Running Bear's Coffee Shop XLIX


I guess my view of magazines is a little different. I just started subscribing to MR although I have been picking it up off the newstand off and on for years. I have picked up RMC occasionally over the years also. With the stage I am at in getting started again I find MR to be useful. I do find it frustrating with the things that are becoming 'extra cost' though

Now that I am in the company of folks who have actually been published in MR I am curious about which issues they are in so I can see if I can look them up.

bsmart ..... This is my photo in MR Trackside Photos of August 2014 edition pages 70 and 71.

DSCN6011_zps3d63aec7.jpg
 
Evening All,

...
BigE- Welcome to the club! I think we all have done something similar numerous times.

I hope everyone has a good night.

Eric & Curt

Closest thing I've personally done like this was the day I drilled a hole completely through my left hand. I was fortunate in that I didn't get an infection from it. It was an eighth inch drill and I don't even remember how I did it. It went clean through the hand. What was so rough about it was I had to throw the reverse switch on the drill and back it out of the hand. There was no tendon or nerve damage either. It did hurt really bad for about a week.
 
Hiya gang!

Put a new needle on my Technics turntable tonight,,,spinning some old albums,,,but that occasional quiver reminds me that it has been 7 or 8 years since it ran last,,,the belt might be needing replacement!:cool:

BSmart
Briefly here's a rundown of my published exploits.

OctRMC.jpg
Modular Railroading with the Four County Society of Model Engineers, October 2007 with co-authored with Keith Albright.

ScaleRails1.jpg
Re-powering Brass Diesels. April 2008

SeptRMC.jpg
A switchable d.c./DCC power solution. September 2008

June2009.jpg
DCC installation for a Bachmann FM H-16-44. June 2009

RMC1009Cover.jpg
Kitbashing a CSX Slug. October 2009

June2011RMC.JPG
Building a "Vertical Roundhouse". June 2011

MRR130101_150.jpg
Upgrading a small switcher with Sound and DCC. January 2013

September%202013.JPG
How to add sound to a veteran locomotive. September 2013

Plus MR has had "custody" of another article since February of 2014, have no seen that in print, don't know if I ever will, but what the heck, they paid me!! It was a kitbash, take a Genesis Trinity 3 bay hopper and cut it down to a 2 bay car. I suspect that since the Trinity cars are coming out soon, how to make one wont see publication. MR seems to appease its advertisers too much to allow it to see the light of day.

LEHX hopper shots 004.jpg

So here it is,,,,the 1st 2 cars in the train!

I've got lots of other ideas. I'll be composing a letter to Mr. Priest this weekend with some ideas, so there may be more articles in the future!
Sorry about the crazy fluctuation in pic size. Musta screwed something up! :eek:
 
Eric & Curt

Closest thing I've personally done like this was the day I drilled a hole completely through my left hand. I was fortunate in that I didn't get an infection from it. It was an eighth inch drill and I don't even remember how I did it. It went clean through the hand. What was so rough about it was I had to throw the reverse switch on the drill and back it out of the hand. There was no tendon or nerve damage either. It did hurt really bad for about a week.

Dam. That had hurt!!! I ran a skill-saw up the end of finger once. I've had a couple incidents with routers. That didn't turn out good at all.

Alas, now I'll have to build another panel. This one took me the better part of two days to build.
Thank God I had the where-with-all to label all my switches.
And, I kept the template I drew up for this one.
Except for the track diagram I may start this one from scratch and improve on things I didn't think of the last time.
No rush. It's still functional 100% but breaks my heart every time I see it now.

The new lights look cool with the lights off.

God's grace and will, tomorrow will be another fun day.
E.
 
Hiya gang!

Put a new needle on my Technics turntable tonight,,,spinning some old albums,,,but that occasional quiver reminds me that it has been 7 or 8 years since it ran last,,,the belt might be needing replacement!:cool:

...

Karl;

Maybe you should have done what I did. I have a Technics Direct Drive Turntable. Still runs fantastically! Bought it in 1977. Has 2 speeds, 45 and 33 1/3. The speed could be adjusted, by using two knobs. You just matched the strobe light for each speed as it flashed on a bar.

I need to find a replacement for my Akai reel-to-reel recorder. I have a cab ride in the 4449 American Freedom Train, that I recorded in 1976, from Atlanta to Chattanooga. I got off in Dalton. It was a real good ride. We went from a dead start at North Avenue Station to running at 84 mph. At that speed, there weren't any chuffs from the engine, just one huge loud roar!

I want to get it off the reel to reel and onto my computer, then to a cd.

I have several other recordings that are important to me and want to here them again really, really badly.
 
Karl;

Maybe you should have done what I did. I have a Technics Direct Drive Turntable. Still runs fantastically! Bought it in 1977. Has 2 speeds, 45 and 33 1/3. The speed could be adjusted, by using two knobs. You just matched the strobe light for each speed as it flashed on a bar.

I need to find a replacement for my Akai reel-to-reel recorder. I have a cab ride in the 4449 American Freedom Train, that I recorded in 1976, from Atlanta to Chattanooga. I got off in Dalton. It was a real good ride. We went from a dead start at North Avenue Station to running at 84 mph. At that speed, there weren't any chuffs from the engine, just one huge loud roar!

I want to get it off the reel to reel and onto my computer, then to a cd.

I have several other recordings that are important to me and want to here them again really, really badly.
http://winstonsalem.craigslist.org/msg/4884741431.html
 
Alas, now I'll have to build another panel. This one took me the better part of two days to build.

Eric I feel your pain, been thru a few of those myself; the most recent was when I had just finished ballasting my yard tracks. I was trying to correct an uneven spot and ended up ripping out the inner rail on a $40** Walthers-Shinohara #8 curved turnout. After spewing out a stream of "nautical jargon", I spent my entire Saturday morning+afternoon racing up to the LHS to buy a replacement, then surgically extracting the damaged one, soldering on all the leads to the new one, and installing it. At least now I know how to repair the old one if I discover some other place to use it...

**Price at MB Klein

Carey - with your condition it was downright Providential that your hand wound didn't get infected!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Good afternoon Gandy dancers,
It's been a very comfortable day in central Calif but a bit breezy too.

Good morning ...
Regarding Model Railroader, I enjoy reading it and will continue doing so. It has been a while since I even looked at a copy of RMC, but with the changes I am hearing about, I will get a copy of RMC. In general, I have plenty to do without reading any more model railroad stuff. ....... However, it is fun getting my layout photos published in MR, but I don't do that often at all.

Chet ... I like the old photo of a steam powered passenger train.
How many people here are old enough to remember traveling by train with steam locomotives? How many recall sleeping in old Pullman sleepers? ... I remember doing both.

Omg Garry, your giving your age away, but that would be a neat experience to look back on especially being involved with Scale Model Railroading. I never did but could have if the folks ever took the train. Dad drove the car.

While MR from most points has been a fairly decent magazine I became soured on it when I was doing pro photography and shot and printed some B&W's showing how an old friend in Fresno made the twisted wire trees in several photos and the editor at that time, about 30 years back didn't hardly want to pay anything and I'm not sure he even gave me credit for the pictures I took even though I asked he do so. So that soured me on the magazine which had an over abundance of advertising so they could easily have afforded to pay a bit more than they did which wasn't too much as I recall.

As far as RMC I always liked their magazine and was sorry to see them go under but did subscribe as soon as they once again started up again and the quality of the magazine has improved over the old one in several ways especially with their now using much better quality photo paper for both the cover as well as the pages and their advertising isn't overbearing.

Hiya Gang!
Got this Email from my LHS today,,

"Today is the last day to place your orders for the new Western Maryland and B&O engine.
It has features that will blow you away - DCC / Sound / Smoke and working wipers. Plus this is the first engine that can operate on both HO / O and G Scale track ! Please don't miss this one - should sell for about $800.00. ( WM version will be in Fireball)
Thanks, The Moose Caboose"
afwm.gif


Um Duh, it is April Fools day eh??:rolleyes::cool:
Ken, I assume you got it too?:confused:

I wish I had read a bit farther down as I thought it was for real and ordered one! Now you tell me it's an 41-1!

On another note. Several of you have seen my articles in MR and RMC over the years. 3 months ago I let me MR subscription lapse. I just got the May issue, with a big "This may be your last issue" sticker on it. This makes the 3rd month I have received a "final issue". Why have I not renewed? Several reasons. Probably the main one is the insulting of my (and everyone elses) intelligence. Fast forward back to January. I get a mailer from MR with a "special subscription renewal rate for our valued subscribers". $42.95 for a year. Wait a sec. Thats the same rate every Tom, Dick, and Harry can renew for, in fact, new subscribers get this rate, plus a booklet with 8 track plans in it. Some appreciation! Meanwhile, more and more content gets shuffled to the video, extra cost side, and the rest of the mag turns into "noobs with trains" and ooooh, pretty pictures!! :eek: Meanwhile, they have sat on a kitbash article of mine for over a year now, without publication. (even though I have been paid)

Meanwhile,,
RMC gets sold to White River , Steve Priest becomes editor, and RMC, with the emphasis on Craftsman, is reborn. WOW, what a change! If you have not checked them out lately, you are missing out on some good stuff! When was the last time you saw detailed scale drawings of a locomotive in a magazine?? Kitbashing a cast steam loco into a prototypical model? Not in MR! Vive le differance! If there are future articles of mine they are now going to be directed to RMC again. So RMC does not pay as well as MR. So what? I for one appreciate the fact that publication in itself has its own rewards. Mainly in the thank yous I have gotten for taking the time and effort to explain how something is done!
Oh well, thats my 2 cents for the night,

"The opinions expressed above are not the views of the station management, its staff or advertisers"
just little old me,,[/IMG]


Recently, well about the beginning of the year I think, MR sent out a DvD showing some examples of what were contained in other DvD's they were trying to get me, and maybe you too as well as others, to subscribe to. No only did not ask for the DvD but it caused me an additional hassal of having to take it to the PO which is about 4 miles from where I live to deposit it in their slot to ensure it got returned as MR was already bugging me about why I hadn't returned it or subscribe to the collection of diskes. To me that's a real pain and uncalled for especially when I don't think I asked to have the disk sent to me?

Speaking of Toot ..... Toot: ... LOL about the waitress.[?Quote]

That just goes to show Toot...does give a Hoot-er.. about his waitress!


Terry .... I noticed something else in the photo besides the lettering on{Quote] the MILW locomotive. ... We can observe the engine numbers on the E-L locomotives. ... E-L numbered them with series based on horsepower.. The SD45 has 3600 HP and is numbered 3607. The GP35 has 2500 HP and is numbered 2571. The two E-L locomotives are a good match based on horsepower per axle (600 for he SD45 and 625 for the GP35).

That's some interesting info Garry.


Depending on the type of caboose on the rear, the helper may have to be cut in ahead of the caboose. If it was a steel caboose, the helper could stay behind it. Also the type of helper used would be dependent on the length and tonnage of the train going up the grade. Some trains could just get a 2-8-2, while others would get 2 2-8-8-2's. One on the front, and one on the rear.

Many of the railroads had their own rules for the use of helpers, over and above those dictated by the FRA. Many RR's would not put a helper on the rear of a passenger train. Southern did this on their Saluda grade, and I bet it was quite a sight seeing 2 2-8-8-2's in front of the green and gold 4-8-2 assigned to the Carolina Special. The echoes off of the mountains must have been amazing! Later when steel passenger cars were the norm on the SRR, the helpers for a freight train could be a 2-8-8-2 on the rear and a 2-10-2 on the front. Passenger trains generally got the same set of helpers.

At the top of the grade, where there was a long passing siding with several crossovers along the length of the sidings, the rear engine would just cut off and start back down the grade. The front helpers would cutoff from the front, go theought the crossovers and start back down the hill. Often times as these locos got to the bottom of the hill, they'd top off with coal and water and connect immediately to the next up train. If there was a down train that was extra heavy, sometimes the front helper would connect to the down train and act as extra braking power for that train. Saluda, at times was a very, very busy place to be.


That's some really good as well as very interesting information Carey that I didn't know. Thanks


Karl: Concerning MR, you're right about the decline of MR. The content is definitely geared to new model railroaders, (not necessarily a bad thing, but doesn't help me), and I get tired of seeing the editors constantly referring to themselves as experts. :rolleyes:. There are more real experts here on this board, and no one needs to toot their own horn to prove it.

Say WJLI26, From what little I seen from the DvD I mentioned above I'd have to agree.
RMC, ? Well, the change is good. I received my first subscription issue late last week, and there are numerous articles, that challenge me to be better. Some fantastic modeling. Steve Priest is doing a fantastic job. The articles are well written, and interesting.


You betcha!:p
Wow, I didn't even bother to look at the masthead - he's definitely qualified if anybody is! I just picked up a copy because it had a detailed how-to article on weathering CNJ locos - which, as you may remember, had exactly the same blue/yellow color scheme as the B&O [who they were renting their locos from]! Gonna refer back to that when I get around to weathering my Genesis geeps.

It was the August 1966 RMC issue that got me started on my lifelong mrr hobby.

I also used to get RMC around that time too as I recall

On the subject of MR versus MRC. Why would we, or the market, want/need two publications doing the same thing, isn't it better to have them serving opposite ends of the hobby with maybe a bit of overlap in the middle. Should ensure that both continue to be profitable, don't think we should knock MR if it's pretty pictures inspires and brings new MRRer's into the hobby.

Say Toot, Why are there two different Diesels on the market, wouldn't one be good enough? Just be satisified with what your given, fordget having any choice! That seems strangely very similar to the thinking of a certain individual in the White House as well as a group of people he seems to admire!

Good Morning 32 with brilliant blue skies in Middletown Valley

Say BSmart, If I didn't welcome you to the forum and the coffee shop let me take the oppertunity to do so now.
 
In other news, my wife graduated from her Physical Therapy, and has enrolled in beginner's yoga classes. I've presented her the keys to her new car, with the admonition "don't wreck it!".

That's great Terry!

I only bought this for the Milwaukee Road SD10....first for over a decade and it's 7 years old!
Now I just need to figure out the measurements.... ;):D

MR%20October%202008_zpshgxrl1fk.jpg


There was some interesting articles as well....

Edit: I used to buy the Mainline Modeler, any idea why it cashed in its chips?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Trussrod said:
That just goes to show Toot...does give a Hoot-er.. about his waitress!

If I went there, I'd be a'Holler'n' and a'Hoot'n', a'Whoop'n and a'Stomp'n, Hooter Tooter!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Morning gents.
It's 57 right now and heading to 82 for a high today and sunny.
That'll make the train room somewhat toasty.
Guess I'll start on a new panel this morning. :(

Oh, and another thing that happened yesterday while trying to fix the cracked panel, I dumped over my bottle cement all over the table.
Good thing I had not done any ground cover work.
Up until that moment, I had held my tongue and temper in check.
After that, the "naval expletives" came rolling right out like shooting fully-loaded Hornets off the deck during flight-ops on a carrier.
Alas.....
Guess I'll go get an early start.
 
Good morning everyone!

64 with cloudy skies in southeast Baltimore.

It's Good Friday already, have a Blessed and peaceful day everybody.
 
Very nicely done on the chuff effects.
Am I noticing some super elevation in that outer rail?
E.
Indeed. That area is one of the super-duper elevated sections. In the center of the curve, it is banked like turn 2 at Daytona.
 
Indeed. That area is one of the super-duper elevated sections. In the center of the curve, it is banked like turn 2 at Daytona.

Cool. I could tell by when the boxcars enter the curve. As the lead one leans in you can see the upper right corner of the front end of the next one behind. At first I thought you might have a dip. But then every one of them did exactly the same lean, then I notice the track.
Must be one of those 40" R turns you like so much. :D
 
With all the talk about 2-8-0's and other smaller engines (my own fault, I started the thread!), I had to buy this one, it offered at a not terribly unacceptable price.....

IMG_20150403_124644_zpsqjimetsh.jpg


I hope that it meets your approval Montanan.... ;):D
 



Back
Top