Running Bear’s October 2020 Coffee Shop


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Howdy folks -- 52* as we speak going to 77* they say (78* was the high yesterday) ! Don't worry - we will be back in the 90's next week! I think the greater LA area had a few drops of moisture yesterday morning - of course, none made it in this direction.

The daughter just left for the airport a few minutes ago - I have been up for an hour and need more coffee before I start doing nothing again to finish up doing nothing yesterday! My - it sure is dark outside?

In other news -- my cousin in Lake Charles just finished replacing the roof on his house which he lost 1/2 of during the former hurricane just in time for the next one!
 
Morning, everyone! - A free day today. The wife is at work, and I can avoid getting over-excited about chores. Considering it's an overcast, cool 32F, I might just spend some time modeling today. Planning to continue work on my layout space, as well. First, though, coffee and a toasted sausage, onion-n-cheese breakfast; and don't hold back on the onions and mustard.

I'm not going to spend much time with my face planted in a PC screen today; I'd rather get to some modeling. I have a plan to model HO buildings over the next while. As many as I can. I want them so I can layout my town aesthetically conforming to the yard layout I'm planning. For myself, everything is easier to do if all the pieces are there; or at least, enough pieces to make the direction of travel clear.

For those of you who might be interested, I submit turnout switch photos today. Not very interesting to most, but, perhaps they are of interest to a few. I call the one with the broom, the witch-switch as a landmark identifier in relation to the distance I walk the tracks. That one is a-bit out of town.
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Have a good one!
 
Good morning from Wisconsin. We may hit 80 today if the sun comes out from behind the cloud cover. I would say a great Fall day but we have winds about 15 with gusts to 30mph per the never incorrect weather folks on TV.

Some yard duties to finish but trying to figure out when to put away the furniture. Our temperatures are supposed to be above seasonal for the next few weeks. I am torn as I really like sitting on the deck and the front porch.

Getting back to Elmer’s glues for scenery. I mainly use the Glue-All for scenery but I do have about 20’ of scenery that I used the White School Glue for and I have had no issues of separation. I am constantly adding scenery elements so I think I would have noticed issues. The 20’ was used as the gallon was left over as I had used the gallon to glue down the cork roadbed and then the track. I then read when the gallon was done to always use the Glue All. YMMV, I guess.

We are trying to decide today’s event schedule. We may take a scenic trip which is becoming standard in this Pandemic year. North is 50 to 75% color change, south and East is 25 to 50%. You know life is tough when these are the difficult decisions for the day.
Enjoy yours

TomO
 
Good Morning All. Cloudy and 69°, should reach 84° again today before warming up over the weekend. 96° is in the forecast for Sunday! Still no rain in the forecast, although there seems to be some about 100 miles east of here around Shreveport LA, and the TX/LA border down to the Gulf Coast.
Another pleasant visit to the dermatologist yesterday, no return of the cancerous cells that he froze/scraped off my nose about three months ago. Weekly grocery/beer trek went off without a hitch, attire on the young female shoppers has switched from workout shorts to Lululemon pants. The store was not crowded and there wasn't any line at the checkout! Mask compliance was 100%.
Grandsons, daughter and SIL are coming up for a visit today. No school today, as this day is "Fair Day" for school kids at the Texas State Fair and schools are closed. But they cancelled the Fair this year and left the day-off in the school schedule.

Just bacon and an English Muffin for me today Flo. I'm looking at a full morning of outdoor activity this morning before it warms up.

Thank you for all of the reactions and comments about the town tour yesterday; Troy, Rick, Karl, Guy, Patrick, Garry, Sherrel, Jerome, Phil, Chad, Curt, Tom O, Jerry.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I completed (for now) the DPM structure. In keeping with the overall farmland theme of things on the layout, it is a fertilizer distributor for Coop Fertilizers.
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It is going into the town of Graham, across from the cannery. They receive bags of farm fertilizer by truck and distribute it to local farmers and ranchers. I still need to add "No Smoking" warning signs around the place, which I will do when I set up the decaling stuff.
I have set up the diner on its concrete pad, seems to fit just about right. I need to paint it completely because I cannot get a good match for the painting of the beveled entryways into the parking lot. Not seen in this shot.
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And the last structure in the unnamed town on the peninsula tour is Suds Bucket, a biker type of bar.
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I have some close up shots of some of the detail work in this town, but I am running out of time this morning.

Guy - Some DPM kits (now owned by Woodland Scenics) got new names, just as Walther's has done with the old Magnuson line of structures that they bought out years ago.
Garry -
Was there a wind storm at the chair factory causing chars to fall over?
That's my story! Actually there were only four chairs with the kit, and all of them looked like miscast white metal parts with one or two rear legs shorter than the front ones. I called Bar Mills and pointed this out, and Len told me that it was intentional, hence the slogan for the company. He sent me four more, and two of them were the same!
A new shot.
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Tom O -
My wife and I came to an agreement over dinner last night. I was going to the train room from 7-10 Central time and she was not going to talk to me at all except to say good night.
Ah! Yes. The advantage of having a train shed !;) So glad that I have room for it.

It's Columbus Day weekend here in Texas.
Enjoy yourselves and stay safe.
 
Good Afternoon Everyone.....sunny and warm with windy conditions. Beautiful fall colors and we're near peak.

Watching the news about the riots and protests in Milwaukee and Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. I have special interest in these events since I had my office at the major mall in Wauwatosa, Mayfair and the current mall management team has placed Jersey Barricades across the entrance roads and the National Guard is using the mall parking lot as a staging area and to protect the mall. Mayfair is a Super Regional Mall with approximately 170 stores and is in the top 10% of malls in the US.

Changed a lamp in an outdoor light fixture which is a real "bear" to do to hold part of the fixture while attempting to screw one of mounting screws into place and I've lost two of the original screws that hold the bottom of the fixture to the top which is attached to the brick trim on the house. A small project that I always put off.

Again no railroading today. I was tested for my INR which measures the thickness of a person's blood and mine was twice the normal. Maybe this is making me a little tired and have a lack of interest in the layout.

TLOC: At our cabin in Central Wisconsin, several years ago we had a cabin closing party of the last weekend of gun deer hunting. Late November and the temperature was 21 degrees around the fire pit. Unbelievable that most of the guests were over 70 year old and some pushing 80 and all enjoyed the fire, drinks and all our friends. We lasted into the night and then had a light dinner.

Waiting for my Northern Pacific box car to arrive. I like the car's green base color and the line's logos.

Now much more to report...............

Stay safe.

Greg

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Afternoon All,

Started with vacuuming the pool and cleaning the filter. I noticed that I need to trim the hedge one more time this year. A job for next week. In the train room I finished what I could with the bushes then started laying out the next section of the lower level. The far right track is the mainline and the other 2 tracks will be used as interchange tracks. I will probably paint the upper track tomorrow :((if the paint is still good).

Four months tomorrow I started construction on the layout.

Thank you for the likes yesterday.

Greg- Thank you. That is a fancy ballast spreader. I just have a plastic box that slides on the rails.

TomO- You always have to stand up for your wife.

Troy- Nice job on the back drop.

Joe- Nice pictures.

Sherrel- It really sucks for the people in the hurricane area. Hurricane season has been brutal to them this year.

Guy- Interesting the varied type of switch stands and handles. I figured out what the major structures that I wanted and built them before starting the layout.

Willie- Great news from the Doc.

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I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Good afternoon.

Thanks everyone for comments and likes for my picture of the two stock cars I just completed.

Garry: Another nice shot of the cattle pens and stock cars. I seen on another layout two of Walthers' Champion Packing Houses combined to make a large complex with three tracks serving the company. I think one packing house survives in downtown Milwaukee, but isn't active. My FIL was an investigator for the Wisconsin Department of Ag - Consumer Protection Division and inspected small processing companies and packing houses.



Greg

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Greg .... I'm a bit slow replying. I can imagine two combined packing houses would look great. Interesting about your FIL.

Curt .... Mice turntable. Feel free to tell us about the locomotive. Looks like a good one.

Joe ..... I like the F7's .

Willie .... Thanks for replying bout the chairs. Interesting. You certainly have a large variety of buildings and structures on your layout.

Sherrel .... Hopefully, your cousin's roof does better in this storm .
 
Good evening Shop Dwellers! 58*F, clear and dark in my central MD hometown. (Dennis and Willie, I tried typing the ALT+248 and the ALT+0176 but my cursor didn't even move - just sayin'...)

Thanks everybody for the expressions of sympathy about my Tuesday medical ordeal. I'm much closer to the 'normal' end of the functionality spectrum today, the Eliquis seems to be having its desired effect; my left calf isn't hurting anymore, but it's still swollen. I was feeling well enough to mow my lawn this afternoon, in order to have time to visit with some mrr friends on Saturday and visit Karl on Sunday - so he can install the correct ESU sound file for a turbocharged EMD 645 prime mover.

. . .
Ken- Sounds tough. I hope the clot turns out to be minor.
. . .
Curt - I actually knew the clot was not life-threatening while I was still in the ultrasound room; the imaging tech told me this type of clot (tiny, and below the knee) is always treated with oral medicines on an outpatient basis. She apologized when she came out to tell me that my doc actually was ordering me into the E/R, she was totally surprised. My wife (an MD) and my 25yr-old daughter (an RN) both also said they couldn't figure out why I was being sent there. Then even the E/R doc was also questioning why I was there. I have a follow-up appointment with my pc doc on Monday, I'm definitely going to question him about the necessity of this hospital visit.

* * *
It's getting late and I need to rise early since I have a full day tomorrow, though they will be enjoyable activities. G'nite!
 
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(Dennis and Willie, I tried typing the ALT+248 and the ALT+0176 but my cursor didn't even move - just sayin'...) YEAH - neither one worked for me either?

Got the daughter off going back to D. C. Her visits have become far between with the Virus!
My Lake Charles cousins are getting hit again tonight. They were going to go to Houston this morning, but the roads were like 2 hours to go 10 miles - so they turned around and went back home . JOE said he had a couple generators and they would just stay there. He was telling me about the roofing crew who came down from Dallas thanks to his daughter who lives in Frisco.
Joe was saying that he was the first one to get his roof done - as well as his son who lives little more that a mile away because he paid cash while everyone else was waiting on insurance money.
 
I should be in bed but I was out for a late walk (until about 12:30am) and when I got home I remembered something I had to contact Amazon about so I did that before I forgot, and then I finished a Rick Beato YouTube video and an Adam Neeley (both music oriented videos) while I fiddled about with some trains.

Earlier this week I had gotten my KATO Rhätische Bahn (aka RhB) "Hakone Tozan Railway" Ge4/4-II "622" starter set down to look at what decoder I had installed it in a while back. I still had it sitting out, so I went and got the case of extra EW I coaches for the RhB and decided to let it go around the loop some. At first I set it up with 8 passenger wagons, then added the last two, and eventually one decoupled so I removed that and let it go with nine. (the track has a couple places where wire, despite some efforts on my part, causes a very slight "buckle" in the track which can cause rapido style couplers to decouple as they ride up over each other but these are a friction push coupler and I guess one just decided to uncouple). The Rhätische Bahn is a Swiss narrow gauge railway in the mountains and is very popular and scenic. KATO makes it 1/150 instead of 1/160 so that it fits the track a bit better for narrow gauge, like they do with their Japanese stuff, since most of Japan is narrow gauge. (In Europe this is sold by Noch). I have two other RhB locomotives for the Glacier Express line (Ge4/4-III locomotives and different wagons) as they are interesting and cool and different. The "Hakone Tozan Railway" running number 622 is patterned after the real 622 on the RhB and is liveried to honor it's honorary sister railway in Japan, the Hakone Tozan Railway, a privately run mountain railway in Japan.

I also later put the ET425 German commuter rail I posted a week or so ago on the other loop of the dual track loop so that I could run a train both directions.


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(Dennis and Willie, I tried typing the ALT+248 and the ALT+0176 but my cursor didn't even move - just sayin'...) YEAH - neither one worked for me either?
You just hold down the ALT key and type the numbers, either 248 or 0176. NO "+" is used. AND you have to use the number pad, not the keys along the top of the keyboard.
Not sure if this works on a laptop.
 
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Good morning Everybody!

Sorry I have been AWOL.

I finally convinced my wife to retire from the retail store she had been managing. She agreed only if she can continue to keep busy working through our company Bruette Services LLC.

My challenge has been to keep up with her. Keeping her busy is easier said than done. She works so fast and efficiently, not to mention her ability to multitask!

She learns so fast that in a few weeks I will become obsolete. Don't worry, the company is in my name, can't fire me! :)

I went to the doctor for my annual checkup everything looked good, given the circumstances and all my chronic conditions. The doctors add a new medicine to hopefully lower my A1C. Best I could do on my own, despite all my effort was to lower it by .6 to 10.4 If the price of this daily pill is any indication of how well it works all should be good when I get checked again in 2 months.

That's all for now, I need to get things ready for when my wife wakes up. At least I have the advantages of waking up before her and needing less sleep than she does.

I doubt I will have much time, but my thoughts and prayers are with you all.
 
Good morning Model Railroaders. Hope this day finds you well. Smokey, dry, maybe rain later this afternoon weather person says.........sigh! 😒 This is the high desert!
Very nice pics the last several days, and Willie, thanks for sending along the rail fanning location. Nice that you have provided some shade Now all you need is a mineral water drinking fountain between the trees. ;)
Boris, pic of the f7's.....oh yeah!
Only model railroading I've been doing is reading MR magazine, and MRH e-mag. Other projects going on with fall winter approaching.
And speaking of high desert, I will leave you with these two pictures. the remains of a homesteaders rock house, in the Oregon desert, about 300 miles east of me.
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With the scattered pieces of soldered tin cans, colored glass & debris, I would say 1870's to turn of the century.

EVERY BODY HAVE A SAFE & WONDERFUL DAY!
Ta Ta
 
Good Morning all. 52 degrees in the Ozark Foothills. Flo. Cheese Omelet and Raisin toast
Sorry for being gone been busy this week but next week I’m on Vacation. Thanks for the complements and likes on the Circus wagon it was a lot of fun.

TomO. I’ve bought lots of Decals from Matt he seems to be a nice guy. Those are his on g tv he wagon

Joe. Nice pics as always

Curt. Your landscaping in the background is amazing the layout is looking good

Guy. Thanks for posting the Switches like the Yellow Pie Pan one.


Sherrel. Don’t feel bad I’m not Computer savvy either

Chad. Interesting Train you have there Thanks for posting it

Willie. Nice Buildings

Here’s another Circus Wagon that’s near completion I built last winter. Have a great weekend everyone


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Good morning Everybody!

Sorry I have been AWOL.

I finally convinced my wife to retire from the retail store she had been managing. She agreed only if she can continue to keep busy working through our company Bruette Services LLC.

My challenge has been to keep up with her. Keeping her busy is easier said than done. She works so fast and efficiently, not to mention her ability to multitask!

She learns so fast that in a few weeks I will become obsolete. Don't worry, the company is in my name, can't fire me! :)

I went to the doctor for my annual checkup everything looked good, given the circumstances and all my chronic conditions. The doctors add a new medicine to hopefully lower my A1C. Best I could do on my own, despite all my effort was to lower it by .6 to 10.4 If the price of this daily pill is any indication of how well it works all should be good when I get checked again in 2 months.

That's all for now, I need to get things ready for when my wife wakes up. At least I have the advantages of waking up before her and needing less sleep than she does.

I doubt I will have much time, but my thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Louis, can you PM your phone number to me, in case we "lose" you again? I thought I had it, but it may have gotten lost in a phone migration.
 
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