fellow Members !
It's already 9:37 AM in France. Sunny and 18°C (64°F). A view from our bedroom window. Have a nice day !

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With that view, I would consider adding a garden railroad. G-scale. Pour concrete footers for the trackbed to ride on.

Of course, keeping the livestock from munching on the rolling stock and building might require some good fencing
 
With that view, I would consider adding a garden railroad. G-scale. Pour concrete footers for the trackbed to ride on.

Of course, keeping the livestock from munching on the rolling stock and building might require some good fencing
Very good idea...but unfortunately this field isn't ours. It belongs to the farmer who raises the white cows (Charolaises).
 
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Good morning. It's mostly clear and 60.
More testing scheduled for daughter in law, there is an area of her brain that looks suspicious. If it's damage from all the recent events, it's not good. If it's something like a tumor that's causing what's happening, it opens more options, even though they may be temporary ones.
 
Morning all,

66° and clear this morning with a high going to the mid-90's. While I got exactly ZERO railroading this weekend, I did manage to get nearly everything that had to get completed done for the weekend. I guess that's a plus.

I did get all the trim they had ready hung at the daughter's house. The remaining door trim and a good start on the floor trim. We're concentrating on the carpeted areas as the carpet guys are coming in late this week. or early next week. LVP floors are already in and can be trimmed later. There's still a lot to do, but the end can be seen. They have electric completed in a lot of living space and water as far as the outdoor hydrants. Still need the plumbing fixtures installed as well as the septic connection. I've been asked to come back after work Friday afternoon to help further.

Terry: Continued prayers for your family.

All: Keep up the good work with the pictures. I really enjoy them.
 
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