Running Bear's February 2024 Coffee Shop

[Boris]

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, all ships at sea, and donut eating magic hedgehogs.

41° and cloudy. Today's high reached 60°, but felt colder due to the dampness. It will remain cloudy overnight,and tomorrow. Tomorrow's high 51°. it will gradually get cooler as the new week starts, but clears up for Wednesday.

Today, I re-aligned switches and the siding where my background building is going. Interesting observation on how our hobby reflects real life. The siding comfortably holds five 40' box cars, however, due to the alignment of the doors, only three to four 40' cars or three 50' cars can be spotted at the loading doors. The size of the door determines how many 40' cars can be spotted. The larger the door, the more flexibility. I suppose the building, the model was based on was built during the 36' to 39' boxcar era...(1920s -1930s). We encountered similar issues when spotting 50' cars at sidings in the 80's and 90s. Just another operating challenge facing model railroad conductors.

Today's other challenge, switch points in road crossings. I know this has been done on the prototype, but on a model RR, using code 70 rail...should be fun, eh?

On another forum, I participated in a discussion about spontaneous combustion of Horse manure and straw shipped in gondolas, as well as hides and other smelly stuff from rendering plants, shipped in Gondolas...

Tonight in Hockey, Capitals won, Flyers Won, Devils lost in OT - regulation shutout for both goalies, GWG was more like a batted ball. Pittsburgh Lost.

 

[tootnkumin]

Helper sets on the BNSF, MRL Division today

 

[tootnkumin]

When you come home from work and see this. Kinda makes you wonder. View attachment 180559

A catalyst for a catastrophe. Or would the fur be suitable for stringing catenary. (also possibly known as cat and canary.

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's 63 and clear. High is supposed to be 84.
I guess Winter is over, and we're heading back to warm temps.

 

[santafewillie]

Willie I was watching the best opening keyboard intros of all time. The top 6 were all great but what was number 1?
Swal

That's pretty much subjective based on who is doing the rating, and which keyboards that they are referring to. Is it piano, organ, synthesizer or harpsichord? Rather than guess at which one was best from a video, I will list a few of my favorites. Ironically some of the ones that I think are really good, are synthesizer intros that come from guitar oriented bands; "Jump" by Van Halen and "Baba O'Riley" by The Who, (Teenage Wasteland). Strictly piano would be "Locomotive Breath" (with it's great guitar interplay), by Jethro Tull, or "She's A Rainbow" from The Rolling Stones. Then you have organ, whether it be a Hammond B3 or a simple Vox. I think that "Child in Time" by Deep Purple probably is my favorite. An aside here: wouldn't it have been really great if Jon Lord of Deep Purple used his left hand more?
A few other bands that were more keyboard oriented come to mind, but whether there were notable intros or just remarkable keyboard throughout the songs is a toss-up; Emerson, Lake & Palmer and The Doors come to mind.
There's others, but it's 4:00 am here and I really can't blast the house with music this early!

 

[troyphoto]

I had to go look and listen:

 

[santafewillie]

I had to go look and listen:

Certainly some good material here, but I can't say that all of them were intros. "Lady Madonna" and "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" for example, were just good piano playing throughout the track. "Layla" is absolutely fantastic, but as pointed out was not an intro. Some of Billy Joel's earlier stuff (before he became a "pop" star) was very good, but there were no significant intros. I am not totally familiar with many recordings made after 2000 or so, and I cannot comment or judge them.
I failed to mention in my earlier post, the Mellotron. It's use by the Moody Blues, King Crimson, Yes and the early version of Genesis, set the stage for and was supplanted by synthesizers. Other bands used it as well, including Lynyrd Skynyrd on the song "Free Bird" mentioned here last week.
Now on to my regular post!

 

[troyphoto]

Time to settle the biggest debate ever

(I don't drink beer, so "Tastes Great!" vs "Less filling!" isn't on my radar.)

A typewriter kerchunks sideways a set amount, no matter which letter you type. An "i" takes up the same width as a "W". And a basic kerchunk of the carriage was not enough space to denote a new sentence. An O or a W might overhang a bit, as the typewriter manufacturers cheated a few microns for legibility of the letters.

But computers use dynamic spacing. They know when a sentence is beginning. They know skinny letter vs fat letters (I'm looking at you, W!) See how close the "i"s in the previous words are to the other letters?

And, that dynamic spacing means we get re-flowable text. If you're reading this on a computer screen, grab one side of the window, and pull it in for a smaller footprint. See how the text reflowed to fit?

If you put two spaces at the end of a sentence, and that sentence ends a line of text on a screen, some screens may end up splitting those spaces. One at the end of a line of text, and one at the beginning of the next line. It's a minor annoyance, but I've had to go back and reread some stuff on the interwebs to see if the thought on the next line pertained to the stuff above it, or if it was meant as a new line and new thought.

So rules for legible thought cohesion:

1. Single space after a period/full stop
2. Online, hit the RETURN KEY to break up long blocks of text. New thought? New issue? New topic? Hit the return key.

Thanks for reading. This reader of words is grateful for your continued efforts.

We now return you to your normal debate over the Swiftie Bowl tonight. Bean Dip? Ranch Dip? Or Queso Dip?

 

[bnsf971]

We now return you to your normal debate over the Swiftie Bowl tonight. Bean Dip? Ranch Dip? Or Queso Dip?

How about blond dip?

 

[migalyto]

Certainly some good material here, but I can't say that all of them were intros. "Lady Madonna" and "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" for example, were just good piano playing throughout the track. "Layla" is absolutely fantastic, but as pointed out was not an intro. Some of Billy Joel's earlier stuff (before he became a "pop" star) was very good, but there were no significant intros. I am not totally familiar with many recordings made after 2000 or so, and I cannot comment or judge them.
I failed to mention in my earlier post, the Mellotron. It's use by the Moody Blues, King Crimson, Yes and the early version of Genesis, set the stage for and was supplanted by synthesizers. Other bands used it as well, including Lynyrd Skynyrd on the song "Free Bird" mentioned here last week.
Now on to my regular post!

Cant forget Sirius by Alan Parsons project.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Brrr - 36 degrees, clear, and supposed to be sunny.
Looking out over the rooftops from the North facing bedroom - I can see Mt Jacinto on the Eastern horizon ... and several (smoke plumbs?) from the chimneys to the North.

Really have been in a "funk?" the past few days. This week my calendar is full of medical appointments with Chemo starting Tuesday morning three days each week.
No decision has been forthcoming on where the "Big C's" origin is. - More testing between the Chemo days?
We were supposed to go to the oldest daughter's home in Newport for a SB party, but doubtful at the moment I will attend. I think that I may just park a chair in front of the 75 inch TV and pretend I am on the 50 yard line. YEAH - that may just be the answer? No one blocking my view and no one talking?
Besides, the Spousal Unit is finding it more difficult to drive at night and neither of us really want to be in the freeways with thousands of drunks - it's bad enough when there is no alcohol involved?

Everyone have a great day - go Chief's!

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning!

Photo by Jim Pearson

 

[TLOC]

SUPER good morning, the bowl game kicks off at 5:30 Central time. I will watch the game. I have not watched the pre-game crap in forever! Commercials I will catch on YouTube tomorrow as they will be muted during game time as may the annoying CBS announcers.

I’ve been invited to a couple parties now that folks know I’m home and one invited themselves to view the game with me. When I told them I view with the sound off they understood, I’m fine watching alone.

Some weathering started yesterday at the bench. The grandson plays at 10:15 about 12 minutes from the house in the next town south of us. I will see him play and return to the bench for some more weathering till game time

enjoy the day

 

[migalyto]

I seen this elsewhere and thought some of you might find this interesting.

The MbKlein saga continues:

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Light rain and 42°, won't get much warmer today and there will be sporadic rain for a few more hours. So far since it started about 0430 with heavy thunder, I have 0.8" in the gauge. Yesterday was a pittance of just 0.1" all day. Temperatures in the 30's tonight and tomorrow night means that I will have to start a fire in the wood-burning heater.

I actually did a little outdoor work yesterday, despite the drizzle. Got some exercise in by picking up and then re-stacking the firewood that I cut up on Friday.

I was out in the train shed yesterday for a while. Mostly running trains but I did do some tasks on the cemetery. I added a line of conifers to the void between the horse ranch and the cemetery fence.

I lined out the stone pillars for the front fence to measure for the boards that I have to cut.

Here's an overview of the current progress.

Not much to see yet, mostly in the last couple of days I worked on the ground foam and driveway to the grain elevator that is out front. I'm trying to decide which direction to position the headstones in before I do any more ground cover. More trees are ready for inside the site itself, as well as the small equipment structure that came with the kit.

Tom O - My doc is happy with a glucose reading below 150, although mine even after a heavy night of pasta and bread is generally still in the 110-115 range. At this point in life I just take 500mg of Metformin a day. A1c has been 5.7 or below for 2.5 years. I think that losing weight had a lot to do with it, now if I could squeeze another 20# out I might be able to quit the Metformin completely.
Todd - Jake actually looks sad in the picture! Maybe a few weeks of a new happy home will fix that.
Grizzled - Seems like the wheelchair is needed now, not in the near future.

Today is the day of the Big Game. It is interesting that the President is not giving the traditional interview when there will be millions of extra viewers tuned in to catch a glimpse of Taylor Swift. Millions more just to watch commercials and a halftime show! Oh! And there might be a football game on.
Everyone have a great Sunday.

 

[McLeod]

Good Morning!

25F out there, so unless we get hit soon, we will have missed out on winter. I'm loosing muscle tissue for lack of snow-shovelling, and I'm wondering if the local native population would know any good snow dances.
When I was a young lad, I actually used snowshoes to get around in the forest. I still have the 1971 L.L.Bean catalogue that I ordered a pair through. The money for them was saved up from a part-time gas pumping job.
Here's the pair I ordered, from that very catalogue:

I did all the chores yesterday, just so I could free up today. I'm going to work on that truss bridge that I set aside about one year ago. If I work at it, there probably only a couple more days of building, before paint. In time, I hope drive in the last spike on my layout, and join the tracks.

Toot - I like the BNSF cream-n-green scheme.
Troy - Can't say I've ever considered the kerchunking of a typewriter. Suppose I've learned something today.
TomO - Wonderful weathering on the covered hopper. Well done, indeed!
Willie - Those stone pillars look very nice. They remind me of the stone wall my father built.

Here's a couple of railway photos that still bother me. I took a series of these photos down at the local staging yard.
I didn't know it at the time, but, my cheap camera auto-focus was acting up. By the time I figured it out, and went back to retake the photos, the engine had disappeared. I'm still angry at myself for missing another chance to photograph this oddity.

Oh well! Maybe one day it will come back into town.

That's all I have today. Have a good one!

 

[bnsf971]

Here's a couple of railway photos that still bother me. I took a series of these photos down at the local staging yard.
I didn't know it at the time, but, my cheap camera auto-focus was acting up. By the time I figured it out, and went back to retake the photos, the engine had disappeared. I'm still angry at myself for missing another chance to photograph this oddity.
View attachment 181165
View attachment 181166
Oh well! Maybe one day it will come back into town.

That's all I have today. Have a good one!

That's an old PC engine. It's "possible" Joe had it in one of his trains at some point.

 

[bnsf971]

When we were kids, they didn't have to say, "Don't try this at home," because we weren't all a bunch of morons.

 

[Old 97]

Instructions say you don't need the bracing on the N scale version, but I believe in putting bracing on.
View attachment 181135

I love it!!!! Never known a building to fall down from being built up so well.
Plus, your layout and your rules.

 

[Grizzled]

Grizzled - Seems like the wheelchair is needed now, not in the near future.

I concur but that is a bit of a conundrum. She is still eschewing it but it is here. I don't want to be the one to tell her to give up.

Morning folks

30 and partly cloudy. I'm not looking forward to being thrown in the deep freeze again later this week.

Last night was what has become typical here. Up 3 time to help my wife, once for myself and once for the canines. It doesn't leave much for anything resembling quality sleep time. It certainly doesn't do anything for accomplishing much in the daylight.