Running Bear's Coffee Shop LVIII


santafewillie said:
Bruce - As long as you are on public property like a road running alongside, there's nothing that they can do except harass you. Nothing illegal about taking pictures from public property. They tend to be a little more friendly around here.

Willie
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Well then, expect to see some photo's of the gondola with weeds growing out of it on these hallowed pages in a few days. I can get some good shots from the road, my camera has ZOOM!

Of course it will be like the last time when I got it together enough to go take a pic of a really cool old "F" unit that had sat, sinking into the rails for years and YEARS...it was gone. Dollars to donuts the gondola will be gone too and I JUST saw it two days ago when I was out scooting!
 
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Good evening. It's clear and 50.
The NWS has issued a freeze warning for tonight, which meant I had to go out and winterize our trailer, no matter how bad I felt. After doing that, and some more drugs and OTC meds, I've started feeling a little better. In fact, I felt good enough to go tackle my MTH K4 problem. I started by removing all the factory "junk", like the circuit boards, processors, and smoke unit. I then cut the wires off the plugs and connectors, and hard wired an old DH121 I had laying around into the engine. I also removed the boards on the tender, spliced the pickup wires from the tender trucks, and routed the power through the drawbar connection into the engine. I then spliced those wires to the wires in the boiler, inserted the decoder into the area that used to house the smoke unit, placed it on the track, and let it start to run. Start to run is about all it did. About halfway around the layout, it stopped moving, though I could hear the motor running. Turns out, the gear on the main drive axle is loose on the axle, and spins when there is too much torque. I think I'll pull it apart, and see if I can apply a little CA or epoxy on the spot where the gear slides over the axle, and see how it does then.
It did run good, until it quit. I'm currently deciding whether I should cut my losses, and make a static display, or try to repair the gear issue. It's good I found this out before I went out and bought a sound decoder to put in it...
 
It didn't take long for management to reach a decision about the "problem child"
Here is a photo of PRR K4 #518, cosmetically restored for display:
 

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That's too bad Terry, I know one of our local Y-tube contributors, Greg of Fishplate Films attempted a Tsunami1 install into a diesel, worked for a while but the decoder ran hot and eventually burnt out. All to do with that opposite polarity issue.
 
bnsf971 said:
It didn't take long for management to reach a decision about the "problem child"
Here is a photo of PRR K4 #518, cosmetically restored for display:
Click to expand...

Terry if it is any consolation that is a great looking display piece of an iconic locomotive to boot!

You could always list it on eBay, somebody could be building a model of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, it's an affiliate of the Smithsonian now.
 
Good morning. It's clear and 28.
The K4 is currently, and permanently, residing on an enclosed display track on the mantel in my living room. It still looks good, and there are parts I can use, such as the motor, if it is needed.
 
Good Morning Gang. 53° with overcast skies here. Fall continues around here, yesterday I mowed part of the estate that hasn't seen the tractor in 6+ years. Getting back some of what I didn't have time for over the years. Cut some more firewood...haven't had to use any yet. Looks like the first fire (I heat the house with only wood) will come next Friday or Saturday if the forecast is correct. Later than usual this year. Out in the garden I picked about 15 pounds of bell and other assorted peppers. I will be chopping and freezing most of them later today. Today it's more lettuce and radishes.
Trainwise, I did some maintenance, added metal wheels and some additional weight to several older Athearn freight cars, vacuumed a 30' stretch of layout and replaced unanchored stuff, installed a few more ground throws and tested track.

Garry - Best wishes on the surgery. If I recall correctly, this is a routine that you must endure every so often?
Bruce - Wow, what a time for furnace problems. They're probably going to take you to the cleaners with the repair/replace bill, unless you can do any of it yourself. Sooo glad that I don't have to deal with that kind of crap (see above), but I do have to carry firewood inside every day for about 2 1/2 months. Good exercise! By the way, I did take your comments as kidding, I've seen some real under-built layouts that didn't last long; I've also seen some on the other extreme that were more solid than the places that they were built in.
Terry - Best thoughts for your migraine. Your old club layout sounds pretty severe. What did they build it out of, paper clips and cardboard? I think that every situation dictates different approaches. Like I posted, I can stand and walk around on mine (lower deck only, haven't tried climbing on the upper yet!). Sorry to hear about the adventures with the loco. If it were mine, it probably would have bounced off the walls by now.

That's it for now. Still too dark for a safe walk, so I will visit the train shed.
Everyone have a great day.

Willie
 
GLAD it only got down into the upper 30's here last night, it will be another cold day in this house. No real chance of getting the parts until next week.

I'm tellin ya Santafe, I'd much rather heat with wood, did it for 8 years over in Muskegon and loved it. Love the smell, love the work and the same pile of wood can heat you three times before it gets to the furnace! WHEN I "go north" and find my place in the U.P. I will heat with wood!
 
Willie, "The Rest of the Story" is, they were repairing part of the upper level pf the layout, where the trains became floor models. It turned into a rebuild when somebody removed the ONE SCREW that was holding the entire upper level up, and it collapsed.
We are all working hard to ensure that never happens again...
 
Good morning.

Terry... The K4 looks nice.... Only one screw to hold the layout upper level up ? Wow...

Curt. Thanks for your thoughts.

Willie... The surgery is to replace my implanted defibrillator and pacemaker. The battery in the device lasts about five years. I will have a normal routine until Wednesday when I go to Nashville for Thursday's operation. The doctor says he will not need to replace leads connecting to my heart, and if so the surgery will relatively minor.


i was running trains yesterday, and that is always fun.
 
Prayers and best of wishes Garry, even though it's for a good reason yer still getting cut! I liked my hernia so much I had two, one on each side for balance! V.A. care is "hit or miss"! The first one they did the vertical cut and it healed up like fun, for some reason the other side was a horizontal cut and years later now it STILL "ain't right" 100%. Gives me a tweak now and then to remind me to not try to do like I yousta!

Heal quickly!
 
Afternoon All,

Well today did not go as planned. The original plan (mine) was to start on the LED wiring but I was given a secondary plan (MOH) to pull some homemade shelves (under the bay window in kitchen) out, sand them and re-stain them. Tomorrow I'm going to a early movie then I will put a second coat of stain on them. Hopefully Wednesday I will get started on the LED's.

Terry- Shame about the K4s. I bet it looks neat on display. I have heard a lot of horror stories about MTH so I never bought any of their stuff.

Eric- Hope things are going well for you.

20161113_120434_zpsqih37wlq.jpg


I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Just dropped in for an afternoon visit. Where is everyone...almost five hours elapsed between Bruce and Curt's visit. I've just finished the outdoor chores that I had planned for today and I am headed to the train shed to begin another structure, a Walther's Cornerstone kit, "Prairie Star Elevator". Being as I loosely model flatlands Santa Fe, grain is an important commodity. This is the seventh of a planned eight grain elevators for the layout.
Have a great afternoon.

Willie
 
Evening fellers! I'm fighting a losing battle. Going to take out my sectional straight sections I suppose. Replace them with flex. It's extremely irritating. Wouldn't have done anything to my track except two of my Athearn units have found a dead spot. Repaired that section to find that the whole section I replaced was dead. Atlas inch straight section went dead. Replaced that with 10" of flex. I'll find myself doing some wheel cleaning again. If my soldering iron worked I'd solder some points especially on the stretch going by my loadout. I'd much rather be doing trees at this point.

Sent from my LGLS675 using Tapatalk
 
Garry: Prayers and best wishes that your procedure is successful.

Curt: Your signal project is moving along nicely. The signal heads turned out well.

Willie: Grain is the backbone of the "flatlands". We had grain elevators on the Delmarva, the Octororo Branch and the Main Line West of Lancaster. All agricultural areas, but nothinglike out your way.

CS3: Justin, don't know why, but sometimes snap track does that. I think the joiners become lose and lose connectivity. Flex solves a multitude of problems.

Weather permitting, try and catch a glimpse of the Super Moon tonight. Next on this close to Earth will be in about 16 years.
 
The less joints the better, whatever the wavelength of the electricity being used, but with DCC even more so, loss of power means loss of command signal or even if the current can get past a poor joint, the signal gets broken or distorted (noise).
 
PRR Modeler said:
Afternoon All,

Well today did not go as planned. The original plan (mine) was to start on the LED wiring but I was given a secondary plan (MOH) to pull some homemade shelves (under the bay window in kitchen) out, sand them and re-stain them. Tomorrow I'm going to a early movie then I will put a second coat of stain on them. Hopefully Wednesday I will get started on the LED's.

Terry- Shame about the K4s. I bet it looks neat on display. I have heard a lot of horror stories about MTH so I never bought any of their stuff.

Eric- Hope things are going well for you.

20161113_120434_zpsqih37wlq.jpg


I hope everyone has a good night.
Click to expand...

Curt
Yes, I know about the best laid plans of mice & men all to well, especially when SWMBO gets involved!

Great work on the signals, can't wait to see them in action. But I cant help looking at them and thinking about playing Dominos! :rolleyes:
 
Good afternoon Rail Setters & Spike Drivers,
Hi Flo & Francine, Whatever happened to Janie, oh, she ran off with Sherrel, as he promised her flying lessions, I see!
Just some coffee and a large bowl of Chile if you would.


I had to visit the HoBo Barber shop again earlier today as the last bum, I mean HoBo, didn't do a very good job so I had to take matters into my own hands and do a bit of trimming.



GarryCBQ said:
Good morning.

Terry... The K4 looks nice.... Only one screw to hold the layout upper level up ? Wow...

Curt. Thanks for your thoughts.

Willie... The surgery is to replace my implanted defibrillator and pacemaker. The battery in the device lasts about five years. I will have a normal routine until Wednesday when I go to Nashville for Thursday's operation. The doctor says he will not need to replace leads connecting to my heart, and if so the surgery will relatively minor.

i was running trains yesterday, and that is always fun.
Click to expand...


Say Garry: Best wishes for your up coming surgery, the others have turned out just fine and I'm sure this one will too!
I'll have to agree with you that it seems odd that only one screw, even if it's the last screw and the layout collapses, wasn't
someone aware there were Loco's and train cars on that section and would Fall Off??



santafewillie said:
Just dropped in for an afternoon visit. Where is everyone...almost five hours elapsed between Bruce and Curt's visit. I've just finished the outdoor chores that I had planned for today and I am headed to the train shed to begin another structure, a Walther's Cornerstone kit, "Prairie Star Elevator". Being as I loosely model flatlands Santa Fe, grain is an important commodity. This is the seventh of a planned eight grain elevators for the layout.
Have a great afternoon.

Willie
Click to expand...


Say Willie: Wow, Eight, Grain elevators, you must have quite a distribution of product far and wide!


chessie_system3 said:
Evening fellers! I'm fighting a losing battle. Going to take out my sectional straight sections I suppose. Replace them with flex. It's extremely irritating. Wouldn't have done anything to my track except two of my Athearn units have found a dead spot. Repaired that section to find that the whole section I replaced was dead. Atlas inch straight section went dead. Replaced that with 10" of flex. I'll find myself doing some wheel cleaning again. If my soldering iron worked I'd solder some points especially on the stretch going by my loadout. I'd much rather be doing trees at this point.

Sent from my LGLS675 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


Say Justin: I have my layout built the same way using using 2x2 legs screwed onto the inside of the L girders and then braced with 1x2's at 45 degree angles for rigidity as well as X bracing across the legs on each end. I haven't tried to stand on mine but I've leaned on it plenty when standing on the step stool. It seems plenty strong to me!


I hope everyone has a very good evening.
 
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