Running Bear’s October 2020 Coffee Shop

[gseritt]

Early morning here in central Alabama. The power is out, trees are down in the yard, the wind is between 25 -28 mph with wind gusts at who knows what. The new roof (less than a month old) definitely leaks around the chimney. I sure hope that everyone is safe. Mr. Willie, please let us know how you're doing down there first chance you get.


Y'all have a great day!!

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. We still are under a tropical storm warning, it's raining, and it's 64.
Yes, we are several hundred miles from the ocean.

 

[2Tracks]

Good morning one and all! Welcome to the last Thursday of October. The end of 2020 is not far away! Darn, what happened to 2020? Hope every body is doing well!

Willie, I liked following you on your vacation, visiting your old haunts. There's no feeling like going back and seeing a place that one grew up in many years ago.

Rich, great photo's of the European railroad works. The first photo is interesting as the concrete tie track appears to be sitting on top of the ground, not a lick of ballast.....

Kewl photo's of all that posted them.....

Thanx all for the likes......

EVERYBODY HAVE A GREAT DAY!

 

[Patrick]

Morning all,

Raining and 42° this morning in Doo-Dah with sun and 52° expected later this afternoon. So far 1.8" of rain in the bucket at home, we needed it.
Off tomorrow as I have servers to update on Saturday. Something about not wanting too much overtime, as I give up 4 hours to get paid for 5. Yes it's a little bit of OT, but it goes into a bank to use later anyway. I get paid for it if I leave without using it. Vacation however I only get paid for 120 hours, and as I have almost 200 vacay hours, and another 40 to gain before May 1st, I have to burn 4 weeks in the next few months.

Hopefully I can get back to my building for a bit tomorrow, but I'll probably watch the 2nd season of "The Mandalorian" instead and the 5th installment of "the Right Stuff" on Disney+. The daughter hooked us up so when her kids are at the house they'd have something to watch besides Netflix and Amazon. Too bad dad has some shows he likes as well!

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang!
Rain here for the next 24 hours, heavy at times, 54° heading to 64°. Looking for a slow day at the shop, as this kind of weather chases a lot of them home, big sissies!
Gonna stop at HD tonight and get some 4 inch PVC pipe. SWMBO wants me to make a candy slide so we can appease the lil monsters Saturday night with candy while keeping socially distant. I suggested using a clay bird launcher (skeet) to get the candy to them, Was frowned upon.

Halloween joke.

Why don't monsters eat ghosts???
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.
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cuz they taste like SHEET!!!

L8ter gang!

 

[troyphoto]

Good morning all. A meager 42° in NE Indiana today. Going to dribble all day on us here.

Hope everyone down south dealing with Zeta is safe and well. Did anyone watch the tele for Willie and Co next to Jim Cantore? You know Jim will always survive the storms.

Did get minor stuff done on the layout yesterday. Stuff that doesn't show in photos. Been sanding riser tops, then add joint compound where I need to fill in dips or even out transitions that I didn't catch before applying plaster cloth.

My other big project I didn't get a before pic of, so it will make no sense in photos as of now. I tore down the gaming table.

Back as Covid hit, I knew my tabletop toy soldiers were not going to the local game stores for the foreseeable future. So I built a 4 ft by 6ft 42in tall basic table to play on. I used basic 2x4 construction. Nothing fancy. Well... the gents in the local gaming scene are either old farts, toots with medical conditions, or in jobs with high exposure. There's one small bubble of gamers that is getting together, but those gents are in high-exposure professions. So... no gaming. No reason for a gaming table.

I'm trying to get my lap top computer set with a large 2nd monitor, etc, and make it into a desk top by proxy. But I need a desk. Got a nice one. But it's covered with train and gaming stuff. Time to turn that old gaming table into a solid hobby workbench behind the L-shaped (soon to be) computer desk.

So that's on my agenda for today. Build a hobby desk. Looks like 2 ft deep and 7 ft long.

While I do that, I've got a pot roast in the crock pot.
Need to go get more carrots. Didn't have enough here.

 

[McLeod]

Morning! 33°F this fine morning, and it seems we are headed into a warming trend for the coming days. I guess mother nature is concentrating on giving the east coast a whipping for now, and is presently ignoring the west. Don't loose hope, though, she'll turn her attention to the west in due time.

Thanks for the likes and comments on my prototype photos of yesterday. I enjoy running around taking photos of everything, and it's very good exercise if one goes on foot.
The CN employees are getting to know me by sight now, and don't seem to mind me running around down by the tracks. I'm sure they realize I'm harmless and intend no defacing of the equipment. Small town life definitely has certain advantages.

Here is a 'scenic' photo I took yesterday. I like the photo. There are a-lot of railway elements in this photo. Switches-n-turnouts, SD40's headed toward a railway bridge, railway communication gear, and a boxcar. Then a guy on a bike shows up to add that 'extra' element to the photo. - Every now and then, I get lucky with the camera.

I have taken literally hundreds of railway photo's over the past 11 months, since I acquired an interest in trains. Some have been shown here, as you know. There are hundreds more in a file, though. - Digital photography; the greatest invention of the 20th century, right next to Saran wrap.

Rich - Love the prototype photos of yesterday. The last photo certainly proves that running after trains is a male dominated hobby.

Justin - Nice job on the company store. Needs a chimney, dosen't it!

The wife is off work for the next 3 weeks, with her leg in a cast. So I guess she'll have to put up with me, instead of the dudes at the planer mill.

Before I go, here's a couple more pics from yesterday -

Hi-rail service headed somewhere:

Rail bridge over the McLeod River. I go there hoping to catch a train, but never do. One went over the bridge about 15mins after I left the area.

Have a great day, everyone!!

 

[santafewillie]

Good morning everyone. 72 degrees and overcast this morning. Short post today since I am on the phone. Power has been out since last night. I survived the hurricane landing other than the power. Not a lot of rain and the winds remained lower than 50 mph. Storm surge did not affect us here even though we are less than 50 yards from the shore. It did come almost to the top of the dune though.
Will check back in once power is back on.
Everyone have a great day.

 

[Boris]

Good morning y'all. It's 53° and raining. Going to be wet pretty much all day.

I'm waiting on a delivery from UPS this afternoon, with switches and roadbed, to continue my layout redevelopment project.

Hope everyone in the path of the Hurricane has fared well.

Think this is train #211 from NYP to Philly, passing through Harrison, NJ. #211 became #33 in Philly, and continued to Pittsburgh.

MU train passing through Harrison, NJ.

 

[GarryCBQ]

Howdy .....

I'm glad to say my Covid test is negative. This sickness is a nasty one whatever it is called, but I'm glad it is not the China Virus.

Terry .... Several days ago, you suggested getting a solid state hard drive for our computer which had a failed hard drive. That is what we ended up doing. The computer is noticeably faster. Thanks again for your thoughts.

Willie .... Good to hear you are safe after the storm.

Everybody ....... Have a good day.

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from So. Central Wisconsin. Low 40’s today with the wind at 15 gusting to 25. It’s Fall in Wisconsin, last year on this date we were heading to Austin but it was snowing at home.

Willie, glad you are safe.
Boris, your picture pictures are wonderful.
Justin, nice coal tower
McLeod, as always your pictures are wonderful. This one though, super top notch. Well composed and yes the biker helps the scene. Lots of details in that scene to help the modeling.

Thanks to everyone else for posting. Today starts my decompressing from online anything. I will not be back online till 6AM tomorrow. The world is driving me bonkers and the negativity within the USA particularly has me concerned. So after 10AM each day from now to 11/10/2020 till 6 the next day other then my cell phone I will not be online or watching TV. I will be spending lots of this time in the trainroom as the prior honey-do list is complete. From 6 to 10am daily I will review the 3 remaining forums I belong to, just 5 of the too many FB groups, look at Prohockey rumors and myNHL rumor websites and log out when done. Be safe, be happy.

TomO

 

[Espeefan]

The addition is finished. The last step was to build the sub floor with joists, glue it to the addition, then mount the whole business to the main building wall. I have some overhangs to build next, and then the main building walls will go together.

 

[bnsf971]

A photo of my front yard and driveway:

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Greetings from the LEFT!
On the way towards 81 degrees - same as yesterday's high - the overnight low was 45 and,
at the moment, there is not a whisper of wind blowing. I was totally worthless yesterday; that will teach me to crawl around on the ground with a 20-30mph wind blowing sawdust and sand in my face.

I have a bunch to do today - and it is all my list! Problem is that I am just in my doldrums and want to hide away from the world's woes! Totally burned and bummed out on the news and the politics and the realtors trying to sell my house ... and ... and ... Eeeeeek!

GUY -- love the bridge! Keep trying to get a pic with the loco about 1/4 coming out?
JOE -- great photos!
TomO -- Wish I could turn it all off! I can't -- I'm totally addicted!
Garry - I pray for the best with you .. glad to hear that you are feeling better. Super glad that you did not have the Virus?
Willie - stay safe! I have always wondered how deep the foundations are on those beach condos and hotels?
ALAN -- That's going to be a great work! Like your attention to detail.
RICH -- Love the photos.

I know that I am overlooking many, forgive me - it's not intentional!

 

[chadbag]

Rich, great photo's of the European railroad works. The first photo is interesting as the concrete tie track appears to be sitting on top of the ground, not a lick of ballast.....

You are starting to see a lot of that in Europe, Japan etc. The rails are set in concrete -- no ties etc to ballast. KATO (in N scale at least) even makes this sort of track; in Japan it s used a lot for Shinkansen (bullet train) trackage as well as in urban areas for normal commuter rails. I think in Europe you see a lot (based on my earlier reading).

This article talks about the various forms including ballastless track.

Railway track - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

and more details

Ballastless track - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Good Morning Everyone....................overcast this morning. Typical fall day.

Been on the computer this morning and started watching the late Andy Sperandeo and Hal Miller discuss Andy's operational experience on the Gorre & Daphetid with a load of photos of the layout and talking about Allan's locomotive #34 who is by anyone's guess 70 years old. This is a video on Model Railroader Video Plus website. Going to finish the video after lunch and I've watched the video many times and read Lynn Westcott's Model Railroading with John Allen. I purchased that book when it was first released at a cover rice of $21.95.

We decided not to pass out treats this Halloween due to the virus and why expose the beggars to the virus by encouraging them to go out in costumed groups seeking rewards. Many of our neighbors share our opinions and it will be lights out. Besides many of the kids come from the city and do live near us! That tube ides is great BTW.

I just love MS computer upgrades. I just had an upgrade which affected my home screen and many of the personalized features that I've done to the computer over the years are gone. Now I'm getting messages to schedule another upgrade. No way!!! It will have to wait until I'm in the mood to correct all the changes make by the upgrades.

Saw on the web that a Elk was sighted a few miles west of me by Holy Hill. Wisconsin has Elk but they normally are found in Northern Wisconsin some 300 miles away. I can't figure out Wisconsin's Leadership. They spend years developing a Elk herd, spend countless dollars to bring in another group of Elk to plant in western Wisconsin and then have an Elk hunting season each year.

The other Wisconsin sport is surgeon spearing in the very early Spring. These poor creatures can be over 100 years old and some sportsmen come along and spear them. Granted Wisconsin has over 60,000 surgeon, its the principle of killing a fish that has survived that long and have questionable taste when cooked. There's size limits for snapper turtles. Too large a turtle and too small a turtle they must be released. Not for the surgeon, the larger the fish the better.

Enough of me............but I feel better.

Willie: Glad you made it through the storm.

Terry: Good thing the tree fell away from the house!

Time to go back to the video....the wife thinks I'm working on our finances.

Later all......

Greg

 

[montanan]

Going to check in real quickly. We ended up with a total of about a foot and a half of snow by the time it was all over. Had some winds put a three plus foot snow drift across the driveway. The tractor with the mowing deck still on it was in the shed, but I keep the snow blower under the front porch. After fussing with it for a while in sub zero temps ( we got to minus 11 ) It finally started and the driveway was opened.

We have had company since last Sunday. My cousin and his wife have been staying with is as they had a pipe burst due to the cold weather. One of their grand kids left a hose attached to an outside hydrant and part of the basement was flooded. They have a crew in the house working on repairs now but they probably won't be able to get back in until either Saturday or Monday. They were going to spend some time in Bozeman doing some shopping but had not intended to stay this long.

Terry - I assume that the tree missed the house and any vehicles.

Joe - Always enjoy your photos.

Troy - That looks like a good start for a pot roast.

Hope nobody gets any serious damage from the hurricane.

The cold spell only lasted 2 days and the afternoon highs have been in the 50's which should melt the majority of the snow.

Going top part with a sunset photo taken the other day.

Gotta run, another time

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Got up dealing with a GI issue that's been occurring more and more frequently in the last couple of months. After showering I actually went back to bed for a couple of hours this morning. I'm feeling a bit better now. This afternoon I continued painting the installed rail but still have 5 more pieces to do. Tomorrow I should finish it up (hopefully). Since county schools have a day off tomorrow daughter and MOH are going to IKEA for a set of shelves to replace another one in daughters bedroom after we do the floor Saturday.

The high today at 3pm was 92 F at 7pm the temp is supposed to be 70 F! A cold front is coming through with milder temps for 4 or 5 days.

Chet- Sorry to hear of your cousin's house flooding.

Chad- Interesting photos.

Alan- It looks great.

TomO- I had quit watching the National News since it seems to have turned in to a Rah Rah time for one candidate and mute all political commercials. I definitely have election fatigue.

Garry- Glad you're starting to feel better. I was beginning to worry about you.

Joe- Nice Pennsy photos.

Guy- Nice CN photos.

gseritt- Sorry to hear about your roof. Our roof is the reason I'm having to rebuild a layout.

Justin- Nice job on the house and coaling tower photo.

Rich- Neat locomotives. British steam has always been interesting to me because of the shapes and colors of them. Sounds like a neat excursion.

I hope everyone has a good day.

 

[Patrick]

I quit watching the national news when you get 12 minutes of news and 18 minutes of "try this new drug" ads.

The local news is starting to get almost as bad. They start the news cycle at 4 just to get all the commercials and actual news in what used to take a half hour. 4-5:30p then the 12 minutes (ok really 1/2 hour, but see the above note) of National news and then another 1/2 hour reprising the stuff that wasn't in the 12 minutes.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Afternoon All. Beautiful day here after the hurricane passed through last night. Right now it's sunny and 72°, still a bit windy at 28 mph. Took the car out for a carwash this morning and had lunch at a local fish joint. Power came back on a bit later around an hour ago while I was taking a nap. I was awakened by joyous shouts from our housemates.
Last night was quite interesting. While the winds were around 50 mph, there were gusts up to 80 mph according to the official weather website. Just over a half inch of rain fell. Zeta is saving the rain for the Mid-Atlantic and East Coast.
Too many posts about snow and cold weather around the country. It has been approaching freezing back home as well. Too early for that s**t. It's 60° there right now, but dropping to 35° tonight. Next ten days look good, returning to the 70's by Wednesday. Speaking of home, we're planning to leave tomorrow morning about 0700, but haven't decided which route we're going to take yet. We're making the return trip a one day trip, about 11 hours plus stops for bathrooms, meals and gas. Our daughter, SIL and granddaughter are headed this way right now and we will meet them tonight for supper. There were delays with their rental car at the Mobile airport, so they are a bit late in getting here.

Guy - That SD40 looks like Greg might have had a hand in weathering it. I am very much looking forward to returning home to be able to post some of the many pictures that I have been taking.
Oh! Greg just posted the same thing!
Excellent photo of the bicycle.
Did I miss something regarding the cast on your wife's leg? Best wishes for her recovery.
Curt - I was overruled in site selection. In retrospect with the power outage, my proposal would have been better. This whole house shook last night at times. But we don't feel unwell today.
Gary - Glad to read that you are OK. Roof and power can be fixed. Odd coincidence that five of my last six visits to the great state of Alabama have brought hurricanes or tropical storms.
Rich - Not sure that I have had a chance to comment yet on the British RR pictures. Great and keep them coming.
Troy - Is that radish slices in the pot roast? My wife always wants me to add them to mine.
Garry - Good news about the virus test. Meanwhile get well soon.
Tom O - Decompression is good. I limit myself on the Internet which is why I don't get a chance to view any of the longer videos posted here. I only watch TV for 40 minutes every morning and don't use my tablet or engage in any social media. Only reason for being on the forum right now is to catch up.

RANT - I really hate the national news completely. It's all hate and bad news. Print media as well as TV and radio. And it didn't just get this way, it's been happening for the last 8-10 years. I think that social media has exacerbated everything as well. Fake news (from right and left) along with too many conspiracy nutjobs have made it worse more recently. Let's bring back the 60's, peace, love and rock & roll.
End of RANT.
Everybody have a great day, I can take a hot shower now.