Running Bear's Coffee Shop August 2018


Afternoon All,

The roofing guy came out and we'll get a quote in a couple of days. I'm expecting around $15K but it really needs done. After the quote then it's dealing with the insurance company:eek:. Over yesterday and today I ran all my locomotives and cleaned their wheels. I wanted to do that before heading up north next week. Tomorrow I need to pressure wash the front of the house since we're getting some mold from all the rain. I'm trying to get all the outside chores done since I'll probably be gone for 4-6 weeks.

Sherrel- We had a bunch of tree work 4 years ago with a professional company. They took down a fence before felling a tree and then put it up afterwards. Pretty funny video.

Garry- I had to shake my head at that video.

Chet- Nice track photo.

My Dad's WM M-1

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Inside the engine house I previously scratch built

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I hope everyone has a good evening.
 
Boris said:
Good morning. 84° and sunny with a heat warning...

Karl: Deer hunting here in Jersey is very restricted, especially with shot guns, Bow season is twice as long. The deer also have this ability to find all the protected spots, and ride out hunting season there. There are no public game lands, only preserves. Of course, in a densely populated state, you really don't want someone with a shot gun in your back yard drawing a bead on some critter.

Willie: That's because those signs are written in people, and not in deer language... so they don't comprehend the message!

NIMBYs here are paranoid, every time a military aircraft, or if a NJNG Blackhawk flies over. They also foam at the mouth over the catenary wire, that powers the NJCL trains from Long Branch to NYC. They think they are really sophisticated, when in reality they are gullible and stupid!

Have a great day.

Boris
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Boris- sure don't miss those Jersey NIMBYs(nor the traffic headaches or DMV inspections) since I moved up here 6 years ago. Have only been back 2X since. If i want to hunt, my FIL has 25 wooded acres outside of Spencer, adjacent to CN's Superior subdivision(from Stevens Point to the Twin Ports).
 
There are four Mondays remaining, before we get our beaches and boardwalks back.;)

Mike: The one thing that has improved is the DMV Inspections. New cars don't need inspections until the sixth year, then it's every other year after. No where near the headache it used to be. Traffic is probably worse. Especially now that construction projects are popping up all over.:mad:

Curt: Hope you get everything done, before you have to travel. That's a nice Enginehouse and steamer.

Garry: That's quite a video...

I had three trees taken down about eight years ago, had a contractor who worked by himself. Did the job, without wrecking anything, but his greed caused him to take unnecessary risks. I have a couple in the back that should come down, but I'm not going to use that guy.

Gotta go, it's been a busy day.

Boris
 
Good Morning all,

We didn’t get any of the rain that was forecast yesterday. My lawn is starting to brown pretty good. The plus is that I won’t need to mow quite as often.

Have a great day.
 
Good Morning Everybody. 77° and mostly clear, today looks like the last day for a while that we'll hit the upper 90's. Rain and low 90's is the forecast for the next eight days.
Hooray! The infamous shower door is installed. Felix and I spent five hours on it yesterday. Panels were heavy and required two persons for some of the work, and the instructions were in English only (unusual) plus he had never installed a frameless one before. However it went in without incident except the final adjustment which took about 45 minutes. My wife can operate it so all is well. Not all loose ends were completed on the remodel, but the remainder won't take very long. Will try the shower door out tonight after the 24 hour silicon set up.
Heading out in a couple of hours for my quarterly doctor appointment, this one is known as a physical so EKG, blood tests, etc, are in order. Other than the EKG, he doesn't do anything extra, but I think that he gets paid a lot more! Gotta make that Lexus payment. Yesterday, my wife started her tax training for next season, so I guess that she wants to work another year. Even if she doesn't work as a Blockhead, she'll retain her EA (Enrolled Agent) status with the IRS.
Didn't make it to the train shed yesterday, so nothing new to report. I'll make up for that if it actually rains over the next few days.

A view down the road a few years back, just before it got blacktopped. Didn't drive fast on this thing!
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Mikey - Just three trips after 96 ozs. of water! I'd have made six at least! Wife doesn't understand it when I take a nap at 6:30 am.
Garry - Thanks for the video, I'd heard the recording before and it was the basis for my comment.:)
Sherrel - I ain't that kind of lumberjack. While I've had some that didn't quite go my way, I never had an oh s*** moment. Been using a chainsaw for over forty years now and I also still retain all digits. Amusing video nonetheless. I really dug the video that Toot posted a few months back with the perfectly placed fall. I am looking at hiring a professional to remove a very large one between the house and pool. It's the one that offers up sacrificial limbs every so often. I know that I could do it myself, but it would take me several weeks while they could do it in a couple of hours. They might even be able to salvage this 38 year old one, which has sentimental value as it is the first one that we planted when we moved in.
Karl - Great story about your dad and the buck.
Joe - Sounds like a smart move regarding the tree contractor. I have utmost respect for chainsaws and tree-felling.

Time to go now. I'll be visiting Discount Model Railroads today since it is in proximity to my doctor, well twelve miles away which is proximity in Texas. Of all things, I need a package of Kadee #209 gray washers, and some LaBelle grease. Might as well stock up on some structures, vehicles and detail parts while I am there. Still don't need any freight cars or engines. I've now gone "cold turkey" for four years now on freight car purchases. I did however buy those four SD40-2"s from ScaleTrains last winter
Everybody have a great day.
 
Good Morning Everyone....home from the cabin and its over cast and some what humid in Wisconsin. A good day to be in the basement and play with trains.

Everyone with trees...We have a property in Mt Morris Wisconsin and has 200+ year old White Pines. One was leaning on another and I wanted it cut down, but it was so large that no local tree company wanted to tackle the job. A 100 MPH plus wind took down at least of the large pines. Sorry to see a bit of living history get destroyed. Still have a few of the old giants. Infamous Chief Blackhawk camped out on this site in the 1850's, so these trees were already growing here when Blackhawk was camping. Blackhawk was chased by Abe Lincoln when he was in the US Army during the Blackhawk War.

Wisconsin was known for its "old growth" white pines which were logged in the 1800's and some trees measure over five feet across.

Saw no deer on my trip up to the cabin, which is unusual...lots of late fawns this year for some reason.

Today, I plan on working on the junk yard section of the layout. It means working from a step stood and a lot of reaching. I been putting it off for a long time. Need to install some LED lighting, a section of fence, a interlocking tower on a moveable base and other details.

One of my DB150 Command/Boosters has been acting up so I want to check the incoming voltage from the power supply to make sure its at least 14 volts.

That's it for now, no more history lessons.

Greg

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Some great photos being posted.
 
Good morning. We started out at 52degrees thia morning with an expected high in the mid 80's.

Probably won't do much today except moving rain birds around in the yard and work on some little model reairoad projects. I have a number of track bumpers put away (somewhere) that I have to put together and install them on sidings.

I also have been using a chain saw for decades and have never had an incident. We used to heat out entire house with a wood stove and can count how many trees I've cut down.

Here's a rail picture for today.

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Later
 
Good morning all. Skipping the weather report today because right now I am not on good speaking terms with the weather. I'm now 2 days into an install that is supposed to be finished by tomorrow so sod can go down on Thursday. I have yet to break ground on it due to rain. No way to use the trencher I intended for the job, so I will be hand digging in the slop all afternoon and Lord knows how long into the evening tonight trying to get back on schedule. Have i mentioned before what happens when you add water to red clay? It's times like this I was I had more people in my company than me and my wife.
 
Hiya, fellas. Remember Me? I'm baaaaaaaack! (Oops, wrong movie)

Greetings from the Piney Woods of East Texas. We finished our convention in Houston with bery good results, then spent some time down along the Texas coast, then stayed with a friend near Jasper, TX. Now we're back with MOH's family in East Texas.

Will be back home in a couple of days. My brother in law has a box of train stuff that he found left behind in a house he bought. He's giving the stuff to me. We'll see just what's in there. Will post a photo or two when we get home.

My poor layout must think the engineer got run over by a train. Can't wait to get back and run the trains for a while. Will be back on the forum regularly next week.

Have a good day everyone.
 
SS DD. Day after day it's the same crap. Even the weather ! They must have the report on a loop- so day after day it!s the SS DD.
Only different pleasant occurrence was a 'phone call from Capt. SHERREL [ don't call me Shirley or I'll surely become surly]
Prayers and blessings for all of us.
Phil
 
Good Morning Everyone. 82° and partly cloudy. Miraculously the weather forecast for today changed overnight, with the high now predicted to be 96°, an increase of 8° over what was in the forecast yesterday. They're still predicting eight days of thunderstorms here beginning around noon today.
What happened to everyone yesterday? Were the doors locked? Phil posted at 1330 CDT and no one else visited until Terry opened up this morning. I spent the day with a visit to the doctor for my annual physical, and then traveled over to Addison TX for a visit to Discount Model Railroad. A trip to the bank on the way home completed my rounds and I immediately handed over the final $1400 payment to my remodeling contractor. Wife and I immediately opened a bottle of wine and a few beers, and headed for the pool to mark the occasion.
Another absent day in the train shed, except to open up and examine the stuff that I picked up at Discount. Kadee gray washers, LaBelle grease, some pre-made palm trees for a special beach scene built just for my wife, a beer delivery truck, a couple of forklifts, horses, a laser-cut structure kit from Bar Mills and a plastic gas station kit from City Classics. $200 lighter in my pocket. I got some other stuff as well but I don't remember what it was. I did look for some ATSF cabooses, but none were on the shelves.

Greg
Greg@mnrr said:
One was leaning on another and I wanted it cut down, but it was so large that no local tree company wanted to tackle the job.
Click to expand...
Too bad you live so far away, I always like a good challenge.
Chet - You obviously take care when using your chainsaw as well. I have heated solely with wood for 37 years now, but I am not sure how much longer I will continue. My neighbor (retired HVAC contractor) has offered me a "lightly" used heat pump at a ridiculously low price (that I can pay him to install), but it's electric and I would prefer to install a propane one.
Jesse - Hope that you had some luck yesterday with the digging. I have black "gumbo" clay so I understand the slop. Not only sloppy, but heavy and it's hard to get good footing when you're sliding backward. Many contractors around here use "day laborers", who gather every morning at a small city owned lot in Denton. You drive up and tell "el patron" what you need and he points out one who may be suitable. If you speak Spanish, you can bypass "el patron". He usually points out someone who is a good tipper (to him) first.
Johnny - Continue to have a safe trip. Jasper TX huh! Another small Texas town that has a very checkered past. They made the national news in the late 90's with a "hate crime". It is also known as the "Butterfly Capital of Texas". Some friends have attended a butterfly festival (early fall) there before.

Gotta go now, the weather radar shows rain about a mile north headed this way and I know that there is a chainsaw out in the yard that needs to be put up. Probably some other stuff as well. Of course if I put it all up, the rain will not make it here!
Everybody have an awesome day.
 
Willie-The 96 ounces of water is about average lately. I think it has been due to some of my diabetic medicine.
It causes frequent bathroom breaks every 1-1/2 to 2 hours and getting back asleep after getting up at night is the problem.

I got up at 5 AM this morning and went down to the train room for a couple hours laying roadbed. I am trying to locate turnouts and install the roadbed for the turnouts. Slow go! I am using latex caulk to hold the cork to the foam board and it needs to dry for 4 hours before I unpin the cork.

By the way, I have had a 32 oz. bottle of ice water already this morning. Time to go fill another one.
 
Good Morning all,

It was a slow night last night! The rain that was promised on Monday all came yesterday afternoon in a torrential hour downpour. It probably didn’t do much good as most of it ran off. Looks like mostly cloudy skies today with a high maybe touching 80

Have a great day!
 
Here's a few pics I took a while back. The first 2 are at the Portola Railroad Museum in N Calif, mostly Western Pacific. Why the angled strips of metal on the ends? Some sort of identification? The 3rd one was taken in Silverton several years ago. The Portola Museum has a yard full of old locomotives including a UP Centennial.
Dave
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Good mornin y'all !

Playing hookey from work today, my throat feels like raw hamburger and it hurts to talk, so I'm staying away from phone calls and people in general.......cept the Docs, heading there in a little bit.

Dave , nice caboose pics, but do I see two cabooses (cabeese) joined with a little shack?
 
Good morning everyone. Still on vacation in East Texas. Time with family and friends that we only see once a year. Heading home tomorrow. Dread the drive home - 490 miles. Boring until we get to Little Rock. From that point on its a little more fun. Will hit some antique stores along the way.

Have a good day.
 
Back when the caboose was in service those metal strips were reflective, and improved the chances of it being seen by approaching trains.
 
Good Afternoon Everyone....sunny and nice in Wisconsin. A perfect weekend is forecasted. Talked the wife into some rail fanning on the CN main line in Waupaca, Wisconsin. The Waupaca Foundry shares the mainline with the CN to move cars between foundry plants. We can park right up to the right of way to watch the action.

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Where I worked at a landscape contractor and garden center when I was in high school and college, we purchased baggage carts like the one in the photo for $50 each. Old Milwaukee Road and SOO Line equipment.

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The CN right of way is at the edge of the fence to the right of the depot.

Had to load onto my pick up truck six new chairs for the cabin's rear deck. Heavy duty tie down to keep them in place at 75 MPH on trip up. The old chairs were made out of white pine by a local craftsman and lasted 11 years with annual coats of waterproofing poly. The old chairs are soon to be destined to go out to the fire pit...expensive firewood!

This morning, I finally painted the rails on the spur serving the new junk yard and some industries. Wanted to paint the rail sides rust, but too far to reach with a micro brush and do a good job, so I sprayed painted the rails grimy black to match the cinder ballast. So far looks good and next I'll add ground cover next to the buildings. Grimy black sure hides any errors or mistakes.

I'll be happy to finish this area. Working on it this afternoon when the paint dries.

Chet/Willie and others...the last tree I cut down was a 6 or 7 inch pine near my cabin. A dead branch fell down as I started sawing and cut my arm and then when the tree was finally cut, the tree didn't fall but stood straight up and lodged itself into another tree's branches. I had to put a rope around the tree and pull it down with my truck. I used cut down trees for a living in high school and college, but this one was a challenge.

PnkFloyd: You're a early riser, I did just the opposite and worked late into the night, even on work nights.

Willie: I have some large pines behind my cabin that the tornado in 2017 turned into "Widow Makers" if you feel the need to cut down some large trees. BTW, you'll need to split the wood for the fire pit.

That's all for now.....

Greg
 
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