Running Bear's April 2021 Coffee Shop


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Good Morning Everyone. Clear and 49°. Quite a cool front blew in last night, yesterday's high was 83°. I had to close the windows as the wind was over 35mph. It almost rained. I could see lightning off to the north but it never made it this far.
I am wore out from yesterday. Besides the usual household tasks, I did an extra load of laundry with all of the winter wear that will be stored until next season. I also did a partial remodel of the bathroom that I remodeled two years ago. My daughter remodeled her bathroom and we took away a discarded cabinet/drawer thingy, that is 6'4" tall. Before it could go into position, I had to remove a shelf and some of the corner trim from the area that will be behind it, and reinstall new trim. After lunch, I finished the tree pruning adventure across the road, getting some straggling branches out of the way. Neighbor came and mowed as soon as I was done.
I've been posting about the garden this year, so here are a few pictures.
The red lettuce that I planted indoors in January from seed.
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The Arugula (center) seeded in the garden immediately after the "big freeze".
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Next to that is a bunch of mixed loose leaf lettuce varieties planted on the same day.
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The broccoli in the background is doing well, here's just a few of the dozen plants.
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A row of green beans just starting.
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The vegetation to the right is just weeds in the fallow half of the garden. They'll be mowed and covered with hay in a few more days.
Then, here are some of the tomato plants. They will double in size next week after the watering that I gave them Thursday morning.
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It's time already to install the cages around them, before they get too big and unwieldy.

Flo, fill my plate with blueberry pancakes and bacon this morning. Tall glass of OJ to wash it all down with.

Thanks for all of the likes and comments on the continuing tour; Guy, Patrick, Tom O, Karl, Phil, Sherrel, Hughie, Jerry, Joe, Ken, Gary, Rick, Justin, Jaz. More coming up.

Out in the train shed yesterday, progress was still slow on the grade crossing. Cutting, trimming, gluing and painting all of those individual ties that make it up took time. But I did finish it. I'll be making an inspection today before taking a picture for you all. While waiting for stuff to dry, I vacuumed the first 14' section where I cleaned track Thursday. Wasn't really much since I had added scenery and structures to part of the layout last summer.
Here are a few more pictures moving south from the rooming house. Many have been posted before, but these are new ones and kinda give a perspective to where things are in relation to other things.
Next to the rooming house is a small rural country store and car repair business, a laser-cut wood kit from JL Innovative Design. It's known as the Saw Pit Store, a name that I kept.
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Counting up, it looks like I have hit my picture limit per post. More tomorrow.

Karl - Nice scene that won you a prize. Congratulations.
Tom O - We had one of those remotes back in the 50's, but it didn't really work until the 60's when we finally got a TV. Remember those days, before TV??? Mom would bake some cookies or a cake and we went next door on Sunday night to watch Ed Sullivan back then.
Sherrel - Good luck with the wiring harness. What is it about wires that mice like? I have had to remove several stiff ones that bit the wrong ones over the years, 120v.
Jerry - My backdrop is very simple, just mainly sky blue, with a very rough horizon made with different shades of green. Nothing specific but with an occasional vertical stroke that might represent trees. I haven't learned to do clouds yet. In some places I have pictures of structures attached. At some point in the future, I hope to enhance the backdrop some more, but I am also happy to leave it the way it is for now.
Garry -
The contractor has dual citizenship with US and Mexico. All of his workers are Mexican immigrants. They worked very hard and knew what they were doing. .... This evening, the contractor treated Shelley and I to homemade, authentic Mexican food prepared by his wife. It was delicious. .... Next week will be quieter without the pounding and the loud Mexican music on the boom box.
Welcome to Texas. Building contractors have been that way here for over 30 years now. They do a damn good job. Those young men listen to and respect "El Patron", (foreman). Many learn what they can and start their own businesses later on. Boom Box is a must have!

After reading about some of the vaccine reactions from fellow forum members here and elsewhere, i am pleased that the only issue that me or my wife experienced was some shoulder discomfort normally associated with any injection, for a few hours at most.

Everybody have a great day and an awesome weekend. Stay out of trouble and don't burn the soup! Be safe everyone.
 
Good morning,
Flo made banana chocolate chip muffins first thing this morning to enjoy with my coffee. Sun is shining this morning so I will be outside sanding maple again today for my bed project. Yesterday was a perfect day for a drive and some Digby clams and chips, the train spin is the first stop at the Middleton railway museum to see that historic steamer that they shipped in and are restoring. I think this is a good pic of it.
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Looks like they could have driven that steamer in. Nice.
 
Good Morning!
The coffee is very good today in the cool weather; 29°F under cloud, and visible frost on the rooftops. There are supposed to be wet squalls coming through and it might be breezy. It looks like a generally dark, crappy day.
Seems like a good day to continue work on the new layout room in the warm, dry safety of my basement.

Jaz - I like the 'Bobby'. Seems he is a wee bit out of scale though. Is that a 1/72 figure?
Willie - Wonderful photos of the 'rooming house' area of you're layout. - I know you are involved in the annual cleaning stage of this area. Good thing, as there are visible cobwebs seen in the third photo, and it looks like a-lot of dust on the stairs. The cleaning must be a real annoyance if one has a highly detailed layout, like yours.
Nice garden photo's you have just posted. I see you are growing the kind of stuff I can burn in another soup attempt.

It took me about an hour to scrape out that thick aluminum pot that I burnt the soup in. Plus I had to use a short length of 2x4 and a hammer to whack the bottom straight again. It seemed to have warped up from the heat. - Now, it's good as new again. Since it's my original bachelor pot, I wanted to keep it; Just in-case I ever have to go single again.

Todays photo is another one of the acid trans-loader located at the CN staging yard. Sorry, it's a poor photo; my camera dosen't seem to take good telephoto shots. Probably because I can't hold it steady, and it's only a 14 meg pix camera.
The photo does show a transport at the loading gate, though. And one can see the track-mobile to the rear of the acid carrying tankers, used to jostle the railcars around.
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One day, I will get better photos, close-up. I'm quite interested in the trans-loader.

Time for breakfast. Sausage, onion, and cheese on toast.
Have a good one!
 
Good morning. Great pictures, good stories and of course the lousy cook! Just kidding that could be me. I can bake bread, make scrambled eggs and ham, open a frozen tub of soup Terry has made and I can cook on the grill sort of. Terry sets timers for her cooking adventures and I have learned because I have steamed out the liquids in her soups a few previous times.

Willie, love the started garden. Born in 52 and we always seemed to be outside playing or down in the basement playing with cars, trucks or cops and robbers, solders. I don’t remember our 1st TV but I don’t remember not having one. I do remember dad bringing home the 1st color TV from the good deal guy. Dad always figured it came off the back of a truck but you didn’t ask in those days.
The SawPit Store scene looks very good.

Jaz, that’s a tall copper but a great scene. I think the days of just walking around are gone and I really am not sure why we all stopped. I grew up on the south side of Chicago and we used to sit on the front porch in the evening. Maybe because of TV we started the couch potato culture. Now it’s computers, laptops and smart phones.

Guy, the big blue CN as dirty as it was is IMO a great looking machine. Thanks for that picture the other day.

Troy, enjoy that new toy, my SIL has been talking about one since his current smoker died in March.

Have a great day
TomO
 
Good Morning!

Todays photo is another one of the acid trans-loader located at the CN staging yard. Sorry, it's a poor photo; my camera dosen't seem to take good telephoto shots. Probably because I can't hold it steady, and it's only a 14 meg pix camera.
The photo does show a transport at the loading gate, though. And one can see the track-mobile to the rear of the acid carrying tankers, used to jostle the railcars around.
View attachment 126831
One day, I will get better photos, close-up. I'm quite interested in the trans-loader.


Have a good one!

Guy, this is such a great scene to me. Well captured. It would take much modeling skill to put this down on a layout. I would like to see this same picture at the end of May when everything greens up and the Pine/evergreen trees just pop there tops through the surrounding hardwood trees on that background hillside.

What do those 4 light poles in the upper right corner light up?

Thanks for sharing
TomO
 
Good morning, y'all. 54° and cloudy, with a slight chance of rain. Our weather is back to the usual dismal chilly and damp one expects from spring in Jersey. last week spoiled me.

A while ago, I received a Rapido RS-11 with ESU decoder and sound. I was very disappointed with it, because it had a tendency to derail. I was distracted by an admonition in the instructions to check wheel gauge, and assumed that was the problem. I just set it aside until I could dosomethig with it. Once I set up my ESU programmer, I gauged the wheels...no problem with wheel spacing. The unit still derailed in places where there was no discernible reason so, we examined it closely under bright light, and discovered an out of alignment brake hanger, and an extra long scale handbrake chain that had tangled itself around the bolster side of the rear truck. Once both of these conditions was corrected, it has become an absolute super performer on the layout.

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1973 photo of Alco drilling along Delaware Ave. Philadelphia.
 
Good afternoon. It's cloudy and 71.
There is mixed news on my wife's condition. Since someone here mentioned this forum seems to contain people complaining about their medical problems, I'll be positive.
She had a port installed so she can receive dialysis when she is transferred to a nursing home.
 
Good Morning!
The coffee is very good today in the cool weather; 29°F under cloud, and visible frost on the rooftops. There are supposed to be wet squalls coming through and it might be breezy. It looks like a generally dark, crappy day.
Seems like a good day to continue work on the new layout room in the warm, dry safety of my basement.

Jaz - I like the 'Bobby'. Seems he is a wee bit out of scale though. Is that a 1/72 figure?
Willie - Wonderful photos of the 'rooming house' area of you're layout. - I know you are involved in the annual cleaning stage of this area. Good thing, as there are visible cobwebs seen in the third photo, and it looks like a-lot of dust on the stairs. The cleaning must be a real annoyance if one has a highly detailed layout, like yours.
Nice garden photo's you have just posted. I see you are growing the kind of stuff I can burn in another soup attempt.

It took me about an hour to scrape out that thick aluminum pot that I burnt the soup in. Plus I had to use a short length of 2x4 and a hammer to whack the bottom straight again. It seemed to have warped up from the heat. - Now, it's good as new again. Since it's my original bachelor pot, I wanted to keep it; Just in-case I ever have to go single again.

Todays photo is another one of the acid trans-loader located at the CN staging yard. Sorry, it's a poor photo; my camera dosen't seem to take good telephoto shots. Probably because I can't hold it steady, and it's only a 14 meg pix camera.
The photo does show a transport at the loading gate, though. And one can see the track-mobile to the rear of the acid carrying tankers, used to jostle the railcars around.
One day, I will get better photos, close-up. I'm quite interested in the trans-loader.

Time for breakfast. Sausage, onion, and cheese on toast.
Have a good one!
I bought him as 1:76 but he is big easily 6ft6in a priest is also big,
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both intimidate people onto the honest course
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Good evening, everybody .

In my last post, I failed to acknowledge those who liked my post with photos of my F3's. Thanks, everyone.

Guy ... I noticed the blue CN locomotive had "IC" stenciled onto it for Illinois Central, one of the US subsidies of CN.

Joe .... I'm glad you solved the pesky problem with the RS11. Now, you can enjoy operating it. I like the Alco switcher in your photo.

Good afternoon. It's cloudy and 71.
There is mixed news on my wife's condition. Since someone here mentioned this forum seems to contain people complaining about their medical problems, I'll be positive.
She had a port installed so she can receive dialysis when she is transferred to a nursing home.

Terry .... Praying for your wife. Sorry to hear she will need dialysis. This must be very hard on you.

Who is the "someone " who was mentioning people complaining about medical problems in the forum ? I thought the coffee shop allowed members to be friends and talk about what's happening to them and their family members. That person should be more thoughtful and considerate.

Gary : ......... I like that picture of the museum locomotive being worked on.

WIllie .... Acknowledging your comment yesterday to me, Yes, I can see the barges going by. Some of the tow boats sound like they have EMD diesels for power. So, that's a close as I get to seeing trains from my house. .... I'm glad you know about what we experienced with Mexicans working on our house. The whole experience was favorable.

Jaz ..... I like the cemetery scene. I suggest you name the priest "Father Shorty". LOL

......

The Twin City Zephyr crashed into a station in 1947. It resulted from a large tractor rolling off of a flat car from an on-coming freight train. Seconds later, the Zephyr hit the tractor with its E5 locomotive.

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Garry, my wife has had to have dialysis for several years now. The change is nursing homes can’t perform the nightly dialysis, and have to send the patient to a clinic. They won’t allow me to perform dialysis technician duties there, which would require me being somewhere close by in case of a problem.
As for the person mentioning our complaints, he is a relatively new member here.
 
Joe .... I'm glad you solved the pesky problem with the RS11. Now, you can enjoy operating it. I like the Alco switcher in your photo.

Garry; I have a similarly painted S-2 by Atlas also with ESU decoder and sound. Hopefully, I'll get the Canon out soon and share some photos. BTW, I take it you are doing better, which is great news.

The change is nursing homes can’t perform the nightly dialysis, and have to send the patient to a clinic. They won’t allow me to perform dialysis technician duties there, which would require me being somewhere close by in case of a problem.
Terry: Unfortunately, Nursing Homes are not family friendly, and seem to go out of their way to make life difficult for patient and family alike.

the person mentioning our complaints, he is a relatively new member here.
Terry: Different strokes, for different folks. Not for nothing, we are a community here and share bits of our personal lives, like folks in real communities do.

Jaz: Speaking of the Coppers, why do I think I am looking at the set of "Midsomer Murders", when ever I view your photos? Very well done, I might add, picturesque, and hopefully not as violent. Perhaps the Vicar did it? ;).
 
Garry; I have a similarly painted S-2 by Atlas also with ESU decoder and sound. Hopefully, I'll get the Canon out soon and share some photos. BTW, I take it you are doing better, which is great news.

Joe ... I have an Atlas S-2 (CB&Q) and used a MRC drop-in decoder made for that model. It was simple to install. I don't know if MRC makes them anymore. .... Looking forward to photos of yours. ..... Yes, I am doing better . Thanks for asking. I lost 19 pounds in March. With less fluids in me, I no longer am coughing constantly. Blood pressure is closer to normal, but still somewhat low. I need less sleep, and I am more active.
 
Greetings all!

NE Indiana is set to be "Weak Sauce" according to the WTF Weather app. Today is low 60s and rainy.

Pushed and got the first two squads (of several) of my WWII gaming figures (1:56 scale) for the soviet army done. I'm fast painting these (well, fast for me). That means a lot of assembly line work, and generic techniques.

I've used Vallejo Model Color paints primarily, with Army Painter Strong Tone wash, followed by a dry brushing of Khaki over that to accent major details. I also added a dry brush of a light flesh tone to fleshy bits. Then lightened the base color paints for the uniform jackets and packs, and tried to use a thin brush to accent the highlight areas. Not perfect, but decent for a fast paint.

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I envision the setting as the ruins of Stalingrad (or any other Russian city the German's blew up), or even the Soviet advance into the ruins of Berlin. So, lots of rubble...

The base landscaping is a mixture of: Woodland scenics fine ballast, WS blended turf, some "plant sand" from the potting section of a local hardware (larger than play sand - makes nice "rubble").

The larger chunks of rubble are made from chopping up wine corks.

Neither the cork, nor the potting sand took paint until I added a polyurethane brush on primer (Vallejo again).

And a spotter for the AT Rifles, or snipers (which are still on the paint table.) I'm sure that tuft of weed in front of him is perfect cover and fully hides him.

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Good Morning Everybody. It's clear and a chilly 46° to start the day here, going up 40° to a high of 86° later today. Only hit 71° yesterday. We're headed into a cooler period coming up, after tomorrow, the high temperature isn't going above 70° for the next ten days or so. Possible rain on Tuesday and Friday. I guess that I'm not quite done with the firewood yet.
A ho-hum day here yesterday, as I did some hoeing in the garden after the watering Thursday, mowed about half an acre on the north side around the train shed and pond, and trimmed some more firewood and kindling to add to next years supply. I'm still concerned about a few of my 35 year old trees that haven't budded out yet, perhaps it's the lack of rainfall. One oak, one ash and one honeylocust. The worst case scenario is that the ash will have to be professionally dismantled, the other two are in locations that I can deal with.

A pair of extra large breakfast burritos should start my day just fine Francine. Tell Mel to skip the hash-browns and just use sausage, egg and cheese.

Thanks for all of the likes and comments received yesterday regarding the ongoing layout tour; Tom O, Joe, Guy, Karl, Hughie, Rick, Gary, Jerry, Phil, Jaz, Ken, Garry, Alan, Sherrel. They are always appreciated.

Yesterday out in the train shed, I continued with adding weeds to the grade crossing scene and I weathered the newer part of the crossing.
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From there I will move over to the left of the pawn shop and fill in the area between it and the deli.
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I am basically envisioning a parking area up front with a "junk" area next to the track. The backstory is that this used to be a through street until the railroad and city closed it off to reduce crossings.
On the other side of the layout room, cleaning and inspection continued. I realized that I had skipped one residence in the picture display of a trailer north of the rooming house, across from the propane distributor.
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If I recall correctly, the trailer is a resin model from Nu-Comp, now defunct. Seems like I may have bumped it to the left when I was taking pictures which is why the steps don't line up with the door.
Then working south from the Saw Pit Store, we come upon a few homes. This first one is half of an older DPM "Gold" kit that I don't remember the name of.
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Figures are by Woodland Scenics.
This red house is a Grandt Line Company House, with a scratchbuilt dog house.
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The dog peeing on the potted plant also came from a Woodland Scenics offering.
Then we have another NuComp trailer.
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These are hand-painted figures including dog are from a Preiser offering with 120 unpainted ones.
The street for these homes is off the layout about 2"

Guy -
...there are visible cobwebs seen in the third photo, and it looks like a-lot of dust on the stairs. The cleaning must be a real annoyance if one has a highly detailed layout, like yours.
That's the main reason that I don't attach any structures to the layout. I can take them to the workbench and clean/vacuum them there. I don't really consider it an annoyance; I knew what I was going to have to deal with before I built the layout. And then I get an opportunity with every structure to add weathering or details in some way. Sometimes I just re-position figures. They don't always get enhanced when I am doing the cleaning project, but thoughts get added to the "list", so that I remember them as small side projects to fill in when needed. For example, I am going to add another figure to the rooming house, but to make it more plausible I need another vehicle out front since Uber didn't exist in my layout era. That's another reason to the cleanup being spread out on a two-year schedule.
Tom O - Timers are an important part of my cooking adventures. Don't ask how I know this! :(
Terry - Somewhat positive news about Marie. I am not sure about nursing homes as I have limited experience with them. Is home care an option? I had a lady working for me that had dialysis ports and she still worked four days a week. She lived at home by herself so as not to be a burden on her kids (other than rides), and the actual dialysis was done at a clinic near her home in the evening three days a week. Of course this was the very large city of Dallas where those services are more readily available. Good luck with whatever decision that the two of y'all make. Continued positive thoughts and prayers are coming your way.

Today is National Eight Track Tape Day, I don't know why we need a day for that. Thankfully I skipped that phase (as well as cassettes) and went from albums to CD's.

Everybody have a great Sunday and go to the church of your choice. Keep wearing that mask and make people think that you're responsible.
 
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Garry: My first Atlas Yellow Box S-2 was purchased shortly after we relocated to Jersey, 35 + years ago. About 10 + years ago I used a NCE drop in, to upgrade the unit. That S - 2 recently failed, and barely moves itself. It is currently set aside.
 
Good Morning.
I suppose yesterday with the wind, dark sky and squalls, was the worst day weather wise over the next week. This morning is blue sky, but, only 21°F.

Seems it's been rather quiet in the shop this weekend. That must mean everyone is so busy modeling and taking photographs to share, that they don't have time for a coffee. - I think I'll have a couple of coffee along with steak-n-eggs, and do the same.

Not going to spend a whole lot of time in here, so I'll just share a photo and get on with it. It seems CN has changed out the SD75 switchers for a couple of older SD40's. At first, I thought they had finally got retired the SD40's,but, I guess not:
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That photo was taken about a week ago.
As I'm sitting here, I can here the train whistle's sounding far off in the distance. I suppose that would be the SD40's on the move.

Thank you for the likes on my photos!!:)
I'll see ya'll soon. Have a good one!
 
There's always a 50/50 chance more or less, Chances are one of you will survive the other. Companionship is only temporary barring plane and car crashes ,or jumping off a cliff hand in hand.
All you can do is make the best of being together, while together,if anything happens to me I hope the other half finds someone new and is happy I would hate him to be alone, I know we like to think of ourselves as irreplaceable, and hopefully we are,but - I also hope they can find someone different enough to carry on and enjoy the rest of their life rather than suffer,
someone old very old even should not discount this,unless others put their oar in, our queen won’t replace Philip,public opinion and her own self image will never give her a second chance, and a lot of people stay loyal not only to their other half but to their kids not wanting them to lose their inheritance,to be honest I am a sneaking Christian but I think we do not deserve to suffer on earth and should hopefully enjoy what we have, and if their is no afterlife I would be really upset that my other half spent years alone when someone else might help fill the void.
That said a chines restaurant owner who was a family friend,his wife died,he remarried in months,and he had a heart attack apparently during an intimate act,his wife shared nothing with his 3 kids,and the law was on her side, a good sound will, pre nip whatever leaving you guilt free is worth consideration. My mum dies in her fifties my dad died over 30 years later, never remarried, that’s a long time to be partnerless, and a will in case of that car accident,although my other half says the kids can take half each,plenty to go round, and once we are dead there is no need for us to have left this little item or that little item neither are sentimental,unlike us who have tons of stuff from our parents, even broken nick nacks that remind us of family no longer with us. We are both sentimental although he would hang himself usually rather than admit it.
Let your other half know you care,with a kind thought,a kind deed,a compliment....just be ware you do not give them a heart attack from shock :p
 
Good Morning.
I suppose yesterday with the wind, dark sky and squalls, was the worst day weather wise over the next week. This morning is blue sky, but, only 21°F.

Seems it's been rather quiet in the shop this weekend. That must mean everyone is so busy modeling and taking photographs to share, that they don't have time for a coffee. - I think I'll have a couple of coffee along with steak-n-eggs, and do the same.

Not going to spend a whole lot of time in here, so I'll just share a photo and get on with it. It seems CN has changed out the SD75 switchers for a couple of older SD40's. At first, I thought they had finally got retired the SD40's,but, I guess not:
View attachment 126854
That photo was taken about a week ago.
As I'm sitting here, I can here the train whistle's sounding far off in the distance. I suppose that would be the SD40's on the move.

Thank you for the likes on my photos!!:)
I'll see ya'll soon. Have a good one!
I know it is mad,but a lovely loco like this in all its glory working hard and weather worn appeals more to me than a pristine new off the line, beautiful picture, just needs a car to ‘date’ it, and a non railway personnel, beautiful beast
 
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