Running Bear's March 2022 Coffee Shop


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Good morning from Wisconsin. We may get into the 40’s today and it looks nice out there as the snow is melting away.

Back from a morning session with the medical folks. All is well

Gasoline prices, this morning $3.89 regular no lead, $4.39 for the premium.

Grocery store visit. Our HyVee has been clearing the aisles that they used to fill with specials and things. Not enough staff to continue to do that. Makes for a more pleasant experience and with the staff they have the shelves are full again. Terry said just based on the ads this morning she can tell prices are really climbing. We will shop Monday as there isn’t anything we need for our normal Friday trip. The sign in front of our Pick and Save (Kroger) hiring is at $15.50 per hour. The local QuikTrip gas station is hiring at $17.00 per hour. Full staff always there!

I moved the paint booth and moved the bench I use for brush painting and weathering next to each other under a corner of the layout. Easy access to the vent hole I had the contractor install Monday this week. The new arrangement forms an “L” work space and will be more efficient for me. It also gives me a shelf area to put WIP projects to either dry or get out of the way. I did order the Vortex mixer for paints and moved the hydrator to the bench.

Enjoy the day
TomO
 
NYC_George said:
Hey most of the gas I use is spend driving to the golf course 40 miles away during the summer months. What do you want me to do get no exercise at all. Let's stop that kind of talk.
George
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You already pay more in gas tax than the little old lady who drives less than 40 miles in one week. If you drive a full-sized PU instead of her Honda Civic, your fuel consumption per mile is already higher than hers. More gallons, more miles, equals more taxes now. The equation stays the same (with minor variations on rates/mile) after the switch to use tax instead of consumption tax.
 
Good afternoon,

It is up to 26° F. Sounds like we may be getting a gob of rain, snow, or slush. Not really sure which. Hopefully the whole thing will part over our County and we have dry weather. If you are going to wish, whish big!

McLeod - very cool photo of the moose

Willie - I read that the actual fuel consumption of the Electric is higher than gasoline. And costs more money. Something not advertised.

Justin - I have a GML walk around that hasn't disappointed. I am die hard DC.

Tom - WI - our snowbanks are shrinking as well!! Yippeee

Here is a photo from the old layout. This is the corner of the layout and the backdrop is curved. I carefully bent the hardboard and screwed it to the layout.

contest4.4 002.JPG


I like the way this area turned out. There will be nothing like this on the new layout, I am moving on. Do still have the loco on the left.


more later, Dave LASM
 
chessie_system3 said:
Well I see I made it to another Friday. Temps are going to be up this weekend for a change. Not sure what I'll be getting into if anything. Might be a good time to start building. Who knows? Probably not but at least it sounded good. In other train related news. Given it'll take a month or two for my DB150 to come back I reinstalled one of my walk around DC throttles to the layout. I was using my Tech 4 260 again. I set up an Alpine Innovator 3500. Not sure if any of you guys have even heard of it. I stumbled onto it quite a while back. By far one of the better DC walk around throttles I have. It hasn't disappointed me so far. My locomotives slow but don't stall over uneven track. So I guess it's a plus. Well I guess that sums everything up for me at the moment. I'll stop by later if when I get a chance. This is what the throttle looks like.View attachment 142023
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I use the exact same throttle on my DC layout. I do not however use the momentum function.
 
McLeod said:
With regards to the electric vehicle talk, both CP and CN are trying to develop zero-emission electric locomotives. CP using the hydrogen fuel cell, and CN turning to battery electric. My personal opinion is that the hydrogen fuel cell will be a better technology due to quicker recharge capability.
Here's a CP prototype locomotive, known as the H2 OEL. It's a retrofitted existing locomotive with the fuel cell technology:
View attachment 142002
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There are a few battery electric/diesel hybrids running in Japan. Mostly switcher types but also more commuter rail types.

HD300 -- using Lithium Ion batteries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JR_Freight_Class_HD300

There are some others as well. HB-E300 hybrid DMU for scenic "resort train" service: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HB-E300_series
I have models of several of these as they look cool.
 
TLOC said:
The sign in front of our Pick and Save (Kroger) hiring is at $15.50 per hour. The local QuikTrip gas station is hiring at $17.00 per hour. Full staff always there!
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I hate to tell you this but no one's going to make it on the above wages. It was just on the news family's making a 100K a year are living paycheck to paycheck. My wife and I can make on our pensions because we don't owe anybody money. That's the key do not get yourself in overwhelming debt. My father use to say the banks will drive you into poverty if you let them.
George
 
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santafewillie said:
Of course, Texas is the only state where there are no Tesla dealerships. You must buy them online only. State law!
So, where does all of the power for the charging stations come from? That pledge to go all EV by 2035 will backfire. Why? Road maintenance is mostly paid for by gasoline taxes.
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Utah had the same law -- the local Tesla "dealership" was just a show room and probably repair center and you had to order it online and have it shipped in. In 2019 they changed the law to allow it to function as a "dealership" and do sales.

In Utah, they recently added a surcharge to your yearly property or excise tax (not sure what it is considered but part of the tax that is paid on the car at registration time). You can either opt to pay by the mile or a flat fee. EVs have a large surcharge. PHEV have a smaller surcharge (since they are also buying gas). This is to make up for lost state-level gas taxes. I would expect changes to be made at the Federal level as well to make up for it at some point.
 
Afternoon All,

Early posting here since I have a haircut in about 90 minutes. I took 2 photos last night of the icehouse area that still needs ground cover. I installed the UR-93 today and it appears everything is working as it should. I ran a train for 90 minutes without losing control of the train :D. However, 3- times the loco sped up on its own for some reason. When this happened, the throttle showed the same speed, but I was able to slow the engine via the throttle without issue.

Guy- It looks like even the moose is struggling through the snow. I love snow pictures (as long as I'm not around it). :D

Willie- Nice scenes with cats.

Dave- Great backdrop and scene.

20220303_184001.jpg

20220303_184022.jpg

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
troyphoto said:
The little old lady who drives out for lunch with the girls once a week, then to church will hardly pay.
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She is already hardly paying as she buys very little gas anyway. I am not disagreeing that it will change. Just pointing out that miles driven won't change the cost that much as those who drive more buy more gas.

I believe over the road trucks already pay by the mile?

I've long thought we should do something similar to Germany/ Austria, Switzerland (and maybe other European countries). To drive on the Autobahn (federal highway system), you need to have a sticker on car. It has a yearly renewal. When I lived there it was about $200. I am sure it is more now as that was 30 years ago. For visitors, the rental cars usually have them for the country of registration (and they just charge a couple bucks for each rental to make up the yearly cost). When we went into Austria 20 years ago with our rental, we had to pay for a 3 day Autobahn placard since our German rental didn't have the Austrian sticker.

This instead of the federal gas tax.
 
Good afternoon. Happy Friday! Today's price for regular is $3.96/gallon. Current temperature 36° and sunny. That's how it is on the Jersey Shore.

Just received a new Centerline Track Cleaning Car. Hopefully that will help in hard to reach places.

Devils play Rangers tonight at the Garden. Two equally matched teams, one with great goal tending, the other with sub prime goal tending...Want to guess who is going to win?

Short sellers are back! Hedge Funds are selling equities and buying oil...

See ya Monday.
 
NYC_George said:
I hate to tell you this but no one's going to make it on the above wages. It was just on the news family's making a 100K a year are living paycheck to paycheck. My wife and I can make on our pensions because we don't owe anybody money. That's the key do not get yourself in overwhelming debt. My father use to say the banks will drive you into poverty if you let them.
George
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Ya, couple of our company truckers are really bitchn about having to live on 70K. 70K - geesh - how many toys are you still paying for? Most tell me "only a few" and some of those did not have a house payment; spend spend spend. One gal finances a new personal truck every year. Even with her trade in, payment and insurance is over $600/month. Last year we put almost 30K in the bank between us and don't buy all the new toys. Ok, so we need a ( probably used ) tractor and that could be 15 to 25K when all is said and done. Last quad seater ORV was 35K that I looked at. I will stay with my 86 Blazer. The only interest bill we have is the house, gonna put another dent in it driving for our last summer. We know how to live pretty cheap. We do not skimp on stuff, just buy quantities when possible; which cuts down on travel. In Libby, we are 90 miles from anywhere ( big box store locations). If we need little stuff and if we guess that we are gonna spend $100, off to Bonners Ferry for the Super 1 as the prices are much better than Libby AND it gets our butts outa the house for awhile. I actually did the math a couple of years back. If we spend $100 in Bonners, that would cost us about $150 in Libby. Bonners is 90 miles round trip. The Edge gets about 25mpg so we are ahead of the game ... right? I cut most of our meat: whole sirloin, rib-eye, pork and pork rib racks ... etc. Actually found slab bacon the other day so I get to play with the new meat slicer when we do our monthly grab stuff thingie.
 
chadbag said:
She is already hardly paying as she buys very little gas anyway. I am not disagreeing that it will change. Just pointing out that miles driven won't change the cost that much as those who drive more buy more gas.

I believe over the road trucks already pay by the mile?

I've long thought we should do something similar to Germany/ Austria, Switzerland (and maybe other European countries). To drive on the Autobahn (federal highway system), you need to have a sticker on car. It has a yearly renewal. When I lived there it was about $200. I am sure it is more now as that was 30 years ago. For visitors, the rental cars usually have them for the country of registration (and they just charge a couple bucks for each rental to make up the yearly cost). When we went into Austria 20 years ago with our rental, we had to pay for a 3 day Autobahn placard since our German rental didn't have the Austrian sticker.

This instead of the federal gas tax.
Click to expand...
Over the road pays tax on their diesel fuel and a hefty license fee, I believe.
 
logandsawman said:
Over the road pays tax on their diesel fuel and a hefty license fee, I believe.
Click to expand...

I think they also pay a per-state per-mile fee based on signs I have seen on the backs of some trucks. So that trucks can't avoid high taxes by gassing up in one state and cruising through another. This would be in addition to fuel taxes? I don't really know. It is from memory from a cross country trip a while back
 
chadbag said:
I think they also pay a per-state per-mile fee based on signs I have seen on the backs of some trucks. So that trucks can't avoid high taxes by gassing up in one state and cruising through another. This would be in addition to fuel taxes? I don't really know. It is from memory from a cross country trip a while back
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I used to log, and the non taxed fuel for the equipment could not be used in the semi.

They dye the off road, and would spot check semi trucks to make sure they were not using "off road" fuel.
 
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