Running Bear's April 2020 Coffee Shop


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Happy Easter everyone. I hope everyone is doing well. Did some ballasting yesterday on the layout. Also the mail man dropped off some goodies for me.
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Some more hoppers for the fleet. Scored these athearn hoppers for around $20. That's a steal for me. And lastly. I'll leave this here for yall to enjoy.
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Happy Easter, everybody.

Below is anther work in progress photo of the grade crossing. .... I added scenery along the sides, and I weathered the roadway somewhat with washes of acrylic paint.


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Thanks, everyone, for the "likes" and comments for the previous pictures I posted. There is more work to be done.
 
Happy Easter Fellow Modelers............overcast here in Wisconsin.

Yesterday a malfunction of a commode took up some modeling time. Then a project for today was to setup a new 40 ich television and move a couple others around. Tried to get one TV to get cable for an hour only to find that the co-electrical Engineer connected the "Cable In" to the "TV Out" it will never work that way.

Short day today and after the Mrs. watches church services on Television, we'll have lunch and then a fire and a movie.

That's all for now.

Greg
 
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Good Morning again. Had to interrupt my earlier post because the granddog (yes I still have here here) got into some mud and my wife had just gotten her work clothes on. So who gets to clean her even though I was not the one who let her out?
Meanwhile out in the train shed yesterday, I finished up the rehabilitation of that estate sale structure as far as I am going with it for now. I reassembled all of the fire escape parts and attached them as best as I could, as well as adding the back railings to the entry stairs.
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I also got the ladder to the water tower into an easier position for my HO maintenance workers to use.
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This predates OSHA so there is no safety cage. However I might just do one in the future.
I named the business and added signs that were leftovers from a Walther's Allied Rail Rebuilders kit. These are alternate signs for that kit and one is also pictured above. Since the decal sheet is rather old and I was concerned with disintegration, I just cut out the decals and glued them backing and all to pieces of .030" styrene.
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As I posted yesterday, I am also leaving the rear windows alone for now since I am needing to move forward on other projects. Today I will plant it back on the layout.

Looking ahead, this is the industry just to the left (south) of Advanced Metal Products building. It is known as United Technologies.
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Interesting how the brick color changed when one picture had the automatic flash and the other didn't.
It is just a simple background industry made with DPM modular walls. Note the white paint on the rails. I have seen the prototype RR's do that in the industrial park near where I used to work, to mark the location of the loading dock door on industries that have no clearance for the crew member on the side. It works for me as well. Although in this case I can see the door over the top of the boxcar, but not if I use high cube boxcars.
Looking back at this picture shows that I need to repair the RH stirrup step on this boxcar.

All right, sun's out and it's already a lot warmer than the earlier forecast predicted.
Adios again.
 
Good morning Shop Dwellers, and a Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it!

No recent railroad news from my house, another reason why I haven't done much here except LIKE'ing posts over the past several days. Spent most of yesterday gathering up dead branches that had been scattered all over my yard by 40mph wind gusts during the previous two days. Then did some mowing. I'm amazed at how much the grass is growing while the trees have hardly any leaves on them.

Slept until 9:30 this morning, unusual for me since I generally can't sleep beyond 6am. In normal times all the kids and their Significant Others would be coming over for Easter dinner this afternoon...but not this year obviously. To compensate, we've all installed the HouseParty app (similar to Zoom) on all our smartphones and will have a "virtual" family gathering. HouseParty lets you do popular group e-games like Heads Up, Psych!, and Chips-and-Guac. In the meantime those of us here at the house will watch a live-stream of the Archbishop celebrating Easter Mass at 12noon.

Prayers for all who are suffering sickness or distress, especially those of you who have been impacted by COIVD19 beyond standard social isolation.

Stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!
 
Well, I got side tracked by the wife asking for the forms to pay the Federal estimated taxes that are due on April 15th. I hope that if they are post marked by April 15th there will not be any penalty. No time to go down to the train room today and get started on any projects that can wait until tomorrow.

I got out bid on 12 Athearn MILW box cars with the final bid of $137.00 plus $15.00 for shipping charges. I was surprised to again what single and groups of basic BB rolling stock is being sold for on E Bay. I guess these high bidders have never gone to a swap meet and see what the real world is paying for similar items. But....I should talk since that CADIZ box car I purchased on E Bay cost me $25.00.

Willie: Great progress on the structures. I like the idea of the painted location marks on the sides of the rails. I may do the same for fouling points on spurs and sidings.

No large Easter gatherings for our family anymore since most of our relatives have passed away or have moved to different parts of the country. My late MIL was the hostess for our large family gatherings and her house had a hard time holding everyone, so the family members arrived on time to get a chair for themselves in the living room. The Easter dinner location later changed to my wife hosting the gatherings as they became smaller and smaller. The MIL knew I liked Stinger cocktails so after dinner so made me several Stingers using Green Cream de Mint instead of the clear mint mixed with the Brandy. And, the glass she used was four times the size that should be used for Stingers. The Green Cream de Mint stained my mouth and teeth, but tasted good.

It funny that now Easter greetings are via text messages and by a phone call.

One Easter we had a major snow storm and I had to call out the plows for a major plowing operation. It looks like parts of the upper Mid-west will get a snow storm this weekend into Monday.

I have to make some plans to get out of the house next week. Maybe I'll drive and do some Rail Fanning at Du Plainville, Wisconsin. I take soda or water and snacks and wait for trains.

That's all for now....

Greg

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Good Morning, All, and Happy Easter!

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A couple years ago my dad and I went to Livingston, MT, for a funeral of one of his friends, someone he'd known for about 70 years. While there, we spent a little time chasing trains up and down the Livingston side of Bozeman Pass which is between Bozeman and Livingston in south central Montana. Here is one of my favorite photos from the trip, a westbound coal train with only 7 locomotives, half the number I saw on trains on Mullan Pass in the 1990s.

I submitted it to a show once and they wanted a name for it. It seems appropriate for today while we are celebrating new life. We'd just been to a funeral and you can't help but reflect on your own life and its fragility, not knowing when the end will come. So here is a trainload of former life headed toward the sunset and I called the shot, "Find your passion (before you end up fueling the boiler)."

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Good morning America and a Happy Easter too! Well, we had our morning rain mixed with occasional bouts of thunder. I put the trash can in the shed during a lapse in the rain. Don't want to have to go looking for it again, like last time! Seems the TV stations are really taking the severe part of the storms very seriously. I don't blame them after the tornadoes they had in the first week of March. It has got my wife pretty wound up, though. I am doing my best to try and keep her calm, but I think it's a losing battle. If I try to tell her that the odds are in our favor, she'll tell me I'm not taking it seriously enough. Oh, well. I know the storm we had two weeks ago tonight really scared her.

To top it all, Walmart has us scheduled to pick up our grocery order between 1 and 2 PM, right in the middle of the afternoon round of storms. Maybe they'll change our time, just have to wait and see.

I'm going to see what I can do with something train related today, as long as the weather doesn't get to bad. It's killing me to not have any material on hand to start my layout. I think the BLMA has agreed that I will get use of the third bedroom for my train room. There was talk of me having a shed for my trains, but this lock down has added multiple complications to that plan. I think that I would actually prefer the train shed to the bedroom, if for no other reason than I could do all of my work there, model building, painting, etc. and the alone time it could provide.

Here's some pictures of what I had started on my layout before we left Illinois. It all got torn down and boxed up for the move. One good thing about it is I didn't have anything glued down, it was just a trial run to see how things would all fit together.

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Well, I got side tracked by the wife asking for the forms to pay the Federal estimated taxes that are due on April 15th. I hope that if they are post marked by April 15th there will not be any penalty. No time to go down to the train room today and get started on any projects that can wait until tomorrow.
Greg, I can't comment on your specific situation but this might help.

 
Happy Easter everyone. Here's the other project: The 1941 COSF. This train had several "weird" cars in it. The Obs was one of the first blunt ends used. One of the sleepers and the kitchen/diner/coffee shop were articulated. The underbodies had unusual skirting. That means brass, unfortunately! I got the first two cars for this train many years ago, in the late nineties. I found the last one I needed about two months ago. it still won't be a "pure" consist as I bought some Walthers 4-4-2 sleepers in the earlier yellow & gray scheme (gray trucks, not silver, and "Pullman" on the letterboards). I have a Vanishing Vistas postcard showing this kind of mixed consist, so it'll do, and I can pick up the additional brass sleepers as they surface. The Alumnum flashing above & below the windows has to be painted, then we decal! Eight cars to go! I had to order more Scalecoat. These are the Baggage Dorm and the Coach

Before:
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Coach.JPG


After:

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May a chocolate bunny...... melt in your hand and a peanut butter egg stick to the roof of your mouth.
Hoping a candy encounter is your worst problem today!
Alan- quite a difference with the before and after pictures of those cars,

Yesterday was one of those Murphy days. Had to put the battery charger on the lawn tractor to start it. Mowed the 10' weed strip between me and the neighbor before running out of gas. Forgot the nozzle of my 5 gallon gas can broke last fall. Found my 2-1/2 gallon can.... where I left it in the basement. Filled the car and can with gas, and got a couple burgers at McDonald's 'cause my wife is tired of home cooking. I had to stop mowing several times to pick up dead limbs.
I managed to stir up clouds of pollen mowing, so I was not surprised I started sneezing before I finished. Took a shower and changed my clothes to reduce the sneezing.
I still have to come up with a front axle and wheels for an old Ulrick Mack truck kit. Maybe I'll work on that today.
 
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Good Morning again. Had to interrupt my earlier post because the granddog (yes I still have here here) got into some mud and my wife had just gotten her work clothes on. So who gets to clean her even though I was not the one who let her out?
Meanwhile out in the train shed yesterday, I finished up the rehabilitation of that estate sale structure as far as I am going with it for now. I reassembled all of the fire escape parts and attached them as best as I could, as well as adding the back railings to the entry stairs.
View attachment 46431
I also got the ladder to the water tower into an easier position for my HO maintenance workers to use. View attachment 46432
This predates OSHA so there is no safety cage. However I might just do one in the future.
I named the business and added signs that were leftovers from a Walther's Allied Rail Rebuilders kit. These are alternate signs for that kit and one is also pictured above. Since the decal sheet is rather old and I was concerned with disintegration, I just cut out the decals and glued them backing and all to pieces of .030" styrene.
View attachment 46433
As I posted yesterday, I am also leaving the rear windows alone for now since I am needing to move forward on other projects. Today I will plant it back on the layout.

Looking ahead, this is the industry just to the left (south) of Advanced Metal Products building. It is known as United Technologies.
View attachment 46437
View attachment 46436
Interesting how the brick color changed when one picture had the automatic flash and the other didn't.
It is just a simple background industry made with DPM modular walls. Note the white paint on the rails. I have seen the prototype RR's do that in the industrial park near where I used to work, to mark the location of the loading dock door on industries that have no clearance for the crew member on the side. It works for me as well. Although in this case I can see the door over the top of the boxcar, but not if I use high cube boxcars.
Looking back at this picture shows that I need to repair the RH stirrup step on this boxcar.

All right, sun's out and it's already a lot warmer than the earlier forecast predicted.
Adios again.
Just awesome Willie!
 
Sherrel, is this a California hoarder?

View attachment 46442

Greg
NAAA, GREG, If she were a hoarder - she would have a push cart full; besides, the shelves are too full. I don't recognize what she has?

Just a note - I hardly ever get my tax deposits in by the date - and I have never been charged a late fee. The Commie State here is a different horse - you betcha - 1 min late and here comes the fine! Speaking of which I am in a lousy mood of a $3,000.00 (2,978.45) property tax paid the 10th for only half a year.

PAUL - Absolutely Stunning Photo = WOW Factor!
 
Afternoon All,

Happy Easter and Passover.

Started out with some chores this morning then after lunch I painted the company house (already had a coat of A&I). The legs were stained with Hunterline Creosote, the walls and main color a thinned Tamiya Flat White wash and the trim is a thinned Tamiya Blue Gray wash. It's all drying now.

Justin- Nice haul.

Sherrel- That's a interesting photo.

Bob- I'm in the same situation now that I have a layout plan, but at least I have kits to work on. Stay safe from the storms

Alan- Interesting cars especially the first one.

Guy- That will be a nice flat car load.

Paul- Sounds like a interesting driving lesson! Beautiful picture.

Garry- Interesting use of small pieces of wood. I've always used single pieces but that can be a real pain at times. I'll try this in the future.

Joe- Another great Pennsy photo.

Terry- My son got one for late March but they closed the Court House.

Willie- Nice rehabilitation of the building. Interesting fact about the white marks on the rail.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
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