Running Bear's Coffee Shop LVI


Good Morning. 39° with broken clouds, going to the mid 50s.

Condolences to those North of the Border, on the Blue Jay's loss to KC. They had a real nice run.

Chet, Curt and Garry: Y'all have a knack for creating fantastic scenes on your layouts. I do enjoy your uploaded photos. They show focus on small details that make the scene look right.

NG: Your layout progress is fantastic, but I agree with Garry about the curves, you should go as wide as possible...if you can go to at least 26". My old layout had curves ranging form a minimum of 24" to a max of 28", and it became unsatisfactory.
 
Good Morning. 39° with broken clouds, going to the mid 50s.

Condolences to those North of the Border, on the Blue Jay's loss to KC. They had a real nice run.

Chet, Curt and Garry: Y'all have a knack for creating fantastic scenes on your layouts. I do enjoy your uploaded photos. They show focus on small details that make the scene look right.

NG: Your layout progress is fantastic, but I agree with Garry about the curves, you should go as wide as possible...if you can go to at least 26". My old layout had curves ranging form a minimum of 24" to a max of 28", and it became unsatisfactory.

Tight turns seem ok for modern diesels but these Steamers are persnickety when it comes to track speeds and turns.
Finally broke out the 'Steam Team' or most of em anyhoo!
WIN_20151024_085526.JPGA Bachman 4-8-4 in the lead, and two BLI's, a Heavy Mikado 2-8-2 and a 2-10-2 'modernized'! The bach needed some breaking in it seemed a bit 'stiff' the BLI's are living up to the reputation quite well! Right out of the box running like champs! The four guide wheels on the bachman like to 'jump' all over the place 'at speed'! I'll keep that one on the slow lane.

They are taking the 24's and 22's ok Have not gotten out the riv 2-6-6-6 yet!
 
Terry from NC where are you my friend? I have not heard from you since Thursday morning.

I hope all is well.

Boris I am so glad to see Earl is still recognized outside of bird land.

GO METS!
 
Had SEVEN loco's running around the big loop and still just the one power feed! Got em going pretty fast, till the trip pin I forgot to clip on the 4-8-4 FLIPPED it on it's side! (EEEEK!) Just a scrape, no breakage! (WHEW!)

I hope I'M the one who 'dumps' one on the floor first! (a guest or a friend would be that no longer if THEY do it!) LOL!
 
I wonder if they could make the wire attachment between the Steam Engine and the tender MORE DIFFICULT!

Bloody, bloody, bloody! What the HECK were they thinking??? A TINY 8 pin plug? RILLY??? and the Bachman had TWO a small one and a SMALLER one! If I wanted to mess with hemostats I'd be doing something else!
 
I see Walthers has got another UP Heritage car prototypically incorrect again. In the latest releases of the "Art Lockman" (which is pretty good in the main) they've missed the opportunity to get the model for the "Flag car" to represent the right one. From what I can glean from rrpicturearchives.net, there are two Flag cars, at least at a point in time, because photo dates overlap. One is the "Promontory" museum car UPP#5779 which matches the Walthers C&NW car most closely with it's 6 wheel trucks, and the one they have produced to represent the "Council Bluffs" recreation car, UPP#5769. Pictures of them clearly show these different numbers. The other main difference appearance and prototype wise, is that #5769 rides on 4 wheel, passenger car trucks, and that's the # they have modelled. The under body detail on all of their Heritage cars are not up to date as they are now, but that's no more than can be expected from a mass manufacturer, but at least they could get the main details right, especially when it's a model they make. To get it correct in regard to the trucks it's 'sposed to have, you would need to replace the floor pan with one from a passenger coach because of the different positioning of the truck pivots, either that, or change it's number.
 
Thanx for all the good thoughts and comments from everyone! I'm happy to get back, but still have more work to do. Lost a lot of weight during this time, and have to built my energy and stamina up, before I can get back to rolling as I should.
 
Thanx for all the good thoughts and comments from everyone! I'm happy to get back, but still have more work to do. Lost a lot of weight during this time, and have to built my energy and stamina up, before I can get back to rolling as I should.

There's my Coach!!! Great to see ya buddy!
E.
 
I wonder if they could make the wire attachment between the Steam Engine and the tender MORE DIFFICULT!

Bloody, bloody, bloody! What the HECK were they thinking??? A TINY 8 pin plug? RILLY??? and the Bachman had TWO a small one and a SMALLER one! If I wanted to mess with hemostats I'd be doing something else!
Idea is to get the plug close and use a small flat blade screw driver to seat the plug.
 
Boris I am so glad to see Earl is still recognized outside of bird land.

GO METS!

Louis: Remember, I was a resident of "Birdland" when Earl was in his prime. I didn't come to the "Chemical Coast until 1986 - aka. "the Year the Mets put the Red Sox out of their misery".
 
I'm even more glad I did not go N-scale! My fumblefingers could never manipulate the stuff!

"Fumblefingers", eh? NG, you have such an eloquent way of expressing yourself. :rolleyes: Running seven steamers for effect is quite an accomplishment.
 
Hi gang ! Just checking in after being 6 days and 13 pages behind. Will try to catch up.
CHET- On DC, which is better ? Running slow locos in front or behind faster locos ? Trying to get 10 engines to run in a consist .

FLIP aka FLA.PHIL and FUMBLEFINGERS PHIL
 
CHET- On DC, which is better ? Running slow locos in front or behind faster locos ? Trying to get 10 engines to run in a consist .

Interesting question.
It would be my guess to put the slower behind.
What say yee Chet?
E
 
So Flip/Phil's question about consisting has me pondering.....
I am DCC only so stick with me on this.
How on earth would I go about speed matching 2 completely un-related engines with entirely different characteristics?

Let me propose an extreme example from my own fleet: Let's take my [lesser expensive] Bachman BP38-2 with factory CVs and I want to consist it with the Intermountain ES44AC I got from Terry. It has some serious CV values going on. Most obvious is the accel/decal rates and braking settings. The GP38 has none of that set. I could easily see someone spending all day for a couple of days getting these 2 to "play nice" and quite possibly with only limited functional success.
I imagine messing with something like a configuration like that would take some good software help. JMRI I'm guessing?
I've still had no luck locating an old laptop to dedicate for this.
Doesn't really matter now. I'm pretty much out of money for such expenditures.
I would still to know in any event.
E.
 
Sorry, been busy. The faster should be in front. I am very lucky that I chose my Atlas Alcos because they do run at the same speed. I do have some older Athearn locomotives that had their motors replaced with can motors and the almost run at the same speed as the Atlas units, but which ever the faster goes first.

Back to work.
 
Good afternoon Rail Layers and Spike Drivers,
Hi Flo & Francine and the new tall blonde, how is everything today? Just some coffee for me and a Apple Fritter, thanks.

WW says: It's rather over cast not 'Clear' as they claim, 81.5 °F - Feels Like 80 °F;
Winds are from the West at 1.1 mph;
Barometer reads 29.99 in-Hg;
Hum-i-dity is 30%.


For the last several days I've been sanding down the fascias on my home as well as so of the window frames, just to get the loose paint off and also calking any joints or areas that look as though they need it. My home, which btw I designed,
has two different roof elevations, the center area being the the higher so there are two fascias on each side of that area to do yet from up on the ranch style roof which shouldn't be to difficult. I there are three other main fascias, one on either
side of the house, East & West end that are about 18' in length as well as the peaked fascia over the back porch area that is about the same.

I've done two of these fascias so far and did about 1/3rd of the East side yesterday and should be able to finish the sanding and probably calking today!

========

On the layout front I did get the Left hand turnout placed last night and had to add some short sections of rail to it beyond the points which were about 2.5 inches long each to fill in a gap. So that's a bit more progress.

I then did run some trains back and forth for a while too which is always enjoyable!


Time to get back to working on the fascias.
 
"Fumblefingers", eh? NG, you have such an eloquent way of expressing yourself. :rolleyes: Running seven steamers for effect is quite an accomplishment.

Thanks! I take pride in a quirky turn of phrase now and then!

It was only four diesels and three steamers! LOL! It gets MIGHTY confusing!!! The speeds at the same settings are not all the same! It makes for some exciting moments!!!

Working overtime on lines #3, #4! Then the figure 8 in the middle! "Crossing action mode!"
 



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