Running Bear's December 2020 Coffee Shop


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DAVE in pine valley! I will have to see your silo's in person to really pass judgement -- I'll throw a rock, or two, as I pass by
Sacramento on the way!
We had over an Inch and a half a couple days back - thought we were going to wash away!
Seriously, your silo's look good! Going to be a nice complex from what I see.
Your eyes must have recovered from all those windows?
Happy NY to you and yours!
 
Good morning y'all.

Flo- coffee, scrambled eggs, and bacon please. LOTS of bacon. Can't celebrate National Bacon Day any other way.

Now that breakfast is ordered, the weather report is as follows: COLD. And DARK. However it appears to be turning to widely scattered light at present. (Kudos to anyone who recognizes that.)

As previously mentioned, I am planning the businesses for my still non-existent layout. Because, let's face it, planning and internet photos are cheap and take up practically zero space. And you can do them on any budget at all.

I've been looking pretty hard at the Walthers Merchant Row kits. Like, really hard. I think when and as budgeting allows, meaning whenever I succeed in properly buttering up the President of Railroad Finances (also known as my darling bride), I will be adding at least one of each kit to the Town of (still unnamed).

Here's my thinking so far (Criticism welcome, but likely to be ignored if it violates Rule 1 of my railroad. LOL)
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Most of you probably recognize this as MR3. My thought is to turn the light colored unit into my police station. I like the large storefront to represent the lobby of the precinct and offices for the detectives, while the upper level can serve as jail and gathering room for the beat cops. The town isn't going to be overly large yet, so a small police force could be adequately stationed here. I like that on the backside of this unit there is a double door for bringing in potentially unruly perps that have had to be fully restrained.

I had originally thought about having the center unit become the town's bank, but now I am not certain I want it so close to the jail. It may make a great place for a combination shoe store and cobbler. I'm modeling an era where shoe repair was a common practice, but I haven't decided yet if it will stay in that era. Suggestions welcomed for a possible substitute or name for the shoe shop. Our friendly neighborhood cobbler will most likely live above his shop.

The unit on the far end will serve double duty. The upper level will be the office of the local sawbones, while the lower level will be the pharmacy. Haven't decided yet, but it may be a combination pharmacy and soda fountain. Input on these would be great because I know nothing about them except that they used to be a thing and we're highly popular.

I will most likely put a parking area behind the building so that I have a place for the police cruisers to sit. Detailing recommendations for such a space as well as behind the shops are also welcome.

My main era will be the 1970's due to that being the bulk of my rolling stock, but I want the feel of a town that has been around since the turn of the 20th century. Main industry will be textiles and geographical location will be the South.

I also plan to incorporate aspects from my favorite movies, books, and tv shows. I am freelancing everything because I can and because it is the best way to let my creative juices flow. The town will have a history, every business a backstory, and ever citizen a biography. As I have mentioned before, my other hobby is writing and I want to create a world that can be brought to life in a series of stories or novels.

Y'all have a great day and thank you to everyone that took the time to read this novel of a post.

Jesse

R u Tuckers train shed on Facebook?

TomO
 
Good morning,

Christmas vacation is over! Super quiet at the workplace, most people must have the day off.

Boris : thanks for sharing your static grass experience

Tom (Cambria) - I love the USPS graphic. Funny when they can find us right away.


I worked at the model desk a bunch, got the crew cars done:

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And here is my new MOW vehicle

View attachment 122470

Packages from projects

Part way through the truck:

View attachment 122471




View attachment 122472

The castings were nice and clean, however pretty much impossible to assemble as the manufacturer suggested. Still, I think it is a cool looking truck!


More later, Dave

Dave: I like the old truck too, to bad it's not powder to run on the rails

David Smith
 
governor.
Willie, indeed it has been a bad year and there's no guarantee 2021 wont be any better. More deaths of friends and a couple family members than in the last 10 years and none from C-19 that we know of. Otherwise life here hasnt changed much, except going to work, I like my hermit lifestyle.
I did get a bit more done on the sugar silos. The silo is 6" PVC, the roof is made from a manila folder and the dome thingies that connect

the silos look good. I think the size is great and didn’t realize sugar silos were so big.

TomO
 
DAVE in pine valley! I will have to see your silo's in person to really pass judgement -- I'll throw a rock, or two, as I pass by
Sacramento on the way!
We had over an Inch and a half a couple days back - thought we were going to wash away!
Seriously, your silo's look good! Going to be a nice complex from what I see.
Your eyes must have recovered from all those windows?
Happy NY to you and yours!
Are you headed up this way again? If you are, you should check out this property; has a granny house, lots of room in the shop for trains, and the neighbor next door is a 2nd rate model railroader that likes to pull a cork once in awhile..................
10107 Park View Ln, Penn Valley, CA 95946 | MLS #20070881 | Zillow
PS, we can shoot, burn brush, and pee off the deck, (if thats what one likes to do)
 
Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 43° right now. Forecast is for cooler days with rain tomorrow and Wednesday, then a couple of cold days, then gradually warming back up to normal days (shorts and tee shirts) with temps in the mid-60's by Monday. Possible freezing rain Thursday morning though.
Another trip this morning, it's a doctor appointment for my quarterly check up and blood draw. Wife piggy-backed an appointment with mine so we'll be seeing him together.

No breakfast this morning Flo, as I am supposed to be fasting for the blood draw.

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding the Christmas Day booty pictures yesterday; Phil, Guy, Hughie, Troy, Karl, Ken, Tom, James, Garry, Curt, Tom O, Jerry, Gary, Rick.

I managed to spend some time in the train shed yesterday afternoon, after three day's of absence. Obviously I wanted to play with some of my new stuff. I concentrated on figures first, since I received 235 new ones, 32 painted and the remaining 203 unpainted. I had bought two sets of Preiser cafe patrons to use in the plaza between two restaurants'
View attachment 122452
View attachment 122453
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I have three figures leftover from these two sets to use elsewhere. I'll still be on the lookout for additional stuff for the other side of the plaza.
Then I started on the unpainted figures. I randomly pulled out 16 of them and whittled the luggage off three of them and got started. I used two different flesh shades and added three shades of blue and brown so far, getting some pants, shoes, hair and dresses.
View attachment 122455
That glossy blue on the two figures on the left sorta reflects the light, but I'll fix that when I dull coat them later...a process that I always do. The plan for today is to use a second shade of brown and another shade of blue, before using some black for shoes, belts, ties etc.
Despite having right at 700 figures on the layout, I could easily use 400-500 more. I have what I need, just need to apply paint. I have another ~110 already painted that are slated for scenes that aren't already on the layout, or who just don't fit into existing ones. Just wait until I get to the nude sunbathers scene some day. They are easy to paint although the lack of live models was disappointing.

Kleiner - Even though I might never computerize my layout, I am fascinated by several of the things that you describe.
Guy - Are they really being that strict up there regarding family gatherings? Or just threatening to be? It doesn't seem that extreme lockdowns are working out too well in some states here. Those pictures of the SD75I's don't look bad.
James - Great news on the medical front. Glad that it worked out for you. I really didn't want to read about another procedure like that; made me cringe even though it was being done on some one else!
Gary -

I use white glue to hold the cork roadbed to the plywood deck, and then I use track nails to put down the track. For me, it's easier if I make a mistake to remove stuff and replace. Later when I use a rattle can of spray paint to paint the track and ties, the nail heads disappear. Random ties get painted a different shade of brown, so if any nail head is too obvious I can sometimes "overpaint" it. I had originally planned to remove the nails after the ballast dried but I found that I really didn't need to do that.

Gotta go and prepare for the doc.
Everybody have a great day.

Willie: Painting people can be teadous but rewarding. The nude babes should be a lot more enjoyable !!
 
My issue isn't that I have tossed something that I later needed, but finding where I stashed it when I need it later.:(
Mine is "where did I put that down only a few seconds ago?". But, like yours is the one where you put it when you first got it and it stayed there a long time, but you always knew it really wasn't the best place for it, so you moved it to where you thought it would be safe and easier to find. (you never did have any trouble finding it) and now you can't remember where that safer place was. You can still remember where you first put it and could always find it. Now it is very, very safe and it remains so. I have a Vice Grip pliers like that, hasn't been seen in about 3 years.
 
Good evening Shop Dwellers! 31*F, cloudy and calm here in central MD. I suppose the fact that I'm posting something in here in at 11:30pm on New Year's Eve, is conclusive evidence that I do NOT have a Life!🤓

Thanks for all the "likes" and comments on my Wednesday post - Roof-Man (sorry I can't remember your REAL name...?), Hughie, Joe, Tom-O, Jerry, Troy, Patrick, Karl, Tom-C, Guy, Phil, Garry, Curt and anybody whose comments I might have overlooked.

Been spending most of my un-committed time out in the trainroom today, boxing up all my rolling stock. I went to the local JoAnne's Fabrics this morning to get some foam rubber to line my new boxes with; once that was done, I printed an updated Excel file of my freight car roster with an extra column for the box numbers, and wrote that down for each car as I stowed them. Tedious, but it will make them much easier to locate and retrieve when it's time to un-box the ones selected for an operating session.

I may have forgot to mention, my wife received her first dose of the Covid vaccine yesterday (with a 2nd shot scheduled in 3 weeks); my daughter the RN will get her initial Covid vaccination on January 4 (Monday). At least now they'll be safe if I get infected...

Good morning Cambria, New Zealand is celebrating now!
RIP - Dawn Wells.....I was a huge fan !
Gary - Mary Ann would have been my "first choice" of women on that show, she was both attractive AND down-to-earth while Ginger seemed like a narcissistic phony...

. . .
Was Thinking more on the occupants in the building I posted earlier. I think I have settled on placing the shoe store next to the police station. The upper floor will be the residence of the town cobbler, one Mr. Jim Brown. The lower floor will house the sales floor and repair shop for The Sole Man.
. . .
Jesse - I think having the shoe place next to the police station is an excellent idea - after all, the guys on foot patrol wear out their shoes pretty quick!

Garry - thanks for your memorial writeup on Dr. Frankendiesel!

Karl - be sure to soak those 2020 logs in kerosine so they'll burn good n' hot!

Willie - all I have to do to find a misplaced item is to buy a replacement, use it once or twice to get it dirty/scratched/whatever so that it can't be returned, and voila - it magically reappears!

See y'all in the new Diner next year...
 
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Jesse

R u Tuckers train shed on Facebook?

TomO

Yes sir, that is one of my Facebook alter egos. 😁

Willie - the only editing you missed was grammatical. Since one of my other hobbies is writing, I have a tendency to grammar Nazi posts, especially my own. 🤣 I try not to get too carried away with it, meaning I typically don't attack other people for it, but I have no mercy on my own errors.

Now, on to other matters.

See you all over in the new place.

The environment here has gone to pot anyway. Wall paper is falling down, paint is peeling. Flo, I thought you said y'all caught that rat?! Why is it still sitting here looking at my bacon?!
 
all I have to do to find a misplaced item is to buy a replacement, use it once or twice to get it dirty/scratched/whatever so that it can't be returned, and voila - it magically reappears!
They've got that one literally sewn up now and for some time. Everything comes in a hermetically sealed plastic packet, You have to cut it open to even start to use it, so no longer "as new"
 
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