Running Bear’s November 2019 Coffee Shop


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Good Morning Guys. 60° and light drizzle, should yield to sunshine shortly. My body goes into a depression if I don't get sunshine for this long. Actually reached 70° around midnight for a few hours. Today we do the postponed weekly grocery/beer run.
Not feeling too well yet this morning. Be back later.
 
Howdy everyone!

Thanks to all who liked my posts.

Willie - I use to sharpen my blades, when 5-pack only were available. But like Chad, I buy the 100-pack. I sometimes
sharpen them, but it's just easier to change them out.

Chet - as always, great photos

Tom - how long do those water line repairs last?

Alan - nice cars! I like the idea of taking the trip pins out

The last thing I wanted to do yesterday was to go shopping, but I was almost out of water softener salt. I went to Rural King and it was total insanity. Usually it takes 10 minutes . . . yesterday it took 35 minutes. There was a large crowd in the hardware area. They had about 8 pallets of shop light fixtures, marked way down and it was total chaos. Two guys alone stuffed their shopping carts with 25 or so fixtures. I couldn't get out of there fast enough!
Today I'm staying home . . . and maybe tomorrow.

Have a nice day!

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Good morning. 7 degrees with light snow (still). Probably have about 8 inches, but it is so light and fluffy I have been sweeping it instead of plowing. My friend on our bowling team used his leaf blower. I ain't got one of them.

Tom - Better you than me working in that hole. Rotsa ruck.

Alan - The tolling stock is looking good.

Jim - Nice winter photo.

Sherrel - Lice photo. Glad that you finally got some moisture.

We did go to town yesterday evening, but not for Black Friday shopping. Bowling went well. Al three games were close, but we managed to squeak by and win all of them form what used to be the first place team. We now are in first. It was a crappy ride to and from town though. Don;t care for winter driving much any more. Maybe a few months down in the Florida Keys would make one feel better.

Here are some photos of my very first Logan Valley custom paint job. Did another GP-7 the BL-2 I posted yesterday and an Alco FA-1 before Atlas brought out their Alco RS units with the Kato drive. All of the Athearn units had motor transplants and all run almost as good as the Kato units. The speed is so close I can run them in MY with the Atlas units.

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Later
 
Severe depression averted!

Earlier this morning, I had another derailment. It was the same area I had the problem last week. (see post #647) Since I rebuilt this section, I've run the trains for 2 - 3 hours without incident. Now this! :( I re-railed the loco and the car following. Took it around a couple of laps. Nothing! . . . it ran fine. A couple of laps later - derailment again!
Enough is enough. So it's time to bring out the BGH (big giant hand) and transport the SD40-2 to the work bench.
After close inspection, I found that the rear coupler wasn't moving side to side easily. I tore it apart and found a piece of dirt. Test ran the loco and it's running fine. :):):)
I had two 6-axle locos that were derailing, so I inspected the other one and it was ok. :)

Depression averted :cool: whew!
 
Jim - In sandy ground takes a bit longer than in the clay due to the wet sand sliding in around the pipe. We have to wait 2 hours before digging (811) so others mark their utilities. This gives us time to get equipment on sight. The time consuming part is taking the trench shield in and out as you hand dig around the main as you get close to it. Once it's clean around the pipe a stainless patch is clamped on the pipe. Normally it's about a 5 hour job start to finish,in the sand 2-3 hours more and a bigger hole also.
 
OK, I'm back. Nothing that a mile-long walk in the sunshine with the two granddogs couldn't fix. In the interim, wife postponed the grocery trek until tomorrow since the kids decided to come after the dogs today. I took a progress shot in the garden yesterday. Someone here asked about planting Garlic in October, the normal planting time here.
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Mother Nature cooperates by spreading her own layer of leaf mulch down.

That ham, egg, onion and pepper omelet looks really good this morning Flo.

Hey guys, just to clear things up a bit, I don't resharpen those Exacto blades cause I have to, I do it because I want to retain my sharpening skills. I'll pull out the whetstone whenever I have a couple of minutes waiting for glue to dry. I have plenty of replacements for the three sizes that I use the most. Just wondering how many others did the same.
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Train shed time yesterday was equally split between running trains and adding ground foam to various areas. Some was to enhance areas already done, some was to cover some virgin brown painted plywood. I am currently paused on scenery in the industrial backdrop district until I give the trackage some more testing time before ballasting. Project #2, rehabbing that downtown block, will resume as soon as I get some pictures sized correctly to put into the structures.

Tom - Not exactly my idea of a good day, any day!

Next project on my list is to remove all leftover meat from Turkey and ham carcasses. Then I'll have room in the fridge for regular groceries.
Everybody have a great day.
 
Jim - In sandy ground takes a bit longer than in the clay due to the wet sand sliding in around the pipe. We have to wait 2 hours before digging (811) so others mark their utilities. This gives us time to get equipment on sight. The time consuming part is taking the trench shield in and out as you hand dig around the main as you get close to it. Once it's clean around the pipe a stainless patch is clamped on the pipe. Normally it's about a 5 hour job start to finish,in the sand 2-3 hours more and a bigger hole also.

That's interesting! It seems that Pittsburgh has a main break every week. Do those patches hold up well?
 
Good Afternoon all. Not a lot going on at the train room. I did run over to Home Depot for some clips to hang outdoor Christmas lights. What a mad house! People getting in each others way, reaching over one another. Grabbed the clips and escape through self check out.
 
Good day everyone....home from a Casino Tour to the UP at Harris, MI. Windy and wet on the way up and we ran into snow at the UP border and the snow got heavier as we reached Harris. Maybe 6 inches of heavy, wet snow and lots of power outages due to trees falling down on to the power lines. Winter Storm Watch maybe later this weekend with more snow and traffic warnings already posted for parts of the UP. I didn't lost much $$$ at the Casino. Each morning at approximately 3:30 AM I could hear a heavry freight on the tracks near the Casino

I ordered off of E Bay a BB SOO caboose that I'll install a working strobe on the copula and interior lighting. Tomorrow's early AM project.

Chet: Thanks for the ore unit train. You can set the cars to me anytime. I have only one friend who has a layout that's sizable enough to run a long unit train. I have trouble stepping up his front steps and one of these days I'll fall on my butte (the Montana way of spelling butt). Hard to get old and advance age sure catches up with a person.

No trains today just a day off from everything. Wis plays Minn today at 2:30 PM and if Wisconsin is ready for Minnesota it should be a battle. Wisconsin has been having a hard time lately deciding when they should "Wisconsin Style Football". Then, tomorrow its the Packers at Noon and here again which Packer team will show up?

Appliances: Over a year ago our washing machine's transmission took a turn for the worst and our appliance service guy who owns the business said he would sell sell us a new machine, but we would be better off repairing our old machine. He would guarantee the entire "old" machine for one year for anything that could go wrong, He said the new gears are plastic or styrene and just don't last.

Toot: Great MRL photographs. Friends of ours just came back home after a three week tour of Australia and New Zealand and loved this area of the world and want to return. During WW2 My father spent a short time in Australia on his way to the Philippine Islands and New Guinea.

Espreefan: Those couplers without the trip pins look great after some weathering is completed. That will be a nice locomotive painting project and please keep us posted on your progress with some photos.

Black Friday: After 39 plus years in the shopping mall business, no way would I now venture out to a store or mall on Black Friday. I started the mix of Christmas music several weeks before Thanksgiving and it became all Christmas music two weeks before the 25th. I had a speaker outside my office door and I memorized every song in the play list on the extended play tapes. I changed to a web provider of canned music and the songs were different and maybe I heard the same song only twice in a season. My favorite Christmas songs, well I have two muscial favorites...one by the Carpenters, "Merry Christmas Darling" and the other "Granny Got Run Over by a Reindeer".

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Grandma+Got+Run+over+by++a+Reindeer&pc=MOZI&form=MOZLBR

and....

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Merry+Christmas+Darling&pc=MOZI&form=MOZLBR

The day following Christmas we starting planning for the next Holiday season which actually was less than 10 months away in the retail business. This shopping day was almost as busy as Black Friday or the Saturday before Christmas.

I suffered Christmas Burnout until the family when to Cathy's aunt's home on Christmas Day. The house was built in 1940's with a massive stone fireplace, lots of wood work, open stair case and several additions. Tradition decorations through out the home with several live trees and over 150 candles on the first floor. A dining that accommodated 22 adults and all crystal wine and water glasses, solid silver flatware with 100 year old place settings. That was really Christmas! Over the years, Cathy's Aunt's home was in several national magazine articles for home Christmas decorating.

Jim and Max: We used the stainless clamps on water systems for years and the repairs hold up very well for years. But, the problem is that the pipe in the surrounding area may split open some point where along the pipe's length or the metal bolts and nuts at the pipe flanges failed well before the stainless stain ever did.

These repairs were seven feet or more below grade in Wisconsin.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

Greg

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Afternoon All,

Did the partial grocery run today, and will finish at Wally World Monday morning after dropping off grandson at school.

Greg- Nice layout shot.

Willie- Nice touch with the chainsaw guy.

CA Dave- Good to see you back again.

Chet- Nice club and layout shots.

Garry- Interesting photo.

Max- Great photo.

Espeefan- Nice looking trucks. I usually put latex rust paint on my wheels.

Sherrel- Your neighborhood looks like mine does.

I hope everyone has a good day.
 
Greg - that's what I surmised. Once the repair is made, it's not the stainless that fails, but rather some other place. Just was wondering about that, as Pittsburgh seems to have breaks often.

As a Bessemer & Lake Erie fan, I always liked iron ore trains. On my old layout (80's & 90's) I had about 25 ore cars. When I sold that layout, the cars went with it. I've regretted that ever since.
I lived 3 miles away from US Steel's Sintering Plant at Saxonburg PA where they made the iron ore (balls) pellets. The ore was brought down from Lake Erie, the limestone was mined locally, the coke was brought up from the Clairton Works. I use to deliver coke there, which presented an excellent opportunity to take pictures. There was a massive rotary dumper that was very impressive. I lost a 150 or so photos, when the basement flooded in a house I rented. There's nothing to suggest that there was ever a plant there, as it is now a industrial park.
 
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I have trouble stepping up his front steps and one of these days I'll fall on my butte (the Montana way of spelling butt). Hard to get old and advance age sure catches up with a person.
Just make sure you can still move at greater than 3mph. Won't say why because it's quite morbid.

During WW2 My father spent a short time in Australia on his way to the Philippine Islands and New Guinea.
There were a lot of US servicemen did that in both countries, down here. I hope he was one that made it back home too. My most vivid memory of one such was as a child in early years, visiting an amusement park near the City center of Auckland NZ and being confronted by this tall US Navy sailor in the aisle between sideshows, standing in front of me (towering above to be more accurate) with his arms full of plastercast figurines, he'd won in a throwing target booth. He handed me this little black&white Scotch Terrier figure. Had it for years on the fireplace mantle and other places, till it finally vanished somewhere.
 
79* on a bright sunshiney day. All we need is some rain later tonight.
Thanks again for all the pixs.
Phil

I CANT' BELIEVE HOW OLD PEOPLE MY AGE ARE.
 
Appliances:
Over a year ago our washing machine's transmission took a turn for the worst and our appliance service guy who owns the business said he would sell sell us a new machine, but we would be better off repairing our old machine. He would guarantee the entire "old" machine for one year for anything that could go wrong, He said the new gears are plastic or styrene and just don't last.

LG everything here except the dishwasher which is a Bosch. Been running for a couple years with no issues as yet. The washer & dryer are about 5 years old or so, not a peep out of 'em. Now that I've bragged on them, they'll explode!

Those couplers without the trip pins look great after some weathering is completed. That will be a nice locomotive painting project and please keep us posted on your progress with some photos.

You mean that Q Hudson? Sorry but I won't be painting that one. I would have liked to, but it wasn't on the owner's "to do" list. I think I'm a little expensive for him. He has someone who I think trades him, stuff for paint work. He's on a fixed income so I know how that is. I only get the hard stuff nobody else will tackle from him and one or two other club members! :)

Fear not though! Look what the mail man brought me today! I've been looking for one of these for a long time! Horse Express cars are hard to come by, and pretty much non-existent in plastic! I was outbid on several of these on evil-Bay, and finally just decided to bite the bullet. Ever Nuke something on e-Bay? Put in a price so high you know you're going to get it? That's what I did here. You swallow hard as the price creeps up towards the end of the auction and pray to God some other fool wasn't as stupid as you! As it happens I got it for the high side of fair market (whew!) I don't think I'll do that again!

Nice model though. How about that underbody detail? I'll be doing this one in two tone gray, and will share the project.

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Espeefan- Nice looking trucks. I usually put latex rust paint on my wheels.

It's amazing how a few very small things kick up the appearance isn't it? Wheel color depends on the era. If you're on the more modern side with roller bearings, you're right, rust is what you need. I'm in the friction bearing era where the journal boxes were filled with cotton waste and soaked with oil to keep the bearings lubed. The seals were primitive (rawhide or even just a block of wood) and usually leaked all over everything, especially the wheel faces. That's why I use the black.
 
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