Running Bear's Coffee Shop August 2018


Mike - Nice photo.

Curt - It can be interesting running on the club layout. At the beginning of the cab ride, you'll notice a red signal at the far end of the bridge. The light shows occupancy by another train. If someone blows the red signal, the chances of an accident at the crossing in the tunnel are pretty good. The guy who blows the light has to crawl under the layout and sort thing out. At the far end of the first tunnel where the window is, they have a circus scene that can be seen from the outside. The tunnels through the walls going into other rooms had to be jack hammered through two feet of the concrete basement wall. The didn't cut any corners building this depot.

The smoke in the valley is pretty think. Doing a bit of searching, I found out that there are a number of lightning caused fires. Two are just over the mountain range to out west and another is in the northwest corner of Yellowstone Park about 40 miles south of us.. The park DOES NOT fight the fires wanting to keep everything "natural".

I did get a little work done while running trains today. Got the bumper installed at the end of the siding by the office/shop building and aded ties for steps up to the deck. Still have a lot of work to do there.
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Later
 
Thanks for the heads up of coaches to look for. The MRL Business train comprises 2 ex NP Budd domes, a pair of SP Daylight articulated coaches, the business car and what looks like a converted 72' baggage car as a power car. Usually hauled now by one of their later version SD70ACe's
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Good evening y'all. Today's weather: hot as you know where. Ac from up last night. Last time it did that I was low on freon. Spent the day away from home hiding in the truck, a Chinese buffet, and the mall utilizing everyone else's ac.
News from the train shed: First, thanks for the suggestions. Got some ideas to ponder. Second, I think I found space AND a means to start a bigger HO layout than originally planned. Got some wall space over the desk in the living room. May have the wife talked into a "Murphy" style layout that folds up against the wall when not in use. May not be able to add the buildings permanently, but could make them removable and set them in place when needed. Not ideal, but at least I could lay some track and run some trains. At this point, I'll take it. Better than what I currently have. Was working on some plans before fleeing the house this morning and came up with something that might work, just not in the 2x4 space I wanted to cram it into. While sitting at the computer (at the aforementioned desk in the living room) I noticed the large expanse of wasted wall space above it, leading to the new plan. Gotta take some measurements and start on a revised plan. Stay tuned for further updates. Gotta go. Need to make some new screens so we can open some windows.
 
Seems that fairs, shows and the people doing them, all look much the same anywhere in the world. International visitors would feel right at home.
 
Huh! I just ordered some more SMD's on ebay.com.au and paid by Paypal and I get my confirmation and receipt on Facebook??
 
Good morning. Survived another hot one last night. Being able to open the bedroom window made a big difference. Had every fan in the house on and it was almost pleasant, except for the air being humid and therefore sticky. Also measured the available wall space and determined I could do up to 4x5. After spending over an hour or so trying to make up a track plan for that space I determined that it's too much space for what is essentially a fold up shelf layout, but still not enough space for a decent loop without using 15" radius curves. I still plan to build just a switching layout for now, but I'm going to have to think on it for a while to see what I can come up with. I'd like to try to fit in 2 industries if possible, but I'm having trouble picturing something I like without buildings and having the cars out for reference.
 
Good morning everyone. Yeah, I'm back on the forum regular now. 68 and sunny, but good chances of rain every day this week! We're finally breaking out of our drought pattern in this part of the country. Actually, we had 2 1/2 inches of rain during the time we were gone, which meant a lot of mowing to do when we got home.

I mentioned last week that my brother-in-law was giving me a box of "train stuff." Wasn't able to really look through it until we got it home. Turns out to be someone's older Lionel train set. Here are a couple of photos of the stash:

Lionel1.jpgLionel2.jpg

There's also a box of random parts, including pieces of structures that need to be put together again. The stuff includes 14 pieces of curved track and 8 pieces of straight, two switches, two control consoles, etc. The photos are not attaching right-side-up, and I haven't been able to figure this out yet.

The rails, switches, and crossover are quite rusty. I'm sure there are a hundred products on the market for cleaning rust off track, but wanted to ask your opinions. What works best?

I don't run Lionel 3-rail or anything O-scale, but my son has an older Lionel set that hasn't been out of the box in many years, so I may give this all to him and help him get a layout going.

Over the weekend I worked on scenery in two parts of the layout and ran some trains. I think my main engine smiled at me?!?! Must be glad I'm not dead!

Anyway, great to be back on the forum regularly now. Missed all the updates on everyone's lives and haven't had the time to catch up on all that reading. Have a good day everyone.
 
Howdy ..

Today is the day I celebrate 10 years of extra life as I explained a few days ago....

Friends are here, and we leave shortly for a visit to the Casey Jones Museum in Jackson, TN soon. .. I received a present from them - a locomotive ! .... I'll tell more when I can.

Cheers.
 
Raincoat2 said:
Good morning everyone. Yeah, I'm back on the forum regular now. 68 and sunny, but good chances of rain every day this week! We're finally breaking out of our drought pattern in this part of the country. Actually, we had 2 1/2 inches of rain during the time we were gone, which meant a lot of mowing to do when we got home.

I mentioned last week that my brother-in-law was giving me a box of "train stuff." Wasn't able to really look through it until we got it home. Turns out to be someone's older Lionel train set. Here are a couple of photos of the stash:

View attachment 29777View attachment 29778

There's also a box of random parts, including pieces of structures that need to be put together again. The stuff includes 14 pieces of curved track and 8 pieces of straight, two switches, two control consoles, etc. The photos are not attaching right-side-up, and I haven't been able to figure this out yet.

The rails, switches, and crossover are quite rusty. I'm sure there are a hundred products on the market for cleaning rust off track, but wanted to ask your opinions. What works best?

I don't run Lionel 3-rail or anything O-scale, but my son has an older Lionel set that hasn't been out of the box in many years, so I may give this all to him and help him get a layout going.

Over the weekend I worked on scenery in two parts of the layout and ran some trains. I think my main engine smiled at me?!?! Must be glad I'm not dead!

Anyway, great to be back on the forum regularly now. Missed all the updates on everyone's lives and haven't had the time to catch up on all that reading. Have a good day everyone.
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Welcome back. Nice haul. I've never been big on Lionel myself, too toy like for me, but I appreciate seeing a nice setup using them so keep us posted on the progress if your son does make something out of them. I don't know if it will affect the rails any, but I've used barkeeper's friend to polish and remove surface rust off of chrome rims before.
 
GarryCBQ said:
Howdy ..

Today is the day I celebrate 10 years of extra life as I explained a few days ago....

Friends are here, and we leave shortly for a visit to the Casey Jones Museum in Jackson, TN soon. .. I received a present from them - a locomotive ! .... I'll tell more when I can.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
Congratulations Garry! Enjoy the museum trip.
 
Good Morning All. 70° and actually raining. Started about 0430 and it looks like .4" already in the gauge, I got wet going to look. Per the forecasters, it was supposed to rain for eight days, which it did 60 miles south of here.Today is number six and we are finally getting more than a sprinkle. Speaking of days in a row, I meant to mention on Friday that we have a string of ten days (today is the fourth) that the date is the same whether read backwards or forwards, i.e. today is 81318, tomorrow is 81418 etc. Palindromic dates to be technical.
Yesterday, I did get to mow a little bit close around the house where I water the grass for grassfire protection. The rest of the yard has been brown for over a month, but this rain will change that.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I started some assembly of the DPM kit named "Our House". Interesting construction utilizing snap-fit walls for the ground floor that screw into a large second floor rectangular casting. I assembled all of that and primed everything after assembly. Away from the workbench, I moved a few trains around and made one switching run consisting of eleven cars out and in at six industries. A car of feed and another of seed at the farm distributor, two propane tankers at the propane dealer, three covered hoppers at the grain elevator, two smaller covered hoppers at the sand distributor, a boxcar at the plastics manufacturer and another boxcar at an unnamed warehouse. I also spent a little time adding ground foam to another irregular narrow strip of plywood between a main line and layout edge.

Chet - Amex is the way we go as well, pay off at the end of the month. We like earning the points as a bonus.
While I gave some thought to the "Just Plug" system after reading of Greg's experience, I probably still have over 50 Miniatronics bulbs available. I need some time to think about a realistic interior instead of just a bulb in a building. First step is figuring out what the viewing angle will be.
Saw that bacon label over on the Snopes website Saturday, interesting thing is that it is on a package of pre-cooked bacon.
Scrapyard is coming along nicely.
Mike - Most people don't read labels anyway. My observation only. That's some pretty big corn growing there in that picture of the GP38's. :rolleyes:
Curt - Have a safe trip to VA, and my thoughts and prayers are still with your SIL.
Ray - Great picture of the business train.
Jesse - Combine your original idea of a switching layout with that 4' x 5' space and make a 2' wide "L" shaped 4' x 5' switching layout. You could get four or five sidings with a piece of main or secondary trackage linking everything together.
Johnny - Welcome back from your extended stay in our great state of Texas. Regarding rust. While there may be a commercial rust remover available, I always just soak in white vinegar followed by a rinse with warm soapy water. WD-40 or Coca Cola will also work but are more costly.
Garry - Congratulations on the ten year anniversary of life. Have a safe trip and enjoy the museum. It's within spitting distance of IH 40. I went there about twelve years ago and liked it. Looking forward to a return visit the next time we drive to my wife's sister's place in Crossville, TN.

Everybody have a great day.
 
Good morning/ Starting the day off at 55 degrees and we'll be getting some relief from the heat with an expected high in the low to mid 80's all week.

Mike - That's quite the traveling layout your club had at the fair. Did not notice any police cars in the trailer park though. laugh.gif

Garry - Congrats on the anniversary. Hope you can take some photos at the museum.

Jesse - We have a fan in out bedroom window all summer long. It sure make a difference and with the cooler temps we have overnight makes it so much easier to sleep.

Toot - Excellent photo of the MRL business train. I have seen it pass through Livingston, but was never able to get a decent photo of it.

I did score a Northern Pacific locomotive on ebay. It is a new BLI NW2 switcher with DCC and sound for $81. Still can't believe how hard it is to find NP locomotives. One of the guys at the club says that he'll speed match it to my RS-1 so I can have an additional locomotive to haul longer trains at the club. Still looking for a road engine. Matbe some day.

Here's a rail picture for today.

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Later
 
Good morning fellers. Long short weekend has come to a close. Friday started out as a scare with our car. Sent it to the dealership for an oil change. Strange I'm a mechanic and don't do oil changes on my own car. I do this so that the dealership can't argue warranty claims with me. At any rate metal shavings were found in the engine oil. Come to find out they had stripped out the oil drain plug on the last service. Of course they didn't say that initially. I got a free oil change out of it so that's a win. Work related news there is a potential for a strike coming. Not from my location but seeing as there are other locations that are union in relative close proximity to mine they can picket any union location. Just another stressor for me. Happy Monday everyone!
 
Justin -I usually do all of our oil changes, but a couple of years ago when were were so busy on our remodeling projects, my wife too her car to an oil change outlet and they did not tighten the drain plug and she ended up frying the engine. OOPS ! They put a new, not used engine in the car and supplied her with a rental car until the job was complete.
 
Willie - I have not considered that yet. I think rather than trying to cram as much as possible into a 4 x 5 rectangle, I will look into maybe a horsehoe. With the available space, that's the best I have. I could do removable sections to add on when the main section is folded down, but then I'd have to find a place to store them when not in use. The main problem I have is not knowing the best switches to use. I'd like to to have a mainline that branches of to the siding that will service the industries. I'd also like to have at least two tracks at each. One siding for inbound, one for outbound. It would be nice if there was space to build the consist even if it goes nowhere, because eventually I will be adding to it so there will come a time that I can put it on the main and go. I'll try to get a sketch of what I'd like to have and post it.
 
Chet - the fan in the window is great when it's cool. The problem is that our house sits in the middle of a wide open space with practically no shade except over our bedroom. In these southern summer days with no air and not being able to open most of the windows due to lack of screens, it reaches temps up to and over 100 inside. Not fun at all.

Justin - as a former dealer mechanic, I agree with your decision. Car dealers are always looking for ways to get out of paying for anything they don't have to, best to not help them in that regard. Good luck with the pickets and strike. Never been part of a union, but that doesn't sound like much fun.
 
chessie_system3 said:
Good morning fellers. Long short weekend has come to a close. Friday started out as a scare with our car. Sent it to the dealership for an oil change. Strange I'm a mechanic and don't do oil changes on my own car. I do this so that the dealership can't argue warranty claims with me. At any rate metal shavings were found in the engine oil. Come to find out they had stripped out the oil drain plug on the last service. Of course they didn't say that initially. I got a free oil change out of it so that's a win. Work related news there is a potential for a strike coming. Not from my location but seeing as there are other locations that are union in relative close proximity to mine they can picket any union location. Just another stressor for me. Happy Monday everyone!
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Justin,

I’ve been a School Bus mechanic for 28 years, and I don’t change my own oil either. I don’t do any of my own maintenance at home. I don’t have the proper tools (their all at work) and after spending 45+ hours a week wrenching on vehicles I’m not about to do it on the weekends. Several of the guys I work with have the same philosophy.
 
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