Running Bear's April 2020 Coffee Shop


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Sorry that this is ruined this year. Willie, I forget- where is this held normally?
I have two brothers and a sister in the Dallas area that have the room for all of us to sit down to dinner together. They borrow the chairs and tables from the Catholic church that they attend. It does mean moving some furniture out of the way to fit everything. Large yards for the Easter egg hunt, which ironically has never been rained out. Eggs for those over 50 are normally hidden (?) at or about eye level. We have discarded one of my Dad's old rules regarding no cocktails until you find your egg.
 
Where is your "safe" spot - the pool?
Believe it or not, we have watched nearby tornados from the pool in the past. Our normal "safe spot" is an interior hallway shielded with a mattress from the adjoining bedroom. We used it only once in 2015. That tornado passed by a couple of miles south after traveling more than 25 miles without coming near any structures. It uprooted a few trees and downed some fences along the way. We were tracking it with the wife's cell phone and didn't know just how close it was actually going to come to our house. Better safe than sorry.
 
Believe it or not, we have watched nearby tornados from the pool in the past. Our normal "safe spot" is an interior hallway shielded with a mattress from the adjoining bedroom. We used it only once in 2015. That tornado passed by a couple of miles south after traveling more than 25 miles without coming near any structures. It uprooted a few trees and downed some fences along the way. We were tracking it with the wife's cell phone and didn't know just how close it was actually going to come to our house. Better safe than sorry.

That's not very much protection! I remember standing out in my back yard in K.C. and watching two of them at the same time plus another funnel cloud to the north. They weren't very far away and we were prepared to hit the basement PDQ! We lived less than a quarter mile from open fields - so damage was minimal. I'll take an earthquake any day!
 
A pleasant day to the shut ins where it is still raining out here. Yesterday morning the sun peeked out for a very few minutes, then went hiding again and has not been seen again. Believe it, It started raining again around 3 pm and has not stopped except for very brief moments - a nice soaking rain with brief bouts of heavy.
We are pushing 18-19 inches for the season - wonderful, but the pups are tired of it

Temp is hanging tough around the 58-63 area with mid to high 40's during the nights.
 
Good morning America! It's 45 and windy now with a high of 55 later today. Brrr! NWS issued a freeze warning for tonight, but will be 70 tomorrow with lows in the 50's. I got an electric chainsaw from Lowes yesterday and started cutting up our tree that got blown down a week and a half ago. Works really well and no gas and oil to mix and best of all..............very quite! Sure am thankful for Lowes and Amazon, it gives us a way to get most of what we need without going out in public. Same with Walmart and their grocery service. Just have to disinfect the boxes before opening.

We are planning on our trip to Illinois when we can to bring back the rest of our belongings. Don't know when or how soon that will be, but it gives us something to look forward to. That would include wood and foam board for my layout. I checked Lowes website and foam board doesn't appear to be something that is easy to get around here.:mad: Hopefully, that is just due to the current situation.

Willie-Sad about Easter dinner. No doubt many others will be in the same predicament. Our safe spot will be in the main bathroom that is in the center of the house with no windows if notice is short. If we have enough time, it will be in the crawl space.

Sherrel-I would have to think about the earthquake!

Louis-Nice pictures!

Karl-Like the boxcar! Know why the side effects of beans stink? So deaf people can enjoy them too!

Tom-I saw some loads similar to that when I was working in northern Illinois about 6-7 years ago. Only they were box cars, tank cars and covered hoppers. Looked like they were definitely from a train wreck!

Guy-Like that Alco!

Patrick-You're right about the hair dryer........but only on low, at least with the one we have.

Johnny-Nice shots of the F units. The TP&W had a couple of F's in the 90's that they had painted in the NYC lightning stripe scheme and colors. They were really sharp looking. Wish I had pictures of them!

Hope I didn't leave anyone out. Now to make a pot of chilli and then mow the yard while it's cool! Safe and six feet apart!
 
Good Morning Everyone....overcast again today. The Mrs. heard that there's the possibility of major snow storm on Monday at the cabin in Central Wisconsin.

The Mrs. is venturing out for supplies and food with her face covered and gloves. No need for TP since we have enough on hand for several months. I laugh that years ago for our office buildings and mall restrooms I purchased TP by the carload, a month's supply. Thre was a shortage of two ply TP from any source, so I was forced to purchased a half carload of single ply and immediately the phone ran off the wall with calls from tenant complaining about the "Cheap" single ply TP.

Thanks for you comments on weathering the undersides of rolling stock. I think I'll do some weathering research on ore cars from a book I purchased at swap meet that has a load of photographs. I may try disassembling an ore car and spray the underside a Grimy Black or Flat Black and then weather with rust and dirt. Just a trial since I have over 60 cars either finished or in some stage of weathering. Stay tuned.

Short day today since the Mrs. is bring home cod for an early dinner and then we'll play Gin Rummy. I rarely beat her at this game.

Willie: I know what you mean about the tornadoes. I've experienced many tornadoes with one passing over the cabin one June afternoon. I walked into the cabin thru the back door and by the time I turned on the TV the sky turned black as midnight as the tornado passed over head. I had to turn on the cabin lights to see my way around in the cabin. Several years ago there was an out break of seven tornadoes all around the cabin and one hit the south end of our woods and then lifted over the cabin, but damaged a lot of the White Pine and I spent two days just cleaning up the driveways and small open yard. I found one small branch driven into the ground by the winds.

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A small pine branch driven two feet into the ground.

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These pines were standing straight up prior to the tornado. You can't see the ones that were broken off or laying on the ground.


Down the road, a friend of mine lost 116 acres of mature woods, completely flatten by the tornado. Loggers started clearing the trees in June and finished in December. The stumps remained. So much for the weather.

Stay safe.

Greg

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A Weathered RIX structure that is part of a small junk yard near the tracks.
 
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Supposedly Johnny started out selling shoes strings on a street corner as a kid.
He ended up with dozens of "Hot Dog Joints" as he called them.
His "Hot Dog Joints are gone, but his kids and grandchildren are still making and selling his Polish Sausages wholesale to grocery stores.
The photo above shows his first "Hot Dog Joint" on Baltimore's infamous "block".
 
Afternoon All,

Still feeling sluggish from the night time cold medicine I took but I'm feeling slightly better. I finished up the 3 miner's cabins after deciding to keep the "tar paper" roof since the company wouldn't spend extra on a nicer roof. Like others here we've cancelled the family plans on Easter and will do something after this is over.

Karl- That's funny.

James- Nice buy.

Johnny- Nice layout shots.

Willie- Hopefully you can fix those mistakes and poor modeling. Good luck with the garden.

Tom- Interesting load.

Greg- Nice layout shot.

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Next build
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I hope everyone has a good night.
 
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