Running Bear's Coffee Shop LVII

[montanan]

Good morning all. We have 43 degrees to start off the day with clear skies and a big fat full moon in the western sky.

Eric - It's good to see you in here again. I know I missed you. I'm sure that moving to Illinois is not what you want, but you will have the support of your family there. Best of luck my friend.

Louis - You keep posting the GG-1's with different paint jobs. How many did they get over the years? Next to the Brunswick green I like the one with the Pennsy maroon and the gold striping. I can believe that no replacement could be found for the GG-1. It was a great locomotive and did what it did for many years. I wish I could have seen them in action. GE built the original Milwaukee Road box cabs which were put into service in 1917 in the Rocky Mountain division and most of them lasted until electrification ceased in the 70's. The only major additions to the electric locomotive fleet were the Little Joes, but the old box cabs still kept plugging along right to the end. Like the new AmTrack locomotive. I am like you I guess. I have no use for jewelry. I don't even wear a watch any more with the clock on the cell phone. My wife does have some, but she isn't really into it either.

Joe - I always enjoy your insight into the trains on the east coast. You have given us quite an insight into history.

Willie - I like the Walthers Cornerstone series and other structure kits, and I will have to also chime in about the instructions they give with their kits. They are miserable. I have quite a few of their kits on my layout and a number of them were quite a challenge. Thankfully I have built many of them over the years and it usually ends up that you have to be creative sometimes putting them together. The directions are more like a lousy suggestion.

Took this one on my phone along Interstate 90 east of Missoula, MT.

Not a very smart thing to do at 80 mph.



Catch you later.

 

[tootnkumin]

Did you give yourself an infringement notice Chet?

 

[GarryCBQ]

Good morning, everybody ...

Eric .... Glad you are being released today.... Continued prayers for your health situation. I think your IL town is close to Decatur, and there is a lot of railroad activity there for watching. If you think you and your Dad would like to stop here for coffee on your way north, let me know ahead of time.

Chet .... I like your photo of BNSF . It is amazing the cell phones can make good quality images. Remarkably, you can eve talk with people of those phones.

Here is a photo of F-units haling ore.

 

[Beady]

Waxing gibbous what ever that means.

More than half full, and growing. Waining gibeous is shrinking. There are also waxing and Waining crescent phases.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

[Beady]

Looks like I am going to be discharged today so me and dad can go pack some of my stuff and begin the move back home - Sullivan illinois
i am going back to sleep - they'll let me.
E

Looks to be about six hours from here.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Morning Everyone! 64 heading to 84 today - still CAAFB. Yesterday a discussion was going on about the drought here in CA. Seems as if information has surfaced that leads to the possibility of the drought lasting from hundreds to thousands of years. Of course, none of the politicians are talking at all about: HOW DO WE GET MORE WATER? Instead, all they talk about is conservation and cutting usage. I'm almost glad that I won't be around to see the outcome.

GARRY - That's a 5 unit gaggle there! Don't see too many of those on model layouts. Your modeling skills are just the "cats meow" as my dad used to say. OUTSTANDING PHOTO!

ERIC- Best wishes and good luck with your move and treatment. God Bless my man!

LOUIS - I go ballistic when I watch a player take TWO STRIKES DOWN THE MIDDLE - and then SWING AT ONE IN THE DIRT! I just start yelling!

YAY -- my computer is back! The GEEKS did good!

 

[bnsf971]

Good afternoon. It's overcast and 85.

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Was at the school for the Open House last night. Did some chores this morning then I worked on the flats for 2 hours with a lunch break in the middle. I discovered that the predrilled holes were probably just intended as guide holes, so I had to finish drilling them out and cut down the metal hand grabs before mounting them on the cars. After lunch I built the 4 wheel ramps. In the photo they are in the correct locations but not glued down.

Tomorrow the extended family is going to lunch for sons birthday, then back to the house for cheesecake (homemade of course).

Mel/Sherrel/Chet/Garry- Awesome pictures.

Mel- Glad your wife's surgery went well. I understand your wife's anxiety. Back when I was a submariner I was one of the few ratings (enlisted) that the Navy at the time would pay for contacts because I frequently had to use the periscope for my job but I couldn't do it. Just the thought of something touching my eyes creeps me out.

Louis- I'm not much for jewelry also. I have a plain wedding band and a Walmart watch (no name) that cost $7.88 before tax. It runs for about a year and the battery dies, then I buy another one. By that time the smooth finish is shot on the bottom from sweat.

I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[Bruette]

Happy Birthday Sherrel!!!

 

[Bruette]

Now I am going back to assembling bunk beds, I'll check back later if all goes well.

 

[montanan]

Going to get ready for Friday night bowling league so I will check out on a confuser and watch the posts by phone.

Garry - Sweet photo.

I'll post one more before heading out. Here's a 44 tonner getting ready to pick up reefers at the packing house and spot reefer cars that were just iced down to the loading docks.



Bowling and beer. What a way to spend a Friday night.

 

[tootnkumin]

Livingston, Montana is currently the temporary home to 21 privately owned coaches heading to Spokane via MRL. Leaves there at 7:00am Saturday powered by 2 AMTRAK locos with MRL SDP40 assisting on the point for part of the journey.

 

[Boris]

Good evening y'all. I finally have my new PC functioning well enough to get on this forum. Still have a lot to transition over from the Dell.

The Orioles came back to win tonight, 5-4, unfortunately, the Red Sox are winning 7-2 over the Yankees in the 9th. Toronto - LAA are about to start.

Chet: Have a good night and a great game. The 44 Tonner looks good.

Toot: That's a good photo, but is it the right one? Doesn't look like a train of PVs.

Curt: The flat cars are coming along nicely.

Garry: The five unit consist on the front of the ore train really looks "right" weathering is well done, and the scene looks real. Good wishes for your upcoming surgery.


No photos until I get my photo library restored. Planning on scanning more photos to share, from my collection. Tomorrow, I plan on doing some work on the layout. World Cup of Hockey begins Tournament play tomorrow. Team USA plays Team Europe at 3PM, while Canada plays Czech republic at 8PM. TV =ESPN2. Go Team USA!


Hope I didn't miss anyone, Sherrel, I understand today is your birthday. Hope it's a happy one, and you have many more. Willie, The last Cornerstone kit I worked on was the Water Street Freight station, bought in the '90s. The roof sections were somewhat warped, and one section had a chunk missing. Love the "spare" parts, though. My next is the Meat packer and cattle pens.


Benn a busy day, g'night y'all.

 

[bnsf971]

Joe, one of the things I've noticed with Windows 10 is there is no DVD player. It's not a huge problem, you can always get a third party player, if you watch movies on your laptop. It is one thing I use mine for, while we're out camping. I connect ours to the television via an HDMI cable.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Good evening. 66*F and cloudy with a slight breeze in central MD.

Sherrell - Happy Birthday! Hope you were able to enjoy it...

Louis - I don't believe in overpriced "fashion" watches either. I'm wearing a Timex that I've had since ~2003, the local jeweler keeps giving me free replacement batteries for it. That future (2021) Amtrak train sure is "purty", but I can't help thinking it looks like a snake!

Toot - the [Windows] System Restore has been a lifesaver for me on more than one occasion!

Eric - Sorry you have to give up your "cave"; but in your current condition, the last thing you want is to be isolated. And it looks like you'll be within shoutin' distance of Beady!

Willie - I know what you mean about the Cornerstone kit instructions, I've had some that were excellent and others that were totally worthless. It's really a crapshoot what you'll find, I guess a lot of it depends on which Chinese contractor manufactures a kit - and how well they understand the English language[?]

Garry - that is one of the finest [IMHO] photos I've ever seen of your layout, I had to do a double-take to see if it was a model or the "real McCoy"! Did you use a high-wattage photo floodlamp to illuminate the scene? It looks like a hot summer afternoon!

Curt - your flatcars are coming along quite nicely! Are they going to be carrying 35ft single-axel trailers?

Chet - hope your bowling game goes well tonight! Great photo of the ice house switching scene; I'm hoping that I can live long enough to make my layout have as wide a variety of detailed scenes on it as you've managed to do with yours over 30 years...

Terry - are you saying that Windows 10 does not have built-in device drivers for external DVD drives? I know I used one with my Asus laptop when it was still running Win8; guess I'll have to try it out in the morning?

Joe - hope you get some quality time with your layout, whether the Birds win or not. So you're building a meat packing industry? I remember the very first RMC mag I bought at age 12, that introduced me to the Hobby - it had an article by E.L. Moore on scratchbuilding his Spratt & Kean slaughterhouse. I thought that was totally awesome, it's the article that helped me decide to buy the RMC instead of MR!

* * *
Not much interesting stuff going on with me these past couple of days. Just attempting to upgrade the chassis on a few blue-box 86ft hi-cube boxcars to improve their performance; need to engineer something to limit the amount of swivel on the coupler box so it'll be comparable to the Walthers models. Will post photos if the first conversion is successful.

 

[tootnkumin]

Toot: That's a good photo, but is it the right one? Doesn't look like a train of PVs.

No, you're right. Not attached to private train at time of writing, but no doubt by the time you read this. The info about the train has been coming from a Yahoo group I'm on, but no photos of them as yet (been in Livingston since Wednesday), so I've put up a request for some, and videos too. That's the MRL engine that will be doing assistance duties between Livingston and Missoula on Saturday. Fairly rare I would think, having been built especially for passenger use with the extended long hood to fit the coach heating unit. Built 5/66, first owner GN, #321, then BN #'s 9851/6395, acquired by MRL 1/12/88 #6395, painted into MRL #290, 6/27/89, rebuilt into SD40-2xr 4/91, repainted with new logo (as pictured, 12th to receive) 2/15/11.

 

[BigE]

Eric .... Glad you are being released today.... Continued prayers for your health situation. I think your IL town is close to Decatur, and there is a lot of railroad activity there for watching. If you think you and your Dad would like to stop here for coffee on your way north, let me know ahead of time.

Decatur is only about 40 NW of our little town. We know Decatur very well!!
Growing up there we saw trains all over the place.
The A.E. Staley plant, and ADM world hdq is/was there. They both have/had their own substantial yards if I remember correctly.

Doubt we'll have time to stop. At least on this trip anyway.
I'll take a raincheck though.
Eric.

 

[Bruette]

Louis: Penn Coach Yard never looked so good. From the rendering, I note that they are showing the new HST crossing out on to the 36th Street Connection, instead of out the River Line, (Current normal route). The Engineering people were planning to use the "connection", back in 1998, as the curves were not as vicious vs. the River Line. They projected a time savings of perhaps 30 seconds... The new HS train sets are impressive.

Baseball wise, I sense your frustration. I was preoccupied with other things, but kept checking back - both the Yankees and O's games were on TV last night, and for a while the Yankees had a decent lead, they could not hold. What bothered me about the O's was not that they weren't scoring, but that they had allowed the Rays to build a substantial lead, and again had to play catch-up. A win today, coupled with losses by Boston and Toronto, resets everything.

I'm not a bling guy, just a Wedding Band. My watch is a Bulova Marine Star, a gift from my youngest son. I was always a Timex guy, myself.

Today, I'm transitioning from my Dell Laptop to a new HP Laptop. I7 processor, 16 GB RAM, Win 10 touch screen... The Dell's keyboard is not what it used to be, so... It will end up as part of my Model Railroad's traffic control system at some point.

Speaking of Win 10, I'm really out of the loop when it comes to code writing, but WIN 10 is loaded with bad and redundant code.

Boris as Chet said, I too enjoy your insight into the railroads, thanks for sharing.

During a 162 game season it comes down to doing the little things to help you win games that can really add up. When Frank Robinson was with the birds the kangaroo court would hand out fines for not doing the little things.

Manny came up again with the bases loaded last night and again struck out. Why can't these guys cut down their swing to just make contact when the defense is giving up a run?

All the hitters who face these defenses who shift over to one side should be embarrassed. It proves they only know one way to swing.

How about that fundamentally sound great play to end the game? Our left fielder; Michael Bourn made a fantastic play getting to the ball so quickly than set his feet and hit the cut off man perfectly, Manny threw a perfect strike to Wieters who perfectly blocked the plate to make the tag. The Ray's manager protested because you can no longer block the plate, but it was upheld. Give Wieters credit because he was off to the side giving the runner a path to the plate, but at the last minute he blocked the plate with his foot. Bourn also got the go ahead RBI.

You have to give away the farm to get front line pitchers, but we got Bourn for Jason Heinrich a 2015 5th round draft choice who can't get out of single A. You never know what a young player will do but I like this deal. Bourn has played in nearly every game either as a starter, as a defensive replacement or pinch runner. He is my kind of player and that is my kind of trade deadline deal!

In case you missed it here are the highlights http://m.orioles.mlb.com/news/article/201750142/os-rally-vs-rays-to-keep-heat-on-in-races/ Maybe the Orioles best defensive play of the season and they don't even mention Bourn in the text. That's the problem in todays game. Even many of the "experts" don't know what they are looking at.

It's nothing new, only now its much more prevalent. Remember John Steadman? He and Schaffer ran the Colts out of town, now both are heroes. I think they were both jackasses. I have to change the subject.

Louis - You keep posting the GG-1's with different paint jobs. How many did they get over the years? Next to the Brunswick green I like the one with the Pennsy maroon and the gold striping. I can believe that no replacement could be found for the GG-1. It was a great locomotive and did what it did for many years. I wish I could have seen them in action. GE built the original Milwaukee Road box cabs which were put into service in 1917 in the Rocky Mountain division and most of them lasted until electrification ceased in the 70's. The only major additions to the electric locomotive fleet were the Little Joes, but the old box cabs still kept plugging along right to the end. Like the new AmTrack locomotive. I am like you I guess. I have no use for jewelry. I don't even wear a watch any more with the clock on the cell phone. My wife does have some, but she isn't really into it either.


Took this one on my phone along Interstate 90 east of Missoula, MT.

View attachment 58615 Not a very smart thing to do at 80 mph.

QUOTE]

Ahh the GG1, now I feel better already

That's a great question Chet, but I need to dig out my GG1 book. Off the top of my head the PRR had at least 5 counting the different stripes on the Brunswick Green. Penn Central had another 2, Conrail had at least 3 and Amtrak another 2. New Jersey Transit had another 2. So it's at least 14 and I am almost positive there are more, but I can't remember for sure.

Thanks for the information about the other electrics, seems they make for reliable locomotives.

Don't get yourself killed, post more layout pictures. the worst that could happen taking them is you drop the camera/phone and I like them better.

I hope you had fun bowling!

LOUIS - I go ballistic when I watch a player take TWO STRIKES DOWN THE MIDDLE - and then SWING AT ONE IN THE DIRT! I just start yelling!

YAY -- my computer is back! The GEEKS did good!

Sherrel it drives me crazy too.

I'm glad your geeks got it fixed.

How was your birthday young man?

Good evening y'all. I finally have my new PC functioning well enough to get on this forum. Still have a lot to transition over from the Dell.

The Orioles came back to win tonight, 5-4, unfortunately, the Red Sox are winning 7-2 over the Yankees in the 9th. Toronto - LAA are about to start.

No photos until I get my photo library restored. Planning on scanning more photos to share, from my collection. Tomorrow, I plan on doing some work on the layout. World Cup of Hockey begins Tournament play tomorrow. Team USA plays Team Europe at 3PM, while Canada plays Czech republic at 8PM. TV =ESPN2. Go Team USA!

.

Boris I hope you get time to get the HP up and running full speed, I miss your pictures. Is that I7 laptop heavy?

The last 2 weeks of the baseball season should be fun, win or lose enjoy the show, but it sure would be a lot more fun to win!

I was thinking of my grandson's soccer game later today and reading your post about hockey reminds me of a great friend of mine from Philly, a Flyers fan, He got picked to be coach of his daughters soccer team by default a few years ago. One of the other coaches who takes little girls soccer way to serious asks him "did you play or coach soccer before?" his reply was "no but it's like hockey without the ice and sticks right?" The guy walked away shaking his head in frustration, but his frustration only got worse when my friend's daughter's team won the championship.

Joe, one of the things I've noticed with Windows 10 is there is no DVD player. It's not a huge problem, you can always get a third party player, if you watch movies on your laptop. It is one thing I use mine for, while we're out camping. I connect ours to the television via an HDMI cable.

Terry I believe greed is the reason, every software manufacture now banks on add on sales and true to my thought Microsoft has an app you can buy to play DVDs.

I was surprised when not thinking I put a blue ray disk into our Xbox One, it automatically downloaded a free app to play blue ray disks. I wonder how long that will last or maybe it's because the PS4 plays blue ray disks.

Louis - I don't believe in overpriced "fashion" watches either. I'm wearing a Timex that I've had since ~2003, the local jeweler keeps giving me free replacement batteries for it. That future (2021) Amtrak train sure is "purty", but I can't help thinking it looks like a snake!

.

Ken now that you mention it the new train does look like a snake!


I'm glad to see I am not alone in my lack of "bling" as Boris put it.

 

[Bruette]

Good morning Everybody!

it's 68 with 73% humidity.

The bunk beds kicked my donkey! I misread the directions because I had to partially dissemble the thing to get the ladder on. I must be getting goofy because I never have trouble assembling things, but I sure did screw that up! It's all good now and my grandson loves it!

It was an otherwise productive day and feel good this morning, thank God.

Have a great day Everybody!!!

 

[Bruette]

More than half full, and growing. Waining gibeous is shrinking. There are also waxing and Waining crescent phases.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

I screwed up... again!

Mel I thought for sure I clicked to reply to your post along with the others, but I must not have, I am getting goofy... ah my Disney friend. That reminds me, I did enjoy Goof Troop, have you seen that show? Have you seen Teen Titians? It the opposite of Disney, I forbid my grandsons from watching it. it's not vulgar, but it sets a bad example, lazy, do nothing waste of life teens. Do you like SpongeBob? Now he sets a great example of a an old school work ethic.

Thanks for your help, I knew what waning and waxing were but gibbous I had no clue. So there are 3 crescent, gibbous and full?