Running Bear’s October 2020 Coffee Shop


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Morning all. Hoping to convince the wife to stop for a donut this morning, so just coffee.

She's got a doc appointment (nothing serious) this morning, and I got a Menards (Big Box Hardware for those who don't know of them) rebate in the post. Since we gave the 20ish-year-old Xmas tree to the daughter – who tossed it after her four cats turned it into a gymnasium – we're off to spend that rebate on a new plastic tree.

I did discover, that if I were modeling HO or O scale, Menards has a nice little selection of pre-assembled structures I could spend that rebate on. But, I'm stuck in N, so a new tree it is.
 
Morning all,

Yesterday was one for the records...earliest snowfall of 1" or more in Doo-Dah at 1.3" at the airport, which is funny as no one actually lives there. 2" or more in outlying areas. Supposed to get another 1" or so of snow and sleet today and then rain tomorrow through Thursday with flood watches out as 2-3" of rain expected.

Thanks to all on the likes of my tower. It still has a lot of work to go.

espeefan: Nice building. I hope to get that good.

Troy: Menards has some nice O scale structures and cars. They have more train stuff in O at the local store than all but 1 hobby shop in the Wichita area have in all scales.
 
Good Morning All. It's 75° and partly cloudy here on the warm humid Gulf Coast. Back home it's cloudy and 36° with a chance of freezing rain later today. Same system that's affecting Patrick right now. Down here on the coast, they don't really know what to expect right now. Probably rain starting tonight, they still cannot pinpoint where this hurricane will make landfall. When it does, it will be in the middle of the night here, and pass through rather quickly. It isn't expected to be too severe at our location, no evacuations are expected. The condo management did ask us to bring the furniture in off the balcony tomorrow night...they will send help if needed.

Bacon and scrambled eggs for me this morning Flo.

Patrick - The tower is coming along nicely.
Alan - When I build wood structures, I always use .125 x .125" stiffeners glued to the back of most walls.
Guy - Thank you for your thoughts. Right now this looks like it will be no more severe than a typical spring rainstorm back home.
It looks like Rebecca gets around pretty well at your place.
Troy - I use weathering powders more than paints when weathering. But I don't normally handle my equipment very often.
James - Thankfully there is no civil unrest at any polling locations around me. Our precinct went 97% for one candidate last Presidential election, and any evidence of protest will be quickly suppressed.

Just started drizzling lightly, thus postponing my morning walk. Doesn't even show up on the radar.
Everybody have a great day. Be safe and keep your distance.
 
Good morning y'all, 58° and cloudy. According to the weather clown, the temperature will remain around 62° or less all day.

I guess I will drop off my ballot today. This was a difficult election, as at almost every level, National, State, County, Township and School, the choice was between one bad choice or another bad choice. The best part of the paper ballot is you have a third option....the shredder.

I spent more time experimenting with the switch templates. The initial cutting and printing is tedious, but if I can head off a potential problem, it's well worth the effort.

Tomorrow, marks 8 years since Tropical Cyclone Sandy left it's mark on Jersey. Amazing how many scars are still visible.

CNJ SD40m3065 @ E'Port 1-25-1973.jpg

CNJ, ex B&O, SD-40 # 3065 idling at E'port Shops back in 1973. The 3065 would be repainted in the Red and White "Coast Guard Scheme before turning Conrail Blue. Photographer unknown.
 
Morning. I suppose a chinook is blowing through this morning. It's 44° @ 6:30am, and the winds are supposed to be high today. I noticed there are still Robins flying about, which might give the impression that spring is here. Then a flock of Bohemian Waxwings comes through, and you realize they are on their way the ell-out-of-here!

Thank you all, for the likes on my very simple post of yesterday. More good folks read it than I expected, as all I did was scratch some lines in to a store front.
I didn't do much yesterday, either. I just made some shovels that might go on display in the hardware store. An HO shovel is harder to see than it is to make. There's a real one out in the shed, and I measured it up so I could get the scale right. Used a figure as guide to make sure I was close. Here's the photos:
Shovel1_10-26-2020.jpg

Shovel2_10-26-2020.jpg

Shovel3_10-26-2020.jpg

All they are is a 0.4mm nichrome-silver tube (Albion Alloys Ltd) soldered onto a brass disk. The finished shovel isn't great, but, will pass as a store display inside a building interior.

I can't seem to come up with a way to make a proper construction wheel-barrow right away, but, I'll come up with something. Need to use what's available in the scrap pile to make it; don't want to buy anything. Mold-making fluids-n-materials and the like don't exist in my repository. Might try to make one out of miliputt. I can solder up handles out of scrap tubing, and punch out a wheel.

Nice SD-40 photo, Boris! CN is still using those up here, for switching duties in the area.

Gonna have one more coffee along with a toasted sausage-wich, and then do something with the wife as guide.
Have a good one!
 
espeefan: Nice building. I hope to get that good.

Thanks Patrick, and thanks to all who liked or made comments. You will get that good, but you should also know that all I did was follow the instructions. The manual for this kit is very comprehensive, at over 100 pages, and there are a ton of tips and techniques in it. You can be a complete newbie, but if you follow that manual, you'll get great results. He even has videos on his site for weathering wood, painting castings, and so forth. There are some great demonstrations on it, and they are short enough not to take up too much of your time. Even if you don't build his kits, the techniques are excellent, and will work anywhere. He also runs a forum where people build the kits. The membership there is very knowledgeable and glad to help if needed. Each time a new kit comes out, There's a guy who does a "Forum build", so you can see how someone actually does it, and talk to other modelers who are doing or have done the build. With that much support, it's hard to fail.

If you're into wood craftsman kits I'd recommend looking at these two areas of his website. You'll be glad you did. You'll find them here:

https://sierrawestscalemodels.com/videos.html

https://sierrawestscalemodels.com/university.html

It occurs to me as I type this that this may sound like a sales pitch, so here's your obligatory disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with this company in any way other than periodically handing them some of my hard earned cash. 😁 Also a warning: If you're one of our more frugal members, you may get a little sticker shock. These kits aren't cheap (the good stuff never is). The average kit will run you somewhere around what you'd pay for a high grade diesel model with sound. You get a ton of stuff though. I don't believe you could buy all of the materials separately for what the kit costs, and each kit generally consists of several buildings and a ton of really good detail castings. Have a look & let me know what you think!
 
Alan - When I build wood structures, I always use .125 x .125" stiffeners glued to the back of most walls.

Me too Willie, but these walls were very small, less than 1" high (actually 7/8" square), and the way this section was constructed, it wasn't friendly to add them. The warpage is very slight, pretty much undetectable from the outside. There's just a tiny bit of separation at the rear which won't be visible after the addition is installed. The main building walls have stiffeners, and he even tells you that some warpage will happen and that the corner gussets will pull things into place. So it goes, and I'm glad it happened here, as the tower walls are constructed the same way, and now I'll be on guard!
 
Good morning .

I'm still under the weather. Thanks to those who extended well wishes.

Joe ... Thanks. You asked if I have been tested. Yes, it did it yesterday for flu and for Covid. Flu test results were available quickly, and I do not have the flu. Cover test results will b in 2 to 4 days. My symptoms are constant with that. Fever. I sleep a lot and I cough. Not much to do except just ride it out as it runs its course.

I feel like I was hit by PM 1225 and NKP 765 at the same time, but I'll get better.

50536983412_ace351b036_b.jpg


Everybody ......... Have a nice day.
 
Thanks Patrick, and thanks to all who liked or made comments. You will get that good, but you should also know that all I did was follow the instructions. The manual for this kit is very comprehensive, at over 100 pages, and there are a ton of tips and techniques in it. You can be a complete newbie, but if you follow that manual, you'll get great results. He even has videos on his site for weathering wood, painting castings, and so forth. There are some great demonstrations on it, and they are short enough not to take up too much of your time. Even if you don't build his kits, the techniques are excellent, and will work anywhere. He also runs a forum where people build the kits. The membership there is very knowledgeable and glad to help if needed. Each time a new kit comes out, There's a guy who does a "Forum build", so you can see how someone actually does it, and talk to other modelers who are doing or have done the build. With that much support, it's hard to fail.

If you're into wood craftsman kits I'd recommend looking at these two areas of his website. You'll be glad you did. You'll find them here:

https://sierrawestscalemodels.com/videos.html

https://sierrawestscalemodels.com/university.html

It occurs to me as I type this that this may sound like a sales pitch, so here's your obligatory disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with this company in any way other than periodically handing them some of my hard earned cash. 😁 Also a warning: If you're one of our more frugal members, you may get a little sticker shock. These kits aren't cheap (the good stuff never is). The average kit will run you somewhere around what you'd pay for a high grade diesel model with sound. You get a ton of stuff though. I don't believe you could buy all of the materials separately for what the kit costs, and each kit generally consists of several buildings and a ton of really good detail castings. Have a look & let me know what you think!

Thank you for the links!

The particular kit I'm working is at least 45 years old. It an old Alexander Scale Models kit that hopefully has better instructions in the new kits. There is just a huge sheet with illustrations and what to use where, but no "Cut a piece of 1/16" stock to 2 1/4" and place it at X". It's more of a illustration and then what to do. I got it in a auction lot with about 15 other kits for less than the price of the new kit. The kit has their old address and not the new one.

Alexander Kit
 
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Good morning modelers from the great Covid State of Wisconsin.

Flo, do you have any cinnamon rolls? If so, that and a glass of 2% or less of milk.

Took a disappointing trip to a couple bakeries today. Big plan was to get the #1 rated cinnamon roll in Wisconsin but I never looked to see if they were open. Closed on Tuesdays. No biggie, #2 ranked in Madison and #4 in the state is across the lake from where we were. The server laughed and said honey it’s after 8 they are gone. Took home a plate sized apple fritter. Good but not what I wanted.

Modeling, I had a few Campbell and FSM kits but when it was time to build them, the layout went from the 50’s to contemporary and the kits got sold.

Vacuuming and then a visit to the train room. Have a great day.
TomO
 
Afternoon All,

Today in the layout room using my large steamer I ran the mainline 4 times (about 2/3 done) in different directions:

Left Side to Right side
Tender leads
Loco leads
Right side to Left side
Tender leads
Loco leads

The only issue was a T/O going to a siding on the lower left side, that was fixed with a shim. After that I started painting the rails a rusty rails colored flat latex color that Jeffrey told me about years ago. I got the right side and upper track (only need to paint 2 rails) completed to the RH so another day doing that which most likely will be Thursday since the wife has decided we're doing or grocery shopping extravaganza for November tomorrow. I need to remember to get 9v batteries for the smoke detectors.

Troy- Nice job on the layout so far. I keep forgetting that it's N scale.

Joe- Nice photos. Everyone is entitled to be grumpy from time to time.

Willie- Have fun and try to stay dry.

Guy- Nice scratch building.

Garry-I hope you feel better.

Jerome- I used Tamiya XF-69 (NATO Black) which when dry looks like weathered black.

20201027_144950.jpg

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
A lot I have seen are metal roofs, some are actually concrete screeded over. The of course traditional lap shingles etc made from various materials.

1603828711796.png





Here's a concrete one...




 
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