Running Bear's Coffee Shop LXI


Good morning all! It's 72 and hazy. Waiting for the sun to do its thing. Should get back up to 87 or so like yesterday. Sure need rain. Brush fires have been sprouting up in various counties.
Got more leaves picked up and while sitting on the porch this a.m. watched more censored leaves hit the ground. Heck, I planted this tree and I sure as heck can take it down. [ before it takes me down.] There's another bag of leaves waiting to be picked up but heck, they'll wait till tomorrow or next day. To damn old for this crap. I'd use the mower with the bag but it picks up too much sand. Last time I used it ,took three days to get all the grit out of my hair and off my body.
Wish y'all a nice day.
Phil
 
chessie_system3 said:
I wish I could be off today as well Eric. Weeks are too long and my weekends are too short. And for some reason daylight savings time has messed up my sleep schedule.

Justin
Click to expand...

I second the statement about Daylight Savings Time. What a pain in the back side. Why can't they just leave things be? That is about all Congress can agree on is to mess up our time schedule!
 
Good morning folks.

It's cool and windy this morning. Once again it is nice and crappy out for my weekend(wed, thurs)! That's fine, the grass is starting to green up so I can pretend it's nice out while looking out the window! Hearing what LASM is getting north of us, I'll take fifty and windy.

I have nothing to do but clean the house before my sister in law comes down for the night. That and I need to buy the ham for Easter dinner. Our family celebrates Easter on Palm Sunday since my brother works for the church and always gets stuck there until early afternoon.

I've been working on assembling a Bachmann Spectrum city kit. These kits are very nice but almost too easy to build. They are almost too close to a shake the box kit. I guess after spending so much time painting my last merchant's row kit I don't mind an easier one. Some time after errands and before our guest arrives I think I'll have to at least install some window treatments on the kit.

Other than that I don't know much. Have a good day everyone.
 
Good morning !

Chet .... Thanks for posting the video of the Nebraska Zephyr. ... Brings back more memories than I can write about! ..... I never rode on the NZ, but did ride other CB&Q Zephyrs. ...

The preserved E5 has the original air horns which are not the chime type horns which have been used by railroads for a long time. They sound just like what I recall hearing in the 1950's and 1960's.

The NZ was a daytime train between Chicago and Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. I saw the train many times from where I grew up in Illinois. In the 1950's the train typically had an E7 followed by a baggage car and the articulated train set. . The full articulated consist had seven cars, and originally was assigned to the Twin Cities Zephyr. The TCZ was upgraded in the late 1940's to more modern equipment which included dome cars, and the 7-car set became the NZ.

In the late 1950's the NZ was combined with a mail train. Following that, the train typically had three E-units followed by about 10 to 12 ugly, unmatched, old mail and express cars. the 7-car set followed the mail cars. It was a very long train.

By the mid 1960's ridership declined, and eventually two coaches were removed from the train set leaving the 5 cars you see in the video. Railroads lost the nationwide mail contract, and most head-end cars were no longer needed. By the late 1960's the articulated train set was removed from service, and the typical NZ became a short train with 3 or 4 conventional passenger cars and maybe 2 or 3 express cars.

The current Amtrak California Zephyr does use the same route as the old NZ as it travels on the BNSF from Chicago, through Omaha and Lincoln to Denver where it changes to UP rails over the former Rio Grande and former Western Pacific. The Amtrak train is overnight between Chicago and Denver, and there is no daytime passenger train to Nebraska from Chicago.

Below is a 1950's Nebraska Zephyr.

nz_54train_zps6rzhgdaw.jpg
 
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Terry in NC ... I like the paint scheme of the original NS.

Ken .... Your GP 30 looks great.

Justin .... Your photo of your tunnel looks good.

Joe... Congratulations on the F150.
 
Looking at a blue overcast again today. Temp should get into the low 80;s again.
Have to take the car to shop this morning - some fluid is leaking under the car. I think it appears to be from the cooling system somewhere.

Have a nice day everyone!
 
Afternoon All,

The last couple of days have really been busy for me. Tonight I have the class at the PD. I canceled my trip on Friday due to scheduled rain. No drag racing in rain. Tomorrow I am driving up to see my train friend Jon and Phil is supposed to be there. MOH will be out of town Thursday, Friday and Saturday at a quilting expo in Lakeland. I'm taking Mom and Dad out to a new Mexican restaurant Friday night.

Joe- Very nice looking truck.

Ray- Great looking scene.

Willie- Happy Birthday to your daughter. My daughter is 37. It sure goes by quickly.

Justin- Great scene. MOH's family originally comes from the Princeton/Blufield area. She always says West by God Virginia also. All I know is the first time I drove the turnpike (1978) I told her that the state should pay us to drive on it.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
chessie_system3 said:
I need to cut them to fit my mountain side and portals.

Justin
Click to expand...

If you just want to make them more narrow, take a hobby saw and carefully cut out a section in the top middle (following an existing line in the plaster if possible). Carefully glue the new halves together, wiping excess off.

If you need to make them less tall, do the same at the bottoms.

If the sides are two wide, you can cut off what you need on either or both sides.

The key is to take it slow and easy with the saw to not chip or break, and be sure and cut straight in. If you do chip or break, Carpenters glue can easily repair (always wipe excess).

All the portal edges can be carved to fit or even use more plaster to seal-in the portal to the landscape. Use a dental pick or equiv. to pretty up if necessary.

I have had to do these things with several of mine and there is nothing to it. Hope this helps;).
 
Good evening friends,
Yet another a$$-busting day - which I was hoping to cut short around 1600 but stuck it out none the less.
I barely got in the door and had unpacked stuff, take my gun off, got the shoes off, put on sweat pants, fed the cats, changed the litter box out, start a little supper and Chet called. I had to call back. Seems like I do more work in the 1 1/2 hours when I get home than I do in the last few at the job site.

Always great talking to Chet. He asked if I had a chance to start on those Super-Trees or had done anything else recently. Negative on all counts. Hopefully I'll get my order from MB Klein next week. By then I'll have my new toy from Terry already. Yes, it's the one he posted pics of last night.
Anyway, when stuff is all here, I'll either take off that Friday or the following Monday (or both) to make for a good weekend of train activities.

Oh by the way, I brought home a mini-frig I planned to put under the table in the train room. I don't think it'll fit.
Time for some supper and nighty nite!
E.
 
BigE said:
...
Oh by the way, I brought home a mini-frig I planned to put under the table in the train room. I don't think it'll fit.
...
Click to expand...

Eric - maybe you can jack-up your layout table a few inches and make it fit? I did that myself to bolt on a pre-existing layout section to my new one.
 
Good Morning and Happy St. Patrick's Day to all. I'm Irish so it has been a St. Patrick's Week in my household! It's 55 degrees with overcast skies here in North Central Texas this morning. Chance of rain today. Radar shows rain about 4 miles west right now. Spent most of the day yesterday mowing and doing other yardwork. I was only in the train shed for about 30 minutes, all the time running and switching trains.
Dave - Wow, 10" of potential snow at your place and it's 77 degrees here. Not trying to rub it in, I'm just amazed. We get our extremes in July-August with triple-digit temps for extended periods of time.
Phil - It doesn't sound like you can win with that tree. I was going to suggest the mower until you brought up the sand thing. I didn't realize that the sand spread that far inland. The window company I used to work for never went to Eustis, but we had customers in Leesburg, Tavares and Mt. Dora all around you.
Garry - Thanks for the brief history. Those articulated coaches in Chet's video were interesting.
Eric - Fridges in the train room are important, you don't have to walk as far for another beer!
Today marks the eight month anniversary of my retirement. I think I'll have a beer...later!
Everyone have an awesome day.

Willie
 
Good morning, America! Had a good night at work and a little bit of a surprise. The safety rep for the power plant came to the tool crib and sprung a question on me. He wanted to know if I had ever considered being a safety man on a job. I asked what training requirements were and found out I already qualify. Plus, I have a lot of work experience in various aspects of the trade, which is also a plus. It's definitely something I will be checking out! This all came about because of my participation at our safety meetings. He said that I seemed to have the right approach to safety issues and was knowledgeable about safety aspects relating to our job. Sure made me feel good..........and has me thinking!!!
 
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